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.