It’s reigning felines and canines; Thumbs down on a warmer coat; Occupational mystery training; Preoccupation H; From head-to-head to hed-to-hed; Pieces of (one-fifth-)eight (difference)

Welcome to our October 7^th edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!

How many puzzles are we serving up this first week of October? 

A Puzzlebaker’s dozen! Eleven! (We are a parsimonious Puzzlebaker.)

1. We begin your feast with an Hors d-Oeuvre you can choo-choo on.

2. Our Morsel includes two pieces of game.

3. Our Appetizer time-travels between two competitions 46 years apart.

4. Our Slice of doggerel chow is Iamsic, not iambic.

5-through-10. Six of our puzzles – the “Preoccupation H” Slices – riff off and rip off Shortz.

11. Finally, our Dessert is an “inverted hitchhiker’s guide” to the galaxy of sports and games.

Enjoy our parsimonymony. After all, eleven-twelfths of a loaf is better than none.

Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

Choo Choo Hors d’Oeuvre:

Occupational mystery training

Name an occupation associated with trains, a compound word in two syllables. Add an “e” to the end of the word and divide it in two to form an article of clothing worn by a fictional character who has been compared to trains.

What is the occupation? Who is the fictional character?

Morsel Menu

Measuring Up Morsel:

Pieces of (one-fifth-)eight (difference)

Interchange the second and third letters of a piece of equipment used in a game and remove the final two letters, resulting in another piece of equipment used in a game. 

The two letters you removed, taken in order, are an abbreviation for something that can be measured.

There is a difference in that measurement between the two regulation-sized pieces of equipment you found, but it is likely no more than a 20% difference.

What are the names of the two pieces used in games?

Appetizer Menu

Twin Bill Appetizer:

From head-to-head to hed-to-hed

Back when Richard Nixon was president, in the summer of 1970, two American League baseball teams from Midwestern states split a Friday “twi-night doubleheader.” 

The first basemen in the starting lineup for the first game were, respectively, a player who garnered fewer than 40 hits in a three-year career, and a player who garnered more than 3,000 hits in a 20-plus-year Hall-of-Fame career. Each player had one hit in four at-bats in the game.

Remove one letter from the surname of each of these first basemen to form two new surnames – surnames of other competitors more recently in the news.

Who are the first basemen? Who are the other competitors?

MENU

Not Iambic But Iamsic Doggerel Food Slice:

It’s reigning felines and canines

From a state remove letters that someone could string

Together to spell out a continent.

The letters remaining may spell out a king

Holding sway on that mainland and flauntin’ it.

What are the state, continent and king?

Ripping/riffing Off Shortz And Beineke Slices:

Preoccupation H

Will’s Shortz’s October 2^nd National Public Radio Weekend Edition Sunday Puzzle, submitted by Lowell Beineke, reads:

Name an 11-letter occupation starting with H. If you have the right one, you can rearrange the letters to name two things a worker with this occupation uses – one in six letters and one in five. What occupation is it?

Puzzleria!’s Ripping/riffing Off Shortz And Beineke Slices read:

ONE:

Name the 2-word plural form of an occupation starting with an H (5 letters) and C (6 letters). If you have the right one, you can rearrange the letters to name two things a worker with this occupation provides – one in seven letters (beginning with S) and one in four (beginning with L).

What occupation is it?

TWO:

 Name the plural form of an occupation starting with HO. If you have the right one, you can rearrange the letters to name a 6-letter noun (beginning with H) that might apply to a person with this occupation while in the sewing room, and a 4-letter verb (beginning with S) that a person with this occupation might do in the laundry room, kitchen or, at the end of the day perhaps, in the bathroom.

What occupation is it?

THREE:

Name a 2-word occupation starting with H (3 letters) and F (6 letters). If you have the right one, you can rearrange the letters to form an alternative 2-word name for this occupation starting with H (3 letters) and F (6 letters).

What occupation is it?

FOUR:

Name the 13-letter plural form of an occupation starting with HA. If you have the right one, you can rearrange the letters to name a 2-word phrase (a 10-letter adjective beginning with an F and a 3-word noun beginning with an A) describing something a worker with this occupation might produce.

What occupation is it?

FIVE:

Name a 2-word occupation, a 4-letter word starting with H and a 5-letter word starting with M. If you have the right one, you can rearrange the letters to form two words: a 4-letter verb beginning with H that workers in this occupation often do in the course of their duties. They often do this under the direction of people whose occupation is a 5-letter noun beginning with A.

What occupation is it?

SIX:

Name a disreputable 2-word occupation: a 5-letter word beginning with H and a 5-letter word beginning with T. If you have the right one, you can rearrange the letters to form a 2-word phrase naming what a worker with this occupation may also have in his possession – a 3-letter word beginning with H and a 7-letter plural word beginning with H.

What occupation is it?

Dessert Menu

Snowflaked Alaska Dessert:

Thumbs down on a warmer coat

A “warmer coat” is athletic apparel that might be worn by a cross-country sled dog race musher or junior tobogganer… 

Such a coat, however, would likely never be worn by participants in two other recreational activities: a particular contact sport, and a certain children’s game. The contact sport and children’s game are both two words long.

The second words of the sport and the game are the same word. The letters in this word can be rearranged to spell the place where either the sport or game is normally played.

The letters in the first word of the sport and first word of the game can be combined and rearranged to form the phrase “warmer coat.”

What are this contact sport and children’s game?    

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.

“He ain’t heavy, he’s a brotherload!” Furrowed browsers and U-boat loos; Pammela’s Salem map? LeBronze Names; A sophist’s fable; A container contained in what it contains;

Welcome to our September 30^th edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!

We are serving you six fresh puzzles this week:

1. An Hors d’Oeuvre about a fabulous example of sportsbearship;

2. A Morsel about the ins and outs of branding and packaging;

3. An Appetizer about sumo kind of Heavy Boy’s Town;

4. A Slice about cartography... and perhaps capitals;

5. A Slice about browsing the headlines and subheads for the latest news; and

6. A Dessert worthy of a bronze medal.

Please enjoy them all:

Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

Jackal Ursus Bear Hors d’Oeuvre:

A sophist’s fable

Nearly a half-century ago an instance of sportsmanship occurred at the end of an biennial sporting event. The following is a fable of the how the event ended, with significant “hinting” words and phrases appear in bold and blue:

A bear and a jackal once faced off in a game played in a green jungle. It was a close game, with the score nip and tuck as the game drew to a close. The bear finished playing the game before the jackal finished. While waiting for the jackal to finish, the bear lumbered over to a nearby concessions stand to draw a draft beer to give to the jackal. The bear picked up the tab, the jackal picked up the beer and his ball, and the game ended. No one lost. Both won, in a way.

 

The bear’s act of generosity, however, was unpopular with a maned ass who had been rooting against the jackal. But many other fans of the game in the jungle had traditionally rooted against the bear, especially when he was competing against the king of the jungle, whom they deemed the more popular.

Who are the bear, the jackal, the maned ass and the king of the jungle? What is this biennial sporting event?

Hint: The “king of the jungle” appeared in recent headlines.

Hint: The “jackal” accomplished a major victory in the year following the events in this fable. The setting of his victory was the same as the setting of the currently occurring “biennial sporting event.”

Morsel Menu

A Pair Of Pathways To A Solution Morsel:

A container contained in what it contains

Remove all punctuation from a popular brand name consumable product. Remove from it a palindromic fragment of consecutive letters. Move the fourth letter of the remaining fragment to the second position to form the name of a possible producer of the consumable product’s container.

Remove all punctuation from the same brand name consumable product. Again, remove from it a palindromic fragment of consecutive letters. Interchange the second and third letters of the remaining fragment and spell the result backward to form the name of the same possible producer of the consumable product’s container.

What is this product and the possible producer of its container?

Appetizer Menu

Mover Lifter Puller Appetizer:

“He ain’t heavy, he’s a brotherload!”

Name a mechanical apparatus used to move, lift or pull out heavy loads.

Now name what coaches of a certain sport encourage their players to do with more efficiency and effort in order to move, lift or pull down heavy loads.

The apparatus and words of coaching advice you have named are the identical three-word phrase. What is it?   

MENU

Global Positive Self-Image System Slice:

Pammela’s Salem map?

Take a word that you should find on any self-respecting map of the United States. The word contains consecutive letters that spell a verb that you should interpret as a command – a command that you should carry out on the very letters that form the verb. (See the “Specialty Of The Teahouse Slice: Teatime Proustries” puzzle I composed and posted on this early 2015 Puzzleria!)

After obeying the command rearrange the letters you see to form two nouns: 1. A synonym of a shortened form of a name of a female character from Greek literature, or more recent British literature, and 2. a more general term for that synonym.

What is the word on the map? What are the two nouns?

Hint: The word that you should find on “any self-respecting map of the United States” is one of a group of 50, or one of a special group of 50 situated within one of the first group of 50.

Two Heads Are More Opinionated Than One Slice:

Furrowed browsers and U-boat loos

A political “first” received news coverage very recently.

Imagine an article on an editorial page that voices an unfavorable opinion about that first-time political action.

The opinion piece’s main headline consists of three words:

1. A plural 9-letter noun (the subject),

2. An 8-letter verb (the predicate), and

3. A 4-letter noun (the direct object).

Its subhead also consists of three words:

1. A 6-letter verb (another predicate of the 9-letter noun in the main headline),

2. An 11-letter adjective, and

3. A 4-letter direct-object noun.

Note:

The double-deck headline could have appeared above a non-opinionated “straight news” story – on Page 1, for example, instead of the opinion page – were it not for two “loaded,” judgmental words: the plural 9-letter noun in the main headline, and the 11-letter adjective in the subhead...

Oh, and the letters in the main headline can be rearranged to form the subhead.

What are the political “first,” the main headline and the subhead?

Dessert Menu:

Idolatrous Dessert:

LeBronze Names

Remove a consonant from the interior of a word that is the name of a place where several graven bronze images of idols can be seen.

Change the vowel sounds in the first syllable and in the third syllable. The result, when spoken aloud sounds like the brand name of a product associated with bronze.

What are the place name and the brand name?

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.

Angkor Wat? Anchor Who‽; Reduced to tears of laughter; Pigmenteau words; Dumbbell curve; I write the songs that make lovebirds take (s)wing(s); Four-by-four-by-forum; What the blankety-blank‽

Welcome to our September 23^rd edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!

Our featured puzzle this week is a clever and compact comedic-actor challenge composed by PlannedChaos. It is titled “Out Out And Away Slice: Reduced to tears of laughter,” and appears beneath our main MENU.

PlannedChaos also contributes the first of our six Ripping Off Shortz Slices, one involving a current television show.

Five other scrumptious puzzles round out our menus this week. Please enjoy.

Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

Headlines Or Deadlines Hors d’Oeuvre:

I write the songs that make lovebirds take (s)wing(s)

The two-word title of a song written by a prolific songwriter might have been spoken by a person recently making news headlines. 

Take the third letter and first letter of the songwriter’s first name at birth, in that order, and place them at the front of the song title’s second word. The result might have been one of those recent news headlines.

What is this headline, and who is the songwriter?

Morsel Menu

Abnormal Distribution Morsel:

Dumbbell curve

A Galton board (or Galton box, or quincunx) is a device for demonstrating statistical concepts such as the normal distribution, or “bell curve.”

Write a 17-letter caption for the Galton board pictured here, in the form:

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

__ __ __

__- __ __ __ __

Rearrange the 17 letters to form a three-word phrase in recent news accounts, in the form:

__ __ __ __ __ __ __

__ __

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

What are this caption and phrase?

Appetizer Menu

Grilling Weenies On A Grid Appetizer:

Four-by-four-by-forum

Fill in the grid using the 8 ACROSS-and/or-DOWN clues below, which are in random order.

Three of the eight answers allude to  the present presidential campaign and looming election.

One of the sixteen squares in the grid must be filled in with an Arabic numeral. The other fifteen squares must be filled in with letters, three of which are Roman numerals.

1. Age of many who will ____ for the first time this November

2. Word belonging in the above clue’s blank

3. September 26 television event

4. Wearers of “flowerpot headwear”

5. S. Grant counterpart

6. Word followed by gamma or Max

7. Words preceding “even keel”

8. Mr. Musk

Spoonerized River Anthology Appetizer:

Angkor Wat? Anchor Who?

Spoonerize the name of a prominent news anchor, past or present. That is, interchange the initial sounds (consonants or consonant blends) of the person’s first and last names. The first name transforms into the first name of a prominent fictional character from Nineteenth century American literature. The last name transforms into a non-word.

 

Interchange the initial sounds (consonants or consonant blends) of the fictional character’s first and last names. 

Again, the last name transforms into a non-word. Remove its last letter. Replace it newly penultimate (second-last) letter with the letter preceding it in the alphabet. The result is something the father of the fictional character’s child might employ in his profession.

 

Hint: The surname of an American poet born in the Nineteenth century is an acronym of what would be a great nickname for the fictional character.

Who are the news anchor and fictional character? What might the father of the fictional character’s child employ in his profession? What is the great nickname for the fictional character?

MENU

Out Out And Away Slice:

Reduced to tears of laughter

Use the first and last names of a well-known comedic actor to phonetically complete these two-word phrases that both mean “reduce”: [first name] out and [last name] away.

Who is this actor?

Ripping/riffing Off Shortz Slices:

What the blankety-blank!

Will’s Shortz’s National Public Radio Weekend Edition Sunday Puzzle from September 18^th reads:

Think of a familiar three-word phrase in the form “____ and ____.” Drop the “and.” Then move the last word to the front to form a single word that means the opposite of the original phrase.

Here’s a hint. The ending word has seven letters. What is it?

Puzzleria!’s Ripping/riffing Off Shortz Slices read:

ONE:

Think of a current television show in three words titled “[blank] and [blank]”. Drop the last letter, and inset the result within the word “bar” to name a familiar three-word phrase.

Hint: A title character from the show would fit right in at a bar.

What is the show and what is the phrase?

TWO:

Think of a familiar three-word phrase in the form “____ and ____.” Drop the “and,” replace the last two letters in the second word with an “r”, then move the last word to the front to form a single six-letter word that is an edible product.

Remove the first word, restore the last two letters to the second word, and interchange the second and third letters to spell the vehicle that stereotypically hauls the edible produce.

What are the phrase, product and vehicle?

THREE:

Think of a familiar three-word phrase in the form “____ and ____.” Change one consonant in the first word (a common 2-letter preposition) to a different consonant to form a common 2-letter verb. Drop the “and,” then move the last word to the front, forming the first name of a hobbit.

Hint: These five letters can be rearranged to form two words that precede “Jesse” in the Bible.

What are the phrase, hobbit and biblical words?

FOUR:

Think of a three-word phrase in the form “____ and ____” (plural words of 5 and 7 letters, respectively) that you might see in fishing destination brochures. Drop the “and.” Then move the last word to the front and shift the space between the words to form a 2-word phrase describing how a flowing body of water gives relief to a thirsty angler camping in the north woods.

What are these two phrases?

FIVE:

Think of a familiar three-word phrase for household furnishings in the form “____ and ____” (a word of 5 letters and a plural word of 6 letters). Drop the “and.” Then move the last word to the front, shift the space between the words, and switch the order of the words. The result is a description of a three-legged stool.

What are the phrase and the description of the stool?

SIX: 

Think of a familiar three-word phrase for a comfort food that comes in a can in the form “____ and ____” (a word of 4 letters and a plural word of 5 letters). Drop the “and.” Then move the last word to the front and shift the space between the words. The result is a word for one morsel from the can followed by a utensil with which one might eat these morsels of comfort food.

What are the phrase and the utensil?

Dessert Menu:

Tie-Dyed Dessert:

Pigmenteau words

A “portmanteau word” is one derived from blending two or more distinct words, such as “smoke” and “fog” to form “smog”. Portmanteaus pack stray articles of lexical laundry into one neat compact “suitcase.”

Each of the ten images pictured here bears a caption that is a single “pigmenteau” word.  The images are labeled 1 Through 10. The list immediately below indicates how many letters are in each caption:

1. Nine letters

2. Ten letters

3. Twelve letters

4. Twelve letters

5. Thirteen letters

6. Twelve letters

7. Eleven letters

8. Eleven letters

9. Ten letters

   10. Eight letters

One of the captions, if divided into its two constituent words, supplies a hint to solving one of this week’s Appetizers.

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.