• A fun fact inspired by a recent Fictogram answer

• Answers to last week's games

Wonder Woman was created by the inventor of the lie detector

In modern times, the superhero has risen to the top of popular culture. The expression of super-abilities while dressed in bold costumes does more than promote exciting toys and other franchise merchandise. The superhero costume serves to disguise the super-abled from their otherwise “mild mannered” alter ego, or “normal” social identity. In fact, the real disguise exists in the normal appearing everyday persona. While her origin story makes it clear she was crafted in clay by the god Hippolyta (later rebooted as the demigod offspring of Hippolyta and Zeus), DC’s Wonder Woman (Fictogram answer #159) lives a double life as duty bound US Army nurse Diana Prince. Her famous Lasso of Hestia, the Golden Perfect, gives her the uncanny ability to force anyone in its hold to tell the truth.

It therefore comes as no surprise that Wonder Woman was created by a psychologist with a real interest in deception. William Marston’s invention of the systolic blood pressure test led him to understand and apply the relationship between blood pressure and lying. His study of the relationship between emotion and blood pressure eventually led him to create the first lie detector test.

Believing women are more truthful than men, Marston became an advocate for the power of women. This would lead him to create a superhero with the power to conceal her own true nature, while also controlling men with godlike strength and a mighty golden lasso that can force anyone to tell the truth.

Answers to last week's games

Monday, April 22 to Sunday, April 28.

Linxicon

The following are the shortest paths from last week:

• #70 test -> sample -> portion -> part -> component

• #71 house -> mortgage -> interest -> cent -> per

• #72 completely -> clearly -> visibly -> show -> exhibit

• #73 although -> however -> which -> where -> site

• #74 only -> exclusive -> original -> origin -> background

• #75 share -> donate -> donation -> coin -> buck

• #76 respect -> sportsmanship -> sport -> ski

• #77 Play now!

Forgeous

Renoir, Pierre-Auguste. Eugène Murer (Hyacinthe-Eugène Meunier, 1841–1906). 1877, oil paint on canvas, 47 cm x 39.4 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/438011.

Play Forgeous for April 29.