3-Factorial Gordian-Knotty Enigmas; Cardiac Stress Fracture! “Was Millie a Meeter of Senta?” "Stir up some soup on the spur of the moment" “Gamboling, in love?”... or “Gambling on love?” Diplomas, degrees & deep pockets

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Cardiac Stress-fracture?

“Sal’s dear sister’s heart, alas, is rather stressed.”

What somewhat unusual property does that sentence (above, in red and blue) possess?

Note: This week’s Appetizers are the creative contributions of a valued friend of Puzzleria! who doubles as a justifiably vaunted puzzle-maker. 

Appetizer Menu

Appealing Pleasant Appetizers:

3-Factorial Gordian-Knotty Enigmas

A Substantial Subject Matter

1. 🧠Take a word for substance or subject. 

Change one letter to get a word for the environment in which a substance or subject can be evaluated and understood. 

What are those two words? 

An All-thumbs Author?

2. 👍👎In the novella “The Misadventure of the Keys,” the protagonist was to embark on an “ambitious” quest. 

However, a drafting error made the quest sound cryptic and mysterious. 

The author erred by striking adjacent keys for two consecutive letters on a standard keyboard, changing a “key” descriptive word for the adventure. 

What word did the author inadvertently substitute for “ambitious,” and how did that occur? 

Interjection Rejection

3. 🗺Name a country. Remove an interjection
and the space created by the removal. 

The result is the name of another country. 

What are the two countries? 

“Two’s company, three’s too LOUD!”

4. 🗽name a well known American company. The first three letters of the name, reversed, equal the last letter of the name. 

What is the company name?

(Note: The following is a riff of the October 12, 2025, NPR Challenge.)  

Messing with Endings of “Leading” Maintains its Sense

5. 👦Think of a word that means leading. 

Remove two letters at the end to make a term that means leading. 

Then change the letter at the end of the term to make a word that means leading. 

What words and term are these? 

Unsportsmanlike Conduct Penalty Puzzle

6. 👙Think of a two-word term (sometimes hyphenated, sometimes not) for an unsportsmanlike activity that is related to current sports news. 

Take the 12 letters in that term, and arrange them to describe a loss of part of the beachwear which is the subject of the October 23, 2025, Puzzleria! Schpuzzle. 

Then arrange those letters to get an unpleasant loss that could be associated with the unsportsmanlike activity or a pleasant loss experienced by a successful dieter). 

What are the activity, the description, and the losses? 

MENU

How Our Body Parts Measure Up Hors d’Oeuvre:

“Was Millie a Meeter of Senta?”

Name a four-letter body part with its letters in alphabetical order (like the three-letter body part “hip,” for example). 

Arrange the letters in this four-letter body part to spell a unit of length. 

Name another four-letter “alphabetically ordered” body part that can be arranged to spell a unit of length.

Wooing Or Wagering Slice:

Gamboling, in love... or gambling on love?

Madison Avenue envisions young couples – hand-in-hand, heart-and-heart – gamboling across glistening groomed grass, embracing within the embrace of a bracing breeze, and setting sail upon a lifelong journey together.

What plural two-word synonym of  “glistening groomed grass” – if you change an “a” to an “e” – is a one-word anagram of such couples?

Riffing Off Shortz And VanMechelen Entrees:

“Stir up some soup in the spur of the moment”

Will Shortz’s November 23rd NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Greg VanMechelen of Berkeley, California, reads:

Name some equipment an equestrian might use. Remove the second, third and fourth letters, and reverse those that remain. The result will be some more equipment an equestrian might use. What things are these?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And VanMechelen Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

Write down the name of a puzzle-maker in 4 blanks  _ _ _ _, followed by 11 blanks _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . Number them 1 through 15.

~ Blanks 6, 7, 4, 12 and 13 spell the second word in the nickname (“Wisconsin _ _ _ _ _”) of a Civil War-era nurse who organized relief for Wisconsin soldiers and their children during and after the Civil War.

~ Blanks 1, 9, 2, 8, 6 and 15 spell the ethnic heritage of many Wisconsinites, especially ofearly settlers in Milwaukee. 

~ Blanks 6, 7, 4, 13, 3 and 2 spell a common Wisconsin summertime sight along the shores of lakes and rivers.

~ Blanks 4, 6, 15, and 1 followed by 4, 2, 14, 12 and 15 spell a collective name for Green Bay Packer fans.

~ Blanks 10, 11, 9, 14, 5, 12 and 2 spell the surname of an American author who made a brief cameo appearance in the 1968 film adaptation of his short story “The Swimmer,” which is set in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Who is this puzzle-maker?

What are the nickname, ethnic heritage, summertime sight, collective name for Green Bay Packer fans, and American author?

(Note: Appetizers #2 through #7 were created by Nodd, riffmeister-extraordinaire and author of “Nodd ready for prime time” on Puzzleria!)

ENTREE #2

Name something an equestrian might wear. 

Remove four letters and rearrange the
remaining letters to get something else an equestrian might wear. 

What things are these?

ENTREE #3

Name some equipment an equestrian might use. Between the first and second letters, insert the singular form of a brand of sneakers. The result will be something a horse might do unexpectedly because of perceived danger. What things are these?

ENTREE #4

Name some equipment an equestrian might use and remove the next-to-last  letter. 

Add, without a space, someone associated
with equestrianism. The result will name someone who might, in a while, be feeling “reined in.” 

What is the equipment and who are the two persons?

ENTREE #5

Think of a word for an event at which you might see a person referred to in the preceding Entree, #4. 

Change one letter of this word to name a piece of equipment you might use with horses. What are the event and the equipment?

ENTREE #6

Take the combined letters of two types of a piece of equestrian equipment. 

Remove one letter and change another to the letter two places later in the alphabet. Rearrange the resulting letters to spell a word for what you might hear around horses and the name of a horse ridden in the movies by actors such as John Wayne and Gregory Peck. 

What are the two types of equipment, the word for what you might hear around horses, and the name of the movie horse?

ENTREE #7

Think of a word for a kind of horse, a word for something racehorse breeders are concerned with, and a word for a piece of equipment that
may be attached to a horse collar, with the last letter removed. 

The resulting letters, in order and with one space inserted, spell the stage name of an actress who rode a horse in several movies. 

What are the three words and who is the actress?

ENTREE #8

Name two tools mountain climbers use, in seven and five letters. Add a pair of “e’s” into the mix. 

Rearrange the result to spell an afternoon snack you might enjoy and a musical, dramatic or cinematic performance where you might  enjoy it.

What are these tools?

What are the snack and where you might  enjoy it?

ENTREE #9

Name an eight-letter piece of equipment a lumberjack might use. 

Rearrange the letters to name the site of miracle that involved a mother’s hope and her son’s compliance. 

What is this equipment?

What is the miracle site?

What was the mother’s hope?

How did her son comply?

ENTREE #10

Take a two-word term for an “albacore, yellowfin, bluefin, bigeye and skipjack fanatic.” 

Move the space between the two words one place to the left. Spell the result backwards to
get a two-word term for an “albacore, yellowfin, bluefin, bigeye and skipjack fanatic.”

What are these two two-word terms for an “albacore, yellowfin, bluefin, bigeye and skipjack fanatic”?

Dessert Menu

Well-To-Do Dessert:

Diplomas, degrees & deep pockets

Spell in reverse a word for folks with diplomas and degrees. Insert a space someplace. The result sounds like a two-word description of rich people... many who are rich solely because they possess diplomas or degrees. What is this word for folks who have diplomas or degrees?

What are the two words that describe these folks?

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.