Welcome to Joseph Young’s Puzzle –ria! ... where it’s positively puzzazzlingly Holidazzling!
Just returned from a “Shortz” but relaxing week at Brad & Beth’s Bed & Breakfast where, lovingly placed on your bed-pillows by the proprietress and proprietor, you are certain to find Certs mints, but never chocolate mints because they are (“one, one... one mint in one”) merely candy mints.
Looking forward to a long but hectic Fourth of July weekend. Hope yours goes swimmingly… and picnickingly, paradingly and (the adverbial form of the answer to this week’s Easy As Pie Slice).
We are also looking forward to the just-around-the-corner kickoff to the National Football League’s exhibition season.
A quick Pop Quiz Sample Slice (for extra points): The shortened form of an NFL team’s nickname (the way it is sometimes written in headlines, for example) is also an acronym of an offensive statistic. What nickname is this?
All three Joseph Young’s Puzzle –ria! slices this week are topped with red bell peppers, white scallions and bleu cheese.
But don’t let that questionable spelling of “blue” throw you. We are true-blue, white-hot, red-blooded Americans. Indeed, every slice this week is also served with a complimentary side of Freedom (not French!) fries. We know you can Handel those fried julienned spuds, and we trust you can handle these Fourth of July slices too:
Menu
Sporty Slice:
“Swan Pool” Ballerinas
Take a celebration that is also the title of a mid-1990’s movie and of a 1980 Bruce Springsteen song, in two words totaling five syllables. Remove the final letter. Move the remaining final five letters to the beginning and rearrange them to form a word. Keep the next two letters as they are, forming a preposition. Insert a common article after them. Rearrange the next four letters and then the next three letters to form two more words, thereby completing phrase of five words. 
Con-number-umm Slice:
Deciphering Decimals
Consider the following series of six numbers:
[1.0], [0.142857…], [0.1764705882352941…], [?.??], [0.322580645161290…], [0.48]
It is actually a sub-series of a larger series that includes 366 rational numbers, several which occur more than once and all which are greater than three one-hundredths but no greater than 12.
The six-number sub-series possesses a particular significance and is arranged in chronological order. Numbers ending with an ellipsis (…) are repeating decimals. Name the missing number [?.??] and explain the significance of the sub-series. Easy As Pie Slice:
Syl-lab-i-fier
Each line in the quatrain below is a clue to a one-syllable word that is (or sounds like) a syllable of a four-syllable word, something Americans will see a lot of on a particular holiday evening. What are the four one-syllable words and the one four-syllable word?
The first syllable: three-point-one-four…,
The next, what you do with an oar.
The third follows Georgia or Texas,
The fourth’s one of Buckingham’s exes.
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.
Easy as pie was, lego. The others were as hard as 1/3.1416...though. Will venture fo(u)rth into this puzzle realm later in the holiday weekend! Enjoy as you sync or swim!
ReplyDeleteSporty Slice: Too easy to think of offering a hint
ReplyDeleteCon-number-umm Slice: You're kidding; i.e., no way I'll ever figure that out
Easy As Pie Slice: Exactly
Safe and happy holiday to all!
Yes, Word Woman and Bob Kerfuffle, there are wide extremes in the difficulty levels of puzzle slices this week. All three puzzles are threaded commonly, however, in that they are all timely.
DeleteConcerning the Con-number-umm Slice, Bob K., I sympathize with your reaction. The best hint within the puzzle is the number 366. The sub-series of six numbers (that I chose from the series of 366) is somewhat arbitrary but based on popularity. Some puzzle lovers across the pond or in the U.S. military might have to make some type of reciprocal arrangement to solve it.
I echo the holiday wishes for enjoyment and safety that you both extend.
Lego…
2014 minus 366 = 1648 the year of the Peace of Westphalia where Spain recognized the independence of the Dutch Republic. Am I on the right track? I doubt it.
Deleteron,
DeleteYou are on a far more fast academic track than I. But your peaceful post does give us an excuse to enjoy some summer camping VW pix.
LegoWagen
Bob K, it is easier than you think. Think about December 1 fractionally.
DeleteBe sure to watch Robin Williams as the American flag,
ReplyDeleteThanks, ron. I enjoyed Robin Williams as the flag. Long may it wave, indeed!
DeleteSpecial day of the year in small town USA at an ice cream social where canines almost outnumber humans, the fireworks are natural, and all the friends are above average.
Happy 5th!
ron,
DeleteThanks for posting the vexillological link. But not vexing in the least.
WordWoman-Keillor,
Please elaborate on “natural fireworks.” Sounds like the there might be a (Donny)brook or (Bob)kerfuffle a-brouhaha-ing there in idyllic Lake Wobegonia.
Bob K.,
I thought this week’s Sporty Slice was a bit on the tough side. I’m glad you got it.
Legobegon
Natural fireworks: major lightening and thunder storm precisely at 9 p.m. on the 4th. New swimmin' pools in basements.
DeleteBe Bop a Re Bop Rhubarb Cobbler and not a shoe in sight.
Listening to the third hour of A Prairie Home Companion. How many times can Garrison say Macalester College? Listened to Tales from a Mac alum who was at the first show in 1974 and who remembered students blocking Grand Ave with a giant cross from the chapel right after Kent State in 1970. Whoa.
GK-inspired,
WW
Sorry I'm late to the game. I was having trouble with my home computer last long weekend.
ReplyDeleteOn the SS, I believe that the shorthand term only covers 20% of the story.
For the C-n-uS, I tried to fit a fraction between your fifth and sixth term, but I found I couldn't.
Te EAPS was as EAP (and as easy of the most recent NPR Sunday Puzzle).
Finally the C-n-uS puzzle makes sense after the holiday.
DeleteThis is how I felt when I figured it out:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkZGg0qNdCc&feature=youtube_gdata_player
For an alternate EAPS:
ReplyDeleteThe first, a special fire.
The second, a bit of horse feed.
The third, the nickname of a Hall-of-Fame pitcher.
The fourth, a basketball team
David,
DeleteComputer issues. I think we cal all empathize. Glad you made it back.
SS: Or perhaps 25% of the story?
CnuS: Do you mean between the third and fifth term? It is somewhat of a coincidence that (after the first term, 1.0) the revealed terms in the sub-series gradually increase. The “mystery term,” however, is actually greater than one (one of 78 numbers in the 366-member larger series that are greater than or equal to one).
EAPS: My EAPS, I’m afraid, is even easier that this week’s NPR puzzle. But your EAPS puzzle is tougher, at least for me. I am stumped (especially on the special fire and HOF pitcher) but not giving up. (Side note: Sports figures’ nicknames ain’t what they used to be!)
Word Woman,
I am gratified that the CnuS puzzle makes sense to someone, anyway. I’m not even too sure anymore it makes sense to me!
LegoCatfish
On the SS, I think we are referring to different stories. On the CnuS, I do have the 4th term, I was trying to extend your sub-series of 6 terms to a sub-series of 7 terms with a new 6th, moving 0.48 to 7th.
DeleteThanks David,
DeleteI defer to your superior "solvific" skills. I look forward to tomorrow to get your takes.
Lego...
David, was your new sixth term 1?
DeleteNo, although I can see how you think it could be.
DeleteMy only other guess is .5. Otherwise, I'm stumped.
DeleteSometimes.
ReplyDeleteMine is unvarying...more tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteI think [1.0] should appear in the sub-series three times, at the very minimum; and [4.0] should be in there, too.
ReplyDeleteMake that a minimum of 5 times. I forgot a couple. Maybe that makes me Nolanesque. Maybe it'll cost me the game.
DeleteDefinitely 4.0 with this crowd, Paul, and maybe two instances of .2142857143...
DeleteAll-star call on some of those 1.0. Not sure I see all five additional ones quite yet.
Quite a fun puzzle, lego.
My added term varies between 0.5 and 0.39285714285714...
DeleteThankfully.
Delete1.0 = 1/1 = New Year's Day
Delete1.0 = 2/2 = Groundhog Day (may be repeated as many times as needed)
1.0 = 5/5 = Cinco de Mayo
1.0 = 6/6 = D-Day
1.0 = 11/11 = Veteran's (or Armistice) Day
4.0 = 4/1 = April Fool's Day
Fool that I am, I missed 6/6 and 11/11 the first time, but I don't think that makes me unPATRIOTic (or aPATRIOTic) like Philip Nolan, The Man Without A Country. But missing a PAT can cause the loss of a football game.
Paul,
DeleteI like your x/x = 1.0 holidays. My best friend has an x/x birthday.
I choose the six fixed holidays that seem to garner the most media attention.
Not only are you Patriotic… you are Paulriotic!
LegoRobPatrickToPayPaul
I might also mention 5.0 = 5/1, May Day, my late aunt's birthday. She used to joke about the big parade held in her honor in Moscow.
DeleteSporty Slice: Movie & Springsteen Song: INDEPENDENCE DAY.
ReplyDelete“Dance in the deep end” at “the Y.”
EAPS: Pie Row Tech Nicks or PYROTECHNICS. Stevie Nicks & exe: Lindsey Buckingham.
Con-number-umm Slice:
1/1 terminates after 1 digit.
1/1 = 1.0
1/7 is purely recurring with a period of 6 digits
1/7 = 0.[142857]
1/7 = 0.1428571428 ...
3/17 is purely recurring with a period of 16 digits
3/17 = 0.[1764705882352941]
7/4 = 1+3/4 terminates after 2 digits
7/4 = 1+3/4 = 1.75
10/31 is purely recurring with a period of 15 digits
10/31 = 0.[322580645161290]
12/25 terminates after 2 digits
12/25 = 0.48
1/1, New Years Day, 1/7, Greek/Russian Orthodox Christmas Day, 3/17, St. Patrick's Day, 7/4, Independence Day, 10/31, Halloween, 12/25, Christmas Day.
So the answer is 1.75 which represents 7/4 or Independence Day.
Lego, are you sure you don't have any Greek Orthodox blood flowing in your veins?
ron,
DeleteNo Greek Orthodox blood, alas. But my date for 0.142857..., Feb. 14, (and it is always advisable to have a date for St. Valentine’s Day!) does at least promote (in its greeting cards etc.) a Greek god, Eros, whose name is a homophone for his weapons of romance.
LegoLoverNot-a-Mitre
Yes. Of course 1/7 and 2/14 both work. Nice puzzle.
DeleteFor the SS, my reference was to the shorthand term, “The Y”, being 20% of the story, that is, as any reporter can tell you, Who? What? When? Where? Why?
ReplyDeleteFor the C-n-uS (census?), I was unable to add a decimal for Thanksgiving, which could range for 11/22 = 0.50 to 11/28 = 0.39285714285714…
For the EAPS, my clue also led to pyrotechnics, as follows:
The first, a special fire = pyre
The second, a bit of horse feed = oat
The third, the nickname of a Hall-of-Fame pitcher = Eck (Dennis Eckersley)
The fourth, a basketball team = Knicks
David,
DeleteI’m kicking myself for not solving your EAPS. Knew “oats.” Hung up on “bon”fire. I actually posted a N.Y. Knicks picture! Not that many single-syllabled HOF pitchers nicknames: Slick, Fly, Cakes, Hoot, Goose, Eck.
20% (not 25%!). Very clever. I have no excuse for not getting that hint after (supposedly) spending 20 years of my life as a “journalist.” (I also worked at a YMCA for about five years. No kidding.)
Good Thanksgiving Day-range research/calculation.
LeGooseLambTurDucken
EAPS: Pyrotechnics
ReplyDeleteC-n-US: the answer finally clicked in after the holiday of 7/4 (1.75). My other holidays at the end of the year were Veteran's Day (1.0) and Christmas Eve (.5). "Thankfully," of course, referred to the floating nature of Thanksgiving.
The two instances of .2142857143 referred to Pi Day (3/14) and Tau Day (6/28).
That was fun. Would like to see a visual representation of the 366 data points from 1/31 to 12/1. Any volunteers?
Word Woman,
DeleteNice solving. I too would appreciate seeing a visual representation of these 366 numbers, kind of like the “pi wallpaper” over at this week’s PEOTS blog. But my computer/graphics chops (and my gray matter) are not up to the task… Calling all jan! Calling all jan!
LeGotNoChops
I have a graph, but I don't know how to share.
DeletePerhaps you could send it to Joe to post on this page, David. Joe, would that work?
DeleteAnother thought is to convert it to an image file (like a jpeg) and post it to Smug Mug or Flickr with a link here to your image for us to see.
Thanks for doing that. Quite curious.
Or send it to my PEOTS gmail address, puzzler3131, and I can link it to Smug Mug.
DeleteJust sent to PEOTS.
DeleteThank you, David, and thank you Word Woman. I am curious to see the graphic also.
DeleteLeGrateful
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThanks for the data, David!
DeletePuzzleria! Patrons,
ReplyDeleteSorry I'm late. Had to exit the asphalt superhighway ere I could enter yhe information superhighway.
But I knew you knew the answers, so, you filled in well for me. Thanks.
Answers:
A quick Pop Quiz Sample Slice (for extra points): The shortened form of an NFL team’s nickname (the way it is sometimes written in headlines, for example) is also an acronym of an offensive statistic. What nickname is this?
Answer:
New England Patriots (Pats)
Statistically the acronym PAT stands for Point(s) After Touchdown. It is also called “extra point(s).” Thus, the Pop Quiz was for “extra points.”
Sporty Slice:
“Swan Pool” Ballerinas
Take a celebration that is also the title of a mid-1990’s movie and of a 1980 Bruce Springsteen song, in two words totaling five syllables. Remove the final letter. Move the remaining final five letters to the beginning and rearrange them to form a word. Keep the next two letters as they are, forming a preposition. Insert a common article after them. Rearrange the next four letters and then the next three letters to form two more words, thereby completing phrase of five words.
This five-word phrase describes what Julie and four other members of her synchronized swimming team might do to prepare for the 2016 Summer Olympiad in Rio de Janeiro. That final letter you initially removed from the two-word phrase, when preceded by the same common article in the five word phrase, is a shorthand term for where the women might train. What are these two phrases and the shorthand term?
Answer:
The movie and song are titled “Independence Day.”
INDEPENDENCE DAY - Y = INDEPENDENCEDA
NCEDA = DANCE
IN = IN
Common article = THE
DEPE = DEEP
NDE = END
Julie and the other water ballerinas DANCE IN THE DEEP END of the pool at THE Y(MCA).
Con-number-umm Slice:
Deciphering Decimals
Consider the following series of six numbers:
[1.0], [0.142857…], [0.1764705882352941…], [?.??], [0.322580645161290…], [0.48]
It is actually a sub-series of a larger series that includes 366 rational numbers, several which occur more than once and all which are greater than three one-hundredths but no greater than 12.
The six-number sub-series possesses a particular significance and is arranged in chronological order. Numbers ending with an ellipsis (…) are repeating decimals. Name the missing number [?.??] and explain the significance of the sub-series.
Answer:
The missing number is 1.75, the decimal equivalent of 7/4, or July 4 when that date is written in month/day/year notation (without the year).
The other five numbers in the sub-series, when written as fractions, are: 1/1, 2/14, 3/17, (7/4), 10/31, and 12/25, which are the dates for five other popular “fixed-date” U.S. “holiday celebrations.”
Easy As Pie Slice:
Syl-lab-i-fier
Each line in the quatrain below is a clue to a one-syllable word that is (or sounds like) a syllable of a four-syllable word, something Americans will see a lot of on a particular holiday evening. What are the four one-syllable words and the one four-syllable word?
The first syllable: three-point-one-four…,
The next, what you do with an oar.
The third follows Georgia or Texas,
The fourth’s one of Buckingham’s exes.
3.14... is the value of pi, the greek letter that stands for the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its radius.
You row with an oar.
The word Tech follows Georgia or Texas.
One of Lindsey Buckingham’s ex-girlfriends is Stevie Nicks , both of Fleetwood Mac.
Pi-row-Tech-Nicks = pyrotechnics
PyroLambda
A Con-Number-Umm Slice Fable:
ReplyDeleteIn a solar-plexus system in galaxy far, far away, circling a star called Plexus are the planet Apple and its moon, Pippin. Years on Apple last 0.4 million days, with 400 months of 1,000 days each.
In the year 1776 AD (anno domain-I), a fledgling nation named the I-Tuned Tastes of I-Camera (ITI), declared its independence from the I-Comforts Commonwealth. ITI adopted its Declaration of Independence on Jobly 125, Jobly being the 222nd month of the Pippinial year. Ever since on every 125th of Jobly, I-Camerans celebrate their independence from the I-Comfortish, which they declared in 1776...
Well, at least we on earth were close (indeed almost as close as we could have gotten!) with 1(.)750, just 16 lunar years off. May 17 {(.)1765} and May 28 {(.)1786} would have been even better independence days here on Earth, with, respectively, an 11-year and 10-year difference from 1776.
LegoFabulist
This day and what it represents go on forever. .2666...
ReplyDeleteWell, till death us do part, anyway
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
Deletezeke creek and Paul,
DeleteThis much is certain: Death is de foe of de taxes.
(Three strikes and you're out, but third time's the charm.)
LegholdLoopholed
Puzzlerians,
ReplyDeleteRecalculating...here is the corrected date / ratio graph:
Graph of RATIOS of MONTH/YEAR (x axis) vs DAYS OF YEAR (y axis)
Smallest ratio is day 31 at 1/31 and largest is day 335 at 12/1.I have no idea what happened to data for the last 4 days of the year. You get the picture.
http://coloradocountry.smugmug.com/PUZZLES/i-xSF5Mx2/A
Please let me know if you can read it the graph all right. I imagine you get the general idea.
Smug Mug was the hardest part of the deal.
Did you think it would look like this?
WW
Word Woman,
DeleteKudos and thanks for going above and beyond the call of puzzledom-duty: grappling with Smug Mug and uploading David’s fine graph. I can read it just fine on my browser. I think I speak for all Puzzlerians! when I say thank you!
I did not picture the graphic representation to look this way (of course, I had no idea what it might look like!). It resembles 12 inverted canoes stacked one upon another at a crowded marina where space it at a premium. The canoes get more streamlined near the bottom (more numbers greater than 1) and the canoes pull farther away from the y-axis the lower you go (By December, the smallest x-value is 12/31 = 0.387...).
David, you are to be kudoed and commended for contributing this very interesting graph for Puzzleria! Patrons to peruse. Thank you!
LegoDeliverance
Lego, you are welcome. It was fun.
ReplyDeleteDavid more recently sent me a cleaner copy of just the curves if you'd like that to post on your page somewhere. I am going to bring the graph to the 10-year-old science boys (and girl) tomorrow.
I've been wanting to get more familiar with Smug Mug so this was a golden opportunity.