THE PUZZLE CORNER: DECEMBER 27, 2025

 😎FUN FACT

At the stroke of midnight New Year’s Eve, be sure to raise your left leg so you can start 2026 off on the right foot.😉 And Times Square plans to drop the ball TWICE that night!

WHAT’S THAT SONG?

Words from a tune of the past are below. All you have to do is give us the song title. Ready?

♫It’s a rare condition in this day and age, to read any good news on the newspaper page.♫

THE LETTER SHUFFLE

With 2026 fast approaching, how many new words can you make out of the letters in NEW YEAR?

We’ll reveal all next weekend but for now, let’s open up THE ANSWERS BOX🎁 and discover the results from the December 20, 2025 Puzzle Corner.

REBUS

Something familiar is represented in the image below. Do you know what it is?

A (Danny) Partridge in a pear tree.

THE LETTER SHUFFLE

How many new words can you make out the letters in CHRISTMAS?

A, act(s), ah(s), aim(s), air(s), am, amiss, arc(s), arch, arm(s), art(s), as, ash, ass, at

Cam(s), car(s), cart(s), cash, cast(s) cat(s), char(s), chair(s), charm(s), chart(s), chasm(s), chat(s), cram(s)

Ha, hair, ham(s), harm(s), has, hat(s), hi, him, his, hiss, hit(s)

I, I’m, is, it, its, it’s, itch

Ma, mach, march, mar(s), mart(s), mash, mass, mast(s), mat(s), match, math, mint(s),mirth, miss, mist(s)

Racism, racist(s), ram(s), rash, rat(s), rich, rim(s)

Sash, sat, scam(s), scar(s), scat, sham(s), shirt(s), Sir, sis, sit(s), smash, smart(s), stair(s), star(s), starch, stash, stir(s)

Tar(s), this, Tis, trash, tram(s), trim(s), Tsar

Besides the 137 words listed above, Chris, Christ, and Sam might be eligible, depending upon your position of counting proper names in a game like this. Other words might also be possible.

SUNDAY FUNNIES: TOOLIN' AROUND

Editor-In-Chief Lee Houston, Jr

Once again, another holiday weekend finds me alone within The Free Choice E-zine offices while Autumn the Puppy and Waxy Dragon spend time with their respective families.
So, what do I post to entertain you for this edition of The Sunday Funnies?
Got it! One thing every guy should know, the REAL definition of tools!
But since there are so many tools to choose from, we'll narrow the field to just those possibly used to work on a car or something mechanical this time.
Ready?

WIRE WHEEL: Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under
the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprints and hard-earned calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to yell for help.

DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands to fling across the room, denting the freshly-painted project which you had carefully set in the corner where nothing could hurt it.

CHANNEL LOCK PLIERS: Used to round off bolt heads. Sometimes used in the creation of blood-blisters.
They have absolutely nothing to do with your TV/cable remote acting up.

VISE-GRIPS: Generally used after pliers to completely round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.

OXYACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for igniting various flammable objects in your shop and creating a fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub out of which you want to remove a bearing race.

HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK: Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new brake shoes, trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.

TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST: A tool for testing the maximum tensile strength of all the stuff you forgot to disconnect when working on your car.

Phillips head screw

PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER: Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under lids or for opening old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips screw heads.

Straight head screw

STRAIGHT SCREWDRIVER: A tool for opening paint cans. Sometimes used to convert common slotted screws into non-removable screws and butchering your palms.

PRY BAR: A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that important clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.

HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the object we are trying to hit.

TIME/EFFORT/SAVINGS
An equation that looks good on paper, but never quite works out in reality.
Yet every little bit helps these days.

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend.
Have a great week, and please be back here next weekend for more Sunday Funnies!—lh,jr

THE PUZZLE CORNER: DECEMBER 27, 2014

FUN FACT

Original movie poster

The Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street was originally released in MAY 1947. The 20th Century Fox Public Relations department had the difficult task of marketing the movie without mentioning the holiday nor Santa Claus; but the film went on to win Oscars for Best Supporting Actor (Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle), and Best Writing in both the Original Story and Screenplay categories.

Welcome to the last Puzzle Corner of 2014.
There will be many more enigmas in the weekends of years to come, but let's end this year on a high note, shall we?

TRIVIA TIME
What Christmas story, between movies and television, has been the most filmed to date?
HINT: It isn't Miracle on 34th Street.

THE LETTER SHUFFLE
How many new words can you spell, using the letters within the phrase NEW YEAR?
NOTE: Those two individual words cannot count as part of your answer since they are part of the phrase.

We'll reveal all and start a new year of puzzles on January 3, 2015.
But for now, let's open up THE ANSWERS BOX, and reveal the results of the December 20, 2014 Puzzle Corner.

TRIVIA TIME
If you've been following The Puzzle Corner this holiday season, then you know that the 4 animated Christmas specials that have been continuously shown on TV annually since their debut are:
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer 1964
A Charlie Brown Christmas 1965
Doctor Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas 1966 and
Frosty the Snowman 1969.

FAMOUS FIRSTS
Then, although it unfortunately hasn't gained the renown of the quartet above, what animated TV special debuted before all the others?
Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol in 1962.
The special was originally 55 minutes long, since there were far less commercials on TV back then, and requires 90 minutes to show it in its entirety on TV by today's commercial standards.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY

AND WE'LL SEE YOU IN 2015!