NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 12, 2013): On a Scale of One to Ten...

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 12, 2013): On a Scale of One to Ten...:

Q: Name a famous American man, first and last names. Change the first letter of his first name from T to H. The result will sound like a term for an attractive person. Who is it?

He is a very colorful character, isn't he...

Edit: He received flak for broadcasting colorized versions of classic movies on his network.

A: Ted Turner --> "Head Turner"

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 5, 2013): Famous Performer

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 5, 2013): Famous Performer:

Q: Name a famous performer whose last name has six letters. Move the first three letters to the end — without otherwise changing the order of the letters — and add one more letter at the end. The result, in seven letters, will name a place where this person famously performed. Who is it, and what's the place?

Reminds me of the joke, "What's the difference between a piano and a fish?" You can tune a piano, but you can't tuna fish.

Edit: How is a piano like a fish? They both have scales... This puzzle was previously featured in November 2008

A: MARIA CALLAS --> LA SCALA

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 28, 2013): Six-word Proverb Puzzle

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 28, 2013): Six-word Proverb Puzzle:

Q: The first 12 letters of the alphabet are A to L. Think of a familiar, six-word proverb that contains 11 of these 12 letters. The letters may be used more than once, and you may use additional letters from the second half of the alphabet. What proverb is this?

Will has given us a task that's akin to finding a needle in a haystack, but I'm not one to judge a book by its cover. Let's not count our chickens before they hatch, but we can figure this out, can't we?

Edit: Several proverbs get close to using most of the letters in A through L, but the ones I gave weren't the answer. But if we work together...

A: Birds of a feather flock together

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 21, 2013): Location, Location, Location...

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 21, 2013): Location, Location, Location...:

Q: Name a geographical location in two words — nine letters altogether — that, when spoken aloud, sounds roughly like four letters of the alphabet. What is it?

Hint: It's 261m.

Edit: The oil tanker "Aegean Sea" responsible for the oil spill in 1992 was 261 meters long.

A: Aegean Sea = AGNC

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 14, 2013): 90° Letter Rotation

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 14, 2013): 90° Letter Rotation:

Q: Take a common English word. Write it in capital letters. Move the first letter to the end and rotate it 90 degrees. You'll get a new word that is pronounced exactly the same as the first word. What words are these?

I think it is a foregone conclusion that Will intends us to get creative with how we write our letters.

Edit: The two hints were "foregone" and "write" which contain hints to two possible pairs. The picture gives an example of how you might write a W so it looks like an E when rotated. By the way, the picture is of a set of Ambigrammic Letter Tiles created by Eric Harshbarger.

A: WON, ONE or WRY, RYE

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 7, 2013): Commonly Read on Sunday Morning

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 7, 2013): Commonly Read on Sunday Morning:

Q: Name something in nine letters that is commonly read on Sunday morning. If you have the right thing, you can rearrange all the letters to name a bygone car model that you still see on the road today. What are they?

I have a really great clue, but I'm going to save it for when I have the answer. :)

Update: 562-87-4193 is not my social security number.

Edit: Assuming the first word is 123456789, the second rearrangement is 562874193.

A: SCRIPTURE --> PT CRUISER

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 31, 2013): Resistance is Futile (Ohm)...

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 31, 2013): Resistance is Futile (Ohm)...:

Q: Name something in four letters that you use every day. Add the letters O, H and M, and rearrange all seven letters. You will name something else you probably use every day. This seven-letter thing is usually found near the four-letter thing. What are they?

If you search for the answer words, the first results are from people that don't use each of these every day. By the way, the answer is not LANE and MANHOLE.

A: SOAP and SHAMPOO

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 24, 2013): Five by Five Word Square

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 24, 2013): Five by Five Word Square:

Q: Take the four words "salt," "afar," "lava" and "trap." Write them one under the other, and the words will read the same vertically as horizontally. This is a word square of four-letter words. Note that the only vowel in this example square is an A. The object of the challenge is to create a five-letter word square using only common, uncapitalized English words, in which the only vowel in the entire square is A. The word in the center row, and column, is NASAL.

Aside from subjecting you to some obvious clues, there isn't much I can add, so I'll just give you a picture of the grid & let you figure it out from there.

Edit: "Aside from" = APART, "Subjecting" = things you might study as in PANDA (zoology), DRAMA and ATLAS (geography). The last clue was "& let" since the consonants in "aMPeRSaND LeT" are the ones used in the puzzle.

A: PANDA, APART, NASAL, DRAMA, ATLAS

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".