Greek To Me (by R. Cane); What’s In A (Sur)name? (parts 1 2, & 3); Animal Instinct; Nobody Does It Better; Poetry Corner, by Anna Graham; Cornball moth-eaten comfy sweetie balderdash!; “Aircrafts & Criminal Courts”; “Creature matures, makes a move!”; “Shapeliness! Synonymy! Assembly!”

 PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

“Shapeliness! Synonymy! Assembly!”

Write a geometrical term in uppercase. 

Remove letters that can spell a synonym of “assembly.” 

What remains perfectly illustrates the geometrical term.

What is this geometrical term?

What is the synonym of “assembly”? 

What remains after it is removed?

Appetizer Menu

Hellenization “Surnominalization” “Instinky Creatures?” “Chitty Chitty” Appetizer:  

Greek To Me (by R. Cane): What’s In A (Sur)name? (parts 1 2, & 3); Animal Instinct; Nobody Does It Better; Poetry Corner, by A nna Graham

GREEK TO ME, by R. Cane

1. 📖📚The three words described below originated in ancient Greece but are found in standard English dictionaries. 

Guess the words from the descriptions provided.

I. Take an eight-letter word for a center or hub that is derived from a word for a body part.  

Remove one letter and rearrange the rest to
spell a word for something used on a different body part.  

What are these two words?

II. Take a seven-letter word for a phantom.  Four consecutive letters of this word, in order, spell a word for an icon. If those four letters are removed, the remaining letters, in order, spell a word for a period of time. What are these three words?   

III.  An ancient Olympic sport that is still around today contains ten letters.  

Put a space between the third and fourth letters, and a hyphen between the fourth and fifth letters.  

You will spell something that is used to prepare food, and a food item that needs no preparation.  

What are the sport, the item used to prepare food, and the food item?

2. WHAT’S IN A (SUR)NAME?, part 1

⚾ What famous American’s surname sounds like a description of the post-season 1963 New York Yankees?

3. WHAT’S IN A (SUR)NAME?, part 2

🎜🎝 Remove one letter from the surname of a classical composer and rearrange the remaining letters to name a bottled item you might find in a grocery store. 

The surname is also a brand of this item. 

Who is the composer and what is the item?

4. WHAT’S IN A (SUR)NAME?, part 3

🎾 What past actor’s surname sounds like part of
a score from a famous 1980 Wimbledon match?

5. ANIMAL INSTINCT

🎸 What might musician Eric Burdon have said to a moldy lasagne ingredient taking up space in his fridge?

6. NOBODY DOES IT BETTER

🔫 Double the fourth letter in the anglicized name of a major Asian city and add a space to get
something James Bond wanted to do and presumably did. 

What is the city, and what did 007 want to do? 

7. POETRY CORNER, by Anna Graham

🖋 Fill in the blanks with four seven-letter words to complete the verse.

She  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ , strove, achieved great heights,

But though they _ _ _ _ _ _ _ her flawless art,

 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ now plagues her days and nights,

As _ _ _ _ _ _ _ pile up, sleep departs,

Ah, bittersweet are motherhood’s delights! 

MENU:

Anti-Saloon League Hors d’Oeuvre:

“There’s 3 T’s (but no ‘Sousey’ Seas) in ‘Teetotal’”

In the midst of the dawn of the _________ Jazz era in the early 20th Century, Prohibition emerged. The U.S. government ___ ___ ___ and other alcohol sales. This movement, led by groups like the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League, culminated in the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment. This nationwide ban made the manufacture, sale, and transport of alcoholic drinks illegal starting in 1920.

Letters in the first blank (each of them used just once) can be rearranged to spell the words in the next three blanks.

What are those four missing words?

“Amphibious  Slice”

“Aircrafts & Criminal Courts”

Name a standard criminal court response – such as guilty, not guilty, or no contest – entered by a defendant who is legally competent and of sound mind, indicating that they are fully aware of their actions and able to assist in their own defense.

Name also any fixed-wing powered aircraft that can take off and land on water. It is an anagram of the criminal court response word.

What is this criminal court response?

What is the fixed-wing aircraft?

Riffing Off Shortz And Kalish Entrees:

Cornball moth-eaten comfy sweetie balderdash! 

Will Shortz’s July 26th Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle challenge, from Evan Kalish of Bayside, New York, reads:

There is a set of five five-letter words that vary by just their middle letter. If the middle is any letter from K through O, it makes a common word. However, no other letter can go in the middle to complete a word. What words are these?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Kalish Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

Name a puzzle-maker, in ten letters. 

Rearrange these letters to spell:

~ a Hindu god of destruction and regeneration, and

~ a below-the-belt body part. 

Who is this puzzle-maker?

Who is the god? What is the body part?

Note: Nodd (our friend and riffmeister extraordinaire) notes that Entrees #2 through #7 are conundrums based on the Merriam-Webster online dictionary. Other dictionaries may include words not found in that dictionary. Proper nouns are excluded.

ENTREE #2

Find a set of five five-letter words that vary by
just their middle letter, using the consecutive letters V-Z as the middle letter.

ENTREE #3

Using the same first, second, fourth and fifth letters as in the previous Entree, find a set of three five-letter words that vary by just their middle letter, using the consecutive letters N, O &
P as the middle letter.

ENTREE #4

Find a set of three five-letter words that vary by just their middle letter. In alphabetical order, the three words are nautical, culinary, and botanical terms, respectively. 

The three middle letters can be arranged to spell a kind of animal kept as a pet. 

(Hint: No other letter, other than those five, can go in the middle to complete a word.)

ENTREE #5

Find a set of five five-letter words that vary by just their middle letter. 

In alphabetical order, the five words are academic, medical, botanical, carpentry, and jewelry terms, respectively. 

The four common letters can be arranged to
form two words, both of which sound like letters of the alphabet. No other letter can go in the middle to complete a word.

ENTREE #6

Find a set of eight five-letter words that vary by just their middle letter. 

The words begin and end with the same letter. 

The middle letters are L, M, P, S, T, W, X and Z. 

ENTREE #7

Find a set of seven five-letter words that vary by just their middle letter, using D, G, K-N, and R as the middle letters. 

No other letter can go in the middle to complete a word.

ENTREE #8

Fill in the missing letters in the nineteen empty blank spaces pictured at the left (one one the 19 spaces. (Note: One of these 19 “spaces” is  represented by a non-underlined “que?tion mark” instead of a horizontal blank line.)  

Also replace the word in the lower-right-hand-most image with a four-letter synonym. What six words do you come up with?

(Note: One of the four-letter words in my answer to Entree #8 is not really a legitimate Merriam-Webster-approved word.)

Dessert Menu

Non-Repetitive Dessert:

“Creature matures, makes a move!”

Name a young creature spelled with letters that do not repeat.

Repeat the second letter. 

Rearrange this letter-longer result to spell this same
creature after a few years have passed, and a movement it may then make. 

What are these two creatures and this movement?

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 sometimesquestionable) 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.

Rearranging the office assets?; “Here, have a new venue!”; “‘Anagranimal’ New Kingdom?” “Bonbon” alas is a “No-no”; An Anagrammatic Quartet; Featured Creatures! “Maybe Octopi “Occupi” the Ocean Floor; May-born Baby?” A Doc prescribes some peRXinate!” “A recording... that is a TYPE of recording” Minty-Fresh Verbal Numismatics

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Minty-Fresh Verbal Numismatics

Let’s coin a freshly minted six-letter verb! 

It shall replace the clunky four-word term “execute an elbow stand...” 

A gymnast normally performs this feat, which requires both balance and poise, upon a mat. 

A circus acrobat may do so in a ring. 

The proper posture requires that the body be inverted, with one’s body weight balanced on the forearms, and with legs held above (as depicted on the “plate image,” above). 

What is this newly minted verb?

Hint #1: The verb is an anagram of a novelist’s surname. 

Hint #2: The verb (which you will not yet find in dictionaries!) is analogous to an existing five-letter verb involving a different body part... but one whose past tense also consists of five letters. 

(The past tense of our new verb, however, will likely contain eight letters!) 

Appetizer Menu

Jefferific Appetizer:

Rearranging the office assets?; “Here, have a new venue!”; “‘Anagranimal’ New Kingdom?” An Anagrammatic Quartet; “Bonbon” alas is a “No-no”; Featured Creatures! 

Rearranging the office assets?

1. 🏢The letters of a five-letter word can be rearranged into five other ordinary English words. Two of these six words (and perhaps even three, and nearly four!) can relate to office work. 

What are these six anagrammatic words? 

“Here, have a new venue!”

2. 🎮 A game, ordinarily played on a large field, can also be played in an alternate venue, at which time its name becomes a two-word game. The field game and the alternate venue are anagrams. 

What are the game and the venue?

“‘Anagranimal’ New Kingdom?                           3. 🎪🐘The name of a place, and an animal associated with that place, can be rearranged to get the name of a different place. What are this animal and pair of places? 

An Anagrammatic Quartet                   4. 📖The letters of a four-letter word can be rearranged to spell four additional ordinary English words. What are these five words?

“Bonbon” alas is a “No-no” 

5. There are two six-letter words which each consist of repeating groups of the same three letters (i.e. “abcabc”). What are they? Note: For example: The candy “bonbon” fulfills the “abcabc” requirement. And, it would be an acceptable solution... if only “bnobno,” “onbonb,” “obnobn,” “nobnob” or “nbonbo” were actual English words. But, alas, they are not! 

Featured Creatures!

6. What six-letter creatures are suggested by the accompanying image?

Hint: Think “geometrical figure” and “Greek-Alphabet.” (You may have to remove three letters that spell can be rearranged to spell “Old Gray Mare” from the word for the shape of the crosswalk sign.)

MENU:

Redundant Hors d’Oeuvre: 

“A recording... that is a TYPE of recording” 

Take a synonym of “adherent.” Transpose Letters 6 & 7. Move them to the end. Insert two spaces. 

The result is a recording, an abbreviation for “that is,” and the type of recording. 

What are this synonym, recording, abbreviation and type of recording?

“Disorienting Slice”

A Doc prescribes some “peRXinate?!”

Daisy visited her doctor, complaining of unsteadiness and disorientation. The doctor’s terse and unhelpful three-word prescription contained all the letters of his diagnosis, two of them twice. What were his diagnosis and prescription?

Riffing Off Shortz And Ezersky Entrees:

Octopi “Occupi” the Ocean Floor

Will Shortz’s July 19th Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, from Will’s New York Times colleague Sam Ezersky, reads:

Take the name of a popular 21st-century film with animals, in eight letters. 

 Remove the first and last letters, then change one of the remaining six letters to a C, to spell a plural word for certain animals. What words are these?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Ezersky Entrees read:

ENTREE #1:

Name a puzzle-maker who is associated with a “Gray Lady.” 

The first five letters of his name are an anagram of something that is “grayish.” The last three letters, in order, spell where one might see this “something.” The remaining letters, in order, spell where one who is exposed to this “grayish something” may wind up!

Who is this puzzle-maker? 

What are this “grayish something,” where one might see it, and where one might wind up?

Who is the “Gray Lady?”

Entrees #2 through #7 are conundrums drummed-up/dreamt-up by our friend and riffmeister extraordinaire, Nodd.

ENTREE #2

Take the title of a 21st-century film about an animal, in seven letters. Remove the next-to-last letter and change one of the remaining letters to a U. Rearrange to spell a plural word for certain other animals. 

What are the film and the plural word?

ENTREE #3             Take the title of a 21st-century film about an animal, in six letters. Remove the next-to-last letter and rearrange to spell a plural word for certain otheranimals. 

What are the film and the plural word?

ENTREE #4

Take the title of a 21st-century film about animal agriculture, in 10 letters. Change one of the letters to an N to spell a plural word for certain animals. What are the film title and the plural word?  

ENTREE #5                             Take the title of an award-winning 21st-century animated short film about an animal, in five letters. Rotate one letter (in lowercase) 180 degrees clockwise and rearrange to spell a plural word for certain other animals. What are the film and the plural word?

ENTREE #6                                Take the title of a 21st-century film about a fictional humanoid creature, in two words of nine letters. Disregard the first word. Replace the last two letters of the second word with a D to spell a plural word for certain non-fictional animals. What are the film and the plural word?

ENTREE #7

Take the title of a 21st-century film featuring animal characters, in 16 letters. 

The first six letters spell a title applied to a famous person of the past. Replace those
letters with the first letter of a title applied to the person’s father. You’ll be left with two animals. 

What are the film title, the titles applied to the famous person and father, and the animals?

Entree #8 is the ingenious brainchild of our friend and prolific riff-crafter Plantsmith. 

ENTREE #8

Take the two-word title of a 21st century film that features some animals. Remove a possessive pronoun and mix remaining the letters to get a 7-letter adjective that describes an animal with a prominent role in the film (but that does not describe a great number of other animals).

Hint: Three consecutive letters in the “some featured animals” spell a word associated with a variety of animals.

Dessert Menu

April? May? June? Dessert:

“Maybe a May-born Baby?”

Take a one-syllable word you might assume would appear on a birth certificate and a specific four-letter name that sometimes actually does. 

Switch the initial letters and delete the space to name a legume. What are this word, name and legume?

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!

“Vive la différence”; “Sleeping-bag no-no”; “Now, Presenting on stage...”; A pump implies the past; “Impeding a pet and a punt”; “Transparency At Last!”; “I love slander!” said the Love Islander; “Way Down Upon The Swami River?”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

“Transparency At Last!”

Take a two-word 20th-century novel title by an author whose seven-letter name is an anagram of two words: a “mild expletive” and an old-fashioned way of saying “no.” 

Anagram the title to spell two longer words:

~ a surname prominent in a second author’s 20th-Century fiction, and 

~ the relationship of Beatrice or Frances to Bessie and Les (in a second work of 20th-Century fiction).

What are this novel title, “mild expletive” and an old-fashioned way of saying “no”?

What is the fictional surname?

What is the relationship of Beatrice or Frances to Bessie and Les?

Appetizer Menu:

Skydiversionary Appetizer:

“Vive la différence”; “Sleeping-bag no-no”; “Now, Presenting on stage...”; A pump implies the past;

1. ♚What is the difference between a consortium of male European royalty who were into philosophy and the failed attempt to help a relative in a time of difficulty?

2. 🏔Think of a two-word phrase describing something an adventurer would never want to be. 

Now make a homophone of that phrase
(altering the spelling of the first word) to describe something a serious mountaineer would never do to his sleeping bag. What are they?

3.🎙Think of a famous singer of the past. Move the first letter of the last name to the beginning of the first name. 

Now replace the last letter of the last name
with an A and an E and rearrange to make a new word. These two words will now visually describe his stage presence. Who is the singer, and what are the two new words?

4. ⛽Why is it every time I look at my small 12-volt air pump I am reminded of the 1700s?

Anyone know?

MENU

A “Wiggy-Wammy” Hors d’Oeuvre:

“ ‘Toilet Paper’ is a Wipe, not a Weapon, Right?”

Bows and arrows, tomahawks, spears and war clubs are weapons that are sometimes, and
even often, found in tepees.

What weapon is always found in tepees?

Same-Old-Same-Old Slice:

“Way Down Upon The Swami River?”

Name a predictable daily occurrence.

Replace its third letter with the letters four and two places after it in the alphabet to spell something unpredictable. What are these two words?

Riffing Off Shortz And Baggish Entrees:

“I love slander!” said the Love Islander

Will Shortz’s June 12th Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, from Steve Baggish of Arlington, Massachusetts, reads:

Take the 10-letter name of a popular TV series for which most of its seasons have been filmed in a foreign country. Remove the first and last letters, and the remaining letters can be rearranged to spell the name of a country. What are the two names?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Baggish  Entrees read:

ENTREE #1

Take the 12-letter name of a very popular, prolific and clever NPR puzzle-maker. Remove the first and last letters. 

The remaining letters can be rearranged to fill in the ten blanks in a phrase for what a Valentine’s Day sweetheart who is showered with towers of flowers from her beau must do:

“_ _ _  a  _ _ _   _ _ _ _!”

Who is this puzzle-maker?

What is the phrase?

Note: Entrees #2 through #7 are conundrums drummed-up/dreamt-up by our friend and riffmeister extraordinaire, Nodd.

ENTREE #2 

Take the three-word, 10-letter name of a popular TV show dealing with unexplained phenomena. 

Replace the last two letters with a B. Rearrange to spell the name of a country and
a name for a native of a second country. 

What are the show, the country, and the name for a native of the second country?

ENTREE #3

Take the three-word, 13-letter name of a popular fantasy-drama TV show. 

Replace the second letter of the second word with an L. Rearrange to spell the name of a country and a name for a native of a second country. What are the show, the country, and the name for a native of the second country?

ENTREE #4

Take the one-word, 8-letter name of a popular TV show dealing with espionage. 

Replace the third letter with the letter that immediately precedes it in the alphabet.
Remove the fourth letter. You’ll name a country. 

What are the show and the country?

ENTREE #5

Take the two-word, 11-letter name of a popular TV crime drama show. 

Replace the first and second letters with the two-letter abbreviation for an American film
and TV production company. 

Change the ninth letter to the next letter in the alphabet. Rearrange to spell a country. What are the show and the country?

ENTREE #6

Take the one-word, five-letter name of a
popular TV historical drama. 

Rearrange to spell a country. 

What are the show and the country?

ENTREE #7

Take the seven-letter name of a TV political drama series. 

Remove the first letter and replace the last letter with a copy of the next-to-last letter. Rearrange to spell a country. 

What are the show and the country?

ENTREE #8

Note: Entree  #8 is the creation of our friend and prolific riffmeister extraordinaire, a true “MVP” (Most Valuable Puzzle-maker) who goes by the screen name “Plantsmith”... and who has truly been a stalwart creative presence on Puzzleria! since “the Postcard Days” (well, maybe not QUITE that long!)... He is truly a  MuchValuedPlantsmith! Enjoy!

Take a two word title of a TV series mainly filmed outside the U.S. 

Take out four letters and mix to get a country. 

The remaining letters in order are an acronym for a  kind of  medical equipment.

What are this series, country, and medical equipment?

Dessert Menu

‘Sposing and Spoonerizing Dessert:

“Impeding a pet and a punt”

Name what may restrict a pet's freedom, in two words. 

Spoonerize and transpose these words to name what sounds like what may impede a
punt’s progress. What are these four words?

Hint: The accompanying image is misleading.

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.