PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe2 SERVED
Schpuzzle of the Week:
Huck & Jim, Paul & Babe, “Nessie”
A. Remove the first syllable from the first word in the two-word name of a literary and legendary – and yet real – body of water.B. Switch the two vowels of the result.
C. Place after this result, without leaving a space, a Romance-language translation of the kind of body of water that follows the name of the body of water. (For example, “River,” “Lake,” “Ocean” and “Strait,” in Spanish, would become “Río,” “Lago,” “Océano” and “Estrecho.”)
The final result is a word for “something light, delicate, or insubstantial,” like cobwebs wafting in the air until settling softly upon earth.
Name this two-word body of water, Romance-Language translation of its second word, and the delicate, insubstantial thing.
For an example...
A. “Amazon River” becomes “azon.”
B. “azon” becomes “ozan”
C. “ozan” plus “río” becomes “ozanrío” (if we choose Spanish as our “Romance translation
language”).
D. If “ozanrio” were a word for “something light, delicate, or insubstantial,” like cobwebs wafting in the air and settling on earth, we would have solved the puzzle! Alas, it isn’t even a word!
But, what then is the solution?...
A. the body of water minus its first syllable?
B. that truncated word with its vowels transposed?
C. that truncated, two-vowels-transposed word followed by the Romance-language translation of the type of body-of-water it is?
What is the two-word name of this body of water?
What is the word for “something light, delicate, or insubstantial,” like cobwebs wafting in the air until settling softly upon earth?
Appetizer Menu
Great Patrick J. “Berrier” Reef Appetizer:
Back in Black? Patrick’s “Back on Track!”
Let’s celebrate!
Master Cryptic Crossword Crafter Patrick J. Berry is back with another of his mystifying mind-defying masterpieces! (It is Patrick’s 38th tricky cryptic stickler to grace the cyberpages of Puzzleria!)
Coincidentally and serendipitously, Will Shortz’s March 16th National Public Radio Puzzle Challenge involved an island.... and, so does Patrick’s crossword grid! The theme involves an island in the center of his 15-by-15-square puzzle grid... an “insular collection of squares” isolated from the “sea of squares” surrounding it. Granted, “no man may be an island...” but perhaps “men in a rock band” (see 16-Across) may be stranded (or are just vacationing or “hanging out”) ON an island!
Indeed, one might assert that Patrick’s latest effort may be the best “themed cryptic crossword” ever composed...
Consider, for instance, Patrick’s 18 Across clues and 16 Down clues. Eight of these 34 clues allude to the answer to 16-Across (“Rock group in middle of puzzle...”). Those eight clues ( along with Clue-Number-16-Across itself) adds up to 9 of the puzzle’s 34 clues (26.5%!), all contributing to the theme of the puzzle.
Patrick executes this theme masterfully.
You can access any of Patrick’s previous 37 cryptic crosswords by opening the links below:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37
For those who may be new to cryptic crossword puzzles, Patrick has compiled the following list of basic cryptic crossword puzzle instructions:
Regarding the Across and Down clues and their format:
The number, or numbers, that appear in parentheses at the end of each clue indicate how many letters are in the answer. Multiple numbers in parentheses indicate how letters are distributed in multiple-word answers.For example, (6) simply indicates a six-letter
word like “island,” (4,4) indicates a four-letter and four-letter answer like “rock band,” and (4-7) indicates a four-letter and seven-letter hyphenated answer like “mind-defying.”
For further insight about how to decipher these numbered cryptic clues, see Patrick’s “Cryptic Crossword Tutorial” in this link to his November
2017 cryptic crossword.
That Tutorial appears below the filled-in answer-grid in that edition of Puzzleria!
So, go ahead, “sea” if you can swim-solve your way past the “Great Patrick-J.-Berrier Reef" and onto his inner-island paradise!
Enjoy!
(Note: When “16” appears in the text of a clue, it refers to the answer to the clue “16-Across.”)
ACROSS
1. Top man in charge sort of changedcompany(9)
6. Puzzle model(5)
9. Huge crush, we hear(5)
10. A fortune’s wasted to make movie(9)
11. Writer’s partner being blunt(6)12. Department head’s heading back(5)
15. Hint? Hint left out(3)
16. Rock group in middle of puzzle: Cream?(2,3)
17. Somewhat patriotic group like 16(4)
19. Affleck’s first-run success!(4)
20. Feature of 16’s members—brave decision, primarily(5)21. Wood residue(3)
25. Cook using right oven(5)
26. Blasphemy—thus, no BS?(6)
29. Baseball team getting away on ship out of spite?(9)
30. Close to admirer in love, looking for mail(5)
31. Spring: Guys discovered gal(5)
32. Nick’s got out some sexy pantyhose(9)
DOWN
1. Chat about latest scoop—that’s gossip(6)2. Song by 16 man embracing karaoke ultimately performed with gals(5,10)
3. Fool—right off, our fool(6)4. Sound of pig or duck—it comes from the pen(4)
5. Shut off song by 16(4)
6. More needs to be said about crude sweat marks in the comics(6)7. 16 song for date in crowd, joint passed around—high? Not I!(5,7,3)
8. 16 song of fish possessing bad smell?(5,3)
13. State institution not hard for old Mexican(5)
14. Get on table(5)
18. 16 song for girl raised on farm(2,6)
22. Hit or failure to hit?(6)
23. Comment about book(6)
24. Tree, say, in country?(6)
27. 16 song for likable girls on vacation(4)
28. One keeping head down in part of Norway(4)