NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 4, 2012): 100% Organic and All Natural Puzzle

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 4, 2012): 100% Organic and All Natural Puzzle:

Q: The words "organic" and "natural" are both commonly seen at health food stores. What other seven-letter word, also commonly seen at health food stores, has five letters in common with organic and five letters in common with natural?

They'll probably trademark this answer in Australia.

Edit: According to Wikipedia, "Granola" was originally a trademarked term in the 19th century, but is now only trademarked in Australia. The easiest way to solve this was to notice that both words already share the letters A, N and R. There are 6 ways to pick a couple letters from the remaining letters in organic and 6 ways to pick a couple letters from those in natural. From there it's a simple check to see if those 7 letters anagram to any common words.

A: I was able to come up with 5 words that meet the criteria of sharing 5 letters each with natural and organic. They were cranial, curtain, granola, guarani and languor. Only one of them seems to be a word you would typically find at health food stores:

GRANOLA

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 28, 2012): Happy Halloween!

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 28, 2012): Happy Halloween!:

Q: Think of a word associated with Halloween. Add a letter in the second position to create a new word that does not rhyme with the first. Then add another letter in the third position of the word you just created to complete another word that does not rhyme with either of the first two. What words are these?

My hint? Only this...

Edit: My hint was from Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven "only this, nothing more." In the poem there is another line "Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore."

A: TREAT, THREAT, THEREAT

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 21, 2012): World Series of Letters

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 21, 2012): World Series of Letters:

Q: What letter comes next in this series: W, L, C, N, I, T?

I know I've seen this somewhere before.

Edit: The series refers to itself... and the image with the alphabet looping back on itself was to imply this. The comment also should lead you to looking at the question itself.

A: S is the next letter in the series which consists of the initial letters of the original question (What, Letter, Comes, Next, In, This, Series)

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 14, 2012): Word Properties

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 14, 2012): Word Properties:

Q: What specific and very unusual property do these five words have in common: school, half, cupboard, Wednesday and friend? Identify the property and name a sixth word that shares the property. Any word having this property will be counted correct.

While I usually have these right away, I had to think a couple times before I got the specific property.

Edit: It was pretty easy to notice that there were silent letters in each of the words... but the specific property is that the silent letter is in the third position in the word. I mentioned that I had to think a couple times before getting this property (e.g. third try). Additionally the picture I chose was of planet Earth which is the third planet from the sun.

A: In all the words, the third letter is silent. Some examples are JEoPARDY, DEbT, SIgN and WAtCH

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 7, 2012): Hexagon Diagonals - Count the Triangles

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 7, 2012): Hexagon Diagonals - Count the Triangles:

Q: Draw a regular hexagon, and connect every pair of vertices except one. The pair you don't connect are not on opposite sides of the hexagon, but along a shorter diagonal. How many triangles of any size are in this figure?

The diagram in the upper right should help. I've removed one diagonal. It looks like a cool cube, don't you think?

Edit: The words "cool cube" were a double hint. First, the diagram I drew reminded me of the isometric cubes in the Q*Bert video game which was released in 1982. Additionally, if you cube the answer (82^3) you get 551368. I think the result is cool because 55+13=68. As a final clue, in several of my comments, I used the word "lead" which happens to be 82 on the Periodic Table of Elements.

A: 82 Triangles - be sure to watch the video for an explanation of the answer.

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 30, 2012): Opposites Attract

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 30, 2012): Opposites Attract:

Q: Think of a word in which the second letter is R. Change the R to an M, and rearrange the result. You'll get the opposite of the original word. What is it? (Hint: The two words start with the same letter.)

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 23, 2012): Anatomy Book

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 23, 2012): Anatomy Book:

Q: Name two parts of the human body. Put them together one after the other. Change the 7th letter in the result to the next letter of the alphabet to name something that's often found in books. What is it?

If I add anything, I think I'll give it away (as it seems to happens in the comments too often) so I'm going to say nothing.

Edit: If I were to add anything, it might be in a footnote. the other hint was TOO OFTEN which anagrams to FOOTNOTE.

A: FOOT + NOSE --> FOOTNOTE

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 16, 2012): I'd Like to Buy a Vowel

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 16, 2012): I'd Like to Buy a Vowel:

Q: Think of something that the majority of adults buy. It's a two-word phrase with 10 letters in the first word and nine in the second. This phrase uses each of the five vowels (A, E, I, O, and U) exactly twice. What familiar product is this?

Lmnvskr ukbaxmu quytf ggzm aca jqhhkiv rsxgmph uv uqfk sv eox mvuixeves.

Edit: If you decode that using Sharky's Vigenere Cipher and the key of "Geico" you get "Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance."

A: AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 9, 2012): Pick a Pill

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 9, 2012): Pick a Pill:

Q: Name a world capital whose letters can be rearranged to spell a popular and much-advertised drug. What's the capital, and what's the drug?

I apologize for being sleepy last night and not getting to the puzzle, but I have the answer now. Oorah! The hint? Study the picture.

Edit: The obvious hint was "Oorah!" which is uttered by the Marines. Their hymn includes the line "...to the shores of Tripoli". The less obvious clue was the picture which takes a little explaining. While it initially looks like an open hand with 3 pills, they are actually 3 pill bugs, also affectionately called "rolly polly" bugs. 3 = tri, rolly-polly = poli. Sorry, I know it wasn't a very good clue.

A: TRIPOLI --> LIPITOR

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 2, 2012): Autumn Leaves

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 2, 2012): Autumn Leaves:

Q: It's an anagram word ladder. For example, take the word "spring." If the last letter is changed to an "o" and the result is rearranged, you get "prison." Or, instead, if the last letter is changed to an "e" and the result rearranged, you get "sniper." Or change the last letter to an "a" and get "sprain," and so on. For this challenge, start with the word "autumn." Changing one letter at a time, and anagramming it each step of the way, turn "autumn" into "leaves." Each step has to be a common word. In how few steps can you do it?

I know Will frowns on capitalized or plural words, so I initially looked for an ideal answer without any plurals (except for leaves). As luck would have it, that forced me to use "vestal" or "teasel" which seemed worse than using plurals so I relaxed that restriction. There are multiple answers, but I believe only one acceptable length.

Edit: My clue was intended to hint (but not give away) that there is an ideal 5-step* answer. The word "luck" hinted at amulet being required in most of the common 5-step chains. *In my terminology a step is when you go from one word to the next.

A: The following chain is 5 steps and uses common words. Your answer may be different.
AUTUMN (remove N, add L)
MUTUAL (remove U, add E)
AMULET (remove M, add S)
SALUTE (remove T, add V)
VALUES (remove U, add E)
LEAVES