PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER (876 + 54) SERVED
Humdrum Irksome Appetizer:
What is the J-word that is the next entry in this sequence?
ONE:
What idiom is it? What is the state and who is the president?
What idiom is it? What are the names of the Giant and the Pirate who became an Angel?
Stationary letters
Welcome to our September 15th edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!
Please enjoy our four fresh puzzles.
Appetizer Menu
Humdrum Irksome Appetizer:
Find the J-word (it isn’t Jaybird)
Adjust, Berserk, Confront, Dozen, Ebon, Fluster, Gerbil, Humdrum, Irksome, _______ ...
What is the J-word that is the next entry in this sequence?
Note: The answer to this puzzle is based on entries in the Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition.
MENU
Ripping Off Shortz And Gori Slices:
Flabby slabby idioms
Will Shortz’s September 10th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle created by Al Gori reads:
Think of a famous quotation with 8 words. The initial letters of the first 4 words themselves spell a word, and the initial letters of the last 4 words spell another word. Both words rhyme with “jab.” What quotation is it?
Puzzleria’s! Ripping Off Shortz And Gori Slices read:
ONE:
Think of an idiom with 6 words describing sonething very expensive. The initial letter of the first word, the initial letter of any of the next four words, and the initial letter of the last word themselves spell an abbreviation of one of the 50 United States, or the nickname of a U.S. president with a noteworthy birthday.
What idiom is it? What is the state and who is the president?
TWO:
Think of a 8-word idiom that inspires optimism and that begins with the word “The”. The initial letters of the next 4 words themselves spell an adjective, and the initial letters of the last 3 words spell a surname. Both words might appear in a news article about a Giant. Only the surname, not the adjective, would likely appear in an article about a Pirate who became an Angel, and who was born in the same year the Giant was inducted into the Hall of Fame.
What idiom is it? What are the names of the Giant and the Pirate who became an Angel?
Hint: The three letters of the surname are the initial letters of a hyphenated expression that means “extremely or excessively flamboyant or outrageous.”
Dessert Menu
Sports Apparatus Dessert:
Stationary letters
Name a piece of stationary sports apparatus with a shape that once resembled a certain uppercase letter of the alphabet, but now looks more like (but not exactly like, in the majority of fonts) an uppercase letter that appears later on in the alphabet.
What are these letters and what is the sports apparatus?
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It would be an exaggeration for me to claim that I've solved them all so early, but I'll go out on a limb and predict that I can construct a sentence containing, in alphabetical order, the given words plus a J-word, and then I'll make that claim.
ReplyDeleteAha!
DeleteI've been trying to adjust ever since my ant colony went berserk and I had to confront a dozen ebon insects threatening to fluster my gerbil, who enjoys a more humdrum existence and finds such disturbances irksome and jarring.
Bravo, Paul!
DeleteYour "jarring" J-word is not my intended J-word... but who cares?
LegoBerserkley
It pays to have an early busy day! I'm checking out Puzzleria Friday afternoon, not evening, and already I've got both Ripoff puzzles! The others are tough though. I have a "stationary sports apparatus", but I never thought of it being shaped like a certain letter of the alphabet. And the J-word could be anything. I hate to think Lego's having writer's block and that's why there's only four puzzles this week. But that means I won't have much to reveal Wednesday, which is good because that day we leave for our cruise to Cozumel! Hope to see you there, as we're staying through next Friday. Ole!
ReplyDeleteLIke pjb, I solved the two RIp Offs, but am stuck on the appetizer and dessert (this as of yesterday. But I don't foresee making any further headway.)
ReplyDeleteJust found out there's no Wi-Fi on the ship, so I won't be seeing you there! Still, I hope I can solve the other two puzzles before we go.
DeleteIf you've solved the new NPR puzzle you should be able to solve the Dessert, provided you can ignore certain disorganized unpleasantries.
ReplyDeleteWell, I did just look and solve the NPR puzzle, Paul, but thus far, I fail to see the connection to ye olde dessert!
DeleteHints:
DeleteHIA:
This Appetizer is one of the least stressful puzzles that has appeared on P!
SAD:
There is an image somewhere in this week's Puzzleria! where you can see what appear to be both the old-time apparatus and the modern-day apparatus.
LegoWhoGetsHisKicksOnRoute66...OrIsThatBurmaShave
I might just have it, Paul. I think I know exactly what you're talking about.
ReplyDeleteSee y'all Monday! Tomorrow's the cruise!
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful (and safe!) time, Patrick.
DeleteLegoWhoOnceTookAPontoonRideOnALake
Appetizer:
ReplyDeleteJESTER (?) (jĕs′tər)
Ripoff ONE:
Cost(s) an arm and a leg. CAL (California) Coolidge, born JULY 4, 1872.
Ripoff TWO:
The light at the end of the tunnel.
Giant: the LATE Mel OTT, inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1951.
Pirate: Dave Parker, born June 9, 1951, played for the L.A. Angels in the 1991 season and then retired. I have never heard of him; I had to look him up.
“Extremely” “outrageous” = “too-too” (the initial letters of the hyphenated expression are not “OTT” but the expression contains only those letters found in OTT). I normally do not attempt “sports puzzles."
Dessert:
Recumbent exercise bike = U
Stationary bike = X
The only J-word I can find with a semantic connection to 'unstressful' or 'who cares?' is JAUNTY. If JAUNTY fits the pattern better than JARRING, I'll need to see the reason. I note that the given words are all two syllables with no long vowel sounds. In the first three, the first syllable is stressed; in the other six, it's the second syllable. JAUNTY contains a diphthong (I guess that's what it's called) while none of the others (including JARRING) do. I can find JUDAS in ADJUST, but that's the only disciple that jumps out at me, and if we were doing something in that vein, we should be working with twelve words, not just ten.
ReplyDeleteLIMB >> cost an arm and a leg [CAL(ifornia&Coolidge)]
EARLY >> LATE >> light at the end [of the tunnel(OTT{Mel&Ed})(over the top)]
EXAGGERATION >> HYPERBOLE >> H&Y >> goalposts
APPETIZER: JITTERY? JUMPY? I have no idea why, though, re the dictionary definitions....
ReplyDeleteRIP OFFS:
1. COST AN ARM AND A LEG => CAL (ifornia) and CALVIN COOLIDGE
2. "THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL"; "LATE" and "OTT"; "Giant --- MEL OTT" and Pirate/Angel --- "ED OTT" [OVER-THE-TOP]
DESSERT: The only sports equipment I see in the photos are boxing gloves (but those aren't stationary) and a baseball (ditto).
Lots of interesting alternative answers this week:
DeleteFor example, ron's recumbent excercise bike and stationary bike look more like a U and X than my modern goal post looks like a Y!
I also enjoyed Paul's "EXAGGERATION >> HYPERBOLE >> H&Y >> goalposts" for satisfying the Dessert hint.
BTW, the image I alluded to in my hint was the colorful alphabet at the very top of the page in which the Y resembles a modern goal post.
Regarding the Appetizer:
My "least stressful" hint was misleading. I have always associated syllables possessing schwa sounds with the notion of "not being stressed." But in any 2-syllable word (like "journal" or the other nine 2-syllable words in the sequence) you just cannot have two unstressed syllabes... one must be stressed. I guess, even if both syllables have schwa sounds!
So it's less of a stress thing, and more of a schwa thing.
So, sorry. This was an unfair puzzle.
Your Appetizer answers: ron's "jester," Paul's "jaunty," and ViolinTeddy's "jittery" and "jumpy" were all very much in the spirit of being seemingly schwaful. The first e in Jester especially well could be a schwa, it seems to me.
Thanks to all of you for taking a shot at the sportsy LATE OTT rip-off slice. I realize that sports is not your favorite puzzle subject. ron's Dave Parker answer was interesting. Parker, who was a much better and famous player thad Ed Ott, would be in the Hall of Fame himself had he not been implicated in drug use.
No sports puzzles this coming Friday... I don't think.
LegoSaysGoodWorkYouPuzzlerians!
This week's official answers, for the record:
ReplyDeleteAppetizer Menu
Humdrum Irksome Appetizer:
Find the J-word (it isn’t Jaybird)
Adjust, Berserk, Confront, Dozen, Ebon, Fluster, Gerbil, Humdrum, Irksome, _______ ...
What is the J-word that is the next entry in this sequence?
Note: The answer to this puzzle is based on entries in the Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition.
Answer:
Journal;
Each of the words in the sequence is a two-syllable word in which the vowel sound in both is a schwa.
MENU
Ripping Off Shortz And Gori Slices:
Flabby slabby idioms
ONE:
Think of an idiom with 6 words describing sonething very expensive. The initial letter of the first word, the initial letter of any of the next four words, and the initial letter of the last word themselves spell an abbreviation of one of the 50 United States, or the nickname of a U.S. president with a noteworthy birthday.
What idiom is it? What is the state and who is the president?
Answer:
Costs An Arm And A Leg
Cal. (California); Cal Coolidge, born on the Fourth of July
TWO:
Think of a 8-word idiom that inspires optimism and that begins with the word “The”. The initial letters of the next 4 words themselves spell an adjective, and the initial letters of the last 3 words spell a surname. Both words might appear in a news article about a Giant. Only the surname, not the adjective, would likely appear in an article about a Pirate who became an Angel, and who was born in the same year the Giant was inducted into the Hall of Fame.
What idiom is it? What are the names of the Giant and the Pirate who became an Angel?
Hint: The three letters of the surname are the initial letters of a hyphenated expression that means “extremely or excessively flamboyant or outrageous.”
Answer:
(The) Light At The End Of The Tunnel;
Mell Ott; Ed Ott;
Hint: over-the-top
Dessert Menu
Sports Apparatus Dessert:
Stationary letters
Name a piece of stationary sports apparatus with a shape that once resembled a certain uppercase letter of the alphabet, but now looks more like (but not exactly like, in the majority of fonts) an uppercase letter that appears later on in the alphabet.
What are these letters and what is the sports apparatus?
Answer:
H, Y; Football (but not soccer or futbol) goal post
(Some fonts in which the "Y" resembles a modern "slingshot" goalpost)
Lego...
There was NO HOPE, Herr Puzzlemeister, that I could have ever gotten yon Dessert....I didn't even have any idea that goalposts had changed shape. WHen did they look like H's?
DeleteVT,
DeleteThe transition from H to Y happened in the mid-to-late-1960s in both collegiate and NFL football. See the first link in the Dessert's official answer for further context.
LegoWhoBelievesThatWhenHarvardPlaysYaleTheyShouldPutAnH-shapedGoalPostAtOneEndOfTheFieldAndTheModernY-shapedGoalPostAtTheOtherEnd
I now what else I meant to ask! To Paul: HOW did the NPR puzzle relate to the Dessert, i.e. to goalposts? I guess you can't tell me, though, until past 3p.m. Eastern time tomorrow.
DeleteViolinTeddy,
DeleteYou are correct about waiting until post-3PM on Thursday for learning the connection Paul perceived between the NPR puzzle and the Dessert. Paul's hints tend to be super-clever and inscrutable, but I believe I might have caught a glimmer of what his comment meant, so I will attempt to hint at my best guess at what he was getting at.
Paul's comment read:
If you've solved the new NPR puzzle you should be able to solve the Dessert, provided you can ignore certain disorganized unpleasantries...
I would only suggest that you take one of the words in the answer to the NPR puzzle and survey what are in its end zones.
LegoMayBeRightHeMayBeCrazy
And, as pjb, the cryptic crossword expert, is no doubt aware, the "unpleasantries" are RIOTS, which become ISTOR when disorganized.
DeleteEgads, I must think much too literally, and would NEVER have come anywhere close to sleuthing the above out of your hint, Paul.
Delete'RIOTS' related to SPORTS/football goalposts? (I do see that 'ISTOR' was included in HISTORY.) BUt I still fail to connect the Dessert sports theme with RIOTS. ??
Ok, thanks, LegoNFL.
ReplyDeleteRemember -- the light at the end of the tunnel is probably the light of an oncoming train.
ReplyDeleteBack out quick!
C.E.