Middlemarch; Crittercal thinking; Handguns and handiwork; Vesture versus verses;

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER (1110 + 98) SERVED

Welcome to our March 16th edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!

On our menus this week are:
ONE Raising the bar...rel Appetizer 🍀;
ONE  Real newsreel Slice 🍀;
ONE  We’re all bozos on this rebus mack-in-tire Dessert 🍀; and
NINE “You wear hits well, oldies but goldies but that’s all right” Riff Offs 🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀.

That’s a dozen mind-bending menu items. Have fun solving!    

Appetizer Menu

Raising A Few Issues Appetizer:
Handguns and handiwork 

Name a job-related standard, in two words, that left-leaning lawmakers generally want to raise.  
Remove a letter from the second word to name a gun control-related standard that left-leaning lawmakers generally want to raise. 
What are these two two-word standards that relate to jobs and gun control? 

MENU

Unfake News Slice:
Crittercal thinking 

Think of certain critters, in a descriptive two-word plural term, the singular form of which has been lately in the news. 
Remove the first letter of each word, and replace one of the interior letters in the second word with an “l” to form a two-word phrase that, when placed after the the two-word term, forms a true four-word statement. 
What is this statement?

Riffing Off Shortz Slices:
Vesture versus verses


Will Shortz’s March 11th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle reads:
Name a common article of apparel in 3 letters and another in 4 letters. Rearrange all 7 letters to name a well-known three-word song title. What is it?
Puzzleria!’s Riffing Off Shortz Slices read:
ONE:
Name an adjective in 6 letters and noun in 5 letters that together form a redundant phrase. Rearrange all 11 letters to name a well-known three-word song title recorded by a band whose name was inspired by William Blake. What is this song title?
TWO:
Name a vegetable in 4 letters and a mineral in 4 letters. Rearrange all 8 letters to name a well-known four-word song title sung by a duo who as teens signed a recording contract under the names of a cartoon cat and mouse. What is the song title?
Hint: If you add the word “in” in the middle of the four-word song title, it would be a perfect number for the mineral to sing.
THREE:
Name two words you might see on a newspaper’s sports page web site, in 6 and 5 letters, and a third word in 3 letters you might see on card game web site. Remove the first letter of the 6-letter word. 
Rearrange the remaining 13 letters to name a well-known three-syllable song title recorded by a singer who had just left a group named after a sci-fi horror film that had a pronoun for a title. 
What is it?
Hint: The 6 and 5-letter words are also articles of apparel worn on the same part of the body. The 3-letter word is also a beverage.  
FOUR:
Name three things that flicker and/or glow in the dark in 7, 4 letters and 4 letters. 
Rearrange all 15 letters to name a well-known five-word song title recorded by an artist who also recorded (and wrote) what the Obamas chose as their wedding song. 
What is the five-word song?
FIVE:
Name a decorative article of apparel consisting of a 4-letter noun taking the place of an adjective followed by a 6-letter noun. 
Rearrange all 10 letters to name a somewhat well-known five-syllable and three-hyphen title of a rockabilly song recorded by singer who reportedly co-wrote it after being inspired by a comic book character. 
What is the song title?
SIX:
Name three creatures: human, mammalian and piscine, all in their plural form, in 5 letters, 4 letters and 4 letters. 
Rearrange all 13 letters to name a pretty well-known 2-word song title penned by a songwriter who wrote another 2-word song that both James Taylor and the Byrds recorded. 
Who is this songwriter and what are these two 2-word songs?
SEVEN:
Name a measure of force in 6 letters and a measure of length in 5 letters. 
Name the term for a “German art song” in 4 letters. Rearrange all 15 letters to name a well-known four-word title (the first word of which is an apostrophized contraction) of a song that might be called a “California art song.” 
What is this title?
EIGHT:
Sister Mary Bede slouches in a maplewood pew fingertipping her final skein of enchained ten rosary beads while mouthing Hail Marys silently. She finishes up just as Father O’Malley concludes the Gospel reading by intoning “praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ,” then begins his prepared elucidation of it.
Name what Sister Bede’s profession is, in 3 letters; the skein of ten rosary beads she prays, in 6 letters; and the word for Father Father O’Malley’s prepared elucidation of the Gospel reading in 6 letters. 
Rearrange all 15 letters to name a somewhat well-known two-word song title recorded by a duo.  
What is the song title?
Hint: The 6 letters of the second word of the song title, if you change an “o” to an “e”, can be rearranged to spell the last name of one of the singers in the duo.
NINE: 
Give the last name of a Southwest Conference head football coach, in 5 letters; and something perhaps worn by one of his sidelined-by-injury players, in 5 letters. Rearrange all 10 letters to name a somewhat well-known two-word title of a song recorded and co-written by a bloke who dabbled in football... but football, that is, played with a spherical, not an ovoid, ball.
What is this song title?
Hint: Replace the dotted middle letter of the coach’s last name with a 3-letter internet abbreviation that might mean “you can’t buy this product at present, but you ought to be able to do so in the future.” The result will be something, in 7 letters, that this coach, or any coach, often wears during practice.  

Dessert Menu

Reba’s Mack-In-Tire Dessert:
Middlemarch

The solution to the calendar-themed rebus pictured here is the first name of a person who has a sibling who hasn’t used a last name in recent years. If it were customary for this sibling to use a last name, the full name would probably appear in the form: ____ ______ton, D. of C.
Who is the person that the rebus depicts, first and last names?
What is the name of the sibling?

Hint: The sibling does not live near the Potomac... but the sibling does live near a pond.

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.