PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER e5 SERVED
Mayday is also the international radio-telephone
signal word used as a distress call. Its etymology is a homophone of the French
phrase m’aider, meaning “help me.” That might have been what I yelled the time I nearly drowned in a riptide at Hapuna Beach on Hawaii’s Big Island.
Speaking of the French (and speaking
French), a slightly premature Bon anniversaire to Puzzleria! This is our 52nd
weekly edition of Puzzleria! We officially turn one year old next Friday. So May
Day doubles as our week-early Happy Birthday. Our birthday (actual date of
birth) was Friday, May 9, 2014. We shall be celebrating the anniversary
(anniversaire) of our birthday. So those savvy French got it right again.
“Battle of the Sams” or “Sammy Scrimmage”
Speaking of m’aider, ponder this
distressing circumstance: If Sam “Mayday” Malone was pitching to Sammy SOSa,
who would prevail?
An even more distressing circumstance occurred
last week when Will Shortz purveyed a puzzle about politicians that was very similar to one already
created by Puzzleria! contributor skydiveboy, aka Mark Scott of Seattle, aka Master
French Puzzle Chef Monsieur Garcon du Parachutisme. Mark had given it to us months
ago for publication in Puzzleria! We dawdled, dawgawnit, and puzzlemeister Professor Shortz
beat us to the puzzle punch.
As summer looms, the 2016 campaign season is beginning to heat up also. On our menu this week is a puzzle slice
about a politician. A few weeks ago Liddy Dole was an answer to one of our
slices. An excellent recent NPR puzzle involved Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. (See “puzzle” link above.)
The hint to our Uncorking The Campaign Slice
is connected homophonically to the setting of the sitcom in our Piece Of Cake
Timely Sporty Slice. Enjoy!
MENU
Piece Of Cake Timely
Sporty Slice:
When jocks become
jokes
Name a current
athlete, first and last names, that everybody seems to be talking about lately,
especially certain 11 (or 10) o’clock newscasters. Remove from the athlete’s
last name another thing everybody seems to be talking about (but not just
lately), especially newscasters who are forecasters.
Spelling the
remainder of the surname backward would result in a food harvested by digging.
But don’t do that. Instead spell it forward and add to it a food harvested by picking, thereby forming a city’s name that is the setting of a late great
situation comedy. The athlete’s first name is a name of a character on that sitcom.
Who are the
athlete, sitcom and character?
Hint: Regal
guitarist might cover Leo’s “Regards…”
Uncorking
The Campaign Slice:
This one is a “stumper”
Name a current
politician, first and last names. The last name might follow the words “belt”
or “disk.” The first name, which is a nickname, is a world city, a European
capital, that is. The nickname is a world city, a European capital minus 51,
that is. (51 as it would be written in an ancient European capital, id est).
Who is this
politician?Hint: The politician shares her/his last name, and four letters of his/her formal first name, with a former great NFL player who spent his entire professional career with one team, a team which was once head-coached by a man who was portrayed in a biographical movie with a cast that featured a notable future politician. The coach’s real-life hometown was the same as Annie Hall’s and Jack Dawson’s.
Creepy
Critter Slice:
Reptilian Replication
Name a reptile,
in two words.
Replace the
second and fifth letters in the first word with two different letters. In the
second word, replace the fifth letter with a different vowel, replicate the
fourth letter twice, and place one of those letter-triplets at the end of the
word.
The result
describes what one might witness when a woman dances while wearing a certain garment
a size or two too big.
What are the
reptile and the (“letter-replicated”) result of wearing a size-too-big garment
to the dance?
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 Puzzleria! Thank you.
Bon anniversaire, Lego!
ReplyDeleteMerci barbecue, bonne femme du bon mot.
DeleteAgneauJambda
Confusing/sad rhythm & blues news today. Ben E. King died. B.B. King is ailing.
ReplyDeleteLegoNotAllTheKingsAreDead
I have UTCS, two answers for CCS and only ⅓ of POCTSS!
ReplyDeleteron,
Delete1 + 2 + 0.33 = 3.33. I’d say you have exceeded expectations.
Two answers for the CCS! I don’t know if I can wait ‘til Tuesday for your answers (Aimee Mann: great solo artist). Do you think you know which one is my intended?
Also, I’m trying to figure out which third of the POCTSS you have. I assume it’s the athlete because the sitcom setting and character are a kind of package deal. But for a guy of your superior puzzle-solving skill, I would think the other two thirds would fall like top-heavy dominoes.
On the other hand, you just might be pulling our lego.
LegOuch!
I don't know anything about sports, so I have the SITCOM and setting, but there are too many characters to know which one fits an athlete I've probably never heard of.
Deleteron,
DeleteYes, I do recall you saying in the past that you have a sports blind spot (your only blind spot apparently). But you still seem to solve puzzles quite successfully on this blog, which tends to be frequently sports-heavy.
But doesn’t the last sentence in the POCTSS give you the third piece to the athlete’s full name? You have narrowed the first name down to a handful-or-so possibilities. You know the first part of the surname. I contend the second part of the surname is reasonably deducible from that aforementioned sentence.
LegoTryingToDoSomethingAboutCreatingAnObscureSportySlice
OK. Thanks for the hint. I have it now, even though I've never heard of the athlete.
ReplyDelete3) It's not the dreaded Windshield Viper.
ReplyDelete2) I really should get out and do something this weekend, instead of just sitting around.
1) I had to think of a former athlete with the same first name, of course. I was thinking that athlete's last name was also the name of a city in a state whose nickname can be found in the name of the place that the current athlete will be performing. I was wrong. That'll teach me.
Paul,
Delete3) Nor is it the not-so-dreaded Windshield Factor (regional humor here).
2) Amen.
1) You are never wrong. Just incomplete, in this case at least. In your chain-of-consciousness tour de force, the last link was missing:
“I was thinking that the last name of the former athlete (with the same first name) was also the name of a city in a state whose nickname can be found in the name of the place that the current athlete will be performing” in the house that Jack built! (or actually, the house that Kirk built)
Of course, the current athlete could have been performing at a venue (with the state’s nickname in its name) that was much more nearby than the actual venue… Indeed, if you need to travel from the former athlete’s surname namesake city to the more nearby venue, it would cost you only about $9 via train, $5 by bus, $65 via cab and, if you drive yourself, about a gallon of gas.
Or, of course, I had to think of a Depression-era American bank robber whose last name is the same as the current athlete’s first name. Both have served time in the hoosegow.
The bank robber shares a nickname with a former athlete (another regional reference) who was engaged in a pseudo-sport which is held on a site similar to where the supposedly “legitimate” sport the current athlete plies his trade (although the current athlete has dabbled in the pseudo-sport also). Indeed, both athletes might metaphorically be called “artists,” and especially “Pollock-like artists” when things get bloody...
I'm afraid my ”chain” is not as seamlessly linked as Paul’s is.
LegoItTakesAMissingLinkToKnowOne
POCTSS - I'm thrilled with how near I am to the answer!
ReplyDeleteUTCS - I'm a bit confused because there's some hiccups in your hint regarding the European capital, but I think I know who you're talking about.
CCS - not a clue - when letters keep switching around, my eyes tend to glaze over. But I'll try to think some more on it.
--Margaret G
CCS - the garment and reptile do not originate from the same country. --Margaret G
ReplyDeleteMargaret G,
DeleteNice CCS hint. Sounds like you have this week's puzzles well in hand.
I agree with what you say about eyes glazing when letters switch around. It seems sometimes that the alphabet is playing a 26-chair version of musical chairs.
But if you ever think you know what I'm talking about (UTCS), I' afraid you should be afraid, be very afraid
We appreciate your astute contributions, seriously.
LegoNotExactlyTheEinStineOfThePuzzlingWorld
*Who* you're talking about, not *what*! --Margaret G.
ReplyDeleteMay the Fourth...
ReplyDeleteBWY
LegoRawRats
UTCS:
ReplyDeleteBERNie SANDERS>>>European Capitals: BERN & BERLIN - LI(51) = the nickname: BERN.
“belt sander(s)” or “disk sander(s)”
The NFL Player (I duckduckgoosed this one): BARRY SANDERS. BARRy shares 4 letters with BeRnARd Sanders. Barry Sanders played only for the Detroit Lions. I've never heard of him!
BTW, do you know Bernie Sanders' twitter address? It's at notBERNsanders.
CCS:
KOMODO DRAGON>>>KIMONO DRAGGING!
Second solution: GIANT DRAGON>>>a GRAND DRAGGING of garments!
POCTSS:
I don't do “sports” puzzles as I know almost nothing about sports. However, I can give the “probable” sitcom: The Andy Griffith Show, and the city of MAYBERRY (YAM, dug from the ground, BERRY, picked from a bush, or plant).
There are lots of MAYBERRIANS, but this is as far as I can go... Any credit for a ⅓ solution?
Later, with Lego's hint (“You know the first part of the surname”) that the athlete's surname begins with MAY (I had thought it would be inside the name), I have Floyd MAYWEATHER (I've never heard of him) and the Mayberrian FLOYD LAWSON, or Floyd the Barber. “Weather” is, of course, the “other thing everyone seems to be talking about,” especially “forecasters.”
I see Mayweather was victorious Sunday (quite a timely puzzle, Lego!). If it were not for this puzzle, I would not have noticed. Old time boxer, Floyd Patterson (2 T's), leads one to PATTERSON, NEVADA, not far from Las Vegas, I observe.
ron,
Delete"Giant Dragon >> Grand Dragging" is a brilliant alternatibe answer.
We admire your stick-to-itiveness on the POCTSS
LegoTimelyAsABatOuttaAnInvertedDigitalClock
Reading 11:34(BruceShouldaSued!)
My research indicates:
ReplyDeletePatterson NV is about 169 miles from Las Vegas (where the MGM Grand Garden Arena is located).
Patterson NY is about 59 miles from NYC (where Madison Square Garden is located).
Paterson NJ is about 16 miles from NYC.
There doesn't seem to be a Patterson NJ.
Most weekends I'm slightly less active than Bernie Lomax.
The Komodo Dragon is a type of Monitor Lizard, which I assume is so named due to it's affinity for computer and television screens.
Paul,
DeleteAs you are well aware, I have never been one to quayle at the thought that I might have goofed. Spelling is not my forty (or should that be fourty?). I spell potatoe p-o-t-a-t-o-e, unless it is plural, when you must drop the "e" and add a "z".
I trust your research, Paul. I was, of course, thinking of Paterson in New Jersey, the Garden State.
The one-T Paterson's a city,
The two-T Patterson fought gritty,
But you are madder than a hatter, Son
If you think there's a three-t Pattterson.
-- by Ogden Utah (the Beehive State) Nash Rambler
I am about as good film historian as I am speller, but wasn't Terry Kiser nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Bernie Lomax? Or was it Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Silverman who were up for best actors in a supporting role?
Back when was in high school, a bunch of komodo dragons doomed for dissection escaped from our biology lab and scurried loose and amok across the corridors. They were Hall Monitor Lizards.
If Kim Novak married Yoko Ono, got divorced, and married "The Captain,"...
After Liz Taylor married opera singer Cecil Arden (I believe he was husband #38 for Liz) and divorced him, she married Donald "Notorious" D (#39) and became a dragontail.
(Liz's fellow cosmetics maven Liz Arden accomplished the same name by just marrying Mr. D.)
LegoLizards&Gizzards&Snails&Quayles
"POCTSS - I'm thrilled with *how near* I am to the answer!"
ReplyDeleteHoward McNear is the name of the actor who played Floyd Lawson, the barber in fictional Mayberry
"UTCS - I'm a bit confused because there's some hiccups in your hint regarding the European capital, but I think I know who you're talking about."
No hint there - I knew it was Bernie Sanders, but I thought it was Berne Switzerland, not Bern, and figured you meant to subtract i, not li. Little did I know you meant to *add* the li to Bern to get Berlin.
"CS - the garment and reptile do not originate from the same country." Kimonos originate in Japan I believe, and Komodo Dragons in Indonesia
--Margaret G
Margaret G,
DeleteExcellent POCTSS. Too clever for me, and I knew the answer. Floyd was just one of many great comic characters on TAGS, "The Andy Griffith Show." (Lawson, you say. And I had always thought Opie was the Law's son on that sitcom.)
LegOpieLawsonIsEasierToSayThanRichieHardwareStoreOwnerSon
Here are this week's answers, for the record (part 1):
ReplyDeletePiece Of Cake Timely Sporty Slice:
When jocks become jokes
Name a current athlete, first and last names, that everybody seems to be talking about lately, especially certain 11 (or 10) o’clock newscasters. Remove from the athlete’s last name another thing everybody seems to be talking about (but not just lately), especially newscasters who are forecasters.
Spelling the remainder of the surname backward would result in a food harvested by digging. But don’t do that. Instead spell it forward and add to it a food harvested by picking, thereby forming a city’s name that is the setting of a late great situation comedy. The athlete’s first name is a name of a character on that sitcom.
Who are the athlete, sitcom and character?
Hint: Regal guitarist might cover Leo’s “Regards…”
Answer: Floyd Mayweather; The Andy Griffith Show, set in Mayberry; Floyd Lawson (Colby), owner of Floyd's Barber Shop, where Opie, Andy, Barney, Gomer et al, got their ears lowered.
In the May 2 "fight of the century"(15 years and counting) Floyd Mayweather defeated Manny Pacquiao. Certain newscasters at the sports desk were talking a lot about that event. Newscasters who are forecasters (aka meteorologists) are "aleays talking about" the weather (but not doing anything about it).
MAYWEATHER - WEATHER = MAY >> YAM = a food harvested by digging
MAY + "a food harvested by picking" = MAY + BERRY
The Andy Griffith Show was set in Mayberry, home of Floyd the barber.
Hint: Regal guitarist might cover Leo’s “Regards…”
"Regal guitarist" = Leo Kottke's album Brian May of the rock group Queen = MAY
"Leo's Regards..." alludes to Leo Kottke's album "Regards from Chuck Pink.
Chuck = Chuck BERRY
Pink = Pink FLOYD
LegOpie
Here are this week's answer's, for the record (Part 2):
ReplyDeleteUncorking The Campaign Slice:
This one is a “stumper”
Name a current politician, first and last names. The last name might follow the words “belt” or “disk.” The first name, which is a nickname, is a world city, a European capital, that is. The nickname is a world city, a European capital minus 51, that is. (51 in an ancient European capital, id est).
Who is this politician?
Answer: Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders
Belt sanders and disk sanders are tools.
the first name = BERN (Switzeland) + IE (i.e. ie id est, Latin for "that is") = BERNIE
the first name = BERLIN - LI (51 in Roman numerals) + IE (Id Est)
Hint: The politician shares her/his last name, and four letters of his/her formal first name, with a former great NFL player who spent his entire professional career with one team (BARRY SANDERS of the Detroit Lions), a team which was once head-coached by a man (Gus Dorais, born in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin) who was portrayed in a biographical movie (Knute Rockne: All-American) with a cast that featured a notable future politician (Ronald Reagan. The coach’s real-life hometown (Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin) was the same as the hometowns of Annie Hall’s and Jack Dawson’s (fictional movie characters from "Annie Hall" and "Titanic").
Creepy Critter Slice:
Reptilian Replication
Name a reptile, in two words.
Replace the second and fifth letters in the first word with two different letters. In the second word, replace the fifth letter with a different vowel, replicate the fourth letter twice, and place one of those letter-triplets at the end of the word.
The result describes what one might witness when a woman dances while wearing a certain garment a size or two too big.
What are the reptile and the (“letter-replicated”) result of wearing a size-too-big garment to the dance?
Answer: Komodo Dragon; Kimono Dragging
KOMODO >> KIMONO
DRAGON >> DRAGIN >> DRAGGING
LegoLambdorais
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHere is a quick follow-up inter-slice pop quiz based on the POCTSS and the UTCS:
ReplyDeleteWhat is the connection between The Andy Griffith Show and Bernard Sanders' nickname of choice?
(The answer is search-engineable, but I would be very impressed if anyone out there just happens to know what the connection is. As usual, we're on the honor system.)
Lego[BeeOpie]TillYouDrop
Loose ends:
ReplyDeleteExplaining my May 2 at 9:17 PM comment in response to Paul:
The Depression-era American bank robber whose last name is the same as the current athlete’s first name is Pretty Boy Floyd the outlaw. Both he and Floyd Mayweather have served jail time.
The bank robber shares a nickname with a former athlete (Larry "Pretty Boy" Henning from Minnesota) who was engaged in the pseudo-sport (professional wrestling) which is held on a site (a rope-enclosed wrestling ring similar to where the supposedly “legitimate” sport (boxing ring) the current athlete plies his trade (although the current athlete has dabbled in the pseudo-sport also). Indeed, both athletes might metaphorically be called “artists,” and especially “Pollock-like artists” when things get bloody... (and they "paint" the canvas red).
LegoFloyTheBarberBoxerBankrobber
I could not come up with the answer to Will Shortz’s NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle this week. It read:
ReplyDelete“Think of a common two-word phrase for something you might see in a kitchen. Reverse the words — that is, put the second word in front of the first — and you'll name a food, in one word, that you might prepare in a kitchen. What is it?”
So I submitted a mess of alternative answers:
As an Eli, when I played college football with Amos Alonzo Stagg (his teammates knew him as just “Lon”), he and I spent almost all our free time in the football players’ dorm kitchen training table because we were still-growing boys and that’s where the food was. So that’s where you could find LON, ME…
My girlfriend has wallpapered her kitchen with chick-flick-posters -- Kate Hudson, Hugh Grant, Julia Roberts, Patrick Swayze, Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon… Eeeweu! Her kitchen’s lousy with ROOM MUSH…
When I was married briefly to Tuesday Weld (I called her “Tue”), we honeymooned in a bungalow on the French Riviera. On the eve of Ash Wednesday, we splurged, cooking up some oysters for a romantic supper. But the oysters must have been bad. So instead of having a “Mardi Gras” (Fat Tuesday) in our kitchen, we instead had a “MALADE MAR” (Sickly Tue).
After Thanksgiving dinner that I host at my pad, most all my tryptophan-filled relatives crash around my kitchen table (where they can continue to graze on leftovers between snores). So, the kitchen is where my KIN NAP… (But at least they’re not messy grazers.)
Another reason my kin like to hang in my kitchen is because years ago I installed a bank of casino-style slot machines along the wall opposite the sink. So after rousing from their postprandial slumber, each one of my kin becomes a NICKEL PUMPER.
A Cockney bloke once told me he bakes yams until softened, then shapes them in a YAM MOLD… (Yeah, I know, MOLDY ‘AM is two words, not one. But I’m sure Will will accept it.)
LegoThisIsHowWeMakeItUpToYouWhenWeMuckUpTue’sDelicatePsychologicalMakeUpWithMouldyOysters&Yams