Friday, May 27, 2016

No Isle of Man is an island nation; Free admission, drinks cost extra; Dancin’ n’ drinkin’ n’ detectin’; Number is missing in sequence, whence seeking is a must; Professional “pliers”; Ranting raving politics; Bon-mot-filled eclairs; Antiwar song = military slang; Names become games

P! SLICES: OVER e4 + pi4 + (pi.e)2 + phi11 SERVED


Welcome to our May 27th edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!

Our main puzzle event this week is a missing-number enigma created by ron – master of the mysterious, creative contributor and valued Puzzlerian! extraordinaire.
 
ron’s puzzle appears immediately beneath our main MENU under the title “Seek And Ye Shall Achieve Success Slice: Number is missing in sequence, whence seeking is a must.” It a clever and tough, but fair, challenge.

Also appearing on our menus this week are these realtively “easy-as-pie-ce-of-cake” posers:
3 “Ripping/Riffing Off Shortz” puzzles – an Hors d’Oeuvre, Appetizer and Slice;
1 pictorial Hors d’Oeuvre;
2 Morsels – one naming games, and the other remembering all who have served and those who still serve;
1 “stumper” of an Appetizer; and to top it all off,
1 Dessert that asks you to fill in a dozen “pastries,” and then try baking up one of your own from scratch.

Got the puzzling itch yet? We’ll wager you do. So scratch ’n’ sniff our menus and enjoy the wonderfully bewildering aromas that waft their way up through your olfactory and on into your gray matter…

What matters most, of course, is that you enjoy:
 

Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

Every Picture Tells A Story Hors d’Oeuvre
Free admission, drinks cost extra
 
Write a two-word, ten-letter caption for the image pictured here. Rearrange the letters to form two words – in 3 and 7 letters – naming what an entertainer recently freely admitted he/she once “took to.”

What is your caption? What did the entertainer admit to doing, or “taking to”?

Hint: One of the words in the caption consists entirely of uppercase letters.

Ripping Off Shortz Hors d’Oeuvre:
Professional “pliers”

Will Shortz’s May 22nd NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle reads:
Name a common household item in 6 letters. Change the middle two letters to a P, and you’ll get the 5-letter last name of a famous person who professionally used that item. What’s the item, and who’s the person?

Puzzleria!’s “Ripping Off Shortz Hors d’Oeuvre reads:
Name a common agricultural profession item in 6 letters. Change the middle two letters to a P, and you’ll get the 5-letter last name of a fictional person who plied that profession. What’s the profession, and who’s the person?

Morsel Menu

News Output Morsel:
Names become games

Take the surnames of two persons who have very recently been in the news – surnames of 5 and 7 letters.

Replace one of the letters in the 5-letter surname with the letter four places deeper in the alphabet to spell out a well-known low-tech game. 

Replace one of the letters in the 7-letter surname with the letter five places deeper in the alphabet to spell out a not-so-well-known higher-tech computer game.
 
Who are these persons and what are these games?

Hint: Children who play these games can improve certain skills:

The 5-letter game can improve _ _ _ _ _ skills.
The 7-letter game can improve _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ skills.
The words that fill in the blanks begin with the same letter, and the 16 letters that belong in the blanks can be rearranged to form the phrase:
“A most theatric mom.”


Observing Those Serving America Morsel:
Antiwar song = military slang

An antiwar song title is also a two-word slang title of a military occupation (“military occupation” in the sense of “doing one’s duty,” that is, not in the sense of  “invade, capture and settle in”).

Replace the song title’s middle vowel with two different vowels, shift the existing space elsewhere, and insert an additional space to form a three-word phrase that describes what persons serving abroad in the U.S. military might do to keep in touch with their families back home.

What is this song title? What might military personnel do to keep in touch?

Appetizer Menu

Name In The News Appetizer
Ranting, raving politics

Over the course of the past year, a headline that could well have run in U.S. newspapers pretty much every day was:

“Debased ranters stump.”

Rearrange the 19 letters in those three words to spell out another 3-word headline that might well appear in newspapers within the next week or so.

What is this potential headline?


Riffing Off Shortz Appetizer:
No Isle of Man is an island nation

Place two 3-letter common household kitchen items next to each other without a space. Remove the third letter of the result, and you’ll get the 5-letter name of an island nation.

Place, again without a space, something often contained within the first household item in front of the surname of a personality who professionally used the second household item. Replace a first-person pronoun from the middle of the result with a P and you’ll get the same 5-letter nation.
 
Place, again without a space, the same something often contained within the first household item in front of another 3-letter household container. Insert two vowels in the middle of this result to form the name of a resident of another island nation.

What are these two island nations?


MENU

Seek And Ye Shall Achieve Success Slice:
Number is missing in sequence, whence seeking is a must


What is the missing number in the following sequence?

9, 22, 24, 12, __, 4, 13



Ripping Off Shortz Slice:
Dancin’ n’ drinkin’ n’ detectin’

Name the plural form of a Latin line dance, in 6 letters. Change the middle two letters to a P, and you’ll get the 5-letter last name of a musician who made music that might accompany line dancing, and who used a compound-word stage name as his first name.
 
Replace the middle two letters of that compound stage name with two others to form the title of a 1970’s C&W novelty song sung by a performer with the initials C and W in her/his name. 

Remove the P in the 5-letter last name of the musician who made music that might accompany line dancing. In its place insert a 3-letter word to spell out the second word (in 7 letters) of two-word-named drinks mentioned in lyrics of a song sung by a singer whose last name is the same as that of a fictional detective. The 3-letter word you inserted is a synonym of the second half of the musician’s compound-word stage name.

What is the Latin line dance? Who is the musician with the stage name? What is the 1970’s C&W novelty song? What were the drinks mentioned in the song by the singer with the fictional-detective last name?


Dessert Menu

Patissiere Rempli Dessert:
Bon-mot-filled eclairs

There are a dozen incomplete paragraphs below, each which can be completed by filling in the two blanks at the end of each paragraph with two words. (If you can solve just one of the paragraphs, the others are sure to also topple like dominoes.)

After you have filled in the 24 blanks, can you add a paragraph of your own with two blanks at the end that need filling in, thereby producing an “oddly even” baker’s-dozen of “double-jelly-filled” eclairs/cannolis/cream puffs?
 
1. Get thee to a nunnery? Conventional wisdom suggests that a convent (nunnery) is a dwelling that a religious community inhabits __ _____.

2. I did a spring-cleaning in my utility room and den, loading my pick-up truck full of metal recyclables: a fireplace grate, wire coat hangers, a discarded dryer drum, fireplace screens, ironing boards, shovels, pokers, andirons __ _____.

3. Whenever I toss together a big Waldorf salad for my dinner guests, the main ingredient I feature may be raisins, celery, walnuts, bok choi, apples from my orchard, __ _____.

4. The Republican National Committee ordered not just kilograms or pounds of Donald Trump banners, placards, and campaign buttons, ___ ____.

5. In the historical struggle to attain civil rights, the names Douglas, Lincoln, Parks, Mandela and Meredith all deserve great credit, but perhaps no one is more worthy of our thanking ____  _____.

6. In civil lawsuits, it is decided whether a plaintiff be awarded compensation for injuries __ _____.

7. After I totally blanked on my history exam, my history teacher told me to see her as soon as possible to discuss the possibility that I may flunk her course; but, since I have a calculus final exam the very next period, I will have to deal with that ominous aftermath ____ _____.

8. Public Broadcasting Service NewsHour anchor Hari Sreenivasan substitutes for either of the regular co-anchors Judy Woodruff or Gwen Ifill __ ___.

9. Payton, Sanders, Simpson, Dorsett, Dickerson, Brown – all could elude linebackers, break tackles, set up their blockers, cut on a dime and survey the entire field, but none were as gifted as open-field assayers __ _____.

10. As the other Chicago prohibition agents attending the May 1957 wake in Pennsylvania strolled past the open casket, it was obvious to each one of them that their fellow Untouchable was, even in death’s stillness, _____ ____.
 
11. On “Leave it to Beaver,” Theodore seemed to be kind of a “mama’s boy,” doing whatever he could to please his mother, June, while Wally seemed instead to put his best foot forward ___ _____.

12. A Wall Street stockbroker who is bullish on three-piece suits invests __ _____.

(Here is my own “baker’s-dozenth” paragraph. It is a “rip-off/riff-off” paragraph piggybacking off of Paragraph # 8, above:
13. Public Broadcasting Service NewsHour anchor Hari Sreenivasan (who is syntactically challenged... for the purposes of this paragraph anyway), when he substitutes for regular NewsHour co-anchor Gwen Ifill, announces to the PBS viewers, “Tonight, in for Gwen Ifill __ ____.
Your effort, of course, need not piggyback” off one of the 12 paragraphs above.)

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 Wednesdays 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.

95 comments:

  1. For better or worse, I have returned. I have parts of the NITNA, ROSHd'O, The skills part of the NOM, ROSA, and working on a PRD.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's for better, David.

      LegoWelcomeBackMacArthurKotterToTheCarbosOurPuzzleSlicesProvide

      Delete
  2. Ripping off Lego Ripping off Shortz:

    Take a 3 letter common household kitchen item, put next to it a 5 letter synonym (3 letter word first, 5 letter word second, no spaces between). Remove the last letter of the first word and the last two letters of the second word (that is, the 3rd, 7th and 8th letters). The remaining 5 letters spells an island. The 3 removed letters are homophonically (?) something that may be deadly.

    Remember, I cheat.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. David,
      Regarding your ROLROS:
      I do not yet have an answer, but I love the idea of your puzzle: finding the first two letters of a kitchen item + the first three letters of its synonym that form a 5-letter island. I thinks its clever even though I haven't a clue. But I don't want one yet, let me sleep on it first.

      I can think of only four 3-letter common household kitchen items. But I'm sure there are more I'm missing.
      I initially attacked your puzzle by digging into and sifting through 5-letter islands, but found no "buried treasure"... yet.

      So,... I am not giving up.

      LegoLikeSandsThroughTheHourglassSoAreTheIslandsOfOurEarth

      Delete
    2. I've come up with a solution, David (and seeing your last sentence above made me think that, after all, It might be correct, because at first I wasn't at all sure)....which seems to meet all the requirements and even the hint.

      Delete
    3. Afterthought: would your solution have an alternate set-up, whereby the same three-letter household kitchen item plus ANOTHER, different synonym for it but this time in SIX letters, all put together -- then with the same third letter removed, but this time the last THREE letters of the synonym removed, resulting in the same island as yours?

      Delete
    4. VT,

      I believe I may have the same alternative set-up solution as you... where he 3-letter household item has a SIX-letter synonym, instead of five letters. But I cannot think of a 5-letter synonym of the household item that begins with the three letters that are the ending of the island.

      I really like my (our?) alternative 3-letter/6-letter solution, however.

      Also, I have an answer to David's 3-letter/5-letter original puzzle that involves an island different from the one in my above "solution." But it is a kind of a stretch. On the other hand, David has always "thought outside the box," so perhaps it's his intended.
      My solution involves an island that is the nickname of a professional sports franchise.

      LegoClarifiesThatNoItIsNotPackerOrVikingIsland

      Lego

      Delete
    5. VT-
      There is a 6 letter variant that works, so I suspect you know my answer.

      Delete
    6. I only just now saw your last post above, David.

      But I realized that the 6-letter variant syn. would NOT meet your final hint, however, about the 'removed letters' being homophonically 'deadly.'

      Delete
    7. VT, I took my last hint to be the cheating part.

      Delete
    8. My 5-letter and VT's 6-letter (at least my solution) lead to the same island.

      Delete
  3. Good afternoon, my dear fellow puzzlers and puzzle-creator! It all looks most interestingly appetizing above; I started with dessert (as jokes have previously been made) and it was great fun.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm thrilled to say that I just now stumbled upon the solution for Ron's puzzle (and I'm used to NOT getting puzzles posed by other unLego Puzzerlians....). Happy day!

    Also got answers for both the Appetizers, as well as 2/3 of the first Morsel (i.e. the 7-letter surname isn't working out, although I had a stab at that one with two, I thought, great guesses), and most of the second (Rip Off Shortz) Menu slice item.

    Both Hors D'Oeuvres as well as the second Morsel still have me stuck at the starting gate.

    I hope everyone else is having a lovely time with these.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I got ron's SAYS ASS puzzle answer. It had me going for a bit. Good one, ron. See you come Wednesday.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good job, both SDB & VT. I thought it would be quite difficult.

      Delete
    2. Well, Ron, for ONCE I just happened to think of 'the' thing to try, and it worked! Could have knocked me over with a feather!

      Delete
    3. Same here. I'm not usually good with this type of puzzle, but I stumbled onto the answer this time. I don't have the temerity to offer a hint.

      Delete
    4. I also got the SAYSASS. There were a couple things (including prior puzzles) about the puzzle that led me to the answer.

      Delete
  6. Puzzlerians!

    Thanks to ViolinTeddy, I have corrected a goof I made in the wording of our “Ripping Off Shortz Slice: Dancin’ n’ drinkin’ n’ detectin’”
    The incorrect paragraph read:
    Replace the middle two letters of that title (of the C&W novelty song) with a 3-letter word to spell the second word of two-word-named drinks mentioned in a song sung by a singer whose last name is the same as that of a fictional detective. The 3-letter word is a synonym of the second half of the musician’s compound-word stage name.

    The corrected paragraph reads:
    Remove the P in the 5-letter last name of the musician who made music that might accompany line dancing. In its place insert a 3-letter word to spell out the second word (in 7 letters) of two-word-named drinks mentioned in lyrics of a song sung by a singer whose last name is the same as that of a fictional detective. The 3-letter word you inserted is a synonym of the second half of the musician’s compound-word stage name.

    My apologies to all.

    ViolinTeddy, I cannot thank you enough!

    (Incidentally, I needed a hint before I could solve ron's puzzle.)

    LegoPondersThatPerhapsTheMayoClinicCouldCureHimOfHisChronicMeaCulpas…(They’reWorseThanHiccups!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OK, now it makes more sense. So, quick, put together a name using the fictional detective's first name and the last name of another famous person with the same first name as the person wh sang about the drink. Wasn't that fun?!

      Delete
    2. Lego, you may also want to take a second look at your video games puzzle. I think you said 16 letters where it's actually 17. Also, I think I have the right words with t h e first puzzle, I just can't figure out the anagram. I have the ripoff puzzle, I have half the video games puzzle, I don't have the antiwar puzzle, I don't have the math puzzle(fat chance on that one), and I do have everything else. Will need hints, of course.

      Delete
    3. Excuse the way t h e is printed. Should read "the". Having a little problem with my keyboard.

      Delete
    4. Yeah, pjb is on to something with the First Morsel puzzle....and I completely missed it somehow, having figured out the two skills and moved right on to going after the names and games.

      There are 16 letters in the blanks for the two skills, but 18 letters in the phrase, and so the phrase simply doesn't work. (One could change the ending of the longer skill, but then you lose the 's' in 'most.') Otherwise, you have to lose the 'al' in 'theatrical', by my figuring.

      Delete
    5. patjberry & ViolinTeddy,

      You two are correct: I was wrong again.
      "A most theatrical mom," should read "A most theatric mom."

      Somehow my old pal "Al" snuck into the phrase.

      "Theatrical" is a usage much more common than "theatric." That's probably why I carelessly typed "theatrical."

      Thanks to both of you.

      LegoGoofFactory

      Delete
    6. You're most welcome, as always. That was certainly an easy fix....and understandable how your fingers could have gotten away from you as you typed in the phrase!

      Delete
    7. And predictive text could well have changed theatric to theatrical. . .That's probably it, Lego!

      Delete
    8. Yes, Yes, of course ViolinTeddy and Word Woman! There I was, typing the puzzle, see? and my fingers slipped of the keys and accidentally hit the A and L keys by mistake! Yeah, that's what happened. And, uh, then it was fine. But, then, unbeknownst to me, the darn predictive-text/auto-correct "corrected" my text by restoring the rogue A and L! Uh, sure, that's what happened. Yeah, That's the ticket!"

      LegoSaysEverythingIWriteIsALie

      Delete
  7. Once again, I blush. As usual, however, I merely thought I was confused, not that you have made a goof somehow. But you are more than welcome, as always, LegoMea.

    ReplyDelete
  8. The 'fill in the blanks' portion of the dessert is too easy to really be called a puzzle. I'm taking my time with the essay portion.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I've solved one of the Hors d’Oeuvre puzzles. The other one has me in a difficult situation.

    ReplyDelete
  10. The morsels remain mysterious to me. Like David, I have the skills, but the names of the games elude me.
    All I can say about the appetizers is "what have you been smoking?"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Paul,

      10:52 PM:
      Yeah, that's what I thought too, but you Puzzlerians! deserve an occasional break.
      I await your essay portion with bated breath... I had salmon for dinner.

      11:02 PM:
      Difficult position? I am sorry. (I seem to be doing a lot of apologizing lately!)

      11:10 PM:
      I had never heard of the computer game. But the low-tech old-school game has been around nearly a half-century (also known as "a half-missing-number," twice removed).
      Finally, what have I been smoking? Salmon.

      LegoThinksLifeIsSometimesAnUpstreamSwim

      Delete
    2. I'm afraid the low-tech game I've been thinking about is much older than that.

      Delete
  11. Still waiting on those hints, Lego.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. pjb,
      Hints:

      NOM:
      A five letter word that appears exactly twice in the text of the puzzle is something the two persons both do very well, and that patjberry does very well also.
      One might be able to play the low-tech game with Lincoln Logs.
      The high-tech game sounds like a “tri-trilogy space epic” with a cast of… thousands of pocket-protected nerds.

      OTSAM:
      I know you know the song, pjb. Just light a match, and the light should come on.
      Ned rubs name? No? Si? Laminas. Nam! Raw onion? Ah!

      SAYSASS:
      A hint with, I hope, ron’s blessing:
      This may look like a number puzzle, but letters may also creep into play.

      LegoWhoIsKindaFondaHisPalindromicHint

      Delete

      Delete
    2. Like pjb (below), I spotted the palindrome, but it isn't doing me any good (I've googled various words, phrases, looked at lists of antiwar songs, and made zilcho progress. Sigh.

      Also like pjb I have two words chosen for the first puzzle's caption, but have no clue WHO the relevant entertainer is, nor what he/she said, and certainly can't twist my two-word caption into anything.

      I'm also blank on the second Hors D'Oeuvre (agricultural tool)....

      Delete
  12. Paul, there is no 'reply' button, above, under your "quick put together the first name of the detective with.....", to which I respond: YES THAT WAS FUN!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Iris Murdoch donned her frock, her smock, her socks and checked her clock, went on a date with pal Herblock, then transferred stock before her date with the other H&RBlock.

      LegoNotesThatRupert&IrisAreAManAndAWomanOfLetters:Iris’sAreRedRupert’sAreYellow!

      Delete
    2. Naturally, Lego, you have to take it and RUN with it!!

      Delete
    3. VT,
      I find running amok with Murdochian muckrakers to be just ducky!

      LegoWhoOnceRanAmokBackwardAndLapsedIntoAKoma

      Delete
    4. Hmmm ... Iris Murdoch published 'The Philosopher’s Pupil' in 1983. So, did skydiveboy get his iris replaced, or his pupil, or both ... or neither?
      It's what everyone's thinking. Somebody had to ask.

      Delete
    5. Perhaps you are kidding, Paul, but a cataract replacement means taking out the LENS and replacing it with something (in plastic?) that allows one to actually see better than before the lens started freezing up with age (good old presbyopia), let alone clouding up. As far as I know, it has nothing to do with either iris OR pupil.

      Delete
    6. Yes, I was being facetious. Just a feeble attempt at aqueous humor.

      Delete
    7. Paul,
      Re: Your May 29, 2016 at 3:50 AM post...
      "Eye-poppingly brilliant!"

      LegoDeemsItNotAFeebleButAFabulousAttempt(AndSuccess)AtAqueousHumor

      Delete
  13. Not the best hints I've ever had to use, but I did at least get the palindrome portion. The only thing I can think of concerning lighting a match is the opening to "Mission:Impossible". The last time I had to deal with numbers AND letters they taught us algebra, and I wasn't that crazy about it then. I will say a few initials might help(both names and both video games)or the first letter of the antiwar song. I'd also like to know if I have the right words for the first puzzle or not. The words I'm almost certain are right I can't make a good anagram out of. Sometimes an initial or two can be just the thing to figure it out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Patjberry,
      I’m sticking to my Scrippt on the NOM. There is a passing connection between the two persons and the image on the EPTASHO. Very few people had ever heard of the two persons before this past week. Now they are C-E-L-E-B-S.

      Speaking of the EPTASHO, the two words in the caption begin with a T and a B. So do the two words in what the entertainer “took to.”

      In OTSAM, The antiwar song’s two-word title has initials of S and P. The initial letters in the 3-word phrase are the three letters in Mr. Maglie the Barber’s first name.

      Lego:Question:”CanYouUseItInASentence?”Answer:”YesIGuess’It’IsAToughPuzzle!”

      Delete
  14. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I believe I have the C-E-L-E-B-S and at least one of the games. The other one I'm guessing at the name, and I can't find it anywhere. But the names of the people I got. Still not sure about the T and B or the S and P to make S A L. May need a little more to go on.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Just got the antiwar song! I'll probably never get ron's puzzle, but then math is not my best subject. Still need a little more for the T and B. I don't know how else you could caption the picture!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. pjb,

      The "T word" is the one that contains all uppercase letters. The "B word" is a plural noun. It appears thrice in the image.
      The entertainer once emulated Slim Whitman.

      LegoLeaningOnALampPostWastingHisTime

      Delete
  17. I still don't get it. All I see are Marge Simpson and two beehives(or more accurately a beehive and a hornet's nest). I can't even figure out what the all-uppercase word would be! Is it a cable network? There's a few of them I know. And whoever emulated Slim Whitman of all people?! I got a TB for you:Total Bullshit! You must be smoking something, and it ain't nowhere near salmon, buddy!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Shhh, pjb! I don't want them narcs campin' out on my front porch and pounding on my door again!

    The entertainer emulated the way Slim played the gee-tar. Both were southpaws.

    Look, up atop Marge's noggin... It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a boy on a skydive... no, it's a super-tall b-b-b-b....

    The all-uppercase word is two letters long. It's in Merriam Websters Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Edition.

    LegoNotSmokin'TheWeed("Ram"CreatorDidPartakeInPot,ButNotI,Honest!)

    ReplyDelete
  19. After loads of agony and ONLY due to the Slim Whitman hint (which itself took a lot of hunting to find), I have FINALLY solved the first Hors D'Oeuvre. I must say, that was a piece of 'news' I would have completely missed. And hint to everyone else: the thing "taken to" is a WEIRDO-never-heard-of-it-before-not-American term!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know, VT. You probably had to look up the entertainer in the news to find the strange phrase. I had to look it up, and when I found said phrase, the anagram came right to me.

      Delete
    2. And I should add, that I had NOT seen Lego's immediately-above-mine post before I solved it.....

      Delete
    3. Well, pjb, I pretty much already HAD the caption, but everything I had tried to get the item 'taken to' came to nought....until finally id'ing the entertainer and looking up his recent admission. So you did it backwards from how I did it.

      Delete
  20. Well now I've finally got it! I was right about who the entertainer is, I just didn't know he referred to those things as that. Sorry about my outburst earlier.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No problem, pjb. We're all just passionate about puzzling. I'll take complaining over complacency any day!

      LegoWhoUrgesThoseWho"TakeToAWeeDram"OnThisHolidayToConductThemselvesResponsibly

      Delete
    2. I think we've hit upon the answer to the number puzzle by accident!

      Delete
    3. pjb,
      Or perhaps by Occident?

      LegoWe'veGotYourClicVidClipHereInTheWesternWorld

      Delete
  21. Good puzzle, ron! I guess I'm done! See y'all Wednesday(after my dental appointment)!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Or perhaps after your Oxidental appointment?

      LegOxidentalHygienks

      Delete
  22. What are we waiting for?

    The circuit theory student asked, "Is the anode _ ____?"

    I got better stuff than this. Just wait. Maybe not much better, but better. This is po'.

    ReplyDelete
  23. How's this:
    Purveyors of goods increasingly resort to data mining for targeting their pitches. They adore _ _ _ _ _.

    ReplyDelete
  24. It's a little known fact that the actress who portrayed Roz Doyle once won the title of Miss Apiary, which involved being 'crowned' with a 'bonnet' composed of a swarm of bees. Thankfully, Ms. Gilpin endured the ordeal unscathed. Unfortunately, not all of the bees involved were so fortunate. Naturally, those that perished, ____ ____.

    [No real bees were harmed in the fabrication of this fable.]

    ReplyDelete
  25. "Don't eat that," said the Hawaiian father. "That's poison ___, ___."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bravo, Paul! Each one better than the one preceding it. And the first one was far from "po'"!

      The protective Hawaiian dad, especially, was a study in elegant verbal economy. But I liked 'em all.

      And you are correct. This was one of those "Creative challenges" that Will is so fond of (and that patjberry excels in!). So, no need to wait till the witching our to post out Dessert "answers."

      Incidentally, speaking of pjb:
      "pjb, his mom and nieces spent the day at the pick-your-own fruit patch. On the ride home, the girls were not so interested in raiding Patrick's buckets of cherries and grapes, but devoured practically all of the elder berry's _________! (Okay, so I changed the rule a little. So sue me.)

      LegoAddsThatBugsBunnyLeftTheVeggiesHePickedAtThePatchOvernightInHisVolkswagenRabbitAndTheNextMorningWhenHeHoppedIntoTheFrontSeatWasGreetedWithABadCaseOfCarrot___ ___!

      Delete
    2. You guys all truly amaze me!! I couldn't think of any of these in a million years! I also loved the Hawaiian dad one, but wasn't quite sure of how the Roz Doyle one was supposed to end. (I know her name.)

      I had a computer scare in the last hour and some....NO internet service. Somehow my stupid computer decided to SHED completely our house WI FI, and comcast couldn't help me, and my son (who has the router and modem locked up in his room) refused to help me, because that's how he has been the last year or so.

      Only because I desperately hunted around (and just happened to have learned about the router password earlier today, while a friend was helping me set up my new phone, after my old phone's mic BROKE on Sunday), did I finally somehow that I still don't understand manage to reinstall(?) the name of the house WI FI.....NONE of this makes any sense to me, but the sheer panic is taking years off my life!!!

      As Lego already knows, this past week has been uniformly HORRIBLE...one disaster after another! OH, my point was, if I suddenly disappear (i.e. don't post answers on Wed, or make no comments for awhile), it WON'T be from disinterest, but from computer disasters!

      Delete
    3. ViolinTeddy,
      I – and I am sure I speak for all Puzzlerians! – wish you only the best during this bumpy road you have been recently traversing. But you are not alone…
      The Wi-fi Internet access was unreliable, hackable and generally po’ (thanks Paul) at the Democratic National Headquarters during the national convention July 25-28 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. What’s seemed worse, when the wi-fi did work, the only sites available were those touting Donald Trump! So the Democratic officials called in the IT brain wizards and ask them to install a mo’ Dem _____.
      (I have again fudged my rules, flip-flopping the “word/two-word-blanks” configuration.)

      LegoTheseAreTheSameFolksWhoInThe2000ElectionWereFo’Go’

      Delete
    4. Thank you once again, dear Lego. Your empathy is so appreciated.

      Delete
  26. Cute, Lego. Very cute. I'm glad you didn't try to work in "gooseberry"!

    ReplyDelete
  27. Two words-----nitrous oxide.
    PAUL McCARTNEY, THE BEVVIES, TV BEEHIVES
    PICKER, (Peter)PIPER
    JANGA(JENGA) and HATHWAR(MATHWAR);MOTOR and MATHEMATICS
    "SKY PILOT" by the Animals(1968), SKYPE A LOT
    TRUMP SANDERS DEBATES
    JAR, PAN, JAPAN; JAM, YAN, JAPAN; JAM, CAN, JAMAICAN
    The answer is 3, or C. The numbers stand for where the letters are in the alphabet. These letters just happen to be the Roman numerals in order:
    I V X L C D M=1 5 10 50 100 500 1,000
    CONGA, COWBOY COPAS, "CONVOY" by C. W. McCall(1975), (pina)COLADAS from "Escape: The Pina Colada Song" by Rupert, not Sherlock, Holmes(1979)
    INHABITS IN HABITS
    ANDIRONS AND IRONS
    ORCHARD OR CHARD
    BUTTONS BUT TONS
    THANKING THAN KING
    INJURIES IN JURIES
    AFTERMATH AFTER MATH
    IFILL I FILL
    ASSAYERS AS SAYERS
    STILLNESS STILL NESS
    FORWARD FOR WARD
    INVESTS IN VESTS
    IFILL I FILL again
    Hasta Viernes, muchachos y muchachas!
    pjb signing off!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Solid work, pjb. But I feel your pain.

      LegoJumpin'JackFlashIt'sALaughingGas

      Delete
    2. Hee hee, pjb, are you saying that you are LOOOPY? ; o )

      Delete
    3. No, I'm saying if you've never tried nitrous oxide, ask for it, even if you're just getting a cleaning. It's a great feeling!

      Delete
    4. I was just teasing ya, pjb. Anything that the dentist would charge extra for, and which the dental insurance might refuse to pay, would be something in which I would never be interested!

      Delete
  28. ROSHO:
    “PICKER”>>>Peter PIPER, aka Pierre Poivre in real life.

    Appetizers:
    “debased ranters stump” = “Sanders debates Trump” or “Trump debates Sanders” but Trump has canceled the debate.

    jar pan>>>Japan, or fan roe>>>Faroe (islands)
    jamyan>>>Martin Yan, replace “my” with a “p” to yield Japan.
    Jam_ _ can>>>Jamaican.

    SAYSASS:
    It looks like everyone has solved this one. Congratulations to all!
    The numbers correspond to the alphabetical positions of the letters I, V, X, L, D, and M; that is, the letters which are used in Roman numerals written in ascending order of value. The missing letter is C, which in this sequence corresponds to 3.

    DESSERT:
    The last word divided becomes the last two words.
    “Concerning the employees' request, the CEO contemplated whether to pay overtime ___ ___.”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ron,
      Thanks for your puzzle this week. It provided a challenge, but was gettable. Just about in "the Goldilocks Zone."

      I like your Faroe (Fan/roe) alternative answer. I have a fan above my oven. I have no roe in my kitchen, though my kitten Smitten wishes I had!

      I also like your "paying overtime over time."

      LegoWhoseKitchenIsStockedNotWithChampagne&CavierButWithSchlitz&Chips

      Delete
  29. For my ROLROS, my kitchen item is CAN, my 5 letter synonym is PRIVY, which is the cheating part. (I think ViolinTeddy's synonym is PRISON.) These lead to the island CAPRI.

    The three deleted letters, are NVY, homophonically ENVY, one of the seven deadly sins.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, indeed, David.....'prison' (in my answers below). Enjoyed your puzzle very much.

      Delete
    2. David,
      I too enjoyed your excellent "Rip/Riff-Off-Shortz twice removed" puzzle.

      But it stumped me. I did figure out your clever "cheating" part, however. While I did not catch on the the "Can = privy = prison" cleverness, I did play with the "Pan = criticize = Dress (down) = naysay" stretch.

      Padre Island >> Pa(n) + Dre(ss) (Merriam Webster says "dress" is archaic for "dress down." NSS, of course, means nothing sinful.)
      Panay >> Pa(n) + Nay(say). (NSAY is nothing sinful either.)

      Congrats to VT for solving it. The "synonym of a homonymn trick" was clever.

      LegoWishesHeWerePrivvyToTheRecessesOfDavid'sPlayfulBrain

      Delete
    3. Now you can perhaps grasp the hint I had sent you, Lego....as to why I would have hated to be a pioneer (PRIVY) or equally, would not really like camping!

      Delete
  30. Having purposely avoided looking at anything posted above, re answers, here are mine for the week:

    HORS D'OEUVRE (Every Picture): "TV BEEHIVES" "Paul McCartney took to THE BEVVIES" after the Beatles broke up.

    HORS D'OEUVRE (Ripping Off Shortz): ??
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    MORSEL (News Output): JANGA -> JENGA; HATHWAR -> MATHWAR; MOTOR & MATHEMATICS

    MORSEL (Observing Those Serving): Song: the only one I could find with initials S.P. was SOLDIER'S PLEA. 3-word phrase w/ initials S.A.P. ????
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    APPETIZER (Name in the News): TRUMP SANDERS DEBATES

    APPETIZER (Ripping Off Shortz): JAR & PAN = JAPAN; JAM + AI + CAN = JAMAICAN

    DAVID's PUZZLE: ( CAN -'n') + (PRIVY - 'vy') = CAPRI "NVY" = ENVY; Alternate: CAN + (PRISON - son) = CAPRI also
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    MENU -- SEEK AND YE SHALL ACHIEVE: 9, 22, 24, 12, 3, 4, 13 [ROMAN NUMERALS: I V X L C D M]

    MENU -- RIPPING OFF SHORTZ: CONGAS; COWBOY COPAS; CONVOY (C.W. McCALL); PINA COLADAS (BY RUPERT HOLMES)
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    DESSERT: 1. IN HABITS 2. AND IRONS 3. OR CHARD 4. BUT TONS 5. THAN KING 6. IN JURIES 7. AFTER MATH 8. IF ILL 9. AS SAYERS 10. STILL NESS 11. FOR WARD 12. IN VESTS 13. I FILL [SORRY, NOTHING FANCY AND CREATIVE FROM ME HERE]

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ViolinTeddy,
      You rose above your bad week with a very good puzzle performance!

      LegoNotesThatYouKnockedOuttaTheParkPuzzlesByDavid,ron&Lego..."CallInTheCloser...WeJustCannotGetVilinTeddyOut!"

      Delete
    2. Well, I missed the Peter Piper puzzle (never heard of him, of course) and the Sky Pilot song (it never showed up in any lists, and I'd, of course, never heard of it either).....but I appreciate the (as always from you) kind words. Natch, I had played around with "SKYPE", "Email", "letters" etc, but just never thought of SKYPE A LOT....

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

    Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

    Every Picture Tells A Story Hors d’Oeuvre
    Free admission, drinks cost extra
    Write a two-word, ten-letter caption for the image pictured here. Rearrange the letters to form two words – in 3 and 7 letters – naming what an entertainer recently freely admitted he/she once “took to.”
    What is your caption? What did the entertainer admit to doing, or “taking to”?
    Hint: One of the words in the caption consists entirely of uppercase letters.

    Answer: “TV beehives”; “…the bevvies.”

    Ripping Off Shortz Hors d’Oeuvre:
    Professional “pliers”
    Name a common agricultural profession item in 6 letters. Change the middle two letters to a P, and you’ll get the 5-letter last name of a fictional person who plied that profession. What’s the profession, and who’s the person?

    Answer: Picker; Peter Piper

    Morsel Menu

    News Output Morsel:
    Names become games
    Take the surnames of two persons who have very recently been in the news – surnames of 5 and 7 letters.
    Replace one of the letters in the 5-letter surname with the letter four places deeper in the alphabet to spell out a well-known low-tech game.
    Replace one of the letters in the 7-letter surname with the letter five places deeper in the alphabet to spell out a not-so-well-known higher-tech computer game.
    Who are these persons and what are these games?
    Hint: Children who play these games can improve certain skills:
    The 5-letter game can improve _ _ _ _ _ skills.
    The 7-letter game can improve _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ skills.
    The words that fill in the blanks begin with the same letter, and the 16 letters that belong in the blanks can be rearranged to form the phrase:
    “A most theatric mom.”

    Answer: Nihar Janga, Jairam Hathwar;
    Jenga; Mathwar
    Hint: Children who play the 5-letter game can improve MOTOR skills.
    The 7-letter game can improve MATHEMATICS skills.


    Observing Those Serving America Morsel:
    Antiwar song = military slang
    An antiwar song title is also a two-word slang title of a military occupation (“military occupation” in the sense of “doing one’s duty,” that is, not in the sense of “invade, capture and settle in”).
    Replace the song title’s middle vowel with two different vowels, shift the existing space elsewhere, and insert an additional space to form a three-word phrase that describes what persons serving abroad in the U.S. military might do to keep in touch with their families back home.
    What is this song title? What might military personnel do to keep in touch?

    Answer: “Sky Pilot”; Skype a lot
    Sky Pilot >> Sky Pealot >> Skype a lot

    Lego…

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

    Appetizer Menu

    Name In The News Appetizer
    Ranting, raving politics
    Over the course of the past year, a headline that could well have run in U.S. newspapers pretty much every day was:
    “Debased ranters stump.”
    Rearrange the 19 letters in those three words to spell out another 3-word headline that might well appear in newspapers within the next week or so.
    What is this potential headline?

    Answer:
    Sanders Debates Trump
    (or “Trump Debates Sanders”)
    Alas...

    Riffing Off Shortz Appetizer:
    No Isle of Man is an island nation
    Place two 3-letter common household kitchen items next to each other without a space. Remove the third letter of the result, and you’ll get the 5-letter name of an island nation.
    Place, again without a space, something often contained within the first household item in front of the surname of a personality who professionally used the second household item. Replace a first-person pronoun from the middle of the result with a P and you’ll get the same 5-letter nation.
    Place, again without a space, the same something often contained within the first household item in front of another 3-letter household container. Insert two vowels in the middle of this result to form the name of a resident of another island nation.
    What are these two island nations?

    Answer: Japan and Jamaica
    Jar + pan – r = Japan
    Jam + Yan – my + p =Japan
    Jam + can >> Jam + ai + can = Jamaican


    MENU

    Seek And Ye Shall Achieve Success Slice:
    Number is missing in sequence, whence seeking is a must
    What is the missing number in the following sequence?
    9, 22, 24, 12, __, 4, 13

    Answer: 3
    Take the seven Roman numeral letters, from lowest to highest value: (I = 1, V =5, X = 10, L = 50, C = 100, D = 50 and M = 1,000) I, V, X, L, C, D, L
    Substitute each letter with its alphabetical rank (A = 1, B = 2, C = 3,… Z = 26)
    Thusproducing: 9, 22, 24, 12, 3, 4, 13

    Ripping Off Shortz Slice:
    Dancin’ n’ drinkin’ n’ detectin’
    Name the plural form of a Latin line dance, in 6 letters. Change the middle two letters to a P, and you’ll get the 5-letter last name of a musician who made music that might accompany line dancing, and who used a compound-word stage name as his first name.
    Replace the middle two letters of that compound stage name with two others to form the title of a 1970’s C&W novelty song sung by a performer with the initials C and W in her/his name.
    Remove the P in the 5-letter last name of the musician who made music that might accompany line dancing. In its place insert a 3-letter word to spell out the second word (in 7 letters) of two-word-named drinks mentioned in lyrics of a song sung by a singer whose last name is the same as that of a fictional detective. The 3-letter word you inserted is a synonym of the second half of the musician’s compound-word stage name.
    What is the Latin line dance? Who is the musician with the stage name? What is the 1970’s C&W novelty song? What were the drinks mentioned in the song by the singer with the fictional-detective last name?

    Answer: Conga; Cowboy Copas; “Convoy”;
    Pina Coladas”;
    Congas – ng + p = Copas
    Cowboy – wb + nv = Convoy
    Copas – p + lad = Coladas
    (lad and boy are synonyms)
    “Escape” (aka “The Pina Colada Song”) was performed by Rupert Holmes; Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective.

    Lego…

    ReplyDelete
  33. This week’s official answers for the record, Part 3:

    Dessert Menu

    Patissiere Rempli Dessert:
    Bon-mot-filled eclairs
    There are a dozen incomplete paragraphs below, each which can be completed by filling in the two blanks at the end of each paragraph with two words. (If you can solve just one of the paragraphs, the others are sure to also topple like dominoes.)
    After you have filled in the 24 blanks, can you add a paragraph of your own with two blanks at the end that need filling in, thereby producing an “oddly even” baker’s-dozen of “double-jelly-filled” eclairs/cannolis/cream puffs?
    1. Get thee to a nunnery? Conventional wisdom suggests that a convent (nunnery) is a dwelling that a religious community inhabits in habits.
    2. I did a spring-cleaning in my utility room and den, loading my pick-up truck full of metal recyclables: a fireplace grate, wire coat hangers, a discarded dryer drum, fireplace screens, ironing boards, shovels, pokers, andirons and irons.
    3. Whenever I toss together a big Waldorf salad for my dinner guests, the main ingredient I feature may be raisins, celery, walnuts, bok choi, apples from my orchard, or chard.
    4. The Republican National Committee ordered not just kilograms or pounds of Donald Trump banners, placards, and campaign buttons, but tons.
    5. In the historical struggle to attain civil rights, the names Douglas, Lincoln, Parks, Mandela and Meredith all deserve great credit, but perhaps no one is more worthy of our thanking than King.

    6. In civil lawsuits, it is decided whether a plaintiff be awarded compensation for injuries in juries.
    7. After I totally blanked on my history exam, my history teacher told me to see her as soon as possible to discuss the possibility that I may flunk her course; but, since I have a calculus final exam the very next period, I will have to deal with that ominous aftermath after math.
    8. Public Broadcasting Service NewsHour anchor Hari Sreenivasan substitutes for either of the regular co-anchors Judy Woodruff or Gwen Ifill if ill.
    9. Payton, Sanders, Simpson, Dorsett, Dickerson, Brown – all could elude linebackers, break tackles, set up their blockers, cut on a dime and survey the entire field, but none were as gifted as open-field assayers as Sayers.
    10. As the other Chicago prohibition agents attending the May 1957 wake in Pennsylvania strolled past the open casket, it was obvious to each one of them that their fellow Untouchable was, even in death’s stillness, still Ness.
    11. On “Leave it to Beaver,” Theodore seemed to be kind of a “mama’s boy,” doing whatever he could to please his mother, June, while Wally seemed instead to put his best foot forward for Ward.
    12. A Wall Street stockbroker who is bullish on three-piece suits invests in vests.
    (Here is my own “baker’s-dozenth” paragraph. It is a “rip-off/riff-off” paragraph “piggybacking” off of Paragraph # 8, above:
    13. Public Broadcasting Service NewsHour anchor Hari Sreenivasan (who is syntactically challenged... for the purposes of this paragraph anyway), when he substitutes for regular NewsHour co-anchor Gwen Ifill, announces to the PBS viewers, “Tonight, in for Gwen Ifill I fill.
    Your effort, of course, need not “piggyback” off one of the 12 paragraphs above.)

    Answer:
    I have replaced the two blanks at the end of each paragraph (above) with the correct answers, in bold letters.
    I have also added a fourteenth paragraph of my own:
    14. After my transgender friend Norma had her surgery she was no longer Norman, nor man.
    15. The title bloke in that Beatles tune is, although previously nowhere, now here.
    16. Kiss member Gene, Cardinal pitcher Curt, Ophelia portrayer Jean and fitness guru Richard are together on a picnic. For dessert, Richard distributes 20 sweet tomato-like fruits he picked from his orchard and serves up equal amounts to his fellow picnickers and himself. What will be the allotment of persimmons per Simmons?

    Lego…

    ReplyDelete
  34. I got the picker puzzle, but the beehive one had me in a bit of a pickle, as I'd never seen the term 'bevvies' before. Figured it out eventually.
    The only low-tech game involving motor skills I could think of was JACKS.
    Sky Pilot flew right by me.
    Only in someone's pipe dream will Bernie and the Donald ever debate. And don' be smokin' de sal, mon; it be bad for you. Stick wit' de ganja, mon, it be organic.
    I didn't have the temerity to hint about the roman numeral puzzle ... just the Gaul.
    Glad you enjoyed 'Sherlock Murdoch', VT.

    ReplyDelete