Jumpin’ outta the gym! Gilligan’s Isle with a new cast of castaways; A half-dozen enigmas to crack; Land lubber vs. whale blubber; Hugs and kiss-offs

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/21 SERVED

Schpuzzle Of The Week:
Gilligan’s Isle with a new cast of castaways

Consider this text sent from a marooned castaway:
Olivia,  
Al dives. Al, I or Dan ran. Wanda ran inland. Wanda had pain, man! Ah, rain, hail and pain. 
Love, Nia (e-pal)
What unusual property does the text possess?

Appetizer Menu

Grade AA Appetizer:
A half-dozen enigmas to crack

🥁1. Name a modern business, and an action one might have taken with this service, each in six letters. Reverse the first four letters of the business name and change one letter in the action to get the first and last names of a contemporary British actor in five and seven letters.
🥁2. Think of someone who was in the news late in 2018, first and last names. Read these names backward. The result will sound like two different types of animals.
🥁3. Think of a species of snake in five letters. Shift each letter one place later in the alphabet. The result will describe types of quarrels.
🥁4. Think of a word in twelve letters that means “glowing.” 
This word can be split into two words pertaining to an ancient empire and genealogy.
🥁5. Name a type of soldier in twelve letters. Replace the first two letters with an “i” and two other consecutive letters with an “i”. Switch this second “i” with the letter preceding it to get a word that means “one who asks”.
🥁6. Think of the stage name of a contemporary female rapper, in two words. Put the second word first and place a vowel in between to name a manufacturer of spirits.

MENU

Leapin’ Wizards Slice:
Jumpin’ outta the gym! 

Name a three-word expression of optimism. 
Remove the last letter of the first word and move the last letter of the second word into its place. 
The result will be two new first and second words: a somewhat slangy 4-letter word for a quality that high-leaping basketball players possess and a 6-letter word for a quality they have in their legs. 
Change an “n” in the third word of the expression to an “h” and rearrange the result, transforming the third word into a 2-word nickname of any player on a particular basketball team in the eastern United States. 
Although the nickname implies the player does not possess either of the two high-leaping qualities, chances are that the player does indeed possess both qualities.
What are the two qualities and the basketball player’s team nickname?
What is the expression of optimism?
  
Riffing Off Shortz And Edelheit Slices:
Land lubber vs. whale blubber

Will Shortz’s February 3rd NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by listener David Edelheit of Oyster Bay, New York, reads:
Think of a word meaning “a particular body of water.” Change one letter in it to get a new word meaning “a particular body of land.” What words are these?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Edelheit Slices read:
ENTREE #1:
Think of two words: one meaning “a small body of water,” in four letters, and the other meaning “marshy body of water,” in three letters. Change one letter in each word to get new words, each naming a place  where a bear may make its lair. What words are these?
ENTREE #2:
Name an alliterative lagoon situated on the Atlantic coast of the United States, in two words. The second word is a three-letter “body of water.” 
The first word is a eight-letter proper noun identified with St. Francis Xavier. It is also a Chevrolet model popular during Pat Boone’s heyday. 
Change the first letter in the three-letter word to get a new word meaning “a particular body of land” that might be found in the midst of the alliterative lagoon. The three-letter word itself appears in midst of the eight-letter proper noun.
What is this alliterative lagoon?
What is the “particular body of land?”
ENTREE #3:
Think of a word for “a small flowing body of water,” in four letters, and a word for “a large body of water,” in five letters, Change the first letter in each word to get two new words – synonyms of each other meaning “bodies of land.” What words are these?
ENTREE #4:
Think of a word meaning “a particular body of water.” Change all but its first and final letters to get a new word meaning “a particular body of land.” What words are these?
Hint #1: Place a hyphen between the letters you change and the final two letters that you change them into. The result is the full name of a character portrayed by Marlon Brando.
Hint #2: The second letter in the body of water and the second letter in the body of land are both a bit “dotty.”
ENTREE #5:
Think of a word meaning “a particular body of water.” Change one letter in it to get a new word meaning “a particular body of land.” When you place the words side-by-side, an amphibious mammal appears at the beginning of the result. Take a homophone of the three letters that appear at the end of this result. Spell this homophone backward to reveal a fish. What words are these?

Dessert Menu

“Missing You, My Valentitle” Dessert:
Hugs and kiss-offs


The 4-letter title of the poem below is a synonym of a word within the poem. 
What is the title and why is it fitting?
’Tis the end of our trail
Since your heart of stone, friend,
Sank romance in mid-river,
The beginning of our end.

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.