The day the musing died; "May we borrow your DeLorean, Lumpy?"; Who am I?; "Where is that masked man?"; Ignorance is commercial bliss but box office hit-or-miss

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER e^{4 +} 5!  SERVED

Welcome. You have entered the Joseph Young’s Puzzleria! calZone, also known as IHOPP: International House Of Puzzle Pies.

You are in for a “reel” treat this week – a solid-gold-medal-worthy, Serling-silver-screen-themed serving of puzzazz from our gourmet puzzle chef, skydiveboy, also known as Mark Scott from Seattle (not pictured free-falling here).

So, pack your canopies and (sky)dive into these three appetizing canapés, loosen your mental ripcord and drift into our entrée, then touchdown with dessert.

Appetizer Menu

Cinenigma Appetizer Prepared For You By Mark Scott:

Who am I?

 I bet you go to the movies. Or at least you have in the past.

You know me the second you see my face, but you probably don’t know my name. I suspect I have been in more films than any movie star you can name, but you still don’t know mine. You like me and I tend to make you feel good when you see me.

You say you need a hint? Okay, perhaps you will also recognize a few of my contemporaries such as: George, Jackie, Telly, Tanner and Slats. So, who am I?

Oxen And Morons In The Headlines Appetizer:

The day the musing died

A headline that might have appeared in this past week’s newspapers might have looked something like this (but with letters in place of where the blanks are, of course):

__ __ __ __ __ __    __ __ __ __ __    __ __ __ __ __ __ __

  

This headline is a simple sentence with a proper noun, verb and gerund. Taken on its face, without context, the sentence is oxymoronic, incongruous, an internal verbal contradiction...

(A verbal contradiction, that is, that is opposed to the headlines appearing in the two newspaper headlines pictured with this puzzle, which together illustrate an external verbal contradiction.)

The sentence’s first word is a piece of equipment often associated with tennis balls. 

The second word, which begins and ends with the same letter, is often associated with organs. 

The third word is the first word of an event often associated with Ernest Hemingway. (The third word also appears in titles of songs written by Van Halen, Jackson Browne and a guy who died “the day the music died.”)

What is this headline?

Silver Snaps At The Rustler Appetizer:

“Where is that masked man?”

Consider the four parts (comprising five words) in these two phrases:

Animal ^ snarl; No car ^ loans

Combine the four parts with four different words so that, when you rearrange the combined letters of each “part+word” sum, two proper nouns (five and six letters long) that were the crux of a news story this past week can be spelled out.

Hint: The word combined with “animal” definitely pertains to the 6-letter, but not the 5-letter, news story proper noun.

The word combined with “snarl” pertains to both the 6-letter and 5-letter news nouns.

The word combined with “no car” may peripherally pertain the 6-letter news noun, but not to the 5-letter news noun.

Depending on one’s perspective, the word combined with “loans” may pertain to both, either or neither of the news nouns.

What are these two news story proper nouns and the four combining words?

MENU

Boffo Biblical Brand Slice:

Ignorance is commercial bliss but box office hit-or-miss

In a classic and effective television commercial hawking a sporty brand name product, viewers are informed that a certain person, although otherwise generally knowledgeable, is ignorant of something in particular.

In a boffo box office hit movie released about a decade earlier, a character portrayed by a cast member with the same first name as the generally knowledgeable person in the commercial is not ignorant (in the biblical sense) of a character portrayed by a cast member whose first name – if you double its third letter and replace its first vowel with a different one – is the same as the something of which the commercial person is ignorant.

Hint: The something of which the commercial person is ignorant is the surname of a musician with the same first name as the generally knowledgeable commercial person. This musician also appears in the classic commercial, and is the source of the commercial viewer’s knowledge of the generally knowledgeable person’s particular ignorance. 

Hint: The airport security official questioned Dan (D.B.) Cooper as he boarded Northwest Airlines Flight #305 in Portland bound for Seattle, “That is just paperwork in that briefcase; you are carrying no explosives, correct?” 
In response, the eventual __  __  __  __  __  __  __  __  __             __  __  __  __  __  __,    __  __  __  __.  
The nineteen letters in those three words (of  9, 6 and 4 letters) can be rearranged to form the surnames of the three people in this puzzle who have identical first names. 

Name the brand name product, the person and the musician in the commercial. Name the title of the movie and its two cast members.

Dessert Menu

Lip (The Cup) Smacking Dessert:

“May we borrow your DeLorean, Lumpy?”

Were Andy Hardy or Theodore and Wally Cleaver to meander into the future via time machine and behold the two photos pictured here, they might well marvel:

__ __ __ __ __   __ __ __ __ __ __   __ __ __ __ !

The first word in this exclamation is associated with inflation caused by trauma or ego. The second word is a somewhat uncommon variant spelling of shorthand brand-name auto slang, the type of entry not usually found in dictionaries, so it is difficult to verify. The variant smacks of golf (but not of Golf!). The third word is plural and, if given added punctuation, is a description of Cypress Avenue, Raglan Road and The Bright Side of the Road.

Rearrange the fifteen letters in the three words to spell out three other words – of two, six and seven letters – that appeared in a prominent news story this past week. One of these other words is an abbreviation.

What are these three news story words and the three-word exclamation blurted by Andy, or by Wally and the Beav?

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 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.