Do you like puzzles?
Do you like a little light socializing on a Saturday evening?
Do you like pictures of adorable kitties?
Hey! Three out of three this week!
Sunday Puzzle Warm-up is a companion to the regular Sunday Puzzle series. The aim is to introduce people to the kind of puzzles featured in the weekly Sunday Puzzle series and to provide introductory-level puzzles for folks to practice on.
All right: time for the
Absentee Tip Jar
I'm away (raking blueberries in Maine) but I've queued up diaries to auto-publish during my absence. I won't be able to take part in these diaries, but I think you'll be able to solve the puzzles without any help from me. (And if you do have any trouble, the answers will appear in the next week's diary.)
There's a theme to these puzzles which are appearing during my absence: the answers (i.e. the verticals) spell out the titles of noteworthy current comic book series.
The first answer (7 weeks ago) was Near Death. The second answer (6 weeks ago) was Thief of Thieves. The third answer (5 weeks ago) was Mind The Gap. The fourth answer (4 weeks ago) was Batwoman. The fifth answer (3 weeks ago) was Invincible. The sixth answer (2 weeks ago) was Daredevil. And the seventh answer (last week) was Morning Glories. So those aren't the answer this week. What is? Have fun finding out!
Meanwhile the ever-delightful pucklady will be hosting Sunday Puzzle in my absence, so you're in for some fun times! Be sure to look for the Sunday Puzzle diary each week.
Enjoy tonight's puzzle, and I'll be back posting live on September 16.
And now for tonight's puzzle...
Here you go -- the clues for tonight's puzzle.
(If you're not familiar with how these puzzles work, don't panic! An explanation, and an example of a solved puzzle, are provided right below.)
1. aching
2. drills
3. what Clinton didn't usually wear
4. people stood on the dock 171 years ago asking if she were dead
5. kind of wrench
6. on the ground
7. cut
8. pub measures
9. depicts
10. might be happy, especially late afternoon or early evening
11. difficult
12. curmudgeon
13. eyeglass part
14. often seen at polling stations
15. Christmas decoration
16. carrier
17. wait a while
18. old-fashioned phone
19. clamp
20. often-impersonated person
21. famous horse
For those of you unfamiliar with this kind of puzzle, what you do is solve the clues and write the answers in rows. In tonight's puzzle there are 3 answers per row.
Each word in a row contains all the letters of the previous word, plus one new letter. Write the added letters in the space between the word which doesn't have it and the word which does. The vertical columns created by the added letters will spell out a word or phrase. (In the case of the series of these puzzles appearing during my blueberry-season absence, the verticals spell out titles of noteworthy current comic books.)
As an example of how it works, here are the clues and answers to last week's puzzle:
THE CLUES TO LAST WEEK'S PUZZLE
1. English bathroom
2. craft tool
3. depression
4. children's game
5. farm animal
6. be a bad wionner
7. massage
8. Aaron
9. beast of burden
10. when this follows, it often refers to the day before
11. balanced
12. at no time
13. youth
14. set down
15. famous epic
16. arrange
17. circle
18. rule
19. regret
20. encourage
21. rush forth
GRID FOR LAST WEEK'S PUZZLE
1. --- [ ] 2. ---- [ ] 3. -----
4. --- [ ] 5. ---- [ ] 9. -----
10. --- [ ] 11. ---- [ ] 12. -----
13. --- [ ] 14. ---- [ ] 15. -----
16. --- [ ] 17. ---- [ ] 18. -----
19. --- [ ] 20. ---- [ ] 21. -----
ANSWERS TO LAST WEEK'S PUZZLE
loo M loom G gloom
tag O goat L gloat
rub R burr O burro
eve N even R never
lad I laid I Iliad
rig N ring E reign
rue G urge S surge
The verticals read Morning Glories -- the title of an interesting and intriguing comic book series by Nick Spencer about teenagers at a boarding school. (A word of warning, though: while the early issues can be enjoyed on their own, enjoyment of more recent issues calls for catching up on the earlier issues first. But the series to date is readily available in trade paperbacks; if your library or bookstore doesn't have these, request they get them.)