Sunday, November 2, 2025

Lincoln’s “Cryptic-Crossword-Settersburg” Address; “A hearse of two different colors?” "Encourage lachrymose yearning?' Souvlaki, Soul food fit for a Kia! “Not-so-fordable ends up affordable” “Put ‘em in a tree museum...”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe2 SERVED

(Note: This edition of Puzzleria! was up loaded on November 6, not November 2 (as erroneously indicated in the upper-left corner of this weeks blog.)

Schpuzzle of the Week:
Encourage lachrymose yearning?
The words “encourage,” “lachrymose” and “yearning” all have an “e,” an “r” and an “a” in common. 
But what other interior “self-defining” quality do they share in common?
Appetizer Menu
Intriguing, Sporty, Fun #41 Appetizer:
Lincoln’s “Cryptic-Crossword-Settersburg” Address

CRYPTIC COUPLET:
Patrick’s Cryptic Crossword Puzzle # 41
Is like two-score that came before – intriguing, sporty, fun!
Abe Lincoln’s Berrysburg Address:
Two-score (that is, 40 Cryptic Crossword Puzzles) and nine years ago our Patrick brought forth on this Weblog a new creation, conceived in “LiBerry” and dedicated to the proposition that all Cryptic Crosswords created by Patrick J. Berry are equally unequalled!
Patrick J. Berry... “a Man of Cryptic Crossword Letters” who is shoulders-and-head above all Cryptic Crossword setters! 
Patrick is both proficient and prolific. Need proof? Just take a gander, below, at the “clickable” array of Patrick’s two-score crosswords that have previously appeared on Puzzleria! Open any one of them, at random. You will discover that there is nary a clinker nor a clunker in the bunch!
Yes, you can access any of Patrick’s previous 40 cryptic crosswords by opening the links below:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

For those who may be new to cryptic crossword puzzles, Patrick has compiled the following list of basic cryptic crossword puzzle instructions:
Regarding the Across and Down clues and their format:
* The number, or numbers, that appear in parentheses at the end of each clue indicate how many letters are in the answer. 
* Multiple numbers in parentheses indicate how letters are distributed in multiple-word answers.  For example, (11) simply indicates an eleven-letter word like “brainteaser,”(7, 4) indicates a seven-letter-plus-four-letter-answer like “gordian knot,” and (4-9) indicates a four-letter-and-nine-letter hyphenated answer like “head-scratcher.”
For further insight about how to decipher these numbered cryptic clues, see Patrick’s “Cryptic Crossword Tutorial” in this link to his November 2017 cryptic crossword. 
That Tutorial appears below the filled-in answer-grid in that edition of Puzzleria!
And so... don your stovepipe thinking cap, break out your Lincoln Logs, split a few rails... and just try to emancipate some of the answers that our ingenious but devious friend Patrick has enslaved within his clues! 
Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ACROSS

1. Silly, silly chap filled with doubt, initially—it’s easy!(6,4)

6. Couple of times, getting a kiss in cab(4)

9. Homosexual senator, corrupt going in, having done wrong(4,6)

10. Prepares to park, circling block(4)

11. First-class genius, he is rare breed, cleverly captivating “Parrotheads” with song about food(12,2,8)

15. Green turning red? Lame(7)

16. Turned dear tot out?(7)

17.
Makes one’s home in city without a Starbucks, ultimately(7)

19. Those going on a fast ride set off(7)

20. Singer of 11 8 simply empty, claiming, “I am what I choose to eat!”(5,7)

23. Dull, hard school subject?(4)

24. Fruit began to go bad in truck(10)

25. Nimble secret agent captures Resistance leader(4)

26. Well-proportioned though not right in height, small—what Jose said(10)


DOWN


1.
Notes from prison(4)

2. Is no surprise they’ve been charged?(4)

3. Let heavy lad work out where it’s very hot?(5,6)
4. Drug abuser at home, have to turn the boy in(7)

5. Girl stripped to entertain friend, not one to do such a thing professionally(7)

7. Bit of garbage in here, total mess on the whole(10)

8. See 11 Across

12. “Fatal Attraction”: Close enters, real beaut—crazy, getting tense(11)


13. Outlaw fun, cut stuff in pictures(5,5)

14. Chap has meant to rewrite verse(10)

18. Lunatic loses head having to cry about
game(7)

19. Bold detective has picked up innocent sort(7)

21. Country air transformed Queen(4)

22. Child of royalty kept inside(4) 

MENU
Ford Vehicle Hors d’Oeuvre:
“Not-so-fordable ends up affordable” 
Name a not-so-fordable river. 
Transpose letters 4 and 5, remove letter 3, and replace a vowel with a consonant. 
The result is a the make name of a Ford vehicle. Remove the initial letter of that 
Ford make to get an affordable kitchen accessory brand. What are this river, Ford, and affordable kitchen brand?

“Buck-&-A-Half-Just-To-See-‘Em Slice”
“Put ‘em in a tree museum...”

Three consecutive letters within a single-syllable adjective, in reverse, spell museum content. 
The remaining letters, in order, spell what is required to appreciate this content. 
What are these three words?

Riffing Off Shortz And Chaikin Entrees:
Souvlaki, Soul food fit for a Kia!

Will Shortz’s November 2nd Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, composed by Andrew Chaikin of San Francisco reads:
Name a popular automobile import, make + model. Add the letter V and anagram the result. You’ll name a popular ethnic food. What names are these?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Pegg Entrees read:

ENTREE #1
Burt Reynolds’ gal “shore” liked to entertain guests at their Beverly Hills mansion. Rearrange the combined letters of this gal’s first name and the two-word wall-mounted storage unit pictured here to spell the name of a puzzle-maker. 
What are Burt’s gal’s first name and the wall-mounted storage unit?
Who is this puzzle-maker?
Entrees #2 through #7 are conundrums drummed-up/dreamt-up by our friend and riffmeister Nodd. 
ENTREE #2
Name a foreign-built car model introduced by a U.S. company in 1970, now discontinued. 
Remove the fourth letter. Add, without a space, the model name of a Japanese car with the middle three letters removed. The resulting letters, in order, will name a deli food that originated in Italy. 
What are the two car models and the food?

ENTREE #3
Think of a foreign car brand and change two vowels to different vowels. 
Rearrange the letters to spell a dessert that
originated in the country in which the car is made. 
What are the car brand and the dessert?

ENTREE #4
Name a popular automobile import (make and model). 
Remove three letters that can be arranged to form an abbreviation used in the automotive industry. Rearrange the rest of the letters to name a food with an Italian name that is eaten worldwide. 
What are the car, the abbreviation, and the food?

ENTREE #5
Take the model name of a Japanese car. 
Change the first letter to a V and remove the
last letter. 
Add a word for something most cars need. 
Rearrange to get an Italian dish. 
What are the car, the thing most cars need, and the dish?
ENTREE #6
Rearrange the letters of a Korean car (model name only) to spell a dish typically served cold and a dessert. 
What are the model, the dish, and the dessert?

ENTREE #7
Name a popular import car (make and model). 
Rearrange the letters to spell a mammal and a cereal grain.
The mammal is rarely used as food, but a fish named after it is commonly eaten. 
What are the car, the mammal, and the grain?

Entree #8 is a another great riff gifted to us from the gray matter our friend Plantsmith.
ENTREE #8
Take an ethnic food. 
Remove a space, then replace three consecutive letters with a word heard on Halloween. 
The result is a  a music genre you can dance to.
What are this food and music genre?

ENTREE #9
Take an adjective and noun, in six and four letters, that Eric Blair used in the title of a frivolous bit of verse he composed about what Rudyard Kipling called “the most ancient profession in the world.” 
Rearrange these letters to spell how one might describe, in words of four and six letters, a diminutive (yet drivable!) barrel-crafter. What are this poem description and this barrel-crafter description?

ENTREE #10
~1. The angler’s test line was stretched taut as he reeled in his first big brook trout of the morning. 
~2. The angler re-impaled fresh bait on his hook (old school!), cast it past the water lilies, sensed a nibble, gave a tug, and reeled in his second big “brookie” of the morning.
~3. As noon approached and fish dove down deeper to beat the heat, the angler took a bit of a break, retuned to the shore, and began to gut his “glorified guppies.”
Take two words from the first sentence, two from the second sentence, or three from the third sentence. Rearrange the seven letters in any one of those three word groupings to spell an automobile make.
What is this make?
What are the seven words?
ENTREE #11
Rearrange the eight letters in the name of an automobile to spell the name of the flower pictured here.
Rearrange the letters in the name of the flower to spell the names of the two figures pictured to the right of the flower.
What are this automobile, flower and two names?
Dessert Menu
Kaleidoscopic Dessert:
“A hearse of two different colors?”
Replace the last letter of a vivid color with two other letters to spell a new color. 
Remove a vowel from that new word to spell a less vivid shade of the first color. 
What are these three colors?
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, October 30, 2025

“Be punctual and fall back!” Proactive or passive transport? Actor loses letter, so now sings! Canine varmint vis-à-vis Pisces; Are you ready to play The Puzzle? "Carrie Okie from Muskogee" & “Puzzle-making ‘Legend from the Redlands!’”

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Proactive or passive transport?

Name a nine-letter vehicle whose operator may respond to precarious or perilous traffic either proactively with a five-letter verb, or passively with a four-letter verb.  Together, those two verbs (which share the same first two letters and the same last letter) are an anagram of the vehicle. 

What are this vehicle and verbs?

Appetizer Menu

“Movin’ On Back” Appetizer:

“Be punctual and fall back!”

1. 🐦Take the name of a famous singer. 

Remove all letters of the last name except the
first three letters and the last letter. You will get a phrase meaning “punctual.”

Who is this singer?

What is the phrase meaning “punctual?”

2. Take three letters, followed by three duplicate letters, with one of the duplicates moved back a place earlier in the alphabet.

You will get a word related to something else that might need to be moved back. What is it?

MENU

Will & Ayesha Hors d’Oeuvre:

“Are you ready to play The Puzzle?”

A satisfied restaurant guest, enjoying what she ordered off the menu, might exclaim: “Liver, bread, ale... yes!” 

Rearrange the letters in that exclamation to spell what many guests of National Public Radio's “The Puzzle” say before playing on-air, after NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe asks the guest, “So, I have to ask you, ‘Are you ready to play The Puzzle?’” 

So, how do many of these guests reply? (And, I have to ask you: are you ready to play this puzzle?)

From Trouper To Singer Slice:

Actor loses letter, so now sings!

Take a word that precedes “Quiet” and “the King’s” in fictional titles. 

Remove this word from the name of an actor. The result is the name of a singer. Who are this actor and singer?

Riffing Off Shortz And Dimichele Entrees:

Carrie Okie from Muskogee & Puzzle-making Legend from the Redlands!’” 

Will Shortz’s October 26th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Donn Dimichele of Redlands, California, reads: 

Name a famous current American singer. Replace the last name with a colloquial term for a person from the place where this singer was born and raised. Say the result out loud. Phonetically, you’ll get a form of singing the singer doesn’t usually do. Who is the singer and what is the kind of singing?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Dimichele Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

The “Sandwich Artist” at the ____ was a “Submarine-makin’ _____,” pouring her heart and soul (and lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onions, cheese and delicious meats) into every ____ of every “masterpiece” she created.

Rearrange the combined missing letters in the three blanks to spell the name of a puzzle-maker.

What are the missing words?

Who is the puzzle-maker?

The following six riffs (Entrees #2 through #7) were composed by Nodd (aka Donn Dimichele), author of Puzzleria!s “Nodd ready for prime time.” These are six self-riffs” of Nodd’s (Donn’s) October 26th NPR Puzzle Challenge.

ENTREE #2

Think of the name of a famous singer. Remove the last two letters of the first name and the first name will now spell a kind of song this singer does not usually perform. Who is the singer and what is the kind of song?

ENTREE #3

Move the last letter in a famous singer’s last name to the beginning of the first name. The first name will now spell a well-known ideogram. 

Who is the singer, and what is the ideogram?

ENTREE #4

Name a famous singer. 

Change the first consonant sound to a different consonant sound. 

The result will sound like the relationship this singer had with another famous singer back in 2007-2008. 

Who are the two singers and what is the relationship?

ENTREE #5

Take the stage name of a famous singer and remove a space to get a word meaning unshakable. 

Who is the singer and what is the word?

ENTREE #6

A famous singer was born and raised in a place that is also the title of a song from a famous Broadway musical. 

Who is the singer and what is the place?

ENTREE #7

What ironically surnamed singer had a one-night stand with one member of a band while dating another member?

Note: The following riff (Entree #8) was composed by Plantsmith, author of Puzzleria!s “Garden of Puzzley Delights.” 

ENTREE #8

Take the first name of an American singer and replace it with a pejorative synonym to get a two-word genre of music.

Who is this singer?

What is the genre of music?

ENTREE #9

Name a century-plus-old motorcycle brand that originated in Massachusetts. 

Add a letter someplace to spell a state, like Massachusetts (but not Massachusetts!). A
demonym of that state (like “Iowan” or “Hawkeye” in Iowa), when followed by a member of the family (mother, father, mommy, daddy, etc.) sounds like a question.

What are this motorcycle brand, state and demonym?

ENTREE #10

Name a six-letter state demonym and its five-letter antonym. 

Anagram those 11 letters to spell either one scrawny fowl (4, 7 letters) or a possible name for a pathway where these fowls pace from place-to-place (7, 4 letters). What are this demonym, its antonym, the scrawny fowl, and the pace-worthy pathway?

Dessert Menu

Fish-Outta-Water Dog-Outta-Dirt Dessert:

Canine varmint vis-à-vis Pisces

The first three letters of a fish spell what sounds like a non-piscine creature. 

The last four letters of this fish spell a noun that describes this creature vis-à-vis a canine coyote. 

What are this fish, creature, and this creature vis-à-vis a coyote?

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.