Friday, January 8, 2016

R.E.O. Speedwagon? Cars? Dumptruck? Gran Torino? Galaxy 500? Chubby Checker?; Character Di-velopment; Cinnamon is a spice; is synonym a species?; Ka-powder room; Poet and Repoet; Degas' under-duress dance; Fishticuffs

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER e4 + pi4 SERVED

Welcome to our January 8th edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!

In this happy afterglow of the New Year, we are happy to present you with one more gift that Santa left beneath the Christmas tree. Think of it as a Feast of the Epiphany gift.

The gift is an excellent puzzle submitted to Puzzleria! by Puzzlerian! patjberry, who weekly (but not weakly) gobbles up with gusto every puzzle we offer on our menus – morsels, appetizers, slices and desserts. Like skydiveboy, ron, David and other Puzzlerians! whose “guest puzzles” have appeared on our blog, patjberry is an extremely clever and creative puzzle solver and puzzle creator. He is another in a lengthening line of Wise Men (and Wise Women!) who have gifted us with puzzling Epiphanies!

Thank you, pjb, and thank you to all who have contributed, continue to contribute, and shall in the future contribute original puzzles to Puzzleria! And thanks too, of course, to all of you who solve them!

patjberry’s fine poser appears under this week’s MENU, and it titled “Motor(ist)head Memorial Slice: R.E.O. Speedwagon? Cars? Dumptruck? Gran Torino? Galaxy500? Chubby Checker?” (Blame me, LegoLambda, not he, patjberry, for the wordily unwieldly title. The “Motor(ist)head” part is a nod to the recently deceased Lemmy Kilmister, Motorhead frontman ...sorry, I cannot do the umlaut).

Our other offerings this week include a poetic morsel (could be verse!) and a bonus artistic morsel; a fishy” appetizer, followed  by a “minty” appetizer (to get the fishy taste out of your mouth); a somewhat scatological “current news events” puzzle slice wrapped in toilet paper; and to top it all off, we “bookend” this weeks blog with a “fictional character” dessert – just the perfect serving of sweetness to balance and complement our opening poetic morsel. Enjoy!

Morsel Menu
 
Pair Of Europeans Morsel:
Poet and Repoet

A pair of poems – one composed in the late 18th Century the other composed in the early 20th century – each repeat a word twice in their initial line. In the earlier poem it is a five-letter word; in the latter poem, a seven-letter word.
 
Both words begin with the same letter. The repeated word is the first word of each poem. The five-letter repeated word in the earlier poem is a common word, but it is spelled somewhat unconventionally.

The four letters in the final word in the first line of the latter poem – if you add to it the initial letter of the two repeated words – can be rearranged to form the first word of the earlier poem.
 
The final word in the first line of the latter poem seems somewhat unconventional. That is to say, a majority of the modern English-speaking population likely would be hard-pressed to define this word.
 
Both poets are Europeans.

Who are these poets and what are the titles of their poems?



Bogus And Bonus Artistic Morsel:
Degas’ Under-Duress Dance

Five years before his death, French artist Edgar Degas (1834-1917), was forced to move from his residence on rue Victor Masse in Paris to less lavish quarters on Boulevard de Clichy. He spent the final half-decade of his life nearly blind, wandering the streets of Paris.

(Warning: Bogusness follows):
Degas lived off the dwindling past commissions from his paintings and sculptures, but it was not enough. So occasionally he would kidnap from the streets of Paris not waifs but reasonably well-dressed adolescent girls who appeared to have possibly wealthy parents. He was a serial kidnapper, abducting the teens one at a time.

Degas held this series of “meal ticket” hostages for ransom at his residence at his old art studio filled with paintings and sculptures of dancing figures. While waiting for their parents to respond he would encourage his “guests” to study the forms of his figures. He made it a habit to teach each of his hostages waltzes, boleros, bourrees, fandangos, pavanes and, especially, tangos. His motto was “Every time DEGAS TEACHES TANGO, A HOSTAGE “GETS” DANCE.”
 
Take the 17 letters in either the RED or GREEN string of words in Degas’ hostage-taking motto. Rearrange them to form a recent possible headline that may have appeared in U.S. newspapers and news websites this past week. 

The headline might read:

__ __ __
__ __ __ __ ,
__ __ __
__ __ __
__ __ __ __

The headline consists (in order) of a verb, noun, slang verb, common article, and noun.


What is this headline?  
 
Appetizer Menu

Boxing Up Produce Appetizer:
Fishticuffs

Name edible produce items, usually seasonal, in three words of 4, 2 and 4 letters. Remove a letter from the final word.

Name a two word phrase – a 5-letter adjective and 3-letter noun – that is something more serious that a fib or “fish story.” (The 5-letter adjective rhymes with something one might eat for breakfast.) Intersperse the 8 letters of that phrase among (but not outside of) the three remaining letters of the final word in the produce items to produce a different article of edible produce, in 11 letters.

Place the first two words – of 4 and 2 letters – of the original edible produce items in front of the 11-letter article of produce. The result is something that not-so-dominant pugilists often have.

What are the original 3-word produce items? What is it that pugilists may have?
 
After Dinner Mint Appetizer:
Cinnamon is a spice; is synonym a species?

Name something edible, in one word, that might be described as an “after dinner mint” for a certain species of critters (or “before-or-during dinner mint,” for that matter). Add a consonant at the beginning, spell the result backward and divide it into two words that are synonyms, both as nouns and verbs.

What is the critter’s “after-dinner mint”? What are the synonyms?

MENU

Motor(ist)head Memorial Slice:
R.E.O. Speedwagon? Cars? Dumptruck? Gran Torino? Galaxy 500? Chubby Checker?

Think of a well-known musical group of the past. Disregard the “The” usually seen before its name.

Now interchange the first and last letters in the name. The first four letters of this result form a common English word. The final four letters of the result, spelled backward, form a common English word. These two words (which are sometimes put together to form one compound word) ought to be familiar to motorists everywhere.

What is the musical group, and what are these newly formed words?

Pointers And Setters Slice:
Ka-powder room

My shower curtain is ripped. My sink drain is clogged.
My MEDICINE CABINET mirror is cracked (364 weeks – not days – of bad luck!), and my air-conditioned BIDET is NICE… that is, if you’re an ICEMAN!
After every flush, with a TOWEL I BLOT around the base of my TOILET BOWL.
And I would sure like to know WHO SHEARED from its plumbed moorings my adjustable misty spray SHOWERHEAD nozzle!...

In brief, I have been cursed with a:
__ __ __ __ __ __
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ !

Take the 14 letters of what I have and rearrange them to form three words that appeared in an international news story this past week, in 5, 5, and 4 letters.

Hint: Two of the words are capitalized.

What are these three words? With what have I been cursed?

Dessert Menu

Literary Crittercism Dessert:
Character Di-velopment

Replace with a single vowel the third and fourth letters in first name of a fictional character, forming the name of a second fictional character, in one word. (This second character is usually referred to by one name, something like Elvis, Cher or Madonna, I guess.)

A three-word phrase (often cited incorrectly as a four-word phrase) associated with the first character includes a pronoun. The vowel in that pronoun is the “single vowel” with which you should have replaced “the third and fourth letters in first name” of the first character.

A three-word phrase – two nouns flanking a preposition – is associated with the second character. Spoonerize (that is, interchange the initial consonant sounds of) the nouns in this phrase, forming two non-words.

However, if you add to the end of the first non-word the two letters in first character’s first name (the letters you replaced with one vowel), you will form a specific lowercase term for a critter – like “beagle” or “tabby,” for example. The second non-word, if spoken aloud sounds like the present-tense first- or third-person French verb that means to engage in the pursuit of  this critter.

Who are these two characters? With what phrases are they associated? What is the specific term and the French verb meaning to engage in the pursuit of the critter?

Every Friday at Joseph Young’s Puzzleria! 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.

67 comments:

  1. I got MMS.

    Very easy for me to solve because the name of the group came to mind as I read the first sentence of the puzzle. I am happy for that as I am not into pop music and don't know most of the groups by name, even if I recognize a song.

    Good puzzle! I like it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The dessert is too complicated and convoluted for me to even get a start on it, but it's not going to break my heart; I'll just return to it later. I may be able to conquer it with a different approach.
    I've had my 'aha moment' with all the others.
    Thanks to lego and pjb for brewing up these puzzles in this cold and dreary midwinter.
    Someone you might think of in connection with two of the puzzles might use a phrase from another of the puzzles to mean something quite different than it's use in that puzzle.
    So I've solved and hinted at all but one of them.
    Do I get a gold star?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Paul, your gold star is pending. I will issue it only after you report on your progress on the second morsel, an artistic puzzle, that I just now added to this week's blog.

      LegoDegas

      Delete
    2. Here you go, Paul.

      LegoWhichInNoWayMeansToImplyThatPaulIsRobotic!

      Delete
    3. OK, so now I have the add-on morsel, but I still don't have the dessert. Maybe I should just skip that altogether.

      Delete
  3. It's all about the Wisconsin-made underwear, right?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't believe in magic underwear. I believe that's a misnomer however you slice it.

      Delete
    2. Paul, if you really don't believe in magic underwear, I think you would make a lousy Mormon. Sorry, but it had to be said.

      Delete
    3. Yes it is indeed, Word Woman. Here in Wisconsin (where Spooner is situated), our air is wondrous -- we have wonder air!

      LegoUnearthsTheOldPunnySlogan"Wisconsin:ComeSmellOurDairyAir!"

      Delete
    4. What does one do in Spooner when approaching a fork in the road?

      Delete
    5. Simple, skydiveboy. Scrape off the Frost from the "Spooner 3 Miles" sign with a knife, and take the road less taken.

      LegoWhoIsADishRunningAwayWithTheSpoonerism

      Delete
    6. Cut off his (or her) Slossen?

      Delete
    7. Yes (4:15 - 4:25).

      LegoEnjoysArtisticDepictionsOfFerns

      Delete
  4. Got the pugilist puzzle and the "Ka-powder room" puzzle, but will need a few hints with the others. Thanks again, Lego, for including my puzzle! There'll be more to come, for sure!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I got half the POEM and all of the MMS.

    Weekly, I wonder what you all see to come up with these puzzles, especially ones like the MMS.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Good evening fellow-lovers-of-torturing-ourselves-every-Friday-afternoon-or-evening! It's not going too well in my own attempts, although I DID just figure out pjb's Motorhead slice (and like sdb posted, the musical group name was my very first thought.)

    Also, have gotten Boxing Up Produce, but only by doing so, as so often is the case, 'sort of' backwards. [Well, the first word led to the pugilist term, which I then dismantled into the two-word phrase and the remaining three letters.]

    Also, I believe I nailed down the first poet/poem, but for the life of me, can't come up with the second poem/poet, even though I know what the last word of its first line ought to be. No luck at the ole Google on that one!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hmm, well, I was all elated just now to finally stumble upon what I was convinced was THE solution for the Dessert puzzle....everything works great until I get to the French "sounds like" for the general critter....although the first letter and another letter sound within the "non-word" ARE similar. Still, I am going to put this solution down in my drafts, and call it done, even if I'm wrong!

    ReplyDelete
  8. To finish for tonight, I'm pleased to report having also just stumbled on the After Dinner Mint Appetizer word --just occurred to me all of a sudden...and the rest worked out nicely.

    ReplyDelete
  9. At least I don't have the embarrassment of only knowing the answer to my own puzzle. Still need some hints for the rest, though. What qualifies as a "slang" verb, anyway? I hope I'm not giving anything away with the Degas puzzle by saying the article in the headline is the. Duh. Only article that has three letters.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. patjberry,
      The "slang verb" is also a noun that contains the noun that follows it. The slang verb, as a noun, is also a slang synonym for the noun part of what I have been cursed with in the "Pointers And Setters Slice: Ka-powder room."

      LegoAuldSlangYne

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    3. I JUST GOT IT TOO. HALLELUJAH! I'd had the entirely wrong slang verb chosen, until your hint finally parted the fog! Even then, it all slowly unfolded one painful word at a time. Duh! I had even seen that story, too.

      And happily, your hint also reassures me that I'm at least on the right track with the Ka-Powder noun, although I still have a choice of two nouns, and a choice of several (although I've picked a favorite) adjectives. Not knowing what the int'l news story is, makes it all the harder.

      Delete
  10. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks, Lego! Got the Degas puzzle!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I think I have the first poem, but can't find the second. Any hints for this?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. pjb,
      Spiritus Mundi

      LegoLamarLundi

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    3. Thanks! Got them both! I did think one of them began with "Water, water everywhere", but obviously I was wrong.

      Delete
    4. FINALLY FINALLY, since you basically just gave us the second poet, after fishing through his innumerable poems, first lines, all the while using the WRONG last [anagrammed] word, it wasn't until a last desperate effort at 'most famous quotes' that I saw a different last word, and bingo, the correct first letter of a double word. What a relief; I'd been becoming pretty crabby about the whole thing.

      Delete
  14. I don't have the mint, but I can think of a type of animal, if you put a vowel at the beginning and reverse it, you get two synonyms.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I still need hints for the mint and dessert puzzles. Got anything else, Lego?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ADMA:
      Members of the species have been pictured on Puzzleria! the past few ____embers.

      LCD:
      The first few letters of the surname of the devrloper one of the characters are the same as the first few letters of the names of the characters that we are seeking. The creator of the other character shares his monogram with the first 75 percent of the name of a rock group.

      LegoDessert&MintHinter

      Delete
    2. ADMA:
      Members of the species have been pictured on Puzzleria! the past few ____embers.

      LCD:
      The first few letters of the surname of the devrloper one of the characters are the same as the first few letters of the names of the characters that we are seeking. The creator of the other character shares his monogram with the first 75 percent of the name of a rock group.

      LegoDessert&MintHinter

      Delete
    3. Your hints above, Lego, have me convinced that I solved the Dessert puzzle properly, HOWEVER, as I mentioned above on Jan. 8 at 10:16 p.m. my time (and was hoping you would comment, but you never did), the last non-word does NOT sound like the French word for what it needs to be, so I am still confused as to what you meant there.

      And I have yet to nail the Ka-Powder room, except for one really BAD solution that I am sure is wrong.

      Delete
    4. ViolinTeddy,
      You are again correct! I am sorry. I was relying on my rudimentary knowledge of French. I should have written: "The second non-word, if spoken aloud sounds like the present-tense first- or third-person form of the French verb that means to engage in the pursuit of this critter."

      LegoRegretsPuzzlingToxicity

      Delete
    5. Ah, all makes complete sense now. Thanks for confirming, Lego.

      Delete
    6. Very gracious, ViolinTeddy. Thank you.

      LegoParleLaisMoiFrancais...NotSoMuch

      Delete
  16. I don't think that'll get me anywhere. I may need some better hints.

    ReplyDelete
  17. "Planet Earth is blue, and there's nothing I can do..."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. patjberry,

      ADMA:
      Members of the species have whiskers.

      LCD:
      The developer of one of the characters also wrote poetry, notably sonnets.

      Bowie's Heroes is in my Top-200 pop songs, ZiggyStardust is in my Top 200 pop albums.

      David Jones 1945-2012, age 66.
      David Jones 1947-2016, age 69.

      LegoWhiskIsTheKey



      Delete
  18. The BCS national championship division I college football game is on the tube, ESPN. I am gloating over my clairvoyance ("Sporty Slice: Which team is which?").

    LeGloat

    ReplyDelete
  19. Roll Tide! Alabama is the national championship team! Saban and Co. have done it! Maybe there's still hope for me and the two puzzles I still can't get yet! Maybe, Lego, if you hinted at if it really is a "mint" it would help. And maybe if there were some hints involving the characters themselves and not whoever developed them, that might help.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. patjberry,
      It is a plant of the mint family, with a pungent smell attractive to a certain species.
      One of the characters is very "interesting." The other wears an article of apparel that sounds and means something like the title of a novel by an author with a monogram of JFC.

      LegoReiteratesThatIsJFC,NotKFC,ColonelMacDonald

      Delete
  20. I see that most everyone has MMS as the BEATLES and SEAT BELT...

    ADMA appears to have been a little harder with CATNIP and PIN & TACK...

    ReplyDelete
  21. Blaine's had a similar seat belt puzzle back last August, I think it was.

    ReplyDelete
  22. "The dessert is too complicated and convoluted for me to even get a start on it, but it's not going to break my heart; I'll just return to it later. I may be able to conquer it with a different approach."
    The only automotively oriented Beatles song I could think of was 'Drive My Car', containing the line "got no car and it's breaking my heart, but I found a driver and that's a start". (But keep the word 'driver' in mind, it may be used later.)
    'Conquer' could be synonomous with 'pin' in a certain context; likewise for 'tack' and 'approach'.

    ReplyDelete
  23. "Thanks to lego and pjb for brewing up these puzzles in this cold and dreary midwinter."
    Brewing -> yeast -> Yeats (The Second Coming)[didn't notice it until just now, but 'return to it later' is also a hint to this poem]
    'Cold and dreary midwinter' -> 'bleak' -> Blake (The Tyger)

    Remember 'driver'? Tiger Woods uses a driver, which is a wood (as opposed to an iron).
    Since a tiger is a cat, you might think of Mr. Woods in connection with either the Blake poem or catnip, and a poor drive shot might leave him with an 'awful lie', hence:

    "Someone you might think of in connection with two of the puzzles might use a phrase from another of the puzzles to mean something quite different than it's use in that puzzle."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 'Drive shot'?
      Nobody says that, do they?
      Tee shot ... which is a drive, right?

      Delete
  24. "I've had my 'aha moment' with all the others."

    It was interesting to me that so many of the articles about the north Korea bomb dealt with the difference between an A-bomb and an H-bomb. I thought everybody knew that. From what I gather, the consensus seems to be that the recent underground test was at best an AhA moment, not the aHa moment, as claimed.
    Of course, nuclear fusion is the process by which a STAR, such as our sun, produces energy; the STAR on the North Korean flag is red, not gold; the young, car-less lady seeking a driver wanted to be a different sort of STAR; and who knows about Ringo?
    And, of course, there's Ziggy.

    ReplyDelete
  25. In keeping with the latest edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, I skipped dessert, and had an omelet, instead.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for letting us wade in your meandering stream of consciousness, Paul.

      LegoEggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromZuckerman'sFarm

      Delete
  26. MORSELS:

    Poet and Repoet: THE TYGER by WILLIAM BLAKE; Last Word: GYRE "THE SECOND COMING" by W.B. YEATS "Turning and turning in the widening gyre"

    Degas' Under Duress Dance: EAT EGGS, CAN THE SODA


    APPETIZERS:

    Boxing Up Produce: EARS OF CORN; "AWFUL LIE" + COR = Ears of CAULIFLOWER

    After Dinner Mint: CATNIP; PIN and TACK.

    MOTORHEAD MEMORIAL SLICE: BEATLES; SEAT and BELT

    POINTERS AND SETTERS SLICE: ?CRAPPY LAVATORY? ?BROKEN LAVATORY? ?BRAVE ROYAL KNOT? [Re: Couple in UK who got married at Royal Surrey Hospital before husband was about to die of lung cancer.] Well, only ONE word would be capitalized (Royal)....

    DESSERT: SHERLOCK HOLMES; SHYLOCK; "MY DEAR WATSON" and "POUND OF FLESH" ; FLOUNDER and "PESH" (French: je/il peche, with a hat on the first 'e' that I can't remember how to type.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Very impressive, VT!
      But, admit it, you had an inside track on Sherlock.

      Delete
    2. Hilarious, Paul! {Actually, I had to think about it for a second or two, to 'get' the joke!]

      Delete
  27. Way to go, VT! I could not think of anything in the last puzzle to save my life! And the word CATNIP never even entered my mind! BTW it was BROKEN BATHROOM anagrammed into NORTH KOREA BOMB.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, thanks, pjb, for the compliment and also for the answer on the bathroom puzzle. I kinda like my 'crappy lavatory' though, too, even though it didn't lead to any headline! I had thought that the noun should NOT be 'bathroom' because Lego had already used the word 'room' in the title of the puzzle.

      I can't even remember how I got lucky enough to stumble on the Sherlock thing...but once I saw his name, I immediately figured out Shylock, and it all raced forward from there.

      As for catnip, all of a sudden I had looked at Lego's 'dinner mint' thing and realized it had to be some kind of special goodie for some animal..and then catnip just came to me.

      Delete
    2. Thanks, patjberry, for contributing your wonderful puzzle, and for your diligence in solving mine.

      ViolinTeddy, I love your "CRAPPY LAVATORY/BROKEN LAVATORY = BRAVE ROYAL KNOT" solution to the PASS. It is better than my intended answer. You make a good and valid point about my use of "room" in the "Ka-powder room" subhead. It was an oversight.

      LegoGardyloo

      Delete
    3. Dear LegoLoo, that is so kind of you to like my alternate solution! I am chuckling.

      Delete
  28. This week’s official answers for the record, Part 1:

    As usual, you brilliant Puzzlerians! (thanks VT et al) came through with all the answers! Great work, y’all. Redundancy ensues:

    Morsel Menu

    Pair Of Europeans Morsel:
    Poet and Repoet
    A pair of poems – one composed in the late 18thCentury the other composed in the early 20th century – each repeat a word twice in their initial line. In the earlier poem it is a five-letter word; in the latter poem, a seven-letter word.
    Both words begin with the same letter. The repeated word is the first word of each poem. The five-letter repeated word in the earlier poem is a common word, but it is spelled somewhat unconventionally.
    The four letters in the final word in the first line of the latter poem – if you add to it the initial letter of the two repeated words – can be rearranged to form the first word of the earlier poem.
    The final word in the first line of the latter poem seems somewhat unconventional. That is to say, a majority of the modern English-speaking population likely would be hard-pressed to define this word.
    Both poets are Europeans.
    Who are these poets and what are the titles of their poems?
    Answer:
    William Blake: “The Tyger”
    William Butler Yeats: “The Second Coming”

    Bogus And Bonus Artistic Morsel:
    Degas’ Under-Duress Dance
    Five years before his death, French artist Edgar Degas (1834-1917), was forced to move from his residence on rue Victor Masse in Paris to less lavish quarters on Boulevard de Clichy. He spent the final half-decade of his life nearly blind, wandering the streets of Paris.
    (Warning: Bogusness follows):
    Degas lived off the dwindling past commissions from his paintings and sculptures, but it was not enough. So occasionally he would kidnap from the streets of Paris not waifs but reasonably well-dressed adolescent girls who appeared to have possibly wealthy parents. He was a serial kidnapper, abducting the teens one at a time.
    Degas held this series of “meal ticket” hostages for ransom at his residence at his old art studio filled with paintings and sculptures of dancing figures. While waiting for their parents to respond he would encourage his “guests” to study the forms of his figures. He made it a habit to teach each of his hostages waltzes, boleros, bourrees, fandangos, pavanes and, especially, tangos. His motto was “Every time DEGAS TEACHES TANGO, A HOSTAGE “GETS” DANCE.”
    Take the 17 letters in either the RED or GREEN string of words in Degas’ hostage-taking motto. Rearrange them to form a recent possible headline that may have appeared in U.S. newspapers and news websites this past week.
    The headline might read:
    __ __ __
    __ __ __ __ ,
    __ __ __
    __ __ __
    __ __ __ __

    The headline consists (in order) of a verb, noun, slang verb, common article, and noun.
    What is this headline?

    Answer: Eat eggs, can the soda

    Appetizer Menu

    Boxing Up Produce Appetizer:
    Fishticuffs
    Name edible produce items, usually seasonal, in three words of 4, 2 and 4 letters. Remove a letter from the final word.
    Name a two word phrase – a 5-letter adjective and 3-letter noun – that is something more serious that a fib or “fish story.” (The 5-letter adjective rhymes with something one might eat for breakfast.) Intersperse the 8 letters of that phrase among (but not outside of) the three remaining letters of the final word in the produce items to produce a different article of edible produce, in 11 letters.
    Place the first two words – of 4 and 2 letters – of the original edible produce items in front of the 11-letter article of produce. The result is something that not-so-dominant pugilists often have.
    What are the original 3-word produce items? What is it that pugilists may have?

    Answer:
    Ears of corn; ears of cauliflower (cauliflower ears)
    CORN – N + AWFUL (rhymes with waffle) LIE =
    C + AULIFL + O + WE + R

    Lego…

    ReplyDelete
  29. This week’s official answers for the record, Part 2:

    After Dinner Mint Appetizer:
    Cinnamon is a spice; is synonym a species?
    Name something edible, in one word, that might be described as an “after dinner mint” for a certain species of critters (or “before-or-during dinner mint,” for that matter). Add a consonant at the beginning, spell the result backward and divide it into two words that are synonyms, both as nouns and verbs.
    What is the critter’s “after-dinner mint”? What are the synonyms?

    Answer:
    Catnip; Pin, Tack
    K + catnip = kcatnip >> pin + tack

    MENU

    Motor(ist)head Memorial Slice:
    R.E.O. Speedwagon? Cars? Dumptruck? Gran Torino? Galaxy 500? Chubby Checker?
    Think of a well-known musical group of the past. Disregard the “The” usually seen before its name.
    Now interchange the first and last letters in the name. The first four letters of this result form a common English word. The final four letters of the result, spelled backward, form a common English word. These two words (which are sometimes put together to form one compound word) ought to be familiar to motorists everywhere.
    What is the musical group, and what are these newly formed words?

    Answer: Beatles, seat belt (seatbelt)

    Pointers And Setters Slice:
    Ka-powder room
    My shower curtain is ripped. My sink drain is clogged.
    My MEDICINE CABINET mirror is cracked (364 weeks – not days – of bad luck!), and my air-conditioned BIDET is NICE… that is, if you’re an ICEMAN!
    After every flush, with a TOWEL I BLOT around the base of my TOILET BOWL.
    And I would sure like to know WHO SHEARED from its plumbed moorings my adjustable misty spraySHOWERHEAD nozzle!...
    In brief, I have been cursed with a:
    __ __ __ __ __ __
    __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ !

    Take the 14 letters of what I have and rearrange them to form three words that appeared in an international news story this past week, in 5, 5, and 4 letters.
    Hint: Two of the words are capitalized.
    What are these three words? With what have I been cursed?

    Answer: North Korea, bomb;
    Broken bathroom

    Dessert Menu

    Literary Crittercism Dessert:
    Character Di-velopment
    Replace with a single vowel the third and fourth letters in first name of a fictional character, forming the name of a second fictional character, in one word. (This second character is usually referred to by one name, something like Elvis, Cher or Madonna, I guess.)
    A three-word phrase (often cited incorrectly as a four-word phrase) associated with the first character includes a pronoun. The vowel in that pronoun is the “single vowel” with which you should have replaced “the third and fourth letters in first name” of the first character.
    A three-word phrase – two nouns flanking a preposition – is associated with the second character. Spoonerize (that is, interchange the initial consonant sounds of) the nouns in this phrase, forming two non-words.
    However, if you add to the end of the first non-word the two letters in first character’s first name (the letters you replaced with one vowel), you will form a specific lowercase term for a critter – like “beagle” or “tabby,” for example. The second non-word, if spoken aloud sounds like the present-tense first- or third-person French verb that means “to engage in the pursuit of this critter.”
    Who are these two characters? With what phrases are they associated? What is the specific term for the critter and the French verb?

    Answer: Shylock, Sherlock (Holmes), characters developed by William Shakespeare and Arthur Conan Doyle
    Sherlock Holmes: (Elementary), my dear Watson”
    Shylock: “pound of flesh” >> flound + er of pesh = flounder + pesh (French peche (Je peche, elle peche = I fish, she fishes)

    Lego…

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