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I Read the News Today, Oh Boy: Sea Salt and Paper

It is unfortunate that several of the board games that have penetrated deeply into American culture are actually kind of mediocre. For example (Z) can play Monopoly at a master level, but unless that's true of all the players in the game, it's not very good. And even if everyone at the table IS a master-level player, it's still only an OK game. Other very popular board games that are pretty meh, on the whole, include Risk, Battleship, Clue and Trivial Pursuit. We suspect that TP is the inclusion that readers will disagree with the most, but: (1) there are better trivia games out there, (2) it's too dependent on random dice rolls, and (3) there are too many sloppy or outright erroneous questions. Also, it was invented by Canadians, so reach your own conclusions.

We have written on this subject before, but there are a lot of great board games out there, if you look for them. Sea Salt and Paper is among them; it's a trick-taking game with an ocean/origami theme, and is good for something quick to play and easy to pick up. The reason we mention this subject is that non-politics-questions Saturday is coming up, and we remembered that well in advance this time. If readers have non-politics questions about food, sports, television, music, films, history, literature, science, computers and, yes, games (board, video, or otherwise), send 'em along to questions@electoral-vote.com.

Anyhow, we gave two hints as to last week's headline theme. First up was: "while Davy Crockett and Jeremy Allen White were well-positioned for last week's theme, Richard I of England would be well-positioned for this one." And second was: "like Richard I of England, the magicians Siegfried and Roy would do well with this theme, if they weren't dead." And here is the solution, courtesy of reader N.G. in B'kara, Malta:

One word from each can be used with "lion":

TrumpWatch 2026: A Kennedy Center Snow Job—Snow lion, the emblem of Tibet

Legal Bytes: Miller Keeps Trying to MAWA (Make America White Again)—White lion, rare variant of lion, also the name of a heavy metal band

FoxWatch 2026: How to Make a Mountain out of a Molehill—Mountain lion

Across the Pond: At Least Binface Gave Everyone Some Food for Thought—The Thought Lion, a kind of muppet from Jim Henson's TV series The StoryTeller

I Read the News Today, Oh Boy: Teddy Roosevelt Thought Woodrow Wilson Was Cowardly—The Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz

This Week in Schadenfreude: Trump Media & Technology Group Is Awash in Red Ink—Red Lion is a common name for English pubs and former coaching inns.

This Week in Freudenfreude: So... Larry David Was to Blame—Larry the Lion: vintage Mattel toy from 1962 (the year I was born!)

And King Richard I was the known as the Lionhearted.

Correct. And Siegfried and Roy often worked with lions, while the headline of this item adds "sea" to the list. Note that we got all of the answers listed here multiple times, though our intent with the fourth headline was actually "Food Lion" (grocery store chain, immortalized in Natonal Lampoon's Animal House) and our intent for the final headline was Larry Lion from the Richard Scarry books.

Here are the first 60 readers to get it right:

M.S. in New York City, NY
M.B. in Albany, NY
C.B. in Lakeville, MN
S.T. in Coventry, England, UK
J.T. in Philadelphia, PA
G.M.K. in Mishawaka, IN
S.K. in Ardmore, PA
T.K. in Half Moon Bay, St. Kitts
A.F. in Boston, MA
M.W. in Altea, Spain
P.Q. in Metuchen, NJ
M.S. in Canton, NY
P.A. in Redwood City, CA
P.H. in Fort Lauderdale, FL
J.W. in Victoria, BC, Canada
J.N. in Zionsville, IN
B.F. in Nashville, TN
B.D. in Portland, OR
K.G.W. in Lafayette, IN
P.H. in Bozeman, MT
M.T. in Wheat Ridge, CO
A.R. in Austin, TX
J.C. in Carmel, IN
M.K. in Long Branch, NJ
R.P. in Brooklyn, NY
S.B. in Palm Harbor, FL
G.M. in Tunis, Tunisia
J.M. in Estes Park, CO
R.F.W. in Atlanta, GA
T.C. in Danby, NY

E.M. in Jersey City, NJ
T.D. in Chicago, IL
P.C. in Vero Beach, FL
D.M. in Oakland, CA
M.Z. in Sharon, MA
H.B. in Santiago, Chile
D.S. in Layton, UT
M.D. in Wakefield, MA
J.O. in Ithaca, NY
P.W. in Tulalip, WA
J.F. in Fayetteville, NC
B.A. in Edmond, OK
S.I. in Minneapolis, MN
M.V. in Oak Park, IL
G.W. in Avon, CT
K.R. in Austin, TX
D.B. in Glendale, CA
R.P.E.H. in London, England, UK
G.K. in Blue Island, IL
K.H. in Maryville, TN
T.C. in Kirkwood, MO
E.W. in Skaneateles, NY
T.M.M. in Odessa, MO
R.R. in Pasadena, CA
W.A. in Red Lion, PA
D.K. in Chicago, IL
R.R. in Westborough, MA
R.S. in Landing, NJ
W.V. in Hemet, CA
G.R. in Silver Spring, MD

The 60th correct response was received at 11:41 a.m. PT on Friday.

For this week's theme, it relies on one word per headline, and it's once again primarily in the category Language, and secondarily in the category Movies. For a hint, we can tell you that several readers figured out the theme before today's posting was even written.

If you have a guess, send it to comments@electoral-vote.com with subject line August 21 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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