06.03.12 — Emotionally Weird — the Acrostic



————————

Sunday, June 3, 2012

ACROSTIC, Puzzle by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon
Edited by Will Shortz

This Sunday’s acrostic draws a quotation from Emotionally Weird by Kate Atkinson.

On a peat and heather island off the west coast of Scotland, Effie and her mother Nora take refuge in the large mouldering house of their ancestors and tell each other stories. Nora, at first, recounts nothing that Effie really wants to hear, like who her father was - variously Jimmy, Jack, or Ernie.

Effie tells of her life at college in Dundee, the land of cakes and William Wallace, where she lives in a lethargic relationship with Bob, a student who never goes to lectures, seldom gets out of bed, and to whom the Klingons are as real as the French and the Germans (more real than the Luxemburgers). But strange things are happening. Why is Effie being followed? Is someone killing the old people? And where is the mysterious yellow dog? ~ Kate Atkinson Official Website

The quotation: I HAVE … HAIR THAT USUALLY EXISTS ONLY IN THE IMAGINATION OF ARTISTS AND CAN BE DISTURBING TO SEE ON THE HEAD OF A REAL WOMAN … IT IS THE COLOR OF NUCLEAR SUNSETS… BUT ON ME THE CORKSCREWING CURLS ARE CLOWNISH AND …CARROTY.

The author’s name and the title of the work: ATKINSON, EMOTIONALLY WEIRD

The defined words:

A. Broadcast of bad actors, e.g., ANAGRAM
B. Resembling what grows out of the scalp, TRICHOID
C. Difficult to solve or straighten, KNOTTY
D. What can be meant by “, INCHES
E. “Hold your horses there, pal” (3 wds.), NOT SO FAST
F. Impediment to a smooth kiss?, STUBBLE
G. Where Stephen Hawking studied physics, OXFORD
H. Island city with a Junkanoo festival, NASSAU
I. Celebrated thinker with an unruly do, EINSTEIN
J. Quite a lot to express, MOUTHFUL
K. Lacking any reservations, OUTRIGHT
L. Hard-to-comb growth, THATCH
M. “As INNOCENT as a new-laid egg” (W.S. Gilbert)
N. Rock rich in hydrocarbons (2 wds.), OIL SHALE
O. Land found by the Pevensies, NARNIA
P. Author of “Saving Fish From Drowning” (2 wds.), AMY TAN
Q. Home of the Kansas Jayhawks, LAWRENCE
R. World-weary private eye of Ross Macdonald (2 wds.), LEW ARCHER
S. Palinesque affirmative (2 wds), YOU BETCHA
T. Arachne, for one, WEAVER
U. Natural problem for some banks, EROSION
V. Less than cogent reasoning, ILLOGIC
W. Spanner of nine time zones, RUSSIA
X. Not happy — at being shorn?, DISTRESSED

The full paragraph of the quotation: I am a young woman composed of blood and flesh, sugar and spice, all things nice and the recycled molecules of the dead. I have thin bones that snap and shatter too easily for my liking. I have Nora's narrow insteps and broad toes, her love of sentimental music, her hatred of Brussels sprouts. I have my mother's temperamental hair - hair that usually exists only in the imagination of artists and can be disturbing to see on the head of a real woman. On Nora it is the colour of nuclear sunsets and of overspiced gingerbread, but on me, unfortunately, the same corkscrewing curls are more clownish and inclined to be carroty.

————————



Click on image to enlarge,
or Right click and select “Open Link in New Window“.

Puzzle available on the internet at


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Rebuke give a tree by a lumberjack after it kept breaking his saw chains:

Knotty, Knotty!