Friday, January 1, 2016

You Say You Want a Resolution; Stepping onto the diatonic scale; Out of Africa: It's Good News!; Tiger, Paw and King James; Titletoyin’ USA; Sweet sixteenth; Dame LaBlog’s dang-nab dad-gum jogging slog;

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER e4 + pi4 SERVED

Welcome to our January 1st edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria! We are wringing out the old year of 2015 with wistfulness as we are simultaneously ringing in the new year of 2016 with quizfulness  seven new puzzles. But do not be intimidated; the two morsels are relatively easy.

Speaking of misty-eyed wistfulness, one of our go-to blogs, An Englisman Solves AmericanPuzzles (AESAP) will post no longer after its Sunday, January 3rd posting. AESAP is/was a great forum for discussing the Will Shortz Sunday puzzle, and for estimating how many NPR listeners might solve it in the weekly Pick-A-Range feature. 

Magdalen and Ross Beresford, AESAP’s proprietors, are a brilliant and classy couple, who have always been very supportive of Puzzleria! (They linked to it on AESAP’s “Blogroll,” for instance.) Why not log onto Ross and Magdalen’s farewell posting on Sunday and give them some thanks and props? I know I will.

In keeping with the holiday, this week’s appetizer and second dessert both deal with New Year’s resolutions. But that is just a sampling of what is to come in 2016. We resolve to deal you a 52-week deck packed with Puzzlerian! delights – some that seem to club you over the head with complexity; news-event-themed puzzles, in spades; heartfelt efforts that may sometimes fail; and perhaps even a few diamonds that sparkle!  

It is a resolution we aim not to break as you make your way through 2016, breaking down our puzzles and making your own solutions. Have a happy new year of resolving… and solving.

Morsel Menu
 
Sell More! Morsel:
Titletoyin’ USA

Name the one-word title of a romantic comedy movie released about 30 years ago. Add to the beginning of the title the first letter of the surname of one of the costars. The result is a toy seen under several Christmas trees this past week.

What are the movie and the toy?

Celebration Morsel:
Tiger, Paw and King James

LeBron “King” James, Sandy “Southpaw” Koufax and Tiger Woods share more than one thing in common. 

For example, they are/were all celebrated professional athletes who dominated their respective sports. They are also all considered “minorities” in American culture.

But what else do they share?

Appetizer Menu

Our Lady Of Perpetual Perplexity & Inscrutability Appetizer:

Dame LaBlog, also known as Our Lady of Perpetual Perplexity & Inscrutability, has spent every Friday this past year frequenting Puzzleria!, her neighborhood puzzle parlor.

Indeed, “Notre Dame’s” weekly Year-of-2015 ritual has been to order every morsel, appetizer, puzzle slice and dessert on the Puzzleria! menu – and then ruminating, savoring, and solving them all.

And also, alas, packing on all those pounds.

Thus, the Grande Dame has resolved to adopt a healthier, more slimming diet in 2016 by dining out regularly at oriental restaurants, and ordering salads mainly. So devoted is Dame LaBlog to her New Year’s Resolution that she began applying it to her daily routine in the waning days of 2015:

December 28: At Feng Sushi she told the waiter, “I’ll try Namasu, daikon and carrot salad.”

December 29: At Foo Moon Inn Dame LaBlog said, “Please, bring Thai Chinese Cabbage Salad.”


December 30: At Jinju Jip she ordered a Korean lettuce salad, saying, “Give me Sangchoo Geotjeori.”

December 31: At Soyokaze, out on the town ringing in the New Year with her old friend Dom Gabella, Dame LaBlog ordered, “Crunch Mandarin Orange Salad for me and Spinach Ohitashi Salad for Dom, with sake for Pete’s sake!” (Pete, whoever he is, didn’t get any sake.) The couple sampled one another’s entrées.

January 1: For brunch at Bamboo Rainbow, Dame LaBlog opts for an oriental dish featuring a veritable garden variety of delights: red choi, bok choi, pakchoi, tatsoi, mizuna, perilla, komatsuna, shishito, shinrimei, okra, kohlrabi, daikon radish, sinqua, lemongrass, moqua, napa cabbage, and opo.
She says to her waiter as she orders: “Bring
__ __
__ __ __ __
__ __ __ __ __ __ __
__ __ __.”

The letters in those 16 blanks are formed by writing down and spelling out the four numerals of the present year: 2016 becomes “TWO THOUSAND SIXTEEN”…
Oops, wait! That’s 18 letters, and we only have room for 16. So let’s try this instead: Write down the five numerals of the present year as an ancient Roman citizen (stepping out of his Delorean, of course) would write them. But first, rotate two of the numerals counterclockwise 90 degrees (or counterclockwise 270 degrees), resulting in characters the Greek friend of the ancient Roman would readily recognize. Now SPELL OUT these five numerals/characters, thereby forming the 16 letters that belong in the blanks. You will need to do some rearranging.

What words does Dame LaBlog utter as she orders her New Year’s Day brunch?

MENU

Third Millennium Slice:
Sweet sixteenth

Consider the following sequence of 15 integers:
3, 4, 1, 4, 2, 3, 3, 4, 3, 4, 1, 3, 3, 3, 3,…

What is the sixteenth integer in the sequence? Explain.

Hint: There are scores of integers preceding the initial integer in this sequence, but those scores would not pertain to the title of this puzzle. The integer immediately preceding the “opening 3, 4, 1, 4,...” in the sequence is a prime number that does not appear among the 15 integers in the sequence shown.

International News Slice:
Stepping onto the diatonic scale

Name a person who is assuming the leadership of a world research organization in 2016. The last two letters of the person’s first name spell a syllable on the diatonic scale, and the last two letters of the person’s surname spell the syllable following it on the diatonic scale.

The first two letters of the first name spell still another diatonic-scale syllable. The third, fourth and fifth letters of the first name spell a shorthand general term for a work of non-fiction (which is sometimes book-length and other-times just a sketch).

The fifth, sixth and seventh letters of this surname spell the surname of a late major league baseball Hall of Famer whose image appears at Cooperstown wearing a [singular form of a team nickname] uniform. That is only natural because he spent his entire more-than-two-decade major league career with that one team. 

Remove from the research organization person’s surname the fifth and eighth, and either the sixth or seventh, letters. What remains is the singular form of the baseball team nickname for whom the Hall-of-Famer played

Hint: The international research organization the person now heads is an acronym whose letters are the final four appearing in a common five-word written salutation.

Who is this person?

Dessert Menu

Evangelium Dessert:
Out of Africa: It’s Good News!

Africa region enabled, eludes woe” is the gist of a “good news” story that was published worldwide this past week. Rearrange the 28 letters in the five words of that gistful phrase to form a more specific headline that might have appeared with the story. This headline would appear in the following form:
__ __ __ __ __ __
__ __
__ __ __
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
__ __ __ __ __ - __ __ __ __

What is this headline?

Hint: Four consecutive letters appearing in “Africa region enabled, eludes woe” form a past-tense form of a verb pertaining to why, over the past few years, the news was so bad in this region.

Memories Of Jogging One’s Exertion Dessert:
Dame LaBlog’s dang-nab dad-gum jogging slog

Dame LaBlog – who appears in this week’s appetizer puzzle attempting to become more fit in 2016 by adopting a more healthful diet – has two sons, Ed and Mojo. In the waning days of 2015, as Dame LaBlog was getting a “head start” on her new diet, her sons suggested she supplement the diet by taking a daily leisurely run through her local park.

Dame LaBlog stuck with that particular exercise regimen for exactly four days. On the fifth day, New Year’s Day, during the daily weigh-in conducted by her sons, the Dame proclaimed. “No more dang-nab jogging for me! This dad-gum birdfood diet is a slog tough enough.”

Dame LaBlog stepped off the scale, re-shod her feet in pink pumps and hurried off to brunch at the Bamboo Rainbow restaurant. In the aftermath, Mojo and Ed studied their mother’s three-day weigh-in chart, noting her weight had diminished by a whopping 8 pounds during the three days of her two-pronged jogging/dieting regimen. Said Ed to Mojo in a voice dripping with wist and resignation (and perhaps just an iota of pride), “The jog aided Mom.”
Rearrange the 14 letters in Ed’s comment and put them into the first fourteen blanks of the phrase below. The final four spaces (which are colored blue) must be filled in with the numerals of this new year (after the numerals have been appropriately manipulated so that they can pass muster as letters).
The phrase, which has to do with siblings (not Mojo and Ed) who plied the same profession, is:
__ __ __ ,
__ __ __  
& V I N C E:
__ __ __
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

What is this phrase?

Numerical hint: A total of 573
Name-dropping hint: Marilyn Monroe

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.

44 comments:

  1. Does 'about' 30 years ago mean 1985-1986, or a wider range?

    I got the other morsel and the appetizer.

    I notice something interesting in the diatonic scale puzzle, but that's all I'm going to say about it for the next four days (or nights).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Paul,
      It's a wider range. "About [the second perfect number] years ago" would have been a more nearly perfect approximation.

      Movies that have something in common with my puzzle's movie are: Zoolander, Cleopatra, Seven and Bull Durham.

      LegoWhoIsWistfulHeShallNoLongerBeAbleTo"Pick-A-Wider-Range"AtTheNearPerfectEnglishmanSolvesAmericanPuzzlesBlog

      Delete
  2. Got the movie morsel, but that may be the easiest thing I get this weekend! I'll need plenty of hints! Happy new year!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Just got the African news story!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Just got the African news story!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Just got the "jog aided Mom" puzzle!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Just got the one about the world research organization!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Will now only need help with the Roman numerals and the integers! I'm not much with math, sorry!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. patjberry,
      OLOPPIA:
      The two letters of “2016” that are turned counterclockwise are the same letter. Upon rotation, they become the same two-syllable Greek letters.

      TMS:
      Each number in the sequence corresponds to a year in the current millennium. Years that correspond to the integer 1 are a prime examples of… well, they are prime examples.

      P.S. Did you receive the e-mail I sent you on Monday Dec. 28? If not, please e-mail me. Thanks.

      LegoWhoHasAlwaysBeenSomewhatOfANon-Factor

      Delete
  8. Greetings and Happy New Year to all. (Or is it too late by now to say that?)

    Thus far, I've solved only the International News Slice (thanks to figuring out the five-word salutation.) I've been utterly hung up on the Oriental Salad appetizer, and haven't even read the Desserts (TWO DESSERTS? Oh the calories!) yet.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. To whom (sic) may well discern (ViolinTeddy):

      The year is still new, so Greet away!

      LegoSaysSure,WeMayBeOfferingTwoDessertsBut,AfterAll,TheyAreJustDessertsAfterAll...AndForPete'sSake

      Delete
  9. And the first [movie] morsel. Funny that the GIFT had popped into my head, but I didn't follow through, and I'd never heard (as I say weekly) of the movie itself.

    ReplyDelete
  10. And Google was very sweet to me re the Celebration puzzle, although I intially thought it might merely be that Tiger is (well, he's made it legal so WAS) a nickname, so they all had nicknames. But that seemed pretty lame.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Add the first dessert for me, too. Happily, I knew the main subject right away from having caught it in the news this past week, which sped things up. : o ))

    ReplyDelete
  12. I believe I already have the proper 16 letters for the appetizer (prior to Lego's hints to pjb), but have simply not been able to come up with the proper RECIPE name for what I assume are the last three words of the blanks. Perhaps that is where I am going wrong?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Amazingly (to me), I have just worked out the second (Jogging Exertion) dessert. Those two included hints were essential!

    ReplyDelete
  14. TMS:
    I offer this as a curiosity:

    3/4/(19)14 = Friday, 2/3/(19)34 = Thursday, 3/4/(19)13 = Wednesday, 3/3/(19)37 = Tuesday. So 7 is the only number that can complete this series!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow, that is quite impressive, ron. And, as you are likely aware, it is not far afield from my intended answer (and indeed is the integer that immediately precedes my sequence. My intended answer gives us a second consecutive Wednesday.
      For the record, 1/2/(19)24 is a Wednesday. I was hoping for a Monday.

      LegoNeverCeasesToBeAmazedAboutHowThePuzzleSolvingMindsOfronAndOtherPuzzlerians!Tick!

      Delete
  15. Legolambda, are you serious?! Thank you so much! You don't know what this means to me to have some of my ideas used like this! I am truly honored! I wasn't even that sure about one of those puzzles, and I almost forgot about the other one! I almost gave away the answers in this post, but I know I should let the other puzzlers have a chance. Again, thank you, and I'll let you know about any other ideas that come to me. Keep up the good work!
    pjb-hit-the-big-time-now-no-autographs-please

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, patjberry for sending me your excellent puzzles. I plan to use one of them in next week's (January 8) edition of Puzzleria!, and will run the others you submitted a bit later.

      Anyone can submit puzzles to Puzzleria! by emailing me at legolambda@aol.com

      LegoLikesAVarietyOfPuzzleria!PuzzleChefs

      Delete
  16. For anyone who has not solved the “Sweet Sixteenth” Third Millennium Slice, here is an alternative sequence of 15 integers. Your answer for the 16th integer in this alternative sequence with differ from my intended answer, but only by one. And, it is still basically the same puzzle.

    Existing sequrnce:
    3, 4, 1, 4, 2, 3, 3, 4, 3, 4, 1, 3, 3, 3, 3,…

    Alternative sequence:
    29, 13, 2003, 167, 401, 59, 223, 251, 41, 67, 2011, 503, 61, 53, 31,…

    LegoEngineerOfIntegers

    ReplyDelete
  17. I thought I'd written something here... anyway, what I wanted to say was THANK YOU again, Lego, for a great selection of puzzles. I've figured out 4 out of the 7, which is a pretty good ratio for me! I have yet to solve the TMS, or either of the dessert slices. I enjoy trying, anyway! --Margaret G.

    ReplyDelete
  18. and... I got the desserts! 6 of 7, and about 23 hours to go. :-) --Margaret G.

    ReplyDelete
  19. and... done and dusted. Nice clues for TMS. Having the second list of numbers really helped me. --Margaret G.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Congratulations, Margaret G., and thanks for the kind words.
      4/7 = 0.571428571428571428571428...
      6/7 = 0.857142857142857142857142...
      7/7 = ONE... great job of solving!

      LegoTwoBicycles+OneTricycle=OneSeptacycle

      Delete
  20. SMM:
    OVERBOARD 1987, Goldie Hawn>>>HOVERBOARD.

    CM:
    All 3 were born on December 30th.
    Woods 12/30/75
    James 12/30/84
    Koufax 12/30/35

    Appetizer Menu:
    MMXVI>>>ΣΣXVI>>>
    SIGMA, SIGMA, EX, VEE, I>>>“Bring ME ASIA VEGGIES MIX.”

    ReplyDelete
  21. All three athletes were born on December 30.

    2016 = MMXVI ->SigmaSigmaExI -> me Asia veggies mix
    I hope we weren't expected to make some kind of sense out of the other orders, because I didn't.

    2016 = 2x2x2x2x2x3x3x7 which is 8 prime factors, the largest of which is 7. I don't think I ever would have gotten it from the first sequence alone.

    CERN was about the only research organization I could think of, and after a bit of searching, sure enough, they have a new director-general. When I saw the name 'Gianotti' I immediately thought of a famous composer. Lo and behold, a minor alteration of the central portion of his name results in a possible description of a trio of characters in one of his best known works. Happy Epiphany!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You mean, of course, Gian Carlo Menotti, composer of Amahl and the Night Visitors.

      Delete
    2. Yes, of course, VT. It seemed like an interesting coincidence, so I thought I'd share it.

      I see I omitted Vee in my answer to the roman numeral puzzle.

      Delete
    3. Paul, I wasn't really able to figure out about reducing the "Carol Men" part, however....was is supposed to somehow turn into "The Magi?" What am I goofing up?

      Delete
    4. You're not goofing up anything; that's all there is to it. 'Carlo Men' becomes 'Carol Men', and if they aren't those merry, restful ones, or Wenceslas and the fuel-gatherer, then they must be the three kings of orient.

      Delete
  22. OVERBOARD+H for (Goldie) Hawn=HOVERBOARD
    Tiger Woods, Lebron James, and Sandy Koufax all have the same birthday, December 30th.
    FABIOLA GIANOTTI(FA, LA, TI, BIO, OTT, GIANT)heading up CERN(as in To whom it may conCERN)
    GUINEA IS NOW DECLARED EBOLA-FREE
    JOE, DOM, AND VINCE THE DiMAGGIOS(2016 manipulated to spell out GIOS)
    I never did get the Roman numeral puzzle or the integer puzzle. To be honest, I've been too excited about having a puzzle of mine in next week's Puzzleria! I still can't believe it!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Pointless as it is by this time, here were my answers, my first chance today to post them:

    MORSELS:

    Sell More: OVERBOARD and HOVERBOARD (Goldie Hawn)

    Celebration: They all have birthdays on DECEMBER 30.

    APPETIZER: Roman Numerals spelled out: SIGMAS TEN FIVE ONE = (Give) ME

    THIRD MILLENIUM SLICE:

    INTERNATIONAL NEWS SLICE: FABIOLA GIANOTTI [LA, TI, FA; BIO; OTT, GIANT; To Whom It May Concern (CERN)]

    DESSERTS:

    Evangelium: GUINEA IS NOW DECLARED EBOLA-FREE

    Memories of Jogging One's Exertion: JOE, DOM (& VINCE) DIMAGGIO [2016 = SOIG]

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ooh, I'd typed in the last one wrong in my drafts, of course having meant "THE DIMAGGIOS"

      Delete
  24. This week’s official answers for the record, Part 1:

    Sorry I’m late with these answers. I couldn’t get to a computer.
    But, as usual, you brilliant Puzzlerians! came through will all the answers! Great work.
    Happy Epiphany, indeed, Paul.

    Morsel Menu

    Sell More! Morsel:
    Titletoyin’ U.S.A.
    Name the one-word title of a romantic comedy movie released about 30 years ago. Add to the beginning of the title the first letter of the surname of one of the costars. The result is a toy seen under several Christmas trees this past week.
    What are the movie and the toy?

    Answer:
    Overboard”; Hoverboard
    Overboard + H (Goldie Hawn) = Hoverboard

    Celebration Morsel:
    Tiger, Paw and King James
    LeBron “King” James, Sandy “Southpaw” Koufax and Tiger Woods share more than one thing in common.
    For example, they are/were all celebrated professional athletes who dominated their respective sports. They are also all considered “minorities” in American culture.
    But what else do they share?

    Answer:
    They share a birthday, December 30.
    Koufax, 1935;
    Woods, 1975;
    James, 1984

    Appetizer Menu
    Our Lady Of Perpetual Perplexity & Inscrutability Appetizer:
    You Say You Want a Resolution
    Dame LaBlog, also known as Our Lady of Perpetual Perplexity & Inscrutability, has spent every Friday this past year frequenting Puzzleria!, her neighborhood puzzle parlor.
    Indeed, “Notre Dame’s” weekly Year-of-2015 ritual has been to order every morsel, appetizer, puzzle slice and dessert on the Puzzleria! menu – and then ruminating, savoring, and solving them all.
    And also, alas, packing on all those pounds.
    Thus, the Grande Dame has resolved to adopt a healthier, more slimming diet in 2016 by dining out regularly at oriental restaurants, and ordering salads mainly. So devoted is Dame LaBlog to her New Year’s Resolution that she began applying it to her daily routine in the waning days of 2015:
    December 28: At Feng Sushi she told the waiter, “I’ll try Namasu, daikon and carrot salad.”
    December 29: At Foo Moon Inn Dame LaBlog said, “Please, bring Thai Chinese Cabbage Salad.”
    December 30: At Jinju Jip she ordered a Korean lettuce salad, saying, “Give me Sangchoo Geotjeori.”
    December 31: At Soyokaze, out on the town ringing in the New Year with her old friend Dom Gabella, Dame LaBlog ordered, “Crunch Mandarin Orange Salad for me and Spinach Ohitashi Salad for Dom, with sake for Pete’s sake!” (Pete, whoever he is, didn’t get any sake.) The couple sampled one another’s entrées.
    January 1: For brunch at Bamboo Rainbow, Dame LaBlog opts for an oriental dish featuring a veritable garden variety of delights: red choi, bok choi, pakchoi, tatsoi, mizuna, perilla, komatsuna, shishito, shinrimei, okra, kohlrabi, daikon radish, sinqua, lemongrass, moqua, napa cabbage, and opo.
    She says to her waiter as she orders: “Bring
    __ __
    __ __ __ __
    __ __ __ __ __ __ __
    __ __ __.”

    The letters in those 16 blanks are formed by writing down and spelling out the four numerals of the present year: 2016 becomes “TWO THOUSAND SIXTEEN”…
    Oops, wait! That’s 18 letters, and we only have room for 16. So let’s try this instead: Write down the fivenumerals of the present year as an ancient Roman citizen (stepping out of his Delorean, of course) would write them. But first, rotate two of the numerals counterclockwise 90 degrees (or counterclockwise 270 degrees), resulting in characters the Greek friend of the ancient Roman would readily recognize. Now SPELL OUT these five numerals/characters, thereby forming the 16 letters that belong in the blanks. You will need to do some rearranging.
    What words does Dame LaBlog utter as she orders her New Year’s Day brunch?

    Answer:
    “Bring ME ASIA VEGGIES MIX.”
    2016 >> MMXVI >> SIGMA + SIGMA + EX + VEE + I (after each M is rotated to become a Greek Sigma);
    SIGMASIGMAEXVEEI >> “…ME ASIA VEGGIES MIX.”

    Lego...

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

    MENU

    Third Millennium Slice:
    Sweet sixteenth
    Consider the following sequence of 15 integers:
    3, 4, 1, 4, 2, 3, 3, 4, 3, 4, 1, 3, 3, 3, 3,…
    What is the sixteenth integer in the sequence? Explain.
    Hint: There are scores of integers preceding the initial integer in this sequence, but those scores would not pertain to the title of this puzzle. The integer immediately preceding the “opening 3, 4, 1, 4,...” in the sequence is a prime number that does not appear among the 15 integers in the sequence shown.

    Answer: 8 (the number of prime factors of the year 2016;
    2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 3 x 3 x 7 = 2016 >> 8 prime factors
    2001 >> 3 >> 3 x 23 x 29
    2002 >> 4 >> 2 x 7 x 11 x 13
    2003 >> 1 >> 2003
    2004 >> 4 >> 2 x 2 x 3 x 167
    2005 >> 2 >> 5 x 401
    2006 >> 3 >> 2 x 17 x 59
    2007 >> 3 >> 3 x 3 x 223
    2008 >> 4 >> 2 x 2 x 2 x 251
    2009 >> 3 >> 7 x 7 x 41
    2010 >> 4 >> 2 x 3 x 5 x 67
    2011 >> 1 >> 2011
    2012 >> 3 >> 2 x 2 x 503
    2013 >> 3 >> 3 x 11 x 61
    2014 >> 3 >> 2 x 19 x 53
    2015 >> 3 >> 5 x 13 x 31
    2016 >> 8 >> 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 3 x 3 x 7
    Hint:
    2000 >> 7 >> 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 5 x 5 x 5

    International News Slice:
    Stepping onto the diatonic scale
    Name a person who is assuming the leadership of a world research organization in 2016. The last two letters of the person’s first name spell a syllable on the diatonic scale, and the last two letters of the person’s surname spell the syllable following it on the diatonic scale.
    The first two letters of the first name spell still another diatonic-scale syllable. The third, fourth and fifth letters of the first name spell a shorthand general term for a work of non-fiction (which is sometimes book-length and other-times just a sketch).
    The fifth, sixth and seventh letters of this surname spell the surname of a late major league baseball Hall of Famer whose image appears at Cooperstown wearing a [singular form of a team nickname] uniform. That is only natural because he spent his entire more-than-two-decade major league career with that one team.
    Remove from the research organization person’s surname the fifth and eighth, and either the sixth or seventh, letters. What remains is the singular form of the baseball team nickname for whom the Hall-of-Famer played.
    Hint: The international research organization the person now heads is an acronym whose letters are the final four appearing in a common five-word written salutation.
    Who is this person?

    Answer:
    Fabiola Gianotti
    Fa + Bio(graphy) + La; Gianot + Ti
    Diatonic scale syllables: Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti
    Gianotti >> Gian + Ott + I
    Gianotti – o – i – t = Giant
    The written salutation: “To whom it may conCERN”

    Lego…

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Darn and nuts, Lego. Factoring 2016 was the FIRST thing I did while trying to solve the Millenium puzzle....I always think exponents first when a math puzzle comes along ...but then having those factors in hand, I proceeded to fail to even consider COUNTING them, nor to consider factoring any other 21st century years, counting them either. Alas and duh!

      Delete
    2. Note to self: The FIRST thing ViolinTeddy does when a math puzzle comes along is to check out the exponents... Ergo, ixnay on future factor/exponent-based math puzzles!

      LegoMendingHisSockHeelsWhileNibblingOnFilberts

      Delete
    3. Shethinks, says ViolinTeddy, that you are making fun of her!

      Delete
    4. Hethinks, says LegoLambda, that I am grateful to ViolinTeddy for sharing a part of her puzzle-solving strategy with us... for example, "working backward" to arrive at the answer, one of your rock-solid puzzle-solving strategies that you have generously shared previously with us Puzzlerians! The creative process of puzzle-solving is fascinating.

      As I know you know, I was just joshin' about putting any kind of kibosh on future factor/exponent-based math puzzles. I shall ever be a proponent of incorporating exponents into my math puzzles.

      LegoNotMakingFunOfYou,ButRatherMakingFunWithYou

      Delete
    5. OKie dokie, Oh PullOLego, she feels better now! She is ever and all FOR "making fun WITH" (my computer refuses to italicize, bold OR underline that last word, although she gave it a valiant effort.)

      Delete
  26. This week’s official answers for the record, Part 3

    Dessert Menu

    Evangelium Dessert:
    Out of Africa: It’s Good News!
    “Africa region enabled, eludes woe” is the gist of a “good news” story that was published worldwide this past week. Rearrange the 28 letters in the five words of that gistful phrase to form a more specific headline that might have appeared with the story. This headline would appear in the following form:
    __ __ __ __ __ __
    __ __
    __ __ __
    __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
    __ __ __ __ __ - __ __ __ __

    What is this headline?
    Hint: Four consecutive letters appearing in “Africa region enabled, eludes woe” form a past-tense form of a verb pertaining to why, over the past few years, the news was so bad in this region.

    Answer:
    Guinea is now declared ebola-free
    Hint: “Africa region enaBLED, eludes woe”

    Memories Of Jogging One’s Exertion Dessert:
    Dame LaBlog’s dang-nab dad-gum jogging slog
    Dame LaBlog – who appears in this week’s appetizer puzzle attempting to become more fit in 2016 by adopting a more healthful diet – has two sons, Ed and Mojo. In the waning days of 2015, as Dame LaBlog was getting a “head start” on her new diet, her sons suggested she supplement the diet by taking a daily leisurely run through her local park.
    Dame LaBlog stuck with that particular exercise regimen for exactly three days. On the fifth day, New Year’s Day, during the daily weigh-in conducted by her sons, the Dame proclaimed. “No more dang-nab jogging for me! This dad-gum birdfood diet is a slog tough enough.”
    Dame LaBlog stepped off the scale, re-shod her feet in pink pumps and hurried off to brunch at the Bamboo Rainbow restaurant. In the aftermath, Mojo and Ed studied their mother’s three-day weigh-in chart, noting her weight had diminished by a whopping 8 pounds during the three days of her two-pronged jogging/dieting regimen. Said Ed to Mojo in a voice dripping with wist and resignation (and perhaps just an iota of pride), “The jog aided Mom.”
    Rearrange the 14 letters in Ed’s comment and put them into the first fourteen blanks of the phrase below. The final four spaces (which are colored blue) must be filled in with the numerals of this new year (after the numerals have been appropriately manipulated so that they can pass muster as letters).
    The phrase, which has to do with siblings (not Mojo and Ed) who plied the same profession, is:
    __ __ __ ,
    __ __ __
    & V I N C E:
    __ __ __
    __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

    What is this phrase?
    Numerical hint: A total of 573
    Name-dropping hint: Marilyn Monroe

    Answer:
    JOE, DOM & VINCE: THE DIMAGGIOS or
    DOM, JOE & VINCE: THE DIMAGGIOS
    “The jog aided Mom” >> JOE + DOM + THE + DIMAG
    2016, written on a seven-segment LED digital display, then inverted, spells the letters GIOS, which, when appended to “DIMAG,” completes the phrase about the sibling ballplayers.
    Hints: The Dimaggio brothers combined to hit 573 major league dingers (home runs).
    Joe Dimaggio was married to Marilyn Monroe.

    Lego…

    ReplyDelete
  27. I know I am late on this, but wanted to share from another site:
    http://bedtimemath.org/fun-math-year-2016-factors/ If you want, you can get daily emails from this site, to help demystify math (and also see how interesting it can be!) --Margaret G.

    ReplyDelete