Up Your Game with EW Crosswords
So, there was a wee glitch in this week’s Jonesin’ Crossword (EW, 11/14) — the grid didn’t seem to match with the clues. Upon further inspection, I noticed the grid is the same one from last week! (For a quick “proof,” compare the full-sized grid configuration with the “Answers To Last Week’s” at the lower right. They’re identical.)
Hmmm… What to do… What to do…
After a bit of thought, I made up a blank 15×15 grid and, starting with 1 Across, followed the number sequence: the next clue after 1 is 5, so the first answer is 4 letters. Ah! Clue 5 is followed by 9, so 5’s answer is also 4 letters, and 14 follows 9, so 9’s is 5 letters. First line complete, even without any answers! Wow!
But wait! Because “normal” crosswords are usually configured in some sort of “flip mirror” image, that also means that the bottom of the grid is now complete, with the last clue 66 being 4 letters, 65 4 letters, and 64 5 letters. Cool!
I filled in those first Across answers as I could and started in on the Down, 1 through 4, 5 through 8, and 9 through 13. When I got an answer I was fairly confident about, that meant the space directly below was black. And the “flip mirror” equivalent at the bottom of the grid as well. Neat!
Following down the clues and comparing the Across numbers vs Down numbers let me know about where the next words should start.
Slowly but surely, answers led to more “grid blacks,” which led to their “flip mirror” counterparts. And, voilà! C’est fini!
I now have another way to play with crossword puzzles! Thanks, Matt Jones and EW!
Richard Leach
Coburg
Editor’s Note: Sorry about the crossword mess up! Find the correct grid at EugeneWeekly.com.
Talk to the Working Class
I watched the Nov. 15 City Club program on homelessness on YouTube, and recommend you do likewise. Some useful things were said.
I do wish, along with the middle-class professionals, there had been some people like Jetty Etty of the Barefoot Defenders who could talk about just how awful the city’s treatment of the unsheltered homeless is. No one mentioned the Eugene City Council’s continuing criminalization of the homeless.
I did not like Everett Meadows’ claim that homelessness and addiction are “inextricably linked.” Bullshit. He was all about the “deflection” programs that the state has directed counties to set up to divert addicts from the criminal justice system to something else, it wasn’t clear what else. What happens when they refuse to be deflected, back in jail?
Somehow, he seemed to think deflection is the answer to homelessness. What do you deflect an unsheltered homeless person to, when the shelters are full and there is no housing they can afford? Just another clueless lawyer. I wish they had put someone like Etty on the panel instead.
And then there was that woman who asked if providing help to the homeless was “enabling” them to stay homeless. How do you get through to someone that dumb? Maybe let her try it for a while?
I’ve watched a number of City Club meetings over the years and my reaction often is, these are professionals speaking to a middle-class audience, speaking their language, and I don’t feel working-class people like me are being heard.
Lynn Porter
Eugene
They are ‘Performance Artists’
A. Rabideau (“My Trial Experience as an A15 Protester,” EW, 11/14), a participant in the I-5 shutdown, complains about her sentence and the jurors following the law to convict her. She then has the temerity to compare her actions with the civil rights marches of the ’60s, having obviously not understood that those marchers expected to be charged and convicted (and likely suffer worse at the hands of the police) and were prepared to do the time for it.
Those protesters placed genuine value on their acts of resistance. This is in marked contrast to the “performance artists” (Rabideau, et al) who masquerade as committed protestors and whine to the press in hopes of obtaining “get out of jail free” cards for their “three minutes of good trouble.” Simply pathetic.
Steve Jenson
Eugene
A Grouch with a Case
On several occasions from 2018 to 2021, Eugene City Councilor Mike Clark advocated both a “carrot and stick” approach to homeless individuals.
On Nov. 13, a city work session on implementation of the CFEC rules talked about spending more public money on downtown which is already the most heavily subsidized area of Eugene with MUPTE and the “Urban Renewal” funding, a straight carveout of Eugene’s general funds.
I see little prospect that the city will contribute significantly to housing for the bottom 20 percent downtown, even if they spent the entire Urban Renewal Budget ($14.6 million in 2023-25 biennium) on low income housing (in my dreams).
The bottom 20 percent of households in Eugene-Springfield are surviving on less than $25,000 (ACS, 2022), and the average household is around two people. These people in greatest need are the first priority.
So if the council decides to spend more taxpayer-funded carrots, why doesn’t the council consider some sticks? Like taxes, fees or regulatory restrictions on under-developed property or vacant housing units? Perfectly usable properties with expensive public streets, utilities and public transportation?
Sorry to be a grouch.
Todd Boyle
Eugene
‘Ham’ and ‘Ham Actor’ and ‘Hamlet’
Donald Trump’s cabinet picks remind me that the “ham” in “ham actor” is short for “Hamlet.” In Trump’s version of Hamlet, he is no noble prince, but seeks revenge only for himself. It is difficult to tell how much of his “mad act” is real and how much is calculated, but when he speaks of letting Bobby Kennedy Jr. “run wild” with our health, he obviously knows what our immediate reaction will be — but not the long-term effect. Once upon a time, there was “U.S.,” the “shining City on a Hill” that Trump would make his again in the small “hamlet” of Port-mud-land, but hopefully, that was not the end of the story.
Suzanne Shaffer
Eugene
Study the 20 Million
Media election analysis seems fixated on analyzing and interviewing people who voted for Donald Trump to explain his victory. Often overlooked is that Trump got about the same number of votes in 2020 as in 2024 — 74 million. The difference was that Joe Biden got 81 million votes and Kamala Harris got 61 million. It seems more relevant to study why 20 million people voted in 2020 but not in 2024 to explain Harris’ loss.
Mel Huey
Eugene
Who is the Witch?
Who would have imagined our country elected a “witch”? Donald Trump, after four years of declaring himself to be the subject of numerous “witch hunts” seems to believe himself to be a witch. Which (no pun intended), brings up another perplexing thought. Throughout history, the folks hunting witches were Christians who didn’t approve of witchcraft to the extreme of often killing them.
And now Christians don’t hunt, try, convict and often execute witches. Now they elect them. Go figure.