Re-engraving the gravestones; Pretty consonants all in a row; Brand x? Boo! Brand y? Bravo! “Now we’re cooking with petroleum byproducts!” Mossi, Newhouser, Lolich, Holtzman...

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/21 SERVED

Schpuzzle Of The Week:
Re-engraving the gravestones

Why might the following have been a fitting epitaph for the gravestone of Elvis Presley?
“Fun, great flirty jive! Dates, chicks, queens... Heaven be revvin’!”

Why might the following have been a fitting epitaph for the gravestone of poet and cleric John Donne? 
(Indeed, the epitaph might even have been one the English poet wrote himself!)
“Donne, went he to heaven, he flew.
Flee, hurt! Be done! Dirt be Donne.”

Appetizer Menu

Unbeatable Conundrums Appetizer:
Pretty consonants all in a row

Note: For the purposes of the following conundrums, Y is considered a vowel.
Mathew says he can find only one answer for each of the six conundrums this week.
🥁1. Name a singular ten-letter common word that contains five consecutive consonants and has “I” as its only two vowels.
🥁2. Name a singular eleven-letter common word that contains five consecutive consonants and has “A” as its only two vowels.
🥁3. Name a singular ten-letter word that contains six consecutive consonants and has “A” as its only two vowels.
🥁4. Name a singular eleven-letter common word that contains six consecutive consonants, an “E” at the end, and has “A” as its only other two vowels.
🥁5. Name a singular eleven-letter word that contains six consecutive consonants and has “E” as its only two vowels. The word is of German origin and also contains one of the least-common consonants.
🥁6. Name a ten-letter common word that contains five consecutive consonants and has “U” as its only two vowels.

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Dishes And Coasters Slice:
“Now we’re cooking with petroleum byproducts!”

Name a five-letter style of cooking and a five-letter geographical feature, both associated with the U.S. Gulf Coast. 
Remove two letters – the middle letter of each five-letter word – from a traditional dish associated with the Gulf Coast. 
Rearrange the remaining letters to form the name of a state sometimes associated with the dish. 
What are the style of cooking and the geographical feature? What are the traditional dish and the state associated with the dish?

Riffing Off Shortz And Baggish Slices:
Brand x? Boo! Brand y? Bravo!

Will Shortz’s March 24th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Steve Baggish of Arlington, Massachusetts, reads: 
Think of a well-known brand name in 8 letters starting with H. Change the H to an M and drop the last letter. You’ll get another well-known brand name in 7 letters. What commercial names are these?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Baggish Slices read:
ENTREE #1:
Think of a well-known variety of a particular fruit in 10 letters starting with H. Change the H to an M and divide the result in two. 
You’ll get something made of paper and a word that often descibes it when it is brand new. 
What is this variety of fruit?
ENTREE #2:
Think of a well-known multinational conglomerate in 6 letters. Change the first letter to the letter following it in the alphabet and change the last letter to an R. You’ll get the last name of a person who served as chairman and CEO of the conglomerate for two decades, and who successfully “reanimated” its vision and fortunes during that time. What is this conglomerate, and who was its CEO?
ENTREE #3: 
Think of  a multi-million-dollar hyphenated brand name headquartered in the United States. 
Divide it at the hyphen into two parts. Switch the first two letters of the first part with the first two letters of the second part. 
Switch the order of the first to letters in the first part to form the last name of a Supreme Court justice. The second part spells a slang verb for what death row inmates will likely do as a result of the justice’s stance on capital punishment.
ENTREE #4:
Think of a well-known big box retailer in two words. Interchange the first letters of the words. Place at the beginning of the second word a duplicate of the last letter of the second word. The first three letters of the second word spell a French beverage; translate  it into English. Switch the order of the two words to name a scandal not called Watergate. What is the retailer? What is the scandal? 
ENTREE #5:
Think of a well-known in brand. 
Spell it backward and divide the result to form a two-word caption for the collage/image pictured here. 
What is the brand? 
What is the caption?
Hint: the caption contains an adjective suggested by the faces in the collage. The faces belong to the same person. The other word in the caption is either the first or last name of the person.
ENTREE #6:
Think of a well-known brand headquartered in Germany. Rearrange the letters. You’ll get an arm or a leg and a digit.What commercial name is this? What are the arm or a leg? What is the digit?
ENTREE #7:
Think of a well-known brand name you might see in your kitchen. 
Change the second-last letter to an H and move it to the end. You’ll get the last name of a puzzle-maker. 
Who is it? 
What is the brand name?

Dessert Menu

Lion Cub Dessert:
Mossi, Newhouser, Lolich, Holtzman...

The second syllable of a term sometimes used in baseball for certain players is an animal’s body part. 
Form rhymes of both syllables to name two other body parts, one of them informal, that are synonyms of one another. 
What is this slang baseball term?
What are the two synonymous body parts?

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.

The case of the purloined letters; Spooning out some Shakespeare; Just another Mickey Mouse puzzle; The bright moonlights of Hollywood; Brands not named Neville or Russell

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/21 SERVED


Schpuzzle Of The Week:
Just another Mickey Mouse puzzle

Mickey Mouse is the mascot of the Walt Disney Company. 
Mickey Mouse’s name has a rather odd property not shared by any other major Disney cartoon characters, or by Walt Disney himself for that matter. 
What is this property?
Hint: While “Donald Duck” does not share this property, both “quack” and “squeak” do.

Appetizer Menu

Conundrums You Can’t Beat With A Drumstick Appetizer:
Brands not named Neville or Russell

🥁1. Think of a cereal brand name that ends with a number. Remove the number and append a movie rating to get a term familiar to Word Woman. 
Hint: The term familiar to Word Woman is associated with precision. 
Note: Word Woman is the screen name of a good friend of Puzzleria! She is a geologist who is curious about all branches of science. Her blog, Partial Ellipsis Of The Sun (PEOTS), “a blog for scientists who like words and writers who like science,” is well worth visiting.
🥁2. Think of another cereal brand name that ends with a number one higher than in CONUNDRUM #1, above. Remove this number and append the same movie rating as in the previous conundrum to get the name of a well-known musician.
🥁3. Think of a particular reference book brand. Swap the first two letters and put an F at the beginning. The result will be what can happen if you try to think of a word, thus leading to a need for the reference book.
🥁4. Think of an actress best known for her work in a ‘90s TV drama. Remove a vowel from her last name to get the brand name of a product you might find at a laundromat. Add a vowel to her first name to describe an important feature of the product.

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Payback Slice:
The bright moonlights of Hollywood


Prominent film directors are sometimes paid a reimbursement for doing an activity on their own time when they are not sitting in the director’s chair, in one word. 
Rearrange the letters of this activity to form the first names of two prominent film directors who have often been so reimbursed. 
Their full names also share something even more obvious in common. 
Change one letter in what they obviously have in common to form another word for this reimbursement. 
Who are these directors? 
For what are they reimbursed?
What else do their full names obviously have in common?



Riffing Off Shortz Slices:
The case of the purloined letters

Will Shortz’s March 17th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle reads:
Take the letters S Y T O Y. Add the same letter of the alphabet six times to complete a familiar phrase. What is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz Slices read:
ENTREE #1:
Take the letters Y K N B K.
Add the same letter of the alphabet six times to complete a description of  “Acorn” or “Grapefruit.” 
What is it?
ENTREE #2:
Take the letters I L E. Add the same letter of the alphabet four times to complete a synonym of “bilked” or “lollygagged.” What is it?
ENTREE #3:
Take the letters W I M I. 
Add the same letter of the alphabet five times to complete the name of a beverage brand that is also the title of a Laurel and Hardy movie. 
What is it?
ENTREE #4:
Take the letters A L E A L E. 
Add the same letter of the alphabet four times to complete a synonym of “canary.” 
What is it?
ENTREE #5:
Take the letters I A O O. 
Add the same letter of the alphabet five times to complete a caption for the image pictured here. 
What is this caption?
ENTREE #6:
Take the letters I T H I I G. Add the same letter of the alphabet five times to complete a two-word term from the world of sports that has a top and a bottom, but sometimes just a top. What is it?
ENTREE #7:
Take the letters O Y A R E. Add the same letter of the alphabet four times to complete the name of a singer who co-wrote a song about a prodigal whose mama writes him a note pleading with him to return home. Who is it?
ENTREE #8:
Take the letters M M. Add the same letter of the alphabet four times to complete the name of a garment one might hear (sic) down on the farm. What is it?

Dessert Menu

The Shaming Of The True Dessert:
Spooning out some Shakespeare

Switch the beginning sounds of the name of a Shakespearian character and the first name of a past singer/actor to form what sounds like the name of a past novelist. 
What are these three names?
Hint: The first name of the past singer/actor and the last name of a past comedian are homophones.

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.

Page turners and stage burners; “Hush Hush, Sweet arlotte” Huntin’ down a ’hopper; Treetops under the tundra; Fixin’ luncheons for lunatics

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/21 SERVED

Schpuzzle Of The Week:
Huntin’ down a ’hopper

Bait-and-switch supermarkets are always angling to hook us by hiking up prices. 
What’s worse, the bar code scanners used by price checkers sound like that chirping cricket I’d like to squash as he darts about my swimming pool deck. 
Perhaps I could capture the critter, boxing him inside a Polo Club cigarette carton then tossing it off a bridge. 
Or, because I am a proficient stoker and poker, I could instead just toss the carton into my fireplace with wisps of smoke curling above chirp-choking flames.

Identify thirteen words in the paragraph above that share something in common. 

Appetizer Menu

S  enic  Ex  ibition  Appetizer:
“Hush Hush, Sweet arlotte”

(Note: The following excellent puzzle is the generous contribution of Mark Scott of Seattle, screen name “skydiveboy.”)
The adjacent letters CH are pronounced in several different ways in words, such as: chair, chrome, gauche. 
Can you find a common English word where the CH is silent?

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Bookworld And Billboard Slice:
Page turners and stage burners

Lop five letters from the end of the first name and add a letter to the end of the last name of a best-selling author. 
Switch the positions of these two altered names to form the name of a best-selling rock band. 
Who are these two best-sellers?



Riffing Off Shortz And Stoll Slices:
Treetops under the tundra

Will Shortz’s March 10th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Hugh Stoll of Harrisonburg, Virginia, reads:
Think of a 4-letter word for something commonly seen in the winter. Write it in lowercase letters. Turn it upside-down, and you’ll name a device you use with this thing. What is it?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Stoll Slices read:
ENTREE #1:
Think of a 5-letter word for an implement one might have seen in a bag along with a brassie, baffie, cleek, jigger, mashie and niblick. Write it in lowercase letters. Replace the fifth letter with a letter next to it in the alphabet. Turn the result upside-down, and you’ll name a general term for these 5-letter implements, as well as for brassies, baffies and certain cleeks. What is this implement?
ENTREE #2:
Think of a 5-letter word describing the common color of two objects often pocketed. (The word is not the color itself but rather a word that modifies the color.) Write it in lowercase letters and turn it upside-down. Place a space between the fourth and fifth letters of the result and replace the fifth letter with one of its homophones. You’ll name a device, in two words, that you can use to help put the objects in pockets. What is it?
Hint: The “sum” of the two objects is 14.
ENTREE #3:
Think of a 5-letter verb for what an aerial predatory attack in the wilderness often does to the victim. Write it in lowercase letters. Turn it upside-down, and you’ll form a verb for what raptors often do before seizing their prey. What is it raptors do?

Hint: As a noun, the verb is sometimes preceded by the word “fell.”
ENTREE #4:
Think of something in five letters that can be found at the center of a diamond. 
(Hint: The beginning of this word can also be found at the center of a diamond.) 
Write the 5-letter word in lowercase letters. Turn it upside-down and you’ll form two new words: something that may elicit a groan and an expression of such a groan. What are the 5-letter word and the two new words?
ENTREE #5:
Think of a word for a martial art. 
Write it in lowercase letters. 
Turn it upside-down, and you’ll name a verb for what one might say a dominating practitioner of this martial art does to his opponents. 
What is it? 
ENTREE #6:
Think of a 5-letter slang term for edibles usually served hot, but that originated from Peru and Bolivia. Write it in lowercase letters. 
Turn it upside-down (but leave its middle letter upside-up!), and you’ll name the first name of a canine mascot that once shilled for a potable on television. 
What are this term and name?
ENTREE #7: 
Think of a 3-letter term for a bunch of whales. Write it in lowercase letters. Turn it upside-down, and you’ll name a container for edible spheres. What are this term and container?
ENTREE #8: 
Think of a 5-letter hyphenated word for how Annie Glenn might have replied to the question, “How much did you miss your husband John, and how much did you kiss him when you greeted him after he orbited the Earth three times?” 
Write Annie’s reply in lowercase letters, and in a Century Gothic, Avant Garde or Futura font. Turn the result upside-down and ditch the hyphen, and you’ll have the last name of a fine puzzle maker. 
What did Annie reply, and who is the puzzle maker?

Dessert Menu

Moonpie Dessert:
Fixin’ luncheons for lunatics

M-O-O-N
Name what I’m doin’ above, in two words. Switch the initial consonant sounds. The result sounds like a kitchen utensil. What is this utensil?
Hint: The utensil is likely used more in summertime than in wintertime.


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.

Hall of fame name game; How are a Fife and a Feldman different? Taking time-off from the mystery; Drinks and links in the food chain; Six coefficients of fiction to solve

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/21 SERVED

Schpuzzle Of The Week:
Taking time-off from the mystery

Rearrange the letters in the name of a country to form a three-word phrase for a condition that might cause a puzzle fanatic to take a few days off from solving word puzzles, or to perhaps even take an extended furlough from such recreational befuddlement. 
What is this country?
What is the three-word phrase?
Hint: The three words of the phrase appear in alphabetical order.
Note: The second word in the three-word phrase is a compound word sometimes written as two words.

Appetizer Menu

Try Beating These Conundrums Appetizer:
Six coefficients of fiction to solve

🥁1. Think of a fictional character from a fantasy book series in seven letters. Drop one letter and advance the first letter three places in the alphabet to name a fictional creature popular in the fantasy genre.
🥁2. Think of a fictional character in a series of novels and movies, first and last names, who is concerned with discovering his identity. 
Drop four letters and rearrange to name a type of plastic surgery.
🥁3. Think of a novel and movie title in three words where the last word is a measurement device. 
Replace this word with another type of measurement device and drop the last letter to name an ethics principle.
🥁4. Think of a fictional character from an old black and white television show, first and last names, four and seven letters. 
Drop the first letter of the last name, and each name can be rearranged to get two common actions in card games.
🥁5. Think of a radio personality, first and last names. Remove two letters and append a D to name an early 20th century novel.
🥁6. Think of the last name of a fictional pilot from a popular science fiction franchise. Change the vowels to different vowels to name another fictional pilot from a different science fiction franchise.

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Halftime Slice:
Hall of fame name game

What hall-of-fame athlete’s first and last names spell a word that describes the first half of  the sport he or she played?



Riffing Off Shortz And Dunwoody Slices:
Drinks and links in the food chain

Will Shortz’s March 3rd NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Alan Hochbaum, of Dunwoody, Georgia, reads:
Name a popular restaurant chain in two words. Its letters can be rearranged to spell some things to eat and some things to drink. Both are plural words. What things are these, and what’s the chain?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Dunwoody Slices read:
ENTREE #1:
Name a popular restaurant chain in two words. 
Its letters can be rearranged to spell the creature pictured in the image here and what it is using for a “cot”. 
What are the creature and its “cot”?
ENTREE #2:
Name a popular restaurant chain in two words. Its letters can be rearranged to spell two synonyms of “stories” – one in a literary sense, the other in a journalistic sense. What synonyms are these, and what’s the chain?
ENTREE #3:
Name a popular restaurant chain in two words. 
Its letters can be rearranged to spell a large cart with four wheels and four letters, and a six-letter word describing the creatures that haul it. 
What are this cart and the word describing its haulers?
ENTREE #4:
Name a popular restaurant chain in two words. Its letters can be rearranged to spell certain vehicles, in four letters, and the name of a past model of one of these vehicles, in nine letters. What vehicles are these, and what’s the name of the model?
ENTREE #5:
Take the unabridged name of a popular restaurant chain in three words. Its letters can be rearranged to spell something a Boy Scout might wear, in three words of 4, 11 and 5 letters, pictured in the image here. 
What might the Boy Scout wear?
Hint: The first two words of what the Boy Scout might wear begin with the same sound but with different letters. The first word modifies the second word. The third word is a clasp (see the inset in the image) that slides over the apparel to keep it in place. 
ENTREE #6:
Name a popular restaurant chain in two words. Its letters can be rearranged to spell a very large four-letter object that appears to be very small to the naked eye, and a nine-letter word that describes it. 
What object is this, and what word describes it?

Dessert Menu

Kosher Mayberry Dessert:
How are a Fife and a Feldman different?

What’s the difference between Deputy  Barney Fife and deli clerk Barry Feldman?



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.