Puzzle #33: Wordplay Poltergeists II: Theeeeey’re Baaaack!

This week we have another infestation of poltergeists!  Below is a list of seemingly random words, but each of them has extra letters in them.  If you remove these “ghost” letters, and read the remaining ones in order, you will get the name of a street in New York City.  The number of poltergeists in each word will appear in parenthesis next to said word.  For example. GRAY (1) would become GAY Street when the one poltergeist is removed.  As an added help, all the street names below are really streets in New York.  No Avenues, Boulevards, Roads, Ways, Alleys, Parkways, Highways, Lanes, Places, Terraces, Loops, Rows, or Concourses etc.  (Think Lower Manhattan and Outer Burroughs)  Happy Puzzling!

HAUNTED STREETS:

1.  BLANK (1)

2. CRANIAL (2)

3. GARLAND (2)

4.  ASPIRING (2)

5.  SWATTER (2)

6.  FAIREST (2)

7.  DURANTE (2)

8. BREADED (2)

9.  WAYBILL (3)

10.  MUNITION (3)

11.  GROWLED (3)

12.  MOSTEST (3)

Puzzle #27 Wordplay: Yr n Rvw

Along with Hanukkah, Christmas and the New Year’s celebration, we are also flying headlong into the Best of, Top Ten List and Year in Review season.  Yes, once again television, print media and the blogo’webo’ramma will be chock full of the remembrances of the year past.  Well, here at Puzzling New York City I too have succumbed to the Siren son of the Year in Review, but I choose to do it on puzzle form.  Below is a list of people, places, things and events that made news in NYC since 1/1/09.  I have taken the liberty of removing all of the vowels for each one.  Can you figure out who or what each is?  Please note that the letter “Y” has been removed from the clues when the letter is acting as a vowel (that’s why “Y” is in the heading for this puzzle dontcha know).  Any “Y’s” found below are consonants.  Happy Puzzling!

“Brn” Mdff

Chsl “Sll” Sllnbrgr

Dvd Lttrmn

Frdm Twr

Grg Stphnpls

Hdk Mts

Jhn L

Kndnsk t th Gggnhm

Ld Gg

Mb Kflzgh

Nw Ynk Stdm

Pdr spd

Rbrt F. Knnd Brdg

Sny Stmr

tlntc Yrds

Vsv Bkr

Wrld Srs Prd

Ysmn Rz

Zh Zh Pts

Puzzle #25 Wordplay: Broadway Redefined

My twenty-fifth puzzle has been greeted with much illness in my household, so it is coming to you a day late and with little intro.  We are back on Broadway this week, as I have “redefined” 12 well-known Broadway plays and musicals from the past and the present.  I have taken the titles of the shows and used alternate definitions for the words in the title.  For example, the current Broadway show A Steady Rain would appear as A Constant Water From the Sky.  Can you figure out the twelve shows by their redefinitions?  Happy Puzzling!

1.  Hot shot

2.  Detroit Gridiron-er Sacramento Baller

3.  Own Alternative

4.  Long For Old Ho Chi Min City

5.  The Tumbler Zoo

6.  Everythings Rise Up That Finishes a Water Supply

7.  Coil Sudden Self-Discovery

8.  Disbelief

9.  Sounds Funny

10.  The Grumpy TV MD of Azure Book Pages

11.  A Half Dozen Phd’s of Removal

12.  Lengthy 24 Hour’s Trip Into Time of Darkness

Puzzle #23: Wordplay & Trivia: Musical NYC I: From the Hit Broadway Show…

Now that’s a title that wouldn’t fit on a marquis!  This week’s puzzle comes directly from the distinctly New York art form:  The Musical.  I have taken phrases and words from the titles of songs of 11 past and present Broadway shows (and 1 Off-Broadway) and mashed them up to form coherent (mostly) sentences and phrases.  Punctuation and capitalisation of words in the clues are all mine, but every word in each clue does come from the titles of the songs in the score of an individual musical.  Can you identify the 12 musicals from the bits and pieces of their song titles that I have sliced, diced and Edelweiss-ed?  If you can, and you email the correct answer to puzzlingnyc<at>gmail<dot>com you will get a prize!  And this time I actually have the prize in my possession (working on yours Max, working on it!)!  The first to get the correct answer to me will receive the Original Broadway Cast Recording of Shrek the Musical.  Happy Puzzling!

1.  Sit down, be a lady and marry the man!

2.  So long, my favorite Maria.

3.  Pacienca y fe, it won’t be long.  Breathe.

4.  Remember, it’s gonna rain; plant a radish.

5.  I wanna keep it gay and be the king of Springtime.

6.  Tonight, I feel something’s coming, Maria.

7.  I dreamed lovely ladies sing on my empty tables.

8.  The Ballad of Joanna, a Little Priest, and the Linnet Bird.

9.  Nowadays I can’t do that jazz, Mama.

10.  Follow me.  C’est Moi?  Fie!

11.  The music of the masquerade makes me laugh.

12.  Coney Island New York, ya got me carried away.

Puzzle #22: Wordplay: Poltergeists

Happy Halloween everybody!  In honor of All Hallows Eve, we’ve got a mystery (Roh-roh Raggy!) and a ghost problem.  In fact, I’ve got a bunch of answers infected by poltergeists!  Allow me to explain.  Below is a list of clues to fifteen one word answers.  The answers are all pretty random words, but all of the answers also contain poltergeists.  Poltergeists are letters that don’t really belong there, and if you exercise these ghosties (remove them from the word), a new word will appear.  These poltergeist free words are all related, and the theme is somewhat timely.  What is the connection of the poltergeist free word list?  That’s your mystery.  -Insert maniacal laugh here –  To help you along your ghostbustin’ ways, I have included two numbers in parenthesis after each clue.  The first number s the number of letters in the answer to the clue, and the struckout number represents the number of poltergeists that need to be removed from the word to create the final answer.  No letters need to be rearranged to get the final answer.  Just remove the poltergeists and the final answer will magically appear.  Happy Puzzling!

1.  Little green man (7, 1)

2.  He usually wear motley and bells (6, 1)

3.  One’s choice of doing things (8, 4)

4.  Piece of referee’s equipment (7, 2)

5.  Take apart (9, 3)

6.  A college in Poughkeepsie (6, 1)

7.  Norwegian coastline feature (5, 1)

8.  To make record of (8, 4)

9.  Not said under one’s breath but ____  (5, 1)

10.  A small skinny boat (5, 1)

11.  Long unbroken waves (6, 1)

12.  Supported a motion (8, 4)

13.  Gather together something unruly (7, 3)

14.  European seaside resort (7, 1)

15.  Prepared dinner (6, 2)

Theme of Poltergeist Free Answers: __________________________

Puzzle #9: NYC Word Pyramid II: Author, Author!

Happy Fourth of July!  This week is another word pyramid, and forgive my lack of patriotism, but it is not Independence Day themed.  This week the pyramid begins with an author and ends with a poet.  Both have a NYC link.  Again, a word pyramid starts with a one letter answer, then a letter is added for a two letter answer, and then another letter is added to the first two.  For example both A, AT, APT and A, TA, PAT would both be acceptable answers for the first three answers to a word pyramid.  Happy puzzling!

1 ___

2. ___ ___

3. ___ ___ ___

4. ___ ___ ___ ___

5. ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

6. ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

7. ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

8. ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

9. ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

10. ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

11. ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

CLUES:

1.  _____ Henry

2.  The Knicks play this after four quarters (abrev)

3.  East 50’s Asian Eatery

4.  Type of singer found at The Met

5.   _____ Brown, Iron Chef America Host

6.  Type of music you’ll here at a Schoenberg concert at Avery Fischer Hall

7.  What Cesario turns out to be  (3 words)

8.  Where NYC kids played baseball before there was Little League (3 words)

9.  A singular defeat at the Manhattan Bridge Club (3 words)

10.  What an upper floor mail chute is (3 words)

11.  Legend has it this poet took his last drinks at the White Horse Tavern on Hudson Street. (2 words)

Puzzle# 5 Wordplay: NYC Word Pyramid

This week’s puzzle is a word pyramid.  This type of puzzle starts with a one word answer to the first clue, and adds a letter to each successive clue.  Every new answer also incorporates the letters of the last answer.  New letters can be added on to the beginning or end of previous answers or the letters can be completely rearranged.  For example.  A, TA, TAC or A, TA, ACT would both be acceptable answers to start a word pyramid.

Two hints for this week’s pyramid.  One, the first answer and last answer are streets that intersect in Brooklyn, and two all clues are regular crossword puzzle type clues.  There are no cryptic clues this week.  Happy puzzling!

1 ___

2. ___ ___

3. ___ ___ ___

4. ___ ___ ___ ___

5. ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

6. ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

7. ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

8. ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

9. ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

10. ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

11. ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

CLUES:

1. Avenue ________

2. First word in title of musical about sailors on shore leave in NYC

3. ________ Edison

4. He pitched for both the Yanks and Mets

5. You can find these teatime treats at Alice’s Tea Cup

6. Like Chinatown Prada Knockoffs?

7. Response to request for single portion at Grimaldi’s (2words)

8. Another term for when the SEC busts a Wall Street head honcho (2 words)

9. What you can call the location of a 70’s night at say the Bowlmor Bowling Alley (2 words)

10. This happens eight times a week at the Minskoff Theatre (2 words)

11. ________ Avenue (2 words)

Answers to Puzzle #3: Manhattan Sights

Sorry for the late post today.  I hope everyone else is enjoying the great weather for Memorial Day.  Here are the answers for Friday’s puzzle, and if you don’t know what I am talking about, well here’s the puzzle.

Puzzle #3 Wordplay: Manhattan Sights

New York’s most famous borough is in the spotlight this week.  The following clues will all lead you to an answer that is a famous place on the island bought for beads.   Each clue is a mini-word puzzle.  Look for anagrams, hidden words, and all kinds of word shenanigans.   Once again I will list the number of letters in each word of the answer in parenthesis after each clue to help focus your search.  If you like this puzzle, try Puzzle #1 and Puzzle #2.  Happy Puzzling!

1. Charlie Chalin signature character (3,4)
2. Finally done with last tee (5)
3. This Pheline’z got ya’ tongue (5)
4. I call it: The Stir Close mix’d (3, 9)
5. Past President anchoring the Knicks (7, 6)
6. Dweeb past prez flipped over rows of veggies (7, 6, 6)
7. A thousand diatribes to Michael Bloomberg (6,4)
8. Maroon Record Emporium (6,4,5)
9. Say goodnight punchline cracked up in Spanish hands (6, 7)

Answers to Puzzle #2: Neighborhoods

If you have not done the puzzle yet, go here first.

This week’s answers will not include any photos.  This lack of photographic embellishment is brought to you by a sinus infection.  Sinus Infection, now with 50% more phlegm!  Incidentally, phlegm is a great word to use for the game hangman.  Six letters, no repeated letters, and nobody sees the “l” coming after a “ph”.  I drove some poor soul crazy using this word in hangman.  He swore that I had spelled something wrong the entire game, and when he discovered what the word was, he just swore.