ACROSTIC
For over 40 years, I have been working on a type of puzzle called an Acrostic. Over that period of time, a team has continually produced those puzzles.(In fact, I think that they invented them.) That team consists of two marvelously intelligent persons: Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon. Somewhere I have their pictures. When I find them, I will scan them into this blog.
I love Acrostics, because to solve one of them, you have to rely on your Crossword Puzzle ability and also on your knowledge of the English language and its word and letter frequencies.. and that is how I get my "kicks." Each Acrostic consists of a literary quotation, and the first letter of the solutions indicates the author and the title of the work.
The Sunday New York Times publishes one of the team's Acrostics every other week, and I look forward to some hours of rather difficult, but pleasing, solving. I'll admit to having to look up one or two words by Google sometimes, when I get stuck. But, I never give up. And I always learn something. (This Sunday's quote advised us on how to pick up a sting ray. Sorry, but I don't think I'll ever be doing such a thing.... however, if you want to know... you stick your fingers into the ray's breathing slits and pick it up like a bowling ball!)
To give you an example of some of the clues and solutions and what I have learned from them, I'll let Prepop loose.
Clue: Foxy sort of person
Sol: SLYBOOTS
Prepop sez: This is a rather common word in Britain, but I had never heard of it being used here. As the clue indicates, it refers to a sly, tricky person.
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Clue: Boy adventurer with his faithful dog "snowy."
Sol: TINTIN
Prepop sez: TINTIN is the boy in a comics series by Belgian cartoonist Herge. His chatty dog, Snowy (actually named Milou in French) carries on a dialogue with readers.
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Clue: Name of a pillar near the Dead Sea.
Sol: LOT'S WIFE
Prepop sez: Ah.. yes, we got a little biblical here. The pillar must be at least 5 feet tall and pure white in color.
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Clue: What do Chance, Drake and Future all have in common?
Sol: RAPPING
Prepop sez: I had no idea about this one and spent a lot of time trying to figure out what those words had in common. Finally, with the help of Google, I became acquainted with Chance the Rapper, Drake the Rapper, and Future the Rapper. (Hey... what about Jack the Ripper?)
How come these guys don't have last names? I'm sorry to confess that RAP is kind of grating on my tired old ears. How about a little Frank Sinatra instead?
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Clue: Who put who on first?
Sol: ABBOTT
Prepop sez: This was an easy one if you remember the baseball shtick of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. But, of course, if you were not around in the middle of the last century, you probably never heard of these guys. The routine was very funny.... well.... you had to be there.
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Clue: Din creator.
Sol: KIPLING
Prepop sez: Cute. Of course, Rudyard Kipling and his famous poem: Gunga Din... "You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!"
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Clue: Aimed at eggheads.
Sol: HIGHBROW
Clue: Race with high foreheads.
Sol: KLINGONS
Prepop sez: Kind of related clues. Spock was only half Klingon, so his brow and forehead were not so high as they could have been if he had been pure-bred. (Wait a minute... was Spock a Klingon or something else that I can't remember? I'm getting old.)
OK.. I was wrong... Spock was half human and half Vulcan! Sorry about that.
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Clue: Where the white witch was done in.
Sol: NARNIA
Prepop sez: C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of NARNIA consists of seven "fantastic" novels that have never caught my fancy. I have always thought that these stories were a little "juvenile." Am I being snobbish in that? I have tried to read stuff by Lewis many times, but his prose swiftly makes my eyelids shut. I am going to try to read him again soon because I would like to know why he went from being a loud atheist to becoming a devout religious person. (I was once attracted to his "Screwtape Letters" and have managed to read some of that material.)
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Clue: 1979 Director of Nosferatu
Sol: HERZOG
Prepop sez: Werner Herzog directed Nosferatu the Vampire in 1979. This was a remake of the 1922 German film: Nosferatu. This German film was an unauthorized telling of Bram Stoker's marvelous book: Dracula. In the film, Count Dracula is renamed Count Orlok, but most of the film mirrored Stoker's book.
Stoker's family heirs were not impressed and sued. The court ordered all copies of the film destroyed. However, a few copies survived and the film was released in the United States in 1929. It was a big hit.
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Enough.. go and try your hand at an ACROSTIC puzzle. And have some great fun!
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