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.

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

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 13, 2025): European Vacation

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 13, 2025): European Vacation

Q: Name a famous European tourist site in nine letters. Rearrange its last four letters to name something that its first five letters can be planted in.

I believe in behavior which is positive and helpful.

Edit: PRO-SOCIAL is an anagram of the answer.

A: ACROPOLIS, A CROP can be planted in SOIL

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 6, 2025): Milk and Beef

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 6, 2025): Milk and Beef

Q: Think of an 11-letter word that might describe milk. Change one letter in it to an A, and say the result out loud. You'll get a hyphenated word that might describe beef. What is it?

Pour out a sunrise smile!

Edit: The letters in my hint anagram to "Monsieur Louis Pasteur"

A: PASTEURIZED --> PASTURE-RAISED

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 30, 2025): Answers Delayed Until Thursday

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 30, 2025): Answers Delayed Until Thursday

Q: Think of a word meaning "delay." Remove one W from it and you'll be left with another word meaning "delay." What words are these?

Read carefully, if you don't want to be delayed.

Edit: The puzzle includes the phrase "one W" which may make you think that W appears more than once (e.g. SLOWDOWN). But that made me question why it was worded that specific way. It became clear that this was intended to be a tricky puzzle where you had to remove "ONE W" from the word.

A: STONEWALL --> STALL

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 23, 2025): TH: Think vs. That

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 23, 2025): TH: Think vs. That

Q: In English the two-letter combination TH can be pronounced in two different ways: once as in the word "booth," the other as in "smooth." What is the only common English word, other than "smooth," that ends in the letters TH as pronounced in smooth?

I can't be the only one that is having trouble in clueing the answer to this puzzle. That's assuming you aren't already having trouble in hearing the distinction between an unvoiced and voiced dental fricative.

Edit: I wasn't sure if the intended answer was WITH or MOUTH (verb). I had to work to not include WITH in my clue. And often when you MOUTH something, you don't use your voice. I agree there can be other valid answers like BETROTH, BEQUEATH, etc.

A: MOUTH (verb)

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 16, 2025): Eight Letter Island

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 16, 2025): Eight Letter Island

Q:

Name a famous island in eight letters. Remove three consecutive letters. The letters that remain, in left-to-right order, will name where many islands can be found -- but not this one. What is this island, and where can't it be found?

Who has been scouring lists of islands or bodies of waters?

Edit: I must admit I spent too much time with lists of actual islands and types of waterways while the parts of the answer couldn't be found on either of those lists.

A: ATLANTIS, ATLAS