“Be punctual and fall back!” Proactive or passive transport? Actor loses letter, so now sings! Canine varmint vis-à-vis Pisces; Are you ready to play The Puzzle? "Carrie Okie from Muskogee" & “Puzzle-making ‘Legend from the Redlands!’”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Proactive or passive transport?

Name a nine-letter vehicle whose operator may respond to precarious or perilous traffic either proactively with a five-letter verb, or passively with a four-letter verb.  Together, those two verbs (which share the same first two letters and the same last letter) are an anagram of the vehicle. 

What are this vehicle and verbs?

Appetizer Menu

“Movin’ On Back” Appetizer:

“Be punctual and fall back!”

1. 🐦Take the name of a famous singer. 

Remove all letters of the last name except the
first three letters and the last letter. You will get a phrase meaning “punctual.”

Who is this singer?

What is the phrase meaning “punctual?”

2. ⛟Take three letters, followed by three duplicate letters, with one of the duplicates moved back a place earlier in the alphabet.

You will get a word related to something else that might need to be moved back. What is it?

MENU

Will & Ayesha Hors d’Oeuvre:

“Are you ready to play The Puzzle?”

A satisfied restaurant guest, enjoying what she ordered off the menu, might exclaim: “Liver, bread, ale... yes!” 

Rearrange the letters in that exclamation to spell what many guests of National Public Radio's “The Puzzle” say before playing on-air, after NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe asks the guest, “So, I have to ask you, ‘Are you ready to play The Puzzle?’” 

So, how do many of these guests reply? (And, I have to ask you: are you ready to play this puzzle?)

From Trouper To Singer Slice:

Actor loses letter, so now sings!

Take a word that precedes “Quiet” and “the King’s” in fictional titles. 

Remove this word from the name of an actor. The result is the name of a singer. Who are this actor and singer?

Riffing Off Shortz And Dimichele Entrees:

“‘Carrie Okie from Muskogee’ & ‘Puzzle-making Legend from the Redlands!’” 

Will Shortz’s October 26th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Donn Dimichele of Redlands, California, reads: 

Name a famous current American singer. Replace the last name with a colloquial term for a person from the place where this singer was born and raised. Say the result out loud. Phonetically, you’ll get a form of singing the singer doesn’t usually do. Who is the singer and what is the kind of singing?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Dimichele Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

The “Sandwich Artist” at the ____ was a “Submarine-makin’ _____,” pouring her heart and soul (and lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onions, cheese and deli meats) into every ____ of every “masterpiece” she created.

Rearrange the combined missing letters in the three blanks to spell the name of a puzzle-maker.

What are the missing words?

Who is the puzzle-maker?

The following six riffs (Entrees #2 through #7) were composed by Nodd (aka Donn Dimichele), author of Puzzleria!s “Nodd ready for prime time.” These are six “self-riffs” of Nodd’s (Donn’s) October 26th NPR Puzzle Challenge.

ENTREE #2

Think of the name of a famous singer. Remove the last two letters of the first name and the first name will now spell a kind of song this singer does not usually perform. Who is the singer and what is the kind of song?

ENTREE #3

Move the last letter in a famous singer’s last name to the beginning of the first name. The first name will now spell a well-known ideogram. 

Who is the singer, and what is the ideogram?

ENTREE #4

Name a famous singer. 

Change the first consonant sound to a different consonant sound. 

The result will sound like the relationship this singer had with another famous singer back in 2007-2008. 

Who are the two singers and what is the relationship?

ENTREE #5

Take the stage name of a famous singer and remove a space to get a word meaning unshakable. 

Who is the singer and what is the word?

ENTREE #6

A famous singer was born and raised in a place that is also the title of a song from a famous Broadway musical. 

Who is the singer and what is the place?

ENTREE #7

What ironically surnamed singer had a one-night stand with one member of a band while dating another member?

Note: The following riff (Entree #8) was composed by Plantsmith, author of Puzzleria!s “Garden of Puzzley Delights.” 

ENTREE #8

Take the first name of an American singer and replace it with a pejorative synonym to get a two-word genre of music.

Who is this singer?

What is the genre of music?

ENTREE #9

Name a century-plus-old motorcycle brand that originated in Massachusetts. 

Add a letter someplace to spell a state, like Massachusetts (but not Massachusetts!). A
demonym of that state (like “Iowan” or “Hawkeye” in Iowa), when followed by a member of the family (mother, father, mommy, daddy, etc.) sounds like a question.

What are this motorcycle brand, state and demonym?

ENTREE #10

Name a six-letter state demonym and its five-letter antonym. 

Anagram those 11 letters to spell either one scrawny fowl (4, 7 letters) or a possible name for a pathway where these fowls pace from place-to-place (7, 4 letters). What are this demonym, its antonym, the scrawny fowl, and the pace-worthy pathway?

Dessert Menu

Fish-Outta-Water Dog-Outta-Dirt Dessert:

Canine varmint vis-à-vis Pisces

The first three letters of a fish spell what sounds like a non-piscine creature. 

The last four letters of this fish spell a noun that describes this creature vis-à-vis a canine coyote. 

What are this fish, creature, and this creature vis-à-vis a coyote?

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.

Surf and Sand and Swimsuits; More Matthew Huffmania! “It’s a Singapore Sling Sing-Sing Thing”; “Competitor Deo Omnipotenti!” Lose a letter, gain a syllable; Welcome All Whizzes of Pop-Quizzes

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Surf ‘n’ Sand ‘n’ Swimsuits

Name a two-word synonym of “tiny” used in a song to describe certain beachwear. 

This same synonym is used also in a second song to describe an arthropod – an
arthropod that sounds like two words that mean “eyed a female...” which is exactly what beachgoers in the first song did! 

What are this two-word synonym of “tiny,” the two things described by that synonym in the songs, and the two words that mean “eyed a female?”

Hints: The two-word synonym seldom, but sometimes, contains a hyphen.

The song has reached “retirement age.” 

Appetizer Menu

Conundrum Set Appetizer:

More Matthew Huffmania!

1. Name a type of cheese that can be broken into a mythical Greek monster and the last name of a well known playwright.

2. Think of a linguistic word used by puzzle constructors in eleven letters.

Drop two vowels and rearrange the remaining vowels, leaving the consonants in the same order, to make a synonym for a kind of “unit.” 

3. Think of an historical figure, first and last names. 

Remove five letters to name a type of puppet (that is, a type of anthropomorphic toy you might find beneath a Christmas tree).

4. Think of a food in seven letters that features a repeating three-letter pattern. 

Change one letter to an E and rearrange to name another food.

5. Name a type of punctuation that can be split into three descriptors for people (one an abbreviation).

MENU

Decade-In-Rear-View Hors d’Oeuvre:

Welcome All Whizzes of Pop-Quizzes

Rearrange the letters on a word that often pops up in word puzzles to spell something that happened thrice during the past decade. What are this word and the thing that occurred thrice?

Syllabic Synonymatic Slice:

“Competitor Deo Omnipotenti!”

Replace the first syllable of a lowercase synonym of “competitors” with a one-letter-longer synonym of that syllable. 

The result is a more  specific uppercase synonym of “competitors.” 

What are these two synonyms of “competitors?”

Riffing Off Shortz And Pitt Entrees:

It’s Singapore Sling Sing-Sing Thing

Will Shortz’s October 19th Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle challenge, created by Dan Pitt, of Palo Alto, California, reads: 

Think of something to drink in two words. Rearrange the letters to spell a famous prison and a means of getting out of prison. What words are these?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Pitt Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

Rearrange the letters in the name of a puzzle-maker and the city where he lives to spell th enames of a philosopher, a painter and a general. 

What are these four names?

Note:The following riffs, Entree #2 through #7, were created by our good friend Nodd, author of Puzzleria!s “Nodd ready for prime time.”

ENTREE #2

Think of something to drink and add a two-letter US state abbreviation. 

Rearrange the letters to spell the county in which a famous prison is located and something a prisoner does to get out of prison. What words are these?

ENTREE #3

Think of a brand of something to drink. 

Change the last letter and rearrange the letters
to spell a famous prison. 

What words are these?

ENTREE #4

Think of a famous prison. 

Rearrange the letters to spell a synonym for
beverages and a homophone of something used to make certain beverages. What words are these?

ENTREE #5

Think of a brand of something to drink. 

Change the last letter and rearrange the letters to spell a famous prison and the initials of an organization that reported earlier this year on a news story involving the prison. 

What words and initials are these?

ENTREE #6

Think of something to drink, in seven letters. 

Using four of its letters and repeating them as needed, spell the name of a famous prison. 

Arrange the remaining three letters to spell the initials of an organization that has published extensively on both drinking and prisons. 

What words and initials are these?

ENTREE #7

Think of a famous prison. 

Arrange its letters to spell something that may cause one to go to prison, and something that may get one out of prison. 

The second thing is also the second word in a soft drink created for a restaurant chain. 

What words are these?

Note: The following riff was created by our good friend Plantsmith, author of Puzzleria!s “Garden of Puzzley Delights.”

ENTREE #8

Take a popular aperitif. Move its first letter eight places forward in the alphabet stream;
then mix the result to get a well known landmark. 

What are this aperitif and landmark?

Note: The following riff was created and by good friend of and contributor to Puzzleria!

ENTREE #9

Think of the commonly used name of a famous prison.  

Rearrange the letters in the name to spell a
place where one might find something to drink and the postal code of a U.S. state whose history is intertwined with such drinking places.   

ENTREE #10

In 1937, a young woman became the very first motion picture actress to be featured on the cover of Life magazine. We might call that a ______ _____.

In 1962 a young man had a solo exhibition of his Pop Art at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, where he created iconic works like his Marilyn Monroe portraits and Campbell's Soup Cans. We might call that a ______ _____.

The penultimate words of those two paragraphs are six-letter surnames.  The final five-letter words are the same word, a synonym of “party,” “reception” or “shindig.”

The eleven letters in either of these pairs of adjacent missing words can be arranged to spell a prison facility.

The eleven letters in either of these pairs of adjacent missing words can be arranged to spell a prison facility.

What are these words in the blanks? 

What is the prison facility?

Dessert Menu

Zigzaggy Slalomy Dessert:

“Lose a letter, gain a syllable”

Delete the first letter of a one-syllable synonym of "zigzagged, slithered, slalomed." 

The result is a two-syllable adjective. What are this synonym and adjective?

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.

Weaponizing words; A whole wordful of Hippocraticity; Superbly Superbad Yooper Grads! Cyber-thumbs up or down? Calendrical landscaping techniques; Lace-ups loafers sneakers sandals plimsolls pumps

 PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

A whole wordful of Hippocraticity

Take a multisyllabic word for certain diagnostic medical procedures. 

Its first five letters are also the first five letters of an eight-letter type of surgery. 

Letters five-through-ten spell a surgical
instrument. 

The remaining letters, if you change an “o” to an “a”, spell anatomical illustrations that appear in medical school instructional materials. 

What are these procedures, type of surgery, surgical instrument, and illustrations? 

Appetizer Menu

Econfusing Dozen-Puzzle Appetizer:

Weaponizing words

Like the recent NPR “Light Saber/ Blaster” puzzle, the subjects of this puzzle are rather bleak. Especially in light of current conditions we hesitated using them, and we fear things will only get worse. But humor is a form of resistance, and #10, #11 and  #12 might be politically controversial; indeed, the last is downright rude. We hope solvers are not offended.

1. 🪖Name two terms that might also be a soldier. 

Combine them and, metaphorically, the result
is a term of what they might fight. 

What are the two terms?

2. 🗡Name a word that describes how someone might die. 

Change the vowel sound and the result will phonetically be a modern weapon in the news that might kill. 

What are the two words?

3. 🔫Name what you might see in a certain type of fight. 

Remove the last letter, move the 5th letter one place earlier in the word and 15 places later in the circular alphabet, and the result will be something else you might see in another type of fight. 

What are the two things? 

In addition, when you change the first letter of the thing that is fought by the first word six places later in the alphabet the result is the target of the second thing. 

What are the two words?

4. 💣Name weapons found originally in a certain part of the world. 

Add a “T” at the end and the result will be a two-word phrase describing the fears of a certain age group. What are the weapons and what is the fear?

5. 👚Name two similar articles of clothing, one after the other, that are worn by soldiers in some countries. 

Remove the last letter of the second article and the result will be the brand name of a certain weapon, also used by soldiers. 

What are the clothing items and what is the weapon brand?

6. 🚁Name a material that can be used to attack buildings. 

Remove the second letter and the result will be a creature that can attack buildings. 

What are the material and the creature?

7. 👴Name a material that is used to make a modern weapon. 

Rotate the first letter 90° and the result will be part of the human body that is used to make a modern weapon. 

What is the material and what is the body part?

8. 🐭Name a brand of weapon that a Jerry (derogatory term!) used. 

The second letter is a vowel, changing it will
change a consonant sound (but not the vowel sound!) and the result will be a domestic weapon used on a Jerry. 

The two consonant sounds are spelled with the same letter. What are the weapons?

9. ⚔ Name a weapon that has been used in many wars. 

Change the last letter, and the result is a place where the US has fought a war, and those weapons were used.

In addition, each is linked to different fruits which start with the same letter as the other. 

What is the weapon, where is the place, and what are the fruits?

10. ⸸ Name a well-known person who often attacks others. 

Change the first letter of their last name one place later in the alphabet, and the result will
be another weapon of violence. 

Who is the person and what is the weapon?

11. 💥Name a historic weapon that was used to harm many American soldiers after it was fired. 

Remove the last two letters, and the result will
be a modern weapon that was used to harm many American civilians before it was fired. 

What are the two weapons?

12🪓 Name a weapon historically used by a mounted soldier. 

Move the first letter ten places later in the alphabet, and the result will be the name of a modern politician famous for his “mounting.” 

What are the two words?

MENU

World Wide Webfooted Hors d’Oeuvre:

Cyber-thumbs up or down?

Take a positive word associated with the Internet. 

Delete a letter, spell the result backward and add a space to spell two negative words. 

What are these three words?

Penny Loafer Shoestring Budget Slice:

Lace-ups loafers sneakers sandals plimsolls pumps

The woman was so particular about finding exactly the correct shoe size, style and  color that, after she left the store with her purchase, the salesman had to _____ twenty pairs of _______! 

What are the five-and-seven-letter sound-alike words that belong in the blanks?

Riffing Off Shortz And Moorhead Entrees:

Superbly Superbad Yooper Grads!

Will Shortz’s October 12th Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle challenge, created by Joel Moorhead of Downers Grove, Illinois, reads:

Think of a word that means exceptionally good. Add two letters at the end of to make a word that means the exact opposite. What words are these?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Moorhead Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

Name a puzzle-maker whose surname is a city in Minnesota. 

Rearrange the letters of the Illinois city he hails from to spell a mourning bird, a bird that shares its name with an architect named Christopher, and the first syllable of a rose-breasted bird whose second syllable is “beak.”  

Who is this puzzle-maker and where does he live?

(Note: Entrees #2 through #7 are the handiwork of our good friend Nodd, author of “Nodd ready for prime time” on Puzzleria!)

ENTREE #2

Think of a word that means lively. 

Change the second letter to make a word that
means the opposite. 

What words are these?

ENTREE #3

Think of a word that means attractive. 

Change the fifth letter and add a letter between the third and fourth letters to make a word that means the opposite. 

What words are these?

ENTREE #4

Think of a word that means admirable. 

Change the first two letters to make a word that means cruel. 

What words are these?

ENTREE #5

Think of a word that means careful. Replace the first two letters with three different letters to make a word that means the opposite. What words are these?

ENTREE #6

Think of a word that means to make up. 

Replace the fifth letter with two different letters to make a word that means the opposite. 

What words are these?

ENTREE #7

Think of a word that means genuine. 

Replace the second letter with two different letters to make a word that means the opposite. 

What words are these?

ENTREE #8

A husband might show that he _____ by buying his wife a new dress, massaging her neck to relieve her stress, and giving her cheek a soft ______.

Add a letter to the end of the word in the first blank to spell the word in the second blank.

What are these missing words?

ENTREE #9

Take a string of seven consecutive letters from the circular alphabet. 

Take six of the seven. Arrange them to spell a
synonym of “daze.” 

Then rearrange them to spell a synonym of “bud.”

What are these consecutive letters?

What are the two synonyms?

ENTREE #10

Take the seven-letter string of letters from ENTREE #9. Remove two of the consonants and replace them with the letter “A”.

Take these six letters, using three of them
twice, to spell a two-word noun that means “the existing state of affairs.”

What is this two-word noun?

Dessert Menu

Anagramadjectival Dessert:

Calendrical landscaping techniques

The end of a word on a calendar can be rearranged to spell a landscaping term. 

The remaining letters of this calendar word are an anagram of an adjective that might describe
that landscaping term. 

What are this calendar word, landscaping term and adjective?

Hint: The landscaping term rhymes with a word that appears in the text of this puzzle.

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.