One brand, two businesses; PeRSOnaliTY becomes SPORTY; UK exports prestige U.S.tateside; Lifestyles of the rich & nameless? Classic car, contemporary character; Syllabifispoonerization! “Enlightenment, Camera, Action!” Jacks & Jills & Jangly Jingoism; Santo... No, Placido Domingo! Cosmic clouds, neutron stars, pseudonyms!

Schpuzzle of the Week:

“Enlightenment, Camera, Action!”

Name two title characters in a 1600’s tragedy and one title character in a 1700’s tragedy.

Rearrange these 21 letters to spell: 

~ the nationality of the latter author; 

~ a one-word synonym of “staged production,”

~ a two-word part of the 1700’s tragedy –a part that begins and ends in a palace, and

~ the fourth and fifth words of a soliloquy penned by the author of the 1600’s tragedy.

What are the two tragedies, nationality, synonym, part of the 1700’s tragedy, and two soliloquy words?

Appetizer Menu

Conundrumbstrik!ng Appetizer:

One brand, two businesses; PeRSOnaliTY becomes SPORTY; Britain exports prestige U.S.tateside; Lifestyles of the rich and nameless? Classic car, contemporary character

One brand, two businesses 

1. 🚗🚆🚌Think of a famous international brand (8 letters) that promotes two completely separate businesses. 

One may help you choose where you want to go and the other may help you get there. 

What are they?

PeRSOnaliTY becomes SPORTY 

2. ⚾🏈Think of the last name of a well-known 20th-century TV personality. 

Rearrange it to form a familiar acronym. Then delete a letter from the acronym and rearrange it to form a common sports word. 

Identify all three – the TV person, the acronym, and the sports word.

UK exports prestige U.S.tateside

3. 💂Name a prestigious segment of British society. 

Drop a letter and rearrange to discover a familiar name. It’s the first name of one famous
entertainer and the last name of another. 

Name the Brits and the entertainers.

Lifestyles of the rich and nameless?

4.👂One has a certain lifestyle, the other is an item most likely used by someone with an entirely different lifestyle. 

They have three consecutive letters in common and are a whisper away from being homophones. 

What are they?

Classic car, contemporary character

5. 🚘A classic old car and a modern movie character are called by the same five-letter
name. 

What is it?

MENU

Treacherous Aquatic Creature Hors d’Oeuvre:

Syllabifispoonerization!

Spoonerize the two syllables of a healthy food to get a body of water and what sounds like a hazardous-to-your-health creature that may be
swimming in it. 

What are this food, water and swimmer?

Uphill-Climb Slice?:

Jacks & Jills & Jangly Jingoism

Name something “jacks and jills” may do during a competitive event, and two things spectators at the event may do. 

Rearrange the letters of these three verbs to spell an American symbol. 

What are these verbs and symbol?

Riffing Off Shortz and Reiss Entrees:

Santo... No, Placido(!) Domingo!

This week’s MPR challenge puzzle comes from Mike Reiss, who’s a showrunner, writer, and producer for “The Simpsons.” 

Think of a famous living singer. The last two letters of his first name and the first two letters of his last name spell a bird. Change the first letter of the singer's first name. Then the first three letters of that first name and the last five letters of his last name together spell another bird. What singer is this?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Reiss Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

Think of a famous living singer. Slip the penultimate letter of his surname into the penultimate position of his first name.

The letters of the result, in order, spell a lake in the Adirondacks, the name of a board game, and a “pippy” wooden or plastic rectangular game piece.

Who is this singer?

What are the lake, board game and game piece? 

ENTREE #2

Take a puzzle-maker, first and last names, and the first names of two children he helped “bring to life.” 

Rearrange these 17 letters to spell, in three words, any single instance of various attacks that often involved Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen targeting Saudi Arabia/Israel or Iranian forces, particularly since the 2023 Israel-Hamas war.

Who is this puzzle-maker and what are the names of “his two children?”

Name this three-word term.

(Note: Entrees # 3 through #8 were composed by our friend Nodd.)

ENTREE #3

Think of a famous living singer. 

Remove one letter from his first name and three letters from his last name to spell the name of a bird. 

Who is the singer and what is the bird?

ENTREE #4

Think of a famous deceased singer and remove one letter from her last name. 

The rest of her last name, followed by the first name of a living male singer who was part of a famous duo, will spell a bird. Who are the singers and what is the bird?

ENTREE #5

Think of a famous living singer. 

Change the second letter of her first name to the letter four places later in the alphabet and remove the last letter to spell a word for something relating to birds. 

Move the second letter of her last name to the end to spell a kind of bird. 

Who is the singer and what are the word relating to birds and the kind of bird?

ENTREE #6

Think of a famous living singer. Change the last letter of her last name to the letter two places earlier in the alphabet. The first two letters of her first and last names, plus the new last letter of her last name, spell a bird. The last syllable of the bird is a sound made by this and other birds. 

Who is the singer, and what are the bird and the sound?

ENTREE #7

Think of a famous deceased British singer. Four consecutive letters of his last name spell a bird. 

His complete last name, followed by the first
two letters of the first name of a famous living British singer, spell a younger bird of the same kind. 

Who are the singers and what are the birds?

ENTREE #8

Think of a famous deceased singer. 

The first two letters of her first name, followed by the first letter of her last name, spell a bird.
The last two letters of her first name, followed by the first three letters of her last name plus the fifth letter of her last name, spell where people often go to see birds. 

Who is the singer, what is the bird, and where do people go?

(Note: Entree # 9 was composed by our friend Plantsmith.)

ENTREE #9

Anagram the letters of an American band to get a bird. Then change the first letter in the first  name of the band’s lead singer to get another bird. 

Finally, change an “a” to an “o” in the last syllable of the singer’s surname to get where
either of these birds may be found.

What is this band?

Who is its lead singer?

What are these two birds, and where might you might find them?

ENTREE #10

Swap the first letter of the first name of a famous living singer with the first two letters of his surname. Insert a space someplace within his altered surname, forming a verb and object of that verb.

His altered first name has become a kind of tree.

The 6-letter verb and 4-letter object describe how this singer would transport his adolescent daughter (a member of the United States Equestrian Team) to equestrian workouts and international competitions to prepare for the Team Jumping Competition at the 2020 Summer Olympics held in 2021 in Tokyo (at which she received a Silver Medal).

Who is this singer?

What are the kind of tree, the 6-letter verb and 4-letter object?

Dessert Menu

Geopolitical Dessert:

Cosmic clouds, neutron stars, pseudonyms!

Anagram a two-word geopolitical phrase coined by a writer of fiction who went by a pseudonym. You might well come up with the two-word name of a neutron star within the cosmic cloud, and a bodily sensation that the first word in the star might cause. 

What are the phrase, two-word star, and bodily sensation?

Hint: The bodily sensation is not pleasurable... unless you are a masochist.

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.