NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 9, 2023): Lights, Camera, ...

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 9, 2023): Lights, Camera, ...

Q: Take the first name of a famous movie director. Write it in upper- and lowercase letters. Rotate the third letter of this name 180° and you'll get the name of the main character in one of this director's most popular movies. Who is it?

Take the full name of the director. Remove the third from the last and the last letter of each name. You can rearrange the letters to get an apt anagram. Or rearrange them again to get a different apt anagram.

Edit: RID(l)E(y) SC(o)T(t) --> DIRECTS, CREDITS

A: Ridley (Scott) --> (Ellen) Ripley

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 2, 2023): Time To Play!

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 2, 2023): Time to Play!

Q: Name a sports facility in two words. (This is a general term, not a specific place.) Three consecutive letters in the first word also appear consecutively in the second word. If you reverse these three letters, you'll name something seen in this sports facility. What is it?

Take the last letter of the sports facility. Change it to the letter that appears 3 earlier in the alphabet. Rearrange to get a word or phrase used in a recent puzzle.

Edit: Change the ending K to an H and rearrange to get CHARACTER.

A: RACE TRACK --> CAR

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 25, 2023): Who's Your Favorite TV Character?

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 25, 2023): Who's Your Favorite TV Character?

Q: Name a well-known TV character (5,6). Change the first letter of the first name to a Y and read it (the modified first name) backward. You'll get a synonym of the character's last name. Who is it?

The name of the TV show can be rearranged to two related words -- ones you might hear today.

Edit: This was a callback to the puzzle from Nov 15, 2020 (PERRY MASON --> PRAY, SERMON)

A: DELLA STREET --> ALLEY, STREET

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 18, 2023): Daddy, Look What I Drew!

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 18, 2023): Daddy, Look What I Drew!

Q: Take the name of a fish. Add the name of a mammal. Rearrange all the letters to get the name of a reptile. What is it?

The first letter of the fish and the first letter of the mammal end up together in the name of the reptile.

Edit: ...MON(ST)ER

A: SALMON + TIGER --> GILA MONSTER

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 11, 2023): Sing It Again

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 11, 2023): Sing It Again

Q: Name a famous singer (6,6) whose last name is a body of water. And if you remove a letter from the first name you'll get a landform. What singer is this?

I've looked nearly all around my globe for bodies of waters that could be the last name of a singer.

A: On his expedition to circumnavigate the globe, Magellan sailed a strait in southern Chile, later named in his honor as the Strait of Magellan.

A: GEORGE STRAIT --> GORGE, STRAIT

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 4, 2023): A Singer Does Some Singing

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 4, 2023): A Singer Does Some Singing

Q: Name a famous singer (6,4). Remove the last letter of the first name and the first letter of the last name. The result, reading left to right, is a word for some singing. What is it?

You can also rearrange the 10 letters of the famous singer to get a color and an action.

Edit: ORANGE, LICK

A: CAROLE KING --> CAROLING

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 28, 2023): Author turned Pro Athlete

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 28, 2023): Author turned Pro Athlete

Q: Think of a well-known author whose first name is nine letters long, and last name six letters. Change the first letter of the last name and anagram those six letters to spell a word. Now read everything together — the author's first name plus the anagram with a letter changed of the last name — and you'll get a certain professional athlete. Who is it?

The new 6-letter part can also be rearranged to get the last name of an actor whose first name starts with the same 5 letters as the author or athlete.

Edit: Charl(ize) Theron

A: CHARLOTTE BRONTE, CHARLOTTE HORNET

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 21, 2023): A Place in Europe

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 21, 2023): A Place in Europe

Q: Name a place in Europe in nine letters. Swap the third and fourth letters, then the eighth and ninth letters. The result is two words describing what this place famously does.

A: STROMBOLI (an active volcanic island off Italy), STORM and BOIL

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 14, 2023): Mother's Day Puzzle

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 14, 2023): Mother's Day Puzzle

Q: Think of an animal in which the singular form of the female and the plural form of the male sound like synonyms. What animal is it?

Take the name of a different animal, drop the fourth letter and you get another synonym.

Edit: MONKEY - K = MONEY

A: DOE (dough) and BUCKS.

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 7, 2023): Compound Body Parts

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 7, 2023): Compound Body Parts

Q: Think of part of the human body whose name is a compound word (like fingertip or toenail). Add an N and rearrange the result to get another part of the body whose name is also a compound word. What body parts are these?

From the final body part remove any repeated letters (leaving only one instance of the letter). Add "IC" and rearrange to describe the state of some other body parts.

Edit: The resulting anagram is MANICURED.

A: EARDRUM + N --> UNDERARM