The Egyptian queen, shown here in a 19th-century engraving,
sneaked back from exile and surprised Julius Caesar.
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Sunday June 19, 2011
ACROSTIC, Puzzle by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon
Edited by Will Shortz
This Sunday’s fine acrostic draws a quotation from Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff.
Ms. Schiff is a wordsmith extraordinaire. In beautifully constructed prose that reminded me more of Nabokov than your typical biographer, Ms. Schiff paints a lovely, nuanced portrait of a great and vastly misunderstood woman. And what life the author brings to ancient Egypt too! The descriptions of the ancient world in which Cleopatra lived were so vivid that you would think the author was Cleopatra's contemporary, and not her 21st century biographer. ~ Pugnacious Reilly, amazon.com
Ms. Schiff is a wordsmith extraordinaire. In beautifully constructed prose that reminded me more of Nabokov than your typical biographer, Ms. Schiff paints a lovely, nuanced portrait of a great and vastly misunderstood woman. And what life the author brings to ancient Egypt too! The descriptions of the ancient world in which Cleopatra lived were so vivid that you would think the author was Cleopatra's contemporary, and not her 21st century biographer. ~ Pugnacious Reilly, amazon.com
The quotation: [SHE] DESCENDED FROM A LONG LINE OF MURDERERS. … FOR… GENERATIONS HER FAMILY HAD STYLED THEMSELVES PHARAOHS. THE PTOLEMIES WERE IN FACT MACEDONIAN GREEK, WHICH MAKES CLEOPATRA APPROXIMATELY AS EGYPTIAN AS ELIZABETH TAYLOR.
The author’s name and the title of the work: STACY SCHIFF, CLEOPATRA
The defined words:
A. Army form of communication?, SEMAPHORE
B. Delicate embroidery threading, TRACERY
C. Application meant to follow pogonotomy (hyph.), AFTER-SHAVE
D. Inconstant, chameleonic, CHANGEABLE
E. East Indian tree yielding a perfume oil (hyph.), YLANG-YLANG
F. Put a dog down? (2 wds.), SET FOOT
G. Interaction of personalities, CHEMISTRY
H. What results from slicing through a great circle, HEMISPHERE
I. Fruitless product of a grapevine (2 wds.), IDLE GOSSIP
J. Camping hazard in a canyon (2 wds.), FLASH FLOOD
K. 1908 New York Giant who infamously committed a “bonehead” play (2 wds.), FRED MERKLE
L. Wine sometimes mistaken for pinot blanc, CHARDONNAY
M. Sammy Cahn lyric sung three times in a row (3 wds.), LET IT SNOW
N. Said with an accent, EMPHASIZED
O. Sophocles tragedy (2 wds.), OEDIPUS REX
P. Like some talk radio shows (hyph.), PHONE-IN
Q. Test one’s strength against another, say (hyph.), ARM-WRESTLE
R. Singer when it’s hot, TEAKETTLE
S. Home of Dracula’s Castle, ROMANIA
T. Way of life devoted to study, ACADEMIA
Cleopatra VII ruled Egypt for 21 years a generation before the birth of Christ. She lost her kingdom once; regained it; nearly lost it again; amassed an empire; lost it all. A goddess as a child, a queen at 18, at the height of her power she controlled virtually the entire eastern Mediterranean coast, the last great kingdom of any Egyptian ruler. For a fleeting moment she held the fate of the Western world in her hands. She had a child with a married man, three more with another. She died at 39. Catastrophe reliably cements a reputation, and Cleopatra's end was sudden and sensational. In one of the busiest afterlives in history, she has become an asteroid, a video game, a cigarette, a slot machine, a strip club, a synonym for Elizabeth Taylor. Shakespeare attested to Cleopatra's infinite variety. He had no idea. ~ smithsonianmag.com
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Click on image to enlarge.
Puzzle available on the internet at
1 comment:
If you slice through a great circle (which is a two dimensional object) you get two arcs. If you slice through a sphere with or at a great circle you get two hemispheres.
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