My Notna; Two bits, four bits, six glitzy-bitsy sequins; String Theory-ter

Welcome to Joseph Young’s Puzzle-ria! We have been serving up fresh puzzle slices now for more than half-a-year. (More than 80 slices served! And much more to come.)

For those of you who may be new to our blog, we create and purvey word and number puzzles similar to the ones with which puzzlemaster Dr. Will Shortz challenges National Public Radio listeners weekly on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday broadcast.

Will’s November 2 offering was especially intriguing. He said:

Write down the following four times: 3:00, 6:00, 12:55 and 4:07. These are the only times on a clock that share a certain property (without repeating oneself). What property is this?

(Note: Only three of the four clocks at the top of this blog page pertain to this NPR puzzle. So please refer instead to the four clocks shown below. Ignore the thin blue second hand. Concentrate instead only on the green and gold {Packer colors!}minute and hour hands.)

I am far from the best and the brightest puzzle solver on Earth (or even the Blogosphere) but I can usually solve Will’s puzzles. This one, however, tied me in knots. I wasn’t alone. Other puzzle lovers commented on Blaine’s puzzle blog and on An Englishman Solves American Puzzles blog that they also found this “four-clock” puzzle quite challenging.

The deadline for submitting one’s puzzle answers to NPR is 3 p.m. Eastern Time on the Thursday following the Sunday broadcast. After that deadline has passed it is common for bloggers on puzzle sites to post their guesses regarding Will Shortz’s intended answer for that week’s puzzle. Usually there is unanimity about the assumed correct answer. But no one actually knows what Will’s answer is until he reveals it on the following Sunday’s broadcast.

After the Thursday deadline this week, people on both Blaine’s and AESAP’s blog pretty much agreed on what they thought Will’s intended answer was. But few if any deemed that answer to be a reasonably suitable or satisfying solution, given how the puzzle was presented and worded.

Some, however, admitted that perhaps the answer most of us assume is correct is not Will’s intended answer after all. I am in that group.

I believe this to be one of those rare weeks when no one either at Blainesville or on the AESAP website has solved the NPR puzzle. We will find out on Sunday.

In the meantime, for your solving pleasure I have created a “porcidorsaline puzzle” (that is, one that is similar to, or “piggybacks” upon, another puzzle -- in this case, Will’s puzzle) . The  wording of my puzzle somewhat mirrors the NPR  “four clocks” puzzle.

I hope you can enjoy and solve it. If you have trouble, I (and perhaps other Puzzlerian! commenters) will provide clues and hints over the weekend.

And, as always, we will give the answers to all our puzzle “slices” on Tuesday afternoon.

Porcidorsal Slice:

Four Clocks Redux

Write down the following four times: 3:00, 6:00, 12:55 and 2:05. These four times on a clock are especially timely for most Europeans and North Americans during this time of year. Explain why.

(Note: The illustration of four clocks at the very top of this web page pertains to this puzzle. As in the NPR puzzle illustration more immediately above, ignore the thin blue second hand. Concentrate instead only on the green and gold minute and hour hands. And, go Packers!)

But that was merely an appetizer. Here is this week’s meat-and-potato menu of puzzle slices:

Menu

Symmetrical Slice:

My Notna

Take a common first name that is a palindrome (a word that reads the same forward and backward) and add a letter to both ends to form a word that is also palindromic. Replace those two added letters with two other letter-twins to form a palindromic string of letters. Add a letter at the beginning of this string to form an antonym of the first word. What is this name and what are these antonyms?

Integral Slice:

Two bits, four bits, six glitzy-bitsy sequins…

Name the next number in this sequence of integers:

2, 4, 6, 30…

Hi-string-onic Slice:

String Theory-ter

Name something you might hear someone do on a stage. Remove all letters except for the first four and the seventh, eighth and ninth, leaving a string of seven letters. Write down the first four letters in the string. Write down the last five letters in the string. Add the same letter to the end of each to form new words that are often considered antonyms.

What is this something you might hear someone do on stage? What are these two new words?

(Hint: A three-letter word is often considered an antonym of both new words.)

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.