"I'm (Ernie) Broglio"; Sum Equations!; Loaves and fishes ...and synonyms

We at Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria! are this week solemnly memorializing July’s last hot and humid gasps. How? By hanging around up at the lake, of course! 

Scrumptious puzzle slices are browning and bubbling in our ovens and will soon be ready to serve to you. (Maybe on the beach?) Think sultry. Think steaming. Think sweltering. Think mouth-watering. 
Think Good, It’s Friday! 

In the meantime, let us extend to you our warmest of welcomes, along with the following icy glass of aqua pura with a twist of lemon or lime: It’s the cool puzzle posed by puzzle master Dr. Will Shortz on National Public Radio’s (NPR) July 20 Weekend Edition Sunday broadcast. It reads:

 “Name something in five letters that’s nice to have a lot of in the summer. Change the last letter to the following letter of the alphabet. Rearrange the result, and you’ll name something else that you probably have a lot of in the summer, but that you probably don't want. What is it? (HINT: the second thing is a form of the first thing.)”

The consensus over at the Blainesville and AESAP puzzle blogs was that this was a relatively easy puzzle. So we made it a tad tougher by adding this Puzzlerian! extension which was posted in our July 18 blog’s comments section:

To the end of the “second something,” add two letters: a replica of a letter from the second something, and the letter that got changed in the original “something,” thereby forming a new seven-letter something it is nice to have lots of in the winter. 

To this new “something” add a letter that is near the middle of the alphabet and rearrange the result to form two new words: a five-letter something you probably have lots of in the winter, but don’t want, and a three-letter something most people never want… no matter what season of the year it is.

Name these three new “somethings” HINT: The “something else” is not a form of the “new something.” The last something is a form of insanity, according to some.

(Our Puzzleria! solvers made short work of this puzzle extension, and correctly named the “three new somethings,” also in last week’s comments section.)

Now we offer another extension that whips us out of winter and snaps us back into summer:
Take the eight letters of the final “two somethings,” remove a letter and rearrange what’s left to form a verb that is a synonym of the second word you found in the original NPR puzzle. What is this seven-letter verb?

Okay, if you could Handel that summer-to-winter-to-summer circumnavigation of the sun, we know you can Handel this trio of puzzling slices:

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Easy As Pie Slice:

“I’m (Ernie) Broglio”

Take a two-word synonym for melee or imbroglio, one that might appear in a news story or police report. 

Combining the two words and removing the first letter results in a word describing a type of gesture that might touch off such a melee. What are the two-word synonym and the gesture?

Con-number-umm Slice:

Sum equations!

Explain the following two equations:

SIX + TWELVE = 64 + (a word often associated with a non-prime factor of 64)

FIVE + SIX + SEVEN + TWELVE = 73 + (something you do when you survey these four numbers to be summed, or something you do either at a high school class reunion or at a grade school class)

Specialty Of The House Slice:

Loaves and fishes... and synonyms

Take a pair of synonyms, five and six letters long, and put them in alphabetical order. Replace the first vowel in the first synonym with two different vowels.

Delete the second half of the second synonym. The new words formed are synonyms of each other also. What are these two sets of synonyms? (Hints: All four words are nouns. The synonyms begin with a T and a W.) 

 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 enjoy our weekly puzzle party, please tell your puzzle-loving and challenge-welcoming friends about Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria! Thank you.

All Worn Out; Gram-o-Phone; Light Dressing

Welcome again to Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria! T.G.I.F. … Think Good, It’s Friday. Time to polish off some puzzles!

Our theme this week springs from this ditty:
Baseball, 
Apple pie, 
Chevrolet and 
Hotdogs. 
Yeah, I know, in the song Hotdogs are supposed to be sung between Baseball and Apple pie, but there is a method to my misplacement. I wanted the four initial letters to spell out BACH, as in Johann Sebastian, who composed the Goldbug Variations with his collaborators King Midas, Auric Goldfinger and some other guy.

That “other guy” is a part of the answer to the following Bonus One-hit Wonder Slice (BOWS):
A one-time Delaware Primary winner who is a goldbug (gold standard proponent) and a singer of a 35-year-old “one-hit wonder” tune go by the same first name. If you replace the last letter of the goldbug’s last name with the two letters flanking that letter in the alphabet you will form the singer’s last name. Who are this goldbug and singer?

(The “one-hit” has a Shakespeare title character in its title. Both men are still alive. Their first name is popular and common, but no president or vice-president has had this first name.)

But now, back to…

Baseball!
On this date 87 years ago, July 18, 1927, Ty Cobb set a major-league baseball record by getting his 4,000th career hit. Cobb recorded 4,191 hits in his career, including four grand slam homeruns.


Cobb’s career base-hit 
record stood until Pete Rose broke it, ending his career with 4,256 hits, including one grand slam homerun which he clouted July 18, 1964.

 Apple Pie (as in Mom’s)!

Chevrolet!

Certain Chevrolets are quite pricey but also hold their value. And some are even collectible. If you are lucky enough to own one of these Chevys, it behooves you to take very good care of it, to be a motorcar custodian and a sports car steward… especially if that Chevrolet sports car is a Corvette.

Hotdogs!

On July 18, 1936, Carl Mayer, nephew of Oscar Mayer, invented a quaint entry into Americana: the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. The first Wienermobile rolled out of General Body Company’s factory in Chicago on that July day. Today, six Wienermobiles still trundle across the U.S. fascinating children of all ages while promoting Oscar Mayer wieners. As you can see, Wienermobiles are pretty much just giant hotdogs on wheels. (paraphrased from the 440 International Those Were the Days web site.) 


Hot digs, Italian-style! 
On July 18, 64 AD, 1,950 years ago, Nero fiddled while Rome burned (see illustration atop this week’s blog).

Hot diggity...

Almost 45 years ago, on July 20, 1969, Louis Armstrong set foot on the moon and broke into a chorus of “What a Wonderful Moon.” (And many moons ago, on July 20, the creator and custodian of Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria was born. How many moons? It’s a number with three digits that sum to 18, and multiply to 210. Not counting the number 1, it has three prime factors, one needed twice and another needed thrice to produce the number. Have I fooled the guesser? I guess we’ll guess my weight some other week!)

So, sit Bach and listen to more Variations on Goldbug as you toss Bach these slices:

Menu

Easy As Pie Slice:

All Worn Out

Name an outdoor activity that can wear you out if you overdo it. Replace one of its letters with a letter two places ahead of it in the alphabet, thereby revealing clothing that usually you wear out of doors (if you “underdo” it). What are these two words?

Sporty Slice:

Gram-o-Phone

Think of a word that can be defined* as a female athlete who participates in a particular sporting activity. Now think of a participant in that activity whose first name is an anagram of that word and whose last name is a homophone of the word. What is the word? Who is the athlete?

* The word’s primary definition relates to classical mythology. The relevant definition for our purposes is a secondary or tertiary definition in 
Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 
Dictionary-dot-reference-dot-com

Infoplease-dot-com.

Specialty Of The House Slice:

Light Dressing

Name a fictional character known for sometimes sporting skimpy attire. Reverse the last two letters on this character’s name. Replace the new penultimate (second-last) letter with the letter two places before it in the alphabet. The result is another fictional character whose attire makes the original character seem overdressed by comparison. Who are these characters?

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 enjoy our weekly puzzle party, please tell your friends and frenemies about Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria! Thank you.

Disgusting Drinks; Broadway Baudelaire; Verpelier Gears

Welcome to Joseph Young’s Puzzle –ria!

Let us commence this week’s festivities with a Bonus Easy As Pie Slice (BEAPS), just to warm up our cerebral ovens.

Remember that Rockwellian sportsman (pictured at right) from Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria! of June 6? (Not pictured is the duck-hunting rifle in the hull of his fishing boat.) We asked you to name two pieces of sportsmen’s gear and a sportsman’s quest.

This week we are asking you to name what might be this American sportsman’s favorite foreign holiday, based on two different homophones of its syllables. The homophones are two quests this sportsman might land/bag, and one rhymes with all three of the June 6 puzzle’s answers. What are the homophones and holiday?

In my patriotic (or rather, jingoistic) zeal last week, I feel I may have flouted the nation of France. This week I plan to remedy that. My mother’s “maiden name,” after all, was Paquette.

Par consequent, Soyez Les bienvenus! Je suis content que vous soyez de retour. July 14 is Bastille Day, celebrating French independence from monarchic rule.

The American poet, author and critic Delmore Schwartz died 48 years ago today, on July 11, 1966. As a young man Schwartz wrote a fine poem titled “Baudelaire,” a reference to French poet Charles Baudelaire. 

Thus, one or maybe two of Joseph Young’s Puzzle –ria! slices this week are topped with poivrons rouges, oignons blancs and fromage blue. But don’t let that questionable spelling of “bleu” fool you. We are true-bleu, Mel Blanc-talkin’, rouge-wearin’  French folks. 


Indeed, every slice this week is also served with a complimentary side of French (not Freedom!) fries. We know you will rave about those fried julienned spuds, and we trust you can Ravel (or unRavel?) these Fourth of July slices too. (Ravel = one of those pesky words that means two polar opposites!):

Menu 

Specialty of the House Slice
Disgusting Drinks

Take a chiefly Southern U.S. intensive slang euphemism used to express disgust. It is often followed by “…it!” Spell the euphemism backward, bisect it, and add a possessive apostrophe “s” to the end of the second part, thereby forming a pair of brand names of a particular potable. What are the brands, the potable, and the euphemism?

Poetic Slice
Broadway Baudelaire

Take the third different personal pronoun that appears in Delmore Schwartz’s poem “Baudelaire” and create a series of new words of increasing word lengths by:

* adding a letter to the end
* adding a letter to the beginning
* adding a letter between the first and second letters
* adding a letter to the beginning
* adding a letter to the beginning
* adding a letter to the end, resulting in a title of a well-known Broadway musical and movie. Name the movie/musical. 


Bicyclical Slice
Verpelier Gears

Le Tour de France bicycle race is currently occurring across the French countryside. Competitors in this annual event ride multiple-speed bicycles that employ a mechanism called a derailleur to downshift or upshift gears.


Within the past week, a bicyclist named LegoLambda coined the word “verpelier.” What is the basis (or rationale) for the word “verpelier? What do you suppose is the word’s etymology? How might you define it?

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 enjoy our weekly puzzle party, please tell your friends about Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria! Thank you.