“I remember (thanks to) Mama”; An unstrummable instrument; States of “Adjacentricity” Action-figure feature-filmy creatures; A four-letter tour of your labour of amour

Celebrating six years of serving up puzzles!

Schpuzzle Of The Week:
“I remember (thanks to) Mama” 

“Give Mom inner-peace on Sunday.” 
That’s good Mother’s Day advice. 
But it’s also a good mnemonic device to help you recall a list that has historical significance. 
What list is this?
Hint: “Give Mom a can opener on Sunday” is also a splendid Mother’s Day gift option, I guess. But, let’s face it, a can opener is just not that much of a gift!

Appetizer Menu

Conundrumstruck by Chuck! Appetizer:
States of “Adjacentricity”

Think of a famous recording star with many hit songs and albums. 
The last two letters of the singer’s first name and the first two letters of the singer’s last name are both state postal abbreviations. 
Without these letters, what remains in each name is a common lowercase word. 
And, just as the state abbreviations are adjacent to each other in the singer’s name, so too are the actual states, which border each other. 
The total number of letters in the singer’s name is 12. 
Who is it?

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Verbal Slice:
Action-figure feature-filmy creatures

Name two closely related common verbs. 
Add a vowel to the end of one and a consonant to the end of the other to name two closely related creatures. 
What are these creatures?
Hint: The creatures have wings.

Riffing Off Shortz And Halpin Slices:
A four-letter tour of your labour of amour

Will Shortz’s May 3rd NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Mark Halpin of Cold Spring, Kentucky, reads:
Think of two common phrases in the form “___ and ___,” in which the blanks stand for four-letter words. All four words in those two phrases have different first letters, but the last three letters in the words are the same. What are the phrases?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Halpin Slices read:
ENTREE #1
Take the last name of a puzzle-maker in six letters. Duplicate the third letter and move each duplicate so that they replace both the first and sixth letters, then replace the fifth letter with an e. The result, followed by the original second half of the puzzle-maker’s last name, forms a two-word, 8-letter term for a puzzle-solver’s prized possession.
Now remove the fifth, sixth and seventh letters from this two-word term. Form a word with the third, fourth and fifth letters of this result, followed by a word formed from the third, second and first letters. The result is a two-word term for a certain “snail-mail correspondent.”
What is this prized possession?
Who is the “snail-mail correspondent?”
Who is the puzzle-maker?
ENTREE #2
Think of a common phrase in the form “___ and ___,” in which the blanks stand for four-letter words. The words in the phrase have different first letters (that are adjacent in the alphabet), but the last three letters in the words are the same.
Now take two other four-letter words that end with those same last three letters. These words are defined as “a twilled cotton cloth” and “a college or secondary school administrator.”
Place these other two words in the same “___ and ___” form. Remove the second letter from the first word. The result is a 1960’s surf-rock music duo.
 What are the phrase and the surf-rock duo?
ENTREE #3
Think of two common phrases in the form “___ the ___,” and “the ___ ___,” in which the blanks stand for three different four-letter words (that is, one is used twice). All three words in those two phrases have different first letters, but the last three letters in the words are the same. What are the two phrases?
Hint: The phrases are idioms that mean, respectively, “reach an agreement” and “the genuine article.”
ENTREE #4
Name a meat-enhancing brand-name product in the form “___ and ___,” in which the blanks stand for a five-letter and a four-letter word. The last three letters in the words are the same. The product name is also an slang idiom describing a slick basketball move.
Three other phrases in the form “___ a ___,” “___ a ___,” and “___ the ___” contain five different words (that is, one is used twice) containing the same last three letters as in the brand-name. The first phrase is something one might do for a birthday-girl-or-boy. The second phrase was the inspiration for Nasser, Kariba, Volta... or Wissota. The third phrase is synonymous with “win the prize.”
What are this brand-name product and all the other phrases and idioms?
Hint: The meat-enhancing brand-name product is actually spelled “___ ‘n ___.”
ENTREE #5
Think of a common phrase in the form “___ and ___,” in which the blanks stand for rhyming four-letter words. The words in the phrase have different first letters, but the last three letters in the words are the same. 
Think of a two other four-letter words that rhyme with those words but share a second letter different from the second letter shared by the words in the common phrase. One of these other words, a homophone of the first word in the common phrase, is a kind of “thrall.” The other is a kind of ball.
What are these four rhyming words?
Hint: The common phrase might appear on a menu.

Dessert Menu

Parlez Vous Dessert:
An unstrummable instrument

Name an instrument you don’t strum but which may touch your lips. 
Move the last letter so it replaces the third-last letter. 
Move the middle two letters of this result to the beginning to form an English noun and its French translation. 
What is this instrument?

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.