The Boat Captain Puzzle
How old is the captain, how many children has he, and how long is his boat? Given the product 32118 of the three desired numbers (integers). The length of the boat is given in feet (is several feet), the captain has both sons and daughters, he has more years than children, but he is not yet 100 years old.
From NYT’s Numberplay blog.
Puzzle #101: Homophonic twist
(This puzzle appeared this past Sunday on NPR’s Weekend Edition puzzle segment with Will Shortz. You have until Thursday at 3pm EST to answer and try to get on the air.)
Take a common English word. Write it in capital letters. Move the first letter to the end and rotate it 90 degrees. You’ll get a new word that is pronounced exactly the same as the first word. What words are these?
Update: There are apparently two answers. One of them (the one I intended) has an interesting extra feature: if you remove that letter entirely, you’re left with a new word, one that is pronounced differently than the originals.
Here’s a fun poker puzzle from last year’s World Puzzle Championships, as seen on Wordplay, the NYT crossword puzzle blog.
You have a deck of 28 cards: 8 through ace in four suits. Arrange 25 of these cards in the five-by-five grid so that the 12 named poker hands appear in the rows, columns and diagonals. The location of some cards and suits are given.
Guest puzzle: Play-by-play
Today’s puzzle is by FOP (friend of Puzzler) Chris Norborg. He tells me he came up with it in a dream.
“… so, in the 1st, the lead off guy ropes a liner straight to Soriano in left. The next guy, a lefty, fights off an inside slider from Garza, hitting a weak grounder to third — Valbuena makes the play, though he trips and winds up flat on his face. The third batter pops it up, again to Valbuena. This time he stays on his feet … Top of the 2nd — can of corn to DeJesus in right field. A strikeout. Then a Texas leaguer to short right; Rizzo hustles out from first, and sprawls on his belly to make the catch going away … Third inning — base on balls, erased when routine grounder to Barney at second starts a twin killing. The next guy is no match for Garza’s heaters … To start the fourth, guy strikes out, but makes it to first on a passed ball by Castillo. Garza fans the next two. And the next hitter hits a liner to left identical to the one in the 1st — Soriano makes the play again…”
First Words of Songs – A Theme Construction Contest
- Each theme entry is a reasonably well-known song title.
- The lengths of the theme entries are symmetric (e.g. 15, 13, 13, 15 or 11, 7, 9, 7, 11).
- Chaining together the first words of each song creates an opening line for another song.
- The first word of each song is *not* in the song title.
Winner gets a free mug and credit on the MULLER MONTHLY MUSIC META blog and mailing list.
Eric Berlin servers up a juicy one: Something’s Missing
Puzzle #100: The next Olympic sport
Here are the results of four lesser-known Olympic competitions. Hidden among them is the name of what I hope is the next sport to be introduced. What is it?
Puzzle #99: Cars and companies
Name a make of car. Add one syllable to the front to get the name of an international company. Or, add a different syllable to to the front to get the name of a different international company. What car and companies are these?
(Hint: spelled a particular way, these two syllables are opposites.)
100 classic Paramount films in icon form. How many can you name?
(thx Mitchell. Originally via DKNG Studios.)
Puzzle #98: Cars
What make of car, when written backwards, might be something you’d text to a certain kind of Volkswagen?
Puzzle #97: Twice-baked Idioms
Each of the seven sentences below twice reference the same English idiom: once figuratively, once literally. Figure out the idiom in each one.
Standard rules apply: please only solve for one, so more people get a shot at answer. Thanks.
1.
When Felix spontaneously jumped out of Schrodinger’s backpack, the secret of his experiment was finally revealed.
2.
Three years later, Pete was still angry about that time his brother dumped an entire Pringles can on him from above.
3.
While floating in his inner tube, Alex felt a tug on his foot, only to quickly realize it was his friend, just pretending.
4.
“Whoops, I didn’t mean to drop that,” said Michael Jordan as he picked up the pieces of broken dinnerware set.
5.
As Jimmy stood awaiting his mafia execution, he regretted that he never got to fulfill his one dream of taking a nap in the big shark tank.
6.
Chef Charlie made a fabulous, explosive Bananas Foster, but it wasn’t enough to keep him around the restaurant for more than a week.
7.
The manager of the zoo supply store couldn’t keep bananas in stock because his surly teenage stock boy kept pocketing them.
Puzzle #96: Picture Path
Starting with the picture labeled M in the lower left corner, and following the logic hidden in the pictures, find a path through the grid — and out of it. Post your answer in the comments by indicating the letter of the last picture you pass through.
