Thursday, July 10, 2025

“A Dwindling” and “Holding their Fates to the Fire”; “Mingle? Schmingle! Where’s the Pringles?!” Did a “Sea Change Change Yew?” One Cool Cat and One Hot Dog! “Take two anagrams, be(d)head, and call me in the morning” Midday menu: frothy fruity eggy veggie medley

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe2 SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Midday menu: frothy fruity eggy veggie medley

Sal and Peg take a pre-midday break from their jobs to enjoy brunch at a diner.

Sal orders a frothy fruit drink and a “veggie medley.” 

Peg orders an entree with eggs and a blended tea-and-lemonade beverage. 

What historical figure does Sal’s order suggest?

What more recent historical figure does Peg’s order suggest?

This week we proudly present the following two-pronged Appetizer:

Subterfuge & Greek Creature Appetizer:

“A Dwindling” and “Holding their Fates to the Fire”

“A Dwindling”

1. 🎥📖The 4-word (4, 5, 4, 5) title of a not very well known movie, with not very well known cast members, contains 5 different consonants and 1 vowel. 

In the title, three consonants appear 3 times each; two consonants appear once each; and the vowel appears 7 times. 

The phrase formed by the movie title is preceded by a subterfuge – a kind of “misdirection” – in a very well known, very famous, and best selling, novel which has been adapted to stage and screen. 

The novel and adaptations have had various titles. 

The phrase formed by the “not very well known” movie title and the “misdirection” are parts of a mysterious countdown. The countdown ends with the title of the novel.

Identify and describe this “subterfuge/misdirection.”

Extra Credit: Name the title of the not very famous movie, and the best known title of the famous novel. 

“Holding their Fates to the Fire 
2. 𐦐𐦉 Name a 21st Century Tony winning play which is a reworking of a Greek myth. 

Drop the last letter of the title. Divide the remaining letters unevenly into two groups. Rearrange the letters to form a word out of each group – two new words in all. Placing those two words in the correct order results in a two-word characteristic of a creature in Greek myth. What is the play? 

What is the characteristic and the creature it describes? 

MENU

Predatory Hors d’Oeuvre:

“Take two anagrams, be(d)head, and call me in the morning”

Anagram the letters of a predator to name its possible prey. 

“Be(d)head” (actually, just “behead”) the prey to get a second predator. Anagram the letters of that predator to get a sound made by a second, larger prey that ends with the same two letters as the sound. 

What are these five words?

What are this predator, prey, second predator, sound and second prey?

59-26 Skidoo Slice:

One Cool Cat and One Hot Dog!

(Note: The following puzzle is a collaboration of sorts between LegoLambda and Nodd. Nodd came up with the ingenious “cool cat” portion of the puzzle.)

Take letters associated with 26 followed by letters associated with 59 to get a name
associated with both a 
cool cat and a hot dog

What is this name and its association with a hot dog and cool cat? 

How are its letters associated with 26 and 59?

Riffing Off Shortz Entrees:

Did a “Sea Change Change Yew?”

Will Shortz’s July 6th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle reads:

This is a phonetic challenge in four parts. First, say a letter of the alphabet out loud – like B, C, or L. Then name something you might carry around in your pocket. Say it twice. Finally, name a variety of tree. Say these four things in order, and phonetically they’ll name a nice place in the United States to vacation. What is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

This is a phonetic challenge in five parts. 

First, say the first syllable of a two-syllable fish whose second syllable is “fish.” (The first syllable is also where in the fish the hook might
embed itself.); 

Second, say the collective term for Aspires, Contours, Couriers, Crestlines, Edges, Elites, Fairmonts, Freestars, Freestyles, Mainlines, Parklanes and Tempos;

Third, say a two-syllable word that sounds like a synonym of “criminal,” like Snidely Whiplash or Boris Badenov, for two examples. 

Fourth, say a letter of the alphabet out loud; and

Fifth, say what sounds like the palindromic name of a prophetess mentioned in the Gospel of Luke.

Say these five things in order, and phonetically they’ll name the hometown and home state of a puzzlemaster!

Who is this puzzlemaster, his hometown and home state?

What are the answers to the five clues?

(Note: Entrees #2 through #7 were composed and contributed by our good friend Nodd whose “Nodd ready for prime time” is featured regularly on Puzzleria!) 

ENTREE #2

Name a letter of the alphabet. 

Then name an interval of time. 

Finally, name a U.S. state. Phonetically, you’ll name a popular two-word vacation destination in the Western U.S. What is it?

ENTREE #3

Name a letter of the alphabet. Then name a kind of throwing weapon. 

Phonetically, you’ll name a Western U.S. national forest offering tourist attractions that include an aerial tramway. 

Which national forest is it? 

ENTREE #4

Name a letter of the alphabet. 

Then name a synonym of “bewilder.” 

Phonetically, you’ll
name a Western U.S. city offering numerous tourist attractions, including one pictured periodically in Puzzleria! What city is it? 

ENTREE #5

Name a letter of the alphabet. 

Then name something you would need in your pocket to go on a vacation, followed by something you would take along if you planned
to go fishing. 

Finally, name another letter of the alphabet. Phonetically, you’ll name a Western U.S. national forest offering numerous recreational opportunities for hikers and mountain bikers. 

Which national forest is it?

ENTREE #6

Name a letter of the alphabet. 

Then name the first two syllables of a furniture brand name. Finally, name the last name of a famous U.S. lawyer. 

Phonetically, you’ll name a waterfront tourist attraction in a major city in the Western U.S. 

What is it?

ENTREE #7

Name a letter of an alphabet. 

Then name something you might want for vacationing at a lake. 

Finally, name an accessory you might want for
taking photographs. 

Phonetically, you’ll name a Southern U.S. city that is considered a nice place to vacation. 

What city is it?

(Note: Entrees #8 and 9 were composed and contributed by our good friend Tortitude whose “Tortie’s Slow But Sure Puzzles” is featured regularly on Puzzleria!) 

ENTREE #8

Name a famous musician of the past. Say the last name followed by the first name quickly. You’ll phonetically have a two-word phrase. 

Now think of the musician’s most famous song.
The title character does the two-word phrase in the title place. 

Who is the musician? What is the phrase? What is the song? 

ENTREE #9

Think of a current American politician. 

The first four letters of the first name sound like
a word associated with beaches. 

The first four letters of the last name spell another word associated with beaches.

Who is this politician, “littorally?”

ENTREE #10

Small oscines seeking solitude,

While singing hymns of gratitude...

Write a caption for this image in two five-letter
words.

Then rearrange those ten letters to name a nice place in the United States to vacation.

What are this caption and U.S. vacation spot?

Dessert Menu

Hungry Hovering Hummingbird Dessert:

“Mingle? Schmingle! Where’s the Pringles?!”

The nattily-attired ______ ____ at the party didn’t even attempt to mingle. Instead, this greedy ____ ______ hovered around the snack table... like
a hungry hummingbird hovers above sweet nasturtium nectar and nummy gnats. 

Those first and fourth missing words are identical except for their second letters. 

The second and third words are identical except for their third letters. What are these four missing 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 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.

20 comments:

  1. 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...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Replies
    1. Um, I don't understand the second paragraph of Torties' Entree #8. "The title character does the two-word phrase in the title place?" HUH? What title character in what title place?

      Delete
    2. Oh, never mind. It meant the title character/place in the SONG, right? I'd delete the comment above, but as I noted last week, the DELETE icon has VANISHED, at least on my screen. Can anyone else still see them?

      Delete
    3. VT, yes, it's the title character/place in the song.

      I can still see the "Delete" text. Maybe try a different browser? I know in the past you've said you use a Mac, and so do I. I find that Blogger seems to like Chrome best. Normally, I use Safari for everything else.

      Delete
    4. I DO use Chrome still. It is going to be extremely inconvenient to never be able to delete something when I want to! Hmmmm...so annoying. Messing around in a different browser is WAY too much work. All my bookmarks are in this one. And having things 'look different' as would be the case with Safari would drive me up a wall!

      Delete
  3. Replies
    1. Trying to do the honorable thing, here.

      Delete
    2. When they go low-we go high. Something like that.

      Delete
  4. Replies
    1. Here's one on Nodd's Entree #4, which I have yet to solve: Name a letter, then a synonym of 'bewilder' to get a city in the eastern half of the US. [I got all excited thinking I'd solved #4, only to discover the city was NOT in the Western US.]

      Delete
  5. Replies
    1. After my dismal experience last week (particiularly with that Schpuzzle), I think I can say that I just solved this week's Schpuzzle. Hurrah

      Delete
    2. It was a tussle, even having known the correct novel pretty quickly for the first Appetizer, but at last, I luckily stumbled upon the phrase that made the rest of the puzzle directions finally make sense.

      Lego, are these Appetizers YOURS this week? I don't see anyone else mentioned!

      Delete
    3. VT, I noticed the same thing 🤔. I suspect that the puzzles are from the "mysterious friend of Puzzleria", aka Cloak 'n' Dagger. Some clues: 1) Lego introduced the Apps with "proudly present." Lego is very humble, and wouldn't introduce his own puzzles with that phrase. 2) They don't really seem to be in the Lego style, but I think they do match C'n'D.

      TortieWhoThenAgainWasPerhapsMisledWithTheTypeOfMisleadingDeviceInApp#1

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    4. Your observations on the above are most interesting, Tortie! I realize that you are so correct re Lego's humbleness (I had to actually make sure that IS a word), that he would not proudly present his own stuff. I don't recall CnD's style well enough to be able to pin the Appetizers down to him, but I take your word for it. I wonder if this time, CnD didn't want to have to give hints or something?

      Delete
    5. ViolinTeddy asks a fair question, and it deserves an answer.
      No, I did not compose these Appetizer puzzles. They were submitted to me. I do think they are excellent puzzles.
      Lego...

      Delete
    6. I have everything but Entrees #3 and #4 and VT's riff.

      Delete
  6. 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
  7. Good Friday evening y'all!
    Mom and I are fine. We had Mia Kate and Maddy over here earlier this afternoon cleaning house for us. Second time they've been over here to do this, and both times they volunteered. They've called up to suggest doing it, and they say they'll keep coming back every week to do it for the next few weeks. Luckily, Mom has been feeling a little better overall since she stopped taking her blood pressure medication, but she says her blood pressure has remained quite low nevertheless. We didn't eat out tonight, but Mia Kate said we might do it tomorrow night. Maddy said she might not make it, though, because she just doesn't like going out. I've also done this week's(and for the next two weeks)Private Eye Crossword earlier while the game shows were still on, and the latest Guardian Prize Crossword just now(set by Paul). Paul had an interesting sort of "mini-theme" in his puzzle. I'll list the seven theme clues here, and we'll see if any of you can figure out the connection:
    ACROSS
    12. Not glued on properly---like a toupee?(6)
    17. In truth---like Ol' Blue Eyes, say?
    22. Delivery---like a Tech giant?
    DOWN
    3. Thick and lush---like a shrink?
    8. Confused---like a Chinese dynasty?
    21. Irritating---like a parasite?
    22. Lanky---like the mob?
    (Read on to find out the answers, as well as an explanation of each.)
    As for this week's P! offerings, we've got some real toughies here! The best I could do was Entree #1(spoiler alert: I had to look up the puzzlemaker's Wikipedia page to find out the hometown, and then I could figure out what was clued in the puzzle; I already knew his home state, BTW). I do have an, not the, answer for Entree #3. I almost had no luck whatsoever trying to look up lists of national forests, or vacation destinations, or whatever. #3 was the only one I could "answer", and even then I don't think it was the intended answer. But it came pretty darn close. The only thing is, for my answer to work, one must take liberty with the pronunciation of the "throwing weapon". I myself have never pronounced this weapon in this way(that I know of), but it's the only way the name of the national forest could be correct. Therefore, I cannot in good conscience claim that I have, in fact, "solved" this one just yet. I do have an answer for #9, though. I'm much more certain about that one. But #8 is the toughest puzzle of Tortie's that I've tried to solve in recent weeks. I've basically consulted lists of "the best musicians of all time"(Ranker and Rolling Stone, primarily), and nothing has sounded like a two-word phrase when I've reversed the names of any of them. At best, one could make the case for Sam Cooke(cook Sam)or Chuck Berry(bury Chuck)possibly, but it still sounds far-fetched. I'd like to be able to narrow this down somehow before Wednesday(when Mom and I have a dental appointment, BTW).
    Beyond that, I'm just going to wait for hints from everyone involved until then, same as always. And if it is Cloak'n'Dagger who's responsible for this week's Appetizers, I certainly hope he doesn't pull an SDB and refuse to help. Complete waste of time if he does.
    Good luck in solving to all, and please stay safe, and now here are the answers to Paul's clues:
    12. WIGGLY(wig-ly)
    17. FRANKLY(Frank-ly, Sinatra of course)
    22. GOOGLY(also a British term used in the game of cricket; Google-ly)
    3. JUNGLY(Jung-ly, psychologist Carl of course)
    8. TANGLY(Tang-ly)
    21. TICKLY(tick-ly)
    22. GANGLY(gang-ly)
    For cryptic clues, this is a very unique thing to do. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it in a puzzle before. Basically, Paul took seven words that end in -ly, and clued them all as if they were adverbs(all but one are actually adjectives---FRANKLY is the odd man out here, obviously)! Quite different, and it definitely works in terms of cryptic wordplay. Paul is easily one of the best setters working today!
    pjbHopesNotToBeInformedThatThis"CommentIsTooLong"ThisTime(!)


    ReplyDelete