“Oh, the zoology!” & Slaughterhouse-Three? & What’s an “alogous?” & Something is “Rot-ting” in Denmark? & Dog whistle? & “Coppy” oxymoron; “Canon-pickled” bell peppers; Alphabetically awfully unlawful; Capital City Synonomy; KanFrancis vs SayCee; A Tree Grows in Brooklyn & a “flower grows” in Nebraska

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Capital City Synonomy

Switch the order of the last two letters of a capital city. 

The first three letters and the last four letters of
the result spell a pair of synonyms. 

What is this city?

What are the synonyms?

Appetizer Menu

Brave New Worldplay Appetizer:

“Oh, the zoology!” & Slaughterhouse-Three? & What’s an “alogous?” & Something is “Rot-ting” in Denmark? & Dog whistle? & “Coppy” oxymoron

Slaughterhouse of generals

1. A state capital and counties in at least 14 states are named after a general who died invading a foreign country. 

The fifth and sixth letters of his last name form a word. Drop them. Substitute, in order, three letters that could follow this dropped word at an athletic contest in Berkeley, Davis, or Irvine. 

Finally, drop the final three letters. The result is the name of an arguably better-known general, who died less than a mile away, 16 years earlier. Who were these two generals? Where did they die?

Oh, the zoology!

2. Take the name of a territory in three syllables. Change the fourth letter to a copy of the third letter. Read the three syllables in order, but each syllable backwards. You have just described a plausible companion of Dr. Frankenstein’s monster. What are the territory and companion?

Country to capital

3. Think of a country. 

ROT23 one of its letters and ROT6 another of its letters. 

Rearrange the result to give the national capital of this same country.

Music and dogs

4. The English name of a musical instrument derives from a second language. 

Split off the name of a famous dog from the end of this name. Insert a copy of the middle letter of the dog’s name into the middle of the remaining first part of the name of the musical instrument and add an R to the end. You now have the name of the dog and a verb from a third language that might describe what a folk group might do when the instrument is played. What are the instrument, dog’s name, and verb?

Add an N

5. The definite article “a” usually adds an “n” if followed by a word starting with a vowel. What two words similarly add an “n” sound in analogous situations?

Police keep me in the dark!

6. A well-known oxymoron is “Military intelligence.”

Think of a similar oxymoronic two-word phrase, in 10 + 9 letters, that might apply to the police. The second word differs from the

first only by the omission of a single letter. What is this “police oxymoron”?

MENU

Temptingly Evil Hors d’Oeuvre:

Alphabetically awfully unlawful 

Remove the “alpha” letter and the “omega” letter from a word for a kind of crime. The result sounds like a different kind of crime. 

What are these two crimes?

Super Sunday “Spoony” Slice

KanFrancis vs SayCee

“As of this Sunday, how many _____ _____?” (5,5)

“As for half the fans, how many ____ ___ ____?” (4,3,4)

* Each of the five blanks contains one word. 

* The five words are, in order, an adjective,
plural noun, plural noun, preposition and singular noun.

* Four words contain one syllable; the first word contains two syllables.

* The second and fifth words would rhyme were they to be either both singular or both plural.

* The first two letters of the first word rhyme with the first three letters of the third word.

* The second syllable of the first word is the same as the fourth word.

* The answer to the first question is 58.

* The answer to the second question is a number that depends on how the fans’ team is performing, the calls the referees are making and how much homophone-of-the-third-word each fan has been enjoying.

After you fill in the five blanks, what are the two completed questions?

Riffing Off Shortz And Baggish Slices:

“Canon-pickled” bell peppers

Will Shortz’s February 4th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Steve Baggish, of Arlington, Massachusetts, reads:

Name a famous classical composer in three syllables.  Change the vowel sounds in the first and third syllables, and phonetically you’ll name a sport. What is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Baggish Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Name a puzzle-maker in three syllables, first and last names. The last two-thirds of the first name that may appear on his birth certificate sometimes precede the word “par.” 

The first three letters of the surname spell a receptacle for spoons, mashies, niblicks, cleeks, jiggers and baffies. The remaining letters of the surname are the surname of an actress named Annabeth who starred in a movie whose title is the first word in a two-word rhyming receptacle – but not for spoons, mashies, niblicks, cleeks, jiggers and baffies... No, this is a recepticle for Titleists, Callaways, Slagenzers, Volviks and Srixons.

Who is this puzzle-maker?

What precedes the word “par”?

What is the receptacle for spoons, mashies, niblicks, etc.?

What is the name of the actress and the two-word rhyming recepticle for Titleists, Callaways, Slagenzers, Volviks and Srixons?

The following riff was composed by Plantsmith, whose “Garden of Puzzley Delights” is a regular feature on Puzzleria!

ENTREE #2

Take the three-syllable mononym of a composer, like Eminem, Madonna or Donovan. Remove four consecutive letters to get a popular brand name of a product once sported by Jeff Spicoli on the big screen. The brand was NOT sported – but might well have been – by Harold Abrahams, Eric Liddell and Lord Andrew Lindsay who competed on the big screen while an iconic soundtrack, created by
this composer played.

Who is the composer? 

What is the apparel brand? 

What are the movies in which Jeff Spicoli and in which Harold Abrahams, Eric Liddell and Lord Andrew Lindsay appeared?

The following riff was composed by ViolinTeddy, whose “Strad-Steiff Subtleties” is a regular feature on Puzzleria!

ENTREE #3

Take the surname of a composer in three
syllables.

Change the first and third vowel sounds, to get the surname of an actor.

Who are this composer and actor? 

Entree #4 was written by a Puzzlerian who was inspired by a riddle appearing on Puzzleria!

ENTREE #4

A young man from Nuremberg was inspired to pursue a career in composing rather than in the army after he got an almost failing grade from his dyslexic Field Artillery instructor. 

In the grade report, the instructor had
misspelled a word by substituting a conjunction for a pronoun, left out half of the double letters in another word, and scrambled the words in the report entry.  

What was the grade, and what was the resulting inspiration?

The following two riffs, #5 and #6, were composed by Nodd, whose “Nodd ready for prime time” is a regular feature on Puzzleria!

ENTREE #5

Name a famous classical composer in three syllables. 

Change the vowel sounds in the first and third syllables, and phonetically you’ll describe what certain animals do for shelter.  

Who is the composer, and what do these animals do?

ENTREE #6

Name a famous classical composer in three syllables. Change all three vowel sounds and you’ll
describe phonetically and figuratively what the Democrats hope to do in November. 

Who is the composer, and what do the Democrats hope to do?

Entree #7 is Lego Lambda’s riff of Nodd’s Entree #6 riff.

ENTREE #7

Name a musical instrument in two syllables. 

Change no vowel sounds and you’ll describe phonetically and figuratively what the Republcans hope to do in November. 

What is the instrument, and what do the Republcans hope to do?

ENTREE #8

Name a famous classical composer in three syllables. 

The first syllable is a homophone of a synonym of “raked” ... but not with a rake. The second and third syllables, phonetically, name a sport. 

The second and third syllables, if you change the third letter to a “w,” spell that same sport. 

Who is this composer?

What is the sport?

ENTREE #9

Name a sound a creature makes, in five letters, and a five-letter adjective that means “of, relating to, or resembling that creature.” 

Delete the second letter of the result, then change the vowel sounds in the first and third syllables. The result, phonetically, is the name of a famous classical composer. 

What are the sound a creature makes and adjective that means “of, relating to, or resembling that creature?”

Who is the composer?

ENTREE #10

Name a puzzle-maker in three syllables. Ignore the first syllable. Change the vowel sound in the second syllable. Keep the third syllable as it is. 

The result, phonetically, is a likely-non-existent uppercase adjective that describes an Oriole of Baltimorean lore, a “Homeric Hero, so to speak.” 

Replace the double letters at the end of this Oriole’s surname with an “r” to form an adjective (followed by the word “hitter”) that describes him.

Who is this puzzle-maker?

What is the adjective that describes the Oriole of Baltimorean lore?

Hint: Replace the double-letters in the non-existent uppercase adjective with an apostrophe to form the word that follows “Oshkosh” in a brand name.

Dessert Menu

Flowering Spray Dessert:

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn & a “Flower Grows” in Nebraska

Double one letter in the name of a flower part. 

Rearrange the result to form the name of a “flower” associated with the state of Nebraska.

What is this flower part?

What is the “flower” associated with the state of Nebraska?

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.