NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 25): What's in a Name?

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 25): What's in a Name?:

Q: Think of a familiar man's name in four letters. Change the first letter to the next letter in the alphabet, and you'll get another familiar man's name. What names are these?

I have a feeling there are multiple answers to this puzzle. I started by ignoring funky letter combinations (like XY --> Xeno & Yeno?). Once I used likely letter pairs, I came up with an answer. Not sure if it is the only answer, but it does work.

Edit: My clues were "funKY LEtter" and "likeLY LEtter". There was also a reference to XY as in the NBC series Kyle XY. I was going to try and fit in "love it" as in Lyle Lovett, but thought that would be too obvious.

A: KYLE and LYLE

I suspect other answers may also be accepted like: BURT and CURT, MICK and NICK, RAUL and SAUL, MIKE and NIKE (maybe), SHAD and THAD (maybe). Any others you want to mention?

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 18): Take Me to Your Leader

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 18): Take Me to Your Leader

Q: Think of the name of a current world leader. Taking the letters in the first half of the first name, and the letters in the first half of the last name, you can rearrange them to spell the language of this leader's country. Who's the leader and what's the language?

I didn't intend to anger many with my sparse clues last week, but apparently I did. Well this week, I hope to give some help that will be directly relevant to the topic. What I suggest is looking at a list of current world leaders, but be sure to look at both the heads of state and the heads of government.

Edit: Apart from the obvious hints, here are the hidden clues:
"anger many", "directly relevant" (= germane).

A: Angela Merkel (Chancellor of Germany)
ANG/MER --> GERMAN

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 11): "The Troubadour" Anagrams

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 11): "The Troubadour" Anagrams:

Q: Take the title Il Trovatore by Verdi. Drop one letter. Rearrange the remaining 10 letters to spell two synonyms. What are they?

I was accused last week of giving away too much in my clue... so this week, in order to prevent another fight, I'm only going to give one small hint. The letter you want to ignore is the first one.

Edit: It is after the deadline, so I can reveal my clues and the answer. First, if you read above, I mentioned a "fight"... this was a subtle clue toward the answer. Next, I gave a very misleading clue... "The letter you want to ignore is the first one." Here I didn't mean the first one in the word, but the first one in the alphabet. Tricked a few of you on that one, didn't I?

A: Il Trovatore, remove the letter A and rearrange.
REVOLT and RIOT

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 4): Fibonacci's Lieutenant

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 4): Fibonacci's Lieutenant:

Q: Take a common three-letter word, move each letter three places later in the alphabet, the resulting letters can be re-arranged to spell a new word that is a synonym of the original. What are the two words? And here's a hint: all three letters in both words are in the first half of the alphabet.

Honestly, I haven't a clue...

Edit: Well, actually I wasn't being truthful. I did have a clue in the title. And my dishonesty was another clue.

A: FIB --> LIE

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 28): Why a Question about Summer in the Fall?

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 28): Why a Question about Summer in the Fall?:

Q: Name something you might wear in the summer. The answer will have two words, with five letters in the first word and three letters in the second. Remove the next-to-last letter and read the result backward and you'll get a word that means 'blocks.' What words are these?

I'm not thinking about things you'd wear in the summer right now. Instead we are focused on our family Halloween theme. I can't reveal what we are all going as yet. You'll have to check our family website for when we post pictures. In the meantime, I will tell you about one of my favorite family themes we did... The Wizard of Oz. Click on Halloween Costumes, on our Family Blog. Look at 2003. The things we had the most problem with were the grass sticking out of my costume (Scarecrow), the funnel on Michael's head (Tin Man) and the warts on my wife's nose (Wicked Witch). Anyway, check back for photos of this year's costumes and perhaps clues to this puzzle.

Edit: Well, I was busy updating our family website with the latest Halloween costumes... but I hope you figured out the clues (Scarecrow = straw, Tin man = hat, Witch = th' warts)

A: STRAW HAT -A --> THWARTS