Friday, February 3, 2017

Sumtimes in the wintertime; Degrees of excellence; Cultivegetation; Somewhat sensible sentences: Six, six, six, (six)… Professions of fame

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

Welcome to our February 3rd edition Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!

We offer seven puzzles on our menus this week, including three that Rip Off Shortz. 

Please enjoy.

Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

Uncle Rebus Hors d’Oeuvre:
Sumtimes in the wintertime

What famous person, first and last names, is spelled out by the rebus “sum” pictured here?

The person has very recently been in the national news, along with one of the other famous people in the hint below.

Hint: The famous person succeeded (in the sense of “followed in the footsteps of”) two other famous people whose first names rhyme with one another. He was the immediate successor of one of the people, and the fifth-in-line successor of the other one. 
Each of these two other famous people is associated with a number between 1 and 100. Each of these two different numbers is evenly divisible by 5.


Morsel Menu

Vegetable Or Fruit Morsel:
Cultivegetation;

Name a starchy vegetable (often considered a fruit) that is grown in equatorial regions. Insert a T and an O within this vegetable to name a word for a tract of acreage where resident laborers cultivate crops such as this vegetable.

What is this vegetable? 
What is the word for the tract of acreage?


Appetizer Menu

Ballpark Abbreviation Appetizer:
Professions of fame

Name a profession in four syllables.
The first three letters of the profession spell the “Major League Baseball ballpark scoreboard” abbreviation of the city with which a famous person is often associated. 

The final five letters of the profession spell a different, two-syllable profession – one that the famous person has plied but not one with which the person is chiefly associated.

Remove the first four and final four letters from the four-syllable profession. Add a duplicate of this profession’s second letter to the end of the letters that remain, forming the first name of the famous person.

Who is this famous person? 
What is the four-syllable profession?


MENU 

Ripping Off Shortz Slices:
Somewhat sensible sentences: Six, six, six, (six)…
 
Will Shortz’s January 29th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle reads:

Take six different letters. Repeat them in the same order. Then repeat them again – making 18 letters altogether. Finally add “tebasket” at the end. If you have the right letters and you space them appropriately, you’ll complete a sensible sentence. What is it?

Puzzleria’s Riffing Off Shortz Slices read:

ONE:
Take six different letters. Repeat them in the same order. Then repeat them in the same order again – making 18 letters altogether. 

Finally add “chless” at the end. If you have the right letters and you space them appropriately, you’ll complete a somewhat sensible sentence. What is it?

Hint: The sentence refers to the prowess of a statistician and musicologist who possesses peerless knowledge of a particular singer’s:
1. age (over 80);
2. record sales (350 million worldwide);
3. albums that made the Billboard charts (more than 70); 
4. consecutive weeks one particular album stayed on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart (nearly 500).

TWO:
Take six letters. Repeat them in the same order. Then repeat them in the same order again – making 18 letters altogether. 

Finally add “h-flavored” at the end. If you have the right letters and you space them appropriately, you’ll complete a somewhat sensible sentence. 

What is it?

Hint: The sentence refers to a luncheon specialty of a short-order cook at a greasy spoon on Haight-Ashbury who does not whistle while he works… but does puff on reefer while he works.


THREE:
Take six letters. Repeat them in the same order. Then repeat them in the same order again. Then repeat them in the same order again – making 24 letters altogether. 

Finally, add eemed aquatic actress; Geena, expert thespian archer; Salma, graceful dramatic gymnast;... at the end. 

If you have the right letters and you space them appropriately, you’ll complete a somewhat sensible sentence. 
What is it?

Hint: The sentence (which contains two colons: one after the twelfth letter and the other after the fifteenth letter) is an excerpt from a list of Hollywood stars who have demonstrated athletic talents – with actors (“Him”) listed first, and actresses listed last.


Dessert Menu

University Insider Dessert:
Degrees of excellence

Name a word meaning excellent. 

Insert the name of a well-known university inside the word and say the result aloud to form a hyphenated word that means even more excellent.” 

What are these two words?

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.

44 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Even a "diamond as big as the Ritz cracker" would be quite pricey!

      L.ScottRitzgerald

      Delete
  2. I'm pretty sure I know who all three rebus people are, but the first two pictures make no sense to me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. By "rebus people" do you mean the people in the last image in the "sum"?

      The four ?uestion marks in the first image are the cartoonist's signature, a surname.
      The two ?uestion marks in the second image are initials of a neurological disorder. They are also the initials of a QB who lost to his QB counterpart, BS, in a historic game. On Sunday, either TB will lose to MR, or MR will lose to TB.

      LegoWhoAdmitsThatPuzzlesSuchAsTheseSumtimesRebusTheWrongWay

      Delete
    2. By "rebus people" I meant the answer to the puzzle plus the two "predecessors". It's really not necessary to know who the people in the last picture are.
      Removing one letter from the losing QB's last name and appending it to the first name should make everything quite clear. Reading the remaining letters of the last name backward, I find what I hope to find in my shirt pocket after laundering.

      Delete
    3. Oh, I forgot to mention the QB's alma mater.

      Delete
    4. Paul,
      You got it, of course. Now remove one letter from the losing QB's last name and append it to the first name to get:
      1. A surname of a guy who, in this "Trump Era," is wishing he still could be doing a nightly monologue.
      2. What helpful people do with their hand
      3. Ole's gal, in jokedom

      VT, et al,
      One of Paul's comments above is an excellent hint for the Dessert.

      LegoWhoThinksJamesCameron'sTitanicHeroMayHaveBeenTheQB'sGrandpa

      Delete
    5. Su-Purdue-per rhymes with trooper and Cooper ... well, maybe. Should we share our Ritz crackers and plantain chips with the new Secretary of Agriculture? You be the "so-called" judge.

      Delete
    6. I recognized Peter Arno's style, but I didn't know his name (and I didn't understand we were looking for his name prior to the hint). I'm not sure whether LD stands for "Learning Disability" or DysLexia. Arnold was CA Governor after Ronald (40) and is now Apprentice MC after Donald (45). Len Dawson >> lens / no wad (the washer / wastebasket puzzle had me thinking all week about those papier-mâché "sculptures" sometimes found in the pockets of shirts emerging from the dryer).

      Delete
  3. Think of a different starchy vegetable and change one letter to get the name of a well-known example of the kind of land tract in question.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good one, Paul.
      Now interchange two letters of Paul's "name of a well-known example of the kind of land tract in question" to get one of the 16 answers to last week's MYSTERY TRAIN BY LL Dessert.

      LegoMahalo

      Delete
    2. Are you sure about that, Lego?

      Delete
    3. Now that you mention it and bring it to my attention, Paul, no! And, thank you.
      What I shoulda wrote is:
      Now interchange two letters of Paul's "different starchy vegetable" to get one of the 16 answers to last week's MYSTERY TRAIN BY LL Dessert.

      LegoWhoTendsToMakeThingsSeemMoreComplicatedThanTheyActuallyAre

      Delete
    4. Taro >> Tara
      or, as Lego suggests, taro >> tora.
      Either way, I ain't eatin' no turnip.

      Delete
  4. The famous person of the Appetizer has not plied the four-syllable profession; I'm glad I figured that out before ruthlessly attacking the puzzlemaker.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oprah Winfrey was supposed to be named for a biblical character who returned to Moab, Ruthlessly. She acted in The Color Purple. I couldn't find any record of her doing any chiropracting, but then I realized I wasn't supposed to.

      Delete
  5. Statisticians figure the odds; priests operate on faith; I'm afraid I'll be working into the wee hours of the night on the middle one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Statisticians determine what the chances are:
      His Mathis math is matchless.
      Two-l llamas are beasts; one-l lamas are priests; one-L Lamas was married to Esther Williams:
      Here's the rest: Her: Esther, esteemed aquatic actress; etc.
      I knew the other one had to deal with "hash", but I didn't want to work all night (3rd shift = #, get it?) on the details. I went to bed instead and it came to me before I fell asleep:
      His hash is hashish ash-flavored.

      Delete
  6. Howdy this rainy Friday evening. As usual, I'm stuck on the first two Rip Offs and the Dessert, but things went well on the other four.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Happy Friday everyone! Hope you all enjoy the Super Bowl, should you choose to watch this Sunday. I already have the Morsel and the Appetizer, but will of course need hints for the others. And bear in mind I wasn't too crazy about Dr. Shortz's puzzle this past week, even once I found out the "sensible" sentence. I don't know if I even really want to delve into further examples of that sort of puzzle, but any help will be encouraging(I hope).

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

    ReplyDelete
  9. HINTS:

    URHO;
    A guy kinda like Lawford

    VOFM:
    It is easy to slip up when solving this one.

    BAA:

    Gummo, Chico, Zeppo and Groucho give Harpo a backhanded compliment?

    ROSS:
    ONE:
    Chances are you will be able to solve this winderful wonderful riff off of Will.
    TWO:
    You haven't solved this one yet?! Sheesh!
    #sheesh
    THREE:
    Paul Harvey (not Paul Williams) used to bring us "...the rest" of the story."

    UID:
    The words separated by the hyphen rhyme. The university's athletic teams sport a nickname one might order at a bar.

    LegoGrouchZeppoChicoGummoHarpo

    ReplyDelete
  10. Well, I got the first two ripoff puzzles and the Dessert. But the rebus is tough and the third ripoff puzzle is a bit excessive. I'll still need more help with those.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll gladly give you hints for the rebus and third ripoff Wednesday for a hint to the NPR puzzle today.

      Delete
    2. That's a fair offer, Wimpy.

      LegoWhoAddsThatItIsAlsoAnEyePoppingOffer

      Delete
    3. It's just so amusing, how for me the rebus puzzle answer came immediately, and the third rip off was also easy. But pjb got the first two rip offs, and I'm still stuck on those. So difficulty is all in the eye of the be-solver!

      Delete
    4. Be-solver.
      Great!
      Absolutely.

      Delete
  11. Thanks to my finding your comment above, Lego, about one of Paul's comments being a 'good hint' for the Dessert, I FINALLY managed to work it out...of course, I was off to the wrong start, because I thought the neurological condition was "MS", not what it had to be to be the correct quarterback...man, was I ever LOST!

    The Titanic hint finally gave me a clue as to who the QB really was (along with the correct neurological thing.) But until those hints, I was nowhere close re the correct University. I'd been thinking "USC" or "UCLA" and then "DUKE" when I found their team was called "Blue Devils" and that seemed to be a drink at a bar! Another wrong track.

    Unlike pjb, I have had no further luck on the first two Rip Offs, although I do think I know who the old musician is...I just can't get the first either two or three letters (depending on which of two choices for the final word I take).

    I also think I know the 'h-flavored' word, but can't work out the first two letters. Sigh.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Oops, suddenly RIp Off #1 worked itself out. I had had the WRONG singer after all.....and the hint had initially served only to make me think I had the right one.

    ReplyDelete
  13. HINTS:

    NPR Puzzle:
    One of the fairy tale figures -- if you take the ending letters, reverse them, place them before the beginning letters and add a space -- will result in two words that might be printed on the label of one of those 64-ounce juice plastic juice bottles that often contain "blends" or "non-juice" additives.

    URHO:
    Image 1.
    also a river
    Image 2.
    an abbreviation
    Image 3.
    rhymes with pshaw!
    Image 4.
    Just one letter
    Image 5.
    goes with motorcycle maintenance arts
    Image 6.
    goes with bacon
    Image 7.
    another abbreviation

    ROSS:
    ONE:
    Heeeerrr's....
    TWO:
    Corned beef or turkey, for example
    THREE:
    Book of the Bible

    UID:
    A caged Cardinal on a Wooden Mount

    LegoLoisLaneLanaLang

    ReplyDelete
  14. I now actually have the third ripoff puzzle! I can hardly believe it, but I actually know the actress's name! The Bible reference helped especially, although I can honestly say today I saw a classic character on TV who shares this first name. I'd say which show it was, but that would probably give it right away.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hmm. Did the character have a deceased sibling with the same first initial?

      Delete
    2. Paul,
      I'm not sure. I DuckDuckGoogled "[fairy tale character's name] fairy tale deceased sibling" and did not find any deceased sibling with the same first initial, at least not on Wikipedia's page. There was a variant tale featuring a character with the same first initial. But there was no mention of any deceased siblings.

      LegoSorryNotToBeMoreHelp

      Delete
    3. I was referring to cranberry's classic TV character. I've pretty much given up on the NPR puzzle this week.
      Sorry for the confusion.

      Delete
    4. No apology necessary, Paul. I should be reading our Blog Comments Section a bit more closely.
      In the NPR puzzle, the characters' names are both only one word, but they are relatively long, multisyllabic names. For one of them, think of fans urging this guy on to perform some hiphop.

      LegoWantsPaulToGetHisLapelPin

      Delete
    5. Thanks, Lego, but I almost never send in answers to the NPR puzzle, nor do I wear jewelry. I mainly just try to retain what remains of my sanity. Your hint helps; now I think I know half of the answer; I still don't believe I'll find the other half in the next 23.5 hours.
      I was guessing that cranberry's TV character was Lamont's Aunt Esther, sister of Elisabeth.

      Delete
  15. MENU TWO:

    HIS HASH IS HASHISH ASH-FLAVORED.

    DESSERT MENU:

    EXCELLENT = SUPER + PURDUE (phonetically) = SUPER-DUPER.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Morsel
    PLANTAIN, PLANTATION
    Appetizer
    OPRAH, CHIROPRACTOR
    Ripoff Puzzles
    1. His Mathis math is matchless.
    2. His hash is hashish ash-flavored.
    3. Here's the rest: Her, Esther, esteemed aquatic actress...
    Dessert
    PURDUE(phonetically) inside SUPER=SUPER-DUPER
    "It's over, time to call it a day..." pjb

    ReplyDelete
  17. HORS D'O: "ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER" [Former Apprentice host Donald Trump is 45th pres, i.e. divisible by 5. The other predecessor was Ronald Reagan, in the CA governorship. His presidency was #40.]

    MORSEL: " PLANTAIN" -> "PLANTATION"

    APPETIZER: "CHIROPRACTOR" => "OPRAH WINFREY"

    MENU RIP OFFS:

    1. "HIS MATH IS MATHIS MATCHLESS" JOHNNY MATHIS

    2. xxPEAC xxPEAC xx PEACH-FLAVORED????

    3. "HERE'S THE REST: HER: ESTHER, ESTeemed aquatic actress"; Geena, expert thespian archer; Salma, graceful dramatic gymnast.

    DESSERT: SUPER + PURDUE => SUPER-DUPER

    Lego's Discussion with Paul: LEN DAWSON who lost to BART STARR in Super Bowl #1; "LENS"and "NO WAD"; 1. LENO 2. LEND 3. LENA?

    ReplyDelete
  18. This week's answers for the record, part 1:

    Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

    Uncle Rebus Hors d’Oeuvre:
    Sumtimes in the wintertime
    What famous person, first and last names, is spelled out by the rebus “sum” pictured here?
    The person has very recently been in the national news, along with one of the other famous people in the hint below.
    Hint: The famous person succeeded (in the sense of “followed in the footsteps of”) two other famous people whose first names rhyme with one another. He was the immediate successor of one of the people, and the fifth-in-line successor of the other one.
    Each of these two other famous people is associated with a number between 1 and 100. Each of these two different numbers is evenly divisible by 5.

    Answer: Arnold Schwarzenegger
    Arno + ld + Schwa + r + zen + egg + er
    Hint: Schwarzenegger succeeded Ronald Reagan as governorof California, and Donald Trump as star of "Celebrity Apprentice" on NBC TV.
    Reagan was our 40th president; Trump is our 45th.


    Morsel Menu

    Vegetable Or Fruit Morsel:
    Cultivegetation;
    Name a starchy vegetable (often considered a fruit) that is grown in equatorial regions. Insert a T and an O within this vegetable to name a word for a tract of acreage where resident laborers cultivate crops such as this vegetable.
    What is this vegetable?
    What is the word for the tract of acreage?

    Answer:
    Plaintain; Plantation


    Appetizer Menu

    Ballpark Abbreviation Appetizer:
    Professions of fame
    Name a profession in four syllables.
    The first three letters of the profession spell the “Major League Baseball ballpark scoreboard” abbreviation of the city with which a famous person is often associated.
    The final five letters of the profession spell a different, two-syllable profession – one that the famous person has plied but not one with which the person is chiefly associated.
    Remove the first four and final four letters from the four-syllable profession. Add a duplicate of this profession’s second letter to the end of the letters that remain, forming the first name of the famous person.
    Who is this famous person?
    What is the four-syllable profession?

    Answer: Oprah Winfrey; Chiropractor
    (The first three letters in CHIropractor are the ballpark scoreboard abbreviation for Chicago (Cubs or White Sox).

    Lego...

    ReplyDelete
  19. This week's answers for the record, part 2:
    MENU

    Ripping Off Shortz Slices:
    Somewhat sensible sentences: Six, six, six, (six)…

    ONE:
    Take six different letters. Repeat them in the same order. Then repeat them in the same order again – making 18 letters altogether.
    Finally add “chless” at the end. If you have the right letters and you space them appropriately, you’ll complete a somewhat sensible sentence. What is it?
    Hint: The sentence refers to the prowess of a statistician and musicologist who possesses peerless knowledge of a particular singer’s:
    1. age (over 80);
    2. record sales (350 million worldwide);
    3. albums that made the Billboard charts (more than 70);
    4. consecutive weeks one particular album stayed on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart (nearly 500).
    Answer:
    His Mathis math is matchless.

    TWO:
    Take six letters. Repeat them in the same order. Then repeat them in the same order again – making 18 letters altogether.
    Finally add “h-flavored” at the end. If you have the right letters and you space them appropriately, you’ll complete a somewhat sensible sentence.
    What is it?
    Hint: The sentence refers to a luncheon specialty of a short-order cook at a greasy spoon on Haight-Ashbury who does not whistle while he works… but does puff on reefer while he works.
    Answer:
    His hash is hashish ash-flavored.

    THREE:
    Take six letters. Repeat them in the same order. Then repeat them in the same order again. Then repeat them in the same order again – making 24 letters altogether.
    Finally, add “eemed aquatic actress; Geena, expert thespian archer; Salma, graceful dramatic gymnast” at the end.
    If you have the right letters and you space them appropriately, you’ll complete a somewhat sensible sentence.
    What is it?
    Hint: The sentence (which contains two colons: one after the twelfth letter and the other after the fifteenth letter) is an excerpt from a list of Hollywood stars who have demonstrated athletic talents – with actors (“Him”) listed first, and actresses listed last.
    Answer:
    This is what the entire, unexcerpted "list of Hollywood stars who have demonstrated athletic talents" might look like:
    Here's the list: Him: Buster, gold-medal Olympian swimmer/thespian; Bruce, well-conditioned track-star actor; Chuck, TV star and hoops and diamond stand-out;
    Here's the rest: Her: Esther, esteemed aquatic actress; Geena, expert thespian archer; Salma, graceful dramatic gymnast.

    Lego...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'd like to add to the 'Him' category:
      Paul, intrepid race car driver;

      Delete
  20. This week's answers for the record, part 3:
    Dessert Menu

    University Insider Dessert:
    Degrees of excellence
    Name a word meaning “excellent.”
    Insert the name of a well-known university inside the word and say the result aloud to form a hyphenated word that means “even more excellent.”
    What are these two words?

    Answer:
    Super, Super-duper (Su-Purdue-per)

    Lego...

    ReplyDelete