A dozen double-barreled-shooting-blanks homonym challenges by Jeff Zarkin; Conundrum requires “crittercal thinking!” Will’s on the “Whiz Short List!” Massacre history & Missouri his story; All Tolled, All Donne: “Discont’ent on the Isle of NoMan” Historic landmark & research university

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

All Tolled, All Donne: “Discont’ent on the Isle of NoMan”

(The following poem is in the public domain.)

For Whom the Bell Tolls

by John Donne

No man is an island,

Entire of itself.

Each is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less.

As well as if a promontory were.

As well as if a manor of thine own

Or of thine friend’s were.

Each man’s death diminishes me,

For I am involved in mankind.

Therefore, send not to know

For whom the bell tolls,

It tolls for thee.

(The following free & worthless verse is in our private doggerelhouse!)

“All Tolled, All Donne”

My Dear Mister Donne,

Regarding your note of the Seventeenth Cent.,

I’ll agree we’re all pieces of continent.

(For some time now you’ve been so quite littorally (sic).)

But I, ere I too lie landlocked in my grave, 

Am but a __________ of Mankind

Indicating nothing save the vacuum engulfing me.

And therefore, ere I cease to __,
The bell that tolled for ____

Shall toll for __

Merely ______________.

That no man is an island, again I’ll agree.

Yet, while standing downright upright, 

ere his endless inland rest ______, you’ll _-

____ with me that no man is not a _________!

Fill in the nine blanks, in order, with ten, two, four, two, fourteen, six, one, four and nine letters. 

Appetizer Menu

Blankety-Blank-Blank-Blank Appetizer:

A dozen double-barreled-shooting-blanks
homonym challenges

Find the homonyms that belong in the blanks. For example, a sample:

⚓“After passengers aboard ______ ships
wait patiently for _____ to _____ anchor, they are happily on their ___!”

Answer: cruise, crews, weigh, way

1.🗱 Martha was shocked when she _____ the _____ there was a _____ of _____ running wild through the town. 

2.✈ Due to _____ times, and unwilling to put a _____ on his condo, Jacques decided against the Concorde and took a _____  _____.

3.🩷 Mark’s heart _____ when he found the fresh _____ lumber, perfect to fix the _____ in his _____.

4.🐈 Marie _____ when she saw that _____ had infested her _____ and chewed it _____.

5.🪺 After Charlie _____ _____ of the_____ eggs, he thought he had _____ and gone to heaven.

6.🚢 The author said that he gave _____ to, _____ the hero of several his novels, in his _____ on a cruise ship, as he was being _____ to European vacation.

7.🛥If your yacht has taken on a _____ it may be a _____ that _____ _____ shouldn’t be at the helm.

8.🐰🐇After shearing his rabbits, Sam had a _____ _____ of _____ _____.

9.🥫🥘After a food fight at the Animal Housecast party, the _____ was _____ to include _____-coated _____.

10.👪 As she was getting ready to _____ her future in-laws, Esther was shocked to discover that the _____ of the _____ in her _____ wasn’t kosher. 

11.🩴Sue went to the little shop in the mall, which, in her _____ she knew was the _____ place where cork-_____ sandals were _____.

12.🌣 The _____ rough pavement, and the glare of the sun’s _____ made the _____ _____ more difficult

MENU

Natural Nutritious Hors d’Oeuvre:

Conundrum requires “crittercal thinking!”

Name a natural and nutritious variety of food, in one word. 

Its last half, in reverse, spells a critter. 

Its first half, in order, spells a prominent part of that critter. 

What are these three words?

Absurd And Nonsensical Slice:

Historic landmark & research university

Take a new name of a place adjacent to a state that boasts a five-letter historic landmark and four-letter research university. Some critics if this name label it with a four-letter noun that means “something absurd and nonsensical.”

Rearrange those thirteen combined letters to spell the new name of the place.

What are these three words? 

What is the new name?  

Riffing Off Shortz Entrees:

Will’s on the “Whiz Short List”

Will Shortz’s July 20th Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle is a two-week creative challenge, and it’s a tough one: 

Most people are familiar with palindromes, which read backward and forward the same.
For example:

• Madam, I’m Adam.

• Do geese see God?

• Sit on a potato pan, Otis.

The object is to write a palindrome that contains the letter Q. Entries will be judged on sense, naturalness of syntax, and overall elegance. The person who submits what I consider to be the best palindrome containing the letter Q will play the puzzle on the air with me in two weeks.

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

The name Will Shortz contains ten letters. Compose a phrase that pertains to Will Shortz using all nine different letters of his name, using each of the nine different letters at least once. But use only those nine letters. 

Here is an example of such a phrase: 

the WHIZ SHORT LIST (a list that Will Shortz is definitely on!)

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

ENTREE #2

Think of an actress who goes by three names. Her first name is a church part spelled backwards. 

Her middle name, with one letter replaced by a space, is the marketing name of a car sold in
the U.S. from 1976 to 1983, spelled backwards. Additionally, her first name spelled backwards, plus the last letter of her middle name, is a body part she frequently displayed in a 2005 film. 

Who is the actress, and what are the church part, the car name, and the body part?

ENTREE #3

Think of the title of a 1977 song by a musician whose last name is also a first name. 

Fill in the blanks in the following sentence with two words that are palindromes of each other to get a corollary to the song title: “And the ____ ____ on.” 

What are the song title and its corollary?

ENTREE #4

Think of a famous model and actress with a palindromic first name. Insert a space between the third and fourth letters of her last name and
delete the fifth letter of her last name. 

The remaining letters of her last name, in order, suggest she may be one who prefers a certain brand of electronic device. 

Who is she, and what does her last name, as modified, suggest she may be?

ENTREE #5

Think of the palindromic first name of the title character in a famous 19th Century novel. 

Rearrange the letters to get a palindromic bread. 

What are the novel and the bread?

ENTREE #6

Think of a place in Pennsylvania where a tragic event occurred in the late 19th Century, resulting in the killing of at least 19 people and criminal charges against law enforcement officers. 

Spell the name of the place backwards to get a word with several meanings, including the act of forgiving a crime. 

What are the place and the word?

ENTREE #7

Remove one letter from a 10-letter noun and divide the remaining letters into three words to get a phrase describing someone you might contact if you were planning to visit Europe. 

What are the noun and the three-word phrase?

ENTREE #8

Write a somewhat confessional first-person text message or email in an epistolary style that is somewhat synonymous with the following text:

“This is being written in real time: The Islamic commander with the ‘athletic’ code name met me in a subway on one of the Persian Gulf peninsulas. ... In retrospect, will God judge me guilty of sin?”

The text message/email is a palindrome... that is, the letters read the same both forward and backward. 

The message contains 41 letters:

6 x A

6 x I (that’s an “i” not a lowercase “L”) 

4 x E

4 x R

4 x S

4 x T 

2 x L

2 x M

2 x O 

2 x P

2 x V

2 x W

1 x Q

What is this palindromic message?

ENTREE #9

Consider the 43-letter palindromic string of letters below:

“_ _   _ _ _ _ _ _ _!   _ _   _ _ _ _ ’_   

_ _ _ _ _ _  _ _ _  _ _ _ _ _ _   _ _ _ ’_  

_ _ _ _?  _ _  _ _!”

The 22nd letter (which is also the middle letter in the palindrome) is an uppercase Q, which is preceded by five other uppercase letters.

There are a total of 13 uppercase letters in the palindrome, including 2 A’s, 5 D’s, 3 O’s, 1 N, 1 S, and that aforementioned uppercase Q.

The 30 lowercase letters are:

s 5

e 4

o 3

d 3

n 3

a 2

b 2

h 2

r 2

t 2

w 2

What is this palindromic string of 43 letters?

Dessert Menu

Major vs Minor Dessert:

Massacre history & Missouri his story

A major in the infantry wrote a first-hand historical account of its massacre of Indian
tribes in Colorado during the 1860s. Replace the third letter in his surname with how that letter is spelled (For example, “b” is spelled “bee.”) 

The result is the surname of a character in a novel set in 1840s Missouri. 

Who are this infantry major and novel character?

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 Thursday.

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.

Fishy Oscar, Grooming & Gaming, (Some) Creatures Great & Small; Swiggin’ it, Wingin’ it, Well-known Wanter, Country becomes a Quaff Infinite leaps and boundlessness; A gent named James & his Gang; My Fiendish Friend, Inflickta! Somatic Syllabic Syllabus Fare; Shortstop Stops Short?

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Infinite leaps and boundlessness

The alphanumeric sum of the word “infinite” is 86: 9+14+6+9+14+9+20+5. 

Name four adjectives, all associated with the infinite and the boundless. 

The alphanumeric sum of each adjective is equal to the sum of each of the other three. 

What are these four words? 

Hint: One of the four adjectives contains a hyphen. 

Appetizer Menu

Conundrumbstricken Appetizer:

Fishy Oscar; Grooming & Gaming; (Some) Creatures Great & Small; Swiggin’ it, Wingin’ it; Well-known Wanter; Country becomes a Quaff

Fishy Oscar

1.🐟This deceased Oscar nominee’s last name includes the name of a fish, no rearranging needed. 

Add a letter from the fish’s name to the person’s nickname and rearrange to name a different animal, not a fish. 

Identify the person and both animals.

Grooming & Gaming

2.🎲Name a familiar personal grooming brand that bears its creator’s last name. 

The brand’s products are frequently found in drug stores. The creator’s first name names a game piece. Who is it?

Creatures Great & Small

3.🐭🐘This popular 20th-century musician and entertainer was generally known by his last name (8 letters) which contains two animal names. 

The middle four letters – rearranged – name a large animal. The other letters, in order, name very small animals. 

Name the entertainer and the animals. 

Swiggin’ it, Wingin’ it

4.🍹Think of a well-known alcoholic beverage and delete the letters that name a kind of bird. 

Rearrange the rest and you’ll discover a popular movie character who also flies. Who is it?

Well-known “Wanter”

5.🫏🐘Take the last name of a well-known person and move the last two letters to the
beginning. 

The new word is what this person wants concerning U.S. politics. 

Who is it? What does he or she want?

Country becomes a Quaff

6.🌎☕Name a country. Delete its first letter and add the abbreviation for the continent on which it’s located. Rearrange the result to discover a popular drink. What’s the brand?

MENU

Anagrammatical Hors d’Oeuvre:

A gent named James & his Gang

 James _____ was a _____ who loved to make _____ and then _____ it with friends.

The words in the first and third blanks are
anagrams of one another, as are the words in the second and fourth blanks. 

Name the four words.

Hint: Each of the four words contains five letters.

Marquis de Sadistic Slice:

My Fiendish Friend, Inflickta!

Delete the first two syllables of a four-syllable inflictor of pain. 

Spoonerize what remains to spell something and some things that may also inflict pain. What is this “wholly unholy trinity” of pain-inflictors?

Riffing Off Shortz And Bass Entrees:

Shortstop Stops Short?

Will Shortz’s July 13th Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Ben Bass of Chicago, reads:

Take two different articles of clothing and place them one after the other. The result will spell something seen at a baseball game. What is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Bass Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

Many communities in New York State (including the towns of Yorktown, Carmel and others), citing environmental concerns, have indefinitely halted the development of new utility-scale battery storage facilities (known as
______y _____y _______  _y______ (7,6,7,7), or, more briefly, an anagram that is a first lady’s first name).

In short, these communities have opted to ___ ____! (3,4) Rearrange those seven letters to name a puzzle-maker.

Who is the puzzle-maker? What have some Empire State communities opted to do?

Answer:

Note: Entrees #2 though #8 are the handiwork of our friend Nodd. (Nodd and Lego collaborated on #8.) 

ENTREE #2

Take a two-word phrase for articles of clothing made to be highly durable. Insert one letter somewhere inside the second word to describe something you might see at a baseball game. 

What is the phrase, and what might you see?

ENTREE #3

Take a word for articles of clothing made to be especially comfortable. 

Precede this word with a hyphenated word containing an ordinal number to get something that occurs at a baseball game. What is it?

ENTREE #4

Take a word for a fabric used to make shirts and other articles of clothing and remove the
last three letters. 

Follow this with a word for a part of a certain article of clothing to get something you might see at a baseball game. 

What is the fabric, and what might you see? 

ENTREE #5

Take a word for a lightweight fabric often used to make decorations. 

This word also describes something you may see a player doing at a baseball game. 

What is it?

ENTREE #6

Take a word for a kind of fabric commonly used in clothing. 

Replace the last letter with two consecutive letters of the alphabet to get things seen at a
baseball game. 

What are the type of fabric and the things seen at a baseball game?

ENTREE #7

Take a word for something that sometimes occurs at a baseball game during an at-bat. 

Add three letters to the end to get a kind of lightweight patterned fabric. 

A word for an article of clothing that is often made from this kind of fabric also describes something that may occur in the ninth inning of a baseball game. 

What are the thing occurring during an at-bat, the fabric, and the article of clothing?

ENTREE #8

Due to a global button-and-interlocking-metal-fastener shortage, denim jeans manufacturers
Levi Strauss and Lee have made the tough decision to _________ ____ (9 & 5 letters) on all their products. 

Those two words are also things often seen at baseball games. What are these things?

Note: Entree #9 is the brainchild of our friend Plantsmith.

ENTREE #9

Name a seven-letter compound-word garment  World War I soldiers wore for protection that has since become a popular style for men, worn by the likes of David Bowie and Kurt Cobain. 

This compound word is also something on a baseball infield (that most people don’t even notice!) that helps manage moisture, improve playability, and create a consistent surface.

What are this garment and “infield dressing”?

ENTREE #10

Place a two-syllable word that appears on this bottle of aftershave lotion, followed by a one-syllable word on it.

The result sounds like people seen at a baseball game.

What are these two words and the people seen?

ENTREE #11

Write a caption for the top image – in two words of three and one syllables and of seven and five letters.

The same caption may be used for the  lower image.

What is this caption?

ENTREE #12

Write a two-word, six-letter caption for this image.

The result should sound like a five-and-three-letter caption for something seen at a baseball game.

What are these two captions?

ENTREE #13

Write one caption for the two similar images pictured here, in two and seven letters. 

The first word is a verb; the second a proper feline pet name.

The caption sounds like something a pitcher might “serve up to a batter on a silver platter, down the heart of the plate!”

What is the caption? What might a pitcher “serve up?”

ENTREE #14

Write a caption for the image pictured here, in four and three letters.

You would normally use a fork to devour the result. But in this instance, use a “spoon” instead. The result, in three and three letters, will be seen at a baseball game.

What are the caption and something seen at the game?

Hint: A caption in seven and three letters, and a “something seen at the game” in six and three letters is also acceptable. 

Dessert Menu

Anatomical Dessert:

Somatic Syllabic Syllabus Fare

Divide a place on earth into three parts. 

Anagram the letters in the first part to form a one-syllable body part.

Anagram the letters in the third part to name a second one-syllable body part. 

Move the middle part, also one syllable, to the end. 

The result is three body parts in order from lowest to highest.

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 Thursday.

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.