It's ScuttleButton Time!
While Americans are demanding to know who spread the malicious rumor that Christine O'Donnell endorsed Mitt Romney — sounds like a DNC dirty trick to me — I have better things to focus on. Like preparing this week's ScuttleButton puzzle. And wondering who will figure it out.
As you know, the rules are pretty simple. Every Wednesday on this site I put up a vertical display of buttons. 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 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.
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 usually reveal the answer — and announce the winner — on Wednesday's Junkie segment on TOTN. So you should get your answer in by Tuesday.
Here's the answer to last week's puzzle:
Throw the Bum Out (pic of Nixon) Organize To Fight! — Anti-Richard Nixon button, probably around 1973.
I Was There / Election Night (photo Bill Clinton) / Little Rock, Ark. — The winner of the 1992 presidential election.
B 4 Burdick — Quentin Burdick, a Democrat, was elected to the Senate from North Dakota in a special 1960 election.
Charlie for President (picture of a tuna) — Charlie was the mascot for Starkist Tuna, circa 1964.
So, when you combine Bum + Bill + B + Tuna, you kinda get ...
Bumblebee Tuna. And there's no reason for this puzzle whatsoever, except that I had just opened a can of Bumblebee Tuna when I thought of doing this as a ScuttleButton puzzle. Who says I can't cook?
And the winner, chosen completely at random, is ... Charlie Slack of Medina, N.Y. The fact that a Charlie won the Charlie Tuna ScuttleButton is a coincidence, I promise. Really, I didn't do it on porpoise. More importantly, Charlie (the person) gets a TOTN t-shirt.