'How green was my valley? I forget' Actresses morph into new roles; Find a president that fits us to a T; Playing musical chairs with “Blue Suede Shoes” on; The artist formerly known as Minnesotan; Can you pry open these “canundrums?”

Welcome to our October 14^th edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!

We serve up seventeen puzzles this week. Thirteen of them are Ripping/riffing Off Shortz Slices – with nine of those composed very cleverly by David, Puzzlerian! contributor par excellence.

 

Also on our menu are:

One “ubiquitous-phrase-in-the-news” Hors d’Oeuvre;

One Minnesotan Morsel;

One “Long And Windy Road Appetizer;” and, finally

One past-presidenTial Dessert ripped from today’s headlines.

Enjoy all Seventeen.

Hors d’Oeuvre Menu

Ubiquitous News Phrase Hors d’Oeuvre:

Playing musical chairs with “Blue Suede Shoes” on

Name a three-word phrase that would likely serve as a deterrent thwarting potential raiders of, say, Elvis Presley’s grave at Graceland mansion in Memphis (or of the grave of any other such musical entertainer). 

The phrase consists of three nouns of 6, 4 and 4 letters beginning, respectively, with R, T and L.

 

“Reshuffle” the R, T and L so that each settles in at the beginning of a different one of the three words (something like playing a round of musical chairs without removing a chair). Pronounce the result aloud to name a phrase that sounds a lot like a three-word phrase that was ubiquitous in the news this past week.

What are these two three-word phrases?

Hint: The 6-letter noun acts as a modifier.

Morsel Menu

Blanking On The Artist Morsel:

The artist formerly known as Minnesotan

Statement #1: “The artist” was once in a five-man ____ hailed as a supergroup. The first big solo hit for a fellow artist in this supergroup was titled “Only the ______.”

Statement #2: “The artist” composed songs titled “It Ain’t Me, ____,” and “___ a Pawn in their Game,” and an album with a title that begins and ends with the word “______.”
(Note: For the purposes of this puzzle, use an alternative, one-letter-shorter, spelling of this album-title word.)

The letters in the words that belong in the two blanks in Statement #1 can be rearranged to form two words very recently in the news.  

 

The letters in the words that belong in the three blanks in Statement #2 can be rearranged to form three words very recently in the news.

Two of the three words formed by rearranging the letters in the three blanks in Statement #2 are the same two generated by the rearrangement in Statement #1.

Two of the three words formed by rearranging the letters in the three blanks in Statement #2 are the first and last names of “the artist.”

What are the words in the five blanks? What are the three different words in the news? Who is “the artist.”

Appetizer Menu

Long And Windy Road Appetizer:

“How green was my valley? I forget”

 

Name the general term for the resident of a land whose name translates roughly to “valley of (certain green structures)” – but “green” not in the literal but in the figurative sense. But unless gusts and gales whistle down the valleys of the land with a kind of natural “wind-tunnel effect,” the efficacy and output of such structures might seem forgettable…

And so, let’s forget the penultimate letter of the resident’s name and replace it with a duplicate of the second letter. If you now do not forget to interchange the resident’s first two letters, you will end up with a word that is the essence of forgetfulness.

What is the name of this land? What is the essence of forgetfulness? 

MENU

David’s Ripping/riffing Off Shortz And Myers Slices:

Can you pry open these “canundrums?”

Will’s Shortz’s October 9^th National Public Radio Weekend Edition Sunday Puzzle, submitted by Darrell Myers, reads:

Name a famous actress of the past – first and last names, 10 letters all together. Change one letter in the first name and one letter in the last. The result is a two-word phrase naming a food item often found in a kitchen cabinet or refrigerator. What is it?

David’s Ripping/riffing Off Shortz And Myers Slices read:

ONE: Name a two-word, 10-letter pre-production task regarding a beloved character in “Star Wars” movies. Change one letter in each word to form something found in a kitchen cupboard or refrigerator.

TWO: Name a two-word, 10-letter phrase for something the title character famously did in a Spielberg movie. Replace a double-letter in the first word with a different double-letter. Change the last letter in the second word to three different letters. The result is something found in a kitchen cabinet or pantry.

Hint: Carter vis-à-vis Mondale

THREE:Take a two-word, 7-letter phrase that you might call an x-rated lewd movie involving police. Spoonerize the words and remove the space to form something you might find in a kitchen cabinet or microwave oven.

FOUR: Take a two-word, 9-letter name for something sweet commonly eaten this time of year. The first word ends in a vowel sound. Say the two-word name aloud without pronouncing the vowel sound. The result sounds like something found in a kitchen cabinet or pantry.

Hint: The sweet eats were once called “Chicken Feed.”

FIVE: Name a two-word, 10-letter phrase for something you might see at a zoo, something PETA might protest. Replace a letter in the first word with a different double-letter, and replace a letter in the second word with a different letter. The result is something found in a kitchen cabinet or pantry.

SIX: Name a two-word 8-letter phrase for something seen at a railroad museum. Change one letter in each word to form something found in a kitchen cabinet or pantry that you might also take on a hike.

SEVEN: Name a two-word 11-letter phrase for what might be an illegal bet. Change one letter in each word and reverse the order of the words to form something found in a kitchen cabinet or pantry… but likely not in the fridge unless it’s a part of a custard pie crust.

EIGHT: Name a two-word 7-letter phrase for something that could be found on the floor in any room in the house. Replace two consecutive letters in the first word with a different letter, and change one letter in the second word to a different letter. The result is something found in the kitchen in the cupboard, in the dish drainer or on the breakfast nook table.

NINE: Take two 4-letter synonyms and put them in reverse alphabetical order. Change one letter in the first synonym. The result is something found in a kitchen cabinet or pantry.

Hint: The first synonym is manufactured using a natural resource of which the second synonym is a part.

Puzzleria!’s Ripping/riffing Off Shortz And Myers Slices:

Actresses morph into new roles

ONE: Name a famous actress of the past – first and last names, 10 letters all together. Change one letter in the first name and one letter in the last name, and replace the initial letter of the altered first name with the entire altered last name. The result names an annual celebration.

Who is the actress and what is the celebration?

TWO: Name a famous actress of the past – first and last names, 13 letters all together. Add one letter (along with a bit of punctuation) to the end of the first name. Add one letter to the end of the last name and insert a space someplace within. The result is a three-word phrase that describes the movie titled “Airport 1975.”

Who is the actress and what is the three-word descriptive phrase?

THREE: Name two famous actresses of the past. Their first and last names, all four names, begin with the same letter. Discard their last names. Insert an “n” into one of the first names, and replace the final letter of the other first name with another “n,” leaving a space between these two altered names.

The result is a two-word phrase for a place where elopers go to get married.

Who are these actresses? What is this two-word place phrase?

FOUR: Name a famous retired actress – first and last names, 8 letters all together. The first letter of her first name and last letter of her last name are the same consonant. Replace the consonant in the first name with a different consonant, and replace the consonant in the last name with the letter that follows that “different consonant” in the alphabet. 

The result is a two-word phrase (3-letter adjective and 5-letter plural noun) naming a cosmic event stargazers may observe in the night sky. (Note: the phrase may seem oxymoronic, but it actually is not.)

Who is the actress and what is the two-word descriptive phrase?

Dessert Menu:

Surnominal Dessert:

Find a president that fits us to a T

The name of a former president was in the news headlines this past week. Change one of the letters in the president’s surname to a “T”. 

Rearrange the letters of the result to form the surname of the person who referred to the president – the reference that led to the news headlines.

Who are the president and the person who referred to him?

Every Friday at Joseph Young’s Puzzleria! 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 Wednesdays to post your answers and explain your hints about the puzzles. We serve up at least one fresh puzzle every Friday.

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