Nonslumbering lumber! "Do the math!" Oliver, George, William, Joe in the NEWS (or OLDS?) "Backward to the past"; Empire State of Mind... Benders; Things dogs do, name just two; Behold the Mayo, for heart’s-sake! Fido? Fluffy? Frisky? Whiskers? “Is the tack room a back room?”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

“Is the tack room a back room?”

Name pieces of equipment that might be found in a tack room of a stable. 

Remove three consecutive letters, leaving a synonym of “prods.” 

If you spell these pieces of equipment backward and remove three consecutive letters the result is a second  synonym of “prods.” This second synonym of “prods” rhymes with the first synonym of “prods.”

What are these pieces of tack room equipment and rhyming synonyms?

Hint: The second synonym of “prods” is also a plural noun that may also be found in a tack room.

Appetizer Menu

Conundrumbstricken Appetizer:

“Backward to the past”

Nonslumbering lumber! 

“Do the math!” 

Oliver, George, William, Joe in the NEWS (or OLDS?) 

Backward to the past

1. 👚Print the name of a raw material used for various fabrics in capital letters, except print the last letter in lower case. 

Then print it in reverse order, last letter to first letter. 

In the past, where would you most likely have seen this printed? 

What’s the raw material?

Oliver, George, William and Joe in the News... or the Olds! 

2. 🎥🔊🪖Consider these 4 people. 

* George invented a camera. 

* Joe was a 1970s Grammy winner with a Top
40 song. 

* William was an important U.S. military leader. 

* Oliver was a major figure in a 1980s political scandal. 

Their last names have an unusual property. What is it?

“Do the math!”

3. 🔢Think of a common 3-word phrase. 

Reverse the last two letters, say it out loud and then – phonetically – do the math. 

The answer is 6. 

What’s the phrase?

Nonslumbering lumber!

4. 🌳What do the following have in common?

~ A certain model of a luxury car

~ A 20th-century vocal group with two big hits

~ An athlete, recently a champion

~ A well-known, successful musician

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Healthful Hors d’Oeuvre:

Behold the Mayo, for heart’s-sake!

A Hungarian-born American businessman, philanthropist and Holocaust survivor loved Latin proverbs, geography, bolo ties, poems, cattle, phone calls, lunch visits, driving his grandchildren to school... and life. He was a near-centenarian when he died.

This benefactor believed in making what he called “investments in humanity.” Indeed, his surname graces a building of a world-class health provider. His surname, fittingly, is an anagram of a body part.

Who is this philanthropist?

What is this body part?

Petunia The Pig Slice:

Fido? Frisky? Fluffy? Whiskers?

Place an “n” at the center of a six-letter creature. 

Replace four consecutive letters of the result with a two-letter synonym. The result is a name commonly given to this creature. 

What are this creature and the common name?

Hint: The last three letters of this name sound like how this creature grooms itself.

Riffing Off Shortz And Shukan Entrees:

Empire State of Mind... Benders

Will Shortz’s September 21st NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Dave Shukan of San Marino, California, reads: 

Take the phrase EASTERN TIME. Change one letter and rearrange the result to name a place that observes Eastern Time.

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Shukan Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

Take the name of a puzzle-maker and his hometown, each in two words. 

Change an S to an N and a U to an A. Rearrange the result to spell three U.S. cities that observe Eastern Time. 

Who is this puzzle-maker? What are the three cities?

Our friend Tortitude created Entree # 2:

ENTREE #2

Take the phrase EASTERN TIME. Change one letter and rearrange the result to name an entertainer. 

This entertainer appears on a  TV show takes place in a setting that observes Eastern Time.

Who is this entertainer?

The following riffs, #3 and #4, were contributed by a very valued Puzzleria!n.

ENTREE #3

Take the phrase EASTERN TIME.  

Change one letter and rearrange the result to name a common collective place designation where all manner of things Eastern and non-Eastern are observed.

What is the collective place designation? 

ENTREE #4

Take the phrase EASTERN TIME.  

Rearrange these letters to name a place that observes Eastern Time.  

Entrees # 5  through #10 were created  by our friend Nodd.

ENTREE #5

Take the three-word name of a U.S. time zone. Add an E and change an A to a C. Rearrange the result to spell: 

(1) a major Western U.S. city; 

(2) the two-letter postal abbreviations of a
Midwestern U.S. state and two Eastern U.S. states; and 

(3) a country that shares some of the U.S. time zones. 

What are the time zone, the city, the abbreviations, and the country?

ENTREE #6

Take a two-word version of a U.S. time zone. Delete the second letter. 

Rearrange the result to spell a U.S. state not in
the time zone and the postal abbreviations of two states in the time zone and of one state not in the time zone. What are the time zone, state, and postal abbreviations?

ENTREE #7

Take the first words in the names of two adjoining U.S. time zones. Add an O to the end of one of them. 

Follow this word, as modified, with the other word to name a two-word geographical feature in one of the zones. 

This feature is the highest point in the northwestern part of the national forest in which it is located. 

What are the time zones and the geographical feature?

ENTREE #8

Take the two-word name for the time now in effect in a region of the United States. 

Add the postal abbreviation of a state in the time zone to the west of the first one. 

Rearrange to spell a major city in the first time zone and two adjectives describing the city. The adjectives are four and six letters long. 

What are the time now in effect, the state, the city, and the two adjectives?

ENTREE #9

Take the first word in the name of a U.S. time zone. 

Rearrange its letters to spell the name of a
mountain range in the time zone and the first syllable of a state in the time zone. 

What are the time zone, the mountain range, and the state?

ENTREE #10

Take a three-word name for the region in which the place referred to in the September 21, 2025 NPR puzzle is located. 

Change a T to an R and add two A’s. 

Rearrange to spell a state outside the region, a city in that state, and a one-word description of many Puzzleria! puzzles, including this one. What are the name, the state, the city, and the description?

Dessert Menu

501 Dalmations Dessert?:

Things dogs do, name just two

Spell in reverse the name of a  Fortune 500 company. 

The result is two things dogs do. 

What are the company's name and the things dogs do?  

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.