Friday, April 7, 2017

Not in your neck of the wardrobe; What a difference a dash makes; The mean mane name game, amen; Leaves of Grammar; Innocent or kilty?

P! SLICES: OVER (65 + 432) SERVED
  
Welcome to our April 7th edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!

We feature another guest puzzle this week, a clever, tricky and dashing conundrum composed by ron, a very clever and prolific puzzle-crafter who is a valued longtime member of our Puzzlerian! community. 

ron’s puzzle is an Hors d’Oeuvre titled What a difference a dash makes.” It’s a hifalutin’ hyphen puzzle.

Also on our menus are:
One Clearly Kilty Appetizer,
One Slice in which the neckline is also the dividing line,
Four Riff/rip-Offs of NPR’s proper-name puzzle, and
One “Whitty” Dessert that “leaves” one craving more chocolates from life’s box.
Thanks to ron, this week’s Puzzleria! is that rare instance when you actually can believe the hype…phen.

So, please enjoy riffling through our riff-offs, and dashing through all our deep-dish delights! 

Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

DO Believe The Hyp-hen Hors d’Oeuvre:
What a difference a dash makes


What common six-letter English word becomes its opposite when you add a hyphen between the second and third letters?


Appetizer Menu

Robes In The Wardrobe Appetizer:
Innocent or kilty?

Hiring us a “Mr. Legal Nerd”… Crock!
The words preceding the ellipsis in the phrase above describe a governmental process that has been ongoing during the past year or so. The words following the ellipsis in the phrase above describe what many Americans think of the manner in which that process is being performed.

Rearrange the 25 letters in the phrase to form the first and last names of the two most recent people to be nominated to fill a certain governmental void in an institution with an acronym that sounds a bit unamerican.

Whao are these two people?  (Whoa! I mean “Who are these two people?”) 

MENU 

Ebony Bowtie Is Not The Answer Slice:
Not in your neck of the wardrobe
 
The name for something worn above the neck contains seven letters, but only six different letters. Replace its two identical letters with two different identical letters to form something worn below the neck.

What are these two things that are worn?

Hint: One of the things worn is restrictive, the other is remedial.


Ripping Off Shortz And Edelheit Slices:
The mean mane name game, amen
 
Will Shortz’s April 2nd NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, composed by David Edelheit, reads:
Think of four 4-letter proper names that are all anagrams of each other. Two of them are first names — one male and one female. The other two are well-known geographical names. What names are these?

Puzzleria’s Riffing/Ripping Off Shortz And Edelheit Slices read:
ONE:
Consider the following surnames, listed in alphabetical order:
Barbeau, Cole, Comaneci, Quinn, Ramirez, Ross…

What are the six first names that belong with these surnames?
Hint: Your answer will contain exactly four different letters.
TWO:
Take the first name of a daughter of “American royalty” whose father, happily, “dodged an iceberg” thereby avoiding death, but then, sadly, died a few years later of more natural causes.
Take the first name of another daughter of “American royalty whose father, sadly, was not granted an opportunity to “dodge” what caused his death.
 Who are these “royal” daughters”?
Hint #1: Your answer will contain exactly eight different letters.
Hint #2: One of the father’s first and middle names are the first and last names of a president.
THREE:
Take the first name of a female literary character whose name begins with a C and who was created by a writer whose name begins with a C.
About three centuries earlier, a writer whose surname begins with a C wrote a novel with a title beginning with a D which includes a female literary character whose name begins with a D.
What are the names of these female literary characters?
Hint: Your answer will contain exactly eight different letters.
FOUR:
When I asked “Was war hell?” I just saw my pal nod.
“But at least,” he then muttered, “on our side was God.”

Aroma, scent, fragrance, the rich whiff of kwanza
Wafts on up from Atlantic Coast soil.
On all tongues: French, Swahili, Urdu, Afrikaans, a
Taste so sweet gushes: African oil.

When pop divas sing opera they strive for a coda
Effervescent… (their fans just sip orange fizzy soda).

“Pray, may I be so forward to ask for your hand?
Do you want to espouse, share one life?”
“Ah, I do!” said the mermaid who swam to dry land,
“And I vow I’ll not be a fishwife.”

No one dons any duds on the nudist estate,
That explains why Don’s watching... the scenery’s great!

Each of the five poems above (two quatrains and three couplets) contains the disguised name of a nation or state along with the disguised name of the capital of that nation or state. The letters in these names are rearranged and appear in consecutive words that form either two-word or three-word phrases within the lines of the poems.
For example, in the following sample couplet:
“The saber I bear soon shall sever the head
Of the king as he sleeps in his plush regal bed…”
The letters in “regal bed” can be rearranged to form Belgrade, the capital of Serbia (“saber I”).
In each of the five poems you must address, however, the number of letters in the capital and in its nation or state will be identical, like Tokyo and Japan (5,5), for example, or like Juneau and Alaska (6,6).
What are these five capitals and their states/nations?  

Dessert Menu

Whitman Candygram Sampler Dessert
Leaves of Grammar

Remove the first two letters from a 6-letter adjective you might hear during a grammar lesson. Interchange the second and fourth letters of what remains. To the left of these four letters place a 4-letter synonym for “versify”  in the manner of Walt Whitman, for example.
The result is an 8-letter adjective that is an antonym of the 6-letter adjective, one you might also hear during a grammar lesson.

What are these two grammar-lesson adjectives?




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.

40 comments:

  1. From the Appetizer:
    "Whao are these two people?"

    Whao? ... Is that kinda like stoap?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Peggy and Ricky like the dessert.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Peggy and Ricky?

      LegoLamentsThatTheyStabItWithTheirSteelyKnivesButTheyStillCan'tCutThePie

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

    ReplyDelete
  4. OOps, I realized after I turned off the computer in the wee hours, that the above comment (now deleted) had a problem...in that the Dessert mentioned switching the second and fourth letters, which fixes the problem I'd been having with my solution. WHY I had thought it was the first and third letters, I do not know....my face is red!

    However, in the first RIp Off, the only Barbeau I've ever heard of has a longer name with two extra letters than the rest.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ViolinTeddy,
      I was not familiar with this other Barbeau either until I composed this puzzle. She/he is not related to the Barbeau with whom we are familiar, as far as I can tell.
      Nor does he/she has no Wikipedia page that I can find; but she/he does have a list of seven credits on IMDb, from 2013 to 2017. Let's just say he/she is an "up-and-coming star of the future."

      LegoWhoHearsThatAdrienneBarbeau'sABigStarInBarbosa

      Delete
    2. Ah, thank you for that guideline, LegoBarbosa, because I was thus able to find this unheard-of person....whereas ole GOogle would have failed me otherwise.

      Delete
    3. Could we add "Jones" to this list of surnames?

      Delete
  5. Now if I can just figure out the Hors D'O, the Ebony Bowtie slice and the RIp Off #4's third and fourth mysteries. [I was pleased to manage to solve #4's first, second and fifth ones!!] I happily have Rip-Offs #2 and 3, as well. And ye olde Appetizer. : o )

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OOh, just sleuthed out Rip Off #4's third one. Hurrah.

      Delete
    2. And the fourth one of #4! [I had made a list of same-number states/capitals, and found a quiz with likewise for countries. So I worked from those.]

      Delete
  6. Funny you should mention that, VT, for I got all of Ripoff#4 except the last one. I've also got the Appetizer and the Dessert. I will of course need hints for all the others. Hope everyone is enjoying prom season! My lovely niece Morgan will be attending hers tomorrow evening at Walker High School! And then the Saturday after that will be my 47th birthday, on Income Tax Day, followed this year by Easter! And then the Saturday after that, Earth Day, will be my sister-in-law's sister's 33rd birthday! That's a lot to celebrate, folks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So you were born in the month of the very FIRST Earth Day, right?

      Some of us (sob) never went to any prom during school years. How many nieces do you HAVE, anyway?

      Delete
    2. Happy impending birthday, cranberry. Had you stayed in the womb a week longer your birthday would be EarthDay!

      LegoWhoThinksFoucault'sPendulumIsAnEcoSystem

      Delete
  7. And then LeAnne(my sister-in-law Renae's sister)and I would definitely have to celebrate the day together! I have suggested we should all go out to eat and celebrate both birthdays, but I think we just go out on the next available Friday most of the time. As for my being born the year of the very first Earth Day, I do think it's great, but then my being a fan of pop music, I'm more concerned with the fact the Beatles broke up that year. I almost feel responsible, even though I know that would be ridiculous. I do appreciate that the week I was born, "Let It Be" was the number one song in the country. And to answer your question, VT, I have three beautiful nieces, two of whom, Mia Kate and Maddy, were adopted from China. You remember, the place in the world whose name President Trump seems to have trouble pronouncing just right? As far as I know, I'm the only one in my family who didn't, and wasn't about to, vote for him! And I don't care who knows, on this blog or Blaine or otherwise!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Are you actually telling us, pjb/cb, that your whole family voted for the current President Disaster????? OMG.....you must be stuck in RedneckLand? I feel so sorry for you! Thank goodness, I landed in a nice, liberal state!

      Delete
  8. BTW, don't feel bad, VT. I never went to my prom either. I've never even dated much. It's a long story with me. You don't want to know. All I can really add is that I don't even drive or have a license.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's sweet of you, pjb/cb, but somehow, I think it's worse for us girls, than you boys, re not having been asked to prom. I never dated in high school either...or college for that matter. Sigh.

      I'm sorry your life is apparently rather difficult. My sons never had any desire to get a license either. In fact, I don't think my younger one has one even yet. Of course, there's no car for him to drive.

      Delete
  9. Thanks for your kind words, VT(except of course the "Redneckland" comment; My family is actually a nice group of people, but folks do tend to vote for Republicans more often down here. I consider myself apolitical. It's much better to avoid all that completely, IMHO.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I didnt' mean to insult you, pjb/cb; I actually thought you were looking for sympathy on the political front (i.e. your being a Dem in a land of Repubs)...but since you say you are apolitical, I guess such sympathy was not necessary. I lived for 19 years on SOUTHERN Oregon, which has the ONLY Republican member of the House in the whole state (I think I heard that somewhere).....so I was speaking from experience, although not surrounded by any family of such persuasion.

      Delete
  10. Don't worry about it, VT. I'm totally apolitical, but I still love and respect my family. I'm just not crazy about Trump as our President. If you check Blaine's Blog every so often, you'll find I'm not alone in that respect. I know SkyDiveBoy really can't stand him. As far as I'm concerned about any criticism of Alabama, I have to feel the least bit insulted if anyone says anything derogatory about my home state. It's just a bad rap we've had over the years, especially when it comes to civil rights. When I think of what's happened here about 50 years ago, it's just sickening to think anyone would behave like that toward people with darker skin than theirs. I'm just glad we know better now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I've seen SDB's comments on BLaine's BLog, which really does get political quite a bit, seems to me. It certainly appears SDB is not alone there in his assessments of the guy who managed to get elected. I refuse to even consider he-who-shall-remain-nameless my president...he's an embarrassment to the country, and if you ask me, well, I better not say in a public forum.

      Delete
  11. On the lighter side though, today I found out, as many others have on Blaine's Blog, that next week's Sunday Puzzle challenge picked by the Puzzlemaster himself was an idea by our own Legolambda! Way to go, Lego!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Patrick.
      I believe having Will Shortz select any puzzle for his NPR Weekend Edition Sunday segment involves an element of luck. Will prefers puzzles that are briefly stated, with a minimum of convolution. Alas, as Puzzlerians! are well and painfully aware, such conciseness is not my forte!
      But, I guess I got lucky this time.

      LegoEncouragesAllToSeek,ReachYourPuzzlingPotential

      Delete
    2. Yes, huge congrats, Lego! I hadn't realized last night when I briefly perused PJB's comment, that it meant YOUR puzzle itself was chosen (I somehow surmised PJB to have meant that WIll Shortz had picked one of his own, for a change.) Anyway, I just sent in my answer.

      Delete
  12. Getting back to this week's P!, how about those hints, Lego?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. HINTS:

      DOBTHHO:
      I will defer to ron regarding hints for his puzzle... although, with his indulgence, I might say the hyphenated antonym often crops up within the context of professional sports.

      RITWA:
      "Unamerican" in a "pipey-plaid" sort of way. Blancmange!

      EBINTAS:
      I am thinking of two Columbo episodes:
      One featuring Jack Cassidy as "The Great Santini,"
      The other, in this episode.

      ROSAES:
      ONE:
      Concentrate on Comaneci and Ross… those were the only ones I knew, anyway.
      TWO:
      "Hint #2: One of the father’s first and middle names are the first and last names of a president..." The other father’s first, middle and last names are the name of a president.
      THREE:
      Gigi. Chivalry.
      FOUR:
      1. JPII
      2. Linda's beau and Maria's and Nancy's hubbies served there.
      3. A capital named the same as what it is the capital of!
      4. A state capital that kinda sounds like the name of a cow... kind of a blend of Elsie and Bossy
      A state that would be the result if Ms. Lupino married that Hawaiian guy named Don.
      5. The capital did not vote for Trump, bigly. The country didn't either... but, "thanks" to the electoral college, here we are.

      WCSD:
      After you remove the first two letters from the 6-letter adjective you've got a Russian peak... generally, mountain range-wise.
      Walt was a regular diva of verse!

      LegoWhoThinksTheRussiansAreAlwaysPeakingAtUsThroughOurMicrowaveOvens

      Delete
    2. Unfortunately, neither of the puzzles I have failed to figure out (Ron's and the Ebony bowtie one) were helped by these hints....so they shall remain unsolved.

      Delete
    3. VT,
      Both things worn begin with the letter M and are 3-syllable words.

      LegoRedenbacher

      Delete
  13. APPETIZER:
    NEIL GORSUCH + MERRICK GARLAND.

    I don't normally do “popular culture” puzzles involving people I've never heard of, but here goes...
    Ripping Off Shortz:

    ONE:
    DAINA Barbeau
    DANNI Cole
    NADIA Comaneci
    AIDAN Quinn
    DANIA Ramirez
    DIANA Ross

    TWO:
    CORNELIA Vanderbilt. (father: William Henry Vanderbilt>>>President:William Henry Harrison)
    CAROLINE Kennedy.

    THREE:
    CLAUDINE by Colette (circa 1900)
    DULCINEA in Don Quixote, by Cervantes (circa 1600)

    FOUR:
    1. WARSAW (was war) POLAND (pal nod)
    2. SACRAMENTO (aroma scent) CALIFORNIA (African oil)
    3. SINGAPORE (sing opera) SINGAPORE (sip orange)
    4. BOISE (I be so) IDAHO (Ah, I do)
    5. WASHINGTON DC (Don's watching) UNITED STATES (nudist estate)

    I'll leave it to Lego to reveal the answer to my “hyphen-puzzle.”

    ReplyDelete
  14. The "Stop In The Name Of Love" link I offered was intended as a hint for the Supreme Court puzzle; I hadn't solved the "surnames" puzzle at that point. Later, it occurred to me that "Indiana Jones" also fits the pattern.

    Peggy >> Margaret
    Ricky >> Richard
    Margaret Richard >> Body Electric

    ReplyDelete
  15. Appetizer
    NEIL GORSUCH, MERRICK GARLAND
    Menu
    MONOCLE, MANACLE
    Ripoff#4
    1. WARSAW, POLAND(war was, pal nod)
    2. SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA(aroma scent, African oil)
    3. SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE(sing opera, sip orange)
    4. BOISE, IDAHO(I be so, Ah I do)
    5. WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES(Don's watching, nudist estate)
    Dessert
    PLURAL, SINGULAR
    On behalf of my niece Mia Kate and myself(we're babysitting today), have a great week and we'll see you again Friday.-pjb

    ReplyDelete
  16. Just spotted your late hint, Lego, and didn't look at anyone else's answers yet.....went Googling and finally came up with the Ebony Tie puzzle answer. What a relief! So thank you once more....of all the words I'd thought of, I'd never thought of either of those items. Here goes:

    HORS D'OEUVRE: NO-? ON-? CO-? DE-?

    APPETIZER: "NEIL GORSUCH" and "MERRICK GARLAND" [SCOTUS nominees]


    MENU:

    EBONY BOWTIE SLICE: MONOCLE and MANACLE [HURRAH!!!]

    RIPPING OFF SHORTZ ETC:

    1. DAINA Barbeau; NAIDA Cole; NADIA Comaneci; AIDAN Quinn; DANIA Ramirez; DIANA Ross

    2. CORNELIA VANDERBILT [daughter of GEORGE WASHINGTON Vanderbilt II]; CAROLINE KENNEDY

    3. CLAUDINE [by COLETTE]; DULCINEA [Cervantes -- Don Quixote]

    4. (a.) "WARSAW, POLAND" [Was war, pal nod];
    (b.) "SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA" [aroma scent, African oil];
    (c.) "SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE" [sing opera, sip orange]
    (d.) "BOISE, IDAHO" [I be so, Ah I do]
    (e.) "WASHINGTON DC, UNITED STATES" [Don's watching, nudist estate]

    DESSERT: PLURAL => URAL => AR/UL => ULAR => SINGULAR

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AHHHH, how about RESIGN and RE-SIGN (keeping Lego's professional sports clue in mind.)

      Delete
  17. This week's official answers, for the record, Part 1:

    Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

    DO Believe The Hyp-hen Hors d’Oeuvre:
    What a difference a dash makes
    What common six-letter English word becomes its opposite when you add a hyphen between the second and third letters?
    Answer:
    Resign; re-sign
    (“I resign from the team and then I, later, re-sign with the same team.”)


    Appetizer Menu

    Robes In The Wardrobe Appetizer:
    Innocent or kilty?
    Hiring us a “Mr. Legal Nerd”… Crock!
    The words preceding the ellipsis in the phrase above describe a governmental process that has been ongoing during the past year or so. The words following the ellipsis in the phrase above describe what many Americans think of the manner in which that process is being performed.
    Rearrange the 25 letters in the phrase to form the first and last names of the two most recent people to be nominated to fill a certain governmental void in an institution with an acronym that sounds a bit unamerican.
    Whao are these two people? (Whoa! I mean “Who are these two people?”)
    Answer:
    Merrick Garland; Neil Gorsuch

    Lego...

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

    MENU

    Ebony Bowtie Is Not The Answer Slice:
    Not in your neck of the wardrobe
    The name for something worn above the neck contains seven letters, but only six different letters. Replace its two identical letters with two different identical letters to form something worn below the neck.
    What are these two things that are worn?
    Hint: One of the things worn is restrictive, the other is remedial.
    Answer:
    monocle; manacle

    Ripping Off Shortz And Edelheit Slices:
    The mean mane name game, amen

    ONE:
    Consider the following surnames, listed in alphabetical order:
    Barbeau, Cole, Comaneci, Quinn, Ramirez, Ross…
    What are the six first names that belong with these surnames?
    Hint: Your answer will contain exactly four different letters.
    Answer:
    Daina
    Naida
    Nadia
    Aidan
    Dania
    Diana


    TWO:
    Take the first name of a daughter of “American royalty” whose father, happily, “dodged an iceberg” thereby avoiding death, but then, sadly, died a few years later of more natural causes.
    Take the first name of another daughter of “American royalty whose father, sadly, was not granted an opportunity to “dodge” what caused his death.
    Who are these “royal” daughters”?
    Hint #1: Your answer will contain exactly eight different letters.
    Hint #2: One of the father’s first and middle names are the first and last names of a president.
    Answer:
    Cornelia Vanderbilt
    Caroline Kennedy

    THREE:
    Take the first name of a female literary character whose name begins with a C and who was created by a writer whose name begins with a C.
    About three centuries earlier, a writer whose name begins with a C wrote a novel with a title beginning with a D which includes a female literary character whose name begins with a D.
    What are the names of these female literary characters?
    Hint: Your answer will contain exactly eight different letters.
    Answer:
    Claudine, created by Collette
    Dulcinea (del Toboso), created by Cervantes, author of "Don Quixote"

    Lego...

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

    FOUR:
    1.
    When I asked “WAS WAR hell?” I just saw my PAL NOD.
    “But at least,” he then muttered, “on our side was God.”

    2.
    AROMA, SCENT, fragrance, the rich whiff of kwanza
    Wafts on up from Atlantic Coast soil.
    On all tongues: French, Swahili, Urdu, Afrikaans, a
    Taste so sweet gushes: AFRICAN OIL.

    3.
    When pop divas SING OPERA they strive for a coda
    Effervescent… (their fans just SIP ORANGE fizzy soda).

    4.
    “Pray, may I BE SO forward to ask for your hand?
    Do you want to espouse, share one life?”
    “AH, I DO!” said the mermaid who swam to dry land,
    “And I vow I’ll not be a fishwife.”

    5.
    No one dons any duds on the NUDIST ESTATE,
    That explains why DON'S WATCHING... the scenery’s great!

    Each of the five poems above (two quatrains and three couplets) contains the disguised name of a nation or state along with the disguised name of the capital of that nation or state. The letters in these names are rearranged and appear in consecutive words that form either two-word or three-word phrases within the lines of the poems.
    For example, in the following sample couplet:
    “The saber I bear soon shall sever the head
    Of the king as he sleeps in his plush regal bed…”
    The letters in “regal bed” can be rearranged to form Belgrade, the capital of Serbia (“saber I”).
    In each of the five poems you must address, however, the number of letters in the capital and in its nation or state will be identical, like Tokyo and Japan (5,5), for example, or like Juneau and Alaska (6,6).
    What are these five capitals and their states/nations?
    Answer:
    1. Warsaw, Poland
    2. Sacramento, California
    3. Singapore, Singapore
    4. Boise, Idaho
    5. Washington, D.C., United States
    The disguised names have been writt en in UPPERCASE LETTERS in the poems above.

    Dessert Menu

    Whitman Candygram Sampler Dessert
    Leaves of Grammar
    Remove the first two letters from a 6-letter adjective you might hear during a grammar lesson. Interchange the second and fourth letters of what remains. To the left of these four letters place a 4-letter synonym for “versify” — in the manner of Walt Whitman, for example.
    The result is an 8-letter adjective that is an antonym of the 6-letter adjective, one you might also hear during a grammar lesson.
    What are these two grammar-lesson adjectives?
    Answer:
    Plural, Singular
    PLURAL - PL = URAL >> ULAR
    >> SING + ULAR = SINGULAR

    Lego...

    ReplyDelete