Shall justice prevail? Belles’ lettres; There’s no frigate like stage fright; The prose and counselors of fiction; Stagestruck/Moonstruck; Using an equalizer to add some definition; Homophonophilia! Shouter? Shill? Sap? Necessity is the mother and brainchild reunion;

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER e^{5 +} pi³ SERVED

Welcome to our March 18^th edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!

We are offering easier puzzles this week, except for perhaps the four ROSS puzzles (Ripping Off Shortz Slices)… and perhaps the “Wizard Haunts Oz Appetizer” (WHOA).

As for the others:

~ You already have a head-start on, and measure of familiarity with, the other Appetizer (RTTRA).

~ The first Slice (AMUS) concerns well-reported recent news to which you surely have been exposed.

~ The Cutting Edge Dessert (CED) is as easy as cutting a piece of cake or pie, and just as delicious.

~ Finally, the double-stuffed morsel puzzles are so solvable that even a child could unwrap and savor their flavors. Maybe that’s because they were created by children! In other words, these puzzles are easy kids stuff!

Enjoy our from-fluffy-to-chewy spectrum of conundrummery!

Morsel Menu

 

Juvenile Indelinquent Morsel:

Homophonophilia

The two “mini-sounds-alike” puzzles baked into this morsel were both the brainchildren of wee children. The first puzzle was created about 20 years ago by my nephews Joe and Aaron when they were ages 6 and 5 (with encouragement from their mother (and my sister), Mary Helen. The second puzzle was created by me when I was about age 8 or 9... That was a wee bit more than 20 years ago.

Puzzle # 1:

Name a TV star who has also appeared in movies. A veil of mystery shrouds whether the star is married but, if she were, the first part of her stage name would change slightly, resulting in one that sounds a little like the name of a U.S. state.

Who is the star and what is the state?

Puzzle # 2: 

Name a famous female singer from the past, first and last names. When you say her name aloud it sounds a little like the possessive form of a symbol that represents a national organization followed by the first name of a past prominent member of that organization.

Who is the singer? What is the symbol of the organization? Who is the prominent member of the organization?

         

Appetizer Menu

Ring Tin Tin Revisited Appetizer:

Using an equalizer to add some definition

We presented a puzzle in last week’s (March 11th) Puzzleria! that pondered the possibility of Peyton Manning receiving a tin Super Bowl ring befitting his somewhat lackluster Super Bowl performance. We titled it “Going For The PlaTINum Slice: Ring Tin Tin.”

 

Take the phrase “ring tin tin.” Remove one of the spaces. Insert an equal sign (=) within the remaining space. Add ten letters to the end of one of the sides of the equation to produce a true “equality” or definition.

What is your result?

Wizard Haunts Oz Appetizer:

Shall justice prevail?

From a New Hampshire county or college or village

Rainey, Kettle or Barker dislodge, ax and pillage.

Mark “E-8” in the nickname of Yanks’ #7

On your scorecard, like scrolls St. Pete keeps up in heaven.

The Tin Woodman’s a good man, except he lacks heart.

And the Cowardly Lion meows but lacks growls.

As for Scarecrow, gray matter’s his absentee part…

Now unalphabetize that part’s only two vowels.

If you reel in a needlefish, fishing from shore,

Hula girls will dole out a fresh lei you’ll adore…

Thus, to recap: a pachyderm-man, thick-skinned, swarthy

Tromps the road’s yellow bricks, followed closely by Dorothy.

The answer to this puzzle is the name of a person in the news this past week – first, middle and last names.

Embedded within the three quatrains of the over-the-rainbow verse above are several clues that will help you discover the name. But to throw you off the trail, we have also planted some red herrings into the verse. 

For example, one such red herring is the line “The Cowardly Lion meows but lacks growls,” which has nothing to do with the answer.

Who is this person? Which clue(s) did you use to find the answer?

MENU

All Mixed Up Slice:

Shouter? Shill? Sap?

The following list of words may have been used to describe a person who has been in the news lately:

Insulter

Shouter

Shill

Gangster

Rat

Sap

“Kept pay”

Rearrange (that is, mix up and then unmix into new words) the 41 letters in those descriptive words to form:

1. The first and last names of a person who spoke at a recent event;

2. A phrase the person spoke, and 

3. To whom the phrase referred.

What is your result?

Ripping Off Shortz Slices:

Will Shortz’s NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle this past week read:

Take the name of a well-known actress. Her first name starts with the three-letter abbreviation for a month. Replace this with the three-letter abbreviation of a different month, and you’ll get the name of a famous poet. Who are these two people?

We offer the following four “piggyback” puzzles that both “riff-off” and “rip-off” Shortz:

Belles’ lettres

Take the name of a not-so-well-known novelist. Her first name starts with the three-letter abbreviation of a month. Replace this with the three-letter abbreviation of a different month, and you’ll get the name of a somewhat famous late poet. Who are these two people?

There’s no frigate like stage fright

Take the first two names of a not-so-well-known actress who used a three-name stage name. Her first name starts with the three-letter abbreviation of a month. Replace this with the three-letter abbreviation of a different month, ignore the final third of the actress’s stage name, and you’ll get the name of a semi-famous late poet. Who are these two people?

Stagestruck/Moonstruck

Take the first and last names of a late actress. Her first name starts with the first three letters of a month. Replace this with the first three letters of a different month, and you’ll get a result – including both first and last names – that includes an interior string of three consecutive identical letters. Remove the identical letter in the middle to form the actress’s stage name. Who is this actress?

Hint: The actress’s middle name begins with the name of a month.

The prose and counselors of fiction

Take the first and last names of a character on a past popular legal drama on TV. The first name starts with the three-letter abbreviation of a month. The surname of the TV character is the name of a different month. Replace this abbreviation with the three-letter abbreviation of another different month, and you’ll get the first and last names of a title character in a novel.

Who are these two characters?

Hint: The actress who portrayed the TV character has the same first name as the character she portrayed.

Hint: The three-letter abbreviation of the month that is the surname of the two characters can replace the first three letters in either of the two characters’ first names to form a common first name for a girl. A close variation of that name appears in one of this week’s links.

Dessert Menu

Cutting Edge Dessert:

Necessity is the mother and brainchild reunion

The best inventions are often described glowingly as being “groundbreaking,” “trailblazing” or “cutting edge.” Many inventors claim that their brainchild is a “game-changer.”

Can you think of an invention created within the past century that has been a game-changer not only figuratively but also quite literally at times?

Hint: This invention is getting quite a workout during the present fortnight.

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.