Belle & Jane latch onto a legend; Lullabies consisting of crib notes; Pokéballs and Football; Wednesday Morning, 3 a.m. Slicing meat into something sweet

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 3(7!) SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Belle & Jane latch onto a legend

Take an alliterative nickname sometimes given to a particular legendary person from the Old West. 

After that name, place a word for a rendezvous at a barn dance (with Belle Starr, say) that this person might have initiated... or the same word for  an invitation (to Calamity Jane, perhaps) to share a sarsaparilla soda at the Silver Dollar Saloon. 

The nickname, followed by this “invitation word” or “rendezvous word,” sounds like a phrase currently in the news.  

What phrase is this?

Appetizer Menu

Puzzle Fun Slice:

Pokéballs and Football

➤1. Take the name of a Pokémon. 

Remove the last letter and rearrange the remaining letters to get the name of another
Pokémon. 

Remove the last letter of this result and rearrange the remaining letters to get the name of yet another Pokémon. 

What are the three Pokémon?

➤2. Take a word for a member of a certain football team. 

Add the name of a company. Rearrange the letters to get the last name of a famous football player associated with that company. 

Who is it?

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Deli Slice:

Slicing meat into something sweet

Change the penultimate letter of a chewable deli meat to an “a”, then slice the result in two. 

In the second part, replace consecutive letters that can be rearranged to spell “I chew” with a “u”.

Replace two consecutive vowels in the first part with a two-letter interjection, one perhaps yelped by a careless deli slicer. 

The result is something sweet, in two words. 

What are this meat and something sweet?

Riffing Off Shortz And Fogarty Slices:

Lullabies consisting of crib notes

Will Shortz’s October 25th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Neville Fogarty, of Newport News, Virginia, reads:

What common seven-letter verb is made up of three consecutive musical notes in order?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Fogarty Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Name a puzzle-maker, first and last names. Remove the letters of two of the seven musical notes" do re mi fa sol la ti.

Rearrange the result to spell a two-word phrase for what a duffer lounging on his La-Z-Boy might experience while watching Rory McIlroy on TV draining a 40-foot putt for an eagle.

Now take the name of the same puzzle-maker. Remove the letters of three of the seven musical notes: so re mi fa sol la ti. Rearrange the result to spell two words associated with a man who came close to becoming president at two different occasions less that three weeks apart.

The first word is an abbreviation for a title this man held from 1959 to 1973. The second word is a common misspelling of a nickname some gave him based on to his first name.

Who is this puzzle-maker?

What does the duffer experience?

What are the could-have-been-president’s abbreviated title and his nickname?

ENTREE #2

Two consecutive musical notes in order spell one of six stomach muscles and how it will appear if you:

1. cut calories, 

2. eat soluble fiber and foods rich in

monounsaturated fatty acids,

3. do cardiovascular exercises, and

4. limit your intake of carbohydrates, especially refined carbs.

What are these musical notes?

What is the muscle, and how will it appear?

ENTREE #3

Take one musical note that spells two words:

1. a word that follows a synonym of furcula in the name of a British 1970s rock band, and

2. the brand of instrument played by Albhy Galuten on that band’s 1974 studio album.

What is this musical note? 

What are the band and the instrument brand?

ENTREE #4

Name a Colorado-based amber ale brand, in two words. 

Remove one letter that appears twice.

 The result is the trio of opening notes from "The Addams Family" television theme song.

What is this brand of ale?

ENTREE #5

Write three musical notes that form the “melodic fragment” that corresponds with the three syllables of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” lyrics “No escape...”

Place an “n” between the first two musical notes to spell the first word in the title of an anti-imperialistic musical work by an American composer.

What is this musical work?  

What are the three musical notes?

ENTREE #6

What somewhat common six-letter synonym slang term for “money” is made up of three consecutive musical notes in order?

Dessert Menu

“...The Humiliation Of Defeat” Dessert:

Wednesday Morning 3 a.m.

Spoonerize two surnames lately in the news. Move a letter one spot earlier in the alphabet. The result, if spoken aloud, will sound like two words: 

1. what the two people with these names (or perhaps instead their rivals) might want to do next Wednesday morning after a humiliating defeat, and 

2. a synonym of humiliate.

What are these surnames in the news?

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. 

I’d rather hang with Clark, not Lex! “Do ya feel the Bern, Ol’ Chap?” Molson dreams by the campfire; Curing, cracking and recreating; Number-hunting, can you dig-it?

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 3(7!) SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

“Do ya feel the Bern, Ol’ Chap?”

What distinguishes the words “chap,” “gusts,” “roc” and “Bern” from almost all other words in the English lexicon?

Note: “Bern” is the capital city, of Switzerland. 

The “roc” is a large, legendary bird that was reputedly able to lift and carry off an elephant!

Hint: The only other words from the English lexicon that might be included in this list, according to Merriam-Webster, are “hap,” and “Ro.” However, these are merely “subsets” of  “chap” and “roc,” respectively.

Appetizer Menu

Delightful Appetizers:

Curing, cracking and recreating

Note: We debut on Puzzleria! this week a new puzzle feature titled “Garden of Puzzley Delights by Plantsmith.” A clever puzzlesmith named Michael Bertoglio, who divides his time between east and west coasts, is the guy behind that screen name... and the planter of this delightfully puzzling Garden. Welcome Mike, and thanks!

⏰1. Name a four-word cure. Rearrange the combined letters to get a 15-letter two-word phrase. The phrase can describe either:

a. 🕰 a bank clock blinking alternately “12:00” and, if it’s a pleasant day, “83°,” or 

b. 🛏 what an over-sleeping, late-rising exhibitionist may be involved in. 

🍽2. “Crack open” a Middle Eastern city with a population of greater than 200,000. Lightly scramble the contents, then unscramble them to whip up: 

a.🕿  a homophone of a personal pronoun, 

b. ⛅ a Supreme being, and 

c. ♿ a time of senescence.

What is this city?

🍌3. Think of a fruit. Replace its last two letters with a common four-letter suffix to get something you do for fun. What is this fruit?

Hint: The common four-letter suffix is an anagram of a common preposition.

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One To Three, Four To Eight Slice:

Number-hunting, can you dig-it?

Can you find five digits from the numbers one through three inclusive? 

What are these five digits?

Can you find at least nine digits from the numbers four through eight inclusive?  

What are these nine-plus digits?

Riffing Off Shortz And Schwartz Slices:

I’d rather hang with Clark, not Lex!

Will Shortz’s October 18th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Michael Schwartz of Florence, Oregon, reads:

Name a world capital. Change one letter in it to DY. The result will be two words, one after the other. The first word names somebody you like to be around. The second word names somebody you don’t like to be around. What city is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Schwartz Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Add an E to the name of a puzzle-maker (first and last names). 

Rearrange the result to name skin products that the Bianca Rosa and SheaMoisture

companies manufacture in three words of 5, 5 and 6 letters. 

The words begin with W, H and C.

Who is this puzzle-maker? 

What are the skin products?

Hint: The first word and an anagram of the third word are both associated with Halloween.

ENTREE #2

Name a world capital. Change the fourth letter to an “n” and move the fifth letter to the end. The result will be two words, one after the other. 

The first word is an exclamation of anger. The second word names what kind of word that exclamation is. 

What is this capital? 

What is the exclamation and the kind of word it is?

ENTREE #3

Name a world capital. The first two-thirds of the name spell a kind of popular toy. 

Take the remaining letters and mix them up with the nickname of a teen idol (with “The

____”) to spell the name of one such popular toy.

What is this world capital? What are the toy and the name of the toy?

ENTREE #4

Name a world capital. Rearrange the first four letters to spell a place where you may find convicted criminals. 

The remaining letters, sans rearranging, spell a place where you may find pious priests.  

What world capital is this? 

Where may you find convicted criminals?

Where may you find pious priests?

ENTREE #5

Name the capital of a territory in an empire on which the sun never sets. Remove the first letter and spell the remaining letters backward.

The result spells an answer to the question: “What was the capital city of Peru in 1534?”

What is the capital of the territory in the “ever-sunny” empire? 

What is the answer to the question?

Hint: the name of the territory is often followed by a homophone of a famous puzzle-maker’s surname.

ENTREE #6

1. Name a world capital. Switch the order of its last two letters to spell critters. 

2. Name a world capital. Remove its middle two letters, leaving a critter. The letters that remain are the chemical symbol of an element that in its metallic form is sometimes mistaken for lead.

3. Name a world capital. Remove its middle two letters, leaving a critter. The letters that remain are a U.S. Postal Code abbreviation of a state with a capital that is also the name of something edible.

What are the capitals and critters in questions 1, 2 and 3?

Dessert Menu

Hypnotic Dessert:

Molson dreams by the campfire

Your tent is pitched near Whirlpool Lake in Manitoba. You sit by a campfire under the stars nursing a Molson and nibbling an oblong slice of meat. Fleetwood Mac’s “Hypnotized”  swirls from the boombox speakers. 

As you tilt your head back to take a sip from the Molson bottle, the corner of your eye glimpses a guitar-pick-shaped glow flashing across the midnight sky, from horizon to horizon in less than a second.

Rearrange the combined letters in the two-word slice of meat, a word for Fleetwood Mac’s “Hypnotized,” and a word for the flashing guitar-pick-shaped glow. 

Your result should be a four-word modern-day phrase associated with covid-19 – a phrase seldom heard during that less-dangerous, mystically hypnotic 1970s time on Lake Manitoba’s shores.

What are the slice of meat, word for “Hypnotized” and word for the flashing glow?

What is the contemporary phrase?

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 ubiquity of “AIATM” Geography, anatomy & “scirtem” Blending fruits into drinks; Phinancier and phoodie fraseology; “Spice try on beet!”

 PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 3(7!) SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

The ubiquity of “AIATM”

The letters AI and ATM stand for Artificial Intelligence and Automatic Teller Machine. 

Those five letters, in that order, are also the

initial letters in a ubiquitous phrase you sometimes hear this time of year. 

What is this phrase?

Appetizer Menu

Worldplay Appetizer:

Geography, anatomy & “scirtem”

Orthographia

1. The names Juneau, Phoenix, Sacramento, Atlanta, Boise, Topeka, Saint Paul, and Richmond each share a characteristic with their respective states that the other state capitals do not. What is it? 

Bonus question: Of these eight “special state capitals,” what sets Sacramento apart from the seven others?

Hint: Little Rock, Sacramento, Helena, Columbus, Providence, Austin, Madison, and (often) Montgomery share a different property
with their respective states. 

Again, Sacramento stands out, but for a complementary reason.

Recombinant state name

2.  Divide the name of a U.S. state into two halves. Discard the second half. 

Copy the first half and invert it. 

Combine this result and the original first half to get the state name back again. What is the U.S. state?

Anatomical surgery

3. Think of a body part. Move the first two

letters to the end to form a term for an interior organ. 

What are the two body parts?

Drawkcab

4. Think of a term for areal measurement units. Spell it backward to obtain a term that sounds like an approximation. 

What are the measurement units and term for an approximation?

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Power Couple Slice:

“Spice try on beet!”

Former Spice Girl Victoria and her soccer-star hubby David visit a shoe store. 

While there, paparazzi snap them sampling footwear. Within an hour an image appears on online tabloids with the caption “Spice try on beet!” 

Translate the caption into something more understandable by changing two words. 

Explain your translation.

Riffing Off Shortz And Lipscomb Slices:

Blending fruits into drinks

Will Shortz’s October 11th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Tyler Lipscomb of Augusta, Georgia, reads:

Name certain fruits — in the plural. Change the second letter to an L and read the result backward. You’ll name two things to drink. What are they?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Lipscomb Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Take the first name of a woman, a U.S. capital city, a city named after a U.S. president, and a nearly perfectly square county that borders Texas on two sides and Oklahoma on its other two sides.

Put these four names in the correct order to name the hometown of a puzzle-maker (both the city and the state) and the first and last names of the puzzle-maker.

What are the hometown and name of this puzzle-maker? 

ENTREE #2

Name one thing to drink — in the singular. Change an “i” to an “a”. Read the result backward. 

You’ll name, in three words of 2, 1 and 4

letters, where one might conceivably drink this drink. 

What drink is this?

Where might one drink it? 

ENTREE #3

Name one thing to drink — in the singular. Switch the third and fifth letters and spell the result backward. 

The first four letters of this backward result spell a popular cheese. The four remaining letters can be rearranged to spell either:

1. a name associated with chins, or

2. a word that precedes “wolf,” or

3. a name that precedes “Coward,” or

4. a name that precedes a surname that begins with what a horse does, followed by the 2-letter postal abbreviation of a state where horses famously gallop.

What is this drink?

What is the popular cheese?

What are the four words the remaining letters spell?

ENTREE #4

Name an eight-letter word for “a wee dram at the end of the day.” Spell it backward. 

The last three letters of this result spell what that “dram” might consist of. 

The first five letters can be rearranged to spell what the “dram-drinker,” after downing the dram, might wear (in addition to cloth headwear) to keep his face from flushing or glowing red.

What is this “wee dram at the end of the day?”

What might it consist of?

What might the “dram-drinker” wear? 

ENTREE #5

Name a variant spelling of a word for “something (such as a drink at a bar) given without charge.” (The variant spelling substitutes an “e” for an “i”.) 

Remove four consecutive letters from the

interior of this word. The remaining letters spell a word meaning “a fixed charge.”

Spell the four removed letters backward to spell a drink you might enjoy at a bar, whether or not you are charged for it.

What are this varient spelling, word meaning “a fixed charge,” and drink enjoyed at a bar?

ENTREE #6

Name a noun that describes Leonardo DaVinci, in eight letters. The last five letters of the noun, if you insert a hyphen, is a modern-day adjective that reflects the eminence (at least in the Christian community) of the subjects of one of DaVinci’s well-known pieces of art.

The first three letters of the 8-letter noun, if you spell them backward, form a non-vinaceous beverage that the subjects of the artwork might have been quaffing had they been pirates rather than apostles.  

What 8-letter noun describes Leonardo DaVinci?

What is the modern-day adjective?

What might the twelve “apostolic pirates” have been quaffing?

Dessert Menu

Professional Dessert:

Phinancier and phoodie fraseology

Name a two-word duty associated with a five-letter food professional. 

Insert a third word between the two words of this duty. The result is a phrase associated with a wealthy financial professional. 

Now insert one letter within the five-letter word for the food professional to spell the six-letter word for the financial professional.

What are this duty and phrase?

Who are these food and financial professionals?

 

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.

Changing the tone of leadership; Pound o’ prevention = Ton o’ cure; Try solving these Triclops posers; Mere mortals emerge from mythological mix; Spoon River Anthropomorphology

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 3(7!) SERVED

Schpuzzle Of TheWeek:

Spoon River Anthropomorphology

🥄1. Write down the surnames of two well-known living people in alphabetical order. Spoonerize the result  – that is, switch the initial consonant sounds.

The first part of the result sounds like the surname of a classical composer.

The second part of the result spells the surname of a person associated with an instrument heard in symphony orchestras.  

Who are these four people?

🥄2. Write down the surnames of two well-known living people in reverse-alphabetical order. Spoonerize the result  – that is, switch the initial consonant sounds. 

The first part of the result is another word for one’s heart.

 

The letters of the second part of the result can be rearranged to form a synonym of “heart.” 

Who are these two people?

What are the two words associated with “heart”?

Appetizer Menu

Econfusions Appetizer:

Changing the tone of leadership

(Exactly what we need right now!)

1. Think of a recent event, in six letters.

Change the fifth letter to the one previous in the alphabet (for example, “b” becomes “a”) and the result will be an verb that characterizes what that event did to everyone.  

Note: For Econfusions #2 through #7, the following example may be helpful:

If you add an “e” to the word “on,” the first letter changes pronunciation in the resulting

word “one.”  This is not rare in words of 2 to 3 letters (for example, “at” becomes “ate”).

2.  Can you find a common, uncapitalized 3-letter word which, when you add a letter onto
the end, results in a 4-letter word with the first letter pronounced differently?

3.  Can you find a common, uncapitalized 4-letter word which, when you add a letter onto

the end, results in a 5-letter word with the first letter pronounced differently?

4. Take a common, uncapitalized 5-letter word.  Change the last letter to the next letter in the alphabet (for example, “a” becomes “b”), and the result will be another common word, with the first two letters pronounced differently.

5.  Take a common, uncapitalized 5-letter word.  Move the last letter eight places later in the alphabet (for example, “a” becomes “i”). 

The result will be another common word, with the first four letters pronounced
differently... and of course the last letter too.

6.  Take the last name of members of a well-known singing group.  Move the last letter three places later in the alphabet (for example, “a” becomes “d”), and the result is a common word with the first two letters pronounced differently.

What is this common word?

7.  Take the last name of a well-known actor.  Move the last letter six places later in the alphabet (for example, “a” becomes “g”), and the result is a common word whose first two letters are pronounced differently from the first two letters of the actor’s last name.

Who is this actor and what is the common word?

Bonus Econfusion Puzzle:

8. In an answer to one of the seven Econfusions above, change the third letter to a letter adjoining it on a standard keyboard.

The pronunciation of all the letters in the word will change (except for one letter that remains silent).  

What are the words?

MENU

Greek and Roman Goddesses Slice:

Mere mortals emerge from mythological mix

Rearrange the fourteen combined letters in Venus and Aphrodite, the Roman and Greek

goddesses of love, to spell the names of two non-gods from Rome and a 5-letter noun.

The names and noun, taken together, are associated with the years 68 AD and 1572 AD. 

What are these names and noun?

Riffing Off Shortz And Margolies Slices:

Try solving these “Triclops” posers   

Will Shortz’s October 4th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Micah Margolies of Lenexa, Kansas, reads:

Think of an 8-letter word with three syllables that contains the letter “i”  in each syllable — but, strangely, doesn’t contain a single “i” sound, either long or short. The answer is not a plural. What word is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz and Margolies Slices read:

ENTREE #1:

Take the surname of a recently deceased writer who penned a short poem titled “Odysseus.” Change the fourth letter to an “L” to name a legendary figure featured in Arthurian legend and medieval Welsh poetry. 

Now take a 4-syllable noun associated with the feats of Odysseus and a 3-syllable

adjective associated with the legendary figure. Rearrange their combined letters to spell the name of a puzzle-maker. 

Who is  this puzzle-maker?

Who are the writer and legendary figure?

What are the noun associated with the feats of Odysseus and the adjective associated with the legendary figure?

ENTREE #2:

Think of an 9-letter noun with three syllables that contains the letter “i”  in each syllable — but, strangely, doesn’t contain a single “i” sound, either long or short. The noun can be either singular or plural, and is something edible. 

What word is it?

ENTREE #3:

Think of an 9-letter adjective with three syllables that contains the letter “u”  in each syllable — but, strangely, doesn’t contain a single “u” sound, either long or short. 

The adjective is not a plural but it does end with an “s.” And it begins with an “m.” 

Its first two syllables are identical. 

What adjective is it?

ENTREE #4:

Think of an 8-letter word with three syllables that contains the letter “a”  in each syllable — but, strangely, doesn’t contain a single “a” sound, either long or short. 

The answer is not a plural word. 

The word begins with a “b” and is a card game played by gamblers.

What word is it?

ENTREE #5:

Think of an 8-letter word with four syllables that contains the letter “o” in all but the final syllable — but, strangely, doesn’t contain a single “o” sound, either long or short. 

The answer is not a plural. 

The word is associated with the fruit of the vine. 

What word is it?

ENTREE #6:

Think of an 7-letter word with two syllables that contains the letter “e”  twice in the first syllable and once in the second syllable.

But, strangely, the word doesn’t contain a single “e” sound, either long or short. 

Glasses and goggles are two examples of this word. 

What word is it?

Note: Entree #7 is a bonus riff-off puzzle created by ecoarchitect,  author of our recurrent “Econfusions” feature. (See the “Changing the tone of leadership” Appetizer, above).

ENTREE #7:

Think of the surname (in 4 syllables and 8 letters) of a well-known person in the news. 

Three of the four syllables contain the letter “i”, but the surname doesn’t contain a single “i” sound, either long or short.  

Who is this person?

Dessert Menu

Measure For Measure Dessert:

Pound o’ prevention = Ton o’ cure

A two-word preventive measure may keep your face from becoming two things: 

1. the first five letters of the measure, and 

2. the last three letters of the measure.  

What preventive measure is this?

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.