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I Read the News Today, Oh Boy: Chess or Checkers?

The first hint we gave, as to last week's headline theme, was: "we'll note that we didn't particularly want to use 'Blackface' for this headline, but we couldn't quite make 'Black Magic' work." The second was: "If you're still working on this week's headline theme, we'll give the hint that the answer appears in the previous paragraph." That paragraph included the sentence: "If you have questions about movies, TV, literature, art, sports, food, games, science, history, etc., send them to questions@electoral-vote.com."

And here is the solution, courtesy of reader M.A. in West Windsor, NJ:

I am going to go with "Games"

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"Black Magic" would be referring to Magic: The Gathering.

This is exactly right. We couldn't use "Magic" because that's not really the name of the game, and there was no way to fit the proper name into a headline. Meanwhile, the word from this headline that fits the theme is "Chess." And only "Chess." That is something of a hint.

Here are the first 60 readers to get it right:

J.S. in Washington, DC
G.M.K. in Mishawaka, IN
A.A. in Branchport, NY
R.D. in Cheshire, CT
R.S. in Pittsgrove, NJ
T.F. in Craftsbury Common, VT
M.M. in Dunellen, NJ
M.S. in Canton, NY
C.B. in Lakeville, MN
K.G.W. in Lafayette, IN
T.K. in Half Moon Bay, St. Kitts
I.H. in Washington, DC
M.H. in Ottawa, ON, Canada
K.R. in Austin, TX
N.H. in London, England, UK
A.D. in Gaithersburg, MD
R.H.O. in Portland, ME
M.Z. in Sharon, MA
P.Q. in Metuchen, NJ
J.F. in Fayetteville, NC
S.K. in Ardmore, PA
K.F. in Berea, KY
J.N. in Zionsville, IN
H.B. in Toronto, ON, Canada
D.D. in Bucks County, PA
M.A. in West Windsor
R.N. in Cleveland, OH
E.M. in Jersey City, NJ
J.H. in Flint, MI
S.K. in Greensboro, NC

G.W. in Avon, CT
N.S. in Fayetteville, NY
P.A. in Redwood City, CA
P.R. in Havertown, PA
J.P. in Hawley, MN
D.D. in Portland, OR
S.F. in Hutto, TX
G.G. in Lexington, KY
N.S. in Los Angeles, CA
J.E. in San Jose, CA
K.J. in Toronto, ON, Canada
M.D. in South Haven, MI
L.A.J. in Bourbonnais, IL
B.R. in Arlington, MA
D.B. in Glendale, CA
J.V. in Honolulu, HI
B.B. in Avon, CT
J.L.G. in Boston, MA
A.L. in Saugerties, NY
R.R. in Pasadena, CA
E.W. in Skaneateles, NY
D.W. in State College, PA
D.M. in Austin, TX
K.H. in Albuquerque, NM
R.S. in Landing, NJ
J.S. in Huntington Station, NY
Z.K. in Albany, NY
M.T. in Wheat Ridge, CO
M.B. in Denver, CO
M.W. in Altea, Spain

The 60th correct response was received at 7:23 a.m. PT on Saturday.

For this week's theme, it relies on one word per headline, and it's in the category History. The Minneapolis headline is not part of it. For a hint, we'll say that the "Salt" in the next headline really should be SALT, if we are being completely grammatical.

If you have a guess, send it to comments@electoral-vote.com with subject line January 30 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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