Friday, December 16, 2016

Auld Language, new business sign; Video life imitates visual art; Pounding down epicured meats; Soap floats… or does it? Driven to run; then runs when driven

P! SLICES: OVER (pe)3 – (e4 + p3) SERVED

Welcome to our December 16th edition Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!

On our menus this week are:

A meaty Hors d’Oeuvre;
A soapy Morsel;
An arty Appetizer;
A trio of Ripping Off Shortz Slices; and
A drive-time Dessert.

Please enjoy.

Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

Restaurant Hors d’Oeuvre:
Pounding down epicured meats

Name a national restaurant chain. Spell its last three letters backward, followed by its first two letters spelled forward.

Follow these five letters with three letters that – when preceded by the restaurant chain’s middle letter – spell out what you must do to the food before you can enjoy it at the restaurant.


The result is an eight-letter synonym for “epicure” or “voluptuary,” which is exactly the type of person who would be unlikely to patronize the restaurant, or to enjoy its food.

What is this restaurant chain? What is the synonym?

Morsel Menu

Tickling Ivories Morsel:
Soap floats… or does it?

Name a number associated with the Super Bowl to be held in 2017. Add to its end an abbreviation of a month associated with the number 2. 

Add to the abbreviation’s end a second-person pronoun spelled backward.

The result is a brand of soap that is also an object that floats on water (although the soap is not the brand that is famous for floating). A synonym of the object is the name of a brand of candy.

What is the soap brand?


Appetizer Menu

Title! Dialogue! Alliteration! Appetizer:
Video life imitates visual art;

Rearrange the letters of the surname of a well-known visual artist to form the title of a well-known television show.

Rearrange the letters of the surname of a second well-known visual artist to form two alliterative words (with the same first letter) that might be used to describe the place where most of the show’s dialogue occurs.

Rearrange the letters of the surname of a third well-known visual artist to form a snippet from some dialogue that might have occurred at that place.

Who are these three artists? What are the TV show’s title, the alliterative words, and the snippet of dialogue?

MENU 

Ripping Off Shortz Slices:
Auld Language, new business sign

Will Shortz’s December 11th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle read:


Think of a two-word phrase commonly seen on signs in new businesses. Nine letters in all. Change the sixth letter to an N, and read the resulting letters in order: You’ll get a new two-word phrase sometimes seen on humorous signs in classrooms and offices. What signs are these?

Puzzleria’s Riffing/ripping Off Shortz Slices read:

ONE: Think of a two-word phrase commonly seen on signs in many discount merchandise businesses. Nine letters in all.

Remove the fourth and fifth letters and move the ninth letter to the beginning of the first word: You’ll get a new two-word phrase often seen on highway signs this time of year. What signs are these?

TWO: Think of a two-word phrase sometimes seen on signs in residential neighborhoods. Nine letters in all.

Move the fifth letter to the beginning of the first word, and move the last letter of the first word to the spot vacated by the fifth letter, and place a space between the sixth and seventh letters: You’ll get three new words, which might appear in this sentence:
Those who lack (first word) may lament, “It’s (second word) (third word)!”

What sign is this? What three words are these?

THREE: Think of a three-word phrase commonly seen on signs at new businesses. Fifteen letters in all.

One new business specializes in two, and only two, niche markets. It caters to lovers of homemade stews, broths, bouillons, consommés, minestrones, borsches and vichyssoises, all served piping-hot at a sit-down diner-style counter. And the business also stocks an array of undergarments: skivvies, lingerie and other unmentionables too numerous to mention.

The proprietors renamed theirstore “Skivvies & Stews,” erecting a sign with the new name above their main entrance. It covered up the old sign. The name on the original name said essentially the same thing the new sign says, but it was not as catchy, and not all alliterative. Both signs consist of two nouns separated by an ampersand.

The store owners do, however, keep in a front window a small sign bearing the original name. The sign was relatively expensive to have made.

Rearrange the 15 letters of the three-word phrase commonly seen on signs in new businesses so that they form the two nouns on the relatively expensive sign bearing the store’s original name, plus the word for the kind of sign in the front window. Ignore the ampersand. 

What is the three-word phrase commonly seen on signs in new businesses? What are the two nouns on the sign in the window, and the kind of sign it is?

Dessert Menu

Slate Of Candidates Dessert:
Driven to run; then runs when driven

Take an informal two-word description for a strong admirer or big fan of a person who ran for president recently. Interchange the initial letters of the two words to form a car brand.

Who is this presidential hopeful? What is the car brand?
Hint: Only two of the four words rhyme.

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.

45 comments:

  1. "... what you must do to before ..."

    Is there a word (or words) missing or a word too many?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OK, solved it.
      And I understand the sentence construction now, too.
      Forget I mentioned it.

      Delete
    2. Thanks, Paul, for bringing this to my attention. It was pretty sloppy sentence construction.

      LegoWhoMustHaveBeenChannelingHisInnerDonaldTrump

      Delete
  2. The morsel is proof that a puzzle need not be convoluted, complicated, and obscure to be enjoyable. The third ROSS is nearly as straightforward. In other words, those are the only two I've gotten so far.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have the TV show and associated artist.
    I think I have the alliterative phrase for the setting, but can't see an artist's surname in it.
    No clue on the snippet.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm in the exact same boat as you, Paul, for the Appetizer. Your post saved me from having to type it out!

      Delete
  4. A character in the TV show has the same first name as a character in a famous movie who patronized the non-epicurean restaurant.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Lego, does this mean your external drive is fixed?

    Happy Friday!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Robinson Crusoe absolutely hated spiders. So, when the Flying Ghost Spider inadvertently landed on a human, it quickly assessed the situation, and then breathed a sigh of relief:

      Thank God, it's Friday!

      Delete
    2. Nice, Paul.
      Thanks, for asking, Word Woman. My external drive remains inaccessible. I, and PlannedChaos who has been helping me, have not given up, however. In the meantime I am getting by making up new puzzles, trying to reconstruct lost puzzles, and, of course, by the kindness of Puzzlerians! who are not strangers.

      LegoThinksRobesonAndCarusoWereFineSingers

      Delete
    3. Lego, glad you are making it work through all the gremlins and glitches.

      Paul, I just saw your comment. Boy, that spider jumped quite a distance -- all the way from another faraway blog .

      Delete
  6. Wow, I just learned a totally new word for the HORS D'O: have surely never heard it before, but seeing it led immediately to the restaurant (the usual backwards approach.) Fun.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  8. Hey everybody, it's me pjb! Only I now must use the blogger name "cranberry". A few days ago the silk browser on my Kindle crashed, and my Google account did not survive. So I had to start all over again under a new name. But it's still me, Patrick! Glad you're up and running, Lego! But I keep having to hit "Newer post" to get this week's puzzles. Is that my problem or yours? I've gone through so much trouble with my device the past couple of days.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Easy puzzles this week, Lego! I now need only two hints: One for the second visual artist(possibly one for the third as well), and one for the first ripoff puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I **finally** figured out the first and third Rip Offs, but that second one has me utterly bamboozled. I've tried it backwards and forwards, tried logic with the letter placement, tried every nine-letter residential type sign I could think of, and I'm still nowhere. Have everything else, though, except as previously mentioned re the Appetizer.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Just got the dessert. I guess I should have been able to figure it out more quickly.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Just got the first ripoff puzzle late last night!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Now all I need are the second and third visual artists. I think I may have the third one, but the name seems to be linked to more than one artist. Need some good enough hints, Lego.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Utter Hallelujah! Having virtually given up, I finally stumbled upon the correct residential sign (I swear, I had tried everything else on earth!) and almost instantly suspected that this was IT! Sure enough....happy day. This was REALLY bugging me no end.

    So like pjb, the only thing I am missing are the second and third artists of the Appetizer (as I've said before.)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Yeah, Lego, how about some hints? I'm no expert on visual artists, but I think at least I lucked into the TV show title. Are you still there, Lego? Are you busy?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ViolinTeddy, patjberry, et al,

      The two alliterative words that are formed by the surname of a second well-known visual artist (and which might be used to describe the place where most of the show’s dialogue occurs) are a first name of one of the characters and a noun that is a homophone of one of the senses.

      The snippet from some dialogue that might have occurred at that place (formed by rearranging the letters of the surname of a third well-known visual artist) consists of three words: in order, a first name, a conjunction and a personal pronoun.
      The snippet might have been uttered by a character whose first name and surname are alliterative.

      LegoAddsThatTheProfessionOfThePersonWhoUtteredTheSnippetIsACompoundWordThatSoundsRedundantWhenSpoken

      Delete
    2. I was thinking of two different alliterative words.
      I'm still not sure I have the snippet figured out.
      I'm in no shape to carry this stuff around anymore.

      Delete
    3. Oh, now I see. Please disregard my babbling.

      Delete
    4. Paul,
      But disregarding your "babbling" would eliminate half the fun (and mystery!) that this blog provides.

      LegoWhoHappilyBrooksBabblingOnHisBlog

      Delete
  16. I also had, obviously, the wrong alliterative words. [I'm sure we had the SAME wrong words, pjb.] I'll have to return to this later tonight, no time now...but look forward to TRYING to figure it out. OOPS, I almost wrote in the very word that is the TV show!

    ReplyDelete
  17. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Got 'em! I'm done! See y'all Wednesday!

      Delete
    2. Hint for the two unknown artists:
      Visions of colorful quadrilaterals danced in the slumbering cherubs' heads the eve ere they arose and lumbered down the stairs to luxuriate in an unwrapping frenzy beneath THEIR PINE tree (which had been chopped down by the two unknown artists, who also have first names).

      LegoNotesThatTheHead-DancingColorfulQuadrilateralsWerePaintedInTheCherubs'DreamsMostEspeciallyByTheThirdArtistButAlsoSomewhatByTheSecondArtist

      Delete
    3. Thanks once again, LegoCherubian, I managed to work out the various hint levels above, the 'first name' hint revealing (with some googling) the third artist at last, and worked backwards from there...otherwise the snippet would have been WAY too hard to ever pin down.

      Delete
  18. ARBY'S, SYBARITE
    LIFEBUOY(LI, or fifty-one in Roman numerals+February abbr.+YOU reversed)
    (M. C.)ESCHER(CHEERS)
    (Henri)MATISSE(SAM SITE)
    (Piet)MONDRIAN(NORM AND I)
    1. LOW PRICES, SLOW ICE
    2. OPEN HOUSE(HOPE, NO USE)
    3. OPEN FOR BUSINESS, "SOUPS and BRIEFS", NEON
    LAND ROVER, RAND(Paul)LOVER
    Cranberry out!---pjb

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hmmm, a bit premature. It's not 3 p.m. Eastern time yet. . .

      Happy Solstice all!

      Delete
  19. DESSERT MENU:

    RAND (Paul) LOVER>>>LAND ROVER

    ReplyDelete
  20. Arby's >> sybarite [I'd never seen or heard that word before, either, VT]
    Norm and Marge seem to like Arby's.

    LI+FEB+YOU(reversed)=Lifebuoy
    Nice and easy.

    Escher >> Cheers
    Matisse >> Sam site [Whatever attributes, skills, and powers Barbotson may possess, artistic talent doesn't seem to be among them.]
    Mondrian >> Norm and I [I felt like a Nimrod for missing this one while Babel-ing on about luggage and sneaking in an anagram of 'Shapone' (which is the surname of a fellow named Vic who only visited the bar once or twice). If Vic and Cliff had actually fought, Cliff might have ended up plastered against the wall with nothing to smile about.]

    I don't even have jokes for ROSS ONE & ROSS TWO.
    THREE: Open For Business >> Soups & Briefs, neon

    Rand Lover >> Land Rover [The biased media will try to tell you that Paul is an Ayn lover. Wrong. Lies, all lies. So unfair.]

    ReplyDelete
  21. This week's official answers for the record, Part 1:

    Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

    Restaurant Hors d’Oeuvre:
    Pounding down epicured meats
    Name a national restaurant chain. Spell its last three letters backward, followed by its first two letters spelled forward.
    Follow these five letters with three letters that – when preceded by the restaurant chain’s middle letter – spell out what you must do to the food before you can enjoy it at the restaurant.
    The result is an eight-letter synonym for “epicure” or “voluptuary,” which is exactly the type of person who would be unlikely to patronize the restaurant, or to enjoy its food.
    What is this restaurant chain? What is the synonym?

    Answer:
    Arby's; sybarite

    Morsel Menu

    Tickling Ivories Morsel:
    Soap floats… or does it?
    Name a number associated with the Super Bowl to be held in 2017. Add to its end an abbreviation of a month associated with the number 2.
    Add to the abbreviation’s end a second-person pronoun spelled backward.
    The result is a brand of soap that is also an object that floats on water (although the soap is not the brand that is famous for floating). A synonym of the object is the name of a brand of candy.
    What is the soap brand?

    Answer: Lifebuoy
    Super Bowl LI (51) will be played February 5, 2017 in Houston (2/5/17);
    Feb. (February) is the second month of the year;
    "You" spelled backward is "uoy";
    Li + feb + uoy = Lifebuoy;
    A synonym of "lifebuoys" is "lifesavers".

    Lego...

    ReplyDelete
  22. This week's official answers for the record, Part 2:

    Appetizer Menu

    Title! Dialogue! Alliteration! Appetizer:
    Video life imitates visual art;
    Rearrange the letters of the surname of a well-known visual artist to form the title of a well-known television show.
    Rearrange the letters of the surname of a second well-known visual artist to form two alliterative words (with the same first letter) that might be used to describe the place where most of the show’s dialogue occurs.
    Rearrange the letters of the surname of a third well-known visual artist to form a snippet from some dialogue that might have occurred at that place.
    Who are these three artists? What are the TV show’s title, the alliterative words, and the snippet of dialogue?

    Answer:
    (Maurits) Escher; (Henri) Matisse; (Piet) Mondrian;
    "Cheers";
    "Sam (Malone) site" (He operated Cheers bar, where most dialogue took place.)
    "Norm (Peterson) and I..." (Frasier Crane might have said, for example, "Norm and I and the gang at Cheers bought squeaky shoes from Cliff.")

    Lego...

    ReplyDelete
  23. This week's official answers for the record, Part 3:
    MENU

    Ripping Off Shortz Slices:
    Auld Language, new business sign
    ONE: Think of a two-word phrase commonly seen on signs in many discount merchandise businesses. Nine letters in all.
    Remove the fourth and fifth letters and move the ninth letter to the beginning of the first word: You’ll get a new two-word phrase often seen on highway signs this time of year. What signs are these?
    Answer:
    Low prices
    Slow ice

    TWO: Think of a two-word phrase sometimes seen on signs in residential neighborhoods. Nine letters in all.
    Move the fifth letter to the beginning of the first word, and move the last letter of the first word to the spot vacated by the fifth letter, and place a space between the sixth and seventh letters: You’ll get three new words, which might appear in this sentence:
    Those who lack (first word) may lament, “It’s (second word) (third word)!”
    What sign is this? What three words are these?
    Answer:
    Open house
    Those who lack (HOPE) may lament, “It’s (NO) (USE)!”

    THREE: Think of a three-word phrase commonly seen on signs at new businesses. Fifteen letters in all.
    One new business specializes in two, and only two, niche markets. It caters to lovers of homemade stews, broths, bouillons, consommés, minestrones, borsches and vichyssoises, all served piping-hot at a sit-down diner-style counter. And the business also stocks an array of undergarments: skivvies, lingerie and other unmentionables too numerous to mention.
    The proprietors renamed theirstore “Skivvies & Stews,” erecting a sign with the new name above their main entrance. It covered up the old sign. The name on the original name said essentially the same thing the new sign says, but it was not as catchy, and not all alliterative. Both signs consist of two nouns separated by an ampersand.
    The store owners do, however, keep in a front window a small sign bearing the original name. The sign was relatively expensive to have made.
    Rearrange the 15 letters of the three-word phrase commonly seen on signs in new businesses so that they form the two nouns on the relatively expensive sign bearing the store’s original name, plus the word for the kind of sign in the front window. Ignore the ampersand.
    What is the three-word phrase commonly seen on signs in new businesses? What are the two nouns on the sign in the window, and the kind of sign it is?

    Answer:
    Open for business;
    BRIEFS & SOUPS; a NEON sign;

    Dessert Menu

    Slate Of Candidates Dessert:
    Driven to run; then runs when driven
    Take an informal two-word description for a strong admirer or big fan of a person who ran for president recently. Interchange the initial letters of the two words to form a car brand.
    Who is this presidential hopeful? What is the car brand?
    Hint: Only two of the four words rhyme.

    Answer: Rand lover; Land Rover
    (Hint: I realize pronunciationcan be controversial, but to my ears, "lover" rhymes with "cover" (short U sound) and "Rover" rhymes with "over" (long O sound).)

    Lego...

    ReplyDelete
  24. Since my answers weren't posted yesterday, due to my having a cornea transplant surgery, here they are belatedly for what it might not be worth:

    HORS D'OEUVRE: ARBYS; BITE; SYBARITE

    MORSEL: LIFEBUOY

    APPETIZER: ESCHER -> CHEERS; (Henri) MATISSE -> SAM SITE [I'd thought it was: BOSTON BAR]; (Piet) MONDRIAN -> Cliff Clavin' s "NORM AND I"

    MENU (RIPPING OFF SLICES):

    1. LOW PRICES -> SLOW ICE
    2. OPEN HOUSE -> 'HOPE" "NO" "USE"
    3. OPEN FOR BUSINESS -> BRIEFS & SOUPS; NEON (sign)

    FOR SALE CHILDREN PLAYING SLOW DOWN NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH


    DESSERT: RAND LOVER -> LAND ROVER

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hope the transplant procedure is a success, ViolinTeddy.

      LegoWhoIsNoCorneaExpertButDoesKnowHisCorny

      Delete
    2. Yes, feel better, VT!

      Merry Christmas Eve Eve!

      Delete
  25. Hi Guys! Thanks for the good wishes. I JUST GOT OFF THE PHONE with Will Shortz and Elsa, having had the good fortune to again be the winner [as ws the case more than four years ago]...when they called me on Thursday, while I was doctor-ordered lying flat in bed, you could have knocked me over with a Christmas feather! Natch, I've been a wreck since then, but this time went better, I think, than four years ago....I won't reveal anything, since I'm sure I'm not supposed to....but it also turned out to be more fun than last time.

    I thought the new P! would be up already, that's why I ended up here, before I trudge back to bed to lie more or less flat. he eye IS improving...at least no more big BLACK SPOT in the center of my vision as was the case the first day and early yesterday...cornea is swollen (edema) but at least I CAN see with it somewhat; the hours right after had me good and worried. There are drops and special ointment going in four times per day.

    I tried, Lego, to get a plug in for Puzzleria, but there never seemed to be a chance....I don't think most of the pre-chatter will even make it on air....so I'm sorry...I really wanted to.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Congrats, ViolinTeddy, and heal well!

      We'll be listening for you on Christmas morning!

      Delete
  26. Congratulations, VT! I'll be sure to listen Christmas Day! Get well soon, and Merry Christmas!

    ReplyDelete
  27. Thank you for the kind words, pjb (now also apparently known as 'cb'), and Merry Christmas to you, too!

    ReplyDelete
  28. This comment has been removed by the author.

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