PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED
Schpuzzle of Week:
Beth “rounds-up” extra math credit
On her math test, Beth’s answers to “three to the fifth power” and “two to the eighth power” were, respectively, 250 and 260.
What did Mr. Powers notice?
Appetizer Menu
As Many Crosswords As Days In A Month Appetizer:
“Patrick’s Cryptic Haberdashery”
Cryptic crossword impresario Patrick J. Berry has stitched together a 31st puzzle for all challenge-loving Puzzlerians.
When Green Bay Packer fans see the number 31 embazoned on the vintage threads of an NFL jersey, many of them recall the exploits of James (Jim) Taylor... (no, not the folk singer from the New England States, but the fullback from the Gulf States: Florida, Mississippi, Alabama (where Patrick hails from) and Louisiana where #31 hailed from.
Patrick has “taylor-made” this, his 31st cryptic crossword to appear on Puzzleria, for us so we could “try it on for size...” let’s just call it “cryptic haberdashery.”
If you have missed any of Patrick’s previous 30 incomparably well-tailored cryptic crossword accoutrements on Puzzleria!, here are their links:
For those of you who may be new to cryptic crossword puzzles, Patrick has compiled the following basic cryptic crossword puzzle instructions:
Regarding the Across and Down clues and their format:
The number, or numbers, that appear in parentheses at the end of each clue indicate how many letters are in the answer.
Multiple numbers in parentheses indicate how letters are distributed in multiple-word answers. For example, (7) simply indicates a seven-letter word like “Packers,” (3,6) indicates a three-letter and six-letter answer like “Jim Taylor,” and (4-3) indicates a four-letter and three-letter hyphenated answer like “pick-six” (an interception that results in a touchdown).
For further insight about how to decipher these numbered cryptic clues, see Patrick’s “Cryptic Crossword Tutorial” in this link to his November 17, 2017 cryptic crossword.
That Tutorial appears below the grid that contains the answers in that edition of Puzzleria!
Before we bid you “adieu,” and without further ado, here are the clues to Patrick J. Berry’s Cryptic Crossword #31:
ACROSS
6. Some cloudburst...or monsoon!(5)
9. “Scandal” star runs into important politicians
here(5,10)
10. Kills dead, with terrible noise(4,2)
11. Certain football players with name in underwear?(8)
13. Confused by lingo, her kind(10)
14. They brought gifts with little imagination?(4)
16. Keen part of playing a game(4)
17. Holding or wearing robe?(10)
19. They ride off in force(5,3)
23. Rock icon on album, one using drug rarely(4,2,1,4,4)
24. They can smell new flowers right off?(5)
25. Democrat put in quotes “what Alabama and Tennessee are”(3,6)
DOWN
1. Popular on social media, perhaps (was dishonest, claiming “close to Facebook”?)(5)
2. Stranger rescuing critter has hard time escaping zoo(5-4,6)
4. Biblical character’s drama involves ark, primarily(4)
5. Historical figure, quite a gas to be around, no?(5,5)
6. Philosopher might make a scene(6)
8. Something for a girl to wear—could be riskin’ it with a little more on?(9)
12. Tour I fancy, desperate to see local entertainment(6,4)
13. Can be worn to bed—good to have flimsy thing on?(9)
15. Turned up news interrupting broadcast—loud!(8)
21. Sort of nuts about Eastern music(5)
22. Charlie, silly old clown(4)
Opposites Attract Hors d’Oeuvre
Tweak an adjective, make an antonym
and change an “a” to an “e” to get an antonym of the adjective.
What are these two adjectival antonyms?
Fay Wray May Fray Slice:
Phrases regarding garb that frays
Rearrange their combined letters to spell examples of that fraying, in two words.
What are these articles of clothing and the examples of fraying?
Riffing Off Shortz And VanMechelen Slices:
Della is yella, Perry’s canary, Paul is just pale!
Will Shortz’s June 25th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Greg VanMechelen of Berkeley, California, reads:
You’ll get a synonym of the character’s last name. Who is it?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And VanMechelen Slices read:
ENTREE #1
Name a well-known puzzle-maker (4,11). Delete the second letter of the first name and move the first letter to the end of the first name. Switch the first and fourth letters of the last name.
The first six letters of the 14-letter result are someone John Lennon claimed to be in a song lyric. (He also claimed to be “The Walrus” in that song... but everyone knows that Craig Stadler, not John Lennon, is “The Walrus.”)
The next three letters sound like a rhyme of “wreck,” which was the last word in the title of the autobiography of a baseball executive with a “double-e” in his surname: “______ as in Wreck.”
The final five letters are the first word in the title of a song penned by Lennon’s fellow Beatle who, after the Beatles’ demise, formed a band called Paul McCartney and Wings. The song’s title sounded like the nickname given by Paul and Linda McCartney to their Land Rover.
Who is this puzzle-maker?
Whom did Lennon claim to be?
Who is the baseball executive?
What is the title of McCartney’s “ode to a Land Rover?”
Note: In Entrees #2, #3, #4 and #5, Greg VanMechelen is riffing off his own “Della Street Alley” puzzle that was featured on NPR this past Sunday. Our gratitude to Greg (also known as “Ecoarchitect”) whose “Econfusions” feature appears regularly on Puzzleria!
Take the first and last name of a famous character from television and other media. To the first name add two alphabetically consecutive letters, one at the front and one at the back. The result will phonetically be where you don’t want to be during a traffic jam or while shopping at a grocery store. Who is the character and where don’t you want to be?
Name a well-known TV character from the 1970’s who was considered very cool.
That was also the name of another TV personality in the 1990’s and 2000’s who was called even cooler.
ENTREE #4
Rearrange the letters in the last name and the
result will describe a certain group of hobbyists.
Who is the actor and who are the hobbyists?
Note: Ecoarchitect was inspired by a comment “Jaws” made on Blaine’s Blog on June 26 to compose the following riff of his NPR puzzle:
ENTREE #5
ENTREE #6
Name a well-known TV character (5,6). Remove the last letter of the first name, then change the first letter of the first name to a Y and read the result backward.
sandy swings or digging several divots while attempting to blast their way out of a sand trap or deep rough embankment.
Who is this character?
What does a conscientious duffer do?
ENTREE #7
Name a well-known TV character (6,6) who used two-syllable derogatory nicknames to refer to his son-in-law and wife.
Spoonerize the son-in-law’s nickname to get what some hosts do to a beverage before serving it, especially in winter months, and the name of one such beverage that is made of water and honey, malt, and yeast.
used in his recording of “Ol’ Man River,” as did Paul Robeson, using that shortened pronoun before the words “bale” and “barge” in the 1936 production of “Showboat.”
Who is this TV character?
What were the two derogatory nicknames?
What is the beverage and what some hosts do to it before serving it?
What is the first name of a singer and a shortened form of the pronoun?
Name a well-known country singer (5,6). Change either the third or fourth letter of the first name to an E and rearrange the result to spell what the singer did on a 1970 remake of a 1930 Jimmie Rodgers hit record.
Now spell the singer’s surname backward and divide the result into two equal parts to describe, in a negative way, the genre of music for which this singer is known.
Who is the singer?
What did the singer do on a 1970 remake of a 1930 record?
What is the two-word negative description of the genre of music this singer is known for?
ENTREE #9
Take the first and middle names of a person who is familiar to American historians.
Spell the first name backward to form a word that might describe how a person might feel (at least during that period in history) — a person who would today be described by the middle name.
Who is this person with whom American historians are familiar?
Hint: Replace the third letter of this person’s surname with its mirror image and replace the second vowel with a duplicate of the first. The result is a seven-letter plural noun.
Then take the surname of an inventor-painter who is also familiar to American historians. Add an “L” and “S” to the end to form a second seven-letter plural noun.
These two nouns are synonyms.
Take a three-syllable word associated with names. Spell it backwards.
The result is a woman’s name, followed by a word that means “name” in a language that is not English.
What is this three-syllable word?
What are the woman’s name and the word that means “name”?
Dessert Menu
Rhyme Zone Dessert:
Malone both spent some time.
Note: There are two possible answers,
depending on whether you choose a fictional “Malone” or a non-fictional “Malone.” (Capone, alas, was non-fictional.)
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!
d 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.
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