Houston, We’ve Had a Problem
By the time Apollo 13 launched from Cape Kennedy in April 1970, many Americans had come to take the success of the U.S. space program for granted. The near-catastrophe of the mission shocked our nation, reminding us of the very real dangers of spaceflight. Yet it also brought the country – indeed, much of the world – together in hopes of a safe return for astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise, Jr.
As the crew sought to bring their spacecraft back to Earth with a makeshift life support system cobbled together following the explosion of an oxygen tank, some 40 million Americans watched the final stages of the aborted mission on TV. Pope Paul VI led a congregation of 10,000 people in prayer for a safe splashdown. The Soviet Union – our Cold War adversary – sent four vessels to the landing area to assist if needed.
Roger Launius, who served as NASA’s Chief Historian from 1990 to 2002, chronicles the entire Apollo program in the book from which we drew the quote for this puzzle. Although we had initially set out to make an acrostic about astronauts more generally, we found particularly moving Launius’s insight about the religious reverence of the astronauts as depicted in Ron Howard’s movie Apollo 13.
As usual, we tried to embed as many themed answers and clues as possible, starting with a sentimental favorite, Elton John’s Rocket Man.
We also added a new wrinkle, at least for us: the quote features the number 13, which in turn required us to find separate answers that included a 1 and a 3. That proved to be trickier than we would have guessed, as the software we use in constructing acrostics only accepts letters, not numbers. But like the astronauts on Apollo 13, and the many heroes at NASA who supported them, we managed to find a work-around and bring the acrostic home safely.
Tell us what you thought! And for those of you who do comment, as well as those who do not, we encourage you to check back in with this site early in the week after an acrostic appears, when we offer responses to some of the comments/questions we’ve received.
Glenn Gould (from clue V) has a tangential connection with the space program. His recording of one of the Bach preludes and its matching fugue from The Well-Tempered Clavier was included on the “Golden Record” on board the two Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977.
If you have an XWord Info account, you can try this similarly-themed acrostic from 2015.
Glenn Gould is one of my heroes.
DB & JS craft exquisite luminous Acrostics.
Imagine clues that reference “Across the Universe” and “Buffalo Gals Won’t You Come Out Tonight… and dance by the light of the moon.”
Another really fine effort by Bolton and Stewart. Love the theme; the quotation; and the ingenuity in working in the numbers 1 and 3.
And, as his typical, I learned something new, as I do pretty much every outing. Like Albert Einstein’s Mencken-like quote. Or “Rocket Man” being based on a Ray Bradbury short story. (Over 20 years ago, PBS’s “This American Life“ assembled a makeshift band from the classified ads and put together, in one day, a surprisingly good cover of “Rocket Man.” As I recall, the band chose the song because “everyone likes Rocket Man.“ The instruments included a theremin, which routinely was used to depict outer-space eeriness in D-space movies from the 50s. Here’s a link to their version):
https://youtu.be/pNUqFUSgae0?si=QCXi2rOehlaAgHgY
One nerdy nit about one definition. The Ivy League colleges have not awarded athletic scholarships since 1954. They award exclusively need-based scholarships. They do, however, admit smart, first-class athletes who might not otherwise quite meet their high academic standards.
But if you come from a wealthy family, you don’t get an athletic scholarship. A prime example was Bill Bradley, who was one of the nation’s top high school basketball players in the early ‘60s. He received full-ride basketball scholarship offers from dozens of colleges, but ultimately chose Princeton where (as the son of a well-to-do Missouri banker) he didn’t receive a cent.
Another really fine effort by Bolton and Stewart. Love the theme; the quotation; and the ingenuity in working in the numbers 1 and 3.
And, as his typical, I learned something new, as I do pretty much every outing. Like Albert Einstein’s Mencken-like quote. Or “Rocket Man” being based on a Ray Bradbury short story. (Over 20 years ago, PBS’s “This American Life“ assembled a makeshift band from the classified ads and put together, in one day, a surprisingly good cover of “Rocket Man.” As I recall, the band chose the song because “everyone likes Rocket Man.“ The instruments included a theremin, which routinely was used to depict outer-space eeriness in D-space movies from the 50s. Here’s a link to their version):
https://youtu.be/pNUqFUSgae0?si=QCXi2rOehlaAgHgY
One nerdy nit about one definition. The Ivy League colleges have not awarded athletic scholarships since 1954. They award exclusively need-based scholarships. They do, however, admit smart, first-class athletes who might not otherwise quite meet their high academic standards.
But if you come from a wealthy family, you don’t get an athletic scholarship. A prime example was Bill Bradley, who was one of the nation’s top high school basketball players in the early ‘60s. He received full-ride basketball scholarship offers from dozens of colleges, but ultimately chose Princeton where (as the son of a well-to-do Missouri banker) he didn’t receive a cent.
A very nicely put together acrostic, as I’ve come to expect from B and S. I had more gimmes than usual, being old enough to have seen Williams and Maris play, knowing nuncupative from my legal training. And of course ROCKETMAN and LENNON being catnip for a music lover. Quoting Across The Universe and silently echoing the Einstein quote: pure acrostic gold. I loved the sly way, space slyly found its way into the clues and answers: Glenn, Rover, George Bailey lassos the moon from It’s A Wonderful Life. I did have to wait to fill in the Natty Bumppo clue until I could be sure whether it was PATHFINDER or Deerslayer, although in retrospect the space theme should have tipped me off right away. My only quibble is that A1SAUCE is only marginally two words (and some might argue that it’s not), but that nit did not mar my enjoyment of this fine, fine puzzle.
Love puzzles that play with convention and force me to question my assumptions! Thanks!
As mentioned, nice integration of 13. I made a guess with the Einstein quote and was more sure as the space theme was appearing. Remembered Glenn Gould, and a reference to John Glenn with the actor who played him on screen just above, and who is one of my favorites. Great fun.
Another tough one that turned out to be great fun. It took me way too long to remember ROCKETMAN, which I suppose would have broken it open earlier. For a while I wanted the theme to be baseball, with a quote from Roger Kahn or Roger Angell.. I also was sure the quote cited another BOOK, not a WORK. But in the end recognizing the digits present helped me to get it…:)
The Acrostic is by far my favourite word puzzle. I wish the NYT would print one every week. I do miss the Sunday Cryptic crossword which used to appear in the New Yorker Magazine. Alas, it is gone now and it doesn’t look like it is ever coming back. Maybe the NYT could start publishing a cryptic crossword?
Forgive me, but I was anything but a ROCKET scientist in solving this one. I had so few “for sures” on first pass that I resorted to guessing….and went wrong on deerslayer, decanter, and Marley, which also fouled me up on pattern recognition in the quote. The challenge in figuring it all out was rewarded by that lovely passage. Thank you!
Thanks for all your feedback and kind words. Greg sent us scrambling to see where we’d learned that Ed Harris attended Columbia “on a football scholarship.” One source was Columbia’s alumni website. Continuing to delve, we discovered that, surprisingly, Columbia has maintained the practice of awarding football scholarships, despite the supposed ban on athletic scholarships across the Ivies. Any Columbia grads out there who can explain this contradiction?
As for A1 Sauce, we confess not to have been sure how to handle its designation (1 word? 2 words? 3 words?). We consulted with the good folks at the NYT and settled on calling it a two-word condiment, but reasonable minds can differ on this messy/juicy point. Onward!
This was exactly the perfect level of difficulty for me and cosolver, who found it none too easy by a long shot, and needed four or five (or six) back-and-forths between solving the clues (of which we had only like one third we thought we’d solved) and trying to fill in the quote.
It is *such* a pleasure to be able to continue our biweekly acrostic solving — a ritual we have accustomed ourselves over many years!!
Thanks, David & Jane!
PS When the movie “Apollo 13” came out, I was working with NASA in Mountain View, California,, and they gave us the afternoon off to treat us to seeing that movie. Which made it all the more poignant.
There was no room in the quote for these details, but: In 1973 astronaut Edgar Mitchell founded the Institute for Noetic Sciences (IoNS), which exists even today to study extraordinary phenomena such as Mitchell reported experiencing in space flight. (It is not clear, however, whether it is hewing to scientific standards.)
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Why does this feel like a repeat from a few months ago?