Friday, February 7, 2020

“What kind of animal is Oscar?” Grafting branches of science; Bafflers for Learned Solvers; “Oh I wish I were an Oscar lyre winner...” “This film lacks action... Edit! ” Act of Congress, “actor of congrats”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/20 SERVED




Schpuzzle Of The Week:
“What kind of animal is Oscar?”

Change a letter in the title of a Best Picture Oscar winner to a “u”. Three letters of this result, in order but not consecutively, spell an animal. Remove them.
The letters letters that remain, in order, spell a very familiar variant spelling of a similar animal. What are these animals and movie?


Appetizer Menu

Academy Conundrums Appetizer:
“Oh I wish I were an Oscar lyre winner...”

🥁1. Take the last name of an Oscar winning film director from the early years of Hollywood. Drop the first letter and reverse the remaining letters to name a modern device for watching movies and television.
🥁2. Name a recently famous actor, first and last names. Drop a vowel from the first name to get an acronym for a digital file format. Drop a vowel from the last name to get an acronym for a popular New York tourist destination.
🥁3. Name a well-known actor, first and last names, best known for their role in a well-known television series. Interchange the second letters of the names. (For example, “Ted Danson” would become “Tad Denson”.) 
Remove the first three letters of the result, add a vowel, and rearrange. The result will be the title and last name of a character from that same series.

Swedish Dish  Appetizer:
Act of Congress, “actor of congrats”

Take the name of an act proposed in Congress, in two words of six letters each. These words, an adjective and noun, are those that a U.S. president has used to describe himself.
Switch the beginning two consonants of the first word with the beginning consonant of the second word, forming two new words – proper nouns of five and seven letters.
The five-letter noun is the last name of an Oscar-winning actor. 
The seven-letter noun is the last name of any of three people: a 17th-century Dutch theologian or either of two 20th-century Swedish journalists.
Who are this Oscar-winning actor, theologian and journalists?
What is the proposed congressional act?

MENU

Lights, Camera... Slice:
“This film lacks action... Edit!”

Take the first word of a two-word Oscar-nominated film title from the past. If you delete its first letter the result is a verb. 
Delete the last letter of this verb and last letter of the second word in the title. Rearrange the letters that remain to spell a synonym of the verb. 
What film is this?

Riffing Off Shortz Slices:
Bafflers for Learned Solvers

Will Shortz’s February 2nd NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, provided by crossword editor Peter Gordon, reads:
The actress Michael Learned, who played the mother on The Waltons, has an unusual property in her name. The last three letters of her first name are the same as the first three letters of her last name reversed. The name of what current celebrity has the same property? Here’s a hint: The first and last names each have 6 letters.
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz Slices read:
ENTREE #1
A Beatle once penned a song all by himself. A second Beatle didn’t think it was good enough for the Beatles to record, so the first Beatle gave it to his girlfriend’s brother, a member of a duo that had just landed a recording contract. The duo recorded the song and it became a chart-topper in both the United Kingdom and the United States, knocking the Beatles off the top of the charts. 
Remove a conjunction from the name of this duo. The result is the name of a puzzle maker.
Who is this puzzle maker. What is the name of the duo?
ENTREE #2
The actress Michael Learned has an unusual property in her name. The last three letters of her first name are the same as the first three letters of her last name reversed. The name of what 300-pound “gambling czar” nicknamed “Bones” who was associated with the likes of Bugsy Siegel Jack Ruby, Nick the Greek and “Baby Face” Nelson has the same property?
Who is this czar? 
Here’s a hint: The first and last names have 5 letters and 6 letters.
ENTREE #3
The last three letters of the first name of a past miller from Minneapolis are the same as the first three letters of his last name reversed. He was a tad too young to serve as a doughboy in WWI but he was president of his milling company when a doughboy was introduced as its mascot. This miller lost the tips of three fingers, the result of his hands getting caught in the rollers of flour grinding machines.
Who is this miller?
Here’s a hint: The first and last names have 6 letters and 9 letters.
ENTREE #4
The last three letters of the first name of a child television actor are the same as the first three letters of her last name reversed. 
She and her identical twin sister work on the same productions, taking turns on the set. If you spell the first name of this actor’s twin backward, the result is a synonym of “goal.” 
Who is this actor? 
Here’s a hint: The first and last names of her have 4 and 5 letters.
ENTREE #5
The first three letters of the first name of a president’s brother are the first three letters, but reversed, of the last name of that president’s vice president.
Who are this brother and vice president? 
Here’s a hint: The vice-president and the president’s wife share a distinction that is unique in U.S. history.
ENTREE #6
The last three letters of a Brooklyn-based Chilean artist’s first name are the same as the first three letters of the artist’s last name reversed. Who is this artist? 
Here’s a hint: The artist’s media include lights, mirrors and glowing glass.
ENTREE #7
Take the name of a woman before she married a billionaire industrialist from California in the early 1930s. The last three letters of her first name are the same as the first three letters of her pre-marriage last name reversed. The woman was an art aficionado and philanthropist, and instilled an appreciation and love of art in her husband who subsequently accumulated a substantial private art collection., which is house in a Pasadena museum that bears his name.
Who is this woman? 
Here’s a hint: Her first name is an anagram of two of the five words in the sentence, “I’ll give you a clue.”
ENTREE #8
The last three letters of the first name of a retired undefeated female pugilist are the same as the three letters of her last name reversed. 
Who is this pugilist? 
Here’s a hint: Her first name has 5 letters.


Dessert Menu

Bio-Branching Dessert:
Grafting branches of science

Name a redundant two-word phrase – consisting of an adjective and plural noun – associated with biological science. Remove the first two and last two letters from the first word and replace a “que” with a “c” in the second word to spell a different branch of science, in two words.  What are these four 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.

Friday, January 31, 2020

Pay-back for a ref under siege! Punctuation & Judy turns tragic; Restraining one’s room to roam; Bountifully billowing sales... promo; “It was 19 years ago today...” Alphabetical “imbibery” Transporting lowercase letters across state lines!

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/20 SERVED

Schpuzzle Of The Week:
Punctuation & Judy turns tragic

Take the title of a play that is a comedy. 
Delete a punctuation mark and the two letters that immediately follow it. 
Rearrange the letters to the right of this deletion. 
The result sounds like the title of a tragedy. 
What is the title of this comedy?
What is the title of the tragedy? 


Appetizer Menu

Free Falling Appetizer:
Restraining one’s room to roam

Note: We are privileged this week to present on Puzzleria! a nifty puzzle created by Mark Scott of Seattle, known to many of us also by his blog screen name, skydiveboy. 
Mark created a great puzzle involving spoonerization that Puzzlemaster Will Shortz used last  month as “The Puzzle” on the December 29th edition of NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday. 
Mark’s “Restraining one’s room to roam” puzzle also involves a spoonerism. 
Enjoy!

Switch the initial sounds of (that is, spoonerize) a two-word phrase for something that restricts the roaming range of certain creatures. 
Switch the order of the resulting words to form what sounds like a two-word phrase that restricts the roaming range of various vehicles. 
What are these two phrases?

Common Law Appetizer:
Transporting lowercase letters across state lines! 

A city and its state share a string of consecutive letters in common. 
Remove these common letters from each, leaving a means of transport and what it once perhaps transported. 
What are this city and state?


MENU

Market Share Slice:
Bountifully billowing sales... promo

Name a type of sales promotion that marketers use, in two words. 
Rearrange the combined letters to form two other words marketers use, often in conjunction with photographs. 
What is this type of promotion? What two words do marketers often use along with photographs.

Super Slice:
It was 19 years ago today...

On January 28, 2001 the rock band Aerosmith performed during the halftime show at the Super Bowl in Tampa, Florida.
It is now nineteen years later. 
Aerosmith will not be performing at this year’s Super Bowl, February 2 in Miami, Florida. But the name of someone related to a member of the band will be ubiquitously visible. 
Who is this someone?

Riffing Off Shortz Slices:
Pay-back for a ref under siege!

Will Shortz’s January 26th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle reads:
Write down the letter C. Beneath that write ENT. And beneath that write a G. What profession do these letters represent? 
Here’s a hint: It’s a two-word phrase – 10 letters in the first word, 5 letters in the second.
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz Slices read:
ENTREE #1
Write down the letters ER. Beneath that write LA. What profession do these letters represent?
Here’s a hint: An honest practitioner of the profession deals with “threads,” while a shady practitioner of the profession deals with “bread.”
ENTREE #2
Write down the letters CO. Beneath that write OFFERS. What money-saving methods do these letters represent, in two words?
Here’s a hint: The money-saving methods the letters represent may be printable or clippable.
(Speaking of money, if you remove one of the two O’s, what you wrote is a two-tiered spelling of COFFERS, places to put money.)
ENTREE #3
Write down the word WOOD. Beneath that write G. And beneath that write the word NOR. What profession/title and surname do these letters represent? 
Here’s a hint: The person with the title and surname was elected to public office and served a four-year term at age 34. Forty years later, at age 74 he was elected to the same public office and served another four-year term!
ENTREE #4
Write down the letter S. Above that write LASS. These letters represent a word that Annie Oakley and other such cowgals who competed in the rodeo were sometimes called, especially during certain events. 
What is it these buckskin-clad lasses were at times called as they vied for a rodeo trophy?
Here’s a hint: An apostrophe comes into play during the solving.
ENTREE #5
The six mini-puzzles below, A through F, correspond to the six graphic representations in the adjoining image below.
Each mini-puzzle contains three clues. Solve for the first two clues, then replace the clues with your answers. Then, taking into account the relative positions of the answers (one above the other in each case), solve for the third clue. The number in parentheses at the end of each clue indicates the number of letters in that clue’s answer.  
A. 
kiss (4)
monogram of  “I’m Sorry” singer (2)
muzzle-loading firearm (11)
B. 
Santa syllable (2)
nature abhoree (6)
dirt sucker (6, 6)
C. 
sort, type (4) 
Bubba’s successor (1)
child prodigy (10) 
D. 
word following drum or dinner (4)
Bonn-born composer (9)
Berry-penned title (4, 4, 9)
E. 
platter that is played (4)
platters that are played (5)
advertising slogan urging younger generations to give “groovy” recordings a listen (8, 5)
F.  
what “Lima” stands for (1)
word in a short Holly title (3)
1980’s “hair band” (8)
ENTREE #6
Write down a compound word for particular time periods. 
Place the first compound part above the second part. Switch the first letters of the two parts. That is, spoonerize them.
Given their positioning, these words represent a two-word phrase that describes events that occurred on March 31, 1973 in San Diego and on June 9, 1978 in Las Vegas. 
What is this two-word phrase? 
Here’s a hint: The two-word phrase has 6 letters in the first word and 6 letters in the second word. 


Dessert Menu

Thirst For Juice-tice Dessert:
Alphabetical “imbibery” 

The second word in the name of a two-word drink sounds like a letter of the alphabet. Replace the word with the letter and move it to the beginning. 
Divide the result into two words. 
Use:
1. the first word twice, 
2. the second word once, 
3. a rhyme of the second word once, and
4. a synonym of “precipitous” once. 
Use those five words to fill in the five blanks in this warning: 
“Don't _____ this drink ___ ____ lest it become ___ ______.” 
What is this drink? 
What is the completed sentence?

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.

Friday, January 24, 2020

Fully-woolly LambEweRama! Crime and Punishmental cruelty; Tek-circ? Sin-net? Not nim-dab! Everybody’s got something (’cept me & my monkey); Edgar Allan Poetry, Lego Lambda Doggerel; Mad Dog duels Capt’n Jack on the Hill

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/20 SERVED

Schpuzzle Of The Week:
Fully-woolly LambEweRama!

Ram, ewe, lamb and sheep are the male, female, young and general names for sheep. 
Take the male, female, young and general names for another animal. Replace two letters in one of the four names, replace one letter in another one, insert one letter in another, and keep one name just as it is. 
The result will be four words associated with expressing affection. 
What are these four animal names, and what are the four words associated with affection?


Appetizer Menu

Conundrums With Conviction Appetizer:
Crime and Punishmental cruelty

🥁1. Name the garment in the clothing department that is most likely to be shoplifted. [Editor’s note: This is probably the most punishmental of these five conundrums.]
🥁2. Name a crime. Move the first two letters to the end to name a way to detect one’s surroundings.
🥁3. Name a reality TV show in two words. Change the last letter of the first word, then replace the first letter of the last word with a duplicate of the first two letters of the first word. 
The result is something dangerous made by prisoners.
🥁4. Name a way to kill a person. Advance the second letter three places forward in the alphabet to name where the perpetrator will go if caught.
🥁5. Take two words in four and six letters that mean, respectively, deceptions and robbery. Put them one after the other to make a new word that alludes to keeping silent about crimes.


MENU

Public Service Slice:
Mad Dog duels Capt’n Jack on the Hill

Take the surname of a current politician/public servant. Lower an ascender letter and “meld it into” the letter following it to form a single descender letter. 
The result is an informal name for a beverage brand.
Who is this politician and what is the informal brand name?
Hint: In 2019 this politician supported a proposed bill designed to provide an across-the-board benefit increase equivalent to about 2 percent of the average Social Security benefit, and raise the annual cost-of-living adjustment to reflect the fact that older Americans tend to use more of some services like health care.

First (Not Last Alas) Stanza Slice:
Edgar Allan Poetry, Lego Lambda Doggerel
  
Edgar Allan Poe’s last poem, titled “Annabel Lee,” consists of six stanzas, three with six lines, one with seven, and two with eight.
What everybody hopes will be Lego Lambda’s last “poem,” titled “Toll a Bell for Me,” is not yet completed. Only the first stanza exists. It appears below. 
Like Poe’s “Annabel Lee,” Lego’s verse includes at least one six-line stanza. 
Unlike Poe’s “Annabel Lee,” Lego’s verse is doggerel, not poetry!
And, also unlike Poe’s “Annabel Lee,” hidden within Lego Lambda’s doggerelish stanza is a clue to its form.
What is the clue? How and where is it hidden? 
“Toll a Bell for Me” (Unfinished)
In the heat, in the heart of the desert,
That’s the site of the start of my story
And the start of my troubles too, yes sir,
The beginning of endings, lost glory.
My last day broke so rosily, sun-risen light
Which had faded to black by the end of the night.


Riffing Off Shortz And Lipscomb Slices:
Everybody’s got something (’cept me & my monkey)

Will Shortz’s January 19th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Tyler Lipscomb of Hamden, Connecticut, reads:
Name something everyone has, starting with H. Add an E, and rearrange the letters. You’ll name two things that every person must do to stay alive.
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Lipscomb Slices read:
ENTREE #1
Name what any one of the the three variously hued images images pictured here are called, in two words. Remove an A, and rearrange the letters. You’ll name a puzzle-maker, first and last names.
What is each image is called?
Who is the puzzlemaker?
ENTREE #2
Name three electrical terms beginning with I, C and O. Delete three consecutive letters from one of the terms. These three letters can be rearranged to form the title of a 20th-century play that added a new noun to the English lexicon. 
Rearrange the the remaining 17 letters to spell the hometown and state of a puzzle maker.
What are these three electrical terms?
What is the play title?
What is the puzzle maker’s hometown?
ENTREE #3
Name a liqueur, in two words. Add an R, and rearrange the letters. You’ll name restraints, in two words, that the authorities may make you wear if, after you drink excessive quantities of this liqueur, they imprison you and deem you to be a flight risk.
What is this liqueur?
What are the restraints?
ENTREE #4
Name something some people believe everyone has, in two words starting with I and S. 
Rearrange the letters combined letters to spell a two-word description, starting with I and L of the degenerate, depraved and wicked ruffians, hooligans, thugs, boors, oafs, hoodlums, and rowdies. Those same aforementioned  “some people who believe” also believe that these depraved people will be spending eternity in Brimstone City!
What is it that these some people believe everyone has?
How might they describe the depraved eternally damned people?
ENTREE #5
“People in a significant relationship, when they ____ gossip that their significant other has given in to the temptation to _____ on them, often experience _________.”
The third word in this sentence is something painful that people sometimes have. The first 4 letters of the third word, in order, form the first word; The remaining letters of the third word can be rearranged to form the second word. 
What are these three words?
ENTREE #6
Name something most everyone has, starting with “h.” Rearrange its letters to form two verbs. These three words belong in the blanks in the following sentence:
“Every year during what has become a Christmas Eve ritual, Papa dresses up like Santa Claus and _____ the family spruce tree, occasionally reaching low as he _____ an ornament on a lower hard-to-access bough, stretching and sometimes straining his h_________ in the process.”
What are these three words in the blanks?
ENTREE #7
Name what most everyone has, in two words, starting with “A” and “t.” 
Rearrange the combined letters of these words to form two nouns starting with “d” and “l.” 
These four words complete the following sentence when you put them in the correct blanks:
“Olympic d_________ athletes, as they form l____ to compete in the dash and two runs, might be seen bending over to stretch and self-massage their A_______ t______.” 
What are these four words in the blanks?


Dessert Menu

Strops Dessert:
Tek-circ? Sinnet? Not nim-dab! 

Name a sport and spell it backward. 
When read aloud, the result sounds like members of a team who play a different sport  professionally. 
What are these sports and the professional team’s nickname?
Hint: The sport you spelled backward originated in Europe and is still quite popular in Great Britain.


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.