“Femi-name-ity!”; “Flighty” actress?; “An Alternating Alphabetical Order”; “That adder holds an herb in its piehole!”; “Storks come home to roost?”; Confounded by boundlessness?; “Surname’s the Same, Sir”; “Spatulalia Bacchanalia!” ; Frightful Tigerfish! Freightful Chevron Ships!; “Pilot-lit litanies”

 PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Frightful Tigerfish! Freightful Chevron Ships!

“Defiantly fresh tigerfish regret and denounce their loss of ‘reef rights’ due to oil freighters docking near their shore.”

Four strings of consecutive letters in that sentence share something wordplayful in common. 

What are these four consecutive letter-strings and what do they share?

VERY OPTIONAL HINT: The answer also involves two consecutive “alphabetical” strings of letters.

Appetizer Menu

Stellar Tortoiseshell Dwellers Appetizer:

“Femi-name-ity!”; “Flighty” actress?; “An Alternating Alphabetical Order”; “That adder holds an herb in its piehole!”; “Storks come home to roost?” 

“Femi-name-ity!”

1. 🎸 Name an actress. 

Her first and last names combined can be rearranged into two female first names. Her last name contains another female first name in consecutive letters. These three first names also belong to the only three women elected to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in a specific year. 

Who is the actress? What are the first names? Who were the three women elected to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in that specific year? 

“Flighty” actress?

2. 🪁Name a television and film actress
whose first and last names both relate to flying.

Who is she?

“An Alternating Alphabetical Order”

3. 🐘🐈🦛 Name an eight-letter animal where every other letter, starting from the second letter, are consecutive letters of the alphabet in order.

What is the animal?

“That adder holds an herb in its piehole!”

4.  🐍Name a famous person from the world of sports. The last five letters of the last name spell a type of animal. The first name is something that the animal has.

If you replace the third letter of the animal with a copy of the second letter of the last name, you’ll have a synonym of the first name.

Who is the person? What is the animal? What are the synonyms?

“Storks come home to roost?”

5. 🦆Think of something a certain living thing has, in five letters. Rearrange the letters to produce something that a different living thing has.

Take a five-letter synonym of that word. It’s something that the first living thing also has.

What are these three words? What are the two living things?

MENU:

Flambée Hors d’Oeuvre

“Pilot-lit litanies” 

Name a world capital city.

Move one of its letters to a spot later on in the name.

Insert a space near the middle of the result. 

The final result, in two words, is what people who check their pilot light are looking at.

What is this world capital city? What do pilot-light checkers see. 

“Plated Pastries Slice”

“Spatulalia Bacchanalia!”

Pat used a pastry spatula to serve a ____ of _____ ___ from the ___ onto a plate. 

The combined letters in the first and fourth blank are an anagram of the letters in the second and third blanks. 

What are these four missing words?

Riffing Off Shortz Entrees

Confounded by boundlessness?

“Pondering Infinity makes my brain number!”

Will Shortz’s August 23rd Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle reads:

Spell out the numbers from 13 to 20 –  THIRTEEN, FOURTEEN, FIFTEEN, SIXTEEN, SEVENTEEN, EIGHTEEN, NINETEEN, TWENTY. Select one letter from each word, in order, to name another number. No anagramming is necessary. What number is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

Spell out the ten numbers in the following ten-letter sequence:

2, 5, 11, 12, 6, 3, 4, 13, 14, 0:

TWO FIVE ELEVEN TWELVE SIX THREE FOUR THIRTEEN FOURTEEN ZERO

Pluck one letter from each of the ten words to
spell the name of a puzzle-maker. Who is it? 

Here is a clue for finding the answer that involves ordinal (rather than cardinal) numbers:

2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 4th, 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 1st

Note: Entrees #2 through #7 are riffy conundrums drummed-up/dreamt-up by our friend and riffmeister extraordinaire, Nodd. 

ENTREE #2

Anagram a math term to spell a word that
applies to the world’s top mathematicians.

ENTREE #3

What math term has one meaning in geometry, a different meaning in algebra, andna third meaning in number theory?

ENTREE #4

Think of a math term in 11 letters. 

The first part of this term is a common abbreviation for a type of organization. 

The rest of the term is something those associated with such an organization typically try to make it be. What term is it?

ENTREE #5

What do these math terms have in common:
EXPONENT, HYPOTENUSE, DENOMINATOR, SCALENE TRIANGLE?

ENTREE #6

Anagram the last name of a word leader to get
a math term.

ENTREE #7

Using the letters in a spelled-out number between and one hundred as often as needed, spell 13 other numbers. 

ENTREE #8

Spell out the numbers from 94 to 100:

ninety-four, ninety-five, ninety-six, ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninety-nine, one hundred. Select one letter from each word, in order, to spell a word for another number. No anagramming is necessary. What number is it?

Now spell out the numbers from 90 to 84:

ninety, eighty-nine, eighty-eight, eighty-seven,
eighty-six, eighty-five, eighty-four. Select one letter from each word, in order, to spell the same number as the one in the paragraph above. Again, no anagramming is necessary. What number is it?

The answer is the same for each part of this two-part puzzle..

Dessert Menu

Stunning Dessert:

“Surname’s the Same, Sir”

Name a synonym of “gobsmacked.” 

Delete the fifth letter, leaving a space, Rotate the fourth letter 180-degrees around its x-axis. The result is a two-word vehicle.

Spoonerize the words of this vehicle to get two
different one-syllable surnames  – one belonging to a fellow with a ___-tail hairstyle, the other belonging to a cartoon character whose surname is the missing word in that blank space. This fellow and cartoon character share the same first name.

What is this synonym of “stunned,” etc.?

What is this two-word vehicle? 

What are the two one-syllable surnames?

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.

“CapCity Country Consonants... Carne Asada!”; “Benjaminian Wisdom”; A Guy, Gal & Young’un with “AsparagusSpears” Aspirations?; “Touchstone?” “Touchback?” “Pooh Office?”; Legal (Philadelphia) Eagles?; Song casts a spell, runs through your head, plants a “synonymphony!”; “Devillainous“ Domesticity?; “Farawayfaring Celestial Wanderers!”; “Overcome hum-drum, subdue the sobs”; “Neither a burrower nor a spender be!”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Song casts a spell, runs through your head, plants a “synonymphony!”

Replace the second word in the title of a jazz standard with a homophone of that word. Delete letters from the first word that spell a spelling contest and a running contest, leaving letters that spell a younger version of the homophone. 

What are this song title, two contests, homophone and younger version of the homophone?

Appetizer Menu

Delightfully Puzzley Appetizer:

“CapCity Country Consonants... Carne Asada!”; “Benjaminian Wisdom”; A Guy, Gal & Young’un  with “AsparagusSpears” Aspirations?; “Touchstone?” “Touchback?” “Pooh Office?”; Legal (Philadelphia) Eagles?

“CapCity Country Consonants... Carne Asada!”

1. Name a capital city and its country. Interchange two consonants in the city. Place a space within the country. The result is a
three-word order you might place at a Latin-themed restaurant.

What are this capital city, country and three-word order?

“Benjaminian Wisdom”

2. “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise” is a famous proverb popularized by Benjamin Franklin in his 1736 publication of Poor Richard’s Almanack. It has since become part of the Puritan work ethic lexicon, according to

Plantsmith, author of the following puzzle about the proverb:

Rearrange the 16 different letters in the proverb: – A B D E H I K L M N O R S T W Y – to spell the missing words in the image pictured here.

A Guy, gal & young’un with “AsparagusSpears” Aspirations?

3. Name a popular athlete who has been in the news of late. Replace an “i” in his name with either the first or final letter in a homophone of “i”. Replace a

“K” in his name with a letter adjacent to “K” in the alphabet.

Rearrange the letters of the result to spell the name of a popular actor associated with an anagram of “coffee hit.”

Who are this athlete, actor and anagram of “coffee hit?”

“Touchstone?” “Touchback?” “Pooh Office?”                                4. Take a word that forms the first part of compound words ending “stone” or “back,” or that follows, after a space, the word “Pooh.”

Place a vowel to the middle of this word to get an occupation.

Finally, just gently mix the occupation to get a genre of musical performer.

What are this compound word part, occupation and musical performer?

Legal (Philadelphia?) Eagles                           5. Take a legal term, double a consonant, add an “A” and place three spaces within the word to get what sounds like something certain NFL players have done after scoring touchdowns. Hint: Tim Tebow

MENU:

Solar Systematic Hors d’Oeuvre:

“Farawayfaring Celestial Wanderers!”

A. The _ _ _ was a sovereign state in the Middle East from 1958 to 1971. Its red, white, black and green flag featured two stars but no _ _ _.  Rearrange the letters in those six blanks to spell the name of a heavenly body that is a neighbor of the stars.

B. Write a song about a planet... In other words, _ _ _ a _ _ _ _ about a planet. What is the planet?

C. _ _ _ _ _ ROT-3 = _ _ _,  _ _ _ _ _  &  _ _ _.

“Mixed-Blessing Slice”

“Overcome hum-drum, subdue the sobs”

Name, in two words, a wonderfully welcome interruption in your perhaps otherwise humdrum day... especially if it is initiated by a friend whose company and conversation you enjoy. Transpose the initial sounds of those two words. The result sounds like a “sob-spawning” mishap that a “young’un” may undergo – especially if it involves a “triple-scooped” confection... one that does not involve vanilla!

What is this humdrum-day interruption?

What is the “sob-spawning” mishap?

Riffing Off Shortz And Ellison Entrees:

Devillainous Domesticity?

Will Shortz’s August 16th Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, from James Ellison of Jefferson City, Missouri, reads:

Think of a famous movie villain. Insert one letter to get the brand name of a household product. Then change one letter of the product to get the last name of another famous movie villain. Who are the characters and what is the product?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Ellison Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

Take the first name of a puzzle-maker. The middle letter is a Roman numeral. Place to its right the Roman numeral that follows it (a Roman numeral whose Arabic equivalent is a palindrome). The result is an informal plural word for nightwear. 

The letters in the puzzle-maker’s surname can be rearranged to spell a 3-letter point total a soccer team mayend up with, and what, in four letters, that team will then do.

Who is this puzzle-maker?

What are the nightwear, and what the team will do?

Entrees #2 through #7 are riffy conundrums drummed-up/dreamt-up by our friend and riffmeister extraordinaire, Nodd.

ENTREE #2

Think of a famous movie villain. The last name of the performer who played this villain is the also the last name of another movie villain. And the last name of the first villain is also the middle name of a real-life villain. Who are these people?

ENTREE #3

Take the last name of an actress who played the villain in a 2016 comedy/drama film. Add one letter and rearrange to get the last name
of the villain in a 1975 comedy/drama film. 

The first name of the 1975 villain is the same as the first name of the villain in a musical comedy TV series that aired in 2021-23. Who are the actress and the three villains?

ENTREE #4       Think of two movie villains with the same first name. The last five letters of one villain’s last name, followed by the other villain’s last name with one letter removed, describe the dwelling place of the villain in a Grimm’s fairy tale. 

Who are these three villains?

ENTREE #5

Think of the villain in a 2022 psychological thriller film. This villain’s first name is the same as the first name of the villain in a 1996 action/thriller film. 

The second word of the 2022 villain’s two-word last name, with one letter changed, describes the villain in a famous sci-fi film franchise. Who are these three villains?

ENTREE #6

Take the last name of the villain in a major blockbuster action thriller movie. 

Rearrange its letters to get the first word in the two-word name of the villain in a 2015 live-action animated adventure comedy film. Then add a letter, change a different letter, and rearrange to get the last name of the villain in a famous horror film. Who are these three villains?

ENTREE #7

Take the last name of a famous movie villain. Add one letter and rearrange to get the name of a Marvel movie superhero. Add three letters to the end of the Marvel villain’s name to get a brand of household appliances. Who are the two villains and what is the brand? 

ENTREE #8

Name an infamous “3-word, 14-letter” Transylvanian whose cruel methods of punishing his enemies gained notoriety in 15th-century Europe... and who is the possible inspiration for Count Dracula, the vampire who
is the title character in Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula. 

Number the 14 letters of this Transylvanian 1-through-14. Letters 4, 3, 14, 5, 6 and 1, 3, 4, 13, 14 spell the name of a more recent movie villain.

Who are this Transylvanian and movie villain?

Dessert Menu

Pebbles Flintstones Dessert:

“Neither a burrower nor a spender be!”

Transpose the 3rd and 8th letters of a compound 9-letter word for a white flint pebble that reputedly promotes lactic secretion.Insert a space someplace to spell a wearable status symbol whose value has not really risen much over the decades. Spoonerize this past status symbol to spell a potent musky, earthy odor and the burrower that produces it.

What are this pebble, status symbol, earthy odor and burrower?

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.

All Around the World, All the World’s a Stage, Some Really Bad Players in the House; “You can’t see the florist for the peonies! (nor the beekeeper for the bees!)”; Compound Combustibility!; “Saltwater taffy? Likely bad for the teeth!”; “House” rhymes with “Mouse,” Right? Non-littoral Pisces... alliterative and not;

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Pairs of non-littoral Pisces... alliterative and not

Name a two-word fish. Both words begin with the same letter. The words are also “alliterative” – that is, “initially same-sounding.” (The first word seems to function as an adjective modifying the second word; but, by itself, the first word also functions as a noun.)

Replace the second word of this fish with the name of a smaller fish that begins with that same initial letter. This new second word, however, does not, alliterate with the first word. An alternative definition of this new replacement word, however, indicates that it might result from the two syllables in the word that precedes it.

What is this alliterative two-word fish?

What is non-alliterative two-word fish? In what way is its second word a consequence of the two syllables that precede it?

EcoArchitecturally Accurate Aesthetically Appealing Appetizer:

All Around the World; All the World’s a Stage; Some Really Bad Players in the House

Note: The following eight Econfusions, courtesy of our friend Ecoarchitect, leads us along an enigmatic eastbound global path.. a kind of “Around the World in (not-eighty-days-but-in) Eight-Dazzling-Brainteasers!” It begins in America, leads us eastward toward London’s Globe Theatre, and concludes back at home in a “House on the Hill,” coming full-circle!

All Around the World

1. Take the name of a well-known land feature and its location in the US that was recently in the news.  Remove the last 5 letters of the land feature and double its 3rd and 4th letters, and the result will be the last and first name of a famous artist.  What are the feature and location, and the artist’s name?

2. Name a word that might describe your location.  Swap the first two letters, and the result will be another word used to describe your location.  What are the two words?  

3. Name a term used to describe weather conditions – often related to your location from the puzzle above.  Remove the first letter and the resulting word describes the condition of some things in that weather.  What are the two terms?

All the World’s a Stage

4. Take the first and last name of a well-known character who has appeared in both movies and television shows.  

Change the first letter of the first name from a C to a T, and phonetically the result will be a well-known former athlete and sports announcer.  Who are the character and athlete?

5. What do actors Bea Arthur, Beau Bridges, Donna Reed, Joe Pesci, Lynn Redgrave, Rex Harrison, and Vin Diesel have in common?  And in what movie remake should they all appear?

Hint: The original movie had a one-word title.

6. Two well-known actors share the same first name, in fact one was named after the other.  But they pronounce their names differently, one with two syllables, one with only one syllable.  Who are the actors? 

Some Really Bad Players in the House

7. Name someone, 5 letters first name, 4 letters last, who was once famous in politics.  Rearrange the letters and the result will be a physical condition many believe their boss has had.  

Who is the person and what is the condition?

8. Name something in 2 words that might be evidence of a damaged tree.  Those 2 words rhyme with the first and last name of someone who is evidence of a damaged democracy.  What are the two words and the name?

MENU

“Grease That Squeaky Wheel!” Hors d’Oeuvre:

“House” rhymes with “Mouse,” Right?

What, in five letters, ought you do if you hear something squeaking in one particular room in your house? 

(Mid-Puzzle Hint: The name of the room is the same as the name of a fixture in the room.)

What is this room (that shares its name with a
fixture within)?

(Much-Needed Hint: Take the two-syllable word for the fixture/room.)

Replace its fifth letter with a different vowel, delete the first letter, and insert a space someplace.... Voila!

“‘Hole-o-caust’ Slice”:

“Compound Combustibility!”

Spoonerize the two parts of a compound word for a hole dug into the ground in which combustible materials like wood or paper are burned. 

Place a space between the two parts of this compound word and reverse their order. 

The first part of the result sounds like a large pile of wood or other material to be placed within a larger hole and burned as part of a ceremonial rite. This hole must be sufficiently
large so that the increased volume of kindling will ___ within.

What is the compound word for a hole dug into the ground in which combustible materials like wood or paper are burned?

What is burned as part of a ceremonial rite?  What word belongs in the blank space?

Riffing Off Shortz And Baggish Entrees:

“You can’t see the florist for the peonies! (nor the beekeeper for the bees!)”

Will Shortz’s August 9th  Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, from Steve Baggish of Arlington, Massachusetts, reads:

Using only the letters in the words FACES NORTH, repeating them as often as you wish,
you can spell a familiar expression in seven words (4,3,3,6,3,3,5). What expression is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Baggish Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

Using only the letters in the name of a puzzle-maker, repeating them as often as you wish, you can spell an unfamiliar two-part 13-word “semicoloned” expression describing a woman basking in a luxurious oceanside setting. (4,3,6,6,6,5; 5,5,3,4,2,3,3). 

What expression is it? 

Who is the puzzle-maker?

Entrees #2 through #7 are conundrums drummed-up/dreamt-up by our friend and riffmeister extraordinaire, Nodd.

ENTREE #2

Using the letters in slow thinker and repeating as needed, spell a familiar expression in six words (5,5,3,4,2,3). This expression might in fact serve as good advice to a slow thinker – or to a golfer.

ENTREE #3

Using the letters in GIFTED ACRONYM and repeating as needed, spell the name of a familiar show tune in five words, recorded by a
gifted singer whose initials are an acronym for someone you might see at a musical performance. (4,3,3,2,9).

ENTREE #4 

Using the letters in WELSH COMPUTING and repeating as needed, spell a humorous quip attributed, perhaps inaccurately, to a famous non-Welsh British politician in ten words (4,2,9,2,4,5,1,4,3,3).  

ENTREE #5

Using the letters in ORATE GUSHILY and repeating as needed, spell a familiar six-word assertion by a famous sports figure who was not known for orating gushily (2,4,4,5,3,5).

ENTREE #6

Using the letters in OWLET KIDNAP and repeating as needed, spell an infamous 11-
word remark by a 1980s U.S. cabinet member who, one could surmise, would not be disturbed by the kidnap of an owlet (1,4,4,2,6,3,1,4,4,2,4). 

ENTREE #7

Using the letters in UNSIGHTLY FACE and repeating as needed, spell a familiar four-word assertion by a famous sports figure who, according to Google, “was generally not considered a handsome man” (4,4,6,4).

Entree #8 is the ingenious brainchild of our friend and prolific riff-crafter Plantsmith.

ENTREE #8

Take the ten letters in the name of Vance Smith (member of the Georgia State House of Representatives since 2019). Use them as often as needed construct a six-word well-known saying.

Dessert Menu

“Sip Swish Gargle Rinse Spit” Dessert:

“Saltwater taffy? Likely bad for your teeth!”

Name a slang term associated with saltwater. Write it twice, without a space, to spell what “health-conscious types” hope to eradicate by rinsing their mouths with saltwater... (which,
alas, seems to be a futile practice). 

What are this slang term for sailor and what “health-conscious types” hope to eradicate?

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.