Joseph Young's Puzzleria!: November 2020

Thursday, November 26, 2020

3 stars in the “rom-com cosmos” No lunching on poetasty lotuses! U.S.M.C. = U.S. Marine Critters; Throwing stones at glass stadia; Non-landbound crafts & Texas branding

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 3(7!) SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

No lunching on poetasty lotuses!

(Note: I hope this puzzle is just “As You Like it.”)

After a poet’s name place the word “thou” followed by the poet’s name spelled backward.

The result, in bygone poetic language, suggests that this poet is no lotus-eater.

Who is this poet?

Appetizer Menu

Crafty Appetizer:

Non-landbound crafts & Texas branding

1. Find a five-letter adjective and three-letter noun for something produced in Texas.

Change the noun to an adjective that sounds like the way that many Texans pronounce the noun.

Rearrange the combined letters of these two adjectives to name a familiar brand in eight letters.

What is this brand?

2. Name two crafts made to travel above the surface, twelve letters total.

One needs air, the other doesn’t.

Put them together and rearrange all the letters to name someone very well-known.

What crafts are these and who is the person?

MENU

Eponymous Slice:

Throwing stones at glass stadia

Take a stadium named for a sports figure. Move the first letter of the surname to the end to spell the surname of a man for which a now-demolished stadium was named.

The stadiums were almost within a stone’s-throw of one another.

Can you name these stadia?

Riffing Off Shortz And Hochbaum Slices:

U.S.M.C. = U.S. Marine Critters

Will Shortz’s November 22nd NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Alan Hochbaum of Duluth, Georgia, reads:

Name a marine animal in two words. Remove two consecutive letters in the name and read the resulting string of letters in order from left to right. You’ll name a major American city. What is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Hochbaum Slices read:

Note: We will lead-off this week’s riff-offs with three contributions (Entrees #1, #2 and #3) created by our friend ecoachitect whose “Econfusions” feature appears regularly on Puzzleria!

ENTREE #1

Name a sea creature in two words. Remove two consecutive letters and the result will be the end. What is the creature and what is the end?

Hint: The beginning word of the sea creature can be found at the end of the sea creature’s body.

ENTREE #2

Name a small, though well-known city in the United States.

Change 2 consecutive letters (the last 2) and the result will be a U.S. state.

Hint: Both sets of changed letters are postal
code abbreviations for U.S. states.

ENTREE #3

Take a common, uncapitalized 9-letter word. Replace the first 2 letters with a single letter, and the result will be a two-word phrase, in 9 and 8 letters, for something we hope to see very soon.

ENTREE #4

Take the hometown and state of a puzzle-maker. Rearrange the combined letters to spell two words:

* The surname of an acclaimed actor, and

* Another word (besides “actor”) beginning with an “a” that applies to the actor by dint of productions titled “Early Stages,” “Distinguished Company” and “Backward Glances.”

Who is this puzzle-maker and what is the hometown?

Who is the actor and what other “a-word” applies to him

Hint: You can also rearrange the combined letters in the puzzle-maker’s hometown and state to name a city about 400 miles northeast of that hometown (via Interstate-85) and a place at Cardinal Gibbons High School Baseball Field in that city where you might relax after the six-hour drive.

ENTREE #5

Name two-word a marine mammal with large paddle-like forelimbs, no hind limbs and a flat fin-like tail. Its plural form contains three and four letters. A “whimsical” alternative plural form contains three and six letters.

From this alternative plural form remove either the third and fourth letters or fourth and fifth letters.

Read the resulting string of letters in order from left to right. You’ll name a major American city.

What is it?

ENTREE #6

Name a large marine creature in two words of five and three letters.

Remove two consecutive letters in the name and read the resulting string of letters in order from left to right to form the first and last names of an artistic American in Paris.

Who is it?

ENTREE #7

Name one of the world’s most endangered marine mammals, in two words of four letters each.

Remove two consecutive letters in the name that are the postal abbreviation of a U.S. breadbasket state. Replace them with two the two initials of a U.S. president whose mug is on a mountain.

Read the resulting string of letters in order from left to right. You’ll name a major North American city.

What are the marine mammal and North American city?

ENTREE #8

🐰 Remove a state postal abbreviation from a state capital to spell a 4-letter woodland creature.

The state with the postal abbreviation is geographically one state removed from the state that is home of the capital.

📱 Remove the abbreviation for “retweet” from a large western U.S. city to spell a 6-letter country.

🥈 Remove a symbolic two-letter bit of silver from a large midwestern U.S. city to spell a California city with about one-twenty-seventh the population of the midwestern city.

🐖🐖🐖🐺 Remove 501 (as the ancient Romans wrote it) from a midwestern U.S. state capital to spell a 5-letter constructor of houses (not made of straw or sticks) that cannot be blown down merely by huffing and puffing.

🏃 Remove a prefix for “two” from a large southern U.S. port city to spell a 4-letter critter. Now remove two letters that precede “/GYN” from the same large southern U.S. port city to spell a 4-letter word for roughly one-twenty-sixth of a marathon.

🐦 Rearrange four consecutive letters in an 8-letter U.S. state capital to spell the name of a bird that is also the name of a simpleton or nut-job. The remaining letters, in order, spell the name of a subscription video-on-demand streaming service.

Dessert Menu

Stellar Dessert:

3 stars in the “rom-com cosmos”

Take the first names of two stars who acted in a 1970s romantic comedy.

Change a short vowel sound to a different
short vowel sound to name what sounds like a legendary musical star.

Who are these three stars?

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.

Friday, November 20, 2020

“Feed my lambs, shear my sheep” “Diu vivere volumine et petram!” Reversal of pain provides comfort; Go postal, give a thumbs-up, take flight; “A Tale of Two Tecies” etc.

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 3(7!) SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Reversal of pain provides comfort

Name a two-word facial ailment that causes discomfort.

Remove a three-letter man’s name from the middle.

Spell the result in reverse order to spell things that provide comfort.

What ailment is this?

What things provide comfort?

Appetizer Menu

Worldplay Appetizer:

Go postal, give a thumbs-up, take flight

ALpha and omeGA

1. An easy one: Which state capitals both begin and end with postal abbreviations of other states?

Another easy one: Which state names begin
and end with postal abbreviations of other states?

Out the window

2. Some years ago, I flew from Miami to Boston. The flight was not diverted. During this flight, I saw a foreign country. What foreign country did I see?

You win!

3. What fundamental property distinguishes the games of golf and hearts (the card game) from most other sports or games?

Thumbs up, thumbs down

4. Think of a positive verb that can be applied to judge an individual. Switch the third and sixth, and the fourth and seventh, letters.

The result sounds like a highly negative verb to judge an individual. Change the last letter to the next letter in the alphabet to obtain the exact spelling of the second term. What are these two terms?

MENU

Tonsorial Slice:

“Feed my lambs, shear my sheep”

To honor Jesus’ memory his followers plan a Sunday gathering at his Golgotha tomb. Peter prepares a tribute to deliver to the crowd.

James, noticing his somewhat shaggy pal Pete could use a haircut, gives his fellow disciple some four-word advice beginning with G, Y, E, and L.

Come Sunday, the tomb is empty. That, of course, throws a wrench of sorts into Peter’s prepared tribute to Jesus.

Thus, he must ______ his ______ ______.

The words in those blanks (beginning with R, E and E) contain the same 18 letters contained in James’ four words of advice to Peter regarding his shagginess.

What must Peter do?

What was James’ advice?

Riffing Off Shortz And Campbell Slices:

“A Tale of Two Tecies” etc.

Will Shortz’s November 15th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Bruce Campbell of Kansas City, Missouri, reads:

Name a title character from books and TV (5, 5). You can rearrange the letters to get two words describing what you can hear and do in church. What character is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Campbell Slices read:

ENTREE #1

“A Tale of Two Tecies”

Note: The following riff-off, Entree #1, is the brainchild of ecoarchitect, whose “Econfusions” feature appears regularly on Puzzleria!

Take the first and last names of an actor who portrayed a detective in books and on a pioneering TV legal drama. Rearrange the combined letters to spell the first and last names of a hard-boiled fictional detective in books and movies.

Who are this actor and private eye?

Hint: The actor’s mother was a noted gossip and donner of eye-catching hats.

ENTREE #2

A puzzle-maker is making brunch. His last name is the same as the brand name of what he is preparing.

His first name sounds like what he does to make the beverage he will have.

Who is this puzzle-maker? What is on his brunch menu?

Hint: The combined letters of the beverage and the brand name food – both which are served hot – can be rearranged to spell two words:

* The French word for an ingredient in the beverage, and

* A word the British and Americans sometimes use for a cup of the beverage.

ENTREE #3

Name a title character from TV, in seven letters, who has a less-than-electric personality.

You can rearrange the letters to get a word that is a measure of electricity.

What character is it?

ENTREE #4

Name a character who was the secretary and love interest of a title character from books and TV.

You can rearrange the five letters of this secretary’s first name and then the six letters of her last name to get a two-word term
describing the role that gadget expert Lisa McManus assumed (in two words beginning with L and T) during her gadget review segment on Season 15 of “America’s Test Kitchen” on PBS. (It was in same the episode that Julia Collin Davison demonstrated how to cook a traditional Portuguese Soup, Caldo Verde.)

What is the name of this fictional secretary?

What role did Lisa McManus assume?

ENTREE #5

Name a title character from TV who was an American pioneer folk hero, in six and five letters.

You can rearrange the combined letters to get two words:

* a synonym for an “idler” or “layabout,” and

* what time of day he might drag himself out of bed.

What character is it?

What are the synonym and time of day?

ENTREE #6

Name two title characters’ first names from the same TV show, each in seven letters. You can rearrange the letters to get three words:

* a five-letter synonym of “brash” beginning with N, and

* a two-word metaphorical phrase meaning to “make a noisy disturbance,” as a brash person might do, beginning with R and H.

What are these first names?

What are the synonym and two-word phrase?

ENTREE #7

Name a title character from a TV show, in six and five letters.

You can rearrange the letters to get the two-
word caption for the image pictured here – a six letter word beginning with S and a five-letter word beginning with A.

What character is this?

ENTREE #8

Name a title character from a TV show, in two words of six and five letters beginning with M and B.

You can rearrange the letters to get a three word question of three, four and four letters

beginning with W, B and P that the townspeople of Chamberlain, Maine might have wanted to ask Carrie White about her reason for incinerating the year-ending high school dance.

What character is it?

What might the townspeople ask?

Dessert Menu

Latin Lovers’ Dessert:

“Diu vivere volumine et petram!”

Name a prolific “adult-contemporary” solo-act singer, first and last names, who is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of a group.

Delete from the first name the letters of a
preposition that appear somewhere in the word “preposition.”

If you do it right the result is a common Latin expression used in English.

Who is this singer?

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.

Friday, November 13, 2020

E Plu Rebus Unum; “Walkin’ under water? Now we’re talkin’ miracle!” NuN, PuP, R.U.R. surround u with joy; “If I call my bluff a mountain, please call my bluff!” Is Abe the “sixth man” on this team?

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 3(7!) SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

“If I call my bluff a mountain, please call my bluff!”

Name two words, one that follows “Sierra” and another that follows “Mountain.”

Rearrange their combined letters to name a region in the United States that has no sierras or mountains to speak of... except for perhaps a few hills and bluffs.

What is this region in the United States?

Appetizer Menu

Econfusions Appetizer:

E Plu Rebus Unum: a puzzle with presidents... but without precedent on Puzzleria!

With the potential conclusion of this most unusual election, Puzzleria! is pleased to offer 26 Presidential Rebus Puzzles... a veritable Mount-Rushmore-crush of ’em!

A Rebus is a phrase derived from a combination of pictures and words. It might use a visual trick, often with a preposition in the design of the clue that is part of the answer.

There may also be a verb or noun in the actual answer, but missing in the clue, that gives direction for some action to be taken with the clue.

Anagrams may be part of a Rebus, but only if there is a verb or noun in the solution that would indicate their use. For example:

Adorb Table = Shuffleboard table (You can shuffle the letters of “board” to get “adorb”.)

Other Examples of Rebuses:

T_rn = No U Turn

Uprt = pr(into)ut

d = download

The rebus puzzles featured on this week’s Econfusions (which appear in the large image immediately below this text) should be relatively easy; all answers are US Presidents or Vice Presidents, and all but one should be familiar to all.

The clues may point to both the first and last name, or just the last name. And some answers take small liberties with syntax, all in a good cause.

Future Rebus puzzles on Econfusions may be more difficult, as the answers won’t necessarily come from a limited data set.

In the meantime, we hope this puzzle provides some sense of order.

MENU

Springfield Slice:

Is Abe the “sixth man” on this team?

Elvin, Earvin, Earl, Fred and Phil (and Abe?).

Besides being associated with Springfield, what else do the men with these names have in common?

Hint: The answer involves six numbers whose sum is 96.

Riffing Off Shortz And Berlin Slices:

NuN, PuP, R.U.R. surround u with joy

Will Shortz’s November 8th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Eric Berlin of Milford, Connecticut, reads:

There are several words that consist of the consonants N, P and R and an assortment of vowels — for example, APRON, PIONEER and EUROPEAN. But there is only one
common phrase that contains exactly two N’s, two P’s and two R’s with no other consonants. You can add vowels as needed. What phrase is this?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Berlin Slices read:

ENTREE #1

A composer of popular puzzles and a composer of popular songs share the same last name.

Rearrange the letters of the puzzle composer’s first name to name something traditionally thrown at a particular ceremony.

Rearrange the letters of the song composer’s first name to name what each of the two main participants in this ceremony is assumed to be, at least traditionally.

Who are these composers?

What is thrown at the ceremony, and what is each main participant assumed to be?

ENTREE #2

Dear Peter Falk and Vince VanGogh:

You taste and smell and feel just swell.

You’re lacking in some senses though:

Your orb of glass, your aural “hell.”

You could though half-way see or hear...

Just ____ __ ___ ___ __ ___!

The six words that complete the sestet above contain exactly two N’s, two P’s and two R’s with no other consonants.

You can add vowels as needed. What six words are these?

Hint: The six words begin with O, U, O, E, O, E.

ENTREE #3

A three-word description of a particular lute-shaped fruit – one that is hard to the touch or is still on the tree – contains exactly two N’s,
two P’s and two R’s with no other consonants.

You can add vowels as needed.

What description is this?

ENTREE #4

Lovers of Puccini can catch a performance “under the stars” of his “La Bohème” at the al fresco theater in Torre del Lago in Italy.

The venue is set like a gem on the shore of Lake Massaciuccoli, close to the Tuscan coast, on the grounds of Puccini’s villa.

(There, the composer indulged his passions for duck hunting and lavish parties.)

Describe such a performance of “La Bohème” using a phrase of three words (one of them hyphenated) beginning with A, O-A, O.

This phrase contains exactly two N’s, two P’s and two R’s with no other consonants. You can add vowels as needed.

What phrase is this?

ENTREE #5

Write a three-word caption for the image pictured here.

The caption contains exactly two N’s, two P’s and two R’s with no other consonants.

You can add vowels as needed.

What caption is this?

Hint: The three words of the caption begin with an I, O and P.

ENTREE #6

During the Depression era in the Midwest, a flim-flam con man (picture Burt Lancaster) shuffles in to a drought-ridden rural town in Kansas boasting that, in exchange for cash money, he can “make the angels in heaven cry tears of joy,” thereby saving their crops.

The townsfolk agree and begin passing the hat to raise the seed money needed in order to salvage the fruits of the seeds they planted in spring.

The flim-flammer sets up his cloud-seeding apparatus in the town square (picture a Rube Goldberg cartoon). Before setting the contraption in motion, however, he asks the town treasurer for his money, in advance!

The townsfolk begin murmuring among themselves. The treasurer, clenching the wad of bills tight in his hand, proclaims, “First we must see these heavenly tears, then we’ll ensure you’ll be not in arrears!”

The con man barks back with a (not-quite-as-poetic) five-word exclamation of his own:

“___ __ __ __ ____!”

That phrase contains exactly two N’s, two P’s and two R’s with no other consonants. You can add vowels as needed. What phrase is this?

Hint: The five words in the phrase begin with P, U, O, N and R.

Dessert Menu

“...Nobody Doesn’t Like Gali Lee” Dessert:

“Walkin’ under water? Now we’re talkin’ miracle!”

Jesus is known for walking on water.

One variety of certain ten-letter amphibian is known for walking under water.

Remove four letters from the beginning of this amphibian’s name and insert an “e” somewhere in what’s left to spell a synonym of “walk.”

What are this amphibian and synonym?

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.

Friday, November 6, 2020

Does Dan’s Dad even give a hoot? “I got ‘the call’... and the lapel pin!” Tundra and lightning rodomontade All things thin and small, etc. Cleveland rocks, Boulder rolls

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 3(7!) SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

“Does Dan’s Dad even give a hoot?”

Miles, a marathoner, and his son Dan stay overnight at Uncle Zeke’s New England farm. The farm is a haven for night owls “who” roost in the barn but “who” usually leave by morning.

Dan, alas, is terrified of owls.

Miles wakes early the next morning and leaves to compete in the Boston Marathon. The owls, alas, don’t leave, casting a pallor of panic and dread over Dan.

Zeke, concerned about Dan’s emotional state, texts Miles at the 5-mile mark of the marathon:

“Owls stayed. Dan whitens. Care?”

What deeper subliminal meaning might Uncle Zeke’s text contain?

Appetizer Menu

Unbeatable Conundrums Appetizer:

All things thin and small, etc.

⿎1. Write down something thin in four letters, followed by something small in three letters.
The result is a civilized event that typically celebrates both these things. Cross out the last letters of the thin and small things to get a word meaning uncivilized.

If instead you cross out the first letters of the thin and small things you’ll name someone often present at the event.

⿎2. Think of an automobile accessory in two words. Remove the space and swap the first and last letters. The result will be something used by an airplane.

⿎3. Think of something small that spins quickly. Move the last letter to the fourth place. The result will be an informal word for quick action.

⿎4. Think of a word meaning possessed. Drop the first letter and rearrange to name something some would say possesses people.

MENU

“May” You Play With “Will” Slice:

“I got ‘the call’... and the lapel pin!”

Name what a puzzle-solver who gets the phone call to play National Public Radio’s “The Puzzle” (with Will Shortz and Lulu Garcia-Navarro) may then be doing, figuratively.

Change the first letter of this phrase to name what the solver will then be doing, literally.

What are these two phrases?

Riffing Off Shortz Slices:

Cleveland rocks, Boulder rolls

Will Shortz’s November 1st NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle reads:

Name a well-known U.S. city in two words of five and three letters. Change the first letter of the second word to name a popular rock group. Who is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz Slices read:

ENTREE #1

The instructions for the on-air challenge that Will Shortz posed on the November 1st NPR Weekend Edition Sunday read:

Every answer today is a well-known U.S. city or town that has a two-word name. I’m going to give you rhymes for the respective parts. You name the place. For example: Tan Barber, Michigan --> ANN ARBOR.

Now do the same for Tar Barber, but in a different state that begins with an M. In this case, the answer is the pretty well-known city that was the birthplace of a U.S. vice president (who nearly assumed the presidency twice!).

What is this city?

ENTREE #2

Name a popular rock group in two words of five and three letters. Find a four-letter rhyme of the first word and four-letter rhyme of the second word.

The first rhyme reveals who Mary was and the second rhyme reveals what Mary had.

Who was Mary? What did she have?

What is the rock group?

ENTREE #3

Name a popular rock group in two words of six and three letters.

Find a six-letter rhyme of the first word and three-letter rhyme of the second word which, when written together, describe George Hamilton and other sun-worshippers.

What is this two-word description?

ENTREE #4

Name a well-known U.S. city in two words of six and five letters.

Find a six-letter rhyme of the first word which means to tell secrets about what someone else has done.

Then find a four-letter rhyme of the second word which means to give out information surreptitiously.

What is this city?

What are the two rhyming words associated with “blabbing” or “spilling the beans?”

ENTREE #5

Note: The following riff-off is a recycled Puzzleria! puzzle from 2014 that I created.

Name a popular folk-rock group. The first two words in the group’s name are also the name of a century-old candy manufacturing company.

The last word in the name, if you replace its final letter, spells a candy brand and corporation.

What is this popular group?

What are the candy company and the candy brand/corporation?

ENTREE #6

Name a well-known U.S. city in two words of five and five letters.

Find a rhyme of the first word that consists of a 3-letter word and a 2-letter word. Then find a 4-letter rhyme of the second word.

The result is a caption of the image pictured here.

What is this city?

What is the caption?

ENTREE #7

Name a well-known fictional U.S. city in two words of six and seven letters.

Find a nine-letter rhyme of the first word and five-letter rhyme of the second word which are verbs beginning with a C and an F that are synonyms of each other.

What is this fictional U.S. city?

Who are the synonymous verbs?

ENTREE #8

Name a reasonably well-known fictional U.S. city in two words of four and three letters. Find a six-letter rhyme of the first word and three-letter rhyme of the second word. These rhyming words are two of your fried chicken menu options if you are not a fan of chicken wings.

Name another reasonably well-known fictional U.S. city in two words of four and three letters that appears in the same novel as the first

fictional city. Find a five-letter rhyme of the first word that is an ingredient used in brewing a beverage that might complement your fried chicken menu selections. Find a three-letter rhyme of the second word that is a container from which the beverage may be tapped.

What are these fictional U.S. cities?

What are your two fried chicken menu options, the beverage ingredient, and the beverage container?

Dessert Menu

Squaring The Circle Dessert:

Tundra and lightning rodomontade

Take a three-word optimistic phrase that has lately been in the news.

It seems to be a well-known “lightning rod’s” favorite phrase. It contains a present participle, article and noun.

Rearrange the combined letters of these words to form three other words that are all associated with the word “tundra”:

1. an eight-letter adjective starting with “n”,

2. a six-letter noun starting with “g”, and

3. a three-letter noun starting with “i”.

What is this phrase?

What are the three words associated with “tundra”?

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.