Pouring “t” into Proper Porcelain; Three coins... and a’countin’; Patrick Berry’s Celebrity “Webitry” Auld Lang Lullabyin’; Frequent contractions lead to new life;

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/21 SERVED

Schpuzzle Of The Week:
Frequent contractions lead to new life

Name a food that reputedly promotes longevity of life, in eight letters. 
Divide the word in two and place a frequently used contraction (without the apostrophe) between these two parts to form a phrase associated with the beginning of life. 
What is this phrase?

Appetizer Menu

“All Righty, Then!”  Appetizer:
Patrick Berry’s Celebrity “Webitry”

Can you unravel the labyrinthine  “web of celebrity,” below, spun by master puzzle-weaver Patrick J. Berry?
The creator of a decades-old children’s “edutainment” franchise shares a last name with an award-winning actress.
The first name of this creator’s long-time “righthand man” (let’s call him “Righty”) is the middle name of a well-known children’s author. Righty’s last name is the last word in the title of a celebrated book by this author.
Righty, who is also a director and actor, provided the voice for a wise and powerful figure in a successful movie franchise. 
The aforementioned award-winning actress stars in a current television series. (The title of her series is a word in the title of the movie in which Righty’s “wise figure” first appeared.) The first name of her character is the first word of a two-word creature portrayed by Righty. The last name of the actress’s character, when pronounced out loud, is the second word of a two-word creature in the book by the aforementioned children’s author. This creature was portrayed in a movie version of the book by an actor who shares a first name with another of Righty’s portrayals. Righty also portrayed a creature whose first name begins with Righty’s first name’s initial plus his entire last name.

1. Who is “Righty”? 
2. Who are the actress and the children’s “edutainment” franchise creator who share a last name?
3. Who is the children’s author, and what is that author’s celebrated book? 
4. What are the  actress’s TV series and her character’s name? 
5. In what movie did Righty’s “wise figure” first appear?
6. Who is the creature in a movie version of the author’s celebrated book, and who is the actor who portrayed that creature? 
7. What are the names of the figure and three other creatures that Righty portrayed?

MENU

Have A Spot Of Alphabet Soup Slice:
Pouring “t” into Proper Porcelain

Name a proper noun closely associated with a certain profession. 
Alphabetize the letters of this noun and change the capital letter of the noun to lowercase. 
Add a “t” somewhere within this result to name members of this profession. 
Who are these professionals?
Hint: Placing the “t” within the result disrupted the perfect alphabetical order of that result. The alphabetical order would have remained intact had the “t” been added at the end.

Riffing Off Shortz Slices:
Three coins... and a’countin’

Will Shortz’s December 23rd  NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle reads:
It’s a straightforward puzzle. Think of a place you can find coins, in two words. Put the second word first, and you’ll get a compound word describing most holiday cards. What words are these?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz Slices read:


ENTREE #1:

Think of a place you can find coins, in two words of four and five letters, as depicted by the image here. 
Put the second word first, and you’ll get a compound word describing many holiday cards. 
What words are these? 

ENTREE #2:
Think of a place you can find coins, in two words. 
Double the first letter of the first word.
Put the second word first and place a space between the doubled letters. 
You’ll get a part of a piece of game equipment that caused the game to be banned in Canada and the United States.
What words are these?

ENTREE #3:
Think of a place you can find coins, in two words. 
Rearrange the letters in the words to describe, in two words, certain Senators during 1968. 
What is this place where can you find coins? 
What is the description of the Senators? 

ENTREE #4:
Think of a place you can find a flippable coin, in two words. 
Remove an apostrophe from the first word and put the second word first. 
You’ll get the names of handbooks, in two words. This handbook has been called “the oracle of all things do-it-yourself.” 
What place is this? 
What are these handbooks titled?

ENTREE #5:
Think of a place you might find coins, in two words. Rearrange the ten combined letters in these two words and you’ll get a synonym of “receive” and the past tense of another synonym of “receive.” 
What place is this? What are these synonyms?

ENTREE #6: 
Think of a place you can find coins, in two words. 
Switch the first two letters of the first word with the first two letters of the second word. You’ll get two adjectives, each which describes the apparel pictured in the image here. 
What is this place coins are found? 
What are these two adjectives?

ENTREE #7:
Think of a place you can find coins. It consists of a 12-letter possessive noun and a 10-letter noun.
Remove COINS from this place... (You may not want to do this, but you might be in a situation where you need to buy something.) Also remove the letters in a 4-letter word for what you need to know so that you know how many coins to remove to buy what you need to buy. 
Now, add a coin-shaped letter (plus the letter preceding it in the alphabet) to the 13 letters that remain. 
Rearrange these 15 letters and you’ll get a two-word phrase, in 10 and 5 letters, describing an activity many people around the world were engaged in during New Year’s Eve 19 years ago. 
What is this place you can find coins? 
In what activity were many people engaged 19 years ago?

ENTREE #8:
Think of a container where you can sometimes find coins, in two words of six and four letters. This container is sometimes placed on a downtown sidewalk. 
The primary function of this container is transporting an object with strings attached. Rearrange the combined letters of the words of the container to name, in two words of four and six letters, what the container becomes when its owner closes and totes it after an extremely profitable day – indeed, a day so profitable that the container is so packed with cash that there is no longer any room in the container to put the object with strings attached! 
What is this container, and what does it sometimes become?

ENTREE #9:
Think of a place you can find coins, in three words. 
Rearrange the 13 combined letters of the three words to form a two-word term for male mail carriers who, like the fictional Cliff Clavin, sometimes engage in silly or foolish behavior. 
The two-word phrase consists of a a 6-letter noun used as a modifier and a 7-letter noun. 
What is this place coins can be found? 
What is the two-word term for these silly mail carriers?

Dessert Menu

Iambic Tetrameter Dessert:
Auld Lang Lullabyin’

“Now hush, my darlings, drift to sleep...
Make murmurs, coos, but not _ ____.”


Solve for the missing words (of one and four letters) in the above lullaby couplet that parents might sing to their young’uns. 
Move each of the five letters the same number of places ahead in the alphabet* to form five new letters. 

Capitalize all five and rearrange them to form something soon-to-be timely. 

What is it?

* For example, B moved five places ahead in the alphabet becomes G.

Every Friday 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.

’Tis better to give than to deceive; Fast food flies from slow cookers; Holiday hint is Haydn in plain sight; Conundrums under the tree; Pastries on Earth to Shoppers of Goodwill; Ladies deliver belles lettres (“The 12 Maze of Xmas”); The ghostly shape of Christmas Present

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/21 SERVED


Schpuzzle Of The Week:
Fast food flies from slow cookers

Take a homophone of a dish served on a chilly day. 
Place within it what the dish is often cooked in. 
The result names a fast-food chain in one word. 
What is this dish and what is this chain?

Appetizer Menu

Cosmopolitan Christmas Appetizer:
Holiday hint Haydn in plain sight

Name the nationality of a composer associated with Christmas music. 
Switch the two syllables of this nationality to form a word in the title of a Christmas carol popular in the land he adopted after coming of age. 
What’s the word in the carol’s title?
Who is the composer?
Hint: Within the text of this puzzle is hidden, in plain sight, an anagram of the composer’s last name.  

From: Mathew... To: Puzzlerians! Appetizer:
Conundrums under the tree 

🥁1. Think of a former politician, first and last names, total of nine letters. The first three letters name a television character, the middle three describe what an elected politician did to hold office, and the last three name a popular children’s toy.

🥁2. Think of an historical figure, first and last names. Remove five letters to name a type of anthropomorphic toy you might find beneath a Christmas tree.

🥁3. Think of a two-word phrase to describe a choir member (in six letters) who may perform, for example, at a Christmas concert. Rearrange into a word meaning “showy”.

🥁4. Think of a common object with a distinctive shape, in five letters. Shift each letter seven places later in the alphabet to name a class of children’s toys.

🥁5. Think of a word that is both a type of food and a salutation associated with celebrities. 
Shift the first letter two places later in the alphabet to get another word that is also a type of food and also a salutation associated often with celebratory holiday gatherings of family and friends.

MENU

Ugly Sweater Slice:
’Tis better to give than to deceive

If you are what this eight-letter word says you are, you may experience a twinge of regret if your Uncle Jude from Virginia, after opening his Christmas gift from you (an ugly virgin wool Christmas sweater), looks chagrined. Indeed, your uncle may look even more chagined if as he opens your gift he experiences a twinge of deja vu, which would confirm that he himself was what this eight-letter word says he was... exactly one year ago!
What is this eight-letter word?
What is the hidden anagram of the eight-letter word? (See Hint #1, immediately below.)
Hint #1: Within the text of this puzzle is hidden an anagram of the eight-letter word. 
Hint #2: the eight-letter word is sometimes hyphenated.

Riffing Off Shortz And Young Slices:
Ladies deliver belles lettres 
(“The 12 Maze of Xmas”)

Will Shortz’s December 16th  NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle was created by Joseph Young of St. Cloud, Minnesota, who conducts the blog Puzzleria! It reads:

Think of two words meaning “certain groups of females.” If you have the right ones, you can rearrange all the letters to name a famous novel by a female writer. The title has 13 letters in total. What novel is it?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Young Slices read:

ENTREE #1:
Think of a caption for the image pictured here, in a 8-letter noun used as a modifier and 7-letter plural noun. If you have the right caption, you can rearrange all 15 letters to name the title of a famous novel. What novel is it?

ENTREE #2:
Think of two words – one associated with a male bovine animal and the other associated with a female bovine animal. 
Rearrange the letters in each word and place the results next to each other to form the title of an acclaimed novel. 
The title has eight letters in total. What novel is it?

ENTREE #3:
The phrase “act of good writing” might apply to a novel, short story, essay, poem or play. Remove one letter from the phrase and rearrange the remainder to form a title of a well known play, in three words. What play is it?

ENTREE #4:
A team of Jehovah’s Witnesses takes a break from neighborhood door-to-door ministry on a sweltering summer’s day. 
They notice a makeshift cold drink stand nearby, staffed by a pair of pre-adolescent entrepreneurs, and order two drinks. 
One Witness takes a taste and puckers up... not to kiss but to cuss (if he weren’t a Jehovah’s Witness, that is). Anyway, through puckered lips he exclaims: “This ________ __ too sour!” 
Rearrange the combined ten letters in those two blanks to form the title of a novel, in two words, written by the playwright in ENTREE #3, above. 
What is this novel’s title?

ENTREE #5
Think of two words – an amphibian bug-eater and a wading fish-eater. 
If you have the right ones, you can rearrange all the letters to name a somewhat famous novel by an American writer. 
The title has 3 words consisting of 9 letters in total. 
What novel is it?
Hint: The three words of the title are the first three words of the title of a county hit song.

ENTREE #6
It’s Saturday in Dodge, poker night. The boys is drinkin’, dealin’, biddin’, raisin’, holdin’ and foldin’. 
In the middle of a hand, Doc Holiday’s meat hook of a hand suddenly clamps down like a bear trap on Soapy Smith’s wrist, just as Soapy is surreptitiously palming an ace of spades sleight-of-handily from inside his right sleeve.
“N___  t__,  c______!” Doc bellows with sardonic sarcasm as he nudges Soapy’s snout with the the un-sub-nosed snout of his Colt 45.
Add an “h” to the 14 letters of what Doc bellowed, and rearrange the result to form the four-word title of a famous novel. What novel is it?
Hint: A homophone of a word in the text of this puzzle is the first name of the novel’s protagonist.

ENTREE #7
Those 365-pages-a-year calendars-in-a-box make great last-minute Christmas gifts... you know, the ones you place on your bedside or kitchen table so that you can be greeted each morning with a different new word, Bible verse, brain teaser, crossword puzzle, word origin, trivia tidbit, or other fun fact. 
Speaking of fun facts, legend has it that an “Eli” (who was a professor of English Renaissance literature, a university president and Commissioner of Major League Baseball) gave one particular such calendar to each of his friends as Christmas gifts. And so, 365 times during the following year, these recipients of were treated to a d____ s_____ (a 5-letter adjective and 6-letter noun, the first syllables of which rhyme).
Rearrange those 11 letters to form the title of a great novel, in four words. What is this novel?

ENTREE #8
Think of two verbs, each indicating what a manicurist might do to your nails.  
If you have the right ones, you can rearrange all the letters to name an ought-to-be famous novel by a multilingual writer. 
The title has 8 letters in total. 
What novel is this?

ENTREE #9
Don’t write a caption for the image shown here. 
Instead, just describe what the image is, in four words of 1, 7, 7 and 5 letters, beginning with an A, P, A and P (an article, adjective, noun and noun). 
Take those 20 letters, remove a D, and rearrange the rest to form the 4-word title of a novel with a bird in its title. 
What is this novel?

ENTREE #10
The answer to each of the ten clues below can be formed from a pool of ten different letters of the alphabet. Solve as many of the clues as you can to determine the letters in this pool, then form the name of a puzzle maker, first and last names, using nine of the letters just once and one of the letters twice. The number of letters in each answer is given in parentheses at the end of each clue.
1. A compulsive desire fans might have for singers Tom or Davy, or for David (keeping in mind his surname at birth) (5) 
2. Word connected by a hyphen to a homophone of Mrs. Ricardo or Miss van Pelt (6) 
3. Syllable sung at midnight that is a homophone of a synonym of “omen”(4) 
4. Best word to describe telemarketing fraud? (6) 
5. “Christmas day ______, feast of all peoples...,” according to John Victor (6) 
6.  Ed’s reaction to the music of the composer of “Music for Airports” (3) was an informal exclamation of disgust! (3)... After listening for a while, he had all he could take, and cried  “______!”  (6) 
(The 6-letter word in the blank is formed by placing the 3 and 3 side-by-side.) 
7. Father of Tony and the Tiger Hunt (5) 
8. Word preceding “moon” and “comb” in compound words (5) 
9. First word in a tribute album ending with “... Every Sandwich” (5) 
10. Title of a novel in an “Asian Saga” (6) 

ENTREE #11
Solve the three clues below. 
Rearrange the combined letters in the answers to form the first and last names of a puzzle maker. The number of letters in each answer is given in parentheses at the end of each clue.
1. Word in the title of a beloved Christmas carol (3)
2. How it’s nice to be nestled, according to Clement Clarke Moore (4)
3. A line in a Christmas poem by Maya Angelou reads: 
“Streaming lights of joy, ringing bells of ___” (4)
What are the clue answers, and who is the puzzle maker?

ENTREE #12
Name a member of both the College Football Hall of Fame and Pro Football Hall of Fame. 
This  athlete played college football under two of the most famous football coaches in history: Pop Warner and John Heisman, for whom the Heisman Trophy is named. 
He was also a teammate of the legendary athlete Jim Thorpe, both in college and professionally.
This athlete shares his first name with a puzzle maker, and you can rearrange the letters in his last name to form the last name of that puzzle maker. 
The athlete was a native Minnesotan and American Indian from the Ojibwa (Chippewa) tribe. The  puzzle maker was born and reared in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.
Who are this  athlete and puzzle maker? 

Dessert Menu

Decorative Dessert:
The ghostly shape of Christmas Present

Name a Christmas decoration in two words. 
The first word describes a larger Christmas decoration, in two words, and the second word describes the shapes of both decorations. 
What are these small and large decorations?

Bijou And Trinket Dessert:
Pastries on Earth to shoppers of Goodwill

Bijou buys batter-fried apple cakes from a bakery, then stops by a Goodwill outlet to pick up trinkets and used clothing. 
Rearrange the letters in the 2-word 11-letter cakes to form a 2-word synonym for the Goodwill outlet.
What are these cakes? 
What is this synonym?

Every Friday 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.

“See you in the funny papers” Thespian theaters: The pains, the tears...; Washing on monuments; "Here's looking at you, Karate Kid" Tiquettee Table

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/21 SERVED

Schpuzzle Of The Week:
“See you in the funny papers”


Name a comic strip character in two words. Adding the same letter to the beginning of each word forms two new words. 
Rearranging the combined letters in those new words spells a service, in two words, with eight colorful triangles in its logo. 
What is the service? 
Who is this comic strip character? 

Appetizer Menu

Unbeatable Conundrums Appetizer:
Thespian theaters: The pains, the tears... 

🥁1. Start with a synonym for urge. 
Add an S to get a slang term for circumstances. Add a T to get a word used in a proverb about preparation. 
Add an R to get the last name of a stage actress.

🥁2. Think of an actor, four and four letters. Shift the letters of his last name twelve places forward in the alphabet to describe his physical appearance.

🥁3. Rearrange the nonsense phrase “go greet IKEA” into an actor’s name.

🥁4. Name an actor, first and last names, two and six letters. Replace the last three letters with an A to name a domesticated animal in one word.

🥁5. Think of a contemporary actress. Replace the first letter of her last name with the first letter of her first name to get the brand name of a bottled water company.

Hamilton Had A Burr In His Saddle Appetizer:
Washing on monuments 

Rearrange the eleven letters of a two-word Washington landmark to describe, in two words, what might have happened during a bloody duel before the landmark was built. 
What was it that might have happened? 
What is the landmark?

MENU

Riffing Off Shortz And Talvacchio Slices:
Tiquettee Table

Will Shortz’s December 9th  NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Dominick Talvacchio of Chicago, Illinois, reads:
Think of a word that can go before “table” to make a familiar phrase. Move the last letter to the front, and you’ll have a word that can go after “table” to make a familiar phrase. What phrases are these?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Talvacchio Slices read:
ENTREE #1:
Name a six-letter word that appears in the title of a Robert De Niro movie and in the title of a Simon & Garfunkel B-side and deep album cut. 
Place after it a five-letter plural word that is a homophone of the last name of a big-name actor who never appeared in a movie with Robert De Niro. 
This result could be a collective two-word term for teams of supporting people in the pit. 
Now move the last letter of the five-letter word to the front. Put this result in front of the six-letter word to form an 11-letter instrument that might be used by a supporting person in the pit. 
What term and instrument are these?

ENTREE #2:
Think of a word that can go before “table,” as illustrated in this image at the right. Move the first letter of this word to the end, and you’ll have a word that can go after the word “table” to make a somewhat familiar phrase. 
What phrases are these?

ENTREE #3:
Think of a word that can go before “economy” to make a familiar phrase with positive connotations. Move the first letter to the end, and you’ll have a word that can go after “economy” to form a word for charts which might perhaps support the familiar phrase. What are this phrase and the word for these possibly supportive charts?

ENTREE #4:
Think of a word that can go before “table,” as illustrated in this image at the right. Move the last letter of the word to the front, and you’ll have a word that can go after “table” to form a two-word synonym of “dining room chair” What phrases are these?

ENTREE #5
Think of a five-letter word that can go before a word for a certain member of the nuclear family to name the last two words of the title of an album recorded in Abbey Road Studios around the time The Beatles were breaking up. 
Move the first letter to the end, and you’ll have a word that can go after the same member of the nuclear family to make a familiar phrase. 
What are this album title and phrase?

ENTREE #6
Think of a seven-letter phrase for what this is. Move the last letter to the front, and you’ll have a word for a president’s residence. What phrase and word are these?

ENTREE #7
Name popular vacation getaways to a particular resort city that people book using online travel services, in two words of five letters each. 
Move the last letter of the second word to the front of that word, and you’ll have a two-word phrase for where these tourists will likely spend their time. What are these getaways and phrase?
Hint: These ten letters can be rearranged to form two synonyms of “hole.”  

ENTREE #8
Name a puzzle-maker and artist, first and last names, in 18 total letters. Double the last letter of the last name and triple the first letter of the last name. 
Form a Roman numeral with two letters. Transpose the letters to form another Roman numeral. Take the difference of these two Roman numerals and add it to the value of the proper fraction formed from their ratio. This sum is approximately the value of a lowercase letter in our Roman alphabet. 
Replace the two letters used to form the Roman numerals with the lowercase letter from the Roman alphabet.
Rearrange these 20 letters to form:
1. A game piece in the shape of a rectangular prism
2. A simple game (#hugsandkisses?)
3. Something you’ll likely need before you can play hopscotch on the sidewalk 
Who is this puzzle maker? What are the game piece, the game and what you need to play hopscotch?

Dessert Menu

Cinema Title Spawns Subtitles Dessert
“Here’s looking at you, Karate Kid”

Replace the third word of an Oscar-nominated movie title with a rhyming word, and replace the last three letters of the second word with an “e”. 
Write the original title and altered title one after the other, separated by the word “is.” The result is a line of dialogue that could have been spoken by the movie’s male lead. 
What is this movie?
What is the line of dialogue that could have been?

Every Friday 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.