I'm running even farther behind this week than last, so once again the gremlins generously volunteered to provide tonight's feature puzzle, a JulieCrostic.
Also tonight: The set of One-Offs from the potluck party two weeks ago remain mostly unsolved, so I'll be re-posting these (along with a couple of helpful hints).
No one posted the solution to last week's Crypto-Gremlin, so JoeXM will post the answer in a comment tonight. And after Joe posts the answer I'll post a step-by-step demonstration of how to solve it. For those of you who still haven't quite got the hang of solving Crypto-Gremlins, I hope this will be useful.
The gremlins have said I'm not allowed to join in the solving party for tonight's JulieCrostic (they think I might have sneaked a peek at their answer sheet) so I'll have to sit this one out. But I'll be watching from the sidelines, cheering the solving team on. and providing DKU notes on a couple of answers which the gremlins are going to provide me once the clues have been solved. Come on down and join the party, and I'll see you in comments!
First up: tonight's JulieCrostic, which the Sunday Puzzle gremlins have titled "Coming soon to a nation near you".
From the clues which they gave me to paste into the diary, this looks to be a pretty easy puzzle. For instance, clue # 20 is "2016". Obviously that's going to be MMXVI, and from there it should be pretty easy to add a letter to get 21 and subtract a letter to get 20. Similarly, clue # 15 is "nancy reagan, patrick kennedy and rob portman". Menage a trois is a bit long to be the answer, so I'm guessing it's something like yuck or ick.
As usual it's probably wise: (a) not to trust the clue capitalization (the gremlins like to capitalize words that don't need it and leave out capitalization on words that do); (b) not to trust the clue punctuation (the gremlins like to leave out punctuation which should be there and insert punctuation which shouldn't); (c) not to trust the word spacing (the gremlins like to leave out the occasional space between words which should be there and insert the occasional space which shouldn't); and (d) not to trust the clue grouping (the gremlins like to bundle the clues in tidy little bunches of three, regardless of how many clues there actually are in the rows).
NOTE: anyone unfamiliar with JulieCrostics and how they work can find complete instructions at the bottom of last night's warm-up diary.
1. name of actress who played zoe
2. waif
3. intending
4. famous song
5. sending messages
6. half pint
7. goddess of love and fertility
8. race mandella was at war with
9. kind of malaria
10. short poem
11. genetically modified rhesus monkey
12. often follows a storm
13. courageous
14. right-wing myth: the American Revolution was sparked by this
15. nancy reagan, patrick kennedy and rob portman
16. ring
17. kind of jam
18. cancel
19. elysian drink
20. 2016
21. non-alien comforter
Here are the One-Offs which the gremlins contributed to the potluck party two weeks ago.
1. lad with personal medical attendant (5)
SOLVED: a boy and his doc
2. Ford truck contains collie (5)
???
3. married bitch (3)
???
4. believer in government by the people who lives in a cloud of profanity (3)
???
5. canine-equine footwear (4)
SOLVED: dog and pony shoe
6. mutt moist all morning (3; 4)
???
7. behave altruistically (2)
???
8. avoided judgment (3)
???
9. plant on which kibble grows (2; 3)
???
10. compete in the manner of Grant Stevens with King Ho (5)
???
11. electrified point (2)
???
12. Kay who lives with lad, lady, and Einstein (3)
???
Helpful Hint: The gremlins titled this puzzle "Equal Time". That makes sense when you realize it was their response to the Crypto-Gremlin puzzle I'd contributed to the potluck (
solved by Liberal Protestant) which featured this quotation:
Speaking of things I can't do, I'll change the subject to how cats are nice. They're cute and soft and they meow. You're probably wondering where I'm going with this. I don't know myself.
My puzzle featured cats; so their puzzle featured dogs. All the answers should be familiar phrases which include the word
dog.
Lastly, here's a re-post of last week's Crypto-Gremlin. The bolded text is a quote; the unbolded text is the author of the quote.
Hykmettyecake, pyga kenbtsybro gerub harkstoesybre, feta uyksyrmspl jecyre-tapesauy, gerub sdesl itaegka joke zbosa. Gerub nl "joke" My hbkspl haerb harl. Fys'ko homdo detuate sb na itaegaua zbosa nl jecyreka zdarl lbo deja bra, sdbocd fyso hoksb na keyue sdesl kbha zbharl ub hereca fyso.
Paed HmPetarl
NOTE: Crypto-gremlins are a special kind of cryptogram -- ones which can't be solved by online programs which run through and test out every possible letter substitution, but which can be solved by reasoning and creative thinking. If you're not familiar with this kind of puzzle you can find a detailed explanation of how they work
here. (And you can find a handy tool to help you with letter substitutions
here.) The bolded text is a quotation; the unbolded text identifies the author.