Thor’s pitchforks, hammer handles A Tool of the Thespian Trade? Edible inedible credible incredible! “Canon in D” “‘Cannon’ in E”? Corpulent checkers & dominoes; Ten-toe podiatric tepidity

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

A Tool of the Thespian Trade?

Name a winner of multiple Oscars, first and last names.

The last six letters of this Oscar-winner’s name, if you change one letter (to an “r”), spell “a tool of the Oscar-winner’s trade.”

The first four letters of the name spell something others do to win Oscars. 

Change one letter in the first name and rearrange the result to spell how many Oscars this winner won. 

Who is this person? 

What's “a tool of their trade?”

What do others do to win Oscars? 

How many Oscars has this winner won?

Appetizer Menu

Thunderstruck Appetizer:

Thor’s Pitchforks & Hammer Handles

An Antonymous Anagram

1.🙌 Last century, a man used his hands to work with celebrities and quickly became a celebrity himself. 

He achieved success by following a vocation completely opposite of what would be predicted by rearranging his name. 

Who was he (5, 7)? 

What was his vocation?

What prediction (6, 6) that is an anagram of his name is the exact opposite of his actual vocation?

The “Effouar” flower?

2.💮 A common plant may be named by spelling out a number, saying each letter. 

What’s the plant? 

What’s the number?

Dilemma: Lose an “L” or snip an “i”?

3.🥀Name a flower (7 letters), remove an “I” and rearrange as needed to find a food. 

Then name a rock formation (5 letters) and
add an “R” to find a second food. 

Say them one after the other to find a third food. 

What are these three foods?

“Merlon Marina”

4.🕮 A world-famous 20th-century author rearranges his/her first and last name and gives the rearranged name to a character in his/her most famous novel. 

The first names of the author and the character begin with the same letter. Name the author, the character and the novel.

MENU

Holy Hors d’Oeuvre

Edible inedible, credible incredible!

The first four letters of something perhaps seen in church are an edible part of certain foods. The last three letters of that something are an inedible part of certain foods. 

What are this churchy thing and the edible and inedible food parts?

Canonical  Slice:

“Canon in D?” or “‘Cannon’ in E”?

Johann Pachelbel composed his “Canon in D” around the turn of the 17th Century. 

Nearly two centuries later, another composer
composed a work that might have been titled “‘Cannon’ in E”? 

Why might it have been titled “‘Cannon’ in E”?

Ripping Off Shortz And Graham Entrees:

Corpulent checkers & dominoes

Will Shortz’s February 23 NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle was created by Chad Graham of Philadelphia (also known as our very own  “Chuck,” a “nom de plume” Chad Graham uses in his “Conundrumstruck by Chuck” feature. (Chuck’s first puzzle on Puzzleria! was published in 2015.)

Chad’s NPR puzzle reads:

Think of two classic music artists with multiple top 40 hits. Their first names are near-synonyms. And their last names are both game pieces. Who are they?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Graham Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

Name a four-letter abbreviation for a book in the Bible, the five-letter “opposite of ‘omega’,” and a seven-letter word for “The Lord’s Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations written in Koine Greek, and dated by modern scholars to the first or second century.”
Rearrange these 16 letters to spell the first name of a puzzle-maker and the city where he lives. 

Name this puzzle-maker and city.

What is the book in the Bible, the five-letter “opposite of ‘omega’,” and the seven-letter word for “The Lord’s Teaching...?”

Note: Entrees #2 through #7 are riffs created by Nodd, author of “Nodd ready for prime time.”

ENTREE #2

Think of a Grammy-winning singer. 

The middle four letters of her first name are the
first part of the stage name of another Grammy-winning singer. 

Her last name is a game piece. Who is she?

ENTREE #3

Think of the informal name of a well-known rock group. The name is also the word for the game pieces used in a popular  board game. The name of the game, doubled and hyphenated, is a music genre. What are the group and the game?

ENTREE #4

Think of the two-word stage name of an American singer-songwriter. 

Add a D at the beginning of the first name. 

The first name will now spell game pieces, and the second name will describe what one of these game pieces looks like. Who is he?

ENTREE #5

Think of the first name of a jazz musician from a Caribbean country, in seven letters. His first name is also the name of a board game. 

The word for the playing piece used in the game is the same as the word for something used to store music. Adding one letter at the end of this word spells a popular music genre. 

Who is the musician? 

What is the word for the playing piece? 

ENTREE #6

Think of a Grammy-winning female singer-songwriter. 

Her first name anagrams to a tech company. 

Her last name is a game piece. 

Who is she?

ENTREE #7

Think of the name of a husband-and-wife singing duo from Australia. 

They were active from the 1960s through the 1980s, during which time they released one single. 

Their name is the same as the generic name
for playing pieces that are used in a variety of board games. 

Who are they?

ENTREE #8

Name an actor, (2 letters, 6 letters). Remove four consecutive letters that can be rearranged to spell either “a member of the Quechuan peoples of Peru” or a name in the Bible. 

Remove the space created by the absence of
these letters. The result is a pet food brand. Name this actor, Peruvian person, biblical name, and pet food brand.

ENTREE #9

Take the surname of a singer who weighed “a tad north-of-a-tenth-of-a-ton,” and the surname of an NFL defensive tackle who tipped the scales at 100 pounds more than the singer. 

Delete three consecutive letters from the tackle’s surname and rearrange what remains to spell a pejorative term with which he might have been tarred as a child. The surname of the singer consists of an anagram of a word in “north-of-a-tenth-of-a-ton” followed by another word in that hyphenated string.

Who are this singer and  defensive tackle?

What is the pejorative term with which the tackle may have been tarred as a lad?

What is the  anagram of a word in “north-of-a-tenth-of-a-ton”? 

Hint: This singer and defensive tackle were both born in Alabama. 

ENTREE #10

Name a bebop jazz musician, a British heavy metal band, and an American heavy metal band, each in two words. 

The three “second words” are all titles of Catholic vocations, like “Mother Teresa,” “Friar Tuck” or “Bishop Sheen.” 

The three “first words” are:

* a 4-syllable rhyme of a synonym of “criminal” (as an adjective),

* a 2-syllable synonym of “traitor,” and  

* an anagram of the 2-word opposite of “dry dahs.” 

Who is this jazz musician? What are the pair of heavy metal bands?

What are the 4-syllable rhyme, 2-syllable synonym and the 2-word opposite of “dry dahs.

Dessert Menu

Toasty Tootsies Dessert:

Ten-toe podiatric tepidity

Delete the first letter of things that keep your feet warm. 

Move the new first letter to the middle to form other things that keep your feet warm. 

What are these feet-warming things?

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.

A Quartet of Terrific Riffs; Informal family-unit immunity; Dribblin’ Larry and Lyndon’s Lady; A fish acquired and a babe retired; Thrill of victory & agony of defeat; “U say ‘farewell’ and I say ‘O hell!’”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

A fish acquired, a babe retired

A three-word photo caption of a recently reeled-in fish sounds like the whereabouts of a recently retired babe. 

What are the caption and the whereabouts?

Note: The four-ply Appetizer below is the handiwork a talented puzzle-maker who is a great friend of Puzzleria!

Appetizer Menu

Pleasingly Palatable Four-Ply Appetizer:

A Quartet of Terrific Riffs

Note: The following puzzle riff is “a tip of the Tirolerhut” to master puzzle-maker Bobby Jacobs and his, December 29, 2024, NPR Challenge:

Filling the “tank” at the Gasthaus

1.🍻A dehydrated American touring Munich strode into a Gasthaus and placed an order. 

The order can be spelled, reading left to right and eliminating spaces as required, with the first four plus the 7th, 8th, 9th (or 11th), and 12th letters in the name of a famous singer. 

The order can be served in a container spelled with an arrangement of the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 9th (or 11th) letters in the name of that singer. Who is the singer? 

What is the order? What is the container?  

The following is a riff of Lego’s January 5, 2025, NPR Challenge:

Digital Shifting

2.✌Take the title of a song in five words. 

Drop a conjunction; change a preposition to a homophone of itself; and insert a mathematical
operation. 

The result is the digits, in another order, of the NPR Challenge. What are the song title and the mathematical operation? 

The following is a riff of the surreptitious January 19, 2025, NPR Challenge:

Misshhhion!

3. 💬🗨Take a word that might describe a secret mission. 

Take duplicates of the last and next to last letters of that word. Place the duplicates – last letter first and next to last letter second – at the
beginning of the original word. 

The result is a word that might describe a secret mission long after it is completed. 

What are the two words? 

The following is a riff of the Bird Hunting February 16, 2025, NPR Challenge:

Superheroes & alter egos

4. 🎥Name the alter ego of a famous, fictional superhero of the past and present. 

The alter ego’s name has five letters in the first name and five letters in the last name. In the first name, change one letter to a letter it rhymes with, drop one letter, and change one letter to a letter it is sometimes pronounced like (as, for example, the first letters in a word for a common pet and for the word for such a pet when it is newborn).

The result is the nickname of a famous actor of the past.  What are these two names?

MENU

Howdy Hors d’Oeuvre

“U say ‘Farewell’ and I say ‘O hell’”

Replace the last letter of a Pacific isle with a duplicate of its second letter.

Then remove consecutive interior letters that spell a greeting.

What’s left are letters that spell a farewell. 

What are this isle, the greeting and the farewell?

Hint: The isle is a part of an “overseas collectivity” of France. Rearrange the letters of the two-word name of that collectivity to spell something Juliette Binoche, Shirley MacLaine and other actresses have attempted to do.

Wide World Of Motorsports Slice

“The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat”

Remove the space from a competitive auto event. 

Replace a consonant-followed-by-a-vowel by a different vowel-followed-by-a-consonant. The result is a word for what you might feel after losing this competition. 

What are this event and what you might feel afterward if you lose?

Riffing Off Shortz And Vespe Entrees:

Dribblin’ Larry, Lyndon’s Lady

Will Shortz’s Weekend Edition Sunday National Public Radio challenge this week comes from Jim Vespe, of Mamaroneck, New York: 

Name a famous sports figure of the past. Change the third and fourth letters of the first name to a D, and you’ll have the nickname of another famous American of the past. 

Who are these two people?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Vespe Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

Name a puzzle-maker, first and last names, and the city in which he lives. Replace an M with an O. 

Rearrange these 18 letters to spell:

~ an American automobile brand, now owned by multi-national corporation,

~ a compact Ford car sold in North America and Brazil during the 1970s, and

~ a past compact pickup truck that was produced by GMC.

Who is this puzzle-maker?

What are the automobile brand, compact Ford car, and compact pickup truck?

Entrees #2 through #7 were created by our good friend Nodd, author of the recurring “Nodd ready for prime time” on Puzzleria!

ENTREE #2

Name a famous American baseball star of the past (5, 5). 

Change the third and fourth letters of the first name to a D, and you’ll have the nickname of a famous American movie star of the past. Who are these two people?

ENTREE #3

Name a famous American sports figure of the past who dominated his sport during his playing career (5, 7). 

Change the third and fourth letters of the first name to a D, and you'll have the last name of another famous American sports figure of the past. Who are these two people? 

(Hint: Adding a D to the first name of the first sports figure will spell the first name of the second one.)

ENTREE #4

Name a famous baseball player of the past (4, 4). Change the third and fourth letters of the first name to a D, and remove the last letter of the last name. 

Change the first letter of the first name to a T and remove the space between the first and last names. You’ll have the first name of a famous non-American who currently heads an international organization that is often in the news. Who are these two people?

ENTREE #5

Name a famous golfer of the past (5, 5). Change the third and fourth letters of the first name to a D, and change the first letter of the last name to a B. 

You’ll have a word for something of great importance to athletes, followed by a word for some of its parts. Who is the sports figure, and what are the two words?

ENTREE #6

Name a famous track star of the past (4, 5 ). 

Remove the last letter of the first name and the first letter of the last name. 

Also remove the last two letters of the last name and the space between the two names. 

You’ll have the last name of a famous baseball player of the past. Who are these two people?

ENTREE #7

Name a famous baseball player of the past (5, 5). Change the third and fourth letters of the first name to a D, and remove the last letter of
the first name. 

The first and last names will now spell a two-word phrase for an unwise investment. 

Who is the baseball player, and what is the phrase?

Entree #8 was created by our good friend Plantsmith, author of the recurring “Garden of Puzzley Delights” on Puzzleria!

ENTREE #8

Take the nickname of a colorful sports hero of the past. 

Replace two consecutive identical consonants with two consecutive identical different consonants to get a nickname of a current celebrity.

Two consecutive identical consonants in the nickname of this sports hero’s lesser-known brother appear consecutively in the in the first part of a two-part nickname of this same current celebrity. 

Finally, take how a polite young autograph-seeker might have addressed either of these sports-hero brothers (using a 2-letter abbreviation and their 4-letter surname). Replace the first letter of the surname with the letter two places before it in the alphabet to get the name of an eponymous title character in a British sitcom.

Who are these past colorful sports heroes?

What are the real name and nicknames of the current celebrity?

How might a polite young autograph-seeker have addressed either of these sports-heroes? Who is the British sitcom title character?

ENTREE #9

Name a Hall of Fame sports figure of the past, first and last names. Remove the space. The result is fitting, because this figure often “on base...” and reportedly did not possess an acidic personality. What’s more, this figure amassed not just 7 (but 30 more than 7!) pinch Hits (pH) during his career. 

Alas, he was an outfielder (not a pitcher or catcher, which would have been more fitting, given his adjectival full name).

Who is this Hall of Famer?

Why would it have been more fitting if he was a pitcher or catcher?

ENTREE #10

Take the first and last names of a past comedian who was also a serious actor and philanthropist. Write the letters in lowercase.

Remove the leftmost instance of a consonant that appears twice. Insert a space someplace. Place a “grave accent” above a vowel. The result indicates a way of preparing food served in a cream sauce with mushrooms and pimiento or green peppers.

Who is this comedian?

What is this way of preparing food?

Dessert Menu

All In The Family Dessert:

Informal family-unit immunity

Name an informal term for a family member. 

Remove its second letter to name a potentially life-threatening response of the immune system. 

What is this term for a family member?

What is the life-threatening response?

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.

Elements, Names and Dreams; Paws 'n' Claws 'n' Santa Claus? “Auto-party” Drinking? No driving! “I love you, Olive! O Yu!” Pinning down a Greco-Roman wrestling puzzle; Brow-furrowing headline;

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Paws 'n' Claws 'n' Santa Claus?

Consider the incomplete couplet below: 

“On a black ________ pair of front paws

Can be found ___ _____ flesh-ripping claws!”

The word in the first blank is an anagram of the words in the second and third blanks. What are these three words?

Appetizer Menu

Paradiddlley Riddley Appetizer

Elements, Names and Dreams

1. 🂡 🂽 🃄 🃅 🃊 🂿 🃂 Think of an atomic element in
seven letters, the British spelling. 

Shift each letter a single-digit number of places earlier in the alphabet. 

The result will be a six-centuries-old gambling card game. 

What are this element and this card game?

2. 🏛Think of the name of a U.S. state capital. Shift each letter a single-digit number of places earlier in the alphabet. The result will be a female first name that is an anagram of a word that means to “temper” or “harden.”

What are this capital and first name?

3. 🕮 🐄🐮Joseph in the biblical Book of Genesis interpreted the dreams of Pharoah – dreams of creatures like fat cows and thin cows, for example.

Name a two-syllable creature. Move its letters a single-digit number of places later in the alphabet to name an interpreter of dreams (similar to Joseph in Genesis) who may have interpreted dreams involving this creature. 

What is this creature?

Who is this interpreter of dreams?

MENU

Uppercase Hors d’Oeuvre

Brow-furrowing headline

Name a headline you might have seen earlier this week, in 12, 3, 6 and 4 letters.

All three letters in the second word would be UPPERCASE letters, whether the headline was or was not written in all-capital letters.

What is this headline?

Compound (Fracture?) Slice:

“Auto-party” Drinking? No driving!

Name a compound word for a part of a particular vehicle – a part associated with not driving. 

This compound word is also a beverage associated with not driving. 

Remove the initial letters of the two parts of this compound word. 

Remove also the space that remains. 

The letters that remain spell what sounds like how a 20th-century president pronounced a word that has a 3-to-1 ratio of vowels to consonants. 

What is this compound word that is a beverage as well as a part of a vehicle?

Who is the 20th-century president?

How did this 20th-century president pronounce the word with a 3-to-1 ratio of vowels to consonants, and what is that word?

Riffing Off Shortz And Hartenstein Entrees:

“I love you, Olive! O yu!”

Will Shortz’s February 9th Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by  Ward Hartenstein, of Rochester, New York, reads:

Name a well-known cartoon character in eight letters. Change the last letter to a U and rearrange the result to make a phrase you might see on a Valentine's Day card.

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Hartenstein Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

Name a puzzle-maker in 15 letters. Rearrange these letters to form three words:

* a two-word unfair advantage that a competitor in a track-and-field event ought not
be given, and

* a noun likely eventually given to any competitor who is given such an unfair advantage.

Who is this puzzle-maker?

What are the three words?

Note: Entrees # 2 through #7 were created by Nodd, whose “Nodd ready for prime time” appears regularly on Puzzleria!

ENTREE #2

Name a feline cartoon character in nine letters. Change a T to an S. 

Rearrange the result to get a two-word phrase
for what you might see on a Valentine’s Day card penned by a cunning would-be paramour. 

Who is the character, and what is the phrase?

ENTREE #3

Name a female cartoon character in six letters.
She frequently appeared in a comic strip named after a kind of legume. Her name is a word you might find in a verse on a Valentine's Day card. Who is she?

ENTREE #4

Name two cartoon characters from a TV show. 

Upon seeing them, you would be likely to think of two words that are often found in verses on Valentine’s Day cards. 

Who are the characters, and what are the words?

ENTREE #5

Take a two-word phrase meaning “advocates in the sagest manner.” 

Rearrange the letters to spell a three-word
phrase you might see on a Valentine’s Day card. 

What are these two phrases?

ENTREE #6

Name a cartoon character who is known by a three-word description of her name and what she likes to do. 

Reverse the two syllables of her name and it will sound like a word you might see on a Valentine’s Day card. Who is the character, and what is the word? 

ENTREE #7

Name a two-word cartoon character in eleven letters. 

From the second word, remove a two-letter
abbreviation for a health care professional. 

Rearrange the rest of the letters of the second word to spell a word often associated with love. 

The first and second words together will now name something you might see on a Valentine’s Day card. 

Who is the character, and what might you see on a Valentine’s Day card?

Note: Entree #8 was created by Plantsmith, whose “Garden of Puzzley Delights” appears regularly on Puzzleria!

ENTREE #8

Rearrange the letters of a well-known comic book character to get a rather blasé Valentine greeting... (or, one might also say “a rather meh” Valentine greeting).

Who is this comic book character?

What is the Valentine greeting?

Hint: The greeting includes a one-letter homophone of its verb.

Entree #9

Name a professional sports team in a dozen letters. 

Three consecutive letters spell a color associated with Valentines.

Letters 12 and 10 with an apostrophe between ‘em, and letters 2 and 3 with an apostrophe
between ‘em, are both associated with Valentines (or a breath mint plus a digit).

Letters 4, 5, 1, 8, 2, 7, 6 11, 4, 4, 2, 1, 8, correctly divided, spell the beginning of some well-known Shakespeare.

What is this sports team?

What are the color and the apostrophized two-letter words  associated with Valentines?

What is the beginning of some well-known Shakespeare?  

Entree #10

Take a  three-word greeting (in 2, 2 and 9 letters) on a February 14th greeting card.

Anagram these combined letters to spell an 8-letter adjective modifying a 5-letter noun.

These two words suggest that even though the
sender and recipient clearly love one another, each occasionally perceives the other as an _____ (the 5-letter noun).

The 8-letter adjective suggests, however, that, even given that sporadic animus or tension, the “positive chemistry” (that is, the “degree of mutual attraction the sender and recipient possess) will obviate that animus or tension.

What is this greeting on the card?

What are the adjective and noun?

Entree #11

Two members of a musical combo – after each played their respective wind instruments a tad too “enthusiastically” and “frenziedly” – were airlifted from the nightclub where they were playing a gig to the emergency room of a hospital.

Both had somehow swallowed their instruments! 

The doctors tried in vain to remove the larger instrument of the first player. After an abortive attempt to fish it up though his windpipe, they next tried to extract it by cracking open his sternum (last syllable of the instrument). Alas the man was soon thereafter declared (“first syllable of the instrument, spelled in reverse”).

However, the second musician, fortunately, pulled though. The attempt to pull the smaller instrument up through his windpipe, along with “(a 2-word anagram of the final five letters of his instrument) or two,” proved successful and kept this musician “out of (the first four letters of his instrument)’s way.”

What are the two instruments?

What was the first man declared?

Dessert Menu

Divinity Dessert

Pinning down a Greco-Roman wrestling puzzle

Name objects with which a Roman deity is associated that sound similar to the name of its Greek counterpart. 

Name these things and deities.

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.