Thursday, June 19, 2025

“Improbable bobbable Egg... nog?” Food Fight at the Golden Corral? Travel ’Zine? Cars & Carnations; “Heaps-o’-hops hoppin’ mad!” Making essential scriptural scents; “Payrolling” along on ergocycles; “Schussing down Pikachu Avenue” Opposites attract apposites are apt


PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe2 SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Making essential scriptural scents

Name a fragrance found in the Bible.

Replace its first word with an anagram that is the surname of a poet. This poet used a pseudonym that is an anagram of four consecutive interior letters in the fragrance’s last word. Replace those four letters with an “o”. 

The result is a Christian title that appears in the Bible. 

Name this fragrance, poet, pseudonym, and title.

Appetizer Menu

Delightfully Puzzley Appetizer:

“Improbable bobbable Egg... nog?” Food fight, Cars & Carnations, Travel Mag; 

“Food Fight at the Golden Corral?”

1.♕♖♗♘Picture this: 

A semi-empty plate at the “Golden Corral Buffet – the vestiges of a sumptuous feast... or
perhaps a food fight?” 

Describe what is on this plate using a two-word phrase of 5 and 6 letters and of 2 and 1 syllables.

Double the third letter of both words. “Spoonerize” the result by interchanging the first letter of the first word with the first three letters of the altered second word.

The final result is two-word ploy executed in a variant form of a classic family board game.

What is the two-word description of what is on the buffet table plate?

What is the two-word ploy in the variant form of the classic board game? 

Cars and Carnations

2. 🚌🚲🎕Take a popular method of transportation, in eight letters. Drop two letters, in order, that together represent a common acronym in texting. 

Mix the remaining letters to “grow” a  flower.

What are this method of transportation and name of the flower?

Travel ’zine?  

3. 🎜🎝Take the second word in the name of a magazine. 

Add a vowel to this word so that it is no longer a “Cyclops,” but then delete from it the letters in one of the seven solfège syllables: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti. 

Mix the result gently (do not shake!) to spell a name of a vehicle historically associated with the name of the magazine. 

What are this magazine and the name of the vehicle?    

The “Improbable bobbable Egg... nog?”

4. ☕🧃Change the first letter in a two-word high-protein beverage to get something
improbable.

What is the beverage?

What is improbable?

MENU

Foaming At The Mouth Of A Beer Mug Hors d’Oeuvre:

Heaps-o’-hops hoppin’ mad!

Name a beverage and a synonym of “steaming mad.” 

Rearrange their combined letters to spell an ingredient often used to make the beverage. 

What are this beverage, synonym and ingredient?

Work Like An Ox Slice:

“Payrolling” along on ergocycles

In a calendar year, there are 26 pay periods, which could also be described as 14-day pay cycles.

Workers who receive 26 paychecks per year are paid fortnightly, on BLANK BLANK. 

Rearrange the 13 total letters in those blanks to spell a pair of ox-like creatures. 

What are the words in the blanks and the ox-like creatures?

MENU

Riffing Off Shortz And Kalish Entrees:

“Schussing down Pikachu Avenue”

Will Shortz’s June 15th Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle challenge, created by Evan Kalish of Bayside, New York, reads:

Take a child’s  game, in eight letters. Change the sixth letter to “ch”  and, phonetically, you’ll
have a popular animated children’s character. What are the game and the character?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Kalish Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

Take a puzzle-maker’s surname, in six letters. 

Change the sixth letter to “ch” and, phonetically, you’ll have 

1.) a popular kind of cabbage that one might be allergic to, and

2.) an irritating skin sensation induced by that allergy that may tempt one to scratch.

Who is this puzzle-maker?

What are the kind of cabbage and irritating skin condition?

Note: Entrees #2 through #7 are the playful handiwork of our friend Nodd.

ENTREE #2

Name a two-word children’s toy used in numerous games. 

The second word, spelled backwards, names a popular children’s character from books and animated films. 

What are the toy and the character?

ENTREE #3

Name a two-word children’s game. The first word is also the name of a popular animated children’s animal character. 

What are the game and the character?

ENTREE #4

Name a three-word children’s game. 

Change the last letter of the third word to a P. Follow the third word, as modified, with the second word spelled backwards. 

You’ll name an animated children’s animal character originated for TV in the 1960s. 

What are the game and the character?

ENTREE #5

Think of a children’s game that is named for the items used to play it. Replace the first letter with a copy of the fourth letter. 

Change the fifth letter to the letter three places before it in the alphabet. 

You’ll name characters featured in numerous children’s films and TV shows. 

What are the game and the characters?  

ENTREE #6

Name a popular children’s toy game, in three words. 

Replace the third letter with the letter two places after it in the alphabet. 

Follow it with a two-letter state postal abbreviation, and delete the second word. You’ll name a popular animated children’s character. 

What are the game and the character?  

ENTREE #7

Name a two-word game often played by children. 

Double the second letter, and replace the last three letters with a Y. 

Delete the space to name a popular animated childrens character. 

What are the game and the character?

ENTREE #8

Take a two-word child’s game. Spell the second word in reverse order to get an object that ought never be considered “child’s play.” 

The first word is one a police officer might shout at a perpetrator of a crime. What are this child’s game and shout.

What are this game and object?

ENTREE #9

Remove two consecutive letters from a two-word 13-letter child’s game that is sometimes often enjoyed by adults. 

The result is choral music melodies one might hear at a concert or on a recording.

What is this game and what are the melodies?

ENTREE #10

Take a child’s game, in eight letters. 

Anagram these letters to spell a game people of all ages play and a role  often assumed by charades game participants.

What are this child’s game, game played by all ages, and role charades players assume?

Dessert Menu

“Pleated” Skirt Dessert:

Opposites attract, apposites are apt

Name an attractive article of clothing and a slang term for the body part it encloses. 

Spell the slang term in reverse, followed by an
adjective modifying one type of the clothing (like 
“pleated” skirt, for example) to spell something else that is attractive. 

What are this clothing, body part and other attractive thing?

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.

12 comments:

  1. Note:
    To place a comment under this QUESTIONS? subheading (immediately below), or under any of the three subheadings below it (HINTS! PUZZLE RIFFS! and MY PROGRESS SO FAR...), simply left-click on the orange "Reply" to open a dialogue box where you can make a comment. Thank you.
    Lego...

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  2. Replies
    1. I wonder how Lego keeps coming up with all these new ideas week after week.

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    2. I've thought the same thing, Paul, for most of the 10+ years I've known about this blog, and have expressed it several times on here to Lego (or via email.). I keep thinking that one day he is simply going to be OUT of ideas!

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    3. Those are very kind and thoughtful words much appreciated by me) and composed by Paul and ViolinTeddy, "charter members" of Puzzleria! who have both contributed immeasurably to our blog over the past decade-plus, both with their puzzles and with their comments. I am honored to be a part of our community of creative, kind and caring women and men. As for ViolinTeddy's closing comment, I certainly hope none of us runs out of ideas... but if I do...
      Lego...

      Delete
    4. Yea ,amazing creative output. I also wonder how Cranberry keeps coming up with his cryptics, on a regular basis.

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  3. Replies
    1. I don't know why, but I found this week's puzzles to be much more difficult than normal. I don't even want to think about how long it took for me to solve some of these puzzles! In any case, I'm still missing Apps 2 & 4 (have some alts for #2), the Hors d'Oeuvre (think I know what one of the BLANKS is, but can't get anywhere), and the Slice. Also, I think that my answer for Entree #2 and maybe even #3 are alts, too, and I feel like adjective in the Dessert is missing a word in front of it, but the puzzle wouldn't work with the complete term.

      Delete
  4. IF YOU HAVE COMMENTS THAT DO NOT PERTAIN TO ANY OF THE FOUR CATEGORIES ABOVE, YOU MAY WRITE THEM BELOW THIS POST. THANK YOU.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Happy First Day of Summer to all!
    Mom and I are fine. Bryan and Renae went on the Alfa company trip to Nashville yesterday, and left all the children at home. We almost thought we wouldn't be eating out, but then Mia Kate called and said she wanted to go to Waffle House, so we went to eat with her. She also drove herself there, so we wouldn't have to go pick her up at home. She made it there without an accident, and we can only assume she made it back home just as safely. She and Mom both had a waffle and grits, but Mia Kate had sausage and Mom had bacon. Mia Kate also had cheese on her grits. I had a bacon double cheeseburger and hash browns. I drank Mr. Pibb, Mom drank coffee, and Mia Kate, who had been exercising at Planet Fitness earlier, brought her own drink in a thermos. I don't know what she was drinking. Mia Kate also ordered a blueberry waffle for Maddy to have when Mia Kate came back home. I think she also saved some of the grits for Maddy as well. Mom couldn't finish hers, so she saved it for breakfast tomorrow, before she'd be going to the beauty shop. I finished mine, so I saved nothing. Didn't talk about much, though we did find out Mia Kate's dancing class is off for the summer. After we parted company and came home, we found yesterday's paper(late due to Juneteenth)and the mail(possibly also late), which included another issue of GAMES/World Of Puzzles for me. I have yet to do anything in it, but I have read the paper, solved the Guardian Prize Crossword(set by Paul, who used the name "Ed" in a few clues to supposedly suggest "editor", but mostly named a few notable[all British except one]men named Ed in the answers), did Wordle etc.(Connections, Strands, and the like), worked on a few more Entrees, and am now posting this comment.
    Since last night, I have solved the Schpuzzle, all Entrees except #3, #6(the one with the postal abbreviation), and #9, and the Dessert. Sorry PS, but I got nowhere with your Appetizers. Will be checking back here periodically for any and all hints to help solve everything else before Wednesday. That means all three of y'all: Lego, Nodd, and PS!
    Good luck in solving to all, and please stay safe, and may we all have a great summer while it lasts. Cranberry out!
    pjbWillNowBeDoingSomePuzzlesOnPaperForAChange

    ReplyDelete