Top-Of-The-Pops Appetizer; CHOCOLATE arCHIPelago? “Holiday 'tis, Holy Day 'tisn't!” In the beginning, Eden or end times? Eli Lillian Range? "Wanna wear wigs bigly? Dollywould!"

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Wear wigs bigly? Dollywould!

Dolly Parton admits to owning a “well-into-three-figures” number of wigs.... reportedly more than 350! 

But at some point in the distant past she might have uttered, in some conversational context, the three-word phrase, “my one wig.” 

How is that three-word phrase related to Internet domain names?

Explain how.

Hint: The answer involves sixes in the one’s places.

Note: For a related image, see the image that accompanies the text in Tortie’s Appetizer #3.

Appetizer Menu

Top-Of-The-Pops Appetizer:

Best-Drinking-song Grammy? Red Asp of Cali! Country singers, Countryside novel; “ROT”ing the rotating records!

Best-drinking-song Grammy?

1. 🐄🥛Think of a country singer of the past. 

Remove the letters of the last name from the first. The last name, followed by the remaining letters of the first name, spell a two-word description for a beverage.

Now think of the name of a famous rock group. 

Remove from it the letters of the last name of someone who was fired from the group. 

(Note: One of the letters appears more than once in the group. Remove only the first instance of that letter.) 

The last name, followed by the remaining
letters of the group, spell a two-word award that the above beverage might be given. 

Who is the country singer? 

Who is the rock group? 

Who was fired from that group? 

What are the two two-word phrases? 

“The Red Asp of California?”

2. 🌆🏈⚾Think of the largest city in one of the U.S. states. Take the first two letters of that city plus the first letter of the state. You’ll have a word that often describes the city. 

Now take a professional sports team from that city and rearrange its letters. 

You’ll have a word associated with the word that describes that city. 

Used in a different context, that “rearranged-sports-team” word also is associated with a popular singer. That singer had a Top-30 country pop hit whose title was the name of the city. 

What are the city and state? What word describes it? What is the sports team and what is the anagram associated with the city description? Who is the singer? 

Country singers, Countryside novel

3. 𝅘𝅥𝅯🕮Name a country singer of the past who had a Top 30 hit on the pop charts. 

Rearrange the third, fourth, and last letters of the first name to produce the first name of another country singer of the past. Move the fourth letter of the first singer’s last name one
letter earlier in the alphabet (i.e., ROT-25) to get the last name of the second country singer. 

Now think of a famous novel that largely takes place in the countryside. Remove four successive interior letters from the last word of the title. The remaining letters of this altered title will describe the two country singers.  

Who are the singers? 

What is the novel? 

What is the description of the two singers?

“ROT”ing the rotating records!

4. 𝅗𝅥⏺♪Name a singer-songwriter who had a Top 30 hit in 1960. If you ROT-6 the first letter of the first name, you can anagram the results of the modified first name into three relatively common male first names. If you move the fourth letter of the last name one letter earlier in the alphabet (i.e., ROT-25), you can anagram the modified last name into the same three names. 

Take the four letters that are common between the first and last names and anagram them to produce something you might see on a map. The first word of the song title is something else you’d see on a map. The song is probably best known for a Top 10 1964 rendition. The
singer of that rendition has a last name denoting additional things you’d see on a map. A lesser known version of that song was done by someone who went by a nickname, but his real first name was one of the original three anagrams. His first name rhymes with the first name of the 1964 singer. His last name rhymes with the last word in the song title. 

Who is the singer-songwriter? What are the three anagrams? What is the song? Who are the other two singers who covered the song? What are the three things you can see on a map? 

MENU

Ab Ovo Obsolescent Hors d’Oeuvre:

“In the beginning, Eden or end times?”

Name a word associated with beginnings. 

Replace a letter in this word to a letter adjacent to it in the alphabet to spell a word associated with both beginnings and endings. 

What are these two words?

Gracefully Tasteful Slice:

Chocolate Archipelago?

Name sweet treat in two words of six and three letters. 

Remove the space and the three-letters that spell this treat’s likely destination. 

In the middle of the remaining letters add a short ancient Chinese name denoting beauty and grace. 

The result is the name of an archipelago. 

What are this treat and archipelago?

Riffing Off Shortz And Range Entrees:

Eli Lillian Range?

Will Shortz’s August 25th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Lillian Range of New Orleans, Louisiana, reads:

The word “NoNuNioN” has four N’s and no other consonant. What famous American of the past – first and last names, 8 letters in all – has four instances of the same consonant and no other consonant?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Range Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Write the name of a puzzle-maker in uppercase letters. The first two letters together, the third letter by itself, and the fourth and fifth letters together represent three numerals whose sum is a three-digit number. The three letters that are the alphanumeric counterparts of those three digits can be rearranged to spell the nickname of a U.S. president. 

One letter appears thrice in the puzzle-maker’s name. Remove one of the three. Rearrange the result to spell either:

1. a Hawaiian veranda and what visitors tend to do there, or

2. what a mother duck might do to her ducklings get them all in a row, and an adjective meaning “in a row.”

Who is this puzzle-maker? 

What is the president’s nickname? 

What are a Hawaiian veranda and what visitors tend to do there? 

What might a mother duck do to her ducklings get them all in a row, and what is the adjective meaning “in a row?” 

ENTREE #2

Note: Entree #2 is generously contributed by a longtime friend of Puzzleria! who crafts and shares excellent puzzles on our blog.

Take the first and last names – eight letters in all – of a supporting character in a star-studded action adventure comedy movie relating the sprawling tale of an epic event set in a bygone era. 

These two names contain three instances of the same consonant and no other consonants.  

The character’s first name sounds like a plant. The character’s last name is spelled like a brand name of a product, one perhaps used by performers, that sounds like praise for a performance. 

The last name of the performer who portrayed the supporting character sounds like support of some kind of a sprawling plant that requires support.  What is the name of the supporting character? 

What is the name of the performer who portrayed the character?

Note: The following three riffs are courtesy of “Ecoarchitect” (Greg VanMechelen), whose “Econfusions” is a fixture on Puzzleria! 

ENTREE #3

A well-known movie has four instances of the same consonant and no other consonant. 

The name of one if its stars has three instances of the same vowel and only one other vowel. 

(It is, however, a “vowel” that often masquerades as a consonant!).

What is this movie title?

Who is its star?  

ENTREE #4

Name a specific variant of a fruit, eight letters, with four letters the same. The other letters, reading left to right, are in alphabetic order,
though not necessarily adjacent. What is the fruit?

Hint: Delete the last two letters of the fruit and switch the third and fifth letters to get a name lately much in the news.

ENTREE #5

There are six different geographic or geopolitical locations that have seven letters, with the same four letters in each. 

These locations occur in four different continents. 

What are they?

Note: The following six riffs, Entrees #6 through #11, are courtesy of Nodd, whose “Nodd ready for prime time” is featured on Puzzleria! 

ENTREE #6

The first and last names of a critically-acclaimed American visual artist, eight letters in all, have three instances of the same consonant and no other consonant. 

This artist is based in New York City and is known for working in an unusual artistic medium featuring acrylics, Chinese ink, wax and oil paints on paper. 

The other letters in the name are A, E, and I. 

Who is the artist?

ENTREE #7

Using only one vowel and one consonant, form the complete names of two fictional characters and the last name of a third fictional character. What are the three names? 

ENTREE #8

A song title has four instances of the same consonant and no other consonant, and three instances of the same vowel and one other vowel. 

This song was sung by a pop music group with two instances of the same consonant in its name (a consonant different from the consonant in the song title), and also two instances of the same vowel... kind of like the “SuprEmES,” but without all the “murp!”

What are this song title and pop music group?

Hint: The triplicated vowel in the song title and the duplicated vowel in the group name are the same vowel.

ENTREE #9

Think of two food items you might find listed on an Italian restaurant menu, and one found in supermarkets. 

These three items have thirteen letters in all. 

Each item has the same single consonant. 

Two of the words begin and end with the same vowel. One of those items is often an ingredient in another of them. What are the three items?  

ENTREE #10

The first name of a famous American actor has three instances of the same consonant and no other consonant. 

The last name starts with that same consonant. 

Who is the actor?

ENTREE #11

The first name of a famous American dancer has three instances of the same consonant
and no other consonant. 

The last name starts with that same consonant. 

Who is the dancer?

Note: Entree #12 is a riff created by our friend Plantsmith, whose “Garden of Puzzley Delights” feature is a fan-favorite on Puzzleria! 

ENTREE #12

Think of a possible very early nine-letter nickname for a prolific puzzle-maker who often appears on Puzzleria!

It contains four vowels (two of them the same)
and five consonants... all of them the same!

What is this very early nickname?

Who is the puzzle-maker? 

ENTREE #13

Had an advice columnist, using her nom de plume, wed a well-known Ghanaian diplomat early in 1984, her name would have consisted of eight letters, with five instances of the same consonant and no other consonant, and three instances of the same vowel and no other vowel. 

As it turned out, the new married name of the Swedish lawyer and painter that the diplomat did wed later in 1984 consisted of nine letters, with five instances of the same consonant and no other consonant, and three instances of the same vowel, but also a fourth vowel that resembles an inverted schwa.

Who are this advice columnist and Ghanaian diplomat?

Who is the Swedish lawyer and painter

                    Dessert Menu

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like... Dessert:

“Holiday ‘tis, Holy Day ‘tisn’t!” 

Name a holiday and a synonym of one of its two words. Rearrange the combined letters to get three other words:

1. How Jesus sometimes addressed God,

2. How disciples sometimes addressed Jesus, and

3. A noun associated with CHRISTMAS!

What are this holiday, synonym and three other words?

Every Thursday 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.

“Bowlfuls of Herbal Verbal Blurts!” Setting Sons of the Pioneers; Creature, clown, comedian; Cinematic Stonemasonry! “Takin’ makin’ prose o’er makin’ the pros!” Folkie Flyover Rockies?

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

“Takin’ makin’ prose o’er makin’ the pros!”

Name a novelist who, for his life’s work, chose makin’ prose o’er makin’ it the pros (even though baseball has been called the most literary of sports). 

Consecutive letters in this novelist’s name are an anagram of the color of an outfield wall in a beloved major league ballpark. 

The remaining letters, in reverse, spell the nickname of a Hall-of-Famer who snagged scads of swatted flies in front of that wall. 

Name this novelist, outfield-wall color, ballpark, Hall-of-Famer, and his nickname.

Appetizer Menu

Plantsmithian Appetizer:

“Bowlfuls of Herbal Verbal Blurts!”

“Verbal gymnastics”

1. 💸💰Write a two-word caption – nouns of five and four letters – for either of the two images seen below.

Switch the initial letters of the two words, forming two new words. 

Then copy the first letter of the new first word after the first letter of the second new word.

The result is a two-word term for a preliminary version of a piece of writing, one that may require revision or rewriting (“revision and rewriting” not unlike the “verbal gymnastics exercise” you just performed!).

What are this caption and preliminary version of a piece of writing?

Two-Word Caption Hint: It begins with homophone of a “Homerism,” followed by George’s surname.

Below-belt-bone + boy = bowlful

2. 🦴🥗Drop one vowel from a bone below the belt. Add a boy’s name and mix to get a common variant spelling of something delicious that is also healthy.

Hint #1: Rearrange the combined letters in two biblical words – the name of a tower and a pronoun preceding an anagram of “halts” – to spell Merriam-Webster’s non-variant spelling of this salad entree.

Hint #2: The boy’s name occurs in a nursery rhyme/song about what kids sometimes do on a playground.

An “across the pond” entree

3.  🏰🏤Think of a popular food entree from “across the pond.” 

A main ingredient in this entree is also known by a certain plural word. 

Replace the last two letters in that word with a consonant that rhymes with a vowel that appears thrice in the entree. 

The result is an adjective associated with dish’s country of origin.

What is this food entree?

What is its main ingredient and the plural word it is known as? 

What is the adjective associated with entree’s country of origin?

“Daili? Yes, Sydo!”

4. 📖📺Take the initial  letters of a classic novella. 

Spell them in reverse order to get an exclamation oft-blurted by a popular TV sitcom character.

What is this novella?

Who is this sitcom character and what does he blurt?

Gordon Ramsay’s World Food Tour

5. Think of a popular Asian food. 

Replace each of its last two vowels with a different vowel. Insert a space someplace.

The result is two girls’ names – the first one popular, the second one not so much.

What is this Asian food?

What are the girls’ names?

MENU

Band In Boston Hors d’Oeuvre:

Folkie Flyover Rockies?

Transpose the second and third letters in a folk-rock singer’s surname. 

The first three letters of the result, followed by a flyover state’s postal abbreviation, spell the first word in the name of a rock band from a second flyover state. 

The next four letters in the folk-rock singer’s surname spell the second word in the band’s name. 

Who are this singer and what is this rock band?

Chevy Equinoxymoronic Slice:

Setting Sons of the Pioneers

Rearrange the letters in a pioneer's oxymoronic vehicle to spell a mythological
singer, a group of singers, and a drama featuring singers. 

What is this pioneer's vehicle?

What are the three song-related words?

Riffing Off Shortz And Collins Slices:

Cinematic Stonemasonry!

Will Shortz’s August 18th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Peter Collins of Ann Arbor, Michigan. reads:

Think of a famous movie star – first and last names, nine letters in all. The third, fourth, fifth, seventh, and eighth letters, in order, name a profession. The star’s last name is something that this profession uses. Who is the movie star and what is the profession? Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Collins Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Think of a prolific puzzle-maker – first and last names, twelve letters in all. The third, fourth, fifth, seventh, and twelfth letters, if rearranged, spell a place of business. The puzzle-maker’s last name – if you remove a double-consonant from the interior (like the “zz” in “puzzle,” for instance) – spells things this place of business may use. 

Who is this puzzle-maker?

What are this place of business and the things it may use? 

Note: Entrees #2 through #7 are riffs composed by our friend Nodd, who also authors “Nodd ready for prime time,” a recurrent feature on Puzzleria!

ENTREE #2

Think of a famous movie star – first and last names, thirteen letters in all. 

The last name is a profession. Five letters of
the first name, plus the last letter of the last name, can be arranged to name something that this profession makes. 

Who is this star, and what does the profession make?

ENTREE #3

Think of a famous movie star – first and last names, nine letters in all. 

The last name is a profession. The last four letters of the first name spell a U.S. city that is the location of an institution that employs people in this profession. 

Who is the star, and what is the city?

ENTREE #4

Think of a famous movie star – first and last names, fifteen letters in all. 

The last name is a profession. Six letters of the first name and two letters of the last name can be arranged to name items that someone in this profession might produce, and what these items might be made from. 

Who is the star, and what are the items and what they might be made from?

ENTREE #5

Think of a famous movie star – first and last names, seven letters in all. 

The last name is a profession. The first and third letters of the first name are a degree that a person entering this profession would usually obtain. 

If one letter is added to the first name, it will spell a person who is connected with the profession. 

Who is the star, and what are the degree and the person connected with the profession?

ENTREE #6

Think of a famous movie star – first and last names, twelve letters in all. 

The last name is a profession. The last three
letters of the first name can be arranged to spell an animal someone in the profession would attend to. 

Who is the star, and what is the animal?

ENTREE #7

Think of a famous movie star – first and last names, ten letters in all. 

Insert an E somewhere the last name to spell a profession. Replace an A in the first name with an O to spell a popular term for something a person in this profession might take care of. 

Who is the star, what is the profession, and what might a person in this profession take care of?

Note: Entree #8 is the brainchild of our friend Plantsmith, whose “Garden of Puzzley Delights” is featured, above, in this edition of Puzzleria!

ENTREE #8

The surname of a talented gone-too-soon-via-violence soap opera television star is, minus its first letter, a quite fitting word.

The first name of this star is shared by a famous film star who costarred with an even more famous and legendary film star in 1995
and 1997 films. 

ROT20 the first letter in this gone-too-soon actor’s full name (first and last names). Remove six consecutive letters from the result to get a profession relevant to the soap opera in which this gone-too-soon star starred. 

The surname of the “even more famous and legendary film star” is the first name of the character the gone-to-soon star portrayed on the soap opera. And the first name of an actor in the cast of “Ryan’s Hope” and “L.A. Law” is the surname of the character the late star played on the soap.

Who is this gone-too-soon star.

What is the “quite fitting word?”

Who is the famous film star who costarred with an even more famous and legendary film star in 1995 and 1997 films, and who is that more famous and legendary film star?

What is the profession relevant to the soap opera in which this gone-too-soon star starred?

What is the name of the character that the gone-to-soon star portrayed on the soap opera?

Note: Entree #9 is the brainchild of our friend EcoArchitect, whose “Econfusions” is featured regularly on Puzzleria!

ENTREE #9

Changing one letter in a well-known movie might yield the following cinematic synopsis:

Lewis (or Murphy) stars in a movie documenting HAL’s condition after descent into
madness.

What is the name of this movie? 

ENTREE #10

Think of a famous blond actor popular during the 1950s and 1960s – first and last names, nine letters in all – whose surname is a person engaged in a profession that some might call a sport. The last two letters in both names can be rearranged to spell a four-letter word that a person engaged in this “sport” might bring home from “play?”

Who is the actor?

What might someone who is engaged in the “sport” bring home from “play?”

ENTREE #11

Think of a famous Irish author – first and last names, ten letters in all. Remove the last two letters of the first name and the first two letters of the last name, leaving a broken-in-two word for “a person who buys and sells goods or assets for others.”

The four letters you removed can be rearranged to spell an acronym for devices that might help people buy some goods. 

Who is this author?

Who buys and sells goods or assets for others?

What are the helpful devices? 

ENTREE #12

A playwright and a U.S. president share a first name, although the playwright insisted (albeit not so successfully) that he be known only by his middle name and surname. The playwright’s surname is an anagram of the first syllable of the president’s surname.

Who are this playwright and president?

ENTREE #13

Take the first name of a movie actor whose father and brother also act. Either remove the first letter or replace it with an “L” and an apostrophe. The result is a French word for what may flow below the surname.

Who is this actor?

Who are his father and brother?

ENTREE #14

Think of a singer/songwriter (associated with “The Dark Side...”) whose first name, if you double the middle letter and delete either the first or last letter, can be rearranged to spell where his surname (a plural word) often flow.

Who is this singer/songwriter, and where does his surname flow? 

HINT: The singer/songwriter is also associated with: “tickled ____” , and “Pretty Boy _____.”

ENTREE #15

Think of a past movie star – first and last names, ten letters in all. His surname is the last word in a six-word slang restaurant phrase (“____  and ___ on a ____ ”) for a breakfast order. 

The first and third words in the phrase are the names of a biblical couple, each which represents the same food item. 

The last word in the phrase, the star’s last name, represents
a piece of toast.

The 6th, 5th and 1st letters of the star’s first name spell the food item represented by each member of the couple. (The 4th, 3rd and 2nd letters of that first name spell a synonym of that food item.)

Who is this star?

What is the slang phrase?

What are the food item and its synonym?

ENTREE #16

Think of an extremely talented past “recreational mathematician.” His first and last names contain thirteen letters total. 

His first name contains the first three letters of
“math,” in order. The 7th, 8th, 1st and 12th
letters of his name spell “game.”

His surname becomes a person in a profession if you insert an insert an “e” within it.

Who is this “fun-with-numbers” mathematician?

What is the person in a profession?

ENTREE #17

Think of an extremely talented “cryptic crossword puzzle constructor” (a constructor known as a “setter” in the United Kingdom). His first and last names contain twelve letters in all, not counting the middle initial. The
cryptic constructions he creates are all works of visual and lexicographical ___.

The surname of this constructor spells something edible. 

The first letter and last three letters of his first name spell what people (but not birds and similar creatures) usually do to the “edible thing” ere eating it. The remaining letters can be rearranged to spell the three-letter word that was left blank in the third sentence, above.

Who is this talented cryptic crossword puzzle constructor?

What must people do to the “edible thing” ere eating it?

What word belongs in the blank?

Dessert Menu

Wobbly Bouncy Dessert:

Creature, clown, comedian

A barking creature playing with a spherical toy is distracted by a redheaded clown. 

The toy wobbles, rolls off, and bounces downward, eventually resting upon the turf within a tent. 

What entertainer does this scene remind you of?

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.