PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER (1098 + 76) SERVED
Welcome to our January 5th 2018 edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria! Our featured puzzles this week are an octet of Riffing-Off-Shortz-And-Berry-Slices. That’s “Berry” as in Patrick J. Berry (whose screen name is “cranberry”), a regular contributor of cryptic crosswords and other excellent word puzzles here on our Puzzleria! blog.
This is the third time in the 2017 calendar year that Will Shortz has honored and recognized the excellence of one of Patrick’s puzzling creations by using in on the National Public Radio Weekend Edition Sunday Puzzle segment. Congratulations, Patrick!
Our 8 ⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓ Puzzleria! Riff-offs this week, alas, pale in comparison to Patrick’s puzzle when it comes to cleverness and elegance. Thus, we choose to characterize our efforts as a triumph of Quantity over Quality.
Also on our menus are:
2 ⇓⇓Appetizers: one about a publication getting a bit of publicity, and another asking what uncommon characteristic certain cities share in common;
1 ⇓ Slice about West Wingnuts; and
1 ⇓ vowelly Dessert to stick in your craw.
Wecome to Puzzleria! 2018, a place where you can have “a lot of fun!” And remember to “Think Good, It’s Friday!”
Next Week’s News Appetizer:
Wolff inn Boo-Peepp’s clothingg?
Here is the first paragraph of a news story that may appear in the media sometime next week:
“Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” by Michael Wolff, was originally scheduled to go on sale today. That on-sale date was moved ahead four days, however, becoming availalble for purchase last ______. The book figuratively ____ ___ the shelves, prompting Publisher Henry Holt & Co. to increase its press ___ from five figures to six figures, perhaps even one million.
Select four words in the first sentence of the news paragraph. Rearrange this pool of 16 letters to form the four words that belong in the paragraph’s four blanks. The blank words, in order, are 6, 4, 3 and 3 letters long.
Municipal Property Appetizer:
An uncommon commonality
Fort Collins, Naperville, Broken Arrow, Albany, Kodiak, Hilo, Rancho Cucamonga, Portland, and Lafayette are nine U.S. cities that share a somewhat uncommon property in common.
What is this property? Can you name another city with this property?
Hint: Topeka seems like an tenth city that might share this property, but it does not.
West Wingnuts White House Slice:
Eagles and Tigers, “Potweetus,” oh my!
Solve the following three clues:
1. An informal word for someone with an office in the West Wing of the White House (4 letters).
2. An informal word for senators and representatives who often visit the West Wing of the White House (4 letters).
3. Belonging to a Cooperstown-plaqued Tiger or a handlebar-mustachioed legal eagle with a roost in the West Wing of the White House (3 letters).
Rearrange these 11 letters to form an epithetic nickname, in two words, that appeared in a very recent “Potweetus.”
Riffing Off Shortz And Berry Slices:
Bob Dylan singing Noel = boy band!
Will Shortz’s December 31st NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Patrick Berry, reads:
Name a famous singer — 3 letters in the first name, 5 letters in the last. Drop the middle letter of the last name and rearrange the result to name a variety of singing group. What is it?
Puzzleria!’s Riffing Off Shortz And Berry Slices read:
ONE:
Name a famous singer whose band had an association with a visual artist — 3 letters in the singer’s first name, 4 letters in the last. Drop an interior letter of the last name and rearrange the result to name what rowdy fans might have shouted during the singer’s more subdued songs. Who is this singer?
TWO:
Name the famous visual artist in Puzzle # ONE, above — 4 letters in the first name, 6 letters in the last. Drop the last letter of the first name and rearrange the result to name 4-letter and 5-letter words that fit into the blanks in the following sentence:
“In the visual artist’s reinterpretation of Da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’ a rectangular golden ___ is _____, superimposed over the face of Jesus.”
What words belong in the blanks?
THREE:
Name a famous singer — 4 letters in the first name, 6 letters in the last. Drop the penultimate and antepenultimate letters of the last name and move the third letter of the last name to the end of the first name.
Now move the altered last name in front of the altered first name.
The result is what people might do after hearing a “B-2.”
Who is this singer?
FOUR:
Name a famous singer — 4 letters in the first name, 6 letters in the last.
Drop either the first letter of the first name or the penultimate letter of the last name and rearrange the result to name a word in a 1933 recording by the singer, and a synonym of the first half of that word.
Who is this singer?
FIVE:
Name a famous singer — 7 letters in the first name, 5 letters in the last. Drop the final letter of the first name and rearrange the result to name the title of a Christmas carol. Who is this singer?
SIX:
Name a famous singer — 2 letters in the first name, 7 letters in the last.
Drop the penultimate letter of the last name and rearrange the result to name a 2-word epithet, in 3 and 5 letters, that a midwestern band called a contemporary American female novelist in a song title.
Who is this singer?
SEVEN:
Name a famous singer — 9 letters in the first name, 8 letters in the last. Drop either the last letter of the first name or either the first or last letter of the last name and rearrange the result to name where in church this singer, if she were at least 30 years older, might have knelt as as a girl. Who is this singer?
Extra credit: Britney Spears was reared in a family of Southern Baptists. But, given her nomination (first and last names), what denomination of Protestants perhaps ought better have reared her?
(Note: This denomination is reportedly “best in prayer.”)
EIGHT:
Name a famous singer — 4 letters in the first name, 6 letters in the last. You cannot rearrange those letters, using all ten, to form other words. Now try dropping any one of the ten letters, leaving nine. In all ten of those combinations the nine letters, using all nine, cannot be rearranged to form other words. Who is this singer?
Vowelly Idiomatic Dessert:
Insert Desserts Into Our Mouths!
Only one of the seven words in a familiar English idiom begins with a consonant. The initial letters of the final three words of the idiom spell a prefix that pertains to the key word in the idiom, a noun.
What is this idiom?
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.
Welcome to our January 5th 2018 edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria! Our featured puzzles this week are an octet of Riffing-Off-Shortz-And-Berry-Slices. That’s “Berry” as in Patrick J. Berry (whose screen name is “cranberry”), a regular contributor of cryptic crosswords and other excellent word puzzles here on our Puzzleria! blog.
This is the third time in the 2017 calendar year that Will Shortz has honored and recognized the excellence of one of Patrick’s puzzling creations by using in on the National Public Radio Weekend Edition Sunday Puzzle segment. Congratulations, Patrick!Our 8 ⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓ Puzzleria! Riff-offs this week, alas, pale in comparison to Patrick’s puzzle when it comes to cleverness and elegance. Thus, we choose to characterize our efforts as a triumph of Quantity over Quality.
Also on our menus are:
2 ⇓⇓Appetizers: one about a publication getting a bit of publicity, and another asking what uncommon characteristic certain cities share in common;
1 ⇓ Slice about West Wingnuts; and
1 ⇓ vowelly Dessert to stick in your craw.
Wecome to Puzzleria! 2018, a place where you can have “a lot of fun!” And remember to “Think Good, It’s Friday!”
Appetizer Menu
Next Week’s News Appetizer:
Wolff inn Boo-Peepp’s clothingg?
Here is the first paragraph of a news story that may appear in the media sometime next week:
“Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” by Michael Wolff, was originally scheduled to go on sale today. That on-sale date was moved ahead four days, however, becoming availalble for purchase last ______. The book figuratively ____ ___ the shelves, prompting Publisher Henry Holt & Co. to increase its press ___ from five figures to six figures, perhaps even one million.
Select four words in the first sentence of the news paragraph. Rearrange this pool of 16 letters to form the four words that belong in the paragraph’s four blanks. The blank words, in order, are 6, 4, 3 and 3 letters long.
Municipal Property Appetizer:
An uncommon commonality
Fort Collins, Naperville, Broken Arrow, Albany, Kodiak, Hilo, Rancho Cucamonga, Portland, and Lafayette are nine U.S. cities that share a somewhat uncommon property in common. What is this property? Can you name another city with this property?
Hint: Topeka seems like an tenth city that might share this property, but it does not.
MENU
West Wingnuts White House Slice:
Eagles and Tigers, “Potweetus,” oh my!
Solve the following three clues:
1. An informal word for someone with an office in the West Wing of the White House (4 letters).
2. An informal word for senators and representatives who often visit the West Wing of the White House (4 letters).
3. Belonging to a Cooperstown-plaqued Tiger or a handlebar-mustachioed legal eagle with a roost in the West Wing of the White House (3 letters).
Rearrange these 11 letters to form an epithetic nickname, in two words, that appeared in a very recent “Potweetus.”Riffing Off Shortz And Berry Slices:
Bob Dylan singing Noel = boy band!
Will Shortz’s December 31st NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Patrick Berry, reads:Name a famous singer — 3 letters in the first name, 5 letters in the last. Drop the middle letter of the last name and rearrange the result to name a variety of singing group. What is it?
Puzzleria!’s Riffing Off Shortz And Berry Slices read:
ONE:
Name a famous singer whose band had an association with a visual artist — 3 letters in the singer’s first name, 4 letters in the last. Drop an interior letter of the last name and rearrange the result to name what rowdy fans might have shouted during the singer’s more subdued songs. Who is this singer?TWO:
Name the famous visual artist in Puzzle # ONE, above — 4 letters in the first name, 6 letters in the last. Drop the last letter of the first name and rearrange the result to name 4-letter and 5-letter words that fit into the blanks in the following sentence: “In the visual artist’s reinterpretation of Da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’ a rectangular golden ___ is _____, superimposed over the face of Jesus.”
What words belong in the blanks?
THREE:Name a famous singer — 4 letters in the first name, 6 letters in the last. Drop the penultimate and antepenultimate letters of the last name and move the third letter of the last name to the end of the first name.
Now move the altered last name in front of the altered first name.
The result is what people might do after hearing a “B-2.” Who is this singer?
FOUR:
Name a famous singer — 4 letters in the first name, 6 letters in the last.
Drop either the first letter of the first name or the penultimate letter of the last name and rearrange the result to name a word in a 1933 recording by the singer, and a synonym of the first half of that word. Who is this singer?
FIVE:
Name a famous singer — 7 letters in the first name, 5 letters in the last. Drop the final letter of the first name and rearrange the result to name the title of a Christmas carol. Who is this singer?SIX:
Name a famous singer — 2 letters in the first name, 7 letters in the last.
Drop the penultimate letter of the last name and rearrange the result to name a 2-word epithet, in 3 and 5 letters, that a midwestern band called a contemporary American female novelist in a song title. Who is this singer?
SEVEN:
Name a famous singer — 9 letters in the first name, 8 letters in the last. Drop either the last letter of the first name or either the first or last letter of the last name and rearrange the result to name where in church this singer, if she were at least 30 years older, might have knelt as as a girl. Who is this singer?Extra credit: Britney Spears was reared in a family of Southern Baptists. But, given her nomination (first and last names), what denomination of Protestants perhaps ought better have reared her?
(Note: This denomination is reportedly “best in prayer.”)
EIGHT:Name a famous singer — 4 letters in the first name, 6 letters in the last. You cannot rearrange those letters, using all ten, to form other words. Now try dropping any one of the ten letters, leaving nine. In all ten of those combinations the nine letters, using all nine, cannot be rearranged to form other words. Who is this singer?
Dessert Menu
Vowelly Idiomatic Dessert:
Insert Desserts Into Our Mouths!
Only one of the seven words in a familiar English idiom begins with a consonant. The initial letters of the final three words of the idiom spell a prefix that pertains to the key word in the idiom, a noun. What is this idiom?
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.
