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I Read the News Today, Oh Boy: What Did He Know, and When Did He Know It?

We're not going to have a Christmas game today, since we've already got this headline game. But we will have four new games next week, and we will also start revealing answers and high scorers. So, you still have a few days to take your best shot at these:

The most recent headline game was actually 2 weeks ago, due to illness last week. We gave the hint that "we made a deliberate grammar error in two headlines (the same basic grammar error in each case), and if you notice what it is, it's a very big clue" and we actually also snuck in that the theme was "pretty elementary." We later added: "If you are still working on the headline theme, we'll say that if we wanted to keep things nice and airy, we would have written headlines that incorporated the letters 'H,' 'O' and 'N,' just like we used 'U' and 'I.'"

And here is the solution, courtesy of reader P.D. in Lanham, MD:

Elementary indeed! These are all chemical symbols of various elements:

Abuse of Power, Part II: Not a Good Time to Be on the President's Enemies' List—"Be" is the symbol for beryllium, atomic number 4.

Abuse of Power, Part III: Kash Patel, In Save-My-Neck Mode, Is Kicking Himself—"In" is the symbol for indium, atomic number 49.

Thanksgiving Games: Easy As Pie, Part II—"As" is the symbol for arsenic, atomic number 33.

I Read the News Today, Oh Boy: Don't Cry No Tears—"No" is the symbol for nobelium, atomic number 102.

This Week in Schadenfreude: Putting the I in AI?—"I" is the symbol for iodine, atomic number 53.

This Week in Freudenfreude: Thank U, Part II—"U" is the symbol for uranium, atomic number 92.

(and note that "Pd" is the symbol for palladium, atomic number 46)

And "H," "O," and "N," from the Sunday clue are hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen—the main components of air. And from this item's headline, "He" is helium. Oh, and the grammar error was improper capitalization of prepositions.

Here are the first 50 readers to get it right:

D.B. in Glendale, CA
M.H. in Ottawa, ON, Canada
G.M.K. in Mishawaka, IN
S.K. in Ardmore, PA
T.F. in Craftsbury Common, VT
R.S. in Landing, NJ
M.M. in Dunellen, NJ
M.K. in Long Branch, NJ
P.H. in Ft. Lauderdale, FL
M.S. in Canton, NY
R.G. in Baltimore, MD
J.E. in San Jose, CA
G.A. in North Bay, ON, Canada
E.W. in Skaneateles, NY
J.R. in Orlando, FL
S.T. in Federal Way, WA
D.M. in Oakland, CA
D.E. in Ann Arbor, MI
M.W. in Altea, Spain
P.D. in Lanham
H.B. in Toronto, ON, Canada
B.P. in Salt Lake City, UT
D.L. in Springfield, IL
M.W. in Newington, CT
J.L.G. in Boston, MA

J.N. in Zionsville, IN
S.W. in Winter Garden, FL
K.H. in Albuquerque, NM
R.R. in Chewelah, WA
M.A. in Soquel, CA
K.J. in Toronto, ON, Canada
G.W. in Avon, CT
T.K. in Manchester, MO
E.B. in Hannover, Germany
C.J. in Boulder, CO
L.C. in Brookline, MA
M.J. in Oakdale, MN
B.H. in Sherman Oaks, CA
A.O'N. in Wiesbaden, Germany
K.R. in Austin, TX
P.J. in Quakertown, PA
J.F. in Fayetteville, NC
R.D. in Cheshire, CT
T.K. in Half Moon Bay, St. Kitts
E.S. in Cincinnati, OH
T.T. in Conway, AR
D.O. in Brookline, MA
S.G. in Durham, NC
M.N. in Lake Ann, MI
G.S. in Basingstoke, England, UK

The 50th correct response was received at 6:31 p.m. PT on Saturday, November 29.

For this week's theme, it relies on one "word" per headline, and it's in the category Mathematics. Or maybe History. It does NOT include the headline on racism, because we don't want to make a game of that. For a hint, we'll note that the 50 readers who appear on next week's list will definitely be able to say they came, they saw, they conquered. And finally, we must thank reader D.M. in Grand Rapids, MI, who gave us the idea.

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

This item appeared on www.electoral-vote.com. Read it Monday through Friday for political and election news, Saturday for answers to reader's questions, and Sunday for letters from readers.

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