Norman Invasion, 1066... NormanD-Day Invasion, 1944; Prayer of the drunken sea captain; Wi-Fi, FYI, means Wireless Fidelity; “A good puzzle answer is hard to find” Title-holders, hyphens and homophones

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

“A good puzzle answer is hard to find”

Name something that is proverbially hard to find. 

This “hard-to-find” thing begins with something
associated with eyes, and ends with something associated with thumbs. 

Can you find it?

Appetizer Menu

D-Day Memorial Appetizer:

Norman Invasion, 1066... NormanD-Day Invasion, 1944

Note: D-Day Anniversary, observed annually on June 6, commemorates World War II operations which led to the liberation of occupied Europe.

The four puzzles below are intended to draw respectfully from facts surrounding participants in World War II.

Capitals & nationalities within the names

1. Two famous World War II adversaries both had memorable nicknames. But this puzzle concerns their real first and last names. 

Replace the 7th letter of the longer name with the 8th letter of the shorter name. Now the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th, and 12th letters of the longer name, in order left to right, spell the nationality of the person with the shorter name. 

ROT-5 the 3rd letter of the shorter name, move that new letter to the front of the name, move the last letter of the surname into the vacated place, and delete one of the repeated letters in the surname. Now the remaining letters of the shorter name, in order left to right, spell the names of two World War II Axis capital cities. 

Who are these adversaries? 

What are the nationality and the capital cities?

Note: “ROT-5” means to replace a letter with the one 5 places later in the alphabet, so A becomes F, B becomes G, etc. 

“The Death Squad” demolition platoon

2. Take a 10-letter word for what many practice during war. Replace a vowel that appears twice in this word with a duplicate of the word’s seventh letter. Rearrange the resulting letters to make the first and last names of a person who spent part of World War II in a demolition platoon nicknamed “The Death Squad,” and who later drew on that experience to create fantastic stories. 

What is the word, and who is the person? 

III who served during WWII

3. Take a two-word description of the highest collar rank insignia Lyndon Johnson or Richard Nixon would have worn during World War II. Drop one of the only repeated consonant in that description. Rearrange the remaining letters to get a one-word description of what aviator George H. W. Bush might have called a submarine he was once aboard. 

What are those descriptions?

Hint: “Join the Navy; but, beware the colorful herring.”

Military commands, neutrality & surnames 

4. Name two U.S. military officers who held major commands during World War II, and who eventually attained the top post in their respective services. Their surnames end in the same two letters in the same order. The first three letters of one surname and the first two letters of the other surname can be combined and arranged to spell the name of a country which officially espoused neutrality or non-belligerency during World War II. Who are the officers, and what is the country?

MENU

World Leaders Slice:

Title-holders, hyphens and homophones

Take a homophone of the second word in a world leader’s title and a hyphenated term describing the geographic origin of the person currently holding that title.

Anagram the combined letters of this
homophone and hyphenated term to spell the first and last names of a past U.S. president.

Who is this president?

What is the world leader’s title?

What are the homophone and hyphenated term?

Note: Our intended answer for the geographic origin of the person currently holding the world leader’s title is somewhat controversial.

Riffing Off Shortz And Raymond Slices:

Wi-Fi, FYI, means “Wireless Fidelity”

Will Shortz’s May 29th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Christopher Raymond of Poughkeepsie, New York (based on something his seven-year-old son Charlie noticed), reads:

Take an abbreviation found in text messages. Reverse the first two letters, and the result sounds like something else often found in text messages. What are these things?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Raymond
Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Add an “r” to the hometown of a puzzle-maker. 

Eight letters of this result can be rearranged to spell a noun for an extinct genus of small equid ungulates with fourteen toes. 

This noun consists of a two-letter root word meaning “dawn” and a six-letter root word meaning “horse.”

The remaining letters of this “hometown-plus-‘r’” result can be rearranged to spell an adjective describing these root words.

What is this hometown?

What are the noun and adjective?

ENTREE #2

Take the first name of an actor who portrayed Superman in movie theaters. Add an “s” to the end of his surname to spell the surname of an actor, named George, who portrayed Superman on television.

George’s surname is the same as that of a U.S. Air Force four-star general who served as the Commander in Chief of the North American Air Defense Command as well as Commander in Chief of the Continental Air Defense Command from 1966 to 1969.

George’s surname is also the same as that of a person who served as a writer, script coordinator and director, respectively, for the
TV series “Onyx Equinox,” “Westworld” and “Peacekeepers.”

The first name of the actor who portrayed Superman in movie theaters and the first name of the four-star general are the first name and surname of a puzzle-maker.

That puzzle-maker’s son has the same first name as the TV series writer, script coordinator and director.

Who are the two actors who portrayed Superman?

Who are the four-star general and TV series writer/director?

Who are the puzzle-maker and his son?

ENTREE #3

Take an abbreviation found in text messages. Reverse the first two letters. 

Take two letters that appear in the first fifth of the alphabet. Place one at the beginning and one at the end of this altered text-message abbreviation, then add a space someplace. 

The result spells Robba’s two-word exclamation of admonition to her hubby, Denton True, in their Ohio home after he forgot to take the garbage out!

What is this text message abbreviation? 

What did Robba say to admonish Denton True?

Note: The name “Robba” is spelled “Roba” on her and Denton’s gravestone. 

ENTREE #4

Take an abbreviation found in text messages which is a request by the texter for further information at a later time. 

Reverse the first two letters, and the result is a
monogram of a Nobel Prize winner who was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi.

What is this abbreviation?

Who is the Nobel Prize winner?

ENTREE #5

Take a four-letter text-message abbreviation one might post as a response to a humorous text. 

Reverse the last two letters, and the result is the surname of the developer of an alternative medicine marketed with unproven claims of various health benefits, and based how the human body’s “energy field” can benefit when aligned with the Earth’s gravitational field.

What is this four-letter text-message abbreviation?

Who is the developer of the alternative medicine?

Hint: The developer’s surname, spelled backward, followed by the developer’s first name, spells a U.S. state.

ENTREE #6

Take a three-letter business text abbreviation that may specify a deadline time. 

Reverse the first two letters, and the result is an abbreviation of a voluminous lexicon.

Reverse the last two letters of that abbreviation, and the result is a word for a lyric poem.

Reverse the first two letters of that abbreviation, and the result is a “cervine generic surname.”

Reverse the last two letters of that abbreviation, and the result is a word heard in a Pre-Vatican-Two church that sounds like a hyphenated word heard on a banana boat.

What are this:

* business text abbreviation, 

* abbreviation of a voluminous lexicon,

* lyric poem, 

* “cervine generic surname,” and

*  word heard in a Pre-Vatican-Two church or on a banana boat?

ENTREE #7

Take a four-letter abbreviation found in text messages for what sounds like a prayer one might say on the day after a particular holiday – a day when the fridge is full of cold turkey and other leftovers. Move the first letter of that abbreviation to the end to spell a noun that workers may use to describe the weekend, especially an extended holiday weekend. 

The title of a O Henry short story contains this noun.

What is this text message abbreviation? 

What noun may workers use to describe the weekend?

ENTREE #8

Take an abbreviation found in text messages. Move the first letter to the end to spell the French word for a form of the English word for
which the middle letter in the abbreviation stands. 

What is this abbreviation?

What is the French word?

ENTREE #9

Take an abbreviation found in text messages. Reverse the first two letters. Replace the first letter of this result with the only letter in the alphabet with which it rhymes.  

Place an East Coast state postal abbreviation at the beginning of this altered text-message
abbreviation, then add a hyphen someplace.

The final result is a genre in literature and cinema.

What is this text message abbreviation?

What is the genre from literature and cinema?

Dessert Menu

Shipwrecked Life-Rafters Dessert:

Prayer of the drunken sea captain

Swap the initial letters of the first and last names of a past entertainer. 

The result sounds like a four-word prayer mumbled by a guilt-ridden and remorseful sea captain crammed into a life raft along with surviving passengers after he drunkenly navigated their ship into an iceberg. 

Who’s the entertainer? 

What’s the prayer? 

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.