NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 17, 2013): Water, Water, Everywhere

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 17, 2013): Water, Water, Everywhere:

Q: Take an eight-letter word for something used in water. Phonetically remove a word for something else used in water. Squish what is left together. The result, phonetically, will be a verb describing what water does. What words are these?

Edit: In my comment, I said "See, I'll..." as a hint to the chemical symbol of Cl

A: CHLORINE = CL(OAR)EAN --> OAR and CLEAN

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 10, 2013): As the Saying Goes

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 10, 2013): As the Saying Goes:

Q: Think of two familiar three-word sayings in which all three words are the same length. The middle word in both sayings is the same. In each saying, the first and last words rhyme with each other. What two sayings are these?

Maybe these sequences will provide a clue: 0, 0, 8, 102... and 1, 9, 41, 129...

Edit: The sequences above are found in the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (OEIS) as A001575 and A001846. The phrases were first recorded in the years 1575 and 1846, respectively.

A: "Haste makes waste" and "Might makes right".

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 3, 2013): Dinner Party Musical Chairs

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 3, 2013): Dinner Party Musical Chairs:

Q: Eight people are seated at a circular table. Each person gets up and sits down again — either in the same chair or in the chair immediately to the left or right of the one they were in. How many different ways can the eight people be reseated?

For this puzzle, I think we have to assume each seat position and person is unique. Also, I assume Will wants seating arrangements where each person has their own chair (no sharing). What I don't see, is why the table has to be circular. Couldn't it be square and we could still figure out how to move left or right?

Edit: The first case that might get overlooked is everyone returning to their original seat. The next two cases are where all 8 people move clockwise or counter-clockwise one seat. There can't be any other cycles involving more than two people because that would require someone to move more than one seat, so the remaining cases involve neighboring "couples" swapping seats while others stay still. All that is required is to enumerate the ways to swap couples.

A: There are 49 ways that 8 people could stand up and be reseated (link to PDF containing diagrams). Incidentally, the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences has the answers for various table sizes (A0048162 = 1, 2, 6, 9, 13, 20, 31, 49...) which confirms the answer for 8 people is 49 ways.

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 24, 2013): Body Parts and Kind of Doctor Puzzle

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 24, 2013): Body Parts and Kind of Doctor Puzzle:

Q: Name two parts of the human body, 10 letters in all. Place their names one after the other. Take a block of three consecutive letters out of the second word and insert them somewhere inside the first word without otherwise changing the order of any of the letters. The result will name a kind of doctor. What kind of doctor is it?

I'm afraid I don't have the answer yet. I've been fixated on trying to make wrist, waist or chest work to create an -ist word. Perhaps it isn't a conventional doctor but is something else? Reminds me of our Halloween theme several years back.

Edit: Shortly after I posted I figured out that Will was looking for an adjective, not a noun. And as suspected, it wasn't a traditional human medical doctor.

A: VEIN + ARTERY = VETERINARY

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 17, 2013): The Cat is Away

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 17, 2013): The Cat is Away:

Since I'm not going to be around to comment on the puzzle, I'm putting this week's puzzle on "auto-pilot". Please play nicely and don't give the puzzle answer away.

Here's my standard reminder... don't post the answer or any hints that could lead directly to the answer (e.g. via Google or Bing) before the deadline of Thursday at 3pm ET. If you know the answer, click the link and submit it to NPR, but don't give it away here.

You may provide indirect hints to the answer to show you know it, but make sure they don't give the answer away. You can openly discuss your hints and the answer after the Thursday deadline. Thank you.

A: POLICE ACADEMY --> POLIE AADEMY

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 10, 2013): Foreign President Puzzle

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 10, 2013): Foreign President Puzzle:

Q: Take the last name of a former president of a foreign country, someone well-known. Change the last letter of this name to an O and rearrange the result. You'll get the last name of someone who wanted to be president of the United States. Who are these two people?

I would have gotten to the puzzle sooner, but the cable modem was on the blink. My hint? The first names have the same number of letters and the middle names almost have the same number of letters.

Edit: Another way to say something is "on the blink" is to say it is "on the fritz". Walter F. Mondale went by the nickname Fritz.

A: (Nelson) MANDELA --> (Walter) MONDALE

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 3, 2013): Famous Authors Puzzle XLVII

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 3, 2013): Famous Authors Puzzle XLVII:

Q: Name a famous author, first and last names. Change an X in this name to a B, and rearrange all the letters. The result is how this author might address a memo to the author's most famous character. Who is it?

That's silly, J.K. Rowlings name doesn't even contain an X!

Edit: Silly is a reference to the Trix Rabbit which is both a hint to the author's first name (BeaTRIX) and her famous character (Peter RABBIT). J.K. Rowlings' famous character is Harry Potter, a hint to the author's last name.

A: BEATRIX POTTER --> TO PETER RABBIT

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 27, 2013): Move your Body Parts

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 27, 2013): Move your Body Parts:

Q: Name a personal mode of transportation. Remove its first and sixth letters. What remains — in sequence, without rearranging any letters — will spell the names of two parts of the human body. What are they?

Sorry, I'm a little distracted; I just read that Jeopardy champ Ken is saying that Chimborazo is the highest point on earth.

Edit: My clues hinted at Everest and Jennings. Harry Jennings and his disabled friend Herbert Everest, both mechanical engineers, invented the first lightweight, steel, collapsible wheelchair in 1933 and went on to become the first mass-manufacturers of wheelchairs.

A: WHEELCHAIR --> HEEL, HAIR

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 20, 2013): World Leader Puzzle

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 20, 2013): World Leader Puzzle:

Q: Take the last name of a famous world leader of the past. Rearrange those letters to name a type of world leader, like czar or prime minister. What world leader is it?

I must be getting old as this puzzle took me longer than expected. My muddy thinking had me trying to make STALIN and SULTAN work, or LEAR and EARL.

Edit: The first clue was "...gettinG OLD As..." which hides the leader's first name. My second clue was muddy which hinted at MIRE as an anagram of both answers.

A: Golda MEIR --> EMIR

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 13, 2013): ABCDEF + two more

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 13, 2013): ABCDEF + two more:

Q: Think of two familiar, unhyphenated, eight-letter words that contain the letters A, B, C, D, E and F, plus two others, in any order. What words are these?

The trick to all these puzzles is... well, I'll let you figure it out and add your comments below.

Edit: The first hint can be found by reading the last letters in the initial words in my post: ThE tricK tO alL.... The letter pairs EK and OL are what you need to add to ABCDEF to make the new words. The obvious other clue was the word comments (feedback) in bold (boldface).

A: FEEDBACK and BOLDFACE