08.11.13 — The Monk in the Garden — the Acrostic

Sunday, August 11, 2013

ACROSTIC, Puzzle by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon

Edited by Will Shortz

This Sunday’s awesome acrostic draws a quotation from The Monk in the Garden: The Lost and Found Genius of Gregor Mendel, the Father of Genetics by Robin Marantz Henig. 

The Moravian monk and naturalist Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) labored quietly over the years in his abbey's garden, becoming known locally as a reliable meteorologist with an unusually green thumb. He was much more than that, of course, but his transforming experiments in what a later acolyte would call "genetics" were less well known. When he published the results of his many attempts to discover the mechanisms by which traits are passed from one generation to the next--in Mendel's case, in sweet peas--it was in the proceedings of a local scientific study group, and it would take nearly two decades before researchers in more august institutions would in turn discover Mendel's work and apply it to their own revolutionizing biology in the process. ~ Gregory McNamee, Amazon.com

The quotation:  MENDEL HAD NOT ALWAYS WORKED WITH PEAS; AT FIRST, HE HAD TRIED BREEDING MICE.   BUT THE LOCAL BISHOP … SEEMED TO FIND IT INAPPROPRIATE, … FOR A PRIEST WHO HAD TAKEN VOWS OF CHASTITY … TO BE ENCOURAGING — AND WATCHING — RODENT SEX.

The author’s name and the title of the work:  HENIG, THE MONK IN THE GARDEN

The defined words:

A. Short race in fiction, HOBBITS
B. Visitor of castles in the air, ESCAPIST
C. Small boy, in Britain, NIPPER
D. Like some of the things that make you you, INHERITED
E. In the style of “Dracula”, GOTHIC
F. Position played by Mike Ditka (2 wds.), TIGHT END
G. Surname in a 1582 marriage, HATHAWAY
H. Eponym of the Dodgers field in Brooklyn, EBBETS
L. Means of moving quietly in the woods, MOCCASINS
J. Worship of snakes, OPHIOLATRY
K. Worms good for controlling lawn grubs, NEMATODES
L. Foofaraw, hoo-ha, hurly-burly, KERFUFFLE
M. “O.K., let’s shake” (3 wds.), IT’S A DEAL
N. Not at all far from home (2 wds.), NEXT DOOR
O. Supplement or bonus, as to a purchase (hyph.), THROW-IN
P. Mountain or hill; N.B.A. player stat, HEIGHT
Q. Eurus, in Greek mythology (2 wds.), EAST WIND
R. Cussedly bad (hyph.), GOD-AWFUL
S. Come clean about, ADMIT
T. One in charge of a parish, RECTOR
U. Reduce in number, as troops (2 wds.), DRAW DOWN
V. 1996 movie role for Madonna (2 wds.) EVA PERON
W. Human, per a zoologist’s 1967 book (2 wds.), NAKED APE 

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The full paragraphs of the quotation:  Mendel had not always worked with peas; at first, he had tried breeding mice.  But toying with the reproduction of mammals, according to the local bishop, was simply too vulgar an undertaking for a priest.  The bishop, Anton Ernst Schaffgotsch, had irritated the monks of St. Thomas for decades.  The monks wanted to pursue their interests —  natural science, physics, musical composition -- unfettered by the restrictions of the Catholic Church.  But Bishop Schaffgotsch would not allow such irreverence.  He was especially bothered by the abbot, an independent thinker and powerful man who seemed intent on running his monastery more like a university than a cloister.  In June 1854, the year that Mendel began growing peas, the bishop visited St. Thomas, hoping to get a tighter grip on it once and for all.  His ultimate goal was to shut down the monastery altogether.

The abbot proved too wily an adversary for Schaffgotsch, who was not an especially clever man.  But the two clerics did eventually reach a compromise:  the monastery could remain open as long as the abbot changed some of the things that Schaffgotsch found most offensive.  Among them were the mice that Mendel kept in cages in his two-room flat, where they gave off a distinctive stench of cedar, chips, fur, and rodent droppings.  He was trying to breed wild-type mice with albinos to see what color coats the hybrids would have.  Schaffgotsch seemed to find it inappropriate, and perhaps unnecessarily titillating, for a priest who had taken vows of chastity and celibacy to be encouraging —  and watching —  rodent sex.

“I turned from animal breeding to plant breeding,” Mendel later said with a chuckle.  “You see, the bishop did not understand that plants also have sex.” ~  The Monk in the Garden: The Lost and Found Genius of Gregor Mendel, the Father of Genetics by Robin Marantz Henig.

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