Friday, July 6, 2018

Now we’re cookin’ with GAS! SeVen of Diamonds sticks out from the pack; Title IX; Sweethearts of Phi Mu; Sports? Schmorts! But the answer is...

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER (1110 + 98) SERVED 


Schpuzzle of the Week:
Seen of Diamonds sticks out from the pack 

In a standard 52-card deck of playing cards, the seven of diamonds has a special geometric property that makes it unique from any other card in the deck. 


What is this property?

Note: This week’s Schpuzzle Of The Week is another excellent offering created by Mathew Huffman, a valued friend of Puzzleria!



Appetizer Menu

Enos “Country” Slaughter Appetizer:
Sports? Schmorts! But the answer is...


Replace an article embedded within the name of a country with one letter to form a name familiar even to some non-sports-fans. 

What is this country?
What is the familiar name?



There She Is, Your Ordeal” Appetizer:
Sweethearts of Phi Mu 


Pamela Long was a member of the Phi Mu sorority at the University of North Alabama when she was crowned Miss Alabama in 1974 and competed for the title of Miss America 1975. 
The following text is an excerpt from a pep talk that Pamela, as an alumna, might have given during an orientation of more recent Phi Mu pledges at UNA:  
We at Phi Mu aim to practice love, honor and truth. Ours is a sorority of noble women; we set our rules rigidly so as to guard the purity of our thoughts and deeds. For instance, during a musical performance by the Family Stone featuring Sly at the 1975 Miss America Pageant, a fellow Phi Mu sister, who like me was a contestant, suspected the emcee Mr. Parks of flirting with her, so she promptly hissed at him, “Stop it, Bert!”
In the fictional pep talk excerpt (above) there are four pairs of consecutive words with letters that can be rearranged to form four words that are related to one another. The letters of a stand-alone word in the text can be rearranged to form a fifth word related to the first four words.
Note: The final sentence, involving Sly and the Family Stone and Bert Parks, has no basis in truth; it is pure speculation on Puzzleria!s part. It is, in fact, fake news.


MENU

Homonymical Slice:
Now we’re cookin’ with GAS!

Homonyms are words that sound the same and are spelled the same but have different meanings. 
An example of a pair of 4-letter homonyms is a dog’s bark and a tree’s bark. Another 4-letter example is a river bank and piggy bank.
Name a pair of 7-letter homonyms. 
One of the 7-letter homonyms is an example 
of a G_ _ _ AS_ .
The other homonym is an example of a G_AS_ .

What are these homonyms?
Of what two words (each beginning with a “g”) are these homonyms examples?

Riffing Off Shortz Slices:
Title IX

Will Shortz’s July 1st NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle reads:
Name a woman’s title. Drop the first and last letters and read the result backward to get another woman’s title. Both titles are common English-language spellings. What titles are these?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz Slices read:
ENTREE #1:
Name a woman’s title. Drop the first and last letters and read the result backward. 
Change the second letter to a different vowel to get the identical first name of a great-grandfather, grandfather, father and son – all four who reportedly set a-flutter the hearts of women of all nationalities (titled or otherwise) who watched them perform on stage and screen.
What is the woman’s title? What is the common first name of the four actors? 
ENTREE #2:
Name a woman’s title from around 1960. Drop the “The” from the title along with the first and last letters. Read the result backward to get a plural pronoun followed by a 4-letter word that can be a noun, verb, adverb or adjective... but that is anything but plural.
What title, pronoun, and 4-letter word are these?
ENTREE #3:
Name a woman’s title from the mid-1990s. Drop the first and last letters and read the result backward. 
Switch the third and fourth letters of this result to get a the first name of a positive legendary figure.
Switch the fourth and fifth letters of the same result to get a the name of a negative legendary figure. 
What title is this?
Who are these two legendary figures?
ENTREE #4:
Name a title (starring a woman) from the mid-1980s that involved space travel. Drop the first and last letters and read the result backward to get the first name of another person associated with space travel. 
What title is this? Who is the other person? 
ENTREE #5:
Name a title from classic literature circa 1600. Drop the first and last letters and read the result backward to form what might be a good name for the female twin of a falsetto-voiced furry monster. 
What title and possible twin’s name 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.

27 comments:

  1. Still no comments? I can't believe it! I hope everything's OK out there with all the other Puzzlerians! I already checked the site late last night, and now I only have the Schpuzzle and Entrees #1 and #2 left. Looking forward to whatever hints you can come up with, Lego! I just hope someone else will post another comment soon. So often I'll check the blog, and there won't be any new comments. I can only assume everyone's busy trying to solve the puzzles, or they'd say something. At least you could say something, Lego! It is your site, after all!

    ReplyDelete
  2. axes, believe, buds, drew, lock, pooh, scholar

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Paul's comment, above: Likely a better "puzzle" than any of mine this week. (Mathew's "schpuzzle" is a horse of a different color, however.)
      Of course, Paul has been known to be a notorious hinter. So, there's that.

      LegoXYandZAxesWeBelieveDarlingBudsAnDrewMasterLockWinniethePoohTenO'ClockScholar(YetAxesBudsAndLockMayBePrecededBy"Pick???)...AndDrew(AnDrew)IsSynonymousWith"Picked"

      Delete
  3. I never have anything ultra-creative to say, like Paul always does, but I thought I'd better 'check in', so that pjb doesn't feel so lonely here!

    PUzzles not going terribly well for me....I could manage only Riffs 4 and 5, and Appetizer #2, although I don't think my fifth word is correct, I just can't FIND anything else that seems to coordinate.

    I thought I'd worked out the longer category word in the Homonym slice, but then can't find any one word to fit both that category and one of two possibilities for the shorter category, if that makes any sense. Sigh.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hints:
    SotW:
    Is it hot this summer or what! It's like a pressure cooker... 32 more degrees (and I don't mean freezing) and Boil's Law may kick in.
    ECSA:
    Is that La-Lake now infested with invasive species such as bay root or Eurasian water milfoil?
    TSIYOA:
    Probably the most tastefu; puzzle I've ever composed
    HS:
    You are likely to find the homonym word sitting within Yale housing... perhaps within a cupboard, or doing somersaults across the plush carpeting.
    ROSS:
    #1: If you submitted an answer to this week's NPR's "women's titles" challenge, add it to to this challenge. It may power you on toward a solution.
    #2: You needn't be a Rhodes Scholar to solve this one... but it wouldn't hurt.
    #3: The so-called wind carries a tune. Satana carried "Evil Ways." Santana carries a bag.
    #4: Nightmare Weaver.
    #5: Ay! Just when does a rub turn into a tickle?

    LegoPerchanceGivingNightmarishHints

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've got #1, but I don't get the Rhodes Scholar connection in #2. Also, I'm not sure about what the heat has to do with the Seven of Diamonds. Anything else, Lego?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The title in #2 is associated with a word associated with Rhodes, as in one of the 7 (not of Diamonds) Wonders of the World.
      As for Mathew's Schpuzzle, think of what else degrees can measure.

      LegoServingUpHisSevenDegreesOfEggsAndBacon

      Delete
    2. The schpuzzle hint was actually, for me, the ONLY one that helped me at all.....I had kinda already had an idea anyway, but the degrees thing confirmed it. I'm not sure I have the entire answer correct, but I think part of it...but who knows?

      Otherwise, I'm still nowhere. So be it.

      Delete
    3. Amazingly, I just 'got' Riff # 2!!

      Delete
  6. OOh, smiling as the HOMONYM word finally came to me, just now. My 'categories' were indeed correct. It just took thinking a long while about somersaults.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The First Appetizer finally gave up its hint/secret, just now. That leaves only Riffs #1 and 3 about which I still have no clue.

    ReplyDelete
  8. More Hints (ROSS Riffs, ENTREES 1, 2 and 3):
    #1. When people think of vehicles on the sitcom "Cheers," Sam's cherished 'Vette come to mind first... but a Nash also appeared on the show once.
    #2. The plural pronoun is word you see on a display rack while waiting in a grocery line. The a 4-letter word that is anything but plural is the brand name of picnic supply products that you may have in your grocery cart.
    #3. Here is a Triple-A hint:
    In order to win A gold medal in ARCHERY, an Olympian must AIM carefully.

    LegoWhoIsNoGeenaDavisButWhoIsKindaBowlegged

    ReplyDelete
  9. Without the Cheers/Nash hint, ROSS#1 would've been a complete miss for me; I kept thinking about the Barrymores, although I couldn't make John or Lionel work. I don't often comment about an incorrect answer until I'm sure it's incorrect (meaning until I'm sure I've found the correct answer), but this time I threw caution to the wind and brought up the name DREW, which pertains to a game show host with the same last name as a singer, which pertains to a different puzzle.

    I was also incautious in mentioning AXES. I figured the Schpuzzle must have something to do with symmetry, and that that much was obvious. The best I can do goes something like "the seven of diamonds is the least symmetric card in the most symmetric suit". Pretty lame. The KING of diamonds, however, is the only card with an AX (or AXES), and that pertains to the first Appetizer.

    I BELIEVE the moon landings were NOT faked.

    Despite the MC's tasteless behavior, the beauty queen still gushed "Ooh, Mommy!" when presented with her bouquet.

    SchlAGe

    Alas, poor Piglet, I ate him, Eeyore.

    I don't know if Dr. Charles A. Forbin was a Rhodes Scholar. He was, after all, a fictional character, and his "project" was only a fantasy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think your answer to Mathew's 7 of Diamonds Schpuzzle is very well stated, Paul. I believe Mathew might put his seal of approval on your wording also.

      LegoLambkinWhoLivedWithThePoohGangInHundredAcreWoodButWhoThoughtEeyorickWasAKindOfANumbskull

      Delete
    2. Aah! No card exhibits reflection symmetry (at least I think not). They all attempt rotational symmetry of order 2 (except for the 7's), but only the diamonds succeed, owing to the reflection symmetry of the diamond shape. The rotation is not about an axis or axes, but about a central point.

      I think ...

      Delete
    3. Enjoyed the symmetry site, Paul. "Least symmetric card in the most symmetric suit" is a great description. Brought me back to mineralogy days.

      Anyone know why we have diamonds, hearts, spades, and clubs anyway?

      I found this somewhere but wondered if there are other origin stories:

      "In one legend, the French suits represent the four classes. Spades represent nobility, hearts stand for the clergy, diamonds represent the vassals or merchants, and clubs are peasants."

      Delete
    4. Thanks for shedding the light on suits, Word Woman... "Hearts stand for the clergy!?"... Well, maybe in a perfect world.
      Your posts always suit us just fine.

      LegoAsks"IfYouWereOneCardInADeckOfCardsWhichOneWouldYouBe?"Me?I'dBeTheTwoOfClubs

      Delete
    5. Here are all the cards in a deck which have point symmetry as discussed by Paul above:

      “https://www.teachersnetwork.org/dcs/math/symmetry/point-cards”

      The 7 of diamonds—such an odd duck.

      Delete
    6. Try this link below. The above link is acting funky.

      http://www.teachersnetwork.org/dcs/math/symmetry/pointcards/

      Delete
    7. Thanks for that link, Word Woman. Very helpful.
      While working to solve Mathew's 7-of-Diamonds puzzle, I identified the 30 cards the look the same when rotated 180 degrees, and the remaining 22 (including a lone Diamond, the 7) that do not look the same. But I didn't use the term "point symmetry." (The term "point symmetry" is somewhat nebulous to me, as is the whole "symmetry labyrinth" with all its "points, reflections, rotations, translations, glides, helixes and axes"! Can't we just place a limmitry on symmetry?!"
      I really loved Mathew's puzzle, though, and did eventually "kind of" solve it. I understand now that the 7 of Diamonds is unique in that (because of its crazy lopsided arrangement of pips) it is the only "asymmetrical black sheep in a suit that is uniquely blessed with symmetical pippetry! The 7 of Diamonds stands alone as a card that, even though given its unlopsided pip advantage, nevertheless and alas underachieves...
      Or as Mathew put it, "All other diamonds in the deck when flipped and look the same, save the 7 of diamonds," and as Paul added,"The seven of diamonds is the least symmetric card in the most symmetric suit."
      It is a wonderful puzzle!
      Footnote: If the pips on the four seven cards were arranged with four pips in the corners (as they are on the "10 of" cards) and three pips down the middle (as they are on the "3 of" cards), then the 7 of Diamonds would indeed have point symmetry!

      LegoWhoThinksThatDiamondsAreAPointSymmetryLovin'Girl'sBestFriend

      Delete
  10. Appetizer Part 1
    LEBANON, LEBRON(James)
    Appetizer Part 2
    UMAMI(Mu aim)
    SOUR(ours)
    SWEET(we set)
    SALTY(Sly at)
    BITTER(it Bert)
    Menu
    TUMBLER, GYMNAST, GLASS
    Riff-Offs
    1. SENORITA, TYRONE(Power)
    2. (The)Colossus, US, SOLO
    3. FANTASY(by Mariah Carey), SANTA, SATAN
    4. ALIENS(starring Sigourney Weaver), NEIL(Armstrong)
    5. HAMLET, "ELMA"(female Elmo)
    One small step for a puzzle solver, one giant leap for puzzlekind!-pjb

    ReplyDelete
  11. UMAMI: Category of taste, literally meaning "savory taste". Yum!

    ReplyDelete
  12. SCHPUZZLE: Something along the lines of "turn the 7 of diamonds 180 degrees, and it does NOT look the same", whereas all the other diamonds DO look the same if turned upside down. But then all the suits' 2's also look the same when turned 180 degrees as do all the 4s and 10s.

    APPETIZER 1: LEBANON => LEBRON

    APPETIZER 2: "WE SET" = SWEET; "SO AS" = OATS??; "SLY AT" = SALTY; "IT, BERT" = BITTER; "OURS" = SOUR [I saw the UMAMI above just now, but didn't find it myself, sadly.]

    Just for the heck of it, OTHER PAIRS THAT MAKES WORDS: "SET OUR" = ROUTES or OUSTER; "GUARD THE" = DAUGHTER; "AND DEEDS" = SADDENED; "HISSED AT" = SHADIEST; "WITH HER" = WHITHER; FLIRTING = TRIFLING;

    HOMONYM SLICE: GYMNAST; GLASS => TUMBLER

    RIFF OFFS:

    1. BARONESS => SENORA => ???

    2. THE COLOSSUS => US/SOLO

    3. MARIA MARIA ???

    4. ALIENS => NEIL (Armstrong)

    5. HAMLET => ELMA

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

    Schpuzzle of the Week:
    7 of Diamonds sticks out from the pack
    In a standard 52-card deck of playing cards, the seven of diamonds has a special geometric property that makes it unique from any other card in the deck. What is this property?
    (Note: This week’s Schpuzzle Of The Week is another excellent offering created by Mathew Huffman, a valued friend of Puzzleria!)
    Answer:
    All other diamonds in the deck when flipped and look the same, save the 7 of diamonds.

    Appetizer Menu

    Enos “Country” Slaughter Appetizer:
    Sports? Schmorts! But the answer is...
    Replace an article embedded within the name of a country with one letter to form a name familiar even to some non-sports-fans.
    What is this country?
    What is the familiar name?
    Answer:
    Lebanon; LeBron (James)
    Lebanon - an + r = LeBron

    “There She Is, Your Ordeal” Appetizer:
    The sweethearts of Phi Mu
    Pamela Long was a member of the Phi Mu sorority at the University of North Alabama when she was crowned Miss Alabama in 1974 and competed for the title of Miss America 1975. The text below is a pep talk that Pamela, as an alumna, might have given during an orientation of more recent Phi Mu pledges at UNA.
    We at Phi Mu aim to practice love, honor and truth. Ours is a sorority of noble women; we set our rules rigidly so as to guard the purity of our thoughts and deeds. For instance, during a musical performance by the Family Stone featuring Sly at the 1975 Miss America Pageant, a fellow Phi Mu sister, who like me was a contestant, suspected the emcee Mr. Parks of flirting with her, so she promptly whispered to him, “Stop it, Bert!”
    In the fictional pep talk (above) there are four pairs of consecutive words with letters that can be rearranged to form four words thar are related to one another. The letters of a fifth stand-alone word in the text can be rearranged to form a fifth word related to the first four words.
    Note: The final sentence, involving Sly and the Family Stone and Bert Parks, has no basis in truth; it is pure speculation on Puzzleria!s part.
    Answer:
    The letters in the consecutive words "Mu aim," "We set," "Sly at," and "it, Bert" can be rearranged to form "umami," "sweet," "salty," and "bitter" -- four of the five flavors or tastes. The letters in "Ours" can be rearranged to form "sour," the fifth flavor.
    We at Phi MU AIM to practice love, honor and truth. OURS is a sorority of noble women; WE SET our rules rigidly so as to safeguard the purity of our thoughts and deeds. For instance, during a musical performance by the Family Stone featuring SLY AT the1975 Miss America Pageant, a fellow Phi Mu sister, who like me was a contestant, suspected the emcee Mr. Parks of flirting with her by making goo-goo-eye-contact, so she promptly whispered to him, "Stop IT, BERT!"

    MENU

    Homonymical Slice
    Now we’re cookin’ with GAS!
    Homonyms are words that sound the same and are spelled the same but have different meanings. An example of a pair of 4-letter homonyms is a dog’s BARK and a tree’s BARK. Another 4-letter example is a river BANK and piggy BANK.
    Name a pair of 7-letter homonyms.
    One of the 7-letter homonyms is an example of a G_ _ _ AS_ .
    The other homonym is an example of a G_AS_ .
    What are these homonyms?
    Of what two words (each beginning with a “g”) are they examples?
    Answer:
    Tumbler
    A tumbler is an example of a GYMNAST.
    A tumbler is an example of a GLASS.

    Lego...

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

    Riffing Off Shortz Slices:
    Title IX
    ENTREE #1:
    Name a woman’s title. Drop the first and last letters and read the result backward. Change the second letter to a different vowel to get the identical first name of a great-grandfather, grandfather, father and son – all four who reportedly set a-flutter the hearts of women of all nationalities (titled or otherwise) who watched them perform on stage and screen.
    What is the woman’s title? What is the common name of the four actors?
    Answer:
    Senorita; Tyrone (Power); (tirone >> Tyrone)
    ENTREE #2:
    Name a woman’s title from around 1960. Drop the “The” from the title along with the first and last letters. Read the result backward to get a plural pronoun followed by a 4-letter word that can be a noun, verb, adverb or adjective... and that is anything but plural.
    What title, pronoun, and 4-letter “multi-part-of-speech” word are these?
    Answer:
    "The Colossus" by Sylvia Plath; Us, Solo;
    ENTREE #3:
    Name a woman’s title from the mid-1990s. Drop the first and last letters and read the result backward.
    Switch the third and fourth letters of this result to get a the first name of a positive legendary figure.
    Switch the fourth and fifth letters of the same result to get a the name of a negative legendary figure.
    What title is this?
    Who are these two legendary figures?
    Answer:
    "Fantasy" (Mariah Carey's song title); Santa (Claus), Satan
    Fantasy >> antas >> satna >> Santa;
    Fantasy >> antas >> satna >> Satan;
    ENTREE #4:
    Name a title (starring a woman) from the mid-1980s that involved space travel. Drop the first and last letters and read the result backward to get the first name of another person associated with space travel.
    What title is this? Who is the other person?
    Answer:
    "Aliens." starring Sigourney Weaver; Neil (Armstrong)
    ENTREE #5:
    Name a title title from classic literature circa 1600. Drop the first and last letters and read the result backward to get what might be a good name for the female twin of a falsetto-voiced furry red monster.
    What title and possible twin’s name are these?
    Answer:
    "Hamlet"; "Elma" (possible name of Elmo's twin sister)

    Lego...

    ReplyDelete