NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 12, 2021): Same Name Singers

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 12, 2021): Same Name Singers

Q: Think of two famous singers with the same five-letter first name. Take the last name of one of these singers. Switch the second and third letters. Then advance the resulting first and third letters each to the next letter in the alphabet. The result will be the last name of the other singer. What singers are these?

I created an Excel spreadsheet with functions to perform the transformations. Fortunately my wife suggested I do letter transformations both ways because one of the names wasn't in my original list.

Edit: My hint contained both the phrase "I do" (as in White Wedding) and the consecutive letters "I do l". My original list only had Billy Joel so it was good that I worked it backwards to get Billy Idol.

A: BILLY IDOL, BILLY JOEL

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 5, 2021): Who is it?

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 5, 2021): Who is it?

Q: Name a famous person (8,4). The last name is a regular uncapitalized word with a single vowel. Change that vowel to make a new word that is humorously defined by the person's first name. Who is it?

I was going round and round on this one for awhile

Edit: Canines often go round and round before settling down to sleep. Also a hockey puck is round. The puzzle is similar to an NPR puzzle from May 18, 2008

A: WOLFGANG PUCK --> WOLF GANG = PACK

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 29, 2021): Old Musicians Never Die. They Just Decompose

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 29, 2021): Old Musicians Never Die. They Just Decompose

Q: Name a form of musical composition. If you say the word quickly, you'll name something, in two words, that you might buy in a music store. What is it?

I doubt many of these are sold.

Edit: Who buys CDs these days?

A: RHAPSODY --> RAP CD

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 22, 2021): Cardinal and Ordinal Numbers

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 22, 2021): Cardinal and Ordinal Numbers

Q: Take the name of a major American city. Move one of its letters three spaces later in the alphabet. Embedded in the resulting string of letters, reading left to right, is a cardinal number. Remove that number, and the remaining letters, reading left to right, spell an ordinal number. What city is it, and what are the numbers?

It's not the first time Will has used this city, nor the second.

Edit: March 2009 and January 2015

A: FORT WORTH --> FOURTH, TWO

Interim Puzzle (Aug 15, 2021): A Pair of Islands Puzzle

Q: Take the name of an island. Shift the first letter two later in the alphabet (e.g. A would become C). Read the result backwards and you'll have the name of another island. What are the two islands?

While waiting to see if we'll have an NPR Puzzle this week, I thought I'd post a fill-in puzzle. Please don't post the answer until after the standard Thursday 3PM ET deadline. But feel free to hint at the answer.

Edit: My alternate idea was to write the island in uppercase, change the first letter to two later and read the resulting letters in a mirror.

A: GUAM --> MAUI

Interestingly, the Northern Mariana Islands have the Maug Islands to the north and Guam to the south.

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 8, 2021): Getting from Here to There

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 8, 2021): Getting from Here to There

Q: Think of something that gets people moving vertically. Remove the middle two letters, and you get something that moves people horizontally. What two things are these?

Rearrange the letters in the second thing and you get a place where you'll see people moving in all sorts of directions.

Edit: TRAMLINE anagrams to TERMINAL

A: TRAMPOLINE --> TRAMLINE

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 1, 2021): Topsy-Turvy

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 1, 2021): Topsy-Turvy

Q: Think of a common Britishism — a word that the British use that's not common in the U.S. Write it in all capital letters. Turn it upside-down (that is, rotate it 180 degrees). The result is a famous hero of books and movies. Who is it?

I fell for the initial trap.

Edit: I assumed the answer had to only involve the invertible letters HIMNOSWXZ but was able to escape that trap. James Bond was often narrowly escaping the villain's traps.

A: LOO --> 007 (James Bond)

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 25, 2021): Olympic Sports Competitor

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 25, 2021): Olympic Sports Competitor

Q: Think of the word for a competitor in a particular Olympic sport. It's a compound word with a hyphen in the middle. Remove the hyphen. What remains are two words from a different Olympic sport. What words are these?

Don't get distracted by the animated pictograms for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Edit: Don't be distracted... keep your eye on the ball.

A: SHOT-PUTTER --> SHOT, PUTTER (Golf)

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 18, 2021): Searching the Flower Box

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 18, 2021): Searching the Flower Box

Q: Take the name of a flower that has a common girl's name in consecutive letters inside it. Remove that name, and the remaining letters, in order, sound like another girl's name. What flower is it?

I'm thinking of a folk art and antique collector.

Edit: I was hinting at Mary Allis

A: AMARYLLIS --> MARY, ALICE

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 11, 2021): Rival Companies

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 11, 2021): Rival Companies

Q: Think of a country. Embedded in consecutive letters is a well-known brand name. The first, second, eighth and ninth letters of the country, in order, spell a former competitor of that brand. Name the country and the brands.

The first country I checked was MADAGASCAR and for once, that isn't the answer.

There have been several NPR puzzles involving MADAGASCAR (MAZDA/WANDA, MADE A GAS CAR, MAZDA/GAS CAR) which was a hint towards car brands.

A: SAUDI ARABIA --> AUDI, SAAB