British backtracking; Civil descriptive disorder; Vive la Franco-Roman difference

Welcome to Joseph Young’s Puzzle –ria!

During this “pale-as-a-ghost” time of year, palindromes somehow seem to be floating through the ether... or, rather, through the rarefied air up there.

Reversals, transpositions, flip-flops, backtrackings, jaw-of-an-ass-backward spellings, craw-of-a-bass-ackward word orders and back-words abound, along with many happy returns… (Oh wait, “happy returns” happen during birthdays, the day after Christmas, and on April 15 – although on tax day the returns are not always so happy.)

For an example of this palindromomania, this current week’s NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle involves a palindrome of sorts:

Name a well-known TV actress of the past. Put an R between her first and last names. Then read the result backward. The result will be an order Dr. Frankenstein might give to Igor. Who is the actress, and what is the order?

(Look here or here for the answer.)

For another example, this week’s always excellent PEOTS (Partial Ellipsis Of The Sun) blog discusses “antimetaboles,” a kin and kind of first cousin to palindromes in which it is words rather than letters that are transposed.

For an even-closer-to-home example, the first puzzle [Retail Easy As Pie Slice (REAPS) “British Backtracking”] in this week’s Puzzleria! Menu (see below) involves a palindromic backward spelling.

[And no, “British Backtracking” does not refer to the two-score-and-five-year-old “Paul (McCartney) is dead” hoax fueled in part by the notion that when “Revolution 9” on “The Beatles” (White Album) is played backward the words “Turn me on, dead man” can be heard.]

Finally, we composed a palindrome for this week’s Puzzleria! blog. It is somewhat lengthy and labored, and requires some explanation (as mediocre palindromes do, and the best palindromes do not). 

On the plus side of the ledger, our palindrome does give a timely nod toward Halloween by including the word “Spooks.”

Incidentally, a few examples of excellent classic palindromes are:

“Madam, I’m Adam.”

“A man, a plan, a canal: Panama.”

And, a palindrome that we believe is the best ever created:

“Doc, note, I dissent. A fast never prevents a fatness. I diet on cod.”

But our palindromic composition (below) is not at all excellent, and therefore requires the following explanation:

One Halloween, a group of spooks (as spies are sometimes called) infiltrate Mt. Olympus and befriend Nike, goddess of victory. They gain her confidence by feigning esteem for Olympian ruler Zeus. The spooky spies further ingratiate themselves to the gods by posing as civil engineers and hatching a plan to extend the Suez Canal northwestward across the Mediterranean Sea, cutting through Crete, the Grecian mainland, and all the way up to Mt. Olympus! Alas, during a canal-planning conference with Nike, Zeus and other Olympians, the spies drop their guard and don’t bother donning their civil engineering disguises. Their cover is blown, the jig is up and the palindrome is, thank gods, finished...

So, here is our palindrome:

“Spooks among Nike esteem Zeus, replan a canal per Suez, meet seeking no mask… Oops!”

(The scuttlebutt is that Texas Governor Rick Perry was one of the spooks.)

But now, here are this week’s slices:

Menu

Retail Easy As Pie Slice:

British Backtracking

Take the name of a North American retailing chain. Spell it backward and divide it into two words to reveal something one might observe on a busy street in Great Britain.

 What is this retail chain? What are the two words?

Municipal Slice:

Civil descriptive disorder

Subtract the last letter from the name of a U.S. city and add two different letters at the beginning, forming a word that describes the city. What are the city and its descriptor?

 

Hint: Add the added letters to end of the subtracted letter to name, briefly, a place where Owls roost in Georgia.

Literary Slice:

Vive la Franco-Roman difference

Two writers who lived roughly a century apart share an identical full name – first, middle and last – except for three consecutive letters in one of those three names.

In one of the names the three letters spell out a French word whose English equivalent is a homophone of a Roman numeral. In the other name the three letters form two consecutive Roman numerals whose sum exceeds the homophonic Roman numeral by one. Who are these writers?

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.