Hard(as)Rock-yet-Easy-“lisolving,” Classical, Pop Heavy-Metal & “acousticklers”... all spun for your funky-punky-shock-the-monkey-head-banging-against-the-wall-frustrational enjoyment by “Master DJ Jazzy Jeff Zarkin!”; Kitchen gizmos, Ocean creatures? Filling in the blanks of History; Fracas in Fleaflickerville!; “Revenge of the Tita..?. Tige...? No, Motor City Kitties!”; Can low-tech tools do high-tech tasks?

 

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Kitchen gizmos? Ocean creatures?

Take a five-letter noun for an eggbeater or chopper when you begin using it, and a five-letter verb for what it may then do. 

Rearrange these letters to spell the two-word etymology of the name of a creature related to whales.

What are this noun, verb, two-word etymology and creature?

Hint: The creature related to whales is an African creature.

Appetizer Menu

Golden-Ratio-Brass Sections~Fretful attached strings tangled together into Gordian Knots~All Accompanied By Conundrum-Set-Percussion... Appetizer!:

Hard(as)Rock-yet-Easy-“lisolving,” Classical, Pop Heavy-Metal & “acousticklers”... all spun for your funky-punky-shock-the-monkey-head-banging-against-the-wall-frustrational enjoyment by “Master DJ Jazzy Jeff Zarkin!”

Note: Jeff, our great friend and master-puzzle-maker, recently wrote me a note that said: “for no rational reason” – music, and how it’s created, has lately been on his mind...

And so, as the expression goes, “Out of mind, onto Puzzleria!”

Enjoy the following five “symphonic sticklers” Jeff hath “composed”...

But first... before we “face the music,” here is a quite challenging vowel/consonant puzzle Jeff whipped up to whet our puzzle-hungry palates. Think of it as an “appetizing prelude to a symphonic feast!”

Two letters doing triple duty!

0. There are a number of three- and four-letter words that use two different letters (for example, OFF, SEES, NOON, EEK! etc.). 

Can you think of a six-letter words that contains only two letters?

This word, when spelled aloud in a kind of “wordplayful way,” can sound as if it only has four letters! 

What is this six-letter word?

Roy Or*ison’s Voice?

1. 🙏The name of a musical instrument can be rearranged to get how one might describe an early Breton’s prayer. What are the instrument and prayer?

Peter, Paul & Emotive Music

2.  🔨🎕🍋✈Another musical instrument can be rearranged to spell the emotion described
in a Peter, Paul & Mary classic. 

What are the instruments, the classic and the emotion?

Instrumentally Mysterious  

3. 🔐🏠🏡📗Another musical instrument can be rearranged to something found multiple times in a Sherlock Holmes story. What are the instruments, the classic and the story?

Venus (in Bluejeans) Fly Trap?

4. 🪰🐜Another musical instrument can be rearranged to spell things used to trap pesky insects.

What are this instrument, and the pesky pest traps?

“More Greens but fewer ‘Greens’”

5. 🫑🥬🥗A  musical performance, can be rearranged to get what one might carry leaving an English Greengrocers. What is the art form, and what are you taking home?

MENU

A-Full-Of-F-Words Hors d’Oeuvre:

Fracas in Fleaflickerville!

Frank and a fellow named Fred, who had just moved into Fink Hollow, met at a neighborhood bar and, in-a-flash, became fast friends. 

As a token of their newfound mutual fellowship, Frank bought tickets for his sister Frida and his freshly-minted friend Fred to attend a Friday-night creature-feature film, “Frankenstein’s Theory of Captivity,” at the “artsy-fartsy” Fantasyfilm Flickerfest Family CinemaPlex, just down the freeway in the town of Fleaflickerville.. 

Alas, a felicitous Friday-night finalé (aka, a “happy ending”) was not in the offing... 

Fred got a bit fresh, Frida flung her Fresca in his face, and Fred phoned Frank, name-calling him a 14-letter epithet that is an anagram of the combined letters in the two-word 9-letter movie night and the 5-letter unflattering word that Fred used to describe Frida in his phone call to Frank. 

What are this unflattering epithet, two-word term for the movie night, and Fred’s unflattering word?

History’s Mystery Slice:

Filling in the blanks of History

Consider following sentence that you might read in a book of history:

“This nation’s capital, _ _ _ _ _ _,  _ _ _   _ _ _ _  on its soil in the early and middle years of the 20th Century.” 

Fill in the blanks. 

The letters of the second word are identical to the last three letters of the first word. 

The letters of the third word are identical to the first four letters of the first word. 

What are the three words?

Hint: The name of the nation, if “beheaded,” spells the surname of an actor who died just before the events of those 20th-Century “middle years.”

Riffing Of  Shortz And Green Slices:

“Revenge of the Tita..?. Tige...? No, Motor City Kitties!”

Will Shortz’s May 10th 2026 NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Joshua Green of Columbia, Maryland, reads:

Think of a popular film franchise with many sequels. Hidden in consecutive letters inside
its name is a place mentioned multiple times in the Bible. 

Replace that place with a single letter and you’ll name a Major League Baseball team. What franchise and team are these?

ENTREE #1

Name a puzzlemaker from a state associated with Calico cats, blue crabs and rock fish. 

Rearrange the letters in this
puzzlemaker’s name to spell:

~ a breakfast beverage,

~ an additive for that beverage, and

~ the source of a breakfast entree ingredient.

Who is this puzzlemaker?

What are the breakfast beverage and its additive?

What is the source of a breakfast entree?

Note: Entree #2 through #7 are puzzles crafted by our friend Nodd, author of “Nodd ready for prime time” on Puzzleria! 

ENTREE #2

Think of a popular film franchise and remove the first letter.  

Five consecutive letters are an anagram of something God does in the beginning of the
Bible. 

Replace those letters with a single letter and you’ll name an MLB team. 

What franchise and team are these?

ENTREE #3

Think of a film franchise in two words. 

The first word, plus one letter of the second word, name an MLB team. What film and team are these?

ENTREE #4

Think of a popular 20th century film that had a sequel in the 21st century. 

Five consecutive letters of the title of the original film are an anagram of a flower believed by some to be referred to in the Bible. 

Replace those letters with a single letter and you’ll  name an MLB team. 

What film and team are these? 

ENTREE #5

Think of a popular film franchise and remove the first word. From the second word, remove the first three letters. 

Then remove four more consecutive letters that are an anagram of a bodily substance. You’ll name an MLB team. 

What franchise and team are these?

ENTREE #6

Remove the second word of a two-word film franchise and the first letter of the first word. Change one interior letter and insert a space. 

You’ll get a company associated with sports and a word associated with the company. 

What are the franchise, the company, and the word associated with it?

ENTREE #7

The first words in the names of two film franchises are the names of two MLB teams. 

The name of another film franchise, with one letter added, is the name of a third MLB team. 

The first word in the name of a fourth film franchise is the name of an NFL team. 

And if you remove three consecutive letters from the name of a fifth film franchise, you’ll name an NBA team. What franchises are these?

ENTREE #8

Name a popular 11-letter film franchise with many sequels. 

Replace a three-letter expression of greeting
or of leave-taking with a two-letter sun god and you’ll name a Major League Baseball team. 

What franchise and team are these?

Dessert Menu

A “Tsk-Tsk-Text-it-a-Task-it” Dessert:

Can low-tech tools do high-tech tasks?

Name a two-word task easily accomplished
using a high-tech tool.

Delete the initial letters to name two low-tech tools. What are this task and tools?

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 Friday.

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.