Arts & Rec & “Mussy Marceau” “My Voice is my instrument!” “EnChoiring” minds want to know... puzzle answers! Topological bake shop; 3.14-Pi-Day-Puzzle 2.0

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

3.14-Pi-Day-Puzzle 2.0

Note: On March 8, 2020, Will Shortz used a Pi Day puzzle I created as the NPR challenge. 

This week’s Schpuzzle of the Week is a timely “Pi Day sequel” to that NPR puzzle... think of it as a “3.14-Pi-Day-Puzzle 2.0!”

Lego...

This week’s Schpuzzle of the Week involves Pi Day, which we celebrate this coming Monday,
March 14, which is commonly written as 3/14. That has been designated Pi Day because 3-1-4 are the first three digits of pi.

But why might Hall-of-Fame ballplayers Brooks Robinson, Mike Schmidt and George Brett wait until October 1 to celebrate Pi Day?

Appetizer Menu

Skydiverting Appetizer:

Arts & Rec & “Mussy Marceau”

1. 🎭 Think of a six-letter word applicable to the arts. 

Insert an “M” in the exact middle and you will have another word that has an opposite meaning. 

What are these two words?

2. 🎳 Think of a place you might go to for recreation in two words. 

Anagram the combined letters of those words to discover why you may not be able to use that place.

What are this place and reason you may not be able to use it?

3. 🙉 Take a common four-word phrase beginning with the article “A” followed by three words of six, two and four letters. 

Spoonerize the second and fourth words to describe a pantomimist in disheveled attire.

What is the original four-word phrase beginning with the article “A”?

What is the four-word description of the pantomimist in disheveled attire?

MENU

Soloist Slice:

“My Voice is my instrument!”

Name a kind of composition that a soloist (like “ViolinTeddy,” for example) might play on an instrument. 

Change the second letter and add a letter near the end to spell the surname of a soloist whose voice is their instrument. 

What is this composition and who is this soloist?

Riffing Off Shortz And Hartenstein Slices:

“EnChoiring” minds want to know... puzzle answers!

Will Shortz’s March 6th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Ward Hartenstein of Rochester, New York, reads:

Words starting with a “kw-” sound usually start with the letters “QU-,” as in question, or “KW-,” as in Kwanzaa. What common, uncapitalized English word starting with a “kw-” sound contains none of the letters Q, U, K, or W?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Hartenstein Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Take the first name of a close relative – indeed, the second son – of a noted physicist. The second syllable of the name begins with a vowel, the first of four letters in that syllable. Those four letters spell what sounds  like the first name of a puzzle-maker. 

Who are the puzzle-maker and the son of the physicist?

Hint #1: The first syllable of the physicist’s second son’s first name consists of two consecutive letters of the alphabet, but not in alphabetical order.

Hint #2: The last six letters of the puzzle-maker’s surname are identical to the last six letters in the surname of the physicist and his son.

ENTREE #2

Words starting with a “kw-” sound usually start with the letters “QU-,” as in question, or “KW-,” as in Kwanzaa. Name two common, uncapitalized non-English words (that do appear, however, in English dictionaries) that start with a “kw-” sound but do not start with the letters “QU-,” as in question, or “KW-,” as in Kwanzaa?

Hint: The words are synonyms of “hairdresser” and “food.”

ENTREE #3

Just WHY is English pronunciation so darn tricky!

Take, for example, a four-letter word that means “to set, or to become more solid.”

1. Change the first letter to the letter it sounds like in the subject of a propaganda film starring actresses named Short and Miles. The result is an expression of exasperation oft voiced by a famous past violinist.

2. Next, change the first letter to the letter it sounds like in a word for Tex-Mex cuisine that is
etymologically rooted in “sash” or “belt.” The result is a “pit of pandemonium.” 

3. Finally, change the first letter to the letter it sounds like in a Handel Chorus crooned by a Choir. The result is a hoot, howl or holler.

What is the four-letter word that means “to set or become more solid?”

What are the propaganda film subject and violinist’s expression?

What are the Tex-Mex cuisine and “pit of pandemonium?”

What is the Handel Chorus crooned by a Choir and the hoot, howl or holler?

ENTREE #4

Name a two-syllable nine-letter word that refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable – as in the words
“hay” “boy” “out” and “noise.” 

The word contains seven consonants and two non-adjacent vowels.

What is this word?

ENTREE #5

Racquetball, Guitar, Juice, Vegetable, Wrestle.

Take one letter from each of these five words that, in order, spell an adjective that describes each of those five letters.

What is this five-letter adjective?

ENTREE #6

The first word Scarlett O’Hara speaks in the 1939 film “Gone with the Wind,” based on Margaret Mitchell’s novel, is a 12-letter word that precedes “War, war, war!”

A fable of uncertain origin involves a plural form of an eating utensil, in ten letters. The fable tells of a man who was given the opportunity, before he died, to see what heaven and hell look like. He finds that neither place has fire, brimstone and devils nor harps, clouds and angels. But both do have great banquet halls!

What are these 12-letter and 10-letter words?

What is notable about each of them?

ENTREE #7

Take a five-letter word associated with Moses. 

Now name a two-word caption for the image seen here, nine letters total, that is a homophone of that five-letter word.

Hint: Each word in the caption begins with a vowel.

Dessert Menu

Lip-smackin’ Dessert:

Topological bake shop

Name a four-word idiom that includes a word for
something put between one’s lips. 

Anagram the combined letters of the idiom to spell:

1. a boiled ‘n’ baked edible, 

2. a noun that a geometer might use to characterize that edible’s shape, and 

3. an adjective that geometer might use to describe the shape of a cool lip-smacking pastry. 

What are this idiom and three words?

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.

“Botany, Chemistry, and a Dynasty with Energy;” Rocky “Maine”tain High, Colorado; Actors and animals; “Hey! Knock off all the noise!” “We come from the land of the ice and snow”

 PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

“Hey! Knock off all the noise!”

Anagram a four-syllable word associated with loud noises to get a three-syllable word associated with loud noises. 

What are these two words?

Appetizer Menu

Bobby Jacobs Puzzle Fun  Appetizer:

“Botany, Chemistry, and a Dynasty with Energy”

1. 🌹Take the name of a chemical element. 

Remove the fourth letter to get the name of a flower. 

What is the element?

What is the flower?

2. 🚗Take the name of a dynasty. 

Remove the second and third letters. Replace the antepenultmate letter with a V. 

You will get a two-word type of transportation.

What is this dynasty?

What is this type of transportation?

MENU

Anti-tank Slice:

“We come from the land of the ice and snow”

Take an adjective that describes weather in lands where heating oil tanks are commonplace. 

Change the order of the syllables and place the word “to” between them to form a three-word antonym of “tank.” 

What is this adjective?

What is the three-word antonym of “tank?”

Riffing Off Shortz And Hochbaum Slices:

Actors and animals

Will Shortz’s February 27th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Alan Hochbaum, of Duluth, Georgia, reads:

Name a famous actor — first and last names. Remove the last letter of each name. You’ll be left with an animal and an adjective that describes that animal, respectively. Who is the actor?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Hochbaum Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Name a puzzle-maker — first and last names. 

Remove the last letter of each name. 

You’ll be left with a three-letter abbreviation of a state that borders the puzzle-maker’s state, and seven letters that can be rearranged to form a pair of interjections — one used to express disdain and another used to express sudden pain. 

Who is the puzzle-maker?

What is the bordering state?

What are the interjections?

ENTREE #2

Name a past American comedian — first and last names. Remove the last letter of his first name, then add a space somewhere within the name. 

You’ll be left with a seven-letter expression that follows a word for a kind of meat in a dish. 

What is this dish, and who is the actor/comedian? 

Hint: the dish was first served in the 1890s in Brooklyn.

ENTREE #3

Name a famous past British actor — first and last names. 

Remove the last letter of the first name.

Place the surname in front of this result to spell a brand-name alcoholic beverage.

Who is the actor? 

What is the beverage?

ENTREE #4

Name a famous actor — first and last names. Remove the last letter of each name. 

You’ll be left with a generic name for a type of vehicle, followed by a four-letter word that precedes the Italian word for the city of Turin in the name of a Ford model that was introduced in 1972. 

Who is the actor? What are the generic vehicle name and specific name of the model?

Hint: The automobile model featured a large egg-crate grille in an oval opening (see illustration). 

ENTREE #5

Name a famous actor — first and last name, ten letters total. The first three letters spell an animal. 

The remaining seven letters can be rearranged to form two words — a three-letter adjective that modifies a four-letter proper noun — that belong in the blanks of the following  statement: “In Entree #4, above, the name of the model that was introduced in 1972 is a specific name, not just ___ ____.”

Who is the actor?

What is the animal?

What words belong in the blanks?

ENTREE #6

Name an actor who is also a director — first and last names. 

Add a letter to the beginning of the first name and change the last letter of the last name. 

You’ll be left with the plural forms of two animals.

Who is the actor/director?

What are the animals?

ENTREE #7

Name a famous past British actor — first and last names. 

Remove the last letter of each name. In the first name, change an “a” to an “o”. 

Switch the order of the names. You’ll be left with something that might be seeded. 

Who is the actor?

What is the seeded something?

ENTREE #8

Name a famous poet — first and last names.

The first name is also a male animal. 

The second name is a bird.

Who is the poet?

ENTREE #9

Name a famous past actor — first and last names. 

Remove the final two letters of the last name.

The first name is also a male animal. 

The second name is now a female bird.

Who is the actor?

Dessert Menu

Doublespoken Dessert:

Rocky “Maine”tain High, Colorado

Name a real Colorado town that is also the name of a fictional town in Maine. 

Change a “c” to an “o”. The result is two names for the same object used in a game. What are the two names for the game object and the name of the towns?

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.

Eco’s miscellany of mystification; A not-at-all-odd American woman; Vehicular “TV-Guide-o-cide!” Making the mathematical mechanical; “Please don’t squeeze the arm, chin!”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

A not-at-all-odd American woman

Take the first name of a famous American woman. Replace its last letter with an antonym of “odd.” 

Anagram the result to get a word associated with this American woman’s last name. 

Who is this woman?

Appetizer Menu

Econfusing Appetizer:

Eco’s miscellany of mystification

1. Name a word for what you might use to expand something. That same word is also what you might use to reduce something. 

Note: This word isn’t something like a pump – one that is used to pump water into a swimming pool, or to pump sewage out of a septic tank. The “expansion” and “reduction"  functions of the word we are seeking are completely different from each other.

2. Insert  a vowel within the full name of a well-known actress. Then remove the first four letters of her first name and the last letter of her last name.

The result will be the name of a world capital. 

Who is the actress and what is the capital?

3. Name a breed of dog. 

Reverse the last two letters (or change the vowel sound) of the last syllable, and the result will be a well-known office supply brand. 

What is the dog, and what is the brand?

4. Name something you might use for an external problem. Add one letter somewhere in the word for something you might use for an internal problem. Change that letter to get something you might use for an internal or an external problem. What are the three words?

5. The first and last name of a well-known thespian – one who appeared on stage, film
and television – are the names of two famous opponents. 

Who is this thespian?

Who are these opponents?

MENU

Transformative Slice:

Making the mathematical mechanical

Name something mathematical, in two words. 

Change the first and fourth letters of its second
word to an “e” and “a”. 

Remove a numerical prefix from within the first word. 

Remove the space between the words. 

The result is something mechanical. 

What are these two things?

Riffing Off Shortz And Hochbaum Slices:

“Please don’t squeeze the arm, chin!”

Will Shortz’s February 20th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Alan Hochbaum of Duluth, Georgia, reads:

Name a part of the human body. Insert the name of another part of the human body. You’ll get a brand name found at the supermarket. What is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Hochbaum Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Take a five-letter synonym of “humbug” or “nonsense.” Take also a three-letter interjection of “disdain” or “contempt” that one may make upon hearing such humbug. 

Change the middle letter in the synonym to a letter that often makes the same sound as that replaced letter. Move the last letter of the interjection to the beginning of the interjection.

Insert the altered interjection somewhere within the altered synonym.

The result is the surname of a puzzle-maker whose first name, spelled backward, is the name of Simba’s spouse.

Who is this puzzle-maker?

What are the synonym and interjection?

ENTREE #2

Name a three-letter object. It can be inside a three-letter or seven-letter thing, both which end in “-en” and are synonyms. You might find the three-letter object within a container in a still-life painting.

Now take a six-letter past-tense verb for what Ishmael Boorg and “the Dude” did. The still-life painting container is also the present-tense form of what Boorg and “the Dude” did.

Insert the three-letter object within the past-tense verb to form an adjective that describes many a broncobuster.

What are the object and the two synonymous places where it might be?

What did Boorg and “the Dude” do?

What adjective describes many a broncobuster?

Hint: The three-letter object rhymes with the first syllable of a noun that describes Ishmael Boorg or “the Dude.”

ENTREE #3

Take a six-letter synonym of “to make.” Insert within it something found in the
center of drupaceous things, like a cherry or peach, to make a nine-letter verb that means “to make a crackling sound,” like a Rice Krispie, for example.

What are this six-letter synonym and nine-letter verb? 

What is found in the center of something drupaceous?

ENTREE #4

Dean was depressed, downcast and dejected, so he foolishly ______ a quart of bourbon. Insert a synonym of “center” near the center of the six-letter verb that belongs in that blank. 

The result, which begins with a “d,” is a synonym of “depressed, downcast and dejected.”

What are the verb in the blank and the synonyms of “center” and “depressed?”

ENTREE #5

Name, in four letters, a crispy or soft corn or wheat tortilla that is folded or rolled and stuffed with a mixture (as of seasoned meat, cheese, and lettuce) that one might enjoy for breakfast. 

Alas, a troublesome and mischievous mythological being similar to a fairy or demon is just tiny enough to be hiding within the tortilla along with the stuffed mixture.

Mix up the three letters in this being and insert them in the center of the four-letter tortilla. 

The result is a brand of breakfast punch with which you might wash down the tortilla and tiny demon. 

What are this breakfast tortilla, tiny demon and punch?

ENTREE #6

Take a two-word brand name found at the supermarket. Remove the first two and final two letters from the brand. The remaining letters spell a two-word description of either:

1. Turkey, Morocco, Ireland or Mauritania, because they consume so much tea, or

2. China, Brazil, Mexico or Germany, because they produce so much beer.

Now take the two pairs of letters you removed. Place them side-by-side to form a verb that is the root of the word that precedes “... the sick” in The Classic Hippocratic Oath.

A synonym of this verb is another verb for a process that is applied to products bearing the two-word supermarket brand – a process that preserves the products with salt and nitrites.

What is this brand name? 

What is the synonym of the 4-letter verb formed from the beginning and ending letter-pairs of the brand?

ENTREE #7

Take a two-word brand name found at the supermarket. The first two letters and last three letters, side-by-side, spell a word associated with kindness, being and milk.

The four remaining letters, in order, if you advance each of them two places later in the circular alphabet, spell a type of thin, flat bread that can be separated to form a pocket that you can use to hold leftovers from the brand-name supermarket item.

What is the two-word brand name?

What is the word associated with kindness, being and milk?

What is the type of thin, flat bread?

ENTREE #8

Name parts of the human body that you have more than 650 of. Take the etymolological root of each such body part, which is a five-letter English word for a certain small creature.

Insert seven letters within this English word, then divide the result into two words of seven and five letters. 

These words form a brand name beverage found at the supermarket.

The seven letters you inserted can be anagramed to form a three-letter substance and a four-letter place where that substance would surely melt.

What are this brand name beverage, 650 body parts and small creature?

What are the substance and place it would melt?

ENTREE #9

Name an eight-letter hyphenated brand of a product you pour or squeeze. The first two and last two letters, side-by-side, spell product whose brand names include: Mommy’s Time Out, Middle Sister, Arrogant Frog, Bohemian Highway, Red Guitar, Running With Scissors, Bearitage, Cat’s Pee on a Gooseberry Bush, Goats Do Roam In Villages, Ten Minutes By Tractor, Rocket Science and Mad Housewife.

The remaining letters, in order, if you advance them 12 places later on in the circular alphabet, spell an Italian mountain.

What are this brand name and mountain?

Hint: Place after the brand name something the mountain is famous for spewing. The result is a British rock band that achieved success in the early-to-mid-1970s.

ENTREE #10

Note: The following NPR riff-off puzzle is the brainchild of our friend Plantsmith, whose “Garden of Puzzley Delights” puzzle feature appears regularly on Puzzleria!

Name a well-known beverage brand. Move its first letter to the end and change a vowel to another vowel. The result is a word for body
parts associated with a second beverage.

What are the beverage brand, body parts and second beverage?

Hint: The beverage brand begins with a four-letter word that sometimes precedes a small spherical legume, and ends with a five-letter pome fruit.

Dessert Menu

Edutainment Dessert:

Vehicular “TV-Guide-o-cide!”

Name an edutainment vehicle, as seen on TV.
 Replace a vowel with a different vowel. 

The first half of the result spells a vehicle. The second half, if rearranged, also spells a vehicle. 

What are these three vehicles?

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.