Sunday, April 5, 2015
ACROSTIC, Puzzle by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon
Edited by Will Shortz
This Sunday’s acrostic draws a quotation from “Words Gone Wild: Puns, Puzzles, Poesy, Palaver, Persiflage, and Poppycock ” by Jim Bernhard.
Chock-full of jokes and entertaining twists of the tongue, this lighthearted but scholarly guide to humorous language is a sure-fire hit with word lovers. The examples are entertainingly bawdy, with a delightful narrative voice in word sleuth and author, Jim Bernhard. He provides examples and puzzles, teaching a smidgen of historical and etymological scholarship, but above all, amusing his audience.
Puns from Greek dramatists, Shakespeare, the Bible, George S. Kaufman, and Groucho Marx vie for attention with comical spoonerisms, droll malapropisms, witty anagrams, and humorous palindromes—plus original material by the author—including limericks, clerihews, crossword puzzles, acrostic puzzles, tongue twisters, and other kinds of word play. ~ amazon.com
The quotation: THREE BROTHERS… INHERITED… PARCELS OF LAND FROM THEIR FATHER AND WANTED TO COMBINE THEM INTO ONE… RANCH. THEY DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO NAME THEIR RANCH UNTIL THEIR … MOTHER SUGGESTED: “FOCUS -- … IT’S WHERE THE… MOURNING SONS RAISE MEAT
The author’s name and the title of the work: JIM BERNHARD, ‘WORDS GONE WILD”
The defined words:
A. Losers of Super Bowl XLVIII to the Seahawks, BRONCOS
B. 30-day period ending on Whitsunday, EASTERTIDE
C. “Something you either have or don’t have, but when you have it, you have it all over,” per Elvis,
RHYTHM
D. Viceroyalty once under Cardinal Richelieu (2 wds.), NEW FRANCE
E. Evil Queen’s subordinate in “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, HUNTSMAN
F. What may follow an earth-shaking event, AFTERSHOCK
G. Signification of a driver’s outstretched arm bent upward at a 90o angle (2 wds.), RIGHT TURN
\H. Hal Halbrook’s role in “All the President’s Men” (2 wds.), DEEP THROAT
I. Bunny’s reggae bandmates, WAILERS
J. Tool for gauging resistance, OHMMETER
K. Relative of a diamond, RHOMBOID
L. Heading toward Polaris (2 wds.), DUE NORTH
M. Odysseus’ loyal servant Eumaeus, for one, SWINEHERD
N. Compartment for blimp passengers, GONDOLA
O. Eclipse in excellence, OUTSHINE
P. When one might be seeing stars, NIGHTTIME
Q. Umber, ocher or terra cotta (2 wds.), EARTHTONE
R. Hereford cow by a more descriptive name, WHITEFACE
S. Illogical; hard to understand, INCOHERENT
T. Republicans, in the French Revolution, LEFTISTS
U. Portrayer of Dude in “Rio Bravo” (2 wds.), DEAN MARTIN
The full paragraph of the quotation: The inveterate punster’s idea of bliss is to construct an elaborate tale that results in multiple puns. Sometimes they’re called shaggy-dog stories. The nineteenth-century U.S. Senator from Illinois Charles B. Farwell, described by the New York Times as an “earnest, active Republican” and also as “one of he heartiest of men and most cheery of the well-known prominent citizens of Chicago,” had extensive cattle holdings in Texas. He claimed that the only perfect triple pun in the English language concerned the three brothers who inherited three parcels of land from their father and wanted to combine them into one cattle ranch. They didn’t know what to name their ranch until their widowed mother suggested “focus--for it’s where the sons raise meat.” A Rice University physics student went Farwell one better than by turning it into a quadruple pun: where the mourning sons raise meat.
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