Goes well with goose eggs? Assessing property values; Take the LL Mystery Train; Sticky hock; Tyrumposaurus Rex, lies and videotape

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

Welcome to our January 27^th edition Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!

We offer seven puzzles on our menus this week, including three that Rip Off Shortz. 

Please enjoy.

Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

Spin Cycle Hors d’Oeuvre:

Tyrumposaurus Rex, lies and videotape

If you have tuned into the boob tube this past year or so, you probably have seen a vain “frat” telecast or two. You have almost certainly witnessed examples of venal statecraft. You surely have heard not only the most downright flat-out prevarication and outright lying but, indeed, the flattest variance possible.

Two of the three sentences above contain two or three consecutive words consisting of letters that can be rearranged to form a somewhat oxymoronic two-word phrase that was broached by a political spinmeister this past week. The remaining sentence contains two (not three) consecutive words consisting of letters that can be rearranged to form the same somewhat oxymoronic two-word phrase… but only if you add into the mix a word that, according to recent analysis of a University of Pennsylvania linguist, is the most common word spoken by Donald Trump.

What is this somewhat oxymoronic two-word phrase?

Morsel Menu

Just Sign Next To The X Morsel:

Sticky hock

Various creditors are in possession of handfuls of documents you have signed. You are in hock, big time. Add an “x” to the name given to these documents to form an adjective describing how you feel about being in such a sticky debt-ridden predicament.

What is this adjective?  

Appetizer Menu:

Drained Down To The Last Drop Appetizer:

Goes well with goose eggs?

Name a beverage brand, in two words.

The first three letters of the first word form a verb that means informally to eliminate, to put an end to, to “deep-six.”

The last four letters of the first word form a noun that means informally “zip,” “zilch.”

The letters of the second word form an adjective that means somewhat informally “devoid” or “vacant.” It is an adjective that might substitute for the word “empty” in the expression “coming up empty.”

What is this beverage brand?

MENU 

Ripping Off Shortz And Pitt Slices:

Assessing property values

Will Shortz’s January 22^nd NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, composed by Dan Pitt, reads:

This week’s challenge is unusual. The numbers 5,000, 8,000 and 9,000 share a property that only five integers altogether have. Identify the property and the two other integers that have it.

 Puzzleria’s Riffing Off Shortz And Pitt Slices read:

ONE: The numbers 1 and 22 share a property that only three integers altogether have. Identify the property and the other integer that has it.

Hint: A Greek goddess

TWO: The numbers 1,024, 2,116 and 3,844 share a property that only four integers altogether have. Identify the property and the one other integer that has it.

THREE: This week’s challenge is unusual. The list of words below corresponds to the numbers between one and ten. You are to discern two words that belong in the eighth position. They are synonyms:

1. Ozone

2. Wont

3. Tether

4. Furor

5. Fiver

6. Fixes

7. Envies

8. _ _ _ ; _ _ _ _ _

9. Engine

10. Tine

Dessert Menu

Junior Parker Memorial Dessert:

Take the LL Mystery Train

M JB

Y GC or EB

S HDT

T! MF

E TB

R VU, TS, TW, or JJG

Y OE

T TB or PS

R (nursery rhyme/song)

A DW, as portrayed by MM

I PS

N DC or DP

B TB

Y BL or  BC

L (real estate agents)

L (brand-name veggie/fruit slogan/jingle)

“MYSTERY TRAIN BY LL” is a series of 16 “railroad coaches” coupled together. Each “coach” is represented by an initial letter of a particular word; all 16 words (“coaches”) share something in common.

Hints to these words are given at the right of each of the 16 initials. Most of these hints involve initials of people (or fictional characters) who spoke, sang or wrote those words. (The hints for the two “L-words”, and for the “R” in “TRAIN,” are more explicit, and do not involve initials.)

What are these 16 words?

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.

"It’s a Commutationist plot!" Synonymatography; “Comedeity!” “No inaugruel for you!” Ammocamorama

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

Welcome to our January 20^th edition Joseph Young’s Puzzleria! It is not our inaugural Puzzleria! of 2017… That was two weeks ago.

But we are hoping that all of 2017 augurs well rather than ill for all Puzzlerians! everywhere… and for the Green Bay Packers and their fans! Everywhere.

Here is some historical Green and Gold perspective:

If the Packers can beat the Falcons in Atlanta on Sunday in the NFC championship game they will compete in Super Bowl LI on February 5^th in Houston. It would be the Packers’ sixth Super Bowl appearance. Their Super Bowl record is 4-1. Atlanta’s SB record is 0-1.

Of the AFC teams still alive, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Super Bowl record is 6-2, and the New England Patriots are 4-4.

A Packer/Patriot Super Bowl would be a rematch of Super Bowl XXXI, won by Green Bay. A Packer/Steeler Super Bowl would be a rematch of Super Bowl XLV, also won by Green Bay.

I had been hoping that the Kansas City Chiefs would have beaten the Steelers this past weekend so that a rematch of the very first Super Bowl, won by the Packers over the Chiefs, would have been possible.  

We offer nine puzzles on our menus this week, including five that Rip Off Shortz. Please have a ball... or two, three, four or more.

Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

Sestet Hors d’Oeuvre:

“It’s a Commutationist plot!”

There were charges galore, even “aiding the enemy,”

For an act they claimed compromised U.S. hegemony.

The defense: “I tried thwarting the spread of tyrannicals.”

The accused, though, found guilty, was fitted with manacles.

After years, commutation is met with fists clenching…

We’re a nation divided – sides ever entrenching.

The sestet above contains three rhyming couplets. Take one of the two rhyming words from each of the three couplets. 

Rearrange the letters in these three words to form three new words that have very recently appeared together in news reports.

What are these three words?

Morsel Menu

Smile, You’re On Candidate Camera Morsel:

“No inaugruel for you!”

ONE: Name a vice-presidential candidate, first and last names, who did not have an opportunity to be a main celebrant at an inauguration or inaugural balls.

Delete the last three letters of the first name. Replace the second letter of the last name with the last letter of the last name, and replace the fourth letter of the last name with a different consonant. Delete all letters after the fourth.

The result is a presidential candidate (and president!) who did not have an opportunity to be a main celebrant at an inauguration or inaugural balls.

Hint: The two candidates are from roughly the same era, but are from different parties.

TWO: Now name a presidential candidate who did not have an opportunity to be a main celebrant at an inauguration or inaugural balls, first and last name. The fourth, seventh and eighth letters of the name can be rearranged to form the world “old.” Replace those three letters with the rearranged letters in the misspelled word “erk,” and move the space between names to a different place. The result is a U.S. senator who has not had an opportunity to be a main celebrant at a national inauguration or inaugural balls.

Who are the two candidates from roughly the same era? Who are this “old” presidential candidate and “erksome” senator?

Hint #1: The presidential candidate and senator are from different eras as well as from different parties.

Hint #2: Were the presidential candidate still alive, he would be “old” compared to the senator. The senator tends to “erk” some conservative Republicans. 

Appetizer Menu

British Swashbuckler Appetizer:

Synonymatography

 

Think of a two-word title of a movie released around the time of the most recent turn of the century, give or take a couple of years or so. Remove the title’s last letter.

Place a duplicate of the first letter of the first at the beginning of the second word. Move the former first letter of the second word so that it replaces the middle letter of the first word.

Both words in this altered movie title are now synonyms of each other.

 

What is the title? What are the synonyms?

Hint: The first eight letters of the movie’s title are the first eight letters in the name of a location associated with a legendary British swashbuckler and archer.

MENU 

Ripping Off Shortz And Collins Slices:

“Comedeity!”

Will Shortz’s January 15^th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, composed by Peter Collins, reads:

Take the first and last names of a famous comedian. The first three letters of the first name and the first letter of the last name, in order, spell the name of a god in mythology. The fourth letter of the first name and the second-through-fourth letters of the last name, in order, spell the name of another god.

Who is the comedian, and what gods are these?

 

Puzzleria’s Riffing Off Shortz And Collins Slices read:

ONE: Take the first and last names of a somewhat famous comedian. The first four letters of the first name and the first letter of the last name, in order, spell the name of a god. The fifth letter of the first name, the second-through-fourth letters of the last name, plus one “r”, all mixed up, spell the creature a Celtic war goddess might take the form of, in five letters.

Who is the comedian, what god is this, and what creature is this?

TWO: Take the first and last names of a famous comedian. The third, fourth, sixth and seventh letters of the first name, in order, spell the name of a god in mythology. The third-through-sixth letters of the last name, in order, spell the name of another god.

Who is the comedian, and what gods are these?

THREE: Take the first and last names of an obscure major league ball player whose team might well have won the World Series had he not been on the bench during the ninth inning of Game 6.

The first two letters of the first name, the ninth and sixth letters of the last name, in order, spell a name that means “God is my judge.”

The fourth-through-eighth letters of the second name, in order but substituting a different vowel for the sixth letter, spell the name of a Roman god.

The last two letters of the first name and the first three letters of the last name, in order, spell the name of a Roman goddess.

Who is the ballplayer, and what Roman deities are these?

FOUR: Take the first and last names of a famous comedian. The first five letters of the first name and the first letter of the last name, in order, spell the name of a god.

The five letters of the last name, in order, spell the first name of a king in the Roman foundation myth which is also the title of a book written by “a servant of God.”

The sixth-through-eleventh letters of the first name, in order, spell the first name of an actor who got his start on a sitcom. The actor’s last name is what the “servant of God” wishes for his book’s title character, in the name of the god formed by the first five letters of the first name and the first letter of the last name of the comedian.

Who is this comedian? What are the king’s first name and book title, and the actor’s full name?

FIVE: Take the first and last names of a comedian who has appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman. The first two letters of the first name and the first two letters of the last name, in order, spell the name of a goddess in Hawaiian mythology. The last two letters of the first name and the first two letters of the last name followed by the first letter in Sirens, in order, spell the name of a Siren in Greek mythology.

Who is the comedian, and what goddess and Siren are these?

Dessert Menu

Ice-Augeral Dessert:

Ammocamorama

A live bait, tackle and gun shop is situated along a Minnesota highway between the Twin Cities and Brainerd. It sells leeches, minnows, rifles, ammo, decoys, bobbers, camo jackets, flavored corn and carp baits, and ice augers. 

But a sign hanging outside the store suggests that the shop may be open to buying certain things from its customers, or perhaps at least bartering for them.

The sign (which should include some punctuation, but does not) consists, in order, of a six-letter verb, a four-letter noun used as a modifier, and a five-letter plural noun.

Out in the great outdoorsy nature, however, the sign’s words might well be interpreted as a reason why a customer of the shop may not be successful in bagging his desired prey. Under this interpretation, the same three-word phrase would consist of a six-letter adjective, a four-letter noun and a five-letter verb, and would require no punctuation whatsoever.

What are these three words on the sign?

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.

“All we need is music, tweet music” Four-score or so years ago; Words on a label? Solve if you’re able! Road trip itinerary? “Why don’t you all hyph-ph-phenate away?”

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

Welcome to our January 13^th edition Joseph Young’s Puzzleria! This is our second P! of 2017.

We offer eight puzzles on our menus this week, including four that Rip Off Shortz. 

Please enjoy.

Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

The Hell Of War Hors d’Oeuvre:

Four-score or so years ago

A person lately in the news did something newsworthy during the dawning of an event that occurred almost 80 years ago – an event that one might have described thusly:

“Lo! Torching, war, hell.”

The person’s connection to the event was secured after he/she witnessed something that might have caused her/him to exclaim: “O, these occupy the front!”

Tragically and unspeakably, the event resulted in “a dying in ovens” and cities “napalm-razed.”

Rearrange the 17 letters in “Lo! Torching, war, hell!” to form the first and last names of the person.

Rearrange the 20 letters in “O, these occupy the front!” to form a 5-word alliterative phrase that has been used to describe what the person accomplished.

Rearrange the 24 letters in “napalm-razed,” and “a dying in ovens” to form a 4-word headline that might have chronicled the dawning of the event.

Who is this person, the alliterative accomplishment, and the possible news headline?

Morsel Menu

Paging Mrs. Malaprop Morsel:

“All we need is music, tweet music”

The opening sentence of this Al-Monitor article reads:

“US President-elect Donald Trump’s tweet in reaction to the speech by outgoing Secretary of State John Kerry, who sharply rebuked Israel, was pleasing music to many Israeli ears.”

Choose two words from that sentence. Keep them in the same order in which they appear in the sentence. Add a letter to the beginning of each word. These two letters are different from each other. The result is the title of an album of music that was inspired by a malapropism about certain two-wheeled vehicles.

What is this album title?

Appetizer Menu:

Adjectival Part Of Speech Appetizer:

“Why don’t you all hyph-ph-phenate away?”

Take the name of a nine-letter college town in a state beginning with “M”. Take the first five letters, spell them backward and place them at the end of the last four letters, separated by a hyphen. 

The result is not an actual word that you can find in dictionaries. But if it were, it would be an adjective that might describe a speech therapist.

What is the college town? What is the adjective that you won't find in dictionaries?

Note: I created the prototype of the “stutter-sign” image above when I was in my 20’s and was on an “art kick.” I had no real artistic talent, so I created graphic crapola like this, mostly in acrylics.

MENU 

Ripping Off Shortz And Reiss Slices:

Words on a label? Solve if you’re able!

Will Shortz’s January 8^th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, composed by Mike Reiss, reads:

Think of a two-word phrase you might see on a clothing label. Add two letters to the end of the first word, and one letter to the end of the second word. The result is the name of a famous writer. Who is it?

Puzzleria’s Riffing Off Shortz And Reiss Slices read:

ONE: Think of a two-word phrase you might see on a clothing label. Only the first letter of the first word is in uppercase. Scrunch together the first two letters of the second word, forming one new letter. Remove a letter from the second word. Scrunch together the first word and the altered second word, eliminating the space between them and forming the last name of a famous writer best known as a poet.

Who is it?

TWO: Think of a two-word brand name you might see on a clothing label. Interchange the first letters of the words. “Double” one vowel in the second word to create one new consonant. Replace another vowel in the second word with the consonant before it in the alphabet. Remove a “v”.

Rearrange the final four letters to form a word. Keep the first four letters in the order they’re in to form another word. The result is a two-word phrase that might appear on the label.

What are this brand name and phrase?

THREE: Think of a three-word phrase you might see on a clothing label. Remove:

the first letter of the first word,

the space between the first two words,

and the third word.

The result is the last name of a British writer of romances and short stories whose first name is an anagram of “teaser.”

Who id the writer? What does the label say?

FOUR: Think of a 6-letter word you might see on a quilt or dress label. Divide it in half. Add two letters to the front of the first half to form the last name of a writer. Add six letters to the end of the second half to form the last name of another writer. The writers published books in the early1940’s with titles that began with the same five letters in the same order.

Who are these writers and their 1940’s book titles? What is the 6-letter word.

Dessert Menu

Municipal Dessert:

Road trip itinerary?

Name the next city in the following list of cities:

Cleveland,

Brooklyn,

Minneapolis,
Oakland,

San Diego,

St. Louis…

?

Hint #1: The list is in chronological order.

Hint #2: R, D, L, R, C, R…

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.