NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 25, 2013): Open for Business

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 25, 2013): Open for Business:

Q: Think of a business that's found in most towns. Its name consists of two words, each starting with a consonant. Interchange the consonants and you'll get two new words — neither of which rhymes with the original words. What business is it?

Checking with my dictionary, I can confirm the words don't rhyme. That goes double for last week's answer.

Edit: My hints: The words "Checking with" start with the same letters as the answer. Doubling 38 from last week you get 76 which is the name of a gas station (which may also have a car wash) and is the year the movie Car Wash was released.

A: CAR WASH --> WAR and CASH

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 18, 2013): Roman Numeral XXXVIII

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 18, 2013): Roman Numeral XXXVIII:

Q: The Roman numeral for 38 is XXXVIII. What is special or unusual about this Roman numeral that sets it apart from every other Roman numeral that can be written?

I'm sure I'll figure this out next month when I go to New Jersey.

Edit: If you sort the months alphabetically, September comes last. Similarly, if you sort the state capitals, Trenton comes last

A: XXXVIII sorts last alphabetically.

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 11, 2013): Twisted Family Tree

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 11, 2013): Twisted Family Tree:

Q: It's a twist on an old puzzle: Nieces and nephews have I none, but that man's father is my father's son." What is the gender of the speaker? And who is the speaker referring to?

Honestly I don't see the reason, except for the slight wording change at the beginning, that this is any different than the classic puzzle. Am I missing something? Was it perhaps stated differently on the air?

Edit My hint was the word "reaSON". Again, I don't see why this puzzle is much different from the classic puzzle. Working backwards, my father's son is either the speaker himself or the speaker's brother. If that person was "that man's father" it would either be the speaker's son or speaker's nephew. In the classic puzzle this second case was eliminated because the speaker has no brothers. In the revised version, it is still eliminated because he has no nephews. But in either case, the answer is the same.

A: The speaker is male and he is talking about his son.

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 4, 2013): Foreign Cars and Foreign Food

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 4, 2013): Foreign Cars and Foreign Food:

Q: Name a foreign make of automobile. Cross out several letters in its name. The remaining letters, reading in order from left to right, will spell a food that comes from the country where the car is made. What is the country, and what is the food?

I'm going to have to go dark this week since we're going on vacation. Please moderate yourselves and play nicely with each other.

Edit: "Going dark" was a hint to the Mitsubishi car model, the Eclipse.

A: Mitsubishi --> sushi (both from Japan)

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 28, 2013): What Does NPR Stand For?

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 28, 2013): What Does NPR Stand For?:

Q: In three words, name a product sold mainly to women that has the initials N-P-R. The answer is a common phrase.

My wife's first answer: Nipple Piercing Ring. Okay, just forget I said that.

Edit: In other words, remove that thought.

A: Nail Polish Remover

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 21, 2013): Fun with Syllables

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 21, 2013): Fun with Syllables:

A: Think of a three-syllable word in four letters, add two letters and rearrange everything to become a two-syllable word in six letters. Then add two more letters and scramble them to get a one syllable word in eight letters.

I have several answers that will work, but they all start with the same four-letter word. Each of the four answers meet the puzzle criteria. If I'm correct, the three-syllable word has an anagram that is not three syllables.

Edit: The first and last letters of the first two sentences are I-D-E-A and the anagram is AIDE.

A: A few possible answers:
IDEA --> REPAID --> SPRAINED
IDEA --> DETAIN --> STRAINED
IDEA --> TIRADE --> STRAINED
IDEA --> REPAID --> TRAIPSED

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 14, 2013): Organizing the Clothes Closet

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 14, 2013): Organizing the Clothes Closet:

Q: The phrase "clothes closet" describes a place to keep your clothes. What's interesting about the phrase is that all the letters of the second word are found inside the first one. Think of another two-word phrase that names a place to keep clothes, in which all the letters of the second word are found inside the first. The first word of the phrase has nine letters, and the second word has six. What common phrase is this?

You don't need an additional hint from me since the puzzle provides plenty of clues. The answer is not "roughened ground" or "ephemeral hamper" though.

Edit: My hint was in "You don't" where the initials U.D. are hidden between the words.

A: Underwear Drawer

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 7, 2013): Country Mix-up

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 7, 2013): Country Mix-up:

Q: Rearrange the letters of INDIA + BELARUS to name two other countries. What are they?

The capitals of the resulting countries are about 3,000 miles apart, and neither contains the letter "E".

Edit: The capitals are Monrovia and Khartoum.

A: LIBERIA + SUDAN

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 30, 2013): Truck Part / FEMA Spoonerism Puzzle

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 30, 2013): Truck Part / FEMA Spoonerism Puzzle:

Q: Next week's challenge involves a spoonerism, in which you reverse the initial consonant sounds in one phrase to make another phrase. For example, if you spoonerize "light rain," you get "right lane." Name part of a truck in two words; spoonerize it, and you'll name something FEMA uses. What is it?

Remove the third letter from "something FEMA uses", swap the letters before and after it to describe an action that can result in disaster for some.

The answer to my mini-puzzle was "fold map"

A: MUD FLAP --> FLOOD MAP

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 23, 2013): Words with Unusual Properties II

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 23, 2013): Words with Unusual Properties II:

Q: Write down these five words:
"aide," "heart," "tough," "gelatin" and "emanate." There is something very unusual they have in common. What is it? And what's another word with this property?

When my computer is not crashing and is able to filter my word grids, it does a most capable job. Anyway, at the moment it has about 800 words, possibly with some as long as 11 letters but I can't check them until it is done calculating.

Edit: Hints: "not crashing" = stable, "word grids" = tables, "most capable" = ablest. Some other words (6 letters or more) are given below. I tried to avoid plurals, but stable/tables/ablest was too good to ignore:

A: The property that the five words share is that if you move the first letter to the end, another word is formed.
aide --> idea
heart --> earth
tough --> ought
gelatin --> elating
emanate --> manatee

Here are a few words that also share this property:
dangle --> angled
echoic --> choice
height --> eighth
ramble --> ambler
revoke --> evoker
stable --> tables --> ablest (chain of 3 words)
yowler --> owlery
tangelo --> angelot
trundle --> rundlet
dalliance --> allianced
dunpickle --> unpickled
lethologica --> ethological