The mystery of the missing D; Backward, sunder, upside-down; Rebi ‘bout the birds and the boats; The name of the gridiron game; Chain, chain, chain… chain of food; Maple-leafy moniker; Name THEOry

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER e^{6 +} pi² SERVED

Welcome to our April 1^st edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria! This is also our 100^th edition of Puzzleria!...

No foolin’!

Our inaugural Puzzleria! blog was uploaded on May 9, 2014. One hundred weeks later we persist in posing a plethora and more of original weekly puzzles. As the “lego-legend” atop the blog page states, “Puzzleria! Slices: Over e⁶ + pi² Served.” The sum of e⁶ + pi² is 403.43 + 9.86. or about 413.3. After this week we will have served up 426 puzzles.

We have no plans to cease our serving. So spread the word about P!, please, to your puzzle-lovin’ pals. Invite them to join us in our joyful weekly puzzle feast.

We may. however, make a change beginning next Friday with our 101^st edition of Puzzleria! But first I would like your feedback about the possible proposed change.

A Puzzlerian! with whom I correspond, and whose opinion I value greatly – (well, okay, “…whose opinion I value somewhatly”) – suggested that we reveal our answers to our puzzles on Wednesday afternoon rather than on Tuesday afternoon. It would give us more time to work on solving the puzzles… and to give subtle hints to aid others in solving them.

Speaking of hints, you may need some of them for our featured spotlight challenge this week. It is a very clever puzzle composed by patjberry, another of our valued Puzzlerians!

Patrick’s poser – titled, “Dribbling Rivalry (Oops, Wrong Sport) Slice: The name of the gridiron game” – involves rivalries on the collegiate gridiron. It appears immediately under our main MENU. 

patjberry’s challenge is actually two puzzles in one, but all fits together nicely, yin-yang-like, in one galumphing package. A very versatile puzzle-maker is patjberry, whose most recent contribution to Puzzleria! was a tour de force cryptic crossword puzzle.

Thank you Patrick for sharing your creativity with us.

 

Other offerings this week include:

* A debut Hors d’Oeuvre puzzle that ties up a loose end from last week;

* Three “Ripping/riffing Off Shortz Slices”;

* A mysterious Morsel;

* Two appetizers: one involving Popeye (in a way) and the other Wimpy (after a fashion); and

* A Dessert involving a game in which it seems there is crying. 

So, lettuce celebrate OUR century with a “cerebration of the century.” And, we won’t need to wait till 2116 till the second century rolls along.

Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

Don Dunphy Memorial Hors d’Oeuvre:

Maple-leafy moniker

A person who appeared in one of last week’s Puzzleria! puzzles can be described by a two-word phrase that sounds a tad like a city in Canada. The first word in the phrase is a noun pronounced as a ringside announcer might pronounce it in the wake of a prizefight. This noun functions, however, as adjective modifying the first name of the person.

What is the Canadian city? What is the two-word phrase?

Morsel Menu

Fast Punctual Food Morsel:

The mystery of the missing D

A menu item sold by an international fast food chain is often purchased by customers who are hungry for brunch. The name of the menu item and the word “brunch” were coined in similar fashions 90 years apart. That is to say, both words belong to an ever-increasing class of coined words that also includes “sporks” (which some fast food purveyors may provide gratis) and “chortle” and “galumph” (which were both coined by a gentleman who also coined a metaphorical term for such words).

We at Puzzleria! contend that the letter D is missing from the interior of the menu item word. We urge the fast food chain’s powers-that-be to rethink this coinage omission, dredge up a D, and insert it between two letters in the menu item’s name.

Name this fast food menu item. In what way is it like the word “brunch”? From which two components was it coined? What is the metaphorical term for such words (which was coined by the coiner of “chortle” and “galumph”)?

Hint: The name of the menu item includes a punctuation mark, which can be deep-sixed after you add the “D”. What baffles me is why the punctuation mark was used in the first place.

         

Appetizer Menu

Book Of Popeye Appetizer:

Name THEOry

Take the first two words of the common English translation of a name of God used often in the Hebrew Scriptures. Translate the two words into a third language, remove the space between the words. Remove from this result one of the two words that appears in the English translation.

The result is another name for God seen often in the Bible.

What is the name for God in Hebrew Scriptures, the initial two words of its English translation, the third-language translation of those words, and the other name for God seen often in the Bible?

Sav-Age Wasteland Appetizer:

Chain,chain, chain… chain of food

Far out in the wilderness, the natural food chain is not made up of Jimmy Dean processed sausage links!

We Walmart shoppers in suburbia are content to load our carts with cellophane-clad breaded chicken nuggets, beer-battered minced-fish sticks and 80-percent-lean ground beef patties.

But out there in the fields they fight for their meals. Using talons, teeth and instinct, wild predators slay their wild prey.

The following compound sentence epitomizes this natural order, placed not by restaurant patrons with noses buried in laminated menus but rather placed there by the subject of the “Book of Popeye Appetizer,” immediately above.

The sentence reads:

“Brave minnows, tuna jump; a cat’s fed.”

Rearrange the 28 letters in that sentence to form a title lately prominent in international entertainment news.

What is the title?

  

MENU

Dribbling Rivalry (Oops, Wrong Sport) Slice:

The name of the gridiron game

Some college football rivalries are so entrenched and intense that the annual game they play has a special name.

For example, Oklahoma and Texas play for the “Golden Hat” in the “Red River Rivalry.” Idaho and Washington State compete in the “Battle for the Palouse.” BYU battles Utah in the “Holy War.” Texas plays Texas A&M in the “Lone Star Showdown.”

Name another rivalry game, in two words, that has a long and rich tradition. Its name contains two species of a certain class of animal. One of the two creatures appears in the name intact with no rearrangement of letters required. The remaining letters must be rearranged to spell out the other creature.

Now insert the nickname of a U.S. president between the two syllables of another U.S. president’s surname. The result when read aloud sounds like the first name and surname of a prominent and successful sports figure who over the past decade has played a key role in the two-word rivalry game with the long and rich tradition.

What is the name of this longstanding football rivalry? What two teams are involved? What are the names of the two creatures? Who are the two presidents? Who is the successful sports figure?

Hint: The popular sports figure has a rivalry game named in his honor.

Ripping Off Shortz Slice:

Rebi ‘bout the birds and the boats

Will Shortz’s NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle this week was a rebus in the form of a two-line verse (not shown at right) that he dredged up from the November 12^th, 1803 issue of the Boston Weekly Magazine:

I am both man and woman too,

And go to school as good boys do.

The answers to this puzzle that were posted on Blaine’s blog Thursday afternoon were all over the map. They included: several species of fish, a student, a teacher, a principal, a school bus driver, a chair (as in chairwoman and chairman), and a ruler (which apparently is Will Shortz’s intended answer).

My answer, which I forgot to submit as an entry, was “pupil.” A pupil, of course, “goes to school as good boys do.”

But how, you may ask, is a pupil “both man and woman too?”

The pupil of the eye, according to Merriam Webster, is rooted in the Latin word pupilla, the diminutive of the Latin word pupa, meaning “doll, from the tiny image of oneself reflected in another’s eye.” So, depending on who is being reflected in the optical “mini-mirror,” the image (pupil) could be either man or woman.   

Here are are our three “rip-off/riff-off” rebi (yeah, we know, it’s supposed to be “rebuses,” but “rebi” is more fun to write and say):

1. A sleek swan-headed Roman ship left in its wake

What we do as we watch it in awe skim our lake. (two-word answer)

2. Would a dog bite? A dogwood! Just one thing is worse:

To woof up at sweet tree-perching tweeters in verse.

(one-word answer)

3. “You seem rudderless,” Dad barked, “know not where to ____.”

I could tell from my seat at the tiller, “He’s _____!”

(The two words in the blanks rhyme. The second one is the answer.)

Dessert Menu

Don’t Cry “Flow” Dessert:

Backward, sunder, upside-down

Name a popular game, in three syllables. Spell it backward, keeping the syllable divisions intact. Sunder the final letter (a consonant) from the leftmost syllable and replace it with a different consonant. Place an upside-down version of that consonant at the beginning of the syllable.

The middle syllable spells out the name of a critter. The altered leftmost syllable spells out the cry the critter makes. The rightmost syllable, which is not a word, sounds like (is a homonym of) what an animal trainer might cry out to the critter.

What are these three syllables? What is the popular game?  

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.