Friday, March 2, 2018

Out of the Saloon, into the Pub; “_ham bam thank you mammal!” Hams reading for the part of sweet Danish prince; A “synpathetic” character

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER (1110 + 98) SERVED

Welcome to our March 2nd edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!

Our featured puzzle this week is an elegant creation composed by Curtis Johnson, a self-described “photography guy” (see photos at right) from Lakewood, Colorado. Curtis posted on Blaine’s blog this past Sunday a puzzle he had previously come up with that he said reminded him of Will Shortz’s NPR puzzle challenge this week.
We liked Curtis’s puzzle so much that we asked him if we could present it here, and he graciously agreed. His is the first of EIGHT puzzle slices  which appear under the heading Riffing Off Shortz And Stuart Slices: “_ham bam thank you, mammal!”
You may have to “focus” intently in order to solve it! Thank you, Curtis. 
Also on our menus are:
ONE ⇓ Royal Appetizer
ONE  ⇓ “Goin’ to a Kansas City” Slice;
ONE  ⇓ Casting-for-Pastry Dessert.

TGIF: Think Good, It’s Friday. And remember, as Will Shortz says, to have a lot of fun during your visit to Puzzleria!  


Appetizer Menu

Bundooks Appetizer:
Out of the Saloon, into the Pub

As the royal patron of the Wessex Youth Trust, the Earl of Wessex motors from Merseyside to Derbyshire after visiting students who benefit from his patronage. Alas, he soon becomes a marked victim as blackguards piloting a Range Rover sidle up to his classic 1935 Bentley Saloon, brandishing bundooks. 
In Bond-like fashion, Prince Edward guns his 3.5-litre clean machine, watching his pursuers shrink in his wing mirror as the Rover slips out of  range and shells ricochet off the macadam turnpike fecklessly.  
To calm his nerves after such an ordeal, the prince parks his saloon near a roadside pub for a few hours and imbibes a bit of gin and bitters at Ye Olde Watling before returning to his residence at Bagshot Park south of Windsor, and to the much awaited belated beauty of his beloved Sophie, Countess of Wessex.

The four-sentence fake-news text above contains eight words, two in each sentence, that share a somewhat unusual wordplay property. 
What are these eight words and what property do they share?


MENU

“Are We In Kansas Anymore?” Slice:
A “synpathetic” character

Spell an antonym of “synthetic” backward and divide it in two. The first part is a synonym of a metropolis. 
The second part is the first name of a fictional character who grew up in a relatively small version of that synonym, one that by most accounts is located in Kansas. 
What is this antonym? Who is the fictional character?

Riffing Off Shortz And Stuart Slices:
“_ham bam thank you mammal”

Will Shortz’s February 25th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Chris Stuart, reads:
Name a place in the United States that contains a W. Drop the W, and you can rearrange the remaining letters to name two types of mammals, each in the plural form. What place is it, and what are the mammals?
Puzzleria!’s Riffing Off Shortz and Stuart Slices read:
ONE (by Curtis Johnson):
Take a nine letter adjective. Move the first letter to the end. The result can be broken into two animal names. What’s the adjective, and what are the animals?
TWO:
Name two types of mammals, each in the singular form. Place them next to each other and replace one with a letter of the alphabet that is its homophone. You will form an adjective that Will Shortz might use to describe a puzzle from a listener that he chooses for his Sunday broadcast. 
What are the mammals? What is the adjective?
THREE:
Name a state in the United States. Remove a letter, or letters, you might see on a package of batteries, and you can rearrange the remaining letters to name a young farm mammal. What is this mammal and what is the state?
FOUR:
Replace the first word in a two word state in the United States with its antonym. You can rearrange the letters of these two words to name (in two words – an adjective followed by the brand name) a refreshing beverage popular in the U.S. especially during the early 1900s.
What is the state? What is the two-word description of the beverage?
FIVE:
Consider the following creatures:
Birds: EAGLE, LOON
Mammals: ONAGER, MOOSE, MOLES
Fish: EEL, GAR, and ROE (potential fish)
Human mammals, good and bad: ANGEL, OGRE
All words in uppercase can be spelled using some of the letters from a state and its capital.
What are this state and capital?
Hint: The letters in just two of the uppercase words can be rearranged to spell the state and its capital. 
SIX:
Remove an “e” from the name of a reptile, and you can rearrange the remaining letters to name a small mammal, a large mammal, and insects. 
What is the reptile, and what are the insects and two mammals?
SEVEN:
Rearrange the letters in the names of an insect and two mammals to name, in two words, a mythical mammal you might see displayed on a human mammal. The second word is a U.S. slang term for a longer word.
What are the insect and two mammals and the two-word term for the mythical mammal displayed on the human mammal.
EIGHT:
After supper Laminae cleared the dishes and helped tutor her stepdaughter Norba who was doing arithmetic at the kitchen table. 
Norba, as was her wont, insisted on using her roundabout way of doing long division, rebuffing her mother's attempts to streamline the process. “She does tend to inherit dogmatic tendencies from her father, Thanoddle,” Laminae thought to herself with a sigh. 
Laminae later retired to her boudoir where she fiddled a while with the alarm setting on her SkyScan digital clock before abandoning this atomic dithering and shifting her attention to her prescription soporifics. 
“I've got to get my medication right,” she whispered while pouring the last remaining sleeping pills from her bottle, clenchng them in her claw like titmice hoarding sunflower seeds. 
After fidgeting sleeplessly for an hour beneath the covers, Laminae pulled some midnight erotica from her nightstand and in no time had drifted off to sleep.
In the text above there are six pairs of consecutive words. The letters of each pair can be rearranged to spell the same U.S. state and its largest city. 
What are this city and state? What are the six pairs of words?
Dessert Menu

Audition: Does Casting Sound Like Pastry? Dessert:
Hams reading for the sweet Danish prince part

Name what auditions or casting calls might lead to, in two words. Add an N someplace. 
Saying the result aloud will sound something like certain pastries. What pastries are these?

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.





30 comments:

  1. Since no one else has commented yet, I thought I'd at least put something in here.....I noted with interest that again we have a THursday date up top (I always look and hope that the NEW puzzles are up, so earlier suits me fine.)

    Although falling asleep in front of computer as I tackled them, I managed to solved the MEnu Slice, and Riffs #3, 4, 5 and 8. And what I assume is 'half' the dessert. Everything else: no dice. Will look forward to everyone else's comments.

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  2. I think rip-off #2 needs to be reworded. Replace WHAT with a homophonic letter, an entire mammal?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I had the same query, Ron, re whether the letter was meant to replace the entire mammal....but seeing pjb's comment below, I guess we better go back to the drawing board.

      Delete
  3. Happy Friday everyone! While I did not check this week's edition late last night, I did get a majority of it done earlier this afternoon. I still haven't got the Appetizer, the Dessert, or Riff-Off #7(quite a toughie!). I will say this, ron: #2 is worded correctly, IMHO. Just think of a particular mammal, and certain terms used in describing its gender(I hope this isn't a dead giveaway, but I wasn't sure how else to put it!). One letter of the alphabet definitely applies here. As usual, Lego, I will require a few good hints for all the others I don't have yet. Had supper earlier with my brother Bryan, my sister-in-law Renae, and the kids, and I got to see their new puppies, Ollie and Harry McLarry Berry(Maddy named the latter one). They're so cute, but they do fight occasionally.

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  4. This validates my hypothesis about the mammal that sounds like a letter, but darned if I can find another mammal to pair with it to get an adjective describing a puzzle.

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    Replies
    1. I'm in the same boat, Paul. The letter hint clobbered me over the head fairly quickly, but then....then.....no inspiration.

      Delete
    2. Sorry about the confusion with Riff #2. cranberry is correct. The homophone is like "bee "(B), "queue" (Q), or "sea" (C).
      So, what one needs to do is to take the letter (B, for example, if a bee was a mammal instead of an insect) and place the spelling of the other mammal after it, for example "ox" to form a word like "box"... except that the word has to be an adjective descriptive of a puzzle Will Shortz would accept for his Sunday broadcast.

      LegoHints:AsForTheNonHomophonicMammal...ThinkFurry

      Delete
    3. Got it. Thanks, lego. One of Will's co-hosts might have had an easier time with it, perhaps.

      Delete
    4. So pig + n = pigeon and p + cock = peacock. I am coming up with other animals... not adjectives!

      Delete
    5. ron,
      The more mammals the merrier!
      Let's pretend "sea" is an animal (short for "seahorse," say). And "raven is an animal." The adjective formed would not be "searaven" but rather "craven."
      Or let's pretend "gee" is something you say to an animal (to a "horse," say) and that "raven" is again the second animal. The adjective formed would not be "geeraven" but rather "graven."

      LegoWhoThinksItCuriousThatWesCravenDirectedMoviesNotForThrFaintOfHeart

      Delete
    6. Thanks. I have the answer; I was just having fun...

      Delete
    7. Nice work, ron. I suspected that you already had the answer. And, my puzzle text was a bit clunky. I appreciate your bringing it to my attention in your earlier post.

      LegoSays"HeyWillShortzSays'HavingFun'IsWhatOurBlogIsAbout!"

      Delete
    8. There's always CHICK + N (HEN) = CHICKEN, not mammals.

      Delete
  5. A few hints:
    BA:
    Three of the four pairs of words appear consecutively in their paragraphs. The two words do not appear consecutively in Paragraph #2. When you solve the puzzle you will have found 8 lowercase words... but also 16 uppercase words!
    ROSASS:
    #1 The adjective describes sideburns, loganberries, atlases and Europe.
    #2 Both mammals are utilitarian: one gives us ugly holiday sweaters, the other gives us politically incorrect coats and stoles.
    #6 ONAGER and MOLES will yield the capital and state, all by themselves.
    #7 Stieg Larsson, David Fincher
    ADCSLPD:
    A synonym of what auditions or casting calls might lead to is "movie parts." A synonym of the certain pastries is "sweet and spicy buns."

    LegoAdds:"SinfullySweetAndSpicy"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you meant to give a hint for #6 [which I certainly need still] , I believe you accidentally did #5. instead.

      Delete
    2. Happy day, I don't need the #6 hint anymore; I finally figured it out, by sheer trial and error (and a certain hunch.)

      And even more happily, I believe I just solved, at last, the Appetizer, although I also believe you meant to hint that the non-consecutive pair are in the THIRD sentence, not the second.

      Delete
  6. Well, the Dessert sounds delicious(I've had them before, and they are!), and I also figured out #7. But I'm still a bit lost with the Appetizer. Got anything else?

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    Replies
    1. cranberry,
      ViolinTedditor is correct when she posted above that the non-consecutive pair of words are in the THIRD, and not the second, sentence. (It is embarrassing when it becomes necessary to ViolinTeddit not only my puzzle texts but also my hints! But, thanks, VT.)
      As for a hoped-to-be helpful hint, however, cranberry, the shortened form of your first name, Patrick, is one of the 16 Uppercase words that go into making up the lowercase eight words I asked for in the answer. Another of the 16 Uppercase words is the name of another valued contributing Puzzlerian! (but one whose name does not appear in Uppercase in our comments section).

      LegoAddsThatAnotherP!Contributor'sFirstNameIsAlsoInvolvedAsIsTheFirstNameOfA"Corny"Counselor

      Delete
    2. You're welcome as always, Lego

      Delete
  7. Now I have it! Sorry you had to figuratively bop me over the head with my own name to get the connection, Lego! But who is the "corny" counselor?

    ReplyDelete
  8. I have the same question, re who is the 'corny' one?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He works for our prez.

      LegoWhoHasAHallOfFameTigerInHisTank...TankYou

      Delete
    2. Well isn't this just peachy?!

      Delete
  9. RIP-OFFS:

    1.EPONYMOUS → PONY + MOUSE. I had the solution to Curtis' puzzle back when he first posted it on Blaine's Blog.

    2. EWE + SABLE → USABLE

    3. ALABAMA (-3A's) → LAMB

    4. ?

    5. SALEM, OREGON → ONAGER + MOLES

    6. RATTLESNAKE (-E) → RAT, ELK, ANTS.

    7. ?

    8. MIDNIGHT EROTICA
    MEDICATION RIGHT
    ATOMIC DITHERING →
    DETROIT MICHIGAN

    ReplyDelete
  10. BA:
    motors = most + OR
    students = stunts + DE
    piloting = opting + IL
    bundooks = bounds + OK
    machine = niche + MA
    macadam = madam + CA
    ordeal = oral + DE
    saloon = soon + AL

    I never really believed that was right; after the hints I got:

    Roy Al Pat Ron
    Mark Ed Vic Tim
    Rico Chet Mac Adam
    Bela Ted Beau Ty
    [Lawyer Ty Cobb is from Kansas; ballplayer Ty Cobb was sometimes known as 'The Georgia Peach']


    AWIKA: analytic > city lana [Lana Lang of Smallville, Kansas]

    ROSASS:
    ONE: eponymous > pony mouse
    TWO: ewe+sable > usable [Rachel Martin hosted WESUN before Lulu; a martin is feathered, but a marten is furry]
    THREE: ALABAMA - AAA = LAMB
    FOUR: New Mexico > Old Mexico > Cold Moxie
    FIVE: Salem, Oregon [onager, moles]
    SIX:
    SEVEN:
    EIGHT: doing arithmetic, inherit dogmatic, atomic dithering, medication right, titmice hoarding, midnight erotica > Detroit, Michigan

    A:DCSLP?D: cinema+n roles > cinnamon rolls

    ReplyDelete
  11. APPETIZER: The word pairs each break up into FOUR PROPER MEN'S NAMES ---

    ROYAL PATRON => ROY, AL, PAT, RON;
    MARKED VICTIM => MARK, ED, VIC, TIM;
    RICOCHET & MACADAM => RICO, CHET, MAC, ADAM;
    BELATED BEAUTY => BELA, TED, BEAU, TY.

    MENU SLICE: ANALYTIC => CITY & LANA

    RIFF OFFS:

    1. EPONYMOUS => PONY & MOUSE [Post-hint] [How is Europe eponymous?]

    2. EWE and SABLE => USEABLE [Post-hint, never would have gotten it otherwise!]

    3. ALABAMA => LAMB

    4. OLD MEXICO => COLD MOXIE

    5. SALEM, OREGON [the Hint: ONAGER and MOLES] [Pre-hint]

    6. RATTLESNAKE => ANTS, RAT, ELK

    7. DOG & RAT & ANT => DRAGON TAT

    8. DETROIT, MICHIGAN; "DOING ARITHMETIC"; "INHERIT DOGMATIC "; "ATOMIC DITHERING"; "MEDICATION RIGHT"; "TITMICE HOARDING"; "MIDNIGHT EROTICA"

    DESSERT: CINEMA ROLES => CINNAMON ROLLS

    ReplyDelete
  12. Appetizer
    The eight words are each made up of two male first names:
    ROYAL(ROY, AL)
    PATRON(PAT, RON)
    MARKED(MARK, ED)
    VICTIM(VIC, TIM)
    RICOCHET(RICO, CHET)
    MACADAM(MAC, ADAM)
    BELATED(BELA, TED)
    BEAUTY(BEAU, TY)
    Menu
    ANALYTIC, CITY, LANA(Lana Lang, Clark Kent's first girlfriend, from Smallville, Kansas)
    Riff-Offs
    1. EPONYMOUS(PONY, MOUSE)
    2. USABLE(EWE, SABLE)
    3. ALABAMA-AAA=LAMB
    4. NEW MEXICO(OLD MEXICO), "COLD MOXIE"
    5. SALEM, OREGON(ONAGER, MOLES)
    6. RATTLESNAKE-E(ANTS, RAT, ELK)
    7. DRAGON TAT(ANT, DOG, RAT)
    8. DETROIT, MICHIGAN
    (DOING ARITHMETIC
    INHERIT DOGMATIC
    ATOMIC DITHERING
    MEDICATION RIGHT
    TITMICE HOARDING
    MIDNIGHT EROTICA)
    Dessert
    CINEMA ROLES, CINNAMON ROLLS
    Funny, I've never considered the BOWTIE a symbol of BEAUTY!-pjb

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

    Bundooks Appetizer:
    Out of the Saloon, into the Pub
    As the ROYAL PATRON of the Wessex Youth Trust, the Earl of Wessex motors from Merseyside to Derbyshire after visiting students who benefit from his patronage. Alas, he soon becomes a MARKED VICTIM as blackguards piloting a Range Rover sidle up to his classic 1935 Bentley Saloon, brandishing bundooks. In Bond-like fashion, Prince Edward guns his 3.5-litre clean machine, watching his pursuers shrink in his wing mirror as the Rover slips out of range and shells RICOCHET off the MACADAM turnpike fecklessly. To calm his nerves after such an ordeal, the prince parks his saloon near a roadside pub for a few hours and imbibes a bit of gin and bitters at Ye Olde Watling before returning to his residence at Bagshot Park south of Windsor, and to the much awaited BELATED BEAUTY of his beloved Sophie, Countess of Wessex.
    The four-sentence fake-news paragraph above contains eight words, two in each sentence, that share a somewhat unusual wordplay property.
    What are these eight words and what property do they share?
    Answer:
    Royal, patron, marked, victim, ricochet, macadam, belated and beauty each consist of two names for boys:
    Roy, Al, Pat, Ron, Mark, Ed, Vic, Tim, Rico, Chet, Mac, Adam, Bela, Ted, Beau, Ty.

    MENU

    “Are We In Kansas Anymore?” Slice:
    A “synpathetic” character
    Spell an antonym of “synthetic” backward and divide it in two. The first part is a synonym of a metropolis. The second part is the first name of a fictional character who grew up in a relatively small version of that synonym, one that by most accounts is located in Kansas. What is this antonym? Who is the fictional character?
    Answer:
    analytic; Lana Lang, who grew up in Smallville, Kansas

    Lego...

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

    Riffing Off Shortz And Stuart Slices:
    “_ham bam thank you, mammal!”
    ONE:
    Take a nine letter adjective. Move the first letter to the end. The result can be broken into two animal names. What’s the adjective, and what are the animals?
    Answer:
    Eponymous; Pony, Mouse
    TWO:
    Name two types of mammals, each in the singular form. Place then next to each other and replace one with a letter of the alphabet that is its homophone. You will form an adjective that Will Shortz might use to describe a puzzle from a listener that he chooses for his Sunday broadcast.
    What are the mammals? What is the adjective?
    Answer:
    Ewe, sable (= u+sable); usable
    THREE:
    Name a state in the United States. Remove a letter, or letters, you might see on a package of batteries, and you can rearrange the remaining letters to name a young farm mammal. What is this mammal and what is the state?
    Answer:
    Lamb; Alabama
    AlAbAma - AAA = lbma >> lamb
    FOUR:
    Replace the first word in a two word state in the United States with its antonym. You can rearrange the letters of these two words to name (in two words – an adjective followed by the brand name) a refreshing beverage popular in the U.S. especially during the early 1900s.
    What is the state? What is the two-word description of the beverage?
    Answer:
    "Old Mexico"; cold Moxie

    Lego...

    ReplyDelete
  15. This week's answers, for the record, part 3:

    FIVE:
    Consider the following creatures:
    Birds: EAGLE, LOON
    Mammals: ONAGER, MOOSE, MOLES
    Fish: EEL, GAR, and ROE (potential fish)
    Human mammals, good and bad: ANGEL, OGRE
    All words in uppercase can be spelled using some of the letters from a state and its capital.
    What are this state and capital?
    Hint: The letters in just two of the uppercase words can be rearranged to spell the state and its capital.
    Answer:
    SALEM, OREGON;
    Hint: The letters in ONAGER and MOLES can be rearranged to spell SALEM, OREGON
    SIX:
    Remove an E from the name of a reptile, and you can rearrange the remaining letters to name a small mammal, a large mammal, and insects.
    What is the reptile, and what are the insects and two mammals?
    Answer:
    Rattlesnake; Ants; Rat; Elk
    SEVEN:
    Rearrange the letters in the names of an insect and two mammals to name, in two words, a mythical mammal you might see displayed on a human mammal. The second word is a U.S. slang term for a longer word.
    What are the insect and two mammals and the two term for the mythical mammal displayed on the human mammal.
    Answer:
    Rat, Dog, Ant; Dragon tat
    EIGHT:
    After supper Laminae cleared the dishes and helped tutor her stepdaughter Norba who was DOING ARITHMETIC at the kitchen table. Norba, as was her wont, insisted on using her roundabout way of doing long division, rebuffing her mother's attempts to streamline the process. “She does tend to INHERIT DOGMATIC tendencies from her father, Thanoddle,” Laminae thought to herself with a sigh. Laminae later retired to her boudoir where she fiddled a while with the alarm setting on her SkyScan digital clock before abandoning this ATOMIC DITHERING and shifting her attention to her prescription soporifics. “I've got to get my MEDICATION RIGHT,” she whispered while pouring the last remaining sleeping pills from her bottle, clenchng them in her claw like TITMICE HOARDING sunflower seeds. After fidgeting sleeplessly for an hour beneath the covers, Laminae pulled some MIDNIGHT EROTICA from her nightstand and in no time had drifted off to sleep.
    In the paragraph above there are six pairs of consecutive words. The letters of each pair can be rearranged to spell the same U.S. state and its largest city.
    What are this city and state? What are the six pairs of words?
    Answer:
    The letters in: Doing Arithmetic, Inherit Dogmatic, Atomic Dithering, Medication Right, Titmice Hoarding, and Midnight Erotica can all be rearranged to spell Detroit, Michigan.

    Dessert Menu

    Audition: Does Casting Sound Like Pastry? Dessert:
    Hams reading for the sweet Danish prince part
    Name what auditions or casting calls might lead to, in two words. Add an N someplace. Saying the result aloud will sound something like certain pastries. What pastries are these?
    Answer:
    Cinnamon rolls; Cinema roles (cinema + n = "cineman" sounds like cinnamon.)

    Lego...

    ReplyDelete