Friday, December 13, 2019

Nag about nada, sing no sad song! Happiness is a warm greeting; Serving up some form-fresh food; A vowel vanishes, then presto-chango rearrango! Rich food for the rich (at a discount)

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/21 SERVED
Schpuzzle Of The Week:
Nag about nada, sing no sad song! 


The following list is in historical order, from earliest to most recent. 
What is the eighth word on the list?
NADA, SONG, EKING, LANDS, NAG, TERM, TONG, ?????


Appetizer Menu


Ice Creams, Condiments And Conundrums Appetizer:
Rich food for the rich (at a discount)

🥁1. Think of a brand-name condiment in two words. Drop three letters and the space to name a discount website.
🥁2. Name a synonym for “greed” in seven letters. Drop the last letter and rearrange to name a rich person food.
🥁3. Name an eight letter word for something you might find at a barbecue. The seventh letter is a D. Change the D to a T to describe the use of this thing.
🥁4. Name the discount area of some stores, in two words, where the second word is the first word minus some letters in the middle. These unused letters can be rearranged into an ingredient in some ice creams.


MENU

Slanguage Slice:
Happiness is a warm greeting

Name a warm greeting in a non-English language. 
Remove two consecutive letters, leaving an object not associated with warm greetings followed by a slang term for that object written backward. 
What is this friendly greeting?

Riffing Off Shortz And Talvacchio Slices:
Serving up some form-fresh food

This week’s challenge, created by Dominick Talvacchio of Chicago, Illinois, reads: 
Name a food in two words – a total of 11 letters. Some of these letters appear more than once. The food has seven different letters in its name. You can rearrange these seven letters to identify the form in which this food is typically served. What food is it?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Talvacchio Slices read:
ENTREE #1
Name a puzzle-maker in two words – a total of 18 letters. Some of these letters appear more than once. The name of the puzzle-maker contains 12 different letters. You can rearrange these 12 letters to spell four words pertaining to the image pictured here: 
1. & 2. a two-word nickname of the mascot for the advertised product,
3. an initialism for the medium on which the product is being advertised, and 
4. the product itself (which appears on the image as ???). 
Who is the puzzle maker?
What are the mascot nickname, medium initialism and product?
Hint: The product is also the name of a biblical passenger.
ENTREE #2
Name a beefy dish in two words – a total of 11 letters. Some of these letters appear more than once. 
The dish has seven different letters in its name. You can rearrange these seven letters to form an adjective that describes the beef after a early step in the dish’s recipe, before it is egg-washed and rolled in crumbs. 
What beefy dish is this? What is the adjective describing the beef early on in the process. 
ENTREE #3
Name a Christmas holiday beverage in two words – a total of 11 letters. Some of these letters appear more than once. 
The beverage has seven different letters in its name. You can rearrange these seven letters to spell a fruit, one that a little girl may reach deep down into the toe of her Christmas stocking in order to fish out... just, perhaps, as her parents are similarly “getting to the bottom” of their holiday beverages.
What beverage and fruit are these?
New Hint: The beverage can be concocted using an espresso machine.
ENTREE #4
Name a food in eight letters. Some of these letters appear more than once. 
The food has seven different letters in its name. You can rearrange these seven letters to spell a marine mammal species and the name of the female of this species, whose mate is a bull and offspring is a pup.
What food and marine animal are these?
ENTREE #5
Name a food in two words – a total of nine letters. Some of these letters appear more than once. The food has eight different letters in its name. You can rearrange these eight letters to spell an adjective and a kind of meat that you could stuff into the nine-letter food. 
The word for the meat also has an informal meaning that would render redundant the phrase pairing the adjective and word for meat.
Hint #1: Ironically, many people find the meat hard to “stomach.”
Hint #2: Remove the final letter from the two-word phrase containing the adjective and kind of meat to form a new two-word phrase that might result from ingesting “magic mushrooms.”  

Dessert Menu

Magical Mystery Tour Dessert:
A vowel vanishes, then presto-chango rearrango!

Replace a double-vowel in a United States city with one different vowel. 
Rearrange the result to form a word used by magicians. 
What are this city and magical word?


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.

36 comments:

  1. I've worked my way down to the last Entree (no idea on the Schpuzzle, however)....except for Entree #2, and haven't read the Dessert yet.

    However, i was wondering if there was an error in the second 'hint' for Entree #5, in that I don't think we are meant to remove the last letter of the adjective, in order to get the possible magic mushroom result.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "ViolinTedditor"
      Thanks for bringing to my attention my confusing, unclear wording of ENTREE #5's Hint #2:
      Hint #2: Remove the final letter from the adjective and kind of meat to form a two-word phrase that might result from ingesting “magic mushrooms.”
      I will edit it to read something similar to:
      Hint #2: Remove the final letter from the two-word phrase containing the adjective and kind of meat to form a new two-word phrase that might result from ingesting “magic mushrooms.”
      You are, as usual, correct.

      LegoTeddited

      Delete
  2. Happy Friday the 13th to all!
    (Hope no one here is superstitious!)
    We didn't eat out, so Mom got us supper from Zaxby's. I enjoyed it, but she wasn't too crazy about it.
    My Wi-Fi has been a little unpredictable lately. The worst part of it is everything I try to play on YouTube buffers a lot.
    As for this week's puzzles, I just finished the Private Eye Crossword, and late last night I checked these and could only solve the following:
    All but Conundrum #4
    The Slanguage Slice
    Entree #1(the rest are tough)
    The Dessert
    Hints will, of course, be required.
    BTW be on the lookout for another cryptic crossword coming soon! We mustn't make it so long between cryptics!
    Lego, I'll set up my Scrabble board, put another one together, and get back to you.
    Watch out for black cats everybody!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Guess what. I got a fever. And the only prescription is more cranberry's cryptic crosswords!

      LegoWhoLikesCowbellButLovesCrypticCrosswordsCreatedByPatrickJ.Berry

      Delete
  3. Have everything except the Schpuzzle and Entrée #2.

    The obvious answers to Entrée #2 don't pan out - is there a deliberate intent to misdirect here (e.g., "beef" is not a food)?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. geofan,
      "Beef," in this puzzle, is indeed a food. But the adjective "beefy" is probably too specific. "Porky," "lamby" and "venisonian" would also apply.
      The puzzle's final questions could have read:
      "What beefy, porky, lamby" or venisonian dish is this? What is the adjective describing the beef, pork, lamb or venison early in the process?"

      LegoApologizingForHisTooNarrowWording

      Delete
    2. Well, I am pleased I'm not alone in being stuck on (only) the Schpuzzle and Entree 2, sinceI have company from geo.

      Delete
  4. Early Schpuzzle hint:
    The average alphanumeric value for a letter in the word "Lego" is a bit less than 10. (12+5+7+15) divided by 4(letters in "Lego") = 9.75.
    The average alphanumeric value for a letter in the eighth word in the Schpuzzle is a bit more than 4.

    LegoWhoBelievesThatNinePointSevenFiveOutOfAPerfectTenAin'tBad

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. From Lego's above hint I have a possible solution for Entrée #2, but I am not happy with it.

      Still stuck on the Schpuzzle - need to find the relationship between the 7 given words. Have some ideas, though.

      Delete
    2. In the Schpuzzle, the historical span, from earliest to most recent, is between 200 and 300 years long.

      LegoWhoObservesThatHistoryCanSometimesBeAMystery

      Delete
  5. Found a second answer to Entrée #2 from a careful reading of last week's Blaine's blog. It is better than my first answer (which was also mentioned there, without the adjective).

    ReplyDelete
  6. Late Sunday Hints:

    Schpuzzle Of The Week:
    About 110 years ago, YANK might have been a word on this list.
    About 90 years ago, THROB might have been a word on this list.
    The image of Henry VIII is somewhat of a hint.

    Conundrums:
    1. A limo in the lane next to you pulls up alongside your Yugo, rolls down the bullet-proof tinted window and asks you a question...
    2. Drop the second-last letter in the rich person food and rearrange the result to get a Wakefield denizen.
    3. Rearrange the letters in the description of the use of this thing to descibe our Tweeter-in-chief, in words of 5 and 3 letters.
    4. The discount area's first word looks like a compound word that, some people think, means the signal strength on their cell phones is improving.

    Slanguage Slice:
    "Happiness is a warm greeting..." especially if you replace the reeting with two other letters.
    Overindulge at Oktoberfest and you may get a beer ___.

    Riffing Off Shortz And Talvacchio Slices:
    ENTREE #1
    St. Nicholas may be old... but he is no devil!
    ENTREE #2
    Some people ____ in ___ before they fall asleep. (The first blank is embedded in the first word of the beefy dish; the second blank is what the other letters in the first word spell.)
    ENTREE #3
    The fruit is a hybrid.
    Some parents stay up late on Christmas Eve wrapping presents and hanging stockings. Perhaps they also stay up late on Easter Eve hiding, well, you know.
    ENTREE #4
    The food is salady. The animal species has a homonym associated with both Easter and Christmas.
    ENTREE #5
    The food shares a feature with pants and kangaroos.

    Magical Mystery Tour Dessert:
    Baraboo, Waterloo, Kangaroo...

    Legoo...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I believe I have finally, un-eloquently, eked out Entree #2. Oddly enough, I had written down both of the longer words originally, but had erased them, thinking I was going nowhere fast. Turns out, I had just never heard of the two-word recipe (i.e. had never put those two words together before.) But Google seems to say the recipe exists, so.....

      Delete
    2. In Lego's clue for Entrée #2, the two blanks also can be filled -- slightly illogically -- with a 3-letter and a 4-letter word taken (not successively) from the 7-letter adjective. In trying to reconcile the hint with the answer that I already had, I actually found this variant first.

      Delete
  7. Got Entrees #2, #3, and #5! But isn't the animal species in #4 two words? Schpuzzle still makes no sense, BTW.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. geofan, nice solving.
      In Entree #4, the marine mammal species is one 4-letter word, and the name of the female of this species is a 3-letter word.
      Each word in the Schpuzzle is formed from letters drawn from a pair of proper nouns. THROB, for instance, might have been on this list had a 1928 outcome turned out differently.

      LegoAddsThatANinthWordOnTheListCouldHaveBeenTonka

      Delete
    2. I'm thrilled to say that I thINK I have stumbled upon the Schpuzzle history in question....boy, it is NOT easy and NOT elegant! However, having identified all the given words and where they came from, I am having trouble getting an eighth word, because there isn't that much 'choice' left and I have failed to FIND a makeable word from what is left...if that makes any sense.

      Delete
    3. In Entrée #4, the animal "species" (actually a 'clade' -- a word that I just learned -- of different species) has a strict Easter-related homonym as well as a Christmas- and Easter (and President's Day, …) related heteronym. Rearrange to form either what a generator of coherent light does, or a group of beverages similar to beer.

      I had the general idea for the Schpuzzle, but had assumed that the words had to be drawn from the beginnings of the proper nouns. There is a small twist, though.

      Delete
    4. A the very beginning, there is an additional small twist, but the 12th element in a well-known series put an end to that possibility.

      Delete
    5. Correction: 2 posts back, what I called a "heteronym" is just really another rearrangement of the clade in question.

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

    ReplyDelete
  9. In the Schpuzzle, another word that not only could, but should be on the list, is DART.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are correct, geofan. DART woulda/coulda/shoulda been on the list between EKING and LANDS. Thanks for the vocabulary lesson with "clade."

      LegoWhoWarnsThatYouMayHaveToHaveASurgicalProcedureToLaseBellyFatIfYouConsumeTooManyAles

      Delete
    2. The above convinces me that I do have the correct 'series'. Hurrah.

      Delete
  10. Schpuzzle: ABIDE (ObamA BIDEn) Key: take last letter(s) of winning presidential candidate and append first letter(s) of winning VP candidate. Prior to 12th Amendment (1804), they were opponents. Addition: DART = ClevelanD ARThur. (post-hint #2)

    Conundrums:
    #1 GREY POUPON - EY P => GROUPON
    #2 AVARICE - E => CAVIAR
    #3 MARINADE => MARINATE
    #4 BARGAIN => BIN, AGAR (Yes, yes this is agar-agar).

    Slang Slice: GUTEN TAG - TE => GUN, GAT. I had never heard of a "gat."

    ENTRÉES:
    #1 DOMINICK TALVACCHIO => OLD NICK, HAM, TV
    #2 BREADED RIBS, BRAISED. Alternate: MYSTERY MEAT, STREAMY. (both post-hint. Both mentioned on Blaine's blog.)
    #3 EGGNOG LATTE => TANGELO
    #4 COLESLAW - L => COW, SEAL
    #5 PITA BREAD => BAD TRIPE => BAD TRIP

    Dessert: KALAMAZOO, change OO to A => ALAKAZAM

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. geofan,
      I like MYSTERY MEAT, STREAMY... that is to say, I like your answer MYSTERY MEAT, STREAMY. I don't like so much actually consuming MYSTERY MEAT, STREAMY!
      Just a note: I begin working on the Riffing-Off-Shortz puzzles after I have solved the NPR puzzle. Inevitably, Blainesvillians will post some of the same riff-off answers I come up with. Usually I then deep-six my versions of those riffs. This time, however, I retained BREADED RIBS, BRAISED because it was the first answer I found (before I found the "correct" SCHMEAR answer), and I kind of liked it (and even thought it might be an acceptable alternative answer).

      LegoWhoLivesIntheHomeStateOfTheUltimateMysteryMeatSpam

      Delete
    2. As you once said, all methods are acceptable to solve the P! puzzles.

      WRT last week's NPR puzzle, my first answer (HAM OMELETTE, HOT MEAL) was before any hints on Blaine's blog. Only got the "correct" answer later, after hints appeared there. Submitted neither to NPR.

      The two answers to the P! riffoffs (that you used) were posted by others .

      Delete
    3. As to MYSTERY MEAT, the 7-letter word mentioned on Blaine's blog was MASTERY. I found STREAMY using an anagrammer.

      Delete
  11. I got the conundrums, the slang slice, entree # 1, and the dessert.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Schpuzzle
    WASHINGTON, ADAMS
    JACKSON, GERRY
    PIERCE, KING
    CLEVELAND, STEVENSON
    NIXON, AGNEW
    CARTER, MONDALE
    CLINTON, GORE
    OBAMA, BIDEN
    The words come from the last letter(s)of the President's surname and the first letter(s)of the Vice President's surname.
    The next word in the list would be ABIDE.
    Appetizers Menu
    Conundrums
    1. GREY POUPON, GROUPON
    2. AVARICE, CAVIAR
    3. MARINADE, MARINATE
    4. BARGAIN BIN, AGAR
    Menu
    Slang Slice
    GUTEN TAG, GUN, GAT
    Entrees
    1. DOMINICK TALVACCHIO, OLD NICK, TV, HAM
    2. BREADED RIBS, BRAISED
    3. EGGNOG LATTE, TANGELO
    4. COLESLAW, SEAL, COW
    5. PITA BREAD, BAD, TRIPE, BAD TRIP
    Dessert
    KALAMAZOO, ALAKAZAM!
    Say Lego, are we supposed to reveal next week's answers on Christmas Day? Just curious. I imagine most of us will be too busy to get around to it sooner.-pjb

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good point, cranberry. That will be a busy week for many of us. So, let's extend the deadline one day:
      Post you answers to next week's Puzzleria! puzzles no sooner than 2PM Central Standard Time on Thursday, December 26.

      LegoWhoBelievesThisMeansHeCanMakeThisFriday'sPuzzlesMoreTrickyBecauseWeNowHaveAnExtraDayToWorkOnSolvingThem

      Delete
  13. SCHPUZZLE: Presidents and their VPs:
    NADA [Washingto/N ADA/ms. 1788],
    SONG [ Madi/SON G/erry,VP, 1808],
    EKING [Pierc/E KING, 1852],
    DART [J. Garfiel/D ART/hur, 1881] <-----------
    LANDS [Cleve/LAND S/tevenson, 1892],
    NAG [Nixo/N AG/new, 1968],
    TERM [Car/TER M/ondale, 1976],
    TONG [Clin/TON -> G/ore, 1992]
    AMAB [Ob/AMA B/iden, 2008] Alphanumeric values: 1 + 13 + 1 + 2 = 17/4 = 4.25 , as indicated in one of the hints.

    CONUNDRUMS:

    1. GR[EY P]OUPON => GROUPON

    2. AVARICE => CAVIAR

    3. MARINADE => MARINATE

    4. BARGAIN BIN; ARGA => AGRA (thickener) [AISLE minus "I" = SALE]

    HAPPINESS SLICE: GU(TE)N TAG => GUN / GAT

    ENTREES:

    1. DOMINICK TALVACCHIO => D O M I N C K T A L V H => 1. & 2. OLD NICK; 3. TV; 4. HAM

    2. BREADED RIBS => B R E A D I S => BRAISED

    3. EGGNOG LATTE => TANGELO

    4. COLESLAW => SEAL COW

    5. PITA BREAD => BAD TRIPE

    DESSERT: KALAMAZOO => KALAMAZA => ALAKAZAM

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

    Schpuzzle Of The Week:
    Nag about nada, sing no sad song!
    The following list is in historical order, from earliest to most recent.
    What is the eighth word on the list?
    NADA, SONG, EKING, LANDS, NAG, TERM, TONG,
    Answer:
    ABIDE
    Each word is formed by placing the last names of a president and his vice-president side-by-side:
    washingtoNADAms, madiSONGerry, piercEKING, cleveLANDStevenson, nixoNAGnew, carTERMondale, clinTONGore, and obamABIDEn

    Appetizer Menu

    Ice creams, Condiments And Conundrums Appetizer
    Rich food for the rich (at a discount)
    1. Think of a brand-name condiment in two words. Drop three letters and the space to name a discount website.
    Answer:
    GREY POUPON, GROUPON
    2. Name a synonym for “greed” in seven letters. Drop the last letter and rearrange to name a rich person food.
    Answer:
    AVARICE, CAVIAR
    3. Name an eight letter word for something you might find at a barbecue. The seventh letter is a D. Change the D to a T to describe the use of this thing.
    Answer:
    MARINADE, MARINATE
    4. Name the discount area of some stores, in two words, where the second word is the first word minus some letters in the middle. These unused letters can be rearranged into an ingredient in some ice creams.
    Answer:
    BARGAIN BIN, AGAR


    MENU

    Slanguage Slice:
    Happiness is a warm greeting
    Name a warm greeting in a non-English language.
    Remove two consecutive letters, leaving an object not associated with warm greetings followed by a slang term for that object written backward.
    What is this friendly greeting?
    Answer:
    guten Tag; (gun, gat)

    Lego...

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

    Riffing Off Shortz And Talvacchio Slices:
    Serving up some form-fresh food
    Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Talvacchio Slices read:
    ENTREE #1
    Name a puzzle-maker in two words – a total of 18 letters. Some of these letters appear more than once. The name of the puzzle-maker contains 12 different letters. You can rearrange these 12 letters to spell four words pertaining to the image pictured here:
    1. & 2. a two-word nickname of the mascot for the advertised product,
    3. an initialism for the medium on which the product is being advertised, and
    4. the product itself (which appears in the image as ???).
    Who is the puzzle maker?
    What are the mascot nickname, medium initialism and product?
    Hint: The product is also the name of a biblical passenger.
    Answer:
    Old Nick; TV; Ham (a son of Noah of Ark fame)
    ENTREE #2
    Name a beefy dish in two words – a total of 11 letters. Some of these letters appear more than once. The dish has seven different letters in its name. You can rearrange these seven letters to form an adjective that describes the beef after a early step in the dish’s recipe, before it is egg-washed and rolled in crumbs.
    What beefy dish is this? What is the adjective describing the beef early in the process.
    Answer:
    BREADED RIBS/ BRAISED
    ENTREE #3
    Name a Christmas holiday beverage in two words – a total of 11 letters. Some of these letters appear more than once. The beverage has seven different letters in its name. You can rearrange these seven letters to spell a fruit that a daughter may fish deep down into the toe of her Christmas stocking to retrieve... as her parents “get to the bottom” of their holiday beverages.
    What beverage and fruit are these?
    Answer:
    EGGNOG LATTE; TANGELO
    ENTREE #4
    Name a food in eight letters. Some of these letters appear more than once. The food has seven different letters in its name. You can rearrange these seven letters to spell a marine mammal species and the name of the female of this species, whose mate is a bull and offspring is a pup.
    What food and marine animal are these?
    Answer:
    COLESLAW; SEAL COW
    ENTREE #5
    Name a food in two words – a total of nine letters. Some of these letters appear more than once. The food has eight different letters in its name. You can rearrange these eight letters to spell an adjective and a kind of meat that you could stuff into the nine-letter food.
    The word for the meat also has an informal meaning that would render redundant the pairing of the adjective and word for meat.
    Hint #1: Ironically, many people find the meat hard to “stomach.”
    Hint #2: Remove the final letter from the adjective and kind of meat to form a two-word phrase that might result from ingesting “magic mushrooms.”
    Answer:
    PITA BREAD; BAD TRIPE
    Hint #1: Tripe is made of stomach meat.
    Hint #2: Ingesting “magic mushrooms” might result in a "bad trip."

    Dessert Menu

    Magical Mystery Tour Dessert:
    A vowel vanishes, then presto-chango rearrango!
    Replace a double-vowel in a United States city with one different vowel. Rearrange the result to form a word used by magicians.
    What are this city and magical word?
    Answer:
    Kalamazoo (Michigan); Alakazam

    Lego!

    ReplyDelete