The ubiquity of “AIATM” Geography, anatomy & “scirtem” Blending fruits into drinks; Phinancier and phoodie fraseology; “Spice try on beet!”

 PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 3(7!) SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

The ubiquity of “AIATM”

The letters AI and ATM stand for Artificial Intelligence and Automatic Teller Machine. 

Those five letters, in that order, are also the

initial letters in a ubiquitous phrase you sometimes hear this time of year. 

What is this phrase?

Appetizer Menu

Worldplay Appetizer:

Geography, anatomy & “scirtem”

Orthographia

1. The names Juneau, Phoenix, Sacramento, Atlanta, Boise, Topeka, Saint Paul, and Richmond each share a characteristic with their respective states that the other state capitals do not. What is it? 

Bonus question: Of these eight “special state capitals,” what sets Sacramento apart from the seven others?

Hint: Little Rock, Sacramento, Helena, Columbus, Providence, Austin, Madison, and (often) Montgomery share a different property
with their respective states. 

Again, Sacramento stands out, but for a complementary reason.

Recombinant state name

2.  Divide the name of a U.S. state into two halves. Discard the second half. 

Copy the first half and invert it. 

Combine this result and the original first half to get the state name back again. What is the U.S. state?

Anatomical surgery

3. Think of a body part. Move the first two

letters to the end to form a term for an interior organ. 

What are the two body parts?

Drawkcab

4. Think of a term for areal measurement units. Spell it backward to obtain a term that sounds like an approximation. 

What are the measurement units and term for an approximation?

MENU

Power Couple Slice:

“Spice try on beet!”

Former Spice Girl Victoria and her soccer-star hubby David visit a shoe store. 

While there, paparazzi snap them sampling footwear. Within an hour an image appears on online tabloids with the caption “Spice try on beet!” 

Translate the caption into something more understandable by changing two words. 

Explain your translation.

Riffing Off Shortz And Lipscomb Slices:

Blending fruits into drinks

Will Shortz’s October 11th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Tyler Lipscomb of Augusta, Georgia, reads:

Name certain fruits — in the plural. Change the second letter to an L and read the result backward. You’ll name two things to drink. What are they?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Lipscomb Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Take the first name of a woman, a U.S. capital city, a city named after a U.S. president, and a nearly perfectly square county that borders Texas on two sides and Oklahoma on its other two sides.

Put these four names in the correct order to name the hometown of a puzzle-maker (both the city and the state) and the first and last names of the puzzle-maker.

What are the hometown and name of this puzzle-maker? 

ENTREE #2

Name one thing to drink — in the singular. Change an “i” to an “a”. Read the result backward. 

You’ll name, in three words of 2, 1 and 4

letters, where one might conceivably drink this drink. 

What drink is this?

Where might one drink it? 

ENTREE #3

Name one thing to drink — in the singular. Switch the third and fifth letters and spell the result backward. 

The first four letters of this backward result spell a popular cheese. The four remaining letters can be rearranged to spell either:

1. a name associated with chins, or

2. a word that precedes “wolf,” or

3. a name that precedes “Coward,” or

4. a name that precedes a surname that begins with what a horse does, followed by the 2-letter postal abbreviation of a state where horses famously gallop.

What is this drink?

What is the popular cheese?

What are the four words the remaining letters spell?

ENTREE #4

Name an eight-letter word for “a wee dram at the end of the day.” Spell it backward. 

The last three letters of this result spell what that “dram” might consist of. 

The first five letters can be rearranged to spell what the “dram-drinker,” after downing the dram, might wear (in addition to cloth headwear) to keep his face from flushing or glowing red.

What is this “wee dram at the end of the day?”

What might it consist of?

What might the “dram-drinker” wear? 

ENTREE #5

Name a variant spelling of a word for “something (such as a drink at a bar) given without charge.” (The variant spelling substitutes an “e” for an “i”.) 

Remove four consecutive letters from the

interior of this word. The remaining letters spell a word meaning “a fixed charge.”

Spell the four removed letters backward to spell a drink you might enjoy at a bar, whether or not you are charged for it.

What are this varient spelling, word meaning “a fixed charge,” and drink enjoyed at a bar?

ENTREE #6

Name a noun that describes Leonardo DaVinci, in eight letters. The last five letters of the noun, if you insert a hyphen, is a modern-day adjective that reflects the eminence (at least in the Christian community) of the subjects of one of DaVinci’s well-known pieces of art.

The first three letters of the 8-letter noun, if you spell them backward, form a non-vinaceous beverage that the subjects of the artwork might have been quaffing had they been pirates rather than apostles.  

What 8-letter noun describes Leonardo DaVinci?

What is the modern-day adjective?

What might the twelve “apostolic pirates” have been quaffing?

Dessert Menu

Professional Dessert:

Phinancier and phoodie fraseology

Name a two-word duty associated with a five-letter food professional. 

Insert a third word between the two words of this duty. The result is a phrase associated with a wealthy financial professional. 

Now insert one letter within the five-letter word for the food professional to spell the six-letter word for the financial professional.

What are this duty and phrase?

Who are these food and financial professionals?

 

Every Friday 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 Friday.

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.

Changing the tone of leadership; Pound o’ prevention = Ton o’ cure; Try solving these Triclops posers; Mere mortals emerge from mythological mix; Spoon River Anthropomorphology

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 3(7!) SERVED

Schpuzzle Of TheWeek:

Spoon River Anthropomorphology

🥄1. Write down the surnames of two well-known living people in alphabetical order. Spoonerize the result  – that is, switch the initial consonant sounds.

The first part of the result sounds like the surname of a classical composer.

The second part of the result spells the surname of a person associated with an instrument heard in symphony orchestras.  

Who are these four people?

🥄2. Write down the surnames of two well-known living people in reverse-alphabetical order. Spoonerize the result  – that is, switch the initial consonant sounds. 

The first part of the result is another word for one’s heart.

 

The letters of the second part of the result can be rearranged to form a synonym of “heart.” 

Who are these two people?

What are the two words associated with “heart”?

Appetizer Menu

Econfusions Appetizer:

Changing the tone of leadership

(Exactly what we need right now!)

1. Think of a recent event, in six letters.

Change the fifth letter to the one previous in the alphabet (for example, “b” becomes “a”) and the result will be an verb that characterizes what that event did to everyone.  

Note: For Econfusions #2 through #7, the following example may be helpful:

If you add an “e” to the word “on,” the first letter changes pronunciation in the resulting

word “one.”  This is not rare in words of 2 to 3 letters (for example, “at” becomes “ate”).

2.  Can you find a common, uncapitalized 3-letter word which, when you add a letter onto
the end, results in a 4-letter word with the first letter pronounced differently?

3.  Can you find a common, uncapitalized 4-letter word which, when you add a letter onto

the end, results in a 5-letter word with the first letter pronounced differently?

4. Take a common, uncapitalized 5-letter word.  Change the last letter to the next letter in the alphabet (for example, “a” becomes “b”), and the result will be another common word, with the first two letters pronounced differently.

5.  Take a common, uncapitalized 5-letter word.  Move the last letter eight places later in the alphabet (for example, “a” becomes “i”). 

The result will be another common word, with the first four letters pronounced
differently... and of course the last letter too.

6.  Take the last name of members of a well-known singing group.  Move the last letter three places later in the alphabet (for example, “a” becomes “d”), and the result is a common word with the first two letters pronounced differently.

What is this common word?

7.  Take the last name of a well-known actor.  Move the last letter six places later in the alphabet (for example, “a” becomes “g”), and the result is a common word whose first two letters are pronounced differently from the first two letters of the actor’s last name.

Who is this actor and what is the common word?

Bonus Econfusion Puzzle:

8. In an answer to one of the seven Econfusions above, change the third letter to a letter adjoining it on a standard keyboard.

The pronunciation of all the letters in the word will change (except for one letter that remains silent).  

What are the words?

MENU

Greek and Roman Goddesses Slice:

Mere mortals emerge from mythological mix

Rearrange the fourteen combined letters in Venus and Aphrodite, the Roman and Greek

goddesses of love, to spell the names of two non-gods from Rome and a 5-letter noun.

The names and noun, taken together, are associated with the years 68 AD and 1572 AD. 

What are these names and noun?

Riffing Off Shortz And Margolies Slices:

Try solving these “Triclops” posers   

Will Shortz’s October 4th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Micah Margolies of Lenexa, Kansas, reads:

Think of an 8-letter word with three syllables that contains the letter “i”  in each syllable — but, strangely, doesn’t contain a single “i” sound, either long or short. The answer is not a plural. What word is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz and Margolies Slices read:

ENTREE #1:

Take the surname of a recently deceased writer who penned a short poem titled “Odysseus.” Change the fourth letter to an “L” to name a legendary figure featured in Arthurian legend and medieval Welsh poetry. 

Now take a 4-syllable noun associated with the feats of Odysseus and a 3-syllable

adjective associated with the legendary figure. Rearrange their combined letters to spell the name of a puzzle-maker. 

Who is  this puzzle-maker?

Who are the writer and legendary figure?

What are the noun associated with the feats of Odysseus and the adjective associated with the legendary figure?

ENTREE #2:

Think of an 9-letter noun with three syllables that contains the letter “i”  in each syllable — but, strangely, doesn’t contain a single “i” sound, either long or short. The noun can be either singular or plural, and is something edible. 

What word is it?

ENTREE #3:

Think of an 9-letter adjective with three syllables that contains the letter “u”  in each syllable — but, strangely, doesn’t contain a single “u” sound, either long or short. 

The adjective is not a plural but it does end with an “s.” And it begins with an “m.” 

Its first two syllables are identical. 

What adjective is it?

ENTREE #4:

Think of an 8-letter word with three syllables that contains the letter “a”  in each syllable — but, strangely, doesn’t contain a single “a” sound, either long or short. 

The answer is not a plural word. 

The word begins with a “b” and is a card game played by gamblers.

What word is it?

ENTREE #5:

Think of an 8-letter word with four syllables that contains the letter “o” in all but the final syllable — but, strangely, doesn’t contain a single “o” sound, either long or short. 

The answer is not a plural. 

The word is associated with the fruit of the vine. 

What word is it?

ENTREE #6:

Think of an 7-letter word with two syllables that contains the letter “e”  twice in the first syllable and once in the second syllable.

But, strangely, the word doesn’t contain a single “e” sound, either long or short. 

Glasses and goggles are two examples of this word. 

What word is it?

Note: Entree #7 is a bonus riff-off puzzle created by ecoarchitect,  author of our recurrent “Econfusions” feature. (See the “Changing the tone of leadership” Appetizer, above).

ENTREE #7:

Think of the surname (in 4 syllables and 8 letters) of a well-known person in the news. 

Three of the four syllables contain the letter “i”, but the surname doesn’t contain a single “i” sound, either long or short.  

Who is this person?

Dessert Menu

Measure For Measure Dessert:

Pound o’ prevention = Ton o’ cure

A two-word preventive measure may keep your face from becoming two things: 

1. the first five letters of the measure, and 

2. the last three letters of the measure.  

What preventive measure is this?

Every Friday 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 Friday.

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.

De-hyphenation, Repunctuation; Sifting fact from fiction; “Metropolis? Cosmopolis? Acroplis?” “Cryptickle” your crossword fancy! Phrase heard during the first of three frays

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 3(7!) SERVED

Schpuzzle Of TheWeek:

De-hyphenation, Repunctuation

Replace a hyphen in a five-syllable word with a different punctuation mark. 

Add a space someplace between two letters. 

The result is a factual statement. 

What is this word?

What is the factual statement?

Appetizer Menu

Cryptic Crossword Appetizer:

“Cryptickle” your crossword fancy!

In this edition of Puzzleria!, Patrick J. Berry (screen name, “cranberry”) is about to tickle your crossword fancy, not with a feather but with his seventeenth cryptic crossword puzzle to grace our blog.

Patrick is indeed a fountain of cryptic knowledge. He is no featherweight when it comes to puzzle creation. 

And you can write that down in indelible ink! 

Here are the links to Patrick’s sixteen previous cryptic crosswords on Puzzleria!

ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SIX SEVEN 

EIGHT NINE TEN ELEVEN TWELVE 

THIRTEEN FOURTEEN FIFTEEN SIXTEEN

For those of you who may be new to cryptic crossword puzzles, Patrick has compiled a few basic cryptic crossword puzzle instructions to help you “quill you way through his clues.”

Here are his instructions:

Regarding the Across and Down clues and their format...

The number in parentheses at the end of each clue tells how many letters are in the answer.

 Multiple numbers in parentheses indicate how letters are distributed in multiple-word answers.

For example, (6) simply indicates a six-letter answer like “jalopy,” (5,3) indicates a five-and-three-letter answer like “cargo van,” and (5-5) indicates a five-and-five-letter hyphenated answer like “Rolls-Royce.”

(For further insight about how to decipher these numbered cryptic clues, see Patrick’s “Cryptic Crossword Tutorial” in this link to his November 17, 2017 cryptic crossword. 

The Tutorial appears below the grid that contains the answers in that edition of Puzzleria!)

And now, here are Patrick’s clues:

ACROSS

1. Grub the men prepared specially – a growing concern(5,5)

6. A snake getting around quickly(4)

9. Disaster movie starring Amy Schumer?(10)

10. Angry-sounding fly(4)

11. A recent day’s wasted looking for bunny droppings?(6,5)

15. Study channel guide(7)

16. Country singer I treasure somewhat(7)

17. Chose up sides, changed? (7)

19. Secret police – couple of Germans dance in? Indeed!(7)

20. Fight for change interrupted by Conservative(11)

23. Press on after I run(4)

24. Doctor is tense? Sad – should be calm(10)

25. Fools around with lead singer in band(4)

26. Genius having rigged race let speed up?(10)

DOWN

1. Opening at end of scandal?(4)

2. Might be oral sex(a minor part)(4)

3. Manage to come up with funny question as deception(3,8)

4. Fixed “bad threads”?(4-3)

5. Associate carrying revolutionary weapon(7)

7. Cook so bored with pan to make Southern treat(10)

8. Individual describes “New Army” in courtroom drama(5,5)

12. Discretion, perhaps, getting married in Alabama?(7,4)

13. Awfully chaotic mess, doing away with old diagrams(10)

14. Neurotics, if sick right off, could be contagious(10)

18. Scar – it’d developed into rash(7)

19. Facial expression – sour one(7)

21. Ultimately, Trump had upset animal lovers(4)

22. Man, for one, regularly insulted(4)

MENU

All Decorum Frays Slice:

Phrase heard during the first of three frays

Name a newsmaking two-word phrase that was heard during the first presidential debate this past Tuesday, September 29. 

Think of another two-word phrase for

something not heard at that that debate, even though it was heard at most other recently previous presidential debates. 

These two two-word phrases rhyme with each other. 

What are they?

Riffing Off Shortz And Austin Slices:

“Metropolis? Cosmopolis? Acroplis?”  

Will Shortz’s September 27th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Ben Austin, of Dobbs Ferry, New York, reads:

Name a major world city with a population in the millions. Take one letter in its name and move it two spots earlier in the alphabet. Reading backward, you now have the name of a major restaurant chain. What is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz and Austin Slices read:

ENTREE #1:

Write a caption for the image pictured here – a four-letter adjective and a five-letter noun.  Also describe – using a one-letter article, three-letter noun and five-letter noun – the smaller image in the lower-right corner of the larger image.

Rearrange the nine letters in either the caption or the description to spell the name of a puzzle-maker.

Who is it?

What are the caption and the description?

ENTREE #2:

Express the name of a major world city with a population in the millions by writing it in all-lowercase letters. Rotate the second letter 90 degrees counterclockwise and attach it near the top of the first letter, forming one uppercase letter. 

The result is a five-letter word that is the first word in a two-word name of a major restaurant chain. 

The second word in the chain appears in the text of the puzzle you are now reading.

What is this city?

What is the restaurant chain?

ENTREE #3:

Name a major world city with a population in the millions. Take one letter in its name and move it ten spots later in the alphabet. 

Rearrange the letters of the result. You now have a common misspelling of the name of a major restaurant chain. 

What is this chain?

What is the world city?

ENTREE #4:

Name a major world city with a population in the millions. 

Spell the first four letters in its name backward to name an entree you might find on a seafood menu. 

Now remove the third and fourth letters of the city and rearrange the remaining letters to name another entree you might find on a seafood menu.

What is this city?

What are the two menu items?

ENTREE #5:

Name a major Middle Eastern city, in seven letters, with a population in the millions. The first, sixth and seventh letters spell an adjective. The seventh, second, third and fourth letters spell a noun. 

Place the adjective in front of the noun to form a phrase meaning “a wild and uncontrolled rush.” 

What is this city?

What is the phrase?

Note: Entrees #6, #7 and #8 are the brainchildren of Greg VanMechelen (ecoarchitect) whose Econfusions feature appears regularly on Puzzleria!

ENTREE #6:

Name a major world city with a population in the millions. 

Take one letter in its name and move it ten spots earlier in the alphabet. 

Reading backward, you now have the name of a major peninsula. 

What are this city and peninsula? 

ENTREE #7: 

Name a major word city with a population in the millions that is associated with sausage. 

Take one letter in its name and move it three spots earlier in the alphabet. 

Switch the order of two other adjacent letters in the city.

Reading backward, you now have the name of a company brand with many items on the grocery shelf, often considered healthy, and a popular pasta item. 

What are this city and company? 

ENTREE #8:

Name a two-word major world city with a population of about a half-million. 

Spell each of the two words backward, keeping them in the same order. 

You now have the first two words in a possible slogan for a brand-name household cleaning product. 

The slogan reads: “___ ____ sponge your spills!” 

What is this city?

What is the possible advertising slogan?

Dessert Menu

Quirky Dessert:

Sifting fact from fiction

The last name of a comedian is shared by American inventors and an American architect. 

Use the word “is” to connect the comedian’s first name to a synonym of “quirky.” The result is a three-word statement of opinion. 

Remove the second letter of this statement to form a statement of fact.

Remove the first letter of this factual statement to form a false statement. 

What are these three statements?

Every Friday 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 Friday.

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.