Thursday, July 3, 2025

Mixed-up city fathers, Dandy candy and faddy duds, Jesus Christ Supersorcerer, Cars carnivores crave!; Minnie the Moocher, Donald the Driver; Bitchin’ ‘bout a beverage; “Baby it’s warm inside... and outside!” Behemoth becomes a big maker of melody; Golf Cart ‘toons!

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe2 SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Golf Cart ‘toons!

Name a cartoonist.

Rearrange the letters in this cartoonist’s name to get two words: 

🐺 a kind of golf match, and 

🪤🏌something found on a golf course. 

Who are this cartoonist and the two golf-related terms?

Appetizer Menu

Skydiversionary Appetizer:

Mixed-up city fathers, Dandy candy and faddy duds, Jesus Christ Supersorcerer, Cars carnivores crave!

Mixed-up city fathers

1. Name a world capital city that when anagrammed describes its leaders who work there. 

What are the world capital and description of its leaders.

Dandy candy and faddy duds

2.🍬 Think of a candy everyone knows. 

Spoonerize it to name a garment popular with women. 

What are this candy and garment? 

Jesus Christ Supersorcerer

3.🪄 There are many famous and amazing magicians such as David Copperfield who made the Statue of Liberty disappear. 

They are famous because of how very clever and adept they were, but none are so clever and amazing as Jesus Christ whose greatest trick was to “blank blank.” 

Well, what was it? Fill in the blanks. Your answer must be humorous.

Cars carnivores crave!

4.🥗🥩 While some followers of Siddhartha choose to be vegetarian or vegan, others do eat meat. 

There isn’t a universal rule against meat consumption in their religion, but some traditions and schools of thought encourage it more than others. 

With that in mind, please consider those who are carnivores, and see if you can figure out which brand of automobile they prefer. 

Hint: It is a brand in four syllables that should reveal the answer when spoonerized. 

MENU

Instrumental Hors d’Oeuvre:

Behemoth becomes a big maker of melody

Name a relatively large creature. Anagram an interior string of letters to spell a somewhat large musical instrument. The remaining letters can be anagrammed to spell a material from which this instrument is often crafted.

What are this creature, instrument and material?

Homophonic Slice:

Bitchin’ ‘bout a beverage

Replace the second word in a two-word nine-letter beverage with a homophone that has two fewer letters. 

Place this homophone at the beginning, without a space. 

Insert a space someplace else to form a two-word complaint that impatient drinkers might make regarding this beverage's preparation time. 

What are this beverage and complaint?

Riffing Off Shortz And Chaikin Slices:

Minnie the Moocher, Donald the Driver

Will Shortz’s July 29th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Andrew Chaikin of San Francisco, reads:

Think of a famous movie star (6 letters, 6 letters). The first name, when said out loud, sounds like a brand of a certain object. The last name is someone who uses this object. What movie star is this?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Chaikin Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Take:

* the first name of a famous past singer whose surname is a synonym of beach (5 letters, 5 letters);

* the first name of singers Astley and
Springfield; and

* a synonym of “subside” that is a homophone of the first name of a past singer whose surname is sometime preceded by  the word “fig.”

Rearrange the 18 letters in these names to spell the first and last names of a puzzle-maker.

Who is the puzzle-maker?

Who are these singers?

What is the synonym of “subside?”

Note: Riffs #2 through #7 were composed by our friend Nodd, composer of “Nodd ready for prime time” on Puzzleria!

ENTREE #2

Think of a famous movie star (3 letters, 4 letters). 

Add an S to the end of the last name. The result will sound like something a criminal might do at a brand name retailer. 

Who is the star? What might a criminal do?

ENTREE #3

Think of a famous movie star (5 letters, 5 letters). The first name is a colloquial brand name for a certain object. The last name describes what this object is often used for in movies. 

Who is the star? 

What is the object?

ENTREE #4

Think of a famous movie star (5 letters, 6 letters). 

Drop the last three letters of the first name and add a B at the beginning of the name, then switch the order of the first and last names. 

The result is something that was once considered a brand name of a certain object but has now become a generic term for the object. 

Who is the star? What is the object?

ENTREE #5

Think of a famous movie star (4 letters, 4 letters). 

Swap the second and third letters of the first name. 

The result will be the name of a college, followed by a colloquial name for a university. Who is the star? 

What are the college and university?

ENTREE #6

Think of a famous movie star (3 letters, 6
letters). 

The first name is an abbreviation for something found on a certain object. 

The last name is something you might put in the object. Who is the star? What is the object?

ENTREE #7

Think of a famous movie star (8 letters, 4 letters). 

The first name is a former brand name for a certain object. 

The last name is a current brand name for the same kind of object. 

Who is the star? What is the object?

ENTREE #8

Note: Riff #8 was composed by our friend Plantsmith, curator of “Garden of Puzzley Delights” on Puzzleria!

Thank of a famous movie star. Six and six letters first and last. 

Their first name is part of a famous brand name. If you remove the third and fourth letters of the second name you will get an object associated with the famous brand name’s trademark.

Who is this movie star?

What is the object associated with the famous brand name’s trademark?

ENTREE #9

Take the first and last names of a head football coach at Southeastern Louisiana University, Louisiana Tech University and Ole Miss in the
late 20th Century, compiling a career college football coaching record of 125–94–6.

His name is the same as two nouns that describe each of four companies named Falls City, Cold Spring, West End and Pearl in the late 1970s.

Who is this football coach?

What is the two-word description of each of the four late-1970s companies?

ENTREE #10

Name a wielder of woods, in four syllables. 

His close friends call him by a name that make
him sound like a grinder of grains.

More formally, he is called by his surname (preceded by “mister”) that makes him sound like a cutter of coifs.

Who is this woods-wielder who at various times sounds like a grains-grinder or coifs-cutter? 

Dessert Menu

Consume Some Consommé Dessert?:

“Baby it’s warm inside... and outside!”

Name something you consume that might make you feel “all warm inside.” 

Delete an “a” and “e” and move the first letter
to the end to name something that may make you feel “all warm on the outside.” 

What are these two warming things?

Every Thursday 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 Thursday.

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.

Thursday, June 26, 2025

Long-running Radio, Divine Diva? Twice-Played, “Wand” a Washer? American Literature, Pop & Doo-wop, Meet Hannah Graham!; Aquatics and Visual Artistry; Snack on some salads and wraps; A pair of capes and a character; Pedro can’t open six Palm Doors! Backspace! Delete! Transpose!

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe2  SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

A pair of capes and a character

Take two words on the map of the Southeastern United States.

Each word follows the word Cape. 

Rearrange the combined letters of these two Cape-following” words to spell the name
of a fictional character, also from a Southeastern U.S. state. 

What are these two Capes? 

Who is the fictional character?

APPETIZER MENU

Slow, Sure, Sticky & Tricky Appetizer:

Long-running Radio, American Literature, Twice-Played, “Wand” a Washer? Divine Diva? Pop & Doo-wop, Meet Hannah Graham!

Long-running Radio

1. 📻Think of a long-running radio show.  The show used to be known by an abbreviated nickname as well. 

If you say the abbreviation out loud, it will sound like two numbers. 

The first number is twice the second one. 

What is the radio show? 

What is the abbreviation? 

What are the two numbers? 

American Literature

2. 🎸Name a popular contemporary musical artist in two words. 

Rearrange the letters of the first word. Change the second word, which is the name of an animal, to the male version of the animal. Swap the order of the words. You’ll have a well-known character from American literature. Who is the musical artist? Who is the character?

Twice-Played

3. ♝♜♘♕Name something that can be played. 

This item is sometimes called by its first five letters. 

Take those five letters, and reverse them to get something else that can be played. 

What can be played? What else can be played?

“Wand” a Washer?

4. 👚🧦🪛Rearrange the brand name of something you’d put into a washing machine to produce something you might use to fix a washing machine.

What’s the brand name? What might you use to fix a washing machine?

Divine Diva?
5.
 👼Think of a famous actress. 

Spell her first name backwards, and then replace the last letter of her middle name with a copy of her middle name’s second letter. 

You’ll have a religious song. Her last name also has a religious connection. 

Who is she? 

What is the song?

Pop & Doo-wop

6. 🎜🎝Name a classic rock group from the UK. Add the letter that comes after the second letter of the name in the alphabet. 

Also add the letter that comes before the last letter of the name in the alphabet. 

Rearrange the letters to produce the name of an earlier American doo-wop group. (Ignore the “The” used in the group’s name.)

Both groups had big hits with songs that have a two-word title. The first words belong to the same category. 

The second words each contain the same amount of letters, and all of the letters except one are the same for both words, although in a different order. These common letters in a certain order spell a sound that can be associated with the UK group’s name. 

What are the groups? What are the songs? What sound is associated with the UK group? 

Meet Hannah Graham!

7. 🎩👒🪈Professor Anna Graham’s daughter, Hannah, enjoys her mom’s puzzles. 

She’s decided to write her own about one of her favorite Disney+ classic movies.  

Fill in the blanks to complete the verse.

While Marie ____ cute

____’s horn does toot 

A ____ of cool ____, 

Some wearing hats, 

But nobody plays the flute!

What are the four words? 

What’s the movie?

MENU

 “No, It Is O Perp!” Hors d’Oeuvre

Aquatics and Visual Artistry

Remove a preposition spelled backwards from the name a two-word aquatic creature.

The result is the name of a 20th-century visual
artist. 

What is this creature? 

Who is the  visual artist?

Hint: The two-word aquatic creature is an anagram of a two-word term for ancient Western Hemisphere paintings and architecture.

Roamin’ Numeral Slice:

Snack on some salads and wraps

Name a two-word natural food used in salads or wraps. 

The fifth letter of the first word is a Roman numeral. Move it into the sixth position and
replace it with a different Roman numeral. 

The result is two nouns that are associated with each other. 

What is the two-word natural food?

What are the two associated nouns?

Riffing Off Shortz And Weisz Entrees:

Pedro can’t open six Palm Doors!

Will Shortz’s June 22nd NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Bob Weisz, reads:

Take the name of a major film director. Drop the last six letters of his name, and rearrange what remains. You’ll get the name of a major film award for which this director has been nominated six times. Who is he and what is the award?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Weisz Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

Take the eight-letter name of a puzzle maker. Remove the space. 

Replace the 8th letter with the 5th letter and place in the fifth position a consonant that precedes that original 5th letter in the spelling of a common two-letter preposition. 

Finally, replace the 7th letter with the letter that follows it in the alphabet.

The result is a bird.

Who is the puzzle maker and what is the bird?

Note: Entrees #2 and #3 were composed by our friend Tortitude, whose “Tortie’s Slow but Sure Puzzles” this week’s featured Appetizer.

ENTREE #2

Name a director who has won a sweet number of Academy Awards. 

Remove six letters (five of them consecutive) that can be anagrammed to spell a synonym of two consecutive words in the previous sentence. 

The remaining letters in the director’s can be anagrammed to spell a part of a shamrock and a word related to shamrocks.

Who is this director?

What are the synonym, shamrock part and shamrock-related word?

ENTREE #3

Name two directors who won back-to-back Oscars for Best Director. 

One of their first names is a nickname for the other’s first name. Their last names sound the same, except that one contains an additional consonant sound.

Who are they?

Note: Entrees #4 through #9 were composed by our friend Nodd, whose “Nodd ready for prime time” is featured regularly on Puzzleria!

ENTREE #4

Take the name of a major film director. Rearrange the letters of his name to spell a two-word phrase describing his job, and an additional word that is the nickname of another major film director. 

Who are the two directors and what is the job description?

ENTREE #5

Take the name of a major film director. 

Drop all but three letters  of his last name, and
rearrange what remains to spell a two-word phrase that describes what the Oscars and Emmys are in the entertainment industry. 

Who is the director and what is the phrase?

ENTREE #6

Take the name of a major film director. 

Drop three letters of his name that spell a
number, and rearrange what remains. 

Youll get the name of a major film award won by this director, and a word describing acts often depicted in his films, including the one for which he won the award. 

Who is the director and what are the award and the acts depicted in his films?

ENTREE #7

Take the name of a major film director. 

His first name, and two consecutive letters of his last name, can be arranged to spell the
acronymic name of a film awards organization. 

This director was nominated for an award by the organization, but did not win. 

Who is the director and what is the organization?

ENTREE #8

Take the name of an Oscar-winning film director. 

His first name is the name of an award for best director given annually by a European film organization. 

His last name, minus the first three letters, is part of the names of two other Oscar-winning directors. 

Who are these three directors?

ENTREE #9

Take the names of two major film directors in alphabetical order. 

Drop the first director’s first name and the first
and last letters of his last name. 

Move the new first letter of his last name to the end. What remains, followed by the initials of the second director, spell the name of a major film award. 

Who are the two directors and what is the award?

Note: Entree #10 was composed by our friend Ecoarchitect, whose “Econfusions” is regularly featured on P!

ENTREE #10

Take the first and last names of a major film director. 

Drop the last six letters of the name, and rearrange what remains. 

You’ll get something no director wants.

Dessert Menu

Just One Solver’s Just Dessert:

Backspace! Delete! Transpose!

Spell a puzzle backwards.

(No, it’s not “El Z-zuppa!”)

Delete the first letter of the result. 

Interchange the two vowels to form what one who solves the puzzle deserves. 

What is this puzzle. 

What does its solver deserve?

Every Thursday 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 Thursday.

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.

Thursday, June 19, 2025

“Improbable bobbable Egg... nog?” Food Fight at the Golden Corral? Travel ’Zine? Cars & Carnations; “Heaps-o’-hops hoppin’ mad!” Making essential scriptural scents; “Payrolling” along on ergocycles; “Schussing down Pikachu Avenue” Opposites attract apposites are apt


PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe2 SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Making essential scriptural scents

Name a fragrance found in the Bible.

Replace its first word with an anagram that is the surname of a poet. This poet used a pseudonym that is an anagram of four consecutive interior letters in the fragrance’s last word. Replace those four letters with an “o”. 

The result is a Christian title that appears in the Bible. 

Name this fragrance, poet, pseudonym, and title.

Appetizer Menu

Delightfully Puzzley Appetizer:

“Improbable bobbable Egg... nog?” Food fight, Cars & Carnations, Travel Mag; 

“Food Fight at the Golden Corral?”

1.♕♖♗♘Picture this: 

A semi-empty plate at the “Golden Corral Buffet – the vestiges of a sumptuous feast... or
perhaps a food fight?” 

Describe what is on this plate using a two-word phrase of 5 and 6 letters and of 2 and 1 syllables.

Double the third letter of both words. “Spoonerize” the result by interchanging the first letter of the first word with the first three letters of the altered second word.

The final result is two-word ploy executed in a variant form of a classic family board game.

What is the two-word description of what is on the buffet table plate?

What is the two-word ploy in the variant form of the classic board game? 

Cars and Carnations

2. 🚌🚲🎕Take a popular method of transportation, in eight letters. Drop two letters, in order, that together represent a common acronym in texting. 

Mix the remaining letters to “grow” a  flower.

What are this method of transportation and name of the flower?

Travel ’zine?  

3. 🎜🎝Take the second word in the name of a magazine. 

Add a vowel to this word so that it is no longer a “Cyclops,” but then delete from it the letters in one of the seven solfège syllables: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti. 

Mix the result gently (do not shake!) to spell a name of a vehicle historically associated with the name of the magazine. 

What are this magazine and the name of the vehicle?    

The “Improbable bobbable Egg... nog?”

4. ☕🧃Change the first letter in a two-word high-protein beverage to get something
improbable.

What is the beverage?

What is improbable?

MENU

Foaming At The Mouth Of A Beer Mug Hors d’Oeuvre:

Heaps-o’-hops hoppin’ mad!

Name a beverage and a synonym of “steaming mad.” 

Rearrange their combined letters to spell an ingredient often used to make the beverage. 

What are this beverage, synonym and ingredient?

Work Like An Ox Slice:

“Payrolling” along on ergocycles

In a calendar year, there are 26 pay periods, which could also be described as 14-day pay cycles.

Workers who receive 26 paychecks per year are paid fortnightly, on BLANK BLANK. 

Rearrange the 13 total letters in those blanks to spell a pair of ox-like creatures. 

What are the words in the blanks and the ox-like creatures?

MENU

Riffing Off Shortz And Kalish Entrees:

“Schussing down Pikachu Avenue”

Will Shortz’s June 15th Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle challenge, created by Evan Kalish of Bayside, New York, reads:

Take a child’s  game, in eight letters. Change the sixth letter to “ch”  and, phonetically, you’ll
have a popular animated children’s character. What are the game and the character?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Kalish Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

Take a puzzle-maker’s surname, in six letters. 

Change the sixth letter to “ch” and, phonetically, you’ll have 

1.) a popular kind of cabbage that one might be allergic to, and

2.) an irritating skin sensation induced by that allergy that may tempt one to scratch.

Who is this puzzle-maker?

What are the kind of cabbage and irritating skin condition?

Note: Entrees #2 through #7 are the playful handiwork of our friend Nodd.

ENTREE #2

Name a two-word children’s toy used in numerous games. 

The second word, spelled backwards, names a popular children’s character from books and animated films. 

What are the toy and the character?

ENTREE #3

Name a two-word children’s game. The first word is also the name of a popular animated children’s animal character. 

What are the game and the character?

ENTREE #4

Name a three-word children’s game. 

Change the last letter of the third word to a P. Follow the third word, as modified, with the second word spelled backwards. 

You’ll name an animated children’s animal character originated for TV in the 1960s. 

What are the game and the character?

ENTREE #5

Think of a children’s game that is named for the items used to play it. Replace the first letter with a copy of the fourth letter. 

Change the fifth letter to the letter three places before it in the alphabet. 

You’ll name characters featured in numerous children’s films and TV shows. 

What are the game and the characters?  

ENTREE #6

Name a popular children’s toy game, in three words. 

Replace the third letter with the letter two places after it in the alphabet. 

Follow it with a two-letter state postal abbreviation, and delete the second word. You’ll name a popular animated children’s character. 

What are the game and the character?  

ENTREE #7

Name a two-word game often played by children. 

Double the second letter, and replace the last three letters with a Y. 

Delete the space to name a popular animated childrens character. 

What are the game and the character?

ENTREE #8

Take a two-word child’s game. Spell the second word in reverse order to get an object that ought never be considered “child’s play.” 

The first word is one a police officer might shout at a perpetrator of a crime. What are this child’s game and shout.

What are this game and object?

ENTREE #9

Remove two consecutive letters from a two-word 13-letter child’s game that is sometimes often enjoyed by adults. 

The result is choral music melodies one might hear at a concert or on a recording.

What is this game and what are the melodies?

ENTREE #10

Take a child’s game, in eight letters. 

Anagram these letters to spell a game people of all ages play and a role  often assumed by charades game participants.

What are this child’s game, game played by all ages, and role charades players assume?

Dessert Menu

“Pleated” Skirt Dessert:

Opposites attract, apposites are apt

Name an attractive article of clothing and a slang term for the body part it encloses. 

Spell the slang term in reverse, followed by an adjective modifying one type of this particular clothing (like “pleated” modifies skirt, for example) to spell something else that is attractive. 

What are this clothing, body part and other attractive thing?

Every Thursday 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 Thursday.