The Union Forever!

Dedicated to the memory of Bruce Voeller

by George Barany, Michael Hanko, and Paul Luftig

This "mid-week level" puzzle is modified and updated from versions that went on-line in the run-up to the 2012 Presidential election. This puzzle appeared in the May 2015 issue of Natural Selections, as accessed here. We dedicate the puzzle to the memory of Bruce Voeller (1934-1994), a Rockefeller alum (1961) who served on the Rockefeller faculty and raised some eyebrows when he asked for his office to be painted pink (see lower right photo).  Voeller later did research in human sexuality and looked for ways to reduce the risks of sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS.  As our modern society has shifted toward accepting same-sex marriages, the puzzle’s theme remains just as relevant today, and we note with sadness that Dr. Voeller was never able to experience this basic right with the man his New York Times obituary listed as “his companion.” 

Alternatively, click here to view or download the puzzle in PDF format; here to download it as a puz file [requires Across Lite software to play]; here to solve the puzzle interactively (thanks to Jim Horne); here for the solution. We thank Martin Ashwood-Smith, Ralph Bunker, John Child, Noam Elkies, Charles Flaster, Lloyd Fricker, Brent Hartzell, Martin Herbach, Arlene Romoff. Arthur Rothstein, and Marjorie Russel for beta testing the puzzle in 2012, 2015, or both.

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http://tinyurl.com/union4brucepuz

More puzzles here (all), here (political), and here (tributes).

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