I just read an email that Julie sent yesterday asking me to guest host the puzzles today. I don't know if she made other arrangements or not, but I'll put up a puzzle and see if anyone is waiting for one. Just for fun, some political overtones, but no secrets of the universe. One acrostic for now, which I don't think is too difficult, but I have another if y'all manage to zip through this one quickly.
Rules, shmules! We're rebels, we don't need no stinkin' rules! Well, it turns out we do.
Our Most Important Rule: Don't put spoilers or solutions in the subject line of comments. Identify the row or column of the puzzle in the subject line and put the rest in the comment.
Personally, I like to engage in a communal effort for large or difficult puzzles, but to each his/her own. If you don’t want to see a solution before you have solved the puzzle, switch ‘expand’ to ‘shrink’ before you read the comments.
Sharpen your pencils. The acrostic appears shortly after the break...
Another important note: I do something a little different with the usual numbering that I think makes posting partial solutions and spoilers less confusing. The clues and answers are labeled by numbered rows and lettered columns. For instance, the fifth row answers can be identified as 5A, 5B and 5C or 5(ABC), and letters needed for the down columns are 5X and 5Y.
If you are familiar with acrostics you may proceed to the puzzle, but beware! The puzzle makers in our little puzzledom have become increasingly clever and nefarious. I know, you've tired of reading all this. If you don't know how an acrostic is solved, or you haven't experienced one of our acrostics, there are more Instructions, Rules, Tips and Helpful Hints after the clues.
5x6x7x12 Acrostic
^^^^^^^^^^A^^^^^^^^^X^^^^^^^^^B^^^^^^^^^Y^^^^^^^^^^C^^^^^^^^^^^^
1 [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] ( ) [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] ( ) [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
2 [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] ( ) [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] ( ) [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
3 [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] ( ) [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] ( ) [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
4 [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] ( ) [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] ( ) [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
5 [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] ( ) [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] ( ) [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
6 [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] ( ) [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] ( ) [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
7 [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] ( ) [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] ( ) [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
8 [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] ( ) [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] ( ) [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
9 [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] ( ) [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] ( ) [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
10 [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] ( ) [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] ( ) [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
11 [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] ( ) [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] ( ) [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
12 [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] ( ) [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] ( ) [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
clues:
Column A | Column B | Column C |
1-A) covered | B) baked | C) gave in |
2-A) depressions | B) select | C) car option |
3-A) stylish | B) falls, in a particular way | C) germs |
4-A) creates | B) Judge Judy says don’t | C) particular adherent |
5-A) finish | B) couples | C) lose it |
6-A) cover | B) less | C) certain property |
7-A) deluge | B) spun by some | C) cover |
8-A) fake | B) light | C) device |
9-A) tuber | B) dress | C) repeat |
10-A) conditions | B) wet with discharge | C) subjects |
11-A) wears out | B) fits together | C) loners |
12-A) costs | B) backward | C) one-hundredth |
Instructions, rules, tips and hints
The rules for an acrostic are simple: for each row, the answer (to the corresponding clue) is a word (or words) of increasing length, such as a five-letter word, a six-letter word and a seven-letter word. Each next size word (or words) is formed by adding a letter to the previous letter word (or words) and scrambling.
In the box in-between each word, put the extra letter. I.e., if your answers were:
ITEMS, MISTER and RED MIST
You'd place an "R" in the box between ITEMS and MISTER and a "D" between MISTER and RED MIST.
The combined added letters produce the two down answers. Warning: The down columns may be straight-forwardly spelled top to bottom, in reversed order, begin somewhere other than the beginning, have some sort of crossover between columns, or be anagrams of other words or jumbled letters. When you solve the whole puzzle, find the relationship of the down columns.