The Unofficial Calculatrivia Discussion Place

COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF CALCULATRIVIA CHALLENGE by Phil Chronakis

This puzzle is similar to a Double Cross. Write the solutions to each of the 32 clues below in the spaces to the right of the clue, and insert the letters of each clue into the 273-character grid located beneath the clues. When completed, the grid will form a sentence inviting a response – which is the answer to this puzzle. The first letter of each solution, when read in order, will form a phrase offering a hint to the correct response.

The string of numbers that relates the letters within each clue solution to their respective places in the Grid is referred to as a “grid relation string” or “GRS”. For 3 of the 32 clues, the GRS is included beneath the spaces where the solution is written, as in a typical Double Crostic. However, for the other 29 clues, solvers should reference the “Grid Relation String” page near the bottom of the puzzle. There, the other GRSs are categorized by word length, with instructions on how to relate each solution to its corresponding GRS.

To avoid ambiguity, several terms from the 32 clues are expanded upon on the “Definitions” page.

Greek, Russian, and Hebrew letters used within a clue to define a number pertain only to that clue and have no relation or reference to the same symbol used within another clue. Clues themselves, indicated by capital English letters, are cross referenced throughout the puzzle, and are indicated by leading and trailing asterisks (i.e., “the President from *HH*”). The suffixes to the Greek, Russian, and Hebrew letters (-rd, -th, -st) do NOT imply that the correct number matches the suffix. For example, a clue asking for the “Σ^th President” may lead to the solution that Σ = 2, even though the second President would be referred to as “2^nd” and not “2^th”.

PRIZES: The prize pool is a collection of 60 issues of GAMES and GAMES WORLD OF PUZZLES from 2000 to 2005. These issues include 4 different Bob Lodge contests: First Family Factors (Nov. 2000), Common Factors (Oct. 2001), Cubic Challenge (Aug. 2003), and Ultimate Calculatrivia (Dec. 2003). The back issues range in condition from untouched to slightly played (usually the contest, double cross, and cryptic crosswords – but many months, nothing at all).

PRESIDENT - first correct response to grid – 15 issues

VICE PRESIDENT – second correct response to grid – 10 issues

NEW HAMPSHIRE PRIMARY – first correct response to Clue *I* - 6 issues

SUPER TUESDAY – first correct response to Clue *Q* – 6 issues

MAJORITY LEADER – third correct response to grid – 5 issues

KEYNOTE SPEAKER – first correct response to Clue *J* – 5 issues

IOWA CAUCUS – First correct response to Clue *DD* - 5 issues

FAVORITE SON – First correct response to Clue *O* - 5 issues

2008 PROSPECT – First correct response to Clue *M* - 3 issues

E-mail your solutions to philchronakis@yahoo.com General questions can be posted to the Calculatrivia Board and I will strive to provide guidance on a regular basis. HAVE FUN!

A

Civil War President, associated with Reagan. (14 letters, 2 words)

B

Creature depicted in wall décor of sunken luxury liner named after a President whose first name is shared by one of the Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award winners in the year of birth of the first pick in the NFL Draft in the year of a presidential election in which the popular vote winner’s nickname can be (and was) represented by an element’s Periodic Table symbol whose letter(s) is/are not in the name of the element itself. (7 letters)

C

Movie by director whose Ω movie earned a Best Actor nomination for actor who had previously been nominated for Best Actor in the year of the death of the Oscar-winning actor who married the actress who won the Best Actress Oscar in the year of birth of the actress of the youngest “Bond Girl” in the James Bond film whose theme song was recorded by a band whose guitarist had been the original lead singer for the band that released an album whose title translates to “On the Sea” from the national language of the country whose first king was Charles the Bald, where Ω is the year in which *U* lost the presidential election. (7 letters)

D

Best remembered for election that occurred Φ years after election in which incumbent President won the same number of Electoral Votes as the uniform number of the baseball player in *B*, where Φ is the ordinal value of the first Vice President to be produced by provisions of the constitutional amendment ratified in the year of birth of the younger of the two Cy Young Award winners from *H*. (12 letters, 3 words - first name, middle initial, last name)

E

Won an award (first conferred the year after Roosevelt defeated Stevenson) μ years after the last election in which the two presidential nominees had also previously won elections for the exact same elected office, where μ is referenced in the song list of the album released 4 years before the album from *K* was released by the same band.   (4 letters)

F

First name of only Vice President born in the same state as the presidential nominee who was born in the same year as the southern Senator from *O* (6 letters)

G

(Fake) rock ‘n’ roll surname derived from anagram of:

[a]   RFK : Λ:: _______ : Θ, where Λ is the year of birth of a major league pitcher and Θ is the year that same pitcher threw a perfect game against the team whose city hosted the Summer Olympics in the year that *U* was first depicted on the cover of TIME Magazine.        

[b]   capital letters commonly associated with geographic location of λ^rd season of Survivor, where λ is the number of incumbent Presidents who were both nominated for reelection and defeated. (6 letters)

H

Had a cameo appearance in *C* and covered a Beatles song for a movie whose title is an anagram of the album, released in the same month that the National League Cy Young Award winners from ω and Γ first faced each other, by a band named after a sensational crime committed roughly two months before *DD* was born, where ω is the year of death of a politician featured on the cover of TIME Magazine issue dated one day before the birth of the National League Cy Young Award winner from the last year that the Golden Slam was achieved, and Γ is the year of the death of the last person to win a U.S. Senate seat by defeating a Senate Majority Leader. 220   011   196   080    258   167   200    052    121   018   209  (2 words)

I

Prime number, expressed in hexadecimal notation, that is closest to the product of [a] the area code for box office of the AA minor league affiliate to city whose Major League Baseball team lost the last World Series that ended with a home run; [b] the number of electoral votes won by a President whose middle name is also the name of a college founded by abolitionists in the year that another President, who was elected with the same number of electoral votes, was inaugurated; and [c] number associated with occasionally-banned product of company whose name is an anagram of [i] postal abbreviation for the state that is home to the AAA minor league affiliate of the Major League Baseball team whose city’s NBA team was swept in the first round of the playoffs by the eventual NBA champion the year that Nixon was impeached, and [ii] prime number, expressed in hexadecimal notation, that is closest to the product of [A] the ZIP code of the county seat of the county named after a President from the state identified earlier in this clue; and [B] the atomic number of a chemical made into a song by 1990s band with same name as 1960s British band whose first album told the story of Simon Simopath, raised to the power of the atomic number of the element most commonly associated with sodium tetraborate decahydrate. (6 letters)

J

Supreme Court Justice who filled the seat once held *Q* years prior by a Justice who both had the same surname as a president who is the answer to another clue in this puzzle and was appointed to the Supreme Court by a President who is the answer to yet another clue in this puzzle. (7 letters)

K

First word in Latin translation of title of album (removing any leading articles) that won that won Grammy for Album of the Year Δ years after a notorious criminal was apprehended due in part to an operation named after a Greek letter with the same ordinal value as the Σ^th Vice President to die in office, where Σ is the order of admission of the home state of the President from *B*, and Δ is the ordinal value of the last Chief Justice to be appointed after losing a bid for the Presidency. (5 letters)

L

Second word from *BB*  (6 letters)

M

Was President the year construction of a reservoir, which still provides fresh water to the Loch, was completed in the city most prominently featured in a septology based largely on a poem by the husband of the woman who was strongly considered for British Poet Laureate in the year of birth of the grandfather of a Vice Presidential candidate who defeated the Presidential candidate from *R* in the New Hampshire presidential primary.   (7 letters)

N

10-song greatest hits album by group that won MTV’s Video Music Award for Best New Artist and whose lead singer later recorded a solo album with the same title as a TV series whose pilot episode originally focused on the ill-fated 1997 launch of Gemini 12, and married another winner of MTV’s Video Music Award for Best New Artist. (12 letters, 3 words)

O

Final two words in title of final song on 1993 greatest hits package from rock ‘n’ roll pioneer who recorded a now-famous song as a B-side the year before the same song was immortalized by singer whose real name is an amalgam of [a] the real first name of a southern U.S. Senator who sought his party’s presidential nomination in the year that the Summer Olympics were hosted by the city that had previously hosted a Democratic or Republican National convention that nominated a candidate who won the Presidency with the same number of electoral votes as the last President from his party to win a presidential election, and [b] the middle name of the person who was second in the order of succession to the Presidency at the time of the death of the δ^rd U.S. President to die in office, where δ is the order of secession at the outset of the Civil War of the home state of losing team in the ABA Finals in the second year in which *F* sought his party’s presidential nomination.  (7 letters)

P

Magazine title that is first 5 letters of visitors depicted in the Ә^rd chapter of the ש^th book of the Old Testament, where Ә is the total number of Tony Awards won by a pair of Broadway musicals based on a famous book believed to have been inspired by the presidential election before which no candidate had won a majority of the popular vote in the four prior elections, and ש is the number of Tony Award acting nominations earned by each musical. (5 letters)

Q

Solution, using standard operational sequencing, to:

((Δ + Φ) * (β+Ω) + (δ - Σ)^Ψ * Π ^(ζ*η/λ))/(Θ /( Λ - Γ) – Ξ)

where:

Δ is the highest score, if proper nouns were allowed, a player could receive in the very first turn of a game of Scrabble by playing a President’s surname (the highest digit in Δ being the number of letters in the solution to this contest);

Λ is the highest number in the title of a novel by the alter ego of 4965241●3265827, if AMEND + BIRCH = CNHBC and CHAMBER * DIN = DAMCENHMMM; 

Θ is the total number of presidential electoral votes ever received by the five unelected Presidents;

Ξ is the number of Presidents who were elected to, and served exactly, two full terms in office

Ψ is the only Pell number that is one greater than its order in the sequence

δ is the total pairs of major party presidential candidates who were elected or reelected with the same number of electoral votes in a presidential election since 1825

Σ is the total pairs of major party presidential candidates who were defeated but won the same number of electoral votes in a presidential election since 1825

Ω is the fewest electoral votes received by the only President to run for president in three straight elections and lose at least once;

Γ is the number of states that have never voted for a Democrat in a presidential election;

Φ is the number of states that have never voted for a Republican in a presidential election;

β is the number of  who Vice Presidents who died in office;

ζ is the largest all-Harshad number;

η is the highest number of Vice Presidents with same last name;

λ is the most days a Vice President’s term began before the that of President with whom he was elected; and

Π is the number of the geographic formations (referenced in the 1970s concept album inspired by the book Autobiography of a Yogi) on Earth, according to the IHO

031    161   082   111   053   148   160   108   029    027   054   157   162    033    088   083   130   028

R

First number one single for group whose name is the phonetic plural of the first and last initials of a  20^th-century Presidential candidate whose surname can be (and was) by a fictitious chemical compound.

026   223    020   042   124   254    245   156    071  246    152   178    004   263   191 (3 words)

S

Vice President who was appointed to prior political post by one President and recalled by that President’s successor in the year of birth of a future political opponent (whose name is an anagram of Integral Bettor ) of the Ж^st President, where Ж represents the last two digits of the year in which that President was first elected. (6 letters)

T

Detective (9 letters, 2 words)

U

His running mate was the ק^st Vice President, where ק is the product of [i] the number of ballots required to nominate a presidential candidate the last time the Democratic National Convention required a nominee to amass a 2/3 vote of all delegates; [ii] the number of Vice Presidents who have served different Presidents; and [iii] since 1900 (but excluding 1960 altogether), the total number of electoral votes cast for individuals who did not win the popular vote for the presidency in any state that year. (4 letters)

V

Detectives (12 letters, 3 words)

W

RFK : Д :: _______ : Ψ, where Д is the year of the historic presidential candidacy of a Senator who was later defeated by a Senator who was later defeated by a Senator who later served as the Secretary of Defense who immediately preceded the return of the only Secretary of Defense to serve two different Presidents, and Ψ is the year in which a former New Hampshire primary winner who did not win his party’s nomination that year, who shares the surname of a former President from a different party, ran a third party candidacy for the Presidency. (14 letters, 2 words)

X

First President from state whose primary in the year that *Y* was born was won by the first person to ever lead one of the branches of the federal government (i.e., President, Senate Majority Leader, Speaker of the House, Chief Justice) who was from the home state of the β^th President, where β is the is the number of Electoral Votes won by *M* in his first race for the White House divided by the number of wins the NFL team whose name (a plural) is an anagram of an NHL team (if made singular) had the last time its city hosted a Republican National Convention that nominated a winner. (6 letters)

Y

First name of U.S. Senator and one-time presidential aspirant who was born in same year as President who was elected and reelected in the same years as the first and last years in which Cy Young Awards were won by the pitcher who was born on the same day of the year as a different baseball player who is the “youngest” (in terms of year of birth) baseball player depicted in a series of stamps that also features the first three Democratic Presidents of the 20^th century… as well as antibiotics and child labor. (6 letters)

Z

In the word list below, cross off any word that has appeared in the first sentence of any one (and only one)  inaugural address that directly followed a presidential election in which the losing major party opponent got over ψ Electoral Votes, where ψ is the sum of the [i] number of major-party presidential candidates who have been defeated by more than one President and [ii] the difference, in the first election in which the Presidents from [a] and [b] (as defined in this clue) ran against each other, between [a] the electoral votes received by the first incumbent President to lose a reelection bid to a candidate he defeated four years prior, and [b] the electoral votes received by the President who defeated the President in [a] four years after losing to him. Rearrange the remaining words in such an order that, when pronounced phonetically, they form a 10-letter verb, which is the answer to this clue. (10 letters)

part ● good ● eight ● laws ● perils ● seal ● you ● hearts ● regret ● four ● eyes ● god ● whose ● await ● much ● hope ● effect ● heal

AA

Presumably, neither the President in office at the time of the death of the assassin who remained alive the 2^nd longest (of the four presidential assassins) after shooting the President, nor the President in office when the Oscar-winning actress from *C* was born, did this in the year of birth of a First Lady who was depicted in an Oscar-nominated performance by an actress who also received another Oscar nomination for her role as a fictitious U.S. Senator. (12 letters. 3 words)

BB

As depicted in movie adaptation, first name of object of unrequited desire for literary character, after whom a 1990s alternative rock band was named, from book by author who [i] was born in the election year in which the losing major party candidate got the Ђ^st most electoral votes of any losing candidate in U.S.history, and [ii] also authored novel, first published in the United States in the year a President’s child named after a Joni Mitchell song was born, that includes the name of a presidential assassin in its title, where Ђ is the season of The West Wing whose finale featured music by the band whose song was the first one aired on MTV Europe. (5 letters)

CC

Popular two-term president and former Army General who defeated a European enemy. (10 letters)

DD

Sang the song that has the same numerical rank, on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, as the number of electoral votes of the presidential nominee who was born in the same year as a notorious criminal who was born exactly Δ years before the admission of the state whose governor ran for President in the year of birth of a Supreme Court Justice who filled the seat of the Supreme Court Justice who authored the majority opinion in the case reported at page Γ of volume Ψ of the United States Reports, where Δ is the atomic number of the only noble gas whose chemical symbol begins a President’s surname, Γ is the number of electoral votes *D* received in the election referenced in that clue, and Ψ is the most electoral votes won in a presidential election by a non-incumbent.  (9 letters, 2 words)

EE

Elected to Senate in the year of release of the album with the foreign title from *C*, his real first name is same as that of a President who is the answer to a different clue in this puzzle (9 letters, 2 words - last name, first name)

FF

NHL player from this team won the Calder Memorial Trophy in the year of birth of the NHL player who won the Calder Memorial Trophy in the year of the birth of the title character from the movie named after the book from *BB* (6 letters)

Definitions

"first sentence" of an inaugural address is the first sentence that is not entirely comprised of an acknowledgement of dignitaries in attendance. The first sentence is that which contains only text of the address, or contains both acknowledgments and text. For example, President Bush’s 2005 inaugural address began with, “Vice President Cheney, Mr. Chief Justice, President Carter, President Bush, President Clinton, members of the United States Congress, reverend clergy, distinguished guests, fellow citizens:” For purposes of this puzzle, this is not the “first sentence” - the next sentence in the address is. On the other hand, President Bush’s 2001 inaugural address began, “President Clinton, distinguished guests and my fellow citizens, the peaceful transfer of authority is rare in history, yet common in our country.” For purposes of this puzzle, this sentence is the “first sentence” of that inaugural address as it has both “acknowledgements” and text.

"filled the seat" of a Supreme Court Justice refers to the respective lineage of each of the nine current seats on the Supreme Court. For example, in 1991, Justice Clarence Thomas “filled the seat” held by Justice Thurgood Marshall. As Marhsall had, in 1967, “filled the seat” held by Justice Tom Clark, it follows that Thomas also “filled the seat once held” by Clark.

"major party" means Democratic, Republican, Whig, or a party whose presidential nominee won the most or second-most electoral votes in a presidential election.

"ordinal value" means the order of appearance in a relevant list, i.e., 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd…

"prime number closest to" – a prime number is “closest to” another number if it is the prime number that is the fewest integers away from the other number, regardless if the prime is higher or lower than the number in question.

Grid Relation Strings

The grid association strings for each clue that has the same number of letters as another clue are listed below. (The grid association strings for clues H, Q, and R are listed under the respective solution spaces for those clues). In each category below, the strings are listed in the alphabetical order of the words as spelled in reverse. Thus, within groups of words with the same number of letters, words will be ordered alphabetically by their final letters, and for words with the same final letter, those words will be listed in alphabetical order of their penultimate final letters, and so on.

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