Filed by KOSU News in Politics.
October 26, 2011

Invariably, I’ll get emails from ScuttleButton purists who complain of a puzzle that was used once before. For the record, the reason I’m doing this is two-fold. One, because now that the game has been part of the conversation on Wednesday’s Talk of the Nation on NPR, more and more people are hearing about the contest for the first time. And two, because for the past five weeks, there is now a prize for the randomly-selected person with the correct answer.

In the past, that person had his or her name mentioned in this posting, which in itself is a tremendous honor. But now the winning name is not only mentioned during Wednesday’s Political Junkie segment on NPR’s Talk of the Nation — there is a TOTN t-shirt thrown in as well. The same t-shirt that goes out each week to the first correct answer of the trivia question. (Well, not the same t-shirt. But one that looks the same. You know what I mean.)

And as for this week’s puzzle, I simply couldn’t resist.

Your part? Knowing how to play.

Every Wednesday on this site I put up a vertical display of buttons. Your job is to simply take one word (or concept) per button, add ‘em up, and, hopefully, you will arrive at a famous name or a familiar expression. (And seriously, by familiar, I mean it’s something that more than one person on Earth would recognize.)

You can’t use the comments box at the bottom of the page for your answer. Send submission (plus your name and city/state — you won’t win without that) to politicaljunkie@npr.org.

And, by adding your name to the Political Junkie mailing list, you will be among the first on your block to receive notice about the column and the puzzle. Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org. Or you can make sure to get an automatic RSS feed whenever a new Junkie post goes up by clicking here.

Good luck!

By the way, I usually reveal the answer — and announce the winner — on Wednesday’s Junkie segment on TOTN. So you should get your answer in by Tuesday.

Here’s the answer to last week’s puzzle:

I Love Ringo — Ringo Starr was the drummer for the Beatles. (Google the group; they were pretty big back when.)

Re-elect the President (photos Nixon and Agnew) / Bucks Co., Pa. — Pennsylvania item for the 1972 winning GOP ticket.

Women! Make Policy Not Coffee — A mid-1970s button urging women to expand their horizons and enter politics.

So, when you combine Starr + Bucks + Coffee, you kinda get …

Starbucks Coffee. Further proof that ScuttleButton has plunged into crass commercialism.

And the winner, chosen completely at random, is … Jim Harward of Williamsburg, Va. His correct entry is grounds for getting a TOTN t-shirt. [Copyright 2011 National Public Radio]