Decrepit Car: Contemporary Character, Anagram Plantation, Prophesying Profitability? Three Species; Anagramable Lifesavers; Bad Bunny: Bummer of a Slumber! Seldom seen or seen more? Limerick ’bout a Lexicon; No watering required

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Limerick ’bout a Lexicon

Fill in the three blanks in the limerick below with words of 9 letters, 8 letters, and about 14-or-so letters: 

Peg, a speed-reading abecedarian,

Begged a lexicon from her _________,

Began *scanning at “aardvark,”

Never needing a ________...

Ergo, now she’s an “______________!”

* (See: verb, definition 2b)

(Note: The word in third blank, no matter how you spell it, is one that Peg will not find in the dictionary... nor will you, alas.)

Appetizer Menu

Conundrumbstruck By Chuck Appetizer:

Three Species; Prophesying Profitability? Anagram Plantation; Decrepit
Car... Contemporary Character

Three Species

1. 🐼🐦🐟Think of a species of mammals in 8 letters. 

Without rearranging, delete the name of another species of animals in consecutive letters. 

Add a  P to the remainder and rearrange to name yet another species of animals. Name all three.

Prophesying Profitability?

2. 🏬Name a well-known company in 4 letters whose business activities go up and down in the short run but are profitable in the long run. Then add an “h”  to its name, rearrange, and identify one of its essential activities. 

What’s the company? 

What’s the essential activity?

Anagram Plantation

3. 🏭🪴

The brand name of one grocery item anagrams perfectly with the name of another
grocery item. 

One is made in a plant, the other is a plant. 

Identify the brand name and the plant

Decrepit Car... Contemporary Character

4. 🚗A classic old car and a modern movie character are called by the same 5-letter name. 

What is it?

MENU

“Thirstfree” Hors d’Oeuvre:

No watering required

Remove the first two letters from a synonym of “watering” and move the third-last letter to the end. 

The result is a food that requires no watering, planting or harvesting. 

What are this synonym and food?

Beach Blanket Slice:

Seldom seen or seen more?

“One seldom shall see 

a _____ in the ___...

But a _____ on the shore?

... Not just one, many more!”

(and beach blankets galore!)

~ 1st blank: an anagram of a synonym of the word in the second blank...

~ 2nd blank: a homophone of a non-blank word in the poem...

~ 3rd blank: a word that is one-letter-different from another word in the poem...

What are the three missing words?

Riffing Off Shortz And VanMechelen Entrees:

Bad Bunny: Bummer of a Slumber!

Will Shortz’s February 22nd National Public Radio Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Greg VanMechelen of Berkeley, California, reads:

Name something you don’t want to have at night using two words (3,5). Shift each of the letters of the second word nine spaces later in the alphabet. If your count reaches the end of the alphabet, continue counting from the start. The result will name a famous singer.

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And VanMechelen Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

Move the first four letters of a puzzle-maker’s name 8 places later in the alphabet (that is, ROT-8 those letters). The result begins with where Dorothy ventures via yellow bricks and
ends with the postal code of the state across the Mississippi from her home state.

ROT-14 the next 3 letters in the name to get a general 3-letter word for a specific 3-syllable profession that is spelled by the last 75% of a pseudonym this puzzle-maker uses.

ROT-6 the next 4 letters in the name to get an organ that accounts for about 15% of a person’s total body weight. 

ROT-10 the fourth-last-though-penultimate and ROT-10 the antepenultimate-through-final letters in the name to get a 3-letter egg and a 3-letter voice.

Who is the puzzle-maker?

Where does Dorothy venture? What is the postal code location of the state adjacent to her home state?

What is the puzzlemaker’s pseudonym?

(Note: Entrees #2 through #7 were created and contributed by our friend Nodd, author of Puzzleria!s recurring “Nodd ready for prime time” feature.)

ENTREE #2

Name a three-letter term for something that may happen during sleep. Double the last letter and
add a J. Move these five letters nine places earlier in the alphabet and rearrange to get the first name of a famous deceased singer.

Now name something in five letters that may keep you awake at night. Move the fourth letter four places later in the alphabet. Then move all five letters, using the changed fourth letter, six places earlier in the alphabet. Rearrange the letters to get the last name of the singer.

What may happen during sleep, what may keep you awake, and who is the singer?

ENTREE #3

Name something in three letters that a child may take to bed. Add to the beginning of this word a two-letter rating given to films that may be suitable for children. Move all of the letters six places earlier in the alphabet to get the first name of a famous deceased singer.

Now name a six-letter bedding material. Move the first letter six places earlier in the alphabet to get the last name of the singer.

What may a child take to bed, what are the film rating and the bedding material, and who is the singer?

ENTREE #4

Name something in five letters that a child may take to bed. 

Move the first four letters ten places later in the alphabet, but leave the fifth letter as it is. 

You’ll get the first name of a famous singer.

Now name a four-letter word meaning sleepy. Double the third letter and add an X. Move these six letters 11 places earlier in the alphabet and rearrange to get the singer’s last name.

What may a child take to bed, what is the word meaning sleepy, and who is the singer?

ENTREE #5

Name something in two words of six and four letters that may keep you awake at night. 

Move the first five letters of the first word six places later in the alphabet and replace the last letter with the postal abbreviation of a Western US state. Rearrange to spell a musical genre that was popular during the 1950s to mid-1960s.

Now remove the last letter of the second word and move the remaining letters 14 places later in the alphabet to get a second musical genre.

What may keep you awake, and what are the musical genres?

ENTREE #6

Name a five-letter word for something that may keep you awake. 

Move the letters 13 places later in the alphabet to name a fictional institution that was featured in a 1978 film that also featured a fictional musical group. What may keep you awake, and what are the institution and musical group?

ENTREE #7

Name, in alphabetical order, two things you might find on a girl’s bed, ten letters total. Move the third and fourth letters ten places earlier in the alphabet. 

Move the sixth letter four places later in the alphabet. The result will name a famous deceased singer. 

What are the two things and who is the singer?

Note: Entrees #8 and #9 are were created by our friend Plantsmith, author of Puzzleria!s “Garden of Puzzley Delights.” 

ENTREE #8

Take a two-word experience you don’t want to have at night. 

Drop one instance of a letter that is repeated. 

Mix it up to get a two-word description of a particular singer during a 1991 concert in Utah. 

What are the two-word experience and two-word description of the singer?

ENTREE #9

Name something, in words of 3 and 5 letters, that you don’t want to have at night.

Move the first letter of the first word so that it replaces the first letter of the second word. Add an “s” to first word, and drop last letter from the second word. Remix the letters of each altered word to get a two-word description of  a country singer during her March 1991 concert tour. 

What are the two descriptive words? Who is the singer?

Note: Entree #10 is a “self-riff” created by our friend Ecoarchitect, author of “Econfusions” on Puzzleria! and also author of this week’s National Public Radio’s “Weekend Edition Sunday Puzzle.”

ENTREE #10

Name a well-known fictional character from the 19th Century.  

Remove 5th and 6th letters from the first name, then add a letter to the front.  The result
will be the first and last name of a well-known singer from the 20th Century.  

Who are the character and the singer?  

Added bonus: Both hailed from the same state.

Dessert Menu

Maritime Dessert:

Anagramable Lifesavers

Anagram the 13 letters of a life-saving device to spell a two-word simulated emergency exercise that promotes maritime safety. 

What are this pair of potential life-savers?

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.