The Final Countdown

Q:

Think of a two word phrase that describes this:

ten,  nine,  eight,  seven,  six,  five,  four,  three,  two,  one

Add the letter L somewhere in the two word phrase without rearranging the letters and you'll name something that will be happening soon.  What is it?

Photo courtesy of

trainman74

A:

This countdown that is a number series is also a word series.

World Series

Let's Get To Work

Q:

Consider this list of five letter words:

METAL   CATCH   SLOPE  WRECK  BREAD   HOARD   LATIN   CONIC

Change one letter in each and rearrange the result to name a large, well-known company.  The new replacement letters, in order, will spell a familiar two word phrase relating to large, well-known companies.

Photo courtesy of

Hatters!

A:

DELTA   COACH   LOWES     JCREW   ADOBE     HONDA     INTEL     CISCO

DOW JONES

Menagerie

Q:

Think of a type of artisan.  Add one letter and rearrange the result to name a fish.

Think of a type of artist.  Change one letter and rearrange the result to name a mammal.

Think of a type of artistic inspiration.  Drop one letter and rearrange the result to name a bird.

A:

The image is a painting of  Raymond Burr (Perry Mason).

Artisan -->  Mason  --> Salmon

Artist  -->  Painter  -->  Panther

Artistic inspiration  -->  Muse  -->  Emu

You Decide

Q:

This is part puzzle and part creative challenge.  Here is a list of words.

messiah, vexed, eager, male, justify, savior, urbane

It's up to you to decide if these words are connected in any way.  But I assure you, they were chosen for a reason.  The reason is there for you to discover.

Now, add one more word (or two if you're waxing nostalgic) to this list that you feel is appropriate.  There is no unique solution.  However, there are wrong answers.  

No need to code or conceal your answer.  Just leave it in the comments.  A little post-modern expressionism, anyone?  Have fun!

Photo courtesy of

Martin Beek

A:

The list of words could be used to describe a certain politician (imho).  Each word shares the same first two letters and name length of the first seven of the eight accepted planets (include Pluto if you're waxing nostalgic).

Any solution must be a seven letter word starting with Ne and a five letter word starting with Pl (if you're so inclined).

Nepotic       Plank

When is a Bird Not a Bird?

Q:

Take the phrase Angry Birds.  Replace each word with a one syllable synonym.  Both synonyms will contain  a single, identical vowel.  Replace them with a different identical vowel.  Rearrange the result to get a phrase that describes some of the largest companies in America.

Photo courtesy of

roberthuffstutter

A:

Animals have long been used as metaphors for people.  She's a strange bird.  He's such a dog.  Are you a man or a mouse?  The image above shows a couple of cool cats.  Angry birds becomes mad cats. Change the a's to o's.

Angry birds -->  Mad cats -->  Dot coms

  

A Spinoff

Q:

I thought of several puzzles related to last week's NPR puzzle.  Click this link to see it.   Here's one.

Think of a well known composer.  Some of the letters is his name are used more than once.  Remove the duplicates and rearrange what's left to come up with an adjective that describes what some of the statements made by the popular fictional character (in the NPR puzzle) are NOT.

Photo courtesy of

enigmachck1

A:  

The image is four jars of spices or seasonings, referring to The Four Seasons by Vivaldi, the composer in question.  The solution to the NPR puzzle was Pinocchio and Chopin.  Remove a v and an i from Vivaldi and rearrange to get the word valid, which many of Pinocchio's statements were not.

An Abbreviated Ounce of Prevention

Q:

Consider these:

 pair,  parliament member,  plod,  proficiency, 

pitch,  powerhouse,  passé

Replace each with a synonym using only the letters whose mirror image does not result in a backwards letter.  The font used here is Century Gothic and exactly all the letters you will need are in this paragraph.  When you have the correct solution, the first initial of each word will spell out a familiar movie quote.

Photo courtesy of

Anna Fischer

A:

The abbreviation for ounce is oz. and the image (believe it or not) is Dorothy.  Some of the words are a bit obscure but all can be found in Dictionary.com (and/or Thesaurus.com).  

pair  -  two

parliament member  -  owl (a group of owls is called a parliament)

plod  -  toil

proficiency  -  oil

pitch  -  tilt

powerhouse  -  ox

passe  -  out

Quote from The Wizard of Oz  -  Toto, too