Words, in a word; Cut!; The Name’s the same; Disorder in the court; Poetry Corner with Anna Graham; Singer-Songwrighteous Brothers; Instrument... or “in-strumpet?” Javelin? Jackknife? Jar of Jam? Fight or Flight? AlphaBeethoven-Baked Puzzle-Poem;

 PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Javelin? Jackknife? Jar of Jam?

Rearrange the combined letters of two William Shakespearean play titles to spell a weapon and a synonym of “preserve.”

This weapon and this synonym each appear but once in Shakespeare’s oeuvre (in two histories, both with “Henry” in the title).

What are this weapon and this synonym of “preserve?”

What are these two play titles?

Appetizer Menu

A Much-Better-Than-A-Wink Appetizer:

Words, in a word; Cut!; The Name’s the same; Disorder in the court; Poetry Corner with Anna Graham;

WORDS, IN A WORD

1. 👚🥫👟Think of a word that can be a noun, verb, or adjective. 

The first three letters spell an article of clothing; the first four letters spell a food; the last four letters spell part of a shoe; the middle three letters spell the past tense of a common verb; and the last three letters spell a word that appears in this puzzle. What are these six words?

CUT!

2. 🎥📖 What film title is only half as long as the title of the book it is based on?

THE NAME’S THE SAME

3. ⚾🎾A baseball player won the World Series as both a player and manager for the same team. 

A tennis player of the same first and last names won the NCAA championship as both a player and coach for the same team. 

DISORDER IN THE COURT

4. 🔥🐟🥔What former tennis star...

(1) might not remember to show up for a match?

(2) might like fly fishing in the Shenandoah Valley?

(3) should work for UPS? 

(4) might be a couch potato?

(5) might be dangerous in the water?

(6) might put aromatic blossoms on his fence? 

Hint: Except for the first, they are all in the International Tennis Hall of Fame. 

POETRY CORNER, WITH ANNA GRAHAM

5. 🎕Fill in the blanks with words that are anagrams of one another to complete the verse.

She _____ the _____ she _____ from gardens
lush,

The cheeks upon her _____ frame shyly blush,

Should any _____ seek to _____ this verse,

Let vengeance’s _____ dispatch them for the worse.

MENU

Period Piece Hors d’Oeuvre:

Fight or Flight?

Write a pair of two-word captions for the two illustrations that accompany the text of this puzzle. 

Interchange the initial consonants in either one of the captions to spell the two words in the other caption. One of the words in one of the captions is an abbreviation (as you can tell by the period.)

What are these two captions?

Hint: 17 and 39

National Public Rascoe Slice:

AlphaBeethoven-Baked Puzzle-Poem

Take the Ninth, take the Fifth, the Fifth turned on its head,

Drop a “double-u sound,” like a bug from a bed...

But Beethoven? No! You ’ll get ______ instead!

Fill in the blank. It contains six letters (and three syllables).

Riffing Off Shortz And Dimichele Slices: 

Singer-Songwrighteous Brothers

Will Shortz’s March 8th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Donn Dimichele of Redlands, California, reads:

Name a famous musical duo. Remove four consecutive letters of the duo’s name and phonetically you’ll name a famous nonmusical duo. Who are they?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Dimichele Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Name a prolific puzzle-maker, first and last names. 

Remove three interior letters that are an anagram of a farm creature that is  provided with a home (actually a “house”). 

The remaining letters are an anagram of either one of the two two-word terms that are correct answers in the “six-circle illustration” at the left:

~ a term (beginning with an “m” and an “i”) that describes the cloud, and

~ a term (beginning with an “m” and a “c”) that describes the quarter.

What is the farm creature?

What are this pair of two-word terms?

Who is the prolific puzzle-maker?

(Note: The next six Entrees, #2 through #7, are creations from Nodd, who notes that the names of the duos in some of the answers are sometimes preceded by “The.” Ignore the “The” in solving.)

ENTREE #2

Think of a famous comedy duo. 

Their last name, minus the first letter, is a synonym of the nickname of another famous comedian. 

Who are the duo and the comedian? 

ENTREE #3

Name a famous musical duo in two words. Remove the last letter from the first word and rearrange the remaining letters of that word. 

The rearranged first word, followed by the second word, is the former name of a major consumer goods company. Who are the duo and what is the company? What is their name?

ENTREE #4

Name a famous musical duo. The last name of one, with a letter removed, is a food. 

The combined last names of both, with two letters removed, can be rearranged to spell another food. 

Who are the duo and what are the foods?

ENTREE #5 

Two comedy duos and a tech duo each had a member with the same last name. 

Who are these three duos?

ENTREE #6

The two-word name of a musical duo anagrams to the first name of an Indian actress and model and the last name of an American actress and singer. The Indian actress is deceased; the American actress is still living. Who are the duo and the two actresses?

ENTREE #7

Take the last names of two co-creators of a famous Broadway show featuring rock music. 

Remove two letters, and rearrange the rest to spell a word that often describes fans of rock musicians. 

Who are the co-creators, and what is the word?

ENTREE #8

“The magician ____ a ____ within his fist. After unclenching, his palm revealed a ____.” 

Each missing word contains four letters. Double the last letter of one of them. Rearrange these 13 combined missing letters to spell the first and last names of a prolific puzzle-maker.

Who is it?

What are the three missing words?

ENTREE #9

Name a famous two-word musical “girl group” duo that began as a trio. Then name a two-word rapper whose first word consists of letters that, when spelled out, are a synonym of “host for a program of entertainment.” The second words of the group and the rapper, together without a space, spell a “tool wielded with two hands.” 

The combined 8 letters of the first words, if you remove a letter that appears twice, are an anagram of a word for a “standard of measurement.”

Who are this girl group and rapper?

What are the “two-hand-held tool” and “standard of measurement?”

ENTREE #10

Use two words to name a pair of 19th-Century folklorists who collected, revised and published medieval legends and fairy tales. 

Name, also in two words, a popular 20th-Century psychologist who, via radio, television, print and other media, offered advice on child rearing, love, marriage, sex, etc.

The first word of the folklorists is the same as the second word of the psychologist. The first 80% of the folklorists’ second word (an adjective) and the first 60% of the psychologist’s first word (a noun) would form an oxymoron if placed side-by-side.

Who are these folklorists and this psychologist? What is the oxymoron?

Dessert Menu

Risqué  Dessert:

Instrument... or “In-strumpet?”

Replace a vowel in a musical instrument with the next vowel in the alphabet. 

Remove the fourth letter, leaving a space.
Switch the order of the two resulting words.

The result is a two-word term for risqué remote conversations.

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.

SuperZee's Imposing Posers! Who’s Afraid of Virgin Wool? Frozen Homophonic Fishin’ Scandalized, banned, manhandled! What cattle do (and a cat’ll do); Drawn and Quartered?

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Frozen Homophonic Fishin’

Take a pair of homophones, in six and five letters. Remove from each an identical pair of adjacent letters (like the “ri” in “write” and “right,” for example). 

What remains after those four letters are removed are seven different consonants. Add three vowels to this mix, then rearrange the result to spell what anglers might catch in a frozen lake and a tool they might use to gain access to the lake so that they can hook and haul in their very-coldwater catch.  

What are these homophones, this catch and this tool?

Appetizer Menu:

Eight Brainbreaking “Appeteasers:”

SuperZee’s Imposing Zarkinian Posers!

1. 📻Start with a two-word phrase (in seven and three letters) that one might see on the agenda for a business gathering.

Then, rearrange its letters for when and why one tunes in to NPR on Sunday morning.

2. 🙅🙈🙉🙊Rearrange the letters in a term describing a religious period, to get something some might consider sinfully good.

3. 🐈Rearrange the name of a famous American of the past to get:

A) a term some might use to describe a current figure, and

B) a affliction feared by cat owners.

4. 📰Take the given name of a person in the news. 

Rearrange it to get someone he/she may be spending a lot of time with.

5. ⚽Rearrange the title of a sports personality, to get what some fans think of his/her acts.

6. 🏈Take the name of a device cherished by some sports fans, rearrange to get how they like to use it.

7. 🐕🐹Imagine you were standing in front of
a collection of mirrors. 

Rearrange how you might describe the
experience to get a beloved pet.

8. 🏅Take a term describing an Olympic athlete; rearrange to get how his/her body might feel after competing.

MENU

BoFeVineLine Hors d’Oeuvre:

What cattle do (& a cat’ll do)

1st: Name something some cattle do.

2nd: Replace the final letter with a “w” to get what these cattle do – in effect, more or less – when they graze.

3rd: Replace the second letter of that second word with an “e” to get what a cat will do. 

4th: If you instead replace not the second letter but rather the first letter of that second word, you will again get something that some cattle do.

What are these four words?

Not-So-Nice Slice:

Scandalized, banned and manhandled!

Spoonerize the two-word name of a scandalous chapter in the annals of a professional sports to get what sounds like two terms from a different sport. 

Those two terms might be yelled, for example, by an exasperated coach: “A ____ ensues if nobody ______!” (although the coach would likely not use the verb “ensue”)

What is the two-word name of this scandalous chapter in sports, and what are these two sports-related terms?

Riffing Off Shortz And Michaels Slices:

Who’s Afraid of Virgin Wool?

Will Shortz’s March 1st NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Andrea Carla Michaels of San Francisco, California, reads:

Name a famous 20th century writer. Remove the last two letters of the first name and the last letter of the last name. The result will name a clothing material. What is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Michaels Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Louisa May Alcott, Katherine Anne Porter and  Laura Ingalls Wilder are a trio of talented, triply-named female authors. 

Take a triply-named female puzzle-maker. The first three letters of her middle name spell the first word of a two-word profession. 

To spell the second word of the profession,
take the 1st, 6th, 3rd, 4th, 5th letters of her surname, followed by the 2nd letter of her first name, followed by the 2nd and 3rd letters of her surname. 

Who is this puzzle-maker?

What is the profession?

Note: Entrees #2 through #7 are composed and contributed to Puzzleria! by our friend Nodd, author of “Nodd ready for prime time.”

ENTREE #2

Name a famous 19th-20th century English novelist and poet. 

The last two letters of this author’s middle name, followed without a space by the last name, spell a clothing material. 

Who is the writer and what is the material?

ENTREE #3

Take the last name of the writer in the preceding Entree. 

Add the first three letters of the first name of a famous 19th-20th century female American author. 

Rearrange to name a clothing material. 

Who are the writers and what is the material?

ENTREE #4

Name a famous 18th-19th century writer, first and last names. 

Rearrange the letters to name the first name of a former U.S. Poet Laureate and a clothing material. 

Who are the writer and poet, and what is the material?

ENTREE #5

Take the first and last names of the 18th-19th century writer in the preceding Entree and change the fourth letter of the last name to a D. 

Rearrange to spell the last name of a famous 20th century poet and an article of clothing. 

Who are the writers, and what is the article of clothing?

ENTREE #6

Think of two famous American writers, both of whom lived during the 19th and 20th centuries. Take the first name of the pen name of one, plus the last name of the other. 

There will be a duplicate letter as a result; remove one instance of it. 

Rearrange the remaining letters to name a clothing material. Who are the writers, and what is the material?

ENTREE #7

Take the last name of an award-winning 20th-21st century American author who was known for his writings about the African American experience. 

Between the second and third letters, insert a word for a type of poet. The result will name certain clothing materials. 

Who is the author, and what are the type of poet and the materials? 

Note: Entree #8 is composed and contributed to Puzzleria! by our friend Plantsmith, author of “Garden of Puzzley Delights.”

ENTREE #8

Name a 20th-Century American-British novelist. 

Remove letters 4 and 7 from the first name and the first letter from of the last name. The result is a haberdashery professional who specializes in working with a particular kind of material.

Who is this writer?

ENTREE #9

Name an author. Place a space within the first name and a question mark after it. Delete the middle name. 

Then, in the surname, transpose adjacent vowels, replace the first letter with a “D” and place an exclamation mark at the end.

The result is a three-word comment perhaps overheard at a truck stop (perhaps even at the “Cordial Teahouse” truck stop!) 

Who is this author?

What is the comment?

ENTREE #10

Name an author who lived more than a century, was a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine and served many years as one of its editors. He had been dubbed a “Babe Ruth” of sportswriters.

From his first name, delete the first letter, then transpose the last two letters. The result is a horrible, frighteningly monstrous demon. 

From the author’s surname, remove the last letter. The result is a compassionate and kindhearted heavenly creature.

Who is this author?

What are the demon and heavenly creature?

Dessert Menu

Pigmentary Dessert:

Drawn and Quartered?

Remove consecutive letters that spell a color from a longer word for a second color. 

Remove a letter from what remains and rearrange to spell a third color. 

Add an “o” to a noun that appears intact within the original color and rearrange the result slightly to spell a fourth color. 

What are these four colors?

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.

Decrepit Car: Contemporary Character, Anagram Plantation, Prophesying Profitability? Three Species; Anagramable Lifesavers; Bad Bunny: Bummer of a Slumber! Seldom seen or seen more? Limerick ’bout a Lexicon; No watering required

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Limerick ’bout a Lexicon

Fill in the three blanks in the limerick below with words of 9 letters, 8 letters, and about 14-or-so letters: 

Peg, a speed-reading abecedarian,

Begged a lexicon from her _________,

Began *scanning at “aardvark,”

Never needing a ________...

Ergo, now she’s an “______________!”

* (See: verb, definition 2b)

(Note: The word in third blank, no matter how you spell it, is one that Peg will not find in the dictionary... nor will you, alas.)

Appetizer Menu

Conundrumbstruck By Chuck Appetizer:

Three Species; Prophesying Profitability? Anagram Plantation; Decrepit
Car... Contemporary Character

Three Species

1. 🐼🐦🐟Think of a species of mammals in 8 letters. 

Without rearranging, delete the name of another species of animals in consecutive letters. 

Add a  P to the remainder and rearrange to name yet another species of animals. Name all three.

Prophesying Profitability?

2. 🏬Name a well-known company in 4 letters whose business activities go up and down in the short run but are profitable in the long run. Then add an “h”  to its name, rearrange, and identify one of its essential activities. 

What’s the company? 

What’s the essential activity?

Anagram Plantation

3. 🏭🪴

The brand name of one grocery item anagrams perfectly with the name of another
grocery item. 

One is made in a plant, the other is a plant. 

Identify the brand name and the plant

Decrepit Car... Contemporary Character

4. 🚗A classic old car and a modern movie character are called by the same 5-letter name. 

What is it?

MENU

“Thirstfree” Hors d’Oeuvre:

No watering required

Remove the first two letters from a synonym of “watering” and move the third-last letter to the end. 

The result is a food that requires no watering, planting or harvesting. 

What are this synonym and food?

Beach Blanket Slice:

Seldom seen or seen more?

“One seldom shall see 

a _____ in the ___...

But a _____ on the shore?

... Not just one, many more!”

(and beach blankets galore!)

~ 1st blank: an anagram of a synonym of the word in the second blank...

~ 2nd blank: a homophone of a non-blank word in the poem...

~ 3rd blank: a word that is one-letter-different from another word in the poem...

What are the three missing words?

Riffing Off Shortz And VanMechelen Entrees:

Bad Bunny: Bummer of a Slumber!

Will Shortz’s February 22nd National Public Radio Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Greg VanMechelen of Berkeley, California, reads:

Name something you don’t want to have at night using two words (3,5). Shift each of the letters of the second word nine spaces later in the alphabet. If your count reaches the end of the alphabet, continue counting from the start. The result will name a famous singer.

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And VanMechelen Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

Move the first four letters of a puzzle-maker’s name 8 places later in the alphabet (that is, ROT-8 those letters). The result begins with where Dorothy ventures via yellow bricks and
ends with the postal code of the state across the Mississippi from her home state.

ROT-14 the next 3 letters in the name to get a general 3-letter word for a specific 3-syllable profession that is spelled by the last 75% of a pseudonym this puzzle-maker uses.

ROT-6 the next 4 letters in the name to get an organ that accounts for about 15% of a person’s total body weight. 

ROT-10 the fourth-last-though-penultimate and ROT-10 the antepenultimate-through-final letters in the name to get a 3-letter egg and a 3-letter voice.

Who is the puzzle-maker?

Where does Dorothy venture? What is the postal code location of the state adjacent to her home state?

What is the puzzlemaker’s pseudonym?

(Note: Entrees #2 through #7 were created and contributed by our friend Nodd, author of Puzzleria!s recurring “Nodd ready for prime time” feature.)

ENTREE #2

Name a three-letter term for something that may happen during sleep. Double the last letter and
add a J. Move these five letters nine places earlier in the alphabet and rearrange to get the first name of a famous deceased singer.

Now name something in five letters that may keep you awake at night. Move the fourth letter four places later in the alphabet. Then move all five letters, using the changed fourth letter, six places earlier in the alphabet. Rearrange the letters to get the last name of the singer.

What may happen during sleep, what may keep you awake, and who is the singer?

ENTREE #3

Name something in three letters that a child may take to bed. Add to the beginning of this word a two-letter rating given to films that may be suitable for children. Move all of the letters six places earlier in the alphabet to get the first name of a famous deceased singer.

Now name a six-letter bedding material. Move the first letter six places earlier in the alphabet to get the last name of the singer.

What may a child take to bed, what are the film rating and the bedding material, and who is the singer?

ENTREE #4

Name something in five letters that a child may take to bed. 

Move the first four letters ten places later in the alphabet, but leave the fifth letter as it is. 

You’ll get the first name of a famous singer.

Now name a four-letter word meaning sleepy. Double the third letter and add an X. Move these six letters 11 places earlier in the alphabet and rearrange to get the singer’s last name.

What may a child take to bed, what is the word meaning sleepy, and who is the singer?

ENTREE #5

Name something in two words of six and four letters that may keep you awake at night. 

Move the first five letters of the first word six places later in the alphabet and replace the last letter with the postal abbreviation of a Western US state. Rearrange to spell a musical genre that was popular during the 1950s to mid-1960s.

Now remove the last letter of the second word and move the remaining letters 14 places later in the alphabet to get a second musical genre.

What may keep you awake, and what are the musical genres?

ENTREE #6

Name a five-letter word for something that may keep you awake. 

Move the letters 13 places later in the alphabet to name a fictional institution that was featured in a 1978 film that also featured a fictional musical group. What may keep you awake, and what are the institution and musical group?

ENTREE #7

Name, in alphabetical order, two things you might find on a girl’s bed, ten letters total. Move the third and fourth letters ten places earlier in the alphabet. 

Move the sixth letter four places later in the alphabet. The result will name a famous deceased singer. 

What are the two things and who is the singer?

Note: Entrees #8 and #9 are were created by our friend Plantsmith, author of Puzzleria!s “Garden of Puzzley Delights.” 

ENTREE #8

Take a two-word experience you don’t want to have at night. 

Drop one instance of a letter that is repeated. 

Mix it up to get a two-word description of a particular singer during a 1991 concert in Utah. 

What are the two-word experience and two-word description of the singer?

ENTREE #9

Name something, in words of 3 and 5 letters, that you don’t want to have at night.

Move the first letter of the first word so that it replaces the first letter of the second word. Add an “s” to first word, and drop last letter from the second word. Remix the letters of each altered word to get a two-word description of  a country singer during her March 1991 concert tour. 

What are the two descriptive words? Who is the singer?

Note: Entree #10 is a “self-riff” created by our friend Ecoarchitect, author of “Econfusions” on Puzzleria! and also author of this week’s National Public Radio’s “Weekend Edition Sunday Puzzle.”

ENTREE #10

Name a well-known fictional character from the 19th Century.  

Remove 5th and 6th letters from the first name, then add a letter to the front.  The result
will be the first and last name of a well-known singer from the 20th Century.  

Who are the character and the singer?  

Added bonus: Both hailed from the same state.

Dessert Menu

Maritime Dessert:

Anagramable Lifesavers

Anagram the 13 letters of a life-saving device to spell a two-word simulated emergency exercise that promotes maritime safety. 

What are this pair of potential life-savers?

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.