• A fun fact inspired by a recent Chronogram answer

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Before Banning Cuban Cigars, JFK Got His

America’s youngest president was known for his charisma and rumored affections for beautiful celebrities. Although his term as president was shortened by an assassin’s bullet, America’s 35th president John F. Kennedy (Chronogram guest #413) is still regarded as one of the most inspirational presidents in history. After the Soviet Union became the first nation into space, Kennedy was determined for the USA to do one better. The arms race was in full swing when Kennedy was inaugurated in 1961, at the age of 43. On May 25, 1961, Kennedy made his famous speech before congress, laying out his plan to put a man on the moon and safely return him home to earth by the end of the decade. Kennedy was at the very center of the increasing turmoil between the USA and USSR.

On February 7, 1962, in the throes of the Cold War, Kennedy officially signed an executive order placing an embargo on trade with Cuba. For those who knew Kennedy as an aficionado of Cuban cigars, such an embargo hardly made sense. But the young president was no fool. Before making the executive order binding, he had a very important assignment for his Head of Press Pierre Salinger. On February 2, 1962, he sent his right-hand man to acquire 1000 of his favorite H. Upmann brand cigars. Legend has it that Saligner pulled through with 1200 habanos, just hours before the president signed the order banning all trade of goods from the communist nation. After settling the tensions caused by the Cuban Missile crisis later that year, Kennedy famously proposed a joint venture to land a man on the moon, but this was not well received by either the USSR or his own political allies at home. In the limelight of it all, the 35th president may have given new meaning to the phrase, “smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.” 

Answers to last week's games

Monday, May 13 to Sunday, May 19.

Linxicon

The following are the shortest paths from last week:

• #91 full -> occupied -> occupy -> government

• #92 false -> fail -> decline -> fall -> summer

• #93 string -> lead -> leading -> foremost -> primarily

• #94 doctor -> appointment -> reminders -> remind

• #95 interview -> encounter -> appear -> apparent

• #96 glass -> spectacle -> representation -> represent

• #97 belong -> belonging -> lasting -> forever

• #98 Play now!

Forgeous

Benjamin-Constant, Jean-Joseph. Judith. 1886, oil paint on canvas, 120.7 x 80 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The Met, www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/435649.

Play Forgeous for May 20.