NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 29, 2015): May I Have Your Number?

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 29, 2015): May I Have Your Number?:

Q: This week's challenge is a little tricky. Given a standard calculator with room for 10 digits, what is the largest whole number you can register on it?

I must have misdialed while trying to phone a friend; I got Ed Asner instead.

Edit: I was trying to contact the mathematician Edward Kasner who, along with 9-year-old nephew Milton came up with the name "googol" for the large number 10¹⁰⁰.

A: If you type 706006 (or 709009) and turn the calculator upside down, it spells gOOgOL (or GOOGOL). That's a 1 followed by 100 zeroes and is bigger than any regular number you could enter using 10 digits.

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 22, 2015): Roll the Die

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 22, 2015): Roll the Die:

Q: Take the word die. Think of two synonyms for this word that are themselves exact opposites of each other. What two words are these? A hint: they have the same number of letters.

How does the puzzle rate this week? Like? Dislike?

A: PASS, FAIL

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 15, 2015): Parables of Jesus, Revised Edition

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 15, 2015): Parables of Jesus, Revised Edition:

Q: Parables of Jesus is an old collection of stories. Remove three of the 15 letters in this phrase and rearrange the 12 letters that remain to get another old collection of stories. What is it?

Are you just going to sit there waiting for me to drop a hint?

There were two hints. The first was a hint to the fable of The Fox and the Crow. The other hint was "Are you j..." --> R,U,J the letters that are removed.

A: AESOP'S FABLES

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 8, 2015): Blank and Blank

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 8, 2015): Blank and Blank:

Q: Take a familiar phrase in the form "[blank] and [blank]." Put the second word in front of the first, and you'll name a common part of a large company. What is it?

No hint this week; you'll just have to earn it yourself.

Edit: For helping out, you'll earn room and board.

A: ROOM and BOARD --> BOARDROOM

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 1, 2015): Phonetic Phun

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 1, 2015): Phonetic Phun:

Q: Name a city whose name ends in a long-A sound in which that sound is not spelled with an "A." Change the sound to a long-O and phonetically you'll name a famous person whose name does not contain the letter "O." What city and famous person are these?

I won't say what I really think of this puzzle.

Two hints: "Say" is phonetically the last syllable in the city. And it also is a clue to being a mime.

A: MARSEILLE (France) --> (Marcel) MARCEAU