Ringing in the New Year cryptically; “So, what’s on the Telly? Kojak?” “The Pirates of Penzaniness?” Lutherans and Masons maybe? Steve stabs us with Baggishesque bayonets! The “Singer” Sewing Machine Company?

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

“So, what’s on the Telly? Kojak?”

Insert a two-letter verb into a well-known television series title. 

Some consecutive letters of the result spell the first name of a television show’s host.

Some other consecutive letters of the result spell the surname of that television host’s successor. 

What is the TV series? 

Who are the hosts?

Appetizer Menu

MMXXIV Appetizer:

Ringing in the New Year cryptically

What better way to bring in and ring in the New Year than to celebrate 2024 by solving another incredible Cryptic Crossword created by Patrick J. Berry. It is his 33rd crossword to appear on Puzzleria! 

In my introduction to Patrick’s 32nd crossword on October 5th, I opined that it was “one of Patrick’s most amazing cryptic crosswords yet... and that’s saying something!” Well, I like this one even better! 

Granted, Patrick’s 32nd crossword featured an impressive “Housewives of Beverly Hills” theme. But this week’s crossword features an equally impressive musical theme. 

In his present puzzle, nine of his 28 clues (that’s almost a third, 32%) pertain to singers, songs, and to a movie with a memorable musical soundtrack.

If you have missed any of Patrick’s previous 32 cryptic crosswords on Puzzleria!, here are their links:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 

23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32      

For those of you who may be new to cryptic crossword puzzles, Patrick has compiled the following list of 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, (6) simply indicates a six-letter word like “puzzle,” (7,9) indicates a seven-letter and nine-letter answer like “cryptic crossword,” and (6-5) indicates a six-letter and five-letter hyphenated answer like “thirty-third.”

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!

So, sit back on your
Barcalounger, open Puzzleria!, plop a 78 rpm record down on on your Victrola spindle, and enjoy solving Patrick’s Cryptic Crossword #33:

ACROSS

1. Turned to leave, having permission—was given no permission to come in...(10)

6. ...and you run off, say, in the opposite direction?(2,2)

9. 12 11 singer screwed up lyrics—is thrown off, after some hesitation, in concert(6,4)

10. Counter with some brilliant insight(4)

12. Track 1 on the album appears to be most profound—it’s been covered by three different artists in this puzzle(3,5,3,2,3,7)

15. Saving company in money trouble(7)

16. Exploded near the Middle Eastern
capital(7)

17. Broadcast hijacked by rap rejects(7)

19. Getting in shape, probably die using such a drug?(7)

20. Special treat—he dug a movie from the 60s(3,8)

23. Said a little for a lot?(4)

24. 12 11 singer (and writer), way cool in show(3,7)

25. Rock music hard to follow? Understood(4)

26. Song by 24 Across—favorite one in shower?(5,5)

DOWN

1. Intimidate students with exam(4)

2. Eve’s first hangout!(4)

3. Terrible pity to have a player pass on(3,2,7)

4. Sorority: Fit place to welcome latest debutante(7)

5. I get to ramble about self, primarily!(7)

7. Actor from foreign country upset rest(4,6)

8. Chance for one to get last of washin’ done(10)

11. See 12 Across

13. Darn—he’s got awful rash!(10)

14. 12 11 singer, rated worst rendition?(3,7)

18. Facade’s ruined, not a happy sight(3,4)

19. Simple stereotype—the lad’s off riding donkey?(7)

21. Greek character put on fine cheese(4)

22. Sports channel has special power over men? Not me!(4)

MENU

Diva Hors d’Oeuvre:

The “Singer” Sewing Machine Company? 

Take the last name of a living American singer followed by the first name of a past American
singer who was also a jazz singer and bandleader.

Place a space between them. 

These two names form the name a manufacturing company established a century ago in the Midwest. Who are these singers, and the name of the company?

Celebrity Endorsement Slice:

Lutherans and Masons maybe?

Name a brand-name product and a celebrity who promoted it. Each name can be anagrammed to spell a word associated with Protestantism. What is this product? Who is the celebrity? What are the two words associated with Protestantism?

Riffing Off Shortz And Baggish Slices:

Steve stabs us with Baggishesque bayonets!

Will Shortz’s January 7th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Steve Baggish of Arlington, Massachusetts, reads:

Name certain weapons. 

Remove the middle four letters. The remaining letters, spelled backward, describe what these weapons do.

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Baggish Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Name a long-eared creature and a word you might say to make the creature do “the right thing.” 

These six letters, if rearranged are the first, third, fifth, seventh, ninth and  eleventh  letters in the name of a puzzle-maker. The second, fourth, sixth, eighth and tenth letters of this puzzle-maker can be rearranged to form a two-word five-letter synonym of something with a large screen. 

What is this creature and a word you might say to it?

What is the two-word five-letter synonym of something with a large screen?

Who is the puzzle-maker?

Note: Entrees 2, 3, and 4 are riffs created by a prolific puzzle-maker and friend of Puzzleria!

Entree #2 is a riff-off of the current “bayonets/stab” NPR puzzle;

Entree #3 is a riff of last week’s NPR puzzle; and

Entree #4 is a riff on December 28th’s “Minding Your P’s & Q’s Dessert: Edward Bear, George Geef, Sidney.”

ENTREE #2

Name a certain weapon. Change the first vowel to another vowel. The result, spelled backward, is a certain type of puzzle. What are the weapon and the puzzle?

ENTREE #3

Change one letter of a movie title and anagram to name another movie that came out 18 years earlier and 38, 51, and 58 years later. 

Then change one letter in that and anagram to
name a famous movie that came out 50 years after the first movie. 

What movies are these?   

ENTREE #4

Take two consecutive letters of the alphabet. Insert between them either of the two letters used in an abbreviation much in the news. Say the first of the consecutive letters, say the short pronunciation of the inserted letter, say the second consecutive letter.  The result sounds like a thing often associated with a protest. What is the thing?   

ENTREE #5

Name a fictional weapon. Rearrange its letters to spell two five-letter synonyms of rubbish, or twaddle. Or, rearrange them to spell two recreational conveyances associated with
snow.

What is this fictional weapon?

What are these synonyms of rubbish/twaddle and two recreational conveyances. 

Hint: One of the recreational conveyances is a four-letter hyphenated word.

ENTREE #6

Remove the first letter from a weapon. The result is a four-letter word. 

Put the letter you removed back where it was. The first three letters of this result can be rearranged to spell something farmers do with seeds. The first four letters, in reverse order, spell the parallel furrows where the farmer does this.

What are this weapon, two four-letter words and one three-letter word?

ENTREE #7

Take a two-syllable word for spears, clubs, guns or axes. Reverse the order of the second and third letters, then move the first letter to someplace in the interior of the word, preceded by a space. The result, spelled in reverse, is a vegetable. What are this word and veggie?

ENTREE #8

Name a weapon that is flung. 

Its first four letters spell the sound a bomb makes. 

The first letter followed by the last three letters spell the sound made by a rearrangement of three consecutive letters of a verb in this puzzle. What are this weapon, two sounds, and the verb?

ENTREE #9

Rearrange the letters of a two-word,14-letter weapon, to spell a synonym of hammer (but a synonym of hammer that is too small to do any harm as a weapon) and a branch of theology dealing with the promotion of peace.

What are this weapon, word for a hammer, and
peace-promoting branch of theology?

ENTREE #10

Name certain weapons, in nine letters. 

* The 5th, 6th and 7th letters, spelled backward, are a kind of poem. 

* The 4th, 7th and 8th letters name a particular writer of short stories and verse.

* The 4th, 2nd, 5th and 1st letters, spell a word for a versifier.

* The 8th, 7th and 9th letters spell a goddess
of the dawn.

* The 1st, 3rd, 2nd, 4th and 5th letters spell a figure of speech.

* The 7th, 5th and 3rd letters spell an apostrophized contraction often seen in poems.

* The 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 9th and 8th letters spell writing – unlike many a poem – sans meter or rhyme.

What are these weapons?

What are the seven other words?

ENTREE #11

“______ of Sunrise, Sundown’s Frowns”

During downy dawns, drab days,

Bright _______, like sun’s first-blush rays

May warm our souls in subtle ways,

Subdue our blues, allay our grays. 

Name a certain seven-letter weapon. Rearrange its letters to spell the plural form of a common figure of speech that is employed by the above  quatrain. Remove the second letter from that plural-form figure of speech. The result is the same missing word that belongs in both the blank in the quatrain’s title and the blank in the quatrain’s second line.

What are this weapon, figure of speech and word in the two blanks?

ENTREE #12

Name certain weapons, in eight letters. Remove the first two letters. 

The first four of the remaining six letters spell a singular human body part.

The last four of these remaining letters spell
human body parts that come in pairs.

Remove the first and fifth letters from this
sextet of letters.

The four remaining letters also spell human body parts that come in pairs.

What are these weapons and three body parts?

ENTREE #13

Name a certain weapon. Remove the middle letter. The remaining letters, spelled forward, spell two words: a place you can catch fish and a piece of equipment you might use to catch fish there.

What is this weapon?

What are the place you can catch fish and the piece of equipment?

Dessert Menu

Zany Dezzert:

“The Pirates of Penzaniness?”

Take the more common spelling of the second word in the title of a film starring a famously zany comedy troupe. 

Change the word's first letter to a letter that is half its value. 

Divide the result in half to name two synonyms of “zany”. 

What are this comedy troupe, the film title, and the two synonyms of “zany”?

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!