A 'Cadillac' of cryptic crosswords! A fate worse than the discount bin Working hard! (not hardly working) One’s risky business requires balance; Shot put, put up, putt out or shut up!

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

A fate worse than the discount bin!

Take the last name of an author. Ignore the first name completely.

Change the last letter to a letter that rhymes with it. Rearrange the result to spell, in two words, a fate that befell a book penned

by this author. 

What author is this?

What ill fate was suffered by the book?

Appetizer Menu

In The Pink Appetizer:

A “Cadillac” of Cryptic Crosswords!

Puzzleria! is honored and proud to present this week Patrick J. Berry’s twenty-first Crypric Crossword puzzle that has graced our cyberspace over the past half-decade. 

24 ACROSS clue

And this particular  masterpiece, In My Humble Opinion, is one of his finest yet. 

Five of the answers to the 28 clues of this cryptic crossword are tied in to an ingenious
musical theme (Patrick definitely knows his music!), and there is a sixth musical answer that has an interesting connection to these five.

27 ACROSS clue

Here are links to Patrick’s other 20 Cryptic Crosswords on Puzzleria:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

For those of you who may be new to cryptic crossword puzzles, Patrick has compiled a few basic cryptic crossword puzzle instructions regarding the Across and Down clues and their format:

2 DOWN clue

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) simply 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.”

6 DOWN clue

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!

Okay, you’ve waited long enough. What do we have to do to get you behind the wheel of this luxurious “Cadillac” of a cryptic crossword puzzle? Take it out for a spin!

ACROSS

1. Jack has to exercise to get the ultimate body(8)

5. 18 song about breaking barriers?(6)

9. Slippery ones sounding like innocent victims?(8)

10. Certainly taking shortcut to find wisdom(6)

12. American poet, possibly English author?(7)

13. Stall for time during performance, before
start of applause(7)

14. Rock group oft-welcomed, perhaps,without opening act?(9,3)

17. I ran fast, rushed to get in line to see legendary singer(5,7)

22. Terribly maimed, having left mess(7)

23. Artist’s musical instrument possesses
answer(4,3)

24. Way to make a scene?(6)

25. 18 song(assume tot’s playing piano?)(4,4)

26. Uniform fit, just the same(4,2)

27. Donkey trampled roses, one estimates(8)

DOWN

1. Shakespearean character with oddly frail hands...(8)

2. ...stirred up horrible demons without
hesitation(8)

3. Some particular gestures, most massive(7)

4. Not straight with you now–sort of having war of words through 18 song(2,4,3,3)

6. Cheese right to put on taco? It could be(7)

7. Crazy old man, some kind of nut(6)

8. Shame: Cinderella initially dropped shoe!(6)

11. Educational institutions for old teachers, so badly lacking energy?(5,7)

15. Area ain’t lost at sea? No-o!(8)

16. Musician in ridiculous garb, holding bong?(8)

18. 14’s biggest album–“Strange what we
have!”(7)

19. Girl, a little nervous, had to take final(7)

20. Imagine what’s inside a teenager(6)

21. What sheep have to rip off?(6)

MENU

Disconnected IntraVenous Slice:

One’s risky business requires balance

Take a person, first and last names, whose risky profession required both talents and balance. 

Replace the fourth letter with the sixth letter and “disconnect an IV” from the last name to
form a two-word synonym of balance. 

Who is this person and what is the synonym?

Riffing Off Shortz And Gordon Slices:

Shot put, put up, putt out or shut up!

Will Shortz’s July 25th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by puzzlemaker Peter Gordon, reads:

Think of the word for a competitor in a
particular Olympic sport. It’s a compound word with a hyphen in the middle. Remove the hyphen. What remains are two words from a different Olympic sport. What words are these?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Gordon Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Take the first name of a puzzlemaker. Replace an “e” with the state postal code of the site of an Olympiad held during the 21st Century to spell equipment used in an Olympic sport. 

Add an “e” and “i” to the second name of this same puzzlemaker and rearrange the letters to spell the present participle of a popular but somewhat controversial “sport” that has never been an official Olympic sport – although it did marginally come close to being so during the 1988 and 2002 Summer Olympic games. 

Who is this puzzlemaker?

What is the word for the equipment? 

What is the present participle of the “unofficial” official Olympic sport?

Hint: The accompanying double-image is a kind of rebus that hints at the unofficial Olympic sport.

ENTREE #2

Think of a competitor in a Track & Field Olympic event, in two words. 

The first word is an offensive  accomplishment in another Summer Olympic sport, and the second word is an offensive attempt in a third Summer Olympic sport.

What is this two-word Track & Field competitor?

What are the offensive accomplishment and second Olympic sport?

What are the offensive attempt and third Olympic sport?

ENTREE #3

Think of a particular Olympic sport. 

Move the second letter to the end and remove the first letter to form an word that describes
the apparel worn by competitors in this sport.

What are this sport and descriptive word?

ENTREE #4

Think of the word for competitors in an Olympic Track & Field event, in two words. 

The first word, in four letters, describes an athlete from a county that has never hosted the Olympics but whose athletes have often excelled nevertheless. 

Rearranging the combined letters of both words will form two words that belong in the
blanks in the following phrase: (which is what successful competitors in the event likely have): “a ____ to ________.”

What is the word for the Track & Field event competitors?

What four-letter word describes the athlete from the non-hosting country?

What words belong in the two blanks?

Hint: The words in the blanks begin with L and O, and are four and eight letters long.

ENTREE #5

Think of the word for competitors in a particular 2021 Olympic sport in Tokyo. It’s a compound word. Divide it into its two parts.

Change a letter in the first part to a “t” and remove an “a” from the second part to form
two new words: 

* “one of the fifty,” and

* “what it is that two of the fifty do not share with any of the others.” 

What is this compound word?

What is “one of the fifty?”

What do two of the fifty not share with any of the others?”

Hint: The last name of the man in the accompanying image sounds like four consecutive letters embedded near the middle of the word for the competitors.

ENTREE #6

Think of a particular Summer Olympic team sport, in two words. Rearrange the combined letters of these words to spell two new words:

* a word beginning with “a” denoting the gold-medal-winning team’s position in the final standings, and

* a word for each other team’s position in the standing vis-a-vis the gold-medal-winner.

What is this Olympic sport? 

What two words are these?

ENTREE #7

“Judging by their grimaces and contorted facial expressions, many Winter Olympic athletes are most physically ________ when they achieve their ____ performance level.”

The dozen letters that fill those blanks can be rearranged to name certain Winter Olympic
athletes in a particular event, in two words.

What words belong in the blanks?

Who are the Olympic athletes?

Hint: The words in the blanks begin with “s” and “p”; The Olympic athletes begin with “s” and “s”.

ENTREE # 8

(Note: We conclude this octet of riffs with the following gem penned by our friend Ecoarchitect.)

Name a category of bird.

Divide this  “birdy” word into two parts.

The result will be two words associated with an Olympic sport.  

What bird and words are these?

Dessert Menu

Working Class Hero Dessert:

Working hard! (not hardly working)

Take a synonym of “hard worker.” 

Rearrange its first four letters, leaving the others intact, to form a verb that this worker will likely not do. 

What are this synonym and 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.

Three’s Company: A trio of riffs; Finding a few flower girls; Straight-shooting world champs; Ragtime: Flivver-fixers and domestic-dusters; “You have the right to remain slaphappy”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

“You have the right to remain slaphappy”

If someone slaps you don’t slap back, turn the other cheek, because two wrongs don’t make a right. 

Name three things that do make a right if you turn something other than your cheek. 

What things are these? 

What do you turn?

Appetizer Menu

Music, Animals, Anatomy Appetizer:

Three’s Company: A trio of riffs

Note: In this edition of “Puzzle Fun by Bobby Jacobs,” Bobby has created clever riffs of three past National Public Radio puzzles – from June 17, 2018; May 10, 2020; and July
22, 2018:

A riff of the Vis-a-vis (Visa, Avis) NPR puzzle from June 17, 2018:

1. 📯What 7-letter last name of a famous musician has the property that the first 4 letters are the brand name of a paper product and the last 4 letters are the name of a store?

A riff of the Toyota Corolla (coyote, gorilla) puzzle from May 10, 2020:

2. 🚗🐘🐓What is a car such that if you change the first 2 letters of the make, then you will get the name of an animal, and if you change the last 2 letters of the model, then you will get the name of another animal?

A riff of the Brownie (brow knee) puzzle from July 22, 2018:

3. ✋❤👂Take the name of a body part and a slang name of another body part, and say them together. It will sound like a 7-letter food brand. What is it?

MENU

Timely Anagram Slice:

Ragtime: flivver-fixers and domestic-dusters

Anagram a noun lately in the news to form two adjectives – one describing rags used by auto mechanics and the other describing rags used by housekeepers doing dusting. 

What are the noun and the two adjectives?

Hint: The noun is associated with the number 2 taken to a certain power.

Riffing Off Shortz And Young Slices:

Finding a few flower girls

Will Shortz’s July 18th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Joseph Young of St. Cloud, Minnesota, reads:

Take the name of a flower that has a common girl’s name in consecutive letters inside it. Remove that name, and the remaining letters, in order, sound like another girl’s name. What flower is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Young Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Name a kind of shot (4 letters), things that ought not be shot by a tot (4 letters), and something in a pot that’s hot (3 letters). 

Anagram these 11 letters to form the name of a puzzle-maker.

Who is it?

ENTREE #2

Take a multisyllabic synonym of  “befuddled” or “confounded.” 

* The first name of a recent Nobel Prize winner is embedded within the synonym;

* The first three letters of the synonym, spelled backward, form the first name of a comedian whose surname is a kind of salad; 

The remaining letters in the synonym can be rearranged to spell:

* an actor who is a descendant of a famous U.S. president, and

* the first name of either (1.) an impressionist painter or (2.) an impressionist composer, both French.

What is this synonym?

Who are these five people with four different first names.

ENTREE #3

“Sylvia is an aficionado of a prolific fiction writer. She is especially fond of a one particular female lead character, and has a complete set of the volumes that feature her. Sylvia has but one volume that features _______ other lead character, a male. Alas, when Sylvia’s apartment was burglarized, she lost her _______ and also lost _______.”

Name a 10-letter flower. Switch its fifth and ninth letters. The result has a word for a common type of wordplay – in order and in consecutive letters – inside it. Remove that wordplay word, and the remaining letters, also in order, sound like the first name of a certain fiction writer, in its possessive form.

That possessive-form first name belongs in the first blank of the paragraph in italics above. The plural form of the female lead character’s surname belongs in the second blank. The male lead character’s first name belongs in the third blank.

Substitute a seven-letter word that means “small toy spheres” for the surname. Substitute a three-letter possessive pronoun and four-letter noun for the first name. 

These substitutions for the names are two examples of the common type of wordplay. 

Both this four-letter noun and the seven-letter word that means “small toy spheres” are synonyms of “composure” or “common sense.”

What flower is this?

What three words belong in the blanks?

What are the seven-letter word for small toy spheres, three-letter possessive pronoun and four-letter noun? 

What is the word for the wordplay?

ENTREE #4

Name a kind of social club for young women. Insert what might be the name of one such young woman between two conjunctions within the word.  

Remove the letter to the immediate left of the young woman’s name and the letter to the immediate right of the young woman’s name. The result is a word for one objective of the young women’s club.

What is the young women’s social club?

What may be the name of a woman in the club?

What is one objective of the young women’s club

ENTREE #5

Take the name of flowers that might be given on St. Valentine’s Day. The name has synonyms of “pain” and of “rear” (as in “pain in the rear”), each in consecutive letters, inside it. 

Remove those synonyms as well as an L. 

Use just the remaining letters – some of them more than once, others perhaps not at all – to spell a plural seven-letter word for what else might be given on St. Valentine’s Day. 

Spell as well with these remaining letters a
four-letter brand name of that seven-letter gift, although this particular brand is one that youwould not be likely to give on St. Valentine’s Day (unless, perhaps, you are a third-grader with a crush on a classmate).

What flowers are these?

What is the word for what else might be given on St. Valentine’s Day?

What is the four-letter brand name?

ENTREE #6

Take the adjectival form of a Shakespeare title character. This adjective has a common girl’s name in consecutive letters inside it. Remove that name, and the remaining letters, in order, are:

* a three-letter name used informally to address a man whose name is not known, and

* a three-letter male first name.

What are this adjective, common girl’s name, informal name, and first name?

ENTREE #7

Take the two-word name of a city in the Southwestern United States. Spell the first word backward to spell the name of a Roman god. The second word can be divided to spell two names:

* The first name that a singer (with a surname
that is also a first name) wanted people to call him, according to a song he penned, and 

* Marlo’s father’s given first name at birth.

What is this city?

Who is the singer?

What was Marlo’s father’s given first name at birth?

Dessert Menu

Timely Rackin’ ’Em Up Dessert:

Straight-shooting world champs

On a November day a few years back, a 27-year-old deer hunter from the Volunteer State pulled the trigger on his muzzleloader and shot a male whitetail deer that boasted an amazing number of points – 47 – on its rack of antlers. It was a 47-point ____!

Five judges convened at the state wildlife resources agency’s headquarters and scored each of the 47 points on the deer’s rack. Their final tally determined that the hunter’s trophy deer was the world champion.

On a July evening a few days back, a 26-year-old championsip trophy “hunter” from the Badger State fired 44 shots, hitting his “target” 75% of the time. The result was a “hunter” with 50 points. He was a 50-point ____! And, like the hunter in the Volunteer state, this Badger State trophy hunter also became a world champion.

What are the names of these Volunteer State and Badger State champions?

What four-letter word (the second one capitalized) belongs in both blanks?

How do the Badger’s 50 points differ from the Volunteer’s 47 points?

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.

Barristers, barometrics, Sporty Spice, Sun & other shiny objects; International Battle of the Brands; The miracle of the non-lyrical; “What’s the best ‘antonym’ of ‘synonym’?” Who wrote the book of love (below)?

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Who wrote the book of love (above)?

Name a book of the Bible. Rearrange four consecutive letters to spell an acclaimed author, first name. Last name is a rearrangement of the remaining letters of the book. 

Who is this author? 

What is the biblical book?

Hint: The name of a different biblical book is the title of a novel by this author.

Appetizer Menu

Delightfully Puzzley Appetizer:

Barristers, barometrics, Sporty Spice, Sun & other shiny objects

Are “cured honey-glazed hams” shiny?

🥩1. Name a three-word cure. Mix an “f” into
this “medicine.” 

Then stir up this mixture even more to form something shiny – and often pliable – that is usually found in the kitchen.

What is this cure? 

What is the shiny thing?

Hint: The shiny thing is also three words long.

Go with the “floe”

🌞2. Name a mass that “floes” – slowly down a slope, for example. 

Double a vowel and mix the result to get two words:

* what this mass is made of, and 

* what you see when the sunlight hits it just right. 

What “floes” slowly downslope?

What are the two words – for what the mass is made of, and for what you see when the sunlight hits it just right?

Sporty Spice

🏅3. Take a spice from your shelf. Place an “e” in front of it and change the last letter to a letter adjacent to it in the alphabet. Reverse the result. 

This reversal will spell, in two words, a somewhat bizarre sporting event which is an annual 48-hour competition held – true its name – at a different venue each year. 

What is the spice?

What is the sporting event?

Hint: The name of the competition is also a two-word term for a community without fixed habitation which regularly moves to and from the same areas.

A fair and sunny verdict

🌄 4. Name a seven-letter meteorological term. Place a duplicate of its first vowel immediately in front of its second vowel to name an eight-letter legal term.

What are these two terms – one associated with barometrics, the other associated with barristers?

MENU

Magnificent Slice:

“What’s the best antonym of synonym?”

Take a six-letter adjective that means “magnificent” or “best.”

Change an “e” to an “a” and rearrange the last four letters. The result is a six-letter antonym
of the adjective that, in a particular context, is instead a synonym of the adjective. 

What is this adjective? 

What is the adjective’s antonym that, in a certain context or situation, can also be the adjective’s synonym?

Riffing Off Shortz And Collins Slices:

International Battle of the Brands

Will Shortz’s July 11th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Peter Collins of Ann Arbor, Mich., reads:

Think of a country. Embedded in consecutive letters is a well-known brand name. The first, second, eighth and ninth letters of the country, in order, spell a former competitor of that brand. Name the country and the brands.

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Collins Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Think of a puzzle-maker and the town in which he lives, in four total words. Embedded in consecutive letters is nothing at all, really. But rearrange the score of letters in the name and the town to spell:

* the kind of care an expectant mother receives...

* care, that is, that ends when the baby is ____,

* the name given to the baby the parents (who met while performing in a production of “Hamlet”) if it is a boy, and

* the name given to the baby the parents (who share a love for the novel titled “In Desert and Wilderness”) if it is a girl.

Who are this puzzle-maker and his home town?

What is the mother’s care, what the baby “is” when that care ends, and the two possible baby names?

ENTREE #2

Think of a country. Embedded in consecutive letters are three letters that (if you double the third letter) spell a loving gesture that often accompanies a farewell. 

The first, second, eighth and ninth letters of the country, in order, spell a hyphenated farewell.

Name the country, the gesture and the farewell.

ENTREE #3

Think of a country. Embedded in consecutive letters are two well-known brand names – of an air-freshener and garbage bags. Generic summer soft drinks are also embedded.

Consecutive letters of the country also spell a deodorant brand and a record label on which the titles “Hang on Sloopy,”  “I Want Candy” and “Brown Eyed Girl” appeared.

Name the country and the brands.

ENTREE #4

Name a country. Embedded in consecutive letters is the first name of a Midwestern housewife who wrote a syndicated newspaper humor column describing suburban home life for more than three decades. Her last name can be broken into two words:

* what this country proceeded to do during a May 10, 1940 raid and invasion of Holland,

and

* the first word of a 3-word village in the Dutch province of Gelderland, not far from Arnhem, that was likely a victim of this invasion.

What is the country?

Who is the columnist? 

What did the country do and what village was a likely victim of it?

ENTREE #5

Name a country. Switch its fifth and ninth letters. The last six letters of this result spell a dish that is popular in the country.

Name the same country. Again switch its fifth
and ninth letters. Change its fourth letter to a “c” and its seventh letter to an “o”.

The result is a garnish one might apply to the dish.

What is the country?

What is the dish popular in the country?

What is the garnish?

ENTREE #6

Name a country. Embedded in consecutive letters is a well-known middle name of an American. Remove it, leaving six letters.  

Take these six letters. Lop the top of the second letter and replace this lopped top with a tittle. Move the fourth letter between the first letter and lopped letter. 

Change the sixth letter to an “n”. The result is the surname of the American with this middle name. 

What is the country?

Who is the American?

ENTREE #7

Take the former, colonial name for an island group in the South Pacific. Its final six letters in order spell what the Israelites Rachel and Mary were in relation to Jacob and Joseph, respectively. The 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 2nd and 3rd letters of the colonial name spell a
synonym of “Israelite.”

What is the former name of this island group?

What is its current name?

What were Rachel and Mary in relation to Jacob and Joseph.

What is the synonym of “Israelite?”

Hint: The current name for the South Pacific island group shares five of its seven letters in common with the word “Vacuum.”

ENTREE #8

The 6th, 7th and 2nd letters of of a country spell a synonym of the first five letters of the former name of that country.

What are the current and former names of the country?

What are the synonyms?

ENTREE #9

Name a country. Embedded in consecutive letters is a not-so-well-known item you might find in a church. 

Now name a self-governing British Territory. Embedded in consecutive letters at the end is
a more-well-known item you might find in a church.

What are this country and territory?

What are the two church items?

Hint: The church items begin with the same letter.

Dessert Menu

Edit-Out-All-The-Words Dessert:

The miracle of the non-lyrical

Take a person, first and last names, who communicates through song lyrics. 

Remove one letter and move the space to a position between the fourth and fifth letters of the result. 

Add to the end of all these letters a five-letter word that can mean either “to measure precisely” or “to estimate,” then switch the order of two consecutive letters in the word.

The result is a form of non-verbal communication.

Who is this lyrical communicator?

What is the form of non-verbal communication? 

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.