Welcome to Sunday Puzzle, a weekly series for people who enjoy light mental exercise spiced with politics, humor, and odd bits of trivia.
The theme for this month's puzzles is Books Worth Supporting -- books worth reading, worth buying (for yourself or as gifts for friends) and worth recommending to your local library. The answer to last week's puzzle, for example, was Barnaby by Crockett Johnson, a hardcover reprinting of the classic 1940s comic strip. (You can sample 20 of the strips at the link provided.)
I had intended to be doing some non-puzzle diaries reviewing the spotlighted books, starting this week when I got home. But I'd intended to get home Wednesday morning, and didn't actually get home until Thursday afternoon. Here's what happened (and why I"m running even later this weekend than usual):
On Saturday I got a ride with a neighbor down to Cookeville in order to meet a car from Knoxville and get a ride to an all-day SOCM board meeting in Lebanon (TN). After the meeting I got a ride back to Knoxville with the Knoxville folks, stayed over with friends, attended Quaker meeting on Sunday, did a day of volunteer work at the SOCM office on Monday, and caught a late-night Megabus to Atlanta. I spent Tuesday visiting a friend with severe Pick's Disease. Tuesday evening I headed to downtown Atlanta for the journey home.
I had a Megabus ticket from Atlanta back to Knoxville which would get me to Knoxville at 1 am. From there I'd walk over to the Greyhound station; I had a Greyhound ticket for a bus leaving at 6:30 am which would get me to Cookeville. And a neighbor had offered to come pick me up in Cookeville and give me a ride home. Nice and easy...
Except for an unexpected complication. I boarded the Megabus at 8:30 pm and promptly fell asleep. And that was a problem -- because Megabus tries to make it easy for passengers on late-night buses to sleep. The bus stopped in Knoxville, but so briefly and quietly that I didn't wake up. I discovered I'd missed my stop at 3:50 am when we stopped in Lexington KY. So instead of spending Wednesday at home catching up on work I spent Wednesday hitching from Kentucky down to Tennessee. I didn't make it all the way home Wednesday as I'd hoped I might be able to, but did make it down to Crossville where I was able to stay overnight at a friend's house and hitch the rest of the way home Thursday. The walking and hitching were enjoyable, and I got to talk with a number of good people, but it means I'm even farther behind on a lot of things I need to get done.
(I still like Megabus a lot and plan to continue riding Megabus rather than Greyhound whenever possible. But two pieces of advice for anyone taking Megabus at night: (a) carry a pocket alarm and set it for the time you are supposed to get off the bus, so that if you fall asleep you don't miss your stop, and (b) check something under the bus when you get on, so that the driver knows someone still needs to get off. I'm in the habit, from riding Greyhound which often loses people's luggage, of always taking everything on the bus with me, but in this case that was a mistake.)
Have fun with tonight's puzzle! I don't think it will take you too long to solve. (Which is good, as that will let me get back to other work before too late.) See you in comments...
Tonight's puzzle is a 30-clue JulieCrostic suitable for team solving.
JulieCrostics are a special kind of acrostic puzzle, named in honor of Julie Waters who started the Sunday Puzzle series here 7 years ago. If you're not familiar with how JulieCrostics work you can find a detailed explanation of how JulieCrostics work in any Sunday Puzzle Warm-Up diary, as well as an introductory puzzle to work and an example of a solved puzzle. Here's a link to last night's Sunday Puzzle Warm-Up.
If you're new you should be warned that we have some mischievous gremlins who like to tamper with the puzzle clues. In particular you should keep in mind:
* you can't trust the clue capitalization;
* you can't trust the clue punctuation;
* sometimes you can't even trust the word spacing.
Also, a small request: please don't put any any spoilers in the comment subject lines. Use the subject line of comments to identify what your comment will be about but keep any guesses as to clue answers or the verticals confined to the comment itself. That way folks who are still trying to crack a clue for themselves won't inadvertently see the answer before they're ready to see it. Thanks!
Okay, I think that covers the basics. Here are the clues for tonight's puzzle:
1. well-known Sam
2. as one might say, hit on the head
3. exchanged
4. periods of time
5. measurers
6. controllers
7. often goes with a million
8. chant
9. might be honorable
10. tossed
11. moves forward
12. the scourge of Europe
13. opinion
14. the war or the waterfront
15. like a black bird
16. stinks
17. pants in Scotland
18. violently crazy
19. kind of run
20. somewhat
21. relate
22. child attracted to males and females?
23. famous kind of girl
24. stalker of asparagus
25. kind of voting
26. covered with diamonds
27. with gusto
28. scandalous Bobby or talented Kyle
29. shy lab assistant
30. more desolate