The News in Briefs / Old Puzzler Answers / New Fortnightly Puzzler

Game Player Can't Stop Saying Hey! That's My Fish!

Parents Considering Hospitalization

Austin, TX – Since Christmas day, game lover Harvey Johnson, Jr. has not stopped saying "Hey! That's My Fish!"

Johnson, a sophomore at Austin High, requested a copy of the popular Mayfair game for Christmas after having read a couple of reviews.

"I suppose it all started innocently enough," said father Harvey Johnson, Sr. "Harvey would see an article on Hey! That's My Fish! and would exclaim, 'Hey! That's My Fish!' We all got a big kick out of it the first couple of times. But things pretty much went downhill after that."

On Christmas, after unwrapping Hey! That's My Fish!, Harvey Jr. insisted on playing it immediately. The family, struck by his intensity, complied.

"We shoulda held our ground," said mother Linda Jo Johnson. "I shoulda said, 'Now Harvey. First, we're gonna eat our Christmas lunch that the sweet Lord Almighty laid out in front of us. Then, we can play that game of yours.' But no. My strength failed me."

Harvey Jr. has continued to communicate with his family, albeit in the simple sentence framework of the game's title.

"He talks to us," said his brother Larry who was the first to break the cryptic speech. "He'll say things like 'Hey! That's my food!' when he's hungry or 'Hey! That's my pee!' when he needs to use the restroom. It's not too bad once you get used to it, but it definitely gets old fast. I just want to knock some sense into him."

Harvey Jr. responded to a few questions about his condition with answers like "Hey! That's my mike!" and "Hey! That's my line!" He was especially sensitive to other people's use of the game's title, and ultimately, not much progress could be made.

Harvey Jr.'s parents are considering hospitalization for their son's unusual behavior. "There's not much more we can do for him," Harvey Sr. said. "We've tried patience. We've tried love. I'm afraid it's just time for Harvey to say 'Hey! That's my straightjacket!'"

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The News in Briefs in fictitious. While some real names and people are used,
any resemblance to real events is purely coincidental.
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Old Puzzler

Find a word which contains the letters R, S, V, and P in that order. Any number of letters can come before, in between or after these letters.

I got two answers to this puzzle:

1) "paraskevidekatriaphobia" meaning "fear of Friday the 13th" - submitted by Chris Okasaki

2) "transversospinal" which is "a type of muscle group" - submitted by Dan Miller

Both solvers used on-line resources like www.onelook.com and www.quinapalus.com/matcher.html. Congratulations to both of you.

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New Fortnightly Puzzler

There is a game in two words. If you drop the first, second, and last letter of the second word, the title of the game becomes a classic comic character. What's the game and who's the character?