PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Huck & Jim, Paul & Babe, “Nessie”

A. Remove the first syllable from the first word in the two-word name of a literary and legendary – and yet real – body of water.

B. Switch the two vowels of the result.

C. Place after this result, without leaving a space, a Romance-language translation of the kind of body of water that follows the name of the body of water. (For example, “River,” “Lake,” “Ocean” and “Strait,” in Spanish, would become “Río,” “Lago,” “Océano” and “Estrecho.”)  

The final result is a word for “something light, delicate, or insubstantial,” like cobwebs wafting in the air until settling softly upon earth.

Name this two-word body of water, Romance-Language translation of its second word, and the delicate, insubstantial thing.

For an example...

A. “Amazon River” becomes “azon.”

B. “azon” becomes “ozan”

C. “ozan” plus “río” becomes “ozanrío” (if we choose Spanish as our “Romance translation
language”).

D. If “ozanrio” were a word for “something light, delicate, or insubstantial,” like cobwebs wafting in the air and settling on earth, we would have solved the puzzle! Alas, “ozanrio” isn’t even a word!

But, what then is the solution?... 

A. the body of water minus its first syllable?

B. that truncated word with its vowels transposed?

C. that truncated, two-vowels-transposed word followed by the Romance-language translation of the type of body-of-water it is?

What is the two-word name of this body of water? 

What is the word for “something light, delicate, or insubstantial,” like cobwebs wafting in the air until settling softly upon earth?

Appetizer Menu

Great  Patrick J. “Berrier” Reef Appetizer:

Back in Black? Patrick’s “Back on Track!”

Let’s celebrate! 

Master Cryptic Crossword Crafter Patrick J. Berry is back with another of his mystifying mind-defying masterpieces! (It is Patrick’s 38th tricky cryptic stickler to grace the cyberpages of Puzzleria!)

Coincidentally and serendipitously, Will Shortz’s March 16th National Public Radio Puzzle Challenge involved an island.... and, so does Patrick’s crossword grid! The theme involves an island in the center of his 15-by-15-square puzzle grid... an “insular collection of squares” isolated from the “sea of squares” surrounding it. Granted, “no man may be an island...” but perhaps “men in a rock band” (see 16-Across) may be stranded (or are just vacationing or “hanging out”) on an island!

Indeed, one might assert that Patrick’s latest effort may be the best “themed cryptic crossword” ever composed...

Consider, for instance, Patrick’s 18 Across clues and 16 Down clues. Eight of these 34 clues allude to the answer to 16-Across (“Rock group in middle of puzzle...”). Those eight clues (along with Clue-Number-16-Across itself) adds up to 9 of the puzzle’s 34 clues (26.5%!), all contributing to the theme of the puzzle.

Patrick executes this theme masterfully.

You can access any of Patrick’s previous 37 cryptic crosswords by opening the links below:

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 33 34 35 36 37          

For those 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 “island,” (4,4) indicates a four-letter and four-letter answer like “rock band,” and (4-7) indicates a four-letter and seven-letter hyphenated answer like “mind-defying.”

For further insight about how to decipher these numbered cryptic clues, see Patrick’s “Cryptic Crossword Tutorial” in this link to his November
2017 cryptic crossword. 

That Tutorial appears below the filled-in answer-grid in that edition of Puzzleria!

So, go ahead, “sea” if you can swim-solve your way past the “Great Patrick-J.-Berrier Reef" and onto his inner-island paradise!  

Enjoy!

(Note: When “16” appears in the text of a clue, it refers to the answer to the clue “16-Across.”) 

ACROSS

1. Top man in charge sort of changed
company(9)

6. Puzzle model(5)

9. Huge crush, we hear(5)

10. A fortune’s wasted to make movie(9)

11. Writer’s partner being blunt(6)

12. Department head’s heading back(5)

15. Hint? Hint left out(3)

16. Rock group in middle of puzzle: Cream?(2,3)

17. Somewhat patriotic group like 16(4)

19. Affleck’s first-run success!(4)

20. Feature of 16’s members—brave decision, primarily(5)

21. Wood residue(3)

25. Cook using right oven(5)

26. Blasphemy—thus, no BS?(6)

29. Baseball team getting away on ship out of spite?(9)

30. Close to admirer in love, looking for mail(5)

31. Spring: Guys discovered gal(5)

32. Nick’s got out some sexy pantyhose(9)

DOWN

1. Chat about latest scoop—that’s gossip(6)

2. Song by 16 man embracing karaoke ultimately performed with gals(5,10)

3. Fool—right off, our fool(6)

4. Sound of pig or duck—it comes from the pen(4)

5. Shut off song by 16(4)

6. More needs to be said about crude sweat marks in the comics(6)

7. 16 song for date in crowd, joint passed around—high? Not I!(5,7,3)

8. 16 song of fish possessing bad smell?(5,3)

13. State institution not hard for old Mexican(5)

14. Get on table(5)

18. 16 song for girl raised on farm(2,6)

22. Hit or failure to hit?(6)

23. Comment about book(6)

24. Tree, say, in country?(6)

27. 16 song for likable girls on vacation(4)

28. One keeping head down in part of Norway(4)

MENU

Full Service Hors d’Oeuvre:

Purveyors providing provisions

Name a verb for what a purveyor of food may do to serve its customers. The first four letters of this verb name this purveyor. 

The last five letters spell what this purveyor may provide. 

What are this verb, purveyor and provision?

Q & A Slice:

Blue prince, bloop rinse, time table...

Your boss asks you:

“Can you complete the blueprints, comply with the timetable and meet the target dates I have scheduled regarding the municipal courthouse project?” 

Your reply is one of the words in her (or perhaps his) question... but only after adding a bit of punctuation and deleting three letters that spell something offensive. 

What is your answer?

Ripping Off Shortz And Asimov Entrees:

“Mouth your allowed smooth answer aloud!”

Will Shortz’s March 23rd NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle challenge, created by Dan Asimov of Berkeley, California, reads: 

In English the two-letter combination “th” can be pronounced in two different ways: once as in the word “booth,” the other as in “smooth.” What is the only common English word, other than “smooth,” that ends in the letters “th” as pronounced in smooth? 

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Asimov Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

Take the first names of an author of word puzzles and an author of science fiction who share a surname. The combined letters of these two first names can be rearranged to spell a north-of -the-border nation and a south-of-the-border affirmation.

The combined letters these two first names plus the common surname and can be rearranged to spell:

* the name of an Italian adventurer who – like “Lothario” and “Don Juan” – was pre-occupied, not with egos or superegos, but with the third division of the psyche;

*  the plural form of that third division of the psyche; and...

* because this Italian adventurer wrote his autobiography in French, the three-letter French noun he used to label himself vis-a-vis his relationship with many women whom he seduced and with whom he had sexual affairs.

What are the first names of  this author of word puzzles and an author of science fiction and the surname they share?

What are the north-of -the-border nation and a south-of-the-border affirmation?

Who is the Italian adventurer?

What are the plural form of the third division of the psyche and the three-letter French noun?

Note: Entrees #2 through #7 were nurtured within the nimble noggin of our friend Nodd. 

ENTREE #2

What six-letter word starting with S can be pronounced three ways, depending on the meaning intended and the location of the speaker? 

ENTREE #3

Name a five-letter word in which, if the last letter is removed, the new last letter becomes silent. 

Hint: If you take the first two letters of this word and follow them with a copy of the second letter, you will have a three-letter homophone of the four-letter word.

ENTREE #4

Name a five-letter noun that is an affectionate name for a pet but can also be an adjective describing something repugnant, depending on the pronunciation.

ENTREE #5

Name a four-letter word starting with M that changes from one to two syllables if an S is added at the end.

ENTREE #6

Name an eight-letter word that can be pronounced with either two or three syllables. 

The first four letters are in alphabetical order.

The last three letters are in reverse alphabetical order. 

The remaining letter is an R.

ENTREE #7

Name six words of nine, five, seven, six, eight, and five letters respectively, that can be pronounced two different ways depending on the intended meaning. 

The first letters of these six words, in order, spell a word for something that is relevant to pronunciation. 

What are these seven words? 

(Note: There may be multiple words that will work for some or all of the first six words. Any words of the correct lengths that spell the seventh word are acceptable.)

ENTREE #8

The gentleman pictured here is a politician.

The caption that goes with the picture is:

“Adam Tiogh holding a Ghoti!” Translate that sentence into something that makes sense.

Hint: “Adam,” spelled in reverse, in an acronym of “Make America Democratic Again!”

Dessert Menu

Destructive Dessert:

Bio-logical fallacies

Say aloud the name of something destructive. 

The first half sounds like a part of a part of the upper body. 

The last four letters spell a part of a part of the arm. 

Three consecutive interior letters, in reverse, spell an occasional body part.  

What are this destructive thing and three body parts?

Every Thursday 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.