Welcome once again to Sunday Puzzle (which now posts Friday evenings at 8 pm Eastern / 5 pm Pacific). We feature puzzles that have a bit of politics and cultural stuff mixed in and which are intended to be fun for group puzzle-solving (although you're welcome to copy them down and work them by yourself if you prefer).
If you're new to Sunday Puzzle you might enjoy visiting our companion series, Sunday Puzzle Warm-Up, which posts Saturday evenings at 8 Eastern / 5 Pacific and which features introductory-level puzzles (plus detailed explanations of how the puzzles work and examples of solved puzzles).
This month in Sunday Puzzle Warm-Up, in a shameless attempt to lure some of the folks from Monday Murder Mystery into our circle, I'm doing mystery month, during which the answer to the acrostic puzzle each week will be the title of a mystery which I think deserves spotlighting. Some will be classics many folks know; some will be little-known gems.
And occasionally that's going to cross over here into the regular Sunday Puzzle. Like tonight! Come on down below the fold for tonight's JulieCrostic puzzle (plus a leftover Ana-Gremlin and a leftover Cryptic Crossword from last week.)
First up, here's a re-post of the Cryptic Crossword from last week:
This is a Cryptic Crossword.
For anyone unfamiliar with this kind of puzzle, you can find an explanation of how they work here (courtesy of The Nation).
CLUES ACROSS:
1. Kind sir, may I have a pince?
5. Small wonder the natural state is cherished.
6. Girl is in a large rush.
7. Damsel sees she has something different.
CLUES DOWN:
1. Repeated Doocey's talking points, got confused, and now is unemployed.
2. It's true: the creator of "All In The Family" is insane.
3. A large number of people are married to Limbaugh.
4. As Rush says, "elite" originally was a European word for people like him.
Second up, here's a re-post of the
Ana-Gremlin puzzle from last week. (To keep the diary a little shorter, so you can get to the
JulieCrostic sooner, I'm just going to print the puzzle and not the instructions. But if you're not familiar with
Ana-Gremlins you can find those in
last week's potluck puzzle party diary. (I'll also post the instructions in a comment to tonight's diary.))
8. ANY HINT
9. NOT A NUN
7. NO CEREAL
1. CLEAN
4. HORN
6. HEATED RUB
3. LAMEST
2. JOINS
5. PEAHENS
And now what you've been patiently waiting for: tonight's
JulieCrostic!
This week in Monday Murder Mystery the subject was mysteries set during World War II. I was going to mention in comments one of my favorite series, which is set during that time period. And then I thought, Ha! Why not save that to use in this week's Sunday Puzzle? So I managed to keep myself from blabbing -- but you can find out what the series is by solving tonight's puzzle.
Usual rules apply. Figure out the answers to the clues and fill them into a grid. (See Sunday Puzzle Warm-Up for examples of what the grids look like.) Each answer in a row has all the letters of the previous answer in that row plus one new letter. Write the new letters in the spaces between words and these will for vertical columns which spell out a message -- in this case the title of a book set during WW II.
Usual warnings apply as well: (1) The puzzle gremlins have bundled all the clues into tidy little groups of 3, regardless of how many answers there actually are to the rows in the puzzle. (If the number didn't divide evenly by 3 they added blank clues to make it come out.) (2) The puzzle gremlins have removed the capitalization so you'll need to provide your own. (3) Occasionally the puzzle gremlins fiddle with clue punctuation -- removing marks which should be there or adding ones which shouldn't -- so you may need to alter punctuation in order to make a clue read properly.
Have fun and I'll see you in comments!
1. exploiter
2. kari seitz, for instance
3. what the little children go after
4. turns away
5. uses the bathroom
6. mystery joe
7. iron drop valley
8. little woods post creamer hope
9. obtains
10. golden flood
11. stuff which gets discharged from the body
12. may be found on faces
13. fad
14. stretch
15. chinese apple
16. common herb
17. lovers, perhaps
18. common joint
19. large deer admirer
20. stood on the edge
21. clay, informally
22. doctor
23. water blocked behind frozen barrier
24. being between things
25. outdoor tool
26. haunted house sound
27. seam filler
28. fire sound
29. kind of pool
30. lower basket
31. full gray fish
32. conflicts
33. h follower, especially 2 decades ago
34. becomes disenchanted
35. busts
36. evictions
37. bag
38. loose
39. draws on pavement
40. bracelet
41. places to sit
42. people often do this with cards
43. tiny drink
44. plump dolls
45. nothing left