Scottish Palmistry? “Isle be snackered!” The most fruitful fruit? A, E, I, O, U... & Y, Too; Oxymoronic anagrammatic exercise; Rosebuds, silk and satin; Geography lessons from the Globe Theatre; Does WiDow Jones Deserve a Dower?

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Oxymoronic anagrammatic exercise

Spell out the letters of either one of two alphabets: the English alphabet, with which most Americans are most familiar, or the Greek alphabet:

a, bee, cee, dee, e, ef, gee, aitch, i, jay, kay, el, em, en, o, pee, cue, ar, ess, tee, u, vee, double-u, ex, wye, zee.

alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta, eta, theta, iota, kappa, lambda, mu, nu, xi, omicron, pi, rho, sigma, tau, upsilon, phi, chi, psi, omega.  

You can select and rearrange the combined letters of any number of these letters from either alphabet to form a phrase – like “serene ways” formed from en, ar, ess and wye, or “dumb impala” formed from lambda, mu and pi.

A number of letters in one of the alphabets can be spelled out, and the result anagrammed to to form an oxymoron – like “old news” or “palpable silence.” 

What are these letters and your oxymoron?

Appetizer Menu

Skydiversionary Appetizer:

 The most fruitful fruit? “Isle be snackered!”  Scottish Palmestry?

Scottish Palmestry?

1.🌴How far would a resident of Glasgow, Scotland need to travel in order to relax in a vacation spot where palm trees are prevalent?

“Isle be snackered!”

2. 🏝Think of a small island country in five letters. 

Insert an S inside to get a six-letter snack food common in the Southern hemisphere. 

What are this island country and snack food?

The most fruitful fruit?

3. 🍎🍋🍍🍌🍊🍉🍐🍇What fruit is grown in greater quantities than any other fruit, with over 170 million tons produced worldwide yearly?

MENU

Pentapronged Hors d’Oeuvre:

A, E, I, O, U... & Y, Too

Name a two-word vegetable that can also refer to a very tall thin person, the first and last names of one such person, any denizen of Wisconsin, and the surname of a past coach of Wisconsin cagers. Pare each of those six words down to a single letter by removing letters from each, one at a time:

Start by removing successive letters from the six-letter first word of the vegetable to get:

* Gordon Sumner (5 letters),

* What Gordon Sumner can do (4 letters),

* A transgression (3 letters),

* Word preceding “... like Flynn” (2 letters), and

* Vowel #3.

Now remove successive letters from the four-letter second word of the vegetable to get:

* Joe and Adam’s dad (3 letters),

* Word that precedes “prepared” (2 letters), and

* Vowel #2.

Now remove successive letters from the first name of the very tall thin person to get:

* a variant of “Emmanuel,” the Hebrew name meaning “God is with us” (5 letters),

* a Jamaican reggae artist surnamed Nahki (4 letters),

* Mesopotamian sky god (3 letters)

* a Greek letter (2 letters), and

* Vowel #5.

Now remove successive letters from the surname of this same very tall thin person to get:

* the first name of a coach of Wisconsin cagers (2 letters), and

* Vowel #4.

Now remove successive letters from the name of any Wisconsin cager or gridster to get:

* the title of a song co-written by Clapton and Harrison (5 letters),

* (Macbeth: Act 1, Scene 3) “And, for an earnest of a greater honor, He ____ me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdors” (4 letters),

* “Lemon” suffix, or American humorist and playwright George (3 letters),

* a word that follows “want” or “classified” (2 letters), and

* Vowel #1.

Finally, remove successive letters from the surname of a coach of Wisconsin cagers to get:

* a man who “can cook” (3 letters),

* Letters that precede “Tittle” (2 letters), and

* Vowel #6.

What are this two-word vegetable that can also refer to a very tall thin person, the first and last names of one such person, any denizen of Wisconsin and a coach of Wisconsin cagers.

What are the six vowels?

Editing Shakespeare Slice:

World Geography lessons from the Globe Theatre

Name a famous line from a Shakespearean play, a play that is brimming with a Bardworthy
superabundance of famous lines. This line contains eight words.

Carry out the following instructions to form a true geographical statement:

* Interchange the first and third words in the Shakespearean line. In that new first word, replace the last letter with a word for a unit of weight in the avoirdupois system equal to one sixteenth of an ounce. Transpose the first two letters in that unit of weight.

* Replace the eighth word – a one-word anagram of a possible task on Noah’s “to-do list” during the forty days and forty nights – with an anagram of the name of an American animation film director and screenwriter who is associated with Walt Disney Studios. (These anagrams are names of coastal nations – the latter being an oft-used informal name – that border a third nation and the same sea.)

What is this line from the Shakespearean play?  

What is the possible task on Noah’s “to-do list” and its anagram?

What is the name of the American animation film director and its anagram?

What is the true geographical statement?

Riffing Off Shortz Slices:

Does WiDow Jones Deserve a Dower?

The March 31st NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle reads:

The English language developed in a
patriarchal society, so many words in our language were traditionally assumed to be male, and turned into female versions by adding a prefix or suffix. 

Waiter and waitress, comedian and comedienne — those are just two examples of the many stereotypically “male” words that become new “female words” by adding a suffix.

There is a common English word that works the opposite way. What is the common English word that is generally used to refer exclusively to women, but which becomes male when a two-letter suffix is added?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz Slices read:

Note: We lead-off this week’s Entrees with a terrific riff composed by our friend Plantsmith, whose “Garden of Puzzley Delights” has long been a mainstay on Puzzleria!  

ENTREE #1

Take a female title. 

Switch the order of two consecutive letters. 

Replace two other
consecutive letters with a conjunction.

The result is the male equivalent of the female title. 

Both titles contain the same number of letters.

What are they?

Note from Nodd: Entrees #2 through #7 were created by our friend Nodd, whose “Nodd ready for prime time” is also a mainstay on Puzzleria! 

Instructions from Nodd: In each of the following six Entrees, you are asked to find “gendered” words that differ depending on whether the word applies to males or females. Most of the time in English, the “female” word is longer than the “male” word, as in, for example, “heir” and “heiress.” In each Entree below, however, the reverse is true.

ENTREE #2

Two words, starting with the same two letters, describe male and female characters who often figure in folk and fantasy tales. The male word is one letter longer than the female word. What are the two words?

Extra credit: What is a synonym for the male word that begins with the same letter as these two words, and is two letters longer than the female word?

ENTREE #3

Two compound words describe male and female members of a certain profession. They
both start with the same word. 

The male word is two letters longer than the female word.  

What are these two words?

ENTREE #4

Take the given name of a well-known male German scientist and mathematician.  

The name is one letter longer than the female
form of the name.  

Name the two names.

ENTREE #5

Two two-word terms describe a certain man or woman who achieves notoriety by virtue of being married to his or her spouse. 

The first word in both terms is the same; the second words differ.  

The male form of the term is five letters longer than the female form.  

What are the two terms?

Note from Nodd: Gendered words apply to animals as well as human beings. The following two Entrees involve terms from the animal kingdom. As with the preceding four Entrees, the male word is longer than the female word.

ENTREE #6

Think of two words that describe female members of an animal species, and one word that describes a male member of that species. All three words begin with the same letter. The male word is two letters longer than one of the female words, and one letter longer than the other female word. What are these three words?

ENTREE #7 

Four words describe male and female members of two animal species that are related. Two words begin with the same one letter, and the other two words begin with a letter that is three places later in the alphabet. In both cases, the male animal is one letter longer than the female. What are the four words?

ENTREE #8

Wilhelmina, Wilhelmena, Wilhelmine and Wilhemina are feminine given names that are forms of Wilhelm or William. 

Can you think of a five-letter feminine given name that is a form of William?

Hint: A talented woman with this five-letter name has a surname that seems as if it might be a masculine form of Catherine!

ENTREE #9

Take a word for an unmarried girl or woman and the name of a bellicose god. 

Anagram the combined letters to spell two
words, masculine and feminine, that are used in a business letter or email salutation, in the form “Dear ___ or _____.”

What are these four words? 

ENTREE #10

Cassia, Cornelia, Christina, Emma, Lucia, Marcia, Nicola, Trista, Thaddea... 

What do these nine feminine names share in common?     

Dessert Menu

Fabricated Dessert:

Rosebuds, Silk and Satin

Take a two-word, nine-letter non-English phrase that is often used in written and spoken English. It expresses a sentiment similar to Robert Herrick’s poetic opening line, “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.” 

Add a consonant to the end of the first word to get a heavy often tufted fabric not used in making clothing. 

Add a consonant to the exact middle of the second word and switch the positions of the two vowels that flank it. The result is a firm durable usually cotton fabric that is used in making clothing.

What is this non-English phrase and its common English translation?

What are the “heavy often tufted fabric” and the “firm durable usually cotton fabric?”

Hint #1: The two consonants you added are third and fifth letters in the language of the non-English phrase.

Hint #2: The initial letters of three words commonly used as an English translation of the non-English phrase are also an acronym of maladies that may befall those who adopt the sentiment expressed in the non-English phrase.  

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.