January, 2003 Puzzle Contests

Click here to read the rules, to find other contests, or to learn how to participate in current contests.

1/31-2/3/03 Contest:

I am just starting at something. Change my last letter, and you have a word used in the UK. Change my third letter, and you have an error. What am I?

Answer (from the winner): "tyro (tyre, typo)"

Winner: Shirley Wolf, Rockville, MD


1/30-1/31/03 Contest:

I am a singer. Remove my fourth letter, then add two of the same letter to me, and you have an alcoholic drink. Remove my last four letters, and you have something done by monks. What am I?

Answer (from the winner): "The answer is chanteuse. Remove the fourth letter and add the same letter "r" to the fourth and sixth positions and you get chartreuse which is a regional liqueur developed by Carthusian monks. Remove the last four letters and you get the word chant which is something done by monks. I hope I win this time. Thanks a lot."

Winner: Ashok of Redondo Beach, CA, USA.


1/29-1/30/03 Contest:

What do the following have in common?

Drink containing alcohol
A body of water
A famous anthropologist

Answer (from the winner): "mead (drink with honey, Lake Mead, Margaret Mead)"

Winner: Shirley Wolf, Rockville, MD


1/28-1/29/03 Contest:

21 of 34, or is it the other way around?
They say that I am tough and prepared
I share a name with someone who dealt with apes
Who am I?

Answer (from the winner):

"General Zachary Taylor

12th president of 43
'Old Rough and Ready'
Taylor - Planet of the Apes"

Winner: Deborah Cox, Memphis, TN


1/27-1/28/03 Contest:

I am a type of wave. Remove my first 3 letters, and then read me backward, and you have a priest, minister, or prince. Remove my last 3 letters and my first letter, and you have a star. What am I?

Answer (from the winner): "tsunami (iman, sun)"

Winner: andie, virginia beach


1/22-1/27/03 Contest:

"Existence on the left side of the highway" refers to what song title and saying?

Answer (from the winner): "LIFE IN THE FAST LANE"

Winner: Lisa Warmack, Tampa, FL -- GO BUCS!!!


1/21-1/22/03 Contest:

Determine what the following have in common:

President Solo automobiles Hitchhiker's

Answer (from the winner):

"Ford is the common denominator: (President Ford; Han Solo played by Harrison Ford; Ford automobiles; and Ford Prefect in 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the (Galaxy).'"

Winner: Shirley Wolf, Rockville, MD


1/17-1/21/03 Contest:

Determine what was said, and who said it:

E? d?kv z?ous v? z?a? v?n?vm?u ?k iu?vm?uk ?u f?u?km v?n?vm?u ?k w??zk.

- D?uv?s Z?vm?u H?sn Ru.

Answer (from the winner):

"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

- Martin Luther King Jr.

I noticed that you had '?' replacing all of the vowels, except for the third word (z?ous) - tricky!!!"

Yes, and I meant to do that, it wasn't an error on my part... ;-)

Winner: Michelle Ferri, Philadelphia, PA


1/16-1/17/03 Contest:

My last 4 letters are the same as the last 4 letters of what the Titanic hit. I am responsible for something that sounds the same as the "boss" in a school, but you might not be sure of what I am talking about. That something was important in the development of something else. If you were confused, you might think that the second something are extremely small people who work on cars. Who am I?

Answer: Werner Heisenberg. Iceberg, uncertainty principle (principal and principle are homophones, and "but you might not be sure of what I am talking about" was a hint at the "uncertainty" part of it), Heisenberg's uncertainty principle played an important role in the development of quantum mechanics.

Winner: kelway. Michelle Ferri came up with an answer that was ALMOST correct, and in at least one way better, but which did not utilize the "uncertainty" part of the riddle.


1/15-1/16/03 Contest:

I am a word that denotes that something lives or grows by or on rocks. My first 3 letters are a tool or musical instrument. What am I?

Answer (from the winner): "According to dictionary.com, 'saxicolous' (and it's synonym 'saxicoline') means 'growing on or living among rocks.' The first 3 letters, 'sax,' is 'A tool for trimming and puncturing roofing slates.' A 'sax' also is 'a single-reed woodwind with a conical bore.'"

Winner: Michele in Illinois


1/14-1/15/03 Contest:

My last four letters are an accounting-related acronym. Remove my last three letters and my first letter, and you will lose your lunch. Remove my last three letters, and my second letter, and you have a type of exercise. What am I?

Answer: churlish. LISH is an accounting-related term meaning last-in, still here, hurl is how you would lose your lunch, and a curl is a bodybuilding exercise.

Winner: Shirley Wolf, Rockville, MD


1/13-1/14/03 Contest:

If you are to pursue a part of Shakespeare's play Richard III, which has been carved in granite, what saying do you have?

Answer: A hard act to follow. Ok, you can groan now! Most people sent in lines from the play. This was evidently very tough.

Winner: Andrew Silikovitz from West Orange, NJ. Andrew was the only person to get this one right.


1/10-1/13/03 Contest:

What actor who played an Old West hero has:

Part of the name of a California city

Part of the name of an actor who played a famous police officer

The name of a model of car?

Answer (from the winner):

"Guy Williams - as Don Diego de la Vega aka Zorro." San Diego, Don Johnson as Crocket on Miami Vice, and Chevrolet's Vega. I incorrectly worded the problem, but Doborah evidently figured out what I meant :-)

Winner: Deborah Cox, Memphis, TN


1/9-1/10/03 Contest:

Replace the ? in the following: 
18   7   89

24   6   132

27   2   ?
Answer (from the winner):

"The ? = 113.5

1st line - 18 7 89 - the second number is inserted in the middle of the first resulting in 178 - this number halved is 89.

2nd line - 24 6 132 - same process results in 264 halved = 132

3rd line - 27 2 ? - same process results in 227 halved = 113.5"

Winner: Michelle Ferri, Philadelphia, PA


1/8-1/9/03 Contest:

Open-ended Analogies

Decide what should replace the ? in each of the following teasers. If you are unfamiliar with analogies, please review the "rules" on http://www.Puzz.com/cat.html. You must get all of the following right to be entered to win:

1. Ides of March is to 15 as Ides of August is to ?

2. Kicking is to Foremost as Alive is to ?

3. Clay Henry is to Veggie Delite as Polly is to ?

4. Witch is to Doctor as Wet is to ?

Answers:

1. 13. "Ides" refers to the 15th day of March, May, July, and October, and the 13th day of other months (such as August).

2. First. The analogy refers to the terms alive and kicking and first and foremost.

3. Cracker. Clay Henry is a fireman who has recently become well known from Subway commercials, which state that he eats a Veggie Delite, and "Polly want a cracker?" is something that people say to parrots (I'm guessing because they - the parrots - like to eat them).

4. Nurse. Witch doctor and wet nurse are both professions(?), the second word in each being standard medical professions.

Winner: Barbara A. Davis, Legal Secretary Floater, Perkins Coie LLP


1/7-1/8/03 Contest:

You must get all of the following right to be entered to win:

1. 4 friends are sitting around a table playing cards. Larry sits across from Max; Sue sits across from the engineer, who sits to the right of the architect. Max sits across from the bartender, and Joe sits across from the programmer. What is each individual's occupation?

2. treat is to swim as trick is to ?

3. You are in Bartlesville, which is 60 miles from Bratlesville. You must get to Bratlesville in 1 hour. You drive the first half of the distance at 30 miles/hour. How fast must you drive the second half of the distance to get to Bratlesville on time?

Answers:

1. Joe is the engineer, Sue is the programmer, Larry is the bartender, and Max is the architect. The best way to solve logic problems like these is to draw diagrams of all of the relationships, and fill in what or who each person COULD be, and then move to determining who is what with certainty.

2. sink. Trick or treat and sink or swim are both well known terms/sayings.

3. It's not possible. This is an old trick question. Since the distance to Bratlesville is 60, half of that distance would be 30 miles. You are driving at 30 miles/hour, and have spent an hour driving when you reach the half way point. It is thus not possible to reach Bratlesville at that point, no matter how fast you drive.

Winner: Anne Vincent, Alexandria, OH. Nearly 100 people submitted answers for these.


1/6-1/7/03 Contest:

Popular People Puzzlers

Something noteworthy about a famous person is given in each problem, followed by the definition of a word. The name of the famous person begins with the letter 'P' and the definition that fits the word in the second part is one letter different from the name. A number is given after this, which tells you how many letters are in the name, and in the word.

EXAMPLE: Invented the first mechanical adding machine; a scoundrel (6)

The answers are Pascal and rascal

You must get all of the following right to be entered to win:

1. Early horror writer; A disease such as smallpox or chickenpox (3)

2. Was greatly influenced by Socrates; a flat piece of metal on which something is engraved (5)

3. A friend of Swift; to act to overcome difficulties (4)

4. A famous songwriter; a fattened young pig (6)

5. Color-related female musician; what the Titanic did (4)

Answers:

1. Poe, pox

2. Plato, plate

3. Pope, cope

4. Porter, porker

5. Pink, sink

Winner: Donna Smock, Monmouth, IL. Donna's name was the first to be randomly selected from a pool of 20 people.


1/3-1/6/03 Contest:

You must get all of the following right to be entered to win:

1. I am "3 smart guys." Remove my first and last letters, and you have an Atomic Symbol. What am I?

2. I am an actress, and have appeared in a movie with Garry Shandling. If you remove the first 3 letters and the last letter from my last name, you have a type of pin or a piece of wood. Who am I?

3. Add a letter to the beginning of me, and then read me backwards, and you have a word that means "to run away secretly with the intention of getting married." Someone resides at one of me - add a letter to the end of his last name, and you have a provision in a document. What am I?

Answers:

1. Magi

2. Andie MacDowell

5. pole/Pole. The other word referred to was elope.

Winner: Carl Kirkland, Moncton, NB Canada


1/2-1/3/03 Contest:

You must get both of the following right to be entered to win:

1. I am a famous philosopher. Change my first letter to a "c," and you have a special vocabulary of a profession or class, such as thieves. Who am I?

2. I am the name of the love interest of a character in a novel by an author who fumed about the "leveed Homo sapiens species," and am also the name of a famous former UK leader. What am I?

Answers:

1. Kant. The other word referred to is cant.

2. Thatcher. The Thatchers referred to are Becky and Margaret. The novelist was Mark Twain, who wrote about "the damned human race" (he wasn't always as warm and fuzzy as you may have thought...).

Winner: Andrew Silikovitz from West Orange, NJ