12.01.13 — Wordy Shipmates — the Acrostic

"Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor," by William Halsall, 1882 

at Pilgrim Hall Museum, Plymouth, Massachusetts

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Sunday, December 1, 2013

ACROSTIC, Puzzle by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon

Edited by Will Shortz

This Sunday’s seasonable acrostic draws a quotation from Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell.

Vowell has integrated her sarcasm, flat indie-girl affect and kitsch worship — refined in print and on public radio — into a pop history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Known for her adenoid-helium voice, Vowell is a genial talker but an undisciplined writer. This new book mixes jiggers of various weak liquors — paraphrase, topical one-liners, blogger tics — and ends up tasting kind of festive but bad, like Long Island iced tea.  ~ The New York Times

John Alden (c. 1599 – 1689) John Alden was a crew member on the historic 1620 voyage of the Pilgrim ship Mayflower. Rather than return to England with the ship, he stayed at Plymouth, and can be considered a passenger. He was hired in Southampton, England as the ship’s cooper, responsible for maintaining the ship’s barrels. He was a signatory to the Mayflower Compact. He married fellow Mayflower passenger Priscilla Mullins, whose entire family perished in the first winter. ~ Wikipedia

The quotation:  THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STANDISH IS FULL OF HOOEY LIKE CALLING ALDEN A SCHOLAR EVEN THOUGH IN REAL LIFE HE WAS THE GUY ON THE MAYFLOWER THE PILGRIMS HIRED AS THEIR BARREL MAKER BASICALLY HE WAS IN CHARGE OF THE BEER

The author’s name and the title of the work:  SARAH VOWELL, WORDY SHIPMATES

The defined words:

A. 1980 No. 1 hit for Christopher Cross, SAILING
B. Barbary Coast stronghold for Barbarossa, ALGIERS
C. Trait shared by Elizabeth I and Vladimir Lenin (2 wds.), RED HAIR
D. Precisely cut masonry, ASHLAR
E. Tidbit to feed a pet gecko, HOUSEFLY
F. “Trust, but VERIFY” (Russian proverb)
G. Vintage fabric for a sou’wester, OILCLOTH
H. Container for some suds, WASHTUB
I. Settler in another land, ÉMIGRÉ
J. Pioneer in overdubbing and multitrack recording (2 wds.), LES PAUL
K. Petticoat or peignoir, e.g., LINGERIE
L. Player on Hartford’s former N.H.L. team, WHALER
M. Position of responsibility, OFFICE
N. Helical base for spaghetti sauce, ROTINI
O. Host of “International Showtime” on 1960s TV (23 wds.), DON AMECHE
P. Name regarded as [Answer S.], to some, YAHWEH
Q. Suddenly horripilate, STARTLE
R. Environment conducive to hatching plots, HOTBED
S. Not to be said aloud, INEFFABLE
T. The former Volaré, Valiant or Voyager, PLYMOUTH
U. Good source of omega-3 fatty acids, MACKERAL
V. Land, touch down; disembark, ALIGHT
W. Something given before many a feast, THANKS
X. Artist with a museum in The Hague, ESCHER
Y. Sacagawea’s tribe, SHOSHONE

The full paragraph of the quotation:  My point being, the amateur historian’s next stop after "Boy, people used to be so stupid" is "People: still stupid."  I could look at that realization as a woeful lack of human progress.  But I choose to find it reassuring.  Watching "Bewitched" and "The Brady Bunch" again, I was flummoxed as to why they made such a big deal about Mayflower voyagers John and Priscilla Alden.  Then I figured out that those two once loomed so large in the American mind mostly because schoolchildren used to spend every November reading Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1858 love-triangle poem about the Aldens called “The Courtship of Miles Standish,”  The poem is full of all kinds of hooey, like calling Alden a scholar, even though in real life he was the guy on the Mayflower the Pilgrims hired as their barrel maker.  Basically, he was in charge of the beer.  And we should expect nothing less from Longfellow, who also poetically pumped up the importance of Paul Revere.  There isn’t that much difference between tall tales that start “Listen, my children, and you shall hear” and “Here’s the story of a man named Brady.”  In other words, Americans have learned our history from exaggerated popular art for as long as anyone can remember.  Revolutionary War soldiers were probably singing fun but inaccurate folk songs about those silly Puritans to warm themselves by the fire at Valley Forge.  Right before they defeated that godforsaken General Cornwallis, of course.  Man, I hate that guy.  ~ Sarah Vowell, Wordy Shipmates

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Puzzle available on the internet at

THE NEW YORK TIMES — Crossword Puzzles and Games.