Thursday, November 24, 2016

This week's November 25th edition of Puzzleria! will be postponed due to technical difficulties. We are working to fix them. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

We are having problems accessing the external hard drive on which all our Puzzleria! data is stored. We hope to provide you with a fresh helping of puzzles ASAP, however. Thank you for your patience.

LegoExternallyDrivenHardAndPutAwayWetBlanketed

Friday, November 18, 2016

Three cows on the mountain; Mizzou-ri-fa-sol-la-ti-Doh! Seattle Supersonic Boom @ 1,126 ft/sec! Ramsey, Lampley, Ewing, Lambert, Rambis; Sharpshooting stars; Switcheroodles!

P! SLICES: OVER (5 + 4) x 3 x 21 SERVED
(Thanks, PC)

Welcome to our November 18th edition of Puzzleria! This week’s edition ought to be a pretty big Hoop-di-doo.

That’s Hoop, as in basketball hoops… or, buckets, B-ball, round ball…

Three of this week’s puzzles involve basketball, and two involve “do-re-mi…” (which is fitting because many professional hoops players make lots of “dough-re-mi”)

Our sixth offering is a Slice Ripping Off Will Shortz’s fortnight-long creative challenge.

Enjoy the hoopla.

Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

Big Game Hors d’Oeuvre:
Sharpshooting stars

Write one caption that could be used to describe either of the images pictured here.

Your caption ought to contain 11 characters – nine letters and two numerals that are not Roman numerals – plus one hyphen. The two numerals are adjacent to each other in the caption and form a square number.

Hint: The indoor photo was taken  this past April. The outdoor photo was taken  this past week.

What is your caption?

Morsel Menu

New Orleans Hornets Aplenty Morsel:
Ramsey, Lampley, Ewing, Lambert, Rambis

Orlando Magic, Oklahoma City Thunder, Charlotte Hornets, New Orleans Hornets, New York Knickerbockers (Knicks), Philadelphia 76ers (Sixers), Seattle Supersonics (Sonics), San Diego Conquistadors (Q’s), Los Angeles Clippers, Baltimore Bullets, Boston Celtics, New Orleans Pelicans, Golden State Warriors, Detroit Pistons, Milwaukee Bucks, St. Louis Hawks, Portland Trailblazers (Blazers), San Antonio Spurs, Cleveland Cavaliers (Cavs), San Diego Sails, Houston Rockets, Kansas City Kings, Syracuse Nationals (Nats), Washington Wizards, Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers, Sacramento Kings, Indiana Pacers, Miami Heat.
 
The list above is a partial list of National Basketball Association (NBA) teams, some of which no longer exist. A few of the teams listed above were members of the American Basketball Association, which merged with the NBA in 1976. Some of the teams are/were sometimes called by a shortened form of their nickname (indicated in parentheses).

Each cager on the list below played for one or more of the teams listed above. These cagers are:
Maciei Lampe, Patrick Ewing, Doron Lamb, Ray Ramsey, Bill Laimbeer, Jim Lampley, Kurt Rambis, Frank Ramsey, Daniel Ewing, Jeremy Lamb, Jeff Lamp, John Lambert, Peter John Ramos, Patrick Ewing Jr., Bo Lamar, Sean Lampley, Cal Ramsey.
 
Take an NBA team that not a one of the above-listed cagers played for. (It is a team, therefore, that is not on the first list.) If all of these cagers had played for that team (and if we used the shortened form of the team’s nickname) we might have called the players:
_ _ _ _ _
_ _
_ _ _ _ _ _’
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.

The phrase is a twist on an idiom that is biblically based. What is the phrase?
    
Appetizer Menu

Service, Company And Product Appetizer:
Mizzou-ri-fa-sol-la-ti-Doh!

Name a Fortune 500 company, in six letters.
Replace its fifth letter with a different letter to form a product that benefits chaps who are experiencing a particular misery.
The fourth and fifth letters of the product form a homophone of one of the names of the notes on the tonal musical scale: “do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do.” 

Replace that note with the one that follows it on the scale to form the name of a commercial web-based service with a slogan that would suggest that many clients of the service hail from Missouri.

What are this company, product and service?

MENU

Bovine Emancipation Salvation Slice (Yanking):
 
This past Monday, November 14th, a trio of cows were stranded on a small grassy outcrop after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake in New Zealand. Rescuers dug a pathway for them and the cows ambled their way to safety upon more settled ground.

A more dramatic rescue, of course, would have involved a helicopter and a suspended cow harness. A caption for a photograph (something like the one pictured here) depicting such a rescue might have read:
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _
_ _ _ _

Fill in those 17 blanks with a rearrangement of the 17 letters in the musical notes of the tonal scale – “do re mi fa sol la ti do.”

What is your caption? 

Ripping Off Shortz Slice:
Switcheroodles!

This week’s NPR Weekend Edition Sunday Puzzle is a two-week creative challenge presented by puzzlemaster Will Shortz:
The object is to write a conundrum or riddle that starts What is the difference between ... — in which the answer involves a transposition of words.
For example: What is the difference between a chatterbox and a mirror? 
Answer: One speaks without reflecting while the other reflects without speaking. Or: What is the difference between a lucky criminal and some Saran with a garden vegetable? 
Answer: One beats the rap while the other wraps the beet.

Change of spelling in the words is allowed, but not necessary. Entries will be judged on their sense, naturalness of wording, humor, elegance and overall effect. You may submit up to three entries. I will announce my favorites — and the overall winner — in two weeks.

LegoLambda’s Ripping/riffing Off Shortz Slice reads:
What is the difference between:
1. ...the title of Donald Trump’s second favorite book (second only to the Bible, according to Trump),
and the recent auctioning of Munch’s “Girls on a Bridge” which fetched $54 million at a recent Sotheby’s auction?
2. ...what grammar school children in grammar class are often busy doing,
and what Robert Potter had to do in 1989?
3. ...what you do so your GMC SUV won’t get stolen,
and what thieves do to steal your GMC SUV?
4. ...something your boss might do along with reducing your company health insurance coverage,
and what you subsequently might not be able to do if you need medical attention?
5. ...what an author might need to do after returning from a prolonged vacation,
and the nutritional information on the condiment bottle label on the author’s dinner table?
6. ...352 for the “End” at St. Andrew’s in Scotland, and 517 for the “Buffalo” at Jubilee Golf Club in Australia,
and the entire amount, everything, as much as possible?   
7. ...things in your wardrobe or closet,
and what might happen during an aircraft industry slump?
8. ...38 degrees vis-à-vis 52 degrees,
and to connive to win another’s praise?
9. ...what you do when you leave a “dinner bucket” or “build fence posts” at the end of the alley,
and what you’re watching people do in the image pictured here.
10. ...the title of an American folk song,
and what resulted when the hyperopic upholsterer mistook the Thanksgiving bird for an ottoman?
11. ...the gilded two-tablet-Ten-Commandment container,
and the promise God made to Noah to flood the Earth nevermore?
12. ...1:45,
and the ratio of bits relative to something with the head of a man and the tail of an eagle?
13. ...a Don Henley song title,
and the singular form of a Tracy Chapman song title?
14. ...what a commuter might do at Grand Central Station,
and what a corporate CEO might hire Tony Robbins, Suze Orman or Jack Canfield to do?
15. ...a person with a zero handicap,
and what is depicted in the picture shown here?
16. ...what Henry Ellenson (see the Dessert below and the photo at heading of this Slice) does when he is fouled in the act of shooting,
and what a “boy” ideally does when he is done with his “skydive.”
17. ...the title of a hit song by Huey Lewis and the News,
and what the words in that title must overrule in order to achieve peace, according to Gandhi?
18. ...what you must do to topple ten pins,
and what you’re watching lightning do in this video?

Dessert Menu:

Higher Than Hoops Dessert:
Seattle Supersonic Boom @ 1,126 ft/sec!
 
The National Basketball Association (NBA), which recently tipped off its new season, boomed into existence 70 years ago, in 1946, the birth year of the first Baby Boomers.

Over the years, nearly 4,000 men have played in the NBA. Each wore a numbered jersey. What was the highest number ever worn by a National Basketball Association (NBA) player, and who wore it?

Hint: My intended answer does not appear in any of the images that accompany the text of this puzzle. That includes the image of the horizontal former Cleveland Cavalier Matthew Dellavedova, #8… and also the image of Detroit Piston rookie Henry Ellenson, also #8, who has also been known to dive headlong for loose basketballs.

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.

Friday, November 11, 2016

A, E, I, O, U (but why not Y?) November victors; No rigging aLoyd! Alma, Ed, Gabe and Abel; Evil A-Rod? A-Edd? E.T.? Naw! Captions, Clues, Currency and Kryptonite;

P! SLICES: OVER (5 + 4) x 3 x 21 SERVED
(Thanks, PC)

Welcome to our November 11th edition of Puzzleria.

I am still working on trying to figure out the biggest puzzle of all lately… In the wake Tuesday’s election I am experiencing flashbacks from 18 years ago, in Minnesota, and 18 years before that, nationally: 1980, 1998, 2016… I guess every generation elevates its Bonzos, bone breakers or Bozos via the electoral process. But that’s not a very satisfying solution.
  
We feature this week an appetizing conundrum composed by a legend of puzzletry, Sam Loyd, author of the “Cyclopedia of 5000 Puzzles.”

PlannedChaos, unearthed this timely gem and brought it to our attention. It involves tallying votes, albeit on a smaller scale that our recent national vote count. It is titled “Counting On Popular Vote Appetizer: No rigging aLoyd!”  PlannedChaos also contributes a four-pack of puzzles in his Ripping Off Shortz Slice titled “Captions, Clues, Currency and Kryptonite.
Thanks, PC. 

What you need today is comfort food for the brain.


Tuesday’s Dead. Think Good, It’s Friday! 
Thank a veteran for his or her service.
And, enjoy our puzzles, please. 


Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

What’s Up Document Hors d’Oeuvre:
Evil A-Rod? A-Edd? E.T.? Naw!

Spell a musical instrument backward. The result, given the addition of appropriate spacing and punctuation, is a musician’s surname and first name’s initial, followed by an indication of whether he/she is dead or alive, as it might appear on a document.
(Even though the musician is not dead yet, the document may be incorrect... Remember Abe Vigoda.)

Spell a synonym of “marauder” backward. The result, given the addition of appropriate spacing and punctuation, is the acronym by which an armed European nationalist/separatist organization is known, followed by an indication of the “death” of the organization, as it might appear on a tombstone.
(The nationalist/separatist organization in 2011 announced its cessation of armed activity, effectively “putting an end to” its marauding status.)
Spell an obsolete Spanish letter backward. The result, given the addition of appropriate spacing and punctuation, is a brand-name weight loss drug, followed by an indication of whether the drug still exists, as it might appear on a document.
(The Food and Drug Administration has not, as yet, deep-sixed this drug... but again, the document may be wrong.)
Name this musical instrument and musician, this synonym and organization, and this obsolete letter and brand-name drug.


Morsel Menu

Voting History Morsel:
Alma, Ed, Gabe and Abel

Alma DeBlog, while reviewing her personal voting history, notices something curious about the first letters of the surnames of the last four presidential candidates for whom she has voted, beginning with the most recent and ending with her choice in the 2004 campaign. Her four letters spell out a word that is a profession.

Alma urges her neighbor, Ed LaGambol, to do the same. Ed comes up with a word containing five letters, not four, because in the 2012 election he voted for the Democratic candidate in Wisconsin, then voted for the Republican candidate in Minnesota. (He owns residences in both states.) The word Ed spells out is a pejorative term that one 2016 candidate used to tar another candidate.

Ed challenges his hunting buddy, Gabe Omdall, to do the same. Gabe alters the rules somewhat, reviewing the past six presidential elections in which he voted, and using the first letters of his candidates’ first, not last, names in the 2004 and 2000 elections. Also, Gabe did not vote in the 1976-through-1996 elections because his residence during those years was in Leavenworth, Kansas. So the election years from which Gabe’s words are formed, are in order: 2016, 2012, 2008, 2004, 2000 and 1972. The word Gabe spells is a brand name of a product that a 2016 candidate might keep on his person, along with his tic tacs.

Gabe encourages his bookie, Abel Magold, to try the challenge. Able also modifies the rules, using the past six elections, from 2016 to 1996, using four surnames and two first names. What’s more, for some reason, Abel inserts the initial letter of the first name of his 1992 candidate selection between his 2004 and 2008 candidate selections. The result spells the name of an implement associated with a person who was a Civil War veteran, New England insurance and sports executive enshrined in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, and Republican mayor, U.S. senator and governor of his home state.

(Interestingly, Abel alternated between Democratic and Republican candidates in his seven presidential votes, beginning in 1992.) 

What are the profession, the pejorative term, the brand-name product, and implement associated with the New England politician? And, who is the politician?  


Appetizer Menu

Counting On Popular Vote Appetizer:
No rigging aLoyd!

The one-L Loyd, he builds conundrums,
The two-L Lloyd, he builds condominiums,
And if there is a three-L Llloyd
We ought declare him null and void!

At a recent election, 5,219 votes were cast for four candidates. The victor exceeded his opponents’ totals by 22, 30 and 73 votes.

Can you give a simple rule for determining the exact number of votes received by each?

At another recent election, 125,543,759 votes were cast for four candidates. The victor exceeded her opponents’ totals by 337,636 votes, 56,172,389 votes and 59,457,124 votes.

Alas, this victor lost the election... perhaps because they just renamed the Electoral College. It’s now called Trump University.

MENU

Planned Chaos Ripping Off Shortz And Stern Slice:
Captions, Clues, Currency and Kryptonite

This week’s NPR Weekend Edition Sunday Puzzle, created by Ken Stern and presented by puzzlemaster Will Shortz reads:
 Think of a sign that’s frequently seen around this time of year – two words of four letters each. Among these eight letters are all five vowels: A, E, I, O and U – appear once each, along with three consonants. What sign is it?

PlannedChaos’s Ripping/riffing Off Shortz And Stern Slice reads:

Supply a caption for each of the two images shown here (one of which might have appeared on election maps this past week, but did not). Then supply a phrase for the first clue below, and fill in the blanks in the second clue:
1. Superman, To Ms. Lane.
2. The ____ currency of the EU is the ____.
Each caption and each answer to the clues consists of two words of four letters each. Among these eight letters are all five vowels: A, E, I, O and U (each appearing once), along with three consonants.

LegoLambda’s Ripping/riffing Off Shortz And Stern Slice:
A, E, I, O, U (but why not Y?)
 
Two of the three segments of this puzzle slice involve the letter “y” in some way. 
Supply a caption for the image shown here. Then supply a phrase for each of the two clues below:
1. Name a sitcom character and the first word of what one of his/her caretakers was called. (The first names of his/her other caretaker and that caretaker’s coworker end in “y”.
2. Name what most Americans do in early November, including this past weekend.

The caption and the answer to the first clue each consists of two words of four letters each.
Among these eight letters in the answer to the first clue are all five vowels: A, E, I, O, and U (each appearing once), along with three consonants.
Among these eight letters in the caption are all six vowels: A, E, I, O, U, and this time Y (each appearing once), along with two consonants.
The answer to the second clue each consists of two words: a six-letter verb and four-letter noun. Among the ten letters in the caption are all five vowels: A, E, I, O, and U (each appearing once), along with five consonants.

Dessert Menu:

November victors

Name a two-word phrase that is synonymous with a “quick temper.” Say the phrase aloud after removing the consonant sound that begins the second word. The result describes phonetic features of the names of two November-of-2016 victors.
 
Who are the victors? What is the two-word synonym?


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.

Friday, November 4, 2016

Don turban, divine rhymes; Decision 2016 via dartboard; Getting your flickers all in a bunch; “I’m IN your vehicle, Baby” Achtungberfest, “Hey you…” Political potpourri; Hop aboard these Access Hollywood Rebuses

P! SLICES: OVER (5 + 4) x 3 x 21 SERVED
(Thanks, PC)

After “shooting down” our “lame duck” October 28th edition of Puzzleria!, we have elected to elevate this November 4th candidate to take its place. Our presumptive “puzzledent-elect” is not lame… nor is it crooked, crazy, goofy… or tiny-handed.

No, this “duck-de luxe puzzlefest” is no loser. Indeed, we are confident this week’s edition will “Make Puzzleria! Great Again!”   
Our Enigmocratic Party platform consists of seven planks:
ONE: In an Hors d’Oeuvre baked up by PlannedChaos, the Donald goes down to Georgia and agrees to vie with Hillary in a game of darts for all the marbles. (Or is it a game of marbles for all the darts?)
TWO: A Morsel co-concocted by LegoLambda and PlannedChaos features names-in-the-news served up on rebus-platters.
THREE: An Appetizing potpourri of politics poured from a pot simmering on the back-in-time burner.
FOUR: A puzzle Slice hosted and roasted by Carnac the Magnificent (also known as PlannedChaos), in which PC invites you in the “studio audience” to hop up on stage, don Carnac’s turban and divine triple-rhymes.
FIVE: A Rip/riff-Off – composed by PlannedChaos – of this past week’s NPR Sunday puzzle. In PC’s puzzle, a name in the news morphs into an Oktoberfest order.
SIX: A bonus pair of NPR puzzle Rip/riff-offs that share a “common denominator” – a passenger in a vehicle who panders to and seems to appeal to the “lowest common denominator.”
SEVEN: And, for Dessert, a video rebus about a POTUS.

So, no need to hold your nose and vote. Inhale instead the aroma of mystification... and solve!
We pray you will decide on the best solution. In any event, enjoy.

Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

Electing America’s Chief Hors d’Oeuvre:
Decision 2016 via dartboard
In an ill-conceived delirium brought on by the nocebo effect of right-wing conspiracy theories regarding her health, Hillary takes Donald up on his suggestion of cancelling the election. In its place, she challenges him to a game of “electoral darts,” in which the candidate that can score exactly 270 points without going over is the winner.

In a bind and way behind, Donald’s willing to make a deal. He agrees to her terms, deciding that he can always blame the equipment if bravado somehow once again proves a poor substitute for skill. Unbeknownst to him, Hillary has been practicing darts on and off for two decades on the off chance she might decide one day to be spontaneous. For extra blasphemy, they use Captain America’s shield as the target. She hangs the board, and before taking his first shot he declares it crooked.
The target is divided as depicted into six concentric regions worth 43, 46, 62, 65, 105 and 108 electoral votes. What areas must be hit so that their sum is exactly 270?

No third-party candidate was invited to participate in the dissolution of representative democracy. Reached for comment, a jealous Gary Johnson cited inflated poll numbers and began to argue that he should have at least been told ahead of time, but then broke eye contact and gazed at the peeling linoleum of his moderately priced rental while letting out a dejected sigh. When pressed for details of his strategy had he been invited, Johnson requested clarification on what darts are.

Morsel Menu

Making News Morsel:
Hop aboard these Access Hollywood Rebuses


This puzzle is a celebration of rebuses (or as I sometimes like to call them, “rebi”). 

Image #6 is not really a rebus, but what might be called a “spoonerebus.” To solve it, find a two-word phrase that might serve as a caption for the image. The first word is an apostrophized possessive proper noun, and the second word is a common noun. Split the phrase in two parts with the apostrophe as the dividing mark. 


Spoonerize the result to form the two-word name for a place where a presidential hopeful might spend a lot of time campaigning. 

The solutions to the more conventional rebuses (numbered #0 through #5) are all persons who have recently been in the news. To solve the rebuses you must name or identify the images in each, from left to right, and say these words aloud to reveal the name of the person.

For image #4, you must remove the first letter from the second image and the last letter from the third image before pronouncing the result. These two letters can be rearranged to form a famous ratio.










Appetizer Menu

Cabinet-Filling Appetizer:
Political potpourri

#1: 
“Blond Bombshell” blows up “Elvis”!
A Twentieth-century time traveler wrote that headline. To which year did he travel and to which candidates did he allude?
#2:
A Rock And Roll Hall of Famer.
newsman who made news this past August and October.
Interchange the surnames of these two men to form the names of the major party candidates in a Twentieth-century presidential election.
(Note: The first name of one of the major party candidates is one that not many people have called him, but some have.)
Who are these four men?
#3: 
A man accused of being a Communist
A man “accused” of being a Buddhist
The accused Communist was a major party candidate in two Twentieth-century presidential elections. Interchange the first two letters of his first name to get the initial word in what people call the accused Buddhist.
#4: 
A major party candidate in a Nineteenth-century presidential election was defeated politically by a man who roughly a decade earlier had defeated militarily a man whose full name end-rhymes with the defeated major party candidate name. Removing an aquatic creature from the middle of the defeated candidate’s surname forms a word closely associated with the man who was defeated militarily.
The defeated candidate died as he was being defeated.
The defeated military man died two years earlier than the defeated candidate died.
Who are these three men?
#5: 
Rearrange the letters in the surname of a U.S. president to form a pair of cylindrically shaped things.
What are they, and who is the president?
#6: 
In the midst of the Twentieth century, a presidential hopeful garnered about 40 electoral votes. Replace a three-letter noun at the end of his political party with a two-letter preposition to form a brand-name disposable container of beverages. The presidential hopeful’s surname consists of two word fragments that might appear on a calendar.
Who is this presidential hopeful? What was his party?

MENU

Sim Salabim Slice:
Don turban, divine rhymes

Carnac the Magnificent presents an Election 2016 Spectacular!
He divines the answer, and you determine the question in the form of rhyming triplets, which have been hermetically sealed and kept inside a #2 mayonnaise jar since noon today on Trump and Wagnell’s porch. The great and generous Carnac has donated his time to provide examples. Sim Salabim:
[Carnac places envelope to temple]
“Harvard Institute of Politics, Michael Cohen, Chris Christie.”
[Carnac rips open end of envelope, blows, removes card]
“Name a school, a fool, and a tool.”
“Martha Stewart, Bob Dole, Donald Trump.”
“Name a hodgepodger, an old codger, and a tax dodger.”
“Lester Holt, Clinton, Trump.”
“Name a moderator, a debater and an agitator.”
“Space bar, Oscar Mayer, Paris Hilton.”
Name a blank, a frank, and a skank.”

Thank you, Oh Wise One. And now let’s see if you, the humble reader, are blessed with Carnac’s powers of divination. May we have absolute silence please:
1. Concealed Carry, the Unabomber, Roosevelt son.
2. Jack Daniels, Big Bertha, Bubba’s babe.
3. The Rutherford boy (not “B. Hayes), The Grinch, The Donald.
4. Former PM Tony, Prince Charles, Charles & Camilla (pre-1996).
5. Julia Louis-Dreyfus role, Reagan’s 1984 election, Nixon slush fund organization.
6. Wal-Mart, Iraq, Vice President Al.
7. Pitt, pet rocks, a hanging, pregnant or dimpled bit.
8. Windex, politician Anthony, underage sexting.
9. Grenadine, Bryan Colangelo, Kellyanne Conway.
10. Wrestler Hulk, 60 Minutes journalist Lara, “Make America Great Again”.
11. “Dewey Defeats Truman”, Tic Tac, Melania Trump.
12. Slingback, targeted IRS tax audits, James Lambert Otis.
13. “Trading Places” actor Ralph, “Working Girl” actress Griffith, destroying Trump’s Walk of Fame star.
14. Supermoon, Julian Assange (at the Ecuadorian embassy), papier-mâché Trump.
15. Air Jordans, Paul Ryan, Julian Assange.
16. Skewer, Julian Assange (according to the Clinton campaign), Trump (based on 2005 comments).
17. Lance Armstrong, Palin (in 1988), Trump (based on 2005 comments).
May the itch of a thousand jock straps curse your favorite cousin’s locker room!
18. Francis, Days of Our Lives, Billy Bush (carrying on the family legacy).
19. Former Australian PM Abbott, viral 2012 criminal Joseph, President Obama (according to Trump).
20. Goodyear, Tuck, Trump (according to PolitiFact).
21. Scabbard, Emma Morano, Frank Luntz.
22. Wisdom tooth, Truman (on April 25, 1947), Nate Silver.
23. Al Smith charity dinner, Susan B. Anthony, sexual assault accusers “will be sued after the election is over.”
24. Mathematician Leonard, farm worker, Johnson or McMullin.
25. Two-stroke, an American in a booth on November 8th, Trump (if he wins).
I hold in my hands the last envelope:
26. Tom’s Restaurant, Giorgio Armani, Trump (if he loses).

Ripping/riffing Off Shortz and Gordon Slice:
Achtungberfest, “Hey you…”

This past week’s NPR Weekend Edition Sunday Puzzle, created by Peter Gordon and presented by puzzlemaster Will Shortz reads:
Think of a name in the news that has a doubled letter. It’s a person’s last name. Change that doubled letter to a different doubled letter, and you’ll get the commercial name for a popular food. What is it?

PlannedChaos’s Ripping/riffing Off Shortz And Gordon Slice reads:
Think of a person in the news, first and last names. Change the first letter of the first name, and you’ll get a command one might give at Oktoberfest.
Who is this person and what is the Oktoberfest command?

A Pair Of Bonus Ripping/riffing Off Shortz And Gordon Slices:
“I’m in your vehicle, Baby”
PUZZLE #1: Think of a name in the news this past year that has one letter that appears consecutively. It’s a person’s first name and last name. Change that consecutive letter to a different consecutive letter and you’ll get a word for a vehicle that was the setting of an alleged groping involving a presidential hopeful, and a word for the target of the groping.
The name in the news belongs to another presidential hopeful.
Who is this person whose name was in the news? What are the vehicle and the groping target?

PUZZLE #2: Think of a name in the news this past year that has one letter that appears consecutively. It’s a person’s first name. Change that consecutive letter to a different consecutive letter and you’ll get the second part of a hyphenated adjective that a presidential hopeful might have used to describe the extremities of a fellow presidential hopeful.
About a decade ago, that fellow presidential hopeful was in a vehicle with the person in the news where the presidential hopeful boasted about his groping strategies.
Note: This person in the news is a blood relative of the person in the news in PUZZLE #1.
Who is the person in PUZZLE #2 whose name is in the news? What is the hyphenated adjective? 

Dessert Menu:

Seeking The Oval Office Dessert:
Getting your flickers all in a bunch



Think of this puzzle as a “video rebus.”

Donald, Evan, Gary, Hillary and Jill. All seek to be POTUS on the Potomac.

But what POTUS is suggested by the videos presented here?

In the top video, take note of what is happening at the 15, 27 and 40-second marks.



In the bottom video, and in this SALE, this GOAL, and the very beginning of this SWAG video, isolate and concentrate on what is happening to just one of the letters in each video.

Who is this POTUS?




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.