Solution: Delightfully Devilish
Answer: LAWNSHRUB
Written by Jeremy Tsai
The puzzle consists of a series of sentences that don’t seem to make sense. The content of these sentences turn out to be related to The Simpsons and the title seems to be referencing the meme “Steamed Hams.” Each sentence is, in fact, a Printer’s Devilry clue. A word can be inserted into each sentence (and the punctuation and spaces are rearranged as needed) to fix it. The added word is a unique word from the transcript of “Steamed Hams” with an extra letter inserted. The enumeration of the correct word is given with each clue. Rearranging the extra letters by the order in which the words appear in the transcript yields the phrase: SUBMIT LAWN SHRUB, a reference to the popular Homer Simpson gif.
| Clue | Missing | Transcript Order | Extra |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apu, being a devout adherent of Hinduism, visits a man***of which include the Mandapa and the sacred Garbhagriha. (10) | DIRsECTIONS | 1 | S |
| By stripping the dish of all the unnecessary additives, the chef achieved what he wanted: a dish with noth in gim***down to its basics. (8) | PuREPARED | 2 | U |
| One noon while eat in G***yan, Divory came on the radio; the song reminded Marge of the time she gave Bart a fire extinguisher so he wouldn’t end up a momma’s boy. (8) | LUNCHEbON | 3 | B |
| One time, Bart tried to get Mrs. Krabappel to be more easygoing so he added***N as coffee, but she barely realized it was spiked. (6) | RUmINED | 4 | M |
| Much like the “You don’t win friends with salad” chant that annoyed Lisa a great “Dea***vil Homer” is short and succinct, thus making it easy to repeat. (4) | LiAME | 5 | I |
| Sometimes the chefs of The Frying Dutchman don’t properly gut fish, so sometimes the***eds all over the customers. (7) | TROUtBLE | 6 | T |
| An unfortunate accident at the Aquacar factory forced them to re***sels they sold. (6) | CALlVES | 7 | L |
| It took Glor***kery, but she managed to get away from the crime scene, living up to her status as Snake’s ex-wife. (9) | IaSOMETRIC | 8 | A |
| At a family dinner in a Japanese restaurant, Chief Wiggum accidentally gaver a l****a food, causing him to vomit up the sashimi. (6) | PHRAwSE | 9 | W |
| Without a***would be at risk of having his copyright infringed, if he decides to sell the Jesus Fish that he specially bred. (8) | PATENTnED | 10 | N |
| As a level five vegan, Je***emns the decision to cut down Springfield’s oldest redwood tree. (6) | SsECOND | 11 | S |
| To everyone’s dismay, Springfield’s Rec***le turned out to be a conman who sold faulty monorails. (8) | ENThIRELY | 12 | H |
| A large box in the control room at the power plant is at Ool***obyl should have used to avert disaster. (7) | KITCHErN | 13 | R |
| While Bart does a lot during the opening of each episode, what’s more memorable? His journey home after detentio***ning gags of his unique lines on the chalkboard? (8) | NORTHERuN | 14 | U |
| Fat Tony sabotaged a food truck where you can buy a fala***ing Marge’s competition out of the water. (6) | FELbLOW | 15 | B |