Sumtimes in the wintertime; Degrees of excellence; Cultivegetation; Somewhat sensible sentences: Six, six, six, (six)… Professions of fame

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

Welcome to our February 3^rd 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

Uncle Rebus Hors d’Oeuvre:

Sumtimes in the wintertime

What famous person, first and last names, is spelled out by the rebus “sum” pictured here?

The person has very recently been in the national news, along with one of the other famous people in the hint below.

Hint: The famous person succeeded (in the sense of “followed in the footsteps of”) two other famous people whose first names rhyme with one another. He was the immediate successor of one of the people, and the fifth-in-line successor of the other one. 
Each of these two other famous people is associated with a number between 1 and 100. Each of these two different numbers is evenly divisible by 5.

Morsel Menu

Vegetable Or Fruit Morsel:

Cultivegetation;

Name a starchy vegetable (often considered a fruit) that is grown in equatorial regions. Insert a T and an O within this vegetable to name a word for a tract of acreage where resident laborers cultivate crops such as this vegetable.

What is this vegetable? 

What is the word for the tract of acreage?

Appetizer Menu

Ballpark Abbreviation Appetizer:

Professions of fame

Name a profession in four syllables.

The first three letters of the profession spell the “Major League Baseball ballpark scoreboard” abbreviation of the city with which a famous person is often associated. 

The final five letters of the profession spell a different, two-syllable profession – one that the famous person has plied but not one with which the person is chiefly associated.

Remove the first four and final four letters from the four-syllable profession. Add a duplicate of this profession’s second letter to the end of the letters that remain, forming the first name of the famous person.

Who is this famous person? 

What is the four-syllable profession?

MENU 

Ripping Off Shortz Slices:

Somewhat sensible sentences: Six, six, six, (six)…

 

Will Shortz’s January 29^th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle reads:

Take six different letters. Repeat them in the same order. Then repeat them again – making 18 letters altogether. Finally add “tebasket” at the end. If you have the right letters and you space them appropriately, you’ll complete a sensible sentence. What is it?

Puzzleria’s Riffing Off Shortz Slices read:

ONE:

Take six different letters. Repeat them in the same order. Then repeat them in the same order again – making 18 letters altogether. 

Finally add “chless” at the end. If you have the right letters and you space them appropriately, you’ll complete a somewhat sensible sentence. What is it?

Hint: The sentence refers to the prowess of a statistician and musicologist who possesses peerless knowledge of a particular singer’s:

1. age (over 80);

2. record sales (350 million worldwide);

3. albums that made the Billboard charts (more than 70); 

4. consecutive weeks one particular album stayed on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart (nearly 500).

TWO:

Take six letters. Repeat them in the same order. Then repeat them in the same order again – making 18 letters altogether. 

Finally add “h-flavored” at the end. If you have the right letters and you space them appropriately, you’ll complete a somewhat sensible sentence. 

What is it?

Hint: The sentence refers to a luncheon specialty of a short-order cook at a greasy spoon on Haight-Ashbury who does not whistle while he works… but does puff on reefer while he works.

THREE:

Take six letters. Repeat them in the same order. Then repeat them in the same order again. Then repeat them in the same order again – making 24 letters altogether. 

Finally, add “eemed aquatic actress; Geena, expert thespian archer; Salma, graceful dramatic gymnast;...” at the end. 

If you have the right letters and you space them appropriately, you’ll complete a somewhat sensible sentence. 

What is it?

Hint: The sentence (which contains two colons: one after the twelfth letter and the other after the fifteenth letter) is an excerpt from a list of Hollywood stars who have demonstrated athletic talents – with actors (“Him”) listed first, and actresses listed last.

Dessert Menu

University Insider Dessert:

Degrees of excellence

Name a word meaning “excellent.” 

Insert the name of a well-known university inside the word and say the result aloud to form a hyphenated word that means “even more excellent.” 

What are these two 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.