My Thirty-Third May

I feel as if I've barely blogged this month. I feel just slightly as if I've barely been conscious this month, actually, especially during that week and a half of non-stop rain and gloom. At the same time, I can't believe how much I've gotten done. I turned thirty-two on the second, and so far the thirty-third May of my life has been…all over the place.

As the month started, I'd just thrown in the towel on a third failed Blaze proposal, eyeballs-deep in a weird mix of frustrated / discouraged and liberated / hopeful. Two weeks after hearing I needed to put that last proposal out of its misery, I'd started and finished the next proposal (synopsis and first three chapters) and sent it off to my intrepid editor. I got a call about it just this past Friday while I was waiting in the train station—I'd gone into Boston for a physical and to get my possibly stress-fractured shin x-rayed. My editor wanted to see some deeper emotional insight in both the hero and heroine's initial opening POV scenes, and a stronger first couple paragraphs. Um, period.

Period?

Period! No changes requested on the spartan synopsis. No issues with either characters' conflicts or motivations. Nothing wrong with the hook, the setting, the premise. For reals?

Apparently, for reals. When I had what I'd cautiously hoped was a light bulb moment, chatting with senior Blaze editor Brenda Chin at the New England RWA conference, I prayed things might go this way. The last three proposals have missed the mark flagrantly and unsalvageably, though I thrashed and struggled as much as anyone could, trying to force them to work. Then at conference I finally gave myself permission to quit overthinking and overworking, overguessing the details of the overwrought plot, when I'm simply not an up-front plotter. I got the green light to explore a workable hook, and did just that, 100% chart-, graph-, and fourteen-page synopsis-free. It may not have scored a resounding, revisionless acceptance, but the writing process felt infinitely more organic and intuitive that the last few efforts, and I'm not surprised it garnered far fewer editorial misgivings.

This morning I finished (I hope) addressing my editor's concerns with the opening chapters, and sent the revised proposal back out into the ether. And she's encouraged me to keep working on the subsequent chapters, which can't be a bad sign. So keep those fingers crossed, if they haven't grown arthritic and mangled with your unwavering empathy. Maybe I'll have extra-good news to share soon. Maybe I'll even manage to make my second Blaze sale within a year of the first… For those with Doomsday clocks at the ready, set them to July 12.

May was also the month of no meat. This experiment, of all the Discipline Year self-imposed challenges I've yet tackled, was far and away the easiest and the most fun. The only temptations came during family barbecues, and I resisted with little angst. Otherwise I had a blast rediscovering an interest in cooking. I always enjoy cooking, but in the past year or two I'd gotten to a point where I simply recycled the same half-dozen dinner standards over and over. Meat-Free May was a great excuse to try out new dishes. In fact tonight I'm making that African stew again, so my repertoire of regulars has expanded! And of course, my life will no longer be complete without tempeh making the occasional appearance.

I didn't lose or gain any weight, so no revelations on that front.

My husband suspects that, in part, my unnaturally long blue spell (nearly two weeks' funk) in the latter half of the month could be linked to the decreased protein intake. I'll buy it. It was also rainy and I had PMS and was dealing with stupid social media melodrama angst and was uncertain about my proposal, but I rarely stay bummed that long without something else going on, so perhaps he's on to something.

Still, I'm in no rush to bring the meat back. I'll be excited to order seafood at my favorite restaurants once more, and it'll be nice to toss chicken in with the stir-fry, but I haven't missed meat all that much. Doesn't hurt that I have a broad-palated partner with West Coast ideals, either. The entire household went veggie this month, at least at home. Thanks, manfriend!

Next month was supposed to be No Java June, when I go coffee-free (if not caffeine free—tea was to still be kosher) but I think I'll switch it up. All things going well, I may be on deadline, and that is not the time to volunteer for chemical withdrawal. So I'm likely going to swap June and July and go sugar-free for the next month. Anyhow, more on that tomorrow.

Despite the possible stress fracture, which is keeping me from running, May has been a great month for exercise. Lovely spring temperatures for my daily walks, plus we've been cycling a couple times, hiking even more, and at long last I got my shit together and rearranged my room, making it yoga-friendly again. Unless you're talking to someone who's practiced and enjoyed yoga themselves, it's hard to say how powerful and awesome it is without sounding like a self-satisfied hippie-dippy douchebag. So I won't ramble, but since I got back to hardcore stretching before bedtime in the last week or so, I've slept better, felt better, blah blah blah. Go yoga.

Back to work! Hoping to finish my evil conjoined erotica-writing twin's edits quickly, so I'll have time to indulge in a beer and last night's Bachelorette episode before chores call me to wifely duty. Enjoy the final day of May! Or if you're already in June when you read this, don't tell me what happens. I hate spoilers.

Thrusty Thursday: David Strathairn

Please welcome salt-and-pepper actor-fox, David Stathairn! Sure, he's only eleven days younger than my mom. I don't care. Afterall, Rickman's four years her senior. And Strathairn's got a touch of the Rickster about him, along with a bit of Jeff Goldblum, a pinch of De Niro, and a healthy serving of one of my erstwhile design professors. In fact, he's very professorial-looking. Must be the authoritative eyebrows and academic hair. Well done, Professor Dreamboat. Rock that exotic blend of Scottish and Native Hawaiian heritage (and here I was, assuming you were Jewish).

An up-and-coming silver 

fox, way back in the day.

If you recognize Strathairn, it may be from L.A. Confidential (he played Kim Basinger's pimp) or perhaps in Good Night, And Good Luck, in which he portrayed Edward R. Murrow. He's played all sorts of parts, but I picked him because just last night I had the great pleasure of watching an HBO film from 2010 called Temple Grandin. It's an outstandingly charming biopic starring Claire Danes as a young Temple Grandin, an autistic woman who overcomes obstacles to become a successful engineer. I know that sounds like a recipe for two hours of cloying, hyperinspirational drivel, but it's a wonderful, quirky movie. Get it from Netflix. Now. Danes was the stand-out star by miles, but Strathairn did a very fine job in his role as her science teacher.

Check this sample:

Spring Revamp

I've been quiet for the past few days—did you worry I got Raptured? If so, you clearly don't know me very well. The manfriend and I were away in Vermont over the weekend visiting friends, then on Monday I was all over the place for a freelance meeting then an appearance as a special guest at my husband's colleagues' book club (they read Caught on Camera of all things, quite the literary fiction palate cleanser). And yesterday I was busy doing something that was looong overdue—a spring revamp.

The main project was rearranging my office so I'd have the space to comfortably practice yoga again. Which I need desperately—I've been a bit of a basketcase lately. Making it happen meant giving the boot to my "editing nook", ditching a side table and moving my beloved papasan chair to the living room. I also went to Target and bought a new shelving unit (among many other things). It took pretty much the entire day (I did some kitchen improvements and a ton of cleaning as well) but now I've got a faboo new space beneath the skylight for my stretching and calisthenics:

It also felt good just to do the whole spring cleaning / space freshening / reinvention thing. I don't know if it's the redecorating or the blessed absence of rain for the first time in a week, but I'm finally perking up. Oh and if anyone's curious where I write, I do 95% of it in the space just to the right of my new micro yoga studio (in fact I'm sitting on the "black pearl" as I type this):

Anyone else have any big spring projects going on?

Sunday Puzzle

It's Sunday again, and you know what that means—time for me to rip off the puzzle segment from NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday!

Mustachioed enigmatologist

extraordinaire, Will Shortz

If you're a newcomer, each week on Weekend Edition Sunday, Will Shortz (the hardcore crossword puzzlers' almighty God) comes on the radio to do three things: share the solution to the previous week's puzzle, invite a winner who entered the correct answer to play another puzzle (usually word-related) on the air for word-nerdy prizes, and present everyone with the next week's puzzle (answers due in by Thursday afternoon via the WES website if you want a chance to play on the air).

Note: I never post the solutions on this blog…at least not before the submission deadline. I see lots of keyword traffic coming from people looking for the answers, which is at best impatient, and at worst, cheating. For shame.

Now without further ado, here's this week's new puzzle:

Think of two five-letter words that are exact opposites, in which the first two letters of each word are the same as the first two letters of the other, only reversed. Hint: The fourth letter of each word is A. What two words are these?

Click here to see the original puzzle posting, check the answer to last week's challenge, listen to the segment, or find the link to enter your answer.

Recipe: Marinated Tempeh Sandwiches

My thanks to my Twitter pal Ruthie Knox for the basis of this recipe. If you're not familiar with tempeh (pronounced "tem-pay") here's what Wikipedia has to say about it: Tempeh is a traditional soy product originally from Indonesia. It is made by a natural culturing and controlled fermentation process that binds soybeans into a cake form, similar to a very firm vegetarian burger patty.

Photo credit to ifood.tv

For the "meat" of the sandwich you'll need:

1 8 oz. package tempeh (available in many major grocery and natural food stores)
¼ cup soy sauce
¼ cup water
½ tsp. cayenne pepper
½ tsp. garlic powder
dash chili powder

Plus your choice of toasted sliced bread, hamburger roll, wrap, etc.

Plus your choice of condiments.* I recommend:

ripe avocado, sliced
cheddar cheese, sliced
brown mustard
sprouts
tender greens (I like baby spinach)
oven-roasted tomatoes from that pesto quinoa recipe
any other thing you fancy

1. Preheat oven to 425°.

2. To prepare the tempeh: cut into fish-stick-sized slices, cutting diagonally for maximum surface area. (I got about 18 slices out of my package.)

3. Create a marinade by mixing soy sauce, water, and spices in a medium baking dish. Add tempeh slices, coating with marinade and arranging so each slice is equally submerged in the dish.

4. Bake uncovered for 8 minutes.

5. Drain excess marinade and serve slices on your choice of toasted bread with whatever condiments float your boat.

6. Store extra tempeh in fridge for future sammiches.

* The manfriend and I did a taste test this evening, and the winning combo was toasted sprouted bread with the marinated tempeh, avocado, a bit of cheddar, roasted tomatoes and pesto. A lot of garnish, but it really worked—cool avocado, hot spices, sweet tomatoes, savory pesto, sharp cheese. Nom.

Thrusty Thursday: Karl Urban

Continuing my celebration of yesterday's sale news, I thought I ought to source a Wellingtonian for this week's thrustin'. You may know actor Karl Urban as Bones from the latest Star Trek incarnation, Éomer from the second and third Lord of the Rings films, a Russian baddie in The Bourne Supremacy, some sort of villainous vampire in that new Priest movie, or even as Julius Caesar in Xena: Warrior Princess…or from any of his many other appearances in movies and television.

For your enjoyment, a grainy but foxy interview about Urban's choice to stay in New Zealand, dealing with stalkers, and working with Nimoy:

New Sale!

Okay, before anyone gets overexcited for me, it's not that fourth Blaze proposal. That'd be an awful quick decision, don't you think? But this news is just as good!

I woke to the news that Samhain has made an offer on my very favorite manuscript, Coast! My faithful beta reader, Amy, knows it as Between Brothers (it's a love triangle) but after a year-plus of dabbling in m/m erotica, I can no longer look at that title and not skeeve myself out. Amy's also the only person, aside from my husband and my Samhain editor, Anne Scott, who understands why there's a picture of red Chucks up there. I owe her really big thanks for how this book turned out. She rooted for it and made it way better, and it's essentially her fault there's a laser tag scene in it.

I'd hoped this might be the manuscript that I used to snag an agent…I felt it was the best thing I'd written, or at least the thing I felt most proud of. It's very me. But though I received nice comments on the writing, I heard again and again from agents that it's a tricky story to find a home for. It's not high concept, it's not trendy, it's not especially commercial. It's set in my favorite city, Wellington, New Zealand, which for reasons beyond my comprehension is not known world-wide as a hotbed of romance (someday, Welly, someday). It hasn't got any supernatural beings or high-stakes suspense or time-travel. It's just a story about a tangled-up romance involving three [relatively] normalish people, flitting between a second-rate pub, a house boat, a dojang, a bike courier dispatch, and a karaoke bar. My thanks to those kind agents who told me they wished they could say 'yes'. I wished you could, too! But ultimately my yearning simply to get it into readers' hands trumped my yearning to score representation with it. They'll be time enough for that, yet.

Anyhow, no clue when it'll be out, but I look forward to wooting about that when I hear. Oh and it's got a really great soundtrack, incidentally. Thanks for reading! And extra big thanks again, Amy!

Watch me flail!

As promised, here's a link to my post over at the Blaze Authors Blog, all about my ongoing struggles as I work to make my second Blaze sale.

Hit Send…and receive!

Hey all,

My new fantail shirt! Sweet as.

Plenty of you seem to pity me enough to click my post links on occasion, and as such you're likely aware that my road to making my second sale to Harlequin Blaze has been…shall we say…uphill. Well this morning I hit send on my FOURTH proposal since selling my first—and for now, only—book with them.

This latest attempt emerged after much frustration, persistence, and well-timed guidance, which you can read all about in my scheduled post with the Blaze Authors Blog tomorrow (I'll post a link to it here.) I felt confident as I sent this new story out into the editorial ether… Well no, "ether" is wrong. My experience with my editor at Blaze has been nothing if not clear and open, nothing ephemeral or murky about it. But anyhow, this time feels different. Not because I'm positive it will hit the mark, but because my fingers aren't crossed gangrene-inducingly tight for once. The theme of this submission has been "Don't Overthink It." Probably ought to get that tattooed on my palm, an added reinforcement the next time I find occasion to slap some sense into myself. Shouldn't be long at all. Anyhow, what will be will be. Perhaps fourth time's the charm?

Three varieties of Almond Gold!

So, I hit Send and spent the rest of the morning feeling that weird mix of post-submission hopefulness and paranoia. By lunchtime I was feeling downright blue for a variety of non-dramatic reasons, but things took a nice change by the time I got back from my daily walk. Not only was there a royalty check waiting for my evil conjoined erotica-writing twin, but my faithful Kiwi pen pal Gerry's yearly birthday care package had arrived! He sent me an ace bird-nerd shirt (a fantail is a common New Zealand bird) and the requisite pile of Almond Gold chocolate bars, plus some Spaceman Candy Sticks. My new shirt smells of them. Bonus. Also had some new cover art waiting in my inbox for the evil twin, which I'll post on her site and Goodreads this afternoon. So I've perked up a bit. I hit Send in good faith, and good things have already come to me in return. Feels like a hopeful enough omen.

Now if only someday soon I get to write the blog post entitled, HELL FROZE OVER! I SOLD MY SECOND BLAZE!!! But patience, oh spastic one.

Sunday Puzzle

It's Sunday again, and you know what that means—time for me to rip off the puzzle segment from NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday!

Mustachioed enigmatologist

extraordinaire, Will Shortz

If you're a newcomer, each week on Weekend Edition Sunday, Will Shortz (the hardcore crossword puzzlers' almighty God) comes on the radio to do three things: share the solution to the previous week's puzzle, invite a winner who entered the correct answer to play another puzzle (usually word-related) on the air for word-nerdy prizes, and present everyone with the next week's puzzle (answers due in by Thursday afternoon via the WES website if you want a chance to play on the air).

Note: I never post the solutions on this blog…at least not before the submission deadline. I see lots of keyword traffic coming from people looking for the answers, which is at best impatient, and at worst, cheating. For shame.

Now without further ado, here's this week's new puzzle:

Create a 4-by-4 crossword square with four four-letter words reading across and four different four-letter words reading down. Use the word "nags" at 1 across and the word "newt" at 1 down. All eight words must be common, uncapitalized words, and all 16 letters must be different.

Click here to see the original puzzle posting, check the answer to last week's challenge, listen to the segment, or find the link to enter your answer.

Close Encounters of the Bird Kind

From this mornings's hike in the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary (Mass. Audubon). Photos by the manfriend…

I enable a chickadee.

Gray Catbird (a new find, for us)

A nuthatch enables me.

Red-Winged Blackbird (nice shoulderpads)

Yellow Warbler (yellowest of all six trillion warbler varieties)

Thrusty Thursday Vintage: Micky Dolenz

This week's thrustee was one-hundred-percent the doing of my real-life chaptermate and Twitter pal @Lori_Ella, who was tweeting on the topic of The Monkees yesterday. After Olivia Newton John, The Monkees were my absolute favorite musical act when I was a kid in the eighties. I wore that tape into the ground! (Twenty-five-plus years later, I have the same album on my iPod, and still listen often.) It was an age when I had no concept of what reruns were, so I thought The Monkees, which I watched on old-skool Nickelodeon, was a current show. And a real band. And hence, I sent them fan mail. Not knowing where the stamps were kept, to transport this fan mail I Scotch taped (and once clothes-pinned) quarters to the corners of the envelopes, because I knew that was how much it cost. And I addressed them things like, The Monkees, Care of Nickelodeon. All those TV mail-order ads had "care of" in them in the eighties, so this seemed logical enough to me. Needless to say, my fan mail did not make it to its intended recipients…though one letter to Davy Jones did make it as far as the neighbors', whose last name was Jones. Thanks a ton, mail carrier.

Suck on that, Bieber!

Anyhow, yesterday Lori was tweeting Monkees' lyrics, and I professed my preference for Micky Dolenz. Oft overshadowed by Davy Jones' sheer adorableness (so adorable in fact, the part of Chekov in the original Star Trek was supposedly fashioned on Jones, to boost female viewership) I've always thought Micky was actually the stand-out member of the band. He's a great singer and funny and charismatic and handsome in a scampish, Irish-looking way (though I don't know that he's got much Irish in him, actually). He also wrote my favorite Monkees' song, Randy Scouse Git. So Lori very kindly sourced a rather foxy old picture of Dolenz (above right) with some rowwwr-sixties-scruff, just for me, reminding me what a babe Dolenz was. And you know what, he's aged rather gracefully as well. Oh and before you go, don't miss Dolenz with a kitteh. Awwwws.

And of course I'd be a tease to not include a video:

Sunday Puzzle

It's Sunday again, and you know what that means—time for me to rip off the puzzle segment from NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday!

Mustachioed enigmatologist

extraordinaire, Will Shortz

If you're a newcomer, each week on Weekend Edition Sunday, Will Shortz (the hardcore crossword puzzlers' almighty God) comes on the radio to do three things: share the solution to the previous week's puzzle, invite a winner who entered the correct answer to play another puzzle (usually word-related) on the air for word-nerdy prizes, and present everyone with the next week's puzzle (answers due in by Thursday afternoon via the WES website if you want a chance to play on the air).

Note: I never post the solutions on this blog…at least not before the submission deadline. I see lots of keyword traffic coming from people looking for the answers, which is at best impatient, and at worst, cheating. For shame.

Now without further ado, here's this week's new puzzle:

From listener Aida Doss Havel: Think of two common girls' names that are seven letters long and that start with the same four letters in the same order. Drop these four letters in each name, and mix the last three letters in each name to come up with another common girls' name in six letters. What names are these?

Click here to see the original puzzle posting, check the answer to last week's challenge, listen to the segment, or find the link to enter your answer.

Recipe: African Stew (bastardized)

Thanks to my cousin for the recommendation! I've adapted this excellent recipe, meant for a slow-cooker, for a regular old stew pot. It's vegan-friendly and only requires one pot and a cutting board! Serves 4–6, depending on appetites.

1. Overnight, soak:

• 1 cup dried kidney or red beans

…in a stew pot. The next day, drain soaked beans and re-cover with water. Bring to a boil then reduce to simmering for 60–90 minutes, or until soft. Drain.

2. While beans are cooking, chop the onion and garlic, peel and cut the sweet potatoes, chop the pepper, and grate the ginger from Step 4.

3. In the stew pot, combine:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

…and sautée for five minutes, stirring occasionally.

4. Add to pot:

• 3 cups peeled sweet potatoes, cut into ½-inch cubes
• 1½ cups vegetable broth
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• ½ cup water
• ½ tsp ginger (powdered or grated fresh)
• 1½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• ¼ tsp black pepper
• 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
• 1 can (4 oz) chopped green chilis

…and bring to a boil, then reduce to medium-low heat and simmer for an hour, or until veggies are soft.

5. When ready to serve, stir in:

• 3 tbsp creamy natural peanut butter

6. Serve in bowls, topping with:

• 1 tbsp chopped roasted peanuts
• 1 wedge lime for squeezing

Thrusty Thursday: Vincent Gallo

I was tempted to not even do a write-up and just let Vincent Gallo's many faces speak for themselves—what a fascinating-looking man! I found him by mistake while Googling "scruffy actors" and was spellbound, my head flooded by a medley of Tom Waits' creepier songs.

All I know about Gallo is that he's a forty-nine-year-old Buffalo-born actor, producer, composer, director, screenwriter, songwriter, and singer, who's modeled for Calvin Klein, been photographed by Richard Avedon, collaborated with Jean-Michel Basquiat, and dated Cat Power. And if I ever need to cast a hot psychopath in a book I'm working on, he's first in line.

Recipe: Pesto Quinoa with Tofu

This recipe was based on Heather's Quinoa Recipe from the 101 Cookbooks blog—thanks to my faithful beta reader Amy for the suggestion!

Wow, my first new recipe in ages…inspired by the necessity that Meat-Free May be an excuse to try new things, instead of just removing the animal bits from my usual dinner standards. This recipe has a lot of steps, but it's not too tricky. Took me 45 minutes to prep and cook. Serves 2–3.

There is a reason I'm not a food photographer.

You'll need:

½ cup grape tomatoes (a dozen or so)

1 tsp olive oil

½ tsp brown sugar

few shakes salt
- - - -
½ cup brown rice
½ cup quinoa
- - - -
1½ cups firm tofu, cut into cubes
½ tsp olive oil
salt
1 shallot, finely chopped
½ cup corn
1 cup spinach, finely chopped
⅓ cup pepitas (or pumpkin seeds)
½ cup pesto

1. Roast the cherry tomatoes: heat oven to 350°. Slice tomatoes into halves. Mix 1 tsp olive oil with ½ tsp brown sugar and a few shakes of salt. Toss tomatoes thoroughly in mixture then lay them all cut-side-up in a baking dish. Bake for 45 minutes, until they're shrunken and sweet.

2. While tomatoes are baking, prepare the grains by bringing the rice and 2 cups water to a boil, then reduce to simmering. Cook rice for fifteen minutes then add quinoa and cook for another ten minutes, until grains are tender. Drain any excess water.

3. Also while the tomatoes bake and the grains simmer, brown the tofu: pan-fry the cubes in olive oil until they're golden brown, then set aside.

4. In a large pan or skillet, heat olive oil, salt, and shallot over medium high heat, stirring for two minutes. Stir in the prepared rice and quinoa, corn, spinach, and pepitas, and cook until hot and sizzling. Add salt to taste.

5. Remove pan from heat and thoroughly stir in pesto, then gently fold in the browned tofu. Serve topped with roasted tomatoes.

Meat-Free May

Thank fucking Christ, April is over and I can swear again! We all knew No #$%@&! April wasn't about me simply not swearing, but rather catching myself when I inevitably did, and so there had to be a punishment for failure, as failure was a foregone conclusion. I promised to pony up one dollar per swear and said I'd donate it to charity at the end of the experiment. The grand total came to $59, so that's basically two accidental swears per day…doesn't sound so bad, yet I can't believe I ever thought I'd have to enforce a $25 minimum. I decided to round it up to a tidy $75, which I just this morning donated to the ACLU. Kind of a weird choice, giving my punishment fees for uttering certain words to an organization that's so into protecting such rights as freedom of speech, but there you go.

And now onward to May, the Discipline Year month during which I can't eat meat (including no eggs or seafood…why do people not seem to count fish as animals?) I'm keeping dairy, at least for now…I may or may not have given myself a stress fracture, so I'll take all the calcium I can get. Plus I love my half and half. If I get ambitious in the second half of the month, perhaps I'll try to finish May off the vegan way.

My birthday is tomorrow, and I was loathe to miss out on my annual baked scallop dinner, so the manfriend and I did that last weekend. Check. This afternoon we're heading to our cousins' place to watch the Celtics (go Ray!) kick off their second round of the NBA playoffs against the Heat, and I'll get to watch everyone eating barbecued chicken—charred just the way I like it by the he-cousin—while I fill up on corn and salad.

But charred chicken denial aside, I think it'll actually be a fun month. Great excuse to try new foods and recipes and expand my dinner repertoire.

Just for kicks, I thought I'd weigh myself before and after the experiment, to see if I either a) lose weight from eating more veggies or b) puff up from eating tons of carbohydrates. As of this morning, I'm a very typical-of-me 142.2 pounds. I'll let you know of any shocking fluctuations at the end of the month. Meanwhile, if you've got any kick-ass vegetarian recipes, feel free to send them my way!

Sunday Puzzle

It's Sunday again, and you know what that means—time for me to rip off the puzzle segment from NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday!

Mustachioed enigmatologist

extraordinaire, Will Shortz

If you're a newcomer, each week on Weekend Edition Sunday, Will Shortz (the hardcore crossword puzzlers' almighty God) comes on the radio to do three things: share the solution to the previous week's puzzle, invite a winner who entered the correct answer to play another puzzle (usually word-related) on the air for word-nerdy prizes, and present everyone with the next week's puzzle (answers due in by Thursday afternoon via the WES website if you want a chance to play on the air).

Note: I never post the solutions on this blog…at least not before the submission deadline. I see lots of keyword traffic coming from people looking for the answers, which is at best impatient, and at worst, cheating. For shame.

Now without further ado, here's this week's new puzzle:

From listener Dave Taub of Eugene, Ore.: Take the name of a well-known U.S. university. One of the letters in it is a chemical symbol. Change this to a two-letter chemical symbol to name another well-known U.S. university. What universities are these?

Click here to see the original puzzle posting, check the answer to last week's challenge, listen to the segment, or find the link to enter your answer.