Friday, March 9, 2018

ROyalty and “mice-presiDENTS” sphinX marks the spot; A handful of Best Picture Oscar non-winners; 7-up...loaded jpeg pics, plus 1

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER (1110 + 98) SERVED

Welcome to our March 9th edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!
Think of us as the “Uncola” of puzzle blogs. Our puzzles are served up fresh every week. You like us, and we like you.

On our menus this week are:
ONE Caption-Happy AppetizerπŸ’š;
ONE  Vice-SliceπŸ’›;
ONE  Oscar Wilder DessertπŸ’œ; and
SEVEN Land-Marky Mark Riff OffsπŸ’™πŸ’™πŸ’™πŸ’™πŸ’™πŸ’™πŸ’™.

Have fun solving!  


Appetizer Menu

Caption-Happy Appetizer:
7-up...loaded jpeg pics, plus 1


Write two-word captions for each of the eight images pictured here. 
If you have the right ones, seven captions will rhyme with the two-word name of a person who has recently been in the news...
But one of the captions will sound exactly like the two-word name of that same recently newsworthy person.
What are your eight captions?
Who is the person who has recently been in the news?














MENU

Vice-Slice:
ROyalty and “mice-presiDENTS”

“Jerry, Chip and Dale are mice.”
That statement is not completely true. True, Jerry (of Tom and Jerry fame) is a mouse. But Chip and Dale, although they are rodents, are not mice but chipmunks.
“(U.S., 40) (U.K., 52) (U.S., 16) (U.S., 44) (U.S., 45) (U.S., 48).”
How does the partially true statement relate to the abbreviations and numbers in parentheses immediately above?
Hint: The key to solving this puzzle pertains to names of some who are second-in-command, those biding their time before they may become “top bananas,” commanders-in-chief and kings – that is to say, people like vice-presidents and princes.

Riffing Off Shortz And Collins Slices:
sphinX marks the spot

Will Shortz’s March 4th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Peter Collins, reads:
Name a famous singer — first and last names. Change the last three letters of each name to an E and you’ll name a well-known landmark. What is it?
Puzzleria!’s Riffing Off Shortz and Collins Slices read:
ONE:
Name a signature song, in one word, made famous by a country quartet. Name a similar country quartet, in three words, that sang the song on 1990s TV as a tribute to the first group. Change the last three letters of the second group’s middle word to an E. 
Change the second and third letters of the song title to two different consonants and change the last letter of the title to an E. If you place the altered song title in front of the altered middle word in the second group’s name you’ll name the first two words of a well-known landmark. What are the landmark, the song title and the two country quartets?
TWO:
Name a somewhat famous sports executive — first and last names. Change the last three letters of each name to two different letters with alphanumeric values that are evenly divisible by a prime number greater than three and you’ll name a well-known landmark. What is it?
THREE:
Describe what you have if you are safeguarding your retirement savings in a bank vault, in a three-word phrase of 6, 4 and 3 letters. 
Change the last three letters of the first word to an H and the last four letters of the remainder of the phrase to an S. You’ll name a well-known landmark. What is it?
FOUR:
Name a well-known landmark, in two words. Remove the last two letters of the first word and change the last two letters of the second word to a C and O. You’ll name a fictional evil scientist who was a nemesis of Donnie, Mikey, Leo and Raph. Who is the scientist and what is the landmark?
FIVE: 
Name a somewhat famous singer — first and last names. Remove the last two letters of the first name. 
Spell the last name backward, then replace the first five letters of that result with a T. Reverse the order of the altered first and last names and you’ll name a well-known landmark. What is it? Who is the singer?
Hint: The name of the landmark is also the name of another singer.
SIX:
Name a somewhat famous lead singer in a past rock group — first and last names. Interchange the second and second-last letters of the last name, then remove last three letters from this result. Interchange the first and last names and remove the space to form a word that the Gateway Arch, Space Needle, Old Faithful, Golden Gate Bridge or White House is an example of. 
Who is the singer? What is the word?
SEVEN:
Name a not-at-all-well-known actress— first and last names. Remove the last letter of the first name. In her last name replace the M with an L and the A with a Y. Interchange the first and last names and you’ll name a well-known landmark. What is it? Who is the little-known actress? 


Dessert Menu

Marilyn Never Won An Oscar Either Dessert:
A handful of Best Picture Oscar non-winners

Consider the following list of cinematic titles:
“Kenner,” “New Orleans,” “Alexandria,” “Fargo”...
“Kenner” is a 1969 movie drama  starring Jim Brown in the title role.
“New Orleans” is a 1947  movie romance featuring Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong.
“Alexandria” is a 2001 Greek  movie drama.
“Fargo” is a 1996 black comedy crime thriller nominated for a best picture Oscar.
These four titles are related to the title of a movie that was very much mentioned during a television broadcast of a relatively recent Oscars awards ceremony. 
This movie title was also mentioned a few times during the most recent Oscars ceremony broadcast on Sunday, March 4th 2018. 
What is this movie title? How do the four other movie titles relate to this more recent movie title?

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.

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.





Thursday, February 22, 2018

“Double double, boil not bubble” What’s missing from this picture? Sportsweariness; “Countrapital”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER (1110 + 98) SERVED 

Welcome to our February 23rd edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!
Lotsa puzzles this week. 
Why so? 
Well, every Friday we serve up a fistful of “riff-offs” (or “rip-offs)” of  the featured puzzle that Puzzlemaster Will Shortz presents at the end of his “The Puzzle” segment on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday broadcast. 
This past Sunday, February 18, the puzzlemaster featured a puzzle a bloke named Joseph Young composed and sent Will’s way...
As a result, our MENU this week features TWO fistfuls of – that is, TEN ⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓ – “Riffing Off Shortz And Young Slices.” 
Plagiarizing one’s own puzzle is a breeze – like stealing candy from a baby dozing in his crib after an evening of grueling trick-or-treating. Easy pickin’s for me! 
Thus, our post-Valentine’s Day “stickler ’n‘ sweet” puzzle bag is filled to the brim.
Also on our menus are:
ONE ⇓ Energy-Sapped Appetizer
ONE ⇓ Hard-Boiled Non-Bubbly Slice;
ONE ⇓ “Something’s Mysteriously Missing” Dessert.

TGIF: Think Good, It’s Friday. 
TFIG: Thanks For Intelligent Guests...
...Guests who, as Will Shortz says, have a lot of fun on Puzzleria!  
Appetizer Menu

Something Sported, Something Worn Appetizer:
Sportsweariness

Think of an adjective that means sluggish or all worn out, either physically or mentally. Remove three consecutive letters that spell something that is worn.  Add “nothing at all” to the beginning of this result to form an adjective that describes competitive performers who cannot afford to be sluggish.

Hint: The adjective that means sluggish has more familiar anatomical and physiological meanings. The adjective that describes competitive performers who cannot afford to be sluggish is often capitalized.
What are these two adjectives?

MENU

Draining The Cauldron Slice:
“Double double, boil not bubble”

Take the last name of a pretty well-known “hard-boiled” politician who is not at all known for having a “bubbly” personality. 


Double its third and its fourth letters. 
Move the final letter in the name so that it is between the doubled third letters. 
The result is the name of the capital of the state the politician once represented. 
Who is this politician?

Riffing Off Shortz And Young Slices:
“Countrapital”

Will Shortz’s February 18th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Joseph Young, reads:
Take the start of the name of a country and the end of that country’s capital. Put the parts together, one after the other, and you’ll get the last name of a character in a very popular movie. It’s a character everyone knows. Who is it?
Puzzleria!’s Riffing Off Shortz and Young Slices read:

ONE:
Take the end of the name of a country and the start of that country’s capital. Leave a space between the parts and you’ll get the title of a very popular movie that was also well received by the critics and members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It’s a movie many people know. What is it?

TWO:
Take the end of the name of a country and the start of that country’s capital. Put the parts together, one after the other, and you’ll get the name of a 5-letter verse form with more lines than a haiku but fewer lines than a triolet. It’s a verse form hardly anyone knows. What is it?

THREE:
Take the end of the name of a country and the start of that country’s capital. Put the parts together, one after the other, and you’ll get a 6-letter capitalized synonym for a “genius.” What is it?

FOUR:
Take the end of the name of a country and the end of that country’s capital. Put the parts together, one after the other, and you’ll get the name of another country. What country is it?

FIVE:
Take the end of the name of a country and the end of that country’s capital. Put the parts together, one after the other, and you’ll get the name of an edible chip. What is it?

SIX:
Take the start of the name of a country and the start of that country’s capital. Put the parts together, one after the other, and you’ll get the name of a company with a trademark logo that features a future mystery writer. What is this company?

SEVEN:
Take the start of the name of a country and the end of that country’s capital. Put the parts together, one after the other, and you'll get the first name of an International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee.
Take the end of the name of a country and the start of that country’s capital. Put the parts together, one after the other, and you'll get the first name that a billionaire entepreneur/philanthropist goes by.
The tennis hall-of-famer and billionaire are married to each other. What are their names?

EIGHT:
Take the end of the name of a U.S. state and the start of that state’s capital. Put the parts together, one after the other, and you’ll get a synonym for a person you wouldn’t expect to see in a concert hall. That synonym rhymes with a woodwind that you would expect to see in a concert hall. What synonym is this?  

NINE:
The start of the name of a U.S. state and the start of that state’s capital are the first and middle names of a person who furthered the cause of astronomical research and knowledge in the Nineteenth Century. Who is this person?

TEN:
Take the start of the name of a country and the start of that country’s capital, forming the first names of two movie title characters portrayed, respectively, by actresses named Pam and Renee. 
Who are these characters and actresses?
Dessert Menu

Offal Pity Illusion Dessert:
What’s missing from this picture?

The incomplete image pictured here (blue apostrophe’ and red “lympics”), if completed, might have been (but was not) an official publicity illustration for an event that occurred during the 20th Century. 
But the image could just as well be used also as a illustration for a future event that is likely to occur during the 21st Century.
Explain how you would complete the image. During what year in the 20th Century would the event have taken place? During what year in the 21st Century is the event likely to take place?

Hint: Your completed image should include five colors, not including the white background.


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.