NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 27, 2022): State with All the Vowels

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 27, 2022): State with All the Vowels

Q: Name a state that contains all five vowels — A, E, I, O, and U — once each.

I went from thinking this would be easy, to impossible and finally...

Edit: ...I was very happy! By the way, this puzzle was very reminiscent of another "state" puzzle for April Fool's week in 2020. Coincidence?

A: A state of EUPHORIA (Other accepted answers included Mozambique, the Republic of Chad, and different states of being — such as anxiousness, exhaustion, pandemonium, and perturbation.)

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 20, 2022): Words and Numbers

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 20, 2022): Words and Numbers

Q: If a BOY is 5,839, and a COW is 6,874, how much is a FISH?

And what is 538,716?

Edit: The picture of the Scrabble tiles was supposed to hint at using some mapping of letters to numbers that you might encounter in a grid format, specifically the periodic table.

Using the single-letter elements, 538,716 equals 53 (Iodine=I), 8 (Oxygen=O), 7 (Nitrogen=N), 16 (Sulfur=S) which spells IONS; negatively or positively charged atoms.

A: Using the single-letter elements in the periodic table, FISH = Fluorine(9), Iodine(53), Sulfur(16), Hydrogen(1) --> FISH = 953,161

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 13, 2022): A Walk in the Park

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 13, 2022): A Walk in the Park

Q: Think of two four-letter words that complete the phrase "___ in the ___." Move the first letter of the second word to the start of the first word. You'll get two synonyms. What are they?

I thought it would be easy to complete the phrase, but after looking through every list I can think of... oh wait, I have it.

Edit: Hints: 'complete' and 'every' are synonyms for 'whole' and 'all'.

A: HOLE in the WALL --> WHOLE, ALL

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 6, 2022): An Awkward Quack

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 6, 2022): An Awkward Quack

Q: Words starting with a "kw-" sound usually start with the letters QU-, as in question, or "KW-," as in Kwanzaa. What common, uncapitalized English word starting with a "kw-" sound contains none of the letters Q, U, K, or W?

I fell down and broke my wrist last week so I'm a little slower typing this morning. You don't have to tell me to be more careful on ladders. As for the puzzle, I have 3 potential answers. Native speakers of a certain language would knock out two of the words leaving only one intended answer with the right sound.

Edit: Telling me to be careful on a ladder would be preaching to the choir. BTW, I learned this week that I do NOT have a fracture in my wrist, just a sprain so that was welcome news.

A: CHOIR with possible alternates of COIF and CROISSSANT. Some might argue that COOPERATE could work if you slur the sounds together.