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I Read the News Today, Oh Boy: The Devil's Own Crop

You might think the headline refers to marijuana, but that's actually the devil's lettuce. The Devil's Own Crop refers to an incident many centuries ago when a wealthy landowner tried to under-pay his day laborers, and then thought his crops caught on fire that night, and then found the next morning that they had been scythed properly, and with great precision. He concluded—perhaps rightly, perhaps not—that it was the work of Satan. This tale, which was well-covered in the periodicals of the day, is considered the inspiration for the "crop circle" phenomenon, although those tend to be attributed to aliens rather than Satan.

We gave two hints for last week's theme. The first, in brief, was that the only thing we really had to work with for one headline (though one we did not end up using) was "#22." The second, when the first proved to be not nearly enough, was: "we'll tell you that among the phrases we might have used, but didn't, are 'A Falling Star,' 'Your Breath' and 'of the Day.'"

And here is the solution, courtesy of reader A.D. in Gaithersburg, MD:

Each headline contains a word or words that mean something when prefaced with the word "catch":

The Speech: Trump Announces "Discovery" and Release of "Election Integrity" Documents — Catch and Release
The Debate: Giving 'em Hell, Maine Style — Catch Hell
Legal Bytes: Trump Decides to Fire U.S. Attorney after 1 Hour on the Job — Catch Fire
I Read the News Today, Oh Boy: Wrestling with Wesley vs. Westley — Catch Wrestling (an English wrestling style)
This Week in Schadenfreude: $3 Million, Up in Smoke? — Catch up
This Week in Freudenfreude: On with the Wind — Catch on

Saturday's hint gave it away for me (Catch A Falling Star, Catch Your Breath, Catch of the Day).

Friday's hint was meant to refer to "Catch-22." And today's headline has "Crop," a catch crop is one planted in between growing seasons to replenish the land and keep the topsoil in place.

Here are the first 60 readers to get it right:

J.N. in Zionsville, IN
R.S. in Landing, NJ
S.K. in Ardmore, PA
G.K. in Blue Island, IL
M.W. in Altea, Spain
D.L. in Springfield, IL
T.K. in Half Moon Bay, St. Kitts
P.R. in Kirksville, MO
S.B. in Palm Harbor, FL
R.E. in Birmingham, AL
J.S. in Huntington Station, NY
R.S. in Landing, NJ
M.L. in West Hartford, CT
E.S. in Cincinnati, OH
A.F. in Minneapolis, MN
M.S. in Canton, NY
J.T. in Philadelphia, PA
M.K. in Long Branch, NJ
K.R. in Austin, TX
S.K. in Henderson, NV
A.T. in Bloomington, IN
G.W. in Avon, CT
A.D. in Gaithersburg
D.H. in Portland, OR
P.A. in Redwood City, CA
J.H. in Lake Forest, CA
E.S. in Providence, RI
M.C. in Falls Church, VA
S.F. in Pemberton Borough, NJ
K.J. in Toronto, ON, Canada

H.B. in Santiago, Chile
M.B. in Albany, NY
L.B. in Veldhoven, the Netherlands
M.M. in Dunellen, NJ
T.B. in Detroit, MI
D.B. in Mountain View, CA
M.G. in Stow, MA
P.H. in Ft. Lauderdale, FL
M.K. in Seattle, WA
R.R. in Chewelah, WA
M.T. in Wheat Ridge, CO
J.E. in Whidbey Island, WA
D.D. in Bucks County, PA
M.H. in Ottawa, ON, Canada
K.H. in Albuquerque, NM
D.M. in Oakland, CA
M.B. in Denver, CO
T.B. in Los Angeles, CA
R.E. in Chicago, IL
U.G. in Springfield, IL
M.M. in Dallas, TX
J.K. in Boston, MA
K.K. in Miami, FL
D.Z. in Miami, FL
R.A.B. in Portland, OR
M.B. in Springfield, OR
C.B. in London, England, UK
P.M. in Paris, France
J.J. in New York City, NY
C.W. in Atlantic Beach, FL

We gave credit for some responses that weren't what we expected, but were: (1) creative and (2) correct as alternate answers.

The 60th correct response was received at 7:55 p.m. PT on Saturday.

For this week's theme, it relies on one word in some headlines, multiple words in others, and it's in the category Movies. For a hint, we'll say that, after last week worked out so poorly, we have a bad feeling about this.

If you have a guess, send it to comments@electoral-vote.com with subject line July 24 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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