Archive for June, 2008

Quickie Crossword

Friday, June 27th, 2008

Across
1. Sheep sound
4. Picked up
7. Hole-punching tools
9. “___ you a man or a mouse?”
10. Actor Johnny
11. Body of water
12. Huge African vegetarians
14. Little scruff of a beard
16. Round thing
17. Biblical garden
20. Compass point opposite NNW
21. Hardly great
22. On fire
23. Carry with difficulty

Down
1. Naughty
2. Astonish
3. Nursery school lesson
4. It’s next to the brake (2 words)
5. Round cookie
6. Hot drinks
8. Fast-paced card game
13. Prepare to eat, as a fruit
14. “Oh my!”
15. Approximately (2 words)
18. Large Australian bird
19. Opposite of pos.

For easier solving, you can download this puzzle here.

Answer

Wordles

Wednesday, June 25th, 2008

Wordle is a fun site that lets you turn words into art. Naturally, I couldn’t resist using it for puzzling purposes. I’ve taken the plot descriptions of five movies, and plugged them into Wordle. (I made all the words lowercase, even when they were names. It’s trickier that way.) Wordle took most (but not all) of these words and turned them into the pictures you see below. Can you figure out each movie title? Click on each image to enlarge it.

Answer

Cleanup in Aisle Three

Monday, June 23rd, 2008

I made a bit of a mess at the grocery store, spilling a number of products together. Each puzzle below consists of two competing food brands. Both brand names read from left to right, but the letters have been intertwined. Can you separate the products and clean up this mess?

1. PCOEKPSEI
2. SPEKITPEPPRPAYN
3. HENRSESHTELYES
4. CDOALNONMOBON
5. PCROAGMRPEBSELSLOS
6. TMIRONPUTIECMAAINDA

Answer

Connect the Stars

Friday, June 20th, 2008

Beginning at the star marked 1, trace a path through the grid, moving only up, down, left, and right, until you reach star number 10. Your path must go through every space in the grid, hitting the stars in their numbered order, and your path cannot cross itself.

Click the image to enlarge and print out.

Answer

My Stars!

Wednesday, June 18th, 2008

How many five-pointed stars are in this image? All the stars are the same size, though some have been rotated.

Answer

You’re a Star!

Monday, June 16th, 2008

All of the clues below lead to answers with the consecutive letters S-T-A-R. The number in parentheses after each clue tells you how many letters are in each answer.

1. Look at without blinking (5)

2. Get going (5)

3. Go hungry (6)

4. Soup thickener or laundry additive (6)

5. Creamy dessert (7)

6. Spicy hot dog topping (7)

7. Make jumpy (7)

8. Place to stretch your legs during long drives (4, 4)

9. Latin American country (5, 4)

Answer

A Tough Nut

Friday, June 6th, 2008

Try not to spend all day on this one… What word might come next in the following sequence?

ALMOND
STATUE
NEWLYWED
ENTHUSED
AFRICA
SATIN

Answer

The Missing Domino

Wednesday, June 4th, 2008

Which domino should replace the question marks?

(Click to enlarge.)

Answer

North, South, East, and West

Monday, June 2nd, 2008

Can you put the letters representing the four main compass points — N, S, E, and W — exactly once into each set of blanks below to make a common word?

1. I _ K _ _ LL _
2. DO _ _ _ ID _
3. _ I _ HBO _ _
4. U _ _ I _ _
5. _ _ I _ DL _
6. _ A _ D _ R _
7. _ _ O _ _ D
8. A _ _ _ _ R
9. _ I _ _ _

Answer