Shifting letters, shifting gears; Retying alphabetical strings; Rearranging frock assuages flock; “A Tale of Two Titles” “The curious case of the flip-flopped font”

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Schpuzzle Of TheWeek:
“A Tale of Two Titles”

The following puzzle is a tale retold “acrosynonymously.”
A 19th-Century author of fiction wrote a short story, then wrote a revised even-shorter version of the same story using a different title. 
The initial letters in the words of each title spell a word. These two words are synonyms. 
What are these two titles?
What are the two synonyms?

Appetizer Menu

Unbeatable Conundrums Appetizer:
Shifting letters, shifting gears

🥁1. Think of an entrepreneur often in the news. Shift the letters of their first name three places prior in the alphabet to get a word for something this person was accused of doing to their investors about a year ago.
🥁2. Think of a four word phrase meaning suitable or appropriate. Remove the spaces and the second and third letters, and shift what remains one place to the right on the computer keyboard. The result will be a word for a traveler.
🥁3. Name a style of car in one word. Add a space after the first four letters, and rearrange the remaining letters into a new word, to make a two word phrase that describes what a long-distance driver might have to take.
🥁4. There exists a common idiom in five words where the last three words are each four letters. The fourth word can be formed by rotating the third letter of the third word and changing the last letter. The fifth word can be formed by taking the fourth word and shifting its first letter five places later in the alphabet. What is the idiom?

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Mysterious Slice:
“The curious case of the flip-flopped font”

Here is a mystery for you to solve:
You type an uppercase word, one you often read outdoors, using a lowercase sans serif font such as Futura or Avant Garde (but not the sans serif font you are now reading, Arial). 
You then flip this lowercase word upside-down. 
Finally, you reconvert the result back to uppercase.
When you do so, you will reveal an abbreviated form of the state entities (“state” as in the United States) that are reponsible for making the uppercase word visible. 
Can you find this word (and solve this mystery)?

Riffing Off Shortz and Hochbaum Slices:
Retying alphabetical strings 

Will Shortz’s August 2nd NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Alan Hochbaum, of Duluth, Georgia, reads: 
Think of a famous living American whose first and last names have a total of eight letters — all different. Five of these letters are consecutive in the alphabet. The remaining three can be rearranged to spell a woman’s nickname. What famous American is this?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz and Hochbaum Slices read:
ENTREE #1:
The combined letters of the first and last names of a puzzle-maker can be rearranged to form:
1. standard entertainment at a luau,
2. non-vegetarian fare served at a luau in lieu of pork or chicken, and
3. what shrimp bites or pineapple bites might be wrapped in at the luau.
Who is this puzzle-maker? 
What are the luau entertainment, non-vegetarian fare and wrapping for the bites of shrimp and pineapple? 
ENTREE #2:
Think of a “cousin” of italics that has eight letters — all different. 
Six of these letters are consecutive in the alphabet. The remaining two can be rearranged to spell a word used to call attention or to express wonder or surprise. 
What is this “italics kin”?  
ENTREE #3:
Think of an eight-letter synonym of “carp” or “crab” that has eight letters — all different. Five of these letters are consecutive in the alphabet. 
The remaining three can be rearranged to spell an initialism in the lyrics of a song that also includes references to the BBC, BB King, Doris Day and Matt Busby.
What is this synonym of “carp” or “crab”?
ENTREE #4:
Think of a grammatically superlative adjective with a total of eight letters, five of which are consecutive in the alphabet. The remaining three letters are the same letter.
Think of a noun with a total of eight letters — all different. Five of these letters are consecutive in the alphabet. 
The remaining three can be rearranged to spell a dessert. 
The adjective and noun together can describe a comedian — such as Steven Wright, say, or the late Mitch Hedberg.
What are this adjective and noun?
Hint: the five consecutive letters in the adjective are the same as the five in the noun.   
ENTREE #5:
Take seven consecutive letters of the alphabet. 
ROT13 the second letter in the sequence (that is, replace the second letter with the letter 13 places after it in the alphabet). Rearrange the result to spell a slang term for a United States Army enlisted soldier.
What is this term?
Note: Although you are seeking a term for an enlisted soldier, remenber to merely ROT13 the second letter... do not ROTC13 the second letter!
ENTREE #6:
Take six consecutive letters of the alphabet. Reduce one of them by 4 to form a different letter. 
Replace the letter you reduced with this newly formed different letter. 
Rearrange these six letters to spell a synonym of “pipsqueak.”
What is this synonym?
ENTREE #7:
Assign a number to the letters of the alphabet, A=1, B=2, C=3, etc. 
Pluck seven consecutive odd-numbered letters from the alphabet. Remove from this mix the letter that appears more often than any other letter in the English lexicon. 
Rearrange the remaining six letters to form an archaic spelling of a word that may remind you of Bethlehem. 
What is this archaically spelled word?
Hint: Wise men can solve this puzzle.
ENTREE #8:
Assign a number to each letter of the alphabet, A=1, B=2, C=3, etc.
Pluck five consecutive “odd letters” from the alphabet. Add to the mix two “odd letters” from earlier in the alphabet. Rearrange these seven letters to spell an adjective that might describe a parrot. 
What is this adjective?
Hint: The adjective rhymes with the last two syllables of a large Midwestern city.

Dessert Menu

Collection/Fashion Plate Dessert:
Rearranging frock assuages flock

Pastors often provide peace of mind to their flock. 
Rearrange the combined letters of two articles of particular pastors’ clothing to spell something else might that provide people in the pews with peace of mind. 
What do these pastors wear?
What else might provide people in the pews with peace of mind?
Hint: Roman Catholic priests are the “men of the cloth” most likely to wear these articles of clothing.

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.