Puzz e Corner

Themetaansweris MARIO (Hint:Lookfor a 5-lettername.)In thispuzzle,thelongestanswersweren'tthekey.Instead,you perhapsnoticedthatfivesymmetricallyplacedAcrossanswers, allthemiddlewordsoftheirrespectiverows,were plumbing tools--eventhoughtheyweren'tcluedassuch.(Thewords, highlightedyellowatright,are SNAKE, BENDER, PLUNGER, WRENCH, and GAUGE.)

Been waiting all year for our Mega-Meta contest's final hint? Whether you have or not, you can enter to win personalized wordplay prizes made by me! HOW TO PLAY: 1. Read the hint below. 2. Review the answers to 2022's 6 meta puzzle monthly contests (the 6th answer appears to the right, and you can find all 6 at tinyurl.com/2022megametarules.

3. Email your 5-letter guess to cscxwords@gmail.com by 11:59pm PT, December 20. (One submission per entrant, please.) We'll randomly pick winners from the correct entries. Grand prize is a personalized 21x21 crossword puzzle; 3 runners-up will receive certificates with personalized anagrams made by yours truly. Winners, and the final answer, will appear in January's issue. Goodluck!

Youmighthavemadetheleapatthispointfrom"plumbing tools"to"MARIO"basedonthehintalone,butincaseyou didn't,therewasanotherhintinthetitle, "ExtraPartsIncluded." Eachofthefiveplumbing-relatedwordshad a pairofwordson eithersideofthem.Thosepairs(atright,highlightedblue) anagrammedinto eachplumbing-relatedword--plus a spare letter(or"extrapart"):

ASK + MEN = SNAKE + M BARE + NED = BENDER + A PURR + GLEN = PLUNGER + R NEW + RICH = WRENCH + I AUG + EGO = GAUGE + O

From top to bottom, those "extra parts" spell out MARIO, arguably the world's most famous fictional plumber and the meta answer's hint.Nowinnersthismonth--thanksforall thosewhoplayed,andlookformore metapuzzlesin2023!

58. "Yikes!"

60. Suffix with press or script

61. Allege as fact

62. "Pride and Prejudice" novelist

65. Authentic

66. Unprovoked attack

67. Clutter

68. Red bloomers

69. Online crafts marketplace

DOWN

1. Early NASA trainee

2. Nearby

3. "Can I see ___?" (diner's question) currently

28. Meteor's end?

30. Ballpark figures?: Abbr.

32. Pride symbol with stripes of light blue, pink, and white

41. 1968 Rock Hudson thriller set in the Arctic

42. Notable instances of growth

43. Digital communication?: Abbr. 44. "___ queen!" 45. Oily

49. Ballpark fig.

52. Maj.'s superior 56. Snake-haired woman of myth

4. The French Dispatch director Anderson

5. Mark for life

6. "Ars gratia ___" (MGM motto)

7. "Yikes!"

8. Self starter?

9. Research facility: Abbr.

10. Arouse

11. Sign on a restroom door

12. Massage target

13. 2020 video game set in the Greek underworld

15. Flavorful-but-tough beef cuts

22. Gung-ho

24. Belarus's capital

Triage pro, for short

"Yikes!"

Golding of Crazy Rich Asians

Tiny ___

Color TV pioneer

Atmospheric prefix

One of 12 one-pointers in a Scrabble set Trent Reznor's band, for short

Spread

Barbell abbr.

" we having fun yet?"

Neon, for one

Fake, smug flattery

Flood embankment

Noodle products?

Iron-pumper's reps

Numbers

"Ta-da!" 53. Be up to the job 54. They're often stuck in Blizzards 55. Rocker who’s Zoë's dad and Lisa's ex 57. Slightly cracked 59. Scottish refusals 63. "A long time ___..." 64. 180° from NNW

ANSWERS: voucher, outpost, low, tweettweet, athlete, in bed with, RHONY, edge.

QUOTE: To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.

QUOTE'S AUTHOR: OLTAIRE ( bytheanswers'firstletters)

I CRAVE FEEDBACK! Thoughts? Suggestions? Lemme have it. CSCXWORDS@GMAIL.COM

Over the years at the Wenatchee Valley Museum, there have been some odd and strange things that have been donated to the collection. While currently there is a screening process and procedures in place for donating items, this wasn’t always the case. We occasionally find oddities lying around from years gone by with little or no explanations.

One of those oddities having the strange name of the Ophthalmophantome or the Face/Eye Phantom. This fascinating face was used as a teaching aid for medical students to practice eye surgery on.

By Lorna Rose-Hahn

I have always been a writer. For a long time, however, I largely put away the pen in favor of “serious” pursuits, like work in corporate sales and communications, and then healthcare. It wasn’t until I was pregnant with my first child that I felt a strong urge to write again.

I wrote him letters in the womb; it helped me process the concept of becoming a mother, obtain some insight into the type of parent I wanted to be, how I wanted to break unhealthy patterns and reinforce the healthy ones from my own childhood. When my son was born, I wrote about motherhood. Writing felt like coming home.

Gradually I wrote more and submitted to journals. At the encouragement of friends, I started my memoir when my second child was born. My oldest was two and half years old then, and I joked that what better time to write a book.

I fell in with a critique group, and the four of us met twice a month at someone’s house. Sometimes I brought my infant daughter and soothed her in the kitchen when I wasn’t reading. At first I wrote in order to have something for the group, but within a few weeks I was writing for myself.

When my kids went down for the night, I wrote. Whenever I could get a babysitter, I wrote. I ran errands as quickly as I could, then I’d stake out space at a coffee shop. I was on my first draft (the “vomit draft”), and I was eager to get it all down on the page. Rarely did I struggle with finding something to write.

To be sure, it was exhausting. My daughter awoke multiple times a night for years, I was breastfeeding, and both my kids would need extra support, physically and emotionally (I was in the throes of just figuring this out). But I loved my project. I loved my critique group (we’d meet for two years, and two would go on to publish books). My memoir felt so right that it took on a life of its own, one I had to balance with motherhood.

And it is certainly a balance. I look at it like this: writing and kids need not be opposed to one another, nor exclusive. I get asked if I write about my kids (which is somewhat of a hot issue in the writing world). Yes, I write about my kids. I don’t use their names. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong here: I’ve got friends who write about their kids and use their names, and I have friends who don’t write about them at all.

Having been a reluctant, older mom, having had complications in pregnancy, having neurodiverse children, having affirmed who I am as a parent all afforded me a richness in my craft I might not have developed otherwise.

The largest hurdle, of course, is time. Now that my kids are older, it’s easier to set boundaries at home: if Mama is at her computer, it’s writing time and they need to engage in an activity (I try and set it for a similar time each day, so it becomes part of their routine too). I still write after they go down for the night. I write when they’re at school. By the same token, I am present to them when it’s their time: I put away my computer and phone and we get out Hangman or a board game. Because they deserve that.

There are certainly times where I’ve had to give myself grace, weeks where I’ve accomplished none of my goals, where I’ve missed deadlines. And I have no choice but to have it be ok. For two years I enjoyed having both kids in school at the same time for a few hours.

Then Covid hit, and balance went out the window. It was ok because it had to be. Today I am homeschooling my son, and he is thriving. He does attend a co-op three mornings a week, and that’s when I write. Or hit the gym.

I don’t separate being a mom from being a writer. I used to. I used to be mortified when my son would come up behind me and make faces during a virtual board meeting. But I figure: this is who I am, and if they don’t like it, I’m in the wrong place.

Writing is self-care. Whether it’s a piece for publication, or something just for me, writing has been my escape, my affirmation, my space to play. Indeed, as the mother of a toddler and infant, I did joke that what better time to write a book. But now I realize I needed something that was just mine, something that I didn’t need to share with anyone. It got me through the early years.

About the author: Lorna is a Pacific Northwest writer and speaker. Her narrative nonfiction and poetry have been recognized by Pacific Northwest Writers Association and the Oregon Poetry Association, and have appeared or are forthcoming in Third Wednesday, Jellyfish Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Writers Resist, and elsewhere. Lorna also speaks publicly on motherhood, resilience, and her experience in AmeriCorps. Because she joins boards to procrastinate on deadlines, she serves as a director of the Oregon Poetry Association and Alaska Writers Guild, and is president of Write On The River. She is at work on a memoir about going from LA party girl to trail worker in rural Alaska. When not wrangling her two small children, she fantasizes about being interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air. More at www.lornarose.com.

To learn more about Write on the River, become a member, or register for events, visit writeontheriver.org. Membership is $35 per year, and offers free or discounted access to all WOTR events.

Questions? Contact info@writeontheriver.org. C