Every Friday at Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria! we publish a new menu of fresh word puzzles, number puzzles, logic puzzles, puzzles of all varieties and flavors. We cater to cravers of appetizing puzzles!
My partner is a gourmet puzzle maker from Greece named Lego Lambda. He creates and serves up priceless slices of savory "puzzla pie," blending and baking 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.)
Here's this week’s inaugural menu:
MENU
Specialty of the House Slice:
"Mop-up Needed in Produce!"
Attach one letter to the beginning of an item you might buy in a grocery’s produce department. Divide the result to form two words that are somewhat synonymous with excitement, confusion or commotion. What are these two words and the grocery item?
Sporty Slice: (Not to be confused with Sporty Spice, Melanie Chisholm)
Major League Litmus Test
Battery mates Harry Byrd and Frank House and, later, John Hiller and Tom Haller were teammates of a Hall of Fame Major Leaguer whose first and last names, when written without upper case or a space, spell out an adjective that can describe a battery, and which means having a pH of more than 7. In the 20th season of his career, this Hall-of-Famer had a PH of more than 7, statistically. (He had 10 Pinch Hits.) Who is he?
Please post your
comments. We feed you puzzles. You give us feedback! Feel free to post clever
and subtle hints that do not give the answers away. We may even post a few
hints of our own as the week progresses.
Please wait until
after 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesdays to post your answers and explain your
hints about the puzzles. We at Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria! plan to serve up at least one fresh puzzle every
Friday.
We invite you to make it a habit to “Meet at Joe’s!” If you like our "mystic puzzleria" tell your friends about us. Thank you.
Woohoo, LegoLambda! It looks great...and not Greek to me. ;-) [Well, maybe the puzzles until I figure them out!]
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to your official launch on Friday!
P.S. [Acids have pH of < 7 and bases are >7]. I might be missing a subtlety here. . .
DeleteI'm looking forward to more fun, weakly.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, David. I can purvey weak puzzles with the worst of them!
DeleteThanks, WW, for your well wishes.
Lego...
For an initial clue, both puzzles share something in common with the Puzzle Master himself, Will Shortz.
ReplyDeleteYou should avoid alcohol Ken.
ReplyDeleteThanks, David and ron. I think these qualify as the first hints ever on Puzzleria!
DeleteNow I know how Blaine (and Will when he visits Blainesville) must sometimes feel: Knowing the puzzle answer but not being able to solve the clever hints! But I'll think about them, guys.
Thanks again for participating.
Lego...
Please note that I have attempted to make my "hint" as obscure as possible.
DeleteThank You, David.
DeleteAs Dr. Shortz once revealed, when he has visited Blaine’s blog, even he is baffled by some of the clever hints there, and he of course knows the answer. After the “early returns” here at Puzzleria!, I find myself in that same state of occasional bewilderment. That’s not so surprising, given that many of the hints posted at Blainesville baffle me too, even when I (think I) know Will’s intended answer.
Blaine, I believe, does a decent job of weeding out the “giveaway” hints on his blog. It’s tough to monitor a blog 24/7/365. There is not as much pressure here at Puzzleria!, where there is no danger of compromising a weekly national challenge in which the random winner gets to chat on-air with Will Shortz on NPR and is awarded an array of fabulous prizes.
In the future, however, we would like to somehow recognize/reward our puzzle-solving patrons. We welcome your ideas and suggestions. In the meantime, if someone posts a “giveaway” hint here, we’ll just post another puzzle.
Lego…
Not big on sports, but the baseball puzzle dissolves instantly.
ReplyDeleteHaven't figured out the grocery puzzle for the produce department, but think I have a pretty good answer if it were the bakery!
Good luck with the blog! How soon before you open a Tip Jar? :>))
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThanks for dropping by for a bite, Bob K.
DeleteIf I don't figure it out, I'm curious to hear your bakery answer. Thanks for the well wishes. I'm in it for the long run.
Tip jar. Hmmmm, pretty good idea. Except that with the class of clientele I've attracted so far, I would be afraid one of you would cyber-swipe it!
LegoWhere'sMyClamsCrammedTipJarGone?
I'm not having any luck with the first one, maybe because my mind is stuck on a particular produce/baseball term, even though I know it can't work.
ReplyDeleteThe second one is a lot easier. At least I think it is. The stats sheet I'm looking at for the player I believe it is seems to indicate he had 10 pinch hits in his twenty-first season, and more than twice that many in the previous season. As WW says, maybe there's some subtlety I'm missing.
Paul,
DeleteYou have solved the second puzzle. I made a mistake. You are correct. This player had 10 pinch hits in his 21st season, not his 20th. Thanks for the editing. And, I’m sorry.
I have revised my list for Puzzleria! puzzle creation:
Puzzles should be:
1. Not too difficult, not too easy;
2. Fair;
3. Accurate!
From reading your posts on Blaine’s site, Paul, I know that you are no “misser” of subtleties, nor is Word Woman. Indeed, you and she may be the master and mistress of subtleties.
Speaking of WW, she gave a nice hint in her second post, writing “bases are > 7.” Indeed, this player is on the list of top one-thousand total base leaders.
As for my “produce puzzle,” I am confident you will eventually grok it.
WrongoLambda
007 references are not helpful!
DeleteRoger that.
DeleteI think Paul and LegOutABaseHit are reading the statistics wrong, looking at pinch hit appearances, not pinch hits. I think year 20 was correct.
DeleteDavid,
DeleteYes, you are correct. And so was I… originally. I am vindicated! Thank you. (Warning: Inside baseball ahead!)
I vaguely recall, when I created this pH puzzle about three years ago, having a devil of a time confirming the number of career and/or season pinch hits that this (or any) player achieved. But I somehow managed unearth that this player garnered 10 pinch hits in his 20th season.
Where did you find this player’s PH stat, David? My go-to baseball history site is baseball-almanac.com (where the abbreviation PH stands for “pinch hit appearances,” not “pinch hits”), and I also tried baseball-reference.com. But I am striking out on both sites, thereby failing to confirm what I apparently confirmed four years ago.
BTW, you are clairvoyant in calling me “LegOutABaseHit.” I was a classic banjo hitter, aka a Punch & Judy hitter, whose only hits were legged-out grounders, Texas Leaguers, and seeing-eye singles.
RightoLambda
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/abcdefg01-bat.shtml where the a is the first letter of his last name, the abcde is the first 5 letters of his last name and the fg is the first two letters of his first name. It is in the Situational Batting section.
DeleteSorry to have caused confusion. I agree with season 20. Looking down the corresponding almanac and reference columns, I notice a number of discrepancies. But we apparently all know who we're talking about, anyway.
DeleteIn any case, it's a hit!
DeleteNot at all a problem Paul. I welcome confusion on this blog, and I will always welcome your excellent input. After all, “puzzling” and “confusing” are synonyms!
DeleteWW,
Indeed, a base hit.
Lego…
Paul and WW,
ReplyDeletePshawn! (Psean?)
007 is an base character (he’s a serial libertine) with an acid wit… yet, curiously, is neither an acid nor a base!
When I was 17, a guy at a gun show tried to sell me a shotgun with two firing-pin hammers. I bought a pistol instead. Then a guy at a music shop sold me a percussion instrument played with two hammers. The gun guy wasn’t much of salesman but the music guy had a great spiel. Now I've got one.
Armed-o-Lambda
I still haven't solved your produce puzzle, but I just now came up with two close variants:
ReplyDelete(1) Attach one letter to the beginning of an item you might buy in a grocery’s produce department. Divide the result to form two words that are somewhat synonymous with a sign of living through adverse conditions. What are these two words and the grocery item?
(2) Attach one letter to the beginning of an item you might buy in a grocery’s produce department. Divide the result to form two words that are somewhat synonymous with engaging in gentle conflict or competition. What are these two words and the grocery item?
Bob K.,
DeleteBeautiful! I’m envious. You could launch your own puzzle blog. May I suggest a “crossroads diner” theme?
LeGreenEyedLambda
(3) Attach one letter to the beginning of an item you might buy in a grocery’s produce department. Divide the result to form two words that are somewhat synonymous with a gathering place of persons of low repute. What are these two words and the grocery item?
ReplyDeleteI think I got all three. Reading the six words backwards, I get two common English words, one 'crossword-y' word, one common first name (or nickname), and the other two only work as acronyms or initialisms or abbreviations or whatever.
DeleteUm, yeah, exactly. I had to write them down and cross them off as I checked your list, Paul, as I had never thought of them that way.
DeleteAnd I still haven't solved the original produce puzzle!
Bob K.,
DeleteBy my count, you have to date posted four puzzles that “piggyback” on our Puzzleria! produce puzzle! I love your gumption, the cut of your jib, and your creativity.
The Tuesday-at-3 p.m.-Eastern-Time “zero hour” is fast approaching. We will give our puzzle answers and explain our hints. It seems as if “puzzle maven Paul” has cracked most/all of BK’s challenges, and has provided a few hints to their solutions.
I leave it up to you -- BK, Paul and other valued Puzzleria! Patrons -- to decide whether you wish to reveal everything today, or to let BK’s puzzles “ride” a while longer.
Remember, Thursday at 3 p.m. Eastern will be a big “reveal day” over at Blainesville.
Then, on Friday, more “slices of confusion” from Puzzleria!
David,
Thanks for your baseball-reference link and explanation regarding this player’s pinch hits.
Lego…
I finally got the produce puzzle this morning, but I don't think I would have without Lego's hint from yesterday. That produce/baseball term I mentioned kept wanting to pop up. And I actually did find a 007 connection of sorts.
ReplyDeleteThe produce/baseball term I couldn't shake off was 'rhubarb' (brouhaha? hubbub?). I knew it didn't fit the puzzle, but it kept wanting to 'pop up' ... not like a 'can of corn', but like that old arcade game - Whac-a-mole.
DeleteNow to connect Albert Broccoli and alligator pears (and crocs):
Tee Hee!
Paul, I had the same thought about rhubarb and brouhaha. Brouhaha is actually part of the syntaxically awkward phrase I sent Will.
DeleteAh, lego, you place the great weight of decision making on my shoulders!
ReplyDeleteBut since the last of my three produce department puzzles was only posted this morning, I guess I can let them hang a little longer.
My answer, had it been the bakery department, is: A + DONUTS = ADO + NUTS.
And with the deadline safely passed, I will note that even I have heard of Al Kaline.
So what was your produce answer?!?
(H)avoc/ado.
ReplyDeleteMy clue "For an initial clue, both puzzles share something in common with the Puzzle Master himself, Will Shortz." referred to Will Shortz's initials, WS, which refer also William Shakespeare who wrote "Much Ado About Nothing" and the World Series, in which Al Kaline (for whom the alkaline battery was named (?)) played.
I got the WS clue, David! Nice try on alkaline batteries but they've been around since 1899 and were named solely on an alkaline chemical reaction (vs an acidic one). I was hoping Al Kaline had an acerbic wit to neutralize his opponents ;-)...Anyone know if he did?
DeleteH + AVOCADO = HAVOC + ADO.
ReplyDelete"Avoid alcohol" contains the letters of "havoc/ado" (+loil)
ALKALINE = AL KALINE, Mr. Tiger.
"avoid alcohol Ken" contains the letters of "alkaline."
More from the Produce Department:
Lettuce squash a pear of cherry-picked tomatoes in the Puzzleria"s mushing room for upbeet sugarplum celery (celebrity) figs.
Thanks, Bob K.,
ReplyDeleteI told Paul I was confident he would eventually grok the produce puzzle. Grok echoes Guac = Guacamole. An ingredient in guacamole is an avocado.
H + AVOCADO = HAVOC + ADO.
So, you were on the correct Shakespearean path with “ado.” And, good work on the pH baseball puzzle.
David,
Great connections! WS = Will Shortz = Will Shakespeare = World Series = Wonderful Sagacity! You certainly “cleaned up” in the produce section.
Regarding “Mr. Tiger” and the Fall Classic, check out one of these nine things.
BTW, even though Al Kaline was an outfielder/first baseman, he could have landed a commercial endorsement deal and made mega-moolah pitching alkaline batteries.
ron,
Very deft anagramesque cluing. And I love the stream of harvested consciousness in your “more from the produce department.” If our Puzzleria! guest-list continues to expand, we’ll have to also expand our mushing room exponentially.
Thanks to all for being so upbeet!
L’AdoLambda
WW, thank you for stepping up to the plate and wielding your scientific authority regarding the history of alkaline batteries as it bears on the possibility of an eponymous link between Al Kaline: batter and alkaline: battery.
ReplyDeleteAh, but what about Al Kaline: acerbic wit?
Often lost in the modern-day mathematical thicket of sabermetrics, complex-analytical data and differential-calculus-based statistics is a simple index, little-known to the public but well-known to big league statisticians as the “Henderson-Mauer Scale.” It is so called because the upper and lower extremes of the scale are represented, respectively, by retired major leaguer Rickey Henderson and current major leaguer Joe Mauer.
The H-M Scale measures personality, wit and eccentricity, with 0 being “bland beyond belief” and 10 being “extra-ebulliently eccentric.”
Mauer measures a zero on the H-M Scale (he appears 40 seconds into this video), whileHenderson measures a perfect 10. From my boyhood memories and subsequent internet research, I would place Mr. Kaline at about a 2 or 3 on the scale.
Ergo, I would not postulate his wit to be biting, incisive and sarcastic (that is, acerbic), even though he does appear to possess a fine set of choppers on his baseball cards. I would wager his wit skews more toward the corny end of the spectrum. Still, chiselly choppers are also conducive to chompin’ corn.
PlatoLambda
More on sabermetrics by Smith profs:
Deletehttp://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15168.html
Seems so basic that Alkaline could be neutralized fairly easily by just a little oj or a spoonful of vinegar...Oh, wait, guess that was a spoonful of sugar. ;-)
WW,
DeleteThe Smith prof book looks like a good read, according to the blurbs.
Science is your field; baseball is mine field. So I’ll ask, if blood is a base, and orange juice an acid, where do blood oranges fall on the pH scale? Are they neutral, like Switzerland and beige?
This I am sure of: a spoonerismful of bloatable peach measures about 13 on the pH scale. (A peach is not really bloatable. Don’t try this at home, kids!)
Speaking of science, I highly recommend that Puzzleria! patrons also visit, Word Woman’s Partial Ellipsis Of The Sun (PEOTS),
“a blog for scientists who like words and writers who like science.”
Bob,
I’m still in the dark about your “sign of living through adverse conditions” and “engaging in gentle conflict or competition” produce puzzles. But I have grokked the “gathering place of persons of low repute” puzzle. (Hint: one place appears in the profile name of a prolific Blaine’s poster.)
LegoFriendsInLowPlaces
Haha re: blood oranges.
DeleteNot sure if this is already covered: Add a letter to the beginning of a grocery item to get a fall from a meditative state.
(No produce(d) water, though ;-)).
reel. I can find "eel" in my grocery store.
Deleteslumber, I can find "lumber" at my grocery store also.
eely, ron, lumber? wooden you? ;-)
DeleteMy answer is two words. . .
Hint: green.
As opposed to what they serve on the Enterprise.
DeleteYou lost me.
DeleteThat herbal tea concoction?
Exactly.
DeleteYou'll never guess what one of my Turing words (which I rejected) was.
ZEN DIVE?
DeleteOr, speaking of funny tea, brouhaha? ;-)
No, a little fuzzier than that.
DeleteYou're right, I'll never guess.
DeleteFuzzy to me is peaches, beards, and Wuzzy was a bear.
Add a letter to the start of a grocery item to get a reason to give aspirin to gorillas.
ReplyDeleteDavid,
DeleteVery nice puzzle. It’s “elegant” because the pronunciation changes entirely. Took me a while till I got it. These are grocery items that would go well with chimpaign.
Mr. Tiger was great, but, as I said earlier, may have a corny sense of humor. but Mr. Cobb was even greater, and had a corny name. Not sure about his sense of humor or nickname.
Not yet making headway on Bob K.’s puzzles #2 and #3.
LegoEary
The gorillas of my acquaintance prefer herbal remedies.
DeleteThey could always go ape for aspen bark, speaking of basic things like salicylic acid.
DeleteHave an answer to David's puzzle, but it is somewhat fuzzy.
ReplyDeletePotential "Oops!" - Trying to prepare my remarks for Thursday, I find it very difficult to get an online definition matching mine of one of my answer words to my puzzle (2). I hope that is not throwing lego off the track. (But Paul got it, so his dialect must be similar to mine.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4Je2WxsqWA
DeleteBob K, please just tell us now. The suspense in the produce department is peary hard to take.
DeleteI guess that means the Fargo clip wasn't a giveaway.
DeleteIt would not play on my device, Paul. . .so the jury is still out (watching youtube clips, I guess).
DeleteWe are all just prisoners, here, of our own device.
DeleteYes, pink chimpagne on ice. Great, great song.
DeleteIt’s a nice change of pace to have a series of posts, none of which ramble on and on for two or three screenfuls, isn’t it?
DeleteLegoRamblin’Man
My three answers to my own puzzles:
ReplyDelete(1) S + CARROT = SCAR, ROT (as a tree, perhaps)
(2) S + PARSNIP = SPAR, SNIP (the one I worried about later, but to me people may SNIP at each other in playful conversation, not to be confused with SNIPE, a much more serious attack)
(3) D + ENDIVE = DEN, DIVE
And of course my reference to a fuzzy answer was a nod to APE ACHES.
BTW, I am quite aware that my contributions are quite inelegant compared to (H)AVOCADO and (A)PEACHES, in that those reconfigure the syllabication of the words, while mine just take the second syllables as they are.
Taking things as they are is also a gift, Bob K.
DeleteBob K, I didn't find your puzzles the least bit inelegant.
DeleteThe captcha I referred to wuz, indeed, Peaches. The only reason I rejected it was because the word it was paired with was too fuzzy to read.
The Fargo clip was a giveaway, I'm afraid, and 'clip" wasn't much better. Sorry about that, Bob. I thought about deleting this morning, but figured the damage was already done, and you're not the kind of guy who'd feed somebody to a wood chipper over one little mistake. You're not, are you, Bob?
Paul,
DeleteThe word paired with “peaches” was too fuzzy to read. Beautiful! Take that, you robots who are trying to post!
My clue alluded to Ty Cobb’s nickname, the Georgia Peach.
I agree with you 100% about the elegance of Bob K.’s puzzles. I could not solve #1 and #2, but, all three of Bob’s efforts are fair, clever and, dare I say, elegant. That’s what I strive for in creating my own puzzles. I’m sure it’s what Dr. Shortz looks for in his NPR puzzles.
To all comment posters:
I want to thank you all for your wonderful posts and patronage this first week at Puzzleria! I hope that more just like you will hop aboard. You have created just the kind of atmosphere here that I had hoped for: encouraging, witty, civil, creative, allusive, interactive, spontaneous and playful. (Reminds me much of Lego’s Crossroads Diner!)
This is more fun than I had ever imagined. I will strive to serve up a varied menu of delicious puzzles every Friday. Please give me feedback on what I could be doing better.
You’re all the best.
LegoGratified/Grateful
Bob K, they are _both_ elegant and as they are, a Killer Kerfuffle Combo.
DeleteApe aches was really fun, David.
Peachy keen fun, Lego. Your civil duty to puzzling is off to a great start!
And, Paul, now I get what the Turing word connection wuz:
DeleteCAPTCHA (an acronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart")