Those of you who solved last week’s “This equality, unmercifully, is quite strained” puzzle slice, are aware that the “reverse variable,” 21, that we used in the equation:
A + B + C – √-1 +
X + H = 21!
stands for HAHA, as
in HaHa Clinton-Dix, who wears number 21 as a starting safety for the Green Bay
Packers.In my January 10, 5:32PM comment last week, I included the spatial puzzle:
J
FENCE
It was a clue to our “This equality, unmercifully, is quite strained” puzzle, and a take-off on and homage to Word Woman’s spatial puzzle:
J_________
TITANIC or ANDREA DORIA.
The answer to Word Woman’s spatial puzzle was “hook line and sinker.” (The Titanic and Andrea Doria were sunken ships.) In my puzzle the fence is sunken. And there is a name for a sunken fence.
The National Public Radio Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle purveyed by puzzlemaster Will Shortz this past week spawned a plethora of “piggyback puzzles” by commenters on the Blainesville blog. Will’s puzzle read:
Think of a U.S. city whose name has nine letters. Remove three letters from the start of the name and three letters from the end. Only two will remain. How is this possible and what city is it? The answer is Fort Worth.
My piggyback puzzle, which I posted on both Blaine’s blog and Puzzleria! read:Remove six letters from the name of a large seven-letter U.S. city, leaving a little less than three. Remove five letters from the same city, leaving a little more than three. Remove four letters from the same city, leaving less than two but more than one. What is the city.
The answer is Phoenix, as Puzzlerian! ron noted in a comment last week.Phoenix - phonix = e = 2.7183...
Phoenix - hoenx = pi = 3.1416...
Phoenix - oenx = phi = 1.6180...
If you live in ancient Rome, of course, you can remove the first five letters of Phoenix and leave nine.
“Any” questions? All puzzles should lead to such an “epiPhoenix!”
Hope you can “epiphanize” (that is, achieve those “Aha!” moments) with the following puzzle slices:
Menu
Greatest American Hero Slice:
Hero Warship
Name a past American
hero whose surname sounds like a misnomer when spoken. When he was about age
70, a movie was released with a title that sounded like it might have been this
hero’s biography. But it wasn’t, even though a
big-name actor starred in the title role.
Three years earlier another
movie had been released co-starring this same big-name actor and an actress
whose character’s surname was spelled (and pronounced) identically with the
American hero’s surname. But, again alas, the movie was not a bio-pic of the
American hero.
Who are these
thespians and hero, and what are the two movies?
Double-Header Sports Slice:
MegaHomoPhones!
Take a surname closely associated with a professional sports team. Remove the surname’s final three letters and replace its second letter with a homophone of those three letters. Take a five-letter industry associated with the home state of the team. Remove a letter, rearrange the remaining four and add them to the end of the original surname to form another surname closely associated with the team.
What are these two surnames and the name of the team?
Hint: The letters of the team can be rearranged to form a phrase describing what the team’s fans might witness as they wend their way to the stadium past tailgaters partying in the parking lot. It takes the form:
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Take the city name and nickname of a professional sports team. Put the first three letters of each name side-by-side to form a homophone of the first name of a title character in a movie starring a winning Super Bowl quarterback.
The remaining letters of the city’s name can be rearranged to form the surname of a sports figure who figures into (or, rather, stars in) two of ESPN’s top three “25 Biggest Sports Blunders.”
The remaining letters of the nickname spell out a word that can follow either the first name or surname of a singer who fronted a 1960s pop-rock group with a somewhat patriotic name. This first name + word and surname + word form two Midwestern team nicknames.
What is this team?
Hint: The letters of the team can be rearranged to form a rude and uncomplimentary phrase describing its members, in the form:
_ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Take a surname closely associated with a professional sports team. Remove the surname’s final three letters and replace its second letter with a homophone of those three letters. Take a five-letter industry associated with the home state of the team. Remove a letter, rearrange the remaining four and add them to the end of the original surname to form another surname closely associated with the team.
What are these two surnames and the name of the team?
Hint: The letters of the team can be rearranged to form a phrase describing what the team’s fans might witness as they wend their way to the stadium past tailgaters partying in the parking lot. It takes the form:
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Take the city name and nickname of a professional sports team. Put the first three letters of each name side-by-side to form a homophone of the first name of a title character in a movie starring a winning Super Bowl quarterback.
The remaining letters of the city’s name can be rearranged to form the surname of a sports figure who figures into (or, rather, stars in) two of ESPN’s top three “25 Biggest Sports Blunders.”
The remaining letters of the nickname spell out a word that can follow either the first name or surname of a singer who fronted a 1960s pop-rock group with a somewhat patriotic name. This first name + word and surname + word form two Midwestern team nicknames.
What is this team?
Hint: The letters of the team can be rearranged to form a rude and uncomplimentary phrase describing its members, in the form:
_ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Rock-Jock Slice:
Los Angeles Kinks?
The name of a “classic-era” pop-rock group coincidentally
includes the nickname of a professional sports franchise that was formed in the
same year as was the group. A nickname of a different team in the same league,
formed in the same year, might have been a better fit for the rock group’s
name, however.
What is the name of this group? What name might have been a better fit?
Hint: The team nickname the group used alliterates with the second word in the group’s name. The “better fit” nickname would have alliterated with the first word in the group’s name. Both sports franchises, with their original nicknames, still exist and are based in their region of origin.)
Hint: The “different team in the same league, formed in the same
year, (that) might have been a better fit for the rock group’s name” has a
timely connection with the franchise defeated by the Super Bowl winning
quarterback’s team referred to in the Double-Header Sports Slice, above.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 puzzle-loving and challenge-welcoming friends
about Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria! Thank you.
ML KING, was not literally a "king" and he only made it to 39. Babe RUTH only made it to 53, though "The Story of Ruth" was a great film not about him. "Ruth" is certainly a "misnomer" though.
ReplyDeleteron,
DeleteAs always, I enjoy your thought process. Sadly, MLK had that "39" thing" in common with Jack Benny.
Ruth is not alone. These guys also played baseball:
Ted Lilly
Doug Lindsey
Bob Allison
Mark Loretta
Bob Shirley,
Stan Belinda,
Truck Hannah (who at least had a first name more masculine than “Babe”!
And, John Salley played basketball well.
LegoLinda
Happy 71st, Jim.
DeletePaul,
DeleteGreat clip! Mr. Stafford certainly has a comma-comma-comedic knack.
LegoEatsShootsAndLeaves
I'm surprised that you didn't take the first half of your D-HSS one step further, using the last word of your phrase. I also have half of your second half of the D-HSS.
ReplyDeleteDavid,
Delete“Dom!”… er, I mean, “Doh!” Now that you bring it to my attention I am chagrined.
If the blanket-blank phrase is the half of the second half of the D-HSS that you have not yet solved, please allow me to now, in advance, apologize personally to you (and skydiveboy, if he cares), because I know you will inevitably solve it.
LegoDismayedInJanuary
I now have every part of the second half except the pop-rock singer.
DeleteGood solving, David.
Delete"The remaining letters of the nickname spell out a name..." Actually it is more of a "word" (or a bird) than a "name." When the word follows the singer's first name and surname two new team nicknames are formed. Think of pro and college teams in the Great Midwest.
(I edited the puzzle to reflect this.)
Hint to the identity of the big-time actor in the GAHS, “Hero Warship”:
ReplyDeleteTwo absolutely glorious songs:
Sun King (like the Titanic or Andrea Doria, Word Woman?), and Here Comes the Sun
LegoIt’sAll RightEverybody’sLaughing
Hahahahahahahaha. I had to come over here from PEOTS to figure out what all the ha-ha was all about, Lego.
DeletePartial Ellipsis Of The Sun(Kink)Sic!
DeleteYou were the instigator, Word Woman, with your Sunken Titanic, Andrea Doria, Fence (HaHa, indeed!)… and SunKing!
LegoSolaroi…
Insti-gators are usually from Florida ;-).
DeleteMost peculiar, mama. 2:05
Delete他の方からは、かなり不思議な感じで見られちゃいましたけど、力作なんです（笑）
DeleteIs a tour de force from the other people saw in quite a strange feeling, but (laughs)
Translated by Bing
:-)
An American Hero, Neil Armstrong. Isn't a movie coming out about the un-hero, Lance Armstrong, starring Ben Foster?
ReplyDelete_ _ _ _-_ _ _ ?
ReplyDeleteYes, yes. I was waiting for this. I was wrong, wrong, most grievously wrong (although until the last four minutes or so, it seemed as if I might have been correct As if...).
DeleteLegoLaMeaCulpaMeaCulpaMeaMaximaCulpa
Bonus Timely Easy As Pie Slice:
ReplyDeleteThe Milk of Human Justice
Reverse the order of a past civil rights leader’s monogram. The result is the last letter of the first word, the first letter of the second word and the first letter of the third word of a three-word rallying cry, call to justice and even hash#ag promoted by modern-day civil rights advocates.
What is the monogram. What is the rallying cry?
Lego…
Good puzzle for today.
DeleteThe only one I have: Bonus Timely EAPS:
DeleteMLK (Jr.)>>> #BLACK LIVES MATTER
There are a few more BlackLM's:
-Black Liberation Movement
-Black Liberation Month
Thanks, David, and thanks, ron, for the link and for the additional BlackLM's, of which I was not aware.
DeleteLegorateful
The title-role character played by the big-name actor in this week’s Great American Hero Slice, “Hero Warship,” would have had no problem whatsoever solving Will’s NPR animal puzzle this week.
ReplyDeleteLegoPavlovianDroolSpittle
This week’s answers, for the record (Part 1):
ReplyDeleteGreatest American Hero Slice:
Hero Warship
Name a past American hero whose surname sounds like a misnomer when spoken. When he was about age 70, a movie was released with a title that sounded like it might have been this hero’s biography. But it wasn’t, even though a big-name actor starred in the title role.
Three years earlier another movie had been released co-starring this same big-name actor and an actress whose character’s surname was spelled (and pronounced) identically with the American hero’s surname. But, again alas, the movie was not a bio-pic of the American hero.
Who are these thespians and hero, and what are the two movies?
Answer:
REX HARRISON, AUDREY HEPBURN, DR. JIMMY DOOLITTLE; DOCTOR DOLITTLE; MY FAIR LADY (ELIZA DOOLITTLE)
My hint in the comments section:
“Here Comes the Sun King” (King = REX)
“Here Comes the Sun” was written by George HARRISON
Double-Header Sports Slice:
MegaHomoPhones!
Take a surname closely associated with a professional sports team. Remove the surname’s final three letters and replace its second letter with a homophone of those three letters. Take a five-letter industry associated with the home state of the team. Remove a letter, rearrange the remaining four and add them to the end of the original surname to form another surname closely associated with the team.
What are these two surnames and the name of the team?
Hint: The letters of the team can be rearranged to form a phrase describing what the team’s fans might witness as they wend their way to the stadium past tailgaters partying in the parking lot. It takes the form:
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Take the city name and nickname of a professional sports team. Put the first three letters of each name side-by-side to form a homophone of the first name of a title character in a movie starring a winning Super Bowl quarterback.
The remaining letters of the city’s name can be rearranged to form the surname of a sports figure who figures into (or, rather, stars in) two of ESPN’s top three “25 Biggest Sports Blunders.”
The remaining letters of the nickname spell out a word that can follow either the first name or surname of a singer who fronted a 1960s pop-rock group with a somewhat patriotic name. This first name + word and surname + word form two Midwestern team nicknames.
What is this team?
Hint: The letters of the team can be rearranged to form a rude and uncomplimentary phrase describing its members, in the form:
_ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Answer:
Answer: (EARL “CURLY”) LAMBEAU; (VINCE) LOMBARDI; GREEN BAY PACKERS
LAMBEAU >>> L + (EAU = O) + MB + (DAIRY – Y) >>> L + O + MB + DAIR = LOMBARDI
HINT: GREEN BAY PACKERS >>> NEARBY KEG CAPERS
Answer: SEATTLE SEAHAWKS
SEA + SEA = C.C.
Sea + LETT >>> Sea + TTLE = Seattle
Sea + HAWKS (University of Kansas JayHAWKS; Chicago BlackHAWKS >>> Jay Black of Jay and the Americans.
HINT: SEATTLE SEAHAWKS = WEAK-A** ATHLETES
Lego...
This week’s answers, for the record (Part 2):
ReplyDeleteRock-Jock Slice:
Los Angeles Kinks?
The name of a “classic-era”pop-rock group coincidentallyincludes the nickname of aprofessional sports franchisethat was formed in the same year as was the group. A nickname of a different team in the same league, formed in the same year, might have been a better fit for the rock group’s name, however.
What is the name of this group? What name might have been a better fit?
Hint: The team nickname the group used alliterates with the second word in the group’s name. The “better fit” nickname would have alliterated with the first word in the group’s name. Both sports franchises, with their original nicknames, still exist and are based in their region of origin.)
Hint: The “different team in the same league, formed in the same year, (that) might have been a better fit for the rock group’s name” has a timely connection with the franchise defeated by the Super Bowl winning quarterback’s team referred to in the Double-Header Sports Slice, above.
Answer:
PAUL REVERE AND THE RAIDERS;
PAUL REVERE AND THE PATRIOTS
Hint: The “different team…,” the New England (originally “Boston”) Patriots, defeated the Indianapolis Colts 45-7 January 18, 2015 to win a trip to Super Bowl XLIX. Joe Namath’s New York Jets upset the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III, before the NFL and AFL merged, and before the Colts franchise moved to Indianapolis.
Lego…
What Lego didn't think of after the "Nearby Keg Capers" is that Dom Capers is the defensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers.
ReplyDeleteAlso, keeping with the classic rock group mini-theme, the hyphenated portion of the "Seattle Seahawks" anagram is a homophone of what might have been description of a Mama or Papa, when he or she was young, particularly if he or she was Irish.
Yes, David, thank you.
DeleteNow, I am no proctologist, nor do I play one on TV, but I understand that if the sphincter muscles are weakened due to disease or injury it may lead to bowel incontinence and, inevitably, to john fill-ups.
LegoLordIApologizeForThatJoke…
What could this possibly have to do with either GAHS or this week's NPR puzzle?
ReplyDelete