PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 132 SERVED
This past week’s
National Public Radio Weekend Edition Sunday Puzzle by Will Shortz went something like this:
“Name a famous
person in Washington, D.C. – 7 letters in the first name, 5 letters in the
last. Drop the last sound in the last name. The result – phonetically – will be
the first and last name of a famous living entertainer. Who is it?”
In our opinion, depending on
how Will defines “sound” and “famous,” there will be either one or two legitimate
answer(s).
The famous Washingtonian in Will’s likely intended answer is a member
of the president’s Cabinet. The famous Washingtonian in a possible alternative answer
is a member of the Senate.
Here is a “piggyback”
puzzle to Will Shortz's Sunday offering. Alternative answers are encouraged:
Best Beltway Seller
Name a famous
person in Washington, D.C. – 8 letters in the first name, 5 letters in the
last. Remove the name of a fashion/lifestyle magazine that appears in the person’s
first name and place a “t” in the center of what remains, forming a new first
name.
Change a vowel
in the person’s last name to a consonant and rearrange the result to form a new
last name. These new names belong to an American best-selling author.
Who are these
two people?
In her June 8 at 10:17 PM comment last week, Puzzleria! poster ViolinTeddy invoked the name
of Sir Lawrence Olivier, who eventually became Lord Olivier. It reminded me of
a doggerelical quatrain I wrote years ago:
Degrees of
Olivity
Lord Lawrence, whom oodles of lady leads kissed,
Was more of
an Olive than Oliver Twist,
Who in turn was
more Olive than Popeye’s best goyle…
Though of all
had her hair the Oliviest coyle!
ViolinTeddy’s
comment also prompted me to compose an equally god-awful version one of those “St. Peter at the Pearly Gates”
jokes:
It is July 11, 1989.
Lord Lawrence Olivier approaches St. Peter at the Pearly Gates of Heaven. A few
others are milling about including a scruffy bearded fellow in sandals and a robe with
a big honkin’ halo hovering above his head. 
St. Peter invites
Olivier to take a seat in the Pearly Gate lobby and proceeds to thumb through
some scrolls that presumably document accounts of the lives of the
heaven-or-hell-bound. Olivier takes a seat and thumbs through a recent Variety
magazine. The bearded dude sits down next to Olivier and thumbs through an old
dog-eared Time magazine with the words “Is God Dead?” on the cover.
After a few
minutes St. Peter peers over his spectacles in the direction of Olivier and the
bearded dude, and says, “Lord, I’m not sure where this guy should go, up or
down. What do you think?”
“Well,” Olivier replies, “judging
from his choice of reading material, I’m inclined to say he would have to go
down.”
“I beg your
pardon,” St. Peter says, “I was talking to Jesus.”
Enough with the funny business. Enough with the doggerel. Enough with the pearls of pretentious pseudo-wisdom. It is time to enjoy some
pearls of puzzledom:
MENU
And Per Se And Slice
Circuitously-to-television movie
Take a movie
with an ampersand (&) in its title and change the & to an “and.” From this
result delete two strings of three consecutive letters each to reveal the name of a
character on a past television situation comedy. What is this
movie and who is this sitcom character?
Hint: The six
deleted letters can be rearranged to form the first six letters of a large U.S.
city. The remaining letters of the city spell out the first two letters of two
other characters in the sitcom.
Devil’s
Workshop Slice
Tea &Nidol
Add to the end
of the first name of a former teen idol a physical feature that likely added to
the idol’s popularity. Remove the initial letter from the result to form a term for people this
idol worked with and dated.
Who is the
idol? What is the physical feature? Who are the people the teen idol worked with and dated?
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 Puzzleria! Thank you.
Based on the title of his first, I decided I would never read any of the NRPS's author's books.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed your Olive ditty, Lego.
ReplyDeleteOlive, Olivier, Oliviest. . .
Lego,
ReplyDeleteI never heard of this author.
I got to wondering while bike riding today; is last week the first time you received a Grant for your puzzle blog?
David,
DeleteBo knows SchembelambdaDiddy?
Word Woman,
Thank you. Coulda been worse… worst… really execrable.
skydiveboy,
Yes, last week was the first time I received a Grant. Grants are fine. But what I really want is a Grand (Grover), 5Grand (Madison), 10Grand (Chase) or 100Grand (Wilson).
LegoHighestUncommonDenomination
Lego,
DeleteYou sound like an ingrate on a grand scale.
Don't sell me short, skydiveboy... I'm a tremendously, great grand ingrate.
ReplyDeleteLegoLelihu
Slouching Towards Gomorrah, Lego? If so, just remember, you won't be the first to be Borked.
DeleteTake a movie with an ampersand in its title which comes irritatingly close to providing an answer for APSAS. Get rid of that ampersand. Don't replace it with anything; just get rid of it. While you're at it, get rid of all spaces and/or punctuation, too, so it's just a string of letters. The less sensitive you are with respect to case, the better.
ReplyDeleteNow the title of a very popular 21st century TV series may jump out and poke you in the eye. Get rid of that, too. Tell the remaining letters to close ranks. Then ask one of those letters to move to the end of the string (i.e., to your far right). Close ranks again, and , if you and I have both done our jobs here, you'll have something quite tasty (so I'm told), although you might choose an alternate spelling.
I just posted over at AESAP’s and Blaine’s blogs shamelessly plugging Puzzleria!... as well as Paul’s wonderful piggyback ampersand puzzle. And I complimented him on his puzzle-writing skills.
DeleteI added that the “Devil Advocate Slice, Tea & Nidol” is somewhat related to Will’s NPR puzzle, and presumably more challenging. Is it more challenging?
LegoCamperBandBeethoven
There is also a relation to the 6/14/15 NYT Sunday Crossword. The answer to 31 down ("Any member of One Direction") is:
DeleteT
E
E
N
I
D
O
L
David,
DeleteHappy 44th anniversary. McCovey, Reggie, Hank… You’re in good company.
I gather that you solve NYT crossword puzzles; have you ever created one?
LegoBackStreetBoysWereteeNidoLsToo
Yes, Happy 44th, David and Rose. Did you enjoy Portland's roses with your Rose?
DeleteThanks, but see my 12:37 pm post over at Blaine's.
DeleteThe NPR puzzle this week reads:
ReplyDeleteThink of an adjective that describes many shampoos. Add the brand name of a shampoo in its basic form. The result, reading the letters in order from left to right, will name a famous musician. Who is it?
Quick NPR puzzle clue: An item in today’s news.
Quick clue for our Devil’s Advocate Slice, Tea & Nidol:
The initials of the teen idol’s first and last name are the first letters of one of God’s creatures greater-than-smaller that was a part of a Puzzleria! answer in December.
LegoLeaventhHourHinter
Lilo & Stitch
ReplyDeleteLilo and Stitch
Lilitch
#%@!\^!#$@?
Lilo & Stitch
LILOSTITCH
LIITCH
LITCHI (lychee)
Mr. Smith ?
DeleteThe only one I have is NRPS:
ReplyDeleteMICHELLE OBAMA. Remove the magazine ELLE and add a T to the middle of what's left to yield MITCH, then change an A in OBAMA to an L and rearrange to obtain ALBOM, MITCH ALBOM, “an American best-selling author.”
ron,
DeleteMichelleand Mitch are both on the money.
Paul,
I like your Lilo & Stitch puzzle. I didn’t get it, but I like it. I was trying to make “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” work… because of your red herring (!) hints that “While you're at it, get rid of all spaces and/or punctuation, too, so it's just a string of letters. The less sensitive you are with respect to case, the better.”
Puzzlerians!,
Regarding this hint I posted earlier today for the Devil’s Workshop Slice:
“Quick clue for our Devil’s Workshop (Freudian slip when I wrote "Advocate" earlier) Slice, Tea & Nidol:
The initials of the teen idol’s first and last name are the first letters of one of God’s creatures greater-than-smaller that was a part of a Puzzleria! answer in December…”
It was that Denver Bronco/Indianapolis Colt/NFL GAME/FLAGMAN puzzle.
LegoIWonderIfSirPaulEverSang”Michelle”ForMyFormerRepMicheleBachman
APSAS hint:
ReplyDeleteAn earlier movie with an ampersand in the title included a minor character with an unusual first name that rhymed with the first name listed in the APSAS puzzle. Her boyfriend in the movie was an actor known mainly for his comedic roles. His character hailed from Wisconsin. The actress had an unusual first name that was the same as her last name.
LegoGeneGeneTheDancingMachine
This week’s answers, for the record:
ReplyDeleteNational Radio Public Slice:
Best Beltway Seller
Name a famous person in Washington, D.C. – 8 letters in the first name, 5 letters in the last. Remove the name of a fashion/lifestyle magazine that appears in the person’s first name and place a “t” in the center of what remains, forming a new first name.
Change a vowel in the person’s last name to a consonant and rearrange the result to form a new last name. These new names belong to an American best-selling author.
Who are these two people?
Answer:
Michelle Obama; Mitch Albom
MICHELLE – ELLE = MICH + T = MITCH
OBAMA + L – A = OBAML >> ALBOM
And Per Se And Slice
Circuitously-to-television movie
Take a movie with an ampersand (&) in its title and change the & to an “and.” From this result delete two strings of three consecutive letters each to reveal the name of a character on a past television situation comedy. What is this movie and who is this sitcom character?
Hint: The six deleted letters can be rearranged to form the first six letters of a large U.S. city. The remaining letters of the city spell out the first two letters of two other characters in the sitcom.
Answer:
Thelma & Louise; Thelma Lou
THELMA & LOUISE >> THELMA AND LOUISE – (AND + ISE) = THELMA LOU
AND + ISE >> SAN DIE__ >> SAN DIEGO
GO >> GOmer & GOober Pyle, cousins and car mechanics
Devil’s Workshop Slice
Tea &Nidol
Add to the end of the first name of a former teen idol a physical feature that likely added to the idol’s popularity. Remove the initial letter from the result to form a term for people this idol worked with and dated.
Who is the idol? What is the physical feature? Who are the people the teen idol worked with and dated?
Answer:
Zac Efron; Tresses; Actresses
ZAC + TRESSES – Z = ACTRESSES
Lego…
Another NPR Piggyback Puzzle:
ReplyDeleteThink of an adjective that describes some shampoos. Add the brand name of a shampoo. The result, reading the letters in order from left to right, is the last name of a not-at-all-very-famous musician and the name of the not-at-all-very-famous band in which he played bass. What is the adjective and shampoo? Who is the bassist and band?
LegoNotAtAllVeryFamousLambda
Just checking in with ya, LegoPuzzlerio, because I had no time (and feel too sick anyway) to even look at the puzzles this week, and now they are already solved. However, I did want to mention that I felt MOST surprised, as well as honored, to have been referred to (above) in your intro to your Oliver poem and joke.
ReplyDeleteI liked the Michelle Obama puzzle, but doubt I would have had any luck with the other two this go-round, so it's just as well!
Thanks for checking in, LanolinTeddy... Shampoops! sorry, that's just the NPR-puzzle Kool-Aid talkin'... I mean ViolinTeddy. Hope you are feeling better.
DeleteLegoLanolambda
I suppose you are, as per usual,LLL, FOAMing at the mouth? : o )
DeleteLike a lanolin lickin' lycanthrope.
DeleteLegoWerewolfInLambda'sClothing
Well, I hope you have a shiny fur coat and no frizzies!
DeleteBoth the APSAS and DWS were too obscure for me. I even had written down THELMAANDLOUISE.
ReplyDeleteHere are the explanations for the 11th hour hints I gave Tuesday:
DeleteQuick clue for our Devil’s Advocate Slice, Tea & Nidol:
The initials of the teen idol’s first and last name are the first letters of one of God’s creatures greater-than-smaller that was a part of a Puzzleria! answer in December… It was that Denver Bronco/Indianapolis Colt/NFL GAME/FLAGMAN puzzle. The flagmen were the third team, the referees, or Zebras. Z and E are the initials of Zac Efron.
MY APSAS Circuitously to television movie, hint:
An earlier movie with an ampersand in the title included a minor character with an unusual first name that rhymed with the first name listed in the APSAS puzzle. Her boyfriend in the movie was an actor known mainly for his comedic roles. His character hailed from Wisconsin. The actress had an unusual first name that was the same as her last name.
Bonnie and Clyde was a 1967 movie included a minor character named Velma (rhymes with Thelma) Davis (portrayed by actress Evans Evans) who was the girlfriend of Eugene Grizzard (played by Gene Wilder).
I was wrong about there being an ampersand in the 1967 movie, however. The Broadway and TV miniseries productions of Bonnie & Clyde did have the ampersand, but not the movie. Sorry.
Lego&Lambda