Open the windows. Take a peek out. Breathe the breeze in. We are passing Maypril by. Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria! Express is chuffing and steaming into summer like a rollicking “Logomotive.” Hop aboard. It’s Friday!
We were gratified this past week to hear the puzzle offered by puzzle master Dr. Will Shortz on National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition Sunday. (Click on the link above and look for “Next Week’s Challenge.” You will find an excellent puzzle created by Ed Pegg Jr.)
Why are we gratified? Well, because we suspect the incisive answer to the NPR puzzle (See Blaine’s blog) is Will’s way of giving a subtle shout-out to the ruminative, “chewy” and ultimately, we hope, toothsome nature of our business here at Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria!
And so in that spirit, we present these three piping fresh Joseph Young’s Puzzleria! posers to tickle your ivories:
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Cosmopolitan Slice“IHOP = International House Of Puzzles”
Place the surname of an author after a certain mythological figure (with no space between them), resulting in a variety of a food. Each of these three words is associated with a different nation. What are these words and their nations of origin?
Specialty of the House Slice“Alphabetics Antonymous”
A word and its antonym end with the same two letters in the same order. The remaining letters of the two words, if you replace a vowel with a different vowel, can be rearranged to form a string of consecutive letters in the alphabet. What are these antonyms?
Celebrity Slice“Screens Silver and Small”
Think of an award-winning film with a two-word title. The first word sounds like the last name of a cast member of a popular past TV series. The second word is the last name of another cast member on the same series. These cast members share two other things in common regarding their names: one thing on the TV series and the other thing in real life. Who are these cast members, and what is the film?
Every Friday at Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria! we publish a new menu of fresh word puzzles, number puzzles, logic puzzles, puzzles of all varieties and flavors. We cater to cravers of scrumptious puzzles!
Our master chef, Grecian gourmet puzzle-creator Lego Lambda, blends and bakes up mysterious (and sometimes questionable) toppings and spices (such as alphabet soup, Mobius bacon strips, diced snake eyes, cubed radishes, “hominym” grits, anagraham crackers, rhyme thyme and sage sprinklings.)Please post your comments below. Feel free also to post clever and subtle hints that do not give the puzzle answers away. Please wait until after 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesdays to post your answers and explain your hints about the puzzles. We plan to serve up at least one fresh puzzle every Friday.
We invite you to make it a habit to “Meet at Joe’s!” If you like our “mystic puzzleria” please tell your friends about us. Thank you.
This week's Celebrity Slice was driving me batty until I got the answer.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletePatrons,
ReplyDeleteDavid gave a fine clue to the Celebrity Slice (CelebS).
For those solvers who would appreciate a gentle nudge on the Cosmopolitan Slice (CosmoS) and Specialty Of The House Slice (SOTHS), here are two probably-not-very-helpful clues written backward (so you have an option whether you want to access them). But a dash of seasoning on a certain slice may make it more palatable.
CosmoS: .elpoep detacude ylbanosaer tsom ot railimaf yrev era elzzup siht ni snoitan ehT
SOTHS: .elzzup siht ot tnenopmoc lacitamehtam tahwemos a si erehT
!gnitanimur peeK
adbmaLogeL
As an abecedarian, Lego, I am feeling decidedly efgeeacharian about your alphabet puzzle.
ReplyDeleteWord Woman,
Delete“Efgeeacharian” is certainly a minty-fresh coinage. Thanks for the tip!
It calls to my mind this limerick I penned decades ago:
Once a speed-reading abecedarian
Begged a lexicon from a librarian,
Began reading at “aardvark,”
Never needing a bookmark,
And was quickly an exwyzeearian!
LegoLamberick
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDidn't Matthew Perry & James Mason have cameos on the Perry Mason show?
ReplyDeleteron,
DeleteI think I do indeed recall James Mason and Matthew Perry appearing on Perry Mason’s last season in 1966, not in cameos though. However, JM did drive a new just-off-the -assembly-line Chevy Camaro in the episode, in which he reprised his Humbert Humbert role from Stanley Kubrick’s “Lolita.” Matthew Perry, still-3-years-from-being-born, played Mason’s disembodied conscience.
Perry Mason was defending James M. against some trumped-up bunco charge that he had solicited minors to cross state lines for illegal purposes. PM’s assistant Della Street, who kind of had a crush on JM in the episode, believed him to be innocent. But Hedda Hopper’s boy Paul Drake suspected the worst of JM, and was hopping mad when his buddy Perry Mason took JM on as a client.
The case was resolved when Perry got Drake to break down in a tearful courtroom confession just as the jury was about to find JM guilty. Drake, who always had the hots for Della, was jealous of her attraction to JM, and so had tried to frame him.
BuncoLambda
I still have not been able to figure out either the Specialty of the House or Cosmopolitan Slice, but have several piggyback puzzles I will post tomorrow, so I don't give away the intended answer by mistake.
ReplyDeleteSame here. . .
DeleteDavid.
DeleteI await your piggybackers with glee.
David and Word Woman,
I need this feedback. Thanks.
My puzzles were too easy the first few weeks, so I overcompensated, rewriting them to make them more difficult. The Puzzleria! pendulum is swinging too widely and wildly. (Our big gripe over at Blaine’s has lately been how easy Will’s NPR puzzles are, so I didn’t want to fall into that trap.). Determining just the correct degree of difficulty is an art which I am still working on mastering.
In the meantime, a few hints:
In the CosmoS, the nations are European, the author is a novelist, and the author and mythological figure are of different genders.
In the SOTHS, it is a mid-alphabet alphabetical string.
LegoLookingForaHappyMedium
Lego, if you are going to continue to give several puzzles each week, I think they should range from easier to harder. A large part of the fun is the back and forth we have with other posters, which tends to be inhibited if we can't solve the puzzle. At the same time, I think we all like the challenge of a difficult puzzle.
DeleteI agree, David. I didn't think the first weeks were too easy. They were just fun. A difficult bonus challenge each week might be more than our summer brains can handle. Maybe a fortnightly or monthly toughie?
DeleteI know starting out can be a delicate balance. . .Maybe an antipasto to start us off on a solvable streak? ;-)
Thanks, Lego.
Eleventh-hour clues:
ReplyDeleteCosmoSlice: The initial letters of the three nations spell out a food native to the region. The three letters read from left-to-right, just as the nations are situated on the map from west to east, with the first two abutting.
Specialty of the House Slice: This puzzle has a powerful connection with the Sporty Slice (Al Kaline) puzzle that appeared in Week One, the Grand Opening of Puzzleria!
LegoClueful
Finally got the Cosmopolitan Slice- I almost blew it this week.
ReplyDeleteFor a piggyback on this puzzle, take two figures from mythology and insert a vowel between (no spaces). Read as one word, it will sound like a food.
In addition, I finally got the Specialty of the House Slice. Nothing like the last hour to get my brain in gear.
DeleteThe Celebrity Slice film is “Sergeant York”, and two cast members of the television show “Bewitched”, Dick York and Dick Sargent, aside from sharing first names, also shared the same role as Darrin Stephens, for 5 and 3 seasons, respectively.
ReplyDeleteMy clue was about being driven batty. The three bats in the comic strip Pogo were Bewitched, Bothered and Bemildred.
The Cosmopolitan Slice answer is Gorgon/Zola/Gorgonzola, Greek, French and Italian, respectively. My clue was “blew”, since gorgonzola is a blue cheese.
The Specialty of the House Slice is plus/minus (LMNOP), with my clue being “in addition”.
I came up with plus/minus and LMNOP but not the other two slices. Efgeeacharian was a nod in that direction.
DeleteBEMILDRED!!
DeleteFrom Wikipedia: Bewitched, Bothered and Bemildred: a trio of grubby, unshaven bats—hobos, gamblers, good-natured but innocent of any temptation to honesty. They admit nothing. Soon after arriving in the swamp they are recruited by Deacon Mushrat into the "Audible Boy Bird Watchers Society," (a seemingly innocent play on the Audubon Society, but really a front for Mole's covert surveillance syndicate.) They wear identical black derbies and perpetual 5 o'clock shadows. Their names, a play on the song title Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, are rarely mentioned. Often even they cannot say for sure which brother is which. They tell each other apart, if at all, by the patterns of their trousers—striped, checkered or plaid. (According to one of the bats, "Whichever pair of trousers you puts on in the morning, that's who you are for that partic'lar day.")
DeleteUnshaven bats--my favorite kind. All new to me, David. Enjoyed the trio. ;-)
DeleteHere are my piggybacks to the Specialty of the House Slice. Unless otherwise noted, the words are opposites that end the same two letters in the same order. None of them start in a prefix meaning not.
ReplyDelete1. Put the words in logical order, remove the last two letters of each and, in order, the remaining letters are something that used to be common in homes. (Also, if you change one vowel to another letter, you will get a consecutive letter string.)
2. Words end in same last two letters in reverse order. Remove the last two letters of each word, rearrange the remaining letters to get a word meaning unusual.
3. Words also begin with the same letter. Remove the first one and last two letters of each word, rearrange the remaining letters, and get the name of the practitioner of a certain religion.
4. Remove the last two letters of each word, rearrange the remaining letters and get a word that is a wet place. (Also, if you change a consonant to a different letter and you will get a consecutive letter string.)
5. Remove the last two letters of each word, rearrange the remaining letters and get the surname of a golfer.
6. Words end in same last four letters. Remove them. Remaining letters have one letter in common. Remove one of the letters in common (but save it for 7), rearrange the remaining letters and get a word that means nervous.
7. Remove the last two letters of each word, add the letter from 6, rearrange the remaining letters and get a word that means ample (which of course is an anagram of maple, to reference one of last week’s puzzles).
Davida and Not-Mildred,
ReplyDeleteThank you both very much for your comments/advice.
David,
Good 11th-hour solving. You work well under a deadline.
Thanks for the Mt. Olympus-size stack of piggyback puzzles! We will work on them.
This week’s answers:
Cosmopolitan Slice
“IHOP = International House Of Puzzles”
Place the surname of an author after a certain mythological figure (with no space between them), resulting in a variety of a food. Each of these three words is associated with a different world nation. What are these words and their nations of origin?
Answer:
Mythological figure: GORGON (Greece)
Author: Emile ZOLA (France)
Variety of food: GORGONZOLA (Italy)
Specialty of the House Slice
“Alphabetics Antonymous”
A word and its antonym end with the same two letters in the same order. The remaining letters of the two words, if you replace a vowel with a different vowel, can be rearranged to form a string of consecutive letters in the alphabet. What are the antonyms?
Answer:
PLus
MINus
(Change the I to an O)
LMN(O)P
Celebrity Slice
“Screens Silver and Small”
Think of an award-winning film with a two-word title. The first word sounds like the last name of a cast member of a popular past TV series. The second word is the last name of another cast member on the same series. These cast members share two other things in common regarding their names: one in the TV series and the other in real life. Who are these cast members, and what is the film?
Answer:
Dick Sargent and Dick York were both cast members of the TV series “Bewitched.” Both actors portrayed Darrin Stevens on “Bewitched” and, in real life had Richard/Dick as their first name. The film is “Sergeant York”.
I know that NONE of these is the intended answer, of course!
ReplyDeleteCosmopolitan Slice: PAN (Greek god), Stephen John FRY (English author), PANFRY (American/French) variety of food.
Specialty of the House: If Beer & Lager are synonyms ending in the same 2 letters, then BEER & CIDER are certainly antonyms ending in the same 2 letters. Change the I in “cider” to an A to yield BECAD or ABCDE.
ron,
ReplyDeleteBoth your answers are perfectly acceptable. Indeed beer and/or cider, fittingly, go very well with the Specialty of the House Slice (much more well than “minus” or “plus” do, for example.) And I believe the menu at Lego’s Crossroads Diner where I used to be a chef) actually included an entrée called “Ole Panfry Duckling.”
David, this is a wonderful septet of puzzles. I haven’t solved # 1 or # 7 yet. I just love #6! #2 is very good also.
I had false starts on # 4 and #5. On # 5, I was trying to make Ernie ELS work. On # 4, I thought BAR might be the wet place (replacing the R with a C for the alphabetical string).
Piggybacks to your piggybacks:
1. Remove the last two letters of each antonym, and rearrange the remaining letters to get a word that is a wet place, but in the plural. (no alphabetical string, however)
2. Remove the last two letters of each antonym, and rearrange the remaining letters to get an activity common in an auto body repair shop.
3. Remove the last two letters of each antonym, and rearrange the remaining letters to get a word that means fragile, or another word that means talent.
Lego…
Specialty of the House: Some nicknames share only 2 letters with the given name they come from: Abe, Abraham, Jim, James, Ed(die), Edward, etc. Some nicknames share 4 letters with the given name they come from: Doug, Douglas, Phil, Phillip, Pete, Peter, etc. All the male nicknames in the challenge share exactly three letters with the given name from which they come: Billy, William, Jeff, Geoffrey, Joe, Joseph, Rick, Richard, Ruby, Reuben.
ReplyDeleteAnother such name is Andy, short for Andrew and there are many others.
A second solution is that each given name (of the male nicknames) is a well-known author” Billy = William Shakespeare, Jeff = Geoffrey Chaucer, Joe = Joseph Conrad, Rick = Richard Wright, Ruby = Reuben Davis.
A third solution is that the first 2 letters of each word represent the first 2 letters of capital cities: BIsmark, N.D., JErusalem, Israel, JOhannesburg, S.A., RIga, Latvia, RUd, Siah Rud, Iran. [SAm, SAntiago, Chile.]
A fourth solution is that each of the names can be followed by DEE: Billy Dee Williams, Jeff Dee, Joe Dee and the Starliters, Rick Dees & Ruby Dee. Others: Dee Dee Myers, Bobby Dee, Sandra Dee. I suspect that none of these 4 solutions is the intended one!
Here are the answers to my piggybacks to the Specialty of the House Slice. Unless otherwise noted, the words are opposites that end the same two letters in the same order. None of them start in a prefix meaning not.
ReplyDelete1. Put the words in logical order, remove the last two letters of each and, in order, the remaining letters are something that used to be common in homes. (Also, if you change one vowel to another letter, you will get a consecutive letter string.) HIRE, FIRE / HI-FI
2. Words end in same last two letters in reverse order. Remove the last two letters of each word, rearrange the remaining letters to get a word meaning unusual. BEFORE, AFTER / OFFBEAT
3. Words also begin with the same letter. Remove the first one and last two letters of each word, rearrange the remaining letters, and get the name of the practitioner of a certain religion. MAJOR, MINOR / JAIN
4. Remove the last two letters of each word, rearrange the remaining letters and get a word that is a wet place. (Also, if you change a consonant to a different letter and you will get a consecutive letter string.) NEAR, FAR / FEN
5. Remove the last two letters of each word, rearrange the remaining letters and get the surname of a golfer. ILL, WELL / (Michelle) WIE
6. Words end in same last four letters. Remove them. Remaining letters have one letter in common. Remove one of the letters in common (but save it for 7), rearrange the remaining letters and get a word that means nervous. ANTONYM, SYNONYM / ANTSY with an N going to the next answer.
7. Remove the last two letters of each word, add the letter from 6, rearrange the remaining letters and get a word that means ample (which of course is an anagram of maple, to reference one of last week’s puzzles). GUEST, HOST / ENOUGH
My answer to the piggyback on the Cosmopolitan Slice, take two figures from mythology and insert a vowel between (no spaces). Read as one word, it will sound like a food. MARS-I-PAN / MARZIPAN