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!
Menu
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?
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?
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.)
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Re: WESS, were you the listener who submitted a correct answer, thereby winning the chance to play on air?
ReplyDeleteFor the SS, one of the teams, before it became one of the before/after (offbeat?) teams you referenced in your puzzle, had a different city/nickname, which are the same as a current team.
ReplyDeleteI have a possible answer (ironic, acually doubly so) to the SOTHS. Is the number 14 somehow relevant?
ReplyDeleteDavid,
ReplyDeleteRegarding SOTHS. The number 14 is not pertinent to my answer, but it is close. And, this would not be the first time you have come up with some brilliant answer (that I had not intended) to a Puzzleria! slice. I look forward to seeing your solution.
Regarding WESS: Yess. Actually, only 130 correct entries were submitted, not “about 150.” I will edit our blog.
And, yess, you know your sports history. The current team to which you allude {which also changed cities and nicknames in only its second year of existence (!) and also later changed leagues} was one I was/am a fan of, and which had, IMHO, one of the best logos (created by a college student for a logo contest) in sports history.
LegoLapelPin
Congrats, Lego. Looking forward to hearing you on Sunday.
ReplyDeleteSOTHS: Frances likes grapes but Frank likes cherries, both orbs of fruity goodness. (And Frances like badness, but Frank likes that goodness).
NVM. Different puzzle. I get 13 but see where David got 14 as I started there also due to an over-valued endeavour.
DeleteThe EAPS reminds me of a game.
ReplyDeleteIt must be the TURBO DISMOUNT game!
DeleteGood point, ron. How was your holiday?
DeleteIt was great... hiking & a garden tour... Thanks.
DeleteAnd thought the 150 had something to do with C and L. What a maroon!
ReplyDeletePuzzleria! Patrons,
ReplyDeleteInspired by David’s second posted comment, we have just posed a Bonus Sporty Slice, “Big League-Leapers”, on our blog, above.
Thanks, David.
LeagueO’Lambda
The city is one in which I have lived.
ReplyDeleteFor the BSS.
DeleteWorking through the puzzles:
ReplyDeleteSOTHS: My guess is cinnamon, where no letters extend above or below the “midpoint” line, on the lined paper which I used to learn how to print. The 14 referred to the 14 letters: aceimnorsuvwxz (note: I didn’t count the dot above the i). I noted that both upper case letters in the puzzle were F, which also extends above the line when lower case. In my comment, I used both “answer” and “ironic”, which fit my pattern.
SS: The St. Louis Browns (nee Milwaukee Brewers) and Cleveland Browns became the Baltimore Orioles and Baltimore Ravens (both nicknames are birds).
BSS: The Seattle Pilots became the Milwaukee Brewers (Part II), who switched from the American to National League. The Seattle Seahawks moved from the American to National Conference. Seattle is where I currently live.
EAPS: Don Imus / Dominus. Dominus made me think of Dominos (the game, not the pizza joint).
SOTHS: Each word except one has at least one anagram using one less letter than the original word.
ReplyDeleteThe 7-letter word FRANCES has a 6-letter anagram: FARCES.
The 7-letter word FANCIES has a 6-letter anagram: FIANCÉ.
The 5-letter word PEACH has a 4-letter anagram: EACH.
The 3-letter word JAM has a 2-letter anagram: AM.
The 8-letter word BISCUITS has a 7-letter anagram: CUBISTS.
The 6-letter word THOUGH has a 5-letter anagram: TOUGH.
The 5-letter word FRANK has a 4-letter anagram: RANK.
The 7-letter word PREFERS has a 6-letter anagram: REFERS.
The 9-letter word TURNOVERS has an 8-letter anagram: OVERRUNS.
The 5-letter word MAYBE has a 4-letter anagram: BEAM.
The 7-letter word BUTTERY has a 6-letter anagram: BUTTER.
The 10-letter word CROISSANTS has a 9-letter anagram: ARSONISTS.
But the 8-letter word CINNAMON has NO 7-letter anagram! (No 7-letter word can be made from the letters in "cinnamon.") So CINNAMON is the “odd word out.”
Once again I suspect this is not the “intended answer!”
EAPS: The radio personality is DON IMUS. This yields: The Sanctus: “Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, DOMINUS Deus Sabaoth.” Or “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts.”
TURBO DISMOUNT: “DISMOUNT” anagrams to DOMINUS + T. Of course, the game David was reminded of was DOMINOS.
ron and David, both very clever and Will Shortz elegance-worthy.
Deleteron, welcome back and glad you had a good time away.
SOTHS: Each word, except for TURNOVERS, has a 13 point value in Scrabble. David, I thought you were valueing letters as in Words With Friends which gives the N 2 points (!) and the Y 3 points, etc. to come up with 14, instead of 13.
ReplyDeleteThe 13 points fits with the Baker's Dozen theme.
Ha! Turns out I was valueing with WWF values instead of Scrabble values. 12 points they are indeed.
DeleteJoseph Young’s Puzzleria! Patrons:
ReplyDeleteI agree with Word Woman that David and ron’s SOTHS responses are both clever and brimming with Shortzian elegance. Her SOTHS answer may well be what my intended answer should have been. If I made a mistake, it would be a first for me in my lifetime, and I apologize.
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 one of them doesn’t share. What do the dozen words share, and which is the odd word out?
Answer: Twelve of the words in the sentence share a Scrabble value of 12, except for “though,” which has a Scrabble value of 13.
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 not the same but both shared a basic similarity. Both nicknames also fit their new city well, one for literary reasons. What are the past and present cities and nicknames of these two franchises?
Answer:
The St. Louis Browns in 1954 became the Baltimore Orioles.
The Cleveland Browns in 1996 became the Baltimore Ravens. (“Ravens” is a nod to Edgar Allen Poe’s poem “The Raven.”)
Bonus Sporty Slice
“League-Leapers”
What city was once the home of a professional sports franchise that jumped from an American League to National League, and is still the home of a professional sports franchise that jumped from an American Conference to National Conference?
Answer: Seattle
Major League Baseball’s one-year-old Seattle Pilots became the Milwaukee Brewers in 1970. The Brewers moved from the American League to National League in 1998.
The National Football League’s Seattle Seahawks moved from the American Football Conference to the National Football Conference in 2002. (I had forgotten that the franchise began as an NFC team in 1976 and was moved to the AFC the following year.)
Easy as Pie Slice:
“Radio Ritual”
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 word that was, and occasionally still is, said repeatedly by Catholic priests during Masses worldwide – especially Masses before 1960.
Who is this radio personality. What is the spoken word?
Answer:
Don Imus
““Dominus (vobiscum)” is a Latin phrase said by Catholic priests during Tridentine Masses. It means “The Lord be with you.”
P! Patrons:
ReplyDeleteIt is very possible there is more than one Scrabble letter value standard out there. I know there has been discussion about amending such values. The values I used yielded:
FRANCES 4+1+1+1+3+1+1=12
FANCIES 4+1+1+3+1+1+1=12
PEACH 3+1+1+3+4=12
JAM 8+1+3=12
BISCUITS 3+1+1+3+1+1+1+1=12
THOUGH 1+4+1+1+2+4=13
FRANK 4+1+1+1+5=12
PREFERS 3+1+1+4+1+1+1=12
CINNAMON 3+1+1+1+1+3+1+1=12
TURNOVERS 1+1+1+1+1+4+1+1+1=12
MAYBE 3+1+4+3+1=12
BUTTERY 3+1+1+1+1+1+4=12
CROISSANTS 3+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1=12
…Okay, now that I refreshed my page, I am (as usual) very impressed with all your “not-intended” answers, especially this week to SOTHS. You all deserve lapel pins! (And, believe me, after I few more on-airy go-rounds with Will, I should be able to send one out to each of you!)
David,
The visual-thinking corner of your brain must be cobwebless. Never in a million years would I have come up with your visually inventive solution.
ron,
Your solution is also one I could not have imagined. I might have tried making anagrams of the words but, after a few failed, I would have abandoned “that whole anagram idea.” But you persisted! (And put in a lot of time and effort, to boot.) You’re right, it’s not my intended answer, but who cares? It’s still a great answer.
Word Woman,
I have played WWF once, and was not even aware there was a letter-value difference compared to Scrabble. And your WWF solution actually does fit in better with the Baker’s Dozen theme than does my Scrabble solution, I would say.
I am thinking that it is a really amazing coincidence that the puzzle works with both Scrabble and WWF. Am I right.
And another astounding coincidence is that ron and David came up with the identical "odd word out," cinnamon, by using vastly different solving strategies.
Still, we collectively discovered three answers that work.
One SOTH Slice: Three inventive ways of eating it! (and one intended way)
LegoBravo!
Yea, it doesn't really work for all the words in WWF, Lego. I forgot that Scrabble values V as 4 but WWF values it as 5.
DeleteAnd I didn't check all the words past PEACH, MAYBE, and FRANK, which are 13 in WWF, 12 in Scrabble.
Yes, odd spice out by two different methods is pretty wild. CINNAMON!
Word Woman,
DeleteEven though you used a different letter-value scale (the one used by Words With Women…, no, I mean Words With Friends, instead of Scrabble), you still “solved the secret” of this SOTHS. You knew what the key was, you just put it in the wrong lock (Does that metaphor hold up?). Anyway, good work, Word Woman.
We are looking forward to visiting your new posting today of Partial Ellipsis of the Sun.
LegoBrava!
Thanks, Lego. It works for me.
DeleteThe newest PEOTS posting on rudist colonies is now up (thanks for the plug). See how easy that was, W! ;-).
This seems like a good crowd to pose the following:
ReplyDelete1. There are 12 in a dozen.
2. There are 13 (=12 + 1) in a baker's dozen.
3. There are 144 (=12 * 12) in a gross.
How many in a baker's gross?
a. 145 = 144 + 1
b. 156 = 12 * 13
c. 169 = 13 * 13
b+½. 156 = 13 * 12 (jk)
DeleteI'll go with 169 (13 x 13).
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDavid,
ReplyDeleteI would argue for B, with A being a distant second.
A. Baker’s Gross = 145: One might contend that “a baker’s X (where X is any word [like a dozen] that stands for a specific number) would equal X +1. For example, a baker’s score would be 21, a baker’s pair would be 3, and if the former Cream Drummer began a five-member band he would call it Ginger Baker’s Quartet.
B. Baker’s Gross = 156: A dozen is 12 “things.” A gross is 12 “dozens.” One more thing is 13 things. One more dozen is 13 dozens. Let’s ay I were to place a large order at the bakery, a gross of cinnamon turnovers, say, or a gross of buttery croissants. And the baker said to me, “To express our gratitude for such a large order, we will make that a baker’s gross.” I would be disappointed if I counted only 145 turnovers… because I would have rightfully expected 156 turnovers (and you just cannot win a basketball game with those kinds of careless mistakes!) Had the baker given me 169 turnovers I would have thought she or he were either a lousy businessbaker or else bonkers -- completely nuts (although chopped walnuts can be delicious sprinkled over a cinnamon turnover slathered with peach jam!).
C. Baker’s Gross = 169. This would make sense only if a dozen were, say, 16 croissants (4 x 4 croissants) and a baker’s dozen were 25 croissants (5 x 5 croissants).
All I know is this. I have received a baker’s dozen turnovers from my baker, but I have never received a baker’s gross of anything from my grocer. (Except for maybe those moldy cheese curds I ordered for that Packer tailgate party!)
Thanks for the multiple-choice puzzle, David.
LegoLimburger
Lego, I was surprised to learn your real name; I was expecting something Greek like Nick(os) Kyrgios, the Australian tennis player. Do you have a Greek heritage?
ReplyDeleteron,
DeleteNot a drop of Greek blood as far as I know. Don’t know much about (my family) history. But then, my family tree is more like a family shrubbery. My mother’s name was Helen, though. Does that count?
LegoImpostor