Answers to Chimera Returns

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1. FORREST GUMP. The letters are formed by taking the letter that would appear between the top one and the one on the bottom for each column. The letter between E and G is F, the letter between N and P is O, and so on.

2. Chris. He says "I DIDN'T have anything against the sheriff." Why didn't he say DON'T or DO NOT? Didn't indicates the past tense, which suggests that he knows that the sheriff is dead, but the investigator only told him that the sheriff was attacked, not that he is dead. None of the other suspects referred to the sheriff in this way.

3. male. The last letter of each word appears 4 letters before the first letter in the word in the alphabet. In PULL, L is 4 letters ahead of P in the alphabet, for example. Male is the only word in the set that does not possess this feature. An alternate and acceptable answer provided by a surfer: ERA - all the other words are of the form [consonant sound] [vowel sound] [consonant sound], while ERA is of the form [vowel sound] [consonant sound] [vowel sound]. This also fits in nicely with the puzzle title.

4. goblin. It is the only word in the set that has an even number of letters. Another correct answer, found by a web surfer: "Ghoul is the only word that does not contain any other word within it using the letters in the order that they are presented in the original word. Vampire = vamp; Goblin = gob, Goblin = in; Troll = roll; Mummy = mum, Mummy = my; etc.."

5. owl. It appears 5 times in the paragraph, but is written backward. The first place that it appears is in Will words. Another acceptable answer, found by a reader, is comma, as there are 5 of them in the paragraph as well.

6. The only word that I know of that seems to describe this puzzle is paradox. The answer is that there is no answer. If there is a better name for this type of puzzle (such as one taught in Logic classes), please let me know. A is true, & B & C are false, but D can't be true or false. If we only consider B & C to be false, then D must also be false, as only 2 of the statements are false. But if we include it as being false, then the statement is true, because 3 of the statements are false. A catch 22. And yes, Bill Clinton WAS first elected President of the United States in the year 1992. For some reason, people seem to think it was 1991, but check your history books and see for yourself.

7. broil & roil

8. breach & reach

9. forth & fort

10. mask & ask

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