NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 15, 2025): Child's Play

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 15, 2025): Child's Play

Q: Take a child's game, in eight letters. Change the sixth letter to 'ch' and, phonetically, you'll have a popular animated children's character. What are the game and the character?

How manu of us remember the first time we played this?

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 8, 2025): Female Animals and Their Offspring

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 8, 2025): Female Animals and Their Offspring

Q: Name certain female animals. Insert a T somewhere inside the word, and you'll get a synonym for this animal's offspring. What animals are these?

Of course I appreciate this puzzle along with all the puzzles created by our esteemed LegoLambda.

Edit: Did I overdo it with my "fawning" over Lego?

A: DOES --> DOTES, FAWNS

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 1, 2025): Famous Movie Characters

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 1, 2025): Famous Movie Characters

Q: Think of a famous current actor. His first name is also the name of a famous movie character. Drop the middle letter of his last name and you'll name another famous movie character. Each character is a central figure in a dozen or more films. What actor is this?

Let me add that I've already heard part of this wordplay. The puzzle might have been more relevant in a couple weeks, give or take.

Edit: "add" = "ad" --> Recent State Farm commercials have made fun of asking for "Bateman" when you really want "Batman". The only Friday the 13th this year will occur this month; a hint toward "Jason Voorhees".

A: JASON BATEMAN --> JASON and BATMAN.

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 25, 2025): Unusual Wordplay

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 25, 2025): Unusual Wordplay

Q: The onetime country duo "Montgomery Gentry" and the classic song "Go on With the Wedding" have a very unusual wordplay property in common. What is it?

Those that have read the Narnia series will have an advantage.

Edit: The phrase NARNIA SERIES is another example of a "pair isogram".

A: Each phrase can be considered a pair isogram where each different letter appears exactly twice.

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 18, 2025): You Read It Here First

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 18, 2025): You Read It Here First

Q: Name a popular magazine. Rearrange its letters. Then add an O at the end and you'll name a prominent subject in this magazine's new issue. What magazine is it? Hint: You don't need to read this magazine in order to guess the answer.

You can add a few more letters and the answer still works.

Edit: You can add X, I and V.

A: PEOPLE, POPE LEO

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 11, 2025): Famous Singer

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 11, 2025): Famous Singer

Q: Name a famous singer past or present. Remove the first and last letter from the first name and the result will be a potential partner of the last name. What singer is this?

Little did I know that my first guess was close.

Edit: My first guess was Lady Gaga

A: GLADYS KNIGHT --> LADY, KNIGHT

Happy Birthday Bob!

As part of a birthday celebration for Bob, we created a short crossword puzzle. The partygoers seemed to have a fun time with it. How many answers can you figure out?

Update: If the dynamic version of the crossword stops working (it has a limited number of sessions), you can download a printed copy of the puzzle

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 4, 2025): Rhymes with Spain

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 4, 2025): Rhymes with Spain

Q: There are four countries whose names have one-syllable anagrams that rhyme with "Spain." What are they?

Check your globes; I think you could fly in a straight line over all 4 countries.

Edit: I assume you'd fly in a plane to chain the countries together. Here's a great circle route from Niamey, Niger to Shenzhen, China.

A: NIGER (reign), IRAN (rain), NEPAL (plane), CHINA (chain).

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 27, 2025): Getting Around

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 27, 2025): Getting Around

Q: Name an activity in the form of "blank and blank." Move the first letter of the second word to the start of the first word. The result will be two modes of transporting things. What is the activity and what are the modes of transport?

As Homer said about Denmark, "Third time's a charm."

Edit: The first time this puzzle was submitted was May 2006, by Mike Reiss who is a writer and producer of "The Simpsons" (hence the "Homer" hint). The second time this puzzle was submitted was in April 2019 by Joseph Young who we know as Lego (hence the "Denmark" reference).

A: ARTS and CRAFTS --> CARTS and RAFTS

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 20, 2025): Hoppy Easter!

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 20, 2025): Hoppy Easter!

Q: Name an animal in five letters. Add two letters and rearrange the result to name a bird in seven letters. Then add two letters to that and rearrange the result to name another animal in nine letters. What creatures are these?

Change the 3rd and 5th letters of the last animal and rearrange to get another animal.

Edit: Change them to G and T and rearrange to get ALLIGATOR.

A: LLAMA, MALLARD, ARMADILLO