PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER e5 + 72 SERVED
Welcome to Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!
Happy Indy 4!
“Indy 4” is my proposed snappier
alternative name for the great American holiday that we shall celebrate
tomorrow. “Indy” is short for “Independence” and “4” is the July date on which
the holiday falls.
Holidays ought to be breezy on syllables, and
easy to pronounce… which becomes especially important after a holiday’s-worth of celebration (“Jappy Horth of Foo-lye! Lust jook at those wireforks!”)
Thanksgiving (3), Christmas (2), Easter (2), New Year’s Eve/Day (3), and
Halloween (3) all qualify as having a breezily low syllable count. St. Patrick’s Day (4) and Valentine’s Day (4) are on the polysyllabic borderline, and could use some tinkering.
In need of a major overhaul, however,
are “Independence Day” (5) and “The Fourth of July” (5), each fraught with five
syllables. “Indy 4,” in contrast, quickly trips off one’s tongue triple-syllabically, lightly, fantastically.
And, if “Indy 4” fails to catch on
nationwide, perhaps the city of Indianapolis can institute an annual July 4 four-mile
go-kart race called “The Indy 4.”
We don’t have any timely Independence
Day-themed puzzles this week. If you want such Puzzlerian! Patriotism, please
refer to the Friday, July 4, 2014 Puzzleria! That should get you into the “Indy
4” spirit!
So, no fireworks here... but we do have one patriotic pseudo-puzzle
slice to offer this week.
Patriotic Pseudo-Puzzle Slice
An all-the-fixin’s fixture for the Fourth
Name a food that will be a fixture on
many Independence Day picnic tables this year, in four syllables. Remove the
fourth of this July treat’s syllables.
The result is more-or-less an
approximate rhyme of a popular arcade game. And it is more-less-than-more an
approximate rhyme of a popular music genre.
What are this food, game and music genre
(Hint: This food has lately been in the
news. It contains eight different letters, but no P’s.)
Now it is time for you to mind your P’s (Puzzles)
and Q’s (Quizzes) that appear on our Indy 4 picnic table. Yeah, it’s just a
picnic but we’ll still bring you a…
MENU
Village Smithy Slice:
“Waiter, there’s a horsesh** in my dessert!”
Change the last letter of a dessert to name
something you would not want to find in that dessert. Remove the first name of
a critically acclaimed eclectic guitarist, and move the letters that came
before the name to the end of the letters that came after the name, forming a word for a person who handles horseshoes or
horsehides.
What is the dessert? Who is the person?
Red Swingline Slice:
Fad food for tads
Name a fad popular in the 20th
century. Remove all spaces between words and change the last letter to a
different letter.
Insert a space somewhere in the result
to form a two-word phrase toddlers might use to name a staple of their diet.
What are the fad and the phrase?
Guilted Palace Of Sin Slice:
Some gluttons lack remorse
Name a natural
food. Change one of the letters to the letter that follows it in the word, and
remove either the penultimate or antepenultimate letter.
The result is
what you might eventually become if you eat too many pastries made using this
food, pack on a few too many pounds and, as a result, drift into a deep
lachrymose funk.
What is the
food, and what might you become?
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.
Happy 4th! Or Indy 4.
ReplyDeleteI have the Village Smithy Slice (no surprise there ;-))
Congrats, grad. Next St. Partick's Day I should devise a puzzle slice involving "The Quiet Man" movie with John Wayne. Notre Dame alumna/ae ought to have no problem solving that.
DeleteThere happens to be a patriotic thread woven through the three menu items this week. Solving this will be like a bonus slice!
LegoBetsyRossianPuzzleWeaver
# 1- The PPPS reminds me of a bad joke which I will reveal on Tuesday.
ReplyDelete# 2- There is another musician(?) involved in the VSS.
David,
Delete# 1- I look forward to Tuesday. One more bad joke on Puzzleria! is like one more mosquito in Minnesota!
# 2- Yes, there is. A musician(?) I had completely overlooked. Thanks for seeing the obvious that I missed.
LegoIsThisIndependenceDayOrGroundhogDay?
Well, there's a fun tag line!
DeleteA certain unit of the PSS would be just about right for all you chemists out there. And I know you are out there, though your days may be numbered.
ReplyDeleteLego, you are onto the latest trends!
Burrowing his way to the sunlight, eh, Word Woman?
DeleteI am about as trendy as zubaz.
LegoWizardOfZubaz
I missed the whole Zubaz thing, Lego. And I like a name with a 'Z.' Ah, the '90's!
DeleteThere is a related undesirable object that may be found in a related dessert (relative to the VSS object/dessert). Move the last two letters of the first word of the object to the end of the last word and change a vowel in the last word to a different vowel. The resulting phrase is something that some may describe as a fad here in Seattle. The remaining letters in the first word are related to the PPPS.
ReplyDeleteThanks, David, for the Added fun.
DeleteGuitar-guy Tennessee Ernie Ford was a picker?
Cultivating organic gardens by Evergreen Staters?
(Washing tons of veggies in the stream, as do Beaver Staters?)
Ojebama agree on their P’s & Q’s & legumes
LegoThereIsPeaceInTheValleyOfThe JollyGreenGiant
One of the letters in the alternate dessert have have been getting kind or uppity. Cut it down to size, rearrange the letters and come up with another dessert.
DeleteDavid,
DeleteI did lop the top of that uppity letter, rearranged letters, and concocted another dessert. I thought (in keeping with a certain mini-theme that has emerged this week) that the main dessert ingredient might be a legume. But I was incorrect. It turned out to be a drupe!
LegoWithDroopingHeadAndShoulders(No,NotTheShampoo,TheActualBodyParts!)…NotALegumeAfterAll
Add a letter to the eclectic guitarist's first name without changing it's pronunciation. Try using that as a substitute for an essential ingredient of a dessert which has the same main ingredient as the VSS dessert. Let me know how that works out for you.
ReplyDeleteJuly Jubilation!
DeleteLeg(hic)o
Is there any way at all I could go back and change "it's" to "its"?
DeleteShould I want to, if I could?
DeletePaul,
DeleteAre you trying to get skydiveboy going again?!
The answers to your questions:
Is there any way at all I could go back and change "it's" to "its"?
Should I want to, if I could?
… as you already know, are “Yes, but please don’t!” and “Yes, probably, because revenge is sweet!”
For those of you who may have been following this little saga of “malsequenced posts” in last week’s comments section, Paul could very well opt to delete his post with the “its/it’s” typo, correct it, and repost it. The rub is that it will not appear in its same spot in the comments sequence because I had already replied to it. Paul’s corrected repost would appear somewhere south of my reply, thereby rendering my scintillatingly clever “July Jubilation!” comment meaningless. That sense of meaninglessness might well convince me to delete my reply… For, why confuse our followers with an out-of-sequence, confusing Comments Section?
So, yes, Paul can correct his typo.
But should Paul want to correct his typo? Yes, because nobody with his obvious intelligence wants people to suspect he might not know the difference between it’s and its. But the real reason Paul should probably want to change his typo by reposting his comment is to get back at me, Lego, who did exactly the same thing to him, not just once but twice in the past two Puzzleria! comments sections!
LegoRevengeIsADishBestServedLikeAnAcedTennisBallDownTheThroatOfOne’sFoe
How about if I replace "it's" with "the"?
DeleteMeasure n times, cut n+1 times.
Sure, or with th'e.
DeleteLeg'o
OK, so suppose I replace "its" with "the".
DeleteDuh!
I got all but the natural food puzzle. Not bad for someone with a really bad cough and acid reflux. At least I can feel good about something. I also solved this week's Prize puzzle crossword on the Guardian website.
ReplyDeleteYou have much to feel good about, patjberry.
DeleteDon't forsake the "last-item-on-our-menu" natural food just yet. It is only Saturday. Isn't Tuesday well down the road? You, in particular it would seem, should be the pick of the Vegas oddsmakers to solve this "Guilted Palace Of Sin Slice."
Thanks a ton for your shout-out to Puzzleria! over on Blaine's blog late yesterday. We want to share our puzzles with the world, and Blainesville is an excellent place to start.
LegoGottaStain?ShoutItOut!GottaPuzzleBrain?ShoutOut!
I think I've got an answer to the last puzzle, but it actually involves dropping both the penultimate and antepenultimate letters, not either or. I'll reveal it Tuesday, though I'm not exactly sure it's that clever.
ReplyDeleteI don't have much this week.
ReplyDeleteVSS:
Dessert: CHERRY PIE. You wouldn't want to find a CHERRY PIT in it. Remove RY (Ry Cooder, never heard of him) and place CHER after PIT to yield PITCHER, “a person who handles horseshoes or horsehides.” Cherries Jubilee, were first prepared for one of Queen Victoria's jubilee celebrations! A July Jubilation!
That's something about Queen Victoria I did not know.
Delete[Not to be confused with the everything else about QV I probably never will know]
Lotsa Crown Victorias are "cherry tops."
DeleteLegoLocalCopsRips(Sic)OurWhollyOperaticBalletEvening'sEntertainment
VSS: Cherry Pie >>> Cherry Pit >>> Pitcher
ReplyDeletePPPS: Guacamole with no peas in it >>> Whack A Mole
Word Woman and ron,
DeleteCongratulations to you both for solving this patriotic week’s “red” puzzle.
ron, I am always impressed about how well you solve our puzzles with “pop culture” (Ry Cooder) and “sports culture” (horsehide/horseshoe pitcher) elements, even though those tend not to be your areas of expertise.
Word Woman, I enjoyed your “all you chemists out there” hint for the Guacamole/Whack-a-mole puzzle.
LegoCher,RyCooderAnnounceEngagement!(ThanksToDavid)
Thanks for the link for mole. I also liked the avocado- Avogadro connection.
DeleteNot surprisingly, the avocado-Avogadro connection was a wee bit too subtle for my pea-sized brain to process!
DeleteLegoLeguminous
Even Trader Joe's is into Avogadro's Number Guacamole
DeleteInformal poll: to pea or not to pea in your guacamole? Me? I'd try it.
How do things like peas in your guacamole pick up so much steam in the press/interwebs?
Let's try that link again:
DeleteAvogadro's Number Guacamole
“Trader Joe's is into Avogadro's Number Guacamole?”
DeleteWhen wiseass Joe Young was in high school he was into substituting the word “Avogadro” for “avocado” whenever avocados were present.
“Informal poll: to pea or not to pea in your guacamole? Me? I'd try it?”
I’d try it too, Word Woman. I love peas. I love avocados. What’s not to love?
Thanks for proposing the poll. I wish the other presidential hopefuls (other than Jebbush) would weigh in so we would know for whom (legume-lover or legume-shover?) to vote 16 months from now.
“How do things like peas in your guacamole pick up so much steam in the press/interwebs?”
I believe I know. It is because pea is a funny word and fun word to say. (BTW, steamed peas in guacamole are the best!) The pea/pee pun also makes for double-entendre scatological fun: “Pea in your guacamole?! Har har har!”
LegoAppleIsComingOutWithANewEdiblePortableMediaPlayerNextEaster:ThePeepPod
I got as far as Cherry Pie (though it could have also been PEACH pie) and the resultant pits, but having NO familiarity with eclectic guitarists, there was no hope of going further. Having approached it (as per usual) from the back end, I was focused on 'FARRIER' or 'PLOVER' as the smithy (having just been IN an actual smithy building on the VA Tech campus, oddly enough, last week), which certainly did not lead back to the various pies. Sigh. I gave up.
ReplyDeleteViolinTeddy
DeleteRegarding your inability to “hammer out” a solution to our VSS: We have chalk that up to your having TMI! We called our puzzle the “Village Smithy Slice” only because the word “horseshoe” appeared in the text. But you, fresh off your smithy visit, had visions of farriers, blacksmith plovers, anvils, forges, fly presses, swage blocks and peen hammers dancing in your head!
We gave you and elementary-level challenge; you were attempting to solve a PhD-level challenge.
LegoDanceOfTheSugarPlumb48-OunceBlacksmithHandHammers
I had just about gotten to cherry pie too, but only because I was pretty sure the resulting word had to have "cher" at the end of it. And I, like ViolinTeddy, was thinking of farriers, so that wasn't working. I've certainly not been at top form the last few weeks. But I did get the Shortz puzzle this week! :) -- Margaret G.
DeleteMargaret G.,
DeleteIt’s always a pleasure to see you stopping by.
“Cher” was a blind spot for me as I created this puzzle. I completely ignored her (which is never a good idea when it comes to Cher… ask Sonny.) As David noted in earlier comments, “There is another musician (?) {other than Ry Cooder} involved in the VSS.”
After the reports from you and ViolinTeddy, I am beginning to fear that “Farrier-on-the-Brain Syndrome” is beginning to afflict our valued Puzzlerians! But it does raise a few questions:
Who is fairier? Tinkerbell or the Tooth Fairy? The Sugarplum Fairy or Merryweather? Flora or Fauna? Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother or Thumbelina?
Who is Ferrier? Bryan or Danny?
Who is the Fairest of Them All? Snow White? Edgar Winter? King Solomon? San Diego? The “Great Minnesota Get-Together?”
LegoFairToMiddling
That was kind of you, LegoFair, how you assessed my INability to solve the Smithy puzzle....but I am also glad to read that I wasn't the only one stuck on farrier (i.e. Margaret).
DeleteDoes anyone actually know what the Tooth Fairy is supposed to look like? You certainly ran amok on the Fairier theme!!! I can only express my awe!
I also got the PPPS guacamole / whack-a-mole / rock 'n roll and the VSS cherry pie --> cherry pit --> pitcher + Ry.
ReplyDeleteI also pointed out that cherry --> Cher + Ry, two noted performers.
I extended that to a different dessert (as ViolinTeddy pointed out) peach pie --> peach pit --> pea pitch --> pea patch (or the Seattle version P-Patch), which then ties to the pea-guacamole "food in the news".
There is one uppity letter in peach pie, the "h", which you can cut down to size to an "n". Rearrange those letters to get pecan pie
David,
DeleteThanks galore for your co-pea-ous pea-iggingbacking!
We also have you to thank for now knowing, after a bit of research, that a pecan is neither a nut nor a legume but a drupe!
LegoTuttiDruppi
For the natural foods puzzle, I found "thickener" could be changed to "thicker" by removing the necessary letters. I did get the one about guacamole/whack-a-mole/rock'n'roll, the one about cherry pie/pit/pitcher, and the one about mood ring/moo drink.
ReplyDeletepatjberry.
DeleteGood solving on the guacamole/whack-a-mole/rock'n'roll. And, by solving the “cherry pie/pit/pitcher” and “mood ring/moo drink” slices, you have cracked this weeks “red” (cherry) and “white” (milk) puzzles.
For the natural foods puzzle, "thickener"/"thicker" is an excellent alternative answer, but I believe it works only if you remove not “either the penultimate or antepenultimate letter,” but “both the penultimate and antepenultimate letters”…
THICKENER >> THICKENRR – NR = THICKER
Or
THICKENER >> THICKEEER – EE = THICKER
… But I still contend that “You, in particular it would seem, should be the pick of the Vegas oddsmakers to disern our intended answer to this "Guilted Palace Of Sin Slice."
LegoLet’sSee…ThereIsARedPuzzle,AWhitePuzzle,AndA…
This week’s answers, for the record:
ReplyDeletePatriotic Pseudo-Puzzle Slice
An all-the-fixin’s fixture for the Fourth
Name a food that will be a fixture on many Independence Day picnic tables this year, in four syllables. Remove the fourth of this July treat’s syllables.
The result is more-or-less an approximate rhyme of a popular arcade game. And it is more-less-than-more an approximate rhyme of a popular music genre.
What are this food, game and music genre?
(Hint: This food has lately been in the news. It contains eight different letters, but no P’s.)
Answer:
Guacamole;
Whack-a-mole;
Rock ‘n’ Roll
Village Smithy Slice:
“Waiter, there’s a horsesh** in my dessert!”
Change the last letter of a dessert to name something you would not want to find in that dessert. Remove the first name of a critically acclaimed eclectic guitarist, and move the letters that came before the name to the end of the letters that came after the name, forming a word for a person who handles horseshoes or horsehides.
What is the dessert? Who is the person?
Answer:
Cherry Pie; Pitcher
CHERRY PIE >> CHERRY PIT
CHERRY PIT - RY (Cooder) >> CHER PIT >> PIT + CHER = PITCHER
Red Swingline Slice:
Fad food for tads
Name a fad popular in the 20th century. Remove all spaces between words and change the last letter to a different letter.
Insert a space somewhere in the result to form a two-word phrase toddlers might use to name a staple of their diet.
What are the fad and the phrase?
Answer:
Mood ring;
“Moo Drink” (milk)
MOOD RING >> MOODRING >> MOODRINK >> MOO DRINK
Guilted Palace Of Sin Slice:
Some gluttons lack remorse
Name a natural food. Change one of the letters to the letter that follows it in the word, and remove either the penultimate or antepenultimate letter.
The result is what you might eventually become if you eat too many pastries made using this food, pack on a few too many pounds and, as a result, drift into a deep lachrymose funk.
What is the food, and what might you become?
Answer:
Blueberry; Blubbery
BLUEBERRY >> BLUBBERRY >> BLUBBERY
Lego…
Never in a million years would have come up with "moo drink" for toddler milk.
ReplyDeleteBut surely do love the red/white/blue food theme in the end, despite missing everything this week. Ho hum. Shall await Friday's next round w/ anticipation!