Guitar and dugout heroes; City critters in our country! "What creature is this, not yet laid to rest?"

Welcome to Joseph Young’s Puzzle –ria!

Don't tell the “pizza police” or city health inspectors, but there seems to be lots of buzz about creatures, critters, varmints and vermin in this week’s puzzle slices. It’s kind of like the kind of name-calling that ricochets across the table during your typical six-person poker game. Speaking of which...

As we mentioned in Tuesday’s (December 2) comments, we are giving you an additional week to work on solving the fine puzzle created by our “guest gourment French puzzle chef,” Monsieur Garcon du Parachutisme (aka “skydiveboy” on the Blainesville blog).

Guest French Chef Slice:

52-Card Poker Pick-up

In a private gaming room at a posh Las Vegas casino six men are playing poker. Going around the table clockwise, Carl is a lawyer who enjoys fine wine. Dan is a banker and loves a dry martini. Ed is a pilot and likes his Jack Daniels neat. Frank is an accountant who prefers Scotch. George is an architect and insists his Manhattans are stirred—not shaken, and Jack is a dentist with a taste for fine cognac.

Each of these gentlemen take turns shuffling the cards, which of course are Bicycle, Rider Back, Poker 808, Standard Face alternating between Red and Blue backs. A fresh deck of opposing color is put into play at the end of six rounds, or upon request.

After several rounds, when it was his turn to shuffle again, one of these players managed to drop all of the cards face up on the floor. From this information can you determine who is all thumbs and why?

Now, the puzzle’s creator and I don’t always see eye-to-eye (I think he’s probably taller than I), but we do both agree that although this may seem like a difficult puzzle, with the right approach it can be solved rather quickly. If one particular approach you are using is not working, then we would suggest a careful re-reading and a different approach.

You will be very pleased with yourself when you do solve it. Don’t give up. The answer is in the cards.



Now here is this week’s menu of fresh Puzzleria! house slices:

 Menu

Easy as Possum Pie Slice:

City critters in our country!

Name a critter often associated with a particular U.S. state. 

Move one of the critter’s letters three places to the right (replacing the letter that is there) to spell out the name of a city in that state. (For example, if the letter you choose to move is the fifth letter, it would replace the original eighth letter in the critter’s name.)

What are this critter and city?

Trade Deadline Slice:

Guitar and Dugout Heroes

Within the past decade an American League Baseball team traded its ace pitcher to a National League team for an outfielder and three pitching prospects. The first name of the outfielder and the last name of the ace can be combined to form the name of a rock/jazz guitarist. Who are the pitcher, outfielder and guitarist?

Hint: Since the trade, another major leaguer has emerged who shares both first and last names with the guitarist. The traded outfielder is still active in the majors. The traded pitching ace, currently a free agent, hopes to still be active.

Zoological Slice:

“What creature is this, not yet laid to rest...”

Name a mammal. Reverse three consecutive interior letters and change one of them to a different vowel to form a word you might see on a theater marquee. What mammalian creature is this? What is the word?

Hint #1: Add the letters in the mammal’s name to an alternative name for the mammal and rearrange this whole mess of alphabet soup to form, indeed somewhat fittingly, a three-word phrase (article, adjective and hyphenated-noun) describing a deckhand aboard a Greenpeace ship during a tempest. 

Hint #2: Both the mammal and the movie-marquee-theater word have much in common – indeed, 57-plus percent in common – with a word appearing in this puzzle proper or its hints.

Hint #3: Place a man’s name in front of the mammal’s name (not the “alternative name” from Hint #1) to form what sounds like a word that one might think would crop up somewhere in Greenpeace International’s Core Values and Mission Statement, but does not.

(As you can see from the title of the Zoolical Slice puzzle immediately above, I tried to “s       t       r       i       n       g out” the Greensleeves/Greenpeace links for as long as possible {including a surreal rendition involving harps and twins outstanding in their field!}. I’m afraid I was influenced by the frayed sleeves of my faded, threadbare, green Brett Favre Green Bay Packers jersey {not a new jersey like the one with Aaron Rogers printed on 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 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.