Thursday, January 31, 2008

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 26): A Puzzle for the Birds

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 26): A Puzzle for the Birds:
Q: Take the three bird names egret, crane and owl. Rearrange the 13 letters to spell three other bird names. They are all common names. What are they?
You can solve this iteratively... look closely at the letters and find a bird name (say WREN), those letters, in turn, should lead you to another bird, then look at the remaining letters, etc.

Edit: Some of my clues were hidden in the comments. I mentioned having a 'sharp eye' or some would say 'eagle-eyed'. I also said that user 'Feed' should be proud of her answer, or some would say she has something to 'crow' about. And above I said, "those letters, in turn" which should lead you to 'tern'. Finally, my post ended etc which gives you the initial letters of each bird.
A: EAGLE, TERN and CROW

4 comments:

  1. I'm proud to say that 'Feed' posted the right answer, but I opted to delete her post. Since the NPR puzzle deadline is Thursday at noon ET, I'd prefer not to announce the answer until then. But you can always add your own hints if you like. There are some hidden hints in my post if you have sharp eyes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Pardon my eagerness to post the answer; I had no knowledge of a deadline.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The 'w' in one of the bird names is a good hint.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I misspoke about the NPR puzzle deadline. It is 12pm PT/3pm ET. We're about 3 hours away, so if you want to post the answer after that, feel free.

    I think I have clues for each of the birds, and for the 3 together. I'll explain my hints after the deadline.

    ReplyDelete

For NPR puzzle posts, don't post the answer or any hints that could lead to the answer before the deadline (usually Thursday at 3pm ET). If you know the answer, submit it to NPR, but don't give it away here.

You may provide indirect hints to the answer to show you know it, but make sure they don't assist with solving. You can openly discuss your hints and the answer after the deadline. Thank you.