So what did you do during the blackout on Super Bowl Sunday? Other than, say, apply some deer antler spray?
For most Americans, it was trying to figure out the ScuttleButton puzzle on Super Bowl Sunday. Actually, it's always difficult trying to solve ScuttleButton while watching the game on Super Bowl Sunday. But now it's time to focus on the new puzzle.
ScuttleButton, of course, is that once-a-week waste of time exercise in which each Monday or Tuesday I put up a vertical display of buttons on this site. Your job is to simply take one word (or concept) per button, add 'em up, and, hopefully, you will arrive at a famous name or a familiar expression. (And seriously, by familiar, I mean it's something that more than one person on Earth would recognize.)
For years, a correct answer chosen at random would get his or her name posted in this column, an incredible honor in itself. Now the stakes are even higher. Thanks to the efforts of the folks at Talk of the Nation, that person also hears their name mentioned on the Wednesday show (by me) and receives a Political Junkie t-shirt in the bargain. Is this a great country or what?
You can't use the comments box at the bottom of the page for your answer. Send submission (plus your name and city/state — you won't win without that) to politicaljunkie@npr.org.
(Why do people keep forgetting to include their name and city/state?)
And, by adding your name to the Political Junkie mailing list, you will be among the first on your block to receive notice about the column and the puzzle. Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org. Or you can make sure to get an automatic RSS feed whenever a new Junkie post goes up by clicking here.
Good luck!
By the way, I always announce the winner on Wednesday's Junkie segment on TOTN. But with it now less than a week until the next show, your window for getting your answer in is smaller.
Here are the buttons used and the answer to last week's puzzle:
Bratton for Congress/Teresa Sue — She was the 2008 Democratic candidate in North Carolina's 6th District, where she got trounced by GOP incumbent Howard Coble.
Stop Reagan's War on the Poor — 1982 anti-Reagan button put out by ACORN.
Ohio State / Rose Bowl — Can't figure out why so many friends from Michigan didn't like this button.
It's a Boy! / Michael Jeffrey Rudin / March 23, 1990 — Some kid's birth announcement.
Eisenhower Day Oct. 1, 1956 — Shortly before the president was re-elected in a landslide over Adlai Stevenson.
So, when you combine Sue + Poor + Bowl + Son + Day, you may just very well end up with ...
Super Bowl Sunday. A good game, after the delay.
The winner, chosen completely at random, is ... Joe Gallant of Rochester, N.Y. Joe gets not only the coveted Political Junkie t-shirt — but the Official No Prize Button as well!
And don't forget to check out this week's Political Junkie column, which focuses on the political career of Ed Koch, the former three-term mayor of New York City who died Friday at the age of 88. Click here to read the column.
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