An unhidden hint to history; Music of the astral spheres; Cryptically Quinquagenarian; “Wobble was I ere I saw Elbbow”;“ Are you smarter than a rocket scientist?”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/20 SERVED

Schpuzzle Of TheWeek:
“Are you smarter than a rocket scientist?”

Take an informal word for a person who is smart enough to solve this puzzle. 
Think of someone like rocket scientist, for example, or a character on “The Big Bang Theory” television sitcom. 
Five consecutive letters within this word spell an adjective for a body part. If you remove three consecutive letters from within the word the remaining letters spell another adjective for the same body part. What are these three words?
Hint: The informal word comes from the name of a past fictional television character.

Appetizer Menu

Non-quarantined Crossword Appetizer:
Cryptically Quinquagenarian  

Looking for a great way to occupy your time while you’re cooped up indoors, awaiting the end of quarantining and social-distancing?
How about working on... no, not working on, playing on (!) a clever Cryptic Crossword created by Patrick J. Berry! Patrick (screen name, “cranberry”), has just recently celebrated his 50th birthday. 
But, instead of getting gifts from us, he is instead giving us a priceless gift – another one of his original 15-by-15 grids of wonderful wordplay!
This is the 14th cryptic crossword with which Patrick has graced Puzzleria!
Here are the links to Patrick’s thirteen previous cryptic crosswords on Puzzleria!
ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SIX SEVEN
EIGHT NINE TEN ELEVEN TWELVE THIRTEEN
If you are unfamiliar with cryptic crossword puzzles, 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!
But now, it’s time to open your “cryptic gift” from our “birthday boy.” We guarantee it to be virus-free... although it well may be cryptically “contageous!”

ACROSS
1. Those who fly sorta having trouble getting through(8)
5. Rain sometimes – how erratic!(6)
9. Generation having say in worsening of our gap?(3,5)
10. Demanding, like family gatherings, primarily(6)
12. Unconventional children’s entertainer’s last laugh(7)
13. Savage to cook chicken?(7)
14. Lob used in game of 24(5,7)
17. Funny quotes in book?(8,4)
22. President has a mind so twisted(7)
23. Speech habit, take notice(7)
24. Wrong to make comeback in sport?(6)
25. Erin greeting former Presidential hopeful with some hesitation, we hear(8)
26. Prescription from top doctor, old and wise(6)
27. Pinch from pervert bugged ’er(8)

DOWN
1. Different combinations of different animals in a scientific first?(8)
2. Obsession with one former lover? I give up!(4,4)
3. Visited rising singer on wild ride(7)
4. Poorly made case for horseplay?(12)
6. Strip show on Broadway? Security!(7)
7. Importance of some wrong number?(6)
8. Old Yeller’s last appearance before going mad(6)
11. Actress going topless is dazzling in current film(3, 5, 4)
15. Took a swipe at lead guitarist in band(quoted by humor magazine)(8)
16. Con man on board, in uniform(4,4)
18. Boom! Ready to rock!(7)
19. Familiar with obscure name brought up?(7)
20. Journalist has least little thing exaggerated(6)
21. Looker, scantily clad on island(6)

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Eventful Slice:
An unhidden hint to history

Write a man’s first name (in one syllable). 
Replace its second letter with a duplicate of the first letter. 
The result will resemble a short way of writing a significant event in world history.
What is this first name? 
What is the event?
Hint: A good hint is not hidden within the text of this puzzle.

Riffing Off Shortz And Lewis Slices:
“Wobble was I ere I saw Elbbow”

Will Shortz’s April 19th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Greg Lewis of Columbus, Indiana, reads:
Name part of the human body in seven letters. The first four letters, in order, spell a familiar boy’s name. The second through fifth letters, in order, also spell a familiar boy’s name. What body part is it?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Lewis Slices read:
ENTREE #1
Name an interior part of the human body in five letters. Reverse the order of the first two letters and move them to the end. Change the first letter of this result to the letter that is two places earlier in the alphabet to form the last name of a puzzle-maker.
Now take the first name of this puzzle-maker. Take the mean average of the alphanumeric values of its first two letters and round down to form a third alphanumeric value. Replace the first two letters of the first name with the letter associated with this average value to form a three-letter body part. 
For example, the average of alphanumeric value of the first two letters in the name JOseph is 12.5 (10+15=25, which divided by 2=12.5, which, rounded down, is 12=L).
Who is this puzzle-maker?
What are the two body parts.   
ENTREE #2
Name a body part usually associated with insects. 
The first four letters, in order, spell a familiar boy’s name associated with mythology. 
The second through fifth letters, in order, spell a dance associated with the Middle East. 
What body part is it?
ENTREE #3
Name part of the human body in ten letters. 
The first, fifth, sixth and seventh letters, in order, spell a somewhat familiar girl’s name. The fourth, eighth, ninth and tenth letters, in order, spell a second somewhat familiar girl’s name. The second, third, fourth and eighth letters, in order, spell a third somewhat familiar girl’s name. The fourth, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth letters, in order, spell a fourth somewhat familiar girl’s name. 
What body part is it?
ENTREE #4
Name a familiar girl’s name in six letters.  
Four consecutive letters, in order, spell a word in a Bob Dylan song title. The second, third and fifth letters, in order, spell another word in that same Bob Dylan song title.
Four other consecutive letters in the girl’s name, in order, spell a word in a Dave Clark Five or Traffic song title. 
The second, third, fourth and sixth letters, in order, spell the last word in the name of a vocal group that was once called The Otnorots (taken from the name of their hometown, “Toronto,” spelled backwards).
What girl’s name is this?
ENTREE #5
Name part of the human body in five letters. Add a letter to the beginning to spell a familiar boy’s name. 
Remove the last letter of this boy’s name to spell a familiar girl’s name. What body part is it?
Hint: The girl’s name is also something you can eat.

Dessert Menu

Stars Still Ascending Heavenward Dessert:
Music of the astral spheres 

Countless stars coruscate across the evening heavens above – rising stars that fell from the sky, then rose even further into space heavenward. 
Listen closely and you can hear the music of these astral spheres as they spin in constant harmony within their constellations. 
These stars have names: Croce, Denver, Nelson, Vaughan, Van Zant, Gaines, Richardson, Valens, Holly, Cline, Redding, Miller, Aaliyah, Rhoads, Reeves, Rivera, Martin...
One particular asterism of these stars also has a name, in two words. Replace the first two letters of the second word. The altered two-word result is the stage name of one of its stars
What is this asterism and what is the stage name of the star?


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.

Two rungs don’t make a “flight”; Hear no awful, see no awful; Garden-variety victory gardens; Star-studded celestial stage; What’s for lunch or munchin’?

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/20 SERVED

Schpuzzle Of The Week:
Star-studded celestial stage 

Rearrange the combined letters of two signs of the zodiac to spell three things you might see and/or hear on a performance stage. 
What are these three things?
Hint: All three things are related, in some way, to music. And all three are plural words.
Note: When n = 12, (n)(n-1)/2 = 66. 
That’s not so daunting!

Appetizer Menu

Save Me A Conundrumstick! Appetizer:
What’s for lunch or munchin’?

🥁1. Take the last name of a well-known scientist. Drop the last letter, then reverse the first three letters and place at the end. When spoken aloud the result will sound like a health food but spelled very differently.
🥁2. Think of a two word phrase used in a drink order. Remove the space to get a slang word of approval.
🥁3. Think of a type of mailing address in two words. Advance the last letter one place forward in the alphabet to name a kind of sandwich.
🥁4. Name a drink in three letters. Duplicate this word, one after the other, with a space in between. Add a P to the front of the first word to name a particular type of the first drink.

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Sippy Cup Slice:
Garden-variety victory gardens

The alliterative four-word nickname of a competitive event includes a word for favorites people pick from their gardens. 
An alcoholic beverage sipped at the event rhymes with similar but different garden-variety favorites that people pick.
At the competitive event itself, however (which, incidentally, is not held at Madison Square Garden), people pick favorites not found in a garden.
What is the beverage? 
What are the two favorites people pick from gardens?
What non-garden favorites are picked at the event?

Riffing Off Shortz Slices:
Two rungs don’t make a “flight”

Will Shortz’s April 12th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle reads:
The challenge is to create the shortest possible word ladder connecting LARGE to SMALL, changing one letter at a time, making a common, uncapitalized word each step of the way. Here’s the tricky part: Plurals and verbs formed by adding -s are not allowed.
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz Slices read:
ENTREE #1
Each Sunday, the puzzlemaster Will Shortz entraps us (like rats in a maze!) with his amazingly clever National Public Radio puzzles. 
This challenge is to create the shortest possible word ladder connecting WILL to MAZE, changing one letter at a time, making a common, uncapitalized word each step of the way. There’s no tricky part.
Note: I believe there are four different correct “ladders” that will allow you to climb from WILL to MAZE. On each ladder there are only three “rungs” between the WILL and MAZE rungs.  
ENTREE #2
The puzzlemaster Will Shortz stumps us every Sunday with his National Public Radio puzzles. 
This challenge is to create the shortest possible word ladder connecting SHORTZ to STUMPS, changing one letter at a time, making a common, uncapitalized word (except for “Shortz,” of course) each step of the way. Again, there’s no tricky part.
Note: The shortest “ladder” I can construct that will allow me to climb from SHORTZ to STUMPS has eight rungs – with SHORTZ on the bottom, STUMPS on the top, and six rungs in between. 
ENTREE #3
The challenge is to create the shortest possible word ladder connecting RUNGS to ELOPE, changing one letter at a time, making a common, uncapitalized word each step of the way. Again, there’s no tricky part.
Note: The shortest “ladder” I can construct that will allow me to climb up the elopement ladder from RUNGS to ELOPE has thirteen rungs – with RUNGS on the bottom, ELOPE on the top, and eleven rungs in between.
ENTREE #4
Each Sunday on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday program, host Lulu Garcia-Navarro introduces “The Puzzle” segment with puzzlemaster Will Shortz. 
This challenge is to create the shortest possible word ladder connecting LULU to HOST, changing one letter at a time. There’s no tricky part: Plurals and verbs formed by adding -s are indeed allowed.
Here are clues to the ladder:
1. NPR Weekend Edition Sunday host: LULU
2. “Disney on demand”: ____
3. The kind of hoop that Alvin coveted for Christmas: ____
4. Word likely preceding “cómo estás?” (“How are ya?”) in Guadalajara: ____
5. Otters’ den: ____
6. Lulu Garcia-Navarro’s role on NPR’s “The Puzzle” segment: HOST 
ENTREE #5
Here are clues for another ladder:
1. Last name of a U.S. president: _____
2. A multinational corporation: _____
3. First name of a novelist who acknowledged Christ’s “warts”: _____
4. A pair of sweaty “swooshy” 
footwear: _____
5. Something that a “football” gives the president control over: _____
6. Blimp-shaped green gourds: _____
7. Brand-name soft drinks: _____
8. Staple of Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show monologue (at the expense of the president in Clue #1) during the mid 1970s: _____  
ENTREE #6
This challenge is to complete the following word ladder connecting two 4-letter words, changing one letter at a time, making a common, uncapitalized word each step of the way. The words are used in an idiom meaning “from beginning to end, completely, everything.” There’s no tricky part... plurals and verbs formed by adding -s are indeed allowed.
Here are clues to the ladder:
1. “There’s a Girl in My ____”:
2. Pittances: ____
3. Dipsomaniacs: ____
4. The plural counterpart of “tittle” in Matthew 5: ____
5. What Jay’s jaw does: ____
6. Anthony McAuliffe’s terse response to a German surrender ultimatum: ____
ENTREE #7
This challenge is to complete the following word ladder connecting two 4-letter words, changing one letter at a time, making a common word each step of the way. The words are used in an idiom meaning either “nighttime” or “daytime,” depending on which word appears first in the idiom. (The order of clues given below indicates the idiom meaning nighttime.) There’s no tricky part... plurals and verbs formed by adding -s are indeed allowed.
Here are clues to the ladder:
1.The darker part of twilight: ____
2. Dodge a bullet, for example: ____
3. Jim’s rafting companion: ____
4. Wilson who holds the single-season record for “ribbies”: ____
5. “Listen up!”: ____
6. Adjective for the “Star” of Churchill Downs in 1953: ____
7. Sew the holey hell outta socks: ____
8. Orlando’s back-ups: ____
ENTREE #8
Here are clues for an eighth ladder:
Note: The answer to Clue #3 is not a single word but rather an abbreviation followed by a word. 
1. Last name of a U.S. president: _____
2. First name that means “lion-like” _____
3. A word-ending paired with “di-,” “pan-” or “cycl-” prefixes: _____
4. Aid to surgeons who like to pump the volume up to “11”: _____ 
5. To walk with a heavy step: _____
6. Last name of a U.S. president: _____ 
ENTREE #9
Here are clues for a ninth ladder:
1. Last name of a U.S. president: _____
2. Hobo: _____
3. London streetcars: _____
4. Plural word with no “i” in it: _____ 
5. Six-, four- and two-year stints, respectively, in the Senate, White House and House: _____
6. Belonging to Mr. Melville or Mr. Munster: _____
7. Word, spoken by Ed, preceding “Johnny!”: _____ 
8. Root beer brand introduced at the U.S. Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia: _____
9. Keeps under wraps: _____
10. What one does to “one’s time” while waiting: _____
11. Last name of a U.S. vice president:_____

Dessert Menu

Live? Memorex? Bandstand? Dessert:
Hear no awful, see no awful 

In 1967 a soul singer performed and recorded something that many people heard. 
In 1968 that same singer appeared on something else that many people saw. 
These things both contain the same three words in the same order. Each has an apostrophe, but in a different place. 
What are these three words?
Hint: What the people heard in 1967 was likely very satisfying... at least for the listener.

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.

Periodical on the boardroom table; Industrial de-evolution; Plano, Texas! Gherkinsburg, Delaware! International Explorers browse the World Wide...; “mispelled,” not misspelled, is “misspelled”;

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/20 SERVED

Schpuzzle Of The Week:
“mispelled,” not misspelled, is “misspelled”

Name a composer of music. 
Change one-third of the letters in the composer’s first name to form a word related to DNA (short for deoxyribonucleic acid, the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms). 
The composer’s last name is a verb which, if not applied to itself, might sound like an informal shorter term for a branch of science that is also related to DNA. 
Who is this composer?

Appetizer Menu

Adventuresome Appetizer:
International Explorers browse the World Wide...


Think of a famous explorer of the past. Using Scrabble tiles, or similar letter pieces, spell the one-word title of the book he wrote describing his most famous adventure. 
Then switch the positions of the second and third letters with each other. 
Now rotate the tiles in the second and last positions 90 degrees in order to discover the last name of another famous explorer of the past who is also known for exploring the same continent.
Can you name these two well known explorers?

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Subscription Slice:
Periodical on the boardroom table

Name a synonym of “saw” that also spells the title of a magazine. 
Adding three letters to the end of the title spells the name of a business whose employees are likely to read the magazine. 
Rearrange the letters you added to name a city, for short, that is home to many of these businesses.
What are this magazine title, business and city? 

Riffing Off Shortz And Campbell Slices:
Plano, Texas! Gherkinsburg, Delaware!

Will Shortz’s April 5th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Bruce Campbell of Kansas City, Missouri, reads:
Think of a well-known U.S. city. Its population is over a quarter of a million. Phonetically, the first syllable of the city’s name plus the first syllable of the name of its state will sound like a well-known brand name. What is it?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Campbell Slices read:
ENTREE #1
Think of a U.S. town immortalized in the title of a song by a great American composer. 
The first syllable of the town’s name, plus the first syllable of the name of the northernmost city in the continental U.S. with a population of more than 50,000, will form well-known brand name... as well as the last name of a puzzle-maker. 
Who is this puzzle-maker?
Hint: The first name of the founder of the immortalized U.S. town is Job. This town is situated in one of the 13 original colonies.
ENTREE #2
Think of a well-known U.S. coastal-state city. Its population is over a quarter of a million. 
Phonetically, the first syllable of the city’s name plus the first two syllables of the name of its state will sound like a city in another coastal state. 
The city in this second coastal state is one of five in existence that dubs itself as the “Horse Capital of the World.” 
What are these two coastal-state cities?
ENTREE #3
Think of a well-known U.S. city. Its population is over a quarter of a million. The first syllable of the city’s name plus the first syllable of the name of its state will spell a body part that can be “cerebral.”
What is the state? What is the body part?
Hint: The first two syllables of the city’s name are non-English word for “body.”
ENTREE #4
Think of a capital city somewhere in the world. Its population is counted in millions. 
Add a “g” to the end of the first syllable of the city’s name. If you say this new syllable, followed by the first syllable of the capital’s country, it will sound like an 87-year-old character that some in the motion picture business have dubbed “the Eighth Wonder of the World.” 
What is the capital city? Who is “the Eighth Wonder of the World?”
ENTREE #5
Think of a Midwestern U.S. city associated with aviation. Its population is about a seventh of a million. 
Phonetically, the first syllable of the city’s name plus the first syllable of the name of its state will sound like the title of a well-known Harry Belafonte song. 
What are this city and song?
ENTREE #6
Think of a well-known Pacific Northwest U.S. city. Its population is over 150,000. 
Phonetically, the first syllable of the city’s name plus the first syllable of the name of its state will sound like a coin-or-credit-card-operated business that caters only to Pacificas, Siennas, Odysseys, Sedonas, VW buses, etc. 
What are this city and business?
ENTREE #7
Think of a well-known city in the Middle East. Its population is about four million. Phonetically, the first syllable of the city’s name plus the first syllable of the name of its country will sound like the first two words in song titles by Peter Frampton, The Beatles and Culture Club. 
What is the city? What are the three song titles?

Dessert Menu

“Demisery” Dessert:
Industrial de-evolution 

By the mid-20th-century a once-booming industry in a U.S. state, and in neighboring states, had virtually ended. 
One reason for this can be found by adding one letter to the name of the state and dividing the result in two. What is the state and what contributed to this industry’s demise? 


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.