It's a family affair; Mourning jog; "Which team is which?"

Welcome to Joseph Young’s Puzzle –ria! Last we rollicked and frolicked and rambled and gamboled. This week we’ll lick our wounds as we give due credit to a handful of puzzling legends/geniuses.

On the National Public Radio Weekend Edition Sunday Puzzle this past week, puzzle master Dr. Will Shortz presented a puzzle submitted by renowned puzzle creator Henry Hook.

It read: 

Think of a 10-letter word that names an invention of the early 20th century and includes an A and an O. Remove the A. Then move the O to where the A was, leaving a space where the O was, and you'll name a much more recent invention. What is it?

This past July I created two puzzles, both which included Mr. Hook’s “more recent invention” as a partial answer. They were:

Name something most Americans have, in two words. (Sometimes it is spelled as one word.) Move the space between the words two places to the right. (For example, “name something” would become “nameso mething.”) Now take the first part and place it after the second part, leaving a space between them. The result, when pronounced aloud, sounds like a two-syllable pronoun that might seem a little stilted or pretentious to some ears. What are the pronoun and the “something” most Americans have?

and:

Take an early twentieth century invention most likely kept in the kitchen. Bisect it. The first part is a musical instrument; the second part sounds like a synonym for pretend or fake. Remove the last letter of the first part and replace the middle letter of the second part with it, resulting in a much later and more popular twentieth century invention. What are these inventions?

I used the first of these puzzles in the August 1 edition of Puzzleria! I packaged it as  a Parts Of Speech Slice:  Pretentious Pronouns-ciation. Its answer was ONESELF and CELL PHONE.

Because the second puzzle also involved the answer “cell phone,” I figured I’d wait a couple-thirteen-fourteen months before springing it on Puzzlerians! Alas, that second puzzle is essentially the same one Henry Hook created and recently submitted to Will. So, I can no longer use it!

I was a bit disappointed until I realized that I had created a puzzle that an elite puzzle creator had also created.

Now, let’s be frank. Of course I realize I am nowhere near to being in Henry Hook’s league and ballpark (The Brooklyn-based Hook creates Sunday Crosswords for the Boston Globe, so I guess that would be “American League” and “Fenway Pahk.”) No, Henry, like Will Shortz, is a seasoned professional. I am a greenhorned amateur.

Indeed, in the early 1980s Henry and Will were fellow staffers at the legendary “Games” magazine, where Will eventually served as editor before replacing Eugene Maleska as editor of the New York Times Crossword Puzzle.

In this 2002 New Yorker profile on Henry Hook, “Games” is called “the country’s first self-respecting puzzle publication: a thick glossy in a genre long dominated by fly-by-night newsletters. Soon after its founding, in 1977, its circulation rose to two hundred thousand and a clutch of brilliant constructors left their monastic cells to join it. Their strategy was simple but revolutionary: instead of offering straightforward clues to obscure words, they would offer clever clues to common words. (When Hook stooped to using “esne,” he clued it as “A slave to crosswords.”) Instead of rigidly quoting the dictionary, they would stretch the boundaries of language. In a puzzle called “Element 18,” for instance, Hook removed the letter “R” from all the answers -- element eighteen in the periodic table being argon”

We (all of us who enjoy puzzles) owe Henry and Will and other young, innovative puzzle constructors from that era a debt of gratitude. They transformed the world of puzzling generally (and crossword puzzles, in particular) from their in-a-rut realm of rote recall and staid “crosswordese ”into a raving new-waving world of brash and clever cluing, unexpected twists and turns, wordplay run amok, and multitudinous aha! moments of solvation.

We here at Puzzleria! are just doing our darnedest not to lose our balance as we stand on the shoulders of giants like Dr. Shortz and “Henry the Riddler.” We’ll Hook our wagon to their star whenever and wherever possible.

Here is this week’s trio of puzzle slices:

Menu

Easy As Mom’s Apple Pie Slice:

It’s a Family Affair

Name a punctuation mark and divide it into three parts, all which relate to family. The first part is a family member; the second is how someone in the family might refer to this family member in his/her absence; the third is how someone in the family might address another family member in his/her presence. 

What are the punctuation mark and its three familial parts?

Specialty Of The House Slice:

Mourning Jog

Think of a two-word group of performers with a member who might perform Taps at a military funeral. Remove a letter and the space to name something mourners might wear at the funeral, or something joggers might wear on a run.

Restore the space and remove a second letter to name an entertainment option chosen by some joggers who might use the something they wear on a run to tote a portable electronic entertainment device. 

Name the group, what is worn and the entertainment option. 

Sporty Slice:

“Which team is which?”

Two major university football teams are butting helmets in a Saturday afternoon autumn gridiron clash. The scoreboard identifies the home team only by its team nickname the other team by its school name and nickname.

Three letters of the alphabet – L, D, and G – appear in either one team name or the other team name (as they appear on the scoreboard), but not in both names. There are nine other letters, however, that the teams’ names share in common, with eight of those nine occurring in the same ordinal position in their respective monikers. (For example, the words “string” and “sprint” share five of six letters in common, but only four of six the same ordinal position.)

What are these teams?

 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.