NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 23, 2012): Actor, Artist, God

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 23, 2012): Actor, Artist, God:

A: Take the last name of a famous actor. Drop the first letter, and you'll get the last name of a famous artist. Drop the first letter again, and you'll get the name of a god in classical mythology. What names are these?

I thought the puzzle deadline would be a day earlier this week, but it isn't so this comment can be mostly ignored.

Edit: The first hint is Wednesday (day earlier) which is named after the Norse god Woden/Odin. Additionally, if you ignore one letter in "ignored" it anagrams to the name of the actor.

A: GRODIN --> RODIN --> ODIN

Christmas Puzzle 2012 - Snowflake Maze

Our annual Christmas puzzle is available now. It's a fun maze in the shape of a snowflake. As in prior years, the reward for solving is a video Christmas card, but you'll need to figure out the password by solving the puzzle.

Note: If you need some help, the full answer is posted here, but try solving it without help first... it's more fun that way.

Feel free to add a comment below to let us know that you successfully figured it out (without giving away the answer to others). We are always looking for new ideas for next year's Christmas puzzle, so submit those too.

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 16, 2012): Where in the World?

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 16, 2012): Where in the World?:

Q: Name a two-word geographical location. Remove the first letter. Move one of the other letters to the front of what's left. This will result in a single word. And this word names what you are most likely looking through when you see that geographical location. What is it?

Take the initial letters of the geographical location, add one more letter and the result will be something familiar.

Edit: The answer to this follow-on puzzle was N.P. + R = NPR

A: NORTH POLE --> PORTHOLE

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 9, 2012): Three Letter State Abbreviation

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 9, 2012): Three Letter State Abbreviation:

Q: Name a major U.S. city in two words. Take the first letter of the first word and the first two letters of the second word, and they will spell the standard three-letter abbreviation for the state the city is in. What city is it?

I was hoping Will was going to break the pattern of incredibly easy puzzles, but I guess that's not going to happen. It also appears Will has forgotten that we switched to two-letter abbreviations for the states awhile ago...

Edit: My hint was "break" as in a former popular springbreak destination.

A: Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 2, 2012): What did you eat under there?

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 2, 2012): What did you eat under there?:

Q: Name two articles of apparel — things you wear — which, when the words are used as verbs, are synonyms of each other. What are they?

Been there, done that.

Edit: This was essentially a repeat of the NPR puzzle for June 28, 2009

A: SOCK and BELT