Friday, November 28, 2014

Cold Turkey Sandwich; "Luv" is just a three-letter word; Mr. Ill


























Welcome to Joseph Young’s Puzzle –ria! (The picture above pertains to the bonus [bone-us?] guest puzzle that appears about seven paragraphs down the page.)

Well, it began Thanksgiving Day evening at about sundown and will continue throughout most of Friday, until everything has been picked over and the best stuff is pretty much all gone from the shelves.

Black Friday? That annual bullheaded buyers’ bacchanalia with its deliria of door-busting deals?

Nope. Cold turkey! I’m talkin’ ‘bout the Thanksgiving turkey carcass and carved leftovers -- prime fodder for cold turkey sandwiches -- crammed into the fridge (along with stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes and other microwaveable turkey-day bounty).

Of course, a bit more than a month from now, a different breed of cold turkey will gobble and wobble its way into our holidays. To wit, many of us will make promises to ourselves to “go cold turkey” on Marboros, Big Macs, Michelobs and other perceived vices on New Year’s (Resolution) Day.
 
Speaking of perceived vices, in their quest to achieve a clean 2015 slate, some may resolve to discard “playing stud poker (along with whiskers on kittens,” of course) from their few-of-my-favorite-things list... 

But probably not the six poker-playing guys described in the bonus puzzle below.

The puzzle was created by our “guest gourment French chef,” Monsieur Garcon du Parachutisme (aka “skydiveboy” on the Blainesville blog) He should be familiar to Puzzleria patrons, as we have posted his excellent puzzles in the past. This one is a kind of “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Poker Game.”

Bonus French Chef Slice:
52-Card Poker Pick-up

In a private gaming room at a posh Las Vegas casino six men are playing poker. Going around the table clockwise, Carl is a lawyer who enjoys fine wine. Dan is a banker and loves a dry martini. Ed is a pilot and likes his Jack Daniels neat. Frank is an accountant who prefers Scotch. George is an architect and insists his Manhattans are stirred—not shaken, and Jack is a dentist with a taste for fine cognac.
 
Each of these gentlemen take turns shuffling the cards, which of course are Bicycle, Rider Back, Poker 808, Standard Face alternating between Red and Blue backs. A fresh deck of opposing color is put into play at the end of six rounds, or upon request.
 
After several rounds, when it was his turn to shuffle again, one of these players managed to drop all of the cards face up on the floor. From this information can you determine who is all thumbs and why?


We give thanks to Monsieur Garcon du Parachutisme, our guest French puzzle chef


Here is our menu of this week’s Puzzleria! house slices:

Menu

Ripping Off Shortz Slice…
(aka: Easy As Day-Old Pumpkin Pie Slice):
Cold Turkey Sandwich

That post-Thanksgiving Day favorite, the “COLD TURKEY SANDWICH,” possesses a special alphabetic distinction. What is…

Wait, wait! Will Shortz already broadcast, in essence,  this same puzzle  last April on National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition Sunday! We’d be ripping him off were we to continue with it…

So, we will challenge you instead with:
Explain how the following three sets relate to “COLD TURKEY SANDWICH”: {450, 650} { } {401, 601} 
What three sets be would you associate with “HOT TOFURKEY BURGER”?

Willy-Nilly Slice
Mr. Ill

Name a seven-letter synonym of one or more hyphenated words that begin with “ill-...” 

Reverse its third and fourth letters and change its fifth letter from a vowel to a consonant to form a word that sometimes modifies the word “bill.” 

What are these two words?


“Let’s Get Series” Slice
“Luv” is just a three-letter word

Consider the series of letters below:
E T E O V I E T N N ? ? ?
It begins with the three-letter French word for “summer,” then an O, a competitive and contentious three-letter English verb,  and a former American country music-oriented cable television network. 

The next three letters also spell out a word. What is it?
(Hint: It is not “LUV.”)




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 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 Tuesdays 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 Puzzle -ria! Thank you.

36 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Here are a few weekend clues to prime the puzzle-solving pump:

    Ripping Off Shortz Slice…
    (aka: Easy As Day-Old Pumpkin Pie Slice):
    Cold Turkey Sandwich
    Hint:
    The set for the word CIVIC would be {207}. For VIM it would be {1,004, 1,006}. For MOM it would be {2,000}. GRAMMAR and MAYHEM would each also be {2,000}. MIMIC is {1,902, 2,102}
    (Hope you all are enjoying a great holiday weekend, whether you’re chillin’ at home or roamin’ around visiting relatives.)

    Willy-Nilly Slice
    Mr. Ill
    Hint:
    “Foreboding” is also a synonym of the seven-letter word (which is “a synonym of one or more hyphenated words that begin with “ill-...” )
    The noun form of the “word that sometimes modifies the word ‘bill’” can mean “a public vehicle” or an “anthological book.”

    “Let’s Get Series” Slice
    “Luv” is just a three-letter word
    Hint:
    A simpler (but related) series of letters is:
    N O E F I S V H I E…
    There is a simpler yet (but still related) series of letters that we will post if necessary.

    LegoClueful

    ReplyDelete
  3. Believe it or not, I had Cold Turkey Sandwich without your hint. My hint: Ernest Hemingway.
    And I was making progress with Mr. Ill, but now, thanks to your hint, I can stop.
    Your hint convinces me I'm on the right track with the Series, but I can't define any of the 3 (and probably more) possible patterns.
    As for the poker puzzle, a player's preferred potent potable probably possesses paltry pertinence to the problem as presented. I think somebody's bluffing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I got the ROSSakaEAD-OPPS, with your hint. Still working on the others (unless, "No, I cannot determine who is all thumbs and why" is in fact an answer to the BFCS.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. David,
      Sorry, but "No" is not the answer to BFCS. The puzzle has a legitimate answer.

      Delete
  5. For LGSS, I thought I would say that those of us who write down your series and do figure out and add to it the next three letters which spell out a word, and then on top of that write the simpler (but related) series of letters, also adding the next three letters in that series, and finally add on top of those the simpler yet (but still related) series of letters, again adding the next three letters in that series, so that they all line up; well then I was thinking of saying something like "not to be insulting, but I think you all can go suck on the last 4 letters of that top series!" -- Yeah, I was thinking that, but I checked with dictionary.com and realized that that would be a slight misspelling. (One vowel needs to be changed and then you can all suck on it!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Enya_and_Weird_Al_fan,

      If you spell the synonym for “a dozen” as Italians might pronounce it (see fourth paragraph in link), I think your “slight misspelling” problem just might vanish.

      LuigiLambda

      Delete
  6. Hey legolambda,

    I just realized that for LGSS, come Tuesday, some readers like myself might want to post several rows of letters and would benefit greatly if, by that time, we could have our posts show up here in the "Courier New" font. This will be especially important if a lot of our lines begin with some leading spaces (or periods, if lines of multiple spaces is just impossible to input).

    Would it be possible to edit this page so that new posts show up here in Courier? Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Testing....

    I tried entering the following:
    <FONT face="Courier New">
    ┌───┬───┬───┐
    │ 8 │ 1 │ 6 │
    ├───┼───┼───┤
    │ 3 │ 5 │ 7 │
    ├───┼───┼───┤
    │ 4 │ 9 │ 2 │
    └───┴───┴───┘
    </FONT>

    It said "Your HTML cannot be accepted: Tag is not allowed: FONT" - At least I was able to select that error message and copy it!!

    Yeah, if the above could look nice, that would be great!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Enya_and_Weird_Al_fan,

      Thank you for your generous offer to post your nifty diagram regarding my LGSS puzzle. I will do everything in my questionable power to make that happen, and will try to edit the comments page so that comments show up in the Courier New font.

      Blogger is a pretty user-friendly platform (right word?) for blog posters. (For Pete’s sake, a Luddite such as I am actually running a puzzle blog!) But, still, in a cyberworld full of Lumbergh-like computer wizards, a Luddite I remain.

      As you are well aware, I was able to change the font of my blog page proper, so that the “p” and “g”-descenders in the Hale-Bopp/Hale Boggs puzzle made sense. (Thanks for that, E_a_W_A_f!). So maybe I can figure out how to change the comments page font also. I shall try to make it happen. But, if I hit a snag, I may need help from you or other Puzzlerians!

      Because, as you said, we need me to go ahead and come in on the weekend and fix those fonts. So if I could do that, ”that would be great..

      Thanks!

      LegoLudditeLumberghLackey

      Delete
    2. Thank you, legolambda!

      2nd test: (Do we still need to use periods for multiple spaces?


      ┌────┬────┬────┬────┐
      │ 12 │ 6 │ 3 │ 13 │
      ├────┼────┼────┼────┤
      │ 7 │ 9 │ 16 │ 2 │
      ├────┼────┼────┼────┤
      │ 14 │ 4 │ 5 │ 11 │
      ├────┼────┼────┼────┤
      │ 1 │ 15 │ 10 │ 8 │
      └────┴────┴────┴────┘

      Delete
    3. I guess we do!
      ┌────┬────┬────┬────┐
      │ 12 │ .6 │ .3 │ 13 │
      ├────┼────┼────┼────┤
      │ .7 │ 9 │ 16 │ .2 │
      ├────┼────┼────┼────┤
      │ 14 │ .4 │ .5 │ 11 │
      ├────┼────┼────┼────┤
      │ .1 │ 15 │ 10 │ .8 │
      └────┴────┴────┴────┘

      Delete
    4. ARGHHH!!!! Forgot one of 'em!
      ┌────┬────┬────┬────┐
      │ 12 │ .6 │ .3 │ 13 │
      ├────┼────┼────┼────┤
      │ .7 │ .9 │ 16 │ .2 │
      ├────┼────┼────┼────┤
      │ 14 │ .4 │ .5 │ 11 │
      ├────┼────┼────┼────┤
      │ .1 │ 15 │ 10 │ .8 │
      └────┴────┴────┴────┘

      Delete
  8. One more test: Is the following line too long?

    ╔═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╦═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╗ . ╔═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╦═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╗

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One more test: Is the following line too long?

      . ╔═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╦═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╗ . ╔═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╦═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╗

      Delete
    2. . ╔═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╦═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╗ . ╔═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╦═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╗

      Delete
    3. .╔═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╦═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╗ . ╔═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╦═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╗

      Delete
  9. Now that we're posting in Courier New, I thought I'd bring back a post I made years ago, on the newsgroup rec.puzzles! Some threads had developed regarding magic square constructions and I had remembered a terrific 8x8 square I had discovered that compares very well against a famous one invented by Ben Franklin. Anyway, what follows below is perhaps the second repost of a challenge I had posted, with at that time a second set of extra hints!!

    What's different is I've replaced a lot of +'s, -'s, and |'s with box characters!

    I've also added quite a few alternating spaces and dots (.), for when I'm spacing to keep a second column of text aligned.

    Aw, C'mon! No replies since I posted my last hint?

    *SIGH!* One more time, with a hint to that hint!

    >
    > For the benefit of everyone else who didn't catch my post which
    > began this thread, I'm reposting it now. I'll also add a hint to
    > help out.
    >
    > With the recent thread involving the construction of magic squares,
    > I thought a magic square that *I* had made would be a welcome sight
    > here on rec.puzzles. I thought I'd show mine side-by-side with the
    > well known 8x8 square made by Benjamin Franklin, when it occured to
    > me that by leaving some of the numbers out of my square, I'd be
    > posing a rather challenging puzzle:
    >
    . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . Mine (I've left out some of
    . . . . . Ben Franklin's: . . . . . . . the numbers as a challenge):
    >
    ╔═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╦═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╗ . ╔═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╦═══╤═══╤═══╤═══╗
    ║52 │61 │ 4 │13 ║20 │29 │36 │45 ║ . ║ . │ . │ . │ . ║ . │ . │ . │ . ║
    ╟───┼───┼───┼───╫───┼───┼───┼───╢ . ╟───┼───┼───┼───╫───┼───┼───┼───╢
    ║14 │ 3 │62 │51 ║46 │35 │30 │19 ║ . ║ . │ . │ . │ . ║ . │ . │ . │ . ║
    ╟───┼───┼───┼───╫───┼───┼───┼───╢ . ╟───┼───┼───┼───╫───┼───┼───┼───╢
    ║53 │60 │ 5 │12 ║21 │28 │37 │44 ║ . ║ . │ . │ . │ . ║ . │ . │ . │ . ║
    ╟───┼───┼───┼───╫───┼───┼───┼───╢ . ╟───┼───┼───┼───╫───┼───┼───┼───╢
    ║11 │ 6 │59 │54 ║43 │38 │27 │22 ║ . ║ . │ . │ . │ . ║ . │ . │ . │ . ║
    ╠═══╪═══╪═══╪═══╬═══╪═══╪═══╪═══╣ . ╠═══╪═══╪═══╪═══╬═══╪═══╪═══╪═══╣
    ║55 │58 │ 7 │10 ║23 │26 │39 │42 ║ . ║ . │ . │ . │ . ║ . │ . │ . │ . ║
    ╟───┼───┼───┼───╫───┼───┼───┼───╢ . ╟───┼───┼───┼───╫───┼───┼───┼───╢
    ║ 9 │ 8 │57 │56 ║41 │40 │25 │24 ║ . ║ . │ . │ . │ . ║ . │ . │ . │ . ║
    ╟───┼───┼───┼───╫───┼───┼───┼───╢ . ╟───┼───┼───┼───╫───┼───┼───┼───╢
    ║50 │63 │ 2 │15 ║18 │31 │34 │47 ║ . ║ . │ . │ . │ . ║ . │ . │ . │ . ║
    ╟───┼───┼───┼───╫───┼───┼───┼───╢ . ╟───┼───┼───┼───╫───┼───┼───┼───╢
    ║16 │ 1 │64 │49 ║48 │33 │32 │17 ║ . ║ 1 │ . │ . │ . ║ . │ . │ . │ . ║
    ╚═══╧═══╧═══╧═══╩═══╧═══╧═══╧═══╝ . ╚═══╧═══╧═══╧═══╩═══╧═══╧═══╧═══╝
    >
    (End of part one.)

    ReplyDelete
  10. >
    > . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Properties:
    >
    > 1. All rows and columns add to . .. 1. All rows and columns add to
    >. . 260 stopping halfway at 130. . . .. 260 stopping halfway at 130.
    >. . Main diagonals do NOT add to . . .. Main diagonals ALSO make 260
    >. . 260, however. . . . . . . . . . . . ALSO stopping halfway at 130.
    >
    > 2. All bent diagonals & parallel .. 2. All the same bent diagonals &
    >. . bent diagonals add to 260. . . . .. parallel bent diagonals add
    >. . Ex: from 9 diagonally up to 12, . . to 260, but broken diagonals
    >. . plus 21 diagonally down to 24. . .. ALSO add to 260!
    >
    >. . Ben probably considered his . . . . So mine is THREE times as
    >. . square to be twice as magical . . . magical as normal pandiagonal
    >. . as pandiagonal magic squares, . . . magic squares and HALF AGAIN
    >. . since there are twice as many . . . as magical as Ben's!
    >. . bent diagonals and parallel bent
    >. . diagonals as broken diagonals.
    >
    > 3. The shortend bent diagonal, . .. 3. The same shortend bent
    >. . from 53 up to 4 and 29 down to . .. diagonal, (now with different
    >. . 44, with the top two corners . . .. numbers) with the top two
    >. . adds to 260. . . . . . . . . . . .. corners adds to 260.
    >
    >. . You can slide this configuration .. You can also slide this
    >. . up and down and it remains magic; . configuration up and down AND
    >. . that is, the numbers within the . . ALSO ROTATE IT 90 degrees
    >. . configuration still add to 260. . . left or right and IT STILL
    > . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. remains magic!
    >
    > 4. The two-piece diagonals around 4. The two-piece diagonals
    >. . the corners: 14, 61, 36, 19, . . .. around the corners also add
    >. . 47, 32, 1 and 50 add to 260 and . . to 260 and can be divided in
    >. . can be divided in half top and . .. half top and bottom OR left
    >. . bottom to make 130. . . . . . . . . and right to make 130!
    >
    > 5. All 2x2 subsquares within Ben's 5. Same property.
    >. . magic square add to 130.
    >
    > To help you fill in the numbers (after all, there ARE 2^6 * 6! magic
    > squares all having the properties I've listed; 2^3 * 6! if you don't
    > count rotations and reflections; just as there are 2^6 * 6! magic
    > squares all having the same properties of Ben Franklin's magic square;
    > 2^4 * 6! if you don't count all the rotations and reflections of his
    > square -- and no, that's not a misprint; since some properties of
    > Ben's square no longer hold if for example, his square is rotated 90
    > degrees clockwise) - *anyway* - to help you narrow it down:
    >
    > 1/4 of all the numbers 1-64 occur in the SAME POSITIONS in my square
    > as in Ben Franklin's square. *WHEW!* - That narrows it down to
    > just 4 possible answers! And finally:
    >
    > The number 1 is in the lower left corner in my magic square. In fact,
    > the entire ascending main diagonal consists of 1, 10, and those
    > numbers up to 64 whose digits ADD to 10. As a matter of fact, that
    > last clue I give you was an extra freebie, since once I told you that
    > 1 was in the bottom left corner, you now had EVERY CLUE you needed in
    > order to figure out MY magic square!
    (End of part two.)

    ReplyDelete
  11. >
    > Now,
    >
    > 1st new hint since my original post:
    >
    > Consider properties 1, 2, and 5 which I claim my own magic square
    > to have: What property can you conclude that ALL 4 QUADRANTS of my
    > square MUST have in order for my square to be able to have those 3
    > properties?
    > (It's a property which the quadrants of Ben's square DO NOT have!)
    >
    > If you know what that property is, you'll know where 64 must go!

    Now a hint to the above hint:

    Property #5, about all 2x2 subsquares throughout the square adding to
    the same total, is actually a pretty powerful property having some
    consequences:

    Consequence #1: All subsquares of even by even dimension have their
    . . . . . . . . 4 corners adding to the same total as the 2x2
    . . . . . . . . subsquares.

    Consequence #2: All subsquares of even by odd dimension have the sum
    . . . . . . . . of the 2 corners on one even side equal to the sum of
    . . . . . . . . the 2 corners on the other even side.

    Consequence #3: All subsquares of odd by odd dimension have the sums
    . . . . . . . . of the two pairs of opposite corners equal to each
    . . . . . . . . other.

    ┌───┬───┬───┬───┐ Consequence #4: In any 4x4 subsquare, the sum of
    │ . │ a │ b │ . │ . . . . . . . . one broken diagonal added to the
    ├───┼───┼───┼───┤ . . . . . . . . sum of the same broken diagonal
    │ . │ b │ a │ . │ . . . . . . . . rotated 90 degrees adds to twice
    ├───┼───┼───┼───┤ . . . . . . . . the sum of any 2x2 square.
    │ b │ . │ . │ a │
    ├───┼───┼───┼───┤ Consequence #5: Likewise, the sum of one broken
    │ a │ . │ . │ b │ . . . . . . . . diagonal equals itself rotated
    └───┴───┴───┴───┘ . . . . . . . . 180 degrees.

    Now for any parallel bent diagonal in my 8x8 square, what conclusion
    can you make regarding the sum of the two closest fitting broken
    diagonals in 2 of the quadrants?

    For any broken diagonal in the 8x8, can you make the same conclusion
    in *its* two closest fitting quadrants broken diagonals?

    Can you force a conclusion regarding ALL broken diagonals within each
    quadrant of my 8x8?

    Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Enya_and_Weird_Al_fan,

      And, boy, a little Courier font goes a long way!

      I am honored that you have posted your magic square puzzle on Puzzleria! I hope you get some responses from people who appreciate your fine mathematical puzzle achievement. It does indeed sound like a mega-magic square, judging from your instructions, clues and comments. Thank you.

      Magic squares are not in my wheelhouse, but I will do some research. Your terminology is new to me (“broken diagonals,” “subsquares of odd-by-odd dimension”). I will try to bone up a bit via DuckDuckGoing. (I can barely handle simple 3X3 magic squares, and even 4X4s are like rocket surgery for me!)

      In the meantime I am happy to just to be a “Courier” conveying your message to people much brighter that I.

      LegoWhenI’mSixty-Foursquare

      Delete
  12. WARNING!

    Puzzlerians!
    Please do not post solutions you may have found to this week’s Bonus French Chef Slice: 52-Card Poker Pick-up!

    We are allowing you to work on it for an additional week. I strongly believe you will enjoy solving it, if you can just approach it in the right way.


    This excellent and clever (IMO) bonus poker puzzle that Monsieur Garcon du Parachutisme (aka “skydiveboy”) has created and shared with us took me more than one week to solve, but I finally did solve it. You can too, I am sure.

    Although we ask you not to reveal your solutions, we do encourage you to let us know if you think you have solved it, and to give subtle hints, of course.

    If you have any questions or requests for clarification about the puzzle, it is possible that the guest French Puzzle Chef himself might respond.

    Shoot, that would be like having an audience with the pope, or getting a personal response from Dr. Shortz! (without the lapel pin, of course)

    Thank you.

    LegoBonusWeekForOurBonusPuzzle

    ReplyDelete
  13. Willy-Nilly Slice:
    Until your “foreboding hint,” I thought I had it, but once again I have an “unintended answer:”
    ILL-ADAPTED/ILL-FOUNDED, etc.
    Synonym = UNFIXED, invert 3rd & 4th letters and change 5th letter (a consonant) to a vowel (I think this was the condition of your original formulation) = UNIFIED. A “UNIFIED veterans BILL” or a “UNIFIED Heath Care BILL,” etc.

    With the “foreboding hint,” I have ILL-FATED/ILL-OMENED>>>OMINOUS>>>OMNIBUS Trade Bill.

    EAOPPS:
    COLD contains two possible Roman Numerals: CDL (450) & DCL (650). TURKEY contains NO Roman numerals. SANDWICH contains two possible Roman Numerals: CDI (401) & DCI (601). So HOT TOFURKEY BURGER contains NO Roman Numerals!

    LGSS:
    Each letter in the series is contained in its corresponding number onE, Two, threE, fOur, fiVe, sIx, sEven, eighT, Nine, teN, so 3-letter words that can be made from the letters in ELEVEN, TWELVE & THIRTEEN are several EWE, LEI, EVE, LET, VET, NET, et al.

    ReplyDelete
  14. { } { } { } --> Nada, y pues nada, y pues nada

    BUS STOP

    ONE
    TWO
    THREE
    FOUR
    FIVE
    SIX
    SEVEN
    EIGHT
    NINE
    TEN
    ??????????????? Reminds me of change ringing

    I call.

    ReplyDelete
  15. LGSS:

    . . . . . . . . . . . . T
    . . . . . . . . . . . T H
    . . . . . . . . . . E W I
    . . . . . . . . . T L E R
    . . . . . . . . N E E L T
    . . . . . . . E I N V V E
    . . . . . . S I N T E E E
    . . . . . S E G E E N T N
    . . . . F I V H N N E W T
    . . . F I X E T I T L E H
    . . T O V S N E N E E L I
    . T H U E I S I E N V V R
    O W R R F X E G N T E E T <== simpler yet (but still related) series of letters
    N O E F I S V H I E N T E <== simpler (but related) series of letters
    E T E O V I E T N N E W E <== Given puzzle
    . W . U E X N . E . L E N
    . O . R . . . . . . E L
    . . . . . . . . . . V V
    . . . . . . . . . . E E
    . . . . . . . . . . N

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  16. Sorry, tryimg again.

    LGSS:
    . . . . . . . . . . . . T
    . . . . . . . . . . . T H
    . . . . . . . . . . E W I
    . . . . . . . . . T L E R
    . . . . . . . . N E E L T
    . . . . . . . E I N V V E
    . . . . . . S I N T E E E
    . . . . . S E G E E N T N
    . . . . F I V H N N E W T
    . . . F I X E T I T L E H
    . . T O V S N E N E E L I
    . T H U E I S I E N V V R
    O W R R F X E G N T E E T <== simpler yet (but still related) series
    N O E F I S V H I E N T E <== simpler (but related) series of letters
    E T E O V I E T N N E W E <== Given puzzle
    . W . U E X N . E . L E N
    . O . R . . . . . . E L
    . . . . . . . . . . V V
    . . . . . . . . . . E E
    . . . . . . . . . . N

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    1. Well. nobody ever said a child could understand it.

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  17. Excellent work, as usual, ron, Paul and Enya_and_Weird_Al_fan! (No offense, Enya_and_Weird_Al_fan, I luv ya and all. But wouldn’t it have been better if Libertarian Math Professor would have posted a comment immediately after ron and Paul?)

    ron, unified/unfixed is a very good alternative for the W-NS.
    Paul and ron: your LGSS answers remind me (and probably you!) of Will’s set of teeth puzzle.
    Paul, tell me more about BUS STOP.
    Luv the “change ringing” link. Great exercise. Beautiful bells. Better than “change ringing” in your pocket!

    Telephone booth phone ringing: 25 cents…
    Pocket change ringing: 57 cents…
    Ringling Brothers Circus tickets: $40
    Diamond ringing: Two months’ salary…
    Change Ringing: Priceless!

    Great creativity. Great intelligence. Great thinking outside the Puzzleria! Puzzle box.

    I encourage you and all Puzzlerians! to give skydiveboy’s poser a(nother) go. He is, after all, a M
    aster French Puzzle Chef!

    Also, can anyone crack Enya_and_Weird_Al_fan’s mammoth magic square?

    BTW, thanks for your courier-font charts/matrices for the LGSS, Enya_and_Weird_Al_fan.

    Lego...

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    1. Re: BUS STOP
      In my November 29, 2014 at 11:51 AM comment, I hinted that I was able to STOP working on the 'Mr. Ill' puzzle when the 'foreboding' hint made it clear that 'omniBUS' was the answer.

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  20. Now, for the record, this week’s answers:

    Bonus French Chef Slice:
    52-Card Poker Pick-up
    We are giving Puzzlerians! an additional week to work on this excellent bonus puzzle created by Monsieur Garcon du Parachutisme (aka skydiveboy).

    Ripping Off Shortz Slice…
    (aka: Easy As Day-Old Pumpkin Pie Slice):
    Cold Turkey Sandwich
    Explain how the following three sets relate to “COLD TURKEY SANDWICH”: {450, 650} { } {401, 601}
    What three sets be would you associate with “HOT TOFURKEY BURGER”?
    Answer:
    COLD contains three Roman numeral letters, CLD, which can be used to form Roman numerals DLC (450) and DCL (650). Since TURKEY contains no Roman numeral letters, no Roman numerals can be formed; thus, the empty set, { }. The D, I and C in SANDWICH can be used to form CDI (401) and DCI (601).
    HOT TOFURKEY BURGER contains no Roman numeral letters. Thus the three sets are empty:
    { } { } { }

    Willy-Nilly Slice
    Mr. Ill
    Name a seven-letter synonym of one or more hyphenated words that begin with “ill-...”
    Reverse its third and fourth letters and change its fifth letter from a vowel to a consonant to form a word that sometimes modifies the word “bill.”
    What are these two words?
    Answer:
    OMINOUS > OMNIBUS (See omnibus bill.)
    The “one or more hyphenated words that begin with ill-” include “ill-fated,” “ill-omened,” “ill-starred” and “ill” itself.

    “Let’s Get Series” Slice
    “Luv” is just a three-letter word
    Consider the series of letters below:
    E T E O V I E T N N ? ? ?
    It begins with the three-letter French word for “summer,” then an O, a “competitive and contentious” three-letter English verb, and a former American country music-oriented cable television network.
    The next three letters also spell out a word. What is it?
    (Hint: It is not “LUV.”)
    Answer: EWE
    Spell out the counting numbers so that they repeat in an endless string of letters (for example, oneoneone…, twotwotwo…) E, the first letter in the sequence, is the third letter in onEone… T is the fourth letter in twoTwo… E is the fifth letter in threEthree…
    Generally, the Nth letter in the sequence is the (2 + N)th letter in N (spelled out endlessly). For example, the 11th letter in the sequence is the (2 + 11)th letter (that is, 13th letter) in the letter-string ELEVENELEVENELEVEN; the 12th letter in the sequence is the (2 + 12)th letter (that is, 14th letter) in the letter-string TWELVETWELVETWELVE, and the 13th letter in the sequence is the (2 + 13)th (that is, 15th letter) in the letter-string THIRTEENTHIRTEENT…

    In my November 29, 11:07 AM comment, I wrote:
    A simpler (but related) series of letters is:
    N O E F I S V H I E…
    In that case, the Nth letter in the sequence is the (1 + N)th letter in N (spelled out endlessly).
    The a simpler yet (but still related) series of letters (that we would have posted if necessary is:
    O W R R F X E G N T…, in which the Nth letter in the sequence is the Nth letter in N (spelled out endlessly).

    Lego…

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  22. Okay, Puzzlerians!, regarding the LGSS, I have a mathematical question (I think it is mathematical anyway) that is beyond my ken. The answer is perhaps trivial, but I am not sure. Anyway, it is bugging me.

    Take the positive integers, from 1 to infinity, and “spell them out over and over endlessly,” as we did in this LGSS. (I know, I know. This is a formidable chore, not one that you want to see on your weekend honey-do list.)

    Let X be an integer and N be a positive integer. Use the algorithm we used in the LGSS puzzle for generating sequences of letters (namely, “the Nth letter of the sequence is the (X + N)th letter in N, when spelled out endlessly.”) Does each positive value of X yield a unique series?

    If not, “Show me the series!” (That is show me the two values of X which yield identical series.)

    But if so, can this be proven?

    We have already shown (actually Enya_and_Weird_Al_fan has shown) that for X = 2, X = 1 and X = 0, those series are at least different from one another. But, are they unique when you consider all values for X?

    LegoLikeAHoneyDon’tList

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  23. Not a proof but how to calculate the number of lines it takes for a repeating sequence.

    Take the length of the number word (the length of ‘one’ is 3, the length of ‘two’ is 3, the length of ‘three’ is 5, the length of ‘four’ is 4, …, the length of ‘eleven’ is 6, …, the length of ‘thirteen’ is 8, …, the length of ‘fifteen’ is 7, …).

    For numbers one through x, the sequence will repeat every N lines, where N is the product of the prime factors of the length of the word, each prime repeated so that you can calculate each word length as a product of the primes.

    The prime factor of ‘one’ and ‘two’ is 3, so if x is 1 or 2, the sequence repeats every 3 lines.

    The prime factor of ‘three’ is 5, so if x is 3, the sequence repeats every 3*5=15 lines.

    The prime factors of ‘four’ is 2*2, so if x is 4, the sequence repeats every 2*2*3*5=60 lines. (Since the word lengths of ‘five’ through ‘ten’ are the same as lower numbers, the sequence repeats every 60 lines for x=4 through x=10.)

    The prime factors of ‘eleven’ (and ‘twelve’) is 2*3, which are already included in the prime factors of 60, so the sequence still repeats every 60 lines for x=11 and x=12.

    The prime factors of ‘thirteen’ (and ‘fourteen’) are 2*2*2. Since we now need one more 2, the sequence repeats every 2*2*2*3*5=120 lines for x=13 and x=14.

    The prime factor of ‘fifteen’ is 7, so if x=15, the sequence repeats every 2*2*2*3*5*7=840 lines.

    The next increase is at ‘seventeen’, prime factors 3*3, so if x=17, the sequence repeats every 2*2*2*3*3*5*7=2520 lines.

    Etc.

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    1. David,
      Beautiful! You should be a math instructor. Thank you.

      LegoPastMyPrimeNonFactor

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