Eco’s miscellany of mystification; A not-at-all-odd American woman; Vehicular “TV-Guide-o-cide!” Making the mathematical mechanical; “Please don’t squeeze the arm, chin!”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

A not-at-all-odd American woman

Take the first name of a famous American woman. Replace its last letter with an antonym of “odd.” 

Anagram the result to get a word associated with this American woman’s last name. 

Who is this woman?

Appetizer Menu

Econfusing Appetizer:

Eco’s miscellany of mystification

1. Name a word for what you might use to expand something. That same word is also what you might use to reduce something. 

Note: This word isn’t something like a pump – one that is used to pump water into a swimming pool, or to pump sewage out of a septic tank. The “expansion” and “reduction"  functions of the word we are seeking are completely different from each other.

2. Insert  a vowel within the full name of a well-known actress. Then remove the first four letters of her first name and the last letter of her last name.

The result will be the name of a world capital. 

Who is the actress and what is the capital?

3. Name a breed of dog. 

Reverse the last two letters (or change the vowel sound) of the last syllable, and the result will be a well-known office supply brand. 

What is the dog, and what is the brand?

4. Name something you might use for an external problem. Add one letter somewhere in the word for something you might use for an internal problem. Change that letter to get something you might use for an internal or an external problem. What are the three words?

5. The first and last name of a well-known thespian – one who appeared on stage, film
and television – are the names of two famous opponents. 

Who is this thespian?

Who are these opponents?

MENU

Transformative Slice:

Making the mathematical mechanical

Name something mathematical, in two words. 

Change the first and fourth letters of its second
word to an “e” and “a”. 

Remove a numerical prefix from within the first word. 

Remove the space between the words. 

The result is something mechanical. 

What are these two things?

Riffing Off Shortz And Hochbaum Slices:

“Please don’t squeeze the arm, chin!”

Will Shortz’s February 20th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Alan Hochbaum of Duluth, Georgia, reads:

Name a part of the human body. Insert the name of another part of the human body. You’ll get a brand name found at the supermarket. What is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Hochbaum Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Take a five-letter synonym of “humbug” or “nonsense.” Take also a three-letter interjection of “disdain” or “contempt” that one may make upon hearing such humbug. 

Change the middle letter in the synonym to a letter that often makes the same sound as that replaced letter. Move the last letter of the interjection to the beginning of the interjection.

Insert the altered interjection somewhere within the altered synonym.

The result is the surname of a puzzle-maker whose first name, spelled backward, is the name of Simba’s spouse.

Who is this puzzle-maker?

What are the synonym and interjection?

ENTREE #2

Name a three-letter object. It can be inside a three-letter or seven-letter thing, both which end in “-en” and are synonyms. You might find the three-letter object within a container in a still-life painting.

Now take a six-letter past-tense verb for what Ishmael Boorg and “the Dude” did. The still-life painting container is also the present-tense form of what Boorg and “the Dude” did.

Insert the three-letter object within the past-tense verb to form an adjective that describes many a broncobuster.

What are the object and the two synonymous places where it might be?

What did Boorg and “the Dude” do?

What adjective describes many a broncobuster?

Hint: The three-letter object rhymes with the first syllable of a noun that describes Ishmael Boorg or “the Dude.”

ENTREE #3

Take a six-letter synonym of “to make.” Insert within it something found in the
center of drupaceous things, like a cherry or peach, to make a nine-letter verb that means “to make a crackling sound,” like a Rice Krispie, for example.

What are this six-letter synonym and nine-letter verb? 

What is found in the center of something drupaceous?

ENTREE #4

Dean was depressed, downcast and dejected, so he foolishly ______ a quart of bourbon. Insert a synonym of “center” near the center of the six-letter verb that belongs in that blank. 

The result, which begins with a “d,” is a synonym of “depressed, downcast and dejected.”

What are the verb in the blank and the synonyms of “center” and “depressed?”

ENTREE #5

Name, in four letters, a crispy or soft corn or wheat tortilla that is folded or rolled and stuffed with a mixture (as of seasoned meat, cheese, and lettuce) that one might enjoy for breakfast. 

Alas, a troublesome and mischievous mythological being similar to a fairy or demon is just tiny enough to be hiding within the tortilla along with the stuffed mixture.

Mix up the three letters in this being and insert them in the center of the four-letter tortilla. 

The result is a brand of breakfast punch with which you might wash down the tortilla and tiny demon. 

What are this breakfast tortilla, tiny demon and punch?

ENTREE #6

Take a two-word brand name found at the supermarket. Remove the first two and final two letters from the brand. The remaining letters spell a two-word description of either:

1. Turkey, Morocco, Ireland or Mauritania, because they consume so much tea, or

2. China, Brazil, Mexico or Germany, because they produce so much beer.

Now take the two pairs of letters you removed. Place them side-by-side to form a verb that is the root of the word that precedes “... the sick” in The Classic Hippocratic Oath.

A synonym of this verb is another verb for a process that is applied to products bearing the two-word supermarket brand – a process that preserves the products with salt and nitrites.

What is this brand name? 

What is the synonym of the 4-letter verb formed from the beginning and ending letter-pairs of the brand?

ENTREE #7

Take a two-word brand name found at the supermarket. The first two letters and last three letters, side-by-side, spell a word associated with kindness, being and milk.

The four remaining letters, in order, if you advance each of them two places later in the circular alphabet, spell a type of thin, flat bread that can be separated to form a pocket that you can use to hold leftovers from the brand-name supermarket item.

What is the two-word brand name?

What is the word associated with kindness, being and milk?

What is the type of thin, flat bread?

ENTREE #8

Name parts of the human body that you have more than 650 of. Take the etymolological root of each such body part, which is a five-letter English word for a certain small creature.

Insert seven letters within this English word, then divide the result into two words of seven and five letters. 

These words form a brand name beverage found at the supermarket.

The seven letters you inserted can be anagramed to form a three-letter substance and a four-letter place where that substance would surely melt.

What are this brand name beverage, 650 body parts and small creature?

What are the substance and place it would melt?

ENTREE #9

Name an eight-letter hyphenated brand of a product you pour or squeeze. The first two and last two letters, side-by-side, spell product whose brand names include: Mommy’s Time Out, Middle Sister, Arrogant Frog, Bohemian Highway, Red Guitar, Running With Scissors, Bearitage, Cat’s Pee on a Gooseberry Bush, Goats Do Roam In Villages, Ten Minutes By Tractor, Rocket Science and Mad Housewife.

The remaining letters, in order, if you advance them 12 places later on in the circular alphabet, spell an Italian mountain.

What are this brand name and mountain?

Hint: Place after the brand name something the mountain is famous for spewing. The result is a British rock band that achieved success in the early-to-mid-1970s.

ENTREE #10

Note: The following NPR riff-off puzzle is the brainchild of our friend Plantsmith, whose “Garden of Puzzley Delights” puzzle feature appears regularly on Puzzleria!

Name a well-known beverage brand. Move its first letter to the end and change a vowel to another vowel. The result is a word for body
parts associated with a second beverage.

What are the beverage brand, body parts and second beverage?

Hint: The beverage brand begins with a four-letter word that sometimes precedes a small spherical legume, and ends with a five-letter pome fruit.

Dessert Menu

Edutainment Dessert:

Vehicular “TV-Guide-o-cide!”

Name an edutainment vehicle, as seen on TV.
 Replace a vowel with a different vowel. 

The first half of the result spells a vehicle. The second half, if rearranged, also spells a vehicle. 

What are these three vehicles?

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.

Zipping up your denims; Hydrocarbons and hair care; “Meanwhile, back at the ranch...” Lizzy “the busy vandal” Borden? Hank Erin and Aaron go braugh

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Hydrocarbons and hair care

There is a popular seven-letter hair care product brand name that begins with a P.

Anagram the name and you’ll get a hydrocarbon that does not begin with a P. 

What is this hydrocarbon?

Appetizer Menu

Teeth-Gnashing Appetizer:

Zipping up your denims

If you take the words WIDE and EROS and combine them together like a zipper – i.e., alternating letters from the two words – then the result is WEIRDOES.  

Find another pair of four-letter words that can be “zipped together” to name an eight-letter
word associated with most denim jeans.

Hint: Both four-letter words are also associated with denim jeans.

MENU 

Axiomatic Slice:

Lizzy “the busy vandal” Borden?

A vandal named Lizzie “axes” the final letter from a traffic sign. The result is a phrase that seems axiomatic.

What did the original traffic sign read before Lizzie the vandal did her “hatchet-job”?

Riffing Off Shortz And Wilson Slices:

Hank Erin and Aaron go braugh    

Will Shortz’s February 13th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Hannah Wilson of Chicago, Illinois, reads:

Think of a common boy’s name and a common girl’s name that are pronounced the same even though they have only two letters in common. And if you reverse the boy’s name, phonetically you’ll get another common girl’s name. What names are these?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Wilson Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Think of the first name of a puzzle-maker that is pronounced the same whether you spell it forward or backward. 

And if you reverse the first three letters of this name, followed by a space, you’ll get the first two words of a seven-word song title that ends with “...Kiss Him Goodbye.” 

The puzzle-maker shares a surname with recording artists named Brian, Jackie, Ann and Nancy, and a ballplayer named Hack.

Who is this puzzle maker?

What is the song title?

ENTREE #2

Think of a common boy’s name and a common girl’s name that are pronounced the same even though they have only two letters in common. 

And if you reverse the boy’s name you’ll get the surname of a man named Jeff who played
in the National Football League (Bears and Seahawks),  World Football League (Hawaiians) and United States Football League (Federals). 

What names are these?

Hint: If you reverse the order of letters in the girl’s name you will get... the same girl’s name.

ENTREE #3

Think of a common boy’s name and a not-so-common girl’s name that are pronounced the same even though they have only two letters in common. 

And if you reverse the girl’s name you’ll get a synonym of “cob.”

What names are these?

What synonym is this?

ENTREE #4

Place a common boy’s name that is a homophone of an automobile part in front of a common girl’s name that is also a virtual assistant technology largely based on a Polish speech synthesiser. 

The result is a palindrome.

What names are these?

ENTREE #5

Take a two-word negative reply a private might make to a sergeant followed by a positive cry a cheerleader might make. 

Spell these eight letters in reverse. The result is the first name of an actor. It is also the last name of a U.S. president. 

The middle name of this president and the last name of this actor form the name of an
automotive pioneer.

What are the two-word negative private’s reply and the positive cheerleader’s cry?

Who are this actor, president and pioneer?

ENTREE #6

Think of an not-so-common boy’s or girl’s first name that is shared by a Hall of Fame NFL quarterback and a character in an Ambrose Bierce short story.

Spell the name backward to form a negative adverb and an informal word for “yes,” each containing three letters.

Who are this quarterback and Bierce character?

What are the negative adverb and informal “yes”?

ENTREE #7

Think of an uncommon boy’s name that is the first name of a famous car-maker. 

Divide it in half. Add a letter to the end of the first half and add two letters to the end of the second half.
The result, in two words, is one of two areas on a certain playing field.

The letters you added can be rearranged to spell the first name of the insurance salesman in the movie “Groundhog Day.”

What two first names are these?

What is the playing field area?

Note: Our friend Ecoarchitect has chipped in with a pair of riff-offs of this week’s National Public Radio puzzle challenge. They appear below. Tune in to next week’s February 25 Puzzleria! for Ecoarchitect’s regular “Econfusions” package of puzzles.

ENTREE #8

A well known actress and actor have first names that are homophones, but only share one letter. 

Coincidentally, they were born exactly five months apart. Who are they?

ENTREE #9 

Take the first name of a person who runs something we are familiar with.

Move the third letter to the front, and phonetically you could get something that describes how one runs things.

Dessert Menu

North Forty On The Potomac Dessert:

“Meanwhile, back at the ranch...”

Replace a vowel of a political tactic with two letters often seen at the end of adverbs. 

The result is a word for an unlikely job on a ranch. 

What are the tactic and unlikely job?

Hint: The word for the unlikely job on a ranch does not appear in dictionaries.

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. 

A dozen roses, a dozen dates; Ovine, feline, feminine thespian; Onomatopoeia and Gridirony; “Trekfones” and Klingon lingo, or (toy’wI’ tlhInganpu’); Lima, koala, albacore, Cairo, Burma; Cupid, comedy, cozy warm feelings

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

A dozen roses, a dozen dates

Valentine’s Day shares a particular distinction
with only eleven other dates of the year.

What are these other eleven dates?

What distinction do these dozen dates share?

Hint: Aileron atilt

Appetizer Menu

Heartbeatable Conundrums Appetizer:

Cupid, comedy, cozy warm feelings

“Kudos, Cupid!”

1.💘 Think of a six letter word related to something Cupid does with his arrows. 

Reverse the first three letters and the next two (123456 becomes 321546).

The result is a term of appreciation

you might hear on Valentine’s Day.

Social “comedia”

2. 🤣Think of something you might have done on social media. 

Double the first letter, then reverse the first four letters. 

The result is something a comedian might have done during a good set.

Warm all over

3. 🔥Think of an emotion that makes you feel warm inside, in seven letters. 

Move the first letter to the end to name something that makes you feel warm on the outside.

MENU

Super Bowlful Slice:

Onomatopoeia and Gridirony

Name a somewhat obscure slang onomatopoeic word associated with a piece of football equipment, in five letters. 

Remove its first letter to form a second onomatopoeic word associated with that same piece of football equipment. 

What are these two words and piece of equipment?

Hint: The first onomatopoeic word that is associated with the piece of football equipment begins with a “d”, and might have been coined by John Madden.

Riffing Off Shortz Slices:

“Trekfones” and Klingon lingo, or (toy’wI’ tlhInganpu’)

Will Shortz’s February 6th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle reads:

What language in seven letters can be spelled using the letters on three consecutive keys on a telephone? It’s a language you would probably recognize, but not one that many
people can speak.

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz Slices read:

ENTREE #1

What puzzle-maker, in ten letters, can be spelled using the letters on six consecutive keys on a telephone? 

It’s a puzzle-maker you would probably recognize.

Who is this puzzle-maker?

Hint: The puzzle-maker’s name can be
anagrammed to form a four-letter noun for “a very clever or skillful person” (which this puzzle-maker is) and a six-letter verb meaning “sings loudly and celebrates in song” (a musical celebration of which this puzzle-maker is deserving).

ENTREE #2

What language in eight letters can be spelled using the letters on keys numbered 4, 6 and 7 on a telephone? 

It’s a language you would probably recognize, and is spoken by approximately 1,000 Native Americans today who live largely in Nevada and Wyoming. Idaho State University offers classes that teach this language.

What is this language? 

ENTREE #3

What 135-year-old language in nine letters can be spelled using the letters on keys numbered 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8 on a telephone? 

It’s a language you would probably recognize, one that many people (indeed, a tenth of a million) can speak.

What is this language?

Hint: An anagram of the language is a synonym of “to represent” or “to assume some character or capacity without authority and with fraudulent intent.”

ENTREE #4

Translate a word for well-known six-letter language into Pig Latin. 

The first two syllables of this three-syllable translation sound like a kind of weasel. 

The third syllable spells an Old World bird of the crow family.

What are this language, kind of weasel, and bird?

ENTREE #5

Take a noun for a gathering of people for a specific purpose – like making quilts for example. Translate it into Pig Latin. 

The result sounds like a virtual gathering of people for the purpose of buying and selling.

What are this noun and virtual gathering of buyers and sellers?

ENTREE #6

What eight-letter noun for a psychedelic drug user can be spelled using the letters on three consecutive keys on a telephone

ENTREE #7

What three-syllable synonym of “viscid” can be spelled by using the letters on three consecutive keys on a telephone?

ENTREE #8

What ten-letter language can be spelled using the letters on the 2, 3, 4 and 6 keys on a telephone? 

This South Slavic language was declared its
namesake nation’s official language in 1945. The language is written using the Cyrillic alphabet.

ENTREE #9

What six-letter language can be spelled using the letters on the 2, 3, 4 and 5 keys on a telephone? 

It’s a language you would probably recognize.

ENTREE #10

What five-letter language can be spelled using the letters on the 2, 3, 4 and 5 keys on a telephone? 

Hint: It’s a object-oriented programming language that was developed at the University of Washington.

Dessert Menu

LVI Dessert:

Ovine, feline, feminine thespian

Take the plural forms of two creatures – one ovine in four letters, the other feline in seven letters.

Anagram the combined letters to spell a two-word description of a legendary past actress – a description that applies especially during the 1930s when she was making movies in her native county.

Who are these creatures and the description of the actress?

Blankety-Blank Dessert:

Lima, koala, albacore, Cairo, Burma

Each pair of blanks in each of the six sentences below contains the same word.

1. You can find Lima, Peru on a ___, but you can also find a ___ in Lima, Peru.

2. You could find a polar bear, koala and grizzly on the ___, but you can also find the ___ in a polar bear, koala and grizzly.

3. You can find a porpoise, albacore and jellyfish in a ___, but you can also find a ___ in a porpoise, albacore and jellyfish.

4. You can find Rabat, Las Vegas and Cairo in an _____, but you can also find an _____ in
Rabat, Las Vegas and Cairo.

5. You can find Persia, Siam and Burma on an old map of ____, but you can also find ____ in Persia, Siam and Burma.

6. You can find a 365-day year, thirty-percent land-surface and seven continents on _____, but you can also find _____ in a 365-day year, thirty-percent land-surface and seven continents.

Hint: If you solve just one of the six sentences the five others will topple like dominoes.

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, soup, “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 onWednesdays 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.