Puzzlers

May 2026 May 2026 Think of a US state capital. It partly shares a name with a famous TV personality. Then think of one of the state’s biggest cities. Change one letter in the city's name and you'll get that TV star’s successor. Name these two people. March 2026 March 2026 Start with the name of a ’90s rock band, in three words. Change the first letters of two of those words and anagram the whole thing to get the name of another ’90s rock band in three words. Which bands are these? February 2026 February 2026 Think of two actors who co-starred in a trilogy of movies together. A homophone of one of their last names and an anagram of the other are the first names of two famous brothers. Who are they? January 2026 January 2026 I took a flight between two cities in continental Europe. I noticed that my boarding pass showed my departure and arrival city names, as normal, but also, unexpectedly, it showed the name of my arrival country in all-caps letters. Which two cities was I traveling between? October 2025 October 2025 Think of an album from 2020 from a massive pop star. Remove an “R”, anagram the rest, and you'll get a name of a caffeinated drink. Then, by removing something from the drink, you’ll get a massive pop hit from 2024. What are the album, drink and song? August 2025 August 2025 Think of a part of the body near the top. Remove every other letter and you'll get a part of your body at the bottom. What parts are these? July 2025 July 2025 Think of a five-letter animal. Change one letter to get an activity that the animal can help you achieve. Or, change a different letter to get an object often employed in that activity. (Hint: both the activity and object involve counts.) What words are these? June 2025 June 2025 Take the last name of a famous nineteenth century novelist. Change one letter to get a word for someone who enjoys pot. Alternatively, change a different letter to get a different term for the same. Alternatively still, remove a letter to get yet another term for the same. Who is this? May 2025 May 2025 Start with the name of a famous Hollywood director. Take his first name, remove the first letter, and you'll get the name of an organ. Adjacent to that organ is another organ that may be afflicted with the director's last name. Who is this? March 2025 March 2025 Think of a five-letter word that can mean “places of refuge”. Change the first letter to get another word that can mean the same thing. What words are these? February 2025 February 2025 Think of a word that means "treasure," and another word for a container that that treasure typically comes in. Both words also name parts of the body. What words are these? January 2025 January 2025 Think of a two-word phrase that means “a secret mission”. Move the last letter of the 1st word to be the first letter of the 2nd word, and you’ll end up with two words that are synonyms. What are they? November 2024 November 2024 Think of an Asian capital in 5 letters. Shift the 1st and 4th letters forward in the alphabet by 3 positions to get the name of an African country. Shift October 2024 October 2024 Think of a hit song from 1992. Remove all of the first word except the first two letters and the result will be a hit song from 1993. Both were released by bands, and both bands have the same number of letters in their names. Which songs are these? September 2024 September 2024 Take the name of a caffeinated drink. Remove a letter, then add a letter, and you’ll get the last name of an actor whose first name is also a caffeinated drink. Who is this? August 2024 August 2024 Think of a hyphenated phrase that means “fine”. Take the second half, change just the middle of it to its opposite, and you’ll get a word that also means “fine”. What words are these? July 2024 July 2024 Think of a pair of actors who headlined a beloved movie from the late ‘80s. The female actor’s first name, when reversed, and the male actor’s last name, are two words often used interchangeably. Who are they? May 2024 May 2024 Think of a six-letter nut. Change the first and last letters to get something that is often nut-adjacent. What two words are these? April 2024 April 2024 Think of the full name of an actor who was big in the ‘90s, and is still working today. Remove the first letter and last letter, and what remains will phonetically sound like a phrase heard in a courtroom. Who is it? February 2024 February 2024 The last five letters of what US state can be anagrammed to make the largest city in another US state? January 2024 January 2024 Think of a word that means “tie”. Change the first letter and add a space to get a phrase that describes where you might find yourself in the case of a tie. November 2023 November 2023 Think of a movie based on a stage adaptation of a book. Take the first name of the leading actor in the movie, and change the last letter to get the last name of the author of the book. Who are they? October 2023 October 2023 Think of two words: 1) somewhere you might go if you’re feeling too much pressure, and 2) something you might do if you’re feeling too much pressure. Put them together, add a space, and you’ll get something that would come in handy if you have too little pressure. September 2023 September 2023 Think of two well-known seamen, both four letters. The first two letters of one name are the last two letters of the second. The other two letters in each name appear consecutively in the alphabet. Who are they? August 2023 August 2023 Think of a name-brand toy for kids, in 5 letters. Remove a letter and anagram what remains to get a part of the body that is often injured by this toy. What toy and body part are these? June 2023 June 2023 Think of a Fortune 100 company. When spoken aloud, this company's name contains the species of animal (in two syllables) that serves as the company's mascot. What's the company? May 2023 May 2023 Take the full name of a famous American jazz musician. Change one letter in his first name, and you’ll end up with two words that describe people you’d find in a kitchen. April 2023 April 2023 Think of a musician who still performs but was most popular in the 1980s. One of his biggest hits describes a specific setting. The first 3 letters of the musician's last name are also something conventionally said (by two different people) in this setting. What's the song and who’s the musician? February 2023 February 2023 Think of a place where you might find outlets. Turn the first letter 180° and you’ll end up with a word for another place where you might find an entirely different kind of outlet. What words are these? January 2023 January 2023 Think of a hyphenated word for a kind of book that contains salacious details. Remove four of the same letter from that word, and what remains will be a word for the kind of content you'd find in such a book. What are the words? December 2022 December 2022 Think of an animal in 6 letters, and two things you might feed that animal. Say those three words together aloud, in that order, to get the full name of a famous literary character. What character is it? November 2022 November 2022 Think of two six-letter words that each start and end with a T. Swap the two syllables of one of them, and phonetically, you’ll get a synonym of the other. What are the two words? October 2022 October 2022 Think of a superhero. Take their alter ego's last name, and the last word of their nickname, and together you’ll get the full name of a living actor. That actor’s most famous role kind of sounds like a superhero, … September 2022 September 2022 What is a word for something you might eat at a roast, or something you might do at a roast? July 2022 July 2022 Take the codes for two of USA’s busiest airports. Add a single letter to each code and you’ll get the name of a movie & TV producer, director, and writer, who won an Oscar in 2018. Who is it? June 2022 June 2022 Think of two words, 1 letter & 5 letters, that might kick off a sincere speech at a wedding. Change one letter, and move the space, to get two new words that might also begin a speech at a wedding, this time by someone a little more snarky. May 2022 May 2022 Change one letter in the name of a member of a certain NFL team. Do it again for a different team. These two words are synonyms of a member of a third NFL team. What words are these? April 2022 April 2022 Take the name of a small creature. Write it out twice, with 8 spaces in between. Then anagram the plural form of another small creature, along with another letter, and put it in those 8 spaces. The result will be a 14-letter word for a kind of pharmaceutical. What is it? March 2022 March 2022 Take a four letter term for a part of the body. The first and last letters are the same. Advance the first letter 1 spot in the alphabet, and the February 2022 February 2022 Name two movies with five-letter titles that came out 43 years apart and share 4 of those 5 letters. Both were nominated for and lost Best Picture, and both January 19, 2022 January 2022 Name a movie that was nominated for Best Picture in the ’90s. Add one letter to the end of the title to get a movie that was nominated for Best December 08, 2021 December 2021 Think of the name for a member of a particular professional sports team on one American coast. Remove a letter, and you'll have the word for a person October 08, 2021 October 2021 Think of a store that's got about 9,000 locations across the USA. Remove the first and last letters and add a space, and you'll get September 09, 2021 September 2021 Think of a number, remove one-third of it, then remove one-third again (in a different way), and the result will be the original number. What number is this? August 04, 2021 August 2021 Name two world capitals that are only 300 miles apart. Inside each capital is an English word. These two words describe two people who could be father and son. Which July 07, 2021 July 2021 Name two countries in the Western Hemisphere that are about 1000 miles apart, one with a five-letter name and one with a six-letter name. Anagram their names together May 13, 2021 May 2021 Think of the name of a famous woman from 20th century American politics. Change one letter in her first name to a different double letter. You’ll end up with March 11, 2021 March 2021 What three movies, released from 1985-1990, all had one-word titles, all started with the same letter, and all starred the same actor? February 16, 2021 February 2021 What two components, which are often mixed together in cocktails, contain, within their names, words that are opposites of each other? November 30, 2020 November 2020 Which band's name, in four words, contains A, B, C, D, & E, in that order (though not consecutive)?