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.