Postcards from the past; Stumping us by leveraging a Shortz shift! Mount Thrushmore; “Not on our menu? Ask, we may have it” A portrait of four artists by a young Huffman

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“Hail To The Clef” Schpuzzle Of The Week:
Mount Thrushmore

Adams, Adams, Fillmore, Ford, Taft. 

What connection to music do these five presidents share that all other United States of America presidents do not?
Bonus question:
One of these five presidents shares the connection to music even more so than the other four. 
Who is he? 
Explain this president’s enhanced connection to music.

Appetizer Menu

Note: Puzzleria! is unveiling a new feature this week called “Mathew Huffman’s Conundrum Set” (MHCS) created by our friend, prolific and terrific puzzle creator Mathew Huffman. MHCS will appear on our menus on special occasions or when the blog could use some “drumming-up of  excitement!”

Try Beating These Conundrums Appetizer:

A portrait of four artists by a young Huffman

🥁1. Think of a famous film director whose first and last names conceal the four-letter name of a popular television series.

🥁2. Think of a famous artist, first and last names. Remove an H from their first name. The remaining letters conceal a seven letter compound word for not having access to a vehicle.

🥁 3. Think of a famous comedienne, first and last names, and a shorthand descriptor for someone at the top of their game. 
Drop one vowel and rearrange to get a type of language comedians sometimes employ.

🥁4. Think of a famous author, first and last names. 
Drop the last letter of their last name and write the remaining letters in reverse order. 
The result when spoken aloud sounds like a fictional location in a well-known series of books.

“Chalk-olate Shake Please” Appetizer:
“Not on our menu? Ask, we may have it”

A roadside diner on the outskirts of a state capital in a fly-over state offers a wall-hung chalkboard menu that reads simply:
Kraut
Soda
Pie
Other?
What state capital is it?

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Riffing Off Shortz And Levering Slices:
Stumping us by leveraging a Shortz shift! 

Will Shortz’s September 23rd  NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Jim Levering of San Antonio,Texas, reads:

Think of an affliction in five letters. Shift each letter three spaces later in the alphabet – for example, A would become D, B would become E, etc. The result will be a prominent name in the Bible. Who is it?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Levering Slices read:
(Note: Entrees #1, #2 and #3 were created by Mathew Huffman.)
ENTREE #1: 
Think of the first name of a titular television character in five letters. Shift each letter six places later in the alphabet. The result is the first name of a well-known actress.

ENTREE #2:
Think of the name of a sports team in five letters. Shift each letter six places later in the alphabet to get the first name of a well-known sports announcer from the same area as the sports team.

ENTREE #3:
Think of a common jewelry feature in five letters. Shift each letter six places later in the alphabet to name a stage of metallurgy prior to becoming the jewelry feature.

ENTREE #4:
Think of the last name of an actor in four letters. Shift each letter three spaces later in the alphabet. The result will fill in the blank in the following sentence:
“The actor in a memorable movie role played a holdout juror in a murder trial who eventually casts the vote that decides the defendant’s fate – to live as a ____ man.”
Who is this actor and what is the movie?

ENTREE #5:
Think of a synonym of “sick.” Shift each letter three spaces later in the alphabet. The result will be a place where a nauseously sick person may have to spend more time than normal. What is this synonym? 

ENTREE #6:
Think of a prestigious institution of higher learning in four letters. Shift each letter three spaces later in the alphabet. Add an O and and R so that they bookend three consecutive letters of the result, forming an even more prestigious institution of higher learning. What are these institutions?

ENTREE #7:
Name one of three sons of Terah from the Bible’s Hebrew Scriptures, in five letters. 
Add to the end of this son’s name a letter that appears twice in the biblical book in which he appears, then add to this result the initials of a person who figures prominently in the New Testament. 
Shift each letter of this result four spaces later in the alphabet. 
The final result will be the last name of a puzzle-maker. Who is it?

Dessert Menu

Shortz-Term Memory Dessert:
Postcards from the past

Name a two-word alliterative term relating to and dating back to the  postcard era of the pre-email postal service. 
Add two lowercase letters that look similar in many fonts when one is capitalized. 
Rearrange these letters to name two-word item of “blingy” apparel relating to and dating back to the postcard era.
What is this item?
Hint: People who enjoy solving NPR puzzles will have an advantage in solving this puzzle.

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.

An Oktemberfestive question? Spin-masters vs spine-tinglers; Honeymoon hideaways, boisterous idiots, talking flowers and madcap wit; Spooning stirs up some tea for two; A salad a day keeps the doctor away;

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 7!/3 SERVED



Schpuzzle Of The Week:
An Oktemberfestive question?

Note: Oktoberfest begins September 22 and lasts until October 7. Please enjoy the following Schpuzzle in moderation:

An English-speaking, pitcher-toting German beer maid may ask an Oktoberfest reveler a four-word question beginning with, “Is your...?” 
Spoonerize the missing words. That is to say, switch the beginning sounds of the third and fourth words. 
When you say these two spoonerized words aloud it will sound like a compound word for a small creature that may flit into the third word in the original question asked by the beer maid. 
What creature is it?

Appetizer Menu

She Blinded Me With Computer Science Appetizer: 
A salad a day keeps the doctor away 

Note: The following puzzle was created by Mathew Huffman, a fine friend of Puzzleria!
Name two fictional doctors that are title characters in their own movies whose names differ by one word in four letters. 
This four-letter word appears in the last name of a pioneering female computer scientist; the other part of her last name is another word that has a similarity to the World Wide Web. 
She famously worked with another computer scientist; the first letter of his last name can be advanced one place in the alphabet to name an ingredient in some salads.
Who are these two doctors and two scientists?

Tutu-Long Political Terms Appetizer:
Spooning stirs up some tea for two

Name a 2-word term that has been recently in the political news, in 9 letters. 


Spoonerize the term (that is, switch its initial consonant sounds) to form a different two-word term that seems synonymous with the expression “tea for two.”
 What are these two 2-word terms?

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Riffing Off Shortz Slices:
Honeymoon hideaways, boisterous idiots, talking flowers and madcap wit

Will Shortz’s September 16th  NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle reads:
These five 2-word phrases have something very unusual in common. What is it? When you find it, think of another two-word phrase that has the same property.
Property rights
Land mine
Sales order
Color scheme
India ink
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz Slices read:
ENTREE #1:
The answer to Will Shortz’s September 16th  NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle (above) is:
All five 2-word phrases consist of a first word that begins with at least three letters that appear at the beginning of a state capital, followed by a second word that begins with the postal abbreviation of that state:
Property rights (Providence, RI); Land mine (Lansing, MI); Sales order (Salem, OR);
Color scheme (Columbia, SC);India ink (Indianapolis, IN)
Other two-word phrases with the same property include: 
Hard palate (Harrisburg, PA); Salad utensils (Salt Lake City, UT); Bathroom lavatory (Baton Rouge, LA); Boss man (Boston, MA); and Dental coverage (Denver, CO).
Using two consecutive 2-word phrases based on state capitals and postal abbreviations, rewrite the following headline that might appear on the heath section of a web site or newspaper:
“Injurious Leeches Transmit Diseases”
Hint: The two U.S. states involved in the answer rank in the top ten by population.

ENTREE #2:
These five 2-word phrases have something reasonably unusual in common. What is it? 
When you find it, think of another two-word phrase that has the same property.
Tiny Lilliputians
Assail Hades!
Sales order
Parcheesi rival
Blurry snapshot

Extra credit points: Why is Sales order especially special?

ENTREE #3:
Hidden like fossils within the uppercase text of the first two sentences below are words that every well-educated American school child ought to know. 
Hidden within the uppercase text of the third sentence is the place that not-so-well-educated American school children think those words can be found.
Find the hidden words and the place where they are not found.  
1. In stratified rocks the archaeologists found FOSSILIFEROUS HALIBUT COUNTERTYPES.
2. UNDERHANDED FATHERS, SPURIOUS JESUITS, OFFERED CHAPLAINS TYPING LESSONS.
3. The deaf journalist taking notes at the presidential debate nearly fell asleep while LIPREADING MUMBLED SNAGGLETOOTHED INCONSISTENT PLATITUDES UNEMOTIONALLY.

Dessert Menu

Spin Cycle Dessert:
Spin-masters vs spine-tinglers

Name something, in four syllables, that spins and that can be deadly, figuratively, to a baseball batter.
Change the second syllable, which is a house part, to a second house part that functions in a somewhat similar manner.
Add an L within the first syllable, remove an N from the second house part, and replace an L with a P in the original third syllable. 
The result is something that spins that can be deadly, literally, not only to baseball batters but to everyone else too.
What are these two spinning and deadly things?

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.

Damn the lochs, darn the socks; Mobile bay beats bobtail neigh; Most peculiar mayo, Mama! Doesn't this story have a moral? They call me Mellow Pillow

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 7!/3 SERVED

 Schpuzzle Of The Week:
They call me Mellow Pillow

Besides being female, three singers share something much more unusual in common. 
One had a hit with “Fancy Satin Pillows,” a second with “Have You Never Been Mellow,” and a third with “Orinoco Flow.” 
What is the unusual thing they share in common?

Appetizer Menu

Newsprint In The Mailslot Appetizer: 
Doesn’t this story have a moral?

Name a three-word prepositional phrase that has been recently in the political news, in three, three and five letters. 
Rearrange the letters in the phrase to form a two-word phrase, in six and five letters, that is somewhat synonymous with “less amoral senior administration officials.” 
What are this three-word phrase in the political news and two-word phrase?
Now rearrange the letters in just one word that has been recently in the political news, in eight letters, to form a word that is a synonym of maillots. 
What are this word and this synonym of maillots?


Dopplegang And Gettysburger Appetizer:
Most peculiar mayo, Mama!

“Beth, also Lola, make some most rich mayo, Mama!”
What does the sentence above have to do with the following clues? The clues are in no particular order:
1. A journalist inspired by Nellie Bly 
2. A gal named “Pansy” who was anything but 
3. A Henry Fonda doppelganger
4. A hero arrested by SMERSH and imprisoned in Moscow
5. The Hoosier commander of the Iron Brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg
6. The protagonist of an unfinished work
7. A British guy who portrays a Highway
8. A judge’s daughter with braided blond hair
9. Movie character after whom television character Daisy May Moses may have been modeled?
Hint: Six of the people hinted at above are fictional characters.

MENU

Riffing Off Shortz And Campbell Slices:
Mobile bay beats bobtail neigh 

Will Shortz’s September 9th  NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Bruce Campbell of Kansas City, Missouri, reads:
Think of two well-known companies — one in five letters, the other in four letters. Write the names one after the other. The result, when spaced differently, will name a well-known geographical location in the U.S. (in two words). What is it?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Campbell Slices read:
ENTREE #1:
Think of the name of a bank, the brand name of a automotive additive, and the name of a service found online. Switch the third and fifth letters of the bank. 
Write the altered name and two other names one after the other after the other. The result, when spaced differently, will name a well-known geographical location in the U.S. (in two words). What is it?
ENTREE #2:
Think of two companies — a well-known competitor of Acer, and a not-so-well-known potential competitor of Uber. Write the names one after the other, then change the very first letter. 
The result, when not spaced at all, will name a well-known geographical location in the U.S. What is it?
Hint: The well-known geographical location in the U.S. is also the name of a relatively new SUV model.
ENTREE #3:
Think of the name of a well-known 5-letter company, and the 6-letter first word in the name of a not-so-well-known 2-word company, the second word of which is “Health.” Write the 5-letter name and the 6-letter word one after the other. 
The result, when spaced differently, will name what a television viewers might see, in two words, after tuning in to the ABC or NBC networks on Sunday afternoons in the 1960s. What would viewers see?
ENTREE #4:
Name a well-known geographical location in the U.S. (in two words). 
Place a duplicate of its fifth letter at the beginning of the second word, remove an apostrophe, and maintain the spacing. The result is the conclusion (in two 5-letter words) that viewers might draw after watching television commercials that were a part of a McDonald’s Lenten ad campaign from about a decade ago. What is the location?
ENTREE #5:
Take the last name, in 5 letters, of the founders of a past yogurt company with a catchy name who successfully sued (for name infringement) an upstart yorgurt company with a quite similar-sounding catchy name. 
Now take the name of a very well-known food product, in 8 letters. 
Write these two names one after the other and change the third letter in the first name. The result, keeping the same spacing, will name a puzzle-maker, in two words. Who is it? 

Dessert Menu

After Dinner Mince Dessert:
Damn the lochs, darn the socks

A minced oath is a euphemistic expression, like “darn” for “damn” or “heck” for “hell.” 
Add an “st” sound to the end of a somewhat familiar 3-syllable French expression. 
The result sounds like a minced oath in English. 
What are this French expression and oath?

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.

Your taste buds need watering; Eyeballing the picture show; "Sprites! Camaros! Traction!" Anatomy of a nation

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 7!/3 SERVED

Dessert Schpuzzle Of The Week:
Your taste buds need watering

Note: The following dessert schpuzzle was created by a friend of mine named Mary:
Add a letter to a word associated with “mouth-watering” to form a word for a mouth-watering dessert. 
What dessert is this?
Hint: The last three letters of the dessert spell a synonym of an ingredient in the dessert.

Appetizer Menu

Gender Neutral Appetizer: 
Anatomy of a nation

Divide the name of a country into three parts. Rearrange the letters of two of the three parts to name two body parts that both women and men have. 
But don’t touch one of the three parts. It is already the name of a body part that both women and men have (without any need of rearrangement whatsoever). 
What is this country?


Odium At The Odean Appetizer:
Eyeballing the picture show

Take a 5-letter word for an “intense eyeballer.” Double one of its letters. The first four and final four letters of this result spell synonyms of one another. Rearrange the letters of each synonym to form two new words.
Place the first new word before a 5-letter noun to form the second and third words of a 3-word film title beginning with “The...”
Place the second new word after the same 5-letter noun to form something present in projection rooms of odeans and cinema houses of the past.
What are these two 4-letter synonyms?

MENU

Riffing Off Shortz And Chaikin Slices:
"Sprites! Camaros! Traction!"

Will Shortz’s September 2nd  NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Eric Chaikin of Los Angeles, reads:
The name of the film director David Lynch conceals the word AVIDLY in consecutive letters, spanning his first and last names. Can you think of a famous film director whose first and last names conceal a 6-letter name of car, past or present, in consecutive letters?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Chaikin Slices read:

Note: This first riffing-off Slice (ENTREE #1) was composed by jan, a very bright puzzle solver and creator. He posted it very briefly on the Blainesville blog this past Sunday morning (September 2nd), just minutes after the puzzle was uploaded to the NPR Weekend Edition Sunday web site. Although the puzzle jan created may be a riff-off, it also stands on its own as a quite clever poser:
ENTREE #1: 
Name a famous film director whose first and last names conceal a 6-letter name of car in consecutive letters. Translate the director’s first name into a second language. Change one letter of a shorter nickname of that name. Translate the result back into the first language to form the last part of the director’s name. Who is this director?

ENTREE #2:
The name of the film director Denis Sanders conceals the car name NISSAN in consecutive letters, spanning his first and last names. 
Can you think of a 2-word isolated place in New Zealand (that is famous for its fauna) that conceals a 4-letter name of car, past or present, in consecutive letters?

ENTREE #3:
The name of the film director Yasujiro Ozu, if you reverse the spelling of his last name, conceals the word OUZO in consecutive letters, spanning his first name and reversed last name. 
Can you think of a somewhat famous film director whose first and last names (without any reversal, and in six consecutive letters) conceal a two-word order you might hear at a wine bar, in two words?
Hint: The second word in the two-word order is a shortened form of a longer word. 

ENTREE #4:
The name of the film director David Lynch conceals the word AVIDLY in consecutive letters, spanning his first and last names. 
Can you think of a reasonably famous film director whose first and last names contain, in consecutive letters, two 3-letter roofing materials?
Now try this one: Change an “m” to an “n” in the full name of a somewhat famous film director.  The result contains a container, in two consecutive 3-letter words? The director’s last name just so happens to be a brand name of a product usually packaged in such a container.
Who are these two directors?

ENTREE #5:
Can you think of a puzzle-maker whose last name does not at all conceal a 4-letter Asian beverage, but does somewhat conceal (at least anagramatically) a liquid of a similar density to the beverage. 
Rearrange the letters in the puzzle-maker’s first name to name the main ingredient in a creamier beverage popular in Mexico. 
Who is this puzzle-maker?

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.