President Obama said it best last night:

"It's the worry you wake up with and the source of sleepless nights."

Clearly, he was talking about America's inability to figure out last week's ScuttleButton puzzle.

Personally, I don't know what the problem was. All you have to do is take one word or one concept per button, add 'em up, and you arrive at a saying or a name. And, don't forget, you can't win unless you send in both your name and your city/state.

Also: The answer does not necessarily have to be political. For instance, a few puzzles back the answer was "Minnesota Twins" -- not political at all, unless you're thinking Mondale and Humphrey instead of Killebrew and Oliva.

Last week's buttons, in case you forgot:

Edward Markey for Congress -- The Massachusetts Democrat was first elected in 1976 and still serves today.

"Du" Burns for Mayor -- Clarence "Du" Burns became Baltimore's first black mayor in 1987 following the resignation of William Donald Schaefer, who was elected governor of Maryland in '86. Later that year, Burns was defeated in the mayoral primary by Kurt Schmoke, another African-American.

Sad button -- well, that's what it is.

So, when you add Markey + Du + Sad, you get ...

The Marquis de Sade, who, I understand, gave rise to sadism, sadomasochism and, even worse, ScuttleButton.

The winner, selected at random among the correct responders, is (drum roll) ... Bunny Salter of Cumming, Ga. Of course, when you combine sadism and Bunny, you get ... Fatal Attraction. But I'm not going there.

Tom Morris of Maplewood, Minn., who submitted a correct answer, wrote, "Whether Marquis de Sade is right or not, I would suggest the reason this came to mind so quickly is only a masochist would listen to your jokes repeatedly on Political Junkie." That's so mean. Maybe Minnesotans deserve only one senator.

And Janet Pickel of Pittsburgh opined that the solution was "painfully" obvious, but she added it must be "torture" trying to come up with a new puzzle each week. I must "rack my brain" trying to come up with them. Note to Tom: Remember, it could be Janet who comes up with these jokes each week.

Wanna be alerted the moment a new ScuttleButton puzzle goes up on the site? Sign up on our mailing list at politicaljunkie@npr.org.

(And as for our contest to give a genuine 1968 Nixon for President button to the first person who correctly names the next HHS secretary ... we're still waiting for an announcement just as you are.)

categories: ScuttleButton

3:28 - February 25, 2009

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