NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 23, 2012): Actor, Artist, God

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 23, 2012): Actor, Artist, God:

A: Take the last name of a famous actor. Drop the first letter, and you'll get the last name of a famous artist. Drop the first letter again, and you'll get the name of a god in classical mythology. What names are these?

I thought the puzzle deadline would be a day earlier this week, but it isn't so this comment can be mostly ignored.

Edit: The first hint is Wednesday (day earlier) which is named after the Norse god Woden/Odin. Additionally, if you ignore one letter in "ignored" it anagrams to the name of the actor.

A: GRODIN --> RODIN --> ODIN

Christmas Puzzle 2012 - Snowflake Maze

Our annual Christmas puzzle is available now. It's a fun maze in the shape of a snowflake. As in prior years, the reward for solving is a video Christmas card, but you'll need to figure out the password by solving the puzzle.

Note: If you need some help, the full answer is posted here, but try solving it without help first... it's more fun that way.

Feel free to add a comment below to let us know that you successfully figured it out (without giving away the answer to others). We are always looking for new ideas for next year's Christmas puzzle, so submit those too.

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 16, 2012): Where in the World?

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 16, 2012): Where in the World?:

Q: Name a two-word geographical location. Remove the first letter. Move one of the other letters to the front of what's left. This will result in a single word. And this word names what you are most likely looking through when you see that geographical location. What is it?

Take the initial letters of the geographical location, add one more letter and the result will be something familiar.

Edit: The answer to this follow-on puzzle was N.P. + R = NPR

A: NORTH POLE --> PORTHOLE

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 9, 2012): Three Letter State Abbreviation

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 9, 2012): Three Letter State Abbreviation:

Q: Name a major U.S. city in two words. Take the first letter of the first word and the first two letters of the second word, and they will spell the standard three-letter abbreviation for the state the city is in. What city is it?

I was hoping Will was going to break the pattern of incredibly easy puzzles, but I guess that's not going to happen. It also appears Will has forgotten that we switched to two-letter abbreviations for the states awhile ago...

Edit: My hint was "break" as in a former popular springbreak destination.

A: Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 2, 2012): What did you eat under there?

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 2, 2012): What did you eat under there?:

Q: Name two articles of apparel — things you wear — which, when the words are used as verbs, are synonyms of each other. What are they?

Been there, done that.

Edit: This was essentially a repeat of the NPR puzzle for June 28, 2009

A: SOCK and BELT

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 25, 2012): Not Since 1987...

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 25, 2012): Not Since 1987...:

Q: In a few weeks something will happen that hasn't happened since 1987. What is it?

Wait? Will "The Simpsons" be going off the air? Now that would be different.

Edit: The main hint was the word "different". The other hint was the image from the Simpson's episode "Future Drama" set in the year 2013.

A: 2013 will be the first year since 1987 to have no digits repeated (1988, 1989, ..., 2011, 2012). At least we didn't have it as bad as they did in the 12th century going from 1098 to 1203 with all the intervening years of repeated digits (1099, 1100, 1101, ..., 1199, 1200, 1201, 1202). Oh how agonizing that must have been for them!

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 18, 2012): Common Five Letter Words

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 18, 2012): Common Five Letter Words:

Q: Think of a familiar five-letter word in two syllables. Change the middle letter to the preceding letter of the alphabet, and you'll get a familiar five-letter word in three syllables. What words are these?

I bet some people will be coming up with the answer almost immediately while for some it is going to take a few hours.

Edit: The hints were "bet" (as in alphabet) and "coming"/"going" (since aloha can mean hello or goodbye).

A: ALPHA --> ALOHA

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 11, 2012): Lead Pencil Puzzle

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 11, 2012): Lead Pencil Puzzle:

Q: With one stroke of a pencil you can change a capital F into E; you can change an O into a Q, and so on. Write the phrase "LEAD PENCIL" in capital letters. Add a stroke to one letter and rearrange the result to name a classic movie. What is it?

Wake me when it's over.

The Four Tops had a hit with "Shake Me, Wake Me (When it's over)". The missing part of my hint was "Shake Me". And if you search for "Shake Me" it's a song by the group "Cinderella".

A: Change the P to an R, rearrange to get CINDERELLA

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