A. 愛国者 B. 海賊 C. 巨人 D. 侵略者 E. 聖人 F. 族長 G. 荷造り人

Responses were somewhat sparser than usual this week.  It was almost as if some sort of major event was going on that required a considerable amount of time to be devoted to travel and other activities.  Oh well.  As they say, if life gives you lemons, make lemonade, and if life doesn’t give you very many lemons, make watery lemonade.

Dragon was back this week in her usual role of “First to answer, Last to still be making comments about last week’s puzzle.”  She quickly identified the symbol of the cross in A and assumed it must be the symbol of the saint, but only in that particular instance, because she also noticed the exact same character in D, and they couldn’t both be right . . . or could they?  No, they couldn’t, because neither one of them was right.  The cross-bearing character simply means “person,” so it’s no surprise that it shows up in multiple answers on this quiz, just as the last character in C, E, and G does (this, too, means person.  Why do they need two?  Well, why does English need two different ways to pluralize the word “person”?)  The New Orleans Saint is letter E, with characters meaning “holy person.”  The “holy,” naturally, is a kanji that consists of parts meaning ear, mouth, and king.  New Orleans is a nutty place sometimes.

Theoman may be shocked to discover that his persistence is actually paying off this week.  A is indeed the (New England) Patriot, or “loves-country person.”  Kudos on spotting a kanji you recognize and not being tripped up by the many different ways these things can be interpreted, as has happened so many times in the past.

Now, you could say that, because the Japanese word for Viking (and also for all-you-can-eat buffet-style cuisine) is baikingu and does not appear on this list, Shirley was technically wrong with her guess of C.  But we’re going to go out of our way to convince ourselves that she was actually secretly correct.  While baikingu does not make an appearance, two other words with strongly related meanings do: “pirate” (or, in the football sense, Buccaneer) at B and “Raider” at D.  By picking C, directly in between, Shirley was in fact attempting to indicate a blending of these two meanings.  In addition, as we all know, Scandinavian people tend to be tall, which is why she selected the word that means Giant.

F, by the way, is the Chiefs, hailing from one of America’s most lamentable sports towns, Kansas City, and G, appropriately enough, is the Green Bay Packers.  Perhaps the inclusion of both the Packers and the Vikings on this quiz proved to be too much for A Fan to bear, hence his decision to abstain.

But that’s enough sports for a while.  It’s time to bring back the ever-popular (at least with me) KYPC Homophone Challenge!  This week’s words are all pronounced touji, but their meanings cover the following range: chief brewer at a sake brewery; clay; hot-spring cure; lady, matron, mistress; libertine; rule, reign, governing; and winter solstice.  Theoman, fresh off his recent victory, can see how much he rules at this game, while the rest of you may be reminded of the upcoming shortest day of the year.  Or that you need to make a pot for Christmas.  Whatever works for you.

A. 刀自　B. 冬至　C. 杜氏　D. 湯治　E. 統治　F. 蕩児　G. 陶磁