Four more saints go Marching in; “Render unto Caesars... Palace?” Bumper-to-bumper “(guit)cars” Taking temperatures, getting relief; Siege city, (a)&(b), Split opinion, Two woods

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!p SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Taking temperatures, getting relief

Take a temperature scale and a reading on that scale. 

Rearrange the combined letters of those two words to spell three new words: 

1: a place providing relief from that
temperature reading, and 

2 and 3: a two-word description of that place. 

What three words are these?

What are the temperature scale and a reading on that scale?

Appetizer Menu

Worldplayfulness Appetizer:

Siege city, (a)&(b), Split opinion, Two woods

Siege city

🔫1. Think of an antique gun, in eight letters. Substitute a single L for the last two letters. Duplicate the middle three letters of this result, as a set. Add a U to the start of the result.

Rearrange to give a city in a US state that once might have had such a gun in its arsenal, in a crate marked “obsolete firearms.” What are the the weapon and city?

Hint: When rearranging, preserve the original “block of three letters” and its duplicate as two immutable blocks of three letters. The rearranging is for two blocks of three letters and five “independent” letters. 

(a) and (b) 

⭐🐟2. Think of a word that describes either (a) the process by which some animals (such as starfish) grow new limbs for lost ones, or (b) an application of positive feedback in electronics. 

Remove from this word a word related to (a) heredity, or (b) Autry. Split the remainder into (a) an abbreviation for Paris suburban railways, and (b) what sounds like a designation for one of many people. 

What are (a) the original word and (b) its three parts?

Split opinion

🍌3. Think of a product of the service economy. Drop the penultimate letter. Remove the second syllable, which sounds like how this product makes some customers feel. 

Merge the remaining letters, in order, to express how others might describe this same product.

Two woods

🌳4. Take the name of a tree and wood known throughout much of the world. 

Rearrange its letters to give the name of another tree and wood, well-known in a particular part of the USA.

MENU

It’s a Limerical Miracle Slice:

Four more saints go Marching in

Today, March 19th, is the the feast day of St. Joseph, carpenter and foster father of Jesus of Nazareth. March 17th was the feast day of St. Patrick.

Four years ago I published on Puzzleria! three “limerick-puzzles”: one for each of those two saints, plus an introductory limerick. (See this link.)

That introductory limerick is reprinted below along with three new limerick-puzzles about other saints who celebrate feast days in March. A new concluding limerick follows these three limericks.

These four new limericks contain seven blanks for you to fill in. The number of letters in each of the seven answers appears in parentheses after each blank. 

As was the case four years ago, perhaps you can improve my verses by filling in the blanks with words different from what I used!

Introductory Verse:

Marching in go the saints all this month

From March 1st through to March 31th.

Were we all, Lord, so numbered –

Holy souls unencumbered

By holes – we’d with grace overrun’th. ...

St. Felicity and St. Perpetua, March 6:

Being martyred won’t warrant a statue o’

You in church, nor will it get you a

Pope’s ____________(12)...

Just trust God’s revelation

As Felicity did, and Perpetua.

St. Gregory, March 12:

If a “Great” man weren’t given to “braggary,”

And “a servant of servants of God” were he,

Were he pope, monk, historian

And a chanter _________(9),

He could only be christened St. Gregory.

St. Benedict, March 21:

While some abbots make rules “nigh-Gehenna-strict,”

“Work and worship” urged gently St. Benedict.

His Rule, firm yet elastic,

Set the standard ________(8)...

Thus few monks disobeyed, broke or ______(6) __(2).

Saintly Conclusion:

... At month’s end, though, March saints shall march out,

Martyred lambs, lionized yet ______(6).

Life’s parade alas ends,

Yet to heaven it _____(5)...

“Lord, we’ll be in that number!” let’s shout.

Riffing Off Shortz And Render Slices:

“Render unto Caesars... Palace?”

Will Shortz’s March 14th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Robert Render of Skokie, Illinois, reads:

Name a well-known tourist locale that attracts millions of visitors a year. It has a two-word name. The first word is a number. And that number is the same as the total number of letters in the name. What’s the tourist site?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Render Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Take a homophone of a synonym of “scuttlebutt.” Name two synonyms of this homophone, in seven and six letters. 

Replace the seven-letter synonym with a six-letter homophone. Rearrange the combined letters of the six-letter synonym and six-letter homophone to spell the first and last names of a puzzle-maker.

Who is this puzzle-maker?

What are the synonym of “scuttlebutt” and its homophone? What are the two synonyms of this homophone, in seven and six letters?

What is the six-letter homophone of that seven-letter synonym?  

ENTREE #2

Take a five-word line from a nursery rhyme found in “Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song-Book,” an anthology published in London in 1744. The first three words in the line form a number. And that number is the same as the total number of letters in the line.

What is this nursery rhyme, and what is the line?

Hint #1: In a later more-familiar version of the nursery rhyme the last two words of the line are replaced with a single compound word.

Hint #2: The origin of the line may be something Sir Toby Belch said.

ENTREE #3

Take a two-word song title. The first word is a number. And that number is the same as the total number of letters in the title. 

The second word in the title is also a number. And that number equals two-and-a-half times the total number of letters in the title. 

What’s this song title?

Hint: The title refers to a time of day, one that (according to the lyrics) appeared on the face of a broken clock on a church steeple. The hands on the clock form a quite obtuse 165-degree angle.

ENTREE #4

Name a literary work that involves a shipwreck. It has a two-word title. 

The first word is a number, but not a cardinal one. And that number is an adjective that describes the last letter in the title. 

What’s the title?

Hint: “First” and “sixth” are two other non-cardinal numbers that describe this letter in the title.

ENTREE #5

Name a three-word song title. Its first word is a number. 

And that number is the same as the total number of letters in the title. What’s the title?

Hint #1: The singer of the song was a country
singer who had been a rock ’n’ roll rival of Elvis Presley in the 1950s. 

Hint #2: The name of  the title character in a Broadway musical was a word play on the country singer’s name.

ENTREE #6

Name a six-word song title from the 1970s with a first word that is a number. And that number (when spelled out instead of written as a numeral, as it usually is) equals twice the total number of letters in the title. 

What’s this title?

Hint: The person who wrote and sang the song specializes in the folk-rock musical genre.

ENTREE #7

Name a two-word country song title from the 1970s with a first word that is a number. And that number is the same as the total number of letters in the title. 

What’s the song title?

Hints: The singer is the offspring of a person who is
regarded as one of the most significant and influential American singers and songwriters of the 20th century.

The song was recorded also by Faron Young.

ENTREE #8

Name a well known two-word idiom with which one is said to be blessed after having survived a near encounter with death or disaster. 

The idiom’s first word is a number. 

And that number is the same as the total number of letters in the idiom. 

What’s the idiom?

Hint: The two-word idiom is also the brand name of a food product.

Dessert Menu

Automotive Dessert:

Bumper-to-bumper “(guit)cars”

Write the name of a current car model.

After it, without a space, write the name of a past car model. 

The result spells a musical instrument. 

What is it?

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.