Friday, May 8, 2020

“I remember (thanks to) Mama”; An unstrummable instrument; States of “Adjacentricity” Action-figure feature-filmy creatures; A four-letter tour of your labour of amour

Celebrating six years of serving up puzzles!

Schpuzzle Of The Week:
“I remember (thanks to) Mama” 

“Give Mom inner-peace on Sunday.” 
That’s good Mother’s Day advice. 
But it’s also a good mnemonic device to help you recall a list that has historical significance. 
What list is this?
Hint: “Give Mom a can opener on Sunday” is also a splendid Mother’s Day gift option, I guess. But, let’s face it, a can opener is just not that much of a gift!

Appetizer Menu

Conundrumstruck by Chuck! Appetizer:
States of “Adjacentricity”

Think of a famous recording star with many hit songs and albums. 
The last two letters of the singer’s first name and the first two letters of the singer’s last name are both state postal abbreviations. 
Without these letters, what remains in each name is a common lowercase word. 
And, just as the state abbreviations are adjacent to each other in the singer’s name, so too are the actual states, which border each other. 
The total number of letters in the singer’s name is 12. 
Who is it?


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Verbal Slice:
Action-figure feature-filmy creatures

Name two closely related common verbs. 
Add a vowel to the end of one and a consonant to the end of the other to name two closely related creatures. 
What are these creatures?
Hint: The creatures have wings.

Riffing Off Shortz And Halpin Slices:
A four-letter tour of your labour of amour

Will Shortz’s May 3rd NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Mark Halpin of Cold Spring, Kentucky, reads:
Think of two common phrases in the form “___ and ___,” in which the blanks stand for four-letter words. All four words in those two phrases have different first letters, but the last three letters in the words are the same. What are the phrases?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Halpin Slices read:
ENTREE #1
Take the last name of a puzzle-maker in six letters. Duplicate the third letter and move each duplicate so that they replace both the first and sixth letters, then replace the fifth letter with an e. The result, followed by the original second half of the puzzle-maker’s last name, forms a two-word, 8-letter term for a puzzle-solver’s prized possession.
Now remove the fifth, sixth and seventh letters from this two-word term. Form a word with the third, fourth and fifth letters of this result, followed by a word formed from the third, second and first letters. The result is a two-word term for a certain “snail-mail correspondent.”
What is this prized possession?
Who is the “snail-mail correspondent?”
Who is the puzzle-maker?
ENTREE #2
Think of a common phrase in the form “___ and ___,” in which the blanks stand for four-letter words. The words in the phrase have different first letters (that are adjacent in the alphabet), but the last three letters in the words are the same.
Now take two other four-letter words that end with those same last three letters. These words are defined as “a twilled cotton cloth” and “a college or secondary school administrator.”
Place these other two words in the same “___ and ___” form. Remove the second letter from the first word. The result is a 1960s surf-rock music duo.
 What are the phrase and the surf-rock duo?
ENTREE #3
Think of two common phrases in the form “___ the ___,” and “the ___ ___,” in which the blanks stand for three different four-letter words (that is, one is used twice). All three words in those two phrases have different first letters, but the last three letters in the words are the same. What are the two phrases?
Hint: The phrases are idioms that mean, respectively, “reach an agreement” and “the genuine article.”
ENTREE #4
Name a meat-enhancing brand-name product in the form “___ and ___,” in which the blanks stand for a five-letter and a four-letter word. The last three letters in the words are the same. The product name is also an slang idiom describing a slick basketball move.
Three other phrases in the form “___ a ___,” “___ a ___,” and “___ the ___” contain five different words (that is, one is used twice) containing the same last three letters as in the brand-name. The first phrase is something one might do for a birthday-girl-or-boy. The second phrase was the inspiration for Nasser, Kariba, Volta... or Wissota. The third phrase is synonymous with “win the prize.”
What are this brand-name product and all the other phrases and idioms?
Hint: The meat-enhancing brand-name product is actually spelled “___ ‘n ___.”
ENTREE #5
Think of a common phrase in the form “___ and ___,” in which the blanks stand for rhyming four-letter words. The words in the phrase have different first letters, but the last three letters in the words are the same. 
Think of a two other four-letter words that rhyme with those words but share a second letter different from the second letter shared by the words in the common phrase. One of these other words, a homophone of the first word in the common phrase, is a kind of “thrall.” The other is a kind of ball.
What are these four rhyming words?
Hint: The common phrase might appear on a menu.


Dessert Menu

Parlez Vous Dessert:
An unstrummable instrument

Name an instrument you don’t strum but which may touch your lips. 
Move the last letter so it replaces the third-last letter. 
Move the middle two letters of this result to the beginning to form an English noun and its French translation. 
What is this instrument?

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, May 1, 2020

Exclaming American landmarks! The name of a Famer with game; Circumnavigationally lost; A slogan that pronoun(es) “variety”; Is 1 the “quaranteeniest” number, or is 1/20?

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/20 SERVED


Schpuzzle Of The Week:
Is 1 the “quaranteeniest” number, or is 1/20?

Three Dog Night once recorded a hit single of a song that Harry Nilsson wrote. Its lyrics declared that “one is the loneliest number.” 
But it looks like one-twentieth may be even lonelier – or at least a close second. Explain why.


Appetizer Menu

Worldplay Appetizer:
Circumnavigationally lost

Lost at sea
1. An Indonesian ship came into distress in Polish waters but out of sight of land. The vessel’s radio was no longer working, and it had no semaphore. So the captain was forced to resort to traditional means to indicate his vessel’s distress. However, no one came to his aid, even though other vessels were within sight, and it was daytime. The ship sank with the loss of all hands. Why did this tragedy happen? 

Warped literary memory
2. Think of a well-known novel about a circumnavigation. 
What method of transportation often associated with this work was never used in its circumnavigational plot?


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National Retail Slice: 
A slogan that pronoun(es) “variety”

Remove a pronoun and a letter that sounds like a pronoun from the name of a national retailer. 
Add a space. 
The result could be a slogan touting the variety of the retailer’s products. 
What retailer is this?

Riffing Off Shortz And Bass Slices:
Exclamation of American landmarks! 

Will Shortz’s April 26th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Ben Bass (who creates cryptograms twice weekly for The New York Times), reads:
Name a famous American landmark in 8 letters. The first 4 letters in order are the first 4 letters of the name of a famous person associated with this landmark. Who is it? Here’s a hint: The famous person’s name also has 8 letters.
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Bass Slices read:
ENTREE #1
Take the second word of a famous two-word song title that was once “the other side of ‘Donna’.” Change its second letter, a vowel, to the next vowel in the alphabet. Change its third letter, a consonant, to the next consonant in the alphabet. The result, in order, is the first 71.4 percent of the name of a puzzle-maker. 
Who is it? What is the song title?  
ENTREE #2
(Note: This Riff-Off Puzzle was inspired by Mark Scott of Seattle, aka skydiveboy.)
Name a famous U.S. landmark in two words, 11 letters. Remove consecutive letters from the middle that spell the name of a mythological goddess. The letters that remain contain a triple-letter, like,  for example, “bee-eater,” or “bell-like” or “cross-section.” Remove two of these three consecutive identical letters. The result spells a creature one may encounter on an African safari that might weigh more than a ton. What is this landmark?
ENTREE #3
Name a famous American landmark, a compound word. Move the penultimate letter of the word to the end of the first part of the compound word and place a space after the letter you moved. 
The new first part is a word for something you can see at the landmark. The new second part is a word also.
What is this landmark? 
ENTREE #4
Name a famous American landmark in 3 syllables. The first 4 letters in order are the name of a human body part. In the remaining letters, replace the two non-consecutive letters of a common preposition with two letters of a common verb. Rearrange the letters of the result to form a second body part.
What is the landmark? What are the two body parts?
ENTREE #5
Change one vowel in the 9-letter name of a famous American landmark. 
Rearrange the result to form two words: a plural 5-letter noun associated with the landmark, and a plural 4-letter noun (that describes Henrietta Jacobson and Julius Adler, for example, and Alton and Jimmy) associated with the landmark.
What is this landmark?
What are the two plural nouns?
ENTREE #6
Name a famous American landmark that ends in a handful of letters that spell a girl’s name. Remove the first letter of two words in the name of the landmark, then remove the last four letters from the end of the landmark’s name. 
The result is the title of a jazz-standard song, and the title shared by three different films (none which was a sequel) released in 1934, 1984 and 2014.
Hint: Transpose two consecutive letters of the six letters you removed from the landmark to spell the name of a Brady Bunch member.
What is this landmark?
What is the title of the song and three films?   
ENTREE #7
A French-speaking Jewish family from Tours, France is touring the United States. In Tennessee they have good times at Dollywood Splash Country in Pigeon Forge, then dine at Gus’s Good Times in nearby Knoxville. Tomorrow they will head 750 miles north-northwest to visit a landmark.
Rearrange the letters in the name this famous 2-word landmark to form three words: 
1) what kind of restaurant Gus’s Good Times is, 
2) a ride they enjoyed at Dollywood Splash Country, and 
3) the sound made by a critter, the meat of which they ordered at Gus’s. 
The first four letters of the landmark spell the word for that critter, and the next three letters spell a word the family used to refer to what they encountered at the end of their enjoyable ride at Dollywood.
What is this landmark?
What is Gus’s restaurant called? 
What is the Dollywood ride? 
What sound does the critter make?
What is the word for the critter?
What does the family encounter at the Dollywood ride’s end?


Dessert Menu

All-Time Timeless Dessert:
The name of a Famer with game

Add a letter to the beginning of the last name of a Hall of Famer who played a timeless game. Move the last letter of the last name to the end of the first name, forming two words. 
The first word is what some substances do when exposed to conditions described by the second word. 
Who is this Hall of Famer?

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, April 24, 2020

An unhidden hint to history; Music of the astral spheres; Cryptically Quinquagenarian; “Wobble was I ere I saw Elbbow”;“ Are you smarter than a rocket scientist?”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/20 SERVED

Schpuzzle Of TheWeek:
“Are you smarter than a rocket scientist?”

Take an informal word for a person who is smart enough to solve this puzzle. 
Think of someone like rocket scientist, for example, or a character on “The Big Bang Theory” television sitcom. 
Five consecutive letters within this word spell an adjective for a body part. If you remove three consecutive letters from within the word the remaining letters spell another adjective for the same body part. What are these three words?
Hint: The informal word comes from the name of a past fictional television character.


Appetizer Menu

Non-quarantined Crossword Appetizer:
Cryptically Quinquagenarian  

Looking for a great way to occupy your time while you’re cooped up indoors, awaiting the end of quarantining and social-distancing?
How about working on... no, not working on, playing on (!) a clever Cryptic Crossword created by Patrick J. Berry! Patrick (screen name, “cranberry”), has just recently celebrated his 50th birthday. 
But, instead of getting gifts from us, he is instead giving us a priceless gift – another one of his original 15-by-15 grids of wonderful wordplay!
This is the 14th cryptic crossword with which Patrick has graced Puzzleria!
Here are the links to Patrick’s thirteen previous cryptic crosswords on Puzzleria!
ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SIX SEVEN
EIGHT NINE TEN ELEVEN TWELVE THIRTEEN
If you are unfamiliar with cryptic crossword puzzles, here are 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) 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!
But now, it’s time to open your “cryptic gift” from our “birthday boy.” We guarantee it to be virus-free... although it well may be cryptically “contageous!”

ACROSS
1. Those who fly sorta having trouble getting through(8)
5. Rain sometimes – how erratic!(6)
9. Generation having say in worsening of our gap?(3,5)
10. Demanding, like family gatherings, primarily(6)
12. Unconventional children’s entertainer’s last laugh(7)
13. Savage to cook chicken?(7)
14. Lob used in game of 24(5,7)
17. Funny quotes in book?(8,4)
22. President has a mind so twisted(7)
23. Speech habit, take notice(7)
24. Wrong to make comeback in sport?(6)
25. Erin greeting former Presidential hopeful with some hesitation, we hear(8)
26. Prescription from top doctor, old and wise(6)
27. Pinch from pervert bugged ’er(8)

DOWN
1. Different combinations of different animals in a scientific first?(8)
2. Obsession with one former lover? I give up!(4,4)
3. Visited rising singer on wild ride(7)
4. Poorly made case for horseplay?(12)
6. Strip show on Broadway? Security!(7)
7. Importance of some wrong number?(6)
8. Old Yeller’s last appearance before going mad(6)
11. Actress going topless is dazzling in current film(3, 5, 4)
15. Took a swipe at lead guitarist in band(quoted by humor magazine)(8)
16. Con man on board, in uniform(4,4)
18. Boom! Ready to rock!(7)
19. Familiar with obscure name brought up?(7)
20. Journalist has least little thing exaggerated(6)
21. Looker, scantily clad on island(6)


MENU

Eventful Slice:
An unhidden hint to history

Write a man’s first name (in one syllable). 
Replace its second letter with a duplicate of the first letter. 
The result will resemble a short way of writing a significant event in world history.
What is this first name? 
What is the event?
Hint: A good hint is not hidden within the text of this puzzle.

Riffing Off Shortz And Lewis Slices:
“Wobble was I ere I saw Elbbow”

Will Shortz’s April 19th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Greg Lewis of Columbus, Indiana, reads:
Name part of the human body in seven letters. The first four letters, in order, spell a familiar boy’s name. The second through fifth letters, in order, also spell a familiar boy’s name. What body part is it?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Lewis Slices read:
ENTREE #1
Name an interior part of the human body in five letters. Reverse the order of the first two letters and move them to the end. Change the first letter of this result to the letter that is two places earlier in the alphabet to form the last name of a puzzle-maker.
Now take the first name of this puzzle-maker. Take the mean average of the alphanumeric values of its first two letters and round down to form a third alphanumeric value. Replace the first two letters of the first name with the letter associated with this average value to form a three-letter body part. 
For example, the average of alphanumeric value of the first two letters in the name JOseph is 12.5 (10+15=25, which divided by 2=12.5, which, rounded down, is 12=L).
Who is this puzzle-maker?
What are the two body parts.   
ENTREE #2
Name a body part usually associated with insects. 
The first four letters, in order, spell a familiar boy’s name associated with mythology. 
The second through fifth letters, in order, spell a dance associated with the Middle East. 
What body part is it?
ENTREE #3
Name part of the human body in ten letters. 
The first, fifth, sixth and seventh letters, in order, spell a somewhat familiar girl’s name. The fourth, eighth, ninth and tenth letters, in order, spell a second somewhat familiar girl’s name. The second, third, fourth and eighth letters, in order, spell a third somewhat familiar girl’s name. The fourth, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth letters, in order, spell a fourth somewhat familiar girl’s name. 
What body part is it?
ENTREE #4
Name a familiar girl’s name in six letters.  
Four consecutive letters, in order, spell a word in a Bob Dylan song title. The second, third and fifth letters, in order, spell another word in that same Bob Dylan song title.
Four other consecutive letters in the girl’s name, in order, spell a word in a Dave Clark Five or Traffic song title. 
The second, third, fourth and sixth letters, in order, spell the last word in the name of a vocal group that was once called The Otnorots (taken from the name of their hometown, “Toronto,” spelled backwards).
What girl’s name is this?
ENTREE #5
Name part of the human body in five letters. Add a letter to the beginning to spell a familiar boy’s name. 
Remove the last letter of this boy’s name to spell a familiar girl’s name. What body part is it?
Hint: The girl’s name is also something you can eat.


Dessert Menu

Stars Still Ascending Heavenward Dessert:
Music of the astral spheres 

Countless stars coruscate across the evening heavens above – rising stars that fell from the sky, then rose even further into space heavenward. 
Listen closely and you can hear the music of these astral spheres as they spin in constant harmony within their constellations. 
These stars have names: Croce, Denver, Nelson, Vaughan, Van Zant, Gaines, Richardson, Valens, Holly, Cline, Redding, Miller, Aaliyah, Rhoads, Reeves, Rivera, Martin...
One particular asterism of these stars also has a name, in two words. Replace the first two letters of the second word. The altered two-word result is the stage name of one of its stars
What is this asterism and what is the stage name of the star?


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.