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?

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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.