Septyllabification; POOCHTUS; The Scarlet Serpent

Welcome to Joseph Young’s Puzzle –ria! It’s Friday, time for a fanfare.

Fridays and Fanfares just seem to go together. A fanfare is like a brassy blare heralding the weekend.

A fanfare, according to my Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 10^th Edition, is a “showy outward display” or “a short and lively sounding of trumpets.” The root is the French “fanfarron,” meaning braggart. The English word “fanfaronade” means empty boasting.

(Prefab fanfare: There were many a fan of Faron Young {no relation to Joseph Young, I don’t think}. Faron, a bonny lad from Shreveport who was also known as the “Hillbilly Heartthrob” and “Singing Sheriff,” was one day older than Johnny Cash.)

I was going to use the word “fanfare” in the title of this week’s Easy As Pie Slice because that puzzle uses words that echo fanfare, like find, France, fins, fancier, fine and financial. But because the puzzle’s answer has seven syllables, I opted instead to go with “Septyllabification,” which echoes “September,” the seventh… oops, I mean ninth month, on this September the Fifth.

 

I don’t like to boast (That’s a lie; I actually enjoy boasting. It’s bee-stings I don’t like.), but I predict that, Puzzleria-wise!, this September will be a month to remember. Now, if I could only remember if today is the fifth of the seventh or ninth month…

But enough of this folderol and fanfare. ’Tis high time we fan the flaring fires of our puzzle ovens and bake up some slices, which this week involve a world leader, a dog breed that is not a Samoyed, and a supremely, serpentinely challenging (we hope) alphabetical array.

Menu

Easy As Pie Slice:

Septyllabification

Piece answers to the following four clues together in the proper order to form seven syllables that are, or sound like, the first and last names of a national head of state: 1. You’ll find it in the middle of France, 2. Twenty fins, 3. A fancier of fine shiny stones! 4. Financial bottom line. 

Who is this national leader? (Hint: The leader’s nickname sounds like a type of gun.)

Dogmatic Slice:

POOCHTUS

Name a generic dog breed, in two words. Reverse the words, insert four letters between them, and divide the result to form a two-word expression coined by a U.S. president. What are this dog breed and the expression?

Hint: One of the words in the expression can be altered slightly (that is, two consecutive letters are flip-flopped and the result is bisected) to form a collective description of “Biscuit Goes to School,” “Gizmo,” “Bad Dog Marley!” “Amelia Bedilia,” and Where’s Spot?” etc. 

Specialty Of The House Slice:

The Scarlet Serpent

In the alphabetical array pictured below explain the distinction shared by the 14 letters in red that “slither” snake-like in the green grass around the two rocky blue blocks of letters.

Every Friday at Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria! 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 Tuesdays to post your answers and explain your hints about the puzzles. We plan to 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 puzzle-loving and challenge-welcoming friends about Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria! Thank you.