Pacific confusion, multilingual messiness & “switcheroodness” “It’s a small word, or two, after all” What kind of fish is a “gholoti”? Down on the farm... team; “I heard it through the animal groupvine”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

What kind of fish is a “gholoti”?

The F, I and SH sounds in FISH sound like the GH in lauGH, the O in wOmen, and the TI in creaTIon. 

If a “ghoti” (G-H-O-T-I) is a fish, then using a similar translation method, what kind of fish is a "gholoti" (G-H-O-L-O-T-I)? 

Appetizer Menu

Worldplayfulfilling Appetizer:

Pacific confusion, multilingual messiness & “switcheroodness”

Pacific Confusion

1. 🌏🌎Two geographic terms are sometimes confused. Remove two adjacent letters from one term or three adjacent letters from the other to yield an identical remainder set of letters. Rearrange this remainder to give a word used in solution chemistry, that does NOT describe the Pacific. Rearrange the five removed letters to name a nation in the Pacific. 

What are the two original terms, the rearranged word, and the Pacific nation?

Misfortune

2. 😟Think of a national capital. Change one letter to give a misfortune that has afflicted it several times over its history.

Stages of life

3. Think of a stage of life. Split it into two “words” that sound like how others in a different stage of life might characterize a member of this stage.

Multilingual mess

4. 🛦An English word derived from the Arabic via Middle French denotes a warehouse for munitions or supplies. It also has a more familiar meaning. 

The cognate word in present-day French and Russian denotes a shop. German has two cognates to the original word. One keeps the original meaning and the second derives from English with the more modern meaning. 

What is this English word?

Note: The later (second) English meaning is a general type of publication, called a “journal” in present-day French. Its English and Russian cognates “journal” and “журнал” (zhurnal) are used for scientific publications, but in English a “journal” also means a diary. The Spanish cognate to diary, “diario,” means newspaper, but Spanish also uses “periódico.” Its English cognate “periodical” is a general bibliographic term for a recurring publication, including scientific journals, newspapers, and popular publications denoted by the puzzle answer. Another English word for a newspaper, “gazette,” derives not from the French state of matter, but from the Italian “gazzetta” that also gave rise to the Russian “газета” (gazeta), the Russian word for a newspaper. ... Confused yet?

Getting to work 

5. 🚋A word formerly applied to many people, with regards to their getting to work. 

Move the fourth letter three places later in the alphabet to describe how they may now get to work. 

What are the two terms?

Switcheroo

6. 🌐Think of an informal name for a country. Remove two adjacent letters that express the main political policy of its leader (as of 2020). Insert in their place a single letter. The result is the general place of origin of many inhabitants of the country. What are the country and general place of origin?

MENU

“Not quite there” Slice:

“It’s a small word, or two, after all”

Take an adjective that means “not quite there yet” or “less than complete.” 

Replace the last letter with a duplicate of the
first letter and divide the result in half. The first half and a rearrangement of the letters in the second half spell words related to “smallness.” 

What are these three words?

Riffing Off Shortz And Bible Slices:

“I heard it through the animal groupvine”

Will Shortz’s December 5th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Tom Bible of Cincinnati, Ohio, reads:

Think of a word to describe a single animal. Change the third letter to get a word that describes the plural of that animal. 

Both are nouns, and neither word contains an “s”.

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Bible Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Think of a four-letter word that in the the 16th Century was used to describe a book (like Genesis, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Job or John, for instance) that is just one of many in a collection. 

Nowadays the word is usually used to describe any large and often ponderous
book. 

Remove the last letter of that word to spell the first name of a puzzle-maker whose surname is one such large and ponderous book. Who is he?

ENTREE #2

Think of a 5-letter word (starting with “a”) for a kind of dominant canine and a 3-letter word  for a kind of submissive ovine. 

Anagram these eight letters to spell the singular forms of words for two things that come in pods.

What are these four words?

ENTREE #3

Think of a feline creature in seven letters. 

Replace its third letter with its fifth letter (not a duplicate of its fifth letter, but the letter itself). 

Then remove the final two letters to get a word that describes the plural of that animal. 

Both are nouns, and neither word contains an “s”.

What are these two words?

ENTREE #4

Think of a feline creature. 

Add to it, in reverse-alphabetical-order, the
letters in a synonym of “allow” to spell bovine creatures.

What are these bovine creatures and what is the feline creature?

ENTREE #5

Name a creature with wings, in four letters. 

Anagram these letters to spell things that wingless creatures, like cats or dogs, have.

What is the winged creature? What do cats and dogs have?

ENTREE #6

Think of a word to describe a single animal. Anagram its letters to get either:

1. rinsing out the test tubes and beakers, for example (in two words of 3 and 5 letters), or

2. KGB Agent Major Anya Amasova, Daisy Duke or Anita Lawson (in two 4-letter words).

What is this single animal?

ENTREE #7

Name a 9-letter parasite transmitted by mosquitoes into dogs. Move the first letter into the fifth position to spell a crawly creature
anglers use to catch fish.

What are this parasite and crawly creature?

ENTREE #8

Name a person, in three words totaling 16 letters, who buys a bunch of plastic bling about 41 or 42 days before Easter Sunday. 

Place the second and third words next to one another to name a creature one might eat for breakfast.

Add to this mix of letters duplicates of the final two letters of this creature.

Rearrange these 18 letters to spell three perhaps more conventional breakfast foods.

What is this three-word person, the edible creature and the other three breakfast foods.  

Dessert Menu

Well Equipped Dessert:

Down on the farm... team

Name a common seven-letter slang term for some essential sports equipment and a seven-letter fruit that is a not-as-common slang term for similar essential sports equipment. 

Both terms end with the same three letters. 

Remove those three letters from each word, leaving farm animals and a piece of equipment often found on a farm. 

Rearrange the eight letters in those “rural words” to spell sports officials and the last name of a football legend.

What are these two slang terms, animals, farm equipment, sports official and football legend?

Every Friday 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.

A “blankety-blank” conundrum; Touring the Heartland and Gulf; Transition of power “Baroque-en” “She Baffled Me With Science!” “Strangers in the Rain”

 PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Touring the Heartland and Gulf

Rearrange the combined letters of two periods of time to spell an informal name for a tourist destination in either a Midwestern or a Gulf Coast state. 

What is this destination name?

Hint: the periods of time can also be baby girls’ names.

Appetizer Menu

It Fell From The Sky Appetizer

A “blankety-blank” conundrum

Think of a twelve-letter word. 

Switch two of its consonants to create a different word. 

Now use these two words to fill in the blanks of: 

“A ____________ about ____________”

What are these two words?

MENU

POTUS-Blown Smoke On The Potomac Slice:

Transition of power “Baroque-en”

Take three of the 25 words in President Donald J. Trump’s presidential daily planner booklet entry for January 6, 2021 (see the accompanying image). 

The words begin with C, A and P. 

Rearrange the 17 combined letters of these
three words to spell the surname of a Baroque-era composer and the title of one of his most popular works.

What are the three words?

Who is the composer and the title of one of his most popular works?

Riffing Off Shortz And Baggish Slices:

“Strangers in the Rain”

Will Shortz’s November 28th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Steve Baggish of Arlington, Massachusetts, reads:

Take the nine letters of EARTH SIGN.
Repeating them as often as necessary, you can spell the four-word title of a classic movie in 15 letters. You can also use them to spell the four-word title of a classic song in 19 letters. What two titles are these?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Baggish Slices read:

ENTREE #1

In the book of Genesis, Abraham intends to sacrifice his son Isaac using a “shiv.” The word “begat” appears in the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) 139 times.

Take the nine letters of SHIV and BEGAT.
Repeating them as often as necessary, you can spell the two-word nickname (in 7 and 5 letters) and the 11-letter noun that appears in the following sentence:

“Lake Powell, Flaming Gorge and Bears Ears National Monument are three examples of _______ _____ ___________.”

You can also spell the first and last names of a puzzle-maker.

What three words belong in the blanks?

Who is the puzzle-maker?

ENTREE #2

Expert puzzle-solvers have wit and are good at solving mazes. 

Take the twelve letters of WIT and MAZES  and the abbreviation for “plural,” PLUR.
Repeating them as often as necessary, you can spell the four-letter first name of an NPR personality, his 12-letter honorary and descriptive title, and the 10-letter subject matter from which he draws to create many of his word teasers and challenges.

Who is this NPR personality, his descriptive title 

What is the subject matter?

ENTREE #3

Sledders and skiers love snow, but motorists and shovelers hate snow.

Take the eight letters of HATE SNOW. Repeating them as often as necessary, you can spell the five-word title of an epic Western movie in 16 letters. You can also use them to spell the four-word idiom in 15 letters, that promotes good stewardship.

What is the epic movie title? What is the idiom?

ENTREE #4

Unless they are falsely accused and convicted, those on death row are sinful.

Take the 14 letters of DEATH ROW and SINFUL. Repeating them as often as necessary, you can spell the four-word title of a classic movie in 17 letters. You can also use them to spell the five-word title of a
later controversial movie in 19 letters. What two titles are these?

Hint: both movies were nominated for Best Picture Oscars.

ENTREE #5

In the image pictured here, model Vanessa Brown is modeling a Swatch.

Take the 14 letters in MODELING and SWATCH. Repeating them as often as necessary, you can spell the titles of of two
wonderful poems by a great poet – one with three words and 15 letters, the other with four words and 14 letters.

What are these poems? 

ENTREE #6

Many people who celebrated Thanksgiving last week ladled gravy onto their turkey, stuffing and potatoes. One definition of “gravy” is “brown sauce.” 

Take the ten letters of BROWN and SAUCE. Repeating them as often as necessary, you can spell the nicknames of four teams in a professional sports league – in 5, 6, 7 and 10 letters. What are these four nicknames?

ENTREE #7

A farmer may grab a scythe. An insecure, idiotic and insensitive jerk may brag about his chesty girlfriend.Take the ten letters in GRAB and SCYTHE, or the ten letters in BRAG and CHESTY. Repeating them as often as necessary, you can spell the titles of two novels published in the first half of the 20th century.  

One, in seven letters, was adapted to become a Best Picture Oscar-winner. 

Another, in 14 letters, was adapted four times to to appear on the big silver screen.

What are these two novels?

ENTREE #8

The largest horse ever recorded was a Shire horse that lived in the 19th century, standing 21.25 hands and weighing 3,360 pounds.

The Trojan horse was an even more giant horse.

Take the ten letters of GIANT HORSE. Repeating them as often as necessary, you can spell the four-word title of a classic movie in 15 letters. You can also use them to spell the four-word title of a classic Hitchcock movie in 17 letters. You can also use them to spell the four-word title of a classic song in 19 letters. What three titles are these?

Dessert Menu

Diagnostic Dessert:

“She Baffled Me With Science!”

The first three letters of a natural science plus the first three letters of a social science spell a
diagnostic procedure. 

What is it?

Every Friday 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.

Demonymomania! Pondering wrinkles in a septuagenarian game; “Don’t obey the Golden Rule!” Giving thanks for addictive lipsmack! “He be GB, the crafty Baffler”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Let’s give thanks for addictive lipsmack!

It’s Friday, the day after Thankgiving. Thankfully, there are usually enough cold turkey leftovers in the fridge so that one need not go “cold turkey” on Thursday’s “addictive lipsmack”...

Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day: plates heaping with piping-hot, aromatic, savory, succulent turkey thighs and cauliflower, ripe pineapple and Little Debbie pumpkin spice rolls...

What do the five words “thighs, ripe pineapple, cauliflower” and “Debbie” have in common?

Hint: Speaking of “addictive lipsmack,” the tryptophan in turkey just may be an antidepressant.  

Appetizer Menu

ganGBusters! Appetizers:

“He be GB, the crafty Baffler”

Beginning at the end

1. 🌍Consider the following grouping: 

📌Hemingway, to his pals; 

📌Garb for a soldier, but not a tinker, tailor or
spy; 

📌South Africa Provincial Pair; 

📌“Bean Capital of the world”; 

📌Sound copy; 

📌“Alpha” male Shakespearean title
character; 

📌“Inky” Asian Peninsula nation; 

📌Beginning!

What is significant about this grouping?

A country “conumberum”

2. 🗺Name a country that has numbers embedded in its name. 

Remove the numbers from the name.
The remaining letters, in order from left to right, spell the name of another country. 

What are the countries and the numbers? 

“I’ll alter a name to get an isle” 

3. 🏝 Name a country. Remove the first letter. 

Replace one of the remaining consonants with another consonant to get an island. 

What is it? 

Fixing freedom

4. 🩰💃Name a word in eight letters that indicates freedom of movement. 

Switch the first and second letters, then advance the new second letter eight places in the alphabet. 

The resulting word indicates a fixed position. 

What are these words? 

MENU

Triple Word Score Slice:

Pondering wrinkles in a septuagenarian game

How are the following quotation and attribution related to the number 120?

“A ‘no tie’ rule does seem wise, albeit curious.” 

— Gaming mavens together pondering Scrabble “wrinkles”

Riffing Off Shortz Slices:

Demonymomania!

Will Shortz’s November 21st NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle reads:

Name a country of six or more letters. Change two letters in it to name the resident of another country’s capital.

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Take a puzzle-maker’s last name, in six or more letters. 

Change the first letter to the next letter in the alphabet. Change the last two letters to the state postal code abbreviation of the state where the puzzle-maker resides.

The result is an adjective that might describe many of the fiendish puzzles this puzzle-maker creates.

Who is this puzzle-maker and what is the adjective? 

ENTREE #2

Name a past ballplayer whose surname is a synonym of “butchery” or “bloodbath.”

Take a six-letter word for his Major League status in 1938. 

Anagram the combined letters of this word and the letters in his first name to spell two different names for a resident of a particular U.S. state (that is, two demonyms).

Who is this ballplayer?

What are the two demonyms?

Hint: The state where the ballplayer played the majority of his career borders the state associated with the two demonyms.   

ENTREE #3

Name a country of five or fewer letters. Add one letter to the front of it to name the resident of another country’s capital.

What are this country and resident of another country’s capital?

Extra credit: How is this puzzle related to Entree #2?

ENTREE #4

Name an empire of six or more letters. 

Change two consecutive letters in it to name a resident of a country’s capital.

What are this empire and resident?

ENTREE #5

Take a word that means consticting, contracting or binding. It begins with “con” and ends with “ent,” with a string of six letters in the middle.

Replace the “con” with a “ham” and the “ent” with an “ing” to get a word that means “making ineffective or powerless.”

What is the “string of six letters?

What are the words beginning with “con” and with “ham”?

ENTREE #6

Name an Asian country of six or more letters.

Within the name appears the “present tense third-person singular” of “be.” Replace it with the first two-thirds of the “present tense second-person singular and present tense plural” of “be.”  

Oh, and then change the first letter of this result.

The final result is the name of any resident of another Asian country’s capital.

What is this country? 

What is the name for a resident of the other country’s capital?  

ENTREE #7

Name a resident of a European country of six or more letters. (The country is not Italy, but knowlege of things Roman may help you solve this puzzle.) 

Divide the first letter by X to get a new letter. Replace the first letter with that new letter.

Multiply a pair of interior letters by XVI, then add III. The result is a pair of letters that, one might argue, may be a less cumbersome alternative to that product. Replace those interior letters with that less cumbersome alternative.

The result of all this computation is the first word in another European county.

What are these two European countries?

What is the less cumbersome pair of letters?

ENTREE #8

Name a resident of an Asian country of six or more letters. Change each of its first two vowels to an “o” and remove its third vowel. 

The result is the name of a resident of a European country.

What are the names of these residents?

ENTREE #9

Divide the name of any resident of a certain European city into three parts. 

The first part is a tide and the third part is
a tint. The second part can be rearranged to spell a tint in a tube.

What is the name of this resident?

What are the tide, tint and tint in a tube?

Hint: Somthing edible that has the same as the name of the resident has white, pink and brown tints.

Dessert Menu

Do Unto Others Dessert:

“Don’t obey the Golden Rule!”

Name a word for people that we don’t want following the Golden Rule: 

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Hint: The word anagrams into two groups of
people – the majority of whom likely do indeed follow the Golden Rule.

Every Friday 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.