Fishy Oscar, Grooming & Gaming, (Some) Creatures Great & Small; Swiggin’ it, Wingin’ it, Well-known Wanter, Country becomes a Quaff Infinite leaps and boundlessness; A gent named James & his Gang; My Fiendish Friend, Inflickta! Somatic Syllabic Syllabus Fare; Shortstop Stops Short?

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Infinite leaps and boundlessness

The alphanumeric sum of the word “infinite” is 86: 9+14+6+9+14+9+20+5. 

Name four adjectives, all associated with the infinite and the boundless. 

The alphanumeric sum of each adjective is the same as each of the other three. 

What are these four words? 

Hint: One of the four adjectives contains a hyphen. 

Appetizer Menu

Conundrumbstricken Appetizer:

Fishy Oscar; Grooming & Gaming; (Some) Creatures Great & Small; Swiggin’ it, Wingin’ it; Well-known Wanter; Country becomes a Quaff

Fishy Oscar

1.🐟This deceased Oscar nominee’s last name includes the name of a fish, no rearranging needed. 

Add a letter from the fish’s name to the person’s nickname and rearrange to name a different animal, not a fish. 

Identify the person and both animals.

Grooming & Gaming

2.🎲Name a familiar personal grooming brand that bears its creator’s last name. 

The brand’s products are frequently found in drug stores. The creator’s first name names a game piece. Who is it?

Creatures Great & Small

3.🐭🐘This popular 20th-century musician and entertainer was generally known by his last name (8 letters) which contains two animal names. 

The middle four letters – rearranged – name a large animal. The other letters, in order, name very small animals. 

Name the entertainer and the animals. 

Swiggin’ it, Wingin’ it

4.🍹Think of a well-known alcoholic beverage and delete the letters that name a kind of bird. 

Rearrange the rest and you’ll discover a popular movie character who also flies. Who is it?

Well-known “Wanter”

5.🫏🐘Take the last name of a well-known person and move the last two letters to the
beginning. 

The new word is what this person wants concerning U.S. politics. 

Who is it? What does he or she want?

Country becomes a Quaff

6.🌎☕Name a country. Delete its first letter and add the abbreviation for the continent on which it’s located. Rearrange the result to discover a popular drink. What’s the brand?

MENU

Anagrammatical Hors d’Oeuvre:

A gent named James & his Gang

 James _____ was a _____ who loved to make _____ and then _____ it with friends.

The words in the first and third blanks are
anagrams of one another, as are the words in the second and fourth blanks. 

Name the four words.

Hint: Each of the four words contains five letters.

Marquis de Sadistic Slice:

My Fiendish Friend, Inflickta!

Delete the first two syllables of a four-syllable inflictor of pain. 

Spoonerize what remains to spell something and some things that may also inflict pain. What is this “wholly unholy trinity” of pain-inflictors?

Riffing Off Shortz And Bass Entrees:

Shortstop Stops Short?

Will Shortz’s July 13th Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Ben Bass of Chicago, reads:

Take two different articles of clothing and place them one after the other. The result will spell something seen at a baseball game. What is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Bass Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

Many communities in New York State (including the towns of Yorktown, Carmel and others), citing environmental concerns, have indefinitely halted the development of new utility-scale battery storage facilities (known as
______y _____y _______  _y______ (7,6,7,7), or, more briefly, an anagram that is a first lady’s first name).

In short, these communities have opted to ___ ____! (3,4) Rearrange those seven letters to name a puzzle-maker.

Who is the puzzle-maker? What have some Empire State communities opted to do?

Answer:

Note: Entrees #2 though #8 are the handiwork of our friend Nodd. (Nodd and Lego collaborated on #8.) 

ENTREE #2

Take a two-word phrase for articles of clothing made to be highly durable. Insert one letter somewhere inside the second word to describe something you might see at a baseball game. 

What is the phrase, and what might you see?

ENTREE #3

Take a word for articles of clothing made to be especially comfortable. 

Precede this word with a hyphenated word containing an ordinal number to get something that occurs at a baseball game. What is it?

ENTREE #4

Take a word for a fabric used to make shirts and other articles of clothing and remove the
last three letters. 

Follow this with a word for a part of a certain article of clothing to get something you might see at a baseball game. 

What is the fabric, and what might you see? 

ENTREE #5

Take a word for a lightweight fabric often used to make decorations. 

This word also describes something you may see a player doing at a baseball game. 

What is it?

ENTREE #6

Take a word for a kind of fabric commonly used in clothing. 

Replace the last letter with two consecutive letters of the alphabet to get things seen at a
baseball game. 

What are the type of fabric and the things seen at a baseball game?

ENTREE #7

Take a word for something that sometimes occurs at a baseball game during an at-bat. 

Add three letters to the end to get a kind of lightweight patterned fabric. 

A word for an article of clothing that is often made from this kind of fabric also describes something that may occur in the ninth inning of a baseball game. 

What are the thing occurring during an at-bat, the fabric, and the article of clothing?

ENTREE #8

Due to a global button-and-interlocking-metal-fastener shortage, denim jeans manufacturers
Levi Strauss and Lee have made the tough decision to _________ ____ (9 & 5 letters) on all their products. 

Those two words are also things often seen at baseball games. What are these things?

Note: Entree #9 is the brainchild of our friend Plantsmith.

ENTREE #9

Name a seven-letter compound-word garment  World War I soldiers wore for protection that has since become a popular style for men, worn by the likes of David Bowie and Kurt Cobain. 

This compound word is also something on a baseball infield (that most people don’t even notice!) that helps manage moisture, improve playability, and create a consistent surface.

What are this garment and “infield dressing”?

ENTREE #10

Place a two-syllable word that appears on this bottle of aftershave lotion, followed by a one-syllable word on it.

The result sounds like people seen at a baseball game.

What are these two words and the people seen?

ENTREE #11

Write a caption for the top image – in two words of three and one syllables and of seven and five letters.

The same caption may be used for the  lower image.

What is this caption?

ENTREE #12

Write a two-word, six-letter caption for this image.

The result should sound like a five-and-three-letter caption for something seen at a baseball game.

What are these two captions?

ENTREE #13

Write one caption for the two similar images pictured here, in two and seven letters. 

The first word is a verb; the second a proper feline pet name.

The caption sounds like something a pitcher might “serve up to a batter on a silver platter, down the heart of the plate!”

What is the caption? What might a pitcher “serve up?”

ENTREE #14

Write a caption for the image pictured here, in four and three letters.

You would normally use a fork to devour the result. But in this instance, use a “spoon” instead. The result, in three and three letters, will be seen at a baseball game.

What are the caption and something seen at the game?

Hint: A caption in seven and three letters, and a “something seen at the game” in six and three letters is also acceptable. 

Dessert Menu

Anatomical Dessert:

Somatic Syllabic Syllabus Fare

Divide a place on earth into three parts. 

Anagram the letters in the first part to form a one-syllable body part.

Anagram the letters in the third part to name a second one-syllable body part. 

Move the middle part, also one syllable, to the end. 

The result is three body parts in order from lowest to highest.

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.