Thursday, October 2, 2025

Cupid’s stingy “beau”; The second-most-dangerous room...; Evolution via rearrangement; Remixing the Brits; Not “abstemiously” vowel-wise; “Late for dinner” is one word short; Salability and one silly syllable; Ensue, saunter-synonym, scarcely; Titular and Geographical; Most Valuable Player (Screen Star MVP); Crooks and nannies

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe2 SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Salability and one silly syllable 

Name a popular author whose works appeal especially to one particular literary audience. 

A single syllable in the name is also popular with this audience. 

Who are the author and audience. 

What is the syllable?

Appetizer Menu

Terrific Riffs From Jeff Appetizer:

Cupid’s  stingy “beau”; Not “abstemiously” vowel-wise; “Late for dinner” is one word short; The second-most-dangerous room...; Evolution via rearrangement; Remixing the Great Brits

Cupid’s  stingy “beau”

1. 💘What three-word phrase (three letters, four letters, five letters) might be used to describe a Valentine’s Day gift from a frugal beau? 

Hint: all three words contain the same three letters.

Not “abstemiously” vowel-wise

2. 💒Name a popular entertainer whose name includes all six vowels (a, e, i, o, u, and y). 

Hint: A vowel may appear in the name more than once.

“Late for dinner” is one word short;

3.  👪A famous American has a name which sounds like four words parents might use to call to their child.

Who is the person, and what are the four words?

The second-most-dangerous room?

4. 🍲Take a seven-letter word, describing an unfortunate kitchen occurrence. 

Add one letter, creating an eight-letter word, for essentially the same thing on a larger scale. 

What are these words?

Evolution via rearrangement

5. 🦖Rearrange the letters in the name of an ancient animal to get the name of an animal it evolved into.

Remixing the Great Brits

6. 💂Take the letters in the name of a famous place in England. 

Rearrange these letters to get someone you would want to avoid at British racecourse.


MENU

Benevolent Hors d’Oeuvre:

Ensue, saunter-synonym, scarcely

Name a four-letter follower of Robert...

followed by a synonym of “saunter” minus its “e”...

followed, finally, by “not a one.

The result is a synonym of “benevolent.” 

What is this synonym?

What are the follower of Robert, the e-less synonym of saunter, and not a one?

Blankety-Blank Slice:

Crooks and nannies

The creature was ______ than most, and was thus able to _______ over, under, around and through crannies and nooks. 

Remove a letter from the second missing word to spell the first missing word. What are these two words? 

Riffing Off Shortz And Michaels Entrees:

Most Valuable Player (Screen Star MVP)

Will Shortz’s September 28th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Andrea Carla Michaels of San Francisco, reads: 

Name a famous actress (five letters in the first name, six letters in the last name). Change the first and third letters of her first name and the first letter of her last name. The resulting letters in order from left to right will name a place where you might see this actress.

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Michaels Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

Take three consecutive letters of the name of a puzzle-maker. 

Rotate the second letter 180 degrees
clockwise. 

The result is where one might hear the name of this puzzle-maker. 

Who is this puzzle-maker? 

Where might you hear this puzzle-maker’s name?

(Note: Entrees #2-through-#7 are the “handiwordplay” of our friend Nodd.)

ENTREE #2

Name a famous deceased actress (seven letters in the first name, five letters in the last name). Her last name is part of a term for a type of sports and entertainment venue. 

Remove one letter of her first name and rearrange the remaining letters to name a term used in an activity that takes place at the venue. 

Who is the actress, what is the venue, and what is the term?

ENTREE #3

Name a famous actress (five letters in the first name, six letters in the last name). This actress inspired a character on a TV show. Her last name, with a different last letter, is the second word in the name of the show, and also names a place you might see her if you happen to be in one of the three cities in which she owns residences. 

Who is the actress and what is the show?

ENTREE #4

Name two famous actresses. The first has seven-letter first and last names. The second has five letters in her first name and six letters
in her last name. 

The first name of the first actress, followed by the last name of the second, names a place where you might see these actresses in January. 

Who are the actresses and where might you see them?

ENTREE #5

Name two famous actresses. The first, now deceased, had a three-letter first name and a five-letter last name. The second has seven letters in her first name and four in her last name. The first name of the first actress is the name of a female character in a well-known book. 

Add the first letter of the title of the book to the beginning of the first actress’s last name. As modified, the two actresses’ last names are now the first and third words in the name of a place where the female character lived. 

Who are the actresses and the character, and what are the book and the place?

ENTREE #6

Name a famous actress (seven letters in the first name, six letters in the last name). 
The fifth through eleventh letters of her name spell something seen in a famous 1997 film. Remove those letters. 

Change the fourth remaining letter to an S. Rearrange that letter and the other five remaining letters to name a place where you might see this actress or her work. 

Who is the actress, what was seen in the 1997 film, and where might the actress be seen?

ENTREE #7

Take the seven-letter last name of a famous actress. Change the first letter to a copy of the fourth letter. Change the third and fourth letters to copies of the original first letter. The result will name the tenth most populous city in a western state. 

The actress is a part-time resident of the capital city of that state, which holds an annual film festival in March where you might see her.

Who is the actress, what are the two cities, and what is the festival?

(Note: Entree #8 is the “handiwordplay” of our friend Plantsmith.)

ENTREE #8

Take name of a famous actress. Five and six letters, first and last names.

In first name drop last two letters and double
the third.

In last name drop last two letters and replace with a conjunction to get:

1. A place where you don’t want to be

2. A place where the actress could see herself.

Who is this actress?

Where don’t you want to be?

Where could the actress see herself?

ENTREE #9

An actress and actor from the same era, both legendary, never appeared in a movie together. Take the surname of one of them.

Move the last two letters to the beginning and tack the penultimate letter of her first name onto the end of this result to form the surname of the actor. 

Who are these legendary cinematic stars?  

ENTREE #10

An American author was associated with the color purple... but also with an even drabber hue, thanks to his surname. 

Anagram five consecutive letters of his full name to spell a third color... a “monstrous color” associated with an athlete who is also associated with a fourth color, red. 

The nickname of that athlete is spelled with the last, second and first letters of the author’s full name.

What are all four colors and the athlete’s nickname?

Dessert Menu

Proper Nominal Dessert:

Titular & Geographical

Divide a six-letter creature in half. 
Move the first letter of each half to the end of that half to form two rhyming three-letter proper nouns – one geographical, the other titular. What are this creature and two proper nouns?

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 Thursday.

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.

Thursday, September 25, 2025

Nonslumbering lumber! "Do the math!" Oliver, George, William, Joe in the NEWS (or OLDS?) "Backward to the past"; Empire State of Mind... Benders; Things dogs do, name just two; Behold the Mayo, for heart’s-sake! Fido? Fluffy? Frisky? Whiskers? “Is the tack room a back room?”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe2 SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

“Is the tack room a back room?”

Name pieces of equipment that might be found in a tack room of a stable. 

Remove three consecutive letters, leaving a synonym of “prods.” 

If you spell these pieces of equipment backward and remove three consecutive letters the result is a second  synonym of “prods.” This second synonym of “prods” rhymes with the first synonym of “prods.”

What are these pieces of tack room equipment and rhyming synonyms?

Hint: The second synonym of “prods” is also a plural noun that may also be found in a tack room.

Appetizer Menu

Conundrumbstricken Appetizer:

Backward to the past

Nonslumbering lumber! 

Do the math! 

Oliver, George, William, Joe in the NEWS (or OLDS?) 

Backward to the past

1. 👚Print the name of a raw material used for various fabrics in capital letters, except print the last letter in lower case. 

Then print it in reverse order, last letter to first letter. 

In the past, where would you most likely have seen this printed? 

What’s the raw material?

Oliver, George, William and Joe in the News... or the Olds! 

2. 🎥🔊🪖Consider these 4 people. 

* George invented a camera. 

Joe was a 1970s Grammy winner with a Top
40 song. 

William was an important U.S. military leader. 

Oliver was a major figure in a 1980s political scandal. 

Their last names have an unusual property. What is it?

Do the math!

3. 🔢Think of a common 3-word phrase. 

Reverse the last two letters, say it out loud and then – phonetically – do the math. 

The answer is 6. 

What’s the phrase?

Nonslumbering lumber!

4. 🌳What do the following have in common?

~ A certain model of a luxury car

A 20th-century vocal group with two big hits

An athlete, recently a champion

A well-known, successful musician

MENU

Healthful Hors d’Oeuvre:

Behold the Mayo, for heart’s-sake!

A Hungarian-born American businessman, philanthropist and Holocaust survivor loved Latin proverbs, geography, bolo ties, poems, cattle, phone calls, lunch visits, driving his grandchildren to school... and life. He was a near-centenarian when he died.

This benefactor believed in making what he called “investments in humanity.” Indeed, his surname graces a building of a world-class health provider. His surname, fittingly, is an anagram of a body part.

Who is this philanthropist?

What is this body part?

Petunia The Pig Slice:

Fido? Frisky? Fluffy? Whiskers?

Place an “n” at the center of a six-letter creature. 

Replace four consecutive letters of the result with a two-letter synonym. The result is a name commonly given to this creature. 
What are this creature and the common name?

Hint: The last three letters of this name sound like how this creature grooms itself.

Riffing Off Shortz And Shukan Entrees:

Empire State of Mind... Benders

Will Shortz’s September 21st NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Dave Shukan of San Marino, California, reads: 

Take the phrase EASTERN TIME. Change one letter and rearrange the result to name a place that observes Eastern Time.

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Shukan Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

Take the name of a puzzle-maker and his hometown, each in two words. 

Change an S to an N and a U to an A. Rearrange the result to spell three U.S. cities that observe Eastern Time. 

Who is this puzzle-maker? What are the three cities?

Our friend Tortitude created Entree # 2:

ENTREE #2

Take the phrase EASTERN TIME. Change one letter and rearrange the result to name an entertainer. 

This entertainer appears on a  TV show takes place in a setting that observes Eastern Time.

Who is this entertainer?

The following riffs, #3 and #4, were contributed by a very valued Puzzleria!n.

ENTREE #3

Take the phrase EASTERN TIME.  

Change one letter and rearrange the result to name a common collective place designation where all manner of things Eastern and non-Eastern are observed.

What is the collective place designation? 

ENTREE #4

Take the phrase EASTERN TIME.  

Rearrange these letters to name a place that observes Eastern Time.  

Entrees # 5  through #10 were created  by our friend Nodd.

ENTREE #5

Take the three-word name of a U.S. time zone. Add an E and change an A to a C. Rearrange the result to spell: 

(1) a major Western U.S. city; 

(2) the two-letter postal abbreviations of a
Midwestern U.S. state and two Eastern U.S. states; and 

(3) a country that shares some of the U.S. time zones. 

What are the time zone, the city, the abbreviations, and the country?

ENTREE #6

Take a two-word version of a U.S. time zone. Delete the second letter. 

Rearrange the result to spell a U.S. state not in
the time zone and the postal abbreviations of two states in the time zone and of one state not in the time zone. 
What are the time zone, state, and postal abbreviations?

ENTREE #7

Take the first words in the names of two adjoining U.S. time zones. Add an O to the end of one of them. 

Follow this word, as modified, with the other word to name a two-word geographical feature in one of the zones. 

This feature is the highest point in the northwestern part of the national forest in which it is located. 

What are the time zones and the geographical feature?

ENTREE #8

Take the two-word name for the time now in effect in a region of the United States. 

Add the postal abbreviation of a state in the time zone to the west of the first one. 

Rearrange to spell a major city in the first time zone and two adjectives describing the city. The adjectives are four and six letters long. 

What are the time now in effect, the state, the city, and the two adjectives?

ENTREE #9

Take the first word in the name of a U.S. time zone. 

Rearrange its letters to spell the name of a
mountain range in the time zone and the first syllable of a state in the time zone. 

What are the time zone, the mountain range, and the state?

ENTREE #10

Take a three-word name for the region in which the place referred to in the September 21, 2025 NPR puzzle is located. 

Change a T to an R and add two A’s. 

Rearrange to spell a state outside the region, a city in that state, and a one-word description of many Puzzleria! puzzles, including this one. What are the name, the state, the city, and the description?

Dessert Menu

501 Dalmations Dessert?:

Things dogs do, name just two

Spell in reverse the name of a  Fortune 500 company. 

The result is two things dogs do. 

What are the company's name and the things dogs do?  

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 Thursday.

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.

Thursday, September 18, 2025

“E.T. homophone home!” plus “Whinnies & Counterclockwisdom!” “Our compliments to the Shift!” Breakfast & brunch, boiled & baked; An inclined plane is a slope up; “Stumped? Implore Metis, Greek Goddess of Wisdom!” Lightsaber Blaster Weaponizes Weisz!



PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe2 SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

“Our compliments to the Shift!”

Shift the order of the fourth and fifth letters of a  complimentary adjective. 

The first and second halves of the result are
complementary items found in the household.

What is this adjective?

What are the household items?

Appetizer Menu

Skydiversionary Appetizer:

“E.T. homophone home!” plus

“Whinnies & Counterclockwisdom!”

“E.T. homophone home!”
1. 🕾Think of a two-syllable word for a common occurrence in nature. 

Break the syllables apart and swap their beginning letters and you’ll now have two new words. 

One is a celestial body.

The other is a homophone of a different celestial body. 

What are these three words? 

“Whinnies & Counterclockwisdom!”

2. 🏇All horse races since 1921, when the Belmont Stakes changed to running counterclockwise, are now run in that direction, with the major exception of the Royal Ascot racecourse and some other courses in the UK. 

However there is still one other very well known European horse race that is still run clockwise. 

Can you name it? 

Hint: This race is not viewed from traditional bleachers or grandstands.

MENU

“Paging Myth Metis!” Hors d’Oeuvre:

“Stumped? Implore Metis, Wisdom Goddess!”

Describe Metis, Greek Goddess of Wisdom, in two words. 

Rearrange these combined letters  to spell two-word flashes of sudden realization, insight or comprehension. 

What are this description and two-word flashes?

“Missed it by that much!” Slice:

Breakfast & brunch, boiled & baked
Name a boiled and baked breakfast or brunch, its shape, and the shape of an uppercase Bugle.

Rearrange these combined letters spell an idiom that indicates a near-but-not-enough effort.  

What are these three words and this idiom? 

Riffing Off Shortz And Weisz Entrees:

Lightsaber Blaster Weaponizes Weisz!

Will Shortz’s September 14th Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Bob Weisz, reads: 

In a certain classic film, the protagonist uses two weapons. The name of one of these has 10 letters. If you take its first letter and last six letters, you can rearrange them all to name the other weapon this protagonist uses, in seven letters. What weapons are these?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Weisz Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

Name a two-word, eight-letter puzzle-maker. 

Double the second and fifth letters. 

Rearrange these ten letters to spell the surnames of a businessman and a past singer whose first names begin with a J and a D respectively. 

Who are this puzzle-maker, businessman and singer?

The following riff  is contributed by a very valued Puzzleria!n.

ENTREE #2

Name a weapon in 10 letters used by many a
protagonist in a genre of many a classic film.  Remove from those 10 letters, letters that spell a transport powerplant seen in many of those films.  

After you remove it, the remaining letters can be arranged to spell typical modes of transport seen in such films.  

What is film genre, the weapon, the powerplant, and the mode of transport?  

The following six riffs are contributed by master-riffspinner Nodd.

ENTREE #3

A 1970s Western film title includes the name of a weapon invented in the 19th Century. 

The second, third, and fourth letters of the name of the weapon, when repeated, name a six-letter weapon invented much earlier. 

What are the two weapons?

ENTREE #4

 A 1980s dystopian film features a nine-letter weapon. 

The first four letters of the weapon and the first letter followed by the last three letters spell two sounds made by weapons other than this one. 

What is this weapon and what are the sounds?

ENTREE #5

A classic 1980s film features a two-word firearm, 13 letters. 

Replace the sixth and seventh letters with one different letter and delete the second word of the name of the firearm. 

The result will name
much larger weapon. 

The letter that replaces the sixth and seventh letters of the first weapon is the first letter in the title of a 1950s film that features the second weapon. 

What are these two weapons?

ENTREE #6

Name a five-letter weapon used by a heroic film, television, and comic book character. 

The weapon may also be known by a second term that starts with the same letter but is one letter longer. Remove the first letter of this second term and rearrange the remaining letters to spell another item this character uses that can also serve as a weapon. 

Who is the character and what are the weapons?

ENTREE #7

 A 1970s crime drama film features as the first word in its title a word denoting a kind of weapon used by the film’s protagonist. 

Add one vowel to this word and rearrange the letters to spell a common term for the weapon to which this word pertains, and a common shorthand term for something needed to use that weapon. 

What are the film, the kind of weapon, and the two common terms?

ENTREE #8

Name a classic film about the use of nuclear weapons, 13 letters. Five letters can be arranged to spell a weapon used to deliver bombs and other weapons. 

The remaining letters, with one letter changed to the letter that is eight places earlier in the alphabet, can be arranged to spell a verb that describes the purpose of another weapon. That weapon can be spelled using letters 8, 6, 2, 5, 11, 4, and 9 of the film title, in that order. What are the film, the two weapons, and the verb?   

ENTREE #9

Take the name of a legendary low-tech weapon that has appeared in many classic films. Rearrange its letters to spell:

~ a pair of low-tech weapons, in two and four letters, and

~ an  intense and usually openly displayed anger that wielders of these weapons may display.

What is this legendary weapon, two other low-tech weapons, and intense anger?

Dessert Menu

Druggy Dessert:

An inclined plane is a slow pup

Name the two-word site of a national landmark. Delete consecutive letters that are an anagram of a slow creature. 

What remains sounds like a drug. 

What are this site, creature and drug?

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 Thursday.

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.