Shoreside trees, Prolific puzzler, Tunes and “spoons,” Buds and “duds,” Making and breaking laws; Letters playing “musical chairs” “Something’s ROT-thirTEEN in the state of Greenland!” “Birds of a feather...” “OH HO-HUM OUT frOM My MOUTH, THOU MOTH!” “Contrarian Conundrummery”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Contrarian Conundrummery

Take a word meaning “cunning” followed, without a space, by a word meaning “foolish.” 

Remove the first letter to get a word that describes the contrary relationship between those two words.)

What are these three words? 

Appetizer Menu

Plantsmithian Appetizer:

Shoreside trees, Prolific puzzler, Tunes and “spoons,” Buds and “duds,” Making and breaking laws 

Shoreside trees

1. 🌲🌳🌲Picture a fir tree or a stand of fir trees in very close proximity to the shoreline of many a body of water in Minnesota (and perhaps even rooted within the body of water!). 

What celebrity might this picture suggest?

Prolific puzzler

2. 🎥The surname of a prolific puzzle-maker consists of  a kind a container and the last name of “The First Lady of  American Cinema?”

The fourth, second and sixth letters of this surname spell a natural energy source. The sixth, seventh, second and third letters spell a kind of carpet.

Remove the first and last letters of the puzzle-maker’s surname and place a letter that appears twice in his first name within the result to spell the nickname of some college athletes
from Texas.

Who is this puzzle-maker?

What are the container and the last name of “The First Lady of  American Cinema?”

What are the natural energy source, kind of carpet and the nickname of some college athletes from Texas?

Making and breaking laws

3. ⚖ Mix up the letters of a name of a type of
lawbreaker to get a legal term.

What are these two words?

Buds & “duds”

4. 🎕🌹🏶 Spoonerize a two-word botanical item you sometimes see in winter to get what might be considered a wardrobe malfunction.

What are this botanical item and wardrobe malfunction?  

Hint: 

The plant with which the item is associated could be found in a Shakespeare garden.

Tunes & “spoons”

5. 𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅰𝅘𝅥𝅱𝅘𝅥𝅲 🥄🥣 Name something seen on a golf course, something heard on a golf course, and a preposition, in 3, 4 and 2 letters. The result sounds like the title of a catchy tune.

What are these two golf-related words,
preposition, and tune title?

MENU

“Who Was That Masked Man?” Hors d’Oeuvre

“Birds of a feather...”

Switch the beginning sounds of two verbs (neither, however, is “flock”) that birds of a particular feather and species do. 

The result sounds like the first word of a shout directed at a masked man, which is often followed by a shout of disapproval. What are these birds and what do they do, and what are the two shouts?

Anatomical Slice:

Letters playing “musical chairs”

Move one letter in the name of a nation three places to the right. 

Insert a space someplace. 

The result is a pair of body parts.

What are this nation and two body parts?

Riffing Off Shortz And VanMechelen Entrees:

“Something’s ROT-thirTEEN in the state of Greenland!”

Will Shortz’s January 12th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Greg VanMechelen of Berkeley, California, reads:

Think of a well-known international location in nine letters. Take the first five letters and shift each of them 13 places later in the alphabet. The result will be a synonym for the remaining four letters in the place's name. What place is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And VanMechelen Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

ROT-16 a shortened form of the screen name of a puzzle-maker to spell a verb that Will Shortz will often do with puzzles this puzzle-maker submits to him. 

Who is this puzzle-maker and the short form of his screen name? 

What does Will Shortz often do with his puzzles?

Note: Entrees #2 through #7 were created by Nodd, creator of “Nodd ready for prime time” on Puzzleria!

ENTREE #2

Think of a well-known place in Europe, six letters. 

The first four letters can be arranged to spell a food named after the region of Europe from which it originated. 

The last two letters spell the abbreviation for a U.S. state. What is the place in Europe? 

What is the food? 

What is the U.S. state?

ENTREE #3

Think of the name of a country, eleven letters. 

Arrange five letters of the country name, plus a P, to spell the name of a city in Europe. (Use
the spelling for the city name that is used in the country in which the city is located.) 

What are the country and the city?

ENTREE #4

Think of a European city, eight letters. Rearrange the letters to spell a four-letter informal term for a resident of the U.K, and a four-letter abbreviation for a U.S. state. 

What are the city, the informal term for a U.K. resident, and the abbreviation?

ENTREE #5

Think of the eleven-letter, two-word name of a city in Europe. 

Seven of its letters, in order but not consecutive, spell a word for something of concern to travelers. 

What city is it? 

What is of concern to travelers?

ENTREE #6

Think of a ten-letter, two-word geopolitical region that is frequently in the news. 

Remove the first letter and rearrange the rest
to spell a food grown throughout the region and a word for a kind of restaurant. 

What are the geopolitical region, the food, and the kind of restaurant?

ENTREE #7

Think of the eight-letter name of a city in Africa. Remove the third, fourth, and fifth letters. 

The remaining letters, in order, will spell a word for an inhospitable expression. 

What city is it, and what is the word for an inhospitable expression?

ENTREE #8

Take an American singer-songwriter whose stage name begins with a word which, when you ROT-23 its letters, spells a new word for the genre of music he produces.

This singer’s first and middle “non-stage names” are identical to the first and last names of a “country lawyer” who played a role during the Watergate scandal. The singer’s surname is a word that follows “sun-” or “moon-” to form a compound word.

What are the stage name and real name of this singer-songwriter, and his genre of music? What is the name of this “country lawyer?”

ENTREE #9

“An ____ contestant has a scant chance to ___ _ beauty pageant.”

ROT-X the missing letters in the first blank (where “X” is a number from 1 to 25) to get the letters that belong in the second and third blanks.

What are these three words? 

ENTREE #10

Take a six-letter word for what the Earth and other planets do, what farmers do to crops, and what mechanics do to the kinds of Continentals or Coopers that do not have engines. 

Move the first letter into the third position followed by a space. ROT-15 the result to form the two missing words in the following excerpt from Proverbs in the Bible: “Whosoever shall ___ a ___ for others shall fall into it himself!”

What is the six-letter word? What are the two missing words from the biblical proverb?

ENTREE #11

Think of a well-known American city in a western state. 

ROT-14 its letters to get  an ethnic group of people, also  known as the Hmong, who live in southern China and parts of Southeast Asia. 

What is this city?

What is this ethnic group of people?

ENTREE #12

Think of a well-known American city in a western state. 

ROT-10 its letters to get  an adjective describing the northern half of the state. (The southern half might be described, geometrically, as triangular.) 

The city is situated near the southern edge of this northern half. 

What is this city?

What is this adjective?

Dessert Menu

Small fry Dessert:

“OH HO-HUM OUT frOM My MOUTH, THOU MOTH!”

Remove a letter from a part of the mouth. 

Spell the result backward to name a second part of the mouth. 

What are these mouth parts?

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.

“Ooh Baby, Baby, it’s a Wild Word” “News from around the globe!” Reviewer: Huff & Otto... Alphanumeric Synonymity; Pictures at an Exhibition; Objectionable adjective;

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

“News from around the globe!”

What do the plausible pair of headlines headlines and the possible feature-story quotation below share in common?

* “Monsoons, Tsunamis Saturate Africa” 

(a possible headline in The Africa Report)

* “Bathurst's Renewed Statues” 

(a possible headline of a photojournalistic feature in Australia’s New South Wales’ Western Advocate newspaper)

* “Friar Arthur’s unsung virtues demonstrate satisfactory hallowedness.” 

(a possible quotation, printed in a Washington Post feature story, spoken by the Dominican prior of Washington DC’s St. Dominic Priory)

Appetizer Menu

Minor “Word-Surgery” Appetizer:

“Ooh Baby, Baby, it’s a Wild Word…”

1. Name something found in many consumer products. Add a letter to the middle of that
word, and the result might explain why that thing is included.

2. Name a compound word for something you might see in a certain room.  

Divide the compound word into its two parts,
add the same noun in front of each of  those parts and the result will be two things you might see in a certain room.

3. Name a well-known author of the past, not an American.  

Replace the first letter of the last name with the first letter of the first name, reverse that and the result will be something you might do frequently.  

Who is the author and what do you do?

4. There are many words with the pattern t-i-t-i in which the letters t and i are pronounced differently: For example, petition, superstitious, etc.  

Can you name a common word with a similar x-y-x-y pattern where letters are pronounced differently? There are at least three common words, two uncommon words, and one fictional character related to well-known folktales.

5. Name a job title in a company or organization. Change the first letter to an adjoining letter on a standard typewriter or computer keyboard, and the result will be
where that person might be found.

6. Name three seven-letter words that share all but the first letter, and none of the words rhyme. What are the three words?

7. Think of something the Supreme Court recently granted.  

Move a letter in that word three places later in the alphabet, and the result describes how unscrupulous persons may try to act.  

What are the two words?

8. Name a symptom of an abnormality in a person’s musculoskeletal system. Change the third letter six places later in the alphabet, and you get a word describing a defect in a person’s speech system. What are the two words?

9. Name something the new president is on the inside, change the first letter and last letter [or change the first letter (p becomes n) and delete the last letter. Rearrange and the resulting word is something the new president wants on the outside.

MENU

Artistic Trio Hors d’Oeuvre

Pictures at an Exhibition

An adjective associated with finances often precedes the first syllable of a portrait artist’s surname. 

The adjective consists of the surname of a
French artist followed by an anagram of an American artist’s surname. 

What is this adjective. 

Who are these three artists?

Literary Slice

Objectionable adjective

Anagram the surname of a writer from the past to spell an adjective by which no writer, past or present, wants to be defined. 

Who is this writer? 

What is the adjective?

Hint: Take the combined nine letters of the writer’s first name and the kind of writer he is (novelist, essayist, etc.) Rearrange these letters to spell a nickname for a part of Italy and a word in a nickname of New York City. 

Riffing Off Shortz And Young Entrees:

Reviewer: Huff & Otto...

Will Shortz’s January 5th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, was created by Joseph Young, who conducts the blog Puzzleria! And it’s a numerical challenge for a change. It reads:

Take the digits 2, 3, 4, and 5. Arrange them in some way using standard arithmetic operations to make 2,025. Can you do it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Young Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

Take a pseudonym that a puzzle-maker uses. Remove the Latin word for the pronoun “I”. Remove also the three letters of the largest professional sports league in the world.

The sum of the four Roman numerals that remain, in Arabic numerals, is a year from the Second Millennium. 

Rearranging the digits 2, 3, 4, and 5 in some way using standard arithmetic operations will yield this Second-Millennium year.

What are this pseudonym, Latin word and world's largest professional sports league?

What is the sum of the four Roman numerals, in Arabic numerals?

Hint: The largest professional sports league in the world might have also been the name of a Swedish pop supergroup had either Björn or Benny never been born.   

Note: Entrees #2 through  #7 were created by our friend Nodd, whose “Nodd ready for prime time is featured regularly on Puzzleria!”

ENTREE #2

Think of a seven-letter mathematical term.

Change an E to an A. 

Rearrange to spell two pests you might encounter in your backyard. 

What are the mathematical term and the two pests?

ENTREE #3

Think of a six-letter unit of measurement (with which many scientists are familiar.) Rearrange to name (1) a professional sports franchise, or (2) a plural word for shenanigans, or (3) a verb meaning to erode that can also serve as a noun meaning a dust-up. What are the unit of measurement, the sports franchise, the synonyms for shenanigans and the verb and noun?

ENTREE #4

Think of a six-letter mathematical term. Add two C’s, one E and one N. Rearrange to spell a word for a kind of internal guide. What are these two words?

ENTREE #5

Think of a nine-letter mathematical term.  Remove the first two letters. Add a C and rearrange slightly to spell a term for a kind of projection. What are these two terms?

ENTREE #6

Think of an eleven-letter mathematical term.   Remove the first letter. 

Rearrange the remaining letters to spell a place to work and a part of an eating utensil. 

What are the mathematical term, the place to work, and the part of an eating utensil?

ENTREE #7

Two mathematical terms are anagrams of one another. 

One refers to a procedure for solving a problem. The other term refers to a method of making mathematical calculations easier to
perform. (This method was developed by a mathematician whose last name anagrams to a word meaning pillage or plunder.) 

What are the two mathematical terms, the last name of the mathematician, and the word meaning pillage or plunder?

ENTREE #8

Consider the transcription of Will Shortz’s reading of this week’s NPR Puzzle Challenge:

This week’s challenge (is) a numerical challenge for a change. Take the digits 2, 3, 4, and 5. Arrange them in some way using standard arithmetic operations to make 2,025. Can you do it?

A letter of the alphabet, spelled backwards,
appears in a word in that transcription’s text. (This letter can be spelled with either two or three letters; in this instance it is spelled with three.) Remove those three letters and the space they leave. The result is a second word in the transcription’s text.

What are these two words?

ENTREE #9

You can arrange the digits 2, 3, 4, and 5 in some way using standard arithmetic operations to make 2,025. 

What is the most recent year, and what is the next year, that can be expressed using those four digits in this same way?

ENTREE #10

Name (in two words and 11 letters) a  geographic landform that ranks in the Top-Ten-Tallest on earth, with “tallness” defined by “topographic prominence.” 

Spell, in UPPERCASE, all but the 7th letter of this landform.  

Transpose the 7th and 9th letters.

Remove five consecutive letters that spell a part of a radio.

The result is the surname of German topologist who is associated with “surfaces” and “one-sidedness” – a topologist who might argue that this song has got it all wrong!... That a hill or a valley on the Earth’s surface is like the exterior surface of a waffle cone (think of it as being just one continuous convex surface with no “sides!”), or that a valley is like the continuous concave interior surface of a waffle cone (also with but a single “side!”). In other words, both are merely “bumps” or “divots” that are parts of the Earth’s imperfect surface.

What is the name of this Top-Ten-Tallest landform?

Who is the German topologist who is associated with “surfaces” and “one-sidedness?”

ENTREE #11

Name a North American landform, in two words of 5 and 11 letters, that is named inappropriately, considering its harsh climatic conditions – including blizzards and sub-zero temperatures.

Take the11-letter word in its name. Six interior letters can be rearranged to spell an object in a holy Advent tradition. The five remaining letters can be rearranged to spell an adjective that periodically describes a handful of other
objects in this Advent tradition.

Those 11 letters can also be anagrammed to spell the missing words in the following:

“A.M. _______, the ____ of the man responsible for the publication of Charles Lindbergh’s autobiographical account of his non-stop transatlantic solo flight from New York to Paris, one of the most successful non-fiction titles of all time.”

What are this the Advent object and adjective describing related Advent objects?

What are the missing words in the quotation? Who is the “responsible man” in the quotation?

Dessert Menu

Verbal Evaluation Dessert:

Alphanumeric Synonymity

Replace the last two letters of a five-letter verb with the letter whose alphanumeric value  (A=1, B=2, C=3, etc.) is the sum of the alphanumeric values of those last two letters. 

The result is a synonym of the verb. 

What are these two verbs?

Hint: The graphic at the right may also prove to be helpful. 

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.

“A puzzlist walks & runs into a bar” Who pinned the y on the donkey? Dirty urchins and rabble-rousers; Peanuts, Plains and Pisces; “Significance of six synonyms” Bobby’s “Just in Time” for “Auld Lang Syne!”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

“Significance of six synonyms”

Find synonyms of “each,” “duster,” “tilt,” “diamonds,” “topper” and “debt.” 

All are three-letter synonyms, except for the four-letter synonym of “tilt.”

With what longer word are these six synonyms associated? 

Hint: The order in which the six words appear is significant, as is the order of their corresponding synonyms.

Appetizer Menu

 maiN Puzzle couRse Appetizer:

“A puzzlist walks and runs into a bar”

(Note: This week’s “Puzzle Fun” Appetizer comes to you courtesy of Bobby Jacobs, who created “The Puzzle Challenge” on National Public Radio’s current Weekend Edition Sunday program.)

Take the name of a famous puzzlist. 

Rearrange the letters of this name to form two new words: 

~ 🏃a verb meaning “to run” and 

~ 👣 a verb meaning “to walk.” 

What are these verbs?

Who is this puzzlist?

MENU

“Foxy fishy” Hors d’Oeuvre

“Who pinned the y on the donkey?”

If you tack a “y” onto the end of certain game animals, you can form an adjective like, for example, “goosey” or “foxy” or “fishy.” 

Change the first letter of such an animal to the letter two places earlier in the alphabet. 

If you tack a “y” onto the end the result is not an adjective but a popular game. 

What is this animal. 

What is the game?

Centenarian Slice:

Peanuts, Plains and Pisces

Consider the fishing venue and pieces of fishing equipment possibly employed by the master angler pictured here:

🐟 a “moveable potential feast of just-waitin’-to-be-caught fish” that is an anagram of a synonym of “expert” (six letters);

🐠 a container with a screwable cap within which an angler might keep worms squirming
in dirt or other bait (1 letter, 3 letters); and either:

🐟 Either someplace to keep caught fish (5 letters),
or

🐠 a piece of fishing equipment, preceded by a letter of the alphabet that is a homophone of a place where, according to an idiom, “there are plenty of fish.” (1 letter, 4 letters) 

Rearrange these 15 letters to spell the formal name of the master angler in the images pictured here.

What is the name of this master angler? What are the “moveable potential feast of just-waitin’-to-be-caught fish” and the synonym of “expert”?

What are the container with a screwable cap within which an angler might keep worms squirming in dirt or other bait?

Where are the “someplace to keep caught fish,” the piece of fishing equipment, and the place where “there are plenty of fish?”

Hint: The “something with a screwable cap” (1, 3), sans the space, is an adjective that means “slightly open.” 

Riffing Off Shortz And Jacobs Entrees:

Bobby’s Just in Time for Auld Lang Syne!

Will Shortz’s December 29th Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Bobby Jacobs of Richmond, Virginia, reads:

Think of a famous singer – first and last names. Use all of the first name, plus the first three letters and the last letter of the last  name. The result, reading left to right, will spell a phrase meaning “punctual.” What singer is this?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Jacobs Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

At the end of the meal, the restaurant wait-staff-person clears the table: a kernel-less ear
(7 letters) and half-eaten piece of toast slathered with a raspberry condiment (3 letters) upon a plate (4 letters).

Rearrange those 14 letters to spell the surname of a puzzle-maker and his hometown.

Now take the home state and hometown of a puzzle-maker. Rearrange the combined letters to spell:

* the first name of a sitarist,

* a biblical figure who was a “Cush-son,” and

* a “Book of Changes.”

What are the surname of the puzzle-maker and his hometown?

What are the hometown and home state if the puzzle-maker, the sitarist, biblical figure and “Book of Changes?”

Note: Entrees #2 through #7 are the handiwork of Nodd, creator of “Nodd ready for prime time” on Puzzleria!

ENTREE 2

Think of three famous musicians. 

Their three last names bear a “heavenly”
connection with one another. 

Who are these three  musicians?

ENTREE 3

Think of two well-known musicians who have the same last name. 

Their first names name a mammal and an aquatic creature. 

Who are the musicians?

What are the mammal and the aquatic creature?

ENTREE 4

Think of two famous musicians. 

The first one is known for folk music, while the second works in a wide variety of genres. 

The last name of the first musician is the first name of the second one. 

Who are these musicians?

ENTREE 5

Take the first and last names of a famous pop-rock singer. 

Use four letters from their first name and four
letters from their last name to spell the last name of an even more famous musician. 

Who are these two musicians? 

ENTREE 6

Think of a famous rock musician of the past -- first and last names. 

Together, the names spell a two-word phrase describing a person who is an avid home cook around this time of year.  

(Hint: The rock musician had the same first name as another famous musician of the past, who appeared in numerous films.) 

What is the two-word descriptive phrase, and who are the two musicians?

ENTREE 7

Think of two well-known musicians with the same first name.

Their first names anagram to a well-known
clothing brand. 

Who are the musicians, and what is the clothing brand?

Note: Entree #8 is the handiwork of Plantsmith, creator of “Garden of Puzzley Delights” on Puzzleria!

ENTREE #8

Take a popular singer’s name, first and last. 

Place an apostrophe and “s” at the end of the first name, followed by a synonym of “forever,” followed by the last name.

The result, read from left to right, sounds like a tribute to the singer’s punctuality.

Who is this singer?

What is the synonym of “forever?”

What is the tribute to the singer’s punctuality?

ENTREE #9

Think of a writer, first and last names, whose essays and commentaries on global issues have appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic and on National Public Radio’s “Fresh Air.” 

Remove three consecutive letters from the first name and one letter from the surname that, together, spell a pet food brand. Remove the space. The result is a synonym of self-control or self-discipline.

What writer is this?

What is the pet food brand?

ENTREE #10

Think of a current member of the Michigan House of Representatives – first and last names. He is probably not a cigarette-smoker. For the purposes of this puzzle, however, let ’spretend that he is. 

A concerned colleague may ask him, “Do you think your smoking is a compulsion?” 

The representative’s reply may consist of eight of the nine letters in his name, in order – in words of two, one and five letters.

Who is this representative? 

What is his reply?

ENTREE #11

Take the 12 letters in the first and last names of an English explorer, writer, photographer and naturalist who was also the first woman to be elected as a “fellow” of the Royal Geographical Society. 

Divide these dozen letters, in order, into words of two, one, four, one and four letters to form what appears to be a peculiar question – one that contains two nouns that make noise. 

One reply to that question might be, “Well, no, but they sure sound an awful lot alike sometimes .”

Who is this explorer?

What is the peculiar question?

ENTREE #12

Think of a Dutch professional footballer (soccer player) who plays forward on the Dutch Club Utrecht. 

During an intermission in a match versus Sparta Rotterdam, this forward  “carbo-loads” –  replenishing his glycogen stores by
snacking on a Hostess product. 

His teammate, American midfielder Taylor Booth, asks him, “Is that a Ding Dong?” 

The Dutch forward’s response consists of, in order, seven of the eight letters in his name, in three words of 2, 1 and 4 letters.

Who is this footballer?

What is his reply to Taylor Booth? 

Dessert Menu

Multisyllabic Dessert:

Dirty urchins and rabble-rousers

Take a multisyllabic word for certain dirty urchins. 

Switch its first and fifth letters. Capitalize four consecutive letters of the result. 

Insert an “a” someplace and a space someplace else. 

The result is a word that describes some 21st-century mob participants intent on overturning. 

Who are these urchins and mob participants?

Hint 1: The word for the mob participants is a tad more multisyllabic than the word for the urchins.

Hint 2: The urchins, historically, were associated with Thanksgiving and Halloween.

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.