Threading the ol’ Victrola needle; Dolefully furry Persian pet; Intriguing new difference-maker; Rear Seat Rest Area; Anagrammatical mathematics; Westerns writer Obie poet

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Dolefully furry Persian pet

“Diagnosed with ______, our furry Persian pet _______ dolefully.”

The first blank in this sentence contains six letters, all consonants. 

The second blank in this sentence contains seven letters, all vowels. 

Interchange the first letters in the two blanks, then interchange their last letters, to make a sentence that makes sense. 

What is this sentence that makes sense? 

Appetizer Menu

Delightfully Puzzley Appetizer:

Threading the ol’ Victrola needle

Consider the following songs and the artists
who wrote them:

1. “I Love my Dog” by Cat Stevens

2. “Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road” by Louden Wainwright III

3. “Black Cow” by Steely Dan

4. “Crocodile Rock” by Elton John

5. “Wondering Where the Lions Are” by Bruce Cockburn

6. “When Doves Cry” by Prince

7. “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane

8. “Year of the Cat” by Al Stewart (or, 8.5. “Cat’s in the Cradle” by Harry Chapin

9. “Wild Horses” by the Rolling Stones

What “categorical thread” ties these song titles
together? 

Easy! Each title contains the name of an animal. For example, #9 is “a horse...” of course, of course.

It’s not so easy, though, when we give you a list of the artists who wrote the songs but not the song titles!

So, now consider the following seven songwriters. Each has written several songs, but you much choose just one song that each wrote and, in doing so, find the “categorical thread” that ties these seven song titles together...

It is perhaps Modes of Transportation? “Last Train to Clarksville,” “Leaving on a Jet Plane”...

Or perhaps Gemstones? “Ruby Tuesday,” “Diamond Girl”... 

Here are your seven talented songwriting artists:

1. Prince 

2. REM

3. The Beatles

4. Booker T. & the M.G.s 

5. Neil Diamond 

6. Chris Brown

7. Carey Landry

Extra Credit: After you have sussed out the seven song titles, the “categorical thread,” and the seven “categorical words,” please explain why these particular seven words, out of several possibilities, were chosen.

Hint: The order that the artists and their songs are in is not random.   

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Authority Always Wins Hors d’Oeuvre:

Westerns writer Obie poet

Number the letters of an author’s full name 1 though 15.

Letters 1-5 spell the first name of a writer of
westerns; 

Letters 5-7 spell the first name of an Obie Award winner; 

Letters 7-10 spell the first name of a poet; 

Letters 10-15 spell the surname of the 15-letter author. 

All four are Americans from the past. Two are women. Who are these four authors?

Synonymous Slice:

Intriguing new difference-maker

Anagram a hyphenated word for an intriguing new twist, shift, or difference-maker to get two synonyms of the verb “intrigue.”

What are this word and two synonyms?

Hint: The hyphenated word is sometimes associated with sports.

Riffing Off Shortz And Helfrick Slices:

Rear Seat Rest Area

Will Shortz’s November 26th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Tom Helfrick of Sacramento, California, reads: 

Think of a common sign seen along a highway. Rearrange the letters to name something inside a car.

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Helfrick Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Think of a small creature and something it is attracted to. Rearrange the letters to name a puzzle-maker, first and last names.

Or, think of a six-letter solitary vocation and a five-letter communal-collective word that do not seem to go together... unless the person with the solitary vocation is also a shepherd. Rearrange those letters to name the same puzzle-maker, first and last names.

Or, rearrange the letters in two synonyms of fragrance to spell the city where this puzzle-maker lives.

Who is this puzzle-maker?

What are the creature and what attracts it?

What is the solitary vocation and the five-letter communal-collective word?

What are the two synonyms of fragrance and the city where this puzzle-maker lives?

Note: The following puzzle was submitted by a friend and fan of Puzzleria!

ENTREE #2:

After arriving at an alternate solution to Entree #1 in the November 9, 2023, edition of Puzzleria!, a puzzler took a walk in the deep woods above the Pigeon River. Along the trail was a two-word cautionary sign. 

The first word of six letters and two syllables contained, in order but not consecutively, the second word of four letters. Spoonerizing the syllables of the first word and substituting the resulting two new words for the original second word might sound like a lesser hazard. What did the sign read? What would the altered sign read?

ENTREE #3

Think of a sign seen along a highway. Rearrange the letters to name an alliterative extended road-trip with many stops along the way at venues where a former FOX employee may express his views.

What are the sign and the alliterative road-trip?

ENTREE #4

“A prospector encountered a diamondback _______ while traversing the Sonoran Desert. He would have been _______ bad had he not picked up his Smith & Wesson Model 442 revolver from his local ________ the day before embarking on his trek.”

The words in the blanks contain 7, 7 and 8 letters.

The first word rhymes with a groundbreaking
British literary and society journal begun in 1709, but published for only two years.

The second word rhymes with a word meaning “behaving amorously without serious intent.”

The third word is an anagram of what a wasp might have done to the prospector, in two words, had he instead encountered it on his trek.

Anagram the combined letters in the three words to spell a five-word sign seen along a highway near an exit.

What are the three words in the blanks?

What is the highway sign?

ENTREE #5

Think of a not-so-common two-word sign seen along a highway (one, however, that is no SPEED LIMIT sign, which is much more common).

Replace the first word with a rhyming word and remove the space to form a recreational brand with the slogan “(the rhyming word) has no limits.” 

What is the two-word highway sign?

What is the recreational brand?

ENTREE #6

Think of a sign seen along a roadway. Rearrange the letters to name a possible two-noun description of the following exclamation:  “Mr. Simpson, you are out of order!”

ENTREE #7

Name the three-letter profession of a Carmelite Sister Mary of Saint Peter who lived in the early 1800s, and the five-letter city where she lived. 

Or, in lieu of the city, you can instead substitute excursions you can experience at the Monastery Immaculate Conception, home of The Sisters of St. Benedict of Ferdinand, Indiana. Rearrange these eight letters to spell a two-letter word and a hyphenated six-letter word on a sign commonly seen along a road or street.

What is  the profession of Sister Mary of Saint Peter, and where did she live?

What excursions can you experience at the Monastery Immaculate Conception?

What does the roadside sign read?

ENTREE #8

Cheese (dairy), Asparagus (vegetable), Rice (grain), Beans (protein) and Strawberries (fruit). That is all I eat, every day, my nutritional regimen. Or, you may describe it in two words of six and four letters.

Rearrange those ten letters to spell two words on a common sign seen along a highway. 

How do you describe my nutritional regimen in two words of six and four letters?

What are the words on the highway sign?

ENTREE #9

Think of a common sign seen along a highway. Rearrange the letters to spell the surnames of two authors. One is a prolific living woman writer whose works have five times been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in Literature. The other is a past British writer and military historian with some 350 books of fiction and non-fiction to his credit, under his own name and a variety of pseudonyms.

What is this sign?

Who are these authors?

ENTREE #10

The kiddies in the backseat, stalling for time, are clamoring, “Pull over here, Dad! We’re bored. We don’t wanna go to Fegus! C’mon, we wanna get outta the car and play a little bit!” But their ________ fall on Dad’s deaf ears, and he passes by the ____ ____ sign, even speeding up a bit in the process, and continues up Interstate-94 from the Twin Cities toward Aunt Martha and Uncle Elmer’s “boooooring” (as the kiddies put it) farm outside Fergus Falls.

What are the plural noun in the first word and the two words on the sign?

The letters in the two words can be rearranged to spell the plural noun.

Note: The following riff-off puzzle was contributed by our friend Nodd, whose “Nodd Ready for Prime Time” is featured regularly on Puzzleria!

ENTREE #11

Add an “E” to something inside a car and rearrange the result to get a kind of illness and where it might show up.

What is the thing inside the car?

What is the illness? Where might it show up?

Dessert Menu

Geometralculus Dessert:

Anagrammatical mathematics

Anagram a multisyllabic term from calculus to
spell a term from geometry with the same number of syllables. 

What are these terms?

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.

Giving thanks & politics, lower case & caps; Burger ‘n’ Fries? Ham ‘n’ Eggs? Mac ‘n’ Cheese?... Seven-letter life-saver; “I gotta have more cowbell, less cello!” Holy word and two birds! “253 equals 254 equals 258?”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Ham ‘n’ Eggs, Mac ‘n’ Cheese, Burger and Fries...?

Take the plural forms of two somewhat similar often-paired foods. 

Anagram each food individually to get two alliterative words that are unlikely to be paired. 

Indeed, they are antonymous. 

One is an adjective; the other can be  either a noun or a verb. 

What are these four words?

Appetizer Menu

Ecoarchitectural Appetizer:

Giving thanks & politics, lower case & caps

Thanksgiving Oxen?

1. 🐂🐂Name something you might see one or more of on the Thanksgiving dinner table that is an oxymoronic word.

Phenomenanimal!

2. 🗲Write the name of a weather phenomenon in all caps; merge two letters together to form one letter. 

The result will be an animal. 

What is the phenomenon?

What is the animal?

Newsworthy words 

3. 📰🗞Write a common four-letter word in lower case. 

Rotate the first letter 180 degrees, and move the second letter to the end to create a second
word. Place the two words side-by-side. The result will be a two-word phrase in the news lately. What are the words? 

A movement backwards

4. 🐘🎠 Change the fifth letter in the name of a country to the letter two places earlier in the alphabet. 

The result when read backwards will be the name of a recent political movement in the US. What are the country and the movement?

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Heavenly Hors d’Oeuvre:

Holy word and two birds!

Take a multi-syllabic word for a holy person often associated with a bird. Removing a consonant from the word will  sound like a different bird. 

What are this word and two birds?

Savory Slice:

Seven-letter life-saver

Anagram the seven letters of a life-saver to spell something that you will see on it right after it saves your life.

What is this life-saver? 

What will you see on it?

Riffing Off Shortz And Young Slices:

“I gotta have more cowbell, less cello!”

Will Shortz’s November 24th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle reads:

You know, some listeners have asked for a harder challenge. So here you go. It comes from Joseph Young, who conducts the blog Puzzleria! 

Name a musical instrument, plus part of that instrument. Drop the last letter of the instrument. Then rearrange all the remaining letters to name another musical instrument. What is it? So again, a musical instrument, plus part of that instrument. Drop the last letter of the instrument and then rearrange all the remaining letters to name another musical instrument. What is it?

(Note: The “part of the instrument” might also be described as a piece of equipment that accompanies the instrument.)

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Young Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Write a two-word caption for the image pictured here, in nine letters. 

Rearrange those letters to spell the name of a blog.

What is your caption?

What is the blog?

Note: Entrees #2 and #3 were composed, respectively, by Plantsmith whose “Garden of Puzzley Delights” and Ecoarchitect whose  “Econfusions” are longtime featured staples on Puzzleria! (“Econfusions” runs this week. “Garden of Puzzley Delights” is scheduled for next week.)

ENTREE #2

Take a musical instrument. 

Drop its last letter. 

Duplicate a different letter. 

Mix the result to get a ___ personality trait.

Note: A part of the instrument will fit in the blank.

Hint: Even  though everyone possesses this personality trait to some degree, most people would consider it to be a negative trait. However, this same noun can also apply to the person herself or himself. And in that context, most people would consider it to be positive and laudable. 

ENTREE #3

Name a musical instrument plus part of that instrument. 

Drop the last letter of the instrument then rearrange all the remaining letters to name a typically unnamed person appearing in a movie or TV show.  

What are this musical instrument and the part of it?

ENTREE #4

Rearrange the eight letters of a musical instrument to spell a second musical instrument and a light-colored beverage with a
higher than average alcohol and hop content. 

What are these two instruments and beverage?

ENTREE #5

Name a world capital that begins with a Roman numeral. 

Replace that Roman numeral with a different Roman numeral to spell a musical instrument.

What are the capital and instrument? 

ENTREE #6

Take the plural form of a musical instrument. 

Change a Roman numeral to a different Roman numeral. 

Rearrange the result to spell the title of a
black-and-white romantic comedy film.

What is the instrument?

What is the film title? 

ENTREE #7

Name a long-lived car model followed by a short-lived car model. 

The result is a musical instrument.

What are these car models?

What is the musical instrument?

ENTREE #8

Name a ten-letter musical instrument. Rearrange the letters to name:

1. Another musical instrument and fratricidal biblical character;

2. Or a French seaport and a singer who, after the rabbi, is the most important figure in a Jewish
worship service;

3. Or the surname of a fellow named Jerry and the city in which he is enshrined.

What are these two musical instruments, biblical character, French seaport, singer, fellow named Jerry and the city?

ENTREE #9

Name the plural form of a musical instrument, in nine letters. The first four letters, in reverse, spell a note sounded on a hunting horn when a deer is killed. 

The last five letters in order spell body parts associated with dying. 

Six of the nine letters are an anagram of a synonym of “bury,” and six of the nine letters are an adjective describing the mood at a burial.

What are this musical instrument, note sounded when a deer is killed, body parts associated with dying, synonym of  “bury,” and adjective? 

ENTREE #10

Take the surname of someone who phoned Volodymyr and Brad followed by the name of someone who phoned home.

The result is a musical instrument.

What is this instrument?

ENTREE #11

A ten-letter musical instrument contains two L’s, one G and one E. Add a third L, two additional G’s and one additional E. Rearrange these 14 letters to form a 7-letter hyphenated adjective that accurately describes a 7-letter creature.

Now take that same ten-letter instrument. Replace an O with a U. Rearrange these ten letters to spell a six-letter synonym of a craving for food and a four-letter adjective describing the satisfaction of that craving.

What is this musical instrument?

What is the 7-letter hyphenated adjective that
accurately describes a 7-letter creature?

What is the six-letter synonym of a craving for food and a four-letter adjective describing the satisfaction of that craving?

ENTREE #12

Spell the last six letters of a two-word, nine-letter percussion instrument backward to spell a crime that Jack Torrance tried to commit with an axe. Anagram all nine letters to spell body parts where a brand-name product named Axe might be applied.

What is this percussion instrument? 

What crime did Jack Torrance try to commit with an axe?

To what body parts might Axe be applied?

Dessert Menu

Paradoxymoronic Dessert:

“253 equals 254 equals 258?”

I say, “253 equals 254.”

You say, “How can that be? One of them is one more!”

I say, “Do not subtract. Do addition. But wait...

For then 254 equals 258!”

Explain how it is that 253 equals 254, and how it is that 254 equals 258.

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.