Put your John Hancock right here on this puzzle; X’s and O’s on fan mail, on chalkboards; Bad bums, nice dudes and Happy Harry; Joseph and the amazing technicolor dreamgoggles; “...Makin’ clambakin’ fun!”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/21 SERVED


Schpuzzle Of The Week:
Joseph and the amazing technicolor dreamgoggles

Replace two adjacent letters a two-word movie title with a different letter, then double that letter. 
The result will be two nouns, each which is modified by a different vivid color in a famous movie made about 50 years earlier. 
Settings in these two movies include two adjacent states. 
What are these two movies?
What are the vivid colors that appear in the older of the two movies, and what does each modify?

Appetizer Menu

Cryptic Crossword Appetizer:
Bad bums, nice dudes and Happy Harry

Below is a great Patrick J. Berry Cryptic Crossword Puzzle for you to solve. Patrick, also known by his screen name “cranberry,” has now graced Puzzleria! with seven of his cryptic crosswords. 
For instructions on how to solve such puzzles, open this link to see Patrick’s tutorial (you can find it beneath the completed crossword grid). 
All six of Patrick’s previous cryptic crossword puzzles can be opened here: 
ONE; TWO; THREE; FOUR; FIVE; SIX
Note: Mathew Huffman’s Conundrum Set will resume next week.


ACROSS
1. Beat cop missing work is in hurry (8)
5. Bob Hope’s first radio broadcast (6)
9. Football players having awfully sore backs (8)
10. Performer’s unusual traits (6)
12. Black-and-white dessert, nothing on top (7)
13. Lecture on maintaining relationship (7)
14. Straight man with back to fool? (6,6)
17. Bad, no-talent bum, incompetent leader brought in – such a problematic figure for our country! (8,4)
22. Forget about one singing in school? (7)
23. Love to talk about one’s latest work (7)
24. Somebody getting huge piece (6)
25. At home, man is tossing and turning, gets nothing! (8)
26. Noise rodent let out? (6)
27. Mom’s assistant sure went crazy (3,5)



DOWN
1. Most inexpensive copy in box (8)
2. A nice dude somehow loses date in crowd...(8)
3. ...it may get rough keeping ‘er in line (7) 
4. It’s fast becoming the GOP’s field – corruption! (5,2,5)
6. Transportation to pick up chap after broadcast (7)
7. Growin’ fruit (6)
8. Sally got in trouble with university... (6)
11. ...not hard for teenager to claim professor abused women in song (3,4,3,2)
15. Employee needing dental work? (8)
16. Where one may sit holding unopened beverage in lap? (8)
18. Where to find workers, quite terribly thin, inside? (7)
19. Wild one startled rest (3,4)
20. Line storyteller left out about so-and-so (6) 
21. Happy as Prince Harry, for example, capturing Meghan’s heart (6)

MENU

Sesame Seed Bun Slice:
X’s and O’s on fan mail, on chalkboards

Take the last names of an American actress and a legendary Midwestern college basketball coach. 
Move the first letter of the coach’s name to the center of the actress’s name to form a string of seven letters that can be divided in two to form the first and last names of a character from literature you might be reminded of as you munch on an open-face sesame seed bun sandwich. 
Who is this character?
Who are the actress and basketball coach?
  
Riffing Off Shortz And Baggish Slices:
Put your John Hancock right here on this puzzle

Will Shortz’s January 20th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by listener Steve Baggish of Arlington, Massachusetts, reads:
Take the name of a classic song that became the signature song of the artist who performed it. It has two words; five letters in the first, three letters in the second. The letters can be rearranged to spell two new words. One is a feeling. The other is an expression of that feeling. What song is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Baggish Slices read:

ENTREE #1:
Take the name of a classic song that became the signature song of the artist who performed it. 
It has two words; four letters in the first, five letters in the second. 
The letters can be rearranged to spell a two-word phrase for a person playing Monopoly with a pre-2013 edition of the game, but not with a post-2013 edition of the game. What song is it?

ENTREE #2:
Take the title of a classic four-word song that became the signature song of the artists who performed it. The letters in the song title can be rearranged to spell two new words – a seven-letter word for any object of fear, and a four-letter word for a specific object of fear. 
What song is it?

ENTREE #3:
There was a FILM that played in THEATERS in the 1990’s with a climactic scene that involved a CAR, a CANYON, and then... FINIS! 
Rearrange the 26 letters in the five uppercase words in the sentence above to form the name of a classic song that became the signature song of the artist who performed it. It has seven words. 
What song is it?
Extra Credit: What is the name of the film?



ENTREE #4:
Take the title of two “signature songs” performed by two different artists. It is the same title, but the songs are different. 
The title consists of one nine-letter word. Add an E to these letters and rearrange the result to spell two new words – a synonym of “writer” and where the words of a writer might appear. 
What songs are these?
Hint: The first name of one artist and the last name of the other artist are cities that once squared off against one another in a Super Bowl. 

ENTREE #5:
Take the name of a classic song that became the signature song of the artist who performed it. It has two words; four letters in the first, six letters in the second. 
The letters can be rearranged to spell two new words that could serve as an oxymoronic caption for the image pictured here.  
What song is it? 
What caption is it?

ENTREE #6:
Take the name of a classic song that became the signature song of the artist who performed it. The song title has two words; five letters in the first, nine letters in the second. 
The letters of the song title can be rearranged to spell a two-word phrase that expresses what Christian mariners might do in church after they return from sea, thereby fulfilling what Matthew 23:23 implies they ought to do. 
What song is it?
What might the mariners do?

Dessert Menu

Buy Buy Buy Dessert: 
“...Makin’ clambakin’ fun!”

Producers of video commercials often alter lyrics popular songs to hook viewers into buying their products.
For example:
Ozempic;
"Magic," by Pilot

Pepsi Free;
"We Are Family," by Sister Sledge

Maxwell House Coffee;
"Our House," by Madness

Viagra;
"Viva Las Vegas," by Elvis Presley

Name what is being advertised (and name the title of the song whose lyrics were altered) in the altered song lyrics below. 
The word for what is being advertised belongs in each of the blanks. 

Fine food is what you like to buy
Yeah yeah
____, ____, ____, ____, ____
To feed your face, yeah
Down at the beach makin’ clambakin’ fun
Makin’ lunch, fixin’ snacks on the run
To feed your face, yeah

Fine food is what you like to buy
Yeah yeah
____, ____, ____, ____, ____
To feed your face, yeah
Let’s have a picnic, go to the park 
Eat some fried chicken, white meat or dark
To feed your face, yeah...

Down at the beach makin’ clambakin’ fun
Makin’ lunch, fixin’ snacks on the run...
Let’s have a picnic, go to the park 
Eat some fried chicken, white meat or dark...
Block party, neighbors, barbecue pit,
Spare ribs from ____ spin on the spit...
Super Bowl party host proudly serves 
Fixin’s from ____: chips, dips, hors d’oeuvres...  

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.

Laffer Curves and funny business; “Monogramania!” Fodder for foodies, from noodles to nuts; Gluttons for punnish mental morsels; BenD Sinister;

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/21 SERVED


Schpuzzle Of The Week:
Gluttons for punnish mental morsels

Name what famished people would do – in a phrase of two 6-letter words beginning with D and H – if they took a certain facetious hyperbolic expression literally. 
Rearrange these 12 letters to form more suitable consumables for the famished. 
What consumables are these?

Appetizer Menu

Try Beating These Conundrums Appetizer:
Fodder for foodies, from noodles to nuts

🥁1. Think of the first name of a celebrity chef that contains “IG”. Change the “IG” to a “UT” to get a brand name condiment.

🥁2. Think of a word used to describe a speech made by a particular president. 
Drop the last letter and rearrange to name a deli meat.

🥁3. Think of a noodle dish in two words. Replace the space with a G to name a company traded on the NASDAQ.

🥁4. Think of a type of nut in five letters. 
Shift each letter four places later in the alphabet. The result will be an apex predator.


🥁5. Think of a three-word phrase meaning “perfection”. 
Insert an S somewhere inside and remove the spaces to name a food that requires precise timing in its preparation.

MENU

Economic Currents Slice:
Laffer Curves and funny business  


Name a four-syllable word sometimes associated with home appliances, outlets and boxes (but boxes smaller than the kind of boxes found in “big box stores”). 
The final two syllables of this word sound like a word sometimes associated with the economy and with charging things.  
The four-syllable word and two-syllable word are both associated with currents. 
What are these two words?

Riffing Off Shortz And Matthews Slices:
BenD Sinister

Will Shortz’s January 13th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by listener James Matthews of Little Rock, Arkansas, reads:
Make a 9-letter word meaning “left” using only a B and one D. Can you do it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Matthews Slices read:
ENTREE #1:
Make an 8-letter word for a region of France that contains no R, M and Y. Can you do it?

ENTREE #2:
Make a 5-letter word meaning “left or subsided” using only B’s, E’s and one D. Can you do it?


ENTREE #3:
Make a 2-letter abbreviation, using only a B and one D (with a period after each), associated with a person who apparently “left” the face of the earth. Can you do it?


ENTREE #4:
Make a 7-letter word meaning “moral” using only the letters of an L and one H. Can you do it?

ENTREE #5:
Make a 5-letter adjective using only a B and one D. The adjective often precedes a homophone of a contraction (of two words) that eliminates more than a letter or two. 
Can you do it? 

ENTREE #6:
Make a 7-letter word for a mollusk using a B alone. 
The mollusk has a shell lined with “Hester Prynne.” 
Can you do it?

Dessert Menu

National Initials Dessert:
“Monogramania!”

Name a nationally broadcast weekly show, in three words. 
The first and last names of a person featured on the broadcast begin with the initial letters of the first and third words in the broadcast’s name. 
The initial letter of the person’s college degree is the same as the initial letter of the broadcast’s second word. 
What is the name of this broadcast? 
What is the name of this person?

Note to Puzzlerians!:
A few weeks ago, a gentleman named Gregory Gray contacted me. He is Editor-in-Chief of a biweekly digital puzzle magazine titled “Topple.”
Mr. Gray asked me to take a gander at Topple and share my opinion of it with Puzzleria!s followers. He also encouraged me to share with you this link to the most recent edition of Topple. You can find out everything you need to know about Topple by clicking the FAQ tab.

There is a nominal fee for downloading issues of Topple. I believe there is more than enough puzzle-bang for your buck to justify the price. There are also samples available for those who may want to browse a bit before buying.

Topple’s graphics are clean and creative. The variety is wide, with puzzles and games for all tastes. There is a mix of original and established puzzles.

I find the “feel” of Topple to be polished and professional, yet inviting and friendly. Its staff (editor, art director, puzzle artist, and a variety of contributing puzzlers) obviously are very creative and cyber-savvy. But, better yet, their writing displays a playful way with words, and you can tell they are enjoying themselves. They suggest, for example, that Topple consumers print out the games and puzzles so as to “enjoy the full tactile experience” they deserve, adding, “You can even use a stapler if you're feeling frisky.”
Whether you are feeling frisky or not, Topple is worth checking out.

Lego... 

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 ‘Rhettorical’ questions!” Welcome to Synonymity City; Sergeants and surgeons; “What’s in your mixing bowl? What isn’t?” Infield shifts and one nutty outfield mix-up

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/21 SERVED
 Schpuzzle Of The Week:
“Damn Rhettorical questions!”

Name a common 5-word rhetorical question. 
Change the second word to a different form of the same verb and remove the space between the third and fourth words, forming a single word. 
Move the question mark to the end of that new single word, and place a period in the place where it was. 
The result is a new, shorter question, and the answer to that question.
What is this rhetorical question? 
What are the new question and its answer? 
Hint: The new question was one people were asking back in the 1990’s.

Appetizer Menu 

Unbeatable Conundrums Appetizer:
Infield shifts and one nutty outfield mix-up

🥁1. 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.

🥁2. Think of a geologic feature in five letters where some sporting events take place. 
Shift each letter nine places later in the alphabet to name an artificial structure for different sporting events.

🥁3. Think of the brand name of a wind surfing company, in eight letters. Drop the third letter and shift the remaining letters seven places later in the alphabet. 
The result will be an adverb that describes a rough windsurfing experience.

🥁4. Think of a common two word French term used in a sport. Rearrange into a word related to insanity.

MENU

“Hill Street Blues” meets 
“Grey’s Anatomy” Slice:  
Sergeants and surgeons

Name a past television police drama title in two words. Add a letter to the beginning of the first word to form a verb. 
Let’s say a certain health professional provides you with the second word in the television drama title. If so, this will make it easier for you to do what the verb denotes. 
What is this title?

Riffing Off Shortz And Fagliano Slices:
Welcome to Synonymity City

Will Shortz’s January 6th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Joel Fagliano, the digital puzzles editor of The New York Times, reads:
Name a major U.S. city in 10 letters. If you have the right one, you can rearrange its letters to get two 5-letter words that are synonyms. What are they?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Fagliano Slices read:
ENTREE #1:
Name a major southern U.S. city in 10 letters. 
If you have the right one, you can rearrange its letters to get the first name of a character, beginning with G, in a classic sitcom, and the first word of what another character in the sitcom is called.
Who are these characters? 
What is the city? 
Hint: The second word in what the second character is called is a letter of the alphabet, spelled out. That letter (just the letter, not the letter spelled-out) appears within the other character’s first name. 

ENTREE #2:
Name a major Midwestern U.S. city in 10 letters. 
If you have the right one, you can rearrange its letters to get a two-word caption, in 7 and 3 letters beginning with S and S, for the image pictured here. 
What is this city?

ENTREE #3:
Name a major western U.S. city in 11 letters. If you have the right one, you can rearrange its letters to get a possessive 6-letter proper noun beginning with F and a 5-letter common noun beginning with B that describe Cheryl Bae in 1985, who at the time was a recent Brigham Young graduate. What is this city? 

ENTREE #4:
Name a major southeastern U.S. city in 12 letters. 
If you have the right one, you can rearrange its letters to get a possessive 5-letter proper noun beginning with B and 7-letter common noun beginning with P that form a caption for the image pictured here. 
What is this city?

ENTREE #5:
Name a southern U.S. city in 10 letters. If you have the right one, you can rearrange its letters to get two words, in 4 and 6 letters beginning with N and A, to indicate what “Christ the King” is vis-a-vis  “What Child is this?”  What is this city? 

ENTREE #6: 
Name a Midwestern U.S. city in 9 letters. 
If you have the right one, you can rearrange its letters to get two plural words, of 5 and 4 letters, that you might find in a cash register till, as pictured here. 
What is this city?

ENTREE #7: 
Name a very northern U.S. city in 9 letters. If you have the right one, you can rearrange its letters to get a 4-letter word for a kind of pain one may suffer and a 5-letter word beginning with G for how one may respond to the pain. What is this city?

ENTREE #8: 
Name a southwestern U.S. city in 10 letters. 
If you have the right one, you can rearrange its letters to get a 6-letter adjective and 4-letter noun that might be a caption for the actors and actresses pictured here. All performed in a one-word titled movie together. 
What is this city?

ENTREE #9: 
Name an eastern U.S. city in 9 letters. If you have the right one, you can rearrange its letters to form a false, oxymoronic phrase, a 5-letter adjective and 4-letter plural noun, for a byproduct of cigarette smoke. 
What is this city?

ENTREE #10: 
Name a south central U.S. city in 12 letters. If you have the right one, you can rearrange its letters to get the appendages – one a 4-letter word, the other two words of 4 letters each – of two different creatures one might see in an aquarium. What is this city?

ENTREE #11: 
Name a northeastern U.S. city in 10 letters. If you have the right one, you can rearrange its letters to get a 6-letter stage name of a singer and a 4-letter singular form of a plural word in a well known song by the singer. What is this city?

ENTREE #12: 
Name an eastern U.S. city in 12 letters. 
If you have the right one, you can rearrange its letters to get a caption for the image shown here. 
The caption consists of a 6-letter possessive proper noun and a 6-letter slang plural noun meaning “inferior things.”
What is this city?

ENTREE #13: 
Name an major central U.S. city in 9 letters. 
If you have the right one, you can rearrange its letters to get a caption for the image shown here. 
The caption consists of a hyphenated phrase in two words of 3 and 6 letters beginning with an I and an S. 
What is this city?

Dessert Menu

Mixed-Up Dessert:
“What’s in your mixing bowl? What isn’t?”

The UPPERCASE letters in the first part of each of the five incomplete sentences below can be rearranged to form words that complete the sentence. The number of words needed to complete each sentence (and the number of letters in each word, along with the initial letter in each word) appear in parentheses at the end of each ellipsis...
Note: If  #1 is the only one you solve, consider yourself a winner!

1. You would never PUT SALSA into your cake batter, but you might put into it some... (one word, beginning with S: 8 letters).

2. You probably should ADD NO FRUIT OR FROSTED OAT FLAKES to your bowl of leafy greens, but you might want to instead put into it a... (six words, two pairs of them each connected with a hyphen: 4-5, 4-6, 5, 4). (F-T, F-T, S, F)

3. According to my GAL, HER HEFTY CHICKEN LIVERS NOODLE SOUP recipe does not call for sugar or chocolate chips, but she might instead put into her slow cooker either a... (seven words: 7-4, 5, 2, 4, 7, 5). (K-C, L, O, H, S, S)

4. You wouldn’t put tomato paste or garlic powder into either your preheated-more pineapple upside-down bundt cakes or your PREHEATED-LESS, FLOURY LATTICE-CRUST, PUMPKIN PIES, but you might instead put into them a... (six words: 5, 7-6, 12, 7, 5). (S, S-T, M, C, K)

5. A woman from Nezahualcóyotl would never add maple syrup to her SOUTHERN PAN-FRIED GREENS-VEGGIES WONTONS recipe, but you might instead find in her crock pot the...  (six words: 7, 6-5, 6, 7, 5). (S, P-H, F, S, T)

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.