Sunday, January 30, 2022

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 30, 2022): Square Off and Exchange Punches

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 30, 2022): Square Off and Exchange Punches
Q: Think of a familiar two-word phrase meaning "to fight." Change the third letter of each word to get two new words that are opposites of each other. What words are these?
I have one answer, but won't have the other until around Wednesday.

Edit: We have a waning crescent heading into the new moon (around Tuesday) followed by a waxing crescent.
A: WAGE WAR --> WANE, WAX

Sunday, January 23, 2022

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 23, 2022): Wondering What To Do in your State Capital?

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 23, 2022): Wondering What To Do in your State Capital?
Q: Name a state capital. Take the last two letters of the city's name and the first two letters of its state's name. Then rearrange these letters to name an activity closely associated with this city. What is it?
Was I the only one that initially thought Will had misspelled the activity?

Edit: Honolulu was one of the first state capitals I thought of, but thought the activity would be a luau... After trying some other capitals, I circled back to hula.
A: HonoluLU, HAwaii --> HULA

Sunday, January 16, 2022

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 16, 2022): 5-Letter Nicknames

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 16, 2022): 5-Letter Nicknames
Q: What three common five-letter nicknames have the same last four letters and alphabetically consecutive initial letters? Or to put it another way, think of three common five-letter nicknames that have alphabetically consecutive initial letters and the same last four letters. Which common nicknames are these?
L'Eggo my Eggo!

Edit: Lego Movie 2 introduced members of Benny's Space Squad
A: JENNY, KENNY, LENNY

Sunday, January 09, 2022

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 9, 2022): A=1, B=2, C=3...

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 9, 2022): A=1, B=2, C=3...
Q: Let A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, etc. Think of a five-letter word whose letters' values add up to 51. Now take this word's last two letters. Add their values. (For example A and C would total 4.) Change these two letters to the single letter of the alphabet that represents their total. (In this case, D.) The result will be a new word that is the opposite of the original. What words are these?
I threw together a chart to help us.

Edit: "Threw" is a homophone for "through". Also the diagram is made up of thick and thin lines around the boxes.
A: THICK and THIN

Sunday, January 02, 2022

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 2, 2022): Chopped-up Vegetable

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 2, 2022): Chopped-up Vegetable
Q: Take the name of a certain vegetable. Move the 7th, 5th, and 6th letters — in that order — to the front of the word. Phonetically you'll name another vegetable. What vegetables are these?
Now take the 2nd, 3rd and 1st letters of the new vegetable and add them at the end and phonetically you name yet another vegetable.

Edit: Take 'BROCCOLI' and add the letters 'ROB' at the end and phonetically you have BROCCOLI RABE
A: KOHLRABI --> "BRA-KOHL-I" --> BROCCOLI