David Alfred Bywaters's Crossword Cavalcade & Fortnightly Victorian Novel Recommender. Every Saturday! Either a new language-torturing puzzle or an old novel by an unjustly neglected Victorian author. Why waste time on other amusements?

Crossword 366: Coup d'état

Edward Matthew Ward, The Last Parting of Marie Antoinette and her Son
Edward Matthew Ward, The Last Parting of Marie Antoinette and her Son

This site does not advocate the violent overthrow of any government whatsoever.  To be sure, there are several political leaders, local, national, and international whom I would like to see replaced—and sometimes I think it might be fun to see them replaced by none-too-gentle means. But then I remember, as Samuel Johnson says, “How small, of all that human hearts endure” is “That part which laws or kings can cause or cure.”  Political leaders can do very little about most of what troubles us—universal mortality, for example.  And so, if you find yourself (and who doesn’t sometimes?) longing to wrest some jackass from power and replace him with an alternative more to your liking, this puzzle is designed to give your aggressive impulses an outlet:  vent them on the alphabet, replacing not leaders, but letters.  You’ll feel better, and nobody will get hurt.

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366-Coup-d'état.puz

366-Coup-d'état.pdf

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366: Coup d'état