Enjoy cranberry’s on Thanksgiving Friday; Vertigo for everyone! Choose strong “lasswords” for your female? Hooked on Frankie, Funicello and Phonetics; “My word, how brain-curdlingly absurd! A roller-skating bird in a buffalo herd!”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/21 SERVED

Schpuzzle Of The Week:
Hooked on Frankie, Funicello and Phonetics 

Name a quick thing one might take at the beach and a brief thing one might wear there. 
Connect these two words with a consonant to form a phonetic term for something that occurs four times in the text of this puzzle. 
What are this term and the two things?

Appetizer Menu

Cryptic Crossword Appetizer:
Enjoy cranberry’s on Thanksgiving Friday 

Yesterday’s Thanksgiving Day feast is now is in the past. You have probably had your fill of turkey, gravy, stuffing, potatoes, squash, green bean casserole, cranberries and pumpkin pie...
Today, however, is also a day to give thanks... thanks to “cranberry,” the screen name of Patrick J. Berry, longtime friend of and contributor to Puzzleria! 
Patrick today is serving up, not leftovers, but a fresh serving of his juicily delicious Cryptic Crossword Puzzle, the tenth such gem with which he has graced our blog.
Here are nine links to Patrick’s previous “feasts”...  there is not one “turkey” in the bunch!:
ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SIX SEVEN EIGHT NINE
Here are a few basic cryptic crossword puzzle 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,” (5, 3) indicates a five-and-three-letter answer like “cargo van,” 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. Man, old sort, Clue suspect!(7,7)
9. Said “No cops”(5)
10. Herb stops in backstage(9)
11. Murder – decapitation? That’s sick!(3)
12. Profanity, a little no-no at home(4)
13. Property, excellent condition(6)
15. Viewers sure to follow latest episode(4)
16. Rip off celebrity, being diva?(5,5)
19. Our mental breakdown involving B movie?(7,3)
20. American journalist employed(4)
22. Language lawyers put back in counterintelligence?(6)
24. No time to kill? Go!(4)
25. Sometimes compassion is key(3)
27. Hurries off when it’s dark(6,3)
28. Speaker of 22 needing fresh air and energy?(5)
29. Rodeo beginner sure got bronco bucking in John Wayne film(7,7)

DOWN 
1. Certain associate takes one behind closed doors(14)
2. Picture Rachel having trouble in bathroom(5,4)
3. Boy brought up on Doctor Who? He’s not here(2-4)
4. Go after sunshine, looking for shade?(5,5)
5. Familiar with coupon-clipping?(2,2)
6. Part of England’s destiny out East?(8)
7. Bob Marley, perhaps embraced by opera stars?(5)
8. Reason for a person’s sudden disappearance could be due to cannibal(5,9)
14. Feeling it could make you sick? Way to come through!(10)
17. Vampire after us? No, surprisingly(9)
18. It’s above building blocks?(8)
21. Loved ones getting runaround – not being serious at all(6)
23. Bag groceries to hide pain?(5)
26. Acceptable in class project(4)

MENU

Head-Spinning Slice:
Vertigo for everyone!

Name something that might make an adult dizzy. 
Change the second-last letter to name something that might make a child dizzy. 
What are these two words?


Riffing Off Shortz And Siegel Slices:
“My word, how brain-curdlingly absurd! A roller-skating bird in a buffalo herd!”

Will Shortz’s November 24th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Jon Siegel of Chevy Chase, Maryland, reads: 
The words WON and SUN rhyme, even though their vowels are different. Can you name four common, uncapitalized 4-letter words, each of which has exactly one vowel, and all of which rhyme, even though all four vowels are different?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Siegel Slices read:
ENTREE #1
Part 1:
A puzzle-maker is associated with the name of a well-known comedian on a TV comedy sketch show. 
A second well-known comedian once performed a sketch on that same show in which he suggested that the  Barbie doll ditch her boyfriend Ken in favor of another more macho doll on the market. 
Take: 
1. the letters in a shorthand name of that comedy show, 
2. the first letter of the first name of the second comedian (or the last letter of the last name of the first comedian), and
3. the letters in the name of the more macho doll. 
Rearrange these letters to form the name of the puzzle-maker. Who is it?
Part 2:
A singer/songwriter wrote and recorded a song about a multicolored upper-body garment that reached position #7 on the U.S. County Charts. Three years later, a one-word song she wrote (inspired by a red-headed bank clerk who flirted with her hubby) peaked at #6. 
The song this singer/songwriter chooses to sing when she performs live for the U.S. troops, however, is a song she did not write. 
In its title is a “unicolored” (not red, however) garment worn above the neck. This song was recorded by a U.S. Army staff sergeant about a decade earlier, and reached #1 on the U.S. charts.
Take the combined letters in the 6-letter title of the song that peaked at #6 and the 3-letter shorthand form of “the U.S. troops.” 
Rearrange these nine letters to form the name of a puzzle-maker. Who is it?
ENTREE #2:
The words WON and SUN rhyme, even though their vowels are different. Can you name four common, 4-letter words, each of which has exactly one vowel, and all of which rhyme, even though all four vowels are different? 
The words fill the blanks in the quatrain below:
A lass depressed tried St. John’s ____,
She reasoned: “Herbal cures can’t ___,
they grow in earthy godly ___!”
So now she’s peppy, perky, ____.
ENTREE #3:
Can you name four common, uncapitalized 4-letter words, each of which has exactly one vowel, and all of which rhyme, even though all four vowels are different? 
The words fill the blanks in the quatrain below:
My boss was quite a Scroogey ____
So one day at the end of  ____
Outside our office did I ____
And pierced his black heart with my ____.
ENTREE #4:
Can you name three common, uncapitalized 3-letter words and one somewhat common, uncapitalized 5-letter word, each of which has exactly one vowel, and all of which rhyme, even though all four vowels are different? 
The words fill the blanks in the quatrain below:
’Tis Yuletide: gifts ’neath trees of ___.
Forgive me! I, a human ___
Am not Divine, I tend to ___
By bringing “bribes” of gold and _____.
ENTREE #5:
Can you name three common, uncapitalized 4-letter words and one capitalized non-English 5-letter word, each of which has exactly one vowel, and all of which rhyme, even though all four vowels are different? 
The words fill the blanks in the quatrain below:
Eve on a whim, temptation’s ____,
Plucked Satan’s apple, round and ____...
Inside, a Serpent (not a ____)
Which led to widespread Drang und _____. 
ENTREE #6:
Find two common, uncapitalized 5-letter words and one uncapitalized 6-letter word, each of which has exactly one vowel, and all of which rhyme, even though all three vowels are different. 
A second uncapitalized 6-letter word rhymes with these three. It contains two vowels, one which is different from the three different vowels in the other three words.
The four words fill the blanks in the quatrain below:
The faithful flock filed into ______.
All circled o’er the pews of ____...
Flocks welcome suff’ring, thus their ______
To light upon a hardwood _____. 
ENTREE #7:
Name two somewhat common, uncapitalized 4-letter words (one is a contraction), each of which has exactly one vowel, and both which rhyme, even though their vowels are different. 
A third very common 4-letter word rhymes with the first two words and contains two vowels that both differ from the two vowels in the other two words.
These three words fill the blanks in the tercet below:
O the night before Christmas day ’____.
Through the house, all the doorbells did ____...
(If there’s chimney smoke that’s what he ____.)

Dessert Menu

Toasty Dessert:
Choose strong “lass-words” for your female?

Name something one consumes that is associated with toasting. 
Remove a letter, change a letter and slice the result in two to form two different words that you might use to address a female. 
What is this consumable?
What are the two words for a female?

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.

A Crayola coat of many colors; Setting LMNs on the table; Cheeseheads and Meatheads; Bam-mobile Alabamalama Bim-Bomb; Arnold and Keith show up; Tablefuls o’ puzzles fit for pilgrims

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/21 SERVED


Schpuzzle Of The Week:
A Crayola coat of many colors

Back in the late 1950s and early 1960s when the new Ford Thunderbird was popular, so was a nerdy character named Poindexter from the 1959-62 “Felix the Cat” cartoon television series. 
A children’s coloring book at the time might have pictured him cruising down a road, along with the following instructions, on page 16:

“Try coloring Poindexter’s Thunderbird with umber, pink, yellow, peach and blue crayons.”
On the facing page, page 17, the instruction might have read: “Color each tailfin geranium.”
What connection do those instructions have with manual transmissions? 
Hint: It’s a seven-part solution.

Appetizer Menu

Conundrumsticks:
Tablefuls o’ puzzles fit for pilgrims

🥁1. Think of two words that are types of surfaces—one on an astronomical scale and another on a more local scale, in six and four letters, respectively. Rearrange to get a two word phrase for a type of insurance, in six and four letters respectively.
🥁2. Think of a common household brand name in five letters. ROT13 to name the type of person that might sell you the household item.
🥁3. Think of a word for paradise. Drop the first letter and the last two letters. The result will sound like a contemporary portmanteau of two words that describe a specific mood state.
🥁4. Think of a shoe brand. Rearrange to form a neologism for losing one’s savings from online spending.
🥁5. Take the name of a U.S. state, and the two-letter postal code of another state. Combine and rearrange to create a type of navigation device.

MENU

Name In The News Slice:
Arnold and Keith show up

Take the name of a person lately in the news, first and last names. Remove the first and last letters from the first name. Rearrange the  remaining letters to form a description of this person in two words: a possessive proper noun and a common noun.
What is the name of this person?
Hint: Were it not for this person in the news, Keith, Arnold and others may have been no-shows at an event chaired by Barrack.

Scientific Slice:
Setting LMNs on the table

Name a scientist associated with the periodic table, first and last names. 
If you remove two consecutive letters from the first name and say the result aloud it will sound much like an element on the table. 
Who is this scientist?

Riffing Off Shortz And McDonald Slices:
Bam-mobile Alabamalama Bim-Bomb

Will Shortz’s November 17th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Janet McDonald of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, reads: 
The city of Mobile, Alabama has the interesting property that the name of the city has exactly the same consonants as its state (M, B, and L), albeit in a different order. What is the next-largest U.S. city for which this is true?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And McDonald Slices read:
ENTREE #1:
Mobile, the third-largest city in Alabama, has the interesting property that the name of the city has exactly the same consonants as its state (M, B, and L), albeit in a different order. 
The largest city in a different  state differs from Mobile in latitude by less than two degrees. The name of this city has exactly the same consonants as the first name of a puzzle-maker. This city is also a synonym of  “Mary Jane from Mexico” which, in turn, is one of many slang terms for an increasingly kosher substance, especially when it is preceded by a 4-syllable 9-letter adjective that has the same consonants as (but not the same number of consonants in) the last name of this same puzzle-maker.
Who is this puzzle-maker?
ENTREE #2:
Take three consecutive consonants from the alphabet. 
The first and second letters are the only consonants in the name of a 4-letter world capital. The first and third letters are the only consonants in the name of a 4-letter river. The second and third letters are the only consonants in the name of a 4-letter country. The first and second and third letters are the only consonants in the name of a 6-letter world capital.
Add an earlier-in-the-alphabet consonant to the existing three, creating an alphabetical string of four consecutive consonants. These four, plus a C, are the only consonants in the name of an 8-letter mountain that is the highest in its continent.
Add a second earlier-in-the-alphabet consonant to the existing four, creating an alphabetical string of five consecutive consonants. These five, plus an R, are the only consonants in the name of an 11-letter mountain that is the highest in its continent.
What are this world capital, river, country, world capital, and two high mountains?
ENTREE #3:
Take five consecutive consonants from the alphabet. (Ignore the vowel in their midst.)
These five are the sole consonants in a two-word term, in 2 and 8 letters, for the medium past presidents like Ike and JFK employed to communicate with the U.S. citizenry. They are also the sole consonants in a 12-letter term for the medium the present president employs to communicate with the U.S. citizenry.
Hint #1: The first word in the two-word term for the medium Ike and JFK used is an initialism, kind of like JFK. The second word is plural.
Hint #2: The five consonants are also the only ones in the 4-letter and 5-letter words that fill the two blanks in the following phrase – a phrase that describes a numerical fact about the present president’s family:
He had a ____ of _____.
What are these two media?
ENTREE #4:
Take six consecutive consonants from the alphabet. (Ignore the vowel in their midst.)
These six are the sole consonants in the first and last names (4 and 6 letters) of a famous singer-songwriter and a 4-letter device that helped us hear this artist’s mastery. 
These six consonants are also the sole consonants in a kind of Chinese sailing ship (4 letters) and the handle or rudder pole that steers it (four letters).
Who are the artist and the device?
What are the sailing ship and handle that steers it?
ENTREE #5:
Take three consecutive consonants from the alphabet. (Ignore the vowel in their midst.)
Take a second triplet of consecutive consonants from the alphabet (that have no vowel in their midst).
The middle letter in the first triplet and all three letters in the second triplet are the sole consonants in the 5-letter last name of a radio and TV personality known for interviewing guests. 
The first and third letters in the first triplet and the first and third letters in the second triplet are the sole consonants in the last name of a former TV personality who was interviewed more than two dozen times by the first personality.
Who are these two personalities?

Dessert Menu

Delicatessen Dessert:
Cheeseheads and Meatheads

Take the combined letters of meats and a kind of cheese that you ought to eat in moderation. Rearrange these letters to name, in two words, what people may do to you if you overindulge in these foods. 
What foods are they?
Hint: The two words resulting from the rearrangement are often connected with a hyphen to form a compound verb. 

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 smartest puzzle in the room; Seventy-times-seven loafishes; Smurf’s up! (but not roaring) etc.; Dinner jacket optional; Ignore not the “relevant” in the room

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/21 SERVED

Schpuzzle Of The Week:

Seventy-times-seven loafishes

Take the initial letters of an informal phrase associated with multiplication followed by all but one letter of a word associated with measurement. 

The result is a word associated with both multiplication and measurement.

What is the informal phrase associated with multiplication?

What is the word associated with measurement?

What is the word associated with both multiplication and measurement?

Appetizer Menu

Note: This week’s Appetizer Menu features five delicious puzzles baked up by Jeff Zarkin of Burke, Virginia, whose screen name is SuperZee. 

Thanks, Jeff. 
Enjoy!

Puzzarkin! Appetizer

Smurf’s up! (but not roaring) etc.

Golden rules &  goldfish

🏍1. Take a term for the sometimes subtle difference between breaking or keeping a rule. 

Spoonerize it to name a penalty an angler might be subject to for breaking a rule. 

What are this term and penalty?  

Pit bull pitted dates?

🏍2. Take a two word phrase, in 10 letters, for how one might get home from a late date. 

Drop the first letter of the phrase, move the first letter of the second word into its place. 

The resulting 9-letter phrase sounds like what you may need to control an unruly critter.

What are these two phrases? 

Hint: The 10-letter and 9-letter phrases rhyme with one another. 

Radar weather detector

🏍3. Take a two-word phrase that might describe the weather. Spoonerize it to form what sounds like a phrase you might see on a highway sign. 

What are the phrases?

Smurf’s up! (but not roaring)

🏍4. Take a term used to describe a favorite part of the day. Spoonerize it and you have a speechless Smurf.  

What are this term and this “cute mute”?  

“The bestie made me do it!”

🏍5. Take a two-word phrase, in 5 and 3 letters, that describes a friend... a friend who might just get you into trouble. 
Rearrange the letters to get a description of the five puzzles on this Appetizer Menu. 

What are this phrase and description?

MENU

Chain Meal Slice:

Dinner jacket optional

Remove three non-consecutive letters from a restaurant chain. 

Rearrange them to name a kind of jacket. The remaining letters, spelled out in order, name people who traditionally wear such jackets. 

What is this restaurant chain?

Riffing Off Shortz And Baggish Slices:

Ignore not the “relevant” in the room

Will Shortz’s November 10th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Steve Baggish of Arlington, Massachusetts, reads: 

Think of two five-letter words that are opposites. One of them begins with E, the other ends with E. Drop both E’s. 

The remaining eight letters can be rearranged to spell a new word that is relevant. What are these three words?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Baggish Slices read:

ENTREE #1:

Think of a phrase consisting of two words of five and six letters – an adjective and noun – that describe what interrupts Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You, Babe” on the radio, according to a review written by a staff writer for a newspaper based in our nation’s capital.

Drop two A’s, one from the interior of each word. The remaining nine letters can be rearranged to spell a new word that is pertinent. What are these three words?

ENTREE #2:

Think of four-letter synonym of “competition” and a five-letter word for a possible venue for such a competition. Drop two A’s, one from each word. The remaining seven letters can be rearranged to spell a new word that is germane. What are these three words?

ENTREE #3:

Think of a two-word phrase consisting of a verb and noun, four letters each, describing what an editor might do after highlighting a word, phrase, sentence or paragraph. 

Drop two consecutive letters. 
You can rearrange the remaining six letters to spell a new word that is x-rated. 

What are these three words?

ENTREE #4:

As a fraternity initiation hazing prank, the Greek brothers challenged pledges to blow up a rival fraternity’s homecoming float using an explosive made of nitroglycerin. Amazingly, one of the pledges actually did it! 

Threatened with losing its charter and good standing on campus, the frat brothers rounded up the usual suspects for interrogation, hoping to identify the culprit and hand him over to campus authorities. 

They realized of course that most pledges would “wash their hands of” the mischief, but held out hope that the perpetrator would eventually “fess up” to the float-explosion.

Name a verb, in nine letters, for what the guilty pledge did. Rearrange these nine letters to spell two other verbs: one, in 4 letters, that means “wash their hands of”; the other, in 5 letters, that means “fess up to.” What are these three verbs?

ENTREE #5:

Think of two five-letter words that are opposites. One describes sparklingly innovative prose and the other describes insipidly trite prose. 

These ten letters can be rearranged to spell a new word that does not describe most Roman Catholic parishes. 

What are these three words?

ENTREE #6:

Remove two consonants from the name of a puzzle-maker. The remaining ten letters can be rearranged to spell a two-word synonym of “pump-and-runners.”

Who is the puzzle-maker? What is the two-word synonym?

Dessert Menu

Technological Dessert:

The smartest puzzle in the room

Name a brand associated with smart technology. 

Move its last letter to a position earlier in the brand. If you spell the result aloud, spelling-bee-style, it will sound like a question you might ask someone who appears to be smarting. 

What are the brand and the question?

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.