A passage athletic and prophetic; Otter in water, frog in a bog? Title’s the same, so is the name; “Quintuple Creature Feature!” Commonalities and categories; Here a “moo,” there a “moo,” everywhere a “muumuu!”

 PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

A passage athletic and prophetic

Take a twelve-word statement that the Bible ascribes to Jesus.

Replace the third and ninth words with words that rhyme with those respective words. (For example, the previous instructional sentence might read: “Replace the bird and ninth words with words cat rhyme with those respective words.”)

If you choose the correct rhyming words to substitute into the biblical passage, the result will be a “prophecy” regarding competition during the nine-day 2023 World Athletics Championships that begin tomorrow, August 19 in Budapest, Hungary.

This “prophecy,” more specifically, is a prediction about track & field events, which is what the World Athletics Championships are all about.

What is this twelve-word statement in the Bible?

What is this “prophecy”?

Note: The biblical source used in this puzzle is either the New Revised Standard Version or the New International Version.

Appetizer Menu

Unbeatable Conundrums Appetizer:

Commonalities and categories

“An In-Common Quintet”

1. Consider the following five words:

* Decapitation, 

* Petard, 

* Attorney, 

* Decision, 

* Examination.

What do they have in common? 

Can you name a sixth word with the same property?

“Categorical Thinking”

2. Name a category of a device, and a thing this

device uses. (For example: a printer uses ink.) 

Drop one letter and rearrange the result to get
a trademarked name for the device.

What are this device, what it uses, and the trademarked name for the device?

MENU

Implementary Hors d’Oeuvre:

Otter in water, frog in a bog?

Delete the first letter of a two-word implement seen in the kitchen. 

Spoonerize the result to name a creature spotted in lakes and other wetlands. 

What are this implement and creature?

Coincidental Slice:

Title’s the same, so is the name

A 1960s novel and a 1970s TV series have the same title. 

The author of the novel and a leading actor in the TV series have the same surname. Name the author, the actor and the common title of the novel and TV series.

Hint: Other than the title and common surname, the novel and TV series are not related.

Riffing Off Shortz And Pitt Slices:

Here a “moo,” there a “moo,” everywhere a “muumuu!”

Will Shortz’s August 13th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Dan Pitt of Palo Alto, California , reads:

Name a famous contemporary singer (6,4). The second, fourth, sixth, eighth, and ninth letters, in order, spell a repeated part of a song that everyone knows. What is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Pitt Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Take a noun, in fourteen letters, that means “sadness or displeasure caused by the nonfulfillment of one’s hopes or expectations.”

The first, fourth and ninth letters spell a puzzle-maker’s first name. The fifth, eighth, tenth and
fourteenth letters spell the last name.

Who is this puzzle-maker?

What is the “sad and unfulfilling” noun?

Note #1: The “downer of a noun” is no reflection on the puzzle-maker’s current NPR puzzle. It is a fine and dandy puzzle.

Note #2: You can also spell this puzzle-maker’s name by taking a verb, in twelve letters, that means “spoke or expressed opinions in a pompous or dogmatic way.” The twelfth, ninth and third letters spell the puzzle-maker’s first name. The first, fifth, fourth and tenth letters spell the last name. What is this verb?

ENTREE #2

Take the seven letters of a repeated part of a song that almost everyone knows. The letters also spell the title of the song. These seven letters, respectively, are the sixth, fifth, fifteenth, fourth, eleventh, first and eighth letters in a fifteen-letter noun associated with
this repeated part of this song.

What is the seven-letter repeated part of the song?

What is the fifteen-letter word associated with this seven-letter word?

Hint #1: An object seen in this coronation photograph of Queen Elizabeth is an anagram of the song title.

Hint #2: The fifteen-letter-long word is one of the “character” dimensions in Cloninger’s Temperament and Character Inventory, and is defined as “a personality trait that concerns how much a person is generally agreeable in their relations with other people as opposed to aggressively self-centered and hostile.” 

ENTREE #3

Name an eleven-letter adjective (other than “Escheresque”) that describes the artwork pictured here.

The second, third, ninth and tenth letters of that adjective, in order, spell a repeated part of a song that almost everyone knows. 

What is this song?

What is the adjective?

ENTREE #4

Take the five-letter title of a folk song often sung by children who gleefully spell out the letters in the lyrics. In the song, the title is the name of a pet. It is also the name of a sedentary game of chance often played in a group setting.

These five letters, in order, are the first, fifth, sixth, seventh and second letters of a less sedentary activity, a sport that requires skill as well as a ball.

What are the song title and game of chance?

What is the less sedentary activity?

ENTREE #5

The title of a somewhat “kinky” more-than-half-century-old song is spelled out, but only once, in its lyrics. Those lyrics also mention a drink that, though is tastes like a certain soft drink (also spelled out once in the lyrics), contains an intoxicant.

Spell a synonym of “intoxicant” backwards and remove the middle three letters to spell the song title.

 What is the song title?

ENTREE #6

The title of an acclaimed rock & roll song is spelled out four times in the lyrics of its chorus. Double its second letter. Move those double letters between two vowels at the end of the title to spell a creature.

The ninth, eighth, fourth, eighth, second and third letters of the songwriter’s name, in order, spell a synonym of this creature.

What is the song title?

What are the creature and its synonym?

Who is the songwriter and lead singer?

ENTREE #7

The first word in the two-word title of an acclaimed rock & roll song is spelled out, but only once, in a funky intro to the main body of the song. This word is associated with the Western Hemisphere.

Add two different vowels to this word, neither of which appears in the word. Rearrange the letters of this result to spell a word for an enthusiast, in ten letters, of a certain place in the Eastern Hemisphere.  

What is the song title?

What is the word for an enthusiast of the place in the Eastern Hemisphere?

ENTREE #8

The first word in the two-word title of a “bubblegummy” rock & roll song is spelled out four times in a shouted-chant-intro to the main body of the song.

Remove the eight letters of that word from a longer word associated with “good fat.” 

Rearrange the seven letters that remain to spell a synonym of “sumptuous” or “plush.” 

What is this song title?

What are the word associated with “good fat” and the synonym of “sumptuous” or “plush?”

What is this song title?

What are the “good-fat” and the “plush” words?

ENTREE #9

The one-word title of a country song is spelled out twice in the chorus as well as once in the
actual title!

Other words spelled out in the lyics of this song are “J-o-e,” “t-o-y,” “s-u-r-p-r-i-s-e” “c-u-s-t-o-d-y,” and “H-E-double-L.”

Anagram the title to spell a verb that means “to navigate a vehicle – or a project, marriage, et cetera – jointly with somebody else.”

What is this country song?

What is the verb? 

ENTREE #10

The first word (in six letters) of a two-word title of a song by a new wave/synth-pop band is spelled out twice in the lyrics of the song.

Add a “double- hockey-sticks” to the letters in this word and rearrange the result to spell an eight-letter adverb that describes how participants in the music video of the song are dancing.

What are the song and the adverb?

ENTREE #11

The two nouns that flank a preposition and article in the title of a four-word song are spelled out. (The second noun is an abbreviation.) The rustic image on the cover of the album that contains this song is a photograph of the song’s singer striking a pensive pose while leaning against a
fencepost on a farm or ranch.

Rearrange the combined seven letters in the two nouns, after adding two or three other letters, to spell:

* a synonym of  “cowboys” or “bronco busters” (after adding OB)

* a synonym of certain farm or ranch vehicles (after adding BBD)

* quantities of produce loaded up and transported from the farm to market (after adding LTD).

* the following missing word: “The __________ of the movie ‘The Waterboy’ features a hit single from the album on which this four-word song is also featured.” (after adding NDT). 

What are this song title and title of the album on which it appears?

What are the four words: the two synonyms, the quantities of produce, and the “missing movie word”?   

ENTREE #12

The one-word title of a popular hit song from the 1960s is spelled out once in the title and six times in the lyrics. The eight letters in the title are the first, fourth, third, eighth, ninth,
tenth, eleventh and twelfth letters in a synonym of “song.”

What is this song title?

What is the synonym of “song”?

Hint #1: Take the letters of the synonym of “song” that you did not use: the fifth, sixth, seventh (twice) and second, in that order, to spell the name of a contemporary female singer/rapper.  

Hint #2: The singer of the song, who also composed its lyrics, is the first woman ever to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 record charts – a feat she accomplished with this recording, which is just one of her 53 career hit records.

ENTREE #13

Name a fourteen-letter adverb meaning “regretfully acknowledging fault or failure.” Its second, first, fourth, and third letters, followed by its eleventh, twelfth, eighth and fifth letters spell the two-word hometown of a puzzle-maker.

What is this adverb?

What is this hometown?

Who is the puzzle-maker?

Note: There is no reason for this NPR puzzlemaker to “regretfully acknowledge fault or failure” for the fine recent NPR puzzle he created.

Dessert Menu

Five-Alive Dessert:

“Quintuple Creature Feature!”

Some of the letters of (1.) a five-letter creature can be rearranged to spell:

(2.) a four-letter creature, or 

(3.) a three-letter creature, or 

(4.) a three-letter word that sounds like the
name of a fictional creature, 

(5.) or (using one of the letters twice) a three-letter creature. 

What are these five creatures?

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.