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.