Prezzes, zoos, Sucre, fruit & film; “Please deep-six one double-u!” DraNo, Troon and Thorn; Describing an overdone verb; Poets, performers and perennials; National Adjeographictive

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 5πe² SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Poets, performers and perennials

 A poet and an actor are both associated with the same flower, one with two syllables.

The surname of the poet, also two syllables, rhymes with a word associated with a homophone of the actor’s one-syllable surname. 

Who are the poet and actor? 

What are this flower and the rhyming word associated with the actor’s surname.

Hints: The actor was also a director. The poet was also a cleric.

Appetizer Menu

Skydiversionary Appetizer:

Prezzes, zoos, Sucre, fruit & film

1. Can you name two U.S. Presidents whose full names are spelled and pronounced differently, but are synonyms?

2. Think of a world capital city in one word. Remove one of the internal letters and rearrange to get a common zoo animal that is not indigenous to that country. What are the capital, country and zoo animal?

3. Imagine you are in a cemetery witnessing a
graveside service. Now imagine you also hear some of those assembled there talking, praying and perhaps singing. Why might this experience bring to your mind Sucre, Bolivia?

4. Think of a well known province in six letters that is most remembered for its WWII involvement.

Replace one of its vowels with a consonant to name a well known mythical super hero. 

Or you could replace a different consonant with another consonant and rearrange to name a popular fruit. 

What are they? 

5. Say the name of this famous film actor out loud and the result will phonetically describe what tourists to Arizona would not find particularly enjoyable. Who is it?

MENU

Horizontal Hors d’Oeuvre:

Describing an overdone verb

Write a one-syllable adjective in capital letters. Attach a horizontal segment someplace on one of the letters. 

The result is a new word, a verb. A person who overdoes this verb might eventually be described by the adjective. (For example, if the verb were “run,” overdoing the verb might mean running two marathons in a row!)

What are this adjective and verb?

Atlanta Not Lima Slice:

National Adjeographictive

Remove one letter from the name of a world nation. The result will be an adjective that describes:

* London not Luanda, 

* Cairo not Caracas, and

* Atlanta not Lima.

What is this nation?

What is this adjective?

Riffing Off Shortz And Weisz Slices:

DraNo, Troon and Thorn

Will Shortz’s December 31st NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Sandy Weisz of Chicago, illinois, reads:

Name a famous movie in four letters. Change one letter and anagram the result to name another movie that came out 20 years later.
Then change one letter in that and anagram to name a third movie that came out 29 years after the second one. What movies are these?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Weisz Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Take the first word in a four-word romantic comedy movie title, the second word in a two-word adventure fantasy title of a movie that came out 14 years later, and the first word in a two-word American teen romantic comedy drama movie that came out 11 years after the second movie. These three words in the movie titles contain three, four and three letters, respectively.

Rearrange these combined ten letters to spell the name of a puzzle-maker. 

What three movies are these?

Who is the puzzle-maker?

The following riffing entree was penned by our friend Ecoarchitect whose “Econfusions” is featured regularly on Puzzleria!

ENTREE #2

Name a well-known film genre (that had its heyday over a span of two decades). 

Change one letter and rearrange to get another film genre (which has no bounds to its popularity).  

What are the two genres?

ENTREE #3

Take a pair of “echoic” words, like “dodo” and “tutu,” for example. Blend the two words so as to form either of two new composite non-words — “tudo” or “dotu.” 

The pair of  “echoic” words you need to take are a toy, but not a toy jet, and a 1950s-era musical romantic comedy movie title. Remove the hyphen in the toy. Blend these “echoic” words by taking the first half of the toy and the second half of the movie title. The result is a bear, a Berra or a markedly reflective or mystical person.

* Replace the last letter of this bear etc. with a different vowel to get a Hindu theistic philosophy that is also a system of physical postures, breathing techniques;

* Replace the first letter of this philosophy to get the painter of the image pictured here;

* Replace the third letter of the painter to get to get either a Georgetown athlete or a climbing

or sprawling evergreen shrub with ornamental foliage and waxy flowers; 

* Replace the third letter of the athlete to get a south-of-the-border “Howdy!”

* Replace the second letter of the south-of-the-border “Howdy!” to get a sinuous Polynesian dance;

* Replace the fourth letter of the Polynesian dance to get a subscription streaming service owned by The Walt Disney Company;

* Replace the first letter of the subscription streaming service to get a 1960s-era British epic war film depicting a 19th-Century battle.

What are the “echoic-word” toy and rom-com movie title?

What is 1960s-era British epic war film?

What was the chain of words that began with a bear and ended with the British epic war film?

Dessert Menu

Subtracting A Syllable Dessert:

“Please deep-six one doubleyou” 

Remove just one “w” from a two-syllable word
to form a one-syllable synonym of that word. 

What are this word and its synonym?

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 postclever 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.

Left with a right or wrong choice; Fidgeting with double digits; Compound periodic tableware; Rakes & brooms in break rooms; Moji, Dapo, Jane, Marcel & 13 A’s; Edward Bear, George Geef, Sidney

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

Fidgeting with double digits

The numbers 8,191 and 32,810 share two digits in common, 8 and 1. 

What two names that are associated with two other common – and yet somewhat famous – digits do the numbers 8,191 and 32,810 suggest?

Hint

Appetizer Menu

UnConunDrumBeatable Appetizer:

Compound periodic tableware

1.🥁Name a six letter compound word of two and four letters. Swap the components to get
another compound word that changes the pronunciation and definition of the four-letter component.

2.🥁Name an element on the periodic table. Add a letter at the beginning. 

The result will describe a difficulty that scientists may have in communicating with the public.

3.🥁 To “table” an item is to save it for later. 

There is another word with a similar meaning, in nine letters, that can be arranged into two words — one, another piece of furniture, and the other, a part of the body.

What is this nine-letter word?

What are the piece of furniture and part of the body?

MENU

Horns Of A Moral Dilemma Hors d’Oeuvre:

Left with a right or wrong choice

A _____ did hard ____ after, given the choice between right and wrong, he ____ the path of a life of _____.

Spoonerize the words in the first two blanks to spell the words in the  last two blanks. 

What are these four words?

Fictitious Slice:

Moji, Dapo, Jane, Marcel & 13 A’s

Take five names associated with fiction and literature:

1. The informal name of an inmate in the television series “Orange Is the New Black” (3 letters),

2. Moji and Dapo’s sister (4 letters),

3. The surname of a character named Jane (4 letters),

4. The “cygnine-sounding” surname of a Marcel Proust character (5 letters), and...

5. The surname of an American satirist and author whose siblings were named Abigail, Amelia, Ann, Addison, Aurelius, Augustus, Almeda, Andrew, Albert, Arthur, Adelia, and Aurelia (6 letters).

Rearrange these 22 letters to spell, in four words, what many people worldwide will be engaged in late this coming Sunday.

What are these five names?

What will people be engaged in late this coming Sunday?

Riffing Off Shortz And Fogarty Slices:

Rakes & brooms in the break room

Will Shortz’s December 24th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Neville Fogarty of Newport News, Virgina, reads:

Think of an area found in many workplaces, in two words. Move the first letter of the first word to the start of the second word. Phonetically you’ll name two items that have a similar use — one of which might be used in the workplace. What place is this?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Fogarty Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Think of a puzzle-maker, in two words. 

From the surname, remove  two consecutive letters that spell a state postal abbreviation, leaving a number.

From the first name, remove three consecutive letters that spell a postal abbreviation and two non-consecutive letters that spell a state postal abbreviation. Multiply the values of the remaining letters. Round up the answer to the nearest tenth, forming a second number.

Divide the first number by the second number and round to the nearest tenth. Subtract that quotient from the divisor to get a whole number. 

What is this number?

Note: The following Christmas/New Year’s/Holiday riff was conjured up, composed and contributed by a quite clever friend and P&P&P! Fan (that is to say, a Packer&Panther&Puzzleria! Fan). This “terriffic” riff is intended to acknowledge the recent P-versus-P Christmas Eve game, both as a tip of the hat to “The Conductor” as well as a Greeting and Well-Wish to Puzzleria!ns everywhere: 

ENTREE #2 

Take the name of the two-word U.S. city known as “Titletown.” Remove “an abbreviated billion bytes.” The result sounds like:

a. Mr. Ed callin’ again

b. Someone The Left Banke would tell to just walk away

c. A subsequent anti vote

d. A Scot once again saying, “Don’t do it!”

e. Ms. Zellweger

f. The surname of the singer of “Navy Blue”

g. A cranberry kin whose activities are recounted in many a Friday chronicle

h. The first name of a philosopher whose surname sounds like a diurnal wain

What is this city known as Titletown?

What is “an abbreviated billion bytes?”

What are the eight sound-alike leftovers?

Note: Entrees #3 and #4 are the brainchildren of our friend Greg VanMechelen (aka “Ecoarchitect”), whose “Econfusions” feature appears regularly on Puzzleria!

ENTREE #3

Think of a well-known area found in very few workplaces, in two words. Move the first letter of the first word to replace the first letter of the second word. The result will be a famous construction, and what the builders were hoping to avoid. 

What place is this, what is the construction and what was trying to be avoided?

ENTREE #4 

Name a one-word place where people often work together.  

Remove a letter near the middle of the word and the result will be, in order, two groups of
people who often don't work together.  

What is the place, and who are the groups of people?

ENTREE #5

Think of a two-word area found in many workplaces, in ten letters. Replace the space with a hyphen. Invert the third letter. 

Delete the ninth letter. Replace the seventh and eighth letters with one of the two letters they straddle in the alphabet. Move the fourth, fifth and sixth letters to the beginning, reverse their order and place a space after them.

The result is a handheld brightly colored fluffy
ball flourished by cheerleaders for the Wisconsin Badgers, Arizona Cardinals, Alabama Crimson Tide and Stanford Cardinal.

What is this two-word area found in many workplaces?

What is the fluffy ball flourished by cheerleaders at Wisconsin, Arizona, Alabama and Stanford?

ENTREE #6

The college economics professor with a free third period retreated to the communal ________ ______. He was coming from a classroom where a ________ or two — or three or even four — opted to ______ back into their desks and daydream during his lecture. 

The weary and discouraged prof poured himself a mug of steaming, soothing _____ ___ from the pot,
then he himself opted to ______ down into one of the many available Barcaloungers in the room.

The words in the first two blanks name an area in the college. 

Rearrange the 14 letters in this area to spell the two words in the third and fourth blanks. And also rearrange these 14 letters to spell the three words in the fifth, sixth and seventh blanks.

What are these seven words in the blanks?

ENTREE #7

“During the bimonthly shareholders conference, held on December 15, 2023 in the _______ ____ of Puzzleria! Industries Inc., chairman of the board Lego Lambda made a motion to merge all corporate assets, activities and liabilities (especially liabilities!) with NPR Weekend Edition Sunday Inc., thereby, in effect, divesting all said assets, et cetera, of Puzzleria! Industries Inc. into the surviving corporation — namely, NPR Weekend Edition Sunday Inc. — by operation of law.”

Rearrange the combined eleven letters of two words in the above decree to spell the words that belong in the two blanks. 

What are the two words that you anagram?

What are the words in the two blanks?

Hint: The two words that you anagram begin with the same letter.

ENTREE #8

Think of an area found in many workplaces, in one word. Rearrange its letters to spell a caption for any one of the three images pictured here. 

What is this workplace area?

What is the caption?

ENTREE #9

Think of an area found in many workplaces, a place where employees meet, in two words.

Rearrange the combined fourteen letters in these words to spell the surname of a crooner, the surname of a pops conductor and pianist, and a noun for what 17th-Century French opera singer Julie d’Aubigny had once been due to an avocation she once pursued.

What is this workplace area?

Who are the crooner and pops conductor/pianist?

What is the avocation of opera singer Julie d’Aubigny? 

ENTREE #10

Think of areas found in many workplaces, in one plural word. 

Rearrange its letters to spell a three-letter acronym for a type of non-volatile memory used in computers, and a six-letter word for what that memory does to data.

What are these areas found in workplaces?

What is the three-letter acronym?

What is the six-letter word?

Dessert Menu

Minding Your P’s & Q’s Dessert:

Edward Bear, George Geef, Sidney

Place a hyphen between two adjacent letters of the alphabet, spelled-out. (P AND Q, for example, would be PEE-CUE.) 

Replace an interior letter of this result with the second adjacent letter, but not spelled out. The result is the birth name of a fictional character. Who is it?

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.

“Verbal Equivocation, Strad-Steiff Style”; A horse of a different color, two things of a same color; The human body and a humanity; “Toy jet! Yo-yo! Toffy! Wowee!” Only the ‘wise’ will solve this Slice; Only the brainy will solve this Hors d’Oeuvre

 PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

“Toy jet! Yo-yo! Toffy! Wowee!”

On Christmas morning, a boy peeks inside his stocking to see what he got and exclaims: 

“Toy jet! Yo-yo! Toffy! Wowee!”

Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” is a Christmas
carol in Japan.

What three of those eight words within the quotation marks do not belong with the other five, and why not?

Hint: The phrase “...do not belong with the other five” might also be phrased “...are not as ‘pure’ as the other five.”

Appetizer Menu

Homographology Appetizer:

“Verbal Equivocation, Strad-Steiff Style”

Instructions: In problems #1 through #10  below, each of the two parts is a synonym for the same word – a word that you must find. Such words are called “homographs,” that is, “words that have the same spelling but differ in origin, meaning, and sometimes pronunciation.”

For example, the word “present” can mean “gift under a tree” or “offer,” and the word “crib” can mean “Jesus’s manger” or “plagiarize,” and the word “darn” can mean “a mild expletive” or “sew.”

In #11, you must find two related words that are spelled the same except that one has an additional letter. 

Name these homographs:

1. endear  vs  trinket

2. shoe  vs  stop up

3. waver  vs  pastry

4. won’t  vs  trash

5. now  vs  flowing

6. thing  vs.  dissent

7. fungi  vs  Jell-O casing

8. pal  vs  flower

9. plant  vs  pig

10. nearby  vs  non-fat

Find these two words: 

11. Add one consonant to a word meaning “having fevers” to obtain a word for what such a condition might make you feel.

MENU

“Mixologists Need Not Apply” Hors d’Oeuvre:

Only the brainy will solve this Hors d’Oeuvre

Take a beverage. 

Add to it, without a space, an alcoholic beverage. (But don’t do any mixing of these two drinks.) 

The result is three syllables long. 

The second and third syllables spell a body part shaped like the first syllable. Replace that body part with a synonym of that body part. 

The result is a word for a brainy person (like one who solves this puzzle!).

What are these two beverages, the body part and its synonym, and the brainy person?

When Holidays Collide Slice:

Only the “wise” will solve this Slice

Take a word associated with a certain holiday. Replace one letter with a different letter. 

Rearrange half of the letters of the result to spell a word associated with another holiday.

What are these two holidays and two words?

Hint: The letters that you rearrange are almost  consecutive. 

Riffing Off Shortz And Robison Slices:

The human body and a humanity

Will Shortz’s October 11th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Samantha Robison of Eugene, Oregon, reads:

Think of a word that means “required.” Rearrange its letters to name two school subjects, one of which is often required, and one of which often isn’t. What are they?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Robison Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Think of six five-letter words:

1. a month in the Hebrew calendar,

2. the first five books of the Hebrew Bible,

3. large pulpits in early churches and in contemporary Greek and Balkan churches.

4. a savory watery liquid in which meat, fish, cereal grains or veggies have been simmered,

5. the edible substance God provided the
Israelites in the desert following the Exodus, and

6. a fertile area of a desert that sustains plant life and provides habitat for animals.

Anagram the 15 combined letters of the first three words to spell the name of a puzzle-maker.

Anagram the 15 combined letters of the last three words to spell the name of that same puzzle-maker.

Who is this puzzle-maker? 

What are the six words?

Note: Entree #2 was composed and contributed by our friend Plantsmith whose “Garden of Puzzley Delights” is featured regularly on Puzzleria! 

ENTREE #2

Take a word that means “required.”

Add an “e” to the mix, then mix up the result to get a creature and the last name of a singer who hails from a place not far from where you might find the creature.

What is the synonym of “required”?

What are the creature and the last name of the singer?

ENTREE #3

Think of a word that means “obligatory.” Move its last letter into the third position and place a space after it. 

The result is a collection of 24 or sometimes 25 sheets of crimson paper. 

What is the word that means “obligatory?” 

What is the collection of crimson paper?

Hint: Place an anagram of “Mary” between the two words of your answer and change the third word to its homophone. The result is what those in the West commonly call a Russian armed forces choral ensemble founded during the Soviet era.

ENTREE #4

Think of a word that means “required.” 

Rearrange its letters to name a mythological creature and a real mountain associated with a mythological figure. (The name of the mythological figure is also the name of a real canal spelled backwards.)

What is this synonym of “required”?

What are the mythological creature and real mountain?

What is the canal?

ENTREE #5

Think of a word that means “required.” Rearrange its letters to name a three-letter synonym of “desire” or “longing” and a word for what may help satisfy that desire or alleviate that longing.

Take that same word that means “required.”  Add a “c” to the mix. Rearrange the result to spell a two-word term that describes Norman knifing Marion, Regan spinning her head 180 degrees before facing her horrified mother, or Wendy cowering behind the bathroom door as her hubby Jack attacks it with his axe.

What are this synonym of “desire” or “longing” and what may help satisfy that desire or alleviate that longing? 

What is the two-word term after you add a “c” to the mix?

ENTREE #6

Think of a word that means “required.” 

Rearrange its letters to spell a synonym of “silent” and the name of a Greek goddess who is an eponym of a noun that is defined as “a combination of musical sounds that strikes the ear harshly.”

What is this word that means “required”?

What is the synonym of “silent?”

What is the name of the Greek goddess?

ENTREE #7

Think of a word that means “required.” Rearrange its letters to name two plural words for objects, each with a pointed end that disappears when the objects are used.

What is this synonym of “required”?

What are the two plural words? 

ENTREE #8

Think of a word that means “required.” Rearrange its letters to name an award, in four letters, and what the award often recognizes and honors, in five letters. 

What is this synonym of “required”?  What is this award? What does the award often recognize and honor?  

ENTREE #9

Think of a word that means “required.” Rearrange its ten letters to name:

1. the state or jurisdiction of a ruler in Islamic countries  who enjoys  special privileges and prestige, and

2. a three-letter term for this ruler.

What is this synonym of “required”?

What is the jurisdiction of an Islamic ruler?

What is a three-letter term for this ruler?

Hint: The term for the ruler is acronymic.

ENTREE #10

An adjective, in 11 letters, that means “required” is sometimes used as a noun on college campuses. 

Take the plural form of this “noun.” 

Rearrange its letters to spell a two-word term that describes a certain “close-your-eyes-and-plug-your-ears” snippet or portion of movies such as  “The Wild Bunch,” “Natural Born Killers” or “Pulp Fiction.”

What is the plural form of this “noun” that is used on college campuses?

What is the descriptive two-word term? 

Dessert Menu

“Do You Hear What I Hear?” Dessert:

A horse of a different color, two things of a same color

Consider the following sentence:

“___ hear but don’t ______.” 

Anagram the letters in the second blank to spell something that is usually a certain color. 

Take a homophone of the word in the first blank. Add it to the letters in the second blank. Anagram the result to spell a second thing that is also usually that color.

What are the words in the blanks? 

What are these two things?

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.