Friday, December 18, 2015

Reaching a new Manilow; Besmirched exploitation; Automotive transmission; Birdherding; Bye-Bye Birdeelzebub

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER e5 + pi4 SERVED

Welcome to our December 18th edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!

‘Twas the week before Christmas and all though this blog
Not a creature was erring as through a tough slog
Of puzzles they trudged, dodging pitfalls set there
By a poser of posers perplexing yet fair…
At least that’s the hope this Young jolly elf has:
Bringing bagfuls of puzzles each week with pizzazz!

Our bagful this week includes a business news morsel, a somewhat timely fowl-line-up appetizer, a double-clutch dessert, and two entrée slices, one involving Joseph Conrad and the other involving Barry Manilow. 
To all a good night of puzzle solving:

Morsel Menu

Business News Morsel:
Besmirched exploitation

A person in the news this past week was portrayed as an exploiter because of a business decision she/he made which seemed to besmirch the reputation of the company of which he/she is founder and chief executive.
Rearrange the letters in synonyms of “exploiter” and “besmirch” to reveal the name of this person in the news.

What are these synonyms and who is this person?

Appetizer Menu

Fowl Line-up Appetizer:
Birdherding

Ol’ Smith Haskins has a ranch, E-I-E-I-O.
And on this ranch he has some fowl, E-I-E-I-O…
With a myna here, and an eagle there,
Here a lark, there a crane, everywhere a leghorn…
Ol’ Smith Haskins has a ranch, E-I-E-I-O.

“Ol’ Smith Haskins” is a retired basketball player and coach who raises cattle on a 750-acre rural ranch in his “Ol’ Kentucky Hometown.” Smith and Haskins are his middle and last names, respectively. While most farmers and ranchers employ horses and dogs to help them herd their cattle, Ol’ Smith Haskins for some reason uses birds as herders.

Determine this rather unorthodox rancher’s first name and use the “Ol’ Smith Haskins” lyric to form a six-word alphabetical list that catalogues Ol’ Smith Haskins’ fowl, in the form:
“__ __ __ __ ’ __
__ __ __ __ __,
__ __ __ __ __,
__ __ __ __,
__ __ __ __ __ __ __,
__ __ __ __.”
  
Rearrange the 30 letters in those six words to form a four-word phrase that appeared in news stories this past fortnight, in the form:
“__ __ __ __ __ __ __ ’ __
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
__ __ __ __ __ __
__ __ __ __ __ __”

What are the six-word list and the four-word phrase?

MENU

Plucking A String Slice:
Reaching a new Manilow

Which Barry Manilow song/video do you think is better, according to your ears and eyes, “Copacabana” or “Mandy”? OK, one reason we asked you this question is that the answer may well speak volumes as to whether you are an extrovert or introvert.

Insert a letter “s” somewhere within a string of 20 consecutive letters in the paragraph above. Divide the result into five segments of consecutive letters. Each segment is either the first or last name of a musician or the name of a musical group. There are three 3-letter names, one 5-letter name, and one 7-letter name.

Who are these five musicians/groups?

Hint: Each musician or group represents a musical genre. These genres, in alphabetical order, are: 1. classical, 2. country and western, 3. fado, 4. jazz; and 5. progressive rock.

Conrad Novel Noun Slice:
Bye-Bye Birdeelzebub

Take the first name and surname of a person who was interviewed this past week on the CNN cable news television network.

Interchange the first two letters of the first name with the first two letters of the surname to form a common noun and a non-word. Remove the third letter of the non-word and move the first letter in its stead to form a proper noun that is the mythological personification of a noun that appears in the title of a Joseph Conrad novel.
Place a preposition between common noun and the Conrad-novel word to form a title for the devil.

What are the common noun, the proper noun and the noun that appears in the Conrad novel title? What is the title for the devil? Who was interviewed on CNN?

Hint: The second sentence in this puzzle could just as well read: “Replace the first three letters of the first name with the first three letters of the surname, and vice versa, to form a common noun and a non-word.”  

Dessert Menu

Double Clutch Dessert:
Automotive transmission

Name a make of car. “Shift” its fourth and sixth letters “into reverse” (in other words, reverse their order).

Now “shift” the new sixth letter to the one that follows it in the Puzzleria! closed-loop circular seamless alphabet. (That is, replace the new sixth letter with the letter that follows it in the circular alphabet.) The result is a place where you may see many of these cars.

What is the make of this car and where is the place you may see them?

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.

46 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks Word Woman,
      Kinda reminds me of this Puzzleria! blast from the past. (See the Specialty of the House Slice:“The Bronxy Zoo”)

      What’s new over at your excellent Partial Ellipsis Of The Sun (PEOTS) blog this week?Sounds like there may be some pyrotechnics over there this week! (And maybe something about Cassius Clay as a boy? Before he changed his name to Cassius?)

      LegoOnceReadThat”CassiuHasA(David)LeanAndHangryLook…"ThatWillShakezpeare,WhatA(Margo)KidderAndCoiner!

      Delete
  2. I'm so proud of myself for solving the (ingenious!) Manilow puzzle! I started with what was least familiar to me, and wound up with what I should have seen all along. How should I describe this puzzle-solving experience? A penny for your thoughts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Congrats and thanks, Paul. (You are the cute one, right?) Nice clean-machiney video clip.
      I believe all four Fab Four lads -- except Ringo who liked "Can't Smile Without You" -- are on the record (get it?) as preferring the much-copied Copacabana to the maudlin Mandy. Curiously Pete preferred Mandy and Stu hadn't a clue.

      LegoAsksOkay,Wasn'tOneOfTheseGuysTheSixthBeatle?

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  3. I decided to start with dessert first this week (since I skipped it entirely last week), and finally solved it. Score One!

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  4. I'm proud to say I have everything except all of the Manilow puzzle. Found the prog rock act, the country act, and the classical act. Still need a little help finding fado and jazz. Any hints, perhaps?(Anyone else having trouble should read THIS hint: One of the puzzle answers, I'm not saying which, was imitated this past week on SNL. If you saw Update, you saw this person portrayed.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. patjberry,

      Those two, the fado and jazz acts, are the toughest because they are both represented in the puzzle only by their first names. The first names have the same number of letters. I believe we discussed and linked to one of them a month or so ago on P!

      You carved these slices up pretty quickly this week, pjb. Good solving.

      And kudos too to VT on the dessert solve and to ron on the CNN solve.

      LegoWishesAllAMerryBanilowChristmasAndADweezilZappyNewYear

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    2. I remember now who you are talking about above (first name discussed a month ago), and at least now have a partial grasp on some of where the 20 letters sit in the Manilow puzzle (plus got the FADO person.) The rest still has me stumped, however.....shouldn't the CLASSICAL one be popping out at me? (She asked, chagrined?)

      Delete
    3. GEEZ, the classical word DID just hit me in the forehead!

      Delete
  5. Well, thanks to a certain hint [thanks!], I just got the Appetizer. Aside from that, I BELIEVE I know who the Morsel person is, but I have yet to be able to make the synonym for 'exploiter' work out, though I did find a word meaning 'besmirch' that fits (i.e., approaching the entire puzzle backwards, as is so often the case.)

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  6. Well now I have the fado and jazz artists. Easier than I thought once I thought about first names. BTW I found out there are two fado artists with that name. Thanks! This has been one of the easiest weeks of doing these puzzles, and it's barely only Saturday morning!

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  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  8. BTW VT, perhaps you went with the most obvious synonym for exploiter. You should probably think again. Might do a body good.

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    Replies
    1. Actually, pjb, I didn't go with ANY synonym (most obvious or not) for 'exploiter.' Since I was pretty sure I already knew the PERSON involved, I knew what letters were left after the (probably most obvious) synonym for 'besmirch.' And those I couldn't wrangle in any way into ANY word, let alone an exploiter synonym.

      Delete
    2. BINGO, the light just dawned, pjb, again thanks to yon hint from you, re exploiter, which does make me think my person must be correct. However, I am now on the hunt for a 'besmirch' syn. that can be formed from the remaining letters, and so far, no luck.

      Delete
    3. Duh and double duh....finally! I had been completely messing myself up by NOT having removed enough correct letters, and then even when having settled upon the proper 'besmirch' syn., still had two letters left over. COUNT, why don't I!

      Delete
  9. I got the car puzzle. It reminded me of one I made up a few years ago and was almost tempted to send to Will:

    Start with a car name, either make or model (no Betsy, jalopy, etc. -- something you might actually see in chrome on the vehicle). Change one letter and rearrange (if necessary) to get another car name (again, either make or model). Repeat the process as many times as you can. My chain is an unimpressive four cars long. Someone may be able to do better. Obviously, all of the car names must have the same number of letters, and that number is entirely up to you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like your car puzzle, although I have not yet tackled it. I believe the most advantageous number of letters might be six (a perfect number!).

      LegoAtFirstITried"Kia"ButThatDid'tGetMeSoFar

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    2. I HAVE just tried to tackle it, Paul, but I haven't yet been successful at finding any pair of car brands which differ by only one letter, in order to even get started on a 'chain.' There ARE many whose names are simliar, but they differ by three letters (which tends to be why I can't keep car brands straight.) Do I dare sigh?

      Delete
    3. I've hit upon a four-car chain, six letters in each car. One of the "interior cars" is a classic Studebaker.

      LegoPerhapsOldSmithHaskinsHadALarkOnHisRanchAlso?

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    4. Six letters per car for me too, but no Studebaker.

      Delete
  10. Question to Lego: by 'mythological personification' in the Conrad puzzle, do you mean merely 'fictional person' or do you literally mean (as per last week) GREEK mythological?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ViolinTeddy,
      Excellent question. It is definitely "Greek mythological." She/he is a Greek goddess/god. The name of this mythological personification of (the Conrad title word) was also used in Greek mythology to indicate a region... eponymous, kinda like Washington D.C. or St. Paul, Minnesota!

      LegoDon'tPutTheCartBeforeTheGreyhound

      Delete
    2. Ah, well thanks, Lego (is your sign-off a hint?) That leaves out Bond, James Bond, which wasn't leading me anywhere anyway.

      Delete
    3. Yes, VT. In particular, the final three words of my sign-off are a hint.

      LegoLikesHisMiceShaking,NotStirring

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    4. I must be doing something wrong.
      Let's just suppose that the person interviewed was Holly Berry. Then the common noun would be BELLY, right? And the non-word would be HORRY? So the mythological figure would be OHRY? Let's say Ohry is the personification of flatulence, and one of Joseph Conrad's lost manuscripts is a novel entitled 'Flatulence and Futility'. Then Satan's title might be something like 'Belly For Flatulence'?
      Have I got the mechanics right? Because I'm pretty sure I know the correct mythological figure and the noun from the Conrad title, and I have a really good idea plus a few speculations about the devil's title, but I can't eke out a plausible looking name for the interviewee. I didn't see the interview, and haven't been able to search it out.
      I'm about to abandon hope.

      Delete
    5. Paul,
      As usual, I like your answer better than mine. And your mechanics are both popular and dead-on.

      The title "Belly for Flatulence" is indeed Mephistophelean, and can be brought on by mixing devilled eggs with devil’s food cake at the buffet table. Ish!

      I was also aware of Conrad’s lost transcript of “Flatulence and Futility.” Conradophiles are attempting to piece the narrative together using snippets from the author’s journals, notes and correspondence, and hope to publish it in 2017.
      These literary historians believe Conrad wrote “FAF” (as they call it) after “Typhoid” (1902) but before Gastronostromo (1904).

      The only reason you “can't eke out a plausible looking name for the interviewee” is because my intended interviewee (as I highly suspect you are already aware) does not possess a plausible looking name!

      LegoImploresPaulNeverToAbaddonHope!

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    6. WOW, am I ever WITH Paul on this one! I've literally tried a mathematical approach, numbering letters to make sure I was following the correct mechanical procedure! Like him, I'm also pretty sure that the myth'l personification/location MUST be what I think it is, and even found a Conrad noun to go with it.

      Yet, there is no hope, because it refuses to work itself into anything that can be transformed via the Puzzle's directions, going backwards (as ever), into a PERSON.

      Since I no longer have TV access to CNN, and have not been able to find out a list anywhere of whoever they interviewed last week, it's hopeless. I've given up. (And believe me, Lego, I even tried everything in Google relative to greyhounds.)

      Delete
    7. Puzzlerians!,
      Not that you need hints, but…

      For the Business News Morsel, if you “subtract 51” from the end of the alleged exploiter/besmircher’s surname, then move the middle letter of the result to the end, you will spell out the name of a beloved animated movie character.

      And to ViolinTeddy and (perhaps) Paul:
      Just to ensure you’re working with the correct letters in the name of the person who was interviewed by CNN, the 13 letters in his or her name can be rearranged to form the title of a cookbook titled “Brunei Recipes.” It is intended for “Brine Epicures” (another anagram of the name).

      The person was interviewed after the CNN Republican debate on Tuesday, December 15. The person was a Jersey kid who became a Badger at age 7. The person’s real first name (the one I used is a nickname that the person always uses), if you place an “er” at the end, describes Santa on Christmas Eve.

      LegoWhoAspiresToBeABelovedLaminatedLambdaGreekCharacter

      Delete
    8. OMG, LegoLaminated, I was literally about to post in utter frustration that *I* grew up in NJ, too, became a Brownie at age 7, but what in heck is a Badger? When suddenly, what to my wondering eyes should appear....as I was about to close the useless tried-umpteen-times tab meant to find CNN interviewees, lo and behold....than THE NAME popping out like an utter (at this point) miracle....

      The very first thing I looked to check upon was that the third letters of first name and last name were the same (per the original in-puzzle hint.) Then I looked up where the person grew up. HURRAH. NEVER heard of this personage. Would NEVER have gotten this without the actual 13 letters involved, nor without the clues in the last paragraph above, which somehow caused the right name to FINALLY fall out of Google. What a struggle!

      How PJB solved this without all these hints is beyond me (unless he happened to see the actual CNN interview.)

      Incidentally, I'd been pretty close on my myth'l character, although not quite correct. I'm just so happy to be able to STOP thinking about this puzzle!!!!! But I love that final hint about Santa! Utterly clever!

      Delete
  11. Good clue, Lego, describing Santa! I had to look up the person's bio to figure out that part. Very clever indeed! I also like the animated character hint. I don't really get adding the extra S for the hidden musician's names though. I found them without it.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the kudos, Kiddos (VT and pjb).

      I shall post the CNN interview (which is on youtube) in the official answers for the record on Tuesday.

      The "s" is a part of the C&W artist's name in my intended answer, pjb.

      LegoInThisSeasonOfNoelpatjberryIsAlsoCelebratingTheSeasonOf"No-Ess"

      Delete
  12. If my answer is correct, I see an S in the word following what must be one of the musicians' names. I merely added that S to the word before.

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  13. Last week I linked to a new weekly math/logic/probability puzzle called the Riddler on the FiveThirtyEight website. It was brought to my attention by Puzzleria! contributor David, who broached it over on Blaine’s puzzle blog. On Friday, December 18, FiveThirtyEight uploaded their second Riddler, another excellent puzzle offering.

    (The blog is deviating from their regular Friday Riddler upload schedule during Christmas week and New Year’s week. This week’s (third) Riddler will be posted Tuesday, Dec. 22 (today), and the fourth will be posted Dec. 29.)

    My answer to the first Riddler, “What’s The Best Way To Drop A Smartphone?” was wrong. I answered 19; the correct answer was 14. But that shall not deter me from attempting the second Riddler, “Which Geyser Gushes First?” It really is a wonderful logic/probability puzzle, in my opinion.
    My answer is
    Geyser A: 61.1% = 22/36
    Geyser B: 27.8% = 10/36
    Geyser C: 11.1% = 4/36

    My reasoning: We are to assume that the three geysers each started erupting at some independently random point in history. I believe we can assign arbitrary eruption times for the geysers, and the probabilities will not deviate.

    The easiest assignment we can make is that each of the geysers all begin erupting sometime around noon. If so:
    From “around noon” to “around 2PM,” each geyser has a one in three chance of erupting first.
    From “around 2PM” to “around 4PM,” Geyser A has a one in one chance of erupting first.
    From “around 4PM” to “around 6PM,” Geyser A and Geyser B each has a one in two chance of erupting first.
    From “around 6PM” to “around 8PM,” each geyser has a one in three chance of erupting first.
    From “around 8PM” to “around 10PM,” Geyser A has a one in one chance of erupting first.
    From “around 10PM” to “around midnight,” Geyser A and Geyser B each has a one in two chance of erupting first.
    Thus, adding probabilities:
    Geyser A: 1/3 + 1 + ½ + 1/3 + 1 + ½ = 11/3
    Geyser B: 1/3 + ½ + 1/3 + ½ = 5/3
    Geyser C: 1/3 + 1/3 = 2/3

    The numerators add to 18. (The denominators are irrelevant.) Thus the value of A = 11/18 = 22/36; B = 5/18 = 10/36; C = 2/18 = 4/36

    LegoFearsThatTomorrowWhenFiveThirtyEightPostsHisAnswerHeWillLikelyAgainBeWrong!

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  14. The Conrad novel is "Heart of DARKNESS."
    The recent CNN interviewee is REINCE PRIEBUS, the RNC chairman.
    The title for the devil is PRINCE OF DARKNESS.
    The mythological personification of "darkness" is EREBUS.

    This is all I have...

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  15. MORSEL: MARTIN SHKRELI. Besmirch = TARNISH and Exploiter = MILKER. Hint in Comments: Remove "LI" for '51', rearrange to SHREK.

    APPETIZER: "CLEM'S CRANE, EAGLE, LARK, LEGHORN, MYNA" rearranges to " GERMANY'S CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL."

    MANILOW SLICE: CAB (Jazz) / ANA (Fado singer) / ORMANDY (Classical) Never did sleuth out the C&W or the Prog. Rock person/group. I kept getting caught up on
    "YOKO" (using the 'y' from Ormandy.)

    CONRAD NOVEL NOUN SLICE: Interviewee: REINCE PRIEBUS ; .Conrad Novel word: DARKNESS; Letter switch: PRINCE and REIEBUS becoming EREBUS; PRINCE OF EREBUS [I had actually been trying endlessly with PRINCE OF HADES, trying to find first names ending in "--ince" and getting nowhere.]

    DESSERT: SUBARU / SUBURB.

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  16. VT, that would be YES and (Kitty) WELLS. I think it's WELLS.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Who in heck is "YES?" And below Lego says the other one is Cowboy Copas, whoever that is, as well.

      Delete
    2. "Who," you ask is "Yes." They were a "Band" very popular in the late 1960s and 1970's... along with The Band, The Who and The Byrds.

      LegoWhoIsAFanOfAbbottAndCostello

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    3. For what seems like the umpteenth time on this blog, Lego, I have to say that "I never heard of them." I HAVE heard of The Who, at least though.

      Delete
  17. This week’s official answers for the record, Part 1:
    Morsel Menu

    Business News Morsel:
    Besmirched exploitation
    A person in the news this past week was portrayed as an exploiter because of a business decision she/he made which seemed to besmirch the reputation of the company of which he/she is founder and chief executive.
    Rearrange the letters in synonyms of “exploiter” and “besmirch” to reveal the name of this person in the news.
    What are these synonyms and who is this person?

    Answer:
    Exploiter = Milker
    Besmirch = Tarnish
    Martin Shkreli


    Appetizer Menu

    Fowl Line-up Appetizer:
    Birdherding
    Ol’ Smith Haskins has a ranch, E-I-E-I-O.
    And on this ranch he has some fowl, E-I-E-I-O…
    With a myna here, and an eagle there,
    Here a lark, there a crane, everywhere a leghorn…
    Ol’ Smith Haskins has a ranch, E-I-E-I-O.
    “Ol’ Smith Haskins” is a retired basketball player and coach who raises cattle on a 750-acre rural ranch in his “Ol’ Kentucky Hometown.” Smith and Haskins are his middle and last names, respectively. While most farmers and ranchers employ horses and dogs to help them herd their cattle, Ol’ Smith Haskins for some reason uses birds as herders.
    Determine this rather unorthodox rancher’s first name and use the “Ol’ Smith Haskins” lyric to form a six-word alphabetical list that catalogues Ol’ Smith Haskins’ fowl, in the form:
    “__ __ __ __ ’ __
    __ __ __ __ __,
    __ __ __ __ __,
    __ __ __ __,
    __ __ __ __ __ __ __,
    __ __ __ __.”
    Rearrange the 30 letters in those six words to form a four-word phrase that appeared in news stories this past fortnight, in the form:
    “__ __ __ __ __ __ __ ’ __
    __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
    __ __ __ __ __ __
    __ __ __ __ __ __”

    What are the six-word list and the four-word phrase?

    Answer: Clem’s crane, eagle, lark, leghorn, myna;
    Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel

    Lego…

    ReplyDelete
  18. This week’s official answers for the record, Part 2:

    MENU
    Plucking A String Slice:
    Reaching a new Manilow
    Which Barry Manilow song/video do you think is better, according to your ears and eyes, “Copacabana” or “Mandy”? OK, one reason we asked you this question is that the answer may well speak volumes as to whether you are an extrovert or introvert.
    Insert a letter “s” somewhere within a string of 20 consecutive letters in the paragraph above. Divide the result into five segments of consecutive letters. Each segment is either the first or last name of a musician or the name of a musical group. There are three 3-letter names, one 5-letter name, and one 7-letter name.
    Who are these five musicians/groups?
    Hint: Each musician or group represents a musical genre. These genres, in alphabetical order, are: 1. classical, 2. country and western, 3. fado, 4. jazz; and 5. progressive rock.

    Answer: Yes; Cowboy Copas, Cab Calloway, Ana Moura, Eugene Ormandy… from the string of words plucked from the paragraph:
    “…ears and eyes, ‘Copacabana’ or ‘Mandy’? OK,…”

    Conrad Novel Noun Slice:
    Bye-Bye Birdeelzebub
    Take the first name and surname of a person who was interviewed this past week on the CNN cable news television network.
    Interchange the first two letters of the first name with the first two letters of the surname to form a common noun and a non-word. Remove the third letter of the non-word and move the first letter in its stead to form a proper noun that is the mythological personification of a noun that appears in the title of a Joseph Conrad novel.
    Place a preposition between common noun and the Conrad-novel word to form a title for the devil.
    What are the common noun, the proper noun and the noun that appears in the Conrad novel title? What is the title for the devil? Who was interviewed on CNN?
    Hint: The second sentence in this puzzle could just as well read: “Replace the first three letters of the first name with the first three letters of the surname, and vice versa, to form a common noun and a non-word.”

    Answer:
    Prince; Erebus; Darkness; Prince of Darkness; Reince Priebus

    Dessert Menu
    Double Clutch Dessert:
    Automotive transmission
    Name a make of car. “Shift” its fourth and sixth letters “into reverse” (in other words, reverse their order).
    Now “shift” the new sixth letter to the one that follows it in the Puzzleria! closed-loop circular seamless alphabet. (That is, replace the new sixth letter with the letter that follows it in the circular alphabet.) The result is a place where you may see many of these cars.
    What is the make of this car and where is the place you may see them?

    Answer: Subaru; suburb

    Lego…

    ReplyDelete
  19. What kind of name is REINCE PRIEBUS? I saw the Heart/Prince of Darkness angle right away, and learned about EREBUS, but EI&IE stymied me, and had me wandering off to explore BAAL and LORD for a while. I repeat, "what kind of name is Reince Priebus?"

    And what kind of name is Martin Shkreli? I guess it's pretty much mud(d) at this point. I didn't see the story in last week's news, but I did see it today, and pjb had made the 'milker' part pretty obvious, and lego provided the rest, so I couldn't really miss that one.

    I was able to track down Smith Haskin's first name, CLEM, and of course I could copy some bird names from one list to the other, but 'a four-word phrase that appeared in news stories this past fortnight' wasn't much to go on for finding an anagram. OK, I also had the word lengths, and the fact that the first one was probably a possessive, but, still...

    I'd never seen the word 'fado' before, so I figured "how many fado artists could there be?" Well, not so many that I wasn't able to spot ANA Moura right away, and there was CAB to her left, and I thought it must be ANDY and somebody else to her right, except that ANDY is four letters. Let's see who else is on the left. YES! There's the third 3-letter name, so I knew putting an S with COPA had to yield the 5-letter name, but I tried every configuration before I found the right one. Never heard of that cowboy, and what kind of name is that, anyway?
    Eugene Ormandy. I knew that. Duh.
    So that was my roundabout solve, and, as we all know, a roundabout is a place where pretty nurses sell poppies from trays, but I didn't notice the 'ears and eyes' coincidence until later, and the 'blue suburban skies' coincidence didn't hit me until much later.

    SUBARU reminded me of my old puzzle:
    SUBARU TAURUS SATURN SENTRA
    DATSUN SATURN TAURUS FUTURA also works, but maybe not quite as well.

    I wonder if tarnish and limnal are synonyms? There seem to be intra limnal and perilimnal forces at work causing mountains to come out of the sky and stand there. Very strange!





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    Replies
    1. I know, I know, Paul. Reince Priebus, Martin Shkreli and Cowboy Copas are not exactly your household names… unless your household is holding a national Scrabble tournament.

      Thanks for letting us “hop aboard” your roundabout solve of the Manilow puzzle. Very deductive, Sherlock. Very logical, Spock.
      “Andy” (Williams? Gibb? Kim? Partridge? Griffith?) or, “Mandy” Moore (I suppose), turned out to be an unintentional serendipitous red herring. The “Yoko” that began at the end of Ormandy, however, was an intentional red herring that I released into the stream of words hoping someone might hook it.

      Both your sets of cars for your puzzle are solid, Paul. My set is iffy; indeed I had never heard of two of the models in my list: ALTIMA AMANTI(?) AVANTI VITARA (?)… I was hoping to hop a bridge from ALTIMA to OPTIMA or TACOMA, but couldn’t do it.

      LegoTarnation!ThatCowboyScopaWasOneVisionaryArtist!

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  20. I tried to do this post as a 'reply' to your last one above, but the Reply function refused to allow me to click on it (this has happened once in the past, too.)

    All I wanted to say was that *I*, at least, fell into the 'YOKO" trap, as I mentioned in my post with answers at 12:11 p.m. my time.

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