It is March and the lovely #EnigMarch people have challenged puzzle designers to write a puzzle inspired by today's word: "wild".
Oh no! The USA clown private citizen Trump demanded the death of five kids back in 1989 for no good reason!
Back in 1989, five children were accused of a crime committed in New York's Central Park; they became known as The Central Park Five. Donald Trump, already a scaredy-cat back then, called for the death penalty. Since he was a rich nepo baby, he could afford to take out full-page ads in four major New York newspapers, and did so. "Bring back the death penalty!" Is that part of the reason The Central Park Five were convicted despite the lack of evidence?
Trump then as now always got things wrong. Thus it wasn't super-surprising when the actual perpetrator confessed many years later and The Central Park Five became The Exonerated Five.
According to the police interrogators, one of the kids had said he
was "wilding," theoretically slang for wreaking mayhem. Except there was no such
slang. You didn't really hear kids say "wilding." But for years afterwards,
you did hear about "wilding"… from pundits who were afraid of black peop
ahem cities, they were afraid of cities.
It's too bad The Exonerated Five were locked up all those years, but silver lining, I got a puzzle out of it. See if you can identify these Fives. To help you out I also give you the letters of the answer like RAACEKLNPRT for Central Park. I do this because some of these are kind of obscure and because to me "wilding" definitely sounds like a cryptic crossword anagram indicator. Fill in the blanks; when you're done, the circled letters should spell something appropriate.
| The C e n t Ⓡ a l P a r k Five | Before they were The Exonerated Five ( |
| The ◯_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Five | After they were The Central Park Five (EADEENORTX) |
| _ _◯_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Five | Where thy father lies, according to Ariel (LAEFFFHILMOTUV) |
| _ _ _ _ _ _ _◯_ _ _ _ _ _ Five | Kurt Vonnegut novel a.k.a. The Children's Crusade (EAEGHHLORSSTUU) |
| _ _ _ _ _ _◯_ _ Five | Fixture of the late 1990s microgenre Shibuya-kei (ACIIOPTZZ) |
| The _ _ _ _ _ _◯ Five | Grandmaster Flash and… (SFIORUU) |
| _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _◯ Five | Spies Kim Philby, Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt, and John Cairncross (EABCDGIMR) |
| The ◯_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Five | English Rock and Roll band with 1964 hit "Glad All Over" (DAACEKLRV) |
Some hints, rot13'd:
- Gung Nevry vf sebz Funxrfcrner'f Grzcrfg, abg Gur Yvggyr Zreznvq. Ur'f fvatvat nobhg n fuvcjerpx.
- Gur "Tynq Nyy Bire" onaq jnf anzrq nsgre fbzr thl jvgu vavgvnyf QP
- Cvmmvpngb vf n cynlvat grpuavdhr gung vaibyirf cyhpxvat gur fgevatf bs n fgevat vafgehzrag naq gur anzrfnxr bs gur Wncnarfr onaq Cvmmvpngb Svir.
- Xvz Cuvyol rgp jrer erpehvgrq gb Fbivrg vagryyvtrapr juvyr fghqlvat ng Pnzoevqtr. (Gur qhyy bar va Ratynaq, abg gur pbby bar jvgu ZVG)
E / gur pragEny cnex / Orsber gurl jrer Gur Rkbarengrq Svir R / gur Rkbarengrq / Nsgre gurl jrer Gur Prageny Cnex Svir Y / shYy sngubz svir / Jurer gul sngure yvrf, nppbeqvat gb Nevry R / fynhtugReubhfr / Xheg Ibaarthg abiry n.x.n.Gur Puvyqera'f Pehfnqr N / cvmmvpNgb / Svkgher bs gur yngr 1990f zvpebtraer Fuvohln-xrv F / gur shevbhF / Tenaqznfgre Synfu naq… R / pnzoevqtR / Fcvrf Xvz Cuvyol, Qbanyq Znpyrna, Thl Ohetrff, Nagubal Oyhag, naq Wbua Pnveapebff Q / gur Qnir pynex / Ratyvfu Ebpx naq Ebyy onaq jvgu 1964 uvg "Tynq Nyy Bire"
