PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/21 SERVED
Please accept my apologies for posting this edition of Puzzleria! several hours past the time I usually post it (that is, in the wee hours of Friday morning rather than these waning ones). I am experiencing an internet-access challenge. I hope my challenge does not last as long as the current two-creative challenge posed by Will Shortz!
Schpuzzle Of The Week:
All-Caps Capitals & Countries
Consider the following list of eleven world capitals and their countries.
Now consider just the nine cities and two countries printed in all-uppercase letters. Ignore the two cities and nine countries not printed in all-uppercase letters.)
Which one of of the eleven places in uppercase letters does not belong in the list? Explain your answer.
Hint: There are a number of people who believe the place does indeed belong on the list.
Luanda, ANGOLA;
ASMARA, Eritrea;
BRUSSELS, Belgium
CANBERRA, Australia;
COPENHAGEN, Denmark;
KINGSTON, Jamaica;
Bamako, MALI;
OTTAWA, Canada;
PORT LOUIS, Mauritius;
ROSEAU, Dominica; and
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic.
Appetizer Menu
Unbeatable Rompecabezas Y Pazl Appetizer:
Greco-Romance(language) wrestling
π₯1. Think of a common Spanish word for a body part. Add an L and rearrange to name a species of fish.
π₯2. Think of a character from Greek mythology in eight letters whose name is a concatenation of four US state postal codes.
π₯3. Name a well-known fictional character from a series of novels, in seven and ten letters, whose first and last names start with the same three letters.
These three letters can be rearranged into a Greek letter.
π₯4. Name an insect and a Mexican food that each end with the same five letters.
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Worthy Of Note-ation Slice:
That’s one mixed-up professional!
Take six consecutive interior letters from the name of a profession.
Double one consonant and one vowel and mix up the letters of the result to form the last name of a noteworthy member of the profession.
Who is it?
Riffing Off Shortz And Zion Slice, Part 1:
Life-or-death circular logic
Will Shortz’s August 25th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Lee Zion, of Lafayette, Minnesota, reads:
This is a two-week challenge. It may sound impossible, but it’s not. You wake up trapped in a round room with six doors.
A voice over a loudspeaker tells you that five of the doors are booby-trapped and will bring instant death if you try to open them. Only one door provides an opening that will get you out safely. The doors are evenly spaced around the room. They look exactly alike. Your only clue is that on the wall between each pair of doors is a large letter of the alphabet. Going clockwise, the letters are H, I, J, K, L and M. Which is the correct door that will get you out ... and why?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Zion Slices read:
ENTREE #1:
This challenge may sound impossible, but it’s not. You wake up trapped in a round room with five doors. A voice over a loudspeaker tells you that four of the doors are booby-trapped and will bring instant death to an unknown innocent person somewhere in the universe if you try to open them.
Only one door provides an opening that will not take the life of this innocent person. The doors are evenly spaced around the room. They look exactly alike. Your only clue is that on the wall between each pair of doors is a large letter of the alphabet. Going clockwise, the letters are H, I, J, K and L.
Which door is the correct door to choose, just because it is the right thing to do... and why?
ENTREE #2:
This challenge may sound impossible, but it’s not. You wake up trapped in a round room with six doors. A voice over a loudspeaker tells you that five of the doors are booby-trapped and will bring instant death if you try to open them. But one door provides an opening that will not only get you out safely but will grant you supreme bliss for the remainder of your life.
The doors are evenly spaced around the room. They look exactly alike. Your only clue is that on each of the doors is a large letter of the alphabet. Going clockwise, the letters are C, D, E, F, G and H. Which is the correct door that will grant you supreme bliss ... and why?
Dessert Menu
No Knife No Fork No Spoon No Problem Dessert:
Get some grub you can grab
Name three body parts that begin with the same letter.
Each word appears in the name of a kind of food usually eaten without using utensils.
What are these body parts and food names?
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.
PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/21 SERVED
Schpuzzle Of The Week:
PBS’s This Old Host?
Take the first word in the title of a PBS TV show.
Replace its first letter.
Rearrange the first four letters of the result and move them to the end.
If you did it correctly, you will have formed a word that often precedes the first name of the host of this PBS show.
What is the title of this PBS show?
Appetizer Menu
Unbeatable Γnigmes Et Enigmi Appetizer:
Franco-Italiano Mysterioso
π₯1. Think of a common French word.
Rearrange to name a type of offense.
π₯2. Think of a common Italian word.
Rearrange into a word that, when used in headlines, is often associated with scandal.
π₯3. Think of an Italian town in eight letters whose name is a concatenation of four US state postal codes.
Remove one letter to name a US state.
π₯4. Name a place to put a vehicle.
The word contains two Rs.
Remove the Rs to get a French word for an article of clothing.
Add a vowel to the end to get the last name of a famous author.
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Steeped In Holy Water And Wine Slice:
Don’t forget to go to church
Two consecutive letters of the alphabet appear in alphabetical order (either consecutively or non-consecutively) a total of five times in four particular words:
⛪ within a word describing a type of spirit that defiles a church;
⛪ at the end of a word naming something that often fills a church;
❓ within, and also consecutively at the beginning of, a word describing an antidote for forgetfulness.
❓ and within a synonym of forgetfulness;
What are these two letters?
What are the four words?
Hint:
The first and third words share the same six last letters in the same order.
Riffing Off Shortz And Lipscomb Slices:
5 – 4 = 1-iron, 12 – 55 = twee!
Will Shortz’s August 18th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Tyler Lipscomb of Hamden, Connecticut, reads:
If five = four, six = nine, and seven = five, what does twelve equal?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Lipscomb Slices read:
ENTREE #1:
If two = six, five = eight, and seven = ten, what does twelve equal?
ENTREE #2:
If five = seven, six = nine, and seven = thirteen, what does twelve equal?
ENTREE #3:
What is the missing number in the following sequence?
1, 1, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 2, 1, 1, 1, ?, 2 ...
ENTREE #4:
What are the three missing numbers – represented by x, y, and z – in the following thirteen-number sequence?
16
11.33...
19.33...
11.2
15
x
17.33...
13
9.8
y
13
z
14.5
Hint: x, y and z have something in common... besides being missing, of course, and also besides there being no ellipses “in their wake,” as there are after the second, third and seventh numbers in the numerical sequence.
ENTREE #5:
Replace the phrase “cunning puzzle” with a synonymous phrase consisting of a 3-letter word beginning with S and a 7-letter word beginning with P.
Name a 3-letter word for a facial “spasm” or “twitching” a solver might experience while trying to solve such a “cunning puzzle.”
Rearrange the 13 letters in these three words to form the first and last names of a puzzle-maker.
Who is this puzzle-maker?
Dessert Menu
Bogus Vinyl 45 RPM Dessert:
Buy One, Get Used Singles!
Think of a music genre, in two words.
Say it aloud.
The result will sound like two words, each associated with “bogus”?
What is this music genre?
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.
PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/21 SERVED
Schpuzzle Of The Week:
Ode to Belladonna
(a tragic cast cursed and ill-versed)
Identify fifteen words in the iambic tetrameter sestet below that have something unusual in common:
Pray, actors, hear my metered verse.
Deaf ears, upon your heads a curse.
Nap not, arms atrophied by fright
Or poisoned under shade of night.
Each chorus croons, each anchor moors.
Each rose expires, there are no cures.
What is it that the fifteen words have in common?
Appetizer Menu
Cryptic Crossword Appetizer:
A symphony in lexicography
Beethoven’s Ninth is a masterpiece. So is cranberry’s Ninth – Ninth Cryptic Crossword Puzzle on our Puzzleria! blog, that is.
“cranberry” is the screen name of Patrick J. Berry, friend of and contributor to P! He has graced our blog this week with another of his wonderful “symphonies” of wordplay, cleverness and cunning.
Here are eight links to Patrick’s previous eight “masterpieces”:
ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SIX SEVEN EIGHT
Here are a few basic instructions:
Regarding the Across and Down clues and their format:
The number in parentheses at the end of each clue tells how many letters are in the answer. Multiple numbers in parentheses indicate how letters are distributed in multiple-word answers.
For example, (6) indicates a six-letter answer like “jalopy,” (7, 5) indicates a seven-and-five-letter answer like “station wagon,” and (5-5) indicates a five-and-five-letter hyphenated answer like “Rolls-Royce.”
(For further insight about how to decipher these numbered cryptic clues, see Patrick’s “Cryptic Crossword Tutorial” in this link to his November 17, 2017 cryptic crossword. The Tutorial appears below the grid that contains the answers in that edition of Puzzleria!)
ACROSS
1. Computer program with bug, of course (8)
5. In jest, he referenced a biblical character (6)
9. It’s so easy to see, having front door shut? (6,2)
10. Part for female performer (6)
12. Stage entrance awkward, missing point (7)
13. Recalled Rachel’s sister, average artist (7)
14. Couple of tunes – they’re heavy, full of soul – so dropped from album by 17? (7,5)
17. Recording equipment used by area musician (4,8)
22. Wrong to carry on with second home in Canada (7)
23. Rock group traveling in a van takes last tour (7)
24. Improvise music in bar, drunk, and dance (6)
25. Once more be embracing a true family member (8)
26. One wanting to lose sort of tried to take ultimate prize? (6)
27. Web, not new, holds some spider’s share (8)
DOWN
1. Clergyman with a cold coming on, to be exact (8)
2. Book R and B shows outside (8)
3. General Lee started, after some hesitation, to get in shape (7)
4. Matter to clear up after 90’s show with alternative singer (12)
6. Surgical instrument primarily lost in strange places? (7)
7. Writer heading off looking for killer (6)
8. Once in a while, start to rob a bank? (6)
11. Inexperienced nerd, first to wear rental disguise, looks like superhero (5,7)
15. Write a story about unknown judge (8)
16. Close to a sailor shortly gripped by depression (8)
18. Degenerate? I belong somehow! (7)
19. Not the first nut to get up, put on coat – it keeps one warm (7)
20. Was looking ahead, began to forget tyrannical leader (6)
21. Good to wake up and complain? (6)
MENU
On The Map Slice:
Climate change comparisons
A well-known seven-letter word on the map of the United States describes an aspect of the local climate compared to most other parts of the country.
What is this word?
Riffing Off Shortz And Pillai Slices:
“Oh! the words you’ll get!”
Will Shortz’s August 11th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Matt Pillai of Denver, Colorado, reads:
Think of a common 5-letter word. If you insert an E after the second letter, you’ll get a common 6-letter word. If instead you insert an E after the fourth letter, you’ll get another 6-letter word. And if instead you insert an E at the end, you’ll get still another 6-letter word. What words are these?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Pillai Slices read:
ENTREE #1:
Think of a 4-letter synonym of “melon.”
If you place an S before the first letter, you’ll get a word for a large number or amount.
If instead you insert an L after the first letter, you’ll get a pentagonal inset seen on a diamond.
If instead you insert an S after the second letter, you’ll get what often follows after a cut.
If instead you insert a T after the third letter, you’ll get a paw, as spoken by the French.
And if instead you insert an R at the end, you’ll get a word that many who speak U.S. colloquial regional dialects mean when they say “paw,” as spoken by those in the ancient Roman Empire.
What words are these?
ENTREE #2:
Think of a word that sometimes follows “bum.”
If you place a letter before the first letter, you’ll get a word that follows “gift” or precedes “up.”
If instead you insert a letter after the first letter, you’ll get biblical advice about what not to do with the whirlwind.
If instead you insert a letter after the second letter, you’ll get a word meaning “to rub the rough way.”
And if instead you insert a letter after the third letter, you’ll get a synonym of “engrossed.” The four letters you placed and inserted, in order, spell out a description of Eden relative to Nod.
What words are these?
What is the description of Eden?
ENTREE #3:
Think of the last word in the title of a song inspired by the Monkees but written and performed by other “critters.”
If you insert an I after the first letter, you’ll get a musical instrument associated with the Beatles and Norah Jones’s father.
If instead you insert an I after the third letter, you’ll get the first letters in the title of Led Zeppelin’s signature song.
And if instead you insert a T at the end, you’ll get the first word in the title of a early 1980s hit by the Rolling Stones.
What words are these?
ENTREE #4:
Think of a common 5-letter word.
If you remove the first letter, you’ll get what you sometimes need to do between the lines.
If instead you remove the second letter, you’ll get a word associated with sweat and with decades.
If instead you remove the third letter, you’ll get a word associated with Paisley.
If instead you remove the fourth letter, you’ll get a word preceded by “well” or “thorough.”
If instead you remove the fifth letter, you’ll get a word associated with “tar” or Irish mythology.
What words are these?
ENTREE #5:
Think of a common 5-letter word.
If you remove the first letter, you’ll get how a Cockney karaoke performer would pronounce the verb in a Marvin Gaye signature song.
If instead you remove the second letter, you’ll get a descriptor of a rain that’s “a-gonna fall,” according to song lyrics.
If instead you remove the third letter, you’ll get what “you can’t roller skate” in, according to song lyrics.
If instead you remove the fourth letter, you’ll get a word followed by “gasket” or “honcho.” If you remove the fifth letter, you’ll get a word followed by “ye.”
What words are these?
ENTREE #6:
Provide a two-word caption for the image pictured here.
Rearrange the letters in your caption to form the first and last names of a puzzle-maker.
Who is it?
Hint: The caption consists of the model (not the make) of the vehicle pictured, and how it is positioned in the image.
Dessert Menu
Major Cager Dessert:
Star emerges from an altered state
Move the first letter of a U.S. state to the third position and place a space after it.
The result sounds like the name of a NBA Hall of Fame star basketball player.
What is the state?
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.
PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/21 SERVED
Schpuzzle Of The Week:
Cutting out the fat
Remove a number of consecutive letters from inside a word for a fat-reducing activity, leaving a similar but shorter fat-reducing activity.
The letters you removed can be rearranged to form a fattening food.
What are these two activities and one food?
Appetizer Menu
Pro-Am Appetizer:
Niblicks, mashies and “Spooners?”
Name what a professional athlete in a particular sport ideally does, in two words.
Switching the beginning sounds (that is, “spoonerizing” them) will sound like two things a non-professional athlete perhaps does to stay in shape.
What are these four words?
MENU
Reels And Wheels Slice:
Cheesy movies
Feta, Cheddar and Edam are three kinds of cheeses, but each also shares something with three title characters:
one from a movie, and two others from a pair of plays that were eventually made into movies.
Who are these three title characters?
Riffing Off Shortz Slices:
“Antony” and Syndy...” opposites that attract
Will Shortz’s August 4th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle reads:
Think of a two-letter and a five-letter word that are synonyms. The two-letter word and the last syllable of the five-letter word sound like new words that are antonyms. What words are these?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz Slices read:
ENTREE #1:
Place a five-letter and an eight-letter word that are synonyms next to each other without a space. Remove the last three letters of the five-letter word. Remove the Roman numeral that stands for eleven from the eight-letter word, leaving a space in its place. The result is something that smarts, in three and five letters. What synonyms are these? What smarts?
ENTREE #2:
Think of a synonym of “generous” and “compassionate” and place an antonym of this synonym in front of it. This antonym and synonym contain the same number of letters. Spoonerize these two words to form what sounds like a two-word term for what it might take to solve this puzzle. What are this antonym, synonym and two-word term?
ENTREE #3:
Think of a four-letter and a five-letter word that are antonyms but also homophones. What words are these?
ENTREE #4:
Think of a European-language word for a missus, followed by and English slang term for a missus. This result contains two of the same letter.
Remove the first of these duplicate letters. The result is a synonym of “miserly.”
What is this synonym?
Dessert Menu
John Hancock Mellencamp (?) Signature Song Dessert:
Who was born in a small town?
Name a signature song title by an artist who appeals to small-town America.
Rearrange the letters of the song title to form a synonym of “small town” and a homophone of a synonym of “small town.”
What is this song title?
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.
Which one of of the eleven places in uppercase letters does not belong in the list? Explain your answer.
π₯3. Name a well-known fictional character from a series of novels, in seven and ten letters, whose first and last names start with the same three letters. 
Double one consonant and one vowel and mix up the letters of the result to form the last name of a noteworthy member of the profession. 
A voice over a loudspeaker tells you that five of the doors are booby-trapped and will bring instant death if you try to open them. Only one door provides an opening that will get you out safely. The doors are evenly spaced around the room. They look exactly alike. Your only clue is that on the wall between each pair of doors is a large letter of the alphabet. Going clockwise, the letters are H, I, J, K, L and M. Which is the correct door that will get you out ... and why?
Only one door provides an opening that will not take the life of this innocent person. The doors are evenly spaced around the room. They look exactly alike. Your only clue is that on the wall between each pair of doors is a large letter of the alphabet. Going clockwise, the letters are H, I, J, K and L. 
The doors are evenly spaced around the room. They look exactly alike. Your only clue is that on each of the doors is a large letter of the alphabet. Going clockwise, the letters are C, D, E, F, G and H. Which is the correct door that will grant you supreme bliss ... and why?
