1 in 3,265,920 – the ABCDEFGHIJ Puzzle; “Memorialable oral mime” puzzles; Ring around the blue-collar? Dancing bolder as winter grows colder; Hair follicles & Roman Empire follies;

 PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Ring around the blue-collar?

Name an informal two-word term for a blue-collar worker – hard-working and perhaps a tad sweaty – who is engaged in a particular profession. 

Rearrange the letters in these two words to spell a noun, verb and adjective, all associated with the olfactory sense. Keeping in mind that blue-collar workers are not all factory workers, what are this two-word term and three words associated with the olfactory sense?

Appetizer Menu

Try A Little Cleverness Appetizer:

1 in 3,265,920 – the ABCDEFGHIJ Puzzle

Here is an elegant number puzzle that has been published occasionally, not my invention but I feel it deserves to be better-known.

The puzzle reads:

Please find a 10-digit number – we can call it ABCDEFGHIJ – in which all 10 digits are different, A is not 0, and:

    The number  A  is divisible by 1

    The number  AB  is divisible by 2

    The number  ABC  is divisible by 3

    The number  ABCD  is divisible by 4...

    and so on...

    The number  ABCDEFGHIJ  is divisible by 10.

There is only one solution!

You can solve it easily by writing a computer program, but try it with just a 10-digit calculator and some cleverness!  

Note: There are 3,265,920  possible candidate numbers? Why?

Bonus Challenge: Can you find an anagram in words of 3, 4 and 3 letters for “ABCDEFGHIJ”?

MENU

Confounding Compound Slice:

Dancing bolder as winter grows colder

Take two compound synonyms associated with growth. 

The second parts of each synonym can form a third compound word, one associated with dancing. 

The first part of one of the synonyms is a word associated with winter. The first part of the other synonym is a word sometimes heard when that winter-word is present. 

What are these three compound words and two “winter-words?”

Riffing Off Shortz And Collins Slices:

“Memorialable oral mime” puzzles

Will Shortz’s January 21st NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Peter Collins of Ann Arbor, Michigan, reads:

Take a word that’s in the name of several tourist attractions in our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. Rearrange the letters in that word to spell the names of two other nations’ capitals. What are they?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Collins Slices read:

ENTREE #1

The following is excerpted from a biography of an Italian musician:

“In 1689 he directed the performance of the oratorio Santa Beatrice d’Este by Giovanni Lulier with 39 violins, 10 violas, 17 cellos. The same year, he entered the service of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, in which he _____ the rest of his life.”

Rearrange the combined letters in the surname of the musician and the five-letter word that belongs in the blank to spell the name of a puzzle-maker.

Who is this puzzle-maker?

Who is this musician and what is the word in the blank?

ENTREE #2

Take a four-letter acronym for a weapon with a range greater than 3,400 miles primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery, a five-letter slang term for a generic U.S. soldier, and a four-letter word associated with an adjective
that is a homophone of the first two letters of the weapon.

Rearrange these 13 letters to spell the names of two capital cities whose nations are only two of eight known to have the four-letter weapons.

What are these capitals?

What are the weapon, U.S. soldier and four-letter word? 

ENTREE #3

Take the surname of a landscape photographer and environmentalist (5 letters). Two of his photographs appear here. Name two synonymous nouns for the creature in one photo (5 and 3 letters). Name a salient feature of the creature in the other photo (7 letters).

Rearrange these 20 letters to spell the two world capitals, in 11 and 9 letters, in North America and Europe. 

What are these capitals?

Who is the environmentalist?

What are the two nouns and salient feature?

ENTREE #4

Rearrange the combined letters in the capitals of  two European countries to spell a past leader associated with one of these countries and a river in a third European country.

What are these capitals?

Who is the leader and what  is the river?

Hints: The past leader shares his name with the surname of a pianist who, according to Ray Charles, “plays his buns off.” The European river seems as if it should rhyme with a river in Virginia, but it doesn’t.

ENTREE #5

Take a 5-word 18-letter open-ended and ambiguous question – beginning with the word “Is...” – that many people in our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., were asking on January 6, 2021.

🏛 The second word (5 letters) in the question is a surname.

🏛 The third word (5 letters) is an informal contraction of “going to.”

🏛 The fourth word (4 letters) is one often repeated in traditional wedding vows.

🏛 The fifth word (2 letters) consists consecutive letters in the name of the boss of the person with the 5-letter surname.

Rearrange the 16 letters in those four words to spell the names of two world capitals. 

What are the capitals? What is the open-ended question?

Hint: The question is open-ended and ambiguous because it could end in a number of ways; for example: 

“...to power?” 

“...to his commitment to the Constitution?” 

“...to his loyalty to his boss?”

“...to his Christian principles?” 

“...to his life?”

ENTREE #6

Name a famous brand name. 

Name also the part of speech of the middle word in its familiar three-word, eight-letter

trademark/slogan with the initials JDI. Rearrange the eight combined letters in that part of speech and the brand name to spell two world capitals.

What are these capitals?

What are the brand name and part of speech?

ENTREE #7

Name a two-word term that you might use to describe the music of The Nairobi Trio or of a group of guys named Davy, Peter, Micky and Michael. 

Rearrange these letters letters to spell the names of two nations’ capitals, each with five letters. 

What are the capitals?

What is the two-word term?

ENTREE #8

Name the three-word title of a popular tune that, four-score years ago, remained on the hillbilly chart for 82 weeks. 

Rearrange the eight letters of its first and third words to spell the names of two nations’ capitals. 

What are these capitals?

What is the tune title?

ENTREE #9

Name highlighted bits of text seen on a screen and what might be used to open them, each in five letters. Rearrange these 10 letters to spell the name of two nations’ capitals. 

What are these capitals?

What are the bits of text and what might open them?

ENTREE #10

John Bunyan, as a _______, was one who practiced piety (obeying religious rules), dressing simply, and living a modest life. 

He was early to bed as well as an early _____,
and he read his _____ religiously.

Rearrange the 17 letters in those blanks to spell the capitals of three counties – two European, one Asian.  

Dessert Menu

Caesar Salad Dessert:

Hair follicles & Roman Empire follies

“Is it possible that ‘_________’ hair follicles may put an end to ________ _________?”

“Gaius Caesar was the _____ ____ of Emperor Augustus.”

The words in the first two blanks are nine-letter and eight-letter homophones.

The word in the third blank is a nine-letter compound plural noun. 

You can rearrange the combined letters of the words in the fourth and fifth blanks (in five and four letters) to spell that plural noun in the third blank.

What are the words in the five blanks?

Hint: the words in the fourth and fifth blanks, together, rhyme with a compound word for mackintoshes, ponchos, galoshes and the like. 

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.

Patrick pokes another cryptic crossword puzzle outta-the-park! “Fat cat” becomes Tiger’s friend; “As the sun set we sat by the sea... now we eat” Anger strikes out... does fear strike out? Fettuccine? Feta cheese? Fait accompli!

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

“As the sun set we sat by the sea... now we eat”

If you remove any one of the four letters from the word “seat,” you will form a new three-letter word: eat, sat, set, sea. 

Remove any one of the letters from a five-letter word to form a new four-letter word. What are this five-letter word and these five four-letter words?

Hint: One of the four-letter words is the name of a U.S. city.

Appetizer Menu

Four-Bagger Appetizer:

Patrick pokes another cryptic crossword puzzle out-of-the-park!

On September 9, 2020, the Atlanta Braves scored a franchise record 29 runs in a game against the Miami Marlins. Braves outfielder Adam Duval hit three home runs, including a grand slam in the seventh inning.

On January 20, 2023, a brave and intrepid puzzle-maker named Patrick J. Berry (screen name, “cranberry”) scored a Puzzleria! franchise record 29th Cryptic Crossword Puzzle

If you have missed any of Patrick’s previous 28 “home runs,” here are links to those classic “Cryptic-Crossing-Of-Home-Plate-Cannon-Shots”:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

For those who may be new to cryptic crossword puzzles, Patrick has compiled the following basic cryptic crossword puzzle instructions. Think of them as “spring training exercises.”

Regarding the Across and Down clues and their format:

⚾ The number, or numbers, that appear in parentheses at the end of each clue indicate how many letters are in the answer.

⚾ Multiple numbers in parentheses indicate how letters are distributed in multiple-word answers. For example, (6) simply indicates a six-letter answer like “dugout,” (6,7) indicates a six-and-seven-letter answer like “relief pitcher,” and (4-6) indicates a four-and-six-letter hyphenated answer like “four-bagger” (slang for “home run”).

⚾For further insight about how to decipher these numbered cryptic clues, see Patrick’s “Cryptic Crossword Tutorial” in this link to his November 17, 2017 cryptic crossword.

That Tutorial appears below the grid that contains the answers in that edition of Puzzleria!)

So, we invite you to fill in the squares and “circle the bases” with Patrick...

But beware. There is always that chance you may get “tripped-up” by this, his latest “round-tripper.”

Here are the clues. Let’s play ball!

 ACROSS

1. Drink with gang in small club(11)

9. Doctor getting rid of boy’s itch(4)

10. I could be Adam?(5,6)

11. Secure area(4)

14. Act rude, perhaps, being navy man?(7)

16. Nervously go near donkey(6)

17. Before long, drinking beer endlessly in bar(6)

18. Game making enthusiast stay busy, so flipping busy (primarily, to get through season?)(7,8)

19. Gunfire(6)

21. In the morning, ran or walked(6)

22. Tough to find a little uniqueness in dull, empty life?(7)

23. Lead singer has reformed band...(4)

26. ...Hawaiians not dancing, having no love for Canadian singer(6,5)

27. Cat sound, of course(4)

28. Special, sad Army event—military leader forgotten? It’s a time we must never forget!(8,3)

DOWN

2. Place for baby to sleep (or college kid?)(4)

3. Once part of another story?(4)

4. Smart bit of dialogue some admit should be cut from show(6)

5. Sitcom cast one joined, a mere fan(1,5,2,7)

6. Former lover to act up on American flight(6)

7. Rebellious, having argument in bar(11)

8. Short, skinny youth captivated by obscure actress(7,4)

12. Sound of perverted fellow—“has game”(4,7)

13. Amish activity b-beginning to include gun nuts?(4,7)

14. Discussed act outside club(7)

15. Writer’s into great “rocking” music(7)

20. Trick to welcome the lad, one pledging a fraternity(6)

21. Fabric supplier in the States?(6)

24. Has to be in town, seriously?(4)

25. Al Hirschfeld’s daughter’s name, somewhat hidden in artwork(4)

MENU

Vowelless Slice:

Anger strikes out... does fear strike out?

Take a word associated with fear. Strike out its vowels. Shuffle the remaining letters to form an acronym that can stand for two different things people fear – one medical, one sports-related. 

What are this word and these two acronyms? 

Riffing Off Shortz And Rosen Slices:

Fettuccine? Feta cheese? Fait accompli!

Will Shortz’s January 15th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by David Rosen of Bethesda, Maryland, reads:

Name a food dish in 10 letters. The last syllable consists of a consonant and a vowel.
Change that syllable to a single consonant sound and you’ll name another popular food item, in two words. What foods are these?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Rosen Slices read:

ENTREE #1

“Behind the scenes, the eldest son ___ has emerged as a chief political _______ to the former office-holder, according to multiple sources who are involved with the political operation.”

Rearrange the combined ten letters in those two blanks to spell the first and last names of a puzzle-maker.

Who is the puzzle-maker, and what words belong in the blanks?

ENTREE #2

Name a term, in words of three and five letters, for a piece of beef cooked by braising, usually on stove tops.

Interchange the third and fourth letters. 

The last five letters of this result spell an edible word that follows “wedding,” “melba” or “French.”

The first three letters, if you add a “g” to the
mix, can be rearranged to spell a snack consisting of high-energy food such as raisins and nuts. 

What are this piece of braised beef, edible word and high-energy snack?

ENTREE #3

Name a plural-word food dish in 10 letters. Rearrange the last five letters to spell a kind of dish, like revenge, best served cold. 

Rearrange the first six letters to spell an often edible plantlike organism made up of an alga or a cyanobacterium and a fungus growing in
symbiotic association on a solid surface (such as on a rock or the bark of trees).

What are this food dish and dish best served cold?

What is the often edible plantlike organism?

ENTREE #4

Name, in two words of 4 and 10 letters, a Russian sautéed meat dish. 

The meat is the 4-letter word. It contains three consecutive letters hinting that honey may be an ingredient in the dish, but that is not true... 

The pieces of meat are instead served in a sauce of mustard and sour cream.

Place an “A” at the beginning of the 10-letter word, and replace a 2-letter prepostion with the backward spelling of a synonym of “boy.” 

The result spells the names of a Jetsons canine and a J. R. R. Tolkien wizard.

What dish is this?

What cartoon canine and wizard are these?

ENTREE #5

Interchange the penultimate and ultimate letters of an eight-letter word for a small cookie composed chiefly of egg whites, sugar, and ground almonds or coconut. 

The result, if you replace the last letter with a pronoun, is a pasta associated with a certain Yankee, or with a joint in the body.

What are this cookie and pasta?

ENTREE #6

Take the two-word name of the state reptile of Georgia. Both words in this name are creatures. One is a mascot of Minnesota collegiate athletics; the other is a synonym of a mascot associated with Maryland collegiate athletics. Take the synonym of the Maryland mascot; disregard the Minnesota mascot.

Remove from the end of this creature-synonym the first four letters of a French word for a winged creature. Replace them with the six-
letter name of cagers based in Urbana-Champaign, resulting in a 10-letter string. Change the fifth letter of this string to an “e”.

The result is a word for “pasta in the form of little ring-shaped cases containing a filling of meat or cheese.”

What are the state reptile of Georgia and the creatures associated with Minnesota and Maryland?

What is the French word for a winged creature and the 6six-letter name of cagers based in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois.

What is the name of the pasta?

ENTREE #7

Take a ten-letter word for pasta in the form of narrow ribbons. Change the first letter to the letter six places later in the alphabet. Remove a block of three letters that appears twice consecutively at the beginning of a large U.S.
city on the Licking River. 

The result is a garden vegetable with succulent leaves that are often used in salads.

What are this pasta and vegetable?

What is the U.S. city?

ENTREE #8

Name a food dish in words of five and four letters. Recipes for this dish include a variety of ingredients. Those who follow these recipies often substitute some of their own ingredients to suit their palate.

Letters 4 through 8 in the dish, in order, spell a
synonym of “palate.” Letters 1, 2, 3 and 9 can be rearranged to spell a synonym of the verb “substitute.”

What is this dish?

What are these synonyms of “palate” and “substitute”?

Hint: The synonym of “palate” is “the special sense that perceives and distinguishes the sweet, sour, bitter, salty, or umami quality of a dissolved substance.”

ENTREE #9

Name a food dish, in six and five letters. The six-letter word is a substitute for “beans” in the dish’s recipe. 

The last syllable of this dish consists of a consonant and a vowel. Replace that syllable with a single consonant and you’ll name another popular food item, also in two words. What foods are these?

Dessert Menu

Fictional Felinity Dessert:

“Fat cat” becomes Tiger’s friend

Name a synonym of “fat cat.” 

Replace an expression of relief with a three-letter body part. 

The result is the name of a fictional tiger’s friend. 

What are this synonym and name?

Hint: Somewhere along the course of your solving process, a punctuation mark ought to have been removed.

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.

“Get the lead out in the cold” Looking up to, or down upon? Tina and the Tinman, ironically; Pablo, Pound and the North Pole; “I Have A Dream!”

 PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Pablo, Pound and the North Pole

Use eleven different letters to spell, in thirteen letters, phenomena found both in the Arctic region and in Wisconsin. These 11 letters are all you need to spell the first names of poets Pound and Alighieri and the surnames of poets Pablo, Wystan, John and (fittingly) Robert. 

What are these phenomena?

Who are these poets?

Appetizer Menu

“Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Appetizer”:

“I Have A Dream!”

What is interesting about the following two sentences?

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have...” goes for everybody. Dreams can be accomplished.

MENU

Outdoorsy Slice:

“Get the lead out in the cold”

Meld two familiar four-word phrases (like “get the lead out” and “out in the cold”) to form a seven-word phrase (like “get the lead out in the cold”).

Rearrange the letters in one such seven-word phrase to spell three things you might see outdoors: a two-word tree, a part of a ballpark and a farm worker. 

What are this melded phrase and three outdoor sights?

Riffing Off Shortz And Vaillancourt Slices:

Tina and the Tinman, ironically

Will Shortz’s January 8th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Michele Vaillancourt, of Saint Paul, Minnesota, reads: 

Name a famous living person — first and last names. If you drop the last letter of the first name, you get an element on the periodic table. And if you drop the last letter of the last name, you get the chemical symbol of another element. What celebrity is this?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Vaillancourt Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Rearrange the combined letters of the three words for the images pictured here to spell the first and last names of a puzzle-maker. 

What are these words and who is this puzzle-maker?

Note: 

Entree #2 was created by Plantsmith whose “Garden of Puzzley Delights” feature appears regularly on Puzzleria!

Entrees #3 and #4 were created by Greg VanMechelen (Ecoarchitect) whose “Econfusions” feature appears regularly on Puzzleria! 

Thank you, Plantsmith and Ecoarchitect.

ENTREE #2

Take an element and remove letters 5 ,6 and 7, then remove the space they leave. You will get a name of a title character in a TV series with a famous person in the lead role. The person is still alive and in another TV series, “having apparently gained a promotion” over their first role as a TV personality.

What is the element?

Who is the TV personality?

What are these two TV series?

Hint: The first series was filmed in a tropical place.

ENTREE #3

Name a famous living person — first and last names. 

If you add a letter at the end of the first name, you get the name of a professional sports
team.
And if you drop the last letter of the last name, you get the postal abbreviation of the state the team is from. 

What celebrity is this?

ENTREE #4

Name a well-known former athlete, add a letter to the front of the first name to get an element, and delete the last letter of the last name to get the the symbol for another element. Who is the athlete? What are the element and symbol? 

Hint: The athlete had a nickname that was both colorful and black-and-white.

ENTREE #5

Name a black or brown mineral which is the chief ore of an element on the periodic table. The chemical symbol of this element is the first letter of that mineral, not the first letter of the element.

The mineral begins with a 4-letter creature, followed by a 3-letter creature, and ends with another 4-letter creature.

If you spell the element backward, the first four letters of the result can be rearranged spell a place where some creatures hang out, followed by another 3-letter creature.

What are this mineral,element and chemical symbol?

What are the four creatures and the place where some creatures hang out?

ENTREE #6

Name a movie character – a cybercriminal who was born with the name “Thomas,” but who was more well-known by two words that are anagrams of one another, one preceded by the article “The”.

Add a letter to the beginning of the chemical symbol of an element on the periodic table to spell the word that follows “The”. 

Remove the last letter of that element to spell the other name by which Thomas was known.

What two names are these?

What are the element and its chemical symbol?

ENTREE #7

Name an element on the periodic table with a chemical symbol that, spelled backward, is seen on book covers and in newspapers. remove the last three letters from the element and spell the remaining letters in reverse.

Remove the last letter of the result to spell the last name of a Hall of Fame third baseman or the first name of a Hall of Fame quarterback.

If you instead remove the second letter of the result you will get the first names of female cartoon characters whose last names rhyme with “stubble” and “stoop.” 

What are this element and its chemical symbol?

Who are these Hall of Famers and cartoon characters

ENTREE #8

Place a chemical symbol, without a space, to the left of the name of its element.

Remove the final three letters of this result. The letters that remain spell the name of a cartoon creature whose mother was killed by a hunter. 

What chemical symbol and element are these?

Who is this cartoon creature?

ENTREE #9

Place the chemical symbol of an element, without a space, to the left of the name of the element.

Remove the final three letters of this result. 

The letters that remain spell the name of a female figure in Mesopotamian and Judaic mythology who was banished from “paradise” for “adamently” disobeying her husband.

What are this chemical symbol and element?

Who is the female figure?

ENTREE #10

Place a chemical symbol, without a space, to the right of the name of its element.

Rearrange letters in the second half of this result to form a male name that is a homophone of what worshippers sometimes do while praying. The first half of this result spells a male name that sometimes follows the word “Saint.” 

What element and chemical symbol are these?

What are these two male names?

ENTREE #11

Take an idiom (in the form “_____ in the ____”) that means “activities or projects that someone is involved in.” 

The singular form of the word in the first blank is an element, and the first and fourth letters of the word in the second blank form the chemical symbol of that element.

Place the first two letters of the element between the two letters of the chemical symbol to form the second word in a two-word idiom that means “to be doing something very well.” The second half of the element forms the first word in that idiom. 

What are the four-word idiom and two-word idiom? 

What element and chemical symbol are these?

Dessert Menu

Upword Downword Dessert:

Looking up to, or down upon?

Name something we tend to look down upon. 

Remove a letter and spell the result backward to name something we tend to look up to. What are these two things?

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.