"Take this giblet and stuff it!"; Centrifugal Synonyms; Greatful Books

Welcome to Joseph Young’s Puzzle –ria!

This week we would like to give thanks for… Thanksgiving. It is our favorite major American holiday. But why, you (“yam” backwards) ask, should we be thankful for Thanksgiving Day?

First: It is probably the most “inclusive” of our holidays. Giving thanks is universal, cutting across cultures and perhaps even species (for example, tail-wagging, purring, etc.).

People of all faiths and non-faiths can participate in Thanksgiving. You can thank God for blessing you with life and gifts. Or you can thank Grandma for preparing the turkey and trimmings, your brother Mike for repairing your antediluvian basement fusebox, your wife for sharing her life (and salted caramel ice cream) with you, or your pal Winthrop for sparing you embarrassment during his preprandial toast by not spilling the beans (and the bubbly) about the time you filched sherry and whiskey from your dad’s liquor cabinet. and prosheeded to turn all the digital clocksh in the housh up-shide down.

 

Second: Thanksgiving is the least commercial of our major holidays. Granted, the mercantile mayhem (marking the advent of Christmas shopping) known as Black Friday is bleeding backward into November’s fourth Thursday. But even so, Thanksgiving Day remains a relatively lean slice of deli turkey sandwiched between thick slabs of Halloween “Pumpkinickel” and Yuletide fruitcake.

Third: A long weekend! (Actually, four-sevenths of a week qualifies as more than just an “-end.”

Fourth: football, football, football… if you’re into that brand of mayhem.

Fifth: of bourbon…. No, no, wait! Fifth: On Thanksgiving Thursday (and every Thursday, for that matter), Puzzleria! looms just around the corner. As the weekend grows nigh, it seems folks just get hungry and “Thursday” for fine puzzle slices washed down with drinks of refreshing thinking..

But before this week’s main course is served, here’s an appetizer-puzzler to whet your appetite. In the following passage, each string of uppercase letters can be rearranged to form a word or words associated with Thanksgiving. The number of words appears in parentheses after the uppercase letters.

If you are having difficulty solving these anagrams, here is a helpful link.

Thanks for Giving the Memory

We always had to snowshoe over the frozen river and through the snowy woods to go to Gramps and Grammar Lambda’s house for Thanksgiving dinner. Their home was nestled like A NORDIC INN (2) on the north shore of northwestern Minnesota’s VAGABOND BIERS LAKE (3).

Each year, Grammar’s fur-dyed-fuchsia French poodle, MS. PINKIE PUP (2), would greet us at the door with yips of joy (or perhaps it was jealously?). Often her flapping jowls would betray the TINIEST DROOL (2), evidence that Cousin Yancey had once again this Thanksgiving slipped a whiskey mickey into her water dish.

Later, when the increasingly MUDDLING PUP (2) began to wobble, weave and slur her yips, Grammar, her mind still quick as a PYTHON TRAP (1), would unravel Yancey's mischief and proceed to track him down so that she could SOB, WHINE (1), kvetch and moan to his face. Yancey would eventually skulk away to Grampa’s den to sulk and nurse his own whiskey sour and Dutch Masters cigar, tail between his legs.

In the MEANTIME, EPIC (2) culinary activity is taking place in Grammar’s warm and aromatic kitchen. As Uncle Winthrop spices the beef for the GROUND ROAST, HE HEMS (2) and haws, trying to explain sheepishly to his fellow food preparers why hash is a dish preferable to turkey, or even mutton, say, on this august November day.

Aunt Gert checks on the status of her signature CEDAR SAP YAMS (2), bubbling in the oven at 325 degrees. In 1963 Gert thought that for a change she’d pay homage to the pilgrims’ and Indians’ first Thankgiving by making an Indian dish. She bought beans, rice, ginger and other spices from her local Piggly Wiggly. Alas the beans were rancid and many Lambda-family guests got nauseous eating her curry dish. After that BEAN CURRY SCARE (2), we are all thankful she has since forsworn Indian cuisine in favor of her more traditional signature yams!

Over by the back burner, Cousin Yancey (no longer sulking but still suckling on his stogie and sour) is demonstrating his LAID-BACK FRY (2) technique on beer-battered green beans, flipping them like flapjacks in his pan. Ms. Pinkie Pup scavenges at his feet, gobbling down any greasy floor-flopped flotsam that falls into her yap.

While Cousin Lulu stirs her pesto brown rice pilaf, Zuzu, the wife of our hosts’ pastor (who is related to a South-African archbishop!), heats up her spinach pesto pasta on the stovetop, thereby foreordaining that we must EAT TWO PESTO (2) dishes!

Uncle Alf sits in the corner, assiduously concocting his Lambda family-favorite GALLON-OF-PORT FLAMBE (4), hoping to make a dent in the monopoly enjoyed by each year’s deluge of dessert pies.

As we are about to gather round the dining room table to pray, Aunt Willa  a vegan, scurries past and plucks from the fridge freezer an ICY EGG, SARAN(2)-wrapped, hard-boiled and hard-frozen, then drops it atop Lulu’s pilaf to thaw, just as the REV. SHAMAN TUTU (2) begins to pray:

“Lord, the whirlwind we hast reaped HATH DUSTY FUROR (2). Refreshest thou our soil with thy rain and our souls with thy holy reign. COMPLY THOU ONLY (2) if we obeyest thy commands. Amen.”

Grammar thanks the parson and, as we all settle into our seats, we admire her familiar centerpiece that doubles as a relish dish, chock-full of peonies, posies, LILIES, YOGURT, BRIE cheese (2) and pickles. Before Grammar settles into her own seat, like a schoolmarm passing out an assignment, she hands to each of us a harvest print napkin to TUCK UNDER (1) our belts, which are about to be loosened a notch or two.

Look for answers next Tuesday. Now, here is this week’s main course, served Puzzleria!-style, of course.

Menu

Easy As Pumpkin Pie Slice:

Centrifugal Synonyms

Think of a word associated with Thanksgiving that has an odd number of letters. Picture the word as a “spinning propeller” with the central letter as its hub. Starting from the center, “centrifugally” spell out the letters of each of the two “blades,” from innermost to outermost, but do not include the “hub-letter.” You will form two words that are synonyms.

What are these synonyms and this Thanksgiving word?  

Literary Slice:

Greatful Books

Think of a word associated with Thanksgiving. Replace its first, fourth and sixth letters with three different letters, and divide the result in two to reveal an author’s last name followed by the title of a work of fiction written by that author. 

What are the word, the author and the work of fiction?

Occupational Slice:

Take this giblet and stuff it!

Think of a word associated with Thanksgiving. Insert a letter in its middle, creating a new word which denotes an occupation practiced by three characters: one portrayed on a television series guest appearance by a two-time Best Actress Oscar winner; another portrayed by an actor who won five Emmy Awards in the role; and a third portrayed in a film by a member of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. 

What are these two words?

(Hint: The occupation has a synonym whose first letter has a Scrabble value three points greater than the Scrabble sum of its remaining letters.) 

David’s Run-of-the-miles Slice:

Kleinucopia

Take a word associated with the Thanksgiving Day feast. Remove one letter from the inside of the word and read inside-out in both directions from there. You will get two movie titles.

Hint: Although the puzzle instructs you to “remove one letter from inside of the word,” you may also “remove a mess of letters from the inside of the bird!”

Note: This puzzle was created by the Puzzleria! blog commenter (and exceptional long-distance runner) whose screen name is David. (His astute comments can also be found on other blogs such as “Blaine’s Puzzle Blog”  and “An Englishman Solves American Puzzles,” and “Partial Ellipsis Of The Sun.” We are giving him thanks for letting us “package” his puzzle here.) 
-- LegoLambda

 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.