Chopper, chain, ship & savory; Poem, periodical & newspaper; Dennis the first-stone caster; “Mixed review” of an early role? “Strangers in the Night, Frank’s in a tray!” A square is “just right” angles, four of ’em;

 PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

A square is “just right” angles, four of ’em

Square a number. Multiply the result by ten. 

The first three digits of this product form a number that Goldilocks might think is “just right.” 

What number did you square?

Appetizer Menu

Lightning-Round Appetizer:

Chopper, chain, ship & savory

“Poached Eggbeater”

1. 🚁Last night I dreamed our helicopter was stolen. 

Of course, we don’t really own a helicopter – this was just one of those totally crazy dreams people have sometimes. 

Anyway, in the dream the fictional police tried to find it and got nowhere. 

Then we engaged a fictional detective who recovered the helicopter in short order. 

You can discover the detective’s name by rearranging the letters in consecutive words in this puzzle. Who is it?

Purchasing Personal Care

2. ⛓Name a well-known brand of personal care products. 

Swap the first and last halves of the brand name and you’ll identify a chain of stores where similar products are sold. 

What’s the brand? 

What’s the chain?

“The Yankee Clipper?”

3. 🚢The last name of a famous 20th century athlete sounds a lot like a word that identifies one side of a ship. 

The title of a 1980 Top Ten hit identifies the other side of a ship. 

Name the athlete, word, and hit.

State, Star & Scale

4. 🗣🌠⚖Start with a state abbreviation. 

Then add the name of the iconic fictional star of several action movies. 

Finally, add the name of a musical note in the Do-Re-Mi scale. 

You’ll name something that’s quite tasty. 

What is it?

MENU

Anagrahamcracker Hors d’Oeuvre:

Poem, periodical & newspaper

Name a kind of poem, a kind of periodical and a newspaper snippet.

Rearrange the combined letters in these three
words to form the title of a famous work of fiction. 

What are this title and these three words?

“A Palindrome Of Boundless Proportions?” Slice:

Dennis the first-stone caster

A palindrome is a phrase whose letters read the same backwards as forwards, as in “Dennis and Edna sinned.”  

Your task is to find a related palindrome about Dennis that refutes or denies that one!

Note: The inspiration, core, crux and content of the above puzzling creation come courtesy of Rudolfo, whose “Puzzles Rufolfo” appears often on Puzzleria! Lego Lambda suggested “the bookends.” 

Riffing Off Shortz And Picciotto Slices:

“Strangers in the Night, Frank’s in a tray!”

Will Shortz’s July 16th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by  Henri Picciotto of the National Puzzlers’ League, reads:

Name a famous singer (first and last names, 12 letters in all). Add a Y at the end, and the result, with respacing but not rearranging any letters, will spell a possible contribution to a picnic and how it might be served. What singer is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Picciotto Slices read:

ENTREE #1

“When David ____ played for ‘The Crimson Hose’ he would occasionally have to  _____ to _____ Hunter who played for ‘The Twinkies’.”

Rearrange the 14 letters in those three blanks to spell the name of a puzzle-maker.

Who is this puzzle-maker?

What three words belong in the blanks?

ENTREE #2

Note: Entree #2 was suggested by an NPR Sunday Puzzle/Puzzleria! listener/reader, and friend of Puzzleria!

Name a famous Tennessean singer (first and last names, 11 letters in all). Replace the last two letters of the last name with the last letter of the first name, forming words of four and five letters. 

Switch the order of these altered names to spell the title of a 1950’s rock ’n’ roll song written and recorded by a young Texan.

Who are these Tennessean and Texan singers?

What  is the title of the Texan’s song?

Hint: The young Texan’s name is a synonym of “cohort” followed by word that follows “Fort.” 

ENTREE #3

Note: This Entree #3 riff-off was composed and contributed by our friend Jeff Zarkin, whose “Jeff Zarkin Puzzle Riffs” appears regularly on Puzzleria!

Take the name of a famous singer. 

Reverse it to phonetically get a place where one might eat.

Add a letter to get what one might order there.

Who is the singer, what is the place, and what might you order?

ENTREE #4

Name a character (first and last names, eight letters in all) that appeared on a teen drama television series that debuted on the Fox TV network two decades ago. 

Replace the last letter with an M, and the result, with respacing but not rearranging any letters, will spell a synonym of an anagram of a synonym of “dog tag.” 

What is this character’s name?

What are the synonym of “dog tag,” anagram of that synonym, and synonym of that anagram?  

ENTREE #5

Name a somewhat obscure character actor (first and last names, 14 letters in all) who nevertheless appeared in more than 100 films – including, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House,” “Pat and Mike” and “Mighty Joe Young.” 

This name is also a phrase for what an employee of the valet service offered by restaurants, stores, hotels, et cetera would become if a patron of such an establishment drives up in an air-cooled automobile manufactured in Syracuse between 1902 and 1934.

Who is this character actor?

What would an employee become?

ENTREE #6

Name a famous author (first and last names, ten letters in all). Add a Y at the end of the first name. Change the last letter of the last name to an “s”. The result is what you might witness on an athletic field in the wake of a competition.

Who is this author?

What might you witness on the field?

ENTREE #7

Name a German writer, historian and Nobel Prize laureate. Number the fourteen letters in the name 1, 2, 3...14. 

Now imagine a verbless five-word exclamation of incredulous disgust perhaps spoken by a gentleman who had just used a public restroom that had not been well-maintained. The exclamation is in the form:

“___   ____’  ____   ____...  ___!”

Use the letters in the German writer’s name to reveal the exclamation:

 “(1 2 3)   (11 13 14 12’)  (7 6 9 8)  (4 5 6 7)...  (11 9 10!”)

Note: In the last word of the exclamation (the one before the exclamation mark) letters #10 and #11 must be inverted. However, those two letters need not be inverted if the gentleman who had just used the not-well-maintained public restroom is a very young gentleman –say, age 10 or less.

Who is this German writer?

What is the exclamation?

ENTREE #8

Name a famous American preacher (first and last names, 14 letters in all) who was a pal of Jerry Falwell and whose divorce caused a minor controversy in the major denomination he led.

Remove a Y from the end. Put in its place a double-letter. 

The result – with respacing but not rearranging of any letters – will spell two possible pieces of advice a parent might give:

* to a young’un attempting to roast a marshmallow to make a s’more, and

* to a teen who may be sunbathing a bit too much.

Who was this preacher?

What are the two possible pieces of parental advice?

ENTREE #9 

Name a very successful past major league pitcher (first and last names, 11 letters in all). Remove the fourth and tenth letters.

The result, with respacing but not rearranging any letters, will spell a two-word description of Princess Diana of Wales, Queen Letizia
of Spain, or Great Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.

Who is this pitcher?

What is the two-word description? 

Hint: The pitcher also went by the nickname of a famous gunslinger.

ENTREE #10 

Name a probably-ought-to-be-more-famous actress (first and last names, nine letters in all) who shares a rare distinction with actress Betty White. 

Move the first letter of this actress’s last name so that it becomes the last letter of her first name, forming two new words. The result is the possible name of a store that specializes in certain clothing worn below the neck.

Who is this actress?

What is the possible store name?

ENTREE #11 

Name a famous novelist, poet, and journalist (first and last names, 12 letters in all). Lowercase the uppercase letters, and the result, with just one instance of respacing and just one instance of rearranging letters, will
spell:

1. a plural word (the first four letters of the novelist’s name, in reverse)

2. a female bird, and 

3. a rail-like bird.

The first, plural word might apply to the second and third “bird words.” 

Who is this novelist?

What are the three words?

ENTREE #12 

Name a 20th-Century prime minister (first and last names, 16 letters in all). Replace the first name with a more informal six-letter first name that was commonly substituted. Replace the fourth letter in this name with a “p”, resulting in a kind of bird.

The prime minister’s surname is a possible
word for this bird when it’s building its nest.

Remove the first letter of the prime minister’s surname to spell a word for this bird when it’s in the process of propagating its species.

Who is this prime minister?

What is the bird?

What might you call this nest-building bird and species-propagating bird?

ENTREE #13 

Name an American politician who also served as United States Secretary of State (first and last names, 17 letters in all). 

The first four letters of the first name can be used to spell “a fermented beverage made of
water and honey, malt, and yeast.” Remove also the sixth letter of the first name and the first two letters of the surname, three letters that can be used to spell “a type of beer with a bitter flavor and higher alcoholic content.”

Reverse the order of the two words that remain. Place a hyphen between them. 

The result is a hyphenated word describing a
kind of distinction that may provide an unambiguous criterion or guideline, especially in law or in diplomacy, which was this American politician’s bailiwick and forté.

Who is this politician and diplomat?

What are the beverage and the beer?

What is the hypenated descriptive word?

Dessert Menu

English as a Second Language Dessert:

A “mixed review” of an early role?

Name an actress. Anagram her surname to spell a verb that a small child might use – or that an ESL (English as a Second Language) student might use – to describe what this actress did in one of her early TV roles. 

Who is this actress and what is the verb?

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.