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17 | W aterloo C hronicle | T hursday,June 3,2021 w aterloochronicle.ca Check out the answers on page 10 Like puzzles? Then you'll love sudoku. This mind-bending puzzle will have you hooked from the moment you square off, so sharpen your pencil and put your sudoku savvy to the test! Here's How ItWorks: Sudoku puzzles are formatted as a 9x9 grid, broken down into nine 3x3 boxes. To solve a sudoku, the numbers 1 through 9 must fill each row, column and box. Each number can appear only once in each row, column and box. You can figure out the order in which the numbers will appear by using the numeric clues already provided in the boxes. The more numbers you name, the easier it gets to solve the puzzle! Cr oss wo rd & Su do ku CLUES ACROSS 1. Shadowbox 5. Drinks with a straw 9. Flap 12. Desire 13. Publicize 14. Tooth-fixer's group: abbr. 15. Functions 16. Not deserved 18. Hurled 20. Women's undergarment 21. "____ Eagles" 23. Word from the crib 27. Student's mark 30. Cut 32. Jazz instrument 33. Nothing 34. Ordinary language 36. Mr. Linden 37. Take steps 38. Craving 39. Reason's partner 41. Rider's command 43. Newspapers and radio 45. 1 + 1 47. Excuses 51. Jam knife 55. Chinese staple 56. Forage grass 57. Alert 58. Detective Nancy ____ 59. Needle aperture 60. House annexes 61. Gambling term CLUES dOWn 1. Slam 2. Stylishly elegant 3. Mimic 4. Marketed again 5. Bit 6. Electrified atom 7. Indian villages 8. Film celebrity 9. Summer hue 10. Lemony drink 11. Faulty 17. Thrust 19. Tearful 22. Like a hermit 24. Pale 25. Title of respect 26. Wheel rod 27. Chew 28. Loaded 29. Choir singer 31. Danger 35. Fix up 40. Bob or beehive, e.g. 42. Had a bite 44. Mends, as socks 46. Arouse 48. Owl or eagle 49. Made cold 50. Does needlepoint 51. "____ Done HimWrong" 52. Settle accounts 53. Bread or cereal grain 54. Elongated fish Level: Advanced "Another lovely day be- gins with ghosts and ghouls with greenish skin. So close your eyes and you will find that you've ar- rived at Count Frighten- stein." Horror icon Vincent Price's intro to the Hilarious House of Frightenstein fas- cinated me as a child, with his face superimposed over exterior shots of the dark and dreary castle. His monologue would end with insidious laughter as light- ning flashed and the theme song, the "March of the Mar- tians," opened each episode. "The Hilarious House of Frightenstein" was a Cana- dian children's television series produced in 1971 by Hamilton station CHCH- TV, and one of my favourite childhood memories in- volved waking up early to watch this off-beat and bi- zarre hour-long program before school each day. So I was thrilled to hear that all 130-digitally remas- tered episodes of "The Hi- larious House of Frighten- stein" will be released on Blu-ray later this year in celebration of the show's 50th anniversary. The cult classic featured a bizarre cast of spookily silly characters, most of which were played by actor Billy Van. Van breathed life into an imaginative range of dis- tinct personalities that in- cluded the Count, the Ora- cle, Dr. Pet Vet, the record- spinning Wolfman and sev- eral others. My favourite was Gri- zelda the Ghastly Gour- met, the crazed Julia Child of Transylvania who added a pinch of Walt to every- thing (Walt being the ashes of her late husband, kept in a jug). Grizelda was always cooking up something scary in her kitchen and used ingredients like Buz- zard Mountain Goat Milk from her pantry. "Eat your heart out!" she would say. I also loved Van's por- trayal the Librarian -- an ancient man surrounded by dusty books, who always attempted (unsuccessful- ly) to scare viewers through his creepy read- ings of classic nursery rhymes. And I always had a soft spot for Igor, one of the few characters not portrayed by Van. Igor was played by Fishka Rais, who was per- fect as the big green- skinned, Shrek-like oaf who danced to the Wolf- man's soul records. Then there was Super- hippy, played by Mitch Markowitz, who always made me laugh -- the scrawny unsuperhero-ish character with a big blond Afro, red headband and su- perman costume would ap- pear in short five-second skits strewn throughout the shows. Through the magic of Chroma-key, he would fly around with his flapping cape saying things like, "the Count's hair ... grease!" and "Shazam!" I was delighted to meet Markowitz at the Tri-City Super Con at Bingemans a few years back, where he signed a poster for me along with a copy of "The Hilarious House of Fright- enstein" album containing classic audio segments from the original show fea- turing the Count, Dr. Pet Vet, Grizelda, the Wolf- man, Super Hippy, and Vincent Price. It's amazing how well the show holds up now, de- cades later. It still has a surreal, goofy quality to appeal to kids, but as a grown-up I now see how brilliantly Bil- ly Van and castmates were improvising, adding little jokes and one-liners that only adults would under- stand. Here's hoping the up- coming Blu-ray release will welcome a whole new generation to the weird, wonderful world of Fright- enstein. Marshall Ward is a freelance writer and artist. Check out his award-win- ning podcast "Bonn Park" with Sara Geidlinger on Apple Podcasts, In- stagram and Twit- ter @bonnparkpodcast and Facebook: Bonn Park Pod- cast. THE HILARIOUS HOUSE OF FRIGHTENSTEIN CELEBRATES 50 YEARS OPINION MARSHALL WARD Column A Hilarious House of Frightenstein poster signed by Mitch Markowitz at the Tri-City Super Con. Marshall Ward photo