A "Delightfully Puzzley Appetizer!" “Fifty-fifty chance, or sure thing?” A bit of wordplay about work; “Rifles are not to be trifled with!” “Me Tarzan, you Edgar Rice...” Prometheus, Poe & Penny Production?

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

“Fifty-fifty chance, or sure thing?” 

Take a seemingly contradictory three-word phrase that is synonymous with “fifty-fifty chance.” 

Reverse the order of the words. 

Change the middle word to a different form of “to be.”

(There are eight different forms of  “to be”: “am,” “is,”  “are,” “was” “were”  “be,” “ being” and “been”) 

Move the last letter of the phrase to the beginning of the phrase. The result is a phrase with a 100% chance of being true – that is to say, it is a “sure thing.” 

What are these two “before-and-after phrases”?

Appetizer Menu

Delightfully Puzzley Appetizer:

Car Part, Drugs, First & Last, Vegas Trip, Fork or Spoon

“Messy car-part ride”

1.🚗 Think of a car part, in two words, that can be seen when the car is up on a lift.

Change the first word to an adjective by adding a letter to the end – a letter that is vertically symmetrical in its capital form.

Then add two letters that precede “Eliot” to the end of the second word.

The result is something messy that may happen to someone after working with, on or around this car part.

What is this car part? What often happens to someone after working with, on or around this car part?

Procter & Gamble Drugs

2.💊 Name a seven-letter brand-name product found in drug stores. 

Remove the last letter and mix to get a one-word medical condition. Although this product would not treat the condition, it would help treat a different two-word condition.

What are the item, medical condition and other condition this product would treat?

Hint: Take the two-word condition the brand-name product would treat. Anagram its letters to spell something gamblers flip, things gamblers roll, and what successful, flamboyantly fashionable gamblers are often dressed in.

“The last shall be first, the first shall be last”

3.🧩 Take the first and last names of a prolific puzzle-maker, whose puzzles appear often on NPR. Put the last name first and the first name last.

* In the new first name: Remove a suffix that, when added to the end of a noun, turns it into an adjective; replace this suffix with a word that can follow “Stone,” “Ice,” “Iron” or “Bronze.”

* In the new last name: Add to the end of this name the letter that follows its last letter in the alphabet; remove two letters that precede “Guide,” “listings” or “set”; reverse the order of the result. 

The final result is an unpopular cost associated with travel.

Who is this prolific puzzle-maker?

What is the unpopular cost associated with travel?

Last Trip to Vegas: a Nod to Nodd

4.🍋🟠 That weekend, as we made our way toward sin town, we passed an ancient ____. Or two, or three. Sentinels in the wind they were, witnesses to long-ago fields and those who worked them... sentinels caked with the ____ from ancient farmers’ lands.

Arriving at the Fountainbleu, we headed to the Athena spa and bathed in ____ with citrus notes.

That evening, while watching the many ____, we thought, “Guess it was worth it, but then again, is that all there is?”

Should have gone to Rome. Next time. But grandpa was a farmer. And one day, we shall return to the ____ he so faithfully tilled.

In order to complete this free verse, fill in the five blanks with four words that are anagrams of each other, one which is used twice.

A fork (or spoon?) in the road

5.🗱  Spoonerize a compound word for something you may meet as you motor on over the road to get a two-word caption of a photograph of a track star getting struck by lightning.

What are this thing in the road and this caption?   

MENU

Scavenger Hunt Hors d’Oeuvre:

Prometheus, Poe & Penny Production?

Find:

1. An adjective describing the tales of Sisyphus and Prometheus;

2. The “House at Poe Corner?”

3. A mint, but not “tic tac”... more like “tick-tock.”

Each word contains five letters.

What are they?

What else do they have in common?

Consequential Slice:

“Rifles are not to be trifled with!”

Take a word that is a synonym of “trifling” or “inconsequential.”

Its first three letters, in reverse, and the third, fourth and fifth letters, in order, spell a pair of three-letter synonyms that are not-at-all “trifling.” 

Indeed, these short synonyms are “weighty,”
“consequential,” and perhaps even life-changing. They are also associated with a four-letter adjective formed by the third and last three letters of the synonym of “trifling.” 

What are this synonym of “trifling,” two “weighty” synonyms, and the adjective associated with them?

Riffing Off Shortz Slices:

“Me Tarzan, you Edgar Rice...”

Will Shortz’s June 2nd NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle reads:

Think of a famous writer with a three-word name. The first two letters of the last name followed by the first two letters of the middle name followed by the first two letters of the first name, in order, spell an adjective that describes this author today. Who is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Think of a famous puzzle-master with a middle-name initial between his first and last names. The first two letters of his first name followed by the first two letters of his last name, in order, spell something you make prior to snuffing some flames... something like, “I hope and pray that I will be able to solve the NPR Weekend Edition Sunday Puzzle Challenge this weekend!”

The first letter of the puzzle-master’s last name, followed by his middle name’s initial, followed by the first letter of his first name, in order, spell an initialism indicating that this puzzle-master’s puzzles are fitting and proper for viewing and enjoyment at all places of employment.

Who is this puzzle-master?

What do you make before snuffing flames?

What is the initialism, and what does it stand for?

(Note: Entrees #2 through #7 are the brainchildren of our friend Nodd, whose “Nodd ready for prime time” is featured regularly on Puzzleria!)

ENTREE #2

Think of a famous writer with a three-word name. The first three letters of the first name, followed by the first three letters of the last
name, in order, spell the first name of a famous entertainer. In addition, the first four letters of the last name spell the first name of another famous entertainer, and the last four letters of the last name spell the last name of a third famous entertainer.  Who are the writer and the three entertainers?

ENTREE #3

Think of a famous writer with a three-word name. 

The first two letters of the first name, followed by the first four letters of the last name, in order, spell a two-word phrase that is often used to describe how one should act in order to enjoy a fulfilling life. 

Who is the writer, and what is the phrase?

ENTREE #4

Think of a famous writer with a three-word name. The first three letters of the first name, followed by the first three letters of the middle name, followed by the first three letters and the last letter of the last name, in order, spell a two-word phrase for an important ingredient in a beverage made in a European country. 

Who is the writer, and what is the phrase?

ENTREE #5

Think of a famous writer with a three-word name. 

The last four letters of the first name spell an adjective that applies to the events described in the writer’s most famous book.  And those same four letters, followed by the last letter of the middle name, in order, spell a related adjective that is also the last name of another famous writer. 

Who are the two writers, and what are the two adjectives?

ENTREE #6

Think of a famous writer with a three-word name. 

The first three letters of the first name, followed by the first two letters of the middle name, in order, spell the last name of a second famous writer.  Also, the last name of the second famous writer, minus the last letter, spells an adjective that describes the personal life of the second writer.  Finally, the last five letters of the first writer’s last name are also the last name of a third famous writer.  Who are the three writers, and what is the adjective?

ENTREE #7

Think of a famous writer with a three-word name. 

The first three letters of the first name, followed by the last three letters of the last name, in order, spell a word for a kind of food.  This food most likely would not be associated with the writer’s best-known book. However, the writer’s first name, minus the last letter, spells the country from which the word for the food comes. 

Who is the writer, and what are the food and the country?   

ENTREE #8

Think of a famous writer with a three-word name. 

The first two letters of the last name followed by the first two letters of the middle name followed by the first two letters of the first name, in order, spell a word for an expression of high regard, a tribute paid to one who is worthy of respect.

Who is is this writer?

What is the tribute paid to one who is worthy of respect? 

ENTREE #9

Think of a prolific American Pulitzer Prize-winning poet of the early 20th century with a three-word name. 

His use of laconic, everyday speech and adherence to traditional poetic forms bucked the more modernistic trend that was all the rage during that period. Once, when asked if he wrote free verse, the poet replied, “No, I write badly enough as it is.”

The first two letters of this poet’s last name followed by the first two letters of the middle name followed by the first two letters of the first name, in order, spell what – in a 1955 satirical novel by an Irish writer – the “apparently murine” Duchy of Grand Fenwick did, thereby exhibiting an unexpected leonine streak. 

Who is is this poet? 

What did the Duchy of Grand Fenwick do? 

ENTREE #10

Think of a famous modernist poet, playwright and essayist with a three-word name, the first two of which many of his readers were not even aware of. 

The first two letters of his middle name followed by the first two letters of the surname (but with a vowel inserted between them) followed by the first two letters of the first name, in order, spell a seven-letter theme in his first published poem. In it he imagines himself creeping crablike, cautiously, unobtrusively across the ocean floor: “I should have been a pair of ragged claws/Scuttling across the floors of silent seas...”

Who is this poet?

What was the seven-letter theme in his poem? 

ENTREE #11

Think of a famous American scientist and inventor with a three-word name. A past American president  whose surname is similar to that of this man owes him a debt of gratitude.

The first three letters of this scientist’s first name spell the make of the subcompact Metro, which was sold by General Motors in the 1990s. The first three letters of the scientist’s surname followed by the first four letters of his middle name spell a two-word option for an owner who wanted to keep his Metro looking showroom-floor-new.

Who is this scientist?

What is the make of the Metro?

What is the Metro owner’s option for keeping it looking showroom-floor-new?

ENTREE #12

Think of a famous  film actor, filmmaker, singer and songwriter with a three-word name. 

The first two letters of each of the three names can be rearranged to spell a word in the title of a book that is a classic in children’s literature. 

The first three letters of the actor’s first name followed by the first two letters of his second name, in order, spell the first name of the title character.

Who is this film actor?

What is the book title?

What is the name of the title character?

Dessert Menu

“netsuA enaJ” desserT:

A bit of wordplay about work

They say that “All work and no wordplay makes Jack a dull boy.” So...

...Spell the name of an author of literary works
in reverse (for example, “jane austen” becomes “netsua enaj”). 

All but the final letter of the backward word on the left spell a synonym of “work.” All but the final three letters of the backward word on the right are an anagram of a unit of work.

Who is this author?

What are the synonym of “work” and the unit of work?

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.