wendy7 wrote:
J,
Please explain or pray tell. What are swiftie puzzles, NPR's etc.?


NPR is National Public Radio here in the US. All Things Considered
Sunday Edition is a news and feature show on Sunday mornings. It has a
puzzle feature hosted by Will Shortz, the man who composes the Sunday
crossword puzzle in the New York Times.

Swifties are made by using a punning adverb to follow a brief
quotation. They get their name from the Tom Swift books that were
popular reading for boys up until the 1950's or so. Tom Swift was a
boy genius who was always coming up with amazing inventions. In the
books no character simply said something; they always said something
like this. "The airplane is on fire!" Tom said heatedly. That's a
Swifty.

Some other examples--

"I can't solve this puzzle," Tom said cluelessly.

"That's a weighty problem," Tom said heavily.

"I may have to go to prison," Tom said penitently

Etc, ad infinitum.


J. Del Col