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.