Friday Fun - Happy Halloween!

As part of our annual Halloween tradition, we come up with a "family theme" for our costumes. This year we went as the Characters from Clue. We entered in to two local Halloween costume contests and in both we won first place for the group category. In addition, we won a special trophy for "Best In Show".

Take a look at our costumes for this year and years past

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 26): Has Anyone Heard of This Sports Team?

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 26): Has Anyone Heard of This Sports Team?:

Q: 'Nonclassical analysis' contains eight different letters. Two of them occur once, two of them occur twice, two of them occur three times, and two of them occur four times each. Which sports team's name has this same property?

Oh brother. Couldn't Will Shortz have picked something more topical for this week's puzzle rather than hitting us with this week's stumper? I doubt you could scour the sports pages and find any mention of this team... right? I mean, people are busy with Halloween but this puzzle has nothing to do with a favorite fall activity. Well, I'm sure you'll eventually figure this out, maybe after 5 tries... unless you have to take a couple more guesses.

Edit: Clues -- "Oh brother" (as in City of Brotherly Love), "hitting", "favorite fall activity", and "out". Plus there were additional references to the World Series throughout.

A: PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 19): Now That's A Capital Idea

Sunday Puzzle (Oct 19): Now That's A Capital Idea:

Q: Name a famous actress with four letters in her first name and five letters in her last name. Drop the last letter of her first name and the last two letters of her last name. The remaining letters, in order, will name well-known a world capital. Who is the actress and what is the capital?

Seems like we have a pattern going on. A few weeks ago the puzzle answer was "Giant Anteater" and I gave the clue to "B.C. Comics" which has a giant anteater as a recurring character. Then I used the same clue to hint at Bill Cosby for the puzzle on "Jello". Perhaps I can reuse an old clue in a similar fashion for this week?

Edit: The hint was a reference to the Cosby show. The actress in question played Denise Huxtable

A: LISA BONET --> LISBON

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 12): A Series of *Fortunate* Events...

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 12): A Series of *Fortunate* Events...:

Q: Name the sixth thing in a well-known series. Change its third letter to the next letter of the alphabet. Then rearrange all the letters and you'll get the seventh thing in the series. What names are these?

If you've solved this, then about the only thing left to do is to debate the pronunciation of the seventh item, or to say how many items are really in the list. I'll just say, that the third item is my favorite.

Edit: If you hadn't figured it out, the well-known series consists of the names of the planets.

A: SATURN --> -T +U --> URANUS

Suduro - A blend of Sud(oku) and (Kak)uro

Suduro -- If you already know and enjoy Sudoku and/or Kakuro, there's a website that offers a blend of the two. The grid is filled like a normal Sudoku, but there are gray squares that are filled similar to Kakuro. Sums are provided for just the gray squares in each row or column. In addition, a separate box contains the sum of just the gray squares in each 3x3 square. The extra dimension of clues should make for some fun puzzles. Give it a try.

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 5): Anagram Interaction

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 5): Anagram Interaction:

Q: Rearrange the 11 letters of 'interaction' to make two closely related words. What words are they?

I seem to be in the habit of pretending I don't have a clue, when I really do. Is this week any different?

Edit: The hidden clue was "habit"

A: INTERACTION --> TAR and NICOTINE

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 28): Just Desserts

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 28): Just Desserts:

Q: Name a popular dessert that has two syllables, in which the vowel sound in the first syllable is a short E. Change this to a long A, and phonetically you'll name a famous singer. Who is it?

I liked my clue from a couple weeks ago regarding the B.C. Comic. I wish I had a similar clue this week. Oh wait, maybe I do...

Edit: My clue above was to the comedian Bill Cosby and he is associated with this dessert.

A: JELLO --> J. LO (Jennifer Lopez)