Friday, May 13, 2016

Pastry from the Yreka Bakery; Superatomic wanderers; What does the fox… sayfguard?; The potable calling the kettle “dark-colored”; Psychic powerhouse; Canon shot?; “Page turners” & “Turn pagers off”; An utterly united state; Pick ’n’ grip ’n’ grin?

P! SLICES: OVER e4 + pi4 + (pi.e)2 + phi11 SERVED

Welcome to our May 13 edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria! Tricky puzzles this week. Hope you’re all feeling lucky.

We welcome this week a few new contributors to our Puzzleria! blog – Chuck from St. Louis, and SuperZee. Both come to us by way of Blaine’s blog, where they comment regularly.

Chuck and SuperZee join skydiveboy, ron and patjberry as, we hope, more-than-less regular enshrined members of our Mt. Puzzlympus of labyrinth-crafting gods. They are hence permanently sculpted into our Mt. Rushmore as leaders of the bafflers-in-the-belfry world.

SuperZee posted what we recognized as a framework for a “Ripping Off Shortz” puzzle on Blaine’s blog this past Sunday (see the comment at “SuperZee Sun May 08, 12:58:00 PM PDT”).


We tacked a few planks onto SuperZee’s framework, and the result is this week’s “Ripping Off SuperZee Appetizer: What does the fox… sayfguard?”

Chuck from St. Louis contributes an elegant and educational (it was educational for me, anyway) challenge titled “Handel Bars Slice: Pick ’n’ grip ’n’ grin?” It appears immediately beneath our main MENU.
New blood. No sweat. Two years and 96 tears of labyrinthine lachrymality. 

’Tis now time to match wits with the Puzzlerian! My?terion. (Just be sure to shed some beads of mental enjoyment in the course of your puzzle-solving process!) 

Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

Reaping What Thou Hast Sown Hors d’Oeuvre:
Canon shot?

The Catholic Church’s Code of Canon Law is a vast “legal field” filled with dogmas – called “canons” – sown by church councils over the centuries. But recent news from the Vatican has raised the future possibility of “a canon mowed.”

Rearrange the 11 letters in “a canon mowed” to describe, in two words, one potential fruit of such a harvest.  

Ripping Off Shortz Hors d’Oeuvre:
Psychic powerhouse

Will Shortz’s May 8 Mother’s Day National Public Radio Sunday puzzle read:
Name something in 11 letters that’s a common household item. You can rearrange the first six letters to form a synonym of a word spelled by the middle three letters. What is the item, and what are the words?

Here is our Ripping Off Shortz Hors d’Oeuvre (ROSHO):

Name some common household items found in the kitchen, an 11-letter plural word. Form an adjective with its third, fifth, tenth and first letters, in that order. Place the last six letters of the household items after this adjective, forming a two-word phrase describing what a self-proclaimed psychic often did to prove he/she had a particular paranormal power. That power is spelled-out by the middle three letters of the 11-letter word.

What are these household items? Who is the pseudo-psychic, what did he/she do to “prove” her/his paranormal power, and what was the power?

Morsel Menu

Books Office Morsel:
“Page turners” & “Turn pagers off”

Name things that books and movies might have, in nine letters. The singular form of the word contains two consecutive letters that form a common English pronoun. 

Remove the pronoun to form an adjective that often modifies “hints” or “clues” ... but not a hint, for example, like the unnuanced straightforward hint presented in the previous sentence (about the common pronoun formed by consecutive letters).


What are these things that some books and movies have? What is the adjective?



Riffing Off Shortz Morsel:
Pastry from the Yreka Bakery

Name something – in 12 letters and two words – that is a common household kitchen item.

Select the first and fourth letters from the first word. They spell a two-letter English word whose French translation is the four-letter French word formed by selecting the first, fifth, sixth letters from the second word and adding an “e” to the end.

Take the second word’s unselected three letters and spell them backward to form the second name of a woman associated with pastry. Take the first word’s unselected four letters and spell them backward (if you want to… it’s up to you) to form the first name of a man associated with pastry.

What is the household kitchen item? What are the English word and its French translation? Who are the woman and man associated with pastries?

Appetizer Menu

Ripping Off SuperZee Appetizer

(The following puzzle is SuperZee’s idea.)
Name something in 11 letters that is seen commonly in one particular room of households.

The middle three letters spell out the name of a critter.
Replace the third letter of the 11-letter household item with a duplicate of the fourth letter. Take the first seven letters and rearrange them to form a synonym of the 3-letter critter.

What is this thing seen in households? What are the two words for the critter?

I Do Espouse Appetizer:
An utterly united state

Name something you might find on a table at a wedding reception. Change its first letter to its “alphanumeric 27-sum complement” (see chart below) and spell it backward.

Divide the result into three words – one of them a contraction – forming a phrase the bride might have uttered a time or two or more in her life. 

This phrase is also a part of the title of a 1960s-era pop song that the groom should now probably stop uttering.

What might you find on the reception table? 
What might the bride have uttered? 
What ought the groom stop uttering?  

 

MENU

Handel Bars Slice:
Pick ’n’ grip ’n’ grin?

Name a musical instrument. Remove a letter and rearrange the remaining letters to reveal which hand has a firmer grip on the instrument.

What is this instrument?




Riffing Off Shortz Slice:
The potable calling the kettle”dark-colored”

Name something in 10 letters that’s a common household item associated with a dark-colored potable. You can rearrange the outside six letters to form another dark-colored potable. That potable is roughly the same dark color as a potable spelled out by the middle four letters.

Rearrange all letters in the 10-letter word to form a two-word synonym of a dark-colored “inferior wine” (like the stuff they were serving at the Cana wedding until J.C. did his miraculous stuff).

What is the household item associated with a dark-colored potable? What is this dark-colored potable? What are the other three dark-colored potables, including the two-word synonym for “inferior wine”?

Hint 1: You can rearrange the 10 letters of the household item to form three words:
1. a 3-letter container for the potable associated with the household item
2. a 3-letter name for one of the other dark-colored potables, the one that was formed by rearranging the outside six letters of the household item
3. Andrea, Sharon, Caroline or Jim (a 4-letter capitalized word)

Hint 2: Change the fourth letter of the word spelled out by the middle four letters to form the first name of a composer and songwriter whose last name is the potable formed by the six rearranged outside letters.

Hint 3: Replace the final letter of the two-word synonym for “inferior wine” with the next letter in the alphabet to form an informal name for a contemplative order of Franciscan nuns. 

Dessert Menu

Microscopic/Telescopic Dessert:
Superatomic wanderers

Particle physics research often involves creating models, making calculations, solving derivatives and plotting graphs that include “lepton axes.” 

This realm of the subatomic is like an “infinitesimal inner space” populated by nuclei orbited by spinning protons, neutrons, electrons, leptons, muons and neutrinos – animated by forces not of gravity but of electromagnetism.

On a scale vaster than the subatomic (and vaster even than atomic subs), heavenly bodies guided by gravity spin as they orbit about countless stellar “nuclei.” Recent science news reports have documented the fruits of telescopic research probing this vast outer space, tracking and identifying a number of such heavenly bodies. This research has implications for the potential of extraterrestrial life, perhaps even for human life which really would be out-of-this-world.

Rearrange the 10 letters in “lepton axes” to form the word astronomers use to name such heavenly bodies. What is this word?


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 Wednesdays 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.

83 comments:

  1. I have the answer to the musical instrument/hand puzzle. Now here is something I just came up with:

    Name a musical instrument. Remove two adjoining letters inside this 8 letter word and without rearranging the remaining 6 letters you will name a well known world leader by his last name.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Seven-letter instrument + remove adjoining letters anywhere in the word + future well-known world leader = this

      LegoIsThereAnyoneMoreWillingToTootHisOwnHorn?

      Delete
    2. I sure hope you're wrong about that!

      Delete
    3. One of a kind, I must say.

      Delete
  2. I have the 10-letter household item, the dark drink associated with it, and the other two dark drinks that result from fiddling with the letters, but now I'm reading "rearrange all letters in the 11-letter word," scratching my head, and asking "which 11-letter word would that be?"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry, Paul. My bad. Good catch. Yo La Tengo = "I got it... Fixed."

      LegoTheFallible

      Delete
  3. Paul Williams
    skeptical
    straightforward
    Everybody doesn't know something, and I don't know the pastry guy
    zebra
    I don't know this, either
    another household item, perhaps
    inexpressible
    end of the line

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. not your hucklebucker
      pesky little detail
      between the lines
      now that I know, seems kinda 'icky'
      break on through
      now I see (he say you brade lunner)
      not found at the bottom of a CrackerJack box
      candle hue
      in the beginning

      Delete
    2. or the little guy who wrote some pretty big songs
      ?
      I DON'T SEE HOW I CAN BE MORE
      or 'ishy' .... I'm not good with languages
      I don't think it's really a matter of courage
      I think I'll just let this unfold
      Go figure!
      the Maxwell in me is sorely tempted here
      meaning

      Delete
    3. Billy Paul (born Paul Williams; December
      1, 1934 – April 24, 2016) sang a song
      about a Mrs. Jones, but I don't think
      she was the woman Deacon married.
      I'm not sure ESP enables one to bend a
      tablespoon; I think it takes PK to do
      that.
      Subtleties may be matters of perception.
      At least I didn't say 'itchy'. "Well,
      I'll be a jelly doughnut!"(Great for dunking.)
      I don't know why the chicken crossed the
      road.
      Edward James Olmos
      A flute is not the only choice for
      serving fine champagnyah to a
      guest.
      A 'candle hue' is a 'taper color'. The
      pressure of trying to demonstrate that
      you know the answer without giving it
      away drives some people to extremes.
      Perhaps every
      exo- is an endo-, and vice
      -versa.

      Delete
  4. I already have the first morsel(the canon puzzle), the paranormal puzzle, the musical instrument puzzle, the potable puzzle, and the lepton dessert. Will need the appropriate hints for the rest, Lego.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Good evening (or middle of the night, depending on where everyone is).....

    After spending HOURS on this week's set, much of it on the potables puzzle, but also on the three I still can't get, I can check in here with having solved both Hors D'Oeuvres, the Yreka Bakery Appetizer, the first MENU SLICE (Handel Bars), the infamous Potables Menu Slice, and the dessert.

    The Hors D'Oeuvres and Dessert were all very fast. The potables item I HAD come up with, but since I'd never ever heard (as per usual) of the alternate name for the dark potable, I had tossed that word aside initially. What a relief when I finally saw that last hint about the nuns. (I actually had a childhood connection to that name, which I'll mention next Wednesday, not that it matters.)

    Thus, I'm stuck on the first (Books) Morsel, and both Appetizers, as well as SDB's musical instrument puzzle in the comments. [Lego's thereafter was obvious. ; o )]

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm with you, VT. I too could use a clue from our resident free-faller on his fine piggyback to Chuck's "musical instrument" puzzle (that he posted in our first comment this week).

      Your childhood connection to the nuns' name sounds interesting to me. I actually know some of those nuns. And childhood memories always matter, in my book anyway.

      LegoBelievesThatMotherTheresaIsLikelyNowANunOfTheAboveWhereasLegoWillLikelyEndUpAsOneSonOfAGunOfTheBelow!

      Delete
    2. That is very sweet of you, LegoBelow, to be interested; of course, you are correct that childhood memories always matter, just not to OTHER people, whose memories they are not...that is rather what I had meant...as in, I didn't expect anyone to be holding their breath waiting to hear what my 'connection' to the nuns was going to be.

      Delete
  6. Early Hints:
    RWTHSHO:
    Steely Dan’s robins’-egg-colors. L.A. Rams’ Jones. Sounds like a rat-killer!

    ROSHO:
    These common household items might be used on potables like chicken broth.

    BOM:
    I am curious What You Will do with The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up.

    ROSM:
    I had you select the first, fifth, sixth letters from the second (6-letter) word and add an “e” to the end of it. Dan Quayle would have you add an “e” to the end of the first (6-letter) word.

    ROSZA:
    What farm lodging, according to the proverb, is it best not to have the fox sayfguard?

    IDEA:
    I dealt this puzzle to my pal Hayden, but she folded like a cheap pup tent in a tornado.
    A Who song title was the masculine version of what the bride likely said a time or two in her life.

    HBS:
    Chuck and I discussed possible hints he might give for his puzzle. I will let him “roll them out” as he sees fit.

    ROSS:
    Flesh out a “Central” site on “Friends.” Katherine Anne likely liked the outer 6-letter potable, drinking it left-handedly. Geoffrey Holder likely didn’t like the inner 4-letter potable.

    M/TD:
    Imagine a world where the global pastime is playing tic-tac-toe.

    LegOXOXOXOXOX(HintyHugs&ClueyKisses)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks Lego! Dan Quayle and the fox hint really helped. Still not sure about the Who reference. "Can't Explain" why it's not really coming to me, but maybe if I had a better clue, I "Won't Get Fooled Again". In this case, I think a "Substitute" would be better for this "Seeker"(yes, I know it's THE Seeker; It's called "poetic license"). Baba O'Berry signing off from this puzzle-age wasteland(no offense)!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. To Who it may concern:
      It’s a "Tommy"-era song...
      Also:
      You must add a word to the 3-word phrase the bride might have said to form the 4-word title of the 1960’s-era pop song song. The letters in that added word can be rearranged to form the words "We chart." The 1960’s-era song charted at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 record chart.

      The bride’s three-word phrase is also the title of a roughly half-decade-old country song that peaked at #43 on Billboard magazine's Hot Country Songs chart. It was recorded by a singer whose first name, if you remove a vowel, is the last name of a well-known classical composer... and whose first name is a synonym of "tomboy" if you replace one of its vowels with a different vowel.

      The letters in the name of the two-word group that recorded the 4-word song can be rearranged to form a phrase that pertains to this puzzle: “Ooh, it’s sneaky!”

      LeGoToTheMirror!It'sHard,MyGenerationOfThisPuzzleButI'mFreeToGiveBargainBasementHints

      Delete
  8. Here is a hint or two for solving the instrument puzzle I came up with on the fly while solving Chuck's puzzle.

    You can find this instrument, which you should, but may not, recognize, on a good list of musical instruments. You would be laughed at if you were you to ask someone in a musical instrument store if they had one, or could order you one, or even locate one for you. I happen to have a compact disc devoted entirely to one of these, and it is beautiful to listen to with the proper understanding.

    I knew when I made this up that I would most likely be providing some hints later. I think you will enjoy the answer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Like I said, one of a kind.

      Delete
    2. I had heard of singers referring to their voices as their 'instruments' before, so I wasn't terribly surprised to find the one skydiveboy is looking for in such a list. Only a truly 'unique' individual would volunteer for such drastic 'tuning'. I suppose sdb sips port and smokes a cigar while listening to Alessandro Moreschi.

      Delete
  9. Okey dokey, thanks to the excellent hints from LegOXOXO, the required word for the Books and Movies puzzle popped into my head (it certainly never did last night); The "I DO" Appetizer has just worked its way to solution (VERY CLEVER, I say yet again, Oh ye Puzzle Creator!), and with difficulty, I finally came up with SuperZee's puzzle's required word---though that one confused me greatly, due to the wording of where the three- letter critter was supposed to lie (in WHICH "result?") It also seemed to me that the puzzle could have been asked as just "name a certain room", and then doing the other machinations, i.e. the last four letters of the 11 letter word were kinda irrelevant, n'est-ce pas?

    As per usual (where I am batting 0%), SDB's musical instrument has still eluded me (and I've already looked at lists), but I'll go try again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I'll try again also. Thanks for your guidance, skydiveboy.

      And thanks to you, ViolinTeddy, for your kind words. And thanks also for offering your astute comments regarding my dubious wording of the SuperZee-inspired puzzle. It is indeed confusing. I just now went into Blogger and did an edit to try to make the wording more clear.

      You are on the mark also, VT, about your observation that "the puzzle could have been presented in a more streamlined form: such as just "name a certain room," and then doing the other machinations. As you correctly note, the final four letters are nothing but dead weight.
      The only rationale for using all 11 letters rather than 7 is that Will Shortz's puzzle asked for an 11-letter word, etc., and this was "advertised" as a Ripping-Off-Shortz puzzle.
      The first seven letters of SuperZee's 11-letter word just so happen to spell out a stand-alone word. In Will's puzzle, "thermom" is not a stand-alone word.

      But, VT, as usual, and as always... you da ViolinTedditor!

      LegoWhoJustNoticedAnInterestingCoincidentalKinshipBetweenWill'sHouseholdItemAndChuck'sMusicalInstrumentAnswer

      Delete
    2. Aww, gosh, Lego, I am blushing.....

      But I see your re-do of the puzzle, and yes indeed, now it is nicely clear! Having not, I'm chagrined to say, solved the WIll puzzle this past Sunday (actually, I forgot to go back and even try to)...which I now see was a most appropriate-for-the-day answer, I hadn't had the 'thermom not a word' thing at the front of my mind. But now, of course, I do get what you were going for in attempting to structure yours the same as his....

      Delete
  10. Here is another hint to solving my instrument puzzle:

    It is best if this instrument is not held in either hand while playing.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hey SDB, I got the answer to your musical instrument puzzle. Oddly enough, the place the world leader leads rhymes with a musical instrument!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good work.
      I bet it didn't take more than twelve seconds to figure out your rhyming observation.

      Delete
    2. I wouldn't want anyone who solves my puzzle to get a big head over it. Therefore I am now informing you that it takes no balls to solve it.

      Delete
  12. I suppose SuperZee cuts quite a dashing figure with his cape on.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I meant no offense, SuperZee.
      Just another stupid chicken joke.
      Sorry.

      Delete
  13. Congratulations to Mike Hinterberg, a regular poster over on Blaine's blog from Colorado. Will Shortz chose a puzzle Mike created as his NPR Weekend Edition Sunday Challenge today. It is quite an honor for Mike, or anyone.

    I just posted a hint to Mike's puzzle over on Blaine's blog that involves translation into another language.

    I still haven't solved skydiveboy's "musical instrument,world leader" puzzle. Thanks for the extra clues, though, sdb.

    LegoSpeakingInStrangeTongues

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Speaking of which, Lego, I was wondering if you might have a hint for the Sunday puzzle, seeing as you just posted on Blaine that you solved it. I'm stumped.

      Delete
    2. patjberry et al,

      The second hint I gave for Mike Hinterberg's NPR puzzle (at about noon Central Time over on Blaine's blog) read:
      "12 bits? And all we get to look at are cinders and cicadas?!"

      The sentence above is a hint to the "modes of transportation." Specifically, it is a hint to a third "related mode of transportation" that is not one of Mike's intended "two related modes."

      It is ultimately a "musical hint" -- in pjb's "wheelhouse," so to "sing."

      It might be best if you can find synonyms for "cinders" and "cicadas," and go on from there.

      Mike Hinterberg just posted over on Blaine's that he wished people to solve his puzzle, but "with some effort." I want to respect that wish by not giving too much away. It looks like "hugh" posted that he has solved it.

      And I posted at Blaine's that there is a slight chance I have NOT solved Mike's puzzle. I solved it by working backward, finding the modes of transportation before the creature... if, that is, I did indeed solve it.

      LegoCreatureOfWordThatRhymesWithHabit(ThatPertainsToMyEarlier"Translation"HintOnBlaine's)

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

      Delete
  14. I'm glad I'm not the only one one can't solve sdb's musical instrument/world leader puzzle! Per pjb's hint, I came up with a country (thus leader) that rhymes with an instrument, but search as I might, NO luck turning the associated leader's name back into a one-of-a-kind instrument (possibly with 12 strings or something, not to mention with a 'head?"). Most frustrating.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Got it without Lego's help, oddly enough! Back to Puzzleria! Still need help with the wedding puzzle and the book puzzle!

    ReplyDelete
  16. I got the Sunday puzzle, that is.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 5th-Hour Hints:

      BOM:
      You see things that movies might have on a particular part of the silver screen; and see things books might have on their covers… but don’t go judging a book by that!

      IDEA:
      Wise men retrace their steps backward over wedding reception tables. Shepherds tend to their folds, and fold their tents… and fold their hands (which is not surprising in the presence of three kings (Trois ROI!)and the son of God to boot).

      LegoSaysWiseMenSeekAStarWhileNotSoWiseMenSettleForSatelliteTV

      Delete
  17. I now pronounce the wedding puzzle solved. We may now simply concentrate on the book/movie puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ...Usually on the lower half of the silver screen.

      Anybody else have a hint for the book/movie BOM puzzle?

      LegoIsKindaRunningOuttaHints

      Delete
    2. Not me. Don't have time. Got a million things to do today, and I'm way behind.

      Delete
    3. Paul,
      I understand. Sounds as if you are buried beneath a busload o' errands. You are entitled to a little being-left-alone time.

      LegoAdmitsThat'sAboutAsIndirectAsHeGets

      Delete
    4. Legothevenerable.
      What else can I say?

      Delete
    5. See, now I never know whether Paul (or sometimes Ron) is actually giving HINTS, or is just plain talking (above re being busy)....in fact, what the heck was all that code last week, toward the end of the comments? What was it all about...what was the translation?

      Delete
    6. Yeah, I'm with you, VT. We hear of comedians being "too smart for the room." Well, posters on this blog tend to be too smart(alecky!) not only for our Puzzleria! puzzle parlor but also for your oft baffled-&-befuddled blog administrator!

      LegoMatchesHisHalfWitWithTheTooSmartByAHalfWitsOfThoseWackyWascallyWabbits!

      Delete
    7. "Just plain talking?" What's that?
      I'm not going to revisit last week; I left all my cards on the table.
      Smart-alecky?! Well!!

      Delete
    8. You are probably joking, Paul, but since I don't actually know you, I can't really tell....of course, by 'just plain talking' I meant your saying real stuff, i.e. you really WERE too busy....or was that 'code' for a hint of some kind (not that I can figure that out, even knowing the puzzle answer.)

      If Lego couldn't figure out your code from last week, and nobody else did either, don't you want SOMEONE to know what it all meant? I'm lost here.

      Delete
    9. I was joking. I've got a lot more than a million things I should do, but I intend to put most of them off ... forever. So I never really BUSTLE about very much. And BUSTLE, in another sense, means 'behind'. But mainly, in this context, it's an anagram of SUBTLE. I think lego got it, which is why he linked to 'Busload of Faith', and I think he also got my exo/endo allusions (above), and for that reason turned of into o'.
      This is all you need to know from last week (which you already know, at least mostly, and don't really need to know rest of):
      Veep is Trump / presumptive
      e-tix / exit
      eligibility / lgbt
      phi
      raspberry berate
      rivet / rev it
      Bob Seger / Night Moves / Something (George Harrison) / Mainstreet / terminates / Steve Martin / King Tut / SNL / Jackson Browne / Eagles / Glenn Frey / & Don Henley / Beatles / Take It Easy / Take It To The Limit / Peaceful Easy Feeling / brown & fry / Doctor My Eyes / Lyin' Eyes / Foghat / Slow Ride (take it easy) / Lowrider (War) / Fire Lake (liar, fake) / The Pretender (1976, Jackson Browne) / Runnin(g On E)mpty / Already Gone
      rend / mend
      rend / darn
      THREE
      repair / re + cues / secure
      Takes a bow

      All the code business was just because I wanted to blab everything I knew and couldn't wait until Wednesday.

      Delete
    10. Oh, now I understand that most of the stuff you post is/are really the answers in disguised form (I DID grasp above, this week, that "everybody doesn't know something" referred to Sara Lee.)

      Delete
  18. Got the movie/book puzzle! I'm done, y'all!

    ReplyDelete
  19. What do you get when you cross a guitar with a zither?

    ReplyDelete
  20. Canon Hors D'Oeuvre: WOMAN DEACON

    Psychic Hors D'Oeuvre: TABLESPOONS; BENT; BENT SPOONS; URI GELLER

    Books MORSEL: SUBTITLES; SUBTLE

    Yreka Bakery MORSEL: POTATO PEELER; PA; PERE; LEE (as in Sara Lee); OTTO (who is OTTO?)

    Superzee's APPETIZER: KITCHENWARE; HEN; CHICKEN

    I Do APPETIZER: On table: ORIGAMI; Bride: I'M A GIRL; Groom: I'M A GIRL WATCHER

    MENU: HANDEL BARS SLICE: FLUTE; LEFT

    SDB'S: ??? CASTRO? (Cuba rhyming with Tuba) So does Aruba. Qatar almost rhymes with GUITAR.

    LEGO'S: TRUMPET - "ET" = TRUMP (spare us!)

    MENU: POTABLE CALLING KETTLE SLICE: Item: PERCOLATOR; 1st dark potable: COFFEE; 2nd dark potable: PORTER [ale]; 3rd dark potable: COLA; 4th dark potable: POOR CLARET
    Hint 1 answers: POT, ALE, CORR;
    Hint 2 answer: COLE PORTER.
    Hint 3 answer: POOR CLARES (this is the hint that gave it all to me, at long last, because I had NO idea what 'porter' is.)

    DESSERT: LEPTON AXES -> EXOPLANETS

    ReplyDelete
  21. Hors d'œuvre Menu
    “a canon mowed” = woman deacon, a deaconess.

    TABLESPOONS>pseudo-psychic: Uri Geller, he BENT SPOONS>ESP

    Mosel Menu
    SUBTITLES>remove “it” to form SUBTLE hints or clues.

    POTATO PEELER>>Pa = père>>Sara LEE>>OTTO

    Appetizer Menu
    KITCHENWARE>>KICCHEN = CHICKEN = HEN.

    Menu
    Handel Bars Slice:
    FLUTE (-U) = LEFT
    ROSS:
    PERCOLATOR>>COLA + PORTER, POT, ALE, POOR CLARET, Cole Porter...

    Dessert Menu
    LEPTON AXES = EXOPLANETS

    ReplyDelete
  22. A CANON MOWED=WOMAN DEACON
    TABLESPOONS, (Uri Geller)BENT SPOONS, ESP
    SUBTITLES, SUBTLE without IT
    POTATO PEELER, PA and PERE(father), OTTO(?),(Sara)LEE
    KITCHENETTE, CHICKEN and HEN
    ORIGAMI, "I'M A GIRL(watcher)"
    FLUTE, LEFT
    PERCOLATOR; COLA, PORTER; POT, ALE, CORR; COLE PORTER; POOR CLARET; POOR CLARES
    LEPTON+AXES=EXOPLANETS
    Good puzzles, Lego!

    ReplyDelete
  23. BTW CASTRATO-AT=(Fidel or Raul)CASTRO

    ReplyDelete
  24. The answer to my spin off puzzle is CASTRATO minus AT to get CASTRO.

    I did not understand Paul's UNIQUE comment post because there is nothing at all unique about castrati. Also, no one ever consented to becoming a castrato. The practice goes back to the Roman Catholic church not allowing female performers at the Vaticano. In order to meet the need for soprano performers young boys were castrated in order that their voices would not mature during adolescence. Many very poor Italian parents would have their sons castrated in the slim hope of becoming rich, but this rarely succeeded. The practice was eventually outlawed.

    Alessandro Moreschi, who is now known as the last castrato, was in no way unique, but he apparently was the last castrato employed by the Vaticano, and he became famous.

    Who can say how many men suffered miserable lives due to this outrageous practice encouraged by a self-serving church that only cares about itself at the expense of those it was supposed to protect.

    Paul is absolutely correct in assuming I enjoy Port wine, as long as it is true port from Portugal, but you will never find me near cigars.

    I think LEGO is planning on running another of my puzzles come this Friday. Hope you enjoy it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UNIQUE and EUNUCH aren't exactly homophonic.

      Sue me.

      Delete
    2. There will indeed be another excellent puzzle created by skydiveboy featured in the May 20th edition of Puzzleria!

      Official answers to this week's puzzles, for the record, will be posted anon... but, per usual, not anonymously. Among the answers will be the answer to Chuck's Handel Bars Slice, "Pick 'n' grip 'n' grin."
      But Chuck, if you're out there somewhere in cyberspace (and I know you are), feel free to weigh in at any time with your answer. My official answers are generally anticlimactic anyway. As usual, you clever and astute Puzzlerians! have unraveled all my Gordian knots.

      LegoYesIKnowIOweYouOfficialAnswers

      Delete
    3. Paul,
      I am glad you post that explanation. It went right over my head. I should have got it.

      Delete
    4. Armageddon averted. Whew!

      Delete
    5. Are you saying we managed to disarmageddon?

      Delete
    6. Since it's a made-up word, why not?

      Delete
    7. Can you give me an example of a word that was not made up?

      Delete
    8. Absolutely not. Excellent observation.

      Delete
    9. Let's raise a glass of Porto to that! After all there must be a storm somewhere in the world.

      Delete
    10. It's box Pinot Noir on my end, but I'm not one to snub my elitist brother.

      Delete
    11. As that hot poet, Omar Cayenne wrote: "A box of Wine, a Loaf of Bread—and Thou."

      Delete
  25. This week’s official answers for the record, Part 1:
    Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

    Reaping What Thou Hast Sown Hors d’Oeuvre:
    Canon shot?
    The Catholic Church’s Code of Canon Law is a vast “legal field” filled with dogmas – called “canons” – sown by church councils over the centuries. But recent news from the Vatican has raised the future possibility of “a canon mowed.”
    Rearrange the 11 letters in “a canon mowed” to describe, in two words, one potential fruit of such a harvest.

    Answer: The letters in “a canon mowed” can be rearranged to form “woman deacon.”

    Ripping Off Shortz Hors d’Oeuvre:
    Psychic powerhouse
    Name some common household items found in the kitchen, an 11-letter plural word. Form an adjective with its third, fifth, tenth and first letters, in that order. Place the last six letters of the household items after this adjective, forming a two-word phrase describing what a self-proclaimed psychic often did to “prove” he/she had a particular paranormal power. That power is spelled-out by the middle three letters of the 11-letter word.
    What are these household items? Who is the pseudo-psychic, what did he/she do to “prove” her/his paranormal power, and what was the power?

    Answer: tablespoons;
    Uri Geller, who “bent spoons”
    ESP

    Morsel Menu

    Books Office Morsel:
    “Page turners” & “Turn pagers off”
    Name things that books and movies might have, in nine letters. The singular form of the word contains two consecutive letters that form a common English pronoun.
    Remove the pronoun to form an adjective that often modifies “hints” or “clues” ... but not a hint, for example, like the unnuanced straightforward hint presented in the previous sentence (about the common pronoun formed by consecutive letters).
    What are these things that some books and movies have? What is the adjective?

    Answer: subtitles; subtle

    Riffing Off Shortz Morsel:
    Pastry from the Yreka Bakery
    Name something – in 12 letters and two words – that is a common household kitchen item.
    Select the first and fourth letters from the first word. They spell a two-letter English word whose French translation is the four-letter French word formed by selecting the first, fifth, sixth letters from the second word and adding an “e” to the end.
    Take the second word’s unselected three letters and spell them backward to form the second name of a woman associated with pastry. Take the first word’s unselected four letters and spell them backward (if you want to… it’s up to you) to form the first name of a man associated with breakfast pastry.
    What is the household kitchen item? What are the English word and its French translation? Who are the woman and man associated with breakfast pastries?

    Answer: Potato peeler; Pa; pere;
    Otto von Bismarck; Sara Lee
    Peeler – Per = eel >> Lee
    Potato – Pa = Otto

    Lego…

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

    Appetizer Menu

    Ripping Off SuperZee Appetizer
    What does the fox… sayfguard?
    (The following puzzle is SuperZee’s idea.)
    Name something in 11 letters that is seen commonly in one particular room of households.
    If you replace the third letter with a duplicate of the fourth letter and rearrange the first seven letters of the result, you can form a synonym of a critter spelled by the middle three letters of this result.
    What is this thing seen in households? What are the two synonyms of the critter?

    Answer: Kitchenware; Hen, chicken

    I Do Espouse Appetizer:
    An utterly united state
    Name something you might find on a table at a wedding reception. Change its first letter to its “alphanumeric 27-sum complement” (see chart below) and spell it backward.
    Divide the result into three words – one of them a contraction – forming a phrase the bride might have uttered a time or two or more in her life.
    This phrase is also a part of the title of a 1960’s-era pop song that the groom should now probably stop uttering.
    What might you find on the reception table?
    What might the bride have uttered?
    What ought the groom stop uttering?

    Answer: Origami;
    Origami >> Lrigami
    “I’m a girl.”
    “I’m a girl watcher.”

    MENU

    Handel Bars Slice:
    Pick ’n’ grip ’n’ grin?
    Name a musical instrument. Remove a letter and rearrange the remaining letters to reveal which hand has a firmer grip on the instrument.
    What is this instrument?

    Answer: Theremin
    Theremin – m = therein >> neither (hand)

    Lego…WithGratitudeToChuckAndToSuperZee

    ReplyDelete
  27. This week’s official answers for the record, Part 3:

    Riffing Off Shortz Slice:
    The potable calling the kettle”dark-colored”
    Name something in 10 letters that’s a common household item associated with a dark-colored potable. You can rearrange the outside six letters to form another dark-colored potable. That potable is roughly the same dark color as a potable spelled out by the middle four letters.
    Rearrange all letters in the 10-letter word to form a two-word synonym of a dark-colored “inferior wine” (like the stuff they were serving at the Cana wedding until J.C. did his miraculous stuff).
    What is the household item associated with a dark-colored potable? What is this dark-colored potable? What are the other three dark-colored potables, including the two-word synonym for “inferior wine”?
    Hint 1: You can rearrange the 10 letters of the household item to form three words:
    1. a 3-letter container for the potable associated with the household item
    2. a 3-letter name for one of the other dark-colored potables, the one that was formed by rearranging the outside six letters of the household item
    3. Andrea, Sharon, Caroline or Jim (a 4-letter capitalized word)
    Hint 2: Change the fourth letter of the word spelled out by the middle four letters to form the first name of a composer and songwriter whose last name is the potable formed by the six rearranged outside letters.
    Hint 3: Replace the final letter of the two-word synonym for “inferior wine” with the next letter in the alphabet to form an informal name for a contemplative order of Franciscan nuns.

    Answer: Percolator, coffee;
    Porter; Cola; Poor claret
    Percolator = Per + cola + tor; Per + tor >> porter
    Hint 1:
    1. POT (of coffee)
    2. ALE (like porter,for example)
    3. CORR
    Hint 2: Cola >> Cole >> Cole Porter
    Hint 3: Poor Claret >> Poor Clares

    Dessert Menu

    Microscopic/Telescopic Dessert:
    Superatomic wanderers
    Particle physics research often involves creating models and solving calculations and graphs that include “lepton axes.” This realm of the subatomic is like an “infinitesimal inner space” populated by nuclei orbited by spinning protons, neutrons, electrons, leptons, muons and neutrinos – animated by forces not of gravity but of electromagnetism.
    On a scale vaster than the subatomic (and vaster even than atomic subs), heavenly bodies spin as they orbit about countless stellar “nuclei.” Recent science news reports have documented the fruits of telescopic research probing this vast outer space, tracking and identifying a number of such heavenly bodies. This research has implications for the potential of extraterrestrial life, perhaps even for human life which really would be out-of-this-world.
    Rearrange the 10 letters in “lepton axes” to form the word astronomers use to name such heavenly bodies. What is this word?

    Answer: Exoplanets

    Lego…

    ReplyDelete
  28. BITS AND PIECES, Lego:

    1. Did you see that pjb and I both had FLUTE/LEFT for the puzzle where your answer was really THERAMIN/NEITHER???? (I considered a Theramin for SDB's puzzle, but had gotten FLUTE right away, so never went further.) Having played the flute when I was in fourth through sixth grades, I can attest that the left hand HAS the stronger 'grip' on it.

    2. WHO IS OTTO, re bakery? I had hoped you would explain that one.

    3. I never would have considered "CASTRATO" to be a musical instrument. But at least, I had the CASTRO part, thanks to Cuba/Tuba. Paul's "Unique/Eunuch" is frustratingly clever.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I too got FLUTE & LEFT.

      The wikipedia lists it along with others, such as Tenor and soprano, etc.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_instruments

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    2. Well, as a member throughout my life of many different choirs, to me tenor, soprano et al are VOICES, not instruments, except in the very broadest sense.

      Delete
    3. If you try a Google search of "Is the human volic an instrument?", you may be surprised at what you find. It seems most in the musical field consider the human voice to be the ultimate instrument.

      Delete
    4. Not so sure 'bout that, skydiveboy.

      LegoAndTheNuclearBombWasSupposedlyTheUltimateWeaponOfMassDestructionOfEardrums

      Delete
    5. Very funny, Lego. However I should point out that violins are made from trees, but trees are not instruments.

      Delete
    6. I'm not quite sure how violins being made of trees came into this, but I'm even more puzzled about Barney and Andy getting included...particularly annoying to me has always been the fact (seen recently thanks to "ME TV") that in one episode (also with Barney originally singing the solo, in which he has NOT tone deaf as in the clip above) they have Gomer singing in his 'stupid' voice, and only later on in his own show, does Gomer suddenly have the gorgeous bass voice.

      I still never would have put voice parts on the 'instruments' list, even though I had Castro (and consulted lots of lists, in hopes...) But of course, if you, sdb, had used "name a voice part" it would have narrowed things down right away/too much....oh well.

      Delete
    7. ViolinTeddy,
      Regarding your BITS & PIECES post:

      I think that FLUTE/LEFT is a fine alternative solution to Chuck’s puzzle. But don’t you agree that Chuck’s answer is pretty darn clever and elegant?

      For info on our old pal Otto, read under “Regional Variations” on this site.

      I too considered Castro as the world leader. But I could just not get my head around “castrato = musical instrument.” After skydiveboy’s explanation, however, I recalled singers referring to their voices as their “instruments.”

      LegoWhoNotOnlyDunksDonutsButSinksBismarcks

      Delete
  29. OOOOOH, LegoDo(nut): now I get it re Otto (and thank you for replying, as I'd still been dying of curiosity!): Otto as in BISMARCK! I had completely missed the last name in your answers list, since the name appears in the ORANGE type, which I often can't even SEE on this blog. [I reiterate that just FINDING the light orange 'Comments' each time I check in here is murder on my eyes.]

    Yes, I agree that the THERAMIN/NEITHER answer was both clever and elegant....but I hadn't actually realized that the 'Handel Bars' slice WAS Chuck's puzzle.

    Lastly, I'm glad to know I wasn't the only one to get Castro, but not to have consider voices as instruments. You are correct, of course, that professional singers DO consider their voices as such. But I bet those poor Castrati of old would have given anything NOT to have been burdened with such an instrument!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I just looked up VOICE in the online Merriam-Webster Dictionary. It specifically refers to voice as in instrument.

      Delete
  30. OOOOOH, LegoDo(nut): now I get it re Otto (and thank you for replying, as I'd still been dying of curiosity!): Otto as in BISMARCK! I had completely missed the last name in your answers list, since the name appears in the ORANGE type, which I often can't even SEE on this blog. [I reiterate that just FINDING the light orange 'Comments' each time I check in here is murder on my eyes.]

    Yes, I agree that the THERAMIN/NEITHER answer was both clever and elegant....but I hadn't actually realized that the 'Handel Bars' slice WAS Chuck's puzzle.

    Lastly, I'm glad to know I wasn't the only one to get Castro, but not to have consider voices as instruments. You are correct, of course, that professional singers DO consider their voices as such. But I bet those poor Castrati of old would have given anything NOT to have been burdened with such an instrument!

    ReplyDelete