If wishes were quadrupeds… Bronze, silver and… mica? Performance histrionics; Game-day anagramatical gear; Double “Bill”ing; 8 Gr8 St8s!

P! SLICES: OVER (pe)³ – (e⁴ + p³) SERVED

We welcome all to our August 12^th edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!

We welcome also this week PlannedChaos, the screen name used by a prolific commenter on the blogosphere, especially on Blaine’s puzzle blog. 

It turns out that PlannedChaos is also quite a fine puzzle-maker. We present this week the first of what we hope are many excellent PlannedChaos puzzles on our blog. 

His inaugural Puzzlerian! offering appears under our main MENU and is titled Last Action Heroes Slice: Double “Bill”ing?

Also on this week’s menus are seven other hazy, lazy, crazy, dog-dazey-of-summer puzzles:

1 state-of-the-artworks Hors d’Oeuvre;

1 Family Forestree Morsel;

1 game-day Appetizer;

1 Dessert fit for a genie-us; and

3 Riffing/Rippin-Off-Shortz Slices of Mount Olympian proportions… (or should that be “Dismount Olympian” proportions?);

 

So, adopt a doggedness like LeBron’s,

Shout out a hearty “Hi-ho Silver,”

And gallop off into our mysterious Mount Olympian sunset of Grecian godly Gold…

And, please enjoy, enjoy, enjoy:

Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

Mandatory Eight Countdown Hors d’Oeuvre:

8 Gr8 St8s!

The ranking of the seven states (plus one mystery state) pictured here is arbitrary. Your ranking might well deviate from mine (although I believe we could all agree on which state should be #1).

The states pictured here possess, to varying degrees, a certain quality that the other 42 states do not-so-much possess, in my opinion anyway.

 

The lower the number of the rank, the greater is the extent that the state possesses this certain quality. The states ranked #6, #7 and #8, for example, possess the quality somewhat, but not to the extent that the more highly ranked states like #4, #3 and especially #2 do.

What state have I ranked #1? Why did I give it my top ranking?

Hint: It might help you to spell the states out.

Morsel Menu

Family Forestree Morsel:

Performance histrionics

A popular performer’s ancestry reputedly includes a nation that begins with the not-rearranged letters of the performer’s stage name.

The remaining letters of the nation are a near homophone of – and differ by only one letter from – a particular nickname. The nickname is used to describe a resident of a sovereign state…

1. where the nation is based,

2. that is the setting of a musical the performer produced in the fifth grade,

3. that is the setting of the movie for which the performer was nominated for an Oscar

4. that is the location of the adoptive hometown of the performer’s adoptive father.

5. that is a place where people apparently pitch woo.

Who is this performer? What is the nation? What is the nickname?

Hint: It is a good bet that the people in #5, above, besides pitching woo, likely pitch one of the answers to this week’s puzzles.

Appetizer Menu

Tools Of Tough Loin-girders Appetizer:

Game-day anagramatical gear

Name a piece of equipment used in a game. Remove one letter and divide the result in two, forming the names of two things that are worn on the same part of the body. 

These two things are anagrams of each other.

What is the piece of equipment, and what are the anagrams that are worn on the same part of the body?

MENU

Last Action Heroes Slice:

Double “Bill”ing?

Think of a well-known actor, first and last names, whose last name phonetically sounds like a type of physical motion. 

Remove the last two letters of the first name, and change the last name to a different type of physical motion, to name another well-known actor.

Who are the actors?

Ripping Off Shortz Slices:

Bronze, silver and… mica?

Will’s Shortz’s August 7th National Public Radio Weekend Edition Sunday Puzzle reads:

Name a famous Olympics champion, past or present – first and last names. Remove every letter from the name that appears exactly twice. The remaining letters in order will name certain minerals. Who is this Olympics star? 

Puzzleria!’s 3 Ripping Off Shortz Slices read:

FIRST: Name a famous Olympics champion, past or present – first and last names. Remove every letter from the name that appears exactly twice.

The remaining letters in order will indicate – in two words but with not a lot of specificity – how many gold medals this athlete has won.

Who is this Olympics star?

SECOND: Name a famous athlete, past or present – first and last names. One letter appears exactly thrice in the name; remove the second and third letters of that trio.

The remaining letters in order will name the plural form of a prefix related to minerals, or what the ancient Greeks would have called a not-so-famous Olympic gold-medalist surnamed Vidmar.

Who is this famous athlete?

Hint: The famous athlete was not an Olympic gold medalist but was once associated with a team of a different color.

THIRD: Name a famous singer-songwriter, past or present – first and last names. Remove every letter from the name that appears exactly twice.

The remaining letters in order will name a somewhat notable politician, past or present – first and last names, who sported a sartorial trademark.

That trademark article of clothing crops up in the songwriter’s lyrics – which imply that a person sporting the article of clothing may be involved in espionage.  

Who are this singer-songwriter and politician? 

 

Dessert Menu

Lamp, Camera, Magic! Dessert:

If wishes were quadrupeds…

A genie granted Aladdin three wishes to use in times of great need. A television show (not titled “I Dream of Jeannie”) grants its guests three wishes to use in times of great need, but it doesn’t call them “wishes.” A different term is used.

 

Write this different term in UPPERCASE letters. Remove from the term a Roman numeral that will be in the news early in 2017. The remaining letters will spell the name of certain quadrupeds who, were there a non-human version of the show, would come pre-equipped with thrice the allotted number of “wishes.”

What is the TV-show term? What are the quadrupeds?

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.