A word, and another, to the wise; Orchestrating the Fall Classics; State subdivisions & shaggy-dog maps; A feminine feline, whiskered & waggish; Just another Mickey Mouse puzzle from Lego Lambda!

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

A word, and another, to the wise

Metis, a Greek deity known for her wisdom, was Zeus’ wife (the first of seven). 

Anagram the combined letters of another of Metis’ familial relationships to spell insights that wise people often experience, in two words. 

What is Metis’ other familial relationship?

What do we call insights that the wise often experience?

Hint: Metis’ other familial relationship, like “Zeus’ wife,” is a two-word term.

Appetizer Menu

“GeoFantastic” Appetizer:

State subdivisions & shaggy-dog maps

Diminution

1. 🗺Take a word for a state. Remove one
letter from this word to obtain a word for a subdivision of a state. What are the two words?

Shaggy-dog map dissection

2. 🐶Take the name of a geographic feature in Europe in 12 letters, Remove and rearrange six letters to give the state that it is in. From the remainder, remove and rearrange four letters to give the name, in the language of the country, of what forms the geographic feature. 

Two consonants are left over. Double one. These three consonants are three of the five letters in the generic word for the feature. What are the geographic feature, state, substance, and the generic name for the feature?

Death and taxes?

3.♰ 💲Think of something that one cannot avoid, in seven letters. Exchange the third and sixth letters of this word. 

Then insert two letters after the new sixth letter. These inserted letters are each adjacent (in the alphabet) to this sixth letter. 

The result will be something else that most people cannot, at some point, avoid. What are these two things?

Two opposing meanings

4. ➖➕❔Think of a nine-letter word often related to subtraction from a list. In another meaning, this same word could be considered an addition to a list. What is this word?

Reciprocals

5. ⅕ Think of two five-letter words with opposite meanings. Change one vowel in one word to obtain the other word.

Politiconstruct

6.(𝔁+𝔂)𝅘𝅥𝅯𝆕🏛Take the name of an algebraic construct. It sounds like the name of a former U.S. politician and a musical concept. What are the algebraic construct, politician, and musical concept?

MENU

Playing Second Bass/Viola Slice:

Orchestrating the Fall Classics

Find the following three words:

1. the U.S. city where a ballplayer began his major league career, 

2. the first name of that player, and 

3. a musical instument he played. 

Remove the last letter in this string of three words.

The result is the name of an orchestra.

What is this orchestra?

Who is the ballplayer and what was his instrument?

Riffing Off Shortz And Young Slices:

Just another Mickey Mouse puzzle from Lego Lambda!

Will Shortz’s July 1st NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Joseph Young, of St. Cloud, Minnesota, reads:

Name a well-known fictional character in two words. Remove two letters from the first word 
in the name. The result is the plural form of the second word. What character is this?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Young Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Name someone, in two words, who some people suspect may be a fictional character. 

Add an “a” somewhere inside the second word to spell a Brazilian dance. 

Change the last letter of the first word to an “s” to spell body parts situated immediately below other body parts. 

These “other body parts,” according to Wikipedia, are engaged in “pronounced movement” during the dance. 

Who may be considered a fictional character by some people?

What is the Brazilian dance?

What are the adjacent body parts?

ENTREE #2

Name a well-known fictional character in two words. 

Take the first word. Its first letter is also the first letter in the three-letter airport code of an upper Midwest U.S. airport. Replace it with the second and third letters in that code, forming a new word.

Leave the second word as it is.

The result is two things that come into contact on construction sites.

Who is this character? 

What two things come into contact on construction sites 

What is the airport?

ENTREE #3

Take the first names of two well-known fictional characters  – one beginning with an “F”, the other with an “I” – who share the same last name. 

Rearrange the combined letters of these first names to form three words:

1. a word for a newlywed woman who just moved with her hubby into their first home (5 letters),

2. a piece of living-room furniture they purchased (5 letters), and

3. a second piece of living-room furniture they purchased (4 letters).

What characters are these?

What are the words for the newlywed woman and two pieces of furniture?

ENTREE #4

Name a well-known fictional character from television, in two words. Rearrange the combined letters of these words to spell a 3-letter noun describing this character and a six-letter biblical figure not described by this noun. 

What fictional character and biblical figure these?

What is the 3-letter noun?

ENTREE #5

Name a well-known fictional character in two words who portrayed a high school instructor on television. 

Reverse the order of the words and remove an “L” from one of them to form a two-word term for something turbulent and frothy.

Who is this fictional character?

What is something turbulent and frothy?

ENTREE #6

Name a well-known fictional character in two words. Remove two letters – the last letter in each word – to spell the first name of a puzzle-maker and a noun that some might use to describe him.

Who is this fictional character?

Who is the puzzle-maker and what is the noun some may use to describe him?

Hint: Removing the last letter of the puzzle-maker’s surname results in an antonym of an adjective that describes his talent and expertise.

Hint: if you spell the noun some may use to describe the puzzle-maker backward, the result is a word for something he “is in,” with “the.” 

ENTREE #7

Take two consecutive words in the lyrics of a song that won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Grammy Award for Record of the Year.

The first word is the first word in the name of two fictional characters.

The odd-numbered letters in the second word spell a homophone of the surname of one of the  fictional characters.

The first three letters of a Texas city and the last two letters of the second word in the song lyrics spell the surname of the other fictional character.

What is the song and what are the two consecutive words?

Who are the two fictional characters?

ENTREE #8

Name a not-really-all-that-well-known fictional character in two words. She appears in a novel by an author who taught Russian and European literature to Ruth Bader at Cornell University.

Anagram the combined letters of the fictional character’s name to spell the first and last
names of the author.

Who are this fictional character and author

Hint: The author, who was well aware of this anagram (he created it!) is therefore also the author of this puzzle, albeit posthumously.

Note: Entree #9 is the brainchild of Tom Rymsza, an aspiring playwright who posts comments on Blaine’s Blog, and is now also a contributor to Puzzleria! Thank you, Tom, and welcome!

ENTREE #9

Write a seven-letter word in all capital letters that might describe a person. 

Add one line and rearrange to get
another seven-letter word that is the opposite of the first.

What are these two words?

Dessert Menu

Backward Snack Brand Dessert:

A feminine feline, whiskered & waggish

Spell a snack brand backward. Move the first four letters of this reversal to the end. 

The result, although it rhymes with a feminine pronoun, is not really a word.

It might, however, be used as a kind of “pseudo-pronoun” to refer waggishly to a feminine feline. 

What are this snack brand and waggish pronoun?

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.