That sheepskin is legit? Hogwash! Ring Tin Tin; Dates in the colander; Ice fishtailing; A, E, I, O, and sometimes U;

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

Welcome to 3/11/16, our March 11^th edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!

No guest puzzlemeisters this week, alas, but we do have five taste-bud-tickling and brain-bending puzzles on our menus:

A Menagerie Morsel more mouth-watering than pheasant under glass; a Prime Time Appetizer that pits your wits against pitted colander dates; two “hard” slices – Philosophers’ Stone, and Going For The PlaTINum; and, at the bottom of our blog, to top it all off, a Vacation DesTINation Dessert.

Glass. Pits. Stone. PlaTINum… Pretty hard stuff. Just don’t break a wisdom tooth in your quest for the mysterious truth.

Morsel Menu

 

Menagerie Morsel:

That sheepskin is legit? Hogwash!

Consider the following seven compound words:

Crablegs*, hogwash, sheepskin, tigereye, foxfire, sawhorse, camelback

Explain why these seven words are in the order they are in.

Hint: “Sheepskin” and “foxfire” could switch places with one another. What’s more, “dogfight,” “fishtail” or “catfish” could be substituted for either “sheepskin” or “foxfire.” 

The five other words, however, must stay put.

 

(* Yes, we realize the lexicons-that-be proclaim “crab legs” to be two words. But the dictionaries are wrong! “Crablegs” ought to be just one compound word.)

Appetizer Menu

Prime Time Appetizer:

Dates in the colander

Write the 365 (366) days of the year as 1/1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4…12/29, 12/30, 12/31. Those dates can be divided into two “colanders” – one of 173 dates and another of 192 (193) dates. 

If the number 1 is considered a prime number (even though it is NOT a prime number), the colanders contain 182 dates and 183 (184) dates.

How is the number of dates in each pair of colanders determined?

Hint: Your answer should probably include the words “prime” and “non-prime.” The word “pitted” won’t be necessary, however. 

 

MENU

Philosophers’ Stone Slice:

Ice fishtailing

Add a consonant to the end of a philosopher’s surname. Place the result after a word for something that anglers (like Andy and Opie Taylor, for example) may want to do to a fish, thereby forming a one-word synonym for “having no _____.”

Add the same consonant to the end of the same philosopher’s surname. Place the result before a word for something inexperienced motorists may want to do (but would be better off not doing) when they begin fishtailing in icy or snowy road conditions, thereby forming a two-word phrase that would generally result in “having no ability to _____.”

The same word goes into both blanks. What is that word? What are the one-word synonym and the two-word phrase?

Going For the PlaTINum Slice:

Ring Tin Tin

For half a century the National Football League has been awarding Super Bowl rings to the victors of their annual championship game. These rings are typically fashioned from gold, with diamonds inset. The Green Bay Packers’ Super Bowl XLV ring was made of platinum.

 

Denver Broncos players will receive a ring for winning Super Bowl 50 (or the “Super BowL,” as I like to call it) earlier this colander year… oops, that should be, calendar year. 

The Broncos’ Super Bowl championship ring will likely be made of gold. But rumor has it that the NFL may present one tin ring this year to a particular Bronco player whose Super Bowl performance was less-than-stellar.

 

Rearrange the 20 letters printed in the scarlet italic text to form a three-word headline that sat atop a sports news story that broke this past week.

What is this headline?

Dessert Menu

Vacation Destination Dessert:

A, E, I, O, and sometimes U

Think of four 6-letter nouns that share their first, second, fourth, fifth and sixth letters in common. The third letters of the words are A, E, I and O.

Replace the fourth, fifth and sixth letters of the four nouns with the same single letter. In the word containing the O, also replace the first letter with a consonant digraph. These replacements form three new 4-letter nouns and one new 5-letter noun that are homophones, respectively, of the four 6-letter originals. 

 

The new homophone nouns are (in alphabetical order): A plant; a type of bending; a cable/satellite TV network (an uppercase word); and a flower. 

Form a fifth noun that has the same first, second and fourth letters as the 4-letter nouns containing the A, E and I, and insert a U as its third letter. This 4-letter noun can mean “a material that promotes fusion.”

What are the four 6-letter nouns, the four new homophone nouns, and the noun for the material that promotes fusion?

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.