“No tanks for the fish, Bonito!” Stacks o’ stately flapjacks; “Waiter, there’s a Cy in my floop!” Driving Miss “Drafties”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER (1110 + 98) SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:
“No tanks for the fish, Bonito!”

Newt’s wife Bonito buys him a variety of exotic goldfish for his birthday. But he has no fish tank. “The fish are nifty,” Newt says, “but where am I supposed to put them... in the bathtub?” 
No, not in the bathtub. So, Newt goes out and buys a fish tank.
The maximum capacity of Newt’s new tank is a bit less than 25.25 gallons. Its depth, in whole-number inches, is half its length and twice its width. 
Express the tank’s capacity using two words that are identical except for their final letter. What are these words? 
What are the three dimensions of Newt’s new tank?

Appetizer Menu

Point Of Tipping Appetizer:
“Waiter, there’s a Cy in my floop!”

Name a two-syllable word for a worker who is customarily tipped, in two syllables. 
Spoonerize the this word (that is, interchange the beginning letter sounds of each syllable) to form two new words. The first word is as old as Creation; the second is a word formed less than a century ago. 
Change the vowel in the first word, then change it to a long instead of a short vowel sound. 
When spoken aloud the result will sound like a natural phenomenon that caused some excitation during the closing years of the 20th century.
Who is the tipped worker? 
What is the phenomenon? 

Yokes Sunny Side Up Appetizer:
Driving Miss “Drafties” 

Name two different words a wagon driver may shout out to tail-waggin’ draft animals. 
Replace the first letter in one word with the letter following it in the alphabet. 
“Yoke” this result to the other shouted-out word with a hyphen to name a “shout” that draft animals might make. 
What is this “shout”?

MENU

Riffing Off Shortz And Chaikin Slices:
Stacks o’ stately flapjacks

Will Shortz’s July 8th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, from Andrew Chaikin of the National Puzzlers’ League, reads:
The word PANCAKE has an unusual property. If you remove its last letter, you get a series of U.S. state postal abbreviations — PA, NC, and AK. Can you name a major city and state that both have this property? To solve this, first think of a state in which you can drop its last letter to leave a series of state postal abbreviations. Then find a major city in that state that also has this property. The city and state names have to be different. What city and state is it?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Chaikin Slices read: 
ENTREE #1:
The words for a nut and a berry, KOLA and ACAI share a somewhat unusual property. It is the same property shared by the words and phrases below – all for which we have given you clues, and some for which we have given you answers. (ANSWERS ARE GIVEN IN UPPERCASE AND IN PARENTHESES.)
Solve the clues for which we have not given you answers. Then explain what property all words and phrases in the answers share.
1. Software for Nintendo’s dual-screen gaming system (CD-ROM NDS DISK)
2. “Crosswordese” cheese (EDAM)
3. Website promoting bussing, boxing or bucks? (SMACK-A-ROO.COM)
4. Bishop Desmond, or what Desdemona might wear during a performance of the Othello Ballet Suite (TUTU)
5. “A” thing one makes that “mends” fences (6 letters)
6. Two-word phrase describing news that is not fake, not even a little (3 and 7 letters) 
7. Soap brand TV hosts and announcers told us not to touch (4)
8. Things that supposedly “justify” meanies’ means (4)
9. Like woolly mammoths (6)
10. Word preceding “arm saw” or “tires” (6)
11. Immanuel who wasn’t “with God”... or was he? (4)
12. Pasternak heroine (4)
13. A denomination in Islam that considers the book believed to be dictated to Muhammad by the archangel Gabriel as the only dependable religious text (8)
14.Character portrayed by a singer in the movie “Men in Black II”... and, no, the singer wasn’t Johnny Cash (6)
15. Biblical land west of Nod (4)
16. Biblical garments that sound like Walt Frazier and Willis Reed (6)

ENTREE #2:
Dr. Bunsen Honeydew is a Muppet character who has invented edible paper clips, a banana sharpener and an electric nose warmer. 
His last name is made up of two words, one after another, that are liquids: honey and dew. 
The last name of a person who has invented word puzzles is made up of a word that is a liquid followed by letters that can be rearranged to form a liquid.
Who is this puzzle inventor?

ENTREE #3:
The answers to the fifty clues below share something not-so-unusual in common. 
What is it?
Why are the clues in the order they are in?
And for those who are whizzes at quizzes...
What are the answers to all fifty clues?


1. A Baker by birth (at least according to the certificate)
2. About a dozen feet, a navigable river depth for a steamboat
3. Album created by Parsons 
4. “Bizarre foodie” celebrity chef born on the Fourth of July
5. “Breathing machine”
6. Catholic congregation outflow after a Sunday service
7. Colorful indication of a deficit
8. Companion to “unreachable star” and “unbeatable foe”
9. Description of Seurat, Van Gogh, Manet and Monet... that is made during the 19th Century, that is
10. Description of Silent treatments, subtle insults, sullenness, stubbornness and other such behavior
11. Emily Litella’s signature sign-off
12. Flexible radio wave receiver
13. Flower pot-hatted band’s hit
14. Foiler of a perfect test score
15. Football play in which both coaches send their “hands team” onto the field  
16. Golden Dome Home
17. Gray contents of a tray (along with brown butts)
18. Hangout for the “brutally handsome” and “terminally pretty”?
19. Hans Conried sitcom role  
20. Hole-in-one at Augusta, perhaps
21. Homered
22. Isaac falsely believing Jacob is Esau is an example of this literary plot device
23. Jubilant shout from salts too long at sea
24. “Look Ma, __ _____!” 
25. Nickname of the guy seen on a “double sawbuck”
26. One way to make a sweater
27. One who refers to people as Lyin’ Ted, Little Marco, Crooked Hillary or Pocahontas, for example  
28. Part of a pool that sounds like a diaper brand
29. Part of Dodd-Frank that deals with “paying it back” 
30. Pelvic contusion
31. Philanderer
32. “Poor Young Country Boy” nurturer, according to the Fab Four
33. Precipitation that makes litmus testers see red 
34. Prized possession in the land of Helga braids, horned helmets and Skol  
35. Rainy Day do-re-mi
36. “Six” when written like this: “6”
37. Slash the price
38. Some alternative to which Bob Dylan may have been alluding when he sang “You don't need a meteorologist (sic) to know which way the wind blows” 
39. Someone dropped the ball again? What was the reason this time? 
40. Soul mate 
41. The “best ever written” “flawless work of art,” according to Faulkner and Dostoyevsky
42. There are eight pairs of these formed by a hashtag – half acute, half obtuse
43. Tony who is not in a cage but on a box 
44. Type of goggles used by guys with guns when suns go down
45. Unpremeditated observation
46. What may be observed at the beginning or end of the week
47. What victors once hurdled – a practice that seems to have gone the way of the wooden racket 
48. Wilbur or Fern... or many Carolinians’ source of printed news
49. Woo
50. You can see his mug on a fin 

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.