Q: Think of a country with a one-word name. You can rearrange its letters to identify a member of one of our country's armed forces. Who is that, and what's the country?The map on the right should keep you busy.
A: SURINAME --> US MARINE, MYANMAR --> ARMY MAN, ARMENIA --> A MARINE
Q: Think of the names of two companies. One of them has a two-part name (5,5). The other has a three-part name (5,7,5). The last five-letter part of the two names is the same. And the first five-letter part of the first company's name is something the second company wants. What is it?
A: OSCAR MAYER / METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER
It's not Aristotle, Plato or Socrates.Q: Think of a famous philosopher — first and last names. Change one letter in the first name to get a popular dish. Drop two letters from the last name and rearrange the result to get the kind of cuisine of this dish. What is it?
A: Friedrich Nietzsche --> Fried rice, Chinese
Q: Name a famous actor whose first name is a book of the Bible and whose last name is an anagram of another book of the Bible. Who is it?This actor had a role in a sci-fi film playing a character whose name sounds like a name from the Bible.
A: JOHN + RUTH = JOHN HURT
Q: Think of an official who has been in the news this year in a positive way. Say this person's first initial and last name out loud. It will sound like an important person in U.S. history. Who is it?No clue this week; I choose to close my eyes.
A: Secretary of State Antony Blinken --> A. BLINKEN --> ABE LINCOLN
Q: Starting in Montana, you can drive into South Dakota and then into Iowa. Those three states have the postal abbreviations MT, SD, and IA — whose letters can be rearranged to spell AMIDST. The challenge is to do this with four connected states to make an eight-letter word. That is, start in a certain state, drive to another, then another, and then another. Take the postal abbreviations of the four states you visit, mix the letters up, and use them to spell a common eight-letter word. Can you do this?I'm using a list of states directly connected by physical roads/bridges. This leaves out states that might legally touch on a map (e.g. UT-NM, AZ-CO, MI-MN, NY-RI, etc.). But even still, I'm not convinced there is only one answer. I guess it comes down to your definition of "common".
A: Common words:animator (IA-MO-AR-TN) condemns (SD-NE-CO-NM) diamonds (ND-SD-IA-MO) diocesan (SD-IA-NE-CO) dioramas (SD-IA-MO-AR) flagrant (AR-TN-GA-FL) nominate (NE-IA-MO-TN) ornament (AR-TN-MO-NE) ransomed (SD-NE-MO-AR) Less common words:contused (UT-CO-NE-SD) diaphone (IN-OH-PA-DE) eduction (ID-UT-CO-NE) galavant (GA-AL-TN-VA) magneton (NE-MO-TN-GA) mediants (MT-SD-NE-IA) moleskin (NE-KS-MO-IL) moralism (IL-MO-AR-MS) nomadism (SD-MN-IA-MO) nonmetal (NE-MO-TN-AL) saintdom (SD-IA-MO-TN) tangrams (MS-AR-TN-GA) Uncommon words:coenamor (CO-NE-MO-AR) domaines (SD-NE-IA-MO) makimono (NM-OK-MO-IA) martagon (MO-AR-TN-GA) matronal (MO-AR-TN-AL) monecian (CO-NE-IA-MN) takingly (IL-KY-TN-GA)
Q: This week's challenge is a spinoff of Will's on-air puzzle, and it's a little tricky. Think of a hyphenated word you might use to describe a young child that sounds like three letters spoken one after the other.I've seen this on a license plate, but just not with those 3 letters.
A: CUTIE-PIE = QTπ
Q: Name a national landmark (6,3). Add the name of a chemical element. Rearrange all the letters to name two states. What are they?Bonus Puzzle: Take the name of the state you might visit to see the landmark and the chemical symbol of the element. Rearrange to name two types of passenger vehicle.
A: HOOVER DAM + TIN = VERMONT, IDAHO
Q: Name a person in 2011 world news in eight letters. Remove the third, fourth and fifth letters. The remaining letters, in order, will name a person in 2021 world news. What names are these?Really? We've only had about 10 days of news in 2021 and you can easily Google newsworthy names of 2011. I guess Will is starting the year with a "gimme".
A: BIN LADEN --> BIDEN
Q: Think of a seven-letter hyphenated word for a kind of cooking. Change the middle letter to get a new word describing a kind of music. What words are these?There are many variations of this type of cooking.
A: BAR-B-QUE --> BAROQUE
