NOTE: This diary was supposed to post on August 29th, while I was away for blueberry season, but the gremlins removed it from the queue in order to post one of their puzzles. (They claim I gave them permission to do this 5 months from now.)
I'm home now and have re-queued the diary to post tonight. My apologies for any confusion the gremlins' mischief caused.
Last week's song The song spotlighted in the previous Summer Songfest diary (as the title of
last week's diary the August 22nd diary stated) was not political.
But when I told them that, the gremlins laughed. Yeah, right, they muttered (but with odd expressions which looked more like sneers than nods of agreement).
Just listen to it, the lead gremlin said, and she began to quote the lyrics:
They used to say that a lady
Should be coy, should be shy,
Human toy -- should just wait for her dream to show.
I'm not that kind of a lady
'Cause I'm strong...
Come on now! the other gremlins shouted gleefully.
Don't try to tell us that's not Hillary Clinton!
The lead gremlin resumed quoting:
Ah, ooh! You're no longer a stranger.
Ooh, that puts you in danger.
I've been watching for you.
Ah, ooh! You left yourself open.
Ooh, that's what I was hoping.
And now it's my move!
And don't try to tell us that's not Hillary Clinton talking about Bernie Sanders! the other gremlins shouted even more gleefully.
I still say it's just a good song, dating back to the 1970s, and that the lyrics contain no reference to current presidential campaigns or past ones. It's about romance, relationships and feminism, not 21st century politics / current events.
But one of tonight's songs is very definitely intended as a reference to politics and current events.
"One of tonight's songs"? Yes! There are two songs spotlighted in tonight's diary: one from me and one from the gremlins. The title of the song I wanted to use only has 13 letters, so I thought I'd have to set it aside, but the gremlins offered to compose a complementary puzzle with an 11-letter song title. Their song is more personal than political (even though it's by an often-political group), but when their title is appended to mine it makes a strong statement on an issue which came up this spring.
(Those gremlins are certainly becoming opinionated! Not that I disagree with the opinion they're expressing this week; it's just I'm a bit surprised they're interested in this issue and even more surprised their opinion is one I can agree with.)
Welcome once again to Sunday Puzzle Warm-Up, a weekly opportunity to have a little fun and to get your brain in gear for the regular Sunday Puzzle (which posts Sunday evenings at 8 pm Eastern time).
I'm away until September, harvesting blueberries in Maine, but I've queued up a series of Sunday Puzzle Warm-Up diaries to entertain you until I return. (No, I'm back; please see note at top of diary.)
The theme for these diaries is Summer Songfest. Each week you'll get a puzzle spotlighting a noteworthy song and a YouTube clip of the song featured in the previous week's puzzle. Last week's song was "It's My Move". Find out what tonight's two songs are by solving tonight's puzzles...
First up, the answers to last week's puzzle the August 22nd puzzle:
The clues were:
1. Do / 2. Herman / 3. Depressive / 4. Santa
5. My Gal / 6. Rites / 7. Dog / 8. Overrated
9. Rather / 10. castle / 11. with faint praise / 12. make
The answers were:
can I Cain M manic O Monica
Sal T last Y salty V vastly
Dan S sand M damns E amends
The verticals read
ITS MYM OVE -- which, properly spaced out, spells the song title "It's My Move".
All right, on to tonight's puzzle.
Tonight's JulieCrostic has 12 rows, with 3 answers per row.
IMPORTANT NOTE! Every clue in tonight's puzzle is a familiar phrase, name, or hyphenated word from which one word is missing. The missing word is the answer to the clue.
If, for example, the clue reads free, some possible answers would be will [free will], trade [free trade], scot [scot free], and duty [duty-free].
If you're familiar with how JulieCrostics work, you can jump right in; if you're new and don't yet know how JulieCrostics work, you can find complete instructions in the bottom part of the diary.
(Also if you're new, a request: please don't post any answers or other spoilers in comment subject lines. Instead, please put any guesses at possible answers into the comment itself. Thanks!)
Okay, I think that covers the basics. Here are the clues. Have fun!
1. address
2. safety
3. relief
4. campaign
5. without further
6. Tobacco
7. Op
8. to Joy
9. off into the sunset
10. did you miss?
11. have we before?
12. bomb
13. Franken
14. Jordan
15. physician thyself
16. radio
17. West
18. red
19. ho ho
20. Blount
21. McClure
22. parking
23. violence
24. proper
25. a T
26. meal
27. people
28. Milne
29. I rock [NOTE: this answer has 2 words]
30. Cass
31. Louis
32. the table
33. of Eden
34. what is?
35. Broadway
36. drop a
instructions for solving JulieCrostics
In JulieCrostics you are given a set of clues, such as these:
To solve the puzzle, figure out the answers to the clues and enter them into a grid of rows and columns, like so:
All the rows in the grid will be the same length (i.e. have the same number of answers). All the answers in a column will be the same length (i.e. have the same number of letters). And the words in each column are one letter longer than the words in the column to its left. That's because each word in a row has all the letters of the word before it plus one new letter.
For instance, if the clues for a row were
1. say what's not so
2. resting
3. concede
then the answers might be LIE, IDLE (= LIE + D), and YIELD (= IDLE + Y)
Write the added letter in the space between the word which doesn't have it and the word which does. For the row in the example you'd write:
1. LIE D 2. IDLE Y 3. YIELD
When you have solved all the clues and written down all the added letters, the added letters will form columns that spell out a message of some sort. It might be a person's name, it might be the title of a book, it might be a familiar phrase, or it might be a series of related words. Your challenge is to solve all the clues, fill in the vertical columns, and figure out what the vertical columns mean.
In the example given, the verticals read DAIL YKOS. With proper spacing and capitalization that spells out Daily Kos!