Let wages wax, let wars wane; Editing the letters of the Bible; Board-certified brainy surgeons; Perennial plants & plumed critters; Capitals, bishops, aircraft, sports, child’s play

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Board-certified brainy surgeons

Take the combined letters in the names of two popular board games, one which involves drawing cards from a deck. 

Rearrange this mix of letters to spell two nouns: one describing a pre-op surgeon and
another naming tools a surgeon may use. 

What are these two board games and two nouns?

Appetizer Menu

Worldplayful Appetizer:

Capitals, bishops, aircraft, sports, child’s play

Casting out nines

1.🎣 Think of a US state capital. Subtract nine. Rearrange the result to obtain a communications device. 

What are the capital and device?

Add an R

2.➕Think of the Spanish and Mexican capital
of California. 

Add an R to obtain the name of a large city in Mexico.

Split Synonyms

3.🪓 Think of a term for certain bishops. 

A more familiar meaning of this word applies to a subset of all bishops. What is this word? 

To which bishops does its more familiar meaning not apply?

Cart before the crash

4.🤸Think of something that is applied to an aircraft in certain situations. Switch the first and last letters to describe what could have happened to an aircraft to which this material was not applied.

Two meanings => two phrases

5.📚 Think of a two-word phrase that has different meanings in two unrelated sports.

Rearrange the letters of this phrase to yield (1) a possible 2-word description of the US national anthem; or (2) a conceivable situation report during the Battle of the Bulge.

Pediatric surgery

6.🚸Think of a word included in a common redundant phrase. Remove four adjacent letters to obtain a shorter second word often associated with servers or votes. Insert an apostrophe and a space into the four letters to form a sentence in a children’s game. What are the original and shortened words and the sentence in the children’s game?

MENU

Corinthians Galatians Thessalonians Slice:

Editing the letters of the Bible

Take a noun for a church official and a verb for one of the many things he can do. Move the fourth letter of the verb to the end of the verb. 

Now take a duplicate of the last letter the noun for the church official. Place this duplicate letter at the very end of the verb that you altered. 

After all this manipulation and editing of letters, the verb is now an adjective that describes certain numbers. 

The noun for the church official also happens to be an adjective that describes certain numbers. 

What are these adjectives?

What can the church official do?

Riffing Off Shortz And Baggish Slices:

Let wages wax, let wars wane

Will Shortz’s January 30th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Steve Baggish of Arlington, Massachusetts, reads:

Think of a familiar two-word phrase meaning “to fight.” Change the third letter of each word to get two new words that are opposites of each other. What words are these?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Baggish Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Think of a familiar puzzle-maker, first and last names. Change the third letter of each word – to an “a” and to an “n”, respectively – to get two new words. 

The first means: “to fight,” “to smash a hole in,” or “to crush or break inward.”

The second is not really a word that appears in dictionaries, but if it were it would mean something like: “inclined or liable to strike sharply, and to knock, hit, or thrust vigorously often with a sharp noise.” 

Who is the puzzle-maker?

What words are these?

ENTREE #2

Think of a somewhat familiar two-word phrase, in five and three letters, meaning “to be particularly eager or enthusiastic for something, especially a fight, disagreement, or conflict.” 

Change the first two letters of the first word to an “b” and “r” to form a word that means “to
battle or brawl.”

Change the third letter of the second word to an “o” to form a word that precedes the word “Fighters” in a phrase used by Allied aircraft pilots during World War II to describe various UFOs or mysterious aerial phenomena seen in the skies over both the European and Pacific theaters of operations.

The phrase is also associated with Nirvana.

What is the somewhat familiar two-word phrase, in five and three letters?

What is the word that means “to battle or brawl?”

What was the phrase used by Allied aircraft pilots?

ENTREE #3

Think of a familiar two-word phrase, in five and six letters, meaning “to fight.” 

Change the third letter of both words to an “a”. Change the the first letter of the first word to a “g”.

The result is a pair of synonyms of “lawn.”

What is this two-word “fighting” phrase?

What are the synonyms of lawn?

Hint: The familiar two-word phrase meaning “to fight” – minus an “s” and a space – is something with which Will Shortz is very familiar. 

ENTREE #4

Think of a familiar two-word phrase meaning “to fight.” 

Change no letters, but replace the space with a hyphen and place an apostrophe between the last two letters.

The result is a term that means “belonging to the buddy of Beavis.”

What two-word phrase and hyphenated term are these?

ENTREE #5

Think of a familiar two-word phrase meaning “to fight or attack, especially verbally.” 

Change the third letter of each word – to a “w” and to an “f”, respectively – to get two new words that describe the content of “Family Court Review,” “ABA Journal Magazine” and “The National Jurist Magazine”. 

What is the two-word phrase?

What are the two new words?

ENTREE #6

Think of a familiar two-word phrase, in four and five letters, meaning “to fight.”  

Change the third letter of the first word to an “o” to get a new word that follows “Stop” and
precedes “Listen” on signs you sometimes see on street or railroad crossings as a warning to check and make sure no car or train is coming.

The second word in the familiar two-word phrase is what you might be “listening” for at street or railroad crossings.

What is the two-word phrase?

What is the word that follows “Stop” and precedes “Listen?”

ENTREE #7

Think of a familiar two-word phrase, in four and three letters, meaning “to fight.” Change the third letter of each word to get two new words. The first is what a human does with an appendage to express a warm greeting. 

The second is what a canine does with an
appendage to express a warm greeting.

What is the familiar two-word phrase?

What does a human do and with what appendage?

What does a canine do and with what appendage?

ENTREE #8

Think of a familiar two-word phrase meaning “to write quicky.” 

Change the third letter of the first word and the second letter of the second word to get two new words: a slang term for a beverage, and the time of day many people drink this beverage. 

What four words are these?

ENTREE #9

Think of a familiar two-word phrase meaning “to write quicky, as a student or news reporter might do.” 

Change the first letters in each word to get an
allegation former president Donald Trump made, and still makes, in the wake of his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. 

What is the two-word phrase?

What does Donald Trump allege?

Dessert Menu

Rhyme Of A Synonym Dessert:

Perennial plants & plumed critters

Name a three-word term for a perennial plant... or a plumed creature. 

An example of the first of the three words rhymes with a synonym of the third of the three words. 

What are this three-word term and two rhyming 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. 

Impact of an imp-sized implement; Vacationing in Hulaluau, Hawaii! The creature within the creator; Viewing all the colors of the campfire; “Backwords,” nations, nicknames, lambda logos

 PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

The creature within the creator

Name an American city. 

Remove four interior letters and anagram them
to spell a type of creature. 

The remaining letters, reading from left to right, name a creator of a hit song about these creatures. 

What is this city?

What are the creature and creator of the hit song?

Appetizer Menu

Bafflementery Appetizer:

“Backwords,” nations, nicknames, lambda logos

Brumal “backwords”

I. Name an event in two words, eight letters total. Many of such events take place in January and December of each year. Remove the last letter of the first word. Change the second letter of the first word to match the last letter of the second word. Then read each word individually backward. The resulting first word is something found globally. The resulting second word, familiarly, is something that can be found by using the resulting first word. What is the event and the resulting two words? 

Casual country

II. Name a country in seven letters. Rearrange those seven letters to form the antonym of what one might wear to work on Casual Friday. What is the country and the antonym? 

“Europopulation”

III. Name a European country. Rotate one letter of the name 180 degrees to get a word describing almost half of the population of that country. What is the country and the
descriptive word? 

Hippocampus life

IV. Name a well known university which has produced many well known public figures. Insert one letter into the name of the university to get a popular nickname for a student there. Then move the last letter of this nickname to the beginning so that it replaces the first two letters of this nickname. 

The result is another popular nickname for a student at this university. 

What are the university and the two nicknames? 

LogoLambda

V. Name a group in eight letters who used lambda as an identifier long before Lego first did. Remove the first and last letters of the group name, then change the remaining first
letter to match the fourth remaining letter. 

The result is an identifier used by other groups. Who are the lambda logo users, the other group identifier, and what groups are thus identified? 

MENU

Form Becomes Function Slice:

Impact of an imp-sized implement

Name a small implement or tool that is usually made of a substance that is a word for what
the implement becomes when in use.

Hint: The implement is an anagram of what you do when you put a steak back into the skillet to further carmelize it. 

Riffing Off Shortz And Rode Slices:

Vacationing in Hulaluau, Hawaii!

Will Shortz’s January 23rd NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Keith Rode, of Woodland, California, reads:

Name a state capital. Take the last two letters of the city’s name and the first two letters of its state’s name. Then rearrange these letters to name an activity closely associated with this city. What is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Rode Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Name a puzzle-maker, first and last names. Rearrange the first four letters of his name, then rearrange the last five letters of his name. The result will be two creatures – one that takes wing and another who was king.... or, more ominously, a preyer and a slayer.

Who is this puzzle-maker?

What creatures are these?

ENTREE #2

Name a state capital. Take the last two letters of the city’s name and the first two letters of its state’s name. Then rearrange these letters to name a noun for something flexible. The first
seven letters of the state spell a verb for what you can do with two of the flexible things. The last three letters of the state spell a verb for what you can do with one of the flexible things. 

What is the state capital?

What is the flexible thing?

ENTREE #3

Note: Entree #3 was composed by our friend Plantsmith, whose “Garden of Puzzley Delights” feature appears regularly on Puzzleria!

Take the last  two letters of a state capital and add first two letters of its state. Rearrange these letters to get either a common adjective
or a world capital. Then take last two letters of the  same state and last two letters of its capital.  Rearrange these letters to get a character in a Disney movie.

What are this state and its capital?

What are the adjective, world capital and Disney character?

Dessert Menu

Campy Dessert:

Viewing all the colors of the campfire

Name a two-word color. Put an “L” in the middle to form something seen at a campfire.

Now take just the final four letters of this campfire sight. Spell out the first of those four (for example h = aitch), to spell something else seen at a campfire. 

What is this color?

What are the two things seen at a campfire?

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.

 sorry,

puzzleria! will be a tad late this week.

my apologies.

“Introducing the world’s first ‘poezzle’!” Branding’s the name of this game; Raw talent versus luck of the draw; Solve this border-game puzzle; Nickelodeon and nickname odium

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Branding’s the name of this game

Take a well-known brand name that begins with the nickname of a historical person from the Twentieth Century. Remove the nickname from the brand name. Rearrange the remaining letters to spell a word associated with this person. 

Name the brand, the person and the associated word. 

Appetizer Menu

Struck Conundrum Dumb Appetizer:

“Introducing the world’s first ‘poezzle’!”

Note: The following composition by our friend Chuck is both a poem and a puzzle... Thus it is a “poezzle,” a new portmanteau term we have coined that is a combination of “poem” and “puzzle.” 

Enjoy!

Who Am I?

Deal the right card to play.

Grab the proper change to pay.

You’ve already seen what makes my day.

Note my Walk of Fame inlay.

 MENU

Geographic Slice:

Solve this border-game puzzle

Name what you call any resident of a particular country. This particular country borders multiple other countries. 

The last two syllables of the name of this
resident sound like something that does not border this country. 

What is this country?

Riffing Off Shortz And Feldman Slices:

Nickelodeon and nickname odium 

Will Shortz’s October 11th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Jay Feldman of Davis, California, reads:

What three common five-letter nicknames have the same last four letters and alphabetically consecutive initial letters? Or to put it another way, think of three common five-letter nicknames that have alphabetically consecutive initial letters and the same last four letters. Which common nicknames are these?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Feldman Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Take the three-letter nicknames of: 

1.) a woman who served as Treasurer of the United States, 

2.) an actress who co-starred with a character whose name rhymes with a synonym of “table tennis,” 

3.) an author known for writing articles about Joe DiMaggio and Frank Sinatra, 

4.) a puzzle-maker, 

5.) a man who was also nicknamed “The Ol’ Perfessor,” 

6.) a character appearing in Edith Wharton’s “The Age of Innocence,” and 

7.) a person in the title of a Leo Kottke song whose first name is “Mona.”

Hint: These seven nicknames, respectively, begin with a B, F, G, J, K, M and R, and all end with the same two last letters.

Who is the puzzle-maker?

Who are the other people, with the nicknames beginning with B, F, G, K, M and R?

ENTREE #2

Take the nickname of a partner of a fellow nicknamed Ollie. 

Take the nickname of a partner of a puppet named Ollie. 

Take the nickname of a “kid” created by O. Henry.

Delete the second letter of the first nickname. Then delete the space between the second and third nicknames. The result is a U.S city.

What city is it?

(Juneau?)

What are the nicknames of the two partners of Ollie and the nickname of O. Henry’s kid?

ENTREE #3

What three common three-letter nicknames have the same last two letters and alphabetically consecutive initial letters? 

Or to put it another way, think of three common three-letter nicknames that have alphabetically consecutive initial letters and the same last
two letters. Which common nicknames are these?

Hint: Solo or Dynasty; Janis, Eagle or Fleming; van Loon or van Riebeeck.

ENTREE #4

What is the common four-letter nickname shared by people surnamed Alipui, Bett,
Caldwell and Drake?

Hint: Two of the four were singers.

Dessert Menu

Gamey Dessert:

Raw talent versus luck of the draw

Board-game-playing experts draw on their raw talent, not the luck of the draw. 

Take a word describing such players. 

Spell it backward and insert a hyphen to name a word for something they might draw. 

What are these 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.

A mixed-up crazy patchwork quilt; ’Tis a “Fat Friday” cryptic feast! Thinking through the thick & thin; 76 trombones in the big-parading marching band; The great American bronco-busting novel

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

A mixed-up crazy patchwork quilt

Take a hyphenated word that means bizarre or crazy, like a patchwork quilt. 

Replace the hyphen with what may be used as a patch in such a quilt. 

The first seven letters and the last six letters of the result spell synonyms of “mixture.”

What are these two synonyms of “mixture”?

What is the hyphenated word that means bizarre or crazy?

Appetizer Menu 

Crypticker tape parade “Big-not-so-Easy-But-Lots-of-Fun” Appetizer:

’Tis a “Fat Friday” cryptic feast!

Mardi Gras 2022 – which is celebrated on March 1st this year – may be a month-and-a-half away, but we here at Puzzleria! just cannot wait for the fun to come. 

So, this week we are celebrating “Fat Friday” (or, in French, “Vendredi Volumineux”) by rolling out our 24th edition of Patrick J. Berry’s (cranberry’s) pleasantly pleasing yet puzzling Cryptic Crossword Creations.

Here are links to Patrick’s 23 previous Cryptic Crossword puzzles on Puzzleria:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23   

For those who may be new to cryptic crossword puzzles, Patrick has compiled a few basic cryptic crossword puzzle instructions regarding the Across and Down clues and their format:

The number in parentheses at the end of each clue tells how many letters are in the answer.

Multiple numbers in parentheses indicate how letters are distributed in multiple-word answers.

For example, (6) simply indicates a six-letter answer like “jalopy,” (5,3) indicates a five-and-three-letter answer like “cargo van,” and (5-5) indicates a five-and-five-letter hyphenated

answer like “Rolls-Royce.”

For further insight about how to decipher these numbered cryptic clues, see Patrick’s “Cryptic Crossword Tutorial” in this link to his November 17, 2017 cryptic crossword. 

The Tutorial appears below the grid that contains the answers in that edition of Puzzleria!

So, grab your Flambeaux, doubloons and “throws”... and let the festivity and fun begin!

ACROSS

1. Singer being honest with you—nervous before opening night(7,7)

9. Turning sixteen, given first car—excellent
life!(9)

10. Hint could go either way(5)

11. Somehow I learn to be smooth(6)

12. It’s a man, dancing with energy(7)

14. Safety hard, perhaps, for pop star at this time?(7,3)

16. Island involved in Fat Tuesday?(4) 

17. Bacchanal in which Bess's man goes topless?(4)

18. Nobleman gets a little titillated learning about some romantic actor(5,5)

21. Sailor achieves goals
(7)

22. Idiot in our party?(6)

25. Simple citizen, having no time(5)

26. Hanson excited about country song?(2,7)

27. Song by Bob Seger once more mixed—this went downhill from the start(7,3,4)

DOWN

1. Vanna lacks appeal—letter-turning part getting stale on air here?(5,2,7)

2. He was bound to turn in around 10—10?(5)

3. Lunatic made up tunes about California(7)

4. Jerk could be any knucklehead(4)

5. Exaggerates across America?(10)

6. Jet having run into fog(6)

7. Crazy proposition involving Scottish clothing?(3-6)

8. Novel, as a rule, is novel in style(8,6)

13. They may be cast as individuals without
one?(10)

15. Show business, oddly, getting husband out of pickle?(5,4)

19. Kids, primarily, getting in free—the ultimate pursuit(4-3)

20. Middle Easterner, supposed enemy close
to Israeli?(6)

23. Soldier has good time on mushrooms(5)

24. Hey, some wasps sting!(4)

MENU

Paperback Rider Slice:

The great American bronco-busting novel

Take the title of a ground-breaking American novel and the first and last names of its author. 

Rearrange those twenty-two letters to form:

📘 the fictional genre of the novel,

❗ An interjection used in this genre,

⭐ a city in Texas,

✍ the number of letters in the author’s name,

Ⅻ? the  Roman numeral for the number of words in the novel’s title.

Name the novel and author. 

What are the genre, interjection, city, number and Roman numeral?

Riffing Off Shortz And Young Slices:

Thinking through the thick & thin

Will Shortz’s January 9th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Joseph Young, who conducts the blog “Puzzleria!,” reads:

Let A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, etc. Think of a five-letter word whose letters’ values add up to 51. Now take this word’s last two letters. Add their
values. (For example A and C would total 4.) Change these two letters to the single letter of the alphabet that represents their total. (In this case, D.) The result will be a new word that is the opposite of the original. What words are these?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Young Slices read:

Note: Riff-off #1 this week was created by Puzzleria! contributor GB, whose “GB’s Bafflers” appears regularly on Puzzleria!

Riff-offs #2 and #3 this week were created by Puzzleria! contributor Ecoarchitect, whose “Econfusions” also appears regularly on Puzzleria!

Finally, Riff-off #4 this week was created by “Matt 413.” Matt is a good friend of mine from Minnesota who is a master crossword-puzzle solver and composer of sublime poetry.

ENTREE #1

Let A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, etc. Think of a five-letter word whose letters’ values add up to 77. 

Now take this word’s last two letters. Add their values. (For example A and C would total 4.)
Change these two letters to the single letter of the alphabet that represents their sum. (In this case, D.) 

The result will be a new word that is a synonym of the original. 

What words are these?

ENTREE #2

Let A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, etc. Think of a seven-letter word. The sum of the values of its second and third letters is 23.

Now form a new seven-letter word by replacing the second and third letters of the original word with two different letters. 

When when you subtract the value of the second letter from that of the third letter, the difference is 23.   

What words are these?

ENTREE #3

Think of two words that are antonyms, four letters in the first, five in the second.  Both start with the same first two letters.  

Remove those first two letters from each word and the result will be a movement that was popular in the 1960’s. 

What are these antonyms, and what is the movement?

ENTREE #4:

Let A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, etc. Think of a five-letter word whose letters’ values add up to 29. Now take this word’s last two letters. 

Add their values. (For example A and C would total 4.) Change these two letters to the single letter of the alphabet that represents their total. (In this case, D.) 

The result will be a new word that is synonymous to the original word. 

What words are these?

ENTREE #5

Let A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, etc. Think of a five-letter noun whose letters’ values add up to 89. Write it in lowercase letters and invert the middle letter. The sum of these five letters is now 82.

Replace the fourth letter with a duplicate of the new third letter. Re-invert the new third letter so that it again becomes original third letter. The sum of these five letters is now 83.

Finally, change the original fifth letter to the letter that precedes it in the alphabet. The sum of these five letters is now 82, and they spell a word that is the adjectival form of the original noun. If you capitalize the first letter of this adjective it spells the surname of a puzzle-maker.

Who is this puzzle-maker?

What is the original five-letter noun?

ENTREE #6

“Count all total days in a non-leap year.”

Explain how the imperative sentence above
might be considered “self-answering.”

ENTREE #7

Let A = 1, B = 3, C = 3, D = 4, E = 1, F = 4, G = 2, H = 4,  I = 1, J = 8. K = 5 etc. 

Think of a four-letter word whose letters’ values add up to 10. 

Now think of a three-letter homophone of this word’s five-letter plural form. The values of the three letters in this homophone (which is also a plural form of the four-letter word) also add up
to 10.

What are this four-letter word, five-letter plural form, and three-letter homophone.

Hint: The three-letter plural form is often seen in the pages of the Herald, Tribune, Globe and Sun-Times.  

ENTREE #8

Let A = 1, B = 3, C = 3, D = 2, E = 1, F = 4, G = 2, H = 4,  I = 1, J = 8. K = 5, L = 1, M= 3, N = 1, O = 1, P = 3... X = 8, Y = 4,  Z = 10. 

Think of a six-letter word whose letters’ values add up to 26. The following instructions will help you to transform that word into a four-letter word whose letters’ values are half of that value – that is, 13.

The six-letter word is defined as “one of a series of short sharp turns, angles, or alterations in a course.”

The four-letter word is defined as “a test a college student or graduate student might take in a course such as zoology or calculus.”

First, replace this six-letter word’s last letter with a letter that has a value greater by one (for example, Y might replace P). 

Replace the first two letters of the word with one letter that has a value that is 10 less that the sum of those first two (for example, S might replace X and C).

Finally, replace the middle two letters of the six-letter word with one letter with a value that is four less than the sum of those middle two (for example, D might replace M and P). The letter that replaces the two middle letters in the six letter word is pronounced (in the four-letter word) exactly the same as those two middle letters are pronounced (in the six-letter word).

What are these six-letter and four-letter words? 

ENTREE #9

Let A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, etc. Think of an eight-letter word whose letters’ values add up to 77 and an five-letter antonym of that word whose letters’ values also add up to 77. The words’ third-last letters are both an “i”. It is the only
letter they share. 

The sum of the first three letters of the longer word equals the sum of the last two letters in the shorter word. 

What words are these?

ENTREE #10

Let A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, etc. Think of a pair of five-letter synonyms that share no letters in common. The letter value sums of each word equals 48. The value of the last four letters of one word equals the value of the last three letters of the other word.  

What words are these?

Dessert Menu

Music-Making Dessert:

76 trombones in the big-parading marching band

Harmonica, trumpet, trombone, tonearm, marching band, orchestra... 

All six produce music. 

Identify six additional different words that also tie all six of these music-makers together.

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.