Schpuzzle of the Week:
Herculean Circular Logic
Note: Use logical rational reasoning to solve this puzzle:
Print, in clockwise order along the perimeter of a circle, an eight-letter word containing seven different letters. It is a word associated with logical, rational reasoning.
~ Rearrange a number of consecutive letters along this perimeter to spell the name of a country.
~ A number of other consecutive letters, in
order clockwise along the perimeter, spell many a waterway in this county.
~ A number of consecutive counterclockwise letters spell an urban area.
What are these four words? What specific city do the three shorter words suggest?
Appetizer Menu
“Ecosmopolitan” Appetizer:
Around the World in 8.0 Daze, Part II
That “World Tour” continues with this, his second installment, Part II:
“On this isle I’ll not be...”
What is the place and what don’t you want to be?
“Sex-change operation was reversed?”
Change the last letter of one of the nouns, and rearrange the words to come up with a well-known city in the US.
What are the three words, and what is the city?
3. 🏙The name of a well-known US city, can be divided into two words that are synonyms.
What is the city?
4. 🌆Name a well-known geographic feature in the world.
The name of a well-known US city is a specific example of that feature. What is the feature, and what is the city?
Alps becomes “El Paso?”
Move the first letter to the end and the result will be a common word with three syllables.
What is the feature and what is the word?
“‘Doggod’ Bygone Deities!”
The result will be a god of the past.
What is the location and what is the god’s name?
Move a letter back, go back in time
the result will be the name of an ancient kingdom.
What is the country and what is the kingdom?
Deleware, hawaii, new mexico, West virginia?
What is it, and what three states could be
added to the list?
MENU
Art Studio Hors d’Oeuvre:
“Be not Led Astray!”
Take the title of a 21st-Century creation by a painter whose surname, if you delete one letter, is a sport.
The second syllable of the title is an anagram
of an adjective that describes the painting.
The first three letters of the title word spell a specific noun for the contents of the title word.
What is the title of this creation?
Who is the painter? What is the sport?
What adjective describes the painting? What is the general term for the contents of the title word? What is the specific noun for the contents?
Affected Pretentious Slice:
“Stylish Chic Hip Duds, Dude!”
Add a letter to the end. Subtract a letter from the beginning. The result is an apparel brand marketed as stylish, chic, hip and cool.
What are this word and brand?
Riffing Off Shortz And Reiss Slices:
Pia“No Man Is An Island...”
Name a classic song with a two-word title. Drop the first letter. Add an R after the new first letter. The result will be the names of two countries one after the other. What song is this?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Reiss Slices read:
Take an eight-letter plural noun that sometimes describes certain characters on the television show “The Simpsons.” This same noun may also occasionally describe viewers of “The Simpsons.”
The six different letters in that noun, if you use three of them twice, can be arranged to spell the name of a puzzle-maker.
What is this plural noun?
Who is the puzzlemaker?
Entrees #2 through #7 are riffs created by Nodd, author of Puzzleria!s “Nodd ready for prime time.”
ENTREE #2
Take the first and last words in the four-word title of a classic R & B song. (5,7).
The result will be the names of two countries.
What are the song and the countries?
ENTREE #3
Take the two-word title of a rap song by a now-deceased artist (5,6).
Rearrange the letters of the first word, as modified, to name a country in the Middle East. Insert an “A” somewhere in the second word of the song title to name a country in Europe.
What are the song and the countries?
ENTREE #4
Name a two-word (6,5) 1997 Indie Rock song. Change the first vowel in the first word to the next vowel in the alphabet and add a state postal abbreviation to the front of the word to get the name of a country in Africa.
(Hint: The first word in the song title is a Taylor Swift song title, and the second word is the name of a book. The name of the band that released the 1997 song appears in the book.)
Name a 1974 folk-rock song with a two-word title (7,5). Remove the first letter of the first word and change the last letter of the second word to the next letter in the alphabet.
The result will be the official currency of one country and the name of another country.
What are the song, the currency, and the country?
ENTREE #6
Add a letter to the beginning of the third word.
The result will describe the head of state of a certain country.
What are the song and the description?
Take the two-word title of a 1997 song by a renowned artist (4,4). Replace the last letter of the first word with an acronym for a civil rights law which is also the first word in the title of a 1969 novel by an Oscar-nominated author.
Add the acronym for a Midwestern U.S. state university to the beginning of the second word of the song title. The result will be the names of two countries.
What are the song and the countries?
ENTREE #8
The two-word title of a classic song can be anagrammed to spell a heavenly food and a Hawaiian food.
What is this song title?
What are the two foods?
What are the unpleasant bodily sensation, and the possible reaction to it?
Dessert Menu
Dead-lifting the Weight of the World Dessert:
“Do macho chaps wear chaps?”
This chap’s surname is the same as the name of a Greek deity who is also associated with strength.
Our chap, however, is no deity. Indeed, he is only _____ (an anagram of a biblical book).
Replace the second letter of this anagram with a different vowel, followed by a hyphen. The result, and a synonym of “non-Greek,” both end with the same three letters. Delete those identical endings. The remaining letters, in order, spell a noun describing the deity.
Name this dance, chap, anagram of the biblical book, hyphenated term, and noun.
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!
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 Friday.
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Note:
ReplyDeleteTo place a comment under this QUESTIONS? subheading (immediately below), or under any of the three subheadings below it (HINTS! and PUZZLE RIFFS! and MY PROGRESS SO FAR...), simply left-click on the orange "Reply" to open a dialogue box where you can make a comment. Thank you.
Lego...
QUESTIONS?
ReplyDeleteI throughly do NOT understand how the Dessert is laid out. Altho it's clear (to me) what the 'anagram' of the Old Testament book is, the paragraph after that makes no sense: "Second LETTERS". Isn't there only ONE second letter?
DeleteBut that was the easy part. What does the rest mean? I simply can't figure it out:
"The result, and a synonym of “non-Greek,” both end with the same three letters. Delete those identical endings. The remaining letters, in order, spell a noun describing the deity."
WHICH two things end with the same three letters? If one of the things is the anagram of the Old Testament book, then you have only TWO letters left. But what is left is a pronoun, not a noun. And I still have no idea what the SECOND 'thing' is meant to be.
And what does the original 'chap' with the half-dance first name have to do with any of it?
Thank you, ViolinTeddy. I will admit that my Dessert is a bit of a convuluted mess -- one that you puzzle-solvers do not deserve...
DeleteYes, there is only ONE second letter in the anagram. It is a vowel that must be replaced with a different vowel.
The missing word that belongs in the blank rhymes with the surname of a "Victorious Dewey-Toppler.
That word in the blank (an anagram of the biblical book) ends with the same three letters in the same order as the synonym of "non-Greek" (in the mythological gods-and-goddesses realm). If you delete those in-common 3-letter endings from both words, the result is a 4-letter noun describing the deity (and certain all-the-fixin's-sandwiches!).
The surname of "strong muscular chap whose first name begins with the first half of a Latin American ballroom dance" is a reference book.
LegoConfusatorily
Oh, let me see I understand at last. Given that the word in the blank is five letters long, the reason one does NOT end up wit only a two-letter word after removing the three letters, is because one COMBINES those two letters with whatever the first two letters are of the "non-Greek" synonym, right? (Not sure which set of two letters goes first, however.). Now if I could only figure out WHAT that non-Greek synonym was! Altho the hint above just told me what the four-letter word must be.
DeleteNow if I could only understand what that muscular chap has to do with the four-letter word [other than that is part of the set defined by that word.]. Obviously, I chose the WRONG names, because there is no such reference book as the name that I picked!)
VT, if you delete the fist letter from the synonym of "non-Greek" you'll get "an Asia country in southeastern Arabia bordering on the Arabian Sea."
DeleteThe muscular chap's surname is a reference book.
LegoSultanHintan
Thanks, Lego. Actually, I 'got' the non-Greek thing and the resultant four-letter word fairly quickly after I had last posted yesterday evening. The part that still has me stumped is this muscular chap. The last name I THOUGHT was correct doesn't seem to have anything to do with any reference book, and no amount of Googling has provided me with an insight as to what that surname should otherwise be. I have learned to just give up on puzzles that defeat me, because otherwise they add more stress to my already over-stressed self.
DeleteHINTS:
ReplyDeleteSUNDAY HINTS FOR ENTREES 2-7:
Delete2. (Probable) current residence of “Regina George.”
3. Do you have an appetite for bread, or cabbage, or kale?
4. The Taylor Swift song title is a color. The book has many versions.
5. The song title could apply to Dennis Mitchell or Anthony Fremont.
6. By George, you’ve got it.
7. Birthplace of “Regina George”; site of world's sixth largest oil reserves.
LATE SUNDAY EARLY MONDAY HINTS:
DeleteSchpuzzle of the Week:
The 8-letter word contains two A's.
The country contains 3 syllables.
The waterway contains two A's.
The "any urban area" has two syllables.
“Ecosmopolitan” Appetizer:
Around the World in 8.0 Daze PART II
I will give Eco first crack at providing hints. If he does not have time to do so, I shall attempt a few hints.
Art Studio Hors d’Oeuvre:
“Be not Led Astray!”
The sport involves a Shakespearean character, 1 syllable.
Insert a letter within a word in the title: “Be not Led Astray!”
Affected Pretentious Slice:
“Stylish Chic Hip Duds, Dude!”
The actor (R.I.P.) in the movie-still-image plays a character based on a friend of the director of the movie... a woman who attended my parochial grade school and high school in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin a decade or so before I did.
Riffing Off Shortz And Reiss Slices:
Pia“No Man Is An Island...”
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Reiss Slices read:
ENTREE #1
Take an eight-letter plural noun that sometimes describes certain characters on the television show rhymes with "lurkers."
Note: See Nodd's June 7, 2026 at 4:48 PM post, just above, for his hints to his Entrees #2 through #7.
ENTREE #8
The heavenly food ends with a female name; If you add a family member to the end of the Hawaiian food the result will be deadly!.
Dead-lifting the Weight of the World Dessert:
“Do strong-tough-guys wear chaps?”
__________, WV
LegoLateSundayEarlyMondayHinting
Thanks for the hints. I now have the Hors d'Oeuvre. I went through the artist's website pre hint, and it's called by a different name there. No wonder I couldn't solve it.
DeleteThat just leaves Apps #2-5 still unsolved for me.
Sorry for the late hints, for some reason Blogger and Google were giving me grief about logging in over the weekend.
DeleteApp Hints:
1. I hope it isn't the great food from ______ that made you ______.
2. The city is famous for surfing (waves, not the web) even though it is >700 miles from the ocean. If that's not your thing, you'll love the brats you can find all over town.
3. There are actually 2 major cities with this name, and both words are also first names.
4. The geographic feature only occurs in 2 places and 2 others considering aspects of physics.
5. The river runs through a European capital city.
6. Just over 2350 years ago the country that worshiped the god conquered the country where this geographic location is now located.
7. It is about 500 miles from the country to the kingdom. Like #6 they are in different continents, and you have to cross the same body of water.
8. It's as easy as ABC if you know how to deal with letters.
Thanks for the hints. I have answers for everything now except App #3, although for #2, I changed the first letter of one of the words, not the last.
DeleteI hadn't thought of your version for #2, but it does work for the same city. I suppose my version is a little slangier for the pronoun.
DeletePUZZLE RIFFS: and MY PROGRESS SO FAR...
ReplyDeleteMY PROGRESS SO FAR...
ReplyDeleteAnybody else here ever have a strange feeling like you've just got even further nowhere than you already were? Happened to me just now, as I scanned the current list of hints provided by all contributors(Just had to delete the rest of this post, as I pretty much had to just let it all out about the hints by printing it for me alone to see, and then simply not publish any of it. You will never know, and I'm not going to say.).
DeletepjbDidGetThisWeek'sSundayPuzzleAndYesterday's"Connections"WithoutAnyHintsWhatsoever,So...
IF YOU HAVE COMMENTS THAT DO NOT PERTAIN TO ANY OF THE FOUR CATEGORIES ABOVE, YOU MAY WRITE THEM BELOW THIS POST. THANK YOU.
ReplyDeleteNodd, I NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER want to hear about your personal knowledge of songs from 1997 EVER AGAIN. EVER AGAIN. The absolute worst time I have ever had the misfortune of trying to find the answers to Entrees #4 and #7. Forget Trump---you should have "aced" four cognitive tests by now. I didn't get my phone fixed yesterday just so I could try to figure out someone's questionable musical knowledge in a couple of puzzles, and end up looking up God knows how many lists, and get nothing to show for it. There had better be hints later on for these two terrible '97 flashbacks, because I AM THROUGH WITH THESE TWO PUZZLES IN PARTICULAR! COMPLETELY FINISHED! I can't even believe I actually solved the one with the rap song, and I'm still stuck on #4 and #7! I'll post another comment tomorrow night, but I won't speak of this again. Cranberry out!
ReplyDeletepjbWillNowGoTakeAShower,AsHeTrulyDoesn'tNeedAnyMoreOfThisThisEvening!
Jeez, what exactly triggered you about these puzzles? Do we need to stay away from 1997 in the future?
ReplyDeleteAnd Nodd is brilliant. Trump knows what a squirrel is (yay? - guess Trump and squirrels have something in common - 🥜).
I haven't read the Entrees, and have pretty much determined by now that I won't do so until hints have come out and even then, I no longer have the energy (amidst constant crises) to work on them. But re pjb, it has been a LONG time since he has let loose with one of his 'anger posts'....we jumped on him in the past (possibly BEFORE you were participating in P!, Tortie) and so he has controlled himself mostly since then, I am happy to say.
DeleteI was stunned to see this his post just now (not even knowing what he was talking about, since as I said, I haven't read the entrees, but I assume he is 'mad' at Nodd?).
OK, well I guess I should explain myself after that post. It's been quite a week I've had leading up to this week's Entrees. It all started when I had a dental appointment last Wednesday. Having already gone in more recently to get a crown put in earlier, I still had to go in Wednesday, and I wasn't even sure why. Turned out they'd still need to do something about the calculus I had in that area of my mouth, so they had to do some more scraping. They gave me nitrous oxide, but for some unknown reason, it wasn't doing anything for me. No normal feeling as a result of having the gas, nothing. I did think it had happened before that it wasn't having an effect on me, but that time I hadn't even really said anything, because I wasn't sure if it was even on in the first place. It's very rare that the gas would have no effect at all, but Wednesday I had to ask if they were sure they even turned it on at all. So she said she'd turn it up. Still nothing. She actually had it "cranked up all the way", but I still couldn't feel it. Finally, she gets done with me, and at this point it's actually got me feeling a little dizzy. She had to get me something to eat and drink, Mom had to come see about me, and I guess somehow I actually even had a panic attack because the gas wasn't working like it usually does. They even had to send me back to the car in a wheelchair! So I've never figured out what exactly happened there, but I've gotten over it by now. Few days later, Sunday, I got up as usual wanting to listen to "Time Warp With Bill St. James" at 2:00pm(Sunday Puzzle, NYT puzzles including some archival crosswords, etc.). I've found three different stations that carry Time Warp, the earliest at 2:00pm over KKOT(The Hawk)out of Columbus, NE, the next broadcast at 6:00pm over WVTK out of Middlebury, VT, and then the last over our local station in Birmingham, WBPT(106.9 the Eagle), which starts at 8:00pm. The show lasts four hours, so I'll miss something as a result between each broadcast anyway, but it is a great show, and there isn't anything much else to do throughout the day, so on a good day I'll probably catch everything listening to most of all three broadcasts. Pretty much the same show broadcast three different times, and if I'd missed anything from the first broadcast due to stopping to eat lunch, I'd usually catch up with the later airings. Well, this particular Sunday my phone was practically dead. Kept getting the same message: "Safari cannot open the page because the server cannot be found." Sure, I've seen this come up before, but it usually doesn't last as long as it would end up this time. Dead all day and night Sunday, had to listen to my shows on my Kindle and my transistor radio. Then I kept checking it off and on until about late Tuesday night, when I finally asked about the person she said had fixed her phone when she had a similar problem in the past. She said it was someone working at the beauty shop she goes to usually every Saturday midmorning, around 11:00. But Mom said I should give my phone to her to see if she could fix it herself. I was a little skeptical, but I gave it to her, and after she'd deleted all the text messages that had been piling up over time(none of them really for me, and I hadn't answered them either), my phone was actually working again! Another few minutes trying to get the internet radio and YouTube audio going again, and that was it, problem solved! And I was quite angry when I couldn't fix it before, too! Never really been sure how to "check the internet connection" to fix it, and it kept telling me to do so constantly. But we got it fixed, so that's no longer a problem. And now I must publish this before it tells me the "comment is too long".
DeletePart II coming up almost immediately after this.
An ad hominem (Latin for "to the person") is a logical fallacy where someone attacks the character, motive, or personal traits of, say, a puzzle-maker.
DeleteLet's all agree to make and keep our blog as an "ad hominem-free" zone.
Nodd is a brilliant puzzle-maker who regularly shares the fruits of that gift of brilliance with us. It is a gift to be encouraged, never discouraged... celebrated, never berated... backed, never attacked!
I hope you all know how grateful and indebted I am to all of you who regularly share your great creativity with the rest of us, and with all those who follow our blog.
Let us always encouage one another, never discourage.
LegoWhoUrges"DisparageNot...UpliftALot"
Part II
ReplyDeleteI had been watching "The Floor" this whole season every Wednesday evening at 8:00pm, as I normally do when it comes back for another season. This particular season, they had already shown that one of the people on the floor was an expert on Yacht Rock. So, early on I could hardly wait for them to get over to her little corner of the floor. Well, it took pretty much almost the whole season before they ever got back around to this poor black woman who was just standing there all this time. Finally, Rob Lowe said "Activate the randomizer!" on this past week's episode, and they finally picked the Yacht Rock expert. I was so happy until I realized another woman on the floor chose to have a duel with "Yacht Rock" about her topic of expertise, Pageants. Not Yacht Rock! So poor "Yacht Rock"had to duel with "Pageants" about the latter category, and the former lost and was immediately sent away. No chance whatsoever to see how they might do a Yacht Rock duel. Would they have to name the artist based on their picture? Guess the artist from seeing the song title? Fill in the blank in the song title? We'll never know now. And I'm not sure certain categories ever come up again later on(can't believe I don't know if they ever repeat them, and I've watched the show from the very beginning!), so this category may never appear again. I'll bet the producers were never Yacht Rock fans to begin with, and they probably just wanted to get rid of this woman anyway, so their randomized finally "picked" her because, if not, viewers like me would've thought this show was rigged if they never actually got around to her at all. Rob Lowe seemed to be a fan of Yacht Rock, that's all I really gathered from that. But just know if they can do what they did to Colbert, they can do it to someone on a game show, too.
Part III
ReplyDeleteFinally we get around to this week's Puzzleria!, which is usually hit-or-miss as far as trying to solve anything at first. I solved Apps #1 and #6, the Slice, Entrees #2, #3, #5, #6, and #8, and the Dessert. The 1997 ones proved to be the toughest, with #4 being really hard to find and #7 impossible to find. While I am no longer as angry as I was last night, I still have to ask Nodd what possessed him to pick those two 1997 songs, since I basically found the Taylor Swift song with the least trouble in the whole first puzzle, and then constantly found a musical group whose name begins with the same word that begins the intended song title. Lots of things about them. Then I have reason to believe, based on the first acronym in the second puzzle, that the first country can only be one of all of them, but then I never was able to find the song title. And I consulted a number of 1997 song lists which never had a (4,4) title. Also, it wasn't easy to find #3 or #5 either. I've never been a rap fan at all, and had never even heard of the "now deceased artist". I could only figure it out trying to work on the country names. Just looking up a 1974 folk-rock song with a two-word title was no picnic either. It kept telling me it must be "Cat's in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin, which last I checked has FOUR words in the title, not two.
BTW Two more things I didn't like on Sunday:
1. "Time Warp" started their show with an hour-long salute to 1982. In the last hour, the middle segment saluted 1985. The TV series "Moonlighting" ran from 1985 to 1989. Guess which year Bill St. James chose to mention "Moonlighting"(not 1985!). Good thing Maddie and David didn't start at the exact same time as Sam and Diane!
2. KKOT, the station in Nebraska, aired the first hour of "Time Warp", and then decided to cut instead to a girl's softball game! Had to wait a couple hours before Vermont started the show.
In closing, my sincerest apologies to Nodd about his puzzles. I am still looking forward to the hints that will come later this weekend, though. Hopefully this should clear up everything about both 1997 songs. If it makes up for anything here, (for the Hors d'Oeuvre)I did come up with(most likely)the only painter whose name becomes a sport when you delete one letter. Never could find the painting title, though, but I didn't make a big deal over that one.
BTW Mom and I didn't eat out tonight, but she did get me something from Taco Bell for my supper. I had a cheesy double beef burrito, nacho fries, some cheese sauce for dipping, a lot of mild sauce packets, a Pepsi(they didn't have the Pepsi Zero Sugar), and a 12-pack of strawberry Cinnabon delights(Mom wasn't too crazy about those). Sorry if I've been a little angry here. It's been a strange week for me. Good luck in solving to all, and please stay safe, and I'll try to do better in the future. Cranberry out!
pjb'sAlsoNotTooHappyAboutACertainSomeoneInWashington,D.C.BraggingOnceAgainAbout"Acing"HisFourthCognitiveTest(Oh,AndDidYouKnowThere'sA"B"AtTheEndOfTheWord"Dumb"?MostPeopleDon't,HeSaid!)
I also found this week's songs to be rather obscure, but I still was able to solve the puzzles. I suspect they were chosen because of the relationship to the country names and currencies.
DeleteFor #4, I have never heard of the song or even the artist. I do remember some of the other acts in the collective. There are only two countries in Central America that have six letters. Also, think of a book that has a lot of different names in it.
For #7, the artist is very famous, but I don't know the song. If you add another short word before the title, you'll have a #3 song from 1985 that I remember well, and a #16 song also from 1985 by a famous classic rock artist, but I don't remember that song. I was able to solve for the first word, but eventually solved the whole thing by looking at Lego's photo.
I didn't get #2 right at first because I was trying a different song title that ends in the same word. In that one, you take the second word, remove the first letter, and move the third letter to the front. That would make an impressive puzzle: to basically have the same puzzle with the same answer and mostly the same instructions, but start with something different.
As far as dead rappers go, I was expecting Tupac or Biggie, although I remember some other rappers that died. I have to admit that I'm amused by the name "Nipsey Hussle," because I remember Nipsey Russell from when I was young.
Well, now that makes two songs from 1997 that I can't locate, and two songs from 1985 that I can't locate. Hope the hints coming up sometime tomorrow will be better.
DeletepjbMightAlsoKnowAFewSongsThatTheOthersHereDon'tKnow(It'sPossible!)
I think AI must actually spell Aggravating Idiots. Forgot to mention that as I was talking about constantly getting "Cat's in the Cradle" for a two-word song title. For that matter, I can't even type in "two-word" without it disregarding the use of the hyphen entirely. I just had to change it from "two sword". If the robots are supposed to rise up and either kill us or enslave us eventually, right now I get the feeling we have virtually nothing to worry about. They should learn to count first.
DeletepjbDidDoBetterWithLastWeek'sEntrees,IfItStillMattersAny
Argh, try 1986 instead! The #3 song in 1986 was a remix of a 1985 song, and while the #16 song was released on a 1985 album, it was a chart entry in 1986.
DeleteYou're probably just better waiting for Nodd's hints at this point!
TortieWhoNotesThatIfYouReallyDon'tWantToWait(hint!)TryTheWeekEndingChartAttop40weekly.com/1986-all-charts/ - WeekEnding19thApril,1986ForBothSongsInTop30!
SCHPUZZLE – ANALYTIC, ITALY, CANAL, CITY; VENICE
ReplyDeleteAPPETIZERS
1. SICILY, SICKLY
2. SHEBOYGAN, WI
3. GLENDALE, AZ & CA
4. POLE, FLAGSTAFF
5. AARE, AREA
6. SUEZ; ZEUS
7. LIBYA, LYDIA
8. Their two-letter abbreviations consist of letters that are next to each other in the alphabet. The others are Minnesota, Utah, and Arizona (using the circular alphabet).
HORS D’OEUVRE – DAVID HOCKNEY, HOCKEY, “ASHTRAY”; ARTY, TRASH, ASH
SLICE – LA-DI-DA, ADIDAS
ENTREES
1. SMIRKERS, MIKE REISS
2. “RAINY NIGHT IN GEORGIA” (TONY JOE WHITE, BROOK BENTON); IRAN, GEORGIA
3. “MONEY HUNGRY” (YOUNG DOLPH); YEMEN, HUNGARY
4. “MAROON BIBLE” (BEULAH); CAMEROON, BELIZE
5. “TROUBLE CHILD” (JONI MITCHELL); ROUBLE, CHILE
6. “KING OF PAIN” (THE POLICE); KING OF SPAIN
7. “CAN’T WAIT” (BOB DYLAN); CANADA, KUWAIT
8. “PIANO MAN”; MANNA, POI; PAIN, MOAN
DESSERT – CHA-CHA, CHARLES ATLAS; HUMAN, HE-MAN, HERO
Good job on App #3! I was hopelessly stuck.
DeleteI suspect you have the intended answer for App #4, but I think my answer works, too.
I used to live near Glendale, CA. No guarantee that's the intended answer, of course; could be other possibilities. You did a good job on my Entrees, without hints.
DeleteSchpuzzle: ANALYTIC, ITALY, CANAL, CITY; VENICE
ReplyDeleteApp:
1. SICILY, SICKLY
2. (Post hint: ) SHEBOYGAN, WI, SHE, BOY, GAL (I originally had SHEBOYGAN, WI, SHE, BOY, MAN)
3. ??? Couldn’t come up with a city that had two first names that were synonyms (Franklin fit the names part, but not synonyms, Rosebud is kind of close) (Alt for parts that are related: PORTLAND, FARGO, WATERLOO)
4. (Post hint: ) POLES (celestial poles, magnetic poles); NORTH POLE, AK
5. (Post hint: ) AARE, AREA
6. SUEZ, ZEUS
7. LIBYA, LYDIA
8. Postal code abbreviations are two consecutive letters (forwards or backwards); ARIZONA (AZ) (“circular alphabet”), MINNESOTA (MN), UTAH (UT)
Hors d’Oeuvre: (Post hint: got painter pre hint, but Hockney’s website lists this iPad painting as “Untitled, 609”) ASHTRAY; DAVID HOCKNEY; HOCKEY; ARTY; TRASH; ASH
Slice: LA DI DA, ADIDAS
Entrees:
1. SMIRKERS; MIKE REISS
2. RAINY NIGHT IN GEORGIA, IRAN, GEORGIA (first tried Midnight Train to Georgia - Train - rain - Iran)
3. MONEY HUNGRY, YEMEN, HUNGARY
4. MAROON BIBLE, CAMEROON, BELIZE
5. TROUBLE CHILD, ROUBLE, CHILE
6. KING OF PAIN, KING OF SPAIN
7. CAN’T WAIT, CANADA, KUWAIT (tabby+cat+nail+down anagrammed is Can’t Wait, Bob Dylan; I remember “I Can’t Wait” by Nu Shooz, a 1985 song whose remix was a ht in 1986)
8. PIANO MAN; MANNA, POI; PAIN, MOAN
Dessert: CHA-CHA, CHARLES ATLAS, HUMAN, HE-MAN, HERO
SCHPUZZLE: ANALYTIC => ITALY; CANAL; CITY; VENICE [Pre-hint]
ReplyDeleteAPPETIZERS:
1. SICILY => SICKLY. [Pre-hint]
2. HE BOY MAN => SHEBOYGAN (But that needs SHE, not HE) [Pre-hint]
3. PORTLAND [Semi-pre-hint; I’d had “PORTAGE”]
4. MAGNETIC POLE? NORTH POLE, ALASKA?
5. AARE (river) => AREA [Pre-hint]
6. SUEZ => ZEUS [Pre-hint, three cheers for Google!]
SLICE: LA DI DA => ADIDAS [Pre-hint]
ENTREES:
1. SMIRKERS => EIKMRS => MIKE REISS
DESSERT: CHA ? HUMAN (NAHUM) => HE-MAN and ROMAN => HERO
Schpuzzle
ReplyDeleteANALYTIC, ITALY, CANAL, CITY, VENICE
Appetizer Menu
1. SICILY, SICKLY
2. HE, BOY, MAN, SHEBOYGAN(WI)
3. GLENDALE(AZ)(CA)
4. POLE, FLAGSTAFF
5. AARE, AREA
6. SUEZ, ZEUS
7. LIBYA, LYDIA
8. Their postal abbreviations are made up of letters that are close to each other in the alphabet. My original answer was that they all contain the letter W. Three states to be added according to the intended answer would be Minnesota(MN), Utah(UT), and Arizona(AZ, according to the circular alphabet). Three states to be added according to my original answer might include Wyoming, Iowa, and any one of the other states that begin with NEW.
Menu
Art Studio Hors d'Oeuvre
(David)HOCKNEY, HOCKEY, "ASHTRAY"("Untitled 609"), ARTY, TRASH, ASH
Affected Pretentious Slice
LA-DI-DA, ADIDAS
Entrees
1. SMIRKERS, MIKE REISS
2. "RAINY NIGHT IN GEORGIA"(Brook Benton), IRAN, GEORGIA
3. "MONEY HUNGRY"(Young Dolph, never heard of him), YEMEN, HUNGARY
4. "MAROON BIBLE"(Beulah, never heard of her), CAMEROON, BELIZE
5. "TROUBLE CHILD"(Joni Mitchell), ROUBLE(variant spelling of RUBLE), CHILE
6. "KING OF PAIN"(The Police), KING OF SPAIN
7. "CAN'T WAIT"(Bob Dylan), CANADA, KUWAIT
8. "PIANO MAN" (again, Billy Joel), MANNA, POI, PAIN, MOAN
Dead-lifting the Weight of the World Dessert
CHARLES ATLAS, CHA-CHA, ATLAS, HUMAN, HE-MAN, HERO
No offense to anyone here, but the hints were not the best. Nodd didn't exactly help lead me to either 1997 song title; Tortie did about the same good trying to suggest two songs from 1985; because I couldn't find the title of the painting, it looked like Lego was still only focusing on the painter/sport element, which I'm sure most of us had got already early on; and the internet that kept telling me "Cat's in the Cradle" was only two words was never going to set me straight on anything that happened just over 2350 prior to today(just sayin', eco). Better luck next time, and in the future, let's have a lot less deep cuts if we are to guess certain song titles. Bye until tomorrow, y'all!-pjb
Sorry about my hints. I did have a followup to say look at 1986 charts instead and even pointed you directly to a website where you could find the songs yourself. Perhaps you didn't see that followup or just gave up by that point. In any case, based on your answers, you eventually solved everything anyway, so "bad hints" are kinda moot at this point. In fact, you got Glendale, which I never was able to solve, despite a lot of effort.
DeleteBelated official answers for the record, part 1
ReplyDeleteSchpuzzle of the Week:
Herculean Circular Logic
Note: Use logical rational reasoning to solve this puzzle:
Print, in clockwise order along the perimeter of a circle, an eight-letter word containing seven different letters. It is a word associated with logical, rational reasoning.
~ Rearrange five consecutive letters along this perimeter to spell the name of a country.
~ Five other consecutive letters, in order clockwise along the perimeter, spell many a waterway (particular geographical feature) in the county.
~ Four consecutive counterclockwise letters spell any urban area.
What are these four words? What specific city do the three shorter words suggest?
ANSWER:
Analytic; Italy, canals, city; Venice (the city in ITALY known as "the CITY of CANALS"
Lego...
Belated official answers for the record, part 2
ReplyDeleteAppetizer Menu
“Ecosmopolitan” Appetizer;
Around the World in 8.0 Daze PART II
Note: We featured Ecoarchitect’s “Around the World in 8.0 Daze Part 1” in our March 19, 2026 edition of Puzzleria! That “World Tour” continues with his second installment, Part 2:
“On this isle I’ll not be...”
1.Name a well-known island. Replace the 4th letter with the letter 2 places later in the alphabet, and the resulting word is what you don’t want to be while visiting. What is the place and what don’t you want to be?
ANSWERS: Sicily → sickly
“Sex-change operation was reversed?”
2. Take a personal pronoun and add two related nouns, each 3 letters. Change the last letter of one of the nouns, and rearrange the words to come up with a well-known city in the US. What are the three words, and what is the city?
ANSWER: she, gal (gan), boy → Sheboygan.
A City Divided
3. The name of a well-known US city, can be divided into 2 words that are synonyms. What is the city?
ANSWER: Glendale (either CA or AZ), glen, dale
Ninety-six, South Carolina?
4. Name a well-known geographic feature in the world. The name of a well-known US city is a specific example of that feature. What is the feature, and what is the city?
ANSWER: Pole (north and south), and Flagstaff, Arizona.
Alps becomes “El Paso?”
5. Take the name of a European geographic feature in one syllable. Move the first letter to the end and the result will be a common word with three syllables. What is the feature and what is the word?
ANSWER: Aare (River in Switzerland), Area
“Doggod Bygone Deities!”
6. Reverse the name of a geographic location and the result will be a god of the past. What is the location and what is the god’s name?
ANSWER: Suez, Zeus
Move a letter back, go back in time
7. Move the middle letter of a country 2 places later in the alphabet and phonetically the result will be the name of an ancient kingdom. What is the country and what is the kingdom?
ANSWER: Libya, Lydia
deleWare, haWaii, neW mexico, West virginia?
8. Delaware, Hawaii, New Mexico, and West Virginia all have something in common. What is it, and what three states could be added to the list?
ANSWER: Their postal abbreviations are alphabetically adjacent letters, though not necessarily in front to back order. Minnesota, Utah, and Arizona (in a sense) can be included in that list.
ANSWERS:
1. Sicily → sickly
2. she, gal (gan), boy → Sheboygan.
3. Glendale (either CA or AZ), glen, dale
4. Pole (north and south) & Flagstaff, Arizona
5. Aare (River in Switzerland), Area
6. Suez, Zeus
7. Libya, Lydia
8. Their postal abbreviations are alphabetically adjacent letters, though not necessarily in front to back order. Minnesota, Utah, and Arizona (in a sense) can be included in that list.
Lego...
Belated official answers for the record, part 3
ReplyDeleteArt Studio Hors d’Oeuvre:
“Be not Led Astray!”
Take the title of a 21st-Century creation by a painter whose surname, if you delete one letter, is a sport.
The second syllable of the title is an anagram of a word that describes the painting.
The first five letters of the title word are an anagram of a non-specific word for the contents of that title word.
The first three letters of the title word spell a specific word for the contents.
What is the title of this creation? ASHTRAY
Who is the painter? What is the sport? DAVID HOCKNEY, HOCKEY;
What word describes the painting? ARTY
What are the non-specific word and the specific word for the contents of the painting’s title?
Answer:
"ASHTRAY" (a 2010 painting);
DAVID HOCKNEY, HOCKEY;
ARTY; TRASH; ASH
Affected Pretentious Slice:
“Stylish Chic Hip Duds, Dude!”
Write down the letters of an adjective that means “affectedly or pretentiously elegant or refined in manners or tastes.”
Add a letter to the end. Subtract a letter from the beginning.
The result is an apparel brand marketed as stylish, chic, hip and cool.
What are this word and brand?
Answer:
La-di-da; Adidas
Riffing Off Shortz And Reiss Slices:
Pia“No Man Is An Island...”
Will Shortz’s May 31st NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Mike Reiss, reads:
Name a classic song with a two-word title. Drop the first letter. Add an R after the new first letter. The result will be the names of two countries one after the other. What song is this?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Reiss Slices read:
ENTREE #1
Take an eight-letter plural noun that sometimes describes certain characters on the television show “The Simpsons.” This same noun may also occasionally describe viewers of “The Simpsons.”
The six DIFFERENT letters in that noun, if you use three of them twice, can be arranged to spell the name of a puzzle-maker.
What is this plural noun?
Who is the puzzlemaker?
Answer:
Smirkers; Mike Reiss
Lego...
Belated official answers for the record, part 4
ReplyDeleteNodd has provided the following answers to his riffs, #2 through #7:
Entrees #2 through #7 are riffs from Nodd, author of Puzzleria!s “Nodd ready for prime time.”
ENTREE #2
Take the first and last words in the four-word title of a classic R & B song. (5,7). Drop the last letter of the first word and move the third letter of that word to the beginning. The result will be the names of two countries. What are the song and the countries?
ANSWER:
“RAINY NIGHT IN GEORGIA” (TONY JOE WHITE, BROOK BENTON); IRAN, GEORGIA
ENTREE #3
Take the two-word title of a rap song by a now-deceased artist (5,6). Change the second letter of the first word to a copy of the fourth letter. Rearrange the letters of the first word, as modified, to name a country in the Middle East. Insert an “A” somewhere in the second word of the song title to name a country in Europe. What are the song and the countries?
ANSWER:
“MONEY HUNGRY” (YOUNG DOLPH); YEMEN, HUNGARY
ENTREE #4
Name a two-word (6,5) 1997 Indie Rock song. Change the first vowel in the first word to the next vowel in the alphabet and add a state postal abbreviation to the front of the word to get the name of a country in Africa. Move the first letter of the second word two places back in the circular alphabet and double the last letter, then rearrange to get the name of a country in Central America. What are the song and the two countries? (Hint: The first word in the song title is a Taylor Swift song title, and the second word is the name of a book. The name of the band that released the 1997 song appears in the book.)
ANSWER:
“MAROON BIBLE” (BEULAH); CAMEROON, BELIZE
ENTREE #5
Name a 1974 folk-rock song with a two-word title (7,5). Remove the first letter of the first word and change the last letter of the second word to the next letter in the alphabet. The result will be the official currency of one country and the name of another country. What are the song, the currency, and the country?
ANSWER:
“TROUBLE CHILD” (JONI MITCHELL); ROUBLE, CHILE
ENTREE #6
Name a 1983 New Wave/pop rock song with a three-word title (4,2,4). Add a letter to the beginning of the third word. The result will describe the head of state of a certain country. What are the song and the description?
ANSWER:
“KING OF PAIN” (THE POLICE); KING OF SPAIN
ENTREE #7
Take the two-word title of a 1997 song by a renowned artist (4,4). Replace the last letter of the first word with an acronym for a civil rights law which is also the first word in the title of a 1969 novel by an Oscar-nominated author. Add the acronym for a Midwestern U.S. state university to the beginning of the second word of the song title. The result will be the names of two countries. What are the song and the countries?
ANSWER:
“CAN’T WAIT” (BOB DYLAN); CANADA, KUWAIT
Lego...
Belated official answers for the record, part 5
ReplyDeleteENTREE #8
The two-word title of a classic song can be anagrammed to spell a heavenly food and a Hawaiian food.
Or, if you are a masochist, the first two and last two letters of this song title can be rearranged to spell an unpleasant bodily sensation, while the remaining interior letters can be rearranged to spell a possible reaction to this unpleasantness.
What is this song title?
What are the two foods?
What are the unpleasant bodily sensation, and the possible reaction to it?
Answer:
"Piano Man" (Billy Joel); Manna, Poi; Pain, Moan
Dessert Menu
Dead-lifting the Weight of the World Dessert:
“Do strong-tough-guys wear chaps?”
Name a strong muscular chap CHARLES ATLAS whose first name begins with the first half of a Latin American ballroom dance CHA CHA. His first name is also the first 70% of a century-old fast-paced, rhythmic jazz dance characterized by inward-and-outward twisting of the feet and swinging kicks CHARLESTON.
This chap’s surname is the same as the name of a Greek deity who is also associated with strength. ATLAS
Our chap, however, is no deity. Indeed, he is only _____ (an anagram of a biblical book) HUMAN NAHUM.
Replace the second letters of this anagram HUMAN with a different vowel, followed by a hyphen HE-MAN. The result, and a synonym of “non-Greek,” ROMAN both end with the same three letters. Delete those identical endings. The remaining letters, in order, spell a noun describing the deity.
Name these two dances, the name of the chap, anagram of the biblical book, hyphenated term, and noun.
Answer:
Cha-cha; Charleston; (Charles) Atlas, (Atlas, is the Greek Titan/Deity who bore the weight of the world and the heavens on his shoulders); Human (anagram of Nahum) "he-man"; Hero (HE-man + ROman)
Hint: Human (He-man=> Heman=> Human)
LegoLatePosting...