Barbecued riffs and Riffle Chips! Putting the Carte before Blanche; Dog-eat-dog "suits" & dogfighters; Garage bands & garbage disposals “Potent potables for 400, please, Alex”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week: (Blue Plate Special)

Dog-eat-dog “suits” & dogfighters

Take the nickname of a particular self-proclaimed businessman. 

The first five letters of this nickname spell an article of clothing an early fighter pilot might wear. Its remaining letters spell a word that applies to such a pilot who is particularly proficient. 

Who is this businessman?

What is his nickname?

Appetizer Menu

Ad-liberation Appetizer:

Barbecued riffs and Riffle Chips!

Note: The four puzzles below are Plantsmith’s
ingenious “Riff-offs” of puzzles created by (1) Ben Austin, (2) LegoLambda, (3) Bobby Jacobs, and (4) Al Gori. 

(A “Riff-off” is a kind of “creative homage” to the original maker of the puzzle – one that often takes the original puzzle to a new level... as is the case in these four excellent “riffs” composed by Plantsmith.)

“Good Vibratos?”

1. ♭♯ Name a city in the southern United States.

Change the first letter to the letter one place later in the alphabet stream, and change the eighth letter to the letter 14 places earlier in that same abecedarian stream.

Place a hyphen between the sixth and seventh letters, then delete the fifth letter.

This hyphenated result – when followed by the first name of a past major league slugger with a letter appended to the end – is a vocal technique employed by singing groups including the Roches, Beatles, Beach Boys, Mamas and the Papas, Eagles, Buffalo Springfield, Three Dog Night, Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul & Mary and Crosby, Stills & Nash, among many others.

What is this U.S. city?

What is the vocal technique?

Hint: The vocal technique appears in the lyrics of a hit song sung by one of the groups listed above.

Lungs! vocal chords! “kisser!”

2. 👂✋🦶 Take a famous singer whose first name sounds like two body parts.

In the singer’s surname, drop the last letter and change one vowel to a different vowel. The result is something that is worn on a third body part.

Who is this singer? 

What are the three body parts? 

What is worn on the third body part?

“I’m your vehicle, Baby...”

3. 🚙👶 Think of a popular ballad from the 1960’s. Change one vowel to another vowel to get a vehicle. 

What are this ballad and vehicle?

“Sis-Boom-Cinema! Sis-Boom-Sitcom!”

4. 📣The title of a 21st-Century movie contains two words. The title of a 20th-Century sitcom contains three words. (Ignore the “The” that is the first word in the sitcom’s title.)

The first word of movie and second word of the sitcom begin with the same two letters in the same order.

The third word of the sitcom is the plural form of the movie’s second word.

Drop the last two letters of the first word in movie title and put a three-letter pronoun in front of the result get a phrase often heard at sporting events.

What are the titles of this movie and sitcom?

What is the phrase heard at sporting events?

MENU

Gamy Rotgut Slice:

“Potent potables for 400, please, Alex”

Name a game. 

All but its final five letters spell ingredients in a particular potable. 

All but the first three letters of this game spell a more potent potable. 

What is this game?

What are the two potables?

Riffing Off Shortz And Sieger Slices:

Putting the Carte before Blanche

Will Shortz’s May 15th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by John Sieger of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, reads:

Name a famous living movie star. Insert an R in the middle of the first name, and drop the last two letters of the last name. You’ll get a familiar French phrase. What is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Sieger Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Name a puzzle-maker from the Badger State. 

Move the letters of his first name six places later in the alphabet to spell an option in football.

In the six-letter surname, replace the third and fourth letters with an “n”, then swap the second and third letters of this result. Move these five letters 13 places later, or earlier, in the alphabet to spell the surname of a person who is famous for playing football in the Badger State.

Who are this puzzle-maker and person who is famous for playing football in the Badger State?

What is the football option?

ENTREE #2

Name a living movie star with two Oscar nominations. Swap the first two and final two letters in his four-letter first name (for example, “GARY” would become “RYGA”). Place a space in the middle of this result, and add an “re” to the end of the letter-pair that is now at the end.

The result is a two-word Latin expression that means “by (surname of the movie star),” as opposed to an opposite Latin expression that means “in fact” or “in practice.”

Who is this movie star?

What is the two-word Latin expression?

ENTREE #3

Name a famous living television and movie star. 

Insert an R in the middle of the five-letter first name, replacing the vowel that had been there. The result is a synonym of “loquacious.”

Change the initial letter of the nine-letter surname to the letter one place earlier in the alphabet. 

Invert the ninth letter. Replace the fifth letter with a duplicate of this inverted ninth letter. Finally, move the seventh letter to the end. 

The result spells a second synonym of “loquacious.”

Who is this movie star?

What are the two synonyms of “loquacious?”    

ENTREE #4

Name an American singer, songwriter and musician. 

Insert an R in the interior of the first name to spell a U.S. institution commanded by a man that shared her surname.

Who are this woman and man?

Hint: The singer’s middle name is the surname of the man’s rival.

ENTREE #5

Name a American sportscaster who was also a former professional baseball player. Insert an R in the interior of his first name, and drop the first two letters of the last name. You’ll get two words.

The second word is what the person wielding a knife at the Thanksgiving table becomes.

The first word is what the person might do to gristle or fat in the process of the knife-wielding.

Who is this sportscaster.

What does the knife-wielder become? What might the person do to gristle or fat?  

ENTREE #6

Name a very successful past NFL coach whose first name is associated with “dressing.” The first three letters of his surname sound like an article of clothing. 

The last four letters of his surname spell a kind of skirt.

Who is this coach?

What are the article of clothing and kind of skirt?

ENTREE #7

Take the first and last names of the “Queen of Hugs.” 

Anagram the first name to spell a “dirty word.” 

If you apply a spade or shovel to this word the result will likely be the surname of this “Queen.” 

Who is this “Queen of Hugs?”

What is the “dirty word?”

Dessert Menu

Gamy Ingredient Dessert:

Garage bands & garbage disposals

“If you open a ___ of ____ and leave it unrefrigerated it will eventually begin to ____, and you will likely pour it down your garbage disposal _____ pipe.”

Take the letters in the name of a past American musical duo, in four words, then rearrange them to fill in those four words that contain three, four, four and five letters.

What are the missing words and the name of the musical duo?

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.