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.
Puzzle #94: Double Triple
(This puzzle appeared on 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. As such, you can still post a comment here, but they won’t appear publicly until that time.)
Name an article of clothing that contains three consecutive letters of the alphabet consecutively in the word. For example, “canopy” contains the consecutive letters N-O-P. This article of clothing is often worn in a country whose name also contains three consecutive letters of the alphabet together. What is the clothing article, and what is the country?
Puzzle #86: Twelve to Nine
This past weekend, I was thrilled to have the following puzzle read by Will Shortz on the Sunday Puzzle on NPR. (Here’s audio of the whole segment.) You can hear the answer this coming Sunday — broadcast times vary by station.
Name something that is part of a group of 12 . Change the first letter to the next letter of the alphabet to name something that is part of a group of 9. What are these things?
