| Date | Puzzle | Comments | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 10 31 | Find a European city with a letter repeated four times; when these four letters are deleted, an anagram is a common food item. | I found the answer. Also in TPP #180. | |
| 1993 11 07 | Two Greek letters are pronounced phonetically and a hyphen is placed between them. The result is an English word. | Found the answer. Used the computer only to display all pairs of Greek letters. Also in TPP #124. | |
| 1993 11 14 | Find two homophone triples, with different first letters. An example is: air, eyre, hair. | Found an answer without the computer. | |
| 1993 11 28 | Find two three-letter names of animals which when put together backwards forms a six letter word. The animal names should be generic names of the animals. | I do not know whether or not I found the answer. Also in TPP #10. | |
| 1993 12 05 | The magazine name Sports Illustrated contains each of the five vowels exactly once. What popular magazine name has the same five vowels and also "y', exactly once? | I do not know whether or not I found the answer. | |
| 1993 12 12 | Find three four-letter words which begin with DO and which are synonyms. | Found the answer without the computer. Also in TPP #174. | |
| 1993 12 19 | Create an interesting sentence which has solely two consonants through-out. | ||
| 1994 01 02 | Notice that the word RESTORES has the same three letters at the beginning as at the end and in the same order. Find an eight letter last name which also has the same first and last three letters and in the same order. | Found a good answer Dec. 2, 2012 using the computer. | |
| 1994 01 23 | Find an eleven letter place name with the letter i, and with the part to the left of the i and the part to the right of the i being opposites of each other. The name is a solid word. | I found the answer. Also in TPP #8. | |
| 1994 01 30 | Christian B. Anthonson (Nobel prize for Chemistry) is a famous person whose initials are in reverse alphabetical order. Find another famous person whose four-part name has its initials in reverse alphabetical order. | I believe I have the answer. | |
| 1994 02 07 | Find a common phrase which has the letters a,e,i,o,u in order. | I did not find an answer. | |
| 1994 02 20 | Start with the word "SPEAR", drop the first letter and add a letter to obtain "PEARL"; repeat to obtain "EARLY". Using 5 letter words with no proper names, but plurals permitted, find the longest string of such words. | It looks as if I spent a great deal of effort on the computer but with only a short string of words. | |
| 1994 02 27 | Find a familiar saying of 5 words, with 4 of the words beginning with a "t" and one ending with a "t", and with "the" being none of the words. | ||
| 1994 03 06 | Take the name of the male of an animal; take another such. Put the two together and read it backward. The result should be another gender-neutral animal. | I found the answer. | |
| 1994 03 13 | Find the names of two numbers which can be scrambled to form the names of two other numbers, and yet the sums are the same. | I found the answer. | |
| 1994 03 20 | Take a familiar brand name of four letters. Move the first letter to the end and you again get a familiar brand name. Both names are services. | I found the answer. | |
| 1994 03 27 | The words "undergo" and "although" both end with the sound "oh" though they end with different letters. What other ending letters of words have the same sound? Well known proper names are allowed. | I found some answers. | |
| 1994 04 03 | Two countries share a border, have the same number of letters in their names, and have no letter repeated within the name nor common to the two names. | Found the answer. | |
| 1994 04 10 | Take the eight planets after Mercury, so Venus through Pluto in order. Take one letter from each to spell the answer word of eight letters. This is a food to eat. | I did not solve this. | |
| 1994 04 17 | How many different boy's names or nicknames can be found on a dime using consecutive letters? For example "one dime" contains "Ned". | I did not solve this. Also in TPP #12. | |
| 1994 04 24 | Take the word "fang" and shift each letter 4 letters down the alphabet and you get the work "jerk". Start with a variety of nut, do the same shift and you get an animal. | I found the answer. Puzzle also in TPP #4. | |
| 1994 05 01 | Name a well known mountain somewhere in the world. Add 7 at the end of the name to get a popular movie of the 1980s. | ||
| 1994 05 08 | Draw an equilateral triangle; in the middle of one side put one dot dividing the side into two equal parts, on a second side put two dots dividing this side into three equal parts, and on the third side put three dots dividing this side into four equal parts. Draw straight lines joining each of these dots with the opposite corner; there should be 18 compartments. How many triangles are formed? | I drew a good picture and tried counting triangles but it was only when I used the computer that I got them all. | |
| 1994 05 15 | Name two antonyms which start with "D", remove the D's and you again get two antonyms. | I found the answer. | |
| 1994 05 22 | Name an article of apparel; put it into another word which is an article of apparel and you get a common 8 character word. | I misunderstood the puzzle. | |
| 1994 05 29 | Terse verse of 6 words requested in form aabbcc. | ||
| 1994 06 12 | Name a major movie star whose first name rhymes with a digit (1..9) and whose last name also rhymes, but with a different digit. | I did not find the answer. | |
| 1994 06 19 | Take the letters in the word lens and use each as often as you like and one possible word is senselessness. Now take the word imps and form a 15 letter phrase of two words which is a name heard on one occasion a year. | Found the answer. | |
| 1994 06 26 | If the word pond were to have "er" added, we have ponder. If the word earn has "est" added, we have earnest. Find a four letter word which can have "er" added to form a word with a different meaning and can also have "est" added with still a different meaning. The original word is an informal term. | Found the answer. | |
| 1994 07 03 | Think of a nine letter word commonly associated with fireworks. Drop the 2nd and 3rd letters and you get one of the 12 apostles. | ||
| 1994 07 10 | Write the three six letter words enigma, iguana, manage beneath each other. Then notice that looking at these words in two-letter pairs, the same words are spelled downward. Find a 4 by 4 arrangement of eight letter words. | Used the computer to find an answer. | |
| 1994 07 17 | Find an eight letter word which is commonly abbreviated in three letters as seen on a highway or interstate sign. Remove these three letters, and the remaining five letters, in order, spell a synonym of the full eight letter word. | I did not find the answer. | |
| 1994 07 23 | Take the last name of a well-known American writer, insert a letter P and you get the last name of a well-known British writer. Also in TPP #150. | ||
| 1994 07 30 | The fraction 16/64 may be incorrectly reduced by cancelling the 6's, despite this producing the correct answer 1/4. What other fractions have this property? | It looks as if I spent time on the computer but did not find an answer. | |
| 1994 08 07 | Name a common English word which contains the letters TAN twice in succession. | Found the answer. | |
| 1994 08 14 | Take the name Barbara Cartland, a Romance novelist. It contains the first four consecutive letters of the alphabet. Find the name of a man which contains the five consecutive letters of the alphabet, left to right. As an additional hint, the first name has four letters and the last name has six. | I did not find the answer. | |
| 1994 08 21 | Call two words pseudo-opposites if they have a letter in common and after deleting this letter the resulting words are opposite in meaning. One example is shot and scold. Another example is pearly and plate. Find a pair of pseudo-opposites which end with the letter t with the words having 5 and 3 letters. | I found the answer. Also in TPP #154. | |
| 1994 08 28 | Four tramps applied for alms at a farmhouse. The owner agreed to pay them for 200 hours of work. One of the tramps said to the others that they need not all work an equal amount. Let each man work x hours for x days, thus working x*x hours. How was the work divided up? | I found an answer but NPR's was better. | |
| 1994 09 04 | Take the name of the Nobel prize winner Otto Hahn, write it with capital letters vertically and display it in a mirror. The result reads correctly except for the last letter which is reversed. Find a celebrity's name which has the same property with the first name consisting of seven letters and the last name consisting of six letters. | I did not find the answer. | |
| 1994 09 11 | The word Jack-O'-Lantern contains one apostrophe and two hyphens. Find a word with one apostrophe and two hyphens of ten letters where the apostrophe does not follow an O. | I found one good answer, NPR had a second. Also in TPP #198. | |
| 1994 09 18 | Name a celebrity whose name has the six vowels (aeiouy) exactly once and the first name has five letters, a middle initial, and five letters in the last name. | I did not find the answer. | |
| 1994 09 25 | An advertising for a carnival act was painted on a wall a long time ago and some of the paint has peeled off. We see the following word: CPCIFSCJL, all in capital letters with no serifs nor extra strokes. But, for example, that letter F that we see could have been an E. What is the word? | I found the answer. | |
| 1994 10 02 | With the word gasoline one can rearrange the letters to make the two opposites: gain and lose. Do the same with: spearlike, and also theologist. | I found one but not the other. Also in TPP #192. | |
| 1994 10 09 | Take the number nine spelled out. It contains the letter n twice. Change the n to a p and you get the word pipe. What is the next number for which this can be done. The letter won't repeat any other letter. | NPR's answer was much better than mine. Also in TPP #118. | |
| 1994 10 16 | What is the only nationality in the world whose name is a palindrome of seven letters. | Found the answer. | |
| 1994 10 23 | What is the maximum number of times that six circles, all of the same size, can intersect? | Found the answer with the computer. | |
| 1994 10 30 | Consider the sentence: Top opera ran Angela Lansbury. This is a chain link sentence, meaning that the last two letters of each word match the first two letters of the next word. Find other such sentences. (Two week puzzle.) | ||
| 1994 11 13 | What verb has its passed tense, not by adding "d" or "ed", but rather by moving the first letter to the end. | I did not find it. Also in TPP #6. | |
| 1994 11 20 | Take the three letter word "rot". One can insert a letter at any position in order to make another English word: trot, riot, rout, rote. Can you find a four letter word for which you can do the same. The five inserted letters must be different; no past tense; no capital letters. | I used the computer and found an answer, but not good enough. | |
| 1994 11 27 | Take two words which are containers of alcoholic beverages. Put one after other and this forms a common phrase that has nothing to do with alcohol. | I did not find it. Also in TPP #186. | |
| 1994 12 04 | Find three three-letter words for which one can move the last letter to first position repeatedly, and each time an English word arises. The words should be common uncapitalized words. One example is: ate, eat, tea. | I found one possible answer. | |
| 1994 12 11 | Take the phrase "it's only for research bugs" which consists of 22 letters. Find an anagram which forms a well-formed five word phrase. One of the words is an abbreviation. | I did not find the answer. | |
| 1994 12 18 | Choose a letter and a series of states in the United States each of which contains the letter. The sequence of states must be arranged so that one can travel by car from one to the next (so there must be a road between them) and one cannot return to a previously visited state. Find the longest such sequence of states. For example, take the letter K and the states: North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas. | My answer had 22 states. | |
| 1995 01 01 | Take the verb "feed". It has a double letter which if reduced to a single letter results in the past tense of the same verb. Find a common verb also with a double letter vowel, which is not e, which when reduced to a single letter also forms the past tense. | Found the answer. | |
| 1995 01 08 | Name a European nationality which has an anagram which is an Asian nationality. The Asian nationality does not have a country of its own. The two nationalities begin with the same letter. | Found the answer. Also in TPP #84. | |
| 1995 01 15 | Sam Loyd puzzle: A certain city has three E-W streets and four intersecting N-S streets creating 17 blocks to walk. The postman must deliver on all streets and in walking a block the postman delivers on both sides of the street at the same time. However the postman can only, when coming upon an intersection, turn right or go straight. The postman may start anywhere and end anywhere. Find the shortest route. | I found an answer but I do not know whether it is the shortest. | |
| 1995 01 22 | Take the two syllable word "farewell" and reverse the two syllables to get the phonetically equivalent word "welfare". Find a two syllable word which is a kind of training and which when reversed is a word for a part of a ship. | ||
| 1995 01 29 | The words Pop, Champagne, and Ale are three words for fizzy drinks. Rearrange these letters to create three new five letter words all of which are in the same new category. | Found an answer which is reasonable. | |
| 1995 02 05 | Write down the following 4 letter words one beneath the other: BUCK, ANON, RIDE, STEW. This is a double word square because vertically we have the words: BARS, UNIT, CODE, KNEW. The original words contain the first five letters of the alphabet, A through E. Using common uncapitalized English words find a 4x4 double word square whose words contain the first eight letters of the alphabet, A through H. | With heavy computer help I found good answers. | |
| 1995 02 12 | Take the phrase: She's a famous movie star. Find the name of a movie star with the same number of syllables, 7, and with the same accents as in this phrase. The name consists of the first and last name. | ||
| 1995 02 19 | Look at a querty keyboard and find two different six letter words which are symmetrically balanced around the center so that the first letter is typed with the left hand, the next with the right hand in the corresponding position and so forth. So if the first were typed with the ring finger in the upper row (w) then the second would be typed with the corresponding finger in the upper row (o). | Found a reasonable answer. | |
| 1995 02 26 | The word horseshoer is a ten letter word whose first five letters are the same as the last five letters, but in a different order. Name a part of the human body which is also ten letters with 5/5. | Found the answer without the computer. | |
| 1995 03 05 | Take a familiar two word phrase which means to attack verbally, with each word having four letters. Without re-arranging any letters, take one letter from the second word and insert it into the first word in order to obtain a name in the news, with the first name having five letters and the second having three. | ||
| 1995 03 12 | Print four small ohs and by adding appropriate lines to these, one gets the word goad. Print six small ohs. What three familiar six letter words can one obtain by the same method. No capital letters and no hypens are allowed. | Found the answer. Also in TPP #2. | |
| 1995 03 19 | There is a certain well-known political figure from a certain state whose first and last name have an odd number of letters. Take the letters in front of the middle letter of the first name along with the letters in front of the middle letter of the last name. Put these letters together and an anagram is the state. | ||
| 1995 03 26 | Laddergram puzzle: How many steps does it take to change the word march to the word windy? One letter at a time, no rearrangements, use common uncapita- lized words. For example, love to hate in 4 steps is: love, lave, late, hate. | found an answer in 8 steps, but I don't know whether NPR did better. | |
| 1995 04 02 | Name a word which contains the letters Q, X, Z in any order. The word must be a common English uncapitalized word. | ||
| 1995 04 09 | The number ten following the letter B forms the word beaten phonentically. What other three numbers can follow the letter B to form a word phonetically? | Found the intended answers. Puzzle also in book TPP #134. | |
| 1995 04 16 | Take the 11 letters of the phrase "one smart hat" and create an anagram that is an answer to that. (Puzzle goes back to 1933.) | I did not succeed. | |
| 1995 04 23 | Take the word bedressed. The name of what geographical location in the United States has the same cryptogram pattern? Thus the name has nine letters; the 2nd, 5th and 8th letters must be the same; the 3rd and 9th must be the same; the 6th and 7th the same. Also, the name has no letters in common with bedressed. | My answer seems reasonable. Also in TPP #164. | |
| 1995 04 30 | There are eight numbers on the telephone dial which have letters. Spell an eight letter word without repeating a number. Plurals are not allowed. Verbs formed by adding an "s" and adverbs ending in "ly" are not allowed. | A had some of the many answers, using the computer. | |
| 1995 05 07 | Start with VE in that order, add a letter in front and a letter in back to get a common four letter word, do again to get a six letter word and once more. | NPR had a good answer, mine a little less good. | |
| 1995 05 14 | Take a well-known movie star with four letters in the first name and four letters in the last name. Take the letters MA and insert them, in that order, in the first name and you get a common word. Do the same for the second name. | ||
| 1995 05 21 | The word COUP has a silent P. Find two other words with a silent P which are not derived from French. In my answers the P is inside the word, the P is followed by a consonant, and it is the same consonant that follows the P in both words. | ||
| 1995 05 28 | Assign each letter of the alphabet its numerical position, A=1, B=2, etc. By coincidence the numerical value of both the words summer and winter is 89. Find two opposites with the same numerical value, one beginning with G, the other with I. They are like hot/cold, good/bad, love/hate. | Found the answer with the computer. | |
| 1995 06 04 | You are in a car in Frankfurt Kentucky, which is its capital. You continue on to four other capitals, in each case in adjoining states. The initials of these capitals forms the word films which is a plural. Find such a route through five capitals for which the initials form a five letter word which is not a plural. | Found the answer with the computer. | |
| 1995 06 11 | The words palmistry and behind are two words which together have 15 distinct letters. What two words have the most letters without repetition. No hyphenated words are permitted. (2 week puzzle) | Found the answer with the computer. | |
| 1995 06 25 | Take the word congenital and add a letter k. An anagram of these 11 letters is the full name of a famous person. | ||
| 1995 07 02 | The word degenerative has six consonants arranged alphabetically from left to right. Find a major world city which has exactly six consonants arranged alphabetically left to right and with no consonant repeated. | I found the answer by writing a computer program. Also in TPP #80. | |
| 1995 07 09 | There is a well-known actor who starred in an old TV show whose full name is such that every consonant in it is a Roman numeral. Add up these Roman numerals to obtain 3305. | ||
| 1995 07 16 | Take the ten digits zero through nine and arrange them to form two numbers. Subtract the smaller from the larger. Find a pair of such numbers with the least difference. | I found an answer but I don't know whether its NPR's answer. | |
| 1995 07 23 | The word sequoia has each of the five vowels exactly once. Find a word which means extreme radicals and has each of the five vowels exactly twice. It is not a common word but you will know it when you have it. | ||
| 1995 07 30 | The name of what famous work of litterature consists of five four letter words? | I suspect that my answer is correct. | |
| 1995 08 06 | What famous person has a 5 letter first name which can be typed on a type- writer with the right hand and a 6 letter last name which can be typed with the left hand? | ||
| 1995 08 13 | This is a phonetic word ladder in that one moves one sound at a time. For example one goes from couch to bed in 4 moves: couch, ketch, keg, beg, bed. How many steps are needed to go from thread to spool? No proper names are allowed. | I tried but did not succeed. | |
| 1995 08 20 | The name of what famous work of literature consists of six three letter words? | ||
| 1995 08 27 | Take the name Ernst. What is the longest word that one can form using only the letters of this name? Sternness would be a good answer. Take the name Seurat and do likewise. | My answer seems reasonable. | |
| 1995 09 03 | If you have used a computer scanner you may be aware that sometimes the pair of letters rn is scanned as an m, so that the word burn comes out as bum. Find a pair of such words which are antonyms. As a further hint these letters are at the end of the words. | ||
| 1995 09 10 | Take the word BEAVER and drop the consecutive letters VE to get another animal, BEAR. Find an animal for which one can drop the consecutive letters ONG to get another animal. | This puzzle also appears in TPP #96 and my answer agrees. | |
| 1995 09 17 | The name ETHAN ALLEN has no curved letters when written in block capitals. Find other persons with this property and with 7 letters in the first and 7 letters in the last name. | ||
| 1995 09 24 | Fill in _ _ music with a two word phrase of 7 letters. Change the last letter of one word to form _ _ theory. | Also in TPP #140. | |
| 1995 10 01 | One can take four two's and insert 3 arithmetic symbols to get zero, for example, 2*2/2-2=0. Do the same to get answers equal to all the numbers from one to six. Use +, -, *, /. Parentheses may be used. No fractions or tricks. | Found the answer. | |
| 1995 10 08 | There is a six letter word which has the property that each three consecutive letters form a word, including wrapping. The word begins with a vowel and has two vowels. | Found the answer using the computer. | |
| 1995 10 15 | Take the 13 letter word chancellorism, add an a, and rearrange the letters to get the 14 letter name of an actress. | My program of March 2013 found the answer but the actress is unknown to me. | |
| 1995 10 22 | One can add two pairs of doubled letters to the word rate to form the word roommate. Add three pairs of doubled letters to the word wine to make a new word. The three pairs do not need to be consecutive, though the letters within a pair have to be. | My answer seems reasonable. | |
| 1995 10 29 | Draw a 5 by 5 box of 25 squares, but remove the four corners in order to have 21 squares. How many squares or rectangles are in this figure? | I missed hearing the problem. But I now have a complete solution for arbitrary size box. | |
| 1995 11 05 | Start with a word beginning with the letters PR. Drop the PR and you have a synonym of the original word. | My answer seems reasonable. | |
| 1995 11 12 | Assign each letter its numerical position. Find a familiar 11 letter word whose value is just 39. | This puzzle also appears in TPP #98 and my answer agrees with that. | |
| 1995 11 19 | Think of a six letter word spoken by a player in a sport. Remove the first and last letters and you get a word spoken humourously by the same player. | ||
| 1995 11 26 | Name a country so that if the letters are rearranged, you have the people of another country on the same continent; this later is a plural of a nationality. | Found the answer with the computer. | |
| 1995 12 03 | Name a current TV star who's name, first and last, contains six vowels all of which are the same. | ||
| 1995 12 10 | Take the words "shout danger". Rearrange these 11 letters to form two words which are opposites of each other. | I found the answer. Also in TPP #104. | |
| 1995 12 17 | There is a word play: John where Mary had had had ... (11 of these) the teacher's approval. I'd like you to write a statement that contains the same word 4 or more times in a row. Capitalization is optional. | NPR had a nice answer. | |
| 1995 12 31 | If I were to ask you to name a 10 letter word which uses all the letters r through w, in any order, you would say liverwurst. Find a 10 letter word which uses all the letters f through l, in any order. It is a hyphenated word. | Found the answer using the computer. | |
| 1996 01 07 | If I were to ask you to name a famous person whose name, phonetically, contains the word turkey, you would sat Buster Keaton. Name a famous person whose name, phonetically, contains the word kilo. | Also in TPP #108. | |
| 1996 01 14 | Name a country, drop the last letter, put a new letter at the beginning, read everything backwards. You then have the language associated with that country. | My answer seems reasonable. | |
| 1996 01 21 | The words fishin and fission are pronounced the same except that one has an sh and the other a zh sound. But the first is not a word. So find two legitimate two syllable words of this kind. They are common uncapitalized words. | ||
| 1996 01 28 | Take the word trap, switch the middle two letters to get tarp, switch the 1st and last to get part, switch the 1st and 3rd to get rapt. Do likewise starting with a six letter word - something which may be near a house. In each case switch two letters. | My answers were nowhere as good as those of NPR. | |
| 1996 02 04 | There are movies Manhattan Murder Mystery and Make Mine Mink. Find a name of something, not a title, for which all three words begin with a capitalized M. One possible answer has 7, 3, and 5 letters. | NPR's answer: Million Man March. | |
| 1996 02 11 | Take the words: Visit senate; he is detected up front. Create an anagram for these 30 letters. | ||
| 1996 02 18 | Assign the numerical values to the letters of the alphabet. Find a familiar uncapitalized 11 letter word whose value is 207. | My answer seems reasonable. | |
| 1996 02 25 | Name three common foods which differ only in their final letter. Two are to eat and one is to drink. | I got NPR's alternative answer, but not their best answer. | |
| 1996 03 03 | Cole Porter had a song Brush Up Your Shakespeare, where the initials form the word buys. Carolina Here I Come has the initials chic. Tell Her About It has the initials thai. Find a famous song of five more more words whose initials form a common word. | ||
| 1996 03 10 | The seven letter word sponsor can be dialed on the telephone using only 6 and 7. Find a seven letter object which can be dialed using 2 and 4; it is a familiar object. | My answers seems reasonable. | |
| 1996 03 17 | A 5 by 5 grid of 25 squares has 60 line segments. Find the minimum number of segments to be removed so that no square of any size remains. | My answer was close but not correct. I did use the computer. | |
| 1996 03 24 | The phrase carrot juice contains each of the five vowels exactly once. What beverage brand names contain each of the five vowels exactly once? | ||
| 1996 03 30 | Name two human body parts, one of 6 letters and one of 3 letters; these are complements to each other. Rearrange the nine letters to form two words of 5 and 4 letters, which are also human body parts. The 4 letter word is a plural. | ||
| 1996 04 07 | Print the name of an island in capital letters, insert a horizontal bar somewhere, the result is palindromic. Now place a mirror at the side of this altered name and the name looks the same. | I found the answer (without the computer). | |
| 1996 04 14 | Rearrange the letters of "debit charge" to form a movie name. | Found the answer using my anagram program Nov. 29, 2012. | |
| 1996 04 21 | Draw 9 vertical lines, 1" tall and about 1" apart on a piece of paper. Then draw 10 horizontal lines to form a common English word. Thus only the letters E, F, H, I, L, and T are used. | My answer seems reasonable. | |
| 1996 04 28 | Take the word COATS; reverse the last two letters and you get COAST, a deoderant soap. Now take a word that means a member of the family, reverse the last two letters and you have a model of an automobile. | Found the answer Dec. 4, 2012. | |
| 1996 05 05 | Take the eleven letter word misanthrope. Using these letters only, form a seven word saying. The seven words have numbers of letters: 3 4 4 2 7 4 6. | ||
| 1996 05 12 | Take a familiar three word phrase, blank of blank. Take the 2nd letter A of the first word and the 2nd letter of the third word I, and reverse them. You get another familiar three word phrase. | ||
| 1996 05 19 | Find a word ladder: mower to grass in eight or less steps. No proper names. Example dice to game in three steps is: dice dime dame game. | NPR's answer is 8 step. My laddeer program found a 7 step answer. | |
| 1996 05 26 | Assign numbers to the letters of the alphabet. Find a famous person's name which multiplies to 8064. The name is the first and last. | ||
| 1996 06 02 | Take two five letter words which are opposites of each other. Put them next to each other to form a compound ten letter word. This is the opposite of one of the words and a synonym of the other. As a further hint each of the original words has one syllable and has the same second letter. | My answer seems reasonable. | |
| 1996 06 09 | Take the phrase "hard to plan wider tour" of 19 letters and produce an anagram as a five word phrase that is appropriate in meaning. | ||
| 1996 06 16 | Take the rule: i before e except after c or when sounding the a as in neighbor and weigh. Name a living person whose both first and last name violate this rule. | ||
| 1996 06 23 | Name a place on a farm in six letters. There is one repeated letter. Replace it with the same new letter in both places. This is a site in England. | My answer seems reasonable. | |
| 1996 06 30 | Take the phrase "Built to stay free". Using these 15 letters form an anagram which is a familiar and appropriate answer. | I failed. | |
| 1996 07 07 | Take the word beautiful. There is only one way to unscramble these letters to form two common uncapitalized words. | Anagram program found the answer, July 2013. | |
| 1996 07 14 | A man was driving North along a straight road in the early morning. After making five 90-degree turns to the left, the driver found that he was driving straight toward the sun. Will says that he has two scenarios. | I have answers but I don't know whether Will's are better. | |
| 1996 07 21 | Take the word thermos and delete the 2nd letter from each end and you get the word terms. Find a nine letter name of a mythical place, such that if you delete the 2nd letter from each end you get an alcoholic beverage. | ||
| 1996 07 28 | The two word phrase tells tales is pronounced the same except that the first word has a short e and the second word has a long a. Find a familiar two word phrase which is the opposite: long a and short e. | ||
| 1996 08 04 | Name a U.S. city consisting of two words. Change one letter and you have a famous singer's first and last name. | ||
| 1996 08 11 | The word senselessness has 13 letters with 4 s sounds. Find a word of 7 letters with 4 s sounds. | I did not find NPR's answer but I think I have at least one good word. | |
| 1996 08 18 | There are four colored balls in a bag, 2 red, 1 black, 1 blue. You draw two balls at random. You are told that one is red. What is the probability that the other is red. | I do not know whether my answer is correct. | |
| 1996 08 25 | Take the word rhomboidal and rearrange the letters to form a two word fictional character. | ||
| 1996 09 01 | The word inferno contains four consonants with a second n. Find a phrase in 13 letters containing the same four consonants in the same order with a second n. | ||
| 1996 09 08 | Find a common five letter word of one syllable, which can be anagrammed to be a word of two syllables, which can also be anagrammed to be a word of three syllables. | I found the answer. | |
| 1996 09 15 | Take a common word with a letter V, which if it is replaced by ATH, becomes a word with the opposite meaning. | My answer seems reasonable. | |
| 1996 09 22 | The word absconded contains the five letters a through e in order though not consecutive. Find a common unhyphenated word which contains the letters e through i in order. | I found the answer. | |
| 1996 09 29 | Find a common ten letter word using only the letters in the oddly numbered positions of the alphabet. No s plural allowed. The word begins with a c. | I found the answer. | |
| 1996 10 06 | The letters "ce" are usually pronounced like an s, like in race or dance. Find a familiar uncapitalized word ending with ce where that ce is pronounced like sh. | My answer was not good. | |
| 1996 10 13 | Be creative and find a word palindrome. Example: All for one and one for all. | ||
| 1996 10 27 | Take the digits 2, 6, 7, and 8 and arrange these with any arithmetic functions to get a 1. One way is (2+7)/(6+8). Find another. | Found the answer. | |
| 1996 11 03 | Rearrange the letters of the name Herman Stein to form another famous person's first and last name. | ||
| 1996 11 10 | Name a country in Europe. Change the first letter and you have a well known football star. | ||
| 1996 11 17 | Find a famous name of nine letters. The 1st and 3rd letters are the same, the 4th and 6th are the same, the 7th and 9th are the same. It is a single name likely to be learned in school. | ||
| 1996 11 24 | The name of what famous person phonetically conceals the word swami. (Similar to a puzzle from a year ago where Buster Keaton phonetically conceals the word turkey.) | ||
| 1996 12 01 | The word gypsy when written in script has four letters with loops below the line. Find a six letter word which has five letters with loops below the line. | My answer seems reasonable. | |
| 1997 01 26 | Normally in English one adds er to a verb to form "one who does it", for example, walk/walker. Find an example for which one needs to delete the er. | ||
| 1997 02 02 | The name Salt Lake City consists of three four letter words. Find a geographic name which consists of three six letter words. No extra punctuation is needed. | ||
| 1997 02 09 | The phrase cash and carry has two words beginning with c. Find a phrase of the form blank comma blank and blank where each of the three words begins with a c. | ||
| 1997 02 16 | Draw a 5 by 5 box with 25 squares and put the letter of the alphabet, omitting q, in the squares in order. So the top row is A, B, C, D, E. Travelling from box to consecutive box, what is the longest English word that can be formed. No repeats of letters. Example: stoic. | Found the answer with the computer. | |
| 1997 02 23 | Name a part of the body with a letter x in it. Change the x to a z and this is the last name of a famous person. | In June 2012 I found the intended answer with the help of Wikipedia. | |
| 1997 03 02 | Name a famous TV program from the past with a one word title. Move the first letter to the end and you have what the producers said when the ratings declined. | ||
| 1997 03 09 | Assign the letters of the alphabet their numerical value. This puzzle is based on the idea of adding a pair of letters to get a third. Find two common five letter words which add to form a third common five letter word. As a hint, the third word is stuff. | I found NPR's answer and another, using the computer. | |
| 1997 03 16 | The words wet and dry are three letter words, are opposites, and are composed of six diffrent letters. Soft and hard, and black and white, are similar. Find two six letter words which are opposites. and composed of twelve different letters. As a hint, their initials are a and c. | ||
| 1997 03 23 | Take the word operatical. Drop one letter and rearrange the remaining letters to form the full name of a famous person. | ||
| 1997 04 06 | The words rush hour share all but one letter. Likewise the words equal value. Find a well known American city which shares with its state all but one letter. The city has about 150,000 people. | ||
| 1997 04 13 | The name Al Gore is such that if you insert the first name into the last name, just after the initial, you get a word, galore. Find a famous name in American history which has the same property. As a hint, the name consists of three and five letters and the first name is really a nickname. | ||
| 1997 04 20 | Take the letters PHLA and add two pairs of double letters and you get pool hall. Take the word finale, but with an s rather than an f. Add two pairs of double letters and you get a familiar phrase. | ||
| 1997 04 27 | Take the name of a well-known college. Remove the first and last letters and you get the name of a university in the same state. | ||
| 1997 05 04 | Digital numerals are composed of seven light segments. If you have a ten character read-out and each character is composed of at least four lit segments, what famous person is written, first and last name? | ||
| 1997 05 11 | Name a kind of bird of two syllables. Read the letters of the first syllable backward and likewise with the second. Put the letters together in order and you have another kind of bird. The first is a specific and the second is a more general. | ||
| 1997 05 25 | Take the word superoxide. Find an anagram which is a famous fictional character. | ||
| 1997 06 01 | The the word bore on a keyboard. Then shift all key strokes one key to the left and you would type the word view. Find two six letter words with this property. As a further hint, the first word is someone you might see at a dance. | I found a poor answer. I don't know whether Will has something better. | |
| 1997 06 08 | The word sadist has four consonants sdst. Find a familiar phrase which has only these same four consonants in that order. | ||
| 1997 06 15 | Take the number 1451. Add one straight line and you get something to eat. | ||
| 1997 06 22 | Take a part of a newspaper in two words of 5 and 7 letters. Take the third letter of the first word and replace it with the next letter of the alphabet. You get a geometric line. | Found the answer. | |
| 1997 06 29 | The words toy story have the letters of the first word in the second word, in order, but not consecutively. Find the name of a well known film actress with the same properties. | ||
| 1997 07 20 | Take the words flour, tern, thirsty. What property do they have in common if you drop a letter from each. | Seems easy. | |
| 1997 07 27 | A two word phrase meaning a kind of student. The first word has four letters and the second has seven letters; the first word begins with s. Now drop the s and phonetically, you have a famous musical pair of people. | ||
| 1998 01 11 | Think of a two syllable girl's name in which the first vowel is I. Change the I to a U and you'll get a common one syllable boy's name. | Found the answer. | |
| 1998 01 18 | Take the word SPHINX. Drop the first three letters so that you are left with INX. Now move each of these to the next letter of the alphabet and you get the word JOY. Now find another six letter word for which you can do the same and the original word and the new word are opposites. As a hint, the six letter word and the three letter word begin with the same letter of the alphabet. | Found the answer with use of the computer. | |
| 1998 01 25 | The eight letter word HEELLESS contains three pairs of double letters. Find a familiar two word phrase, that appears in every standard dictionary, having eight letters and that contains three pairs of double letters. | My answers were nowhere as good as Shortz's. | |
| 1998 02 01 | Take the phrase Elizabeth II. Rearrange these eleven letters to form two proper names which are in the same category. | ||
| 1998 02 08 | Name an important American city; drop its first and last letter; switch the first and last letter of what remain. You'll have the name of a beverage associated with this city. | Found the answer with use of the computer. | |
| 1998 02 15 | Two part anagram. The letters in the word ungoodly can be rearranged to form YOUNG and OLD, which is a familiar word phrase. Here is part 1. What familiar phrase in the form blank and blank can you find in the word NOTICING? Part 2. Likewise for SOUWESTER. | Found the answers (using my program ANAGRAM2). | |
| 1998 02 22 | There are many verbs in English whose past tense forms are made by adding the letter D, as in, believe, staple, create. Can you think of a verb not ending in E whose past tense is formed by adding just D. As far as we know there is only one common verb. | Found the answer with some computer use. | |
| 1998 03 01 | There is a 1996 top ten hit called Sweet Talkin' Guy. Well take the eleven letters in the phrase SWEET TALKIN and arrange these to form the name of a famous actress. First and last name. | ||
| 1998 03 08 | What is the longest common word you can spell from the initial letters in a chain of consecutive countries in Europe. For example, FISHY would be France, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, Yugoslavia. The countries must be connected by land and initial letters must be taken in order. You may return to a country, but you can't stand on a country for two countries in a row. English names only, not the spellings by the countries themselves. Uncapitalized and un-hyphented. | Found an answer, but Shortz found more answers. Only 180 entries. | |
| 1998 03 15 | What common English word can name all of the following: (to) empty, full, and exactly even. | I found the answer. | |
| 1998 03 22 | The name TAMMANY has four consonants T, M, M, N in that order. Can you name a familiar ten letter word that has only those four consonants in that order. Hint: There is no Y. | I found the answer. | |
| 1998 03 29 | Think of a nine letter word meaning a kind of nut. Change an I in this word to an O. Rearrange to form another nine letter word meaning another kind of nut. | ||
| 1998 04 05 | The letters of what common nine letter word can be found in left to right order in the phrase mechanical energy? | I found the answer using the computer. | |
| 1998 04 12 | If I gave you the word TROUNCE and asked you to arrange these seven letters, repeating as often as necessary, to form a 14 letter word, you might say countercurrent. Now use CANTORIS to form a 16 letter word. Hint: It is an adjective that describes most Americans. | I almost had the answer (using grep); I made an accidental error. | |
| 1998 04 19 | Think of a certain common seven letter word written in small letters. Take the middle letter and rotate it 180 degrees and double it. The result is a synonym of the seven letter word. As a hint: Both words begin with S. | I found the answer using the computer. | |
| 1998 04 26 | Take the British phrase BEER and SKITTLES. Drop one letter and rearrange those that remain to get another familiar pair in the form blank and blank. It is familiar to everyone. | I gave up on this. Note that there were only some 200 answers by listeners. | |
| 1998 05 03 | Think of a common two word phrase that means a redeeming feature. Write it in lower case. Add one straight line to one of the letters to make it a new letter. The result is another two word phrase that means a dinner-time acitivity. Hint: Both phrases consist of six letters for the first word and five for the second. | I found the answer without the computer. | |
| 1998 05 10 | Take the seven letter word STIRFRY. Add the same letter of the alphabet four times, rearrange the resulting eleven letters and you have the name of a famous person. Hint: The result is the person's first and last name. | Found the answer without the computer. | |
| 1998 05 17 | Think of a familiar two word phrase that means "is realistic". The two words are exactly the same except that they have different fourth letters. | I almost had the answer. I used the computer. Puzzle is also #140 in TPP Vol.2. | |
| 1998 05 24 | Word ladder variant: I am going to give you three words. The object is to think of a fourth word that can be changed into each of my three words in the lowest total number of steps. My three words are: ears, nose, chin, all parts of the face. | Found the answer (largely by hand, but some use of LADDER). | |
| 1998 05 31 | Name a famous person whose first name is concealed backward in the last name. The letters must be consecutive. Hint: The answer is male and the first name has three letters. | ||
| 1998 06 07 | Take the letters D, L, V, and one vowel. Repeat these as necessary to form a familiar two word phrase in ten letters. | I got the answer using a lot of grep. | |
| 1998 06 14 | Take the six letters USFLAG. Name a popular magazine which has these six letters in order from left to right but not consecutively. Hint: It is two words, ten letters for the first word and seven for the second word. The magazine has a half-million circulation and is popular in the Mid-West. | I found the answer (June 2002). Only 200 submissions. | |
| 1998 06 21 | Take the phrase Roman Holiday and rearrange the letters to form two related names. Hint: The two names are part of a very familiar set. | ||
| 1998 06 28 | Name a well known city in the world. Spell it backward and you get a three word phrase meaning a vintage sea creature. Hint: The city has over two million people. | I found the answer. | |
| 1998 07 05 | Sam Loyd's The Puzzled Puzzler. A letter was received a few days ago from one of our puzzlers who neglected to attach his name and address. And strange to say the postmark was imprefectly printed so that only the consecutive letters EST were decipherable. It being known however that the letter came from either Chester or Westchester, from the mathematical standpoint which is the more likely? | Found the answer. | |
| 1998 07 12 | This is a word ladder using two character postal abbreviations to change two consecutive letters at a time. For example to change COMA to HAZE: COMA (Mass to Delaware) CODE (Colorado to Hawaii) HIDE (Idaho to Arizona) HAZE. Now change SHAKY to FLOOR in the same manner. | I found the answer. | |
| 1998 07 19 | What familiar two word phrase has these two meanings: to help to survive; to give up in failure. Both usages are informal and the second is slang. | ||
| 1998 07 26 | Take the eight letter name of a piece of women's clothing. Remove the last two letters. Now move the remaining last two letters to the front keeping them in the same order. You will have a six letters word naming another piece of women's clothing. | ||
| 1998 08 02 | Take the letters BOCK. If I asked to to insert the name of a common garden vegetable to make another word, you would insert OKRA to make BOOKRACK. Now take the letters AUN and insert a common garden vegetable to obtain another familiar word. | I found the answer. | |
| 1998 08 09 | Take the name of a 1998 movie. There are four words in this name. Change one letter in this name to the preceeding letter of the alphabet and you'll name a famous 1940 movie. | ||
| 1998 08 16 | Creative conundrum competition. What is the difference between a fisherman and a lazy schoolboy? One baits his hook and the other ... (2 week challenge) | ||
| 1998 08 30 | Think of a common six letter word which has one letter repeated three times. Change each of these to a different letter of the word and replace that letter with the repeated letter. You get another common word. | I misunderstood the puzzle. | |
| 1998 09 06 | Name a six letter world capial. Change the fourth letter to the next letter of the alphabet. Rearrange the letters to get another world capital. | I did not find any answer and I disagree with Shortz's answer. | |
| 1998 09 13 | Take the word CREATURES and add three Bs. Anagram this to form the first and last name of a famous person. | ||
| 1998 09 20 | Naughty and nice: A nice letter is defined as any letter in the word NICE and a naughty letter is any letter not in the word NICE. A nice letter has a score of 1 and a naughty letter a score of -1. What familiar uncapitalized English word has the highest nice score? For example FINE = 2 and NICOTINE = 4. | I found the answer with the computer. | |
| 1998 10 04 | Imagine a naval war zone of sixteen square areas in a four by four array. Some of the squares have been mined. Which ones? For each square, the total number of mined squares touching (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally) the square, plus the square itself, if it is mined, is odd. | I found the answer. | |
| 1998 10 11 | Take the name GEORGES and anagram to form two words that are synonyms. | Found the answer probable with my anagram program. | |
| 1998 10 18 | Write down the word ACCOST. Drop the first two letters and add AR at the end to get COSTAR. Now drop the first two letters and add CH at the end to get STARCH. Drop the first two letters and add ER at the end to get ARCHER. Finally drop the first two letters and add UB at the end to get CHERUB. Now start with the letters CU and find a chain of five common overlapping six letter words. | Found the answer with much much effort and computer help. | |
| 1998 10 25 | Think of an eight letter word with four vowels in a row. Drop these four and you will have the last name of a well-know film actress. The original word is a kind of shirt. | The computer---actually dictionary---failed me. | |
| 1998 11 01 | Take the word deadheaded. It contains 1 H, 2 A's, 3 E's, and 4 D's. In word play this is called a pyramid word because of the increasing frequency 1,2,3,4. Find a ten letter pyramid word, a kind of shirt. Hint: A V appears once. | I found the answer. | |
| 1998 11 08 | Name a common six letter word in which every possible combination of four or five consecutive letters is also a word. All words are common. As a hint the word is not a plural nor a past tense word. | I found an answer, though Shortz had others. | |
| 1998 11 15 | Take the word SPHEROID. It can be arranged into four pairs of consecutive letters of the alphabet. Can you name a certain musician in eight letters that has the same property? Specifically the answer is the word for a person who plays a particular musical instrument. | I found the answer. | |
| 1998 11 22 | Take the phrase TURKEY blank. Think of two six letter words than can each finish this phrase and that are transposals of each other. Both expressions are common. | My answer was not very good. | |
| 1998 11 29 | If I asked you to name a familiar word that contains two consecutive S's followed by another letter and followed by two consecutive S's, you would say ASSESSOR. Now do the same with D. | Found the answer using a simple grep. | |
| 1998 12 06 | Name two countries in the world whose names can be anagramed to form homophones. | Found using the computer. | |
| 1998 12 13 | Think of a certain nine letter word. Drop the third letter. Read the remaining letters backward and you get a four letter word and its four letter antonym. What words are these? Hint: The dropped letter is an R and the resulting antonyms are adjectives. | Found the answer with the computer. | |
| 1998 12 20 | Reversible sentence: Write a sentence in which you can change one letter to completely reverse the meaning. (2 week puzzle) | ||
| 1999 01 03 | Take the movie title: The Exorcist. Use these eleven letters to form two popular brand names of foods. | ||
| 1999 01 10 | Take the 25 letters of the alphabet other than q and arrange them to spell five common words with no letters left over. And here's a hint: The initial letters of the five words are c f g p v. | With much computer work I found a reasonable answer. | |
| 1999 01 17 | Take the Hitchcock title Rear Window and rearrange these ten letters to form two words which are opposites. | Found the answer using ANAGRAM2. | |
| 1999 01 24 | Take the word par. Shift these letters seven spaces down the alphabet and you get why. Now take a word which means more black, shift down by seven and you get a word which means violet. What are the words? | I found the answer (after much work to create a program). | |
| 1999 01 31 | There are two famous actors, 7 letters first name, 7 letters last name, whose names differ in only one syllable. Now take these two syllables, place them side by side and they will spell another famous actor. | ||
| 1999 02 07 | Think of a familiar two word phrase in ten letters that contains the letters of today in left to right order. Now these will not be consecutive, but they will be in order interspersed within the answer. Here's a hint: The phrase is related to television. | My answer was nowhere as good as NPR's. | |
| 1999 02 14 | What familiar eleven letter word contains all of the letters of the alphabet from c through i, plus four other letters. These can be in any order. | Found the answer just using grep. | |
| 1999 02 21 | I'm thinking of a well known actor of the 1990s with three letters in the first name and seven in the last name. The first and last names rhyme respectively with the those of an entertainer of the past whose first name has five letters and last has six letters. | ||
| 1999 02 28 | Take the phrase wheat silo. Using only these nine letters but repeating them as necessary, can you spell a familiar five word saying. Here's a hint: The lengths of the respecive words are 2, 3, 9, 2, 4. | Found the answer with computer help. | |
| 1999 03 07 | Take three different numbers between one and twelve inclusive. Spell out their name. Then rearrange the letters to form a word meaning addition. What is this word? | Did not succeed. | |
| 1999 03 14 | Take the seven letter adjective spatial and remove the letters in the even positions to get the noun sail. Now spatial and sail have nothing to do with each other. Can you think of a seven letter adjective that would commonly describe the four character noun obtained by the above method? Hint: Both words begin with the letter b. | My answer was not as good as NPR's. Aslo in TPP Vol. 2 #100. | |
| 1999 03 21 | Name one of the U. S. states. Take its initial letter and the initials of the names of all the adjoining states and you can spell the name of a country. | Found the answer without the computer. | |
| 1999 03 28 | Assign every letter of the alphabet its numerical value. What is the only common word in the English language in which the product of its letter values is exactly three million? | Found the answer with computer help. Also in TPP Vol.2 #96. | |
| 1999 04 04 | There are two cities important in American history whose names are anagrams of each other. One city made news in the 1690's, the other made news in the 1960's. Name these American cities. | Found the answer partially on my own and then with the internet. | |
| 1999 04 11 | Take a common six letter word. Remove its first letter, read the rest backwards and you get a common five character girl's name. Now instead remove the last letter, read backwards and you get a common five character boy's name. | ||
| 1999 04 18 | The long hand of a very accurate time piece points exactly to a full minute while the short hand is exactly two minutes away. What time is it? There is more than one answer. | I found an answer. | |
| 1999 04 25 | The six commonest letters in the English language are e t a i n f. Find a familiar eleven character word which does not contain any of those letters. As a hint the first letter is c. | Found the answer but I do not know whether I used the computer. | |
| 1999 05 02 | Take the word tell. It has a short e, a vowel. Change it to a long a and phonetically you get tale. Now you can put them together to form telltale. Now take a one syllable word with a short i and change it to a long a and put them together to form a two syllable word. | ||
| 1999 05 09 | Name a profession. Remove the letters that form an abbreviation of the profession. Then rearrange the remaining leters to form the name of a famous person who has that profession. | ||
| 1999 05 16 | Take the following numbers 77, 49, 36, 18. What number comes next in this series? | My answer was not as good as Shortz's. | |
| 1999 05 23 | Inside a shop glancing out the window you see a van go by with the two word name tamotua awatto. In what city in the world are you located and in what kind of shop are you in? | Found the answer without the computer. | |
| 1999 06 06 | Take the phrase Once upon a time. Put it into Morse code. Change the dots to dashes and dashes to dots. Realize the symbols and you have a familiar two word phrase. Each word has six letters. | Found the answer with the computer. | |
| 1999 06 13 | Fill in the blanks: blank BEAR and blank PRINCE. Take the word that goes in the first blank, change its first letter to the next letter of the alphabet and you get the word that goes in the second blank. Answer: brown BEAR and crown PRINCE. Now do the same with: blank BEAR and blank SESSION. | Only found poor answers. Also in TPP Vol. 2 #88. | |
| 1999 06 20 | Take the name of Israel's new Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Write this name in lower-case letters on slips of paper. Then rearrange these to form a familiar two-word phrase. | Found the answer. | |
| 1999 06 27 | Think of a word ending in ZE whose homophone means the opposite. | Found the answer. | |
| 1999 07 04 | Take the nine letter word subdeacon. The word contains the first five letters of the alphabet consecutively inside it, but not in alphabetical order. There are two questions. Can you think of a common eight letter word with this property? Can you think of a seven letter word? The words are uncapitalized. | Found answers. Also in TPP Vol. 2 #92. | |
| 1999 07 11 | I'm late catching a plane at the airport. I'm at the ticket machine in the long term parking lot, but the machine jams. I cannot go forward because of the gate and there are now others behind me. What do I do? | My answer is different from Shortz's but possible. | |
| 1999 08 15 | Take the name Sacremento and rearrange the letters to form two words which are synonyms. | Found the answer probably with my anagram program. | |
| 1999 08 22 | Take a familiar two-word phrase. Six letters for the first word and three for the second. Both words begin with the letter C. Change the C in the first word to B and change the C in the second word to ST. You will get another familiar two word phrase. | Shortz's answer is better than mine. | |
| 1999 08 29 | Take the words astride and crushed. On a phone pad these would be represented as 2787433. Note also that astride and crushed have no letter commonly in the same position. Call such a pair homonums. Find another pair of seven-letter homonums beginning with a and c. They are common uncapitalized words. As a hint one of them is a plural. | I found the answer (after much computer work). There were only 150 correct responders. | |
| 1999 09 05 | Take the words cinemax and cinerama. Obviously they both have to do with movies. And they have a common prefix. What unusual properties do they share? There is something amazing. | Found the answer. | |
| 1999 09 12 | Seven letters of the alphabet are also Roman numerals, I V X L C D M. What is the shortest familiar word you can make which consists of six of these? | Found the intended answer. Also in TPP Vol. 2 #84. | |
| 1999 09 19 | Find a familiar two word phrase in which the second word begins with a j and the first word ends in a j-sound. | ||
| 1999 09 26 | Word ladder: spin to yarn in less than ten steps using common uncapitalized family-oriented words. | My answer was similar to Shortz. | |
| 1999 10 03 | Matchstick problem: You need nine matchsticks (or toothpicks). Place three to form an equilateral triangle pointing upward with a horizontal base. Use another three to place the same kind of triangle below and touching the mid- point of the base of the first. Use the last three to form a third triangle of the same nature below. Now, move three matchsticks to make exactly four equilateral triangles. There is no trickery involved. | I did not succeed. | |
| 1999 10 10 | Think of a familiar two word phrase in which both words begin and end with e. Make it as short as possible. | Shortz's answer was much shorter than mine. | |
| 1999 10 17 | Take the word presbyterian. Arrange these thirteen letters to form the name of a current entertainer. A first and last name. | ||
| 1999 10 24 | Find a common phrase of two words both of which begin with f and end with e. Homophones are not involved. | I found the answer. | |
| 1999 10 31 | Write down: F 21 S 23 T 25 T 27 S 29 M 31. What comes next in this series? | ||
| 1999 11 07 | Take the eight-letter word compiled. Switch the 5th and 6th letters and you get complied. Now think of an eight letter phrase meaning owing money. Switch the 5th and 6th letters and you get a phrase meaning how some movies are seen. | ||
| 1999 11 14 | Name a food in six letters. Rearrange these letters add an o at the start and you get a seven letter food. Rearrange again and add an f at the end and you get an eight letter food. | I failed. | |
| 1999 11 21 | Write down these six words one underneath the other: come, uranium, rig, lop, elite, wheat. Now the first three columns reading down are three birds: curlew, oriole, magpie. The challenge is to write down six common uncapitalized words, so that the first three columns are U.S. state capitals. Note that there are nine U.S. state capitals with a length of six. | I found the answer. | |
| 1999 11 28 | The word cleave is an example of a word which has two opposite meanings: to separate or to stick together as a monacle that can stick to a ship. What other common word beginning with cl has the same two opposite meanings? | My answer was poor, Shortz's was great. | |
| 1999 12 05 | The letters SST could stand for Super Sonic Transport or State Sales Tax. Find another three word phrase that these letters could stand for. In my answer the lengths of the words are 6, 6, 7 respectively and name a person. But your answer may be different. | ||
| 1999 12 12 | The letter pair ut appears twice in peanut butter. What common two word phrase contains the letter pair se three times? Hint: Both words contain five letters. | I found the answer. | |
| 1999 12 19 | There are lots of letter pairs like a and e, and e and o, where two letters of the alphabet are separated by an ampersand. If you shift a and e to the next letters of the alphabet, b and f, then this is not a familiar letter pair. What two familiar letter pair can be shifted by one letter to form another familiar letter pair? | ||
| 1999 12 26 | Take the sentence "That was our end." and the letters oy. Arrange these 15 letters to form a possibly appropriate three word phrase. | I came up with a good phrase, but Shortz's was better. | |
| 2000 01 02 | The puzzle of the domino and the magic square. - Sam Loyd. There are 28 dominoes in the standard set marked double zero through double six. Pick eight of them to form a magic square with highest totals. | I failed. | |
| 2000 01 09 | What famous singer's first and last name can each follow the letters BAR to form a familiar word. | ||
| 2000 01 16 | Think of two words that both begin with c and end with t that are antonyms. Hint: Both words are seven letters or under. | My answer was different from Shortz, but seems possible. | |
| 2000 01 23 | What three word movie title contains all but two letters of the alphabet from a through o. Hint: The movie came out in the past twelve months. | ||
| 2000 01 30 | Take the name Malkovich. Rearrange the letters to form two common words. | Found the answer probably using my anagram program. There were 1700 answers. | |
| 2000 02 06 | Spoonerism: Switch the initial consonant sound of two words in a phrase to get a new phrase, for example, roaring pain becomes pouring rain. Now take an item found in the kitchen. Spoonerize it and you have a fashion accessary. These are common two word phrases. | ||
| 2000 02 13 | Take the name of a well-known breed of cat with seven letters. Change one letter and rearrange the letters to form a breed of dog. Then change a different letter in the same breed of cat and rearrange to get a different breed of dog. | I got the answer (not that I know anything here). | |
| 2000 02 20 | Think of a familiar nine letter word than can be represented on a telephone dial as 687687687. | I got the answer. | |
| 2000 02 27 | (Adapted from something of John Conway.) There is a person alive today who when he was seven years old had never reached his first birthday. How is this possible and how old is this person today? | I got the answer. | |
| 2000 03 05 | Think of two words meaning station that are anagrams of each other. | I found the answer (using a dictionary). | |
| 2000 03 12 | Take the word LIBERALIZATION and add SHORTZ, then rearrange to name a part of and airplane as a two word phrase. | I found the answer. | |
| 2000 03 19 | Name a common expression of understanding. Spell it backward and you'll name a part of the United States government. | ||
| 2000 03 26 | Take the last name of two famous Israelis, past or present. Anagram them into a new word so that the two new words are syunonyms of each other. Will thought of Abba Eban and Itzak Rabin and anagramed Eban to bean and anagramed Rabin to brain. Bean and brain can be thought of as synonyms. Find another such pair. | ||
| 2000 04 02 | Take the nine letters in the phrase TWO YEARS plus D. Arrange these in a three-by-three square so that the three words across, the three words down, and the two long diagonals all form eight three letter common uncapitalized words. | I found the answer that Shortz intended. | |
| 2000 04 09 | Write down these three words: avocations, oration, ratable. What unusual properties do these three words share? Hint: These are the only common words that share the properties. | I failed. | |
| 2000 04 16 | Take the word AUTHOR. Add one letter. Rearrange these seven letters to name a famous author. | I found the answer. (So easy.) | |
| 2000 04 23 | Write down the first and last names of a popular actress. Spell it backwards and you have something that bartenders use. Hint: There are four letters in her first name and four letters in her last name. | ||
| 2000 04 30 | Write down the twelve months of the year in order. Now take the J from January, U from February, M from March, P from April, Y from May and you get the word jumpy. Now starting from a different month take one letter from each successive month in order and form an eight letter word that names part of a year and that can be found on a calendar. The months may go round. | ||
| 2000 05 07 | Name a part of the human body. Take the first two letters and move them to the end of the word without changing their order and you have a nother part of the human body. What are they? | I found the answer. | |
| 2000 05 14 | What common word keeps the same meaning when you put MA in front of it. Besides ma. | I found the answer. | |
| 2000 05 21 | Think of a seven letter word with two Ms and one N. Change the Ms to Ns and vice-versa. Then rearrange to get an antonym of the original. | I found the answer. | |
| 2000 05 28 | The name of what major U.S. city in eight letters can be typed on a standard keyboard with only the right hand, namely the letters y, h, and n and everything to the right. | Found the answer by examing a list of cities. | |
| 2000 06 04 | The shortest word which contains all the letters of the President Taylor is royalty (one letter needs to be added), for Clinton it is continual (two letters). What is the shortest word contaning the letters of Washington. As a hint, five letters need to be added. | Found answers. | |
| 2000 06 11 | Think of a geographical location containg three As, three Es, and three other letters. So nine letters in all. What place is it? | I found the answer using CIA-FACT. | |
| 2000 06 18 | Take a two word phrase that means criticizing. Change the first letter of the second word from a D to a G and you'll get a new phrase that names an article of apparel. What article is it? | I found the answer. | |
| 2000 06 25 | Write down the following six names of famous people: Astaire, Copland, Nijinsky, Ono, Rabin, Zeffirelli. What very unusual property do these names share? Solve it by naming another famous person who shares the same property. | ||
| 2000 07 02 | Take the name of a very small creature in four letters. Change the second letter to the next letter of the alphabet and you get the name of a much larger creature. | I found the answer. (Computer used minimally, rather I looked for animals in books.) | |
| 2000 07 09 | Take two words that are synonyms. Remove the first letter of each word and you have two books of the bible. | I found the answer---Entirely using the computer. (Nov 2001) | |
| 2000 07 16 | Take the name Constantinople. It contains the consecutive letters of the alphabet ST inside it and the consecutive letters NOP. Remove these and you get conantile. In reverse, given CONANTILE, you would form Constantinople. So now given THIEL, what familiar three word title using twelve letters would you form? | ||
| 2000 07 23 | Take the phrase spinach salads. Rearrange these thirteen letters to form a three word phrase of something else which might be on a restaurant menu. | My answer was poor. Shortz's answer far better. | |
| 2000 07 30 | Find a common eleven letter word which consists of the letters of the word cousin. Five of the letters are repeated twice. | I found the answer. | |
| 2000 08 06 | Take the 24 letters that appear on a standard telephone dial and rearrange them to form six common uncapitalized four letter words. No plurals or verbs formed by adding S are allowed. | I have a number of reasonable answers using the computer. | |
| 2000 08 13 | Write down these four girls names one beneath the other: NELL, EVIE, LISA, LEAH. Notice that the names read the same horizontally and vertically. Now do the same for four boys names. | Found the answer using my MAGICSQ and about 30 hours of run time. | |
| 2000 08 20 | Name two common forms of transportation. Switch the first and second letters of the first word, also switch the first and second letters of the second word and run the remaining together. You will have a person seen at a circus. | I found the answer. | |
| 2000 08 27 | Think of a man's nickname in four letters, reverse it, add S at the start and you get a five letter man's name. | My answer was alomost as good as Shortz's. | |
| 2000 09 03 | Create your own word teaser in which the answer is a state or a state capital. For example, the name of which state can be anagramed into the name of a topic discussed at its state legislature? The answer is Texas and taxes. Another example: The name of which state has its postal abbreviation as the last two letters of its state capital? The answer is New York and Albany. Third example: Which two state capitals have their names beginning with months of the year? The answer Juno and Augusta. (2 week) | ||
| 2000 09 17 | Take the state names Alaska and Kansas. The last two letters of Alaska are the first two of Kansas. Find a chain of five state names that overlap in this manner by two letters. | I found the answer (without a program, but afterward I wrote CHAIN). | |
| 2000 09 24 | Think of ten uncapitalized four letters words that differ only in their first letters. Possible answer: BARE, CARE, DARE, ..., WARE. Now find a set of fourteen. No plurals allowed. | ||
| 2000 10 01 | Name a well-known male actor, seven letters in first name, six in the last. The last name starts with a G. Remove the G and rearrange the remaining letters to get a well-known newsman. | ||
| 2000 10 08 | Name a world capital in eight letters. Change the last letter to the next letter of the alphabet and phonetically you'll get something that people watch on TV. | I found the answer. | |
| 2000 10 15 | Write doen these six names of famous people. Ernest Ansermet, Earl Averill, Ray Bradbury, Anna Magnani. Lew Wallach, Lisa Standsfield. What very unusual property do those six names have? | I found the answer (with no computer use). | |
| 2000 10 22 | Name a country in eight letters. Cross out the name of a body part, in left to right order, but not necessarily comsecutively. The remaining letters will be another body part in left to right order. | I found the answer. | |
| 2000 10 29 | What is the greatest number of common uncapitalized four letter words that differ only in their last letter. The answer is nine or ten depending on what you consider common. | Found answers with the computer. | |
| 2000 11 05 | The word HERBAL consists of the men's nicknames HERB and AL. Find a common eight letter word which consists of two consecutive men's nicknames. The names begin with R and C. | I failed. | |
| 2000 11 12 | Take a common three letter English word. After it place the French translation of the English word. The result is an occupation. As a hint the French word appears in a common expression. | ||
| 2000 11 19 | Given the words BUSH, GORE, CHAD, think of a fourth four letter word from which you can make a word ladder to each of the above in the smallest total number of steps. As usual, only common uncapitalized words are permitted. | I got a different answer. | |
| 2000 11 26 | Think of a word which means to capture. Change all the R's to L's and vice- versa. You will again have a word which means to capture. | I found the answer. | |
| 2000 12 03 | Take the last name of a famous American writer in seven letters. Change the second letter to a G and you name a famous British writer. | ||
| 2000 12 10 | Name two parts of an automobile that are synonyms in a non-automobile sense. The words have four and seven letters. | I found the answer (with no computer help). | |
| 2000 12 17 | Think of a familiar two word phrase which every driver needs and which contains all five vowels exactly twice. | I found the answer without the computer. | |
| 2000 12 24 | Take the phrase: As the crow flies. Rearrange these fourteen letters to form two related words associated with letters. | I found the answer (May 24, 2002. Using my completely recreated anagram2 used with the full WORDSSS). | |
| 2000 12 31 | Take the word BEAGLE. The first syllable sounds phonetically like a B. Change that to the next letter of the alphabet and you get CEAGLE(?). So now, think of a common boy's name in two syllables in which the first syllable sounds like a letter of the alphabet. Change that syllable phonetically to the next letter of the alphabet and you get a common girl's name. | ||
| 2001 01 07 | Take the word POTENTIAL. Rearrange these nine letters to form the name of a well known product in two words. | Using my ANAGRAM2 I got answers different from Shortz. | |
| 2001 01 14 | The word INAUGURATION contains the words GNU, GOAT, IGUANA. What is the longest animal name contained in that word? | Found the answer with computer help. | |
| 2001 01 21 | Take the phrase Might and Maine. Switch the vowels in the two words and you get Maght and Miine. Of course this doesn't make any sense. Well, think of another familiar phrase in the form blank and blank in which both words start with M. Switch the vowels and you'll get two common boy's names. | I found the answer (without the computer). | |
| 2001 01 28 | What is the shortest word ladder from giant to raven? | It looks as if I did not succeed. | |
| 2001 02 04 | Take the word Harding. Using only these letters but repeating them as necessary create the name of a foreign leader, first and last name, 12 characters. | Found a reasonable answer without the computer. | |
| 2001 02 11 | When you take thw letters WO and put these in front of MAN, you get the opposite. Now take the letters PU. What word becomes a self-opposite when PU is put in front? | I found an answer which Will said almost works. | |
| 2001 02 18 | Take the phrase Shetland Pony. Drop one letter. Rearrange to form a common expression from a puzzle solver. | ||
| 2001 02 25 | Take the phrase Tall tale. It consists of two four letter words that differ only in their last letters. Find another such familiar phrase naming something you might see downtown. | My answers were not as good as Shortz's. | |
| 2001 03 04 | Write the word CHECKBOOK in capital letters and put a mirror above it and it will read normally because it has horizontal symmetry. Find another familiar nine letter word that has horizontal symmetry. Sometimes it is spelled with a hyphen between the fourth and fifth letters. Note that the nine letters that can be used are: BCDEHIKOX. | My answers are not as good as Shortz's. | |
| 2001 03 11 | Take a familiar nine letter word. Drop the first and last letters. You will be left with the names of two consecutive parts of the human head. | Found the answer with some computer help. | |
| 2001 03 18 | There is an old advertising symbol called a GOLD DUST TWIN. Notice that adjacent words have letters in common. Find a common three word phrase which has the last letter of the first word equal to the first letter of the second and the last letter of the second equal to the first letter of the third. The number of letters in each are 4, 3, 3, and the first word begins with an F and the last word ends with an N. | I found the answer, with very much work: FELT TIP PEN. | |
| 2001 03 25 | Name two Oscar nominated movies for best picture over the years whose five letter titles differ only in their middle letter. | ||
| 2001 04 01 | Take four toothpicks of matchsticks and arrange them in a shape of a W in which each angle has 90 degrees. What is the smallest number which you can move to form a square? | My answer was not as good as Shortz's. | |
| 2001 04 08 | Name a famous singer, first and last names. Change the first letter in the first name and you'll get an adjective that identifies a category of animals. Change the first letter of the last name and you'll name an animal in that category. | ||
| 2001 04 15 | Take the three chemical elemnts BRomine, ACtinum, EinSteinium. If somehow these could be combined their chemical symbol would form the word BRACES. Likewise MOlybdenum, RAdium, LIthium and SaMarium would form moralism. Here's the challenge: Can you think of a familiar word of ten or more letters formed by two letter chemical elements? | I found answers of 16 letter words (after much computer work). Shortz's answers were all 12 and 10 letter words. | |
| 2001 04 22 | Write out the alphabet from A to Z. Think of a familiar six letter word whose letters are in alphabetical order reading from left to right, although obviously not consecutive. Cross out these six letters. From those that remain, think of a five letter word..., etc. Never repeat using any of the previously used letters. | ||
| 2001 04 29 | Take the word pansies. Rearrange these seven letters to spell two words that are opposites. For example you could say PIS and SANE, but those words are not opposites. | I found the answer. | |
| 2001 05 06 | Write down this eight word sentence. John Sununu's monastic virtues renewed Arthur's friendly satire. Which word in this sentence does not belong and why? | ||
| 2001 05 13 | Think of a word starting with the letter E. Move the E to the end and you will get two consecutive names of animals. As a hint the first is fairly large and the second is quite small. | I found the answer. | |
| 2001 05 20 | Think of a familiar three letter word that has two syllables. Add five letters to form a common eight letter word of one syllable. As a hint all letters added are to the front and the back. | I found the answer. | |
| 2001 05 27 | The letters EFGHI can be found in the word prizefighter, though in mixed order. What familiar word contains the letters LMNOP consecutively inside it? The five letters must appear in a cluster though they may appear in any order inside it. | I found the answer. | |
| 2001 06 03 | Name a well known city in the world in six letters. Remove one letter and rearrange the letters to form a well known city in five letters. Repeat again. As a hint the first and third cities are capitals. | I found the answer. | |
| 2001 06 10 | Name a profession in 14 letters. The first letter is A and there is an O somewhere in the word. Drop the O and rearrange the remaining letters to form another profession as a plural and starting with the letter P. | I found the answer. | |
| 2001 06 17 | The 13 letter title of what famous literary work begins and ends with the same three letters? It consists of two words of lengths 3 and 10. The first is a man's nickname. | ||
| 2001 06 24 | Create a word analogy. (2 week puzzle) Example: MAR is to sheep as GATS is to what? So RAM:SHEEP as STAG:DEER. Example: UPRISE is to DOWNFALL as UNDERGO is to what? OVERCOME. Example: COCONUT is to DODO as GAGARIN is to what? HAHA. Example: FREIGHT is to OCTAGON as CANINE is to what? NONAGON. Example: BEAT is to ATTEND as GOON is to what? BE AT:ATTEND as GO ON:CONTINUE. Example: OHMS is to PINT as STAR is to what? TUBS. | ||
| 2001 07 08 | Word analogy: INKY is to OHIO as MOIL is to what? | I got it wrong. | |
| 2001 07 15 | Take a common four letter word whose third letter is S. Change the S to an O and reverse the word. Put the new word after the first and this forms a common two word phrase. | I missed it. See the subdirectory. | |
| 2001 07 22 | The eleven letter word reinversion contains the letters needed to spell one, seven, and nine. Find a ten letter word which contains the letters to be able to spell for numbers between 1 and 9. | Found the answer with the computer. | |
| 2001 07 29 | Draw a three-by-three square (three boxes across by three boxes down). Put the fraction 3/8 in the first square in the first row. Put the fraction 1/4 in the last square in the second row. The object is to put a fraction in each of the remaining boxes, so that each row, each column and each of the long diagonals totals one (1). | Found the answer. | |
| 2001 08 05 | Take the first and last names of a prominent news anchor, nine letters in all. Rearrange them to form the last name of a prominent person who was in the news recently. | ||
| 2001 08 12 | Name a well-known international food in five letters. Move the first two letters to the end. The result will be another well-known international food in five letters. What foods are these. They are both foods that originated overseas, but are now popular in the United States and around the world. | ||
| 2001 08 19 | What common 8-letter word written in lower case letters can be transformed into another 8-letter word by turning two letters in it upside down? Hint: Both words are hyphenated and the hyphen is in the same place in both words. The two letters changed are the same. | Have NPR's answers, bit I do believe the puzzle was worded correctly. | |
| 2001 08 26 | Last week, Will was on the toll road and had to pay 35 cents at the next toll booth. The only coins he had were a quarter and a dime that were stuck together by dried Coca-cola. He couldn't pry them apart with his fingers or anything else in the car. He couldn't throw the stuck-together coins in the toll basket because the machine wouldn't register them. He didn't want to wait in the long line for the cars that didn't have change. Fairly quickly, he figured out a way to separate the coins. He tried knocking them on the dashboard but that did not work. And he couldn't stick anything between them because they were stuck too tightly together. What did Will do to separate the coins and get himself through the exact change line into the toll booth? | Will's answer was better than mine. | |
| 2001 09 02 | Take the 12 letters of PORT AU PRINCE, the capital of Haiti. Rearrange these letters and you will get the names of two fruits. What fruits are they? | Found answer without the computer. | |
| 2001 09 09 | Boston and Austin are two well-known American cities that have six letter names that rhyme. What two well-known American cities have nine letter names that rhyme? (2 weeks) | Found answer with the computer. | |
| 2001 09 23 | Take the name of a mammal in five letters. Add the name of a fish in six letters. Rearrange these to form a reptile in eleven letters. Hint: The reptile is two words of four and seven letters. | Found the answer. | |
| 2001 09 30 | Take two digits on a standard telephone dial, which together have six letters of the alphabet. Ignore Q and Z. Rearrange these letters to form a familiar word. What word is it? | Found the answer with the computer, March 2013. | |
| 2001 10 07 | Draw a 4 by 3 box. The object is to fill it with letters spelling 3 four-letter words across and 4 three-letter words reading down. The conditions: your box cannot repeat any letters, and it must use all six vowels (a,e,i,o,u,y) once. All words must be uncapitalized, common English words. (2 week puzzle) | ||
| 2001 10 21 | Write down these four letters: N, Y, X, and M. What comes next in the series? The answer may or may not be a letter of the alphabet. And here's a hint: This is an international puzzle, so it will not rely on the English language. | ||
| 2001 10 28 | If A=1, B=2, C=3, and so on, what familiar 6-letter word has letters totalling 123 points? Hint: The total averages 20 1/2 points per letter. | I found the answer (using sumletters). | |
| 2001 11 04 | Take the word DRESSING. Add a particular letter that is not already in DRESSING, three times. Then form an anagram which is a famous person with five letters in the first name and six in the last name. | ||
| 2001 11 11 | Think of two words that are opposites. Put them side by side. The result will spell the last name of a famous writer pronounced in one syllable. This is not a current writer. | My answer: Alfred Noyes (English poet 1880-1958). I found the answer. | |
| 2001 11 18 | Take the phrase, "gentle reader." Rearrange these twelve letters to form three colors. | I found the answer (it was extrmely easy). They had 3750 entries. | |
| 2001 11 25 | Draw a 4 by 4 box with 16 squares. In order, print the letters: PRE CHRISTMAS SALE. The top line will have PREC, the second line HRIS, and so forth. Now, pick a letter, then move from square to adjoining square, vertically, horizontally or diagonally, like a King in chess. What is the longest possible word you can spell? Repeating a square is not allowed. (Note: Will's 9-letter answer solved without the help of a computer was coined in the 1960's. But your answer does not have to match his.) | I gave up on this. | |
| 2001 12 02 | Name two vehicles. Insert the letter "A" in between them. Read the whole thing and you'll come up with a third thing that you might travel in. | ||
| 2001 12 09 | Think of a common man's nickname in four letters in which the middle two letters sound like a word like "MV" or "SA". Remove these and the remaining letters will also sound like a word. I can think of two names that satisfy this. | ||
| 2001 12 16 | Think of a well-known modern American writer whose last name has six letters of which the middle two are the same and the 2nd and 5th are the same. This name has two syllables. If you say them out loud they sound like two words which are opposites. This is a best selling author. | I failed. | |
| 2001 12 23 | Write a story, riddle, or joke with a pun consisting of three consecutive words. Namely these three words are spelled the same but understood differently when they appear two times. This is a two week puzzle. | ||
| 2002 01 06 | 2002 is an unusual number because it is a palindromic number (it reads forward and backward the same). Now double that: 20022002. The challenge is to find three different plaindromic numbers that can be multiplied together to get 20,022,002. Each of these numbers must have at least two digits. What numbers are they? | I believe that I found the answer. | |
| 2002 01 13 | There are exactly 15 counties in Arizona. Take one of the first three letters from each county's name and travel from county to consecutive county. What is the longest English word you can spell? For example, if you start with "C" for Cochise County and move consecutively to Graham, Gila, Maricopa and La Paz, you can spell the word "CRIMP." The rules are: You can select only from the first three letters of the county's name. Each county you visit must have a common border with the previous one. The letters have to be used in the order in which you visit the counties. And no county can be repeated. Our source for words will be Mirriam-Webster's 10th Collegiate Dictionary. This is a two week puzzle. | I found Shortz's answer (and two others of less interest). Fewer than ten people sent in the answer. | |
| 2002 01 20 | 15th anniversary of the show. | ||
| 2002 01 27 | Take the small letter n, flip it over and you get a small letter u. Now think of a familiar woman's first name in six letters containing an n, flip it over and you get a u, and you get another familiar woman's first name. Here's a hint: Both names have three syllables. | Found one pair that seems reasonable. | |
| 2002 02 03 | Take the name of a certain animal. Change one letter in it and the result will be the names of two colors side by side. As a hint, neither color is related in meaning to the animal. What is the animal and what are the colors? | I found the answer. | |
| 2002 02 10 | Take the word TECHNOCRAT. Rearrange these ten letters to name an article of apparel. What article is it? | I found the answer. | |
| 2002 02 17 | Take the first name of a world leader and the first letter of this leader's last name. Rearrange them all and you'll get the name of the leader's country. Who is it? | I found the answer. | |
| 2002 02 24 | Think of two women's first names. Pronounce them one after the other, and you'll name something that clothes can be made of. What is it? | ||
| 2002 03 03 | The compass has four directions: North, East, West, and South, whose initials spell NEWS. What other well-known thing consists of four parts whose initials spell NEWS? Two hints: first, the answer consists entirely of proper names of some sort familiar to everyone; second, the N part of the answer consists of a two-word name. The E, W, and S are all solid words. | Found the answer without the computer. | |
| 2002 03 10 | Name a well-known American city in five letters. Add its state postal abbreviation. These seven letters can be rearranged to spell the first seven letters of another major city in that state. What are these two cities and what is the state? | I found the answer and yes I used the computer. | |
| 2002 03 17 | If you dial the word, BELOW, on a telephone, you'll find that it has all different digits that are in increasing order (2-3-5-6-9). What familiar uncapitalized 5-letter word has all different digits that are in decreasing order? | I found the intended answer and others. | |
| 2002 03 24 | Take the names of two rodents. Add the letter H and rearrange all the letters to name a movie that won an Oscar for Best Picture. What movie is it? | I found the answer. | |
| 2002 03 31 | Think of two different words that can preceed HOP in order to complete a compound word or a familiar two-word phrase. Put these two added words together, and they themselves will spell a familiar compound word. What word is it? | I seem to have a very good answer. | |
| 2002 04 07 | "Gasoline Pump" and "Fountain Pen" each contain the five vowels (A,E,I,O,U) exactly once. What familiar two-word phrase, having two letters in the first word and six letters in the second word, also contains all five vowels exactly once? Hint: The first and last of the six letter word are the same. | I found the answer. | |
| 2002 04 14 | Take the word DESTRUCTIVENESS. Rearrange the 15 letters into a familiar two-word phrase that's a sign that you might find in any college. What sign is it? | Found the answer without the computer. | |
| 2002 04 21 | Arrange the digits 1-9 in a row so that each pair of consecutive digits forms a number that is the product of two single digit numbers. For example, 2 and 7 can appear next to each other in a line since 27 is 3 x 9. But 2 and 6 can't appear next to each other since 26 is 2 x 13 or 1 x 26, and neither 13 nor 26 is a single digit number. The answer is unique and arrangable by simple logic. What is the series? | I found the answer. | |
| 2002 04 28 | Write down the following eleven letters in block capitals: O J A P I L P P A C I ... (Don't use and serifs on the J's or I's) Some of these letters can be converted to other letters by adding strokes. For example, an F can be converted to an E by adding a horizontal line at the bottom. The object is to add strokes to some of these letters to spell a familiar eleven letter word. What is it? | I found the answer. | |
| 2002 05 05 | Take the country names MALTA and IRAQ. The letters in them can be rearranged to spell MALI and QATAR. Now name two countries with initials A and S. Rearrange all the letters to name two other countries with initials I and U. What countries are these? | I found the answer without the computer. | |
| 2002 05 12 | Think of a product whose name contains "EE." Change those two letters to a single "A." You'll name a place where you can buy this product. It's not a brand name, just a generic lower case word. What place is it? | Found the answer without the computer. | |
| 2002 05 19 | Name a food in seven letters. Rearrange the first five letters to get the name of a country. Rearrange the last five letters to get the name of another country. What is the food? | Found the answer using the computer. | |
| 2002 05 26 | Take the number 3 spelled out - THREE. Add the letter "S." Rearrange the result, and you'll get the woman's name ESTHER. Now take the number 13 spelled out - THIRTEEN. Add a letter. Rearrange the result. And you'll get another familiar woman's name. What name is it? | Found the answer (by computer). | |
| 2002 06 02 | Take the first two letters of the name of an animal. Add the last two letters of the sound this animal makes. And you'll get a four-letter word that names this animals' color. What is it? | I found the answer using the computer. | |
| 2002 06 09 | What is the shortest word ladder of four letter words you could make in which the letter A appears succesively in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th positions? The rules: No proper names. No words containing punctuation and that would be inappropriate for Sunday morning radio. | I found an answer but WIll's was better. | |
| 2002 06 16 | Name a famous person with the initials "M.P.". The letters of the first name can be rearranged to spell a term used in a popular indoor game, and the letters of the last name can be rearranged to spell the name of that game. Who is the famous person and what is the game? | ||
| 2002 06 23 | Start with the letters "H-O." Add two consecutive letters of the alphabet, like "A-B" or "B-C." Then add two more consecutive letters of the alphabet, then do this a 3rd time and a 4th time. Then add the letters "N-T." The resulting 12 letters, in order, will spell a familiar two-word phrase. What is the phrase? | I found the answer using the computer. | |
| 2002 06 30 | Take this equation: 5 + 5 + 5 = 550. How can you make this equation true by adding on to one of the symbols or characters. The answer does not involve turning the equal sign into an unequal sign. | I found one of the answers. | |
| 2002 07 07 | Write a brief description or capsule review of a well-known movie in which the initial letters of your words spell the movie's title. For example: JAWS = Just A Wild Shark; Annie Hall = Allen's Nebbish Neuroticism Is Evident Here And Lotsa Laughs. Entries will be judged on cleverness, aptness and naturalness of syntax. | ||
| 2002 07 21 | Take the equation: 12 = i on a r, where i and r are the initials of the words that complete the equation. You would say: 12 = inches on a ruler. Now take this equation: 12 = b on a t. Hint: b is a seven letter word that is a plural. | ||
| 2002 07 28 | Take a well-known brand name of a consumer product, 5 letters, spell it backward, add a T at the end, and the result will describe your position when using this product. What product is it? | ||
| 2002 08 04 | Take the word RECALL. Reverse the first three letters and you get CERALL. Now reverse the last four letters and you get CELLAR. So you have gone from RECALL to CELLAR in two steps. Now take the word ORCHESTRA. Change it to CARTHORSE. What is the minimum number of steps needed to do this? | ||
| 2002 10 20 | Think of a familiar nine letter word, in which the first letter immediately follows the 9th in the alphabet. The 2nd letter immediately follows the 8th in the alphabet. The 3rd immediately follows the 7th and the 4th immediately follows the 6th. For example, SPECTATOR, S follows R and P follows O. Unfortunately the pattern breaks down after that. Hint: The word is most commonly used in the TV and film industry. | ||
| 2002 11 24 | Take the word NOTIFICATION. The first 4 letters are the same as the last 4 letters, only rearranged. Now, name a major American city in which the first 5 letters are the same as the last 5 letters, only rearranged. What city is it? | ||
| 2003 09 14 | Think of a familiar four-word phrase, 14 letters altogether, in which 1st and 3rd words are the same. All the letters in this phrase are from the odd-numbered positions of the alphabet: A-C-E-G-I-K, etc. What is this phrase? | ||
| 2003 11 02 | Take the word VENTS. If you change the letter T to a U, the next letter of the alphabet, you get VENUS. Now think of a well known brand name whose second letter is T. Change the T to a U and you get an everyday uncapitalized English word. This brand name is familiar to everyone. | ||
| 2003 11 09 | Name two items commonly found in a woman's purse. Interchange their initial letters and you'll get two new words, each of which mean "to destroy". What are they? | ||
| 2003 11 16 | Take the name STOLICHNAYA, as in the name of vodka. Rearrange these eleven letters to spell two words that are opposites. | Found the answer using anagram2. | |
| 2004 02 01 | Take the name Martin Luther. Rearrange these twelve letters to get the last names of two famous men who opposed each other. | ||
| 2004 02 15 | Name a well known actress of the 1940s and 50s, 4 letters in her first name, 5 letters in her last. Change the first letter of her first name to a T. Change the last letter of her last name to a Y. The result will be two words that are synonyms. | ||
| 2005 09 04 | Name a well-known place in the United States, with a population of at least 40,000 people. It has two words in its name. If you reverse the last three letters of the first word you'll get the first three letters of the second word. What is it? | ||
| 2005 09 11 | From listener Michael Shteyman in Baltimore, Md.: Name a country, somewhere in the world. You can change its first letter to name a well known island. Or, you can change its third letter to name another well know island. What country is it? | ||
| 2005 10 02 | Take the words MAY, NAY, and STAY. Except for their opening letters, M, N and ST, they're spelled the same and they rhyme. Can you name three common, un-capitalized words, starting with M, N and ST, that again are spelled the same except for these opening letters? None of the words rhyme with any of the others. The lengths of the answers are for you to determine. | ||
| 2005 10 09 | From Ed Pegg Jr.: In a standard 4 by 4 magic square you arrange the digits from one to sixteen so each row, column and corner digital totals 34. This is a multiplication magic square: Arrange sixteen numbers in a four by four square so that the product of each row, column and corner to corner diagonal is 5,040. You can use any numbers you want. But they have to be whole numbers and you can’t repeat a number in the square. (And as a hint I’ll tell you the number in the upper left corner is 42.) | ||
| 2005 10 16 | This week's challenge comes from Mike Rice, a writer/ producer for the TV show The Simpsons. Take the phrase "baby barb" — it has the same cryptogram as Alan Alda. That is, the four B's in "baby barb" are in the same position as the A’s in Alan Alda. The two A's in "baby barb" are in the same position as the "L's" in Alan Alda, and so on. | ||
| 2005 10 23 | Take the name Eli and add three letters in front of it. Add the same three letters in reverse order after it to complete a familiar two-word phrase in nine letters. What is it? Hint: The answer is something this puzzle has. | ||
| 2005 10 30 | This week’s challenge is from listener Ron Gallop. Take the names pelican and antelope, the first is a bird the second a mammal. The last two letters of pelican are the first two letters of antelope, and the last two letters of antelope are the first two of pelican, completing a loop. Can you name another bird and mammal that this is true of? These should be the general name of the bird and mammal not a specific breed or gender. Hint: Each is a single word no more than eight letters. | ||
| 2005 11 06 | This week's challenge comes from listener Tom Sylke, from Whitefish Bay, Wis. Take a familiar brand name, seen along roads and highways in the United States. It has five letters, two syllables. The first syllable, phonetically, is a word that is the opposite of the word spelled by the second syllable. What brand name is it? | ||
| 2005 11 13 | This week we have a two-week challenge: Write down these two chemical symbols, on the first line write LI, for lithium, and FE for iron. Underneath write NE for neon. And AR for Argon. Reading across you get the four letter words, life and near. And reading down you get, line and fear, completing a miniature word square composed only of chemical symbols. The object is to create a 3X3 square, composed of nine chemical symbols, in which each of the three rows across and each of the columns down, spells a word. You may use either one letter or two letter chemical symbols, but the idea is to use as many two letter ones as possible. Only un-capitalized words are allowed. Our source for acceptable words will be Merriam-Webster 11th Collegiate Dictionary. | ||
| 2005 11 26 | (From listener Steve Baggish, from Littleton, Mass.) Name a six-letter animal. Change the second letter to the next letter of the alphabet. Read the result backward, and you'll name a major U.S. city. What city is it? | ||
| 2005 12 04 | Name an animal in five letters. Switch the first and last letters, and you'll name a well-known company. Hint: The company is over 100 years old and has hundreds of stores around the United States and Canada. What company is it? | ||
| 2005 12 11 | (From listener John Duschatko of Arlington, Texas) Take the word "debunk," starting with the "b" inside, read the letters forward and you get "bunk." And starting with the "b" and reading backward, you get "bed." Together, these two words spell "bunk bed." Now, think of a word with an "m" inside, starting with the "m" and reading forward, you'll get one word, and starting with the "m" and reading backward, you get another word. And together these two words make a job title. What is it? | ||
| 2005 12 18 | Take the word non-perception. Rearrange its 13 letters to name three things that are in the same category. What are they? | ||
| 2005 12 25 | Name something in nine letters commonly seen around Christmas. Change the first letter to the previous letter of the alphabet. Change the third letter to the following letter of the alphabet. And the result will name part of the human body. What body part is this? | ||
| 2006 01 01 | From Ed Pegg, Jr., who runs the Web site mathpuzzle.com: The numbers 2, 4, 6 and 30 are the first four numbers whose names lack the letter "E." What is the 23rd number whose name lacks an "E?" | ||
| 2006 01 08 | Name an American Indian tribe. Somewhere inside this name, phonetically, is a kind of tree. Remove this tree, close up the remaining letters, and the remainder, phonetically, will name another kind of tree. What Indian tribe is this... and what are the trees? | ||
| 2006 01 15 | From Merl Reagle: Take the word carburetor, add two letters and rearrange the result to name another car part. And the answer is one word. What car part is it? | ||
| 2006 01 22 | From listener Andrew Chaikin from San Francisco: Take the nine letters from "G" to "O". Change one of them to the following letter of the alphabet. And re-arrange the result to name a famous person. Two hints: The answer is this person's full name. And it is a person who's been in the news lately. | ||
| 2006 01 29 | This week, we'll make a spoonerism (to do that, interchange the initial consonant sounds of words in one phrase to get a new phrase). For example: wild cherry, spoonerised, is child weary. Now, name a popular tourist spot in Europe with four letters in the first word and six letters in the last. Spoonerise it, and you'll get a new phrase meaning "got drunk." What phrases are these? | ||
| 2006 02 05 | From Margaret Pendergast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts: Name a traditional means of sending a communication, in eight letters. It contains the letter "R." Drop the "R" and rearrange the remaining letters to name another means of communication, in seven letters. This is a modern means of communication. Hint: Both words start with the same letter. What words are these? | ||
| 2006 02 12 | Take the word "lore." If you insert the letter pair "ic" twice inside it, you get "licorice." Now take the word "horn." Add the same letter pair three times to "horn" to get a familiar two-word phrase, naming something good puzzle solvers have. What is it? | ||
| 2006 02 19 | From Eric Berlin of Milford, Connecticut: Think of two different words meaning desire. Add the same letter in front of each of them, and you'll get two new words, each meaning "get rid of." What words are these? | ||
| 2006 02 26 | Take the phrase, "take bets on." Rearrange those 10 letters to name something to eat. What is it? | ||
| 2006 03 05 | From Henry Hook, of Brooklyn, New York: What eight-letter noun — containing the letter "B" — is pluralized by inserting an "S" immediately before the "B"? | ||
| 2006 03 12 | Name an object in four letters, starting with the letter "P." Change the "P" to a "B" and you'll get a verb that names something you do with that object. | ||
| 2006 03 19 | Think of a familiar three-word phrase in the form of "in the blank." The word that fills the blank will start with the letter "S." Move the "S" to the end you'll get another familiar phrase in the form of "in the blank." What phrases are these? | ||
| 2006 03 26 | From David Rudofsky of Sleepy Hollow, New York: Take the name of a geographical area in the New World (in the western hemisphere). It's popular with tourists, and has seven letters in its name, one of which is an "A." Change that "A" to an "S" and rearrange the result to name a geographical area in the Old World, also popular with tourists. What places are these? | ||
| 2006 04 02 | From Ed Peg, Jr. of Champaign, Illinois: Take the letters of PYTHAGOREAN and rearrange them to make two familiar math terms. | ||
| 2006 04 09 | From Michael Shteyman of Baltimore, Maryland: Name two drink orders you might make at a tavern. Each is a single word. Read these two words one after another, and you'll get a familiar two word phrase that names something you never want to be seen in. What is it? | ||
| 2006 04 16 | This week's challenge comes from Lewis Sergeant of Portland, Oregon: Think of a six-letter word for a common household activity. Change the second letter to the following letter of the alphabet, and you will have the name of a well-known American entertainer. This is the person's full name as he or she is popularly known. And a hint: This person is still performing today. What is the word and who is this entertainer? | ||
| 2006 04 23 | Name a boy's nickname in three letters. Name another boy's nickname in four letters. Say these names out loud, one after the other. The result, phonetically, will be a familiar two-word phrase for someone who is good looking. The phrase is an entry in Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary. What is the phrase? | ||
| 2006 04 30 | From Merl Reagle: Take the word formaldehyde. Rearrange its 12 letters to spell two shorter words that are uncapitalized and very common. Each one has just one syllable. Not counting a slight variation, we think the answer is unique. What words are they? | ||
| 2006 05 07 | From Mike Reiss of Los Angeles. Take two words that go together to make a familiar phrase in this form: "blank and blank." Both words are plurals, such as "bells and whistles." Move the first letter of the second word to the start of the first word. You'll get two new words that name forms of transportation. What are they? | ||
| 2006 05 14 | Draw a five-by-three square rectangle, five squares wide by three squares high. Fill it with the letters from Happy Mother's Day, in order. The top line will have HAPPY, the middle line will have MOTHE, and the bottom line will have RSDAY. The object is to spell the longest common English word in the grid, following the rules of Boggle. That is, proceed from letter to letter, following connected squares horizontally, vertically and diagonally. For example: You can spell the word, Path, starting at the first P in happy, moving left to the A, diagonally down and right to the T, and then right to the H. Repeating a square is not allowed. | ||
| 2006 05 21 | From JoMarie Privitera of Marietta, Georgia: Think of a five-letter name of a company that is often seen while driving on the highway. Drop the first letter, and re-arrange the four remaining letters to name a dance. Or, go back to the company's name and drop the second letter, then re-arrange the four remaining letters to name an event where the dance may be performed. What is it? | ||
| 2006 05 28 | From Doug Heller of Flourtown, Pennsylvania: Name two people who have been in the news together recently. One of them has a three-letter last name. The other has an eight-letter last name. Move the first letter of the eight-letter name to the start of the three-letter name. The result will be two words that are synonyms. Who are the people and what are the synonyms? | ||
| 2006 06 04 | Name a people of Europe. Remove the second and third letters of this word. The remaining letters, in order, will spell an area of Europe, that is unrelated to the people. Who are the people and what is the area? | ||
| 2006 06 11 | From listener Al Gori of Cozy Lake, New Jersey: Think of a phrase of the form, Blank and Blank. The initials of the two words in the blanks are R and F. Change the first letter of the second word from an F to a V, and the two words will become synonyms. What are they? | ||
| 2006 06 18 | From Magdalen Braden, from Philadelphia and Harford, Pa. Think of a certain country in the world. Change its first letter to name a well-known 20th-century world leader. Or change its third letter to name another well-known 20th-century world leader. What is the country and who are the leaders? | ||
| 2006 06 25 | Think of a boy's first name in six letters. Move the first two letters to the end, and you'll get a word meaning a bird. Then, move the first two letters of that to the end, to name a well-known english writer of the past. What words are these? | ||
| 2006 07 02 | From listener Philip Goodman of Binghamton, N.Y. Name a well-known American of the past consisting of eight letters. This is the person's full name, as he or she was known. Six of the letters are consonants, and all six of these consonants are Roman numerals. Who is this famous person? | ||
| 2006 07 09 | Think of a word meaning criminals. Think of another word for a certain crime. Read these words one after the other, and you'll get a new word for something that may be a crime. What is it? Also, the longer word is unrelated etymologically to the shorter word. | ||
| 2006 07 16 | Name a well-known figure in Greek mythology, whose name consists of two consecutive pronouns. Who is it? | ||
| 2006 07 23 | It comes from Katherine Bryant of Cambridge, Mass. Name something you might order in a bar. It's two words; three letters in the first word, five letters in the second. Change the second letter of the first word from a U to an A. The result will be a new two-word phrase, naming something you don't want to be seen in. What is it? | ||
| 2006 07 30 | This week's challenge comes from Doug Heller. Take the last name of a well-known 20th century world leader — seven letters. Write these letters in a circle, reading clockwise. Then, starting with the fourth letter of the name and reading counter-clockwise, you'll name an important period in human history. What is it? | ||
| 2006 08 06 | Name a make of car containing the letter "N." Rearrange the letters to get a new word starting with "N" that names something you might put a car in. What is it? | ||
| 2006 08 13 | From listener Phil Jacknis of Dix Hills, New York: Name a well-known person in show business, who might be seen at an awards ceremony. Take the first letter of this person's first name, plus this person's last name, in order, from left to right. The letters will spell something this celebrity might say at an awards ceremony. Who is the celebrity and what might this person say? | ||
| 2006 08 20 | Name a well-known company in U.S. history, still in existence today. There are three words in its name. Each word contains the letter pair T and E. What company is it? | ||
| 2006 08 27 | From Merle Reagle: Take the phrase "a correspondent." Change one letter in it to a new letter, and rearrange to get the name of a famous correspondent who is still at work. Who is it? | ||
| 2006 09 03 | In most words containing the letter "O" between two consonants, the O is either pronounced as a long O or a short O. Can you name a common word in which O appears between two consonants and the O is pronounced like a short "i"? | ||
| 2006 09 10 | From Henry Hook of Brooklyn, New York, one of the country's top puzzle makers: Think of a seven-letter word that names a certain implement with a sharp point. Reverse the order of the second, third, fourth, and fifth letter, leaving the other three letters in place. The result will name a popular TV series. This series has other types of sharp implements in use. | ||
| 2006 09 17 | Name a famous person whose first and last names, together, total eleven letters. This person's first and last names each contain the consecutive letters "I-L-L" in that order. Who is it? It's a person everybody knows. | ||
| 2006 09 24 | From Louis Sargent of Portland, Oregon: Think of a nine-letter word for something that is unplanned. Change the middle letter from I to U, and you'll get a new word for something that is always planned. What is it? | ||
| 2006 10 01 | This week's challenge is a special two-week challenge called, "Chained Sentences." The object is to write a sentence or other bit of writing in which the last two letters of each word are the first two letters of the next. For example: Give veteran Angela Lansbury rye yeast. Or, the heroic iconoclast stops psychological allusions. Send us your best entries. You can send up to three entries. Entries will be judged on meaning, naturalness of syntax, originality and overall elegance. And the longer sentences are more elegant than the shorter ones, but only if they make sense and read smoothly. | ||
| 2006 10 15 | From listener Michael Halpern of West Newton, Massachusetts: Name a well-known 20th century political figure, now deceased, with a two-syllable last name. The word spelled by the first syllable is a synonym of the word spelled by the second syllable backward. Who is this famous person? | ||
| 2006 10 22 | Name a famous American singer, one who's living. Six letters in the first name, six letters in the last. Write out this name from left to right. Cross out six consecutive letters from inside the name, leaving the start and end intact. The result will be the six-letter last name of a U.S. president. Name the singer and the president. | ||
| 2006 10 29 | Name a well-known writer of the 20th century, now deceased... an author of bestselling non-fiction. There are six letters in the first name and six in the last. Remove the letter "C" somewhere from this name. The remaining letters can be rearranged to name a famous fictional detective with four letters in the first name and seven in the last. What names are these? | ||
| 2006 11 05 | Take the word lather. Rearrange the letters and repeat them as often as necessary to name a famous literary work in 16 letters. Hint: The title of this literary work has three words, one of which is hyphenated. Name this famous literary work. | ||
| 2006 11 12 | From Doug Heller of Flourtown, Pennsylvania: Name a famous person in American politics, five letters in the first name, six letters in the last. You can rearrange this to spell the names of two countries, one of them five letters and the other six. The five-letter one is the current name of a country, the six letter one is an old name for a country, but both are well known. Who is the politician and what are the countries? | ||
| 2006 11 19 | Name a well-known American city, with 12 letters in its name, containing the letters of THANKS in left to right order, not necessarily consecutively. A hint: This is a city of more than 100,000 people. What city is it? | ||
| 2006 11 26 | From listener Dan Pitt of Palo Alto, California: Take the name "Sacramento," the capital of California. Rearrange these 10 letters to spell two words that are synonyms. | ||
| 2006 12 03 | There's a familiar five-word saying in which one of the words ends in the letter T and the other four words all start with T. What is the saying? | ||
| 2006 12 10 | From Adam Cohen of Brooklyn, New York: Take the names of two birds, four letters each. Place these names side by side, then move the first letter of the string to the end and you'll get an eight-letter word that describes where birds fly. What are the birds and where do they fly? Hint: the first bird is a common one everyone knows. The second bird is seen mainly in crossword puzzles. | ||
| 2006 12 17 | Think of a five-letter word starting with T. The word is plural. Add an S at the end, and you'll get a six-letter word that is also plural. What words are these? | ||
| 2006 12 24 | From listener Stuart Parker of Durham, New Hampshire: Think of two words, one starting with O, the other starting with R. Both end with ING, and they have the same number of letters. In one sense the words are synonyms and in another sense they're antonyms. What are the words? | ||
| 2006 12 31 | Think of a familiar two-word phrase, in the form, BLANK-OIL. And another familiar two word phrase, in the form, OIL-BLANK, in which the two words in the blanks are anagrams of each other. Here's a hint: Each of the anagrams is a regular four-letter word. What phrases are these? | ||
| 2007 01 07 | A special challenge open for two weeks. The object is to arrange 16 different letters of the alphabet into a 4-by-4 square, so that four common, uncapitalized words read across and four common uncapitalized words read down. To start, the second word across is ruly. This is the only sightly unusual word in the square. Every other word in it is one any school child would know. Can you do it? | ||
| 2007 01 21 | Name a famous film director, whose last name has two syllables. Phonetically these two syllables sound like words that are opposites of each other. What are the words and who is the director? Challenge from Mark Leeper of Old Bridge, New Jersey. | ||
| 2007 01 28 | Name a famous person, a living American, with a one-syllable first name and a one-syllable last name. Add a short "E" sound to the end of this person's first name, add a long "E" sound to the end of this person's last name, say the result out loud and it will sound like a common uncapitalized English word. Who is the person, and what is the word? This weeks challenge is from Daniel Scher of New York City. | ||
| 2007 02 04 | This challenge is literally a brain buster. Think of a word that can follow brain and precede buster, in each case completing a compound word or a familiar two-word phrase. What word is this? | ||
| 2007 02 11 | By using only the letters in the phrase "Triple Mocha," and repeating them as often as you wish, you can spell the name of another cold treat. The answer consists of four words, with a total of twenty one letters. What is it? This challenge is from from Steve Baggish of Arlington, Mass. | ||
| 2007 02 18 | The object of this challenge is to develop nine different mathematical expressions that equal eight. You must use the digits 2, 7 and one other. And that other digit must be a one in the first expression, two in the next expression and so on, up to nine. You can use a digit once and only once in each expression. You may use the four arithmetic symbols: plus, minus, times and divided by, as well as exponents and decimal points. You may use parenthesis as you need them. For example: Using the digits 2, 7 and 1 you can make the expressions 2+7-1= 8. This week's Challenge is from Robert Wainwright in New Rochelle, N.Y. | ||
| 2007 02 25 | From Ed Peg, Jr. of Champaign, Illinois. Take the thirteen letter word, Melancholiacs, add the letter R, then re-arrange all the letters to name a famous actress. Who is it? | ||
| 2007 03 04 | Name something to eat in two words, with seven letters in each word. All the letters in the first word are in the first half of the alphabet, A to M. All the letters in the second word are in the second half of the alphabet, N to Z. It's something good to eat, and the answer is plural. And here's a hint: the initials of the two words are A.S. | ||
| 2007 03 11 | Take a six-letter word used in a certain sport. Add the letter "I." Re-arrange the resulting seven letters to spell the first name of a famous actress. This actress's last name, in five letters, identifies the place where the sport is played. Who is the actress and what is the sports term? This challenge comes from renowned crossword constructor Henry Hook. | ||
| 2007 03 18 | Think of a well known two-word motto. Say it quickly and it will sound like a different two-word phrase for the result of some auto garage work. What is it? | ||
| 2007 03 25 | From Merl Reagle: Take the word, rejuvenate. Add two S's, and rearrange the resulting 12 letters to name a famous person (first and last names). Who is it? | ||
| 2007 04 01 | Take the names of two U.S. States, mix them all together, then rearrange the letters to form the names of two other U.S. States. What states are these? This challenge comes from David Edelheit. | ||
| 2007 04 08 | Take the phrase "saturated fat," which contains the letter pair "AT" three times, and think of another familiar two-word phrase, this time containing the lettered pair "SE" three times. Drop the "SE's" every time they appear and the remaining letters, in order, reading left to right, will name part of a car. What is it? | ||
| 2007 04 15 | Name something commonly found in an office. It is two words, with five letters in the first word and four letters in the last. Both words are the last names of famous singers. What is the office item, and who are the singers? This challenge comes from listener Smatt Read of Missoula, Mont. | ||
| 2007 04 22 | Name a famous character in literature and legend, two words, five letters in the first name, four letters in the last. The second letter of the first name is "R." Move this "R" to the second position of the second word, say the result out loud and you'll name a vehicle. Who is the character and what is the vehicle? | ||
| 2007 04 29 | Think of a six-letter plural word naming a certain category of foods. Change the first letter to a "C," then re-arrange the result to get an adjective that describes many of these foods. What is it? This challenge comes from Steve Baggish of Littleton, Mass. | ||
| 2007 05 06 | Think of two countries whose names start with the same three letters. Set these names side by side, drop the first three letters from each of the names, the remaining letters, in order, will spell the name of one of the longest rivers in the world. What are the countries and what is the river? | ||
| 2007 05 13 | Name certain internal parts of the human body, five letters, the word is plural. This word contains an "i." Change the "i" to an "o," spell the result backward, and you'll name another part of the body that's very near the first ones. What body parts are these? This challenge comes from Henry Hook of from Brooklyn, N.Y. | ||
| 2007 05 20 | Each answer is a familiar two-word phrase in which each word has four letters. The middle two letters of the first word are "hi" and the middle two letters of the second word are "ho." Two different phrases have this pattern. What are they? | ||
| 2007 05 27 | Name a European nationality, drop the first letter, insert a "b" somewhere later in this string of letters and the result will name a group of people found mainly in Asia. What groups of people are these? This challenge comes from Gary Lederman of New Haven, Conn. | ||
| 2007 06 03 | A two-part challenge. Either half will work. Take the name Isaac. Those letters are the initials of a classic song. Name the song. (Hint: the "I" does not stand for the pronoun and neither "A" is the article.) So think of a famous song that represents an "accidental acrostic" of Isaac — or think of any other legitimate "accidental acrostic" of five or more letters. | ||
| 2007 06 10 | From Gary Alvstad of Tustin, Calif. Think of a well-known U.S. city; the letters in its name can be rearranged into a symbol for 1,000, a symbol for 10, and two words meaning zero. What city is it? | ||
| 2007 06 17 | Take a familiar three-word title, with four letters in the first word, two letters in the next and six letters in the last. The last word contains the consecutive letters R-A-N. Change the R-A-N, to O-R and you'll get another familiar three-word phrase. What is it? | ||
| 2007 06 24 | Will has a problem. For a long time squirrels have been jumping from trees near his house onto his roof. His house has an attic fan, and the squirrels can enter the attic thru a hole cut in the roof for the fan. Will had the tree branches cut back from the house to prevent the squirrels from getting into the attic. Now the squirrels have started running up his front steps, jumping up on the railing at the top, jumping six feet onto the telephone wires leading into the house — and from there, jumping to the roof. As Will cannot get rid of the railing, the telephone wires or the front steps, how can Will prevent the squirrels from getting onto his roof? Send Will your solution. The winner will be the person who sends in the best, most creative, or most amusing solution, bearing in mind that it has to work. | ||
| 2007 07 01 | Name a place where most people would like to go. The name of this place contains the letter "V" somewhere inside it. Replace the "V" with "T" and "H" to name a person you wouldn't expect to go there. Who is it and what's the place? This challenge comes from listener Jerry Cordaro of Cleveland, Ohio. | ||
| 2007 07 08 | Name two outdoor sports or games in seven letters. The first two letters of the first sports name are the same as the first two letters in the second sports name. And the last two letters of the first sports name are the same as the last two letters in the second sports name. Hint: The names do not end in "N-G." What sports or outdoor games are these? | ||
| 2007 07 15 | Take the two-word name of a well known city in Michigan, and its not Ann Arbor. Add the letter "E" to the first world and rearrange the letters, you'll name something people try to avoid. Add the letter "E" to the second world and rearrange the letters, you'll name something else people try to avoid. And here's a hint: Both words start with the same letter, and both words end with the same letter. What's the city and what are the words? This challenge comes from Dan Katz of the National Puzzlers League. | ||
| 2007 07 22 | From listener Alan Hochbaum of Atlanta, Georgia: Think of an adjective that would describe a fox. Remove all the letters in the even positions — second, fourth, sixth, etc. The remaining letters, in order, will answer this clue: Fox's natural rival... what is it? | ||
| 2007 07 29 | From Henry Hook. Name a well-known movie in five letters, two syllables. The vowel sound in the first syllable is a short "i." Change that vowel to a long "i" and phonetically, you'll name another famous movie, in six letters. What movies are these? | ||
| 2007 08 05 | Think of a six-letter word ending in a vowel that names something worn outdoors. Change the vowel to a "G" and you'll name a popular outdoor activity. What activity is it? | Solved March 2013 with grep. | |
| 2007 08 12 | From Martin Schneider of Jersey City, N.J. Think of a pair of words that commonly go together. They're part of a larger group, but this pair of words is commonly said together. The first word contains a "W" sound without the letter "W" being in it. And the second word contains a "W" that is silent. (The pronunciation of the word wouldn't be changed if you remove the "W.") Name this pair of words. Hint: These words are probably said multiple times during the course of this program. | ||
| 2007 08 19 | Rearrange the letters of NITROGEN to get a familiar word everyone knows, that did not exist 10 years ago. What is it? | ||
| 2007 08 26 | From Steve Baggish of Arlington, Massachusetts: Name an event at which food is served (eight letters). Inside this word is the name of a food in four letters. Remove these four letters, and the remaining four letters, in order, will name another food. What words are these? | ||
| 2007 09 02 | Rearrange the letters in CHARADES, to make two words that are synonyms. What are they? | Found the answer with the computer in December 2012. | |
| 2007 09 09 | From listener Scott Murphy of Lawrence, Kan.: Take the word "near." If you shift each of its consonants to the next consonant of the alphabet, and each of its vowels to the next vowel in the alphabet, you get the word "pies." Find a one-word title of a famous novel (also made into a film) that — if you shift each of its consonants and vowels in the same manner — gives you another one-word title of a famous novel that was also made into a film. What novels and films are these? | ||
| 2007 09 16 | It's a classic bit of word play. Name a certain shop some people visit every day. Reverse the order of the last four letters, leaving the other letters untouched, and you'll get a new word that means fragility. | Found the answer in March 2013 with much computing. | |
| 2007 09 23 | Name something a football player wears, in eight letters. Rearrange the eight letters into two four-letter words associated with a fraud. What words are these? | ||
| 2007 09 30 | Take the word "underachievement," change one letter in it, and rearrange the result to get a famous actress, first and last name. What actress is it? This challenge comes from frequent contributor Merle Reagle. | ||
| 2007 10 07 | Name a well-known city in the United States, two words, 10 letters altogether. Add the letter A at the front, add the city's two-letter state postal abbreviation at the end, the resulting 13-letter chain will be palindromic, that is, it will read backward and forward the same. What city is this? | Found the answer. (Used the computer solely to find those state codes whose second letter is A.) | |
| 2007 10 14 | Name a country in 11 letters that has an R in its name. Change the R to a K. Rearrange all the letters to name three makes of automobiles. What is the country, and what are the autos? | ||
| 2007 10 21 | From Jeffery Harris of Nashville, Tennessee: Think of a word that can follow the word "peanut" to form a familiar two-word phrase. If you take the first letter and move it to the next-to-the-last position, you get another word that can also follow "peanut" to form another familiar two-word phrase. What are the words? | ||
| 2007 10 28 | Name something you might wear in the summer. The answer will have two words, with five letters in the first word and three letters in the second. Remove the next-to-last letter and read the result backward and you'll get a word that means "blocks." What words are these? | ||
| 2007 11 04 | Take a common three-letter word, move each letter three places later in the alphabet, the resulting letters can be re-arranged to spell a new word that is a synonym of the original. What are the two words? And here's a hint: all three letters in both words are in the first half of the alphabet. This challenge comes from Steve Baggish of Arlington, Mass. | ||
| 2007 11 11 | An opera-related challenge. Take the title Il Trovatore by Verdi. Drop one letter. Rearrange the remaining 10 letters to spell two synonyms. What are they? | ||
| 2007 11 18 | Think of the name of a current world leader. Taking the letters in the first half of the first name, and the letters in the first half of the last name, you can rearrange them to spell the language of this leader's country. Who's the leader and what's the language? This challenge comes from Adam Cohen from Brooklyn, N.Y. | ||
| 2007 11 25 | Think of a familiar man's name in four letters. Change the first letter to the next letter in the alphabet, and you'll get another familiar man's name. What names are these? | ||
| 2007 12 02 | Take the word "stepparents." Rearrange these 11 letters to spell two words that are opposites. What are they? | I found the answer with computer help in May 2012. | |
| 2007 12 09 | Think of a well-known actor. Take the first five letters of his first name, and the last five letters of his last name, together, in order. These letters spell the name of a major American city. Who is the actor and what is the city? | ||
| 2007 12 16 | From listener Stephen Heinemann of Peoria, Ill. Think of a common six-letter word with the following unusual properties: The third and fourth letters are consonants, which are silent, and the fifth letter is a "T" which is pronounced twice. What word is this? | ||
| 2007 12 23 | Name a mountain range somewhere in the world, move the third letter to the front, and name a nationality that is not near that range. Name the mountain and name the people. | Found the answer in May 2012 using a list of mountain ranges. | |
| 2007 12 30 | From listener Scott Gardener of Edwardsville, Ill. Take the equation 5 + 5 + 5 = 550. Make this equation true by adding a single line. Hint: The answer is not to put a slash through the equal sign to make it "not equal." | I found the answer in May 2012. | |
| 2008 01 06 | Take the phrase, Yeshiva Center, a place of Jewish studies, rearrange these 13 letters to name a well-known movie. It has three words in its name. What movie is it? | Found the answer in May 2012 using the Anagram program on my Windows PC. | |
| 2008 01 13 | From listener Larisa Kuhar of Colorado Springs, Colo. Name a famous American novelist whose last name contains nine letters. Drop the first and last letters, and rearrange the remaining seven letters to name another famous American novelist. Who are these authors? Hint: The first novelist is male, and the second one is female. | ||
| 2008 01 20 | Take the phrase, "right lane," spoonerize it — that is, switch the initial consonant sounds — and you get "light rain." Think of a familiar two-word phrase for an activity in a riding stable, spoonerize it and you'll get another familiar two-word phrase for something a stable worker handles. What are these phrases? | ||
| 2008 01 27 | From Toby Gottfried of Santa Ana, Calif. Take the three bird names egret, crane and owl. Rearrange the 13 letters to spell three other bird names. They are all common names. What are they? | ||
| 2008 02 03 | From Alan Hochbaum of Atlanta. Name a sport that has only one vowel in it. Change the vowel to a different vowel. If you read the result backward, you'll get a piece of equipment used in that sport. What's the sport and the piece of equipment? | Found the answer within a couple minutes in June 2012. | |
| 2008 02 10 | Name a city in six letters that's a popular tourists destination. Divide this name in half, move the first three letters to the end keeping everything else in order, you'll name some places where people like to relax. What are they? | Found the answer in June 2012 using a list of cities. | |
| 2008 02 17 | From listener Myron Beck, from University Park, Md. There's a seven-letter word for something that is a measure of wealth and power. The first four letters name an animal that is a symbol of power. And the last four letters name another animal that is a symbol of power. What's the word? | ||
| 2008 02 24 | Take the name Seattle. The letters in the odd positions are S-A-T-E, which spell SATE. Think of another U.S. city name, in seven letters, in which the letters in the odd position spell a common four-letter exclamation. What's the city and what's the exclamation? | Found the answer, May 2012, using a list of cities. | |
| 2008 03 02 | From Jed Martinez of Margate City, Fla. Take the letters in the word "marionettes" and rearrange them to spell the names of two animals that are related. What are they? | ||
| 2008 03 09 | Name two vehicles, put the letter A between them and the result will be a word naming what the two vehicles might be in. Name the vehicles. | ||
| 2008 03 16 | From Ed Peg Jr., who runs Mathpuzzle.com. Using the middle row of letters on a keyboard, name something that has eight stars. Hint: The answer is spelled in 10 letters. | I found the answer in May 2012. | |
| 2008 03 23 | From listener Dan Asimov of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Name a well known historical figure with a one-word six-letter name. The first and fourth letters are the same, the second and fifth letters are the same, and the third letter is one letter before the sixth, alphabetically. Who is it? | ||
| 2008 03 30 | Think of an adjective starting with "over." What follows "over" is a word that has a homophone — that is, a word that sounds the same but is spelled differently. For example, in "overcast," "cast" is a homophone of "caste." Think of an adjective starting with "over" that is frequently used with the homophone of the word that follows. What is it? | ||
| 2008 04 06 | From Jeffery Harris of Nashville, Tenn. Think of a six-letter hyphenated word meaning "eager." Change the fourth and the sixth letters to get another hyphenated word meaning "less than eager." What are the words? | ||
| 2008 04 13 | From Ruth Warren of Albany, N.Y. Name some places where people eat, add one letter at the end of the word, and you'll get an adjective that may describe the places' food. What are the words? | ||
| 2008 04 20 | Take the title "Candid Camera." Write down the first appearance of each letter, ignoring any repeats, in the order these letters appear. You get C, A, N, D, I, M, E, R. By doing the same thing to the title of what other well-known TV program do you get the letters S, E, A, M, T, R? | ||
| 2008 04 27 | From Andrew Chaikin of San Francisco. Insert a long E sound after the first letter of "bond" and phonetically you get "be-ond." Insert a long E sound after the first letter of "renter" and you get "re-enter." Name something found in outer space. Insert a long E sound after the first letter, and you'll name a resident of a major American city. What are the words? | ||
| 2008 05 04 | Rearrange the letters of "assembly hall" to spell three loud sounds. | ||
| 2008 05 11 | From Leonette Morrison of Marin County, Calif. Think of a seven-letter word meaning "entrance." Switch the second and fourth letters and you'll get another seven-letter word meaning "exit." What are the words? | Found the answer without the computer. | |
| 2008 05 18 | Think of a well-known person on TV who has eight letters in their first name and four letters in their last. The last name consists of: consonant, vowel, consonant, consonant. If you change the vowel in the last name to an "a," the result will be a word that is defined by the first name. | ||
| 2008 05 25 | The phrases "part time" and "time share" are familiar phrases with "time" in them, and the adjoining words, "part" and "share," are synonyms. Find two phrases that work similarly with the word "child." What are they? | I did not find any of the three NPR answers but my answer seems reasonable. | |
| 2008 06 01 | From Lou Scott Bretzke, of Barnhart, Mo.: Name a famous male movie star. Change the first letter of his first name to a G and change the last letter of his last name to a T. The result will be two words that are synonyms. Who is the movie star and what are the words? | ||
| 2008 06 08 | This brainteaser comes from Serhiy Grabarchuk, Peter Grabarchuk and Serhiy Grabarchuk Jr., a family of puzzle makers in Ukraine: A calculator displays a five-digit number. The first four digits are 8735. These digits form a logical sequence. What is the fifth number in the series? | ||
| 2008 06 15 | From Ed Pegg Jr., who runs the Web site Mathpuzzle.com, we have this puzzler: Rearrange the letters of ENGLISH TEA to name a famous person with a prominent mustache — first and last. Who is it? | ||
| 2008 06 22 | From Lisa Johnson of Earlysville, Va.: Think of a famous TV personality whose last name has six letters. Drop the last letter, reverse the order of the remaining five letters, and you will get the name of another famous TV personality. Who are they? | ||
| 2008 06 29 | From a 19th century trade card advertising Bassetts Horehound Troches, a remedy for coughs and colds: A man buys 20 pencils for 20 cents and gets three kinds of pencils in return. Some of the pencils cost 4 cents each, some are two for a penny and the rest are four for a penny. How many pencils of each type does the man get? | ||
| 2008 07 06 | Take the word "contaminated." Rearrange the 12 letters to get a two-word phrase for a familiar sign. | Found the answer with anagram -2 in June 2012. | |
| 2008 07 13 | Name a famous person from early American history with five letters in the first name and five letters in the last. Six letters of the alphabet are used in this name, some of them repeated. These same letters make up the name of another person in early American history whose first and last names have six and four letters, respectively. Who are these two people? | ||
| 2008 07 20 | Think of a six-letter word that ends in a silent letter. Remove that letter and you'll get a five-letter word that ends in two silent letters. What are the words? | ||
| 2008 07 27 | Re-arrange the letters in the word "egomaniac" to spell a sign seen in many stores. | Solved this in May 2012 using an anagram generator. | |
| 2008 08 03 | From Gary Alvstad of Tustin, Calif. Start with an eight-letter mathematics term. Remove the first, fourth and eighth letters to produce a synonym of the original word. What is it? | Found the answer in May 2012. | |
| 2008 08 10 | Think of a familiar brand name ending in the letters G-S. Change the G-S to an O and you'll get the brand name of a different product. What is it? Hint: The first word has five letters, and the second has four. | Came up with the answer with no computer help. (June 2012) | |
| 2008 08 17 | From listener Tom Denk of Ann Arbor, Mich.: Take the two-letter postal abbreviations for three U.S. states. Add the letter A. Then add the two-letter postal abbreviations from three more states. You'll have 13 letters in all. Reading from left to right, you'll get a familiar three-word phrase that's seen on many products. (Hint: The three words in the answer phrase have four, two and seven letters respectively.) What's the phrase? | ||
| 2008 08 24 | Think of a person's job title that contains the consecutive letters C-H. Move the C-H to the front, then take what used to be the first letter and put it where the C-H was. The result will be another person whom the first person tries to catch. What words are these? | Found the answer in June 2012. | |
| 2008 08 31 | From Ken Marx, of Mount Vernon, NY: Think of a 9-letter word with no repeated letters. The letters in the odd positions (the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th positions) are vowels. All five vowels, A, E, I, O and U, appear once each in some order. What word is this? | Found the answer with much computer help June 2012. | |
| 2008 09 07 | From Merle Regal: Kris Kristofferson's last name starts with his four-letter first name. Can you name a famous American whose last name ends with his four-letter first name? Hint: The last name has seven letters. | ||
| 2008 09 14 | Take the phrases "move over" and "local call." In each case, the last three letters of the first word are the first three letters in the next. Name a familiar animal, in two words, in which the last three letters of the first word are the first three letters of the next. Hints: It's a furry, four-footed animal that can grow up to 6 feet in length. The first word in its name has five letters, the second word has eight. | Came up with the second word without the computer but used Wikipedia for the first word. | |
| 2008 09 21 | From Eric Berlin of Milford, Conn.: Take a common two-word phrase with four letters in each word. Each word has a single O as its vowel. If you add an R somewhere in the second word, the two words become opposites. What is the phrase? | Found the answer in May 2012. | |
| 2008 09 28 | Name a popular dessert that has two syllables, in which the vowel sound in the first syllable is a short E. Change this to a long A, and phonetically you'll name a famous singer. Who is it? | ||
| 2008 10 05 | From Ed Pegg Jr. of mathpuzzle.com: Rearrange the 11 letters of "interaction" to make two closely related words. What words are they? | I found the answer using anagram -2. | |
| 2008 10 12 | From Scott Weiss of Walkertown, Md.: Name the sixth thing in a well-known series. Change its third letter to the next letter of the alphabet. Then rearrange all the letters, and you'll get the seventh thing in the series. What names are these? | Very easy. June 2012. | |
| 2008 10 19 | Name a famous actress with four letters in her first name and five letters in her last name. Drop the last letter of her first name and the last two letters of her last name. The remaining letters, in order, will name a well-known world capital. Who is the actress and what is the capital? | ||
| 2008 10 26 | From Ed Pegg Jr., of Mathpuzzle.com: "Nonclassical analysis" contains eight different letters. Two of them occur once, two of them occur twice, two of them occur three times, and two of them occur four times each. Which sports team's name has this same property? | ||
| 2008 11 02 | The names of Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton have something unusual in common. In fact, these are the only presidents in U.S. history whose names share this characteristic. What is it? | ||
| 2008 11 09 | Take the names of two animals. Drop the third letter from each name. Read the remaining letters, in order, from left to right, and you'll name a world capital. What is it? | ||
| 2008 11 16 | Name a famous author whose last name starts with the letter C. Cross out four letters in it. The remaining letters, in order, will name another famous author also starting with C. Who are these two writers? | ||
| 2008 11 23 | From listener Joshua Saks of Morristown, N.J.: Name a famous singer from the past who has five letters in his or her first name and six letters in the last. Rearrange the letters of the last name, plus the last letter of the first name (seven letters in all) to name a place where this singer famously performed. Who is the singer and what is the place? | ||
| 2008 11 30 | From listener Henry Hook of Brooklyn, N.Y.: Think of the name of a lawbreaker that starts with S. Remove the S and one other letter, and the remaining letters, in order, will name another lawbreaker. | ||
| 2008 12 07 | The words "chic" and "squeak" rhyme with each other, even though they have no letters in common. Think of three words containing a total of 12 or more letters that rhyme and have no letters in common. The words must be common, uncapitalized words, and each will have just one syllable. | ||
| 2008 12 14 | From listener Martin Eiger of Montville, N.J.: Name a musical instrument, change the third letter to a different letter and double the last letter. The result will name a famous singer, in two words. Who is the singer and what is the instrument? | ||
| 2008 12 21 | Name two things Santa Claus carries; put them together by reading them one after the other. The result will be a musical instrument. What is it? | ||
| 2008 12 28 | From Ed Pegg Jr., of Mathpuzzle.com: Take the phrase "counting down the days." Remove four letters, and rearrange the remaining letters to spell an appropriate number. What is it? | Extremely easy. | |
| 2009 01 04 | From Louis Sargent of Portland, Ore.: Take the last name of a famous actress in 2 syllables and 9 letters. Transpose the syllables and you'll have, phonetically, the word for a common ailment. Who is the person and what is the ailment? | ||
| 2009 01 11 | Take a very common three-letter word. Say the letters phonetically and together they'll sound like a six-letter word meaning knockout. What word is it? | Found the answer with minimal computer use. | |
| 2009 01 18 | From listener Dave Shukan from San Marino, Calif.: Name an implement that might be in a kitchen drawer. It's a compound word. Add the letter S after each half of the compound, and you'll get two synonyms. What implement is it? | ||
| 2009 01 25 | Think of a word that starts and ends with the letter 'm' as in Mary, drop the first 'm,' insert an 'o' somewhere and you'll get a new word that means the same thing as the first word. What words are these? | Found with the computer. | |
| 2009 02 01 | From listener Doug Heller of Flourtown, Pa.: Think of a famous living woman whose first and last names are each accented on the second syllable. Say the second syllable of her last name, followed by the second syllable of her first name, and phonetically you'll get a word meaning very attractive woman. Who is it? | ||
| 2009 02 08 | From Charlie Pyne of Norfolk, Mass.: Take the name of a country, interchange two consecutive letters, and add an "e" after the fifth letter. The result will be two synonyms, one after the other. What is the country, and what are the synonyms? | Computer and visual scanning of choices. | |
| 2009 02 15 | Take the name "Pensacola," remove one letter and rearrange the letters that remain to get the first and last name of a famous person in American history. Who is it? | Used the computer to obtain a list of 59 first names. Then stared at the remaining letters. | |
| 2009 02 22 | From Rich Silvestri of Valley Stream, N.Y.: Name an item often found on a desk. It's a hyphenated word. Add an "S" to the beginning of each part, and you'll get two synonyms. What's the item? | ||
| 2009 03 01 | From crossword constructor Merl Reagle: Take the phrase "atlas of the world," change the "E" to an "R," and rearrange all the letters to name two cities that are closely related. | The computer helped reduce the possibilities to just a few. | |
| 2009 03 08 | Think of a familiar phrase in five words that means "tongue-tied." One word in it has one letter, one word has two letters, one has three, one has four and one has five — though not necessarily in that order. What is the phrase? | ||
| 2009 03 15 | From Adam Cohen of Brooklyn, N.Y.: Name a female host of a popular TV program. Rearrange the letters of her first name to name a god in mythology. Rearrange the letters in her last name to name a type of god that this god is not. Who is the TV host and what are the anagrams? | ||
| 2009 03 22 | Here's an example: Take the letters I, L, R and T. Insert a trigram (three-letter group) twice into these letters to complete a familiar 10-letter word. If you add S, P and O, you would get the answer, "spoilsport." Now, take R, F, E and R. Insert a trigram twice somewhere in these letters to complete a familiar two-word phrase. What phrase is it? | Used the computer heavily to find the answer. Especially helpful was the two word lists of anagrams. | |
| 2009 03 29 | From listener Louis Sergeant of Portland, Ore.: Name a country somewhere in the world. Insert a "Z." The result can be broken up into 3 consecutive words. The first word is a popular brand name. The second word is something this product uses, and the third word is the kind of product it is. What's the country? | Found the answer by looking at a list of country names. | |
| 2009 04 05 | Think of a four-letter word with a short "A" sound, and specifically the "A" is the second letter. Switch the third and fourth letters and you'll get a new word, also with a short "A" sound. The two words go together to make a phrase that names something that existed from 1982 to 2000. What is it? | Found answer with the computer. | |
| 2009 04 12 | From listener Jack Lechner in New York City. Think of the name of a country. Change its first letter to a "D," and then read the word backward. The result will be a creature that lives in that country. What's the country and what's the creature? | Found the answer by looking at country names. | |
| 2009 04 19 | Take the phrase "more corruptness." Rearrange these 15 letters to name a popular magazine. Tip: It's a magazine this phrase definitely does not apply to, so it's more of an "anti-gram" than an anagram! | anagram -2 gives the answer quickly. | |
| 2009 04 26 | From puzzle-maker Rudolfo Kurchan in Argentina: If 5=4, 7=5, 8=1 and 26=9, what does 12 equal? | ||
| 2009 05 03 | Take a common five-letter first name that contains one V. Change the V to an L, rearrange the letters and you'll get a familiar last name. The first and last names go together to name a famous star living in Hollywood. Who is it? | ||
| 2009 05 10 | From listener David Hill of New York City: If 5 = 4, 7 = 17, 9 = 25 and 35 = 2, what does 14 equal? | ||
| 2009 05 17 | Think of a six-letter word in which the third letter is "S". Remove the "S" and you'll be left with a five-letter word that means the opposite of the six-letter one. What is it? Clue: The six-letter word has two syllables. The five-letter one has one. | I did not have Shortz's answer. Was I close? | |
| 2009 05 24 | Think of a famous person whose first and last names both have seven letters. Only two different consonants appear in this full name, each used more than once. Out of the 14 letters in the name, 13 of them appear in the first half of the alphabet, A-M. Who is this person? | ||
| 2009 05 31 | From listener Matt Jones of Portland, Ore.: Take "Indian wrestle," and rearrange the 13 letters to get three words that are all related. What are they? Hint: The word lengths are five, four and four letters, respectively. | Found the answer with the computer, essentially using anagram and anagram -2. | |
| 2009 06 07 | From listener Doug Heller of Flourtown, Pa.: Think of a famous TV personality with five letters in the first name and four letters in the last name. Change the first letter of this celebrity's first name to M. Drop the first letter of the last name. Read the result in order, and it will spell something this person is famously known for doing many times. Who is this person? | ||
| 2009 06 14 | Think of one word that starts with "T-E" and another word that starts with "S-T" — and they're synonyms. Hint: The "T-E" word has two syllables; the "S-T" word has one. | Found the answer by examining the two lists of words. | |
| 2009 06 21 | From Henry Hook: Take the name Kevin Kline. The first and last names both have five letters. Written in capital letters — KEVIN KLINE — each name consists of exactly 13 straight lines and no curves. Name a well-known TV personality with five-letter first and last names. Each name contains exactly 14 straight lines and no curves. Who is this? | Found the answer with the computer. | |
| 2009 06 28 | Take "tire" and "exhaust." They're both things a car has. But as verbs, in a noncar sense, they're synonyms. The challenge is to name two articles of apparel — things to wear — each with four letters; and as verbs, in a nonapparel sense, the two words are synonyms. What words are they? | Used computer to find possible words. | |
| 2009 07 05 | It comes from Craig Hamilton, editor for the National Puzzlers' League. Think of two terms that mean "to divulge information." Write them one after the other with no spaces between words. The result is a nine-letter word for a card that you might hold in a card game. What card is it? | ||
| 2009 07 12 | It comes from listener Ben Bass of Chicago. A few weeks ago, we had a puzzle that asked you to write the name KEVIN KLINE, pointing out that when it is written in capital letters, each name consists of 13 straight lines, with no curves. We asked you to name another celebrity whose first and last names also have five letters in which each name consists of 14 straight lines. The answer was VANNA WHITE. Here's this week's challenge: Name a genre of music in two five-letter words, each word consisting of exactly 15 straight lines and no curves. | The computer helped enormously. | |
| 2009 07 19 | Think of a word starting with G and ending in R. Remove the G and R, and the remaining letters can be rearranged to spell a synonym of the original word. What words are these? | Found the answer with the computer. | |
| 2009 07 26 | Name a well-known U.S. city in six letters. Drop the first and fourth letters so the remaining four letters, in order, will name another well-known U.S. city. What cities are these? Hint: The two cities are in adjoining states. | Used the computer to find the answer. | |
| 2009 08 02 | This comes from crossword puzzle creator Merl Reagle: Take a slang term for money. Change one of its letters to the next letter of the alphabet. Rearrange the result, and you'll get another slang term for money. What are the words? | Shortz had a different answer, but mine is good. | |
| 2009 08 09 | A waitress walks up to a breakfast table with five logicians and asks, "Does everyone here want coffee?" The first logician says, "I don't know." The second logician says, "I don't know." The third logician says, "I don't know." The fourth logician says, "I don't know." And the fifth logician says, "No." Who did the waitress bring coffee to — and why? | Found answer by logical thinking. | |
| 2009 08 16 | Think of a common street sign with three words: four letters in the first word, four letters in the second word and three letters in the last. Drop the last letter of the first word in the sign and you'll get a new word that is a synonym of the last word in the sign. What is the sign? | Found by thinking. | |
| 2009 08 23 | From Rick Rubenstein of Sunnyvale, Calif.: Think of two words that each mean "bowler." Put them together, one after the other, and you'll name a sport in two words that is not related to bowling. | ||
| 2009 08 30 | Name a famous leader in world history — the name by which this person is usually known. Change the first letter of the leader's name to the previous letter of the alphabet, rearrange the result, and you'll name what this person was the leader of. Who is it, and where was this person the leader? | ||
| 2009 09 06 | This challenge comes with help from math puzzle expert Ed Pegg. Take the names of the first nine elements of the periodic table: hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and fluorine. Select one letter from each of these names in order to spell a familiar nine-letter word. Hint: It's a word used in math. | Found it by coming up with math words. | |
| 2009 09 13 | From listener Michael Duran of Topsham, Maine: Take a familiar French word with three letters. It's a word everyone knows. Then take its meaning in English, also with three letters. Say these two words one after the other, and phonetically they'll sound like another French word everyone knows. What word is it? | ||
| 2009 09 20 | Name a well-known university. Move the last letter three places earlier in the name. The result will be a phrase meaning "represent." What's the university and what's the phrase? | Found the answer by use of a dictionary, not the computer. (Well, a dictionary on the web.) | |
| 2009 09 27 | From listener Ron Aldridge of New Jersey: Take the family name of a famous world leader in history. Drop the last letter, then switch the last two letters that remain. The result will name the country that this leader led. Who is it and what is the country? | I found the answer by scanning a list of countries. | |
| 2009 10 04 | It's an extension of the on-air challenge: Some of the chains of "C" words in the puzzle can be extended in either direction. For example, the chain "cold-cash-cow" could be lengthened by adding "common" at the start to make "common cold," and "college" at the end to make "cow college." The five-word circuit would then be "common-cold-cash-cow-college." The challenge is to find a chain of "C" words to connect "carbon" to "circuit." Will's chain has seven words between "carbon" and "circuit." The answer doesn't have to match Will's, but each word has to start with "C," and each has to combine with the words before and after to make a compound word or familiar two-word phrase. | ||
| 2009 10 11 | From listener Doug Heller of Flourtown, Pa.: Think of a beverage with a 2-word name. The first word has 3 letters and the second word has 9. Arrange the letters of the 9-letter word in a 3x3 box with the first 3 letters across the top, the middle 3 across the center and the last 3 across the bottom. If you've named the right beverage, you can read down the center column to get the 3-letter word in the beverage's name. What beverage is this? | Found answer by thinking. | |
| 2009 10 18 | This challenge comes from listener Adam Cohen of Brooklyn, N.Y. Take the name of the singer Bonnie Raitt, rearrange these 11 letters to be two words that are loosely synonyms. What are they? | Found answer with anagram -2. | |
| 2009 10 25 | Take the name "Boris Karloff." It contains the letters of "Oslo" in left-to-right order (although not consecutively). Now write down these three names: Leonardo da Vinci, Frank Sinatra, Stephen Douglas. Each conceals the name of another world capital in left-to-right order, although not in consecutive letters. What capitals are these? | Found the answers with no computer help; not even a list of capitals. | |
| 2009 11 01 | From listener Ed Pegg Jr., who runs MathPuzzle.com: Take the name "Noah Adams," as in the former host of All Things Considered. Add the phrase "false teeth." You can rearrange all 19 letters to name a famous work of literature. What is it? | ||
| 2009 11 08 | If you write "WOW" in capital letters and hold up a mirror at the side of the word, you'll see "WOW" perfectly reflected in the mirror. Here's the puzzle: Think of a nationality and write it in capital letters. If you remove one stroke from the first letter, and one stroke from the last letter, and hold up a mirror at the side, the name of the nationality will be perfectly reflected in the mirror. What nationality is it? | Found the answer by looking at a list of nationalities. | |
| 2009 11 15 | This comes from Henry Hook of Brooklyn, one of the country's top crossword constructors, and it's a rather tricky puzzle: Name an auto manufacturer and a telecommunications company, both well-known companies, whose names are exact opposites of each other. | I had an answer that might be considered somewhat OK. Shortz had a better answer. | |
| 2009 11 22 | From listener Ben Bass of Chicago: Think of a word containing the consecutive letters O-K. Remove the O-K, and you'll get a new word that's a synonym of the first word. What words are these? | I used the computer and got a different answer which seems reasonable. | |
| 2009 11 29 | Think of three six-letter words starting with B, G and F. The last five letters of the words are the same and in the same order, yet none of the words rhymes with any of the others. What words are these? | Found the answer with the computer. | |
| 2009 12 06 | It comes from our old pal Merl Reagle, whose Sunday crosswords appear in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and many other newspapers. Take the letters in "PLEASANTLY," plus the letter I. Rearrange these 11 letters to name a well-known place. What is it? | anagram -2 found the answer. | |
| 2009 12 13 | It comes from Scott Kim, the puzzle maker for Discover Magazine. He has a 2010 page-a-day calendar just out called "Mind Benders and Brainteasers." Here's one of the puzzles in it: Name five two-digit numbers that are evenly spaced out — like 32, 34, 36, 38 and 40 — in which all 10 digits from 0 to 9 are used once each. What numbers are these? | Found answer by writing a program. | |
| 2009 12 20 | Think of a familiar two-word phrase, five letters in each word. The second word starts with P. The phrase names something that is nice to have after dinner. Change the P to an S, and you'll get another familiar phrase that names something that's nice to have before you start a job. What phrases are these? | Computer found the answer. | |
| 2009 12 27 | Take the phrase "pray when." Double four of these letters. Using these letters plus the four singles, rearrange all 12 letters to spell a familiar phrase. What phrase is it? | ||
| 2010 01 03 | This challenge comes from Ed Pegg Jr., who runs MathPuzzle.com. Write down the digits from 2 to 7, in order. Add two mathematical symbols to get an expression equaling 2010. What symbols are these? | Found answer with some computer use. | |
| 2010 01 10 | Think of a familiar 10-letter hyphenated word that uses all seven letters of the alphabet from "F" to "L" plus three other letters of your choosing. What word is it? It's a word everyone knows, and it's in some dictionaries. | ||
| 2010 01 17 | This comes from Mike Reese, producer of The Simpsons and co-creator of The Critic. Will Shortz is looking for the full names of well-known female TV stars — one actress and one comedian. The first four letters of the actress' first name are the last four letters of the comedian's last name, and the first four letters of the comedian's first name are the last four letters of the actress' last name. Who are these well-known entertainers? | ||
| 2010 01 24 | Think of a common first name for a boy, starting with the letter E, two syllables. Rearrange all of the letters to form a common first name for a girl, also with two syllables. What names are these? | Found the answer by the computer. | |
| 2010 01 31 | Take four words: Croquet; Lunette; Renoir; Turnstile. They are all two-syllable words, but aside from that, they all have something unusual in common: a property that virtually no other words have. What property is it? Hint: Think phonetically. | ||
| 2010 02 07 | The nickname of well known queen is an anagram of the name of a well known king. What are their names? | ||
| 2010 02 14 | Take the name "Proust," as in Marcel Proust. Using these six letters, repeating them as often as necessary, spell a familiar bumper sticker with three words, 16 letters altogether. What bumper sticker is it? | Found answer by looking at a website that sells bumper stickers. | |
| 2010 02 21 | Take this word: Brooklynite. Rearrange these 11 letters to get the names of two world capitals. What are they? | Anagram -2 immediately gave the answer. | |
| 2010 02 28 | This comes from listener Al Gorey of Cozy Lake, N.J.: Name an animal in two syllables. Add an S at the end of the first syllable, and you'll get the name of an old TV show. The second syllable, phonetically, is the name of a current TV show. What animal is this? | ||
| 2010 03 07 | Take the phrase "Receiving Line". Rearrange these 13 letters to name a common profession. | Success using anagram -2. | |
| 2010 03 14 | From Brett Yost via the Internet: Think of two words that are opposites, beginning with the letters H and M. Change the H to an M. Say the result out loud, and you'll have the name of something nice to eat. What is it? | Success. | |
| 2010 03 21 | Take the plural name of one animal and the singular name of another animal. Say the two words out loud one after the other and you'll name a country. What are the animals, and what is the country? | ||
| 2010 03 28 | This week's challenge comes from listener Mike Reiss, a former writer and producer for The Simpsons who co-created The Critic. What six-letter word beginning with the letter "S" would be the same if it started with "TH?" | I failed to catch on. | |
| 2010 04 04 | From Eric Iverson of Eagan, Minn.: Think of a 15-letter word that is spelled without using any of the letters T, A, X, E or S. And it means how Stephen King writes. | Found answer by computer. | |
| 2010 04 10 | From listener Dan Pitt of Palo Alto, Calif.: Name a unit of length in the plural form. Rearrange the letters to spell two units of weight, also in the plural form. What units are these? | ||
| 2010 04 11 | Name something you might order in a restaurant — two words, eight letters all together, with four letters in the first word and four letters in the last. Drop the last letter. The remaining seven letters will read backward and forward the same. | Found answer with the computer. | |
| 2010 04 18 | This is a spin-off of the On-Air Challenge. Name a country in six letters. Change two consecutive letters in it to one letter to get the name of another country. What countries are these? | I failed. | |
| 2010 04 25 | From listener Doug Heller of Flourtown, Pa.: Name a famous person whose first name is seven letters long and ends with the name of a bird, and whose last name is also seven letters but starts with the name of a bird. Hint: One of these birds is the general name for the bird, and the other is a specific type of bird. Who is it? | ||
| 2010 05 02 | Write down the number "100." Underneath it write "100/500." How the numbers align doesn't matter. What U.S. city does this represent? | ||
| 2010 05 09 | From listener Oren Stern of Santa Clara, Calif.: Think of a big name in the oil business, then drop the first and last letters to get another big name in the oil business. What names are these? | ||
| 2010 05 16 | From Ed Pegg Jr., the creator of the website MathPuzzle.com: Rearrange the letters in the phrase "rabbit season" into two related words. What are the words? | anagram -2 worked, though I was uncertain about the meaning of "related words". | |
| 2010 05 23 | Name a country that is spelled as a solid word. Change two consecutive letters in it to a single R. The result will name a problem that this country has traditionally faced. What's the country and what's the problem? | Computer found the answer. | |
| 2010 05 30 | From Eric Iverson of Eagan, Minn.: Take the name of a nationality and write it in lower-case letters. Remove the first letter and rotate one of the remaining letters 180 degrees. The result will be another nationality. What nationalities are these? | Found the answer, but I had the advantage that I had a list of nationalities and an editor to play with. | |
| 2010 06 06 | From listener Al Gorey: A "spoonerism" is when you interchange the initial consonant sounds of two words to get two new words. For example, with "right lane," you'd get "light rain." Think of a familiar two-word phrase that's an instruction seen on many containers. "Spoonerize" it to name two things seen at the beach. What's the phrase and what are the things? | ||
| 2010 06 13 | Write down the following five names: Christian Dior, Anne Boleyn, Edna Ferber, Indiana Jones and Richard Simmons. The first four names have something unusual in common that the fifth name does not. What is it? Give another name that shares this property. Hint: It's a property that only a few names have. To show that you have the right answer, think of another name that shares the same property. Any name that shares the property will be considered correct. | Saw the answer without use of the computer. | |
| 2010 06 20 | From Pete Collins of Ann Arbor, Mich.: Think of a product for sale at a hardware store. It's a generic two-word name. Replace the first letter of the first word with an S, and replace the first two letters of the second word with an S. The result will be two new words that are opposites. What are they? | Found answer by thinking rather than by the computer. | |
| 2010 06 27 | Name a famous English composer with two vowels in his last name. Interchange the vowels and you'll get the last name of a famous American writer. Who are these two people? | ||
| 2010 07 04 | From Eric Berlin of the National Puzzlers League: Take an eight-letter term that's often used to mean "a good child." Remove the first two and last two letters, and reverse what remains to get a four-letter word meaning "a bad child." | ||
| 2010 07 11 | This week's challenge comes from Ben Bass of Chicago. Take the phrase "deep cleanse" — a way of ridding the body of toxins or clearing the pores. Rearrange the 11 letters of "deep cleanse" to name a well-known American landmark. The number of words in the answer is for you to determine. | I found the answer by just using my program: anagram -2 | |
| 2010 07 18 | Complete this analogy: "Banjo" is to "ferns" as "pecan" is to _______. | No use of the computer! (Other than a convenient way to display the alphabet while working on the puzzle.) And the method came to me immediately. | |
| 2010 07 25 | This is a two-week creative challenge. Come up with a riddle that starts off with "What's the difference between" and involves a spoonerism. A spoonerism is when consonant sounds are interchanged. For example, "What's the difference between an ornithologist and a loser in a spelling bee?" The answer: "One is a bird watcher, and the other is a word botcher." | ||
| 2010 08 08 | From Merl Reagle: Take the letters in the name of cellist Yo Yo Ma, and rearrange them to form the initial letters of a familiar six-word question. What is the question? | ||
| 2010 08 15 | Name two girls' names that are anagrams of each other, and both start with the letter "C." The answer should be a well-mixed anagram, with more than two letters switched in one name to get the other. | Success with the computer. | |
| 2010 08 22 | From Sandy Weisz: Take a country whose name contains a symbol for a chemical element, and change it to a different chemical element to get another country. For example, if Aruba were an independent country, you could take the "AR," which is the chemical symbol for argon, and change it to "C," which is the chemical symbol for carbon, to come up with Cuba. There are two answers to this puzzle, and both must be found. | Actually there are three answers and the computer found them. | |
| 2010 08 29 | Take the word "bookman." Change one letter and rearrange the result to name a famous person who wrote books. Who is it? | ||
| 2010 09 05 | From Eric Iverson of Eagan, Minn.: What is the longest common word in which all the letters rhyme with E? | I had an error in the list of rhyming letters, so I failed. | |
| 2010 09 12 | Think of a common compound word in which each half starts with the letter C. Change both C's to B's, and you'll get the names of two related objects. What objects are they? | ||
| 2010 09 19 | Name five countries whose names are five letters long. Using the middle letter of each country's name, spell the five-letter name of a sixth country. | Success with the computer. | |
| 2010 09 26 | From Elizabeth Gorski: Take the phrase "patron saint," remove a letter, then rearrange the letters to create a new, familiar two-word phrase that names something important in life. Hint: The first word has three letters, the second word has seven. | ||
| 2010 10 03 | Name a famous person whose first name has six letters and last name has eight. In this person's first name, the first two letters are the same as the last two letters. And, these two letters also start the last name. The first two letters of the last name are pronounced differently from how they're pronounced in the first name. Who is this person? | ||
| 2010 10 10 | What are the two longest rhyming words that have no letters in common? For example, "pie" and "guy" rhyme and do not share any letters. The answer words cannot start with an unaccented syllable, such as "today." The source for acceptable words is Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary. | ||
| 2010 10 17 | This challenge comes from Ed Pegg Jr., who runs the website www.mathpuzzle.com. Rearrange the 14 letters of "OPENING CREDITS" to name two symbols you can type on a typewriter or computer. What symbols are these? | Found the answer. | |
| 2010 10 24 | Name the capital of a country. Rearrange the letters to spell a word that sounds the same as the name of another country. To approach the puzzle backward, name a country that has a homophone that is an anagram of a different country's capital. What country and what capital city are they? | I failed. My answer was not as good as that of Shortz. | |
| 2010 10 31 | From Michael Arkelian, of Sacramento, Calif.: Name a creature in six letters. Move the first three letters to the end and read the result backward to name another creature. Clue: If you break either six-letter word in half, each pair of three letters will themselves spell a word. | Found with computer. | |
| 2010 11 07 | From the 2011 calendar "Mensa 365 Brain Puzzlers" by Mark Danna and Fraser Simpson: Write out the 26 letters of the alphabet. Take a sequence of seven letters, change one letter in that sequence to a U, and rearrange the result to name something you might find in your refrigerator. Hint: The answer is a two-word phrase. | Computer reduced the number of possibilities. The answer is nowadays no longer something that one might find in the refrigerator. | |
| 2010 11 14 | What is the longest familiar phrase, title or name in which the only consonants are N and T, repeated as often as necessary? The other letters are vowels. Try to think of an answer with at least 18 letters. | ||
| 2010 11 21 | From Ray Hamill of Madison, Wis.: What two world capitals can be found by rearranging the letters in the phrase "serial number." | Found with computer. Leotho's capital was new to me. | |
| 2010 11 28 | Name the setting for an old television show that was also a series of popular movies. The answer consists of two words, with five letters in each word. The last three letters of the last word plus the first three letters of the first word, in that order, name a country. What country is it? | ||
| 2010 12 05 | From Sam Loyd, a puzzle-maker from a century ago: Draw a 4x4 square. Divide it into 16 individual boxes [Editor's Note: A previous version of this story said 6 boxes, which is incorrect]. Next, draw a diagonal line from the middle of each side of the square to the middle of the adjoining side, forming a diamond. And finally, draw a long diagonal line from each corner of the square to the opposite corner, forming an X. How many triangles can you find in this figure? | ||
| 2010 12 12 | From Ward Hartenstein of Rochester, N.Y.: Rearrange the letters of "Wayne Manor" to name two well-known American corporations, past or present. What corporations are they? | ||
| 2010 12 19 | Name a city in the United States that ends in the letter S. The city is one of the largest cities in its state. Change the S to a different letter and rearrange the result to get the state the city is in. What are the city and state? | The computer found the answer. | |
| 2010 12 26 | Name a famous American from the past who has seven letters in his or her last name. Take the last two letters, plus the first four letters, in that order, and you'll name that person's profession. Who is it? | ||
| 2011 01 02 | From Mark Leeper of Matawan, N.J.: Take a plural noun that ends with the letter S. Insert a space somewhere in this word, retaining the order of the letters. The result will be a two-word phrase that has the same meaning as the original word, except in the singular. What word is this? | In 2017 I found the answer by a combination of my wits and the computer to help provide a list of possibilities. | |
| 2011 01 09 | Name an article of apparel in the plural form, ending with an S. Rearrange the letters to name an article of apparel in the single form. What things to wear are these? | The computer found the answer. | |
| 2011 01 16 | From listener Mike Shteyman of Reisterstown, Md.: Take the first seven letters of the alphabet, A through G, change one of these letters to another letter that is also either A, B, C, D, E, F or G. Rearrange the result to spell a familiar seven-letter word. What word is it? | I certainly used the computer but the answer word, feedbag, was not in the word-data files that I was using. So then I came upon linux.words. | |
| 2011 01 23 | Name a nationality. The third, fourth, fifth, sixth and 10th letters in order name a country. Also the fourth, fifth, seventh, ninth and 12th letters in order also name a country. Neither country is related to the nationality. What nationality is this? | Found with computer. | |
| 2011 01 30 | From Alan Meyer of Newberg, Ore.: Think of a common word that's six letters long and includes a Q. Change the Q to an N, and rearrange the result to form a new word that's a synonym of the first one. What are the words? | Found with computer. | |
| 2011 02 06 | Name two things an airplane does. Each of these is a single word. Put them together, one after the other, to make a compound word that names something it's nice to have as big as possible. What is this thing? | ||
| 2011 02 13 | From Jack Jaiven of Highland Beach, Fla.: Name a world capital. Add the letter R, and rearrange the letters to name two U.S. presidents. What is the world capital and who are the presidents? | Used comouter with success. | |
| 2011 02 20 | Spell a part of the human body. Change one of the letters to an E, and rearrange the result to name another part of the human body. What body parts are these? Clue: Both parts of the body are things you can see. | I gave the puzzle to Nancy and she found the answer within a couple minutes. I used the computer, but I forget to give the -a option to my oneoff program, and so I failed. | |
| 2011 02 27 | From Merl Reagle: Take a common girl's name that's six letters long. Change the fourth letter to the next letter in the alphabet to get another common girl's name. What names are these? | Used computer with success. | |
| 2011 03 06 | Think of a two-word phrase that means a time long ago. Move the third, fourth and fifth letters to the end of the phrase, without rearranging those three letters, to get a new two-word phrase that means the beginning. What phrases are these? | ||
| 2011 03 13 | Think of a five-letter girl's name that ends in a "J" sound. Change that to a CH sound to get a five-letter boy's name. What names are these? | Found the answer with some computer help to give me names. | |
| 2011 03 20 | From Ed Pegg Jr., who runs the website MathPuzzle.com: Take the phrase "consumer protection laws," and rearrange the letters to name a person in broadcasting and an issue of public debate. Hints: The name of the person in broadcasting has five letters in the first name and five letters in the last name. For the issue of public debate, it's a familiar two-word phrase with seven letters in the first word and five letters in the second. What name and phrase are these? | ||
| 2011 03 27 | From puzzle writer Francis Heaney: Take the word "calm" and flip the letters A and L to get "clam." Take the last name of a film director known for using profanity, and flip two pairs of letters in place to get a word used as a substitute for profanity. Who's the director, and what's the word? | ||
| 2011 04 03 | Assign every letter of the alphabet a numerical value: A=1, B=2, C=3 and so forth. Think of a classic work of literature that has eight letters in its title. When the letters are given a numerical value, they add up to 35. What's the title? Clue: The title has two words. | I used my computer but failed. | |
| 2011 04 17 | From listener Steve Baggish of Littleton, Mass.: Think of a nine-letter word naming a venue for certain sports. Three letters in the word are repeated. Remove all the repetitions, and the remaining six letters can be rearranged to name a piece of sports equipment. What are these two words? | ||
| 2011 04 24 | Think of a familiar three-word phrase in the form "___ and ___". If you remove the "and" and put the second word in front of the first word, you get a compound word naming a place of power. Hint: The compound word has nine letters. What is the three-word phrase, and what place of power is this? | Found the answer within a couple minutes without the computer. | |
| 2011 05 01 | From listener Dave Taub of Eugene, Ore.: Take the name of a well-known U.S. university. One of the letters in it is a chemical symbol. Change this to a two-letter chemical symbol to name another well-known U.S. university. What universities are these? | ||
| 2011 05 08 | From listener Aida Doss Havel: Think of two common girls' names that are seven letters long and that start with the same four letters in the same order. Drop these four letters in each name, and mix the last three letters in each name to come up with another common girls' name in six letters. What names are these? | ||
| 2011 05 15 | Create a 4-by-4 crossword square with four four-letter words reading across and four different four-letter words reading down. Use the word "nags" at 1 across and the word "newt" at 1 down. All eight words must be common, uncapitalized words, and all 16 letters must be different. | Found with computer. BUT ... This was the first time in many, many years that I again tried these puzzles! And so, I tried past puzzles also. | |
| 2011 05 22 | Think of two five-letter words that are exact opposites, in which the first two letters of each word are the same as the first two letters of the other, only reversed. Hint: The fourth letter of each word is A. What two words are these? | Found with computer. | |
| 2011 06 05 | From Mike Reese, a former writer and producer for The Simpsons: Take the two-word title of a TV series. The first word contains a famous actor's first name in consecutive letters. The second word is a homophone for this actor's last name. Name the series and the actor. | ||
| 2011 06 12 | This Hat Rack Puzzle by Sam Loyd was published 100 years ago in Woman's Home Companion: A hat room contains a wall with 49 pegs, arranged in a 7-by-7 square. The hat clerk has 20 hats that are to be hung on 20 different pegs. How many lines, containing four hats in a straight line, is it possible to produce? A line can go in any direction: horizontally, vertically or obliquely. To explain your answer, number the pegs in order, from 1 in the upper left corner to 49 in the lower right corner; list which pegs you put the 20 hats on, and give the total number of lines containing four hats in a row. | ||
| 2011 06 19 | From listener Adam Cohen, of Brooklyn, N.Y.: Think of a former world leader whose first and last names both sound like things you might see in a mine. Who is the leader, and what are the things? | ||
| 2011 06 26 | Take the word "ballerina," drop one letter and rearrange the remaining eight letters to name a well-known fictional character. Who is it? | ||
| 2011 07 03 | From listener Dale Shuger of New York City: Think of a common four-letter adjective. Then take its opposite in French. (It's a French word that everyone knows.) Say the two words out loud, one after the other, and you'll name a famous film director. Who is it? | ||
| 2011 07 10 | Name a classic television show in two words with eight letters. Remove one letter from each word. The remaining six letters, in order, will spell the last name of a well-known writer. Who is it? | ||
| 2011 07 17 | Think of an adjective that might describe a child before a summer vacation. Change the second letter to the next letter of the alphabet, and you'll name someone you might see in a hospital. Who is it? | Found the answer with the computer, Feb. 2013. | |
| 2011 07 24 | Name the female of a certain animal, add the name of a bird, say these two words out loud one after the other, and phonetically you'll name a country. What country is it? | ||
| 2011 07 31 | Name a famous person from America's past who has four letters in his or her first name and five letters in the last. Take a homophone of the last name, move it to the front. The result phonetically would be something a woman might write. What is it? | ||
| 2011 08 07 | From Listener Jack Martin: Take a common two-word phrase that's the present tense of a verb. Move the last two letters to the front without making any other change, and you'll get a new two-word phrase that is the verb's past tense. What phrases are these? | ||
| 2011 08 14 | Name a breed of dog that starts and ends with the same letter of the alphabet. Drop that letter at both ends, and if you have the right dog, the remaining letters phonetically will name some animals. What's the dog and what are the animals? | ||
| 2011 08 21 | From David Ellis Dickerson of New York City: Take the name of an aquatic animal, in two words, six letters in the first word and four letters in the second. Remove the first letter of each word, the remaining eight letters in order, will spell a word that might describe an animal that is not aquatic. | ||
| 2011 08 28 | From listener Ed Pegg Jr.: Rearrange the twelve letters of the words "AIR CUSHIONED" to name a person in the media, first and last names. | ||
| 2011 09 04 | This is a special two-week creative challenge involving palindromes. A palindrome reads backwards and forward the same. Write a palindrome that contains the name of a famous person. For example: "No, Mel Gibson is a casino's big lemon." Or "Ed, I saw Harpo Marx ram Oprah W. aside." You can use the famous person's full name or just the last name, whatever you like. The object is to write the most interesting palindrome that contains a famous person's name, past or present. Any length is fine, short or long. Palindromes will be judged on their interest, elegance and naturalness of syntax. | ||
| 2011 09 18 | Take the name of a well-known university in two words. Switch two letters in the respective words; that is, take a letter from the first word, put it in place of a letter in the second word, and put that letter where the first letter was. The result will name something you might take on a camping trip. What are the names of the university and the camping item? | ||
| 2011 09 25 | From listener Mike Reiss: Think of a ten-letter occupation ending in "er." The first four letters can be rearranged to spell something that person would study, and the next four letters can be rearranged to spell something else that person would study. What is the occupation? | Found the answer by examining a list of professions. | |
| 2011 10 02 | Think of a common one-word entrée and dessert. When you insert the name of the entrée into the dessert's name, it will read as a certain meal. Name the entrée, dessert and meal. | ||
| 2011 10 09 | From Listener Sandy Weisz: Name something that is part of a group of 12 . Change the first letter to the next letter of the alphabet to name something that is part of a group of 9. What are these things? | ||
| 2011 10 16 | Think of a familiar two-word rhyming phrase that starts with the letter F, like "fat cat." Change the F to a G and you'll get another familiar two-word rhyming phrase. What are these phrases? | ||
| 2011 10 23 | From listener Douglas Heller of Flourtown, Pa.: Think of a two-word name of a nationally known chain of retail stores. Insert the second word of the name into the exact middle of the first. The result will spell the name of a well-known electronics manufacturer. What are these names? | ||
| 2011 10 30 | Name a well-known singer. Drop the first and last letters of the singer's first name and you'll get the letters of a well-known company. Drop the first and last letters of the singer's last name, and you'll identify the logo that the company is classically known for. Who is the singer and what's the company? | ||
| 2011 11 06 | From the Grabarchuk family: Take 15 coins. Arrange them in an equilateral triangle with one coin at the top, two coins touching below, three coins below that, then four, then five. Remove the three coins at the corners so you're left with 12 coins. Using the centers of the 12 coins as points, how many equilateral triangles can you find by joining points with lines? | I failed. | |
| 2011 11 13 | From listener Henry Hook of Brooklyn, N.Y.: What number comes next in the following series: 2, 4, 6, 9, 11, 15, 20, 40, 51, 55, 60 and 90? | ||
| 2011 11 20 | Name a food item. Divide this word in half. Take the second half followed by the first half twice, and you'll get a familiar saying. If you take the second half twice, followed by the first half, you'll name a well-known person. What are the food item, saying, and person's name? | ||
| 2011 11 27 | From listener Dan Pitt of Palo Alto, Calif.: Think of a common five-letter word in one syllable. Change the fourth letter to the next letter of the alphabet, and you'll get a common word in two syllables, also in five letters. What words are these? | Used the computer to find a couple answers. | |
| 2011 12 04 | From listener Monti Montgomery of Washington, D.C.: Name a style of music. Change the middle letter to a B, and you'll name a style of cooking. What are the style of music and the style of cooking? (There are several ways to spell the cooking style, but the answer is one of them.) | ||
| 2011 12 11 | Think of an animal whose name contains an O. Change the O to an H, and rearrange the result to name another animal. What animals are these? | Found with much computer help. | |
| 2011 12 18 | Take the word "at." Put a man's first name on each side of it, and say the word out loud. Phonetically, you'll get a word that describes a growing part of our country. What is it? | ||
| 2011 12 25 | From listener Mike Reiss: Name an occupation in nine letters. It's an entertainer of sorts — an unusual and uncommon but well-known sort of entertainer. Drop the third letter of the name, and read the result backward. You'll get two four-letter words that are exact opposites. What are they? | ||
| 2012 01 01 | Name certain scores in a certain sport. This is a two-word phrase with a total of 10 letters (5 letters in each word). If you have the right phrase, you can rearrange all the letters to name a different sport, also in two words (6 letters in the first word, 4 in the second). What are the scores, and what is the sport? | ||
| 2012 01 08 | Name four parts of a car that are also terms used in a particular game. One of the parts is spelled in three letters, two of them in five letters each, and one has six letters. Two places a car might go are also terms used in the game. What game is it, and what are the terms? | ||
| 2012 01 15 | This is a special two-week creative challenge. Combine the titles of some TV shows, past or present, into an amusing sentence or statement. For example: "TODAY / SISTERS / NAME THAT TUNE / FATHER KNOWS BEST," "DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES / BEWITCHED / MY THREE SONS / ONE DAY AT A TIME," "I'VE GOT A SECRET / MURDER, SHE WROTE / THE F.B.I." Entries will be judged on their sense, naturalness of syntax, humor, originality, familiarity of the TV shows named, and overall effect. No more than three sentences per entry, please. | ||
| 2012 01 29 | From listener Ed Pegg Jr.: Write the digits from 1 to 9 in a line. If you put times signs after the 2 and 4, a plus sign after the 5, and a minus sign after the 7, you have 12 x 34 x 5 + 67 - 89, which equals 2018. That's six years off from our current year 2012. This example uses four arithmetic symbols. The object is to use just three of the following arithmetic operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, in a line from 1 to 9 to get 2012 exactly. The operations should be performed in order from left to right. There are no tricks to this puzzle. Can you do it? | I found the answer with the computer. It was an interesting computer challenge. | |
| 2012 02 05 | Name an animal. Add the letters "A" and "T," and rearrange the result to name another animal. These are both animals that might be found in a zoo, and the last letter of the first animal is the first letter of the last one. | Found the answer with the computer. | |
| 2012 02 12 | From listener Kevin Roberts of Norcross, Ga.: Name two fictional characters — the first one good, the second one bad. Each is a one-word name. Drop the last letter of the name of the first character. Read the remaining letters in order from left to right. The result will be a world capital. What is it? | Found the answer by looking at a list of capitals. | |
| 2012 02 19 | Next week's challenge is a spinoff of the on-air challenge. The word "marten," as in the animal, consists of the beginning letters of "Mississippi," "Arkansas," "Texas," and "New Mexico"; you can actually drive from Mississippi to Arkansas to Texas to New Mexico in that order. What is the longest common English word you can spell by taking the beginning letters of consecutive states in order as you travel through them? Puzzlemaster Will Shortz's answer has eight letters, but maybe you can top that. | ||
| 2012 02 26 | Name a bird. Change its second letter to an E to get the first name of a famous actor. Then name the female of that bird, and double one of its letters. You'll get the last name of this actor. What are the birds, and who is the actor? | ||
| 2012 03 04 | From listener Toby Gottfried of Santa Ana, Calif.: Take the trees hemlock, myrtle, oak and pine. Rearrange the letters in their names to get four other trees, with one letter left over. What trees are they? | Found the answer with the computer, but especially needed a long list of trees. | |
| 2012 03 11 | The answer is a two-word name. Inside this name are the consecutive letters I-L-E-H. Remove these four letters, and the remaining letters in order will name something commonly found inside the original thing with the two-word name. What is it? | ||
| 2012 03 18 | From listener Mike Reiss: Take the phrase "no sweat." Using only these seven letters, and repeating them as often as necessary, can you make a familiar four-word phrase? It's 15 letters long. What is it? | My answer was by just thinking. And it was NPR's answer. | |
| 2012 03 25 | From listener Doug Heller of Flourtown, Pa.: Think of a much-discussed subject in the news with two words (five letters in the first, six letters in the last). The letters of the five-letter word can be rearranged to get the first five letters of the six-letter word. The six-letter word ends in a Y. What's the subject? | Found the answer by using the computer to find under a thousand pairs of suitable words and then visually finding the most reasonable pair. | |
| 2012 04 01 | Name some things seen at a baseball game. This is a two-word phrase, four letters in each word. Change one letter in each word to a new letter to get a new two-word phrase that names a popular music group of the past. Name the group. | ||
| 2012 04 08 | From listener Sandy Weisz of Chicago: Name an article of clothing that contains three consecutive letters of the alphabet consecutively in the word. For example, "canopy" contains the consecutive letters N-O-P. This article of clothing is often worn in a country whose name also contains three consecutive letters of the alphabet together. What is the clothing article, and what is the country? | Found the answer with the computer. | |
| 2012 04 15 | Name a famous novel in two words. The first word has five letters, and the second word has 11. If you have the right novel, the initial letters of the novel's title, reversed, are the initials of its author. What's the novel, and who is the author? | The answer is a famous novel. But I used the computer to find more novels to add to my list of novels and then found it. Could I have found it without the computer? Well I don't read novels this far back in time. | |
| 2012 04 22 | From listener Jim Waters of Bellingham, Wash.: Think of a common man's name in four letters, one syllable. Move each letter exactly halfway around the alphabet. For example, A would become N, N would become A, and B would become O. The result will be a common woman's name in two syllables. What names are these? | I failed. | |
| 2012 04 29 | Name the capital of a country that, when said out loud, sounds like a three-word phrase. This phrase might describe the reason why the police did not catch a barefoot thief. What is the capital, and what is the reason? | ||
| 2012 05 06 | From listener Gary Witkin of Newark, Del.: Using only the six letters of the name "Bronte," repeating them as often as necessary, spell a familiar six-word phrase. What is it? | Tried the computer, but really did not need it. | |
| 2012 05 13 | Name a state capital. Change one of the vowels to another vowel and say the result phonetically. You will name a revered profession. What is it? | ||
| 2012 05 20 | From Listener Peter Persoff of Piedmont, Calif.: Think of a common three-letter word and five-letter word that together consist of eight different letters of the alphabet. Put the same pair of letters in front of each of these words, and you will have the present and past tense forms of the same verb. What words are these? | Found the answer with no help at all. | |
| 2012 05 27 | From Listener Jack Lechner: Name two different kinds of wool. Take the first five letters of one, followed by the last three letters of the other. The result will spell the first and last name of a famous actor. Who is it? | ||
| 2012 06 03 | From Listener Eli Blake of Joseph City, Ariz.: Take the names of two state capitals. Change one letter in each one, resulting in a phrase naming someone you will see soon on TV. Who is it? (Hint: You don't really have to know anything about TV to solve this puzzle.) | ||
| 2012 06 10 | Name something to sit on. Divide the letters of this exactly in half. Move the second half to the front, without changing the order of any letters. The result will name some things seen on computers. What are they? | Found the answer, with minimal computer aid. | |
| 2012 06 17 | Challenge comes from listener Kate MacDonald of Murphys, Calif.: Think of a common French word that everyone knows. Add a "v" (as in "violin") to the beginning and an "e" at the end. The result will be the English-language equivalent of the French word. What is it? | ||
| 2012 06 24 | Think of a familiar three-word phrase that might be used in poker and add an "E" at the end and you'll get a two-word phrase that's common in football. What phrases are these? (The spaces in between the words changes in the two phrases but the letters stay in the same order.) | ||
| 2012 07 01 | From listener Fred Orelove Of Richmond, Va.: Think of a well-known retail store chain in two words. Remove one letter from its name. The remaining letters, in order, will spell three consecutive words that are synonyms of each other. What are they? Hint: The three words are all slang. | ||
| 2012 07 08 | From Listener Steve Baggish Of Littleton, Mass.: Think of a well-known actor, three letters in the first name, seven letters in the last. One of the letters is an "S." Change the "S" to a "K" and rearrange the result, and you'll name a well-known fictional character. Who is it? | ||
| 2012 07 15 | From listener David Rosen, a member of the National Puzzlers' League: The name of something that you might see your doctor about is a two-word phrase. Three letters in each word. When these six letters are written without a space, a three-letter word can be removed from inside, and the remaining three letters in order also form a word. What's interesting is that the four three-letter words — the two in the original phrase, the one that was removed, and the one that remains — all rhyme. What is the original phrase? | ||
| 2012 07 22 | Name a sport in two words — nine letters in the first word, six letters in the last — in which all six vowels (A, E, I, O, U, and Y) are used once each. What is it? | I found an answer with the computer but NPR's was better. | |
| 2012 07 29 | From listener Richard Whittington of Media, Pa.: Think of the last name of a famous person in entertainment. The first two letters of this name are a symbol for one of the elements on the periodic table. Substitute the name of that element for the two letters, and you will describe the chief element of this person's work. What is it? | ||
| 2012 08 05 | From listener Annie Haggenmiller of Chimacum, Wa.: Take the name of a well-known U.S. city with four syllables. The first and last syllables together name a musical instrument, and the two interior syllables name a religious official. What city is it? | Found the answer by examing a list of cities. | |
| 2012 08 12 | Name two insects. Read the names one after the other. Insert an H somewhere in this string of letters, and you'll complete a familiar word that is the opposite of what either of these insects is. What word is it? | Found the answer with the computer. | |
| 2012 08 19 | From listener Ken Rudy of Millwood, Wash.: Name the winning play in a certain sport: two words, five letters in each word. These two words share exactly one letter. Drop this letter from both words. The remaining eight letters can be rearranged to name the person who makes this winning play. What person is it? | ||
| 2012 08 26 | Take the name of a popular children's character in nine letters. Several of its letters appear more than once in the name. Remove every duplication of a letter, so every letter that remains appears just once. This new set of letters can be rearranged to name a famous classical composer. Who is it? | Found the answer with no computer help. | |
| 2012 09 02 | It's an anagram word ladder. For example, take the word "spring." If the last letter is changed to an "o" and the result is rearranged, you get "prison." Or, instead, if the last letter is changed to an "e" and the result rearranged, you get "sniper." Or change the last letter to an "a" and get "sprain," and so on. For this challenge, start with the word "autumn." Changing one letter at a time, and anagramming it each step of the way, turn "autumn" into "leaves." Each step has to be a common word. In how few steps can you do it? | ||
| 2012 09 09 | From listener Erica Avery of Wisconsin: Name a world capital whose letters can be rearranged to spell a popular and much-advertised drug. What's the capital, and what's the drug? | ||
| 2012 09 16 | From listener Ed Pegg Jr.: Think of something that the majority of adults buy. It's a two-word phrase with 10 letters in the first word and nine in the second. This phrase uses each of the five vowels (A, E, I, O, and U) exactly twice. What familiar product is this? | Found the answer quickly with no computer help. | |
| 2012 09 23 | From listener Sandy Weisz in Chicago: Name two parts of the human body. Put them together one after the other. Change the seventh letter in the result to the next letter of the alphabet to name something that's often found in books. What is it? | Found the answer with no computer help. | |
| 2012 09 30 | Think of a word in which the second letter is R. Change the R to an M, and rearrange the result. You'll get the opposite of the original word. What is it? (Hint: The two words start with the same letter.) | Found the answer with the computer. Actually found some other interesting antonyms. | |
| 2012 10 07 | Draw a regular hexagon, and connect every pair of vertices except one. The pair you don't connect are not on opposite sides of the hexagon, but along a shorter diagonal. How many triangles of any size are in this figure? | ||
| 2012 10 14 | What specific and very unusual property do these five words have in common: school, half, cupboard, Wednesday and friend? Identify the property and name a sixth word that shares the property. Any word having this property will be counted correct. | I was close but not precise enough in my answer. | |
| 2012 10 21 | From Pierre Berloquin: What letter comes next in this series: W, L, C, N, I, T? | ||
| 2012 10 28 | From Jeffrey Harris of Norwalk, Conn.: Think of a word associated with Halloween. Add a letter in the second position to create a new word that does not rhyme with the first. Then add another letter in the third position of the word you just created to complete another word that does not rhyme with either of the first two. What words are these? | ||
| 2012 11 04 | From longtime listener Merl Reagle: The words "organic" and "natural" are both commonly seen at health food stores. What other seven-letter word, also commonly seen at health food stores, has five letters in common with organic and five letters in common with natural? | Found the answer with the computer. | |
| 2012 11 11 | With one stroke of a pencil you can change a capital F into E; you can change an O into a Q, and so on. Write the phrase "LEAD PENCIL" in capital letters. Add a stroke to one letter and rearrange the result to name a classic movie. What is it? | Found the answer with the computer. | |
| 2012 11 18 | From listener Jim Cohen of Hartsdale, N.Y.: Think of a familiar five-letter word in two syllables. Change the middle letter to the preceding letter of the alphabet, and you'll get a familiar five-letter word in three syllables. What words are these? | Found the answer with the computer. | |
| 2012 11 25 | From listener Henry Hook of Brooklyn, N.Y.: In a few weeks something will happen that hasn't happened since 1987. What is it? | ||
| 2012 12 02 | From listener Adam Cohen of Brooklyn: Name two articles of apparel — things you wear — which, when the words are used as verbs, are synonyms of each other. What are they? | Found the answer with a bit of help from a list of apparel. | |
| 2012 12 09 | Name a major U.S. city in two words. Take the first letter of the first word and the first two letters of the second word, and they will spell the standard three-letter abbreviation for the state the city is in. What city is it? | I have one answer. | |
| 2012 12 16 | From listener Henri Picciotto of Berkeley, Calif.: Name a two-word geographical location. Remove the first letter. Move one of the other letters to the front of what's left. This will result in a single word that names what you are most likely looking through when you see that geographical location. What is it? | ||
| 2012 12 23 | Take the last name of a famous actor. Drop the first letter, and you'll get the last name of a famous artist. Drop the first letter again, and you'll get the name of a god in classical mythology. What names are these? | ||
| 2012 12 30 | From Ben Bass of Chicago: First, name a U.S. state capital. Rearrange its letters to spell the name of another American city. Remove one letter and read the result backward to spell a third American city. Finally, move the first letter of that to the end to spell a fourth American city. The cities are in four different states. What are they? | Found with the computer. | |
| 2013 01 06 | From Sam Loyd: This challenge appeared in a puzzle column in the Woman's Home Companion in January 1913, exactly 100 years ago. Draw a square that is four boxes by four boxes per side, containing altogether 16 small boxes and 18 lines (across, down and diagonal). There are 10 ways to have four boxes in a line — four horizontal rows, four vertical columns, plus the two long diagonals. There are also eight other shorter diagonals of two or three squares each. The object is to place markers in 10 of the boxes so that as many of the lines as possible have either two or four markers. What is the maximum number of lines that can have either two or four markers, and how do you do it? | ||
| 2013 01 13 | Think of two familiar, unhyphenated, eight-letter words that contain the letters A, B, C, D, E and F, plus two others, in any order. What words are these? | Found one answer by thinking and the second by the computer. | |
| 2013 01 20 | Take the last name of a famous world leader of the past. Rearrange its letters to name a type of world leader, like czar or prime minister. What world leader is it? | ||
| 2013 01 27 | From listener Jed Martinez of Margate, Fla.: Name a personal mode of transportation. Remove its first and sixth letters. What remains — in sequence, without rearranging any letters — will spell the names of two parts of the human body. What are they? | Found the answer with the computer. | |
| 2013 02 03 | From listeners Mike Morton of Lyme, N.H., and Barry Hayes of Palo Alto, Calif.: Name a famous author, first and last names. Change an X in this name to a B, and rearrange all the letters. The result is how this author might address a memo to the author's most famous character. Who is it? | ||
| 2013 02 10 | Take the last name of a former president of a foreign country, someone well-known. Change the last letter of this name to an O and rearrange the result. You'll get the last name of someone who wanted to be president of the United States. Who are these two people? | Found the answer with the computer. | |
| 2013 02 17 | From listener Gary Alvstad of Tustin, Calif: Name a well-known movie in two words with a total of 13 letters. Each of the two words contains the letter C. Drop both C's. The letters that remain in the second word of the title will be in alphabetical order, and the letters that remain in the first word will be in reverse alphabetical order. What movie is it? | ||
| 2013 02 24 | From listener Brian Greer of Portland, Ore.: Name two parts of the human body, 10 letters in all. Place their names one after the other. Take a block of three consecutive letters out of the second word and insert them somewhere inside the first word without otherwise changing the order of any of the letters. The result will name a kind of doctor. What kind of doctor is it? | ||
| 2013 03 03 | Eight people are seated at a circular table. Each person gets up and sits down again — either in the same chair or in the chair immediately to the left or right of the one they were in. How many different ways can the eight people be reseated? | Found the answer with the computer. | |
| 2013 03 10 | Think of two familiar three-word sayings in which all three words are the same length. The middle word in both sayings is the same. In each saying, the first and last words rhyme with each other. What two sayings are these? | ||
| 2013 03 17 | From Tyler Hinman: Take an eight-letter word for something used in water. Phonetically remove a word for something else used in water. Squish what is left together. The result, phonetically, will be a verb describing what water does. What words are these? | ||
| 2013 03 24 | From listener Andrew Chaikin: Take the four words "salt," "afar," "lava" and "trap." Write them one under the other, and the words will read the same vertically as horizontally. This is a word square of four-letter words. Note that the only vowel in this example square is an A. The object of the challenge is to create a five-letter word square using only common, uncapitalized English words, in which the only vowel in the entire square is A. The word in the center row, and column, is NASAL. | Got a good answer with the computer. | |
| 2013 03 31 | Name something in four letters that you use every day. Add the letters O, H and M, and rearrange all seven letters. You will name something else you probably use every day. This seven-letter thing is usually found near the four-letter thing. What are they? | Found the answer with considerable computer help. | |
| 2013 04 07 | Name something in nine letters that is commonly read on Sunday morning. If you have the right thing, you can rearrange all the letters to name a bygone car model that you still see on the road today. What are they? | Found the answer with the computer. | |
| 2013 04 14 | From listener Sandy Weisz: Take a common English word. Write it in capital letters. Move the first letter to the end and rotate it 90 degrees. You'll get a new word that is pronounced exactly the same as the first word. What words are these? | Found an answer. | |
| 2013 04 21 | Name a geographical location in two words — nine letters altogether — that, when spoken aloud, sounds roughly like four letters of the alphabet. What is it? | NPR's answers were far better than mine. | |
| 2013 04 28 | The first 12 letters of the alphabet are A to L. Think of a familiar, six-word proverb that contains 11 of these 12 letters. The letters may be used more than once, and you may use additional letters from the second half of the alphabet. What proverb is this? | I found the answer with enormous computer help. | |
| 2013 05 05 | Name a famous performer whose last name has six letters. Move the first three letters to the end — without otherwise changing the order of the letters — and add one more letter at the end. The result, in seven letters, will name a place where this person famously performed. Who is it, and what's the place? | I found the answer immediately without any computer help. Interestingly I knew the answer without being able to think the exact name. I thought of my ex-wife—that is how I knew. But the answer didn't come to me until I was at the Y some time later. | |
| 2013 05 12 | From listener Al Gori of Cozy Lake, N.J.: Name a famous American man, first and last names. Change the first letter of his first name from T to H. The result will sound like a term for an attractive person. Who is it? | ||
| 2013 05 19 | From listener Jeffrey Harris of Chappaqua, N.Y. Name a category of books, in two words. Add one letter to each word — the same letter of the alphabet in each case. Rearrange the letters of the first word plus the added letter to make a new word. For the second word simply insert the new letter somewhere inside it. The result will be the two-word title of a famous movie, which is based on a book, which is definitely not found in the category of books you originally named. Name the category of books and the movie. | ||
| 2013 05 26 | Think of a word starting with G. Change the G to a T, and rearrange the letters after the T. The result will be a new word with the same meaning as the original word. What words are these? | Found the answer with the computer. | |
| 2013 06 02 | From Merl Reagle, one of the country's top crossword makers: Can you name three common three-letter words that are all synonyms and which together consist of nine different letters of the alphabet? Here's a hint: The letters A and O are not used. | ||
| 2013 06 09 | Name a movie in two words — five letters in each word. Both words start with vowels. Take one letter in the first word, move it two spaces later in the alphabet, and rearrange the result. You'll get the second word in the movie's title. What movie is it? | ||
| 2013 06 16 | From listener Eric Timar of Falls Church, Va.: Write down these five words: "mate," "peck," "miss," "pot" and "blunder." There is something very unusual they have in common. What is it? And, can you name one other word with the same property? | Found the answer without the computer. | |
| 2013 06 23 | Write down these five words: "aide," "heart," "tough," "gelatin" and "emanate." There is something very unusual they have in common. What is it? And what's another word with this property? | Found the answer without the computer. | |
| 2013 06 30 | From Al Gori of Cozy Lake, N.J.: It involves a spoonerism, in which you reverse the initial consonant sounds in one phrase to make another phrase. For example, if you spoonerize "light rain," you get "right lane." Name part of a truck in two words; spoonerize it, and you'll name something FEMA uses. What is it? | Found the answer by driving. | |
| 2013 07 07 | Rearrange the letters of INDIA + BELARUS to name two other countries. What are they? | Found the answer easily. | |
| 2013 07 14 | From National Puzzle League members Patrick Berry and Todd McClary:The phrase "clothes closet" describes a place to keep your clothes. What's interesting about the phrase is that all the letters of the second word are found inside the first one. Think of another two-word phrase that names a place to keep clothes, in which all the letters of the second word are found inside the first. The first word of the phrase has nine letters, and the second word has six. What common phrase is this? | ||
| 2013 07 21 | From Gary Alstad of Tustin, Calif.: Think of a three-syllable word in four letters, add two letters and rearrange everything to become a two-syllable word in six letters. Then add two more letters and scramble them to get a one syllable word in eight letters. | ||
| 2013 07 28 | In three words, name a product sold mainly to women that has the initials N-P-R. The answer is a common phrase. | Found the correct answer immediately with no computer help. | |
| 2013 08 04 | Name a foreign make of automobile. Cross out several letters in its name. The remaining letters, reading in order from left to right, will spell a food that comes from the country where the car is made. What is the country, and what is the food? | ||
| 2013 08 11 | From Dick Hess of Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.: It's a twist on an old puzzle: "Nieces and nephews have I none, but that man's father is my father's son." What is the gender of the speaker? And who is the speaker referring to? | ||
| 2013 08 18 | The Roman numeral for 38 is XXXVIII. What is special or unusual about this Roman numeral that sets it apart from every other Roman numeral that can be written? | ||
| 2013 08 25 | Think of a business that's found in most towns. Its name consists of two words, each starting with a consonant. Interchange the consonants and you'll get two new words — neither of which rhymes with the original words. What business is it? | ||
| 2013 09 01 | From listener Henry Hook of Brooklyn, N.Y.: Think of a well-known celebrity who goes by a single name — the last two letters of which are alphabetically separated by only one letter (like A and C, or B and D). Replace this pair of letters with the one that separates them, and you'll have a common, everyday word. What is it? | ||
| 2013 09 08 | Name a famous person in history with four letters in the first name and six letters in the last. Move the first letter of all this to the end. The result will be a two-word phrase that might be defined as "the opposite of a curve." Who's the famous person, and what's the phrase? | ||
| 2013 09 15 | From Dave Hanson of Mounds View, Minn.: Name a well-known person from the 20th century who held an important position. Take the first and last letters of this person's last name, change each of them to the next letter of the alphabet, and you'll get the last name of another famous person who held the same position sometime after the first one. Who is it? | ||
| 2013 09 22 | From listener David Rosen of Bethesda, Md.: The name of what character, familiar to everyone, contains each of the five vowels (A, E, I, O and U) exactly once? The answer consists of two words — eight letters in the first word, four letters in the second. | ||
| 2013 09 29 | Name something in seven letters that most people keep in their homes. Take the first, third, fourth and seventh letters and rearrange them. The result will be a four-letter word naming something that the seven-letter thing is commonly used for. What is it? | ||
| 2013 10 06 | From listener Ed Pegg Jr. of mathpuzzle.com: What familiar saying with seven words has seven consonants in a row? The answer is a common saying, in ordinary English. Sometimes it's expressed in nine words rather than seven, but it's the same saying. And either way, in one spot it has seven consecutive consonants. What saying is it? | ||
| 2013 10 13 | Take a seven-by-seven square grid. Arrange the names of U.S. cities or towns in regular crossword fashion inside the grid so that the cities used have the highest possible total population, according to the 2010 Census. For example, if you put Chicago in the top row and Houston in the sixth row, both reading across, and then fit Atlanta, Oakland and Reno coming down, you'll form a mini-crossword. And the five cities used have a total population, according to the 2010 census, of 5,830,997. You can do better. As in a regular crossword, the names must read across and down only. Every name must interlock with at least one other name. And no two letters can touch unless they are part of a name. What is the highest population total you can achieve? And when you send in your answer, please include the names of the cities, in order, across and down. (Two-week challenge.) | ||
| 2013 10 27 | Name a brand of beer. Rearrange the letters to name an activity often associated with beer. | ||
| 2013 11 03 | From the Emmy-winning TV comedy writer Mike Reiss: A famous actress and a famous director share the same last name, although they are unrelated. The first name of one of these is a classic musical. The first name of the other is an anagram of a classic musical. Who are they? | ||
| 2013 11 10 | There is a politician today, sometimes known by his or her full three-word name, whose initials are also the initials of a popular chain of restaurants. Who is the politician and what's the restaurant? | ||
| 2013 11 17 | This week's challenge comes from listener Steve Baggish of Arlington, Mass. Think of a word meaning "quarrel" in which several of the letters appear more than once. Remove exactly two occurrences of every repeated letter, and the remaining letters can be rearranged to spell a new word meaning "quarrel." What are the two words? | ||
| 2013 11 24 | Name a tree whose letters can be rearranged to spell two herbs or spices. What are they? Hint: The tree has a two-word name. | Found the answer with the computer. The name of the tree was not familiar otherwise. | |
| 2013 12 01 | Name a dance. Change one of the letters to a U. The resulting letters can be rearranged to name an event at which this dance is done. What is it? | ||
| 2013 12 08 | From listener Pete Collins of Ann Arbor, Mich.: Name a U.S. city in nine letters. Shift the third letter six places later in the alphabet. Then shift the last letter seven places later in the alphabet. The result will be a family name featured in the title of a famous work of fiction. What is the city, and what is the family name? | Found the answer with the computer. | |
| 2013 12 15 | Name an island in which some of the letters appear more than once. Drop exactly two instances of each repeated letter. The remaining letters can be rearranged to name something to eat. What is it? | I failed: program fine, but data inadequate. | |
| 2013 12 22 | Think of a well-known filmmaker, first and last names. Add "S-U-N" before this person's first name and last name. In each case, you'll form a common English word. Who is the filmmaker? | Got the answer using the computer. | |
| 2013 12 29 | From listener Steve Daubenspeck of Fleetwood, Pa.: The word "wizard" has the peculiar property that its letters can be grouped in pairs — A and Z, D and W, and I and R — that are opposite each other in the alphabet. That is, A and Z are at opposite ends of the alphabet, D and W are four letters in from their respective ends, and I and R are nine letters in from their respective ends. Can you name a well-known brand name in six letters that has this same property? | ||
| 2014 01 05 | Name something in five letters that's generally pleasant, it's a nice thing to have. Add the letters A and Y, and rearrange the result, keeping the A and Y together as a pair. You'll get the seven-letter word that names an unpleasant version of the five-letter thing. What is it? | I believe I have a good answer, using the computer heavily. | |
| 2014 01 12 | Name a familiar form of exercise in two words. Switch the order of the two words. Then say them out loud. The result phonetically will name something to wear. What is it? | ||
| 2014 01 19 | From Ed Pegg Jr. of mathpuzzle.com : Name a famous person whose first and last names together contain four doubled letters — all four of these being different letters of the alphabet. Who is it? For example, Buddy Holly's name has two doubled letters, D and L. | Found the answer with the computer. | |
| 2014 01 26 | What word, containing two consecutive S's, becomes its own synonym if you drop those S's? | I found the answer with heavy computer use. | |
| 2014 02 02 | The challenge comes from Sam Williamson of Charlevoix, Mich. It's a two-part question: Where in most homes will you see the words SHE and HIS, and what word will you see right after HIS? | ||
| 2014 02 09 | This week's challenge comes from listener Steve Baggish of Arlington, Mass. Name a title character from a classic work of fiction, in 8 letters. Change the third letter to an M. The result will be two consecutive words naming parts of the human body. Who is the character, and what parts of the body are these? | ||
| 2014 02 16 | Name a famous entertainer: two words, four letters in each word. You can rearrange these eight letters to spell the acronym of a well-known national organization, and the word that the first letter of this acronym stands for. Who's the entertainer, and what's the organization? | ||
| 2014 02 23 | Write down these six words: Cupid, Yoo-hoo, Eyeball, Entrance, Seafood, Wiper. The six words have something unusual in common. And when you've figured out what it is, that unusual something will suggest the name of a well-known U.S. city. Name that city. | I have the answer with no computer effort and in a couple minutes of time. | |
| 2014 03 02 | This week's challenge comes from listener Harry Hillson of Avon-by-the-Sea, N.J. Take the first name of a nominee for Best Actor or Best Actress at Sunday's Oscars. You can rearrange these letters into a two-word phrase that describes his or her character in the film for which he or she is nominated. Who is this star, and what is the phrase? | ||
| 2014 03 09 | This puzzle was created by Will Shortz for an event held recently at the Museum of Mathematics in New York City. Take the name of a classical Greek mathematician and re-arrange the letters in his name to spell two numbers. What are they? To state the puzzle in another way: Take the names of two numbers, put them together, and find an anagram of the result that names a classical Greek mathematician. Who is the mathematician and what are the numbers? | ||
| 2014 03 16 | The challenge comes from listener Carol Highland of Ephrata, Wash. Take the brand name of a popular grocery item, written normally in upper- and lower-case letters. Push two consecutive letters together, without otherwise changing the name in any way. The result will name a make of car. What is it? | ||
| 2014 03 23 | Name a capital of a country. Change the first letter to name a familiar musical instrument. What is it? | Found the answer with the computer. | |
| 2014 03 30 | From listener Mike Reiss, a former writer and producer for The Simpsons. The film Wild Wild West had three W's as its initials. What prominent film of last year had two W's as its initials? | ||
| 2014 04 06 | The challenge comes from listener Dan Pitt of Palo Alto, Calif. Split pea soup is something that might be found on a menu at a diner. The phrase contains each of the 5 vowels — A, E, I, O and U — exactly once. Name something else that might be served in a diner — also 3 words, consisting of 3, 6 and 8 letters, respectively — that contains each of the 6 vowels (A, E, I, O, U and Y) exactly once. | ||
| 2014 04 13 | This week's challenge comes from listener Louis Sargent of Portland, Ore. Name a well-known American company. Insert a W somewhere inside the name, and you'll get two consecutive titles of popular TV shows of the past. What are they? | ||
| 2014 04 20 | Name certain trees. Also name something that trees have. Rearrange all the letters to get the brand name of a product one might buy at a grocery or drug store. What is it? | ||
| 2014 04 27 | From Mike Reiss, a writer for The Simpsons: Name a famous actor or actress whose last name ends in a doubled letter. Drop that doubled letter. Then insert an R somewhere inside the first name. The result will be a common two-word phrase. What is it? | ||
| 2014 05 04 | Write a clue for a word in the style of today's on-air puzzle, in which the answer has six or more letters. The clue should both define or describe the answer and contain the answer in consecutive letters. Entries will be judged on accuracy of the cluing, specificity, naturalness of syntax and overall elegance. You may submit up to three clues in your entry. | ||
| 2014 05 18 | Name a famous actress of the past whose last name has two syllables. Reverse the syllables phonetically. The result will name an ailment. What is it? | ||
| 2014 05 25 | This challenge comes from listener Ed Pegg Jr., who runs the website Mathpuzzle.com. The word "sort" has an unusual property: the first letter, S, is found inside the word "first." The second letter, O, is found inside "second." The third letter, R, is found inside "third," and the fourth letter, T, is found inside "fourth." Think of a familiar three-word phrase in 10 letters that has the same property, in which every letter in the phrase is found inside its corresponding ordinal. Here's a hint: It's something most people have, lose and regain. What is it? | ||
| 2014 06 01 | Take the name of a well-known American businessman — first and last names. Put the last name first. Insert an M between the two names. The result names a food item. What is it? | ||
| 2014 06 08 | Name part of a TV that contains the letter C. Replace the C with the name of a book of the Old Testament, keeping all the letters in order. The result will name a sailing vessel of old. What is it? | ||
| 2014 06 15 | From 11-year-old listener, Eli Shear-Baggish, of Arlington, Mass. Name a certain trip that contains the letter S. Change the S to a C and rearrange the resulting letters. You'll name the location where this trip often takes place. Where is it? | ||
| 2014 06 22 | Think of a 10-letter adjective describing certain institutions. Drop three letters from this word, and the remaining seven letters, reading left to right, will name an institution described by this adjective. What institution is it? | ||
| 2014 06 29 | This week's challenge comes from Steve Baggish of Arlington, Mass., the father of the 11-year-old boy who created the challenge two weeks ago. Name a boy's name and a girl's name, each in four letters. The names start with the same letter of the alphabet. The boy's name contains the letter R. Drop that R from the boy's name and insert it into the girl's name. Phonetically, the result will be a familiar two-word phrase for something no one wants to have. What is it? | ||
| 2014 07 06 | Name a famous actress of the past whose last name has 5 letters. Move the middle letter to the end to name another famous actress of the past. Who are these actresses? | ||
| 2014 07 13 | This week's challenge comes from listener Ben Kaufman of Portland, Ore. Think of a popular TV show about cooking. I guarantee it's a show everyone has heard of. Remove the second and third letters of the first word and insert them after the first letter of the second word. You'll get a phrase for a different kind of cooking. What is it? | ||
| 2014 07 20 | Name something in five letters that's nice to have a lot of in the summer. Change the last letter to the following letter of the alphabet. Rearrange the result, and you'll name something else that you probably have a lot of in the summer, but that you probably don't want. What is it? (HINT: the second thing is a form of the first thing.) | ||
| 2014 07 27 | This week's challenge comes from listener Matt Jones of Portland, Ore. There are three popular men's names, each six letters long, that differ by only their first letters. In other words, the last five letters of the names are all the same, in the same order. Of the three different first letters, two are consonants and one is a vowel. What names are these? | Found the answer with the computer. | |
| 2014 08 03 | This week's challenge comes from listener Ben Bass of Chicago. Take the name of a modern-day country. Add an "A" and rearrange all the letters to name a group of people who used to live in the area of this country. Who are they? | ||
| 2014 08 10 | Name a well-known movie of the past — two words, seven letters in total. These seven letters can be rearranged to spell the name of an animal plus the sound it makes. What animal is it? | ||
| 2014 08 17 | From American puzzle maker Sam Lloyd: You have a target with six rings, bearing the numbers 16, 17, 23, 24, 39, and 40. How can you score exactly 100 points, by shooting at the target. | ||
| 2014 08 24 | This challenge comes from Jason Zuffranieri, who competed for the U.S. at the World Puzzle Championship in London a week ago. Name a world leader of the 1960s — two words. Change the last letter of the second word. Then switch the order of the words — that is, putting the second word in front. The result will name a hit song of the 1990s. Who is the leader, and what is the song? | ||
| 2014 08 31 | This challenge comes from listener Peter Gwinn, a former writer for The Colbert Report. Think of a word that means "to come before." Replace its last letter with two new letters to get "someone who comes after you." These two words are unrelated etymologically. What words are they? | ||
| 2014 09 07 | Think of a word starting with T. Drop the T, and phonetically you'll get a new word that's a synonym of the first one. What words are these? | ||
| 2014 09 14 | This three-part challenge comes from listener Lou Gottlieb. If you punch 0-1-4-0 into a calculator, and turn it upside-down, you get the state OHIO. What numbers can you punch in a calculator, and turn upside-down, to get a state capital, a country and a country's capital? | I had two of the three answers. | |
| 2014 09 21 | Name a famous actor best known for tough-guy roles. The first five letters of his first name and the first four letters of his last name are the first five and four letters, respectively, in the first and last names of a famous author. Who is the actor, and who is the author? | ||
| 2014 09 28 | This challenge comes from listener Henry Hook, who creates crosswords for the Sunday Boston Globe and many other publications. Think of a 10-letter word that names an invention of the early 20th century and includes an A and an O. Remove the A. Then move the O to where the A was, leaving a space where the O was, and you'll name a much more recent invention. What is it? | ||
| 2014 10 05 | Take the first four letters of a brand of toothpaste plus the last five letters of an over-the-counter medicine, and together, in order, the result will name a popular beverage. What is it? | ||
| 2014 10 12 | Name a certain country. Change one letter in its name to a new letter and rearrange the result to name another country's capital. Then change one letter in that and rearrange the result to name another country. What geographical names are these? | ||
| 2014 10 19 | The following challenge is based on a puzzle from a Martin Gardner book, that may not be well-known. Out of a regular grade school classroom, two students are chosen at random. Both happen to have blue eyes. If the odds are exactly 50-50 that two randomly chosen students in the class will have blue eyes: How many students are in the class? | ||
| 2014 10 26 | This challenge comes from listener Mike Reiss, who's a writer for The Simpsons. Name a well-known TV actress of the past. Put an R between her first and last names. Then read the result backward. The result will be an order Dr. Frankenstein might give to Igor. Who is the actress, and what is the order? | ||
| 2014 11 02 | The challenge comes from listener Sandy Weisz of Chicago. Write down the following four times: 3:00, 6:00, 12:55 and 4:07. These are the only times on a clock that share a certain property (without repeating oneself). What property is this? | ||
| 2014 11 09 | Name a well-known clothing company. Move each of its letters three spaces earlier in the alphabet and rearrange the result. You'll name something you don't want in an article of clothing. What is it? | ||
| 2014 11 16 | Name a country. Drop one of its letters. Rearrange the remaining letters to name this country's money. What is it? | Found the answer using a Wikipedia list. | |
| 2014 11 23 | The letters in the name of a major American city can be rearranged to spell a traveling cultural museum. What is it? Each name is a single word, and the city's population is more than a half million. | ||
| 2014 11 30 | Bertrand Tavernier is a French director of such movies as Life and Nothing But and It All Starts Today. What amazing wordplay property does the name Bertrand Tavernier have? This sounds like an open-ended question, but when you have the right answer, you'll have no doubt about it. | ||
| 2014 12 07 | This week's challenge comes from listener Harry Hilson of Avon-by-the-Sea, N.J. Take the phrase "a few Texans come in." Rearrange these letters to name a geographical place. What is it? | ||
| 2014 12 14 | Think of a common exclamation in four letters. Move the last letter to the start, and then add a new letter to the end to get another well-known exclamation. What is it? | ||
| 2014 12 21 | This week's challenge comes from listener Peter Collins of Ann Arbor, Mich. Take the first and last names of a well-known actress. Her first name has two vowels. Change them both to new vowels, and the result names part of a common Christmas decoration. What is it? | ||
| 2014 12 28 | Take the following 5-word sentence: "THOSE BARBARIANS AMBUSH HEAVIER FIANCEES." These 5 words have something very unusual in common. What is it? Here's a hint: Analyze the letters in the words. You don't need to scramble. | ||
| 2015 01 04 | Last fall I posed a challenge in which you were asked to name a country, change one letter in it and rearrange the result to name a world capital. Then change a letter in that and rearrange the result to name another country. The answer was SPAIN to PARIS to SYRIA. Well, listener Andrew Chaikin of San Francisco has posed a related puzzle: Name a world capital. Change a letter in it and rearrange the result to name a country. Then change a letter in that and rearrange the result to name another world capital. What names are these? | ||
| 2015 01 11 | This week's challenge comes from listener Steve Baggish of Arlington, Mass. Think of a U.S. city whose name has nine letters. Remove three letters from the start of the name and three letters from the end. Only two will remain. How is this possible, and what city is it? | I had the right idea, but need a list of cities to find an answer. Despite this, I missed the best answer. | |
| 2015 01 18 | Name two animals, both mammals, one of them domestic, the other wild. Put their letters together, and rearrange the result to name another mammal, this one wild, and not seen naturally around North America. What mammal is it? | ||
| 2015 01 25 | Name someone who welcomes you in. Insert the letter U somewhere inside this, and you'll name something that warns you to stay away. Who is this person, and what is this thing? | ||
| 2015 02 01 | It's a spin-off of the on-air puzzle. Think of a well-known place name in the U.S. that's four letters long. Switch the second and third letters to get a well-known place name in Europe. What is it? | ||
| 2015 02 08 | The challenge comes from listener Peter Collins of Ann Arbor, Mich. Name someone who's the subject of many jokes; two words. Remove the space between the words. Insert the letters O and N in that order — not necessarily consecutively — inside this string of letters. The result, reading from left to right, will be two words of opposite meaning that this someone might say. Who is it, and what are the words? | ||
| 2015 02 15 | Name a major U.S. city in two syllables. Reverse the syllables phonetically to get the cost of attending a certain NBA game. What is it? | ||
| 2015 02 22 | This week's challenge comes from listener Smatt Read of Somerville, Mass. Actor Tom Arnold goes by two first names — Tom and Arnold, both male, of course. And actress Grace Kelly went by two first names — Grace and Kelly, both female. Name a famous living actress who goes by three first names, all of them traditionally considered male. The names are 5, 3 and 6 letters long, respectively. | ||
| 2015 03 01 | Name a city whose name ends in a long-A sound in which that sound is not spelled with an "A." Change the sound to a long-O and phonetically you'll name a famous person whose name does not contain the letter "O." What city and famous person are these? | ||
| 2015 03 08 | Take a familiar phrase in the form "[blank] and [blank]." Put the second word in front of the first, and you'll name a common part of a large company. What is it? | ||
| 2015 03 15 | The challenge came from Ed Pegg Jr., who runs the website mathpuzzle.com. "Parables of Jesus" is an old collection of stories. Remove three of the 15 letters in this phrase and rearrange the 12 letters that remain to get another old collection of stories. What is it? | ||
| 2015 03 22 | Take the word "die." Think of two synonyms for this word that are themselves exact opposites of each other. What two words are these? A hint: they have the same number of letters. | ||
| 2015 03 29 | This week's challenge comes from listener Henry Hook. And it's a little tricky. Given a standard calculator with room for 10 digits, what is the largest whole number you can register on it? | ||
| 2015 04 05 | Name something that might be worn on the foot. Change one letter in it without changing the order of the other letters. The result will name something one might wear on the upper part of the body. What is it? Here's a hint: The thing on the upper part of the body is a two-word phrase. | ||
| 2015 04 12 | This challenge comes from listener Peter Stein of San Francisco. Think of a job, in 8 letters, that names someone who might work with actors. Change one letter in this to the following letter of the alphabet to name another person who works with actors. What jobs are these? | ||
| 2015 04 19 | The challenge comes from listener Steve Daubenspeck of Fleetwood, Pa. Take the first names of two politicians in the news. Switch the first letters of their names and read the result backward to name something that each of these politicians is not. | ||
| 2015 04 26 | This challenge comes from listener Dan Ezekiel of Ann Arbor, Mich. Name a famous actor whose first and last names both are seven letters long. Change the first three letters of the actor's last name to three new letters and you'll name another famous actor. They share the same first name. Add the three letters you changed in the first actor's last name plus the three letters you changed to get the second actor's name, and you'll spell the last name of a third famous actor. Who are these three Hollywood stars? | ||
| 2015 05 03 | Think of a common two-word phrase for something you might see in a kitchen. Reverse the words — that is, put the second word in front of the first — and you'll name a food, in one word, that you might prepare in a kitchen. What is it? | ||
| 2015 05 10 | This challenge comes from listener Rudy Simons of Southfield, Mich. The letters of the one-syllable word "groan" can be rearranged to spell "organ," which has two syllables. Here's the challenge: Think of a common one-syllable, five-letter word whose letters can be rearranged to spell a common two-syllable word — and then rearranged again to spell a common three-syllable word. I have two different answers in mind, and it's possible there are others, but you only have to think of one. | ||
| 2015 05 17 | This is a spinoff of the on-air puzzle. Name a country with at least three consonants. These are the same consonants, in the same order, as in the name of a language spoken by millions of people worldwide. The country and the place where the language is principally spoken are in different parts of the globe. What country and what language are these? | ||
| 2015 05 24 | The challenge comes from listener Ed Pegg, Jr., who runs the website mathpuzzle.com. Take the phrase "merchant raider." A merchant raider was a vessel in World War I and World War II that targeted enemy merchant ships. Rearrange the letters of "merchant raider" to get two well-known professions. What are they? | My answer was not as good as NPR's. | |
| 2015 05 31 | A simple challenge: Think of a 5-letter word that can precede "chicken" to complete a common two-word phrase. Change the middle letter to get a new word that can follow "chicken" to complete a common two-word phrase. What phrases are these? | I have a reasonable answer, but I have not yet checked NPR's answer. | |
| 2015 06 07 | This week's challenge comes from listener David Rosen, of Bethesda, Md. Name a famous person in Washington, D.C. — 7 letters in the first name, 5 letters in the last. Drop the last sound in the last name. The result — phonetically — will be the first and last name of a famous living entertainer. Who is it? | ||
| 2015 06 14 | Think of an adjective that describes many shampoos. Add the brand name of a shampoo in its basic form. The result, reading the letters in order from left to right, will name a famous musician. Who is it? | ||
| 2015 06 21 | This challenge comes from listener Ben Bass of Chicago. Take the phrase "I am a monarch." Re-arrange the 11 letters to name a world leader who was not a monarch but who ruled with similar authority. Who is it? | ||
| 2015 06 28 | The challenge comes from listener Daniel Grossman of New York City. Name a major American company. Drop its first and last letters, and the remaining letters in order will name a famous singer — both first and last names. What company is it? | ||
| 2015 07 05 | The seven words in the following sentence have something very unusual in common — something that almost no other words in the English language share. What is it? "Ira saw three emigrants restock large wands." | ||
| 2015 07 12 | The challenge comes from listener Adam Cohen. Name an occupation starting with the letter B. Remove the second, third and fourth letters. The remaining letters in order will name something you might experience in the presence of someone who has this occupation. What is it? | ||
| 2015 07 19 | The challenge comes from puzzle-maker Rodolfo Kurchan. Write down the following six numbers: 19, 28, 38, 81, 83, 85. What are the next three numbers in the series? | ||
| 2015 07 26 | Name something in three syllables that an auto mechanic might have. Move the second and third syllables to the front. The result, with some respacing, will name a group of auto mechanics. What is it? | ||
| 2015 08 02 | This challenge comes from listener Joe Krozel of Creve Coeur, Mo., and it involves a spoonerism. (To recap, that's where you exchange the initial consonant sounds of two words to get two new words. For example, a spoonerism of "light rain" is "right lane.") Name two animals. Exchange their initial consonant sounds, and the result in two words will be the name of a third animal. What is it? | ||
| 2015 08 09 | Name part of a car. Drop the fifth letter. Now reverse the order of the last three letters. The result, reading from left to right, will name a major American city. What city is it? | ||
| 2015 08 16 | This is an open-ended challenge. Take the word EASILY. You can rearrange its letters to spell SAY and LEI. These two words rhyme even though they have no letters in common. What is the longest familiar word you can find that can be anagrammed into two shorter words that rhyme but have no letters in common? The two shorter words must have only one syllable. I have my best answer, which I've given to NPR. Next week we'll compare that with your best. | ||
| 2015 08 23 | Name a famous military figure of the past 50 years. The first three letters of his first name and the first three letters of his last name are both well-known military abbreviations. Who is it? | ||
| 2015 08 30 | Name a famous movie in eight letters that has had multiple sequels. The title is one word. Rearrange its letters to get a two-word phrase for a satchel. What is it? | ||
| 2015 09 06 | Name a well-known U.S. geographical place — two words; five letters in the first word, six letters in the last — that contains all five vowels (A, E, I, O and U) exactly once. It's a place that's been in the news. What is it? | ||
| 2015 09 13 | It's a well-known curiosity that the longest common unhyphenated word that can be typed on the top row of a typewriter or computer keyboard is TYPEWRITER. Find a common hyphenated word in 12 letters that can be typed using only the keys on the top row of a typewriter or computer keyboard. | Using the computer I found an interesting answer, but I suppose NPR has a better answer. | |
| 2015 09 20 | Take the words FORETOLD and FOURFOLD. They start with homophones, FORE and FOUR, and they end with rhymes, TOLD and FOLD. The challenge is to find two common nine-letter compound words that have the same property. Specifically, the two homophones are each five letters long, and the rhymes have four letters each. What words are these? | ||
| 2015 09 27 | Name a famous Greek person from history. Rearrange the letters of the name to get the title of a famous Italian person from history. Who are these two people? | ||
| 2015 10 04 | This week's challenge comes from listener Dave Shukan of Los Angeles. Think of a two-word term for someone who might be working at a nightclub. The second letter of the first word is a consonant. Move that letter so it's the second letter of the second word, and phonetically you'll get a made-up, two-word term for someone else who might work at a nightclub. What persons are these? | ||
| 2015 10 11 | This is a creative challenge, so you get some extra time. The object is to write a 10-word sentence in which each word ends with the same letter of the alphabet. For example: Dartmouth frosh clash with Pittsburgh church parish, clinch fifth triumph. Every word in my sentence ends with H. You can choose any letter you like. Entries will be judged on sensibility, naturalness of syntax and overall elegance. | ||
| 2015 10 25 | This challenge comes from Ed Pegg Jr., who runs the website Mathpuzzle.com. It's a word puzzle, though, not a math puzzle. The Hawaiian alphabet has 12 letters — seven consonants (H, K, L, M, N, P and W) plus the five vowels (A, E, I, O and U). Use all 12 of these, and repeat four of them, to get 16 letters in all that can be arranged to name a well-known holiday item. What is it? As a hint — it's a two-word answer. | ||
| 2015 11 01 | This is one of the "lost" puzzles of Sam Loyd, the great American puzzlemaker from the 19th and early 20th centuries. It's from an old magazine with a Sam Loyd puzzle column. The object is to arrange three 9s to make 20. There is no trick involved. Simply arrange three 9s, using any standard arithmetic signs and symbols, to total 20. How can it be done? | ||
| 2015 11 08 | Name a famous actor using both first and last name. Drop the first two letters of the first name and the last two letters of the last name. Then put a Y between what's left of the two names. The result, reading from left to right, will identify who might solve this challenge and play puzzle on the air with me next week. | ||
| 2015 11 15 | Think of a word that contains three consecutive letters of the alphabet together like CANOPY, which contains NOP. Change these three letters to one new letter to make a synonym of the first word. What words are these? | Found BPR's answer with software. | |
| 2015 11 22 | This week's Thanksgiving challenge comes from listener Dan Pitt of Palo Alto, Calif. It's not very hard. The following three Thanksgiving dishes have something very unusual in common: Spit-roast turkey Cornbread stuffing Boiled squash What is it they have in common, and can you name one other thing that might be served at Thanksgiving dinner that has the same property? | ||
| 2015 11 29 | Take the name of a well-known actress four letters in the first name, nine letters in the last. Insert a letter between the second and third letters of the first name. Remove the last two letters of the last name. The result is a two-word phrase that means "freedom." | ||
| 2015 12 06 | Name a state capital. Drop one of its letters. The remaining letters can be rearranged to name another major city in the United States. What is it? There are two different answers, and you should find both of them. | Found one by thought and found many more by software. | |
| 2015 12 13 | From listener Steve Baggish of Arlington, Mass.: Name a well-known character of TV, movies and comics. Two words. Replace the 8th, 9th, and 10th letters with an S. Then rearrange the result to name a well-known actor who played this character on film. First and last names. Who is it? | ||
| 2015 12 20 | From listener David Aukland, of Tarrytown, N.Y.: Think of four common six-letter words that all end in the same five letters, in the same order. And the first letters of these four words are consecutive consonants in the alphabet (like B, C, D, F). No other common six-letter words end with these five letters. What are the words? | ||
| 2015 12 27 | Name a famous actress who has four letters in her first name and four letters in her last name. Add one letter, and rearrange the result to name an animal and the sound this animal makes. Who is the actress, what is the animal and what is the sound that the animal makes? | ||
| 2016 01 03 | Name a famous actress who has four letters in her first name and four letters in her last name. Add one letter and rearrange the result to name an animal and the sound this animal makes. Who is the actress and what is the sound that the animal makes? | ||
| 2016 01 10 | This challenge comes from listener Sandy Weisz of Chicago, who runs The Mystery League, which conducts puzzle hunts. This challenge isn't too hard. Name a unit of measurement. Remove two consecutive letters. The letters that remain can be rearranged to name what this measurement measures. What is it? | ||
| 2016 01 17 | Think of a category in three letters in which the last two letters are the first two letters of something in that category. And the thing in the category has seven letters. Both names are common, uncapitalized words. What are they? | ||
| 2016 01 24 | This may be one of the most challenging challenges I've presented. It has a very elegant answer. It's from listener Fred Piscop of Bellmore, N.Y. Take these three phrases: Turkey breast Ski slope Cash drawer What very unusual property do they have in common? | ||
| 2016 01 31 | From listener Michael Shteyman of Odenton, Md.: Take the name of a country and a well-known city in the Middle East — 12 letters in all. Rearrange these letters to name another country and another well-known city in the Middle East. What places are these? | ||
| 2016 02 07 | From listener Jon Herman: If PAJAMA represents first and REBUKE represents second, what nine-letter word can represent third? There are two possible answers, one common and one not so common. Either one will be counted correct. | ||
| 2016 02 14 | Name something to eat. Change one letter in it and rearrange the result. You'll name the person who makes this food. Who is it? | ||
| 2016 02 21 | Think of three eight-letter words that are identical in spelling except for the fourth letter. Each word contains a G ... that is pronounced differently in all three words. What words are they? | ||
| 2016 02 28 | What two 8-letter terms in math are anagrams of each other? One word is from geometry, the other is from calculus. What words are they? | ||
| 2016 03 06 | Bail, Nail, and Mail are three four-letter words that differ only by their first letters. And those first letters (B, N, and M) happen to be adjacent on a computer keyboard. Can you think of five four-letter words that have the same property that is, they're identical except for their first letters, with those first letters being adjacent on the keyboard? All five words must be ones that everyone knows. Capitalized words and plurals are not allowed. What words are they? | ||
| 2016 03 13 | From listener Mike Reiss, a former writer and producer for The Simpsons: Take the name of a well-known actress. Her first name starts wth the three-letter abbreviation for a month. Replace this with the three-letter abbreviaton of a different month, and you'll get the name of a famous poet. Who are these two people? | ||
| 2016 03 20 | From listener Andrew Chaikin of San Francisco: Think of a common nine-letter word that contains five consecutive consonants. Take three consecutive consonants out of these five and replace them with vowels to form another common nine-letter word. What is it? | ||
| 2016 03 27 | The University Press of New England has just published a book by Boston College professor Paul Lewis, called The Citizen Poets of Boston: A Collection of Forgotten Poems, 1789-1820. It has a chapter devoted to puzzles in poetic form. Most of the puzzles are explained — but one puzzle never had a printed answer. I'd like to see if the collective brainpower of NPR listeners can be brought to bear to clear up this mystery. It's a two-line verse from the Nov. 12, 1803, issue of the Boston Weekly Magazine: I am both man and woman too, And go to school as good boys do. If you can solve this riddle, let us know. I'll select what I think is the best answer that's submitted. If no one sends what I judge to be the intended answer, then I'll pick what I consider the most ingenious one, whether it's "correct" or not. | ||
| 2016 04 03 | Take the word EASY: Its first three letters — E, A and S — are the fifth, first, and nineteenth letters, respectively, in the alphabet. If you add 5 + 1 + 19, you get 25, which is the value of the alphabetical position of Y, the last letter of EASY. Can you think of a common five-letter word that works in the opposite way — in which the value of the alphabetical positions of its last four letters add up to the value of the alphabetical position of its first letter? | ||
| 2016 04 10 | From listener Peter Collins of Ann Arbor, Mich.: Name something in eight letters that's usually bought in pairs. Change the second letter to the letter two spaces later in the alphabet, and you'll get a new word that names something else that's usually bought in pairs. Both words are plurals. What are they? | Using the computer I saw the poorer answer and missed the better answer. | |
| 2016 04 17 | Here's a tricky challenge from Sandy Weisz of Chicago. Take the name of a famous musical. Write it in upper- and lowercase letters, as you usually would. Now turn one of the characters upside-down and move it to another place in the title. The result will be the last name of a well-known stage performer. What is the musical, and who is the performer? | ||
| 2016 04 24 | Name a famous singer — first and last names. The last four letters of the first name spelled backward plus the first four letters of the last name spelled forward ... read together, in order, name a section of products in a drugstore. What is it? | ||
| 2016 05 01 | This week's challenge comes from listener Timothy Gotwald of Chambersburg, Pa. Think of a word that means "entrance." Interchange the second and fourth letters, and you'll get a new word that means "exit." What words are these? | ||
| 2016 05 08 | From listener Peter Weisz of West Palm Beach, Fla.: Name something in 11 letters that's a common household item. You can rearrange the first six letters to form a synonym of a word spelled by the middle three letters. What is the item, and what are the words? | ||
| 2016 05 15 | From Mike Hinterberg of Loveland, Colo.: Name a creature in nine letters. The name contains a T. Drop the T, and the remaining letters can be rearranged to spell two related modes of transportation. What are they? | ||
| 2016 05 22 | Name a common household item in 6 letters. Change the middle two letters to a P, and you'll get the 5-letter last name of a famous person who professionally used that item. What's the item, and who's the person? | ||
| 2016 05 29 | From listener Harry Hillson of Avon-by-the-Sea, N.J.: What is the most consecutive points a tennis player can lose and still win a best-of-five-sets match? There's no trick. It's a straightforward question. The modern tennis tiebreaker rule does not come into play. | ||
| 2016 06 05 | Name a famous actor — seven-letter first name, four-letter last name. Take four consecutive letters from the first name and three consecutive letters from the last name. These seven letters, in order from left to right, will name something that's often packed nowadays when taking a trip. What is it? | ||
| 2016 06 12 | This week's challenge comes from listener Andrew Chaikin of San Francisco. Take the word baci (Italian for "kisses"). You can rearrange the letters to "I C A B" — which sounds like a sentence, "I see a bee." Now, think of a unit of measurement. Rearrange its letters and read them out loud to form a sentence complimenting someone on their appearance. What's the word, and what's the sentence? | ||
| 2016 06 19 | From listener Mark Isaak of Sunnyvale, Calif.: Think of a word that means "unfinished." Add one letter at the start and one letter at the end, and you'll get a new word that means the opposite of the first. What words are these? | ||
| 2016 06 26 | From listener Peter Collins of Ann Arbor, Mich.: Think of two well-known American cities, each five letters long. The first two letters of the first city are the state postal abbreviation of the second city. And the first two letters of the second city are the state postal abbreviation of the first city. What two cities are these? | ||
| 2016 07 03 | Take the word FALSE. Divide it between the L and the S. The start of the word is the start of FALL, and the end of the word is the end of RISE. And, of course, "fall" and "rise" are opposites. Do the same thing for the word SHALL. Divide it into two parts, so that the start of it starts one word and the end of it ends another word — and those two words are opposites. The dividing point is for you to discover. There are three different solutions. I want you to find all three. | ||
| 2016 07 10 | From listener Martin Eiger: Think of a phrase that denotes a particular major-league sports team in 12 letters. The first 6 letters are the same as the second 6 letters rearranged. What team is it? | ||
| 2016 07 17 | From listener Ben Bass of Chicago: Name a prominent American politician — first and last names, 11 letters total. Rearrange these letters, and you'll get a country plus the former name of another country. Who's the politician, and what countries are these? | ||
| 2016 07 24 | A spoonerism is an interchange of initial consonant sounds in a phrase to get another phrase, as in "light rain" and "right lane." Name something seen in a kitchen in two words. Its spoonerism is an article that's worn mostly by men. What is it? | ||
| 2016 07 31 | From Ed Pegg Jr. of mathpuzzle.com: Take the four four-letter words LIMB, AREA, CORK and KNEE. Write them one under the other, and the four columns will spell four new words LACK, IRON, MERE, and BAKE. This is called a double word square. I'd like you to find a double word square with 6-letter words. Specifically, your square must include the words PONIES, ACCEPT, SEARED and CAVIAR. These four words must be among the 12 common, uncapitalized six-letter words in the square. Can you do it? | ||
| 2016 08 07 | Name a famous Olympics champion past or present — first and last names. Remove every letter from the name that appears exactly twice. The remaining letters in order will name certain minerals. Who is this Olympics star? | ||
| 2016 08 14 | From listener Kenneth Low of Monterey Park, Calif.: Take the name of a country. Among its letters is the name of part of the human body, reading from left to right, although not necessarily consecutively. Cross out these letters. The remaining letters in order, reading left to right, will name part of an animal's body. What country is it? | ||
| 2016 08 21 | Name a famous person with the initials B.S. and another famous person with the initials G.M.— whose first and last names, respectively, rhyme with each other. One of the names has one syllable and one has two syllables. Who are these famous people? | ||
| 2016 08 28 | This challenge comes from listener Sandy Stevens of Bandon, Ore. What one-syllable word in 7 letters becomes a four-syllable word by inserting the consecutive letters IT somewhere inside? | Found NPR's answer by software. | |
| 2016 09 04 | From listener Norm Baird of Toledo, Wash.: If you squish the small letters "r" and "n" too closely together, they look like an "m." Think of a common five-letter word with the consecutive letters "r" and "n" that becomes its own opposite if you change them to an "m." | ||
| 2016 09 11 | Think of a well-known category with exactly seven things in it. Alphabetize the things from their ending letters, and the last letter alphabetically will be "e." In other words, no thing in this category ends in a letter after "e" in the alphabet. It's a category and set of seven things that everyone knows. What is it? | ||
| 2016 09 18 | From listener Justine Tilley of Vancouver: Think of a familiar three-word phrase in the form "___ and ___." Drop the "and." Then move the last word to the front to form a single word that means the opposite of the original phrase. Here's a hint: The ending word has seven letters. What is it? | ||
| 2016 09 25 | Take the words DOES, TOES and SHOES. They all end in the same three letters, but none of them rhyme. What words starting with F, S and G have the same property? The F and S words are four letters long, and the G word is five letters. They all end in the same three letters. | Found the answer without the use of the computer. | |
| 2016 10 02 | From Lowell Beineke of Fort Wayne, Ind.: Name an 11-letter occupation starting with H. If you have the right one, you can rearrange the letters to name two things a worker with this occupation uses — one in six letters and one in five. What occupation is it? | ||
| 2016 10 09 | From listener Darrell Myers of Somerville, Mass.: Name a famous actress of the past — first and last names, 10 letters altogether. Change one letter in the first name and one letter in the last. The result is a two-word phrase naming a food item often found in a kitchen cabinet or refrigerator. What is it? | ||
| 2016 10 16 | This is a two-week challenge. Take the digits 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1, in that order. Using those digits and the four arithmetic signs — plus, minus, times and divided by — you can get 1 with the sequence 5 - 4 + 3 - 2 - 1. You can get 2 with the sequence (5 - 4 + 3 - 2) x 1. The question is ... how many numbers from 1 to 40 can you get using the digits 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 in that order along with the four arithmetic signs? You can group digits with parentheses, as in the example. There are no tricks to this, though. It's a straightforward puzzle. How many numbers from 1 to 40 can you get — and, specifically, what number or numbers can you not get? I'll reveal my solution in two weeks. | I wrote software to help find the answer, which agrees with NPR. | |
| 2016 10 30 | From listener Peter Gordon of Great Neck, N.Y.: Think of a name in the news that has a doubled letter. It's a person's last name. Change that doubled letter to a different doubled letter, and you'll get the commercial name for a popular food. What is it? | ||
| 2016 11 06 | From listener Ken Stern of Brooklyn, N.Y.: Think of a sign that's frequently seen around this time of year — two words of four letters each. Among these eight letters all five vowels — A, E, I, O, and U — appear once each, along with three consonants. What sign is it? | ||
| 2016 11 13 | This is a two-week creative challenge. The object is to write a conundrum or riddle that starts "What is the difference between ..." ‐ in which the answer involves a transposition of words. For example: What is the difference between a chatterbox and a mirror? Answer: One speaks without reflecting while the other reflects without speaking. Or: What is the difference between a lucky criminal and some Saran with a garden vegetable? Answer: One beats the rap while the other wraps the beet. Change of spelling in the words is allowed, but not necessary. Entries will be judged on their sense, naturalness of wording, humor, elegance and overall effect. You may submit up to three entries. I will announce my favorites ‐ and the overall winner — in two weeks. | ||
| 2016 11 27 | From Mike Reiss, writer/producer for The Simpsons: Take the first name of a famous actress. Drop a letter. Rearrange what's left, and you'll get a word used in a particular sport. This actress's last name, without any changes, is another word used in the same sport. What actress is it? | ||
| 2016 12 04 | This challenge may sound impossible, but there's a good answer. Think of a common two-word phrase, in seven letters, that has two R's in the middle. And "in the middle" means exactly in the middle. What phrase is it? | ||
| 2016 12 11 | From listener Matt Jones of Portland, Ore.: Think of a two-word phrase commonly seen on signs in new businesses. Nine letters in all. Change the sixth letter to an N, and read the resulting letters in order: You'll get a new two-word phrase sometimes seen on humorous signs in classrooms and offices. What signs are these? | ||
| 2016 12 18 | From listener Janet McDonald of Baton Rouge, La.: Take the initials and last names of two opposing historical figures. Add a C and mix all the letters together. You'll get the title and last name of another historical figure from approximately the same era. Who are these people? | ||
| 2016 12 25 | This week's challenge comes from listener Peter Collins of Ann Arbor, Mich. Think of three words used in golf. Say them out loud one after the other. They'll sound like a group that was in the news in 2016. What group is it? | ||
| 2017 01 01 | Take the four-letter men's names TODD, OMAR, DAVE and DREW. If you write them one under the other, they'll form a word square, spelling TODD, OMAR, DAVE and DREW reading down as well: TODD OMAR DAVE DREW Can you construct a word square consisting of five five-letter men's names? Any such square using relatively familiar men's names will count. I have an answer using four relatively common names and one less familiar one. | ||
| 2017 01 08 | This week's challenge comes from Mike Reiss, who's a writer/producer for The Simpsons. He's had a number of challenges on this program. Think of a two-word phrase you might see on a clothing label. Add two letters to the end of the first word, and one letter to the end of the second word. The result is the name of a famous writer. Who is it? | ||
| 2017 01 15 | This challenge comes from listener Peter Collins of Ann Arbor, Mich. Take the first and last names of a famous comedian. The first three letters of the first name and the first letter of the last name, in order, spell the name of a god in mythology. The fourth letter of the first name and the second through fourth letters of the last name, in order, spell the name of another god. Who's the comedian, and what gods are these? | ||
| 2017 01 22 | From Dan Pitt of Palo Alto, Calif.: This week's challenge is unusual. The numbers 5,000, 8,000, and 9,000 share a property that only five integers altogether have. Identify the property and the two other integers that have it. | ||
| 2017 01 29 | Take six different letters. Repeat them in the same order. Then repeat them again — making 18 letters altogether. Finally add "tebasket" at the end. If you have the right letters and you space them appropriately, you'll complete a sensible sentence. What is it? | ||
| 2017 02 05 | This week's challenge comes from listener Peter Collins of Ann Arbor, Mich. Name a prominent figure in a fairy tale. Write this in all capital letters. Add a stroke to one letter and rearrange the result. You'll name another prominent figure in a fairy tale. What two fairy tale figures are these? | ||
| 2017 02 12 | This week's challenge is an easy one, but it's pretty. It comes from listener Michael Shteyman of Odenton, Md. Name some things commonly seen on a kitchen table. Switch the positions of the fifth and sixth letters of the word, and read the result backward. You'll name two things commonly seen in a kitchen. What are they? | ||
| 2017 02 19 | Think of an article of apparel in five letters. Change one letter in it to name another article of apparel. Change one letter in that to name a third article of apparel. Then change one letter in that to name a fourth article of apparel. The position of the letters you change are different each time. What articles are these? | ||
| 2017 02 26 | This week's challenge comes from listener Mark Maravetz of Albuquerque, N.M. Take five consecutive letters of the alphabet. Write them in left-to-right order. Insert five letters at certain spots. These will all go between the first and last given letters. The result will be a famous actor — first and last names. Who is it? | Found the answer with my software. | |
| 2017 03 05 | An easy-ish one this week. Write the name of a game in small letters. Reverse the second and third letters. Turn the fourth letter upside-down. The result will name something else to play. What is it? | ||
| 2017 03 12 | From listener Peter Collins of Ann Arbor, Mich.: Name a well-known city in the U.S. Two words. The second word rhymes with a word meaning "certain stories" — and the first word rhymes with something found in those stories. What city is it? | ||
| 2017 03 19 | Think of a familiar phrase in the form "I ___ you," in which a four-letter word goes in the blank. Rearrange those letters and you'll get another familiar phrase in the form "I ___ you." Both phrases get more than half a million hits in a Google search. What phrases are these? | ||
| 2017 03 26 | This week's challenge comes from listener Mike Shteyman of Odenton, Md.—who also created the playoff puzzle at this year's American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Name two things found in a kitchen — one starting with G, the other starting with K. If you have the right ones, you can rearrange the letters to name two other things, one of them found in the kitchen starting with F, the other one probably found elsewhere in the house starting with K. What things are these? | ||
| 2017 04 02 | This week's challenge comes from listener David Edelheit of Oyster Bay, N.Y. Think of four 4-letter proper names that are all anagrams of each other. Two of them are first names — one male and one female. The other two are well-known geographical names. What names are these? | Wrote software to find an answer which turned out to be different from NPR's, but satisfies the conditions nicely, better even. | |
| 2017 04 09 | This week's challenge comes from listener Joe Young of St. Cloud, Minn. It's a takeoff of one of my own from a few weeks ago. Name a well-known U.S. city in two words. Replace each of these words with a word that rhymes with it, and you'll name a large sea creature in two words. What is it? | ||
| 2017 04 16 | A spoonerism is when you change the initial consonant sounds of two words in a phrase to get a new phrase. For example, "Tames Jailer" is a spoonerism of the singer James Taylor. "Spark Mitts" is a spoonerism of the swimmer Mark Spitz. The name of what famous entertainer—first and last names—has a two-word spoonerism meaning "A runny variety of cheese"? | ||
| 2017 04 23 | The object is to mashup the titles of past No. 1 hits on the Billboard 100 pop chart to tell a story. For example: "I Shot The Sheriff" "The Night the Lights Went Out In Georgia." "The Morning After" "I'll Be There" "Leaving On A Jet Plane." Wikipedia has a list of the Billboard No. 1 singles from the Hot 100 era, 1958 to present, which you can use. Your story can include up to seven song titles. Entries will be judged on cleverness, naturalness of reading, memorablness of the songs and overall elegance. You can send up to three entries and the best one, based on Will's opinion, will play the puzzle on the air in two weeks. | ||
| 2017 05 07 | This week's challenge comes from listener Warren Bergmann of Brownsville, Wis. Name a familiar medical procedure in nine letters. You can rearrange these letters to name two people who might get this procedure. The answer consists of informal names for these people. Who are they? | ||
| 2017 05 14 | This week's challenge comes from listener Steve Baggish of Arlington, Mass. Take the brand name of a product that's usually consumed in the morning. Drop the first two letters and read the remaining letters backward. You'll get a word associated with the evening. What is the brand, and what's the word? | ||
| 2017 05 21 | Name a creature in 9 letters. It has two words in its name. Drop the consecutive letters -UR, and the result will name a major U.S. city in 7 letters. What is it? | ||
| 2017 05 28 | If ELI is 173, and LOIS is 5,107, how much is LESLIE? I gave this puzzle to a friend, who solved it in 5 seconds. No fancy math is needed. | ||
| 2017 06 04 | It comes from listener David Herbst of Inverness, Calif. Name a well-known U.S. city with two words in its name. The second word sounds like the last name of a famous 20th century writer, and the first word is something found in virtually every work of this author. What's the city? And who's the author? | ||
| 2017 06 11 | Consider this sentence - Benjamin the Greenpeace ombudsman in the panorama was charmed by the chinchilla fragrance. Now, this sentence contains seven words of seven or more letters. They have something very unusual in common. What is it? And can you think of an eighth word with the same property? | ||
| 2017 06 18 | Think of a familiar two-word phrase starting with T and ending with S in which the interior letters name part of the human body. Remove the first and last letters of that word and what remains will name another part of the human body. So what's the phrase and what are the body parts? | ||
| 2017 06 25 | It comes from Kruno Matic, who's a correspondent of mine in Croatia. Take the name Kim Kardashian. Rearrange the letters to get the last name of a famous actress along with a famous one-named singer. Who are these people? | ||
| 2017 07 02 | It comes from listener Tyler Lipscomb of Athens, Ga. Think of a common girl's name. Write it in all capital letters. Rotate one of these letters 90 degrees and another of the letters 180 degrees, and the result will name a make of car. What is it? | ||
| 2017 07 09 | It comes from Martin Eiger of Montville, N.J. And he's a member of the National Puzzlers' League. He's here at the convention in Boston this weekend. Take a certain seven-letter word, remove the first letter and you get a six-letter synonym of that word. And the letter you removed is an abbreviation for the opposite of both words. What words are these? | ||
| 2017 07 16 | It comes from a listener named Dave who's from the city and state that's the answer to this puzzle. Name a U.S. city and its state, 12 letters altogether. Change two letters in the state's name, and the result will be the two-word title of a classic novel. What is it? | ||
| 2017 07 23 | What a common three-word expression - 14 letters in all - has only N and G as consonants and otherwise is all vowels? And that's N as in Nancy, G as in George. So what common three-word expression - 14 letters in all - has only N and G as consonants and otherwise is all vowels? What expression is it? | ||
| 2017 07 30 | It comes from listener Joe Krozel of Creve Coeur, Mo., and it might require a little research. There is a city somewhere in the United States with a population of about 24,000 people. Change the last letter in the name of its state. And if you now read the name of the city plus the altered name of the state together, the result is a palindrome - that is, it reads backward and forward the same. What city is it? | ||
| 2017 08 06 | It's not too hard a one, I think. The word inauguration contains the letters of gnu, G-N-U, and a goat, iguana and agouti, A-G-O-U-T-I, which are all animals. The name of what nine-letter animal can be spelled from the letters of inauguration? So that's all it is. The name of what nine-letter animal can be spelled from the letters of inauguration? | ||
| 2017 08 13 | It comes from listener Patrick Berry of Jasper, Ala. Name a long-running TV show in two words. Add a C, as in Charles, and rearrange the result to name another long-running TV show, also in two words. What shows are these? And here's a hint - both shows are currently on the air, although the second one was most popular in the past. | ||
| 2017 08 20 | This week's challenge comes from listener Steve Baggish of Arlington, Mass. Think of two synonyms - one in five letters, the other in four. The five-letter word starts with S, as in Sam. And the four-letter word contains an S. Change one of the S's to an A. And you can rearrange the result to name a group of people in nine letters that ideally have those two adjectives describe them. What group is it? | ||
| 2017 08 27 | Think of a common two-word expression in eight letters that uses all five vowels, A, E, I, O and U. It has only three consonants, one of which is repeated. The first word in the expression has two letters, and the second has six letters. What common expression is it? | ||
| 2017 09 03 | It comes from listener Patrick Berry (ph) of Jasper, Ala., who had that clever "American Dad" plus C equals "Candid Camera" anagram a few weeks ago. And it's another anagram this week. Rearrange the 15 letters of Cool Hit Fare in LA to name a famous song that's appropriate to the given phrase. And that's Cool Hit Fare - F-A-R-E - in LA. Rearrange those 15 letters to name a famous song that's appropriate to this phrase. What song is it? | ||
| 2017 09 10 | It comes from (laughter) not surprisingly - and it comes from listener Al Gori (ph) of Cozy Lake, N.J. Think of a famous quotation with eight words. The initial letters of the first four words themselves spell a word, and the initial letters of the last four words spell another word. And both words rhyme with jab. What quotation is it? | ||
| 2017 09 17 | This puzzle is for the new school year. Think of two antonyms, each in three letters. Set them side by side. In between them, arrange the letters of Try To Ace in some order. And that's T-R-Y T-O A-C-E. And the result will name someone at school. Who is it? | ||
| 2017 09 24 | Think of a familiar six-letter boy's name starting with a vowel. Change the first letter to a consonant to get another familiar boy's name. And then change the first letter to another consonant to get another familiar boy's name. What names are these? | ||
| 2017 10 01 | The challenge comes from listener Steve Bagish of Arlington, Mass. Think of a four-letter food. Move each letter one space later in the alphabet. So A would become B. B would become C, etc. Insert a U somewhere inside the result, and you'll name a five-letter food. What foods are these? So, again, a four-letter food. Move each letter one space later in the alphabet. Insert a U somewhere inside the result, and you'll name a five-letter food. What foods are these? | ||
| 2017 10 08 | Next week's challenge comes from listener Chris Stuart of Las Cruces, N.M. Take the name of a country. Insert an E somewhere inside it. You'll get a phrase that answers the question: What did Henry Ford do? | ||
| 2017 10 15 | It comes from Zack Guido, who's the author of the book "Of Course! The Greatest Collection Of Riddles And Brain Teasers For Expanding Your Mind." Write down the equation, 65 minus 43 equals 21. Now, you'll notice that this is not correct. Sixty-five minus 43 equals 22, not 21. The object is to move exactly two of the digits to create a correct equation. There is no trick in the puzzle's wording. And in the answer, the minus and equal signs stay where they are. | ||
| 2017 10 29 | It's a challenge that sounds easy, but it's actually a little tricky. Name a well-known nationality. Drop a letter, and the remaining letters in order will name a metal - one of the elements on the periodic table. What is it? So again, a well-known nationality. It's one that's with millions of people, and it's also the name of their language. Drop a letter, and the remaining letters in order will name a metal - one of the elements on the periodic table. What is it? | ||
| 2017 11 05 | it comes from listener Peter Collins of Ann Arbor, Mich. Think of the last name of a famous film director. The first two letters and the last two letters in order spell a word. And the remaining letters rearranged spell a synonym of that word. What film director is it? | ||
| 2017 11 12 | It comes from listener Steve Baggish of Arlington, Mass. Take the name of a U.S. state capital. Immediately to the right of it, right the name of a world capital. And if you have the right ones, the name of a U.S. state will be embedded in consecutive letters within that letter string. What three places are these? | ||
| 2017 11 19 | Take these six words. First is adieu - A-D-I-E-U as in French for goodbye - amazed, bureaus - B-U-R-E-A-U-S - elates, head-on and Siennas - S-I-E-N-N-A-S. Besides the fact that each word contains the letter E, what highly unusual property do they share? So that's it - six words - adieu - A-D-I-E-U - amazed, bureaus, elates, head-on and Siennas. Besides the fact that each word contains the letter E, what highly unusual property do they share? | ||
| 2017 11 26 | Think of a familiar French expression in three words containing three letters, two letters and five letters respectively. Then take it's standard translation in English, which is a two-word phrase. And if you have the right phrases, the first words of the two phrases said out loud will sound like a world capital. What is it? | ||
| 2017 12 03 | It comes from listener Joseph Young of St. Cloud, Minn. He has a puzzle blog called Puzzleria, which is a lot of fun. Take the singular and plural forms of a particular noun. Remove the first two letters of the singular form, and you'll name a country. Remove one letter from inside the plural form, and you'll name another country. What words and countries are these? | ||
| 2017 12 10 | It is a playful challenge from listener Carole Highland of Ephrata, Wash. The name of what vehicle spelled backward becomes phonetically a forward phrase identifying another vehicle. So that's it. The name of what vehicle spelled backward becomes phonetically a forward phrase identifying another vehicle. | ||
| 2017 12 17 | It comes from listener Neville Fogarty of Newport News, Va. Think of a convenience introduced in the 19th century that's still around today. Its name has two words. Take the first three letters of the first word and the first letter of the second word in order, and you'll get a convenience introduced in this century that serves a similar purpose, and their names are otherwise unrelated. What two conveniences are these? | ||
| 2017 12 24 | The name of what well-known U.S. city, in 10 letters, contains only three different letters of the alphabet? That's the whole puzzle. The name of what well-known U.S. city, in 10 letters, contains only three different letters of the alphabet? | ||
| 2017 12 31 | It comes from listener Patrick Berry of Jasper, Ala. Name a famous singer - three letters in the first name, five letters in the last. Drop the middle letter of the last name and rearrange the result to name a variety of singing group. What is it? | ||
| 2018 01 07 | It comes from listener Neville Fogarty of Newport News, Va. Take the first and last names of a journalist well-known to NPR listeners. Remove the first letter of the last name, and the remaining letters can be rearranged to spell two modes of transport. And here's a hint - the modes of transport have the same number of wheels. Who is the journalist, and what are the modes of transport? | ||
| 2018 01 14 | Name a world capital. And it's an older way of spelling the name. Drop three letters. And the remaining letters in order will name another world capitol. And both cities have more than a million residents. What cities are these? | ||
| 2018 01 21 | It comes from listener Tom Arnold (ph) of Eugene, Ore. Take the name of a conveyance in seven letters. Drop the middle letter. And the remaining letters can be rearranged to name the place where such a conveyance is often used. What is it? So, again, name of a conveyance in seven letters. Drop the middle letter. And the remaining letters can be rearranged to name the place where such a conveyance is often used. What is it? | ||
| 2018 01 28 | It comes from listener Stuart Portnoy (ph) of Arlington, Va. Name a famous actor, first and last names. The last name is a well-known brand. Drop the last letter of the first name, and you'll get the kind of product it's a brand of. Who is it? | ||
| 2018 02 04 | In English a short U sound is usually spelled with a U, as in fun and luck. Occasionally, it's spelled with an O, as in come and love. Can you name two everyday, one-syllable words in which a short U sound is spelled with an A? So that's the puzzle. | ||
| 2018 02 11 | Name part of the human body in six letters, add an R and rearrange the result to name part of the body in seven letters. What is it? | ||
| 2018 02 18 | This week's challenge comes from listener Joseph Young, who conducts the weekly blog Puzzleria. Take the start of a name of a country and the end of that country's capital. Put the parts together one after the other, and you'll get the last name of a character in a very popular movie. Who is it? | ||
| 2018 02 25 | It comes from listener Chris Stuart (ph), who is from the answer to this puzzle. Name a place in the United States that contains a W. Drop the W, and you can rearrange the remaining letters to name two types of mammals, each in the plural form. What place is it, and what are the mammals? | ||
| 2018 03 04 | It comes from listener Peter Collins (ph) of Ann Arbor, Mich. Name a famous singer, first and last names. Change the last three letters of each name to an E, and you'll name a well-known landmark. Who is the singer, and what landmark is it? | ||
| 2018 03 11 | Name a common article of apparel in three letters and another one in four letters and rearrange all seven letters to name a well-known three-word song title. What song is it? | ||
| 2018 03 25 | Yes, well, Easter is coming up next Sunday. And here's an Easter-related challenge from Jim Levering (ph) of San Antonio, Texas. Name a small but well-known U.S. city, followed by its two-letter state postal abbreviation. And this string of letters reading from left to right spells two consecutive words that name distinctive characteristics of bunnies. What city is it? | ||
| 2018 04 01 | So it comes from listener Eric Iverson (ph) of Eagan, Minn. And listen carefully. Pick an even number between one and 10 that's one more than four and two more than 10. What number is it? | ||
| 2018 04 08 | It's short and sweet. Name part of the human body. Insert a speech hesitation, and you'll name a country. What is it? | ||
| 2018 04 15 | It comes from listener Alan Hochbaum (ph) of Atlanta. The letters of Switzerland can be rearranged to spell lizard and newts - lizard being the singular name of an animal and newts as a plural. Name another country with the same property. That is name another country whose letters can be rearranged to name two animals, one singular and one plural. It's a major country. What country is it? | Found an answer using the computer. | |
| 2018 04 22 | Yes, it comes from listener Dan Ezekiel (ph) of Ann Arbor, Mich. Take the name of a famous film director. Drop the first letter of this person's first name. And you'll name a fish. Read the last name backward, and you'll name another fish. What film director is it? | ||
| 2018 04 29 | It came from listener Ray Hamel of Madison, Wis. And Ray writes the weekly news quiz for Slate magazine. Name a famous player in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Take a letter out of the last name and move it into the first name, and the result will name something you might see at a concert. What is it? | ||
| 2018 05 06 | Name a certain kind of criminal. Drop the first two letters and the last letter of the word, and you'll name a country. What country is it? | ||
| 2018 05 13 | It comes from Peter Collins of Ann Arbor, Mich. Think of a two-word phrase a child might shout when walking in the front door. Rearrange the letters, and add an E at the end, and you'll get the next two words the child might shout. And these are both common expressions. What are they? | ||
| 2018 05 20 | It comes from listener Ben Bass of Chicago. Take the name of a famous Hollywood flop, change an A to an R, then rearrange the letters to spell a famous box-office hit, which went on to spawn sequels. What films are these? | ||
| 2018 05 27 | Name part of the human body. Switch the first two letters to get a two-word phrase for something that is worrisome. What is it? | Using the computer I found a good answer. | |
| 2018 06 03 | The object is to pitch an idea to one of the networks, either broadcast or cable, in which your show's title is just one letter different from an existing show's title, past or present. Name your TV show and summarize it in 15 words or less. For example, you might say American I-dos - Hilarious Misadventures of a Bumbling Wedding Planner. Or You Bet Your Wife. It's a trivia contest with wagering to determine who knows more - husband or spouse? Now, entries will be judged on their sense, naturalness of wording, humor and overall effect. | ||
| 2018 06 17 | It comes from Mike Reiss, who's a writer for "The Simpsons." And he's a frequent contributor here. Think of a familiar hyphenated seven-letter word. The first four letters name a prominent American company. And the last four letters name a different prominent American company. What word is it? | ||
| 2018 06 24 | It comes from Joseph Young of St. Cloud, Minn., who conducts the weekly blog Puzzleria. Think of a well-known commercial name in nine letters. Change both the fourth and ninth letters to X's, and you'll get two other familiar commercial names, one after the other. What names are these? | ||
| 2018 07 01 | Name a woman's title. Drop the first and last letters and read the result backward to get another woman's title. And both titles are common English language spellings. What are they? | ||
| 2018 07 08 | It comes from Andrew Chaikin of the National Puzzlers' League, which will be having its 179th convention in Milwaukee next weekend. I'll be there, of course. The word pancake has an unusual property. If you remove its last letter, you get a series of U.S. state postal abbreviations - Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Alaska. Can you name a major city and state that both have this property? And to solve this, I'd say first think of a state in which you can drop its last letter to leave a series of state postal abbreviations. Then find a major city in that state that also has this property. And the city and state names have to be different. What city and state is it? | Found NPR's intended answer using the computer, though I first found the states without the computer. NPR also mentioned a second possible answer. | |
| 2018 07 15 | It comes from Sandy Weisz of Chicago, who's also attending the Puzzlers' convention here. Name a famous person from Chicago, first and last names. The last name ends in an E. Change the E to an I and rearrange the letters in just the last name to get a famous actor whose first name is the same as the first person's. Who are these people? | ||
| 2018 07 22 | Name two parts of the human body. Say them out loud one after the other, and the result phonetically will name something delicious to eat in seven letters. What is it? | ||
| 2018 07 29 | This comes from listener Mark Oshin of Portland, Ore.. Think of a familiar two-word phrase in eight letters - with four letters in each word. The first word starts with M, as in Mary. Move the first letter of the second word to the end and you'll get a regular 8-letter word, which, amazingly, other than the M, doesn't share any sounds with the original two-word phrase. What phrase is it? | I found NPR's answer with the computer. | |
| 2018 08 05 | Well, it's something unusual. This is part one of a two-week challenge. You'll need to solve both parts before you send in your answer. So hold your answer for now. Part one - write down these four words - Neanderthal, embarrass, saturation and contemptuousness. And they have a very interesting and unusual property in common, something hidden in them. What is it? | ||
| 2018 08 12 | Part two - write down these four words - scarecrow, screensaver, camerawoman and curvaceousness. And they have a very interesting and unusual property in common, something about the letters in them - all the letters, in this case. What is it? And when you know it, think of a common seven-letter word that shares the unusual properties in both last week's and this week's words. | ||
| 2018 08 19 | This comes from Joseph Young of St. Cloud, Minn. who conducts the blog Puzzleria. Think of a brand name you might see on your breakfast table. Change one letter to a Y and rearrange the result to get a familiar two-word phrase that names something else you might see on your breakfast table. What phrase is this? | ||
| 2018 08 26 | It comes from listener Dominic Talvacchio of Chicago. Think of a well-known musician whose last name contains a body part. The musician has a single-word nickname that anagrams to a different body part. Who's the musician? And what's the nickname? | ||
| 2018 09 02 | This challenge comes from listener Eric Chaikin of Los Angeles. The name of the film director David Lynch conceals the word AVIDLY in consecutive letters, spanning his first and last names. Can you think of a famous film director whose first and last names conceal a 6-letter name of car, past or present, in consecutive letters? | ||
| 2018 09 09 | This challenge comes from listener Bruce Campbell of Kansas City, Mo. Think of two well-known companies — one in five letters, the other in four letters. Write the names one after the other. The result, when spaced differently, will name a well-known geographical location in the U.S. (in two words). What is it? | ||
| 2018 09 16 | These five 2-word phrases have something very unusual in common. What is it? When you find it, think of another two-word phrase that has the same property. Property rights Land mine Sales order Color scheme India ink | ||
| 2018 09 23 | This challenge comes from listener Jim Levering of San Antonio. Think of an affliction in five letters. Shift each letter three spaces later in the alphabet — for example, A would become D, B would become E, etc. The result will be a prominent name in the Bible. Who is it? | ||
| 2018 09 30 | This week's challenge comes from listener Henrik Strandskov of Luck, Wis. Name a major professional sports team. The first and last letters of the team's name specify something that is an anagram of its interior letters. What team is it? | ||
| 2018 10 07 | Think of a title for a particular person — two words, 15 letters in total — in which the only vowel is "I." What is it? | ||
| 2018 10 14 | Take the 7-letter last name of a famous woman. Drop the letter E. Add an I and an F. You can rearrange the result to get a word that famously describes this woman. Who's the woman, and what's the word? | ||
| 2018 10 21 | Take the 9 letters of BEER MOUTH. Arrange them in a 3x3 array so that the three lines Across, three lines Down, and both diagonals spell common 3-letter words. Can you do it? | Solved using PHP. | |
| 2018 10 28 | This challenge comes from Sam Ezersky of Jersey City, N.J. Think of a famous Broadway musical in two words. Change one letter in it to the preceding letter of the alphabet — so B would become A, C would become B, etc. Remove the space so you have a solid word. The result will name something that all of us are part of. What is it? | Solved using PHP. | |
| 2018 11 04 | This challenge comes from listener Dominick Talvacchio of Chicago. Think of an article of apparel in eight letters. Drop the last 2 letters. Move what are the now the last 2 letters to the front. You'll get an article of apparel in 6 letters. What is it? | ||
| 2018 11 11 | This challenge comes from listener Phil Moffa of Torrance, Calif. It's easy, but elegant. Think of a familiar four-word phrase that means "to be last." Together the first two words are a synonym for the last word. What phrase is it? | ||
| 2018 11 18 | In my trip to Europe two weeks ago I visited a friend in Amsterdam, Peter Ritmeester, who literally has a puzzle on his doormat. Before you walk into his apartment, there's an original puzzle for you to solve. I was able to do it. See if you can. What number comes next in this series: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 23, 28? | ||
| 2018 11 25 | Think of a well-known food brand. Add the letters W-O-W. Then rearrange the result to name another well-known food brand. What is it? | ||
| 2018 12 02 | This puzzle also involves rhymes. It comes from listener James Matthews of Little Rock, Ark. Think of a common 7-letter word. Drop its second letter, and you'll get a 6-letter word that does not rhyme with the first. Alternatively, you can drop the third letter from the 7-letter word to get a 6-letter word that doesn't rhyme with either of the first two. Further, you can drop both the second and third letters from the 7-letter word to get a 5-letter word that doesn't rhyme with any of the others. What words are these? | ||
| 2018 12 09 | This week's challenge comes from listener Dominick Talvacchio of Chicago. Think of a word that can go before "table" to make a familiar phrase. Move the last letter to the front, and you'll have a word that can go after "table" to make a familiar phrase. What phrases are these? | Found a nice answer with computer assistance. | |
| 2018 12 16 | This comes from Joseph Young of St. Cloud, Minn., who conducts the blog Puzzleria. Think of two words meaning certain groups of females. If you have the right ones, you can rearrange all the letters to name a famous novel by a female writer. And the title has 13 letters in total. What novel is it? | ||
| 2018 12 23 | It's straightforward. Think of a place where you can find coins - in two words. Put the second word first. And you'll get a compound word describing most holiday cards. What words are these? | ||
| 2018 12 30 | It's short and sweet. What world capital becomes the informal name for a farm animal if you change its third letter? | ||
| 2019 01 06 | This comes from Joel Fagliano, who's the digital puzzles editor of The New York Times. Name a major U.S. city in ten letters. If you have the right one, you can rearrange its letters to get two five-letter words that are synonyms. What are they? | ||
| 2019 01 13 | This comes from listener James Matthews of Little Rock, Ark. And the challenge is to make a nine-letter word meaning left using only a B and one D. Can you do it? | ||
| 2019 01 20 | This comes from listener Steve Baggish (ph) of Arlington, Mass. Take the name of a classic song that became the signature song of the artist who performed it. It has two words - five letters in the first word, three letters in the second. And these letters can be rearranged to spell two new words. One is a feeling, and the other is an expression of that feeling. What song is it? | ||
| 2019 01 27 | This comes from listener Joe Krozel of Creve Coeur, Mo. Name a vehicle in two words, each with the same number of letters. Subtract a letter from each word. And the remaining letters in order will spell the first and last names of a famous writer. Who is it? | ||
| 2019 02 03 | This week's challenge comes from listener David Edelheit (ph) of Oyster Bay, N.Y. Think of a word meaning a particular body of water. Change one letter in it to get a new word meaning a particular body of land. What words are these? So, again, a word meaning a particular body of water - change one letter in it to get a new word meaning a particular body of land. What words are these? | ||
| 2019 02 10 | This comes from listener Mathew Huffman. Name a well-known rock band in three words. Change the first and third letters to the first and third letters of the alphabet - that is, A and C - and you can rearrange the result to name another famous rock band in three words. What is it? | ||
| 2019 02 17 | The numbers 1, 12, 80 and million have something in common that only one other number has. What is it, and what's the other number? So, again, the numbers are 1, 12, 80 and million. They have something in common that only one other number has. What is it, and what's the other number? | ||
| 2019 02 24 | This comes from listener Roger Barkan of Savage, Md. I'm thinking of a well-known U.S. natural landmark. Take the two-word name of its location. Then change the first letter of the second word to the immediately previous letter of the alphabet. And you'll get another description of the landmark's location. What's the landmark? And what are the two descriptions of its location? | ||
| 2019 03 03 | This comes from listener Alan Hochbaum of Dunwoody, Ga. Name a popular restaurant chain in two words. Its letters can be rearranged to spell some things to eat and some things to drink. And both things are plural words. What are they, and what's the chain? | ||
| 2019 03 10 | I think it may be not an easy one again. We'll see. It comes from listener Hugh Stoll of Harrisonburg, Va. Think of a four-letter word for something commonly seen in the winter. Write it in lowercase letters. Turn it upside down, and you'll name a device you use with this thing. What is it? | ||
| 2019 03 17 | It's not too hard this time. Take the letters S, Y, T, O, Y. Add the same letter of the alphabet six times to complete a familiar phrase. What is it? | ||
| 2019 03 24 | This comes from listener Steve Baggish of Arlington, Mass. Think of a well-known brand name in eight letters starting with H. Change the H to an M, as in Mary, and drop the last letter. You'll get another well-known brand name in seven letters. What commercial names are these? | ||
| 2019 03 31 | This comes from listener Joe Krozel of Creve Coeur, Mo. Name something you see when going to the movies in two words. Change the sixth letter to an R, and you'll get something you might buy at a grocery in three words. What things are these? So, again, something you see when going to the movies - two words. Change the sixth letter to an R, and you'll get something you might buy at a grocery in three words. What things are these? | ||
| 2019 04 07 | This might require a little research. Name a country, remove its last letter, and the remaining letters can be rearranged to spell a word that means country in that country's main language. What country is it? | ||
| 2019 04 14 | Think of a word for a deceitful person. Move the middle letter to the end. And you'll get another word for a deceitful person. What words are these? | ||
| 2019 04 21 | This comes from listener Daniel Nathan (ph) of Washington, D.C. Think of a common greeting in another country. You can rearrange its letters to get the capital of a country that neighbors the country where this greeting is commonly spoken. What greeting is it? So, again, common greeting in another country. Rearrange its letters to get the capital of a country that neighbors the country where this greeting is commonly spoken. What greeting is it? | ||
| 2019 04 28 | This comes from listener Joseph Young of St. Cloud, Minn., who conducts the blog Puzzleria! Think of a familiar three-word phrase with and in the middle - blank and blank. Move the first letter of the third word to the start of the first word, and you'll form two means of transportation. What are they? | ||
| 2019 05 05 | This comes from listener Erik Burg of San Francisco. Name a popular movie of 2018. Add an R. You can rearrange the result to get three different titles for people. What are they? | ||
| 2019 05 12 | This comes from listener David Chapas (ph) of Rush, N.Y. Think of a six-letter conveyance on wheels. Drop the first letter. Add a new letter at the end, and the result will be another six-letter conveyance on wheels. What are they? | ||
| 2019 05 19 | Name a profession in 13 letters that is associated with a particular five-letter country. And the letters of this country appear in left to right order, although not consecutively, in that profession's name. What is it? And here's a hint, the profession is named in a single word. | ||
| 2019 05 26 | It's not so hard. It comes from Joseph Young (ph) of St. Cloud, Minn. Take a common English word in three letters. Translate it into French - also three letters. And this is a French word everyone knows. And between them, these two words consist of six different vowels and no consonants. What words are these? | ||
| 2019 06 02 | This comes from listener Greg VanMechelen of Berkeley, Calif. Think of a verb in its present and past-tense forms. Drop the first letter of each word, and the result will name two vehicles. What are they? | ||
| 2019 06 09 | This week's challenge comes from listener Judy Grant of Chapel Hill, N.C. Think of a famous actor - first and last names - that together contain each of the five vowels, A, E, I, O, and U, exactly once. Add an M. And rearrange the result to get a famous writer - also first and last names. Who are these famous people? | ||
| 2019 06 16 | Name a major U.S. city with a population of more than 100,000. It has a two-word name. The two words rhyme, respectively, with the first and last names of a famous singer. What city is it? And who's the singer? | ||
| 2019 06 23 | This comes from listener James Matthews of Little Rock, Ark. And to solve it, you might need to crack open an atlas. Take the names of two countries that share a border. Drop the second letter from the second country's name, and the resulting string of letters, in order from left to right, will spell a regular, uncapitalized word. What is it? | ||
| 2019 06 30 | There is a standard two-letter abbreviation for an English word that has an unusual property. The first letter of the abbreviation is the second letter of the word. And the second letter of the abbreviation does not appear in the word at all. What's the word? And what's the abbreviation? | ||
| 2019 07 07 | This comes from Joseph Young of St. Cloud, Minn., who conducts the blog Puzzleria. And it's a little tricky. When you remove the last letter from Germany, Sweden or Somalia, what remains is a native of that country. What country, if you remove its last letter, also leaves a native but only after you rearrange its remaining letters? | ||
| 2019 07 14 | This comes from listener Eric Berlin. He's a member of the National Puzzlers League. And you've caught me this weekend at the National Puzzlers League convention in Colorado. And here's the puzzle. Take an 11-letter word with two Ds in it - D as in dog. If you drop both Ds, you'll get a world capital followed by a sign of the zodiac. What's the 11-letter word? | ||
| 2019 07 21 | The challenge comes from listener Steve Baggish of Arlington, Mass. Think of a common two-word phrase, in nine letters, naming something that makes it easy to get money. Rearrange these letters to spell another common two-word phrase, naming something that makes it hard to get money. What phrases are these? | ||
| 2019 07 28 | This comes from listener Andy Blau. He's a magician who performs under the name Zoltan the Adequate. He describes the word bevy, B-E-V-Y, as alphabetically balanced. That is, the first letter, B, is second from the start of the alphabet. And the last letter, Y, is second from the end of the alphabet. And similarly, E and V are each fifth from the ends of the alphabet. Can you think of a six-letter word related to magic that is similarly balanced? | ||
| 2019 08 04 | Think of a two-letter and a five-letter word that are synonyms. The two-letter word and the last syllable of the five-letter word sound like new words that are antonyms. What words are these? | ||
| 2019 08 11 | This comes from listener Matt Pillai (ph) of Denver. And it involves a word curiosity. Think of a common five-letter word. If you insert an E after the second letter, you'll get a common six-letter word. If instead you insert an E after the fourth letter, you'll get another six-letter word. And if instead you insert an E at the end, you'll get still another six-letter word. What words are these? | ||
| 2019 08 18 | This comes from listener Tyler Lipscomb of Hamden, Conn. Listen carefully. If five equals four, six equals nine and seven equals five, what does 12 equal? | ||
| 2019 08 25 | This is a two-week challenge from Lee Zion of Lafayette, Minn. And it may sound impossible, but it's not. You wake up trapped in a round room with six doors. A voice over a loudspeaker tells you that five of the doors are booby trapped and will bring instant death if you try to open them. Only one door provides an opening that will get you out safely. The doors are evenly spaced around the room. They look exactly alike. Your only clue is that on the wall between each pair of doors is a large letter of the alphabet. And going clockwise, these letters are H, I, J, K, L and M - H to M. Which is the correct door that will get you out and why? | ||
| 2019 09 08 | This comes from listener Joe Becker of Palo Alto, Calif. Name a world capital in 12 letters. If you have the right one, you can rearrange the letters to name two animals, one in three letters and the other in nine. What capital is it? | ||
| 2019 09 15 | This comes from listener Joe Becker (ph) of Palo Alto, Calif. Name a world capital in 12 letters. If you have the right one, you can rearrange the letters to name two animals, one in three letters and the other in nine. What capital is it? | ||
| 2019 09 22 | This comes from listener Tyler Lipscomb (ph) of Augusta, Ga. Think of an adjective in five letters and two syllables. The first syllable phonetically sounds like a synonym of the full five-letter word. And strangely, these two words have no letters in common. What words are these? | ||
| 2019 09 29 | This comes from listener Dorothy Baker of Dallas. Think of a word that has five vowels - two Es, an I, an O and a U. And curiously, every vowel except the I is pronounced like a short I. And the I in the word is not pronounced at all. What word is it? | ||
| 2019 10 06 | There are two answers to this one, and you have to get them both. Name two tasty things to eat, each in eight letters, in which the only consonants are L and P. That's L as in Lulu and P as in puzzle. | ||
| 2019 10 13 | This comes from listener Dominick Talvacchio (ph) of Chicago. Think of an informal term for a beverage. Now say it in pig Latin, and you'll have an informal term for another beverage. What two beverages are these? | ||
| 2019 10 20 | This comes from listener Sandy Kutin of Princeton, N.J. Think of a seven-letter past tense verb for something good you might have done in a football game. Move each letter one space later in the alphabet - so A becomes B, B becomes C, et cetera - and rearrange the result. You'll get a past tense verb for something bad you might have done in football. What words are these? | ||
| 2019 10 27 | This comes from listener Mike Strong of Mechanicsburg, Pa. Think of a familiar two-word phrase - five letters in each word - that might be something you'd write in a letter. The first and last letters are the same. The third and eighth letters are the same. The fourth and seventh letters are the same. And the middle two letters are consecutive in the alphabet. What phrase is it? | ||
| 2019 11 03 | The letters C and D together sound like the word seedy, and the letters I and V together sound like ivy. Take the 18 letters in the phrase "end backstage TV quiz". Rearrange them into pairs using each letter exactly once to make nine common, uncapitalized words phonetically. | ||
| 2019 11 10 | This comes from Steve Bagish (ph) of Arlington, Mass. Think of two five-letter words that are opposites. One of them begins with E. The other ends with E. Drop both of the Es, and the remaining eight letters can be rearranged to spell a new word that is relevant. What are these three words? | ||
| 2019 11 17 | This comes from Janet McDonald of Baton Rouge, La. And she says Mobile, Ala., has the interesting property that the name of the city has exactly the same consonants as its state - M, B and L, albeit in a different order. What is the next largest U.S. city for which this is true? | ||
| 2019 11 24 | This comes from listener Jon Siegel of Chevy Chase, Md. The words won - W-O-N - and sun - S-U-N - rhyme even though their vowels are different. Can you name four common uncapitalized four-letter words, each of which has exactly one vowel and all of which rhyme, even though all four vowels are different? | ||
| 2019 12 01 | This comes from listener Joe Krozel of Creve Coeur, Mo. Name something you find in a grocery - two words, three letters in the first word, six in the second. Switch the third and seventh letters, and read the result backward. The result will name the same grocery item again. What is it? | ||
| 2019 12 08 | This comes from listener Dominick Talvacchio of Chicago. Name a food in two words, a total of 11 letters. Some of these letters appear more than once. The food has seven different letters in its name. And you can rearrange these seven letters to identify the form in which this food is typically served. What food is it? | ||
| 2019 12 15 | This week's challenge comes from listener Andrew Chaikin of San Francisco. Write down eight different letters of the alphabet. Add an apostrophe. Then write the same eight letters in a different order with proper spacing. You now have a four-word phrase meaning took a risk. What is it? | ||
| 2019 12 22 | This comes from Eric Chaiken of Thousand Oaks, Calif. His brother is Andrew Chaikin, who created last week's challenge. Name a noted TV journalist - five letters in the first name, six letters in the last. Change an I in this name to a W and rearrange the result. You'll get a two-word phrase for where you might see this journalist. Who is it? | ||
| 2019 12 29 | This comes from listener Mark Scott of Seattle, and it involves spoonerisms. That's where you switch the initial consonant sounds of one phrase to get another, like light rain to right lane. So here's the puzzle. Name a well-known world leader, first and last names. Spoonerize (ph) this, and you'll get a phrase that means to have confidence in one of the martial arts. Who's the leader, and what's the phrase? | ||
| 2020 01 05 | This comes from listener Evan Kalish of Bayside, N.Y. Think of an informal term for part of the human body that consists of two alcoholic beverages, one after the other. What is it? | ||
| 2020 01 12 | This comes from listener Neville Fogarty of Newport News, Va. Think of a familiar three-word phrase that has the following property. The first word is a number. Let X be that number. Then the last X letters in the second word form, in order, a common abbreviation for the third word. Sounds a little complicated, but it's not so bad - a familiar three-word phrase. | ||
| 2020 01 19 | This is a little easier than last week's challenge. It comes from listener Tyler Lipscomb of Hamden, Conn. Name something everyone has starting with H. Add an E, and rearrange the letters. You'll name two things that every person must do to stay alive. | ||
| 2020 01 26 | Write down the letter C, as in Charles, beneath that write E-N-T. And beneath that, write a G. What profession do these letters represent? And here's a hint. It's a two-word phrase - ten letters in the first word, five letters in the second. | ||
| 2020 02 02 | The actress Michael Learned, who played the mother on The Waltons, has an unusual property in her name. The last three letters of her first name are the same as the first three letters of her last name reversed. The name of what current celebrity has the same property? Here's a hint: The first and last names each have 6 letters. | ||
| 2020 02 09 | My friend Penelope, who is from La Jolla, went on a world vacation. She stopped in Santa Rosa, Toronto and Casablanca. What European capital did she also visit? | ||
| 2020 02 16 | What familiar 10-letter word contains a silent B, E, and O — not necessarily in that order. And those three letters don't have to be consecutive in the word. | ||
| 2020 02 23 | From listener Peter Collins of Ann Arbor, Mich. Name a well-known game in 8 letters. Drop the fifth letter. Move the first letter into the vacated spot ... and you'll spell, in order, part of the human body. What game is it, and what's the body part? | ||
| 2020 03 01 | From listener Michael Wilk of Goleta, Calif. Think of a hyphenated word that describes certain pants. The first half of the word and a homophone of the second half are synonyms. What kind of pants are these? | ||
| 2020 03 08 | This week's challenge is something different. It comes from Joseph Young of St. Cloud, Minn. It involves Pi Day, which is this coming Saturday, March 14 — commonly written as 3/14. That's been designated Pi Day because 3-1-4 are the first three digits of pi. Well, the letters of "Pi Day" also have a curious mathematical significance. What is it? | ||
| 2020 03 15 | From Adam Cohen of Brooklyn. Think of a well-known entertainer, six letters in the first name, four letters in the last. You can change the first letter of the entertainer's last name to name an animal. And you can change the first letter of the entertainer's first name to get what kind of animal that is. | ||
| 2020 03 22 | From my colleague Stan Newman, who's the crossword editor for Newsday. Many famous people's names contain three pairs of double letters, like Johnny Appleseed and the actress Jennifer Connelly. But there are two famous fiction writers — one male, one female — whose names have four pairs of double letters. The male writer is Tennessee Williams. Who is the popular female writer? | ||
| 2020 03 29 | Here's an April Foolish puzzle from Raymond Nardo of Mineola, N.Y. Think of a world capital. Drop the third and fourth letters, and keeping the remaining letters in order you'll name a state. What state is it? | ||
| 2020 04 05 | From listener Bruce Campbell of Kansas City, Mo. Think of a well-known U.S. city. Its population is over a quarter of a million. Phonetically, the first syllable of the city's name plus the first syllable of the name of its state will sound like a well-known brand name. What is it? | ||
| 2020 04 12 | The challenge is to create the shortest possible word ladder connecting LARGE to SMALL, changing one letter at a time, making a common, uncapitalized word each step of the way. Here's the tricky part: Plurals and verbs formed by adding -s are not allowed. | ||
| 2020 04 19 | From listener Greg Lewis, of Columbus, Ind. Name part of the human body in seven letters. The first four letters, in order, spell a familiar boy's name. The second through fifth letters, in order, also spell a familiar boy's name. What body part is it? | ||
| 2020 04 26 | From Ben Bass of Chicago, who's now making cryptograms twice a week for The New York Times. Name a famous American landmark in 8 letters. The first 4 letters in order are the first 4 letters of the name of a famous person associated with this landmark. Who is it? Here's a hint: The famous person's name also has 8 letters. | ||
| 2020 05 03 | From listener Mark Halpin of Cold Spring, Ky. Think of two common phrases in the form "___ and ___," in which the blanks stand for four-letter words. All four words in those two phrases have different first letters, but the last three letters in the words are the same. What are the phrases? | ||
| 2020 05 10 | From listener Jerry Heckler of Chardon, Ohio. Name the make and model of a popular car. Change the first and last letters of the make to name an animal. Change the first and fourth letters of the model to name another animal. What car is this? | ||
| 2020 05 17 | Name a Cabinet department — as in "Department of ___." Rearrange the letters of what goes in the blank to get the brand name of a product you might find at a drugstore or supermarket. What is it? | ||
| 2020 05 31 | From listener Scott Weiss, of Walkersville, Md. Think of a familiar three-word name of something. The first word in that name is a number. Let's call that number "x." The last "x" letters of the second word of the name are a French translation of the third word. What's the name? | ||
| 2020 06 07 | From listener Chad Graham, of St. Louis. Name a well-known restaurant chain. Rearrange its letters to name a large area in the United States. This area has a two-word name. What is it? | ||
| 2020 06 14 | From listener Greg Van Mechelen of Berkeley, Calif. Think of a five-letter word. Change the first letter to the next letter of the alphabet, and you'll get a new word that doesn't share any sounds with the first one. Then change its first letter to the next letter of the alphabet, and you'll get a third word that doesn't share any sounds with either of the first two. What words are these? | ||
| 2020 06 21 | Think of a famous person whose name consists of three names. The first and last letters of the first name plus the first and last letters of the second name plus the first and last letters of the third name, in order, name a city and lake in Europe. Who is it? | ||
| 2020 06 28 | From listener Ed Pegg Jr., who runs the website MathPuzzle.com. Think of a five-letter animal. Remove the middle letter, and two opposites remain. What animal is it? | ||
| 2020 07 05 | From listener Harry Hillson of Avon-by-the-Sea, N.J. Think of an eight-letter word for something we all crave now. It consists of three consecutive men's nicknames. What are they? | ||
| 2020 07 12 | From listener Neville Fogarty, of Newport News, Va. Think of a two-word direction or command. Take the first letter of the first word plus the entire second word, in order, and you'll get a common name for one receiving that direction or command. What is it? | ||
| 2020 07 19 | From listener James Matthews, of Little Rock, Ark. Think of a six-letter word for something you might wear. Insert an "O" in the exact middle, and you'll get a phrase meaning "Not aware." What is it? | ||
| 2020 07 26 | From listener Dominick Talvacchio of Chicago. Think of a common two-word phrase for something you experience in a desert. Rearrange the letters to get a single word for something you should do in the desert as a result. | ||
| 2020 08 02 | From listener Alan Hochbaum, of Duluth, Ga. Think of a famous living American whose first and last names have a total of eight letters — all different. Five of these letters are consecutive in the alphabet. The remaining three can be rearranged to spell a woman's nickname. What famous American is this? | ||
| 2020 08 09 | From listener Barbara Weinstein, of Lincoln, Mass. Think of a famous living person in the entertainment field whose first name is a bird. The person's last name is a quality of this bird — something its feathers have. Who's the famous person, and what's the bird? | ||
| 2020 08 16 | This is a spinoff of today's on-air puzzle. Think of a major city in France whose name is an anagram of a major city in Italy. Each city has more than 100,000 people. | ||
| 2020 08 23 | From listener Sandy Weisz, of Chicago. Think of a place on earth with a four-word name. Take the third word. Advance three of its letters to the next letter of the alphabet (so A would become B, B would be come C, etc.). You'll get the fourth word in the name. What place is this? | ||
| 2020 08 30 | From listener Joe Young, of St. Cloud, Minn. Name a famous person in history (5,4). The letters of the last name can be rearranged to name a popular game. And the letters in the first name can be rearranged to name an action in this game. Who is this famous person? | ||
| 2020 09 06 | From listener Jeremy Crane of Madison, Wis. Name a deity in ancient mythology. The first half of the name, phonetically, names a common object. The second half of the name, by spelling, names another object that is often put inside the first one. What is it? | ||
| 2020 09 13 | From listener Judy Horn, of Reading, Mass. Name a famous person with the initials M. C. The first initial and last name anagram to the person's field of renown. What is it? | ||
| 2020 09 20 | From listener Greg VanMechelen of Berkeley, Calif. Take the name of a famous actor — 4 letters in the first name, 5 letters in the last. Spoonerize it. That is, interchange the initial consonant sounds of the first and last names. The result will be two new familiar first names — one male, one female — that start with the same letter ... but that letter is pronounced differently in the two names. Who's the actor? | ||
| 2020 09 27 | From listener Ben Austin, of Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. It's not too hard. 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? | ||
| 2020 10 04 | From listener Micah Margolies of Lenexa, Kan. 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? | ||
| 2020 10 11 | From listener Tyler Lipscomb, of Augusta, Ga. 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? | ||
| 2020 10 18 | From listener Michael Schwartz of Florence, Ore. Name a world capital. Change one letter in it to D-Y. The result will be two words, one after the other. The first word names somebody you like to be around. The second word names somebody you don't like to be around. What city is it? | ||
| 2020 10 25 | From Neville Fogarty, of Newport News, Va. What common seven-letter verb is made up of three consecutive musical notes in order? | ||
| 2020 11 01 | This is a spinoff of today's on-air puzzle. Name a well-known U.S. city in two words (5,3). Change the first letter of the second word to name a popular rock group. Who is it? | ||
| 2020 11 08 | From listener Eric Berlin of Milford, Conn. There are several words that consist of the consonants N, P and R and an assortment of vowels — for example, APRON, PIONEER and EUROPEAN. But there is only one common phrase that contains exactly two N's, two P's and two R's with no other consonants. You can add vowels as needed. What phrase is this? | ||
| 2020 11 15 | From listener Bruce Campbell of Kansas City, Mo. Name a title character from books and TV (5, 5). You can rearrange the letters to get two words describing what you can hear and do in church. What character is it? | ||
| 2020 11 22 | From listener Alan Hochbaum of Duluth, Ga. Name a marine animal in two words. Remove two consecutive letters in the name and read the resulting string of letters in order from left to right. You'll name a major American city. What is it? | ||
| 2020 11 29 | From listener Wesley Davis of Black Mountain, N.C., and when you get the answer it will make you smile. Name an animal and spell it backward. Now name a variety of meat and insert it inside the animal's name that you've spelled backward. A common word will be revealed. What is it? | ||
| 2020 12 06 | From listener Jared Harvey, of Santa Cruz, Calif. Think of a common word in six letters. Write it in lowercase. If you hold up a mirror at its side, the reflection will show the same word. What is it? | ||
| 2020 12 13 | From listener Steve Baggish, of Arlington, Mass. Using only the letters in the phrase RIDE ON — repeating them as often as necessary — you can spell 1) the one-word proper name of a famous fictional animal, and 2) a word for what kind of animal it is. What's the name of the animal, and what's the word? | ||
| 2020 12 20 | From listener Dan Pitt, of Palo Alto, Calif. Take the name BUENOS AIRES. Remove one letter. The remaining letters can be rearranged to name two things that many people wish for around this time of year. What are they? | ||
| 2020 12 27 | From listener David Curren of Arlington, Mass. Think of a familiar two-word phrase (5, 2). Replace the last letter with the next letter of the alphabet. The result will be a palindrome (the seven letters will read backward and forward the same). What phrase is it? | ||
| 2021 01 03 | From listener Robert Flood of Allen, Texas. Think of a seven-letter hyphenated word for a kind of cooking. Change the middle letter to get a new word describing a kind of music. What words are these? | ||
| 2021 01 10 | From listener Michael Shteyman, of Freeland, Md. Name a person in 2011 world news in eight letters. Remove the third, fourth and fifth letters. The remaining letters, in order, will name a person in 2021 world news. What names are these? | ||
| 2021 01 17 | From listener Gerry Reynolds of Chicago. Name a national landmark (6,3). Add the name of a chemical element. Rearrange all the letters to name two states. What are they? | ||
| 2021 01 24 | This week's challenge is a spinoff of my on-air puzzle, and it's a little tricky. Think of a hyphenated word you might use to describe a young child that sounds like three letters spoken one after the other. | ||
| 2021 01 31 | From listener Derrick Niederman, of Charleston, S.C. Starting in Montana, you can drive into South Dakota and then into Iowa. Those three states have the postal abbreviations MT, SD, and IA — whose letters can be rearranged to spell AMIDST. The challenge is to do this with four connected states to make an eight-letter word. That is, start in a certain state, drive to another, then another, and then another. Take the postal abbreviations of the four states you visit, mix the letters up, and use them to spell a common eight-letter word. Derrick and I know of only one answer. Can you do this? | ||
| 2021 02 07 | From listener Ed Pegg Jr., who runs mathpuzzle.com. Think of someone who has been in the news this year in a positive way. Say this person's first initial and last name out loud. It will sound like an important person in U.S. history. Who is it? | ||
| 2021 02 14 | From listener Samuel Mace of Smyrna, Del. Name a famous actor whose first name is a book of the Bible and whose last name is an anagram of another book of the Bible. Who is it? | ||
| 2021 02 21 | From listener Andrew Chaikin, of San Francisco. Think of a famous philosopher — first and last names. Change one letter in the first name to get a popular dish. Drop two letters from the last name and rearrange the result to get the kind of cuisine of this dish. What is it? | ||
| 2021 02 28 | From Joseph Young of St. Cloud, Minn. I'm looking for the names of two companies. One of them has a two-part name (5,5). The other has a three-part name (5,7,5). The last five-letter part of the two names is the same. And the first five-letter part of the first company's name is something the second company wants. What is it? | ||
| 2021 03 07 | From listener Mark Scott, of Seattle. Think of a country with a one-word name. You can rearrange its letters to identify a member of one of our country's armed forces. Who is that, and what's the country? | ||
| 2021 03 14 | From Robert Render, of Skokie, Ill. It's more challenging that it sounds. Name a well-known tourist locale that attracts millions of visitors a year. It has a two-word name. The first word is a number. And that number is the same as the total number of letters in the name. What's the tourist site? | ||
| 2021 03 21 | From Ed Pegg Jr. of Champaign, Ill. Take the phrase ZANY BOX KEPT HIM. Write it in capital letters. Something is special about the 14 letters in this sentence that sets them apart from all the other 12 letters of the alphabet. What is it? | ||
| 2021 03 28 | From listener Greg VanMechelen, of Berkeley, Calif. Name something birds do. Put the last sound of this word at the start and the first sound at the end, and phonetically you'll name something else birds do. What are these things? | ||
| 2021 04 04 | From listener Steve Engler, of Wayland, Mass. Write in capital letters the name of a popular vehicle brand. Move two vertical lines closer together. Add a horizontal line. The result will be another popular vehicle brand. What names are these? | ||
| 2021 04 11 | From listener Steve Baggish, of Arlington, Mass. Think of part of the body in seven letters. Add an "N" and rearrange all the letters to name two more parts of the body (none related to the original word). What body parts are these? | ||
| 2021 04 18 | From listener Theodore Regan, of Scituate, Mass. Name a famous actor — 4 letters in the first name, 7 letters in the last. You can change the first letter of the actor's first name to name a bird. And you can change the first letter of the actor's last name to name a mammal. Who's the actor? | ||
| 2021 04 25 | From listener Peter Gordon of Great Neck, N.Y. Think of a person in the news (5,4). The first name and last name each have at least two consonants and two vowels. All the consonants in each name come at the start, and all the vowels come at the end. The letter "y" is not used. Who is this famous person? | ||
| 2021 05 02 | From listener Evan Kalish, of Bayside, N.Y. Name a famous blues singer — first and last name as this person is generally known. Change the first letter to a "B," and phonetically you'll get a nationality. Who's the singer, and what's the nationality? | ||
| 2021 05 09 | This week's challenge comes from listener Jim Dale, of Plano, Texas. Think of a word with six syllables that's spelled with only 11 letters — and the four middle syllables have the same vowel. What word is it? |
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| 2021 05 16 | Name a popular singer — first and last names. Change one letter to a "P" and read the result backward. You'll get what many people do around this singer. Who is it? |
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| 2021 05 23 | This week's challenge comes from listener Roger Barkan of Savage, Md. Think of an eight-letter word in which the third and sixth letters are "A." Remove the A's. The remaining six letters start a common series. What is it? And what comes next in that series? |
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| 2021 05 30 | This week's challenge comes from listener Al Gori, of Oak Ridge, N.J. Name a famous city in 10 letters that contains an "S." Drop the "S." Then assign the remaining nine letters their standard value in the alphabet — A = 1, B= 2, C = 3, etc. The total value of the nine letters is only 25. What city is it? | Addis Ababa. Found by using grep on world_cities. | |
| 2021 06 06 | This week's challenge comes from listener Matthew Leal of San Francisco. Write down the name of a country plus its capital, one after the other. Hidden in consecutive letters inside this is the name of a film that won an Academy Award for Best Picture. Name the country, capital, and film. |
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| 2021 06 13 | This week's challenge comes from listener Sandy Weisz, of Chicago. Name a famous woman in American history with a three-part name. Change one letter in her first name to a double letter. The resulting first and second parts of her name form the first and last names of a famous athlete. And the last part of the woman's name is a major rival of that athlete. Who are these people? | ||
| 2021 06 20 | This week's challenge comes from listener Iva Allen in Canada. Name a make of car. Write it in all capital letters. Rotate one of the letters 90 degrees and another letter 180 degrees to make a woman's name. What is it? |
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| 2021 06 27 | This week's challenge comes from listener Julia Lewis, of Fort Collins, Colo. Take the name of a major American city. Hidden inside it in consecutive letters is the name of a Japanese food. Remove that. The remaining letters can be rearranged to to spell some Mexican foods. Name the city and the foods. | ||
| 2021 07 04 | This week's challenge comes from Todd McClary, who's a member of the National Puzzlers' League. Think of a place where a plant might grow, in two words. Spoonerize it — that is, switch the initial consonant or consonants of the two words. The result will name another place where a plant might grow, and a plant that might grow in either place. | ||
| 2021 07 11 | This week's challenge comes from listener Peter Collins, of Ann Arbor, Mich. Think of a country. Embedded in consecutive letters is a well-known brand name. The first, second, eighth and ninth letters of the country, in order, spell a former competitor of that brand. Name the country and the brands. | ||
| 2021 07 18 | This week's challenge comes from Joseph Young of St. Cloud, Minn., who conducts the blog Puzzleria! Take the name of a flower that has a common girl's name in consecutive letters inside it. Remove that name, and the remaining letters in order sound like another girl's name. What flower is it? | ||
| 2021 07 25 | This week's challenge comes from the puzzlemaker and editor Peter Gordon. Think of a word for a competitor in a particular Olympic sport. It's a compound word with a hyphen in the middle. Remove the hyphen, and what remains are two words from a different Olympic sport. What words are these? | ||
| 2021 08 01 | This week's challenge comes from listener Chad Graham of Philadelphia. Think of a common Britishism, a word that the British use that's not common in the U.S. Write it in all capital letters, turn it upside down - that is, rotate it 180 degrees - and the result is a famous hero of books and movies. Who is it? | ||
| 2021 08 08 | This week's challenge comes from listener Ed Pegg, Jr. Think of something that gets people moving vertically. Remove the middle two letters, and you get something that moves people horizontally. What two things are these? | ||
| 2021 08 22 | This week's challenge comes from listener Ben Austin, of Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. Take the name of a major American city. Move one of its letters three spaces later in the alphabet. Embedded in the resulting string of letters, reading left to right, is a cardinal number. Remove that number, and the remaining letters, reading left to right, spell an ordinal number. What city is it, and what are the numbers? | ||
| 2021 08 29 | This week's challenge comes from listener Ari Carr, of Madison, Wis. Name a form of musical composition. If you say the word quickly, you'll name something, in two words, that you might buy in a music store. What is it? |
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| 2021 09 05 | This week's challenge comes from listener Derrick Niederman, of Charleston, S.C. Name a famous person (8,4). The last name is a regular uncapitalized word with a single vowel. Change that vowel to make a new word that is humorously defined by the person's first name. Who is it? | ||
| 2021 09 12 | This week's challenge comes from listener Charley Parker, of Exton, Pa. Think of two famous singers with the same five-letter first name. Take the last name of one of these singers. Switch the second and third letters. Then advance the resulting first and third letters of each to the next letter in the alphabet. The result will be the last name of the other singer. What singers are these? | ||
| 2021 09 19 | This week's challenge comes from listener Rachel Cole of Oakland, Calif. Name something grown in a garden. Change the second letter, and double the third letter, to get an adjective that describes this thing. What is it? |
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| 2021 09 26 | This week's challenge comes from listener Dan Pitt of Palo Alto, Calif. Take the common abbreviation for a major American city. Insert it inside an airport code for that city. And you'll name a flower. What flower is it? |
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| 2021 10 03 | This week's challenge comes from listener Anthony Gray, of Bergen County, N.J. Write down the name of a country and its largest city, one after the other. Hidden in this string, in consecutive letters, is another country's capital (in six letters)? What is it? | ||
| 2021 10 10 | This week's challenge comes from listener Kerry Fowler, of Seattle. Name something you might eat for breakfast, in two words. Add a "G" at the end of the first word. Switch the middle two letters of the second word. Then reverse the order of the two words. You'll name an old-fashioned activity. What is it? | ||
| 2021 10 17 | This week's challenge comes from listener Abe Nash-Resnick, of Los Angeles. Name a famous actress (8,6). Change the next-to-last letter of her first name to an S. Then reverse the order of the last three letters, and you'll name a famous ruler. The actress's last name is an anagram of where you would find this ruler. Who is the actress and the ruler? | ||
| 2021 10 24 | This week's challenge comes from Mike Reiss, who's been a show-runner, writer, and producer for The Simpsons. He's also a screenwriter and children's author. Think of a two-word phrase you might see on a laptop computer menu. Remove five letters. What remains, in order, is a three-word phrase you might see on a restaurant menu. What phrases are these? |
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| 2021 10 31 | This week's challenge comes from Michael Shteyman of Freeland, Md. Think of a popular tourist attraction in two words. The second, fourth, and sixth letters of the second word, in order, spell the first name of a famous author. The last four letters of the first word spell the author's last name. Who is the author, and what is the tourist attraction? | ||
| 2021 11 07 | This week's challenge comes from listener Neville Fogarty, of Newport News, Va. Name a variety of song and a genre of music. Switch the initial consonant sounds of these two words, and, phonetically, you'll name an object found in the kitchen. What is it? |
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| 2021 11 14 | This week's challenge comes from Peter Collins, of Ann Arbor, Mich. Name of a famous TV actress of the past. Double her first name phonetically. You get the first name of a famous musician. If you put the last names of the musician and the actress together, in that order, you'll name a great legendary figure. Who is it? |
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| 2021 11 21 | Name a country of six or more letters. Change two letters in it to name the resident of another country's capital. |
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| 2021 11 28 | This week's challenge comes from listener Steve Baggish, of Arlington, Mass. Take the 9 letters of EARTH SIGN. Repeating them as often as necessary, you can spell the four-word title of a classic movie in 15 letters. You can also use them to spell the four-word title of a classic song in 19 letters. What two titles are these? |
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| 2021 12 05 | This week's challenge comes from listener Tom Bible, of Cincinnati. Think of a word to describe a single animal. Change the third letter to get a word that describes the plural of that animal. Both are nouns, and neither word contains an "s." |
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| 2021 12 12 | This week's challenge comes from Michael Shteyman, of Freeland, Md. Think of a major U.S. city in two words. Insert an L in the exact middle of the second word. Now read the first word forward and the second word backward, and you'll name two things associated with this time of year. What are they? |
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| 2021 12 19 | This week's challenge comes from listener Greg VanMechelen of Berkeley, Calif. Take the name of a well-known artist. The first name can be divided to form two common words that are synonyms. The last name can be anagrammed to form an antonym of those two words. Who is the artist, and what are the words? |
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| 2021 12 26 | This week's challenge comes from listener Brent McKay, of Flagstaff, Ariz. Name a famous singer — first and last names. Each name has two syllables. Change the first vowel sound in the first name and the last vowel sound in the last name. In each case, phonetically, you'll name part of the human body. Who's the singer? | ||
| 2022 01 02 | This week's challenge comes from listener David Yanover, of South Pasadena, Calif. Take the name of a certain vegetable. Move the 7th, 5th, and 6th letters — in that order — to the front of the word. Phonetically you'll name another vegetable. What vegetables are these? |
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| 2022 01 16 | This week's challenge comes from listener Jay Feldman, of Davis, Calif. What three common five-letter nicknames have the same last four letters and alphabetically consecutive initial letters? Or to put it another way, think of three common five-letter nicknames that have alphabetically consecutive initial letters and the same last four letters. Which common nicknames are these? | ||
| 2022 01 23 | This week's challenge comes from listener Keith Rode, of Woodland, Calif. Name a state capital. Take the last two letters of the city's name and the first two letters of its state's name. Then rearrange these letters to name an activity closely associated with this city. What is it? | ||
| 2022 01 30 | This week's challenge comes from listener Steve Baggish of Arlington, Mass. Think of a familiar two-word phrase meaning "to fight." Change the third letter of each word to get two new words that are opposites of each other. What words are these? |
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| 2022 02 06 | What language in seven letters can be spelled using the letters on three consecutives keys on a telephone? It's a language you would probably recognize, but not one that many people can speak. | ||
| 2022 02 13 | This week's challenge comes from listener Hannah Wilson, of Chicago. Think of a common boy's name and a common girl's name that are pronounced the same even though they have only two letters in common. And if you reverse the boy's name, phonetically you'll get another common girl's name. What names are these? | ||
| 2022 02 20 | This week's challenge comes from listener Alan Hochbaum, of Duluth, Ga. Name a part of the human body. Insert the name of another part of the human body. You'll get a brand name found at the supermarket. What is it? |
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| 2022 02 27 | This week's challenge comes from listener Alan Hochbaum, of Duluth, Ga. Name a famous actor — first and last names. Remove the last letter of each name. You'll be left with an animal and an adjective that describes that animal, respectively. Who is the actor? |
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| 2022 03 06 | This week's challenge comes from listener Ward Hartenstein, of Rochester, N.Y. Words starting with a "kw-" sound usually start with the letters QU-, as in question, or "KW-," as in Kwanzaa. What common, uncapitalized English word starting with a "kw-" sound contains none of the letters Q, U, K, or W? | ||
| 2022 03 13 | This week's challenge comes from Tyler Hinman, of San Francisco. He's the reigning champion of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, which is coming up again on April 1-3. Think of two four-letter words that complete the phrase "___ in the ___." Move the first letter of the second word to the start of the first word. You'll get two synonyms. What are they? |
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| 2022 03 20 | This week's challenge is based on an idea by listener Jeff Lande, of Minneapolis. If a BOY is 5,839, and a COW is 6,874, how much is a FISH? | ||
| 2022 04 10 | This week's challenge comes from listener Ari Ofsevit, of Boston. Think of a 5-letter word with an "L" that is pronounced. Add a letter at the start to get a 6-letter word in which the "L" is silent. Then add a new letter in the fifth position to get a 7-letter word in which the "L" is pronounced again. What words are these? | ||
| 2022 04 24 | This week's challenge comes from listener Jeff Balch, of Evanston, Ill. Name a sound made by a certain animal. Change one letter in it to the next letter of the alphabet, and you'll get a color associated with that animal. What's the sound, and what's the color? |
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| 2022 05 01 | This week's challenge is more challenging than last week's. Write down the name of a number. Move each letter four spots later in the alphabet — so A would become E, B would become F, etc. The result will be a number that's 44 more than your first one. What numbers are these? |
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| 2022 05 08 | This week's challenge comes from listener Al Gori, of Oak Ridge, N.J. The initial letters in the title of a popular movie from this century spell the name of a popular sitcom from the last century. What titles are these? | ||
| 2022 05 15 | This week's challenge comes from listener John Sieger, of Wauwatosa, Wis. Name a famous living movie star. Insert an R in the middle of the first name, and drop the last two letters of the last name. You'll get a familiar French phrase. What is it? |
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| 2022 05 22 | It's an easyish one and comes from Blaine Deal, who conducts a weekly blog about Will's NPR puzzles. Take the name of an island. Move its first letter two spaces later in the alphabet (so A would become C, B would become D, etc.). Reverse the result and you'll have the name of another island. What islands are these? | ||
| 2022 05 29 | This week's challenge comes from listener Christopher Raymond, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y. (based on something his seven-year-old son Charlie noticed). Take a abbreviation found in text messages. Reverse the first two letters, and the result sounds like something else often found in text messages. What are these things? | ||
| 2022 06 05 | This week's challenge comes from listener Ben Bass of Chicago. The name of what country contains a deodorant and an air freshener in consecutive letters? | ||
| 2022 06 12 | This week's challenge comes from listener Theodore Regan, of Scituate, Mass. Take the last name of a famous 20th-century American. The 5th, 6th, 7th, and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd letters, in that order, name a European capital. Who is the person, and what capital is it? |
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| 2022 06 19 | This week's challenge comes from listener Peter Collins, of Ann Arbor, Mich. Think of two famous people — one from business and one from entertainment — whose last names are anagrams of each other. Now take their first names, drop the last letter of each of them, and put the result together, without rearranging, and you'll get the full first name of a famous fictional character. Who are these people? | ||
| 2022 06 26 | This week's challenge is a little different from the usual. It's a riddle from Greg Van Mechelen, of Berkeley, Calif. How old was Reverend Spooner when he found happiness? |
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| 2022 07 03 | This week's challenge comes from Joseph Young, of St. Cloud, Minn., who is a frequent contributor here. Name a well-known fictional character in two words. Remove two letters from the first word in the name. The result is the plural form of the second word. What character is this? | ||
| 2022 07 10 | This week's challenge comes from listener Alan Hochbaum, of Duluth, Ga. Write down the last names of two U.S. presidents. Move a letter from the second name into the first one. You'll name a vehicle that's used for special occasions. What is it? |
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| 2022 07 17 | This week's challenge comes from Adam Cohen of Brooklyn. I'm going to see him next weekend at the annual convention of the National Puzzlers' League in Nashville, Tenn. Name a food item in seven letters. Move the first letter to the fifth position and you'll get two words that are synonyms. What are they? |
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| 2022 07 24 | This week's challenge will require a little research. The 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 1992 Olympic gold medal in giant slalom both suggest, phonetically, a certain square number. What is it? | ||
| 2022 07 31 | This week's challenge comes from listener Steve Baggish, of Arlington, Mass. Name a famous person in American television — 6 letters in the first name, 4 letters in the last. Switch the last letter of the first name with the first letter of the last. Then reverse the order of the two modified names. You'll get a phrase meaning "almost typical." What is it? | ||
| 2022 08 28 | The challenge comes from listener Paula Egan Wright. Name a well-known island. Move the first letter six spaces later in the alphabet. Read the result backward. You'll get where this island is located. What island is it? |
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| 2022 09 04 | This week's challenge comes from listener Michael Penn, of Durham, N.C. Name two countries, with a total of 12 letters, that when spelled one after the other form six consecutive state postal abbreviations. | ||
| 2022 09 18 | This week's challenge comes from listener Theodore Regan, of Scituate, Mass. If you squish the lowercase letters "r" and "n" together, they look like an "m." Think of a word that ends in the consecutive letters "r-n." Squish them together to get a homophone of a synonym of the first word. What words are these? | ||
| 2022 09 25 | This week's challenge comes from listener Adam Cohen, of Brooklyn. Take the name of a large financial corporation in 10 letters. Drop the fourth and fifth letters. Move the sixth and seventh letters fo the front. You'll name a person associated with financial misdeeds. What is the company, and who is the person? | ||
| 2022 10 02 | This week's challenge comes from listener Neville Fogarty of Newport News, Va. Think of two well-known brand names, each in eight letters, that have the same first six letters in the same order. Both brands are of products — one found in the supermarket, one for something used outdoors. And even though the first six letters of the names are the same, they're not pronounced the same. What products are these? | ||
| 2022 10 16 | This week's challenge comes from listener David Edelheit of Oyster Bay, N.Y. Think of a pair of two-syllable words that are pronounced the same, except one is accented on the first syllable while the other is accented on the second. The word that's accented on the first syllable is associated with confrontation, while the word that's accented on the second syllable is associated with cooperation. What words are these? | ||
| 2022 10 30 | This week's challenge comes from David Wagner, of Atlanta, Ga. Think of a common phrase in the form "___ of my ___." The word that goes in the first blank is the name of a well-known company. And the word that goes in the second blank sounds like part of the names of many of that company's products. What phrase is it? | ||
| 2022 11 06 | This week's challenge comes from Simeon Seigel, of Brooklyn. Name a punctuation mark found on a computer keyboard. Somewhere inside this insert a word for what this punctuation mark may be part of or what it may represent. The result will be a 10-letter word associated with painting. What words are these? |
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| 2022 11 13 | This week's challenge was sent independently by two listeners — Steve Baggish and Neville Fogarty — credit to them both. Think of two well-known companies with two-syllable names starting with J and D, respectively and whose names rhyme. One of these companies was founded in the last 10 years. What companies are these? | ||
| 2022 11 20 | This week's challenge comes from Henri Picciotto, of Berkeley, Calif. He coedits the weekly "Out of Left Field" cryptic crossword. Name a branch of scientific study. Drop the last letter. Then rearrange the remaining letters to name two subjects of that study. What branch of science is it? |
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| 2022 11 27 | This week's challenge comes from listener Alan Hochbaum, of Duluth, Ga. What common eight-letter noun can be shortened in two ways — using either its first three letters or its last four letters? The answer is a familiar item. | ||
| 2022 12 04 | This week's challenge comes from Joseph Young of St. Cloud, Minn. who runs the website Puzzleria! Name a symbol punctuation mark on a computer keyboard. Anagram it to get the brand name of a product you might buy at a grocery, in two words. What is it? |
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| 2022 12 11 | This week's challenge comes from listener Warren Bergmann, of Neenah, Wis. Listen carefully: Many people carry _____ (4-letter word) in a _____ (5-letter word) to make _____ (9-letter word). You can rearrange the letters of the first two words (the 4- and 5-letter ones) to get the last word (the 9-letter one). What words are these? |
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| 2022 12 18 | This week's challenge comes from listener Chip Naharajan, of Philadelphia. If you change the third letter of WOLF to an O, you get the sound made by a dog — WOOF. Name a six-letter animal and change the second letter to get the sound made by a completely different animal. What is it? | ||
| 2022 12 25 | Name a prominent geographical location in the United States. Change the fifth letter to an S. The resulting string of letters from left to right will name a game, a mountain, and a popular website. What place is it? |
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| 2023 01 01 | Name a U.S. state capital for which the name of another well-known U.S. city is an antonym. The second city has a population of more than 100,000 |
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| 2023 01 08 | This week's challenge comes from listener Michele Vaillancourt, of St. Paul, Minn. Name a famous living person — first and last names. If you drop the last letter of the first name, you get an element on the periodic table. And if you drop the last letter of the last name, you get the chemical symbol of another element. What celebrity is this? | ||
| 2023 01 15 | This week's challenge comes from listener David Rosen, of Bethesda, Md. Name a food dish in 10 letters. The last syllable consists of a consonant and a vowel. Change that syllable to a single consonant sound and you'll name another popular food item, in two words. What foods are these? | ||
| 2023 01 22 | This week's challenge comes from listener (and New York Times crossword contributor) Peter Collins, of Ann Arbor, Mich. Take a word that's in the name of several tourist attractions in our nation's capital, Washington, D.C. Rearrange the letters in that word to spell the names of two other nations' capitals. What are they? |
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| 2023 01 29 | This week's challenge comes from listener Samuel Mace, of Smyrna, Del. Name a fruit in one word. Drop the last two letters. The remaining letters can be rearranged to name two other fruits. What are they? |
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| 2023 02 05 | This week's challenge comes from Peter Collins, of Ann Arbor, Mich. You'll remember he had the challenge two weeks ago in which MEMORIAL could be rearranged to spell LIMA and ROME. This time name a food item you might order at a fast-food restaurant. The first, second, and last letters together name another food item. Remove those. The remaining letters spelled backward name yet another food item. What foods are these? | ||
| 2023 02 12 | This week's challenge comes from listener Steve Baggish, of Arlington, Mass. Name a popular rock band — one that everyone knows. Add a "B" sound at the end, and phonetically you'll name a place where you might hear this band play. What band is it? |
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| 2023 02 19 | This week's challenge comes from listener Elaine Elinson, of San Francisco. Name a tree. In the very middle of the word insert a homophone of another tree. The result will be a new word describing what everyone wants to be. What is it? | ||
| 2023 02 26 | This week's challenge comes from listener Jim Francis, of Kirkland, Wash. Take this equation: 14 + 116 + 68 = 47. Clearly this doesn't work mathematically. But it does work in a nonmathematical way. Please explain. |
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| 2023 03 05 | This week's challenge comes from the screenwriter and comedian Mike Reiss. Name something scary in two words. Five of the letters are vowels, which are all the same. And the consonants are all Roman numerals. What scary thing is this? | ||
| 2023 03 12 | This week's challenge is a spinoff of my on-air puzzle. Name two countries that have consonyms that are nationalities of other countries. In each case, the consonants in the name of the country are the same consonants in the same order as those in the nationality of another country. No extra consonants can appear in either name. The letter Y isn't used. |
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| 2023 03 19 | Name two well-known commercial products in five letters whose names are anagrams of each other. One product is something you'd probably see in your bathroom. The second is more likely to be in your refrigerator. What products are these? | ||
| 2023 03 26 | This week's challenge comes from listener Katherine Keniston, of Beaverton, Ore. Name two brands of household products, each in three syllables. All of the syllables in the two brands rhyme with each other. That is, the first syllable in the first brand rhymes with the first syllable in the second brand, the second syllables in the two brands rhyme, and the third syllables rhyme. What brand names are these? | ||
| 2023 04 02 | This week's challenge comes from listener Mark Maxwell-Smith. Think of an eight-letter word for a certain musician. Switch the order of the second and fourth letters and you'll get a word for a certain writer. What words are these? I'm looking for words, not famous people. | ||
| 2023 04 09 | This week's challenge comes from Joseph Young, of St. Cloud, Minn., who conducts the blog "Puzzleria." Name some things you might grow in a garden. Move the middle letter to the beginning. Phonetically the result sounds like part of the human body and an article of clothing that covers it. What words are these? |
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| 2023 04 16 | This week's challenge comes from listener Jan Brooksby, of Mesa, Ariz. Think of a common 8-letter word, in which the first three letters spell a word, and the fifth, sixth, and seventh letters also spell a word. These two little words mean the same thing. The fourth letter, when rotated 180°, becomes the eighth letter. What word is this? | ||
| 2023 04 23 | This week's challenge comes from listener Bob Bickel, of Severna Park, Md. Think of a five-letter word for things a lot of people complain about. Add a letter and rearrange the result to get an example of these things. Then add one more letter and rearrange to get a remedy for these things. Five, six, and seven letters, respectively. What words are these? |
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| 2023 04 30 | A tough one from listener Joe Becker, of Palo Alto, Calif. The "zh" sound can be spelled in many different ways in English — like the "s" in MEASURE; like the "g" in BEIGE; like the "z" in AZURE; like the "j" in MAHARAJAH; and like the "x" in LUXURY as some people pronounce it. The "zh" sound can also be spelled as a "t" in one instance. We know of only one common word this is true of, not counting its derivatives. What word is it? | ||
| 2023 05 07 | This week's challenge comes from listener Mark Isaak, of Sunnyvale, Calif. Think of part of the human body whose name is a compound word (like fingertip or toenail). Add an N and rearrange the result to get another part of the body whose name is also a compound word. What body parts are these? | ||
| 2023 05 14 | This week's challenge comes from Ed Pegg Jr., who runs the website mathpuzzle.com. Think of an animal in which the singular form of the female and the plural form of the male sound like synonyms. What animal is it? |
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| 2023 05 21 | This week's challenge comes from Mike Reiss, who's a writer/producer for "The Simpsons." Name a place in Europe in nine letters. Swap the third and fourth letters, then the eighth and ninth letters. The result is two words describing what this place famously does. |
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| 2023 05 28 | This week's challenge comes from listener Peter Collins, of Ann Arbor, MI. Think of a well-known author whose first name is nine letters long, and last name six letters. Change the first letter of the last name and anagram those six letters to spell a word. Now read everything together — the author's first name plus the anagram with a letter changed of the last name — and you'll get a certain professional athlete. Who is it? | ||
| 2023 06 04 | This week's challenge comes from listener Chad Graham, of Philadelphia. Name a famous singer (6,4). Remove the last letter of the first name and the first letter of the last name. The result, reading left to right, is a word for some singing. What is it? |
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| 2023 06 11 | This week's challenge comes from listener Rawson Scheinberg, of Northville, Mich. Name a famous singer (6,6) whose last name is a body of water. And if you remove a letter from the first name you'll get a landform. What singer is this? |
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| 2023 06 18 | This week's challenge comes from listener Joe Becker, of Palo Alto, Calif. Take the name of a fish. Add the name of a mammal. Rearrange all the letters to get the name of a reptile. What is it? |
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| 2023 06 25 | This week's challenge comes from listener Greg VanMechelen, of Berkeley, Calif. Name a well-known TV character (5,6). Change the first letter of the first name to a Y and read it backward. You'll get a synonym of the character's last name. Who is it? |
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| 2023 07 02 | This week's challenge comes from listener Darwin Lange, of Mandan, N.D. Name a sports facility in two words. (This is a general term, not a specific place.) Three consecutive letters in the first word also appear consecutively in the same order in the second word. If you reverse these three letters, you'll name something seen in this sports facility. What is it? |
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| 2023 07 09 | This week's challenge comes from listener Peter Gwinn, who writes for "Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me!" Take the first name of a famous movie director. Write it in upper- and lowercase letters. Rotate the third letter of this name 180° and you'll get the name of the main character in one of this director's most popular movies. Who is it? |
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| 2023 07 16 | This week's challenge comes from listener Henri Picciotto of the National Puzzlers' League. Name a famous singer (first and last names, 12 letters in all). Add a Y at the end, and the result, with respacing but not rearranging any letters, will spell a possible contribution to a picnic and how it might be served. What singer is it? |
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| 2023 07 23 | Name a classic TV show in two words, in which the respective words rhyme with the first and last names of a famous writer - four letters in the first name, five letter in the last name. Who is it? |
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| 2023 07 30 | This challenge comes from listener Jim Vespe, of Mamaroneck, N.Y. Name a well-known U.S. city in nine letters. Change the third and fifth letters to get the name of a beverage. What is it? |
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| 2023 08 06 | This week's challenge comes from Michael Schwartz, of Florence, Ore. Name something found on a map of England. Two words. The last two letters of the first word are the same as the first two letters of the last. If you go to England, you can't see this place. You can see it only on a map. What is it? | ||
| 2023 08 13 | This week's challenge comes from listener Dan Pitt, of Palo Alto, Calif. Name a famous contemporary singer (6,4). The second, fourth, sixth, eighth, and ninth letters, in order, spell a repeated part of a song that everyone knows. What is it? |
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| 2023 08 20 | This week's challenge comes from listener Paula Egan Wright, of Cheyenne, Wyo. Name part of the human body above the neck in 9 letters. Rearrange them to name another part of the human body found below the neck. Only some people have the first body part. Everyone has the second one. What parts of the human body are these? |
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| 2023 08 27 | This week's challenge comes from listener Mary Springhorn, of Bellingham, Wash. Think of a noun in six letters. It sounds like a two-word phrase (2,6). And the thing named by the noun can have a seriously bad effect on what's named by the phrase. What is it? |
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| 2023 09 03 | This week's challenge comes from listener Michael Schwartz, of Florence, Ore. Name certain musical instruments (plural). The first, third, fourth, and fifth letters spell something that holds the things named by the last five letters. What instruments are these? |
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| 2023 09 10 | This week's challenge comes from a frequent contributor, Joseph Young, who conducts the blog Puzzleria! Name a creature that has a world capital in its name. Replace the capital with another creature and you'll get another world capital. What is it? |
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| 2023 09 17 | This week's challenge comes from listener Greg VanMechelen, of Berkeley, Calif. Name a place where many people go for vacation (3,10). Change one of the vowels sounds from a long A to a long E, and the result phonetically will be one reason to visit this place. What place is it? | ||
| 2023 09 24 | This week's challenge comes from Sid Sivakumar, who's one of the top crossword contributors for the New York Times. Name a major U.S. city in two words. Change the first letter of the first word and the next-to-last letter of the second word. Then rearrange all the letters to name the people who live in this city. What city is it? |
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| 2023 10 01 | This week's challenge comes from listener Jim Humphreys, of Northampton, Mass. Name a well-known U.S. city in four syllables. The first two syllables, with a letter inserted, will name an animal — that might be found in the place named by the last syllable. What city is it? |
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| 2023 10 08 | This week's challenge comes from listener Andrew Chaikin, of San Francisco. Think of a mammal, an insect, and a bird, in that order —six, three, and four letters, respectively. Say them out loud and you'll name something often seen around this time of year. What is it? |
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| 2023 10 15 | This week's challenge comes from Mike Reiss, who's been a showrunner, writer, and producer for "The Simpsons" among other things. Name a famous athlete, first and last names. Interchange the initials of those names. Then add an appliance. The result, reading left to right, will name a fruit. What is it? |
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| 2023 10 22 | This week's challenge comes from listener Mark Oshin, of Portland, Ore. Name a country. The first syllable spells something that people do. The rest of the name is an anagram of where some people do that. What country is it? |
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| 2023 10 29 | This week's challenge comes from listen Jim Bricker of Wayland, Mass., and it's a little different from the usual. The time 6:29 on a digital clock, ignoring the colon, also reads 6:29 upside down. How many times in a day can a digital clock, ignoring the colon, read the same right side up as upside down? We are not accepting military time. |
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| 2023 11 05 | This is a two-week creative challenge. Name a geographical place. Then describe it acrostically using the letters in its name. For example, ALBANY could be described acrostically as "Administering Legislative Business At New York." The place can be anywhere in the world — the U.S. or abroad. Entries will be judged on originality, sense, naturalness of wording, elegance, and overall effect. You may submit up to three entries. The person who sends the best entry in my opinion will play puzzle on the air with me in two weeks. |
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| 2023 11 12 | This is a two-week creative challenge. Name a geographical place. Then describe it acrostically using the letters in its name. For example, ALBANY could be described acrostically as "Administering Legislative Business At New York." The place can be anywhere in the world — the U.S. or abroad. Entries will be judged on originality, sense, naturalness of wording, elegance, and overall effect. You may submit up to three entries. The person who sends the best entry in my opinion will play puzzle on the air with me in two weeks. |
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| 2023 11 26 | This week's challenge comes from listener Tom Helfrick, of Sacramento. Think of a common sign seen along a highway. Rearrange the letters to name something inside a car. | ||
| 2023 12 03 | A muffler is part of an automobile. It's also the name of something you can wear. Think of two other parts of automobiles that are also things you can wear. These two words have the same number of letters and the same first two letters in the same order. |
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| 2023 12 10 | This week's challenge comes from listener Steve Baggish, of Arlington, Mass. Take the phrase WINTER SEASON. Add a letter of your choosing. Then rearrange all 13 letters to spell three related words. What are they? |
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| 2023 12 17 | This week's challenge comes from listener Samantha Robison, of Eugene, Ore. 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? |
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| 2023 12 24 | This week's challenge comes from listener Neville Fogarty, of Newport News, Va. 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? |
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| 2023 12 31 | This week's challenge comes from Sandy Weisz, of Chicago. Name a famous movie in 4 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? |
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| 2024 01 07 | This week's challenge comes from listener Steve Baggish, of Arlington, Mass. Name certain weapons. Remove the middle four letters. The remaining letters, spelled backward, describe what these weapons do. |
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| 2024 01 14 | This week's challenge comes from listener Warren Bergmann, of Neenah, Wis. Think of a word for a person who helps you. Copy the last three letters and repeat them at the front, and you'll get a new, longer word that names a person who hurts you. What words are these? |
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| 2024 01 21 | This week's challenge comes from Joseph Young, who conducts the blog "Puzzleria!" Think of a familiar saying in seven words. The initial letters of the first three words in order spell a type of container. And the initials of the last four words in order spell something edible that might be found in this container. What's the saying? | ||
| 2024 01 28 | This week's challenge comes from listener Laura Kozma, of South River, N.J. Think of brand name in seven letters that you might find in a pharmacy. Drop the last letter and rearrange the letters that remain. You'll get another brand name, in six letters, that you might also find in a pharmacy. What is it? |
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| 2024 02 04 | This week's challenge comes from listener Steve Baggish, of Arlington, Mass. Name a famous classical composer in three syllables. Change the vowel sounds in the first and third syllables, and phonetically you'll name a sport. What is it? |
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| 2024 02 11 | Is from our puzzler friend A.J. Jacobs. Start with the name of a blockbuster movie star. Remove the first letter of the first name and last two letters of the last name to get the types of movies he almost never stars in. Who is this? |
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| 2024 02 18 | It comes to us from listener Andrew Chaikin of San Francisco, also known as the singer Kid Beyond. Think of a famous character in American literature. Change each letter in that character's name to its position in the alphabet — A=1, B=2, etc. — to get a famous year in American history. Who is this person and what is the year? |
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| 2024 02 25 | This week's challenge comes to us from listener Eric Berlin of Milford, Connecticut. Take the word SETS. You can add a three-letter word to this twice to get a common phrase: SPARE PARTS. Can you now do this with the word GENIE, add a three-letter word to it twice to get a common phrase. Again, start with GENIE, insert a three-letter word twice, get a common phrase. |
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| 2024 03 03 | This week's challenge comes from listener Anjali Tripathi of Los Angeles, California. Take the last name of a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Remove the middle three letters and duplicate the last two letters to get the first name of a different Nobel Peace Prize winner. What are those two names? Again, take a Nobel Peace Prize winners last name, remove the middle three letters and duplicate the last two letters, get the first name of another Nobel Peace Prize winner.
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| 2024 03 10 | Take a body part, add a letter at beginning and end to get another body part, then add another letter at beginning and end to get something designed to affect that body part. |
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| 2024 03 17 | Our challenge comes from Emma Meersman of Seattle, Washington: Take two three-letter tree names and combine them phonetically to get a clue for a type of fabric, then change one letter in that word to get something related to trees. Your answer should be the two tree names you started with. |
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| 2024 03 24 | This week's challenge comes to us from Mae McAllister, from Bath, in the United Kingdom. As you may know, each chemical element can be represented by a one or two-letter symbol. Hydrogen is H, helium is He, and so on. McAllister points out that there are two commonly known elements whose names each can be spelled using three other element symbols. Name either one. (There are two possible answers, but you only have to submit one for credit)
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| 2024 03 31 | In honor of women's history month, all our challenge contributors in March have been women. To close out the month, I have this related challenge. The English language developed in a patriarchal society, so many words in our language were traditionally assumed to be male, and turned into female versions by adding a prefix or suffix. Waiter and waitress, comedian and comedienne — those are just two examples of the many stereotypically "male" words that become new "female words" by adding a suffix. There is a common English word that works the opposite way. What is the common English word that is generally used to refer exclusively to women, but which becomes male when a two-letter suffix is added? | ||
| 2024 04 07 | This week's challenge comes from listener Steve Baggish of Arlington, Massachusetts. Think of a nine-letter word naming a kind of tool that is mentioned in the Bible. Remove the second and sixth letters and the remaining letters can be rearranged to spell two new words that are included in a well known biblical passage and are related to the area in which the tool is used. What are the three words? |
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| 2024 04 14 | This week's challenge comes from Bruce DeViller, of Brookfield, Ill. Think of a popular online service. Change the first letter to a Y and rearrange the result to get what this service provides. What is it? |
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| 2024 04 21 | This week's challenge comes from listener Jim Vespe, of Mamaroneck, N.Y. Think of a a major American corporation of the past (two words, 15 letters altogether). Change the last three letters in the second word the resulting phrase will name something that will occur later this year. What is it? |
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