Republicans, hipsters and mysterious figures from film; Executive branch dendrology; Gobbler gluttony and tryptophan sloth; piNPRicking a world map; Kitchen switchin’

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

Welcome to our February 17^th edition Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!

Our featured main course this week is our Appetizer – another ingenious Cryptic Crossword puzzle constructed and composed by Patrick J. Berry (screen name, “cranberry”).

Constructors must possess scads of talent, creativity and determination to create such Cryptic Crosswords:

First, they must enter a lattice of interlocking words into their grid. 
Second, they must compose cleverly cryptic clues for each of those entries. Each clue is in itself an intricate self-contained cryptic “mini-puzzle.”

Thus, each of Patrick’s Cryptic Crosswords is truly a feat of enigmatic mastery and mystery. Thank you, Patrick.

Our menus this week also include three “less cryptic” challenges, plus eight puzzles that Riff Off and Rip Off Shortz. 
That makes an even dozen, doesn’t it?

So, don’t have conniptions. Enjoy our encryptions! 

Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

Multinational Mutimedia Hors d’Oeuvre:

piNPRicking a world map

Change one letter of a country and add a space to form the first and last names of a person who appears on network and cable TV and, occasionally, on National Public Radio.

Who is this person and what is the country?

Morsel Menu

President’s Day Morsel:

Executive branch dendrology

Take the surname of a reasonably well-known psychotherapist. Interchange two consecutive letters to form a kind of tree.

Take the surname of a well-known physicist/mathematician. A word that precedes that surname on some packages on grocery shelves is the name of another tree.

Rearrange the letters of these two trees to form the surname of a U.S. president.

Who is this president? What are the two trees?

Appetizer Menu:

Cryptic Crossword Appetizer:

Republicans, hipsters and mysterious figures from film

Cryptic Crossword Instructions:

The number in parentheses at the end of each clue tells how many letters are in the answer. Multiple numbers in

parentheses indicate how letters are distributed in

multiple-word answers.

For example, (9) indicates a nine-letter answer like

“ampersand,” (4,5) indicates a four-and-five-letter answer

Like “fish stick,” and (4-5) indicates a four-and-five-letter

Hyphenated answer like “four-wheel.”

(For insight about how to decipher the numbered cryptic clues, see Patrick’s tutorial, below the puzzle. This link may also be helpful.)

ACROSS

1. Aging horror, see --- deteriorating rock star (6,8)

9. Hearing music over in vacant lot, taken aback (5)

10. I come alive somehow, lacking energy for communication? (9)

11. Very rare, also put in oven (7)

12. Swimsuit for sexually confused family member, intimidated at first? (6)

14. God --- aching back! (4)

15. Special occasion, with them goin’ off around six? (5,5)

17. Mad with desire, has little to explain (10)

19. Run with one in competition (4)

21. Handle rejected animals (6)

23. Australian native has excellent day in country (7)

25. Actress with strange neuroses grabs lead role (4,5)

26. Oil mixture going into first-rate sauce (5)

27. Love mysterious figure from film? (4,4,6)

DOWN

1. Understands what a photographer does (4,3,7)

2. Bread one’s eaten by mistake --- thrown-up part, we hear (5,4)

3. Republicans maintaining everyone has to run? (6)

4. Hipsters start on crazy toy sensation (10)

5. Resistance to help with attack... (4)

6. ...heading off husky European (7)

7. In the book, a picture of a giraffe-like creature (5)

8. Extremely atypical --- about nothing, they film a strange sitcom (3,2,3,6)

13. Not much music in the city? (6,4)

16. Nobility has to lose everything, primarily? That’s the way in Europe! (5,4)

18. City of New Orleans? (7)

20. Refuse to accept hard rock (6)

22. Oceangoing vessel? (5)

24. East of Arkansas, I assumed? (4)

Cryptic Crossword Tutorial:

(by Patrick J. Berry)

A cryptic crossword is a rather skeletal-looking puzzle – usually 225 boxes set within a 15-by-15 grid. You solve it just like a regular crossword except that the clues are usually made up of two parts:

1. The straightforward clue, and

2. The wordplay that may be essential to get the answer.

The wordplay may include:

anagrams; homophones; “containers” (one word inside another, like or in “word,” or not in “another”); hidden words within the clue (for example, “hidden words within the clue” contains the word hint!); initials; charades (“this” plus-or-minus “that”); reversals of spelling; or, in many instances, a combination of any of these.

And be on the lookout for abbreviations – such as L = left, R = right, B = born, D = dead.

Watch also for clues involving self-referring words and phrases, like “bandleader” = B (the “leader,” or leading letter, of “band”); “sorehead” = S (the “head” of “sore”); “Fourth of July” = Y (the “fourth letter” of  “July”); and “grand opening” = G (the “opening letter” of “grand”).

MENU 

Ripping Off Shortz And Shteyman Slices:

Kitchen switchin’

Will Shortz’s February 12^th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, composed by Michael Shteyman, reads:

Name some things commonly seen on a kitchen table. Switch the positions of the fifth and sixth letters of the word, and read the result backward. You’ll name two things commonly seen in the kitchen. What are they?

Puzzleria’s Riffing Off Shortz And Shteyman Slices read:

ONE:

Name some usually edible things commonly seen on a kitchen or dining room table, in one word. Change the sixth letter of the word, and read the result backward. You’ll name a mythological creature commonly pictured with twins.

What are these things and what is the creature?

TWO:

Name something crane-shaped sometimes seen on a big fat Greek wedding reception table. Change one letter of this word to a “y,” add a few spaces and an apostrophe, and read what you come up with backward. The result is what something else on the table might say if it could talk.

What are these two things on the table?

THREE:

Name something commonly seen on a pub table. Switch the positions of the fifth and sixth letters of the word, and read the result backward. You’ll name something you might see scribbled on a scrap of paper on a pub table.

What is seen on the pub table? What might be scribbled on the scrap of paper?

FOUR:

Name something often woven or made of wicker commonly seen on a Thanksgiving Day table, in two words. Rearrange the letters of the word. You’ll name a two-word part of the main course.

The thing commonly seen on a Thanksgiving Day table can also be seen on the table of a romantic restaurant. Rearrange the letters of the word in a different way to form two words: one indicating a couple dining at the restaurant and another indicating an entrée of skewered meat and veggies they may be sharing at their table. 

What is this thing seen on Thanksgiving Day and romantic restaurant tables? What is the part of the Thanksgiving main course? What two words indicate the couple and their shared entrée

FIVE:

Name the citrus jelly used as a glaze on braised lamb shanks served at a dinner theater, in one word. Rearrange the nine letters of this word to form two things to which patrons of the theater are also treated.

What are these two things? What is the jelly called?

SIX:

Name some things commonly seen on pupils’ tables, in one word. Rearrange its letters. You’ll name two things seen in a kitchen sink.

What are the things on the pupils’ tables and in a kitchen sink?

SEVEN:

Name some things commonly seen on a modern luau table (but not at a traditional luau table), in one word. Rearrange its letters. You’ll name two other things also commonly seen at the luau. What are these things?

EIGHT:

Name a word for some things often seen on restaurant tables that are protective and make life easier for table bussers. Rearrange its letters to form seafood spreads (a phrase of 4 and 5 letters) served with toast or crackers.

Rearrange the same letters in a different way to describe, in a 3-letter verb and 6-letter noun, what a Mexican restaurant bartender might do before pouring a drink for patrons so they can wash down the crackers and spreads.

What are these things seen on restaurant tables? What are the spreads and what might the bartender do to pour the drink?

Dessert Menu

Puppies At The “Kitties’ Table” Dessert:

Gobbler gluttony and tryptophan sloth

Name something a fellah might don if he plans to emulate a sloth, in two words. Remove a pronoun embedded in the first word, and replace a vowel in the second word with a different vowel, forming vessels you might see on your Thanksgiving Day table, in two words.

Change the second word of the vessels to a different word, a singular noun, forming a two-word brand name product your puppy might make tracks to chow down on down on the floor as you are chowing down on your Thanksgiving Day dinner up on the table.

What might a fellah don? What vessels might you see on your Thanksgiving Day table? What might your pooch be chowing down on during your Thanksgiving Day dinner?

Hint: Take the vessels you might see on your Thanksgiving Day table and replace the first two letters of the first word with a different, capital letter. The result is vessels you can see in the harbors of Norfolk, Jacksonville and San Diego, to name just three.

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.