One Letter Off Song Titles of 2023

    Here is the latest puzzle.  This time around, I have taken some of the biggest song titles from last year and changed one of the letters.  I then give you a brief synopsis of what the new song would be like after the change, as well as the artist.  Your job is to guess the original title.  For example, if I gave you "Nuns go crazy over the new bold designs and bright colors of their new uniforms. (Ed Sheeran)" your answer would be "Rad Habits" which is just "Bad Habits" with the first letter changed.  Scroll down to find the answers.

1. A man wakes up with a hangover so bad that he cannot remember the last twelve hours.  Now, he has to find out just what happened. (Morgan Wallen)
2. A woman complains about the loud noises coming from her neighbors every autumn as they try to clear out their fallen leaves.  What's worse is that they all seem to push them into her yard with their loud machines. (Miley Cyrus)
3. This is the narrative about some of the animal sacrificial rites practice by some ancient cultures, particularly those involving the cults of Mithras in Ancient Rome. (SZA)
4. This is a tribute to one of the greatest Texas Hold 'Em poker players ever.  He was so great, he knew if he was going to win as soon as the chips first entered the pot. (Taylor Swift)
5. A man realizes he is going to have a problem clearing out his vehicle after a passenger has really bad gas attacks in it. (Luke Combs)
6. It has been unbearable during this heat wave.  It is so bad it feels like one is boiling in their own sweat. (Taylor Swift)
7. A customer is curious about if the product he is thinking of buying is 100% homogenous, or if there are additives being used to affect the price. (Miguel)
8. A woman is raving about her upcoming food tour of Italy.  She is especially interested in the area where some of the best ham and cheeses in the world are made. (Taylor Swift)
9. A woman gets lost in the paths of a garden feature, even though the light purple flowers aren't really that tall. (Taylor Swift, again)
10. The newspaper food critic is having an existential crisis.  All the dishes taste the same no matter where she goes, and he is losing the desire to even want to taste anything new. (Jelly Roll)
11. Ozzy Osbourne admits that he has an addiction to biting the heads off of flying mammals after he accidentally bit one off decades ago. (Steve Lacy) [I used this one last year, but I really wanted to bring it back.]
12. This woman has a thing for men under 5' 8". Especially if they are a few inches under that. (SZA)
13. A designer turns everyone's heads at Fashion Week by choosing to colorize his long dresses in shades of crimson and scarlet, while on the catwalk! Literally, applying the colors using a brush. (Doja Cat)
14. All of the female sheep on the farm have been afflicted by this unusual disease.  Their bodies lock up tight, and they can't move. (Ed Sheeran)
15. A man is a bafflement to the medical community, after he seems to have gotten inebriated to twice the point of where most people would have died. (Noah Kanan)

ANSWERS

1. "Lost Night" ("Last Night")
2. "Blowers" ("Flowers")
3. "Kill Bull" ("Kill Bill")
4. "Ante-Hero" (Anti-Hero")
5. "Fart Car" ("Fast Car")
6. "Cruel Simmer" ("Cruel Summer")
7. "Pure Thing" ("Sure Thing")
8. "Parma" ("Karma")
9. "Lavender Maze" ("Lavender Haze")
10. "Need a Savor" ("Need a Savor")
11. "Bat Habit" ("Bad Habit")
12. "Short" ("Shirt")
13. "Paint the Gown Red" ("Paint the Town Red")
14. "Ewes Closed" ("Eyes Closed")
15. "Dual Drunk" ("Dial Drunk")

Music 2023, in Other Words

    In this puzzle, I am rephrasing the words in popular song titles from last year, and it is your task to guess the original song.  For example, if you saw "Your Physique Is Reminiscent of Unpaved Rural Driving Surfaces," your answer would be "Body Like a Back Road" by Sam Hunt.  Doesn't really carry the same comparison, but that isn't the point.  Scroll to the bottom of the page for the answers and artists.

1. "Literary Term for the Protagonist of a Work Who Does Negative Actions to Accomplish Their Goals"
2. "This Being Is in a Positive State (In the Cool Portion of the Color Spectrum)"
3. "Unknown Object Occupying a Portion of the Spectrum Comparable to Sunrise"
4. "Despicable Warm Season"
5. "Pondering Due to This One's Self"
6. "Particular Young Male Doesn't Tell Truths, Second Section"
7. "Certainty Concerning Non-descriptive Object"
8. "Light Purple Mistiness"
9. "Desperately Wanting Said Specific Deed"
10. "Gyrate Rhythmically Throughout Period of Darkness"
11. "The Feeling of Wanting to Devoid Oneself of Emotional Baggage"
12. "Forced Individual to Gaze upon Said Person"
13. "Cardiac Organ Resembles Transport Vehicle"
14. "Optical Organs Remain Shut"
15. "This One Has Total Recall Involving All Things Involving Ourselves"
16. "Call Someone While in an Inebriated State"
17. "Questioning the Reasons of One's Self Existence"
18. "Inter This One within the Soils of Atlanta's State"
19. "Emojis Representing The Gluteal Regions, as Well as the Male Reproductive Organs"
20. "Tomato Juice Based Cocktail Named after Religious Figure

ANSWERS

1. "Anti-Hero" Taylor Swift
2. "I'm Good (Blue)" David Guetta and Bebe Rexha
3. "Something in the Orange" Zach Bryan
4. "Cruel Summer" Taylor Swift
5. "Thinkin 'Bout Me" Morgan Wallen
6. "Boy's a Liar, Pt. 2" Pink Pantheress with Ice Spice
7. "Sure Thing" Miguel
8. "Lavender Haze" Taylor Swift
9. "Need a Favor" Jelly Roll
10. "Dance the Night" Dua Lipa
11. "Escapism" Raye and 070 Shake
12. "Made You Look" Meghan Trainor
13. "Heart Like a Truck" Lainey Wilson
14. "Eyes Closed" Ed Sheeran
15. "I Remember Everything" Zach Bryan f. Kacey Musgraves
16. "Dial Drunk" Noah Kahan
17. "What Was I Made For?" Billie Eilish
18. "Bury Me in Georgia" Kane Brown
19. "Peaches and Eggplants" Young Nudy
20. "Bloody Mary" Lady Gaga

The Year in Music in Emojis, 2023 Edition

    The following is a puzzle based on song titles.  I've converted some of last year's biggest hits into emojis, as well as I could.  Your job is to guess the original titles.  For example, if you saw "🇺🇸 🥧" your answer would be "American Pie" by Don McLean.  Some of the titles will get a little bit off, but that is only due to the fact that some words don't have exact emoji equivalents.  Scroll to the bottom of the page to find the answers.

1. 💐
2. 🏃🏻‍♂️🚗
3. 🧛🏻‍♂️
4. 🪻🌫️
5. ⛹🏻‍♀️🤾🏼‍♀️🤽🏽‍♀️
6. 💃🏼🌃
7. 🦸🏽‍♂️ (🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♂️🦹🏿🦹‍♀️)
8. 👕
9. 🎨🌆🔴
10. ⏳📥🛻
11. 🧪
12. ❤️🟰🛻
13. 🌞💡
14. 👀🔐
15. 📱🥴🍺
16. 🍉🌝

ANSWERS

1. "Flowers" Miley Cyrus
2. "Fast Car" Luke Combs
3. "Vampire" Olivia Rodrigo
4. "Lavender Haze" Taylor Swift (technically this is a hibiscus, but it's the right color)
5. "Players" Coi Leray
6. "Dance the Night" Dua Lipa
7. "Superhero (Heroes & Villains)" Chris Brown, Future, and Metro Bommin
8. "Shirt" SZA
9. "Paint the Town Red" Dopa Cat
10. "Wait in the Truck" HARDY
11. "Chemical" Post Malone
12. "Heart Like a Truck" Lainey Wilson
13. "Daylight" David Kushner
14. "Eyes Closed" Ed Sheeran
15. "Dial Drunk" Noah Kahan and Post Malone
16. "Watermelon Moonshine" Lainey Wilson

Oh Yes It's Grammys Night

    This past Sunday night were the Grammy awards.  I was afraid that the storms pounding the west coast would cause problems like they did for the NASCAR race, which I missed because I didn't know it had been moved up a day.  Anyway, the presentation came off as scheduled, and I really wasn't disappointed.  Last year, I felt underwhelmed with the ceremony.  I don't know if it was the selection of artists and songs weren't up to my liking, or that I didn't agree with the winners, or whatever.  I just really enjoyed myself this year.  It started with the Dua Lipa set.  I was at cross purposes about what she was going to perform.  Since her big nominated song wasn't going to be honored at the Oscars, I almost thought that she was going to sing it here instead.  Wrong.  She began with a tease of her next single "Training Season" on the secondary stage in the audience before transitioning to the main stage to belt out "Houdini," with just a few lyrics of "Dance the Night" sung by backups as she moving between the stages.  I honestly didn't think she had enough credentials to be allowed to perform new material.   The "Fast Car" duet between Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs was great, although Combs got shut out of every category.  In fact, men were shut out of all of the live categories.  While the producers aren't told who the winners will be, they do have good guesses based on experts.  I think that they deliberately chose to live present categories most likely to have women winning as a statement against the former president of the awards. (Only the four general categories are guaranteed to be live every year.  The other seven or so are based on multiple criteria.) That's why Laney Wilson was seen to accept for country album and not Chris Stapleton for solo country performance or song, both for "White Horse."  Then there was Miley Cyrus winning her first ever Grammy as the first presentation of the night.  Her exuberance and joy carried over to her performance of "Flowers," as she switched up some of the lyrics to reflect her mood.  I did catch that she did not thank her father, though in either of her acceptance speeches.  SZA came up with a mash up of her hits "Snooze" and "Kill Bill." It was a little busy, and I missed parts of it. In fact, most of the performances were great.  Even many of the ones in genres I don't like, I found to be pretty good.  The ones that most missed the mark were the Travis Scott rap, the U2 rock cutaway from The Sphere, and the first Billy Joel song.  The second one wasn't so bad.  What I did find weird were the choices played during the "In Memoriam" segment.  While all were appropriate and excellent, the choices were all also tied to others.  I would've liked at least one signature tune more closely tied to the featured artists.  The gospel revival rendition of "Lean on Me," though, was a surprise.  I didn't expect anything like that.  I must admit that I hadn't heard of many of the people presented, although I was able to read their names, something that doesn't always happens at every awards show.  Of course, the biggest shake ups were Taylor Swift announcing her new album and the return of Celine Dion to the stage to present the Album of the Year award to Swift.  After all of the gloom-and-doom clickbait articles that show up on my Facebook feed, I had been fearing the worse for her.  Anyway, I felt happier after watching this year's show compared to last year. Last year, the Grammys were heavy with disappointment.  This year, there was a lightness that I enjoyed.  Now, I hope it inspires me to make my puzzles next week.