Blaine's Puzzle Blog

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 5, 2012): A Stern Elk and a Rattlesnake?

2012-02-09T12:00:00.000-08:00

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 5, 2012): A Stern Elk and a Rattlesnake?:

Q: 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.

I was surprised to find the second animal has a longer lifespan than the first and will often weigh more.

Edit: Gorillas have a lifespan of 35 to 40 years while American alligators will live to 50+ in the wild. An adult male gorilla weighs around 400 lbs. while an adult American alligator will weigh around 800 lbs.

A: GORILLA + AT --> ALLIGATOR

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 1, 2012): Sport Scores and Another Sport

2012-01-05T13:57:00.000-08:00

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 1, 2012): Sport Scores and Another Sport:

Q: 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?

Looks like we are back to anagrams. Perhaps Will wants to start off the year with something familiar. Generally I despise anagrams, but this puzzle was enjoyable. Anyway, the puzzle isn't too difficult so do you think I need to provide a hint or two?

Edit: Read the first letter of each of the sentences above and you'll get LPGA. I also stopped my counting before I got to four ("Fore!")

A: FIELD GOALS --> LADIES GOLF

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 11, 2011): Mixed up animals

2011-12-15T12:00:00.000-08:00

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 11, 2011): Mixed up animals:

Q: 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?

Hint: Beautifull Desaster

An image search for "Antelope Elephant" came up with this image on DeviantArt by BeautifullDesaster.

A: ANTELOPE -O +H --> ELEPHANT

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 25, 2011): Occupational Study Puzzle

2011-09-29T17:00:00.000-07:00

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 25, 2011): Occupational Study Puzzle:

Q: 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?

This week I'm going to put my feet up and let everyone else come up with the obvious clues.

Edit: You put your feet up on a footstool or ottoman. The flag of the Ottoman Empire had both a STAR and a MOON.

A: ASTRONOMER --> STAR, MOON

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 18, 2011): College Campus Mix-Up

2011-09-22T13:15:00.000-07:00

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 18, 2011): College Campus Mix-Up:

Q: 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?

To tell the truth, while the two-week challenge was interesting, I'm glad we are back to our regularly scheduled program with a weekly NPR puzzle.

Edit: The original host of To Tell the Truth was Bud Collyer. On radio (and later TV and film) Collyer supplied the voices of both Superman and his alter ego Clark Kent.

A: KENT STATE --> TENT STAKE

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 28, 2011): Air Cushioned Anagram

2011-09-01T19:12:00.000-07:00

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 28, 2011): Air Cushioned Anagram:

Q: Rearrange the twelve letters of the words "AIR CUSHIONED" to name a person in the media, first and last names.

Previously, this puzzle would have had the ability to heal nannies!

Edit: If you anagram 'heal nannies' you get 'Liane Hansen'.

A: The new host of Weekend Sunday Edition, Audie Cornish

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 26, 2011): A Ballerina and a Fictional Character

2011-06-30T13:35:00.000-07:00

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 26, 2011): A Ballerina and a Fictional Character

Q: Take the word "ballerina," drop one letter and rearrange the remaining eight letters to name a well-known fictional character. Who is it?

My wife asked me, "A hat puzzle, then a helmet puzzle. What's next?"

Edit: My first hint was "my wife asked me" as in being asked to a Sadie Hawkins' Day dance. The last two puzzles involved hats and a helmet. This week you can say the puzzle involves a Capp.

A: Ballerina (remove 'a') --> Li'l Abner

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 17, 2011): Sports Venue Transforms into Sport Equipment

2011-04-21T12:01:00.000-07:00

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 17, 2011): Sports Venue Transforms into Sport Equipment:

Q: 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?

I might have to pray to a Norse god for assistance on this.

Edit: The hint pointed to Odin, the Norse god. O is an oval shape, like a racetrack, while din is a synonym for racket.

A: Racetrack (remove the duplicated letters r,a,c and rearrange) --> Racket

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 10, 2011): Weight Weight... Don't Tell Me

2011-04-14T12:31:00.000-07:00

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 10, 2011): Weight Weight... Don't Tell Me:

Q: Name a unit of length in the plural form. Rearrange the letters to spell two units of mass, also in the plural form. What units are these?

Don't worry. My memory may not be the best, but I wasn't going to forget to post the puzzle. On that note, I was thinking of a couple award-winning hints, but they were too obvious. Instead, I'll just point out that technically the puzzle should have asked for units of mass, not weight. I've made the correction above.

Edit: My first hints were worry/memory which were a clue to angst/rom. My second hints were note and award-winning which should have pointed to music awards, specifically the Grammy and Tony Awards.

A: Angstroms --> Grams and Tons

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 27, 2011): This Puzzle is Rated PG for Mild Language

2011-03-31T12:58:00.000-07:00

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 27, 2011): This Puzzle is Rated PG for Mild Language:

Q: 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?

Have I ever used profanity? I plead the fifth.

Edit: The name Quentin comes from the Latin quintus meaning "the fifth"

A: Quentin TARANTINO (swap AN and NO) --> "What in TARNATION!"

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 20, 2011): Consumer Protection Laws Anagram

2011-03-24T17:27:00.000-07:00

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 20, 2011): Consumer Protection Laws Anagram:

Q: 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?

If NPR keeps posting the puzzle this early we'll have to stop calling it the Sunday puzzle! Are you following what I'm saying? Are you clear? Cool.

Edit: The NPR puzzle is part of Weekend Edition Sunday (host Liane Hansen). The day before, NPR broadcasts Weekend Edition Saturday (host Scott Simon). "Are you following what I'm saying?" was a hint to the game Simon Says. "You clear" was a hint to "nuclear" while "Cool." was a hint to cooling down a reactor.

A: SCOTT SIMON, NUCLEAR POWER

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 6, 2011): In a Galaxy, Far Far Away...

2011-03-10T13:15:00.000-08:00

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 6, 2011): In a Galaxy, Far Far Away...:

Q: 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?

One less than Osama's and one less than Les Essarts.

Edit: Today (March 10) happens to be the birthdays of Sharon Stone and Osama bin Laden. Sharon's age is 53, Osama's is 54. That was the hint for STONE AGE. The other hint was a reference to the Tour de France 2011. Stage two of the race will be a circuit out and back to Les Essarts. Decrementing you get STAGE ONE.

A: STONE AGE --> STAGE ONE

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 20, 2011): Know Your Anatomy

2011-02-24T13:54:00.000-08:00

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 20, 2011): Know Your Anatomy:

Q: 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.

Within a minute I came up with 3 valid pairs of body parts. I have a fourth pair that is questionable, but still could work.

Edit: Time to reveal my 3 acceptable pairs.

A: NECK (C to E) --> KNEE
ARM (M to E) --> EAR
HAND (N to E) --> HEAD

Note: Will also accepted CALF (L to E) --> FACE

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 13, 2011): Two Presidents Visit the Capital

2011-02-17T12:51:00.000-08:00

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 13, 2011): Two Presidents Visit the Capital:

Q: 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?

I'm primarily thinking of countries in Africa, maybe Chad?

Edit: The flag of Chad has the primary colors of blue, yellow and red in 3 vertical stripes. This matches exactly with flag of Romania which has the same tricolor pattern (with cobalt blue instead of indigo, but you can't tell me they look that different). The capital of Romania is Bucharest

A: BUCHAREST + R --> BUSH + CARTER

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 30, 2011): Q to N, Synonym Puzzle

2011-02-03T12:28:00.000-08:00

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 30, 2011): Q to N, Synonym Puzzle:

Q: 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?

I'm feeling this puzzle could be hard... how about you?

Edit: I had a couple hints, one about how you might feel and then hard was a synonym for "uneasy".

A: QUEASY - Q + N --> UNEASY

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 16, 2011): ABCDEFG plus 1 minus 1

2011-01-20T18:15:00.000-08:00

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 16, 2011): ABCDEFG plus 1 minus 1:

Q: 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?

The old adage goes something like "don't deface the facade with a cabbage"... right? Oh, that's not a clue at all. While you are waiting for a better clue, here's a short musical interlude.

Edit: I composed that musical piece with the notes F,E,E,D,B,A,G repeated several times. I varied the octaves but otherwise they were always those notes.

A: ABCDEFG - C + E = FEEDBAG

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 9, 2011): A Peril, in Apparel

2011-01-13T17:02:00.000-08:00

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 9, 2011): A Peril, in Apparel:

Q: 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?

Alternatively, name an item of food in the plural form. Rearrange to name something you might do on a bike.

Edit: My alternate puzzle results in the additional anagrams of TACOS and COAST.

A: COATS --> ASCOT

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 19, 2010): City, State, Zip

2010-12-23T12:51:00.000-08:00

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 19, 2010): City, State, Zip:

Q: 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?

This will be simple enough to figure out if you check Wikipedia or Google, but let's see you do this with no list.

Edit: My hint was "no list" which is an anagram of "Lost in...".

A: Yonkers, New York

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 12, 2010): Mixed-up Companies

2010-12-16T19:44:00.000-08:00

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 12, 2010): Mixed-up Companies:

Q: Rearrange the letters of 'Wayne Manor' to name two well-known American corporations, past or present. What corporations are they?

Anyone remember that the two companies had a deal in the works in the late 90s? Everyone does remember what happened after that though.

Edit: Hint, the first sentence in my comments started with "A", the second with "E".

A: Wayne Manor --> Amway + Enron

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 21, 2010): Mixed-up Serial Number

2010-11-24T13:37:00.000-08:00

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 21, 2010): Mixed-up Serial Number:

Q: What two world capitals can be found by rearranging the letters in the phrase 'serial number.'

Since the NPR puzzle is rather easy, here's related puzzle for you. Take the oxymoronic phrase "A kinetic zen". Rearrange the letters to form the title of a well-known movie. Now figure out how it is related to this week's puzzle.

Edit: The answer to my puzzle was the movie "Citizen Kane" where it is revealed that "Rosebud" was the name of a sled. Sled written backwards is DELS which contains the Internet country codes for Germany(DE) and Lesotho(LS) respectively.

A: BERLIN (Germany) and MASERU (Lesotho)

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 7, 2010): Alphabet Soup?

2010-11-11T12:00:00.000-08:00

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 7, 2010): Alphabet Soup?:

Q: 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.

Don't forget to set your clocks back an hour. But don't set your clocks back too far or you won't be able to get the answer at all... say 1963?

Edit: According to a couple sources, plastic milk jugs were introduced in 1964.

A: Take GHIJKLM, swap H for a U, rearrange to get MILK JUG

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 24, 2010): That's a Capital Idea

2010-10-28T15:34:00.000-07:00

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 24, 2010): That's a Capital Idea:

Q: 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?

The following list of country capitals could be handy. I'm still working on the intended answer since so far I found a perfect anagram, not one that is a homophone.

Update: I feel like such a heel for not having figured this out sooner.

Edit: My hint was "feel like such a heel". A shoe has a heel and a sole (sounds like Seoul). You could also say I felt like a louse. :)

A: SOUTH KOREA's capital is SEOUL which anagrams to LOUSE which sounds like the country of LAOS.

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 17, 2010): Typing the Opening Credits

2010-10-21T12:08:00.000-07:00

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 17, 2010): Typing the Opening Credits:

Q: Rearrange the 14 letters of 'OPENING CREDITS' to name two symbols you can type on a typewriter or computer. What symbols are these?

Am I the only one that is bothered when these symbols appear together?

Edit Type it as $0.25 or 25¢, but please don't print your amount as 0.25¢, unless I'm allowed to buy 4 for a penny!

Note: To type the cent sign on a PC keyboard, enable NumLock, hold down the Alt key and type 155 (or 0162) on the numeric keypad.

A: OPENING CREDITS --> PERIOD and CENT SIGN

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sept. 26, 2010): The Best Things in Life...

2010-09-30T12:14:00.000-07:00

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sept. 26, 2010): The Best Things in Life...:

Q: 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.

The list of anagrams I came up with spanned 4 pages. How come one of the words in the phrase wasn't in the list?

Edit: I'm sure Liane and Will would say, "The Best Things in Life are Listener Supported". Though there is one intended answer, there are really 4 pages of them. I also hinted at the fact that part of the answer is an acronym rather than a "word".

A: PATRON SAINT - A --> NPR STATION

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 29, 2010): Famous Writer Anagram

2010-09-02T12:55:00.000-07:00

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 29, 2010): Famous Writer Anagram:

Q: Take the word 'bookman.' Change a letter and rearrange the result to name a famous person who wrote books. What person is this?

Since the puzzle is up early, I'll put in a quick clue: Alizée

Edit: My first clue was "put in" as in Vladimir Putin who shares the same name as the author. My second clue was "Alizée", a young French singer whose most successful single was "Moi Lolita"

A: (Vladimir) NABOKOV, most famous for the novel Lolita