Friday, June 27, 2014

A Baker's Doesn't; "Nickelnames Re-coined"; Ritual Radio


We “Will” start out Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria! this week with a bonus puzzle – a Weekend Edition Sunday Slice {or WESS, for Short(z)}. Renowned puzzle master Will Shortz, on National Public Radio’s (NPR) June 22 Weekend Edition Sunday program, presented the following excellent challenge:

Think of a 10-letter adjective describing certain institutions. Drop three letters from this word, and the remaining seven letters, reading left to right, will name an institution described by this adjective. What institution is it?

No, that is not our bonus puzzle. It is Dr. Shortz’s puzzle, not ours. Here is our Joseph Young Puzzle -ria WESS:

NPR received about 130 correct entries for that June 22 “institutional” puzzle. How do we know that to be true?

Some Bloggy Pluggoria!:
Scores of stellar blogs catering to puzzlers and word-lovers are orbiting around out there in the cybergalaxy. Two of them, Blainesville and An Englishman Solves American Puzzles, both re-post each Sunday’s NPR puzzle and welcome people to comment on it. (AESAP also invites people to predict the number of correct entries NPR will receive each week.)

Another wonderful blog we frequent is Partial Ellipsis of the Sun (PEOTS) which employs wordplay and humor to make the worlds of science less puzzling and more “funderstandable” (fun and understandable).

But here at Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria! we don’t do “less puzzling.” We know what you want… more puzzling! Let the Puzzazzle begin!

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Specialty of the House Slice:
“Baker’s Doesn’t”

“Frances fancies peach jam biscuits, though Frank prefers cinnamon turnovers, maybe buttery croissants.” 

A dozen of the baker’s-dozen words in the preceding sentence share something in common that the “baker’s-dozenth word doesn’t share. What do the dozen words share, and which is the odd word out? 





Sporty Slice:
“Nickelnames Re-coined”

Within the past 60 years or so, two professional sports franchises from different cities but with the same nickname both relocated to the same city, whereupon both changed their nicknames. The new nicknames were different from one another but both still shared a basic similarity. And both nicknames also fit their new city well, one of them for literary reasons. What are the past and present cities and nicknames of these two franchises?

Bonus Sporty Slice:
“Big League-Leapers”

What city was once the home of a professional sports franchise that jumped from an American League to a National League, and is still the home of a professional sports franchise that jumped from an American Conference to a National Conference? 



Easy as Pie Slice:
“Ritual Radio”

Take the name of a somewhat controversial radio personality who has also done some television. Switch the third letter of his first name with the second letter of his surname. (These two letters are adjacent in the alphabet.) Running these altered names together results in a seven-letter altar-heard word, one that was (and occasionally still is) spoken repeatedly by Catholic priests during Masses worldwide – but especially during Masses before 1960.

Who is this radio personality? What is the spoken word?











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 at Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria 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 puzzle slices” please tell your friends about Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria. Thank you.

Friday, June 20, 2014

"Bronxy Zoo"; Questionable "Quizine"; Seizin' the Season



Summertime Summertime Sum Sum Summertime comes June 21 at 6:51 a.m. Eastern Daylight time. Get ready for picnics, beaches, ballgames, bicycling, boating, barbecue cookouts, simmering, shimmering summer songs…

For those of you who may have been on an African safari this week and are still wondering where the lions are, here is a summertime playlist we have just added to Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria! jukebox.

The playlist includes the obligatory Beach Boys tune, three co-written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin (R.I.P.) sung by the Drifters, Herman’s Hermits and Carole King; two by the Temptations, two by War, and others by the Jamies, Bruce Cockburn, Mungo Jerry, Sheryl Crow, Chad & Jeremy, Seals & Crofts, Sly & the Family Stone, and the Friends of Distinction.

Enjoy them while you're enjoying munching on this week’s puzzles:


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Specialty of the House Slice:
“The Bronxy Zoo”

Part 1. Name an event that for as far back as anyone can remember has occurred twice a year. Insert an “e” within the event and split the result in two to form a zoological oxymoron. 

Part 2. Name an event that for as far back as anyone can remember has occurred twice a year. Insert a “u” within the event and replace two adjacent letters (that are also adjacent in the alphabet) with two other letters (that are also adjacent in the alphabet). Split the result to form a multiple-word title of a work of non-fiction.

Four-Fork Four-Course Slice:
Questionable “Quizine”

A couple enters a new high-scale restaurant that has received mixed reviews in the media. The maĆ®tre d’ greets them and asks them a question, to which they respond, “No, but we plan to eat here anyway.” A second couple enters the restaurant and is asked the same question, to which they respond, “Yes, but we plan to eat here anyway.” What is the question?

Easy As Pie Slice:
Seizin’ the Season

A sweet season so sunny and pleasin’
Plus a seasoning found in the sea sand
Yields a feat causing aching and wheezin’
In some tumblers a tad too-well-seasoned.

A ground seasoning known to cause sneezin’
Plus a place where they make lots of money
Yields a flavor refreshin’ and pleasin’
Or a Patty from “Peanuts” who’s funny.

What is the feat? What is the flavor?



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.

Friday, June 13, 2014

Three Times Faster; Twains Shall Meet; Apes 'N' Snakes!

 
Not sure whether we’re coming or going this week here at Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria! Seems as if we’re at sea, aboard one of those near palindromic Viking Ships. (Structurally, not literally, palindromic. Coming/going only in the “nrets-ot-mets” sense.)







Maybe it’s just because it is Friday the Thirteenth. Superstitious?

No, SuperBowlicious! The next time Friday the Thirteenth rolls ’round on the calendar will be Feb. 13, 2015, exactly a dozen days after The Minnesota Vikings, after having set sail for Arizona, will plunder/ransack/pillage the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl XLIX, final score LIV to XIII.

On that day I shall still be ensconced in my La-Z-Boy recliner, basking in the purple afterglow, surrounded by horned helmets and Helga braids, munching on moldering cheesehead cheese imported from Lambeauland and stale V-Chips (Victory Chips).

So, don’t be a triskaidekaphobe. Let’s embrace our Baker’s-dozen-ness by indulging in three crusty puzzles. Triskaidekamanics unite!

 MENU

Speciality of the House Slice:
“Three Times Faster”

Think of a word for a person who tends to live life in the fast lane. Remove a bit of this word to reveal a word often seen in fasting, fad diet recipes (but seldom on fast-food menus). Now take a part of the bit you removed from the original word and restore it to its original place, thereby revealing a synonym for fastness. What are the three words?



Geographical Slice:
(Twains Shall Meet)

As you view a map of the fifty United States, identify the state farthest to the east and the state farthest to the west. (These are two different states. For purposes of this puzzle, any state partially situated within the Eastern Hemisphere does not qualify as “farthest east.”) Name the two states, and name another thing they have in common (that is, other than being geographic extremes). Hints: The answer involves cities within the states. Also, these cities have something in common with a Chicago suburb and a Cleveland suburb.

Easy As Pie Slice:
“Apes ‘N’ Snakes!”
What do all the words of the following two sentences have in common, besides being six letters long?

“Adders almost access glossy floors.”
“Choosy chimps accept floppy chintz.”



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.



Friday, June 6, 2014

Proper Nouns in Common; "I Seek the Quail!"; Vowel Play

 You are at home, home here at Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria! On the radar range slices are bubbling and browning, nearly ready to serve up. The beer and the cantaloupe lay up in the puzzle pantry, poised to complement the slices. Never a discouraging word is heard here, only the occasional puzzling one.
It’s Friday! Time to pull that thinking cap up over the old melon and dig in to the enigma.



MENU

Specialty of the House Slice:
“Proper Nouns in Common”
The following proper nouns share something in common:
Billy, Jeff, Joe, Rick, Ruby…
What do they share? Can you find other proper nouns that also share it?


 
 



Sporty Slice:
“I Seek the Quail... No, Grail! AAYEEE!”
Name a piece of sportsman’s gear. Remove its first letter to reveal another piece of gear this particular sportsman might possess. Remove another first letter to reveal this sportsman’s quest, perhaps. What are these three words?
 
Easy-as-Pie Slice:
“Vowel Play”
The word “facetious” is interesting in that it contains all five non-Y vowels of the alphabet in order. Also interesting are “subcontinental” and “uncomplimentary,” which contain these five vowels in reverse alphabetical order. The word “perihelion,” meaning “the point nearest the sun in the orbit of a planet or other celestial body,” also contains five vowels, albeit not all five … I and E repeat. And yet it is also interesting. In what way?


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.)


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.