HappyCrypticNewCrosswordYear! Minding one’s peas and cues; Caption, capital and capitalization; Dropping the ball as multitudes fall; An uncommon Common Era occurrence

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 3(7!) SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

An uncommon Common Era occurrence

1. What numerical property does the year 2021 share with only 27 of the other 2,020 years, beginning with the year 1?

(According to the math, only about 1.4 percent of the Common Era years, to date, share this
uncommon property.)

Can you name the other 27 years that share this property?

What will be the next year that shares this property?

Appetizer Menu

Auld Lang Syne Language Appetizer:

HappyCrypticNewCrosswordYear!

It’s 2021! Let’s ring in the New Year with another excellent humdinger of a cryptic crossword puzzle created by our friend Patrick J, Berry (screen name, cranberry). 

It is his eighteenth crypticcrossword puzzle to appear on Puzzleria!

Here are the links to Patrick’s seventeen previous cryptic crosswords on Puzzleria! Each is a cryptic masterpiece!

ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SIX SEVEN 

EIGHT NINE TEN ELEVEN TWELVE THIRTEEN 

FOURTEEN FIFTEEN SIXTEEN SEVENTEEN

For those of you who may be new to cryptic crossword puzzles, Patrick has compiled a few basic cryptic crossword puzzle instructions regarding the Across and Down clues and their format:

The number in parentheses at the end of each clue tells how many letters are in the answer.

Multiple numbers in parentheses indicate how letters are distributed in multiple-word answers.

For example, (6) simply indicates a six-letter answer like “jalopy,” (5,3) indicates a five-and-three-letter answer like “cargo van,” and (5-5) indicates a five-and-five-letter hyphenated answer like “Rolls-Royce.”

For further insight about how to decipher these numbered cryptic clues, see Patrick’s “Cryptic Crossword Tutorial” in this link to his November 17, 2017 cryptic crossword. 

The Tutorial appears below the grid that contains the answers in that edition of Puzzleria!

And now, here are Patrick’s New Year’s clues:

ACROSS

4. Turned down fan in rush(8)

8. Married woman’s bitterness(6)

9. Philosophical sort needs help carrying box(8)

10. Football players with name in underwear?(8)

11. Not against dull arrangement?(6)

12. Carmen, for example—having lost love, dead inside, looking for shelter(8)

13. It’s a part of France, guys(8)

16. Clark Kent, for example, has to change costume, ultimately, then leave(5,3)

19. Rocky runs right off before meal(8)

21. Eager to put paintings around room?(6)

23. Informed journalists getting close to you, Tom?(8)

24. None left? Good!(3,5)

25. “Tapestry” band felt naked?(6)

26. Fighting broadcast live once?(8)

DOWN

1. S-spooky nature walk?(7)

2. Talk, dance music, and rock? Sure!(9)

3. Effect always used in R and B?(6)

4. Aristotle unsure about the whole shooting match?(7,8)

5. Fail to let go, hanging onto past(8)

6. Just bringing in large gift(5)

7. Mere lad, awfully green(7)

14. Mother in control, hard to leave school(4,5)

15. Writer shot inside brown government building(8)

17. Rock singer(7)

18. One in bed getting a little shuteye has to go to the bathroom regularly(7)

20. One captivated by clues going with flow?(6)

22. Join troubled loner(5)

MENU

Pandemocrazy Slice:

Dropping the ball as multitudes fall

The letters AOC stand for Age Of Consent or for New York politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

What phrase heard lately in the news does AOC also stand for?

Hint: The phrase is usually preceded by the article “an.” 

Riffing Off Shortz And Curren Slices:

Minding one’s peas and cues

Will Shortz’s December 27th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by David Curren of Arlington, Massachusetts, reads:

Think of a familiar two-word phrase in 5 and 2 letters. Replace the last letter with the next letter of the alphabet. The result will be a palindrome (the seven letters will read
backward and forward the same). What phrase is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Curren Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Take a five-letter word for an ancient Celtic priest or sayer of sooth, and a six-letter word for where he may hang out (see accompanying image). 

Rearrange these eleven letters to name a puzzle-maker, first and last names.

Who is this puzzle-maker?

What is the priest and his hangout?

ENTREE #2

Think of a  two-word phrase, in three and six letters, that one might use to describe “The Pleasure Bond” by Masters & Johnson, “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male” by Alfred Kinsey and “Dr. Ruth’s Guide for Married Lovers” by Dr. Ruth Westheimer. 

Replace the antepenultimate (third-last) letter in the phrase with the a letter you might see next to it on clothing labels. 

The resulting nine letters will read backward and forward the same. What phrase is it?

ENTREE #3

Think of a two-word response, in two and five letters, that Pete Dionisopoulos, proprietor of the Saturday Night Live Olympia Restaurant, might blurt out to a customer who orders hot chocolate. 

Replace the last letter of the response with the letter thirteen places ahead in the alphabet (Rot13). 

The result will read the same backward and forward. 

What phrase is it?

ENTREE #4

Think of a compound word that is a familiar household fixture, in seven letters. 

Replace the second letter with a letter that is a homophone of a pronoun. 

The result will read the same backward and forward. What word is it?

ENTREE #5

Take the third-most-common of sixteen different ways to spell a particular holiday, in seven letters. 

Replace the third letter with the letter three places earlier in the alphabet. 

The result will read the same backward and forward. What holiday is it?

ENTREE #6

Think of a familiar proper place name, in seven letters. 

Replace the second letter with the next letter of the alphabet. 

The result will read the same backward and forward. 

What place name is it?

Hint: The name contains four letters that are the same. Remove two of them and replace them with just a single “d” and rearrange to result to spell a Greek letter.

ENTREE #7

Think of an non-hyphenated compound adjective, in nine letters, that means “unfailing or reliable, as a method or plan, for example.” 

Its fourth and sixth letters are abbreviations for two very common opposite words. 

Replace the sixth letter with a duplicate of the fourth letter. 

The result will read the same backward and forward. 

What adjective is this? 

ENTREE #8

Think of the first name of a U.S. president that was also the first name on the birth certificates of a “Dustbowl singer/songwriter,” a big band clarinetist and a country singer nicknamed “Red.”

Replace the third letter with the letter three places later in the alphabet. 

The result will read the same backward and forward. 

What first name is it?

ENTREE #9

Think of a geometrical shape in seven letters. Replace the third letter with the letter seven places earler in the alphabet. 

The result will read the same backward and forward. 

What shape is this?

ENTREE #10

Think of a word you might see while perusing your spice rack, in eight letters. 

Replace the fourth letter with the letter five places later in the alphabet. 

The result will read the same backward and forward. 

What word is it?

ENTREE #11

Think of something for which rodents are infamous, in 7 letters. Replace the fifth letter (a vowel) with a different vowel. 

The result will read the same backward and forward.

For what are pesky rodents famous?

Hint: Etymologists have an advantage in solving this puzzle.

Dessert Menu

Amen Corner Dessert:

Caption, capital and capitalization

Name a world capital and its country.

Rearrange the combined letters of the capital and country to spell a three-word caption for the vintage image pictured here.

The three words are:

1. an adjective describing something associated with a bygone era,

2. a capitalized proper noun, and

3. a noun that is more commonly used as an adjective.

What are the capital and country?

What is the caption?

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.

“A Holiday Rebus Repast Rune” “O come let us outdoor him...” America’s National Playtime; Christmas Crèche Character-Building; “I’m wishing for a green Christmas...”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 3(7!) SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

America’s National Playtime

Name a famous baseball player. 

The first two/thirds of his name spells a toy brand from the past that was popular with boys, especially at Christmastime.
 

The last one-third spells part of the name of a “coming-of-age Christmas gift” that dads buy for boys. 

Who is this ballplayer?

What are these “two gifts of the magical Christmas-morning reveal?”

Appetizer Menu

Campaigns Have Passed, Pass The Champagne Appetizer:

“A Holiday Rebus Repast Rune”

Last November 13, in the wake of the presidental election, Ecoarchitect presented us with an unprecedented ballot-boxful of rebuses about presidents.

Today he drops an even more tasty present down our chimney – a Santa’s-bagful of holiday dinner menu rebuses. (They appear in the large image immediately below this introductory text.) 

And so, we wish you a Merry “Chrebus,” a “Chag Urim Sameach!” (our menorah was delighted last Friday), a “Solving Solstice” and a “Happytizing” New Year!  Take a seat and be our guests of Christmas Repast and Christmas Presents, compliments of Ecoarchitect.

MENU

Managing Your Manger Slice:

Christmas Crèche Character-Building

Christmas crèches are usually set within and around a shelter populated by a cast of characters human, animal and divine. In some crèches the shelter is a grotto but it is more often a common wooden structure like a modest stable or barn.

Combine the four letters of a synonym of “modest stable or barn” with the letters of a group of divine crèche characters you might see at the scene. 

Add a “thousand bucks” to the mix and rearrange the result to spell two groups of human crèche scene characters.

What is the synonym of “modest stable or barn?”

What is the group of  divine crèche scene characters?

What are the two human groups of crèche scene characters

Riffing Off Shortz And Pitt Slices:

“I’m wishing for a green Christmas...”

Will Shortz’s December 20th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Dan Pitt of Palo Alto, California, reads:

Take the name BUENOS AIRES. Remove one letter. The remaining letters can be rearranged to name two things that many people wish for around this time of year. What are they?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Pitt Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Take the name of an ancient Greek philosopher and the surnames of a surrealist artist and a surly World War II U. S. general. 

Rearrange the 15 total letters to spell the name of a puzzle-maker and his hometown. 

Who is this puzzle-maker?

Who are the philosopher, artist and general?

ENTREE #2

Take the name BUENOS AIRES. Rearrange its combined letters to form the the first pair of missing words in the second sentence below. Rearrange them again to form the second pair of missing words in that sentence.

The  “Graying of America” means that the U.S. population is steadily becoming more dominated by people more elderly. 

Along with that demographic, alas, comes an increase in reports of ______ _____, even in nursing homes, which is a _______ ____ for American society.

What are these four words?

ENTREE #3

Take the name BUENOS AIRES. Remove one letter. The remaining letters can be rearranged to form two words:

1) a war fought in Africa during the turn of a century, and

2) the informal name (like “Yank” for an American) for one of 16,000 combatants in that war (from a nation that was a part of an empire upon which “the sun never set”), six combatants of which were decorated with a Victoria Cross.

What is the war, and what is the informal name for one of 16,000 combatants who participated in it?

ENTREE #4

Take the name of the city of  SASKATOON (in Canada, home of the “world’s largest snowball fight” and the “coldest bicycle ride on the planet”). 

Rearrange its letters to form a hyphenated adjective and a noun that are synonymous with a mediocre five-line poem form. 

What is this description?

ENTREE #5

Take the name of the city of  THUNDER BAY in Canada (which is responsible for inventing insect repellant). 

Its letters can be rearranged to name, in two words, what you might hear that might make your heart skip a beat while you are sitting alone in a dusky dark mansion reading Poe.

What might make your heart skip a beat?

ENTREE #6

You are familiar with Melchior, Gaspar and Balthazar. But there was an unsung fourth member of the Magi – Shlomo. 

The gift Shlomo brought to the Bethlehem manger was not gold, frankincense or myrrh. 

The gift instead was a synonym of a three-word phrase that describes Ella Mae Bailey,
Caroline Sydenstricker and Hester Prynne.

Take the combined letters of 1) Shlomo’s gift, 2) a common Christmas tree genus and 3) the sticky stuff that gets on your hands when you lug such a tree into your home. 

Rearrange these letters to spell a European country and its capital.

What are this country and capital?

What are the synonym, the tree genus, and the sticky stuff ? 

ENTREE #7

North Carolina farmboy turned Hall of Fame major league baseball player Enos Slaughter of the St. Louis Cardinals played in the 1946 World Series against the Boston Red Sox. Near the end of the decisive Game 7 of the Series, Slaughter, after hitting a single, scored the eventual winning run on a line drive hit to the center fielder by teammate Harry Walker. 

Slaughter, who had been trying to steal second on the pitch and therefore had a head-start, proceeded to make an amazingly improbable “mad dash” of 90 yards all the way around the horn, sliding in to home plate safe!

Thus Slaughter, known primarily as a good
contact hitter, apparently could also ___ _____ pretty well. And, because he grew up on a farm, he was also likely able to ____ cows pretty well.   

Rearrange the combined letters of the three words in the blanks to spell a capital city and its country.

What are the city and country?

What could Enos do pretty well? 

What could he do to cows?

ENTREE #8

Stanford University in 1973 hosted a colloquium consisting of  lectures, debates, and discussions designed to raise awareness about the feasibility of advancing renewable energy usage in the face of an unfolding energy crisis.

The colloquium was billed as a hyphenated word that had been coined just eight years earlier. Among the topics discussed was how to reduce dependence on various non-renewable energy sources, including two that contain three letters each.

Rearrange the combined letters of the hyphenated word and the three-letter non-renewable energy sources to spell a capital city and its country.

What are this capital and country?

What are the hyphenated word and the two non-renewable sources of energy? 

No Room In The Inn Dessert:

“O come let us outdoor him...”

Name an author and outdoorsman who was associated with two particular kinds of Christmas trees.
 

His first name sounds like a synonym of Christmas and his last name, if you change the first letter, spells things you see under Christmas trees. 

Name this person.

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.

“Cape Cod catch” & other clues; Phyllis’s Photobucket etiquette; Have a heylik Hanukka Haiku; “Dondering through the snow...?” Yuletide yen for planes, tomes & automobiles

 PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 3(7!) SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

“Cape Cod catch” and other clues

Solve the following clues: “Cape Cod catch,” “Still-life subject” and “Plea at sea.” Each is a one-word answer.

Rearrange the twelve combined letters of your answers to spell a “word” that describes all three. 

What are the three answers to the clues?

What word describes all three?

Note: Although this “word” does not appear in dictionaries (yet), it is well-known to to puzzle aficionados and purveyors — like Will Shortz, for example.

Appetizer Menu

Percussive Christmas Appetizer:

Yuletide yen for planes, tomes & automobiles

🥁1. Think of a financial firm. Drop the first four letters. 

The result will name an automotive chain.

🥁2. Think of the alma mater of a well-known author. Remove one letter and rearrange. 

The result will name the main character of the author’s best-known work. 

🥁3. Name a condiment. 

Rearrange into two words that might describe the yen. 

🥁4. Name a U.S. city known for its airport. 

Insert a space to name two things you’ll find on a plane.

MENU

Ph-Stop Slice:

Phyllis’s Photobucket etiquette

Phyllis often texts pictures she has taken with her Nikon camera to all her relatives and friends. 

She also posts her pictures on photo-sharing sites such as Photobucket, Flickr, Facebook, Fotki, Instagram and Pinterest.

A few controversial political-rally pictures she once took weren’t so well received, however, so she now texts and posts only non-controversial images of her toddler... 

“No more ___-______ pictures,” Phyllis vowed to herself, “but _ ___ _____ or two ought to be safe and acceptable.”

Rearrange the combined letters of the first two missing words to form the three missing words that follow.

What are the five missing words?

Hint: The five words, in order, contain 3, 6, 1, 3 and 5 words. 

Riffing Off Shortz And Baggish Slices:

“Dondering through the snow...?”

Will Shortz’s December 13th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Steve Baggish of Arlington, Massachusetts, reads:

Using only the letters in the phrase RIDE ON — repeating them as often as
necessary — you can spell 1) the  one-word proper name of a famous fictional animal, and 2) a word for what kind of animal it is. What’s the name of the animal, and what’s the word? 

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Baggish Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Using only the letters in the a phrase for what a Vietnam war protester with a megaphone may have been wont to do: BASH GI VET —
repeating them as often as necessary — you can spell the first and last names of a puzzle-maker. 

Who is the puzzle-maker?

ENTREE #2

Using only the letters in the word HEPCAT — repeating them as often as necessary — you can spell 1) the one-word proper name of a
famous fictional animal, and 2) a word for what kind of animal it is. 

What’s the name of the animal, and what’s the word for it?

ENTREE #3

Using only the letters for you might have done with an unidentified key, TRIED LOCK — repeating them as often as necessary — you can spell 1) the one-word hyphenated proper
name of a famous fictional animal, and 2) a word for what kind of animal it is. 

What is the name of the animal, and what is the word for it?

ENTREE #4

Using only the letters in the first name of Mr. Reynolds (a saxophone player in Stan Kenton’s Orchestra) and what he often played often played: ROY and SAX TUNE —

repeating them as often as necessary — you can spell 1) the one-word proper name of a famous fictional animal, and 2) a word for what kind of animal it is. 

What’s the name of the animal, and what’s the word for it?

ENTREE #5

A mediocre tennis player might boast about “MY LOB.” A newspaper read that the kingpin in the MOB PLED nolo contendre to racketeering. 

Using only the letters in MY LOB — repeating them as often as necessary — you can spell the two-word proper name of a should-be-more-famous fictional character.

Using only the letters in MOB PLED — repeating them as often as necessary — you can spell the two-word proper name of that fictional character’s spouse.

Who are these two fictional characters?

ENTREE #6

According to Ben Weeks, a Colorado-based green building techniques advisor, you can stack sandbags or form a BERM alongside a Quonset HUT, thereby enabling it to be more climate-efficient. 

Another insulation technique is to stack many a hay BALE NIGH the exterior wall of the hut. 

Using only the letters in the words BERM and HUT — repeating them as often as necessary — you can spell the two-word proper name of a fictional character. Now use only the letters in the words BALE and NIGH — repeating them as often as necessary — to spell the two-word proper name of that fictional character’s childhood sweetheart, who died of typhoid in her teens.

What are the the names of the character and childhood sweetheart?

ENTREE #7

On November 18, 2009, Robert Byrd of West Virginia became the longest-serving member in United States national congressional history, with 56 years, 320 days of combined service in the House and Senate. He died as a senator in June 28, 2010, of natural causes. 

SEN. BYRD, WHO began his national Congressional career with his 1952 election to the United States House of Representatives for West Virginia’s 6th congressional district, is the only person ever to serve more than 50 years as U.S. senator, from 1959 to 2010. 

Using only the letters in  SEN. BYRD and WHO — repeating them as often as necessary — you can spell 1) the one-word proper name of a famous fictional sports character, and 2) his nickname for one of his tools of his trade.

What’s the name of the character, and what’s the nickname?

Dessert Menu

Holy (הייליק) Dessert:

Have a heylik Hanukkah Haiku

The Jewish celebration of Hanukkah is observed annually during a “baker’s week” of eight days. It begins on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which may occur at any time from late November to late December in the Gregorian calendar.

The 2020 obsevation began on December 10 and ends this evening, December 18.

In the haiku below, titled “Hanukkah Haiku,” fill in the missing words.

What are they? 

Hanukkah Haiku

Ignite candles eight straight _____,

Festival of _____: 

Ancient rite of __________.

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.