NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 20, 2011): Know Your Anatomy

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 20, 2011): Know Your Anatomy:

Q: Spell a part of the human body. Change one of the letters to an E, and rearrange the result to name another part of the human body. What body parts are these? Clue: Both parts of the body are things you can see.

Within a minute I came up with 3 valid pairs of body parts. I have a fourth pair that is questionable, but still could work.

Edit: Time to reveal my 3 acceptable pairs.

A: NECK (C to E) --> KNEE
ARM (M to E) --> EAR
HAND (N to E) --> HEAD

Note: Will also accepted CALF (L to E) --> FACE

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 13, 2011): Two Presidents Visit the Capital

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 13, 2011): Two Presidents Visit the Capital:

Q: Name a world capital. Add the letter R, and rearrange the letters to name two U.S. presidents. What is the world capital and who are the presidents?

I'm primarily thinking of countries in Africa, maybe Chad?

Edit: The flag of Chad has the primary colors of blue, yellow and red in 3 vertical stripes. This matches exactly with flag of Romania which has the same tricolor pattern (with cobalt blue instead of indigo, but you can't tell me they look that different). The capital of Romania is Bucharest

A: BUCHAREST + R --> BUSH + CARTER

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 6, 2011): You are Cleared for Take-off

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 6, 2011): You are Cleared for Take-off:

Name two things an airplane does. Each of these is a single word. Put them together, one after the other, to make a compound word that names something it's nice to have as big as possible. What is this thing?

I don't know about you, but I like my porterhouse as big as possible...

Edit: Porterhouse is a type of steak which is a homophone of stake which is a synonym of the answer.

A: BANK + ROLL = BANKROLL

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 30, 2011): Q to N, Synonym Puzzle

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 30, 2011): Q to N, Synonym Puzzle:

Q: Think of a common word that's six letters long and includes a Q. Change the Q to an N, and rearrange the result to form a new word that's a synonym of the first one. What are the words?

I'm feeling this puzzle could be hard... how about you?

Edit: I had a couple hints, one about how you might feel and then hard was a synonym for "uneasy".

A: QUEASY - Q + N --> UNEASY

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 23, 2011): Another 5-letter Countries Puzzle

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 23, 2011): Another 5-letter Countries Puzzle:

Q: Name a nationality. The third, fourth, fifth, sixth and 10th letters in order name a country. Also the fourth, fifth, seventh, ninth and 12th letters in order also name a country. Neither country is related to the nationality. What nationality is this?

Both countries have been the answer to recent NPR puzzles. That aside, a couple lists I checked for nationalities had a shorter version, but thanks to this puzzle, I stand corrected on the nationality name.

Edit: We had a recent 5-letter country names puzzle. And we've seen Ghana and Haiti mentioned in other puzzles. My hint was the "ISTAN" from "I stand". The lists I checked had "Afghani" as the nationality rather than "Afghanistani".

A:
afGHANistAni (GHANA)
afgHAnIsTanI (HAITI)

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 16, 2011): ABCDEFG plus 1 minus 1

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 16, 2011): ABCDEFG plus 1 minus 1:

Q: Take the first seven letters of the alphabet, A through G, change one of these letters to another letter that is also either A, B, C, D, E, F or G. Rearrange the result to spell a familiar seven-letter word. What word is it?

The old adage goes something like "don't deface the facade with a cabbage"... right? Oh, that's not a clue at all. While you are waiting for a better clue, here's a short musical interlude.

Edit: I composed that musical piece with the notes F,E,E,D,B,A,G repeated several times. I varied the octaves but otherwise they were always those notes.

A: ABCDEFG - C + E = FEEDBAG

Write the Alphabet Backwards, Quicker than Forwards!

I was reminded recently of a way to impress your friends and perhaps win a bet too. It involves writing the alphabet backwards faster than they can forwards.

The key is to learn the backwards alphabet as "words" rather than individual letters. If you break it into chunks of 4 letters (with 2 left over) you have:

ZYXW VUTS RQPO NMLK JIHG FEDC BA
Phonetically think of this as the phrase:
"Zixwa Vuts Irqpo Nimlick Jig Fedic Bah"

Practice saying this as you write each set of letters one after the other. With a little practice you'll be able to write this very quickly.

Now you are ready to challenge your friends to a race. You can even bet them that you'll write the alphabet backwards faster than they write it forwards. The reason it works is you won't need to stop, think, sing that alphabet song, go back a few letters, etc. You simply write down your 7 "words" as quickly as possible and you are sure to beat them.

Enjoy!

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 9, 2011): A Peril, in Apparel

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 9, 2011): A Peril, in Apparel:

Q: Name an article of apparel in the plural form, ending with an S. Rearrange the letters to name an article of apparel in the single form. What things to wear are these?

Alternatively, name an item of food in the plural form. Rearrange to name something you might do on a bike.

Edit: My alternate puzzle results in the additional anagrams of TACOS and COAST.

A: COATS --> ASCOT

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 2, 2011): First Puzzle of the New Year

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 2, 2011): First Puzzle of the New Year:

Q: Take a plural noun that ends with the letter S. Insert a space somewhere in this word, retaining the order of the letters. The result will be a two-word phrase that has the same meaning as the original word, except in the singular. What word is this?

Hmm... the first puzzle of the new year is usually easy. I would like to say I have it, but the answer currently eludes me. I'm positive I'll get it eventually.

Edit: Yes, I had the answer despite what I wrote. Here are my hints: "Easy" is an anagram of the answer. "I have it" is close to the phrase "the ayes have it". If you combine "say" with the "e" in eludes, you also get the letters in the answer. And "positive" was a hint to "yes" being a positive response.

A: AYES --> A YES

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 26, 2010): It's Boxing Day, is that a clue?

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 26, 2010): It's Boxing Day, is that a clue?:

Q: Name a famous American from the past who has seven letters in his or her last name. Take the last two letters, plus the first four letters, in that order, and you'll name that person's profession. Who is it?

Given that this person's Wikipedia page lists 10 professions, can you be sure you'll find this person's intended profession in a sample list of occupations? Remember, your search needs to be exhaustive if you want to be sure not to miss it.

Edit: My hint was "be exhaustive" (i.e. "thorough")

A: Henry David THOREAU --> AU + THOR = AUTHOR