Here are five 15-letter words, each of which contains the letters A, E, I, O and U...
Oops! Here would be five 15-letter words, each of which contains the letters A, E, I, O and U, except that someone (naming no gremlins) removed all the letters except for one instance of each vowel. Can you replace the missing letters and identify the words?
- A U _ O _ I _ _ _ _ _ _ _ E _
- E _ _ O _ _ U _ I _ A _ _ _ _
- I _ _ _ A _ _ _ _ E O U _ _ _
- O _ E _ _ _ I _ U _ A _ _ _ _
- U _ _ _ O _ _ _ _ A _ _ I _ E
Here (in alphabetical order) are five hints to the answer words: certain books; excessive arousal; in a snap; like some bad conduct; punishment of a sort.
All right, now that you've been lured in by that easy little warm-up puzzle (adapted from the 2011 Page-A-Day puzzle calendar): welcome to
Sunday Puzzle, a weekly series for people who enjoy mental exercise spiced with politics, humor, and odd bits of trivia.
On Saturday nights our companion series Sunday Puzzle Warm-Up, features puzzles suitable for individual solving; but the Sunday night puzzles are intended to be challenging enough to call for a team effort to solve.
Are you up for the challenge? If so, hop on over the spilled orange soda and join the party.
Before we get to tonight's puzzle, here are a few quick DKU notes on last week's puzzle answers.
One of the clues last week was holly. The answer was Near, a reference to longtime activist/folk-singer Holly Near:
... In 1970, she was a cast member of the Broadway musical Hair. Following the Kent State shootings in May of that year, the entire cast staged a silent vigil in protest...
In 1971, she joined the Free The Army Tour, an anti-Vietnam War road show of music, comedy, and plays organized by antiwar activist Fred Gardner and actors Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland.
In 1972, Holly Near was one of the first women to create an independent record company, paving the way for women like Ani DiFranco and others. Her goal was to promote and produce music by politically conscious artists from around the world, a mission that Redwood Records fulfilled for nearly 20 years. Often cited as one of the founders of the Women’s Music movement, she not only led the way for outspoken women in the music world, but also worked for peace and multicultural consciousness...
Holly Near has been recognized many times for her work for social change, including honors from the ACLU, the National Lawyers Guild, the National Organization for Women, and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences...
Here's one of her songs to enjoy while solving tonight's puzzle.
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Last week's puzzle also included references to Amy Carter (yay!), Rahm Emanuel (boo!), Kyle Rayner (who?), and Rush Limbaugh.
And now, here's tonight's JulieCrostic, courtesy of the Sunday Puzzle gremlins. Hey, don't blame me for this one...
I think you'll be surprised by what the gremlins chose to spotlight in the verticals of tonight's puzzle. But I think you'll be even more surprised by the diary I'll be posting related to this tomorrow morning.
Tonight's diary clues includes a lot of exclamation points (for no good reason, other than that the gremlins enjoy using as many as they can get away with).
Tonight's diary answers include either 5 or 6 proper names. The gremlins were somewhat evasive when I tried to get them to be more specific. But they sort of indicated that if it's 6 you'll probably need to use Google for one of them.
Tonight's diary answers also include a number of 'plurals'. These are clues such as
fine signature
the answer is TUNEs: fine tune; signature tune
confidential law
the answer is LAs: LA Confidential; LA Law
or (one of the gremlins' favorites from
last week)
you said: "Make do with cool post!"
the answer is ITs: you said it; make it; do it; with it; cool it; post-it
If you're familiar with what JulieCrostics are and how they work, jump right in. If you're not familiar with JulieCrostics here are some NOTES FOR NEWCOMERS:
JulieCrostics are a special kind of acrostic puzzle, named in honor of Julie Waters who started the Sunday Puzzle series here back in 2007. If you're not familiar with how JulieCrostics work you can find a detailed explanation in last night's Sunday Puzzle Warm-Up.
The clues in the Saturday night warm-up puzzles are generally pretty straightforward. But if you're new you should be warned that we have some mischievous gremlins who like to tamper with the Sunday night 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.
Because of this, some of the clues may be hard to crack, and you may not understand the answer at first after it has been cracked. But the answers actually do make sense, once you look at them the right way. If you have any trouble understanding how an answer fits the clue, please leave a comment asking for an explanation.
The gremlins also like bundling the clues into tidy little groups of 3, regardless of how many answers there actually are per row. If the number of clues doesn't divide evenly by 3, they add a space-filler clue or two at the end to fill out the final bundle. If you see a clue at the end such as nothing to see, that could well be such a clue.
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 all the basics. Here are the clues for tonight's puzzle. Have fun!
1. Proverbial resting spot for a certain male animal?
2. Do it again! Do it again! That's just the beginning.
3. Nursery
4. Big top
5. What if?
6. Unlike Rush Limbaugh!
7. Essence
8. Ground grain
9. Free
10. Belt out
11. Green horns
12. Exams
13. The ugly! (or, with 13, burrowing rodent)
14. Finch
15. Sex!
16. Famous murderer
17. "I say no about this!" (Don't sweat it. It's ok, Annie.)
18. All in one piece
19. Dirty old straw
20. Street event
21. Monkey
22. Jones, David
23. One of faux-prostitute Giles' first victims
24. Aureole
25. Never say "door"!
26. Nasty!
27. The menace!