Short work, long play, less stress; Cheeses of Nazareth, chapter and verse; Winter Wanderlove; Litericity;

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER (1110 + 98) SERVED

Welcome to our February 9th edition of Joseph Young’s Puzzleria! 
Our puzzles this week include a TRIO of somewhat far-fetched Riffing-Off-Shortz ⇩⇩⇩Slices;
ONE “Box-of-Chocolate’s Thunder” ⇩Appetizer;
ONE “Tale-of-one-city” ⇩Slice; and
ONE  “looking-ahead-to-Lent” ⇩Dessert.

So, TGIF: Think Good, It’s Friday... and, thankfully, it’s not yet Fat Tuesday or Ash Wednesday.  So, have a lot of fun nibbling on these puzzle slices along with Mardi Gras/St. Valentine’s Eve chocolates while you still can... before February 14th’s sackcloth and ashes kick in.   

Appetizer Menu

Lovetron Appetizer:
Winter Wanderlove



If one turns a blind eye can one savor
The red nevus birthmarked on my knee?
Would removing it curry me favor? 
Does a pier jut out into the sea?
Can DiMaggio score us a run?
Grown-ups groan at a valiant teen pun?
Etch two _____-shaped tattoos on my arms... 
Love, it leaves a lot up to one’s charms.

The verse above is an octet in anapestic trimeter. It has an ababccdd rhyme scheme. One word is missing, the first part of a hyphenated pair.
Fill in the blank. Explain your answer.

MENU

Author! Author? Slice:
Litericity


Name a relatively populous U.S. city, in two words. The second word of the city rhymes with the first name of a famous author and the first word of the city rhymes with a place the author is famous for writing about. 
What is this city?

Riffing Off Shortz Slices:
Short work, long play, less stress 

Will Shortz’s February 4th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle reads:
In English, a short “u” sound is usually spelled with a “u,” as in “fun” and “luck.” Occasionally it’s spelled with an “o,” as in “come” and “love.” Can you name two everyday one-syllable words in which a short “u” sound is spelled with an “a”?
Puzzleria!’s far-fetched (and not as good as “Paulzzeria!’s”) Riffing Off Shortz Slices read:
ONE:
In the disjointed English verse below, there are ten missing syllables. Eight are one-syllable words. Two make up a two-syllable compound word.  
The sounds of all five vowels (a, e, i, o and u) are represented, each in their short and long forms. 
All long-vowel-sound syllables begin with the same blend of two consonants. All short-vowel-sound syllables begin with the same consonant and end with the same consonant.
For example, the long-vowel syllables might be: SHAY, SHE, SHY, SHOW and SHOE, and the short-vowel syllables might be PAT, PET, PIT, POT and PUTT. 
But, alas for you, those are not the ten syllables you need to find.
Hint: The two consonants in the blend that begins the five long-vowel syllables as well as the two consonants that begin and end the five short-vowel syllables all appear in the first half of the alphabet. 
“Bobby ____, I ___, cook me some cajun, real hot.”
In a _______ motel room your bed is a cot.
Slang for “home run” is “tater,” “___ ___” or “moon shot.”
Old Man River doth ____. But a ___? It doth not!
I do not want the ___ ___ so give me a shot.
Fill in these nine blanks.
TWO:
Back during the James Earl Carter Administration, some Americans thought Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was the _____ of Iran, while other Americans thought that I was. All those Americans were mistaken, although the “other Americans” were closer to being correct than the “some Americans.”
What word belongs in the blank?


THREE:

Name something seen in the kitchen that can be ingested. 
Spell out the name of a symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet and insert it into the interior of the ingestible. The result sounds like something seen in the kitchen that can be ingested, but probably shouldn’t be. 
The second thing is often written as two words.
What are these two things seen in the kitchen?

Dessert Menu

Forty Days In The Dessert:
Cheeses of Nazareth, chapter and verse

Place the names of  two kinds of cheese side-by-side without a space. 
Remove from these cheeses a synonym for town. Additionally, remove from the cheeses just the first and third letters in that synonym for town. The remaining letters spell a form of verse. What are these cheeses and what is the form of verse?

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.