Apr.12

electoral-vote.com

Dem 51

   

GOP 49

I Read the News Today, Oh Boy: The Purple Rose of Cairo

For last week's puzzle, we gave the hints that "we may only have come up with the idea a few hours ago, but we already know it's an award-winning puzzle," and then on Saturday, "[A] lot of people are in the ballpark with this week's theme, but missed the fact that the clue we give is a valuable part of the puzzle, especially this week."

And now, the answer key, courtesy of reader H.M. in San Dimas, CA:

I never thought having a cold would pay off, but here I am awake when the new posting goes live. Hope I'm first!

The answer is "Major League Baseball MVP winners":

• Trump Legal: Funky Judge—Aaron Judge, 2022 NY Yankees
• Mike Johnson: Time as Speaker May Not Last Much Longer—Tris Speaker, 1912 Boston Red Sox
• No Labels: No Candidate Would Carry Our Mantle—Mickey Mantle, 1956, 1957 and 1962 NY Yankees
• Nebraska: Republicans Fail to Out-Fox Democrats—Nellie Fox, 1959 Chicago White Sox
• British Politics: How Much of a Beating Will the Tory Bench Take?—Johnny Bench, 1970 and 1972 Cincinnati Reds
• I Read the News Today, Oh Boy: Sticky Fingers—Rollie Fingers, 1981 Milwaukee Brewers
• This Week in Schadenfreude: It Burns, Oh How It Burns—George Burns, 1926 Cleveland Indians
• This Week in Freudenfreude: Cuban Takes DEI to the Bank(s)—Ernie Banks, 1958 and 1959 Chicago Cubs

So disappointed you couldn't find a way to list Gibson (Kirk, not Bob), Sandy Koufax or, so easy this year, Steve Garvey!

We actually did have a Garvey headline, and also Vida Blue headline, but we had to hold those items due to time constraints. In any event, hope you're feeling better! And not quite first, but close.

Here are the first 30 readers to hit it on the nose (quite a few recognized the baseball theme, but "baseball players" doesn't quite match the clues, while "Hall of Famers" is not correct for Judge or Burns):

1. J.T. in Philadelphia, PA
2. B.M. in Chico, CA
3. M.B. in Albany, NY
4. H.M. in San Dimas
5. E.K. in Arlington, MA
6. B.A. in Edmond, OK
7. S.K. in Drexel Hill, PA
8. J.H. in Sturbridge, MA
9. A.B.W. in New Haven, CT
10. J.N. in Zionsville, IN
11. L.D. in Bedford, MA
12. N.K. in Cleveland Heights, OH
13. D.S. in Lakewood, OH
14. D.L. in Uslar, Germany
15. M.V. in Aurora, CO
16. M.K.M. in Marblehead, MA
17. N.S. in Los Angeles, CA
18. R.H.O. in Portland, ME
19. C.S. in Boca Raton, FL
20. R.S. in Milan, OH
21. M.T in Wheat Ridge, CO
22. W.M.H.B. in Salamanca, Spain
23. D.C. in South Elgin, IL
24. S.B. in Natick, MA
25. D.E. in High Springs, FL
26. D.D. in Highland Park, IL
27. S.W. in Orland Park, IL, who adds "With that, I will place my Betts that I'm right, ring the Bell, and take comfort in knowing that I Rose to the occasion."
28. J.C. in Johns Creek, GA
29. W.V. in San Jacinto, CA
30. C.G. in Pittsburgh, PA

We had quite a few people point out that the "Burns" headline also contains the name "Oh," as in Sadaharu, who won nine MVP awards in Japan. So, that's a fair substitute answer. We also had quite a few people point out that we misspelled the name Foxx, as in Jimmie, which we did not. In any case, the important thing here is that the answer has to make sense in the context of the clue; we often use the clue to make the commonality more clear.

As to this week's theme, it relies on some of the words to the right of the colon, but not all of them. It would be in the Trivial Pursuit category Entertainment, and the story on abortion is not part of the puzzle. As to a clue, the Civil War historian on staff very badly wanted to work Gettysburg in, but while that fits the theme, it does not work for any headline.

If you have a guess, send it to comments@electoral-vote.com, preferably with the subject line "April 12 Headlines." (Z)