There are two kinds of ScuttleButton puzzles.
There's the kind where you wrack your brain trying to figure it out, taking the buttons and looking at them every which way until you come up with the answer, happy with yourself that you solved it and appreciative that I came up with something so devilishly challenging.
Or, there's this week's.
In any event, don't forget how to play. ScuttleButton, as you know, is the once a week waste of time exercise in which each Tuesday (more or less) 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.
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 a new puzzle up every Tuesday, more or less, you should get your answer in as soon as possible.
Here are the buttons used and the answer to last week's puzzle:
picture of Ho Chi Minh next to a North Vietnamese flag — A key figure in the battle for independence of Vietnam from France in the 1940s and '50s and, as the Communist leader of North Vietnam, he oversaw the war effort against the United States, which ended in Hanoi's favor some six years after Ho's death in 1969.
Guns Don't Kill People, People Kill People — Longtime slogan of groups opposed to control of firearms.
Hubert Here The Call Now/Minn. Hand. Dem. — A Minnesota button urging Sen. (and former V.P.) Hubert Humphrey to run for president in 1976, a plea to which HHH did not respond. Note the misspelling of the word "hear" in the button.
two different Roe for Governor buttons — Then-Congressman Bob Roe, a New Jersey Democrat, sought his party's gubernatorial nomination in 1977 and 1981, losing the primary both times.
So, when you combine Ho + Guns + Here + Roes, you may just very well end up with ...
Hogan's Heroes. A tribute, of sorts, to Richard Dawson, the actor who starred in the TV show who died this month.
This week's winner, chosen completely at random, is ... Patrick Hirigoyen of St. Paul, Minn. Patrick gets a TOTN Junkie t-shirt.
Don't forget to check out this week's Political Junkie column, which focuses on the special election to succeed Gabby Giffords in Arizona. You can read the column here.
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