Durn you, JackeHammer!

My mom got me hooked on crossword puzzles when I was very young. Every Sunday morning before church, we did the Milwaukee Journal crossword puzzle. Whoever got the last word got to compose a suitable inscription: something like "Finished by Joe (smart) and not by Laura (dumb)," or "Laurie finished this with no help from her addled oldest son."

This Sunday's puzzle is courtesy of JackeHammer. It asks you to find the names of 30 books of the Bible concealed in a single paragraph of English. I could have used more emphatic language in coming up with a title for this post - but given the subject matter of this puzzle, I thought better of it.

There are 30 books of the Bible in this paragraph. Can you find them? This is a most remarkable puzzle. It was found by a gentleman in an airplane seat pocket, on a flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu, keeping him occupied for hours. He enjoyed it so much; he passed it on to some friends. One friend from Illinois worked on his while fishing from his john boat. Another friend studied it while playing his banjo. Elaine Taylor, a columnist friend, was so intrigued by it she mentioned it in her weekly newspaper column. Another friend judges the job of solving this puzzle so involving, she brews a cup of tea to help her nerves. There will be some names that are really easy to spot. That's a fact. Some people, however, will soon find themselves in a jam, especially since the book names are not necessarily capitalized. Truthfully, from answers we get, we are forced to admit it usually takes a minister or a scholar to see some of them at the worst. Research has shown that something in our genes is responsible for the difficulty we have in seeing the books in this paragraph. During a recent fund raising event which featured this puzzle, the Alpha Delta Phi lemonade booth set a new record. The local paper, The Chronicle, surveyed over 200 patrons who reported that this puzzle was one of the most difficult they had ever seen. As Daniel Humana humbly puts it, 'The books are all right here in plain view hidden from sight.' Those able to find all of them hear great lamentations from those who have to be shown. One revelation that may help is that books like Timothy and Samuel may occur without their numbers. Also, keep in mind, that punctuation and spaces in the middle are normal. A chipper attitude will help you compete really well against those who claim to know the answers. Remember, there is no need for a mad exodus; there really are 30 books of the Bible lurking somewhere in this paragraph waiting to be found. God Bless.

Finished by Joe (almost as smart as he thinks he is) who misses his Mom (Laura) terribly.