How Da Body? (10/1)

I'm thinking of an adjective for a certain body type in six letters. If you drop the third letter, the remaining letters form both a definition and synonym of the first word.

What are the words?


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What a Sport! (9/30)

I'm thinking of a sport. Drop the last two letters, and you get a car model. Now drop the first and third letters, and you get a country's capital. Finally, drop the first two letters, and you get the postal abbreviation of a state in New England.

What's the sport?


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Tricky Analogy III (9/29)

Lima, Peru : Tokyo, Japan :: Suva, Fiji : _____, _____

a) Lome, Togo
b) Accra, Ghana
c) Cairo, Egypt
d) Taipei, Taiwan


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Double Trouble (9/28)

Which two English letters are not represented by any US postal abbreviation?


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Moving Musician (9/27)

There is a deceased musician whose name consists of three syllables, one in the first name and two in the last. Phonetically, the last syllable is a mode of transportation. Phonetically, the second syllable is fuel for that transportation. Phonetically or not (because spelling is irrelevant), the first syllable is a useful accessory to have on that kind of transportation.

Who is the musician?


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Capital Actress (9/26)

I'm thinking of a contemporary actress's last name. Add a state's postal abbreviation to the end of her last name, and you'll have that state's capital city.

Who is the actress and what are the state and capital?


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Mike Roe Mania! (9/25)

Mike Roe is my boss. He is very nice, very good at his job, and his name sounds like "micro." Thus, the puzzle.

Below are several clues to words which, when preceded with "Mike Roe," make the final answer. For example, the clue "surfers ride this" would lead to "WAVE" then "MIKE ROE + WAVE" and finally "MICROWAVE."

Enjoy this little MIKE ROE COSM of my world!

1) movie
2) not Dale, the other one
3) a living thing
4) not hard
5) the gadget on top of a rifle
6) word _____ or food _____
7) what E.T. had to do
8) how the French pronounce "fish" in English
9) appliances, cars, robots, etc.
10) the science that deals with the production, distribution, and consumption of wealth


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An Island for Breakfast (9/24)

I’m thinking of an island country. Drop the first letter. Rearrange the remaining letters to get something you’d eat for breakfast.

What’s the country and what's the breakfast item?


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The Longest Letter (9/23)

I can't help but notice how some letters are also words, like 'B' and 'BEE.' Can you find the longest word that is also a letter of our alphabet?


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The Homonyms from Palindrome (9/22)

I am thinking of two words which are both palindromes (words which spell the same thing forward and backward, like MOM) and are homonyms of one another (words which sound the same but have different meanings and, in this case, different spellings, like HEAR and HERE).

What are these two words?


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A Family Thing (9/21)

I'm thinking of a family member in seven letters. Add a letter to the end of this word, and you'll get a medical emergency in two words, five and three letters.

Who is the family member and what is the emergency?


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Russian Roulette (9/20)

I'm thinking of a number (written out in letters). Drop one letter, and you'll have the name of a famous Russian novelist.

What's the number and who's the novelist?


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Arrgh, Matey! (9/19)

First, read the paragraph. The instructions come afterward.

The crudely painted skull and crossbones flag fluttered in the wind, snapping out the remaining seconds of my life. I stood at the edge of a sea-worn plank, my hands bound, my body thin and weak. Worse, I could already see a shark fin in the distance. It was a _______ situation, no doubt, one that my dirty, sea-going friends were quite familiar with. The _______ pirates yelled and cackled, laughing and jeering as one prodded me into the water...

Fill in the two blanks in the above paragraph with two words which meet the following requirements:

1) each word must contain each of the vowels exactly once (that is, A, E, I, O, and U).

2) both words must rhyme with one another.

Can you spell this man's doom?


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Double Take (9/18)

Take one! Take two! I've doubled things up with this pencil puzzle. Each of the following clues produces a pair of words that look alike except for one double letter.

For example, the clue "Cafe meal" would produce "Diner dinner." Not all clues produce perfect synonyms of their respective answers, but they're close enough to get the right answer.

Can THEE get THE rest?

1) Punctuation unconsciousness
2) Spooky lake
3) Not-green river plant
4) More impolite steering mechanism
5) Gluteus conjunction
6) Cynical gnasher
7) Almost immediate offspring
8) Religious holiday plant
9) Feces explosion
10) Bike saying
11) 2001 corridor
12) Liberated Bedrockian
13) Schnoz rope
14) Child's horn sound
15) Henhouse policeman
16) Rodent dessert
17) Bending over sojourn
18) Sweltering owl call
19) Decent deity
20) Was Franklin


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Exotic Origins (9/17)

I'm thinking of an exotic creature whose common name consists of two syllables. Switch the syllables around (that is, place the second syllable first and the first syllable last) and change the new first letter. You will get a country's name. It will not be the country where the animal is from, but it will be a country from the same part of the world.

What's the animal and what's the country?


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Three Random Parts (9/16)

I am thinking of a country whose name can be divided into three parts. The first part is a Greek letter; the second part is a body part found on a human head; the third is the plural of a type of tree. None of the parts match up phonetically with the name (though the middle is close), only their spellings are the same.

What is the country?


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Altered on a Whim (9/15)

The following words, which all have something in common, were altered on a whim. A single rule was applied to all of them, so that the following is what remains:

SOER
TEIS
FTBA
SWIING

What are the words and what is the rule?


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Godzilla Among Us (9/14)

Take the name of a country and change its first letter. Read it backward, and you'll get a reptile.

What are the country and reptile?


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It's About Time (9/13)

There are four consecutive letters, which when rearranged and regrouped, represent all of time.

What are they?


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Here's an Easy One (9/12)

Does the plotted point (0 degrees, 0 degrees) fall on land or water?


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A Smattering of Movies! (9/11)

Part 1: I’ve taken a word or words from various film titles to create a list of wacky film titles. The game is this: try to identify some or all of the movies from which the words came. Then name the actor/actress who acted in all of them.

For example, "Parenthood Revolutions Gotta Break Speed" would lead to "KEANU REEVES." The movies "Parenthood," "The Matrix Revolutions," "Something’s Gotta Give," "Point Break," and "Speed" all starred (in some capacity) Keanu Reeves.

Can you sort through the rest?

Part 2: Every three actors/actresses creates a new problem (1-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12, 13-15). Name the one movie each triple team starred in.

Part 3: Finally, you should have a list of five movies. There is one actor/actress who was in each of those movies. Get this person, and you’re the real star!

1) Impossible Interview with the Fourth Samurai
2) Deconstructing the Butcher’s Indecent Disclosure
3) Something’s About The Cuckoo’s Anger

4) Saving That Volcano If You Can
5) A Midnight Mission to Gump the Dead
6) A Beautiful, Needful Radio Show

7) Legends of the Seven Vampire Mexican Monkeys
8) Analyze the Mean Casino Driver
9) The President’s Cowboy Vs. Tracy Rain

10) A Perfect Field with Wolves
11) Lonesome Space Fugitive in Black
12) The Fifth Immortal Potter Lost Air

13) The Rat Searching for Amigos Part III
14) Dangerous Con in the Line of Mice
15) Freaky Fish Called Halloween Night


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Two Famous Writers (9/10)

(originally aired on NPR's Weekend Edition: Sunday during November 2004 with Puzzlemaster Will Shortz, all rights reserved)

There is a famous, best-selling non-fiction author whose first and last names both have 7 letters. Drop the first three letters of the last name, and you'll get a famous, best-selling fiction author.

Who are these people?


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City State (9/9)

There's an American city and an American state which are both three syllables long. Both share the same first two syllables, although they are not phonetically identical. The last syllable on each share no commonality. Furthermore, each last syllable is a US state abbreviation.

What are the city and state?

Hint: the city is not in the state, nor are they within 500 miles of one another.


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Opposites Attract (9/8)

There is a plural noun which describes the status of certain people. Drop the last three letters, and you'll get a plural noun which is the exact opposite of the first noun.

What are the two plural nouns?


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Before and After (9/7)

There is a very common word which begins and ends with the same four letters, as seen below:

_ _ _ _ CAD _ _ _ _

This word has no apparent meaning. It is used at a very specific moment, however, during a presentation.

What is the word?


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Sidekick City (9/6)

(this puzzle was a collaborative effort between S. Matt Read and Brooke H. Stanley, Jr., copyright 2005, all rights reserved)

Think of a North American city.

The first four letters is a sidekick from the Golden Age of comic books. Then remove the third and fourth letters to get another sidekick from the Golden Age. Then the removed letters can become the first and second letters to yet another sidekick from the Golden Age of comics.

What's the city and who are the three sidekicks?


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Land Lubber (9/5)

Countries’ names which end in "land" can only be found in:

a) Europe
b) Europe and Asia
c) Europe, Asia, and Africa
d) Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America
e) none of the above


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Name Scrunchies: Writers' Edition (9/4)

Each of the following famous writers’ names have been scrunched to form an English word. Your job is to unscrunch them.

For example, take the scrunched name HERE (6, 8). If you inserted "MAN MELVILL" after the third letter, you’d get HERMAN MELVILLE, whose name has six letters in the first and eight in the last.

The letters that I removed were all adjacent, and I kept a minimum of one letter from both the first and last names (that is, I have used at least the first letter of the first name and the last letter of the last name).

One last thing: there are a handful of modern writers in the mix.

Can you unscrunch them all?

1) CHICKENS (7, 7)
2) WILLING (7, 7)
3) BROKER (4, 6)
4) WITHER (5, 7)
5) RICHES (7, 6)
6) BARBER (7, 10)
7) TARDY (6, 5)
8) ALLEY (6, 6)
9) STING (7, 4)
10) ROBES (6, 6)
11) AGATE (6, 8)
12) MAIN (4, 5)
13) JOKE (4, 6)
14) HARE (6, 3)
15) MALL (8, 8)
16) JOCK (4, 9)
17) ALAS (9, 5)
18) HENS (5, 5)
19) RING (7, 7)
20) EDGE (5, 5, 3)
21) LOON (4, 5)
22) SANE (7, 5)
23) SINS (8, 5)
24) ODE (5, 5)
25) AX (5, 6)


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State Class (9/3)

I'm thinking of a state. Drop the third letter and add a different letter to the front of the remaining letters. If you read it backward, you'll have a college-level course.

What's the state and what's the college class?


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Two Letters (9/2)

There are two letters which stand for a profession as well as a mathematics term.

What are the two letters?


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