NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 5): I Won't Divulge the Answer

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 5): I Won't Divulge the Answer:

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?

I must admit I've been a little pre-occupied getting ready for our trip so I didn't add a post earlier. We'll be gone by the time Thursday rolls around, so I won't be entering this week. But feel free to discuss it here. Incidentally, do you know where we are going? I wonder if it was inspired by a recent puzzle...

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 28): Apparel Synonyms

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 28): Apparel Synonyms:

Q: Take 'tire' and 'exhaust.' They're both things a car has. But as verbs, in a non-car sense, they're synonyms. The challenge is to name 2 articles of apparel, things to wear, each with 4 letters, and as verbs, in a non-apparel sense, the 2 words are synonyms. What words are they?

No hints are necessary, just pay attention to the example Will gave.

Edit: For the on-air puzzle, Will gave the example "Hit or Miss" with *Hit* being a synonym for both verbs. And incidentally, after a pair of socks go in the dryer, one always seems to go *miss*ing.

A: BELT and SOCK

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 21): Find a TV Celebrity with No Curves?

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 21): Find a TV Celebrity with No Curves?:

Q: 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?

Though I could have probably figured this out the "normal" way, I approached this programmatically. I took a couple of lists of celebrity names (first and last) and put them in a spreadsheet. I modified a function I had created earlier to count vowels and instead made it count the number of strokes (I = 1, LTVX = 2, AFHKNYZ = 3, EMW = 4, everything else = 1000). I then filtered the list down to 5 letter names each with 14 strokes (39 first names and 44 last names). As it turned out, only one name fit the puzzle... I should have seen that sooner.

Edit: Clues: vowels, turned, solve the puzzle...

A: VANNA WHITE

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 14): Ready for a test?

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 14): Ready for a test?:

Q: Think of one word that starts with 'te' and another word that starts with 'st' — and they're synonyms. Hint: The 'te' word has two syllables; the 'st' word has one.

Anyone else worried that there might be several possible answers this week? I always hated when teachers had one answer in mind on a test that was worded such that there could be several potential answers. On the other hand, it must be hard as a teacher to design a test so it accurately measures whether students understood the material that was taught. Oh well, we'll see at the end of the week if we passed or failed this test.

Edit: My hints were 'worried ... [about] a test' (stressed), 'taught' (synonym for 'taut' (tense)'. In the first comment, I mentioned 'emphasize' (stress).

A: As I mentioned, there are numerous good answers. The two pairs I liked the most were:
TENSION and STRESS
TEMPEST and STORM
Check the comments to see other choices.

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 7): TV Personality Puzzle

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 7): TV Personality Puzzle:

Q: 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?

This may not be much help, but the celebrity has played the role of a step-sister...

Edit: As mentioned in the comments, the celebrity in question has provided the voice of the ugly step-sister in several of the Shrek movies...

A: LARRY KING --> MARRYING

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 31): Indian Wrestle Anagram

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 31): Indian Wrestle Anagram:

Q: Take 'Indian wrestle,' 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.

We'll have to see whether or not people can restrain themselves from giving obvious clues. Personally, I don't have time to provide a good clue because I'm off to Chicago for a couple weeks and haven't finished packing. P.S. If anyone is thinking of a certain common phrase, the puzzle answer would be misquoting it.

Edit: A few clues above: whether = weather, Chicago = the "windy" city. And if you were thinking of the phrase associated with the postal service, you might want to read the comments below... it only has one of the words.

A: SLEET, WIND, RAIN

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 24): Famous Person Puzzle

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 24): Famous Person Puzzle:

Q: 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?

I'm so sorry guys... I dropped the ball on getting the puzzle posted on Sunday. For anyone that wants some hints, look to the comments in the prior puzzle post. I must admit that my initial attempts to figure this puzzle out were hampered by my method. I had a list of common first names pulled from census data and I filtered them by the rules above (no more than 2 consonants, vowels "aei" with possibly one extra from the set "ou"). It came up with mostly female names like Cecilia and Lucille. I now see why my method was doomed to fail.

Edit: I said I "dropped the ball" which was a reference to the story of Galileo dropping two objects of different mass from the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa as an experiment to disprove Aristotle's theory that objects fall at a speed relative to their mass. The story is probably apocryphal, but should have been a clue to Galileo. The other hint implied that the name was not one you would find in a list of common names...

A: GALILEO GALILEI

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 17): Back to Words

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 17): Back to Words:

Q: Think of a 6-letter word in which the third letter is 'S'. Remove the 'S' and you'll be left with a 5-letter word that means the opposite of the 6-letter one. What is it?

For anyone that gave up on the difficult puzzle last week, don't worry. This week's puzzle is so easy that it sounds like NPR will be deluged with answers.

Edit: We have a synonym for "give up" and a homonym for "deluge".

A: RESIGN --> REIGN

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 10): Another Numeric Brainteaser - Not!

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 10): Another Numeric Brainteaser:

Q: If 5 = 4, 7 = 17, 9 = 25 and 35 = 2, what does 14 equal?

Will Shortz admitted this is a tough puzzle. Frankly, I'd be surprised if many people are able to figure this one out. It took me all day, but I'm positive I have the right answer now.

Edit: It's after the deadline, so I can reveal my clues here. First the title indicates that you shouldn't be focusing on this as a numeric puzzle. The second sentence has another hint to the solution with the word "Frankly". The sentence also ends with word "out" and the opposite is "in". Putting that together you get "Frankly-in" or just "Franklin". There are better clues in the comments, so look through those for more details.

A: The key is first names of the U.S. presidents.

The 5th president was James Monroe. The earliest president that shared the same first name was #4 James Madison.

The 7th president was Andrew Jackson who shared his first name with #17 Andrew Johnson.

The 9th president was William Henry Harrison who shared his first name with #25 William McKinley.

The 35th president was John F. Kennedy who shared his first name with #2 John Adams.

The 14th president was Franklin Pierce who shared his first name with the 32nd president Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Answer:
14 = 32

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 3): Make A Name For Yourself

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 3): Make A Name For Yourself:

Q: 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?

I would definitely agree that the first name is common. As for the last name, I'd have to say maybe.

Edit: The clue above was to the 2008 movie "Definitely, Maybe"

A: KEVIN KLINE