Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Who Wants to Get Things Started?

Q:


This week we have multiple challenges.


Take the phrase
Native Beagle Cheered

First challenge -  how many four letter animal names can you come up with?  I came up with fourteen singular animal names, six of which have a homophone.

Second challenge - take one of the more common animals and add a consonant.  The five letters can now be rearranged twice to make a pair of homophones.  What are they?

Third challenge - using the letters of  Native Beagle Cheered only once, complete four common phrases that each begin with one of the above five letter homophones.

Good luck!!



A:

Common animals - bear, crab, hare, deer, bird, gnat 

Crossword animals - erne, tern, rhea

Crazy animals - hart, hind, ling, teal, rail

Add a "K" to bear to get "brake" and "break".

Using the letters in "Native Beagle Cheered" gives you four phrases beginning with "break".

The title hints at - break the ice.

Good luck hints at - break a leg.

The other two are - break bread and break even.



Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Sibling Rivalry

Q:


Take the phrase Boggle Winner.  Rearrange the letters to name the sister of a certain 2011 NPR Sunday Puzzle solution.




A:

In 1910, two sister schools were chartered in Ohio.  Kent State as mentioned in last Sunday's NPR puzzle and a school located about 20 miles south of Toledo.   Rearranging Boggle Winner gives you

Bowling Green

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Next In Line, Please

Q:


It's time to renew your tag for your license plate.  You go to the Secretary of State's office only to find twenty people already in line when three clerks open their windows.  Clerk A can complete the transaction in two minutes.  Clerk B can do it in three minutes and clerk C, in four minutes.  Assuming everyone knows this and all are in a hurry, how long does it take you to get your license plate tag?




Bonus Q:

Take the phrase  NOWHERE STILL.  Add one letter OR one punctuation mark and rearrange the result  to name something unusual about today.

A:  

After 18 minutes, clerk A has processed 9 transactions, clerk B has processed 6 and clerk C has completed 4 1/2.  Add to get 19 1/2 meaning 19 are done and number 20 is with clerk C.  A and B are open and you choose the faster of the 2, clerk A.  Your transaction takes 2 minutes for a total of 

20 Minutes

For the bonus, add an I or an apostrophe and rearrange to get either answer.

Will is not here.

Will's not here.



Tuesday, September 6, 2011

AC/DC

Q:


Take the phrase Fat Flyswatter.  Add one more vowel and rearrange the letters to name an east coast misnomer.


A:

The AC in the title refers to Atlantic City, New Jersey.  Add an A and the result (which contains no saltwater) is
Saltwater Taffy