An Odyssey into the Oddities of English; My Magma cum laude in volcanic chemistry; Supremacy at sea... and elsewhere; Mister Logan, Mister Woods, Mister Rushdie; Future skipper in a flivver? Sippable “spoonerizable” beverages;

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Supremacy at sea... and elsewhere

Name a historical two-word nine-letter competition between Germany and Britain for supremacy on the seas.

Later that century, a two-word nine-letter competition arose between Russia and the United States – not for supremacy at sea but rather in a place that rhymes with the second word in the Germany-Britain competition. Both the Russia-United States competition and the Germany-Britain competition have that second word in common.

Rearrange the letters in the two-word Germany-Britain competition to spell a nine-letter word closely associated with the Russia-United States competition. It is a word on the U.S. map.

What is this nine-letter word?

What were the two two-word competitions –between Germany and Britain and between Russia and the United States? 

Hint: The two words in the Russia-United States competition for supremacy can be spelled using just six of the nine letters in the word “supremacy,” using three of them twice. 

Appetizer Menu:

Debut Stradivarian Appetizer:

An Odyssey into the Oddities of English

Note: We inaugurate this week a new “guest-puzzle-maker” feature, the brainchild of our friend ViolinTeddy, titled “Strad-Steiff Subtleties.” 

ViolinTeddy is a long-time contributor to Puzzleria!, posting her insightful and clever comments, occasional puzzles, and corrections of LegoLambda’s many typograpical errors, grammatical faux-pas and just plain mistakes (we often refer to her as “ViolinTedditor”).

Enjoy VT’s debut edition of “Strad-Steiff Subtleties.”

Directions: 

* The answer to each of the “Subtleties” numbered 1 through 14 below is a homonym.

For example:

The musical genre of a group in which each member is a “Stone” vs Stone;

Answer: ROCK 

* Each answer to “Subtleties” numbered 15 through 17 contains words that differ in length by one letter.

* Each answer to “Subtleties” numbered 18 and 19 contains words in which one letter is changed to another letter or letters.

* The answer to “Subtlety #20” contains two words that share half their letters in common.

HOMONYMS:

1. Step  vs  Pealed 

2. Bleater vs tease

3. Wearables  vs  Storage

4.Throw vs Tone       

5. Stem vs Creep             

6. Sound vs Something Seen

7. Goof vs Going            

8. Skin vs Stash       

9. Trek vs Totter      

10. Lard vs Less

11. Lumber vs Leaders

12. Animal vs Annoy

13. Streak vs Bar vs Smidgen

14. Odor vs Order 

ADD A LETTER:

15.  Green vs Reverb 

16. “Better halves” vs Spans 

17. “Bags” vs Buddies 

CHANGE A LETTER:

18.  Stand  vs  “Lemon” (change just one letter) 

19. Stick vs Line (Change one letter into three)

FILL IN THE BLANKS:    

20. Waffle ____ vs Waffle ____ (two-word phrases associated with steam and cream) 

MENU

Vesuvian Hors d’Oeuvre:

My  Magma cum laude in volcanic chemistry

Rearrange the letters in a two-word chemistry term to form two words associated with volcanoes.

What is this chemistry term?

What two words are associated with volcanoes?

Colorful “Quotable” Slice:

Future skipper in a flivver?

Take two words, an adjective and noun, that describe a colorful and quotable Baseball Hall of Fame skipper during the early 1960s.

Rearrange the combined letters in those two words to spell the name of an automobile, in six letters, that he might have driven as a young man. 

The make of that automobile is the surname of an ace pitcher this skipper once managed. 

Who is this skipper?

What are the description of this skipper and the names of the automobile and ace pitcher?

Riffing Off Shortz And Becker Slices:

Mister Logan, Mister Woods, Mister Rushdie 

Will Shortz’s June 18th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Joe Becker of Palo Alto, California, reads:

Take the name of a fish. Add the name of a mammal. Rearrange all the letters to get the name of a reptile. What is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Becker Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Take the general name of an article of clothing worn above the belt and a specific example of this clothing, both in six letters. 

Also take the truncated name of a diet, in five letters, that might help you fit into this article of clothing (even though it is loose-fitting and open at the front). Rearrange these 17 letters to spell the name of a puzzle-maker and the city in which he resides. 

Who is it?

What are the article of clothing, the specific example of this clothing, and the diet?

Hint: The diet typically includes vegetables, fruits, nuts, roots, and meat and excludes processed foods, dairy products, grains, sugar, legumes, oils, salt, alcohol, and coffee.

Note: Entree #2 is a terrific puzzle riff created by our friend Jeff Zarkin, whose “Jeff Zarkin Puzzle Riffs” feature appears regularly on Puzzleria!

ENTREE #2

Take the name of a fictional fish. Add the name of a fictional mammal. 

Rearrange all the letters to spell a kind of real reptile. 

What are these two names and the real reptile?

Hint #1: The fictional mammal’s name is the same as the real name of a non-fictional mammal (who is known more familiarly by another name, and has also been known, because of his profession, by many other names).

Hint #2: The fictional mammal’s name is a homophone of a wormy bloodsucking parasite.

ENTREE #3

Take the name of a fish. Add the name of a mammal. 

Add a prefix that is associated with creeping and crawling, as many reptiles are wont to do. 

Rearrange these ten letters to get the name of a reptile that is a species of venomous pit viper. 

What is this reptile?

ENTREE #4

Take the name of a lever or wheel that controls the rudder of a ship, and where that ship may be. 

Rearrange these nine letters to get the name of a reptile. What is it?

What are the lever or wheel, and where might the ship be?

ENTREE #5

Take the name of a mythological serpentine water monster. Add the common word for a bunny named Bugs, a pig named Porky or a duck named Donald. 

Rearrange these nine letters to get the two-word name of a reptile. 

What is it?

What is the name of this  mythological monster and the word for Bugs, Porky or Donald?

Hint: The word for the bunny, pig or duck is truncated, so is sometimes spelled with an apostrophe preceding its first letter.

ENTREE #6

Take the names of two reptiles, in nine letters each, that many people cannot tell apart from one another. Anagram their combined letters to two spell two new nine-letter words, an adjective and noun beginning, respectively, with an “i” and a “d” – words that identify who is responsible for the interior design of each of the six images pictured here.

What are these reptiles?

Who is responsible for each interior design?

ENTREE #7

Name a two-word reptile in 14 letters. Three of those 14 letters are the same letter; add a fourth one of those letters to the mix. Then replace a “b” with an “e”.

Rearrange these 15 letters to spell two creatures in eight and seven letters: a reptile associated with the Galapagos Islands, and a nocturnal carnivore closely associated with a Caribbean archipelago, an archipelago that also begins with a “G”.

What are this two-word reptile, Galapagos reptile and nocturnal carnivore? 

ENTREE #8

Orlando Figes is a British historian and writer, and retired Professor of History at the University of London, who is known for his works on Russian history. 

In an interview last September he suggested that the Russians’ proclivity to regard political power as “sacred... testifies to the power of a _______ ____.”

Rearrange the combined seven and four letters in those missing words (that begin with “g” and “c”) to spell the names of two reptiles.

What are the words in the blanks?

What are the two reptiles?

ENTREE #9

Take the reptilian model names of Dodge and Ford-Shelby makes of cars, in five letters each.

Rearrange the letters to form two words of approval likely shouted by Italian audiences at
La Scala in Milan after soprano Leontyne’s performances of the title role in Verdi’s Aida.

What are these reptilian car-model names?

What did the Italian audiences shout?

ENTREE #10

Name two different large constricting snakes, in six letters and eight letters.

Rearrange the letters to spell a feline creature, an equine creature, a biblical figure associated with
animals, and a biblical figure associated with lions (as he was known by his close friends).

What are these snakes?

What are the two creatures? 

Who are the two biblical figures?

ENTREE #11

Name a large nine-letter reptile. Letters 1 through 4 plus Letter 9 spell the surname of a 1970s rock singer named Jim. 

The remaining letters can be rearranged to spell the surname of a 1980s rock singer named Billy.

What is this reptile?

Who are the rock singers?

Hint: The reptile can also be anagrammed to spell a refreshing drink on a hot day, in four and five letters.

ENTREE #12

Take the name of a species of reptile, a member of the viper family, found in the southwestern United States and Mexico, in two words of 11 letters each.

Rearrange these 22 letters to spell:

* a small child, especially a boy,

* what that boy becomes during the first
decade of his two-digit years,

* a northern U.S. capital city, and

* a California city.

What is this reptile?

What are the four words formed from it?

Dessert Menu

Indochinese Dessert:

Sippable “spoonerizable” beverages

Spoonerize a two-word Indian beverage that you sip to name what sounds like an ancient Chinese discipline. 

What are this sippable beverage and discipline?

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.