Category: Puzzle

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 5, 2021): Who is it? Q: Name a famous person (8,4). The last name is a regular uncapitalized word with a single vowel. Change that vowel to make a new word that is humorously defined by the person’s first name. Who is it? I was going […]

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 29, 2021): Old Musicians Never Die. They Just Decompose Q: Name a form of musical composition. If you say the word quickly, you’ll name something, in two words, that you might buy in a music store. What is it? I doubt many of these are sold.

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 22, 2021): Cardinal and Ordinal Numbers Q: Take the name of a major American city. Move one of its letters three spaces later in the alphabet. Embedded in the resulting string of letters, reading left to right, is a cardinal number. Remove that number, and the […]

Q: Take the name of an island. Shift the first letter two later in the alphabet (e.g. A would become C). Read the result backwards and you’ll have the name of another island. What are the two islands? While waiting to see if we’ll have an NPR Puzzle this week, […]

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 8, 2021): Getting from Here to There Q: Think of something that gets people moving vertically. Remove the middle two letters, and you get something that moves people horizontally. What two things are these? Rearrange the letters in the second thing and you get a place […]

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 1, 2021): Topsy-Turvy Q: Think of a common Britishism — a word that the British use that’s not common in the U.S. Write it in all capital letters. Turn it upside-down (that is, rotate it 180 degrees). The result is a famous hero of books and […]

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 25, 2021): Olympic Sports Competitor Q: Think of the word for a competitor in a particular Olympic sport. It’s a compound word with a hyphen in the middle. Remove the hyphen. What remains are two words from a different Olympic sport. What words are these? Don’t […]

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 18, 2021): Searching the Flower Box Q: Take the name of a flower that has a common girl’s name in consecutive letters inside it. Remove that name, and the remaining letters, in order, sound like another girl’s name. What flower is it? I’m thinking of a […]

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 11, 2021): Rival Companies Q: Think of a country. Embedded in consecutive letters is a well-known brand name. The first, second, eighth and ninth letters of the country, in order, spell a former competitor of that brand. Name the country and the brands. The first country […]

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 4, 2021): Where a Plant Might Grow Q: Think of a place where a plant might grow, in two words. Spoonerize it — that is, switch the initial consonant or consonants of the two words. The result will name another place where a plant might grow, […]