Thursday, April 28, 2011

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 24, 2011): A Place of Power Puzzle

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 24, 2011): A Place of Power Puzzle:
Q: Think of a familiar three-word phrase in the form '___ and ___'. If you remove the 'and' and put the second word in front of the first word, you get a compound word naming a place of power. Hint: The compound word has nine letters. What is the three-word phrase, and what place of power is this?
I'm going to have to lie back on the sofa and ponder this puzzle.

Edit: Sofa is a synonym for divan which is also the Muslim word for council chamber or boardroom.
A: Room and Board --> Boardroom

Thursday, April 21, 2011

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 17, 2011): Sports Venue Transforms into Sport Equipment

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 17, 2011): Sports Venue Transforms into Sport Equipment:
Q: Think of a nine-letter word naming a venue for certain sports. Three letters in the word are repeated. Remove all the repetitions, and the remaining six letters can be rearranged to name a piece of sports equipment. What are these two words?
I might have to pray to a Norse god for assistance on this.

Edit: The hint pointed to Odin, the Norse god. O is an oval shape, like a racetrack, while din is a synonym for racket.
A: Racetrack (remove the duplicated letters r,a,c and rearrange) --> Racket

Thursday, April 14, 2011

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 10, 2011): Weight Weight... Don't Tell Me

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 10, 2011): Weight Weight... Don't Tell Me:
Q: Name a unit of length in the plural form. Rearrange the letters to spell two units of mass, also in the plural form. What units are these?
Don't worry. My memory may not be the best, but I wasn't going to forget to post the puzzle. On that note, I was thinking of a couple award-winning hints, but they were too obvious. Instead, I'll just point out that technically the puzzle should have asked for units of mass, not weight. I've made the correction above.

Edit: My first hints were worry/memory which were a clue to angst/rom. My second hints were note and award-winning which should have pointed to music awards, specifically the Grammy and Tony Awards.
A: Angstroms --> Grams and Tons

Thursday, April 07, 2011

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 3, 2011): Moby Dick scores an 82

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 3, 2011): Moby Dick scores an 82:
Q: Assign every letter of the alphabet a numerical value: A=1, B=2, C=3 and so forth. Think of a classic work of literature that has eight letters in its title. When the letters are given a numerical value, they add up to 35. What's the title? Clue: The title has two words.
Clue: 12,672

Edit: First hint was 12 as in Adam-12, second hint was 672 as in the birth year of Venerable Bede
A: ADAM BEDE, the first novel by George Eliot