Saturday, February 18, 2012

Whitney Houston Puzzle Solution

Today Whitney was laid to rest. As I watched part of it, I felt that it was a fitting tribute to her. At the grocery store, a man said that he thought the televised funeral was wrong, but I think it gives closure to millions of her fans. However, I agree with him that the tabloids didn't need to publish the pictures of Whitney when she was wasted. I wonder if they use a photo manipulation program, like Photoshop, to "enhance" her condition.

On a personal note, I have been frustrated with my blog posts. This was supposed to be Thursday's post. Due to complications that I do not fully understand (yet!), it turned into Saturday's post! As I've said before, blogging is more complicated than it seems and I am learning more each day.

Here's the word list to the Whitney puzzle. I'm posting the solution grid at Peppy Puzzle Printouts so if you missed a word, you can hunt for it without having the solution in sight. Did you find 47 words?


1.     ALBUM
2.     ALL AT ONCE
3.     AMERICAN
4.     ARETHA FRANKLIN
5.     AWARDS
6.     BILLBOARD
7.     BLUES
8.     CHOIR
9.     CINDERELLA
10. CISSY
11. COSMOPOLITAN
12. DANCE
14. DEE DEE
15. DIONNE
16. DOLLY PARTON
17. ELIZABETH
18. EMMY
19. GLAMOUR
20. GOOD LOVE
21. GOSPEL
22. GRAMMY
23. GREATEST
24. JOHN
25. MEZZO SOPRANO
26. MOMENT
27. NEWARK
28. NOTHING
29. POP
30. PRODUCER
31. RHYTHM
32. ROYAL ENGAGEMENT
33. RUN TO YOU
34. SAVING
35. SEVENTEEN
36. SOUL
37. SPARKLE
38. STAR SPANGLED BANNER
39. SUPER BOWL XXV
40. THE BODYGUARD
41. THE CHEETAH GIRLS
42. THE PREACHERS WIFE
43. THE PRINCESS DIARIES
44. WAITING TO EXHALE
45. WARWICK
46. WEEK
47. WHEN IN SPAIN


I hope you enjoyed this puzzle. Please feel free to drop me a note in the comments box.

Happy Puzzling!
Terrie

Monday, February 13, 2012

The Whitney Houston Puzzle

The world lost a beautiful voice on February 11th. Here are some facts about Whitney Houston that you may not have known.

Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was born to John and Cissy Houston, who was a very talented soul and gospel singer. Whitney followed in her mother's footsteps as a singer. Over the course of her career, she sang gospel, pop, soul, rhythm & blues, and dance. She was also a successful model, actress, and film producer. Among her awards are six Grammy Awards,  30 Billboard Music Awards, and  two Emmy Awards. She won 22 American Music Awards, too.
Like the Clooney family (Nick, Rosemary, and George Clooney including the Ferrer branch of the family: José, Miguel, and Rafael), Whitney's family were very talented. Her cousins were the Warwick family (Dionne and Dee Dee) and her godmother was the extraordinary soul singer Aretha Franklin.

Whitney appeared in five films for theater or television.
The Bodyguard (1992)
Waiting to Exhale (1995)
The Preacher's Wife (1996)
Cinderella 1997
Sparkle is her newest movie and is to be released in 2012.

When she was in her late teens, she modeled for illustrious magazines like Seventeen, Glamour, Cosmopolitan. Her exotic looks fascinated viewers, adding to her success as a model.

On January 27, 1991, Whitney sang "The Star Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XXV and many consider it to be the best rendition of all of the Super Bowl performances. She was a mezzo-soprano, meaning that she was a middle soprano. She added a strength and emotion to her songs, probably a result of having started as a gospel singer and  soloist.

In a single week, her soundtrack album of The Bodyguard (1992) sold one million copies. The album continues to be a good seller and contains the hit I Will Always Love You, written by Dolly Parton.

In 1992, Whitney married Bobby Brown. It was a stormy union and the couple had an on-again-off-again relationship. They had one daughter: Bobbi Kristina. Whitney filed for divorce late in 2006.


 
After acting in The Bodyguard, Whitney began producing and co-producing movies. These included:

The Princess Diaries 2001
The Cheetah Girls 2003
The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement 2004
The Cheetah Girls 2: When in Spain 2006

Some of her popular songs are:

Saving All My Love For You
Greatest Love Of All
One Moment In Time
I Have Nothing
Run To You
You Give Good Love
All At Once

For this puzzle, the bolded, italicized words ("Elizabeth") are the word search words. Go through the article and find the words that are in the puzzle, then seek them out in the grid!
(Note: only the bolded, italicized words in the song titles are in the word search game. For example, Saving is the only word in Saving All My Love for You.)

The grid was not viewable in this blog setting. Please go to my companion site to print the grid. Here is a link to Peppy Puzzler Printouts.

Happy Puzzling!


Terrie

(Note: I gathered this info from several sites, including the official Whitney Houston site at http://www.whitneyhouston.com/us/home ; wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_Houston ; and the VH1 site http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/houston_whitney/artist.jhtml .)

Abe on the Natchez Trace Solution


Lincoln's picture is from Karen's Whimsy. Thank you, Karen, for making these images available to everyone.

Here are the clues and explanation of the clues. Does your answer match mine? If it doesn't, the explanation should help you out.

Go to the original puzzle to find interesting links that will show you about the Natchez Trace and other things.

Abe on the Natchez Trace
A kid's logic puzzle

Young Abe was happy to have the money. He had worked hard. First, he made the ferryboat and loaded it with freshly harvested crops. He knew that the crops would bring a better price in New Orleans. They had! He sold his ferryboat for the lumber. Ferryboats were designed to float down the river but could not go against the current to return up the river.

On his trip, he met several people who were walking the trail, too. Along the way, five times he was lucky enough to eat lunch with a person who told funny jokes. (President Lincoln liked good jokes!) Only one person in each group told the jokes. Each of the groups had come from a different town that Abe would be visiting on his way home (one town was Port Gibson, Mississippi). Can you match the joke teller with his or her last name and the town he or she was from?

The girls are Emma and Sarah. The boys were Adam, David, and Peter.

 1.     The person from French Camp, Mississippi was Mister or Miss Carson (who was not Emma or Adam).

2.     Peter and Mister Pane were from Collinwood, Tennessee, and Tuscumbia, Alabama, in some order.

3.     The hiker from Tuscumbia, who wasn't Adam, wasn't Mister or Miss Samson.

4.     The person from Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee,  was Mister or Miss Watson.

5.     Mrs. Dalton was traveling with her husband and his family and told a joke about a dog and a frog.

Clue 1 says that Carson was from French Camp. Carson isn't Adam or Emma (clue 1). This tells us that Adam and Emma were not from French Camp. Clue 2 tells us that Peter isn't Pane, but Pane was a man (mister). He was Adam or David. Also by clue 2, Peter was from Collinwood or Tuscumbia and Pane was from Collinwood or Tuscumbia. By clue 3, Samson isn't from Tuscumbia and the one from Tuscumbia wasn't Adam. Watson was from Leiper’s Fork (clue 4). By clue 5, Dalton was a woman. Time for some logic!

Peter was from Tuscumbia or Collinwood (clue 2) so he wasn't Carson (French Camp, clue 1), Pane (clue 2), Watson (Leiper’s Fork, clue 4), or Dalton (woman, clue 5). He was Samson. Samson wasn't from French Camp (Carson), Tuscumbia (clue 2), or Leiper’s Fork (Watson, clue 4) so Peter wasn't from French Camp, Tuscumbia, or Leiper’s Fork. By clue 3, he wasn't from Tuscumbia; he was from Collinwood. By clue 2, Pane was from Tuscumbia. Now we see that Dalton was from Port Gibson. Adam wasn't from Collinwood (Peter), French Camp (clue 1), Tuscumbia (clue 03), or Port Gibson (clue 5). He was from Leiper’s Fork, which was Watson's town, so he was Adam Watson. Mister Pane wasn't Peter (Samson) so he was David. Sarah, then, was Carson. Emma was Miss Dalton. The answer is:

Adam
Watson
Leiper’s Fork
David
Pane
Tuscumbia
Emma
Dalton
Port Gibson
Peter
Samson
Collinwood
Sarah
Carson
French Camp

A Conversation About Valentine's Day Candy Hearts



Ah… Valentine's Day! Time for big red hearts, luscious chocolates, and, of course, little heart candies.
The New England Confectionery Company (NECCO®) produces 8,000,000,000 (eight billion!) Sweethearts® Conversation Hearts each Valentine's Day season. In 1866, Daniel Chase invented the process of printing the sayings directly on candy pieces. NECCO®, which Daniel's brother Oliver established in 1847, began printing messages on the candy in the late 1800s. The candies became popular in the early 1900s, and the company produced them in several sizes and shapes, from horseshoes to postcards.

On a whim, I got a little box of Valentine candies. The words on the conversation hearts differ from company to company and even year to year. Here's a little word search that I wrote using the words on my candies. The remaining, unused letter will spell out the origin of the modern conversation heart. It was popular in the late 1800s so the modern heart candy isn't so modern after all!

Ask Me
Be Mine
Cutie Pie
First Kiss
Hug Me
It's Love
Lover Boy
Love You
Miss You
My Guy
Only You
Romeo
So Fine
True Love
U R Cute

It's not too late to whip up a special valentine for your loved one. Here's a clever idea for a child's card. Color one to match a child's (or Grandpa's) dog! Crystal's site is always interesting. See her valentine dog here.
Wanda shares this fancy card, but you can easily adapt it by using conversation hearts and strips of colored construction paper. Be sure that you give the recipient some edible hearts; once you glue the candy hearts to the card, they are no longer safe to eat! See the card here.
Happy Valentine's Day and Happy puzzling!
Terrie




Sunday, February 12, 2012

The IN Puzzle Solution


1.     INANE silliness, waste of time
2.     INBOARD boat engine built into the hull
3.     INBORN inherent from birth
4.     INCLUDE: incorporate _ _ _ _ _ _ _
5.     INCUS anvil-shaped bone in the ear
6.     INDENT to make a dent in something
7.     INDIE an independent company in the film industry
8.     INDIUM a silver-colored, rare metallic element used in electroplating
9.     INDUCTEE person enrolled into the military or other organization
10. INEPT incompetent
11. INERT unable to move or not moving
12. INGOT a metal casting, typically in a brick shape
13. INHALE breathe in _ _ _ _ _ _
14. INITIATE to introduce a person to something new
15. INLET fabric or lace sewn into a garment's seam for decoration or alteration
16. INNATE relating to the traits that a person or animal is born with
17. INNER internal
18. INNING a round of play in a baseball or softball game
19. INNOCENT guiltless
20. INNS places where travelers sleep and often also eat
21. INNUENDO a remark that insinuates impropriety or similar suggestion of uncouthness
22. INORGANIC not composed of vegetable or animal
23. INSPECT look over carefully
24. INSPIRE  encourage or enthuse _ _ _ _ _ _ _
25. INSTALL to put equipment or software into place
26. INTENT determined
27. INTERMEZZO a short musical composition,
28. INTO enthusiastic about
29. INTRAMURAL inside the tissue of the wall of a blood vessel or other cavity
30. INTROSPECTION self assessment of your thoughts, intentions, and feelings
31. INTROVERT shy person
32. INTUIT get a feeling impression, usually without forethought
33. INTUITION the act of intuiting
34. INUNDATE overwhelm
35. INURE to accustom a person or animal to something unlikable, such as pain or trouble


Happy Puzzling!

Terrie

Happy Birthday, Abe Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln's birthday is normally lost in the midst of the hullabaloo of getting the right Valentine's gift or setting up the perfect date night. It almost seems appropriate that there is no fanfare for this quiet unassuming man. Yet, if you ask our modern presidents and leaders, most say they admire this backwoods lawyer.
Lincoln's words, inscribed on a wall of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C., seem appropriate for today's troubles:
"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds.... "

Here is a kids' logic puzzles. If you have never done a logic puzzle, go to my companion site (Peppy Puzzler Printouts) and learn how. For your convenience, the link will open in a new window. That site is where you will find the printable grid for each puzzle.

I have taken the road of artistic license with these puzzles — they are fictitious, but based on facts.

Abe, the Ferryboat, and the Natchez Trace
When Abe was 17, he worked on a ferryboat. He enjoyed the river and work so much that he constructed a flatboat when he was 19 and took a load of farm crops down the Mississippi to New Orleans. He sold the boat in New Orleans and walked home via the Natchez Trace. When he got home, gave his earnings to his father. (from http://millercenter.org/president/lincoln/essays/biography/2 )

The Natchez Trace is a very long walk — about 450 miles (725 km) from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee. Young Abe was not finished with his trip at Nashville. He still had to go about 350 miles to get home. The full trip home was almost 800 miles long!

See The Natchez Trace if you want to see a picture of what the trail looked like. https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Natchez_Trace

Abe on the Natchez Trace
A kid's logic puzzle

Young Abe was happy to have the money. He had worked hard. First, he made the ferryboat and loaded it with freshly harvested crops. He knew that the crops would bring a better price in New Orleans. They had! He sold his ferryboat for the lumber. Ferryboats were designed to float down the river but could not go against the current to return up the river.

On his trip, he met several people who were walking the trail, too. Along the way, five times he was lucky enough to eat lunch with a person who told funny jokes. (President Lincoln liked good jokes!) Only one person in each group told the jokes. Each of the groups had come from a different town that Abe would be visiting on his way home (one town was PortGibson, Mississippi ). Can you match the joke teller with his or her last name and the town he or she was from?

The girls are Emma and Sarah. The boys were Adam, David, and Peter.

1.     The person from French Camp, Mississippi was Mister or Miss Carson (who was not Emma or Adam).

2.     Peter and Mister Pane were from Collinwood,Tennessee  and Tuscumbia, Alabama , in some order.

3.     The hiker from Tuscumbia, who wasn't Adam, wasn't Mister or Miss Samson.

4.     The person from Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee, was Mister or Miss Watson.

5.     Mrs. Dalton was traveling with her husband and his family and told a joke about a dog and a frog.

The grid is found at Peppy Puzzler Printouts. Follow this link.

Friday, February 10, 2012

The IN Puzzle

Here's a little puzzle that you can get into! Each of the 32 words begin with in. The tricky part is that I have given you one definition of each word and you must decide what word will be in the puzzle. Hint: you may want to work back and forth between the definitions and the puzzle. Solve as many of the definitions as you can. While you are searching for those words, you probably will see more words that will answer some of the unsolved definitions. Tomorrow, I will post the word list and solution grid. Good luck!

(I've given you two more hints to finding the words: the blanks are the right number of letters and the list is alphabetical according to the words.)

1.     silliness, waste of time _ _ _ _ _
2.     boat engine built into the hull _ _ _ _ _ _ _
3.     inherent from birth _ _ _ _ _ _
4.     incorporate _ _ _ _ _ _ _
5.     anvil-shaped bone in the ear _ _ _ _ _
6.     to make a dent in something  _ _ _ _ _ _
7.     an independent company in the film industry _ _ _ _ _
8.     a silver-colored, rare metallic element used in electroplating  _ _ _ _ _ _
9.     person enrolled into the military or other organization  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
10. incompetent _ _ _ _ _
11. unable to move or not moving _ _ _ _ _
12. a metal casting, typically in a brick shape _ _ _ _ _
13. breathe in _ _ _ _ _ _
14. to introduce a person to something new  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
15. fabric or lace sewn into a garment's seam for decoration or alteration _ _ _ _ _
16. relating to the traits that a person or animal is born with  _ _ _ _ _ _
17. internal _ _ _ _ _
18. a round of play in a baseball or softball game  _ _ _ _ _ _
19. guiltless  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
20. places where travelers sleep and often also eat _ _ _ _
21. a remark that insinuates impropriety or similar suggestion of uncouthness
  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
22. not composed of vegetable or animal  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
23. look over carefully  _ _ _ _ _ _ _
24. encourage or enthuse _ _ _ _ _ _ _
25. to put equipment or software into place  _ _ _ _ _ _ _
26. determined  _ _ _ _ _ _
27. a short musical composition  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
28. enthusiastic about _ _ _ _
29. inside the tissue of the wall of a blood vessel or other cavity  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
30. self assessment of your thoughts, intentions, and feelings  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
31. shy person  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
32. get a feeling impression, usually without forethought  _ _ _ _ _ _
33. the act of intuiting  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
34. overwhelm  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
35. to acclimatize a person or animal to something unlikable, such as pain or trouble
_ _ _ _ _

To print the puzzle grid and clues, go to Peppy Puzzler Printouts and follow the directions on the IN Puzzle page.

Happy puzzling!

Terrie