June, 2003 Puzzle Contests

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6/30-7/1/03 Contest:

If you say that "he is not a poor marksman" or "the food was not bad," you have made a statement using me. Remove my first 2 letters and my last letter, and you have a type of bag. What am I?

Answer (from the winner):

"litotes (tote) - 'A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite...'"

Winner: Shirley Wolf, Rockville, MD


6/27-6/30/03 Contest:

This puzzle has been removed, but is now part of our 10 Puzzle Logical & Lateral IQ Test


6/26-6/27/03 Contest:

Determine what letter(s) should complete each of the following four series. You must get all four right to be entered to win:

1. A K Q J T N E S S F F ?

2. K P C O F G ?

3. E G B D ?

4. P N D Q OD FD TD TD ??

Answers (from the winner):

"1. T
2. S
3. F
4. FD

Explanation:

1. Deck of cards (Ace, King, Queen, ..., Five, Four, Three)

2. KPCOFGS (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species)

3. EGBDF (Music--Lines of the treble staff)

4. Money (coins and bills--Penny, Nickel, Dime, Quarter, One Dollar, Five Dollar, Ten Dollar, Twenty Dollar, Fifty Dollar)"

#2 is commonly remembered as "King Philip Came Over From Germany Saturday," and I think there is another well known mnemonic device out there, but I don't recall it.

#3 is commonly remembered as "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge" or "Every Good Boy Does Fine."

Graeme Black, who also got all of these right but did not luck out when I randomly selected the winner, added (for #4):

"Penny, Nickel, Dime, Quarter, (opps, we missed FC Fifty Cent), One Dollar, (opps, we missed TD Two Dollar), Five Dollar, Ten Dollar, Twenty Dollar, Fifty Dollar."

I agree with the fifty cent piece, but I don't believe I've ever SEEN a two dollar bill, so I wouldn't have included that one anyway. I don't know if any are in circulation at present. UPDATE: Per Graeme, who sent me links indicating that 6 MILLION are in circulation, and more may soon be printed, and Barbara Cody, who said she has one and is sending it to me in exchange for one of our "free prize" prizes, some are evidently still around. I found a link that suggests most are in the hands of private collectors. I don't know why there would be any demand or need to print more, as I don't think many cash registers have a slot for them, ATMs to my knowledge don't despense them, etc. Per the following link, it is likely people wouldn't even know that a 2 dollar bill is actual money if you tried to pay using it! - http://paul.merton.ox.ac.uk/tales/money.html - I personally did not know that they even existed until a few years ago. They are very rare in any case, and not in common use by any means. However, the "controversy" has been fun :-)

While the FC or FCP was an oversight on my part, the puzzle still works. Rock on!

Winner: Mark Rahija, Kansas City


6/25-6/26/03 Contest:

Determine what letter should complete each of the following four series. You must get all four right to be entered to win:

1. Y Y H L Y E Y T R R R ?

2. A P A T G C L V L S S ?

3. W A J M M A J VB H T P ?

4. M V E M J S U N ?

Answers (from the winner):

"1) R - (December) last letter of each month

2) C - (Capricorn) the signs of the zodiac

3) T - (Taylor) the presidents of the U.S.

4) P - (Pluto) the planets"

Winner: Jennifer Mahar, Greenfield, MA


6/24-6/25/03 Contest:

An unlucky number of each. A body organ, gemstone, blunt weapon, and digging tool. What are we?

Answer (from the winner):

"The answer is a deck of cards. 13 (unlucky number) of each suit: clubs (blunt weapon), diamonds (gemstone), hearts (body organ) and spades (digging tool)."

Winner: Rick B, Arvada, CO


6/23-6/24/03 Contest:

Within me is a table that is not square or even rectangular. Remove my last 2 letters, and you have a mammal and a carcinogenic product. What am I?

Answer (from the winner):

"Camelot - King Aurther's round table
Camel - animal and cigarette brand"

Winner: Deborah Cox, Memphis TN


6/20-6/23/03 Contest:

This puzzle has been removed, but is now part of our 10 Puzzle Logical & Lateral IQ Test


6/19-6/23/03 Contest:

This puzzle has been removed, but is now part of our 10 Puzzle Logical & Lateral IQ Test


6/18-6/19/03 Contest:

Given the first 4 sets of numbers, decide what number should replace the ?? in the last set: 
21    49

   37


18    93

   12


17    95

   24


27    83

   11


62    36

   ??
Answer (from the winner):

"10

Each set of numbers follows the following pattern:

ab cd
c-b d-a"

Where ab and cd are the two top numbers, c minus b gives you the first digit, and d minus a gives you the second digit for the bottom number.

Winner: Mark Rahija, Kansas City


6/17-6/18/03 Contest:

Given the first 4 sets of numbers, decide what number should replace the ?? in the last set: 
18    70

   15


30    90

   12


17    20

   15


12    80

   12


13    50

   ??
Answer (from the winner):

"13 (sum of letters of first line numbers, 8+5)"

You add the number of letters in the actual words for the top two numbers together, to get the number on the bottom. In the last set, THIRTEEN (8 letters) plus FIFTY (5 letters) equals 13. Most people guessed 15 on this one, as they saw what they believed to be a 15, 12, 15, 12, 15 progression in the series. But this does not take the other numbers in the progression into account at all. This was a tough lateral thinking problem!

Winner: Leonardo Cocito, Genova Italy


6/16-6/17/03 Contest:

My name is directional, and I'm known to request that you ascend to eye my visage at some point. You may or may not know what these clues refer to. Who am I?

Answer (from the winner):

"Mae West...'Come up and see me sometime.'"

Winner: Donna Smock, Monmouth,IL


6/13-6/16/03 Contest:

I am the second best thing you can get in some card games. I am spelled similarly to part of the name of a disgraced "lip sync" band, and to a type of paper. What am I?

Answer (from the winner):

"manille (Milli Vanilli - Manila paper)

Manille is the second highest trump in card games such as ombre and klaberjass."

Winner: Shirley Wolf, Rockville, MD


6/12-6/13/03 Contest:

This puzzle has been removed, but is now part of our 10 Puzzle Logical & Lateral IQ Test


6/11-6/12/03 Contest:

I'm an alloy, not a language. My 1, 2, 4, 5 can be used to refer to someone who is deceased. You might find me in old churches. What am I?

Answer (from the winner):

"Latten

Clues: Late and Latin"

Winner: Rhonee Garcia


6/10-6/11/03 Contest:

This puzzle has been removed, but is now part of our 10 Puzzle Logical & Lateral IQ Test


6/9-6/10/03 Contest (answer & winner posted late due to server outage from severe storms in our area - sorry):

This puzzle has been removed, but is now part of our 10 Puzzle Logical & Lateral IQ Test


6/6-6/9/03 Contest:

You have 10 measuring cups: 1 that is 1 cup, 1 that is 2 cups, 1 that is 3 cups, etc. These cups are not designed to measure smaller amounts (e.g. the 3 cup measuring cup is not marked for the point at which it contains 2 cups). What is the minimum number of these cups that you could use to measure the exact amount of any fluid ranging from 1 to 10 cups in capacity (but only in 1 cup increments, so no fluid is 2.3 cups, for example)?

Answer (from the winner):

"This appears to be so (darn - Puzz) simple I am sure I have missed the catch, wherever it bloody may be!!!

But I am going to say 1 cup. No matter what amount you what to measure there is a single cup for it."

When we here at Puzz.com have people cursin' fussin' and fumin' we know we've done something right! By golly! Er, ok, that's not the goal. 1 cup is technically the best answer. Some had said 2 cups, so you'd have something to pour the contents of the 1 cup into (the 9 or better yet the 10 cup), but technically you could do it all with the 1 cup only, pouring the contents in an unspecified place, possibly even on the floor (messy - tsk, tsk).

Winner: Kazza in Western Oztralia


6/5-6/6/03 Contest:

My 678 can be a type of sauce. My 123 can be soft material that can protect you. I am a type of fabric, or an article of clothing made from this fabric. What am I?

Answer: paduasoy. The clues were PAD and SOY.

Winner: Rhonee Garcia


6/4-6/5/03 Contest:

This puzzle has been removed, but is now part of our 10 Puzzle Logical & Lateral IQ Test


6/3-6/4/03 Contest:

Remove my last letter, and you are moving ahead gradually or giving shape to something. I had another clue for you, but I can't remember what it was... what am I?

Answer: Forget

Winner: Rhonee Garcia


6/2-6/3/03 Contest:

Determine what word is suggested in each of the following items. You must get at least 4 of the following 5 right to be entered to win:

1. Relating to the ear (5 letters)

2. Relating to the kidneys (5 letters)

3. Commonplace, not poetic (7 letters)

4. A goblin, sometimes in the form of a large dog (8 letters)

5. Acuteness of intelligence (12 letters)

Answers:

1. aural

2. renal

3. prosaic

4. barghest (btw, similar to the name of a type of mutant in a science fiction novel, if I ever finish the bugger - 10 more years is the current estimate :-)

5. perspicacity

Winner: Trx