Just thinking about exotic islands soothes frayed nerves and dulls the critical edge. How else to account for the fuzziness we found in the last crop of Last Word entries? Many puzzlers missed mentioning “Manhattan” as Anita’s adopted island in West Side Story, or failed to place Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Others cited just “Kokomo” without listing the six getaways of the refrain to the Beach Boys hit. Several mistook Magdalena Island for Magellan’s misnamed Tierra del Fuego. To Clue 10, some responded with either “Djerba” or the “Island of the Lotus Eaters”: For full credit, they needed to name them both. Homer’s mythical island of do-nothings also sparked a slew of colorful guesses, among them Corfu, Crete, Salamis, Tenerife, Ithaca, Karpathos, Ogygia, Gozo in Malta, Pharos Island off Alexandria, Fortunate Isles in the Hesperides – even Avalon and Utopia.

Of the 119 entries received, only 12 were flawless. Borders gift certificates go to these five randomly selected island-watchers of unusual focus: Barbra Bowman ‘99, Mark Fiduccia ‘82, Denise Gonzales MS ‘96, Coni Juno ‘74 and Gretchen Kern ‘03.

Answers ›› 1. Santa Catalina 2. Rhodes 3. Puerto Rico and Manhattan 4. Roanoke Island 5. Easter Island, Robinson Crusoe Island (Más a Tierra) and Tierra del Fuego 6. Marshall Islands, Bikini Atoll 7. Atlantis 8. Krakatoa 9. Aruba, Jamaica, Bermuda, Bahamas, Key Largo, Montego 10. Island of the Lotus Eaters (Lotophagi), Djerba (formerly Meninx) 11. Madagascar.