NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 12): A Series of *Fortunate* Events...

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 12): A Series of *Fortunate* Events...:

Q: 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?

If you've solved this, then about the only thing left to do is to debate the pronunciation of the seventh item, or to say how many items are really in the list. I'll just say, that the third item is my favorite.

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 5): Anagram Interaction

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 5): Anagram Interaction:

Q: Rearrange the 11 letters of 'interaction' to make two closely related words. What words are they?

I seem to be in the habit of pretending I don't have a clue, when I really do. Is this week any different?

Edit: The hidden clue was "habit"

A: INTERACTION --> TAR and NICOTINE

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 28): Just Desserts

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 28): Just Desserts:

Q: 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?

I liked my clue from a couple weeks ago regarding the B.C. Comic. I wish I had a similar clue this week. Oh wait, maybe I do...

Edit: My clue above was to the comedian Bill Cosby and he is associated with this dessert.

A: JELLO --> J. LO (Jennifer Lopez)

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 21): Opposites Attract

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 21): Opposites Attract:

Q: 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?

Well at least Will is leaning toward puzzles that take more than 30 seconds to solve...the last one took several days for some people. Your solving time will be quicker if you remember the words are opposites once you add the 'R' (I started searching for synonyms.) Don't give away the answer before the Thursday deadline, but feel to take a shot at posting some "hints".

Edit: My hints weren't very good, but there were some references to Will (Shortz), length of time (long and short), and the obvious inclusion of the word "shot".

A: LONG SHOT --> LONG, SHORT

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 14): Name that Animal

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 14): Name that Animal:

Q: 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 six feet in length. The first word in its name has five letters, the second word has eight.

We seem to have the question early this week from the RSS feed. My daughter, in kindergarten, knew the answer to this. Her class has been studying animals. If she can get this, so can you! Incidentally, some sources I checked said they could grow to be 8 feet in length... that's large! Zot!

Edit: There were several clues above. In kindergarten you learn your ABCs... that was a hint to think of animals at the beginning of the alphabet. Also, if anyone is familiar with the comic strip B.C., you should know what Zot refers to.

A: GIANT ANTEATER

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 7): You'll Figure it out in the End

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 7): You'll Figure it out in the End:

Q: 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.

Note: It is easy to overlook that the last name ends with the letters in his first name, so rather than MARK MARKHAM, you should be looking for names like MARK WIDMARK (not the answer).

Edit: Check the comments for clues like "jump" and "wicked" (homonym for "evil" = "evel")

A: Motorcycle Daredevil EVEL KNIEVEL

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 31): Labor Weekend Sale, Vowels Are $100, Three Days Only

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 31): Labor Weekend Sale, Vowels Are $100, Three Days Only:

Q: 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?

When I first read the puzzle, I thought "I already know the answer". It's the word FACETIOUS with A-E-I-O-U appearing once and in order... After I had that in my mind, for awhile it prevented me from noticing that I hadn't solved the right puzzle.

I think others might be stymied by the fact that the correct answer is a word that people commonly misspell. Hopefully you aren't one of the people that suffers from such an inability to spell. P.S. I was able to come up with two answers, but the second is not a common word at all. I wonder if anyone will submit it?

Edit: It's after the deadline so I think it okay to reveal my hidden clues: "prevented" and "suffer from".

A: INOCULATE

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 24): CH-CH-CH-CH-CHanges

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 24): CH-CH-CH-CH-CHanges:

Q: 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?

Hmm... another "less than satisfactory" puzzle. The answer came to me right away as I'm sure it has for others. Personally, I don't think the words are really such a pair, and the pairing is rather contrived. I'd give you more hints, but I don't think it would be fair to those that figured out on their own.

Edit: I don't think it was a coincidence that school starts around this time...

A: TEACHER --> CHEATER

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 17): U.S. Postal Abbreviation Quiz

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 17): U.S. Postal Abbreviation Quiz:

Q: 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?

The puzzle is rather U.S.-centric. If you aren't familiar with the codes, here is a list of U.S. Postal Abbreviations. There are so many clues in the question itself that you shouldn't have any problem solving this. P.S. If you haven't seen this exact phrase recently, you might have at least seen ones similar to it.

Edit: Let's see how many submissions there are on this one... I thought it was pretty obvious.

Massachusetts (MA)
Delaware (DE)
Indiana (IN)
"A"
Maine (ME)
Rhode Island (RI)
California (CA)

A: MADE IN AMERICA

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 10): Product Playtime

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 10): Product Playtime:

Q: 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.

I had more familiarity with the second term so I solved it backwards. My wife had no problem solving it forward.

Edit: Both of us had this as soon as we finished reading the question. Hopefully you found it as simple.

A: L'EGGS --> LEGO

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 3): Mathematical Synonyms

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 3): Mathematical Synonyms:

Q: 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?

A small percentage of the population might struggle on this, but I think most will find this puzzle relatively easy.

Edit: I was probably too obvious with the hints which included obvious synonyms of the answers. Check the comments for other hints that were provided.

A: FRACTION --> RATIO

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 27): Egomaniac Anagram

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 27): Egomaniac Anagram:

Q: Re-arrange the letters in the word 'egomaniac' to spell a sign seen in many stores. What is it?

Well we have returned home from Iceland safely. One thing I will say, is if you try and pronounce the place names, you'll find most Icelanders replying, "what did you say?". A pronounciation hint -- the town of "Höfn" sounds like a hiccup. The 'fn' is pronounced 'b' so don't say "Hoffin", say "Hub" as you inhale quickly. As for the puzzle, it's so easy, you can solve it faster than you can say, Kirkjubæjarklaustur (trust me, don't try...).

Edit: There were a couple hints above -- returning to a place, and the phrase "What did you say?". I initially thought that there would be a gerund with "ing" so I pulled those letters aside. I then saw the word "come" in the remaining letters and knew the answer.

A: EGOMANIAC --> COME AGAIN

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 20): Weekend Edition Sunday Puzzle -- Answer

We are still in Iceland so I this will have to be another "autopost". Since I didn't see the puzzle beforehand, I'm not sure how I managed to get some hints in there, but the following words do seem to be clues, at least to a possible answer:
Fruitful, Central, Dead(line)

A: CORPSE --> CORPS

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 20): Weekend Edition Sunday Puzzle

Well, this is an interesting post. I'm on vacation, so I'm actually still not around to be able to tell you what the puzzle is or to give you any hints.

Q: What is the answer to the puzzle on the NPR Website?

My wife and I should be in Akureyri in Northern Iceland at this point. We are planning on doing a whale-watching trip. I think we'll need to bundle up because it can get nippy out on the water watching whales frolick. If I'm lucky, that will be a fruitful clue to this week's puzzle and be central to solving it, but I doubt it. Help each other out, but don't give away the puzzle until after the dead line on Thursday 3pm ET.

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 13): Names from Early American History - Answer

My wife and I are away in Iceland for a couple weeks taking in the sights. At this point we should be in Höfn toward the Southeast of Iceland as part of an 11-day driving tour of the country. However, I didn't want to leave everyone wondering about the answer to the puzzle so I've provided a scheduled post to appear after the deadline... here it is:

A: ETHAN ALLEN <--> NATHAN HALE

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 13): Names from Early American History

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 13): Names from Early American History:

Q: 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 six 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?

This wasn't too hard to figure out, but it might be helpful to have a list of names associated with early American history handy. Both names should be familiar to most people. One hint: don't assume that the names are exact anagrams of each other.

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 6): Contaminated Anagram

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 6): Contaminated Anagram:

Q: Take the word 'contaminated.' Rearrange the 12 letters to get a two-word phrase for a familiar sign.

For all of you that complained that last week's puzzle was too hard, here's one that is extremely easy. A few minutes anagramming the letters will net you the answer (or you can cheat and use an anagram program). Feel free to leave a comment with a hint, but remember you aren't allowed to give any spoilers before the deadline of Thursday 3pm ET.

P.S. The answer isn't "Tandem Action". :-)

Edit: My hidden clue was "you aren't allowed...". I also liked phredp's clue in his comment about "I can't enter..." and geri's comment about "Admit it..."

A: CONTAMINATED <--> NO ADMITTANCE

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 29): Anyone have a Pencil?

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 29): Anyone have a Pencil?:

Q: 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?

It's a rare NPR *math* puzzle. Using algebra you could write an equation for the number of pencils, and one for the cost of the pencils. But that results in two equations and three unknowns. Fortunately there are some constraints and a little trial and error will get you the answer. Note: You have to have at least one of each type, so just getting 4 of the first type and 16 of the last type wouldn't work.

Edit: I think the thing that confused most people was they assumed they had to buy 4 of the 1/4 cent pencils, or 2 of the 1/2 cent pencils. You can't make 20 cents with those constraints. Here's how I solved it.

Let A be the number of 4 cent pencils.
Let B be the number of 1/2 cent pencils.
Let C be the number of 1/4 cent pencils.

Number of pencils:
A + B + C = 20 pencils

Cost of pencils:
4A + B/2 + C/4 = 20 cents
Multiplying this second equation by 4 to remove the fractions we have:
16A + 2B + C = 80

Now subtract the first equation to eliminate one variable:
15A + B = 60

There are some obvious constraints on A. Because you need at least one of each type of pencil, none of the values can be 0. That eliminates A = 0 or A = 4. Trying the other values you get:
A = 1, B = 45 --> too many pencils
A = 2, B = 30 --> too many pencils
A = 3, B = 15 --> C = 2

A:
3 pencils (at 4 cents) = 12 cents
15 pencils (at 1/2 cent) = 7 1/2 cents
2 pencils (at 1/4 cent) = 1/2 cent

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 22): Who are these TV personalities?

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 22): Who are these TV personalities?

Q: 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?

I was all set with my answer of Johnny Carson and Oscar the Grouch until I reviewed my answer and discovered I didn't answer the question correctly. By the way, both names are last names.

Edit: Clues "reviewed" and "didn't answer the question correctly"

A: Who are Alex TREBEK and Roger EBERT?
(Correctly phrased in the form of a question...)

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 15): English Tea Anagram

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 15): English Tea Anagram:

Q: Rearrange the letters of ENGLISH TEA to name a famous person with a prominent mustache — first and last. Who is it?

I had a couple thoughts when approaching this puzzle. I first thought that the person must have some relevance to today, being it is Father's Day. My second thought was that the person might have been in the news recently; Will Shortz often does that (for example Harrison Ford was the subject of a puzzle around the time Indiana Jones IV was being released). Well, I don't think either of these things apply... or do they?
My hints: The person is a man. And there is only one L and one T available in the letters, so don't misspell his name.

Edit: The main clue was "Today"... and there were lots of good clues in the comments about being "critical", mentions of "onions", etc.

A: GENE SHALIT