Friday, June 30, 2017

Fuel and feather powered flight; Advice from a literary editor; Shuffling the Kardashians; ...Prisoners here of our own device;

P! SLICES: OVER (765 + 43) SERVED

Welcome to our June 30th edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!

We this week feature a cryptically clever puzzle created by our friend PlannedChaos. His puzzle is a “Contemporary And Cryptic Hors d’Oeuvre” titled “...Prisoners here of our own device.”
Thanks PlannedChaos for devising this enthralling puzzle and allowing us to share it with Puzzlerians!

Also on this week’s menus are:
A quartet of trash-TV-inspired Ripping-Off-Shortz And Matic Slices,
A high-flying, fine-feathered and all-fueled-up-but-perhaps-on-the-way-down Appetizer, and
A Dessert with literary pretensions.

Please enjoy our seven puzzles!

Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

Contemporary And Cryptic Hors d’Oeuvre:
...Prisoners here of our own device

Name a two-word phrase that you may hear several times per day in the modern world. Stop staring so much at its rear end to name a contemporary band in two words.
Forming the band strained relationships and they lost four members. These outcasts can both brick the device involved in the two-word phrase and name a place where the device is not welcome.

What is the two-word phrase? What is the name of the band? What “brick” might the device become? Where is the device not welcome?

Appetizer Menu

Meet The Flockers Appetizer:
Fuel and feather powered flight

An aircraft encounters a predicament, one which can be summarized in a single noun. Without changing their order, move the last three letters of this noun to its beginning.
The new word formed, in its singular form, is a general descriptive term encompassing two different families (or flocks) of feathered critters: the [descriptive term] [first flock name] and the [descriptive term] [second flock name].

The name for a critter in the first flock is also a verb for one thing a passenger in an aircraft experiencing the predicament might do. The name for a critter in the second flock is also a verb for one thing a bystander on the ground who is witnessing the predicament might do.

What might the passenger do? What might the bystander do? What predicament might the aircraft encounter, and what is the general descriptive term for both families of feathered critters?

Hint: The general term for both flocks sounds like it might be related to donkeys.  

MENU

Ripping Off Shortz And Matic Slices:
Shuffling the Kardashians

Will Shortz’s June 25th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Kruno Matic of Croatia, reads:
Take the name KIM KARDASHIAN. Rearrange the letters to get the last name of a famous actress along with the name of a famous one-named singer. Who are these people?

Puzzleria’s Riffing/Ripping Off Shortz and Matic Slices read:
ONE:
Female singers and actresses and models like Kim Kardashian use ________ products such as moisturizers and depilatories to keep their arms, legs and complexions creamy smooth, wrinkle-free and devoid of any stray _____, especially on their “chinny-chin-chins.” Rearrange the 13 letters in those two blanks to get the real last name (at birth) of a Best Actress Oscar-winning actress along with the name of a famous one-named singer. Who is this actress and who is this singer?
TWO:
Take the last name of  a red-tressed “Graceful” actress who tends to ____ heads when she appears in public. Rearrange the letters of her last name along with the four letters that belong in the blank to form the real last name of an actor along with the name of a famous one-named singer. Who is this actor and who is this singer?
THREE:
Misspell the name of the actress Claire Danes as Clair Danes (as Lego usually does every time he has the occasion to spell “Clair Danes”). Rearrange those 10 letters to get the last name of an obscure actress (whose sister is a more famous actress) along with the name of a well known one-named singer. Who are these people?
FOUR:
“Prurience! Pelvis! Skinheads!
Those words smack of “Sex, prejudice and rock ‘n’ roll.” Rearrange the letters in PRURIENCE, PELVIS and SKINHEADS to get the names of five famous one-named singers. (Yes, we realize the solution to one of the five singers is a “piece of cake”... indeed, a piece of peanut butter banana cake served up in the Jungle Room as a dessert to top off an entree of fried peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwiches!)
Who are these five mononymous singers?

Dessert Menu

Duodectet Dessert: (thanks,VT!)
Advice from a literary editor

Write, Coleridge, of Xanadu.
Herm, make the great whale white not blue.
Mark Twain, give Huck a chaw to chew.
Help Swann, Proust, find his temps perdu.
Hank James, pray tell what Maisie knew.
Will Shakespeare, kill off Montague.
Vlad, make Lolita twenty-two.

Give Mersault some grief, Camus.
Dante, Satan needs his due.
Christie, Marple has no clue!
Walpole, ply thy Gothic, do.
Homer, pull Odysseus through.

The dodecet* above chronicles advice suggested to authors who were in the process of composing their masterpieces. Some heeded the advice, others did not.

Rearrange all letters in one, and in only one, of the twelve lines to form two words and a prefix. The two words are synonyms for a creature with a roundish body and a tail. The prefix indicates a different creature. It is a prefix, however, that many people mistakenly believe pertains to the roundish, tailed creature.

What are these synonyms and prefix?

* Our twelve-line verse consists of a septet and quintet – the septet
with eight syllables per line and the quintet with seven syllables per line. Because there is no English word for a verse of twelve lines, we shall call ours a “dodecet.” We invite our guests at Puzzleria! to suggest other words that could mean “a twelve-line verse.”

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, June 23, 2017

The ladies or the sniper, or an egg? The non-flight from the Phoenix; Bluejay Greenberg... is he Polish? Corpuscle Christi?

P! SLICES: OVER (87 + 654) SERVED


Welcome to our June 23 edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria! 

This week we again feature a clever and cultured puzzle created by Mark Scott of Seattle (also known as “skydiveboy,” his online screen name). 

Mr. Scott’s contribution is an Hors d’Oeuvre titled “Bluejay Greenberg... is he Polish?” 
We thank Mark for sharing with us this well-polished puzzle that involves a Polish composer.

Also on this week’s menus are:
1. A half-dozen somewhat unmanageable Ripping-Off-Shortz Slices, 
2. A Dessert that just never manages to take-off, and
3. An Appetizer that somehow manages to juxtapose Frank Stockton with Monty Hall!

So, spit-polish the nib of your ballpoint pen. Choose to solve one (or more) of not just two or three but of all nine of our offerings. 

No need to dress up in outlandish costumes and act like a greedy yahoo who yells to attract the attention of Mr. Hall.
All you need do is enjoy. So, please do. 

Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

Homophonic Opus Hors d’Oeuvre:
Bluejay Greenberg... is he Polish?

What do you call sixty minutes contemplating the music of a famous Polish composer? 
Hint: The answer is a homophone. 

Appetizer Menu

Homophonic And Sometimes Hyphenated Appetizer:
The ladies or the sniper, 
or an egg? 


Easter egg? Helen? Snipe? Bonnie? Choose just one.

The short paragraph above hints at a two-word phrase that has lately been in the news. You might sometimes see the two words written as a single hyphenated word.

What is this phrase? Who has lately been using it? 
Hint: the answer involves a homophone.
  
MENU 

Ripping Off Shortz Slices:
Corpuscle Christi?

Will Shortz’s June 18 NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle reads: 
Think of a familiar two-word phrase starting with T and ending with S, in which the interior letters name part of the human body. Remove the first and last letters of that word, and what remains will name another part of the human body. What’s the phrase, and what are the body parts? 

Puzzleria’s Riffing/Ripping Off Shortz Slices read:
ONE:
Think of a 6-letter word for a human body part and its 5-letter synonym. Place the letters T and E consecutively within the 6-letter word, then remove the word’s initial letter to form a new 7-letter word. 
All examples of this 7-letter word are made up of at least one of the 5-letter synonyms.   
What is the 6-letter body part, its 5-letter synonym and the new 7-letter word?
Hint #1: All but one of the synonym’s letters appear in the “new word.
Hint #2: Although all examples of the 7-letter word contain at least one 5-letter synonym for the body part, no examples of the 7-letter word contain any 6-letter body parts.
Hint #3: The 6-letter body parts are sometimes used to calculate the 7-letter words.  
TWO:
Consider the following dozen parts of the human body, which are listed below in alphabetical order:
arm; flesh; groin; incisors; instep; intestines; knuckle; lens; nerve; stomach; toe; torso
Group the twelve words into six pairs of two words each, leaving no space between the two words. If you do this correctly, you will be able to see 18 parts of the body spelled out – the twelve on the above list, plus six new ones. What are these six new body parts?
Note: There are six different possible paths to solving this puzzle. 
THREE:
A. Name an abbreviation you might see in a dateline. Add two letters, one at the beginning and one at the end, to form a body part you need in order to see the abbreviation.
What is the abbreviation? What is the body part? 
FOUR:
This Rip-Off ought to be as easy as ABC.
A trio of three-word phrases end with the words Act, Board and Commission. All three phrases have the same first word (which begins with an S) and second word (which ends with an s).
Remove the first three letters of the first word and final three letters of the second word. The five interior letters that remain spell out the plural form of a body part. Remove the first and final letters from that body part to form a non-word that is a homophone of what the body part helps people do.
What are these three three-word phrases?
FIVE:
Think of a word for a familiar punctuation mark in which four interior letters, in order, name human body parts. Rearrange the remaining letters to spell objects that are integral to a hospitable regional tradition. The body parts are essential to a mark of affection that often accompanies the tradition.
What are the body parts, the punctuation mark, the objects integral to the regional tradition, and the mark of affection?
Hint: Rearrange the letters in a two-word rudimentary description of the punctuation mark to form a two-word somewhat redundant description of the Lut, Mojave, Sonoran, and Sahara.
SIX:
Consider the two following strands of letters:
SIEKUKERITSIEVICSRAKES
PNCNCLGONETNRENIOGNLN

The two strands are related to each other in a particular way.
Can you explain how they are related?



Dessert Menu

Low Density Dessert:
The non-flight from the Phoenix

Overheard on a recent (June 20) Southwest Airlines Flight – WN 1802, non-stop from Phoenix to MSP Airport in Minnesota’s Twin Cities:
Attention Southwest Airlines passengers. This is your captain Frank Towns speaking.
You’ve heard of the Flight of the Phoenix? Well, this was supposed to have been the flight from the Phoenix. But it is just not to be. There will be no rising from the ashes today... even though it would not surprise me if our runway and tarmac were a hotbed of smoldering ashes!

I regret to inform you that the hot  ___ __________ we are experiencing are so extreme that the density of the atmosphere is simply too low for our aircraft’s wings to generate sufficient lift for successful take-off. We thus regret to inform you that today’s flight has been cancelled. We apologize for the inconvenience, but must insist that you depart the cabin and return to the airport and perhaps eventually to a motel... At least they are ___ ___________!

Your mission – if you choose to accept it – is to fill in both two-word sets blanks in the text of the airline captain’s comment to the passengers.
The first, shorter, words in both sets are identical. A multisyllabic synonym of this word appears in the text of Captain Towns’ comments.
The second, longer, words in both sets share only their first nine letters. The word in the first set contains ten letters; the word in the second set contains eleven letters.
What two two-word phrases belong in the blanks?

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, June 16, 2017

Push the framboises, can the krieks Chowing down from fine china; Knotty webs, Fiery hotbeds, Lewder misogynists! Zebra leg fell, Ascend bad bee, Sum joy!

P! SLICES: OVER (76 + 543) SERVED

Welcome to our June 16th edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!

We are serving up half a dozen puzzles this week, three of which are Rip/Riff-offs of Will Shortz’s NPR puzzle about “Benjamin, the Greenpeace ombudsman...”

Also on our menus are:
4. An uplifting Hors d’Oeuvre that we hope brings you “sum joy,”
5. A downcasting Appetizer that connotes negativity, and
6. A down-chowing Dessert.

So, lift up your spirits by chowing down on our challenges. Cast down all negativity, connoted or otherwise.
In other words, please enjoy our puzzles. 

Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

Seven (Plus One) Deadly Synonyms Hors d’Oeuvre:
Zebra leg fell, Ascend bad bee, Sum joy!
Solve each of the eight clues below. Rearrange the letters of each solution to form eight terms that are more-or-less synonymous. One term contains two words; the others all contain one word.
The number in parentheses after each clue indicates the number of words in the solution you must rearrange to form the synonymous terms.
1. Leg (2)
2. A way to find a sum (1)
3. Ascend (1)
4. Norman Fell (2)
5. What a “zebra” may throw down on the field when a second infraction occurs during one play from scrimmage (2)
6. “No one likes being a ______ __ bad tidings” (2)
7. Word preceding “Joy” (1)
8. “The ________ kindled a ___­­_ in his bee smoker.” (2)


Appetizer Menu

Negative Con Notations Appetizer:
Knotty webs, Fiery hotbeds, Lewd misogynists!

“Fire, knots, hotbed, lewder, misogynist, webs.”


Each of the six words (listed alphabetically in bold print above) can have negative connotations.

Group them into three 2-word pairs.
Rearrange the letters in each pair to form the ending words of the title of: 
One movie and two television shows.
The three titles all begin with the same word, a word normally understood to have positive connotations.
What is this word? What are the three titles?


MENU 

Ripping Off Shortz Slices:
Push the framboises, can the krieks

Will Shortz’s June 11th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle reads:
Consider this sentence: Benjamin, the Greenpeace ombudsman in the panorama, was charmed by the chinchilla fragrance.” 
The sentence contains seven words of seven or more letters. They have something very unusual in common. What is it, and can you think of an eighth word with the same property?

Puzzleria’s Riffing/Ripping Off Shortz Slices read:
ONE:
Consider this sentence: “Benjamin, the Greenpeace ombudsman in the panorama, was charmed by the fragrant chinchilla.” The sentence contains seven words of seven or more letters. They have something somewhat unusual in common. 
What is it, and can you think of an eighth word of seven or more letters with the same property?
TWO:
Consider this sentence: “The new hotshot brewer upped the output of framboises and nixed all sales of kriek beer; indeed no holdovers from that foregone era remained.” The sentence contains four words of eight or more letters. They have something very unusual in common. 
What is it, and can you think of a fifth word with the same property?
THREE:
Consider this sentence: “Freelance yeomen chaired a probe into how a gabion, built by Latinos to divert the Rio flood, broke.” The sentence contains five words of six or more letters. They have something reasonably unusual in common. 
What is it, and can you think of a sixth word with the same property?


Dessert Menu

Petunia Pigs Out Dessert:
Chowing down from fine china

“Mabel misplaced her pet Petunia’s food dish, so had to pour Petunia’s food into a piece of fine china from her sideboard!”

That piece of china and Petunia’s pet food brand name each contain two words. Their first words are the same. Their second words are different but share something in common.
What are the pet food name and piece of china?


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.