The NeverEnding Horror Story!!! Thaw seraph’s ear sheet? History rebounds itself; Big! Titanic! Jumbo! Towering Inferno! King-sized Kong!

P! SLICES: OVER (65 + 432) SERVED

  

Welcome to our March 24^th edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!

We are serving up six puzzles this week, half of which are Rip/Riff-offs of Will Shortz’s “I read you/I dare you” NPR puzzle.

Also on our menus are:

* An Horrorable Hors d’Oeuvre,

* A Mad Marchiness Appetizer, and

* A Cinnemammoth Dessert.

So... grab a bag o’ popcorn, pop these puzzle slices into your head, get the big picture, and solve our mysteries…

And, as always, please enjoy the show. 

Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

Horrorable Hors d’Oeuvre:

The NeverEnding Horror Story!!!

For some viewers and critics, a horrible B-grade horror movie released a decade or so ago seemed to go on and on forever... even though it lasted only 80 minutes.

Replace the first two letters (both of them consonants) of the two-word movie title with a different consonant to form a somewhat slangy two-word term for symbols that signify the concept of “going on and on forever.”

What is this movie title? What is the slangy term for these symbols?

Appetizer Menu

Mad March Hare-tter Appetizer:

History rebounds itself

A former NCAA “March Madness” basketball tournament participant who was a very high NBA draft pick was known by his first, middle and last names. Place the last letter of his last name at the end of his first name.

Saying the resulting first two words aloud will sound like the name of a current March Madness participant who plays on a team that many experts are predicting will become one of the Final Four teams in the tourney. The third word sounds like the first two syllables of the four-syllable word that many call his university, for short.

Who are these two hoopsters?

Hint #1: The college teams both cagers played/play for have rich basketball traditions, as well as somewhat unusual nicknames.

Hint #2: As of Friday morning, March 24, the current (two-named) player’s team is still alive in the ongoing NCAA tournament; the former (three-named) player’s team, alas, has been eliminated from the 2017 NCAA tourney.

MENU 

Ripping Off Shortz Slices:

Thaw seraph’s ear sheet?

Will Shortz’s February 19^th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle reads:

Think of a familiar phrase in the form “I ___ you,” in which a four-letter word goes in the blank. Rearrange those letters and you’ll get another familiar phrase in the form “I ___ you.” Both phrases get more than half a million hits in a Google search. What phrases are these?

Puzzleria’s Riffing/Ripping Off Shortz Slices read:

ONE:

Think of a familiar phrase in the form “mental ______,” in which a five-letter word goes in the blank. 

Rearrange those letters and you’ll get another familiar phrase in the form “mental ______.” One phrase is beneficial; the other is detrimental. What phrases are these?

TWO:

Think of a title of a play – and movie(s) – in the form “The __________ of _____ ______,” in which a ten-letter word goes in the first blank, a five letter word goes in the second blank, and a seven-letter word goes in the third blank.

Rearrange the letters of the word that goes in the third blank only. The result will be a phrase in the form “The __________ of _____ ______” that emphasizes accuracy in the tossing of two objects – one considered to be lucky, the other likely to be considerably destructive. 

What phrases are these?

THREE:

Think of a technological process in the form “audio _________,” in which a nine-letter word goes in the blank. Rearrange those nine letters to get another technological process in the form “audio _________.”

1. The first process involves delivering real-time audio through a network connection.

2. The second is a post-production process that involves preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage the source from which all copies will be produced by using methods such as pressing, duplication or replication.

What processes are these?

Dessert Menu

Cinemammoth Dessert

Big! Titanic! Jumbo! Towering Inferno! King-sized Kong!

Name a famous actor – first and last names. Replace the last letter in each name with a new letter to form two new words.

Name the same famous actor. Replace the second letter in each name with an “i” to form two other new words.

All four words you formed connote “having great size.”  Who is the actor and what are the four “supersized” words?

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.

Morale boost for the lovelorn; Canonization fodder; Catching some ZZZ’s, throwing some LED’s; R.I.M.E. in the U.S.A.

P! SLICES: OVER (65 + 432) SERVED

Welcome to our March 17^th edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria! This Sunday, March 19^th, is the Feast of St. Joseph…

What about St. Patrick, you say? Yeah, sure, I guess his feast day is today, March 17. But who cares? Let’s face it, all the Patmeister really did was to drive a mess o’ serpents outta Ireland, and to drive up the price of shamrocks on the commodities market. (Sorry Patrick J. Berry!)

So, what’s so hot about St. Joseph, you may ask? Well, he was “only” the father of God! – okay, okay, step-father, but still...

So do an Irish jig off of that boozy green St. Paddy Wagon and hop aboard (7:49) our bluesy clean St. Joe bandwagon!

Speaking of the saintly, our Appetizer this week consists of limericks in which you must fill in the blanks to complete some of the rhymes. I composed these limericks 24 years ago; maybe you can improve them by filling in the blanks with words different from what I used!

Besides that Appetizer, we offer nine other puzzles this week, including 7 Will Shortz Rip/Riff-offs.

Please enjoy… but please also go easy on the green beer!

 

Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

Happily Ever After Hors d’Oeuvre:

Morale boost for the lovelorn

A bachelorette and bachelor, both lovelorn for too long, meet at a singles bar, go on dates, fall in love, and marry. He gets a job driving a taxi; she stays at home as the housekeeper. He makes no sales, gets canned and cannot find other work. Their house becomes a pigsty; the food is inedible. They bicker and battle.

They go to a marriage counselor who suggests he be the housekeeper and she begin bringing home the bacon and bread. They heed the advice. She gets hired driving a bakery delivery truck. It turns out that he is a neat freak, one who goes online and learns to become a gourmet cook. They live happily ever after.

The moral to this fable – which is also the key to its happy fairytale ending – can be summed up in two or three words – or  actually, in a two-word phrase or a three-word phrase, both which express the same idea with very similar wording.

To discover the two-word phrase, find four consecutive letters that appear in each of three different words in the fable, then give a description of those four letters.

To discover the three-word phrase, find five consecutive letters that appear in one word in the fable, then give a description of those five letters.

What is the moral of the fable? What are the four words in which you can find a somewhat “disguised” description of the moral?

Appetizer Menu

In March Saints March In Appetizer:

Canonization fodder

To rejuvenate hearts (9 letters)

And save souls were two goals of St. (7),

   Plus, with all of his might or

   His shamrock or (5),

To rock shams (that makes three), what a (3,5)!

Foster father of Jesus, St. (6),

Just a man but a just man. Who (5,2)

   This good worker with (4)

   Would have wished for (9)?

He’s not one of those boasters who (5,3).

Marching in go the saints all this (5)

From March 1^st through to March 31^th.

   Were we all, Lord, so numbered –

   Holy souls (12)

By holes – we’d with love overrunneth!

Fill in the blanks in the limericks above to complete the rhymes. 
(The numbers in parentheses at the end of the lines indicate how many letters the words contain.)

MENU 

Ripping Off Shortz And Collins Slices:

R.I.M.E. in the U.S.A.

Will Shortz’s March 12^th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, composed by Peter Collins, reads:

Name a well-known city in the U.S. Two words. The second word rhymes with a word meaning “certain stories” — and the first word rhymes with something found in those stories. What city is it?

Puzzleria’s Riffing/Ripping Off Shortz and Collins Slices read:

ONE:

Name a well-known city in the southern U.S. Two words. Write a caption for the image of the “feline Olympian” (at the right, above) using three one-syllable words – noun, preposition, noun, in that order. The caption’s first two words form a rhyme for the city’s first word. The caption’s third word rhymes with the city’s second word.

What city is it? What is the caption?

TWO:

Name a well-known U.S. artist. Just the last name, two syllables. The first syllable rhymes with a word meaning a “certain story” — and the second syllable rhymes with something found in that story. What artist is it?

THREE:

Name a city in the western U.S. Two 2-syllable words. The first word and the first syllable of the second word rhyme with dances, both which highlight hip movement. What city is it? What dances are these?

FOUR:

Name a city in the western U.S. Two words. The second word rhymes with the name of a poet, one word — and the first word rhymes with a subject depicted in his poetry.

What city is it? Who is the poet and the subject?

FIVE:

Name a city in the western U.S. Two words, each which rhymes with the first name of a fictional character. The first is the title character of a novel/movie/musical that begins with a Z. The second is a character of a novel/movie/musical that ends with a z.

What city is it? Who are these characters?

SIX:

Name a well-known but very small town in the eastern U.S. Two words. Each word rhymes with a collective term for creatures – the first used with quail, doves, swans and otters; the second used with ducks or bucks.

What small town is it? What are the collective terms?

SEVEN:

Remove the first letter from a 4-letter Apple product, resulting in a collective term for a marine mammal. Name a 6-letter Amazon tech product that is a collective term for a young feline mammal that appears in the lyrics of a Johnny Mathis hit song.

Now name a well-known city in the southern U.S. Two words. The first word rhymes with the marine mammal — and the second word rhymes with the title of the hit song.

What city is it? What are the hit song title, the two mammals and the Apple and Amazon products?

Dessert Menu

Digital Alarm Dessert

Catching some ZZZ’s, throwing some LED’s

At 8:08 in the evening, just before hitting the hay, Bob sets his battery-powered LED digital alarm clock for 8:08 in the morning.

Alas during the wee hours, when Bob is in the middle of catching some dreamy REM ZZZ’s, his clock malfunctions, buzzing much earlier than he had set it for. Groggily, Bob grabs it from his bed’s headboard and pegs (like a right fielder trying to throw out a tagging runner at home) the still-buzzing clock across the dark room. What developed immediately after he did this?

Well, let’s put it this way. If Ted Williams – or anyone with similar superior eyesight – were in the bedroom at that moment, he or she would be able to read two alternating LED images on the clock display as it hurtles spinningly wallward.

The first alternating image (if you ignore the colon between the hours and minutes on the display) is a word describing what this particular digital clock at this instant — as well as what it measures (proverbially) — both do. This word rhymes (but has no letter in common) with a synonymous second word describing what this particular digital clock at this instant — as well as what it measures (proverbially) — both do.

The second alternating image (if you ignore half of the colon on the display) is an approximation of a number that rhymes with the word in the first image and which, when spelled out, also shares no letter in common with the synonymous second word.

The clock hits the wall with a crinkling clinking plastic clashing crash – a timepiece in pieces. The buzzing ceases. The room goes utterly dark and silent. Bob goes back to sleep.

At exactly what time did the alarm go off? What are the three rhyming words?

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.

In wine there are lees but no lies; Spoonerfuls of the soupernatural; News streaming; Rightside-left, downside-up, leftside-right, upside-down

P! SLICES: OVER (65 + 432) SERVED

Welcome to our March 10^th edition Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!

We offer up seven puzzles this week, including 4 Will Shortz Rip/Riff-offs (actually 5, because one of them is a twofer).

Please enjoy.

 

Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

Pouring Out An Hors d’Oeuvre:

News streaming

Take a two-syllable seven-letter compound word that has been in the news this past week. Reverse the syllables and add a space between them, forming two words.

Reverse the last two letters in the second word. Replace a personal pronoun in the second word with a preposition represented by a symbol on a standard typewriter or keyboard.

 

The result is an alternative to Evian, Dasani, Aquafina, Perrier or Poland Spring.

What is the alternative? What is the word in the news?

Hint: Replace the middle letter in the first of the two words with an alcoholic beverage to form the surname of a teetotaling person associated with the recent news story.

Appetizer Menu

57 Channels And Nothing On Appetizer:

Spoonerfuls of the soupernatural

Name a long-running cable television show. Remove its first and final words, both consisting of one syllable.

Spell out what remains and spoonerize those two words (that is, reverse their initial sounds) to form a hyphenated two-word phrase that sounds like a description of the supernatural standing of a certain audience the show targets.

What is the TV show? What is the supernatural standing of the target audience?

MENU 

Ripping Off Shortz Slices:

Rightside-left, downside-up, leftside-right, upside-down

Will Shortz’s February 26^th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle reads:

Write the name of a game in small letters. Reverse the second and third letters. Turn the fourth letter upside-down. The result will name something else to play. What is it?

Puzzleria’s Riffing/Ripping Off Shortz Slices read:

ONE:

Name something that plays very briefly on screens before a movie begins. Write it backward in small letters. Rotate the new second letter 180 degrees along the axis perpendicular to the surface on which it is written. The result will name something else to play.

What is this something else that is played? What plays very briefly on movie screens?

TWO:

A.

Write the name of a small bird in small letters. Rotate each of its first two letters 180 degrees along the axis perpendicular to the surface on which each written. The result will name the first step in replacing the ragged roof of a tiki hut.

What is this first step? What is the bird?

B.

Write the name of an adjective that can precede “family” or “winter,” in small letters. Rotate each of its first two letters 180 degrees along the axis perpendicular to the surface on which each written. The result will name an adjective describing what the pronunciation of the first adjective is to many people, including even former presidents.

What is these two adjectives?

THREE:

Write two 3-letter synonyms for “nothing” and place them next to each other without a space. Capitalize the initial letter but keep the others small. Rotate the third letter 180 degrees along its vertical axis (in other words, create its mirror image), and capitalize the result. Rotate the fourth letter 180 degrees along the axis perpendicular to the surface on which it is written. Rotate the first letter 90 degrees along the axis perpendicular to the surface on which it is written. If you pronounce the result aloud you will name a brand-name cold and flu relief product.

What is this product? What are the two synonyms for “nothing”?

FOUR:

Write, in small letters, the name of a soft gray sulfide mineral used in matchmaking and cosmetics. Spell the first three letters backward and insert an apostrophe to form a contraction. 

Rotate the first letter and the second letter of the remaining five letters 180 degrees along the axis perpendicular to the surface on which each was written. This result, along with the contraction preceding it, is often followed by a modifier such as “simple,” “interesting” or “alright”... For example:

“_ _’ _   _ _ _ _ _  simple…” is a part of quotations spoken by Thomas Watson Jr., or by Alexandre Dumas (translated from the French)

“_ _’ _   _ _ _ _ _  interesting…” is a part of quotations spoken by Lenny Kravitz and L. Ron Hubbard.

“_ _’ _   _ _ _ _ _  alright…” is a part of a quotation spoken by Marilyn Monroe in a movie.

What is the soft gray sulfide material? What are the words that fill in the eight blanks?

Dessert Menu

“Alternativerity” Dessert

In wine there are lees but no lies

Name a beverage brand name, in eight different letters.

Three of its letters can be rearranged to form a synonym of “falsehood.”

Four of its letters can be rearranged to form a second synonym of “falsehood.” Three of its letters, using one of them twice, can be rearranged to form a four-letter adjective that often modifies this four-letter synonym, intensifying its sense of prevarication.

Two consecutive letters of the brand name form a word that precedes a word made with four of the brand’s rearranged letters to form the first two words of a Latin phrase, the second Latin word of which is also a kind of beverage.

The third word of the Latin phrase can be formed by rearranging five of the brand’s letters (after tossing an R and an S into the mix). This seven-letter third word is an antonym of “falsehood.”

What is the beverage brand? What are the two synonyms of “falsehood,” and the adjective that modifies the four-letter synonym?

What is the Latin phrase?

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.