Puzzled
By Steve Poris
For this month, I’d like to offer some wordplay from a couple of recent crosswords, and a
stumper about Bert and Gert’s yard sale.
I. In observance of the Fourth of July, the Wall Street Journal’s crossword featured an American
theme. Clues led to answers derived from common America-related phrases, to which each had
one letter added somewhere within the phrase. For example, the clue “Truthful member of the
first family” led to the answer HONEST ABEL, derived from “HONEST ABE” with an “L”
added (of course the first family referred to was Adam and Eve’s). Here are a few additional
clues. I’ll give you the historical phrase to add a letter to (anywhere within the phrase) in order to
get the correct answer.
1. Relative who leaves you in stitches
2. Snoopy and family
3. Extras in “The Wizard of Oz”
4. East coast ball for bawlers
5. Motto of a self-important dictator’s followers
6. Bad things for acrophobic teetotalers
Phrase: UNCLE SAM
Phrase: AMERICAN EAGLES
Phrase: MINUTE MAN
Phrase: BOSTON TEA PARTY
Phrase: IN GOD WE TRUST
Phrase: STARS AND BARS
II. Even more challenging, a recent NY Times Sunday puzzles carried the title “Literally So”,
because in order to find the theme answers, the solver had to take the theme clues extremely
literally. These theme clues had letters removed; the missing letters spelled a word which
became part of the clue itself. For example, the clue “-irc-ms-ances” forces you to determine that
“c-u-t” are the letters removed (from the word “circumstances”). The clue then literally becomes
“cut removed from circumstances”, leading to the answer, the common phrase “TAKE OUT OF
CONTEXT”. Think about it: CUT can mean TAKE OUT and CONTEXT can mean
CIRCUMSTANCES.
Try these. I’ll give you the original clue, and the literal clue derived from the missing letters. See
if you can come up with a common phrase that fits the clue.
1.
2.
3.
Original clue: Anti - - vernment un - - st
Literal Clue: Remove “g-o-r-e” from antigovernment unrest
Original clue: Ar - - cl Literal clue: Article without “t-i-e”
Original clue: P - - mary care phy - icians
Literal clue: Primary care physicians without “r-i-m-s”
4.
5.
6.
Original clue: Fi - th wh - - l
Literal clue: Fifth wheel with no “f-e-e”
Original clue: What a - anda does in – ies - rely fa - hion
Literal clue: What a panda does when “p-l-u-s” is gone
Original clue: W - - thl - ss r – ad - ter
Literal clue: Worthless roadster with “o-r-e-o-s”
III. Bert and Gert are having a two-day yard sale. Among other things, they have two piles of old
45 rpm records, each with 30 records in it. The sign on one says “2 for a dollar” and the sign on
the other says “3 for a dollar”. They keep the money from the record sales in a cigar box on the
table.
At the end of the first day, all the records have been sold, and they see that there is $25 in the
box. The two-for-a-dollar records sold for a total of $15, and the three-for-a-dollar records sold
for a total for $10.
On the second day, to make things simpler, they make one big pile of 60 records, and place a
sign on it saying “5 for 2 dollars”, on the reasonable assumption that they’ll make the same
amount of money again (since people who took 2 from the first pile and 3 from the second pile
spent $2 anyway)
At the end of the second day, though, they see that there's only $24 in the box.
Why did they make less the second day?
Answers:
I.
1. UNCLE SEAM
2. AMERICAN BEAGLES
3. MINUTE MANY (think of “minute” as the adjective meaning “tiny”)
4. BOSTON TEAR PARTY
5. TIN GOD WE TRUST
6. STAIRS AND BARS
II.
1. BLOODLESS REVOLUTION (“no gore” + “unrest”)
2. THE MISSING LINK (“definite article” + “without tie”)
3. DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS (“physicians” + “no rims”
4. SPARE NO EXPENSE (“fifth wheel” + “no fee”)
5. EATS SHOOTS AND LEAVES (“what a panda does” + “a conjunction which can
mean ‘plus’ goes away”)
6. LEMON DROP COOKIES (“a worthless car” + “get rid of Oreos”)
III.
Combining the records into one pile changed the average cost per record. On the second
day, selling 5 records for 2 dollars made the cost per record 40 cents. On the first day, half the
records were selling for 33.33 cents (the ones that were 3 for a dollar) and half the records were
50 cents each (the ones that were 2 for a dollar). This meant that their average price was about
41.66 cents per record. That’s why Bert and Gert made less money the second day.