Welcome to Sunday Puzzle Warm-Up -- a Saturday evening opportunity to have fun and give your brain some light exercise in preparation for the regular Sunday Puzzle (which now posts on Fridays...)
Tonight's puzzle spotlight's a political commentator who wrote a very good piece earlier this week. When you've solved tonight's puzzle I recommend Googling the name (and selecting the past week option -- that should bring up the item I'm referring to at the top of the list).
In addition, tonight's puzzle features references to the first female Canadian doctor, a founder of Greenpeace, a Green Party presidential candidate, an experimental writer, and a noted abolitionist. Plus, of course, a comic strip reference. (Sorry, no Rush Limbaugh clues tonight. But he does make a cameo appearance in clue # 4, assert.)
You'll find tonight's puzzle right below the orange curlicue...
This is a JulieCrostic If you're not familiar with this kind of puzzle, don't panic -- full instructions, and an example of what a completed puzzle looks like, can be found directly below tonight's puzzle.
1. Snoopy's plane
2. relaxed
3. common point
4. assert
5. ill will
6. therapeutic
7. excavations
8. 23rd US state and 2nd US battleship
9. forgetfulness
10. locations
11. Gertrude and Jill
12. pays attention
13. goulashes
14. Dorothy, Emily, and Harriet Beecher
15. least speedy
16. amusement part attractions
17. marriage partners
18. conference between judge and lawyers
19. fool
20. heart
21. more dense
If you're new to Sunday Puzzle and aren't familiar with this kind of puzzle, don't panic! Here's an explanation of how these puzzles work (plus an example of a solved puzzle).
An Explanation of JulieCrostics
What you do is solve the clues and write the answers in rows. (Tonight's puzzle, as indicated by the clue grouping, has 7 rows with 3 answers per row.)
Each word in a row contains all the letters of the previous word, plus one new letter. Write the added letters in the space between the word which doesn't have it and the word which does.
The vertical columns created by the added letters will spell out a word or phrase. The object of the puzzle is to solve all the clues and read the vertical message.
All the rows have the same word-length pattern. If the first answer in one row has 5 letters, then the first answer in all the rows will have 5 letters. For example, here's the answer diagram for
last week's puzzle. That was a 4 x 4 puzzle (4 rows, 4 answers per row):
Ed F fed A fade Z fazed
CO R roc Y Cory Z Orczy
ad I aid P paid L plaid
so D DOS U duos E douse
The verticals spell out
FRID AYPU ZZLE. When that is spaced out properly, it reads
Friday Puzzle -- a reminder that Sunday Puzzle now posts on Friday evenings at 8 Eastern / 5 Pacific.
Please help spread the word to your puzzle-loving friends to look for Sunday Puzzle on Fridays now!