Conjoin in the fun!; Author! Author! Author!; Mmm... Yuck!; Novel Entertainment; Go fly a kite; Poetry Corner, with Anna Graham; “Is a Plea Deal now off the table?”; Bless'ed Event, Curs'ed Questions! A Batch o’ Cukes Culled from a Cumber Patch; A Roundball Rondeau; Destructive by Design!

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

“Is a Plea Deal now off the table?”

The legal authorities have identified me as a (three words) in their investigation, and have urged me to either (one word) my innocence, remain silent, or confess guilt and (two words) prison.

The sixteen letters in the first three words are an anagram of the letters in the  latter three words.

What are these six words?

Hint: Hawaiian treat, “I’M an architect”

Appetizer Menu

A “Nodd” has the Goods & is quick as a Wink! Appetizer:

Conjoin in the fun!; Author! Author! Author!; Mmm... Yuck!; Novel Entertainment; Go fly a kite; Poetry Corner,
with Anna Graham; 

Conjoin in the fun!

1. ♭♯🎜🎝Each answer consists of two popular song titles connected by a shared word. The first title ends with the word that begins the second title. The answer is the first title, followed by the second title with the first word omitted. So if the songs were “Don’t Let Me Down” and “Down in the Boondocks,” the answer would be “Don’t let me down in the boondocks.” Try to guess the answers from the clues given. (The word counts for the two titles are provided in parentheses.)

1. Bizarre trip with Prince Hussain. (2, 3)

2. Sorry, you didn’t recall the Jeopardy answer fast enough. (3, 3)

3. Moreover, I’ve got a crush on the queen. (4, 2)

4. I don’t get this tune at all. (4, 3)

5. I’m looking for some kids listening to my songs. (5, 3)

6. My mom’s brother’s rock group is on the Most Wanted List. (3, 4)

7. Look at those guys up there lighting off Roman candles. (4, 4)

8. This paint job will last, even out here in the desert. (3, 4)

9. Fighting off those zombies in the dark was exhausting. (4, 5)

10. But officer, I couldn’t afford a chauffeur old enough to get a license. (5, 2)

Author, Author, Author! 

2. 📖📖📖The opening line of a famous poem by a British author contains the last names of two famous American authors. 

What is the poem and who are the three
authors?

Mmm... Yuck!

3. 🎕🦨Rearrange the letters
of something pleasant
to hear to spell something unpleasant to see or smell.

Novel Entertainment

4. 📙🤣The last name of a British novelist contains within its letters, consecutively and in order, a word associated with aging.  

Replace this word with another word often associated with aging. The result will be the last name of an American entertainer (who also wrote several humor and memoir books). Who are they?

Go fly a kite

5. Move one letter in the title of a famous novel to the end and it will sound like things you might see at a kite festival. 

What is the novel and what might you see?

Poetry Corner, with Anna Graham

6. Fill in the blanks with four words that are anagrams of each other to complete the verse. What words are they?

The ______ clock foretells the hour of doom.

His ______ struggling now intensifies,

And his ______, throughout the empty room,

Reverberates as he again decries,

His pledge to don the ______ of a groom.

MENU

Crocodylus Hors D’Oeuvre:

A Roundball Rondeau

“Yes, I once stole the ball

Yet committed no foul...

(But that couplet’s a fib! Bull!”

Truth: The “rock” I can’t “dribble...”

I do not “do” BucketBall!)

The letters of three words in first three lines in the five-line doggerel above can be rearranged to spell the name of a figure from the American Old West. Name these three words and Old Western figure.

Pink & Blue Slice:

Bless-ed Event, Curs-ed Questions!

Giving birth to a baby is a sublime and blessed event. What is not such a blessing, however, are the incessant inquiries you may get from relatives and friends about your newborn:

~ “What’ll you name it?”

~ “Were you disappointed that it wasn’t a girl (or a boy)?”

~ “Who are the godmother and godfather gonna be?”

You may also have to field basic questions like “What is ___ baby’s ______?”... or embarrassing questions like “Are you sure you’re the baby’s father?”

It is as if you were on the witness stand being grilled to the ___ ______ by a battery of Hamilton-Burger-type prosecuting attorneys!

Name the words in the four blanks.

Hint: Each pair of blanks contains the same three identical vowels and six different consonants – like, for example, “old motors” and “Tom drools!” (Tom, I gather, must be an antique auto aficionado!)

Riffing Off Shortz And Bertoglio Slices:

A Batch o’ Cukes Culled from a Cumber Patch!

Will Shortz’s November 8th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Mike Bertoglio of King County, Washington, reads:

Think of a famous living actor whose last name has 11 letters. Take the first two letters of that name and repeat them at the start. Then change the seventh letter of the actor’s name to a P. The result will name part of a garden. What is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Bertoglio Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Identify:

~ a foundational figure in South Africa’s anti-
apartheid movement to combat racism;

~ a long-distance running Olympic gold-medalist whose nickname includes his nationality and a railroad vehicle; 

~ a British philologist who created a thesaurus.

The surnames of two of those men and the first name of one can be anagrammed to spell the first and last names of a talented puzzle-maker. Who is this puzzle-maker? What are the names of the three men?

(Note: Entrees #2 through #7 are creations from our friend Nodd, whose “Nodd ready for prime time” puzzle-package is featured above in this edition of Puzzleria!)

ENTREE #2

Take the first and last names a famous deceased singer who starred in several films (4 letters in each name). Change the last letter of the last name to a D. The first and last names  together will now spell a part of some gardens. 

Who is the performer and what is part of some gardens?

ENTREE #3

Think of a famous deceased actress (4, 5) and change the next-to-last letter of her last name to an E. Add to the beginning of her first name something you might grow in a garden. Her first and last names will now name two other things you might grow in a garden. 

Who is the actress and what might you grow?

ENTREE #4

Think of a famous living actress (4, 5). Change the second letter of her first name to an L, then remove the last letter of that name. Her first and last names will now name two things you might find in a garden (one is a plant, the other is not). 

Who is the actress and what might you find in a garden?

ENTREE #5

Think of a famous living actor (6, 5) and exchange the first letters of his first and last names to get something you would not want to find in your garden. 

Who is the actor and what would you not want to find?

ENTREE #6

Think of a famous living actress (4, 10). Change the third letter of her first name to an L. The first name, as modified, will spell something you might grow in your garden.
Rearrange the letters of her last name to spell something else you might grow in your garden and a tool you might use in your garden. 

Who is the actress and what are the things you might grow and the tool?

ENTREE #7

Name two actresses, both living (4, 4 and 4, 7). Rearrange the letters of the last name of the first actress and the first name of the second actress, plus the last letter of the second actress’s last name, to spell something you might grow in your garden. 

Who are the actresses and what might you grow?

Dessert Menu

“Drink-Up” Dessert:

Destructive by Design!

Name Three drinks: 

~ hot chocolate, 

~ a brand-name energy drink, and 

~ a “natural drink” also. 

Replace those three drinks and also the word
“also” with synonyms to form words of 5, 4, 4 and 3 letters. Seven of these sixteen letters are vowels, and five of those vowels are the same vowel. Delete one of those five identical vowels. 

Rearrange the fifteen letters that remain to spell what sounds like a drink one might order at a bar (which might result in a potentially dangerous drunken driver) but which is actually something that is designed to be destructive!

What are the synonyms of the three drinks and the word “also”?

What is it that is designed to be destructive?

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 piping 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.