Apr.05

electoral-vote.com

Dem 51

   

GOP 49

I Read the News Today, Oh Boy: Sticky Fingers

Our hints for last week's theme were "if you can't figure it out, don't beat yourself up" (Friday) and "If you're still working on the headline theme, well, we regret that you're having treble" (Saturday). We think that second one was a pretty big giveaway, but in any case, here is the theme, courtesy of reader E.G. in Carmel, IN:

They're all music terms:

• In Da House: Greene's Machinations Likely to Fall Flat—A symbol, ♭, that lowers the pitch of a note by a semitone
• Southern Politics: Same Old Song and Dance—Singing or vocal music
• Election Crimes Have Consequences: The Jig Is up for Eastman, Pritchard—Any of several lively springy dances in triple rhythm
• Advantage, Republicans: This Time, the GOP Wins the Redistricting Battle—The grouping of the beats of music
• Shanahan: Open Mouth, Insert Foot—A foot is a basic unit of meter in music
• Advantage, Biden: Big Score from New York Fundraiser—The copy of a musical composition in written or printed notation
• The Trump Bible: Preaching to the Choir?—An organized company of singers
• I Read the News Today, Oh Boy: Bitter Sweet Symphony—A usually long and complex sonata for symphony orchestra
• This Week in Schadenfreude: The World's Stupidest Slur—A symbol in Western musical notation, generally a curved line placed over the notes, indicating that the notes it embraces are to be played without separation
• This Week in Freudenfreude: Green Energy on the March—A musical composition that is usually in duple or quadruple time with a strongly accentuated beat

Thanks, E.G.!

Here are the first 30 readers to get it right:

1. J.H. in Sturbridge, MA
2. W.L. in Springfield, MO
3. R.D. in Cheshire, CT
4. D.D. in Carversville, PA
5. A.P. in Kitchener, ON, Canada
6. B.M. in Chico, CA
7. S.K. in Drexel Hill, PA
8. N.S. in Los Angeles, CA
9. N.K. in Cleveland Heights, OH
10. N.H. in London, England, UK
11. M.S. in Canton, NY
12. S.G. in Durham, NC
13. M.B. in Albany, NY
14. K.R. in Austin, TX
15. M.M. in Leonardtown, MD
16. M.Z. in Sharon, MA
17. S.W. in Winter Garden, FL
18. S.L. in Wavre, Belgium
19. J.S. in Columbia, MO
20. J.M. in Eagle Mills, NY
21. M.W. in Newington, CT
22. R.B. in Atlanta, GA
23. N.P. in Santa Rosa, CA
24. H.B. in State College, PA
25. R.G. in Washington, DC
26. E.G. in Carmel
27. B.L. in Mountain View, CA
28. S.S. in Carmel, IN
29. D.M. in Burnsville, MN
30. P.D. in La Mesa, CA

The trickiest words, as it turns out, were "Slur," which we expected, and "Foot," which we did not.

As to this week's theme, it requires only one word to the right of the colon (and the Israel item is NOT part of the game). It's in the Trivial Pursuit category Sports & Leisure, and as to a hint, we will say that we may only have come up with the idea a few hours ago, but we already know it's an award-winning puzzle.

If you have a guess, send it to comments@electoral-vote.com, ideally with the subject "April 5 Headlines." (Z)