10.14.07 - Acrostic


Sunday, October 14, 2007

ACROSTIC by Emily Cox & Henry Rathvon, edited by Will Shortz

Today‘s acrostic contains a quotation from
E. B. WHITE’s essay “HERE IS NEW YORK” -- “ALTHOUGH NEW YORK OFTEN IMPARTS A FEELING OF GREAT FORLORNNESS OR FORSAKENESS, it seldom seems dead or unresourceful, and YOU ALWAYS FEEL THAT BY either SHIFTING YOUR LOCATION TEN BLOCKS OR BY REDUCING YOUR FORTUNE BY FIVE DOLLARS YOU CAN EXPERIENCE REJUVENATION."

The essay was written for Holiday magazine in 1948 and published in book form the next year. It was widely quoted after the terrorist attacks of
September 11, 2001, because of a passage--written at the beginning of the age of nuclear weapons--in which he talks about New York's vulnerability: "The city, for the first time in its long history, is destructible. A single flight of planes no bigger than a wedge of geese can quickly end this island fantasy, burn the towers, crumble the bridges, turn the underground passages into lethal chambers, cremate the millions. The intimation of mortality is part of New York in the sound of the jets overhead, in the black headlines of the latest edition."

The essay is included in the recent publication,
“Empire City: New York Through the Centuries” By Kenneth T. Jackson, David S. Dunbar.

The defined words: EVANESCENT (A. Here today, gone tomorrow); BOBOLINK (B. Avian "Rowdy of the Meadow," in an Emily Dickinson poem); WAFFLEIRON (C. Appliance for cooking some breakfast items [2 wds.]); HOSTELRY (D. Place for a sojourner to pass the night); INSCRUTABLE (E. Cryptic, enigmatic, hard to fathom); TIFFANY (F. Name on some Art Nouveau hangings); EXECUTOR (G. Person carrying out the provisions of a will); HUMONGOUS (H. Vast, colossal, Brobdingnagian); EARLGREY (I. Tea flavored with bergamor [2 wds.]); ROOFTREE (J. Beam to which rafters attach); EFFLUENT (K. Wastewater; stream flowing out of a lake or reservoir); ICONOGRAPHY (L. Study and interpretation of images); SATURDAY (M. Start of a normal Saudi workweek); NOTORIOUS (N. 1946 Hitchcock film set in Brazil); EASTERBUNNY (O. Mammal that deposits its eggs in the spring [2 wds.]); WINEGLASS (P. Port container); YEARLING (Q. 1939 Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Pulitzer-winning novel, with "The"); OVERJOYED (R. Ecstatic, thrilled to pieces); RHINOPLASTY (S. Job sought by many an aspiring movie star); KNOCKOFF (T. Quit working [2 wds.]; or, when spelled without a space, a counterfeit).
Posted by