Song & Dance & Sustenance, “Music is our religion,” “A-listair Cooke Book,” Monopolyphemus! Colors worn adorn indoors & out; You red a maple, now reed a palm! “This spelling may take a spell...” Pennies from Heaven; “Have you got what it takes to tackle this task?”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Colors worn adorn indoors & out

Name certain women’s garments, in ten letters, that are usually colorful and worn indoors. 

Place a space in the middle to form two five-letter words that, together, describe certain six-letter colors “worn” both indoors and outdoors of residences. 

Remove an interior letter from these six-letter colors to spell menswear that women might also sometimes wear.

What are these women’s garments, colors, and menswear?

Hint: Remove a different interior letter from the six-letter colors to get volume measures of the colors that will each cover about 75 square feet.

Appetizer Menu

Lightning Round Appetizer:

Song & Dance & Sustenance, “Music is our religion,” Monopolyphemus! “A-listair Cooke Book”  

Song & Dance & Sustenance

1. 💃🍲A dance (two words, five letters each) was the first of two subjects in an unusual pair of rock songs – unusual because they use the exact same instrumental track. 

The dance song became a national hit in 1959/60. 

It was re-released in 1961 using the same instrumental track but with new lyrics. 

The second version of the song was about a food (two words, six letters each) instead of a dance. 

The food song became an even bigger hit than the dance song. 

What are these two songs?

Monopolyphemus!

2. 🏡Name a Monopoly game property, ignoring the word “Avenue.” 

Change the last letter to “c” and rearrange to name a kind of residence.

What’s the Monopoly property? 

What kind of residence is named after rearranging? 

“A-listair Cooke Book”

3. 💕📕Name a classic 20th-century book – a love story – in two words. 

The first word is the first name of a modern actor. 

The second word is the name of a large, world-class city with an extra letter added in front.

 The book was made into a movie with an A-lister in the title role. 

What’s the book title?

“Music is our religion”

4. 🎸⛪Identify the first names of two associates who were 20th-century world leaders in music. 

These same first names, one followed by the other, also identify two people who shared that “double-name” and who were 20th-century world leaders in religion. 

Name these four people.

MENU

Sisyphean Task Hors d’Oeuvre

“Have you got what it takes to tackle this task?”

Take a two-word term for what it takes to tackle and complete an arduous task. 

Rearrange the combined letters of that term to
form a adjective describing one who is up to that task and a verb meaning to inspire others also to take up the task. 

What are the two-word term, adjective and verb?

Hint: The initial letters of the “two-word term for what it takes to tackle and complete an arduous task” spell a common pronoun.

S-L-U-G-G-I-S-H  Slice:

“This spelling may take a spell...”

Spell “hooray,” “hot dog” or “yippee,” mouthing each letter aloud. 

Take a three-letter synonym of those exclamations. 

This synonym would take longer to spell, mouthing it  aloud, than “hooray,” “hotdog” or “yippee.” 

What is this three-letter synonym?

Riffing Off Shortz And Kane Entrees:

“You red a maple, now reed a palm!” 

Will Shortz’s December 8th Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Ethan Kane of Albuquerque, New Mexico, reads:

Name a common tree of North America in two words (three letters, five letters). Rearrange its letters to name a well-known plant of Central America, also in two words (four letters, four letters). What tree and plant are these?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Kane Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

 Name a puzzle-maker in two words (five letters, four letters). Rearrange its letters to
name:

~ a wise Greek Olympian...

and the first name of:

~ a South African marathon Olympian, or

~ a speed-skating American Olympian, or

~ a weight-lifting American Olympian, or

~ an Olympic sprinter from Rice Lake, Wisconsin (if you remove a state postal abbreviation from the end of that first name).

Who is this puzzle-maker?

Who is the wise Greek Olympian?

What is the first name of the other Olympians? 

Note: Entree #2 is a riff penned by our friend Plantsmith.

ENTREE #2

Take a common North American tree (3 letters and 3 letters). 

Drop the last letter and mix the remaining letters to get an instrument that could use this tree in its construction.

What is this tree?

What is the instrument?

ENTREE #3 

Note: Entrees #3-through-#8 are riffs penned by our friend Nodd.

Name a common tree of North America in two words (six letters, three letters). 

Rearrange its letters to name a well-known tree of Central and South America and an
adjective that does not accurately describe the wood of the second tree. Rearrange again to spell a place where a certain herb would be grown. 

What are the two trees, the adjective, and the place where the herb would be grown?

ENTREE #4 

Name a common tree that is native to many parts of the world, including North, Central, and South America (eight letters). Rearrange its letters to name a second tree, found in dry tropical areas of Mexico and Central America, and a beverage made from a third tree, found in a wide range of locations across the Northern Hemisphere. What are the three trees and the beverage?

ENTREE #5

Name a common tree of North America in two words (seven letters, three letters). 

Move one letter from the second word to the
first, and drop the two remaining letters of the second word. Add an “L.” 

Rearrange to name a plant in the iris family. 

What tree and plant are these?

ENTREE #6

Name a common tree of North America in two words (four letters, three letters). Remove a two-letter state postal abbreviation for a state to which the tree is not native. Rearrange the rest of the letters to name a second tree, one that grows best in warm subtropical climates. 

What are these two trees?

ENTREE #7

Name a common evergreen shrub (six letters) that grows in the warmer regions of North America. 

Drop the second letter and triple the last letter.
Rearrange these seven letters to spell the two-word name of a common plant of North America. (The second word of this plant name is generic in nature.) 

What are the shrub and the plant?

ENTREE #8

Name a tree (six letters) that grows on five continents but is most common in Asia and South America. Move the first letter to the end of the name. 

The last four letters will now spell a word for a certain type of person. Add three letters to the end of the original six-letter tree name to spell an informal term describing something often done to such persons. 

What are the tree and the two additional words? 

ENTREE #9

Name a tree in two words (five letters, three letters) most commonly found in deep swamps or sometimes in moist, cold forests. Its wood is used for hoops, chair bottoms, and baskets. 

Rearrange its letters to spell the surnames, both beginning with “Jo-,” of a “medical miracle worker” and a “master of the melodious.” 

What tree and two surnames are these?

Hint: Move the second letter of the tree into the space between the two words and remove the space left by the second letter. The result is a word for a “strong public reaction or response against something.” 

ENTREE #10

Name a common tree of North America in eight letters. 

Rearrange its letters to spell:

~ a surname associated with an annual East coast parade, and

~ a word associated with an annual West coast parade that is the surname of a non-Hall-of-Fame ballplayer nicknamed “Charlie...”

What tree, surnames and parades are these?

Dessert Menu

Numismatic Dessert:

“Pennies from Heaven”

Take the combined letters of the first and last names of a past American patriot. Rearrange them to two words that are defined as:

* endurance or “staying power,” and

* expectation of fulfillment or success.

Now take the title of a best-selling publication
this patriot penned. Replace the second word with a homophone that is a plural noun. The result is a caption for the sinister green-bordered image in the illustration above, but not a caption for the red-bordered dexter image.  

Who is this patriot?

What are the two anagrammed words?

What is the publication?

What is the caption?

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.

Ashland, Massachusetts? “Reversid Gnihsilbup?” Captain Hook... line & sinker; “Agra-man?” Triply pronominal proper name; Aretha Franklin & Rannah Szenes; Birds perching on antennas? Incompatible comma and cat? “Nightie-night, Teddy Knight!”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Triply pronominal proper name

The same pronoun, in English, appears twice consecutively within the name of a writer. 

The last letter of the pronoun that appears second in this writer’s name doubles as the first letter of the French translation of that pronoun. 

Thus, there are three pronouns in the writer’s name: two identical adjacent pronouns, and a third pronoun (a French translation of the first two) that shares a letter with the second English pronoun.

Who is this writer?

Appetizer Menu

Friendly Surefire Appetizer:

“Agra-man?” Captain Hook... line & sinker; Ashland Massachusetts? “Reversid Gnihsilbup?”

Note: The following four Appetizers were composed by a very valued and inventive Friend of Puzzleria!

Note: Appetizer #1 is a riff of the September 8,
2024, NPR challenge.

Captain Hook... line & sinker

1. Take the name of a common watercraft
accessory. 

Rearrange its letters to make the name of a particular watercraft operator. What is the name of the accessory and the name of the operator? 

Note: Appetizer #2 is a riff of the November, 3, 2024, NPR challenge.

“Reversid Publishing?”  

2. 🧪Take the trade name of an American corporation that, among other activities, runs tests.  

Drop the second letter of the name, and move
the last letter into second place. 

The result is the name of something no one wants to encounter in a test result or elsewhere.  

What is the company name, and what is the name of the thing no one wants to encounter?  

“Agra-man?”

3.  Take a word for one who is placed in readiness.
Rearrange its letters to make a word for a rearrangement of letters. 

What are the words?  

Ashland Massachusetts?

4. Take a common abbreviation for a prominent landmass. 

Insert in the center an abbreviation for distinguishing characters. 

The result is a word for the interior. 

Remove the center letter of that word, and the remaining letters in order from left to right spell a word that suggests obscurity. 

What are the two abbreviations and the two words? 

[Note: The terms used above come from the Number 1 or 2 definitions in Merriam-Webster.]

MENU

Transpositional Hors d’Oeuvre

Aretha Franklin & “Ra”nnah Szenes

Transpose the first two letters of a word associated with respect. 

The result is word associated with resistance. 

What are these words?

Sylvania Slice:

Birds perching on antennas?

Take a command in four-words heard during the early years of television. 

One letter appears four times. 

Remove one of them. The remaining letters can be rearranged to spell two birds and a word meaning “ceased to fly and came to rest.” 

What are this plea, two birds and one word?

Note: One of the words in the four-word command heard during television’s early years is a contraction of two words.)

Riffing Off Shortz And Gordon Entrees:

“Nightie-night, Teddy Knight!”

Will Shortz’s December 1st NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by crossword constructor and editor Peter Gordon, reads: Think of a classic television actor — first and last names. Add a long-E sound at the end of each name and you’ll get two things that are worn while sleeping. What are they?

Entree #1:

Place an ampersand between the first and last names of a puzzle-maker to name a 1960s British pop duo. 

Remove the ampersand, then remove the first letter of the first name and add a long-E sound at the end. 

Remove the horizonal “serif” or “bar” from the
first letter of the last name. Place after this a third word: a French color.

The result is a synonym of “diner,” “grill,” or “cafeteria” and an entree unlikely to appear on the menu.

Who are the puzzle-maker and the pop duo? What are the synonym of “diner” and the entree unlikely to appear on the menu?

Note: Entrees #2 through #7 are the brainchildren of Nodd, puzzle-maker extraordinaire.

ENTREE #2

Take the first names of (1) a well-known American film actor who starred in television series but is better known for film roles, and (2) an American actress who appeared in dozens of television series and also had featured roles
in films. 

Between them, the two first names have seven letters. Rearrange them to spell a word for something that some people wear in bed. 

Who are the actor and actress, and what do some people wear in bed?

ENTREE #3

Think of a well-known television actor, first and last names, 11 letters in all. 

Change the fourth letter to the one that comes next in the alphabet. 

Rearrange the 11 letters to spell (1) something you might sleep in if it were a cold night, and (2) a place where a monk, nun or criminal might sleep. 

Who is the actor, what might you sleep in, and where might a monk, nun or criminal go to sleep?

ENTREE #4

Think of a well-known television actor, first and last names, 11 letters in all. 

Remove the first name of a different actor, four letters. (The second actor starred in a number of Disney films.) 

Rearrange the remaining seven letters to spell an item of clothing you might sleep in, or keep
bedclothes in. 

Who are the two actors, what might you sleep in, and where might you keep bedclothes?

ENTREE #5

Take the 10-letter last name of a well-known television actress. 

Add a two-letter state postal abbreviation. 

Rearrange these 12 letters to spell a two-word term for a luxurious sleepwear item. 

Who is the actress, and what is the sleepwear item? 

(Hint: The actress’s last name has two parts.)

ENTREE #6

Think of an eight-letter item of warm clothing you might wear to bed. 

Rearrange its letters to spell a word for what might need to be done to the item after you
have used it for several seasons. 

What is the clothing item, and what might it need?

ENTREE #7

Take the first and last names of a well-known American television and film actress. 

Remove the first two letters. Using the remaining letters as often needed, spell a hyphenated expression associated with going to bed. 

Who is the actress, and what is the expression?

Note: Entree #8 is the brainchild of Plantsmith, also a puzzle-maker extraordinaire.

ENTREE #8

Add a long-E sound at the end of a budding celebrity’s name to get something drinkable.

This celebrity, whose parents are also celebrities, has very lately been in the “high-
societal” news.

Who is this budding celebrity?

What is the “something drinkable?”

ENTREE #9

Think of a gifted purveyor of soul music – first and last names – in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Add a long-E sound at the end of each name. 

The surname now sounds like a slang term for a psychostimulant drug of the phenethylamine class that produces a sense of peacefulness and pleasure. 

The first name now sounds like a dark, low-traffic roadway (singular, not plural!) where this drug is sometimes bought and sold.

Who is this soul-music purveyor?

What are the drug and where it may exchange hands, along with cash?

ENTREE #10

Think of a classic spy film, in one compound word. Remove he first letter from each part of the word, leaving and adjective and the first name of an actress whom this adjective never really described.

Remove the second and last letters form the
surname of this actress, leaving a digit, spelled-out, that is the sum of the first and third digits in the year the film was released.

Consider the title of this film:

Letters number 5, 10, 6, 1 and 8 spell the name of a Norse goddess whose hubby’s name is an anagram of a American singer/songwriter in his 80s whose music incorporates elements of doo-wop, pop, rock, R&B, folk and blues.

Letters number 2, 3, 4, 9 and 7 spell an adjective that describes the bygone era when classical deities like her “lived.”

What is this film title, and when was it released? Who is the actress? Who is the Norse goddess and her hubby? 

Dessert Menu

Strunk & White Dessert:

Incompatible comma and cat?

What is the difference between a comma and a cat?

A comma causes a _____ at the end of a
_____.

A cat has _____ at the end of its _____.

Fill in the four blanks. 

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.

“Such fine turkey-day tableware!” “Let’s go...” Raises, Rises, Roses? Battleground, Toss-up, Purple...? Dangerous game, Heavy actor; Gomer in Monty, Python ate Pyle!

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

“Such fine turkey-day tableware!”

All interior letters of two complementary tableware items are identical. These identical letters, however, are not-so-much in the same order. The first-and-final letters of these two tableware items are four different letters that appear within within a consecutive five-letter string in the alphabet – like E-F-G-H-I, for example. 

What are these two tableware items?

Note: Although the identical interior letters “are not-so-much in the same order,” the fourth letter in each tableware item is the same letter.

Appetizer Menu

“Breaking Up The Blank” Appetizer:

“Let’s go... !!”

Take the sentence:

“Let’s go ________.” 

Fill in the blank with a very common eight-letter word.  

Now insert two spaces into your word to break it into three very common words. 

Both the original and new “Let’s go...”

sentences should make sense – the first in three words, the second in five words.  

What eight-letter word should fill in the original blank?

What is your five-word sentence?

BONUS PUZZLE: 

Find two words of 11 and 12 letters that each satisfy the same conditions as the eight-letter word in the puzzle above. These 11-letter and 12-letter words are are near-synonyms of one another.

MENU

“Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum” Hors d’Oeuvre:

Raises, Rises, Roses?

Name some kind of plant, a compound word, that might be growing in your garden, like Jack’s beanstalk, for example. 

This plant may not rise as high as Jack’s “stairway to heaven,” but neither is it exactly a “slouch.” Remove the initial letter of each of the two parts of this compound word. According to Merriam-Webster, the result is a not a word. But if it were, it would be a synonym of “raise.” 

What are this compound plant and non-word?

Hint: The first syllable of the compound word is associated with a homophone of “raise.” 

Finding The Finest Definer Slice:

Battleground, Toss-up, Purple...? 

Take a two-word term (at least in 2024) for Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, or Wisconsin.

Remove the first and sixth letters.

The result is one of two architectural projections extending east and west from the main part of a modern art museum in Europe, followed by the name of that museum.

Or, if you instead remove the fourth and seventh letters from the original two-word term, the result is a healthy prolonged quaff of a beverage and what such quaffs do to one’s thirst.

What is this two-word term for Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, or Wisconsin (at least in 2024)?

What are the architectural projections and name of the museum?

What is the quaff and what it does to one’s thirst?

Riffing Off Shortz And VanMechelen Slices:

Gomer in Monty? Python ate Pyle!

Will Shortz’s November 24th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Greg VanMechelen of Berkeley, California, reads: 

Name a state capital. Inside it in consecutive letters is the first name of a popular TV character of the past. Remove that name. The remaining letters, in order, will spell the first name of a popular TV game show host of the past.  What is the capital and what are the names?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And VanMechelen Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Name a talented puzzle-maker. Remove the first three and last two letters that, in order:

~ spell the surname a singer whose first name is an anagram of “a note that follows sol,” or... 

~ spell a homophone of the surname of an actor whose first name is an anagram of “someone who usually avoids the company of others.” 

From the ten letters that remain, remove two consecutive and four consecutive letters that, in order, spell the first name of a poet whose surname is the first name of an actress whose last name begins with the last four letters of a Hawaiian greeting or farewell. The remaining four letters, if you move the second one to the end, spell a hyphenated word for Melvin Purvis and J. Edgar Hoover.

Who is this puzzle maker?

What are the surnames of the guys named Al and Lorne?

What is the first name of the poet?

What is the hyphenated word for Melvin Purvis and J. Edgar Hoover?

Note: Entrees # 2 through #7, Entree #8, and Entree #9 were composed, respectively (and respectfully), by riffmasters Nodd, Plantsmith, and a Great Friend of Puzzleria! (whose puzzles will be the featured Appetizers on the next edition of P!) 

ENTREE #2

Name a state capital. Consecutive letters in the name spell the first name of a popular TV character of the past.  Consecutive letters in
the name of another city in the state, a name with historical significance, spell the first name of the TV character’s counterpart on the show. What are the cities and who are the characters? 

ENTREE #3

Name a state capital. The first half of the name spells the last name of the main character in a TV series based on a 1973 movie. 

The second half spells the last name of another character in the series. What is the capital, who are the characters, and what is the series? 

ENTREE #4

Name a state capital. Add to it the third letter in the name of the state. 

Rearrange the letters to spell the first and last names of a star track and field athlete of the 1970s and 1980s, five letters in each.  

What is the capital, and who is the athlete?

ENTREE #5

Name a state capital that is also the last name of a popular TV character of the past. 

The letters can be rearranged to spell something the character might have said. 

What is the capital, who is the character, and what might the character have said?

ENTREE #6

Name a state capital. 

Consecutive letters in the name spell the first name of a popular TV character of the past. 

The rest of the letters can be arranged to spell something negative. What is the capital, and what is the TV series? What is the negative thing?

ENTREE #7

Name a state capital. 

Remove from it three letters that are consecutive in the alphabet. 

The remaining letters, in order, spell the last name of a popular TV actress of the past. 

What is the capital, and who is the actress?

ENTREE #8

Remove from the name of a state capitol the name of a past comic book character. Then drop first letter of what remains to get a word for “delicious.” What are this state capital, comic book character and word for “delicious”?

Hint: the word for “delicious” is associated with the state that contains the capitol.  

ENTREE #9

Name a state capital.  

Remove from the name five letters which can be arranged to mean “an impasse.”  

The remaining letters in order, left to right,
when said aloud, sound like the name of a popular TV character of the past.  

What is the state capital?  What can mean “an impasse?”  

Who is the TV character?  

ENTREE #10

Insert an “i” smack-dab in the middle of a world capital city. 

The first two plus last two letters in this altered word spell the name of a holy man who is also often described by using an adjective beginning with a “v”. 

The interior letters flanked by those four letters
can be rearranged to spell a holy object. 

What is this capital city? 

Who is this holy man? 

What is the holy object? 

ENTREE #11

“If you fill out an application to ___ a personal __ card, you will need to divulge the color of your hair.”

Name a hair color that may or may not be yours. Divide it into two parts. Between those
parts place the letters that belong in the second blank followed by the letters that belong in the first blank. The result is a world capital city.

What are the hair color, the words in the blanks and the capital city?

ENTREE #12

The  final five letters of a British colony spell a center of worship or ritual. The remaining letters of this colony can be arranged to spell a place where prisoners reside. What is this British colony? What are the center of worship and place where prisoners reside?

Dessert Menu

“Death By Chocolate?” Dessert:

Dangerous game, Heavy actor

Name a decades-old board game that sounds kind of dangerous. It is a compound word. Divide it into those two words.

Move the last two letters of the second word to the beginning of the first word, then double the new last letter of the second word. 

The result is an adjective and proper noun. 

The proper noun is the surname of an accomplished past actor.  

The adjective describes this past actor, especially during the latter years of his career. 

What is this game? 

What are the adjective and proper noun?

Hint:

This actor often played “the heavy.”

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.