'Cast of Four' & 'Past Troubadour' 3 integers, 2 singers, 1 puzzinger! “Hall-of-Flamer?” “Do it behoove deer to don Reeboks?” “Punningnishment? Nay!... Punyshment? Yay!”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

3 integers, 2 singers, 1 puzzinger!

Anagram the combined letters in three consecutive integers to spell two singers. ... (That is, two “singers,” not two “signers!” The center-frames in the illustration above are nothing more than a red herring!)

What are these consecutive integers and two singers?

Some singers/things-that-sing: choir, cantor, canary, Eddie Cantor, Al Jolson...

Appetizer Menu

Fortuitous-Yet-Torturitous  Appetizer Menu:

“Cast of Four” & “Past Troubadour”  

An actress & three “tressless” actors

1. 🎥Think of a famous actress of the past. Remove the first two letters of her first name and the first and last letters of her last name. Rearrange what remains to spell the first name of her most famous role. 

Now think of the actor who starred with her. Take a first name that rhymes with his character’s first name, along with the actor’s last name. You’ll have another famous actor of the past. 

That particular actor was the first to play a well-known literary character on screen. Rearrange the first and last names of the character to get the first and last names of an actor who played on a long-running classic TV show. The actor has the same first name as the actress’s costar. 

Except the female character, all of these characters had essentially the same job title. The actress’s character was married to someone with that job title. 

Who are the actress and the three actors? 

What were their roles? 

What is the job title? 

Singer, song & “slangy snack”

2. 𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅰 Name a famous singer and musician of the past. Now think of a hit by the artist that you’d most likely hear at a certain time of year. That song mentions several different foods and drinks. One of the foods mentioned is a slang term for a certain kind of food.

The singer went by a nickname. Remove the last three letters of the singer’s first name at birth. You’ll have the first name of a restauranteur who specialized in the food listed in the song and named his restaurant after himself. 

Now think of another hit by the artist, one that you’re likely to hear about six months away from the first song. Remove the last letter from the first word in the lyrics of the song. You’ll have the last name of someone associated with the food and the restaurant. 

Who is the singer? 

What are the two songs? 

What is the food (and the slang term)? 

What is the restaurant? 

Who is associated with the food and restaurant?

MENU

Puny-Not-Punny Hors d’Oeuvre:

“Punningnishment? Nay! Punyshment? Yay!”

Take a word for “a very small or puny person or thing.”

Replace the second letter of that word with a “c” to get a word that means “to make too small, short, or scanty.”

Replace the second and third letters of that second word with a “k” to get a word that means “to use less of something than is necessary.”

Once more, take the original word for “a very
small or puny person or thing.” This time, remove the first half of this word to get a word for a “small demon, mischievous child or urchin.”

Finally, restore the first half of that original word. But then replace the last two-thirds of that word with “a place to skate.” The result is a word that means “to become smaller.”

What are these five words associated with “decrease, depletion and diminishment?”

Riffing Off Shortz And Hochbaum Entrees:

“Do it behoove deer to don Reeboks?”

Will Shortz’s February 1st NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle challenge, created by Alan Hochbaum of Duluth, Georgia, reads:

Think of two hooved animals. 

Take all the letters of one of them and the last three letters of the other, mix them together, and you’ll get the first and last names of a famous actress. Who is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Hochbaum Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

Name a “man of the soil” who, for a time, became a “man of the maritime,” and who caught many a freshwater cyprinid fish to feed those aboard his craft, including (among a menagerie of many) a critter and its mate (named “Dolly”) that had been invited along for the voyage. 

Dolly and her hubby were the kind of beasts that were homophones of a synonym of holy men who were priests (at least according to the Book of Ogden).

Rearrange the combined letters in:

~ the name of the man of the soil,

~ the name of the cyprinid fish, and

~ a name for the priest that sounds like a beast...

to spell the name of a puzzle-maker.

What are these three names and the name of the puzzle-maker?

(Note: Entree #2 was composed by our friend Tortitude, whose “...Slow but Sure Puzzles” are featured on this week’s Puzzleria!)

ENTREE #2

Think of two hooved animals. Take the shorter name, which is only three letters long, and change the first letter to the letter that precedes it in the alphabet.

Rearrange the letters to produce the first
name, last name, and middle initial of a character from a 1980s sitcom.

Who is the character? What are the animals?

(Note: Entrees #3-through #8 were composed by our friend Nodd, whose “Nodd ready for prime time” puzzles are featured regularly on Puzzleria!)

ENTREE #3

Think of a hooved animal and a non-hooved mammal. 

Rearrange all the letters to get the first and last names of a famous actress. 

(Hint: This actress is known for playing a TV character whose last name is the first name of another famous actress.) 

What are the animals and who is the actress?

ENTREE #4

Think of a hooved animal and a non-hooved mammal. 

Change one letter from a D to an R. Rearrange all the letters to get the first and last names of a famous actress of the past. 

What are the animals and who is the actress?

ENTREE #5

Think of a noise made by a hooved animal and a word for parts of this animal’s body. 

Rearrange all the letters to get the first and last names of a famous actress. 

What are the noise and body parts, and who is the actress?

ENTREE #6

Think of two categories of hooved animals. Change a C to a K. 

Rearrange all the letters to get the first and last names of a famous actress. 

What are the animal categories, and who is the actress?

ENTREE #7

Think of a hooved animal and the last name of a famous actress. 

Remove an I (an “eye,” not an “ell”).
Rearrange the remaining letters to get the first and last names of a famous actress. 

What is the animal and who are the actresses?

ENTREE #8

Think of a hooved animal and a bird (the bird name is two words; use just the second word). Change an E to an A. Rearrange the letters to get the first and last names of a famous actress. 

What are the animal and bird, and who is the actress?

Note: Entree #9 was composed by our friend Plantsmith. His “Garden of Puzzley Delights” is regularly, and proudly, featured on Puzzleria!)

ENTREE #9

Take the name of a (from time-to-time) popular video celebrity. 

Mix up the letters to get a hooved animal and an animal that might eat that hooved animal. 

The two left-over letters, in order, spell a sound this predatory creature might try to make (if it could) in an attempt to keep fellow predators from tipping off its prey! 

Who is the celebrity?

What are the hooved-prey animal, predatory creature and sound it might try to make?

ENTREE #10

Think of a pair of hooved animals, the second one boasting 9 letters and a hyphen. Take all the letters of the first animal in order, followed by the 5th 4th, 2nd, 1st, 1st (again), 8th and 9th letters of the second animal. What you’ll get is the first and last names of a famous living actress. 

Who is it?

What are the two hooved animals?

ENTREE #11

Think of a pair of hooved animals, in 7 and 12 letters, in that order. Number the letters 1 through 19. 

The letters corresponding to 1, 7, 12, 3, 1 & 7 spell the first name of a storied college football player, and the letters corresponding to 1, 9, 10 & 11 spell his surname.

The letters corresponding to 15, 8 & 7 and to 1, 9, 10, 11, 7 & 3 spell the nickname given to the player by his coach.

What are this pair of hooved critters?

Who is the football player?

What is his nickname?

ENTREE #12

Name a hooved (or “hoofed,” if your prefer) animal that is also “fanged.”

Place the name of the animal to the left of the word “fanged.” 

Number these letters from left-to-right, beginning with 1 and ending with a two-digit number.

The letters corresponding to: 12, 9, 2, 15 & 8

and to: 14, 11, 16, 11, 12, 8, 2, 15 & 17

and to: 7 & 13

and to: 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5

spell the title, name and home base of a holy man who was the patron of brewers, printers and theologians.

What is this hooved and fanged animal?

Who is this holy man?

Slice of Dessert Menu

Crème Brûlée Flambé Dessert?:

“Hall-of-Flamer?”

The surname of a (baseball) Hall-of-Famer is a compound word. Its first part, a noun, is the result of its second part, a verb.

Move the first letter of the this athlete’s first name to the beginning of his surname. Divide this modified surname into two equal parts. 

What remains of the first name sounds like an adjective describing the new letter-longer word that follows it. The third word, if you place an “s” at its end, spells what the second word does (in a metaphorical sense).

Who is this Hall-of-Famer?

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.