Theme-A-Crostics: Wit and Witticisms - Paperback

by Alan F. McCrea (Author)

We have some funny people around. Solve these puzzles to hear quips from some forty of them along with about fifteen more serious types.

Accompanying the solution to each of the 40 puzzles is a short description of the sources, perhaps a few more quotations, and where to find more detail - an appropriate add-on to the usual challenging fun for fans of crostics.

Note that the theme of this volume is perceptive or witty remarks that are mostly short. Hence it does not follow the typical format of an acrostic containing the author and title of a book paired with a coherent passage from its text. Most of the text stems from one-liners perhaps from a book but more likely from different radio or television appearances. That precludes a title, so only the speaker's name appears in the acrostic. Some speakers, like Bob Hope, have short names, and puzzles with only seven clues would be ridiculous; consequently, two speakers may be paired in one puzzle. One-liners can be short, too, so there may be a few of them in the puzzle's text and probably unrelated to each other. But look at the plus side - you can laugh more than once per puzzle! If you still favor only the conventional format, consider volume 7, "Humor," which contains passages from various books.

Note also that the evidently disliked coincidences of two letters in a single word in the text tying back to the same clued word has been considerably reduced in copies printed since the beginning of January 2022.