Volleyballistics! The talking head that launched 1,000 ships; Stirring up the alphabet soup; Sesquipedalian... in years, not feet; Pick a name, any name;

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER (876 + 54) SERVED 

Welcome to our September 29th edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!

Fresh from our puzzle-forging ovens are seven worthy delights – that would be exactly one week’s-worth. 

We have baked up:

⇨ Three hand-picked Shortz Riff-off Slices,

⇨ One Slice sailing ‘cross your TV screen,

⇨ One moutherly Appetizer,

⇨ One alphanumerical Appetizer, and

⇨ One restful Dessert.

Fall in love with our not-so-easy puzzles as you ease into fall.

And, as always please, enjoy them all.

Appetizer Menu

Mouther Tongue Appetizer:

Volleyballistics!

A volley of back-and-forth epithets made the news recently. The first epithet was a 2-word phrase with letters that can be rearranged to form a 2-word description of the person who mouthed it. 

The second epithet, a response to the first, is a 2-syllable word that rhymes with a word in the title of a song from a Broadway and movie musical. (The musical has the word “music” in its title.) This title word is also rhymed multiple times within the song’s lyrics.

What are these two epithets? 

What is the description of the mouther of the first epithet? 

What are the musical and the song title?

Hint: The second word of the first epithet is a noun that rhymes with the first word (an adjective) of the 2-word description of the person who mouthed it. And, the first epithet is also the title of a piece of music.

Reorder Form Appetizer:

Stirring up the alphabet soup

The twelve words in the following list appear in alphabetical order. 

Put them into a more numerical kind of order:

aid

down 

frame

heaven

hour

inning

night

rail

sense

symphony

wind

wonder

Hint: One of the twelve words will remain where it already is.

MENU

The Medium Is The Mizzenmassage Slice:

The talking head that launched 1,000 ships

Change one letter in the first name of a current TV personality whose last name is also the name of a boat builder. 

Spell the TV personality’s altered first name backward to form the first name of a Pennsylvania boat builder whose last name is the first name of a TV personality.

Who are these two TV personalities and these two boat builders?

Riffing Off Shortz Slices:

Pick a name, any name  

Will Shortz’s September 24th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle reads: 

Think of a familiar 6-letter boy’s name starting with a vowel. Change the first letter to a consonant to get another familiar boy’s name. Then change the first letter to another consonant to get another familiar boy's name. What names are these?

Puzzleria’s! Riffing Off Shortz Slices read:

ONE: 

Think of a familiar 5-letter boy’s name starting with a vowel. 

Change the first letter to a B, a C, a D and an F to get four not-very-familiar first names of men who were, respectively:
⧫ an NBA draft lottery pick (B), 
⧫ another NBA draft lottery pick (C), 
⧫ a heavy metal singer with a guitar pick (D), 
⧫ and a Country Music Hall of Famer with a guitar pick (F). 

What five 5-letter names are these?

Hint: A quarterback with the 5-letter boy’s name starting with a vowel is the all-time NFL career passing leader in touchdown-passes-to-picks ratio, with about four passing TDs per interception. The next closest QB in the ranking is Tom Brady with only about three TDs per pick.

TWO: 

Translate the following into something coherent:

“Jim Bill. Joy Ivey! 

Di Kate Ricky Frank Oliver. Hugh! 

Vi Sam Avery Will. 

Bo Amy!”

THREE:

Think of a familiar 6-letter boy’s name starting with a consonant and vowel. Change the consonant and vowel to a different consonant and vowel to get another, much-less familiar, boy’s 6-letter name.  

A man with the familiar name was a global voyager. 

A fictitious man with the not-so-familiar name was a global voyager from about a century later.

What names are these?

Dessert Menu

Rest In place Dessert:

Sesquipedalian... in years, not feet

Think of a one-word synonym for “resting place,” one that sounds like the type of word a particular author from the past might have used… but could not have used because the word is only about 150 years old. 

Remove one Y from the word to form a nickname by which the author is often known.

What is the synonym? Who is the author, and what is the author’s nickname?

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.

We invite you to make it a habit to “Meet at Joe’s!” If you enjoy our weekly puzzle party, please tell your friends about Joseph Young’s Puzzleria! Thank you.

Blaise & Claire & Emmy & Lenny; School’s in for autumn! Turning toys into togs (but not into toggle toys)

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER (876 + 54) SERVED

Welcome to our September 22nd edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!

Lotsa Shortz Riff-offs this week, plus two additional better-than-average posers: 

1. An Appetizer about a party thrower, a blue comic, and two math giants, and 

2. A somewhat blue Dessert about toys and togs.

Please enjoy our puzzle party. Romp around in our cyber-room like a kid in a toy factory.

And, as always, enjoy.

Appetizer Menu

Math Giants, Party Thrower And Blue Comic Appetizer:

Blaise & Claire & Emmy & Lenny

Fashion designer and socialite Claire McCardell invites a life-of-the-party yet groan-inducingly “blue comic” named Lenny Bruce to her dinner party. The result is:

“Claire’s jaunty, corny, salty party guest spouts blueness, annoys.”

Blaise Pascal and Emmy Noether were mathematical giants from different eras. The following sentence is likely true:

“Giant Emmy learned giant Blaise’s point theorem, soon schooled allies, also friends.” 

All twenty different words in blue italics above share a very unusual property in common. (The two blue sentences contain 21 words, but “giant” is repeated.”) 

What is this unusual property?

MENU 

Riffing Off Shortz Slices:

School’s in for autumn!   

Will Shortz’s September 17th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle reads: 

This puzzle is for the new school year. Think of two antonyms, each in three letters. Set them side by side. In between them arrange the letters of TRY TO ACE in some order. The result will name someone at school. Who is it?

Puzzleria’s! Riffing Off Shortz Slices, which are all “for the new school year,” read:

ONE: 

Think of two people often known by just one name, one in three letters, the other in four. Set them side by side. In between them arrange the letters of I TEST MARY in some order. The result will name someone at school who might administer that test to Mary. Who is it?

(Clarification and hint: The image is misleading. It is a scientific test, but not a pregnancy test! It is an academic test.)

TWO: 

Think of two people often known by just one name, one in five letters, the other in four. Both are performers who have been nominated for Oscars. Set them side by side. In between them arrange the letters of GOAL: ACE IT in some order. The result will name someone at school who might write that goal on the front-of-the-classroom “blackboard” before administering a test. Who is it?

THREE:

Arrange the letters of A TEST? OH, I CRY! in some order. Put your rearranged letters somewhere in between the name of a one-named entertainer. The result will name someone at school who might administer the cry-inducing test. Who is it?

Hint: The name of a one-named entertainer is also the name for a person who serves at a place where students might go to pray that they do not flunk the cry-inducing test.

FOUR:

Think of two celebrities with one-name stage names, both in four letters. Change the first letter in one of the stage names to the first letter in that person’s real surname. Set these results side by side. 

In between them arrange in some order the letters of TEARS (the result of the cry-inducing test in the previous puzzle). The result will name someone at school who might administer such a test. 

Who is it?

Hint: The one-word stage name of one celebrity is a former surname of the other celebrity. 

FIVE:

Think of two ant... no, not antonyms, they’re really more like two synonyms... no, that’s not quite it either... they’re actually duplicates of the same three-letter word which is the name of a small creature. Set them side by side. In between them arrange the letters of A LOGOS SOPHISTRY in some order. 

The result will name someone at school who might, for example, proofread or transcribe a professor’s podcast lecture titled “A Logos Sophistry” which proposes a new understanding of sophistry different from that of the ancient Greeks – namely a new understanding based on logic (logos) to persuade people (to vote for a president, for example) rather than on appeals to authority (ethos) or emotion (pathos) that have for millennia been used to manipulate the hearts and minds of humanity. 

Who is this “someone at school?” 

SIX:

Think of two nouns, each in four letters, that together form a synonym for certain whiskers. Set them side by side. In between them arrange the letters of PATENTED CREMES in some order. 

The result will name the university staff position held by a person who might be described as “a guy named Guo Down Under,” a guy who may or may not use patented cremes to eliminate certain whiskers. 

What is the name of this guy and what might you call his staff position?

SEVEN:

Think of two fragments, each in three letters, that together form a slang synonym for a pugilist. Add to the end of the first fragment three letters that can be arranged in some order to spell the surname of a famous person that the slang synonym for a pugilist indicates. Add to the beginning of the second fragment three letters that can be arranged in some order to spell a word (followed by a space and the letter Z) forming a commonplace expression used by commentators in a sport that is a homophone of the slang synonym for a pugilist. 

The result will name someone you might find on a school staff, in two words of six letters each. 

Who is it? 

What is the slang synonym for a pugilist? 

Who is the famous person? 

What is the sport that is a homophone of the slang synonym, and what is the commonplace expression used in that sport?

EIGHT:

Think of two 4-letter synonyms, one of the word “ding” and the other of the word “depression.” Set them side by side. In between them arrange the letters of TULSA in some order. The result will name someone at a school that prepares people for a specific profession. 

(A handful of such schools are based in Tulsa.) 

Who is the someone at the school? What are the two synonyms?

Dessert Menu

Mr. Couch Potato Head Dessert

Turning toys into togs (but not into toggle toys)

Name a popular toy, in two words, that might convince young couch potatoes to put down their PlayStations, Nintendos and Xboxes and actually begin to exercise more than just their thumbs. 

Place a new word after the toy’s first word to form a two-word term for a woman’s somewhat clingy and revealing garment. 

Place the same new word after the toy’s second word to form a two-word term for a woman’s undergarment that is anything but tight-fitting.

What are this toy, the garment and the undergarment? 

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.

We invite you to make it a habit to “Meet at Joe’s!” If you enjoy our weekly puzzle party, please tell your friends about Joseph Young’s Puzzleria! Thank you.

Find the J-word (it isn’t Jaybird); Flabby slabby idioms; Stationary letters

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER (876 + 54) SERVED

Welcome to our September 15th edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!

Please enjoy our four fresh puzzles.

Appetizer Menu

Humdrum Irksome Appetizer:

Find the J-word (it isn’t Jaybird)

Adjust, Berserk, Confront, Dozen, Ebon, Fluster, Gerbil, Humdrum, Irksome, _______ ...

What is the J-word that is the next entry in this sequence?

Note: The answer to this puzzle is based on entries in the Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition. 

MENU 

Ripping Off Shortz And Gori Slices:

Flabby slabby idioms   

Will Shortz’s September 10th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle created by Al Gori reads: 

Think of a famous quotation with 8 words. The initial letters of the first 4 words themselves spell a word, and the initial letters of the last 4 words spell another word. Both words rhyme with “jab.” What quotation is it?

Puzzleria’s! Ripping Off Shortz And Gori Slices read:

ONE: 

Think of an idiom with 6 words describing sonething very expensive. The initial letter of the first word, the initial letter of any of the next four words, and the initial letter of the last word themselves spell an abbreviation of one of the 50 United States, or the nickname of a U.S. president with a noteworthy birthday.

What idiom is it? What is the state and who is the president?

TWO: 

Think of a 8-word idiom that inspires optimism and that begins with the word “The”. The initial letters of the next 4 words themselves spell an adjective, and the initial letters of the last 3 words spell a surname. Both words might appear in a news article about a Giant. Only the surname, not the adjective, would likely appear in an article about a Pirate who became an Angel, and who was born in the same year the Giant was inducted into the Hall of Fame.  

What idiom is it? What are the names of the Giant and the Pirate who became an Angel?

Hint: The three letters of the surname are the initial letters of a hyphenated expression that means “extremely or excessively flamboyant or outrageous.”

Dessert Menu

Sports Apparatus Dessert:

Stationary letters  

Name a piece of stationary sports apparatus with a shape that once resembled a certain uppercase letter of the alphabet, but now looks more like (but not exactly like, in the majority of fonts) an uppercase letter that appears later on in the alphabet.

What are these letters and what is the sports apparatus?

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.

We invite you to make it a habit to “Meet at Joe’s!” If you enjoy our weekly puzzle party, please tell your friends about Joseph Young’s Puzzleria! Thank you.