PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Recollecting Rejected Jettisoned Hijacked-Jet Words!

The headline read:

“Jet Hijacked, Suspect _______  _____ ” 

The missing words sound like the name of a Roman governor.

The first word of this name sounds like a form of exercise

The second word becomes a form of exercise if you add an “s” to the end.

What is this headline?

Who is the Roman governor?

What are the two forms of exercise?

(Note: This week’s Appetizer comes courtesy of a very inventive puzzle-maker and very valued friend of Puzzleria!)

Appetizer Menu 

“Enigmatic Gleanings” Appetizer:

The Former LieuTENant Was No 10; Screens Come in All Sizes; Good Sports All Round; They Taste Terrible if Mixed; Satire Inside Out Makes Irates;

The Former LieuTENant Was No 10

1. 🪖Name a military rank that contains a number.  That rank is held by one typically receiving, not giving, orders.  

Remove the number and replace it with another number.  The result is an order from which most members of the military are drawn.  What are the rank and the order?  

Screens Come in All Sizes    

2. 🎥The four famous actors who created the iconic screen characters Rowdy, Maverick, Hawkeye, and K all appeared together in only one movie.  That movie has a two-word title.  Consecutive letters in that title name the
profession of one of those characters.  Other consecutive letters in that title name something that most two-word titles have.  

What is the movie title, the profession, and the thing that almost all two-word titles have?  

Good Sports All Round  

[The following is a riff of the April 5, 2026, NPR Challenge.]

3. 🏈🚙Take the last name of a great sports figure.  Add two letters to the end and rearrange all those letters to get the names of
two popular Sport Utility Vehicle models.  

Who is the sports figure, and what are the SUV models?   

They Taste Terrible if Mixed

[The following is a riff of the December 31, 2025, Puzzle Fun Appetizer by Bobby Jacobs.]

4. 🧉🎸The first word in a drink followed by the brand name of personal care products spells, in order left to right, the name of a famous musician and recording industry executive. Who is it?    

Satire Inside Out Makes Irates 

[The following is a riff of a published cartoon by Skilly Creators Syndicate.]

5. 😠Take the surname of a current political newsmaker.  Reverse two adjacent consonants, and rotate the final letter in the name 180 degrees.  

The result is an expletive some say describes the politician.  

Who is the politician and the resulting epithet?  

MENU

Fife Takes A Wife Hors d’Oeuvre:

Thelma “Hononlulu” Lou!

Barney Fife and Thelma Lou were an “item” on “The Andy Griffith Show” for 26 episodes. 

“Thel” (as Barney called her) and Barney eventually tied their nuptial “Knotts” and jetted westward to celebrate their union with a honeymoon in Hawaii.

Where, in four and five letters, did they stay?

A Glow In The Gloaming Slice:

Sylvan Silvery Eloquence

A northern outpost shrouded in snowfall,

A solitary lantern white with frost,

Its flame Silver-tongued and eloquent,

Preserving etiquette, a Heavenly Holocaust!

Choose seven different words that appear in the quatrain above. Write each of them twice.

Rearrange these letters to spell the title of a
well-known 20th-Century novel... twice.

What are these seven words?

What is the title of the novel?

Riffing Off Shortz And Kalish Slices:

“Did Papa John Creach’s Fiddle make Screeches?!”

Will Shortz’s June 21st NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Evan Kalish of Bayside, New York, reads:

Take the name of a nocturnal creature, in two words. The first word is a spooky sound. Move the last letter of the first word to the start of the second word and you'll get another spooky, nocturnal sound. What is the creature and what are the sounds?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Kalish Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Take the  letters in Jesse Garon’s twin brother’s first name, the first name of Billie Jean Horton’s and Audrey Williams’ hubby, and of Vincent Furnier’s slightly misspelled first
name of his stage name. 

Use only those letters to spell the name of a puzzle-maker. Who is it?

(Note: Entrees #2 through #7 are the brainchildren of our friend and talented resident riffmeister Nodd.)

ENTREE #2

Name a mostly nocturnal creature. 

Change the third letter to the preceding letter of the alphabet. 

Rearrange to name two more nocturnal creatures. What are the three creatures?

ENTREE #3

Name a mostly nocturnal creature. 

Move the fourth letter four places later in the alphabet to spell a garment worn during a kind of nighttime performance. Or move that letter two places earlier in the alphabet to spell the
first name of a musician who was famous for being a “night owl.” 

What are the creature and garment, and who is the musician?

ENTREE #4

Take an informal name for a diurnal creature. 

Move the fourth letter five places later in the alphabet to name a sound made by a nocturnal creature. What are the creature and sound?

ENTREE #5

Name certain nocturnal creatures, in two words. 

The first word is the name of a mostly nocturnal creature. 

The second word is an anagram of something seen at night. 

What are the creatures, and what else is seen at night?

ENTREE #6

Name a nocturnal creature. 

Change the first vowel to the next vowel in the alphabet. Rearrange to spell (1) a word describing the nighttime and (2) an event typically held at night. 

What are the creature, description, and event?

ENTREE #7

Take the name of a crepuscular creature, in two words (the first word is a color). 

Remove the fourth letter and change an A to an O. Rearrange to name two nocturnal creatures, one of which frequently eats the other. 

What are these three creatures?

ENTREE #8

Name a puzzle-maker, first and last names. Double the third letter of each name. Rearrange the result to spell a delicious dessert. Who is this puzzle-maker? What is the dessert?

Dessert Menu

Custardial Custodial Dessert:

Keys to Clinical Cleanliness

Write a caption for the eight images pictured here, in two 6-letter words.

Delete the first  letter in the first word, the second letter in the second word and the space between the two words. The result is keys you may see on keyboards. 

What is your caption?

What are the keyboard keys?

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.