It’s reigning felines and canines; Thumbs down on a warmer coat; Occupational mystery training; Preoccupation H; From head-to-head to hed-to-hed; Pieces of (one-fifth-)eight (difference)

Welcome to our October 7^th edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!

How many puzzles are we serving up this first week of October? 

A Puzzlebaker’s dozen! Eleven! (We are a parsimonious Puzzlebaker.)

1. We begin your feast with an Hors d-Oeuvre you can choo-choo on.

2. Our Morsel includes two pieces of game.

3. Our Appetizer time-travels between two competitions 46 years apart.

4. Our Slice of doggerel chow is Iamsic, not iambic.

5-through-10. Six of our puzzles – the “Preoccupation H” Slices – riff off and rip off Shortz.

11. Finally, our Dessert is an “inverted hitchhiker’s guide” to the galaxy of sports and games.

Enjoy our parsimonymony. After all, eleven-twelfths of a loaf is better than none.

Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

Choo Choo Hors d’Oeuvre:

Occupational mystery training

Name an occupation associated with trains, a compound word in two syllables. Add an “e” to the end of the word and divide it in two to form an article of clothing worn by a fictional character who has been compared to trains.

What is the occupation? Who is the fictional character?

Morsel Menu

Measuring Up Morsel:

Pieces of (one-fifth-)eight (difference)

Interchange the second and third letters of a piece of equipment used in a game and remove the final two letters, resulting in another piece of equipment used in a game. 

The two letters you removed, taken in order, are an abbreviation for something that can be measured.

There is a difference in that measurement between the two regulation-sized pieces of equipment you found, but it is likely no more than a 20% difference.

What are the names of the two pieces used in games?

Appetizer Menu

Twin Bill Appetizer:

From head-to-head to hed-to-hed

Back when Richard Nixon was president, in the summer of 1970, two American League baseball teams from Midwestern states split a Friday “twi-night doubleheader.” 

The first basemen in the starting lineup for the first game were, respectively, a player who garnered fewer than 40 hits in a three-year career, and a player who garnered more than 3,000 hits in a 20-plus-year Hall-of-Fame career. Each player had one hit in four at-bats in the game.

Remove one letter from the surname of each of these first basemen to form two new surnames – surnames of other competitors more recently in the news.

Who are the first basemen? Who are the other competitors?

MENU

Not Iambic But Iamsic Doggerel Food Slice:

It’s reigning felines and canines

From a state remove letters that someone could string

Together to spell out a continent.

The letters remaining may spell out a king

Holding sway on that mainland and flauntin’ it.

What are the state, continent and king?

Ripping/riffing Off Shortz And Beineke Slices:

Preoccupation H

Will’s Shortz’s October 2^nd National Public Radio Weekend Edition Sunday Puzzle, submitted by Lowell Beineke, reads:

Name an 11-letter occupation starting with H. If you have the right one, you can rearrange the letters to name two things a worker with this occupation uses – one in six letters and one in five. What occupation is it?

Puzzleria!’s Ripping/riffing Off Shortz And Beineke Slices read:

ONE:

Name the 2-word plural form of an occupation starting with an H (5 letters) and C (6 letters). If you have the right one, you can rearrange the letters to name two things a worker with this occupation provides – one in seven letters (beginning with S) and one in four (beginning with L).

What occupation is it?

TWO:

 Name the plural form of an occupation starting with HO. If you have the right one, you can rearrange the letters to name a 6-letter noun (beginning with H) that might apply to a person with this occupation while in the sewing room, and a 4-letter verb (beginning with S) that a person with this occupation might do in the laundry room, kitchen or, at the end of the day perhaps, in the bathroom.

What occupation is it?

THREE:

Name a 2-word occupation starting with H (3 letters) and F (6 letters). If you have the right one, you can rearrange the letters to form an alternative 2-word name for this occupation starting with H (3 letters) and F (6 letters).

What occupation is it?

FOUR:

Name the 13-letter plural form of an occupation starting with HA. If you have the right one, you can rearrange the letters to name a 2-word phrase (a 10-letter adjective beginning with an F and a 3-word noun beginning with an A) describing something a worker with this occupation might produce.

What occupation is it?

FIVE:

Name a 2-word occupation, a 4-letter word starting with H and a 5-letter word starting with M. If you have the right one, you can rearrange the letters to form two words: a 4-letter verb beginning with H that workers in this occupation often do in the course of their duties. They often do this under the direction of people whose occupation is a 5-letter noun beginning with A.

What occupation is it?

SIX:

Name a disreputable 2-word occupation: a 5-letter word beginning with H and a 5-letter word beginning with T. If you have the right one, you can rearrange the letters to form a 2-word phrase naming what a worker with this occupation may also have in his possession – a 3-letter word beginning with H and a 7-letter plural word beginning with H.

What occupation is it?

Dessert Menu

Snowflaked Alaska Dessert:

Thumbs down on a warmer coat

A “warmer coat” is athletic apparel that might be worn by a cross-country sled dog race musher or junior tobogganer… 

Such a coat, however, would likely never be worn by participants in two other recreational activities: a particular contact sport, and a certain children’s game. The contact sport and children’s game are both two words long.

The second words of the sport and the game are the same word. The letters in this word can be rearranged to spell the place where either the sport or game is normally played.

The letters in the first word of the sport and first word of the game can be combined and rearranged to form the phrase “warmer coat.”

What are this contact sport and children’s game?    

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.