Norman Invasion, 1066... NormanD-Day Invasion, 1944; Prayer of the drunken sea captain; Wi-Fi, FYI, means Wireless Fidelity; “A good puzzle answer is hard to find” Title-holders, hyphens and homophones

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

“A good puzzle answer is hard to find”

Name something that is proverbially hard to find. 

This “hard-to-find” thing begins with something
associated with eyes, and ends with something associated with thumbs. 

Can you find it?

Appetizer Menu

D-Day Memorial Appetizer:

Norman Invasion, 1066... NormanD-Day Invasion, 1944

Note: D-Day Anniversary, observed annually on June 6, commemorates World War II operations which led to the liberation of occupied Europe.

The four puzzles below are intended to draw respectfully from facts surrounding participants in World War II.

Capitals & nationalities within the names

1. Two famous World War II adversaries both had memorable nicknames. But this puzzle concerns their real first and last names. 

Replace the 7th letter of the longer name with the 8th letter of the shorter name. Now the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th, and 12th letters of the longer name, in order left to right, spell the nationality of the person with the shorter name. 

ROT-5 the 3rd letter of the shorter name, move that new letter to the front of the name, move the last letter of the surname into the vacated place, and delete one of the repeated letters in the surname. Now the remaining letters of the shorter name, in order left to right, spell the names of two World War II Axis capital cities. 

Who are these adversaries? 

What are the nationality and the capital cities?

Note: “ROT-5” means to replace a letter with the one 5 places later in the alphabet, so A becomes F, B becomes G, etc. 

“The Death Squad” demolition platoon

2. Take a 10-letter word for what many practice during war. Replace a vowel that appears twice in this word with a duplicate of the word’s seventh letter. Rearrange the resulting letters to make the first and last names of a person who spent part of World War II in a demolition platoon nicknamed “The Death Squad,” and who later drew on that experience to create fantastic stories. 

What is the word, and who is the person? 

III who served during WWII

3. Take a two-word description of the highest collar rank insignia Lyndon Johnson or Richard Nixon would have worn during World War II. Drop one of the only repeated consonant in that description. Rearrange the remaining letters to get a one-word description of what aviator George H. W. Bush might have called a submarine he was once aboard. 

What are those descriptions?

Hint: “Join the Navy; but, beware the colorful herring.”

Military commands, neutrality & surnames 

4. Name two U.S. military officers who held major commands during World War II, and who eventually attained the top post in their respective services. Their surnames end in the same two letters in the same order. The first three letters of one surname and the first two letters of the other surname can be combined and arranged to spell the name of a country which officially espoused neutrality or non-belligerency during World War II. Who are the officers, and what is the country?

MENU

World Leaders Slice:

Title-holders, hyphens and homophones

Take a homophone of the second word in a world leader’s title and a hyphenated term describing the geographic origin of the person currently holding that title.

Anagram the combined letters of this
homophone and hyphenated term to spell the first and last names of a past U.S. president.

Who is this president?

What is the world leader’s title?

What are the homophone and hyphenated term?

Note: Our intended answer for the geographic origin of the person currently holding the world leader’s title is somewhat controversial.

Riffing Off Shortz And Raymond Slices:

Wi-Fi, FYI, means “Wireless Fidelity”

Will Shortz’s May 29th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Christopher Raymond of Poughkeepsie, New York (based on something his seven-year-old son Charlie noticed), reads:

Take an abbreviation found in text messages. Reverse the first two letters, and the result sounds like something else often found in text messages. What are these things?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Raymond
Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Add an “r” to the hometown of a puzzle-maker. 

Eight letters of this result can be rearranged to spell a noun for an extinct genus of small equid ungulates with fourteen toes. 

This noun consists of a two-letter root word meaning “dawn” and a six-letter root word meaning “horse.”

The remaining letters of this “hometown-plus-‘r’” result can be rearranged to spell an adjective describing these root words.

What is this hometown?

What are the noun and adjective?

ENTREE #2

Take the first name of an actor who portrayed Superman in movie theaters. Add an “s” to the end of his surname to spell the surname of an actor, named George, who portrayed Superman on television.

George’s surname is the same as that of a U.S. Air Force four-star general who served as the Commander in Chief of the North American Air Defense Command as well as Commander in Chief of the Continental Air Defense Command from 1966 to 1969.

George’s surname is also the same as that of a person who served as a writer, script coordinator and director, respectively, for the
TV series “Onyx Equinox,” “Westworld” and “Peacekeepers.”

The first name of the actor who portrayed Superman in movie theaters and the first name of the four-star general are the first name and surname of a puzzle-maker.

That puzzle-maker’s son has the same first name as the TV series writer, script coordinator and director.

Who are the two actors who portrayed Superman?

Who are the four-star general and TV series writer/director?

Who are the puzzle-maker and his son?

ENTREE #3

Take an abbreviation found in text messages. Reverse the first two letters. 

Take two letters that appear in the first fifth of the alphabet. Place one at the beginning and one at the end of this altered text-message abbreviation, then add a space someplace. 

The result spells Robba’s two-word exclamation of admonition to her hubby, Denton True, in their Ohio home after he forgot to take the garbage out!

What is this text message abbreviation? 

What did Robba say to admonish Denton True?

Note: The name “Robba” is spelled “Roba” on her and Denton’s gravestone. 

ENTREE #4

Take an abbreviation found in text messages which is a request by the texter for further information at a later time. 

Reverse the first two letters, and the result is a
monogram of a Nobel Prize winner who was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi.

What is this abbreviation?

Who is the Nobel Prize winner?

ENTREE #5

Take a four-letter text-message abbreviation one might post as a response to a humorous text. 

Reverse the last two letters, and the result is the surname of the developer of an alternative medicine marketed with unproven claims of various health benefits, and based how the human body’s “energy field” can benefit when aligned with the Earth’s gravitational field.

What is this four-letter text-message abbreviation?

Who is the developer of the alternative medicine?

Hint: The developer’s surname, spelled backward, followed by the developer’s first name, spells a U.S. state.

ENTREE #6

Take a three-letter business text abbreviation that may specify a deadline time. 

Reverse the first two letters, and the result is an abbreviation of a voluminous lexicon.

Reverse the last two letters of that abbreviation, and the result is a word for a lyric poem.

Reverse the first two letters of that abbreviation, and the result is a “cervine generic surname.”

Reverse the last two letters of that abbreviation, and the result is a word heard in a Pre-Vatican-Two church that sounds like a hyphenated word heard on a banana boat.

What are this:

* business text abbreviation, 

* abbreviation of a voluminous lexicon,

* lyric poem, 

* “cervine generic surname,” and

*  word heard in a Pre-Vatican-Two church or on a banana boat?

ENTREE #7

Take a four-letter abbreviation found in text messages for what sounds like a prayer one might say on the day after a particular holiday – a day when the fridge is full of cold turkey and other leftovers. Move the first letter of that abbreviation to the end to spell a noun that workers may use to describe the weekend, especially an extended holiday weekend. 

The title of a O Henry short story contains this noun.

What is this text message abbreviation? 

What noun may workers use to describe the weekend?

ENTREE #8

Take an abbreviation found in text messages. Move the first letter to the end to spell the French word for a form of the English word for
which the middle letter in the abbreviation stands. 

What is this abbreviation?

What is the French word?

ENTREE #9

Take an abbreviation found in text messages. Reverse the first two letters. Replace the first letter of this result with the only letter in the alphabet with which it rhymes.  

Place an East Coast state postal abbreviation at the beginning of this altered text-message
abbreviation, then add a hyphen someplace.

The final result is a genre in literature and cinema.

What is this text message abbreviation?

What is the genre from literature and cinema?

Dessert Menu

Shipwrecked Life-Rafters Dessert:

Prayer of the drunken sea captain

Swap the initial letters of the first and last names of a past entertainer. 

The result sounds like a four-word prayer mumbled by a guilt-ridden and remorseful sea captain crammed into a life raft along with surviving passengers after he drunkenly navigated their ship into an iceberg. 

Who’s the entertainer? 

What’s the prayer? 

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. 

Home, Home on the Ranch... William Somerset Maughiuam; Just what is under that little red riding hood? “Reverent? Righteous? Sacred? Saintly? Devout? Divine? Pious? Priestly?” Idiomania!

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

“Reverent? Righteous? Sacred? Saintly? Devout? Divine? Pious? Priestly?”

“Aisle, belief, alms, grace, hymn and apostle” are six words related to church. 

Take one letter from each word, in order, to spell an adjective describing church people who take a particular vow. 

What is this adjective?

Appetizer Menu

Colorful, Multisyllabic Appetizer:

Home, Home on the Ranch...

Think of a multisyllabic word for color. 

Insert an “s” in the middle. 

You can now break the result into three new words. 

One word is a synonym for ranch. 

The other two words are mammals you would find on that ranch. 

What are these words?

MENU

Coming Full Circle Slice:

Idiomania!

Name a four-word idiom. The first word, if you do not pronounce its final letter, sounds like a word described by the last two words. 

What is this idiom? 

What is the word described by the last two words?

Hint: The initial letters of the words in the idiom are the first four letters of a U.S. state.

Riffing Off Shortz And Deal Slices:

William Somerset Maughiuam

Will Shortz’s May 22nd NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Blaine Deal, who conducts a weekly blog about Will’s NPR puzzles, reads:

Take the name of an island. Move its first letter two spaces later in the alphabet (so A would become C, B would become D, etc.). Reverse the result and you’ll have the name of another island. What islands are these?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Deal Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Take the first and last names of a puzzle-maker.

Anagram the first four letters to spell the name of an Indonesian island.

The next four letters, in reverse order, spell a biblical land west of Nod.

The remaining letters, in reverse order, spell an abbreviated form of a major U.S. city.

Who is this puzzle-maker?

What are the island, biblical land and U.S. city? 

ENTREE #2

Take the name of an island. Remove its second letter. Reverse the order of the remaining letters to form a consecutive alphabetical string of letters (like, DEF or STU, for example).

Replace the letter you removed with its three-letter homophone. Interchange the first and second letters of this homophone. Replace the first letter of this result with its “competing letter” in a simple pencil-and-paper game.

The third letter in the homophone is the first letter in a three-letter weapon. Replace this letter with the second letter of the weapon.

The result is another consecutive alphabetical string of letters. What are this island and the two alphabetical strings?

ENTREE #3

Take the name of an island. Move its third letter four spaces earlier in the alphabet (so Z would become V, Y would become U, etc.). 

Reverse the result. 

Place a space between the third and fourth letters of this reversed result  and you’ll have the informal name of a family member and a synonym of “sluggish” that may describe her or him (as the result, for example, of sleeplessness, stress, vitamin deficiency or poor diet). 

What island is this? What is the informal name of a family member and the synonym of “sluggish” that may describe him or her?

ENTREE #4

“____ ___ ____ out to the field, where he killed him.”

The combined first two words in this biblical passage are an anagram of an island. The third word is an anagram of a second island.

What are the words in the blanks?

What are the two islands?

ENTREE #5

Anagram the combined two words in the name of an island to spell what God may have instructed Noah to purchase before the
deluge. 

What island is this?

What might Noah have purchased?

ENTREE #6

Take the name of an island. Spell it backward. The last three letters of the result are the beginning of a current U.S. Senator’s first name. The first three letters of the result are
the beginning of that U.S. Senator’s last name.

What island is this?

Who is the U.S. Senator?

ENTREE #7

Take the name of an island. Move its first letter four spaces later in the alphabet (so A would become E, B would become F, etc.). 

Anagram the result and you’ll have the name of another island. What islands are these?

Hint: An anagram of the second island followed by an anagram of the first island spell an adjective describing a sprung prisoner or leaky rowboat.

ENTREE #8

Take the first name of a female character on a past popular sitcom and an adjective that describes a male character on that same sitcom – an adjective that might also describe patriotic birds or a bad tire. 

Swap the first letters of the first name and the
adjective, resulting in a new first name and four letters that can be rearranged to spell the surname of the person possessing that first name.

Who is that person (who also happens to be a puzzle-maker)?

What are the female character’s name, the adjective describing the male character and the name of the sitcom?     

Dessert Menu

Anagrammatical Dessert:

Just what is under that little red riding hood?

A part found under the hood of a car (whether red or otherwise) is an anagram of other parts found under the hood.
 What are these parts?

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 LegoLambda, 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.

Barbecued riffs and Riffle Chips! Putting the Carte before Blanche; Dog-eat-dog "suits" & dogfighters; Garage bands & garbage disposals “Potent potables for 400, please, Alex”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week: (Blue Plate Special)

Dog-eat-dog “suits” & dogfighters

Take the nickname of a particular self-proclaimed businessman. 

The first five letters of this nickname spell an article of clothing an early fighter pilot might wear. Its remaining letters spell a word that applies to such a pilot who is particularly proficient. 

Who is this businessman?

What is his nickname?

Appetizer Menu

Ad-liberation Appetizer:

Barbecued riffs and Riffle Chips!

Note: The four puzzles below are Plantsmith’s
ingenious “Riff-offs” of puzzles created by (1) Ben Austin, (2) LegoLambda, (3) Bobby Jacobs, and (4) Al Gori. 

(A “Riff-off” is a kind of “creative homage” to the original maker of the puzzle – one that often takes the original puzzle to a new level... as is the case in these four excellent “riffs” composed by Plantsmith.)

“Good Vibratos?”

1. ♭♯ Name a city in the southern United States.

Change the first letter to the letter one place later in the alphabet stream, and change the eighth letter to the letter 14 places earlier in that same abecedarian stream.

Place a hyphen between the sixth and seventh letters, then delete the fifth letter.

This hyphenated result – when followed by the first name of a past major league slugger with a letter appended to the end – is a vocal technique employed by singing groups including the Roches, Beatles, Beach Boys, Mamas and the Papas, Eagles, Buffalo Springfield, Three Dog Night, Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul & Mary and Crosby, Stills & Nash, among many others.

What is this U.S. city?

What is the vocal technique?

Hint: The vocal technique appears in the lyrics of a hit song sung by one of the groups listed above.

Lungs! vocal chords! “kisser!”

2. 👂✋🦶 Take a famous singer whose first name sounds like two body parts.

In the singer’s surname, drop the last letter and change one vowel to a different vowel. The result is something that is worn on a third body part.

Who is this singer? 

What are the three body parts? 

What is worn on the third body part?

“I’m your vehicle, Baby...”

3. 🚙👶 Think of a popular ballad from the 1960’s. Change one vowel to another vowel to get a vehicle. 

What are this ballad and vehicle?

“Sis-Boom-Cinema! Sis-Boom-Sitcom!”

4. 📣The title of a 21st-Century movie contains two words. The title of a 20th-Century sitcom contains three words. (Ignore the “The” that is the first word in the sitcom’s title.)

The first word of movie and second word of the sitcom begin with the same two letters in the same order.

The third word of the sitcom is the plural form of the movie’s second word.

Drop the last two letters of the first word in movie title and put a three-letter pronoun in front of the result get a phrase often heard at sporting events.

What are the titles of this movie and sitcom?

What is the phrase heard at sporting events?

MENU

Gamy Rotgut Slice:

“Potent potables for 400, please, Alex”

Name a game. 

All but its final five letters spell ingredients in a particular potable. 

All but the first three letters of this game spell a more potent potable. 

What is this game?

What are the two potables?

Riffing Off Shortz And Sieger Slices:

Putting the Carte before Blanche

Will Shortz’s May 15th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by John Sieger of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, reads:

Name a famous living movie star. Insert an R in the middle of the first name, and drop the last two letters of the last name. You’ll get a familiar French phrase. What is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Sieger Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Name a puzzle-maker from the Badger State. 

Move the letters of his first name six places later in the alphabet to spell an option in football.

In the six-letter surname, replace the third and fourth letters with an “n”, then swap the second and third letters of this result. Move these five letters 13 places later, or earlier, in the alphabet to spell the surname of a person who is famous for playing football in the Badger State.

Who are this puzzle-maker and person who is famous for playing football in the Badger State?

What is the football option?

ENTREE #2

Name a living movie star with two Oscar nominations. Swap the first two and final two letters in his four-letter first name (for example, “GARY” would become “RYGA”). Place a space in the middle of this result, and add an “re” to the end of the letter-pair that is now at the end.

The result is a two-word Latin expression that means “by (surname of the movie star),” as opposed to an opposite Latin expression that means “in fact” or “in practice.”

Who is this movie star?

What is the two-word Latin expression?

ENTREE #3

Name a famous living television and movie star. 

Insert an R in the middle of the five-letter first name, replacing the vowel that had been there. The result is a synonym of “loquacious.”

Change the initial letter of the nine-letter surname to the letter one place earlier in the alphabet. 

Invert the ninth letter. Replace the fifth letter with a duplicate of this inverted ninth letter. Finally, move the seventh letter to the end. 

The result spells a second synonym of “loquacious.”

Who is this movie star?

What are the two synonyms of “loquacious?”    

ENTREE #4

Name an American singer, songwriter and musician. 

Insert an R in the interior of the first name to spell a U.S. institution commanded by a man that shared her surname.

Who are this woman and man?

Hint: The singer’s middle name is the surname of the man’s rival.

ENTREE #5

Name a American sportscaster who was also a former professional baseball player. Insert an R in the interior of his first name, and drop the first two letters of the last name. You’ll get two words.

The second word is what the person wielding a knife at the Thanksgiving table becomes.

The first word is what the person might do to gristle or fat in the process of the knife-wielding.

Who is this sportscaster.

What does the knife-wielder become? What might the person do to gristle or fat?  

ENTREE #6

Name a very successful past NFL coach whose first name is associated with “dressing.” The first three letters of his surname sound like an article of clothing. 

The last four letters of his surname spell a kind of skirt.

Who is this coach?

What are the article of clothing and kind of skirt?

ENTREE #7

Take the first and last names of the “Queen of Hugs.” 

Anagram the first name to spell a “dirty word.” 

If you apply a spade or shovel to this word the result will likely be the surname of this “Queen.” 

Who is this “Queen of Hugs?”

What is the “dirty word?”

Dessert Menu

Gamy Ingredient Dessert:

Garage bands & garbage disposals

“If you open a ___ of ____ and leave it unrefrigerated it will eventually begin to ____, and you will likely pour it down your garbage disposal _____ pipe.”

Take the letters in the name of a past American musical duo, in four words, then rearrange them to fill in those four words that contain three, four, four and five letters.

What are the missing words and the name of the musical duo?

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.