NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 27, 2022): The Oscar for Best Animal Goes To...

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 27, 2022): The Oscar for Best Animal Goes To...

Q: Name a famous actor — first and last names. Remove the last letter of each name. You'll be left with an animal and an adjective that describes that animal, respectively. Who is the actor?

Figuring "actor" could apply to either gender, I tried to make Cate Blanchett and Elke Sommer work. Suddenly the planets aligned to give me the answer.

Edit: One hint was gender (male) and the other was planet (Mercury). The actor portrayed Freddie Mercury

A: RAMI MALEK --> RAM, MALE

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 20, 2022): Head and Shoulders Above the Rest

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 20, 2022): Head and Shoulders Above the Rest

Q: Name a part of the human body. Insert the name of another part of the human body. You'll get a brand name found at the supermarket. What is it?

Savage commercials for this product.

Edit: Adam Savage (of Mythbusters fame) played Mr. Whipple's stockboy, Jimmy, in a Charmin commercial

A: CH(ARM)IN

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 13, 2022): What to Name the Babies?

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 13, 2022): What to Name the Babies?

Q: Think of a common boy's name and a common girl's name that are pronounced the same even though they have only two letters in common. And if you reverse the boy's name, phonetically you'll get another common girl's name. What names are these?

I'm not staying awake worrying if the pronunciation is exactly the same, nor am I going to question whether the reversed name meets the definition of phonetically sounding like a girl's name. I'm just going to see if NPR sends back an email response this week.

Edit: I was hinting at "Sleepless in Seattle," "When Harry Met Sally" and "You've Got Mail" by Nora Ephron.

A: Aaron, Erin --> Nora

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 6, 2022): A Game of Telephone

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 6, 2022): A Game of Telephone

Q: What language in seven letters can be spelled using the letters on three consecutives keys on a telephone? It's a language you would probably recognize, but not one that many people can speak.

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Time to try Bing Translator

Edit: My original hint was to James Avery who played a Klingon on a couple episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise. After being deemed TMI, I posted about Bing Translator which has Klingon as one of its language options.

A: 4(GHI), 5(JKL), 6(MNO) --> KLINGON