“Powderpuff MiddLe-Lineback(Lett)er-shift!”; “Beheading” + “Befooting” Becomes “Big-Brotherly?;” “Name-Tagalong Triple Roulette!”; “Boy Meets Girl”; “Bide my time... I’ll get to Phonics!”; A Two-Couplet-Four-Car Hellbound Quatrain; “Picking-up After a Piggy Neighbor”; Subtract letters, add syllable; “Library-Book ‘Em Danno!”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Subtract letters, add syllable

Delete adjacent letters from a novel title. 

The one-syllable-longer result is a name that appears on world maps followed by an adjective describing what is named. 

What are this novel title, name on the map and adjective?

 Appetizer Menu

Bobby’s 33rd “Puzzle Fun” On His 33rd Birthday Appetizer:

“Powderpuff MiddLe-Lineback(Lett)er-shift!”; “Boy Meets Girl”; Beheading” + “Befooting” Becomes “Big-Brotherly?”

“Name-Tagalong Triple Roulette!”

Note: Break out the bubbly (or beverage of your choice)! Thanks to our great friend Bobby, we at Puzzleria! are observing a “Doubly Signifcant Celebration”:

~ The 33rd edition of the ever-popular-and-always-challenging “Puzzle Fun by Bobby Jacobs,” and...

~ Bobby’s 33rd Birthday!

We all wish this talented young man the happiest of birthdays and gifts galore.... In the meantime Bobby has showered us with gifts!... a foursome of his always-fantastically-fun puzzles! Enjoy!

“Powderpuff MiddLe-Lineback(Lett)er-shift!”

1. 🏌🏃Take the name of a famous athlete. Change the first letter of the last name to L. 

Rearrange the letters to get the name of another famous athlete. Who is it?

“Boy Meets Girl” 

2. ⚤Take a 5-letter boy's name.  Move the middle 3 letters 4 places back in the alphabet.  You will get a girl's name. 

What are these two names?

“Beheading” Plus “Befooting” Becomes “Big-Brotherly?”

3.👦Take a 6-letter boy’s name. Remove the first and last letters to get a shortened form of a department of the United States Government. 

What is it?

“Name-Tagalong Triple Roulette!”

4. 📛The name Patrick consists of two nicknames put together (Pat, Rick). 

What are three nicknames such that the first and second nicknames put together are a full first name, the second and third names put together are a first name, and the third and first names put together are a first name?

Here are Links to Bobby’s previous 32 “Puzzle Fun...” appearances on Puzzleria!:

1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9   10   11   12  13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20    21   22  23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32

MENU

Overdue Hors d’Oeuvre:

“Library-Book ‘Em Danno!”

If there were such a profession as “library policeman” (or “library policewoman”), talking ___ ____ would be ________! And, _____ would be _____ to those who commit this breach of library etiquette by engaging in such inappropriate, insensitive and disruptive __________!

The word in the third blank echoes the words in the first two blanks. The words in the fourth and fifth blanks are an anagram of the word in the sixth blank.

What are these six missing words?

“Clumpy” Slice:

“Picking-up After a Piggy Neighbor”

Name a two-word term for an ugly clump of garbage in your yard.

Translate the first word into Pig Latin to name a relatively small garbage receptacle.

Translate the second word into Pig Latin to name what your generous and neighborly
next-door neighbor may say to you regarding the removal of the ugly clump of garbage in your backyard across the fence from him.

What is this ugly clump of garbage?

What is the relatively small garbage receptacle?

What may the next-door neighbor say?

MENU

Riffing Off Shortz And Bass Slices:

“Bide my time... I’ll get to Phonics!”

Will Shortz’s August 30th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle challenge, created by Ben Bass of Chicago, Illinois, reads:

Think of a state capital and say it out loud.
Change one vowel sound in it to name something many schoolkids study. What things are these?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Bass Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Battery Energy Storage Systems face primary risks centered around thermal runaway, where damaged or overheated lithium-ion cells spark hard-to-extinguish fires, release toxic gases like hydrogen fluoride, and carry a potential for delayed reignition. As a result, a number of environmentalists seek to  _ _ _  _ _ _ _.

Transpose the two vowels in the words in the blanks to name a puzzle-maker.

What are the words in the blanks?

Who is the puzzle-maker?

(Note: Entrees #2 through #7 are clever creations created by our friend Nodd, composer of “Nodd ready for prime time” on Puzzleria!)

ENTREE #2

Anagram a state capital to spell a word for something kids may be provided with at school.

What is this state capital? With what may kids be provided?

ENTREE #3

Name a state capital. The name contains two letters that are consecutive in the alphabet, though not in the name. 

Replace those with two other consecutive letters of the alphabet. 

Rearrange to spell a subject kids typically study in school.

ENTREE #4

Think of a state capital that ends in the two-letter abbreviation for a different state.  

Replace the abbreviation with a single letter.

Insert a space somewhere to name what a kid at an exclusive prep school might have.

ENTREE #5

Think of a state capital and move one letter
one place earlier in the alphabet. 

Rearrange to spell something that may interfere with kids’ learning in school. 

ENTREE #6

The name of a state capital contains five consecutive letters that can be rearranged to spell a word for something used extensively
for teaching in schools. 

What are the capital and word?

ENTREE #7

Remove one letter from a state capital to spell a subject that may be studied in school, but
usually only in very advanced science classes. 

What are the capital and subject?

(Note: Entree #8 is is the brainchild of our friend <b>Plantsmith</b>, masterful composer of “Garden of Puzzley Delights” on Puzzleria!)

ENTREE #8:

Take a U.S. state name. Oregon

Replace its last letter with the postal abbreviation of a second state.

Replace a perfectly symmetrical lowercase letter with an “a”. Replace the third letter with a “tittled” letter. The result spells an art form.

What are this state, second state, perfectly symmetrical lowercase letter, “tittled” letter and art form?

ENTREE #9

Think of a state capital and say it aloud. Change one vowel sound in it to name a subject that prospective physicians study as post-graduates.

What is this state capital?

What do prospective physicians study?

Dessert Menu

Befuddlingly Muddled “Blank-Verse” Dessert:

A Two-Couplet-Four-Car Hellbound Quatrain

A poem I composed about clear and clean _ _ _ _

From ethereal heights fell to depths more _ _ _ _ _ _ _.

There, it mingled with me, where its sense I could _ _ _ _ _ _

And render its ending profound as a _ _ _ _ _ _!

Fill in the blanks with whatever words seem to work for you.

The words that seemed to work for me contain
4,7,6 and 6 letters. If you find them, fine...

But I would prefer to see your words. They need not rhyme.

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.

“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.