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.