Welcome to Sunday Puzzle, a weekly series for people who enjoy light mental exercise spiced with politics, humor, and odd bits of trivia.
Last week's puzzle clues featured references to the 'anonymous' political novel Primary Colors, the Salem witch trials, the classic tv western Maverick (a follow-up to last weekend's warm-up puzzle references to Maury Maverick Sr. and Maury Maverick Jr.), and to how Jim Messina went from campaigning for Barack Obama to campaigning for Tories.
Tonight's puzzle clues include references to Ann Coulter, Anita Bryant, Augusto Pinochet, Ferdinand Marcos, Fulgencio Batista, and a socialist president. (Now who could that be? If you're Rand Paul, Rudi Giuliani, Pat Robertson, or a member of the Tea Party you've probably already got an idea...)
Tonight's puzzle also continues the theme we've been using lately in these puzzles of good quotes.
I don't think you folks will have much trouble solving tonight's puzzle but if you do you can find a couple of hints in last night's Sunday Puzzle Warm-Up.
Speaking of Sunday Puzzle Warm-Up: back on February 14th one of the rows in the warm-up puzzle went unsolved. For anyone who wasn't able to figure out the answers to those clues and is curious what they are, there's good news: you get a second chance at a couple of them tonight.
So what are you waiting for? Hop on down and let's start solving!
Before we get to tonight's puzzle, 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 a little over 7 years ago. If you're not familiar with how JulieCrostics work you can find a detailed explanation in 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 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, and I hope to see you in comments!
1. light carpet
2. awakening pundit
3. wear pants?
4. take off band age
5. pond or pitch
6. determination
7. small organ
8. foot parts
9. Bane
10. state treasury (short version)
11. stations
12. Augusto Pinochet, Ferdinand Marcos, and Fulgencio Batista
13. small bits
14. February 28th and March 1
15. took action like Paul and Gregory
16. what socialist president did (illegally) when he knew he was dying
17. what Ann Coulter and Anita Bryant were
18. played music
19. having projections on the side of the body
20. kind of ham
21. upper story
22. what Cassius said he'd do first
23. at heart, you've got nerve
24. Burbank and Pasadena, for example
25. Pete's follower
26. searches thoroughly
27. coffee decision
28. these are often magic
29. hitch
30. second thing Muhammad did
31. secret travel
32. (see picture)
33. French butter
34. sketch again
35. more than more than adequate
36. crush
37. declined
38. slink
39. skips over
40. facial features
41. clear
42. almost black, but slightly off