Capital ideas, Car Culture? Commoners, Sty in the sky, Mixed-up performers, Poetry Corner by Anna Graham; Mandibles & Tron, “Phone Home!” Surname, fur and Babylon; “Celebratory subtraction adds to holiday fun!” Letters morph into math; “...And the last shall be first”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

“Celebratory subtraction adds to holiday fun!” 

Name two annual celebrations. Remove the five letters of one celebration from the sixteen letters of the other one. 

Two words will appear – the first associated with Christmas, the second with Halloween. 

What are these two celebrations? 

What are the words associated with Christmas and Halloween.?

Hint #1: Neither one of the two celebrations contains abbreviations.

Hint #2: If the two words associated with Christmas and Halloween do not appear, during the removal process try removing the 3rd and 15th letters instead of the 7th and 10th letters. 

Appetizer Menu

Prime Time Appetizer:

Poetry Corner by Anna Graham, Commoners, Mixed-up performers, Capital ideas, Sty in the sky? Car Culture?

1. ★CAPITAL IDEAS

For each of the following descriptions, name a world capital which, when said aloud, matches the description:

1. What a Sunday school teacher might do when teaching about the Book of Genesis.

2. Former SNL performer pokes fun.

3. Kind of diet.

4. Place to grab a bite.

5. Unusual shoe size.

6. Bottom of an aromatic plant.

7. Rating for a percussion instrument.

8. Type of injury.

9. Sausage is volcanic emission?

10. Terminate a famous catcher.

2. 🧪STY IN THE SKY?

Write the same seven letters twice in succession with a space between them. 

The result will be a two-word phrase describing a famous but untidy scientist. 

What is the phrase? 

(Hint: The second word in the phrase is the scientist’s last name.)

3. 🚘🚗CAR CULTURE?

Take the names of two cars.  

The first one was produced in the U.S. during the first quarter of the 20th Century. 

The second one has been produced in Europe since 1998. 

The two names together are the name of the lead character in a 1960s U.S. sitcom. Who is it?

4. 📺MIXED-UP PERFORMERS

Insert the last name of an actor or TV personality in the first blank, and insert an anagram of the last name in the second blank, to complete the following sentences:

1. ______  and the studio ______ out a contract giving him a share of the proceeds.

2. ______  pushed back when her editor wanted her to use ______ language in her memoir.

3. _______ created new game shows by _________ on previous ones.

4. ______  disliked driving with his wife, a compulsive ______.

5. ______ enjoyed her popularity most of the time, but cursed it when obnoxious admirers would ______ her mercilessly.

6. ____ tried to take up golf, but became frustrated when he would repeatedly _____ the ball. 

5. 📖🎥⚾🎸✍COMMONERS

What do the following people have in common: 

~ Thomas E. Gaddis; 

~ Julie Andrews; 

~ Stan Musial; 

~ Jeff Beck; 

~ Michael Stewart? 

6. 🖋 POETRY CORNER WITH ANNA GRAHAM

Fill in the blanks with four anagrammatic words to complete the verse:

____ from the ____ , exotic fare,

The party ____ with gusto rare, 

No empty ____, no room to spare,

A thoroughly superb affair!

MENU

Paired Letters Hors d’Oeuvre:

Letters morph into math

There are 676 (or 26-squared) different pairings of capital letters of the alphabet (AA, AB, AC... BA, BB, BC... etc.). 

Some of these pairings are well-known: for
example: BB, MC, DJ, CD, AM, FM, IQ and US postal abbreviations. Some are even words: BY, LO, AT, HE, UP, IS, etc. 

Allow the letters in one of these 676 pairings
to “kiss” or abut. Erase the left quarter of the letter on the left. Erase just a tiny bit of the letter on the right. (See examples in the illustration.) 

The result resembles a mathematical expression that equals the number one. What pairing of letters is this? 

Good-Tasting Slice:

Surname, fur and Babylon

Delete the last letter of a velvety soft fur. Then replace a common preposition with an ancient Babylonian city, both the same length. 

The result is the surname of a person whose
first name “tastes good,” according to a bygone jingle.

What is this fur?

What are the preposition and ancient Babylonian city?

What is the surname?

Who is the person?

What “tastes good,” according to a bygone jingle?

Riffing Off Shortz And Gori Entrees:

“Phone home,” Mandibles & Tron

Will Shortz’s March 9th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday Puzzle Challenge, created by Al Gori of Cozy Lake, New Jersey, reads:

Take the name JON STEWART, as in the comedian and TV host. Rearrange the letters to spell the titles of three classic movies. One of the titles is  its familiar shortened form.

Puzzleria!s riffing off Shortz and Gori Puzzle Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

Take the name AL GORI, as in the NPR puzzle-maker from Cozy Lake, New Jersey. Rearrange the letters to spell the title of a movie starring Gena Rowlands and Buck Henry. If you rearrange the even-numbered letters followed by an rearrangement of the odd-numbered letters the result will be something an auto mechanic might keep in his or her pocket.

Who is this puzzle-maker?

What is this movie title?

What might an auto mechanic might keep in her or his pocket?

Note: Entrees #2 through #7 are the enigmatic handiwork of our friend Nodd, whose “Nodd ready for prime time” puzzle-package appears in this edition of Puzzleria!

ENTREE #2

Take the name DAVID LETTERMAN, as in the comedian and TV host. Using certain of the letters in the name, and repeating letters as necessary, spell the one-word titles of:

(1) a 1970s sci-fi film; 

(2) a 1990s fantasy comedy film; 

(3) a 1990s animated film; and 

(4) a 1990s film adaptation of a Broadway musical.

ENTREE #3

Take the name JIMMY KIMMEL, as in the comedian and TV host. Using certain of the letters in the name, and repeating letters as necessary, spell the one-word titles of: 

(1) a 1990s psychological crime drama; 

(2) a 1950s adventure film starring an actor who performed most of his own stunts; 

(3) a 2000s biographical drama; and 

(4) a 1990s fantasy film, using the familiar shortened form of the three-word title.

ENTREE #4

Take the name TREVOR NOAH, as in the comedian and TV host. Using certain of the letters in the name, and repeating letters as necessary, spell the one-word titles of: 

(1) a 2010s epic drama; 

(2) a 1990s historical drama; and 

(3) a 1990s crime drama. 

Hint: The second and third films starred Oscar-winning actors.  

ENTREE #5

Take the name CONAN O’BRIEN, as in the comedian and TV host. Using certain letters of the name, and repeating letters as necessary, spell the one-word titles of: 

(1) a 2020s horror film; 

(2) a 1990s comedy-drama; and 

(3) a 1930s drama that starred an Oscar-winning actress.  

ENTREE #6

Take the name SAMANTHA BEE, as in the comedian and TV host. Using certain of the letters in the name, and repeating letters as
necessary, spell the two-word titles of: 

(1) a 1970s horror film; 

(2) a 2020s sci-fi drama; and 

(3) a 2000s comedy that starred an Oscar-winning actor.

ENTREE #7

Take the name ARSENIO HALL, as in the comedian and TV host. Using certain of the letters in the name, and repeating letters as
necessary, spell the one-word titles of: 

(1) a 1980s sci-fi action film; 

(2) a 1950s Western that won a National Board of Review Award for best director; and 

(3) a 1970s drama starring an Oscar-winning actress and an Emmy-winning actor. 

ENTREE #8

Consider this four-image illustration. 

Each incomplete caption applies to either of the two images above it. Fill in the missing letters. 

The completed captions – each composed of
13 letters – will consist of the letters in six of eight related words of two and three letters). 

What are your two captions?

What are the six words required to spell each caption?

Hint: The caption with the hyphen is a synonym of a late 18th-Century rime.

ENTREE #9

Name two movies with one-syllable titles that rhyme with one other. 

Replace the numerical digits in one of the movies with the uppercase letters that resemble those digits. 

Rearrange these five letters to name a Greek mythological figure who was punished for her hubris, according to Homer.

What are these two movies?

What is the Greek mythological figure?

ENTREE #10

Name a six-letter branch of biology and a three-letter organism included in this branch.
Rearrange these nine letters to spell four common prepositions. 

What are this branch of biology and organism? 

What are the four prepositions?

Hint: The initial letters of the four prepositions can be arranged to spell a Russian baby name meaning “bean farmer.”

Dessert Menu

Pride Of Lions Dessert:

“...And the last shall be first”

Take the first and last names of an artist. 

Change one letter, the last letter of an annual celebration, to the first letter of that celebration.

Rearrange the result to spell a creature and the collective term for two or more of this creature – like lion and pride, or wolf and pack. 

Name this artist, celebration, creature and term.

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.

“Fright Flick” = “Scary Movie”? “That’s just the way he rolls!” Marooned on a Zanzibar sandbar... with Barbra? Weasels & cats & synonyms, oh my! Gutfuls of Competitive Gluttony! Codes of etiquette & communication;

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

“That’s just the way he rolls!” 

In linguistical chains I concatenate links:

“A creep sics canine carnivores on the forlorn!

Pray tell, why is he ‘rolling’ like this?

I wonder, though, if I’ve perhaps been
foresworn

With regard to false heavenly bliss.”

There are eleven words in the intended answer, three of which are “in plain sight” within the italicized purple and blue text (including the word ‘rolling’ which appears to be the color grey.

What are these eleven words?

Appetizer Menu

Fractured Entertainment Titles Appetizer:

“Fright Flick” = “Scary Movie”? 

Listed below, our friend Jeff Zarkin has created a list of 25 “fractured entertainment titles” – that is, bogus substitute titles that hint at the real titles.

For examples:

“Patriotic Pastry” = “American Pie”

“Headwear High Card” = “Scarface”

“Rotten Cartonful” 

= “The Dirty Dozen”

“Locomotives Toking” 

= “Trainspotting”

“Weird Affection, M.D.” = “Dr. Strangelove”

“1,441 Minutes” = “The Longest Day”

But  enough of these mere “previews of coming attractions”... On to our main-event features!

1. “Greetings, Ms. Levi”

2. A-Listers Battles

3. Nucleosynthesis Begins

4. Mad Bird Abode

5. Coliseum Comedy

6. Stormy Weather

7. Royal Lecher

8. Harmonious Notes

9. Kens and Barbies

10. Mozart, Beethoven, Bach….Pick One

11. Changing Planes At Orly 

12. Blown Away 

13. Cleopatra

14. Asian Neighborhood 

15. Angry Bovine 

16. Mandibles 

17. Nice Guys 

18. Eternal Carbon Allotrope 

19. Limited Resurrection 

20. Missouri Rendezvous

21. Arson on Wheels 

22. Unknown Medic 

23. Scavenger Time

24. La Scala Haunted 

25. 11111010001

MENU

Hot Dogs, Oysters, Shortcake Hors d’Oeuvre:

Gutfuls of Competitive Gluttony!

In food-eating contests, competitors try to eat as much as they can within a fixed amount of time. 

Remove the first and fifth letters from a food they might eat to get a repeated cheer that might be heard from fans. 

What are this food and the cheer?

Transpositional Slice:

Codes of etiquette & communication 

Name an unwritten code of social behavior, norms and etiquette, in two syllables. 

Transpose its final two letters to spell a code that facilitates communication, in one syllable. 

What are these two codes?

Riffing Off Shortz And Burnside Entrees:

Moored on a sandbar in Zanzibar... with Barbra?

Will Shortz’s February 23rd NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Dennis Burnside of Lincoln, Nebraska, reads: 

Think of a famous singer and actress, first and last names, two syllables each. The second syllable of the last name followed by the first syllable of the first name spell something that can be dangerous to run into.
What is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Burnside Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

Think of a puzzle-maker, first and last names, two syllables each. Use the 14 letters in those names to form the three missing words in the following sentence: 

“What those who have ______ carry around with them __ a _______ of guilt.” 

Who is this puzzle-maker? 

What are the words in the blanks? 

Enjoy the following six riffs, Entrees #2 through #7, penned by our good friend Nodd.

ENTREE #2 

Think of a famous singer and actress, first and last names, two syllables each. 

The second syllable of the last name, followed by the first syllable of the first name, sounds like something you should avoid running into at all costs. 

Who is the singer, and what should you avoid running into?

ENTREE #3

Think of a famous singer and actress of the past, first and last names, two syllables each. Change the last two letters of her first name to an S, and change the fifth letter of her last
name to a G. 

The modified last name, followed by the modified first name, spell what you may find yourself doing if you run into something while driving. 

Who is the singer, and what might you be doing?

ENTREE #4

Think of an American singer and songwriter. Her first name has two syllables and her last name has one. 

Move the first letter of her last name to the beginning of her first name, which will now spell something that can be dangerous to run into. 

Who is the singer and what can be dangerous to run into?

ENTREE #5

Think of the first and last names of a famous singer and actress. Her first name has three syllables and her last name has two. 

The first three letters of her first name, read
backwards and followed by the first three letters of her last name, describe something you should never do while driving. 

Who is the singer, and what should you not do?

ENTREE #6

Think of the first and last names of a famous singer. Her first name has two syllables and her last name has one. 

Switch the fourth and sixth letters of her first
name and double what is now the fourth letter. The singer’s last name, followed by the last five letters of her first name as modified and read backwards, spell something that would be dangerous to run into if you were driving in the U.K. 

Who is the singer, and what would be dangerous to run into?

ENTREE #7

Think of the first and last names of a famous singer of the past. Her first name has two syllables and her last name has three. Insert a T at the end of her first name. The last syllable
of her first name as modified, followed by the first syllable of her last name, spell something you may need to do if you run into something while driving. 

Who is the singer, and what might you need to do?

Entree #8 is another terrific riff created by our good friend Plantsmith.

ENTREE #8

Think of a well-known singer/actress, two syllables each in the first and last names. 

Put the second syllable of first name in front of
second syllable of last name to get what sounds like something you might find on a trip to Hawaii.

Now put the first syllable of last name in front of first syllable of first name to get what sounds like a word for a rough-and-tumble brawl.

Who is this singer/actress?

What is something you might find on a trip to Hawaii?

What is a word for a rough-and-tumble brawl?

Entrees #9 and #10 are bonus riffs designed by our good friend Greg VanMechelen, also known as “Ecoarchitect.”

ENTREE #9

Think of a famous singer, first and last names, two syllables each. 

The first syllable of the last name followed by the second syllable of the first name sounds like something that can be dangerous to run into, “if youse knows what I mean.” 

What is it?

ENTREE #10

Name a American singer, songwriter, and television personality. 

The first half of the first name plus the first four letters of the surname sound like either a playful or mischievous trick or the edible young berry of a Mediterranean shrub. The remaining part of the surname plus the second half of the first name sound like a friendly fictional non-earthling.

Who are this singer, trick-or-eat, and non-Earthling?

ENTREE #11

Name a Black actor associated with white flowers. Write his surname to the left of his first name. 

Remove the first three letters from both names. The result is the surname of an actress who was first-named after a beloved uncle. Anagram the combined letters of that first name and the six letters you removed from the actor’s name to spell:

* a the name of a judge associated with the Old Testament of the Bible and with Rocky Raccoon, AND

* a four-letter abbreviation of any one of the New Testament books written to Romans, Galatians, Corinthians, Colossians, Thessalonians , etc. etc. etc.

Who are this actor and actress?

Who is the judge associated with the Old Testament of the Bible and with Rocky Raccoon?

What is the four-letter abbreviation of any one of the New Testament books written to Romans, Galatians, etc.?

ENTREE #12

Name an actor who is one of three “Special Ambassadors to Hollywood.” Replace the fourth letter of his surname with the last letter of his
first name. 

Divide this altered surname in half. Switch the order of the two halves. This altered, divided, reversed surname implies that this “Special Ambassador” hails from Texas (even though he actually hails form New York).

Who is this actor?

What is his surname... after alteration, division and reversal?

ENTREE #13

Name an actor who has appeared in scores of action-adventure movies, first and last names. 

Remove the last three letters of the first name and first four letters of the surname, leaving
the name of a very strong character – the likes of which this character often portrayed... but never has portrayed.

Who is this actor?

What is the “very strong character’s name?”

ENTREE #14

Name a Major League Baseball player who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1924) and Boston Red Sox (1926–27) – last name first, first name last, without a space. 

Delete the first four letters of the result, leaving the name of a gigantic mythical creature. 

Now write two Asian nations side-by-side without a space. Remove three letters from the beginning and six letters from the end, leaving the name of a giant.

Name this major league baseball player and gigantic mythical creature.

Name these two Asian nations and giant.

Dessert Menu

Pejorative Dessert:

Weasels & cats & synonyms, oh my!

Name a cat-family creature and a weasel-family creature that begin with the same four letters but in a different order. 

Their remaining combined letters can be rearranged to spell a pair of pejorative synonyms. 

What are these creatures and synonyms?

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.