Will Shortz - Puzzlemaster Deck: 75 Mind Bogglers

By Will Shortz

TEXT 2006 Will Shortz
All rights reserved. No part of this deck may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

eISBN: 978-0-8118-7199-0

Chronicle Books LLC
680 Second Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
www.chroniclebooks.com

Puzzles come in many varieties and sizescrosswords, jigsaws, manipulative puzzles, mazes, riddles, and more, large and small.

What they all have in common is that they sharpen the brain, just as physical exercise tones the body. Puzzles also amuse and divert, clearing the mind, leaving you refreshed and more ready afterward to tackle the regular challenges of life.

This card deck contains 75 short word puzzles of varying degrees of difficulty. Some can be solved in a matter of seconds, while others will take minutes or even hours. Theyre designed to be read aloud, as on a family car trip or, say, sitting around a table with friends. They can be done solitaire, too. All the puzzles are original, and nearly every one is based on a different idea.

Happy puzzling!

Will Shortz

A common five-letter girls name starting with I can be transposed into a common five-letter boys name starting with E. What names are these?

A book about a trip to Brazils Carnival city might have a two-word title, nine letters altogether. This title is palindromicthat is, it reads backward and forward the same. What is it?

Take the last name of a U.S. president in six letters. Reverse it, add an E at the end, and youll get a seven-letter word meaning to go back over.

Who is the president, and what is the word?

The letters S A can go phonetically before test to complete the phrase essay test. What two letters, both consonants, can go phonetically before doll to complete a common two-word phrase?

Add a certain letter of the alphabet four times to HOORO, without changing the order of these letters, to complete a familiar three-word phrase. What phrase is it?

The name of what classic TV show is a transposal of the Michigan city

MUSKEGON?

If A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, etc., up to Z = 26, what familiar six-letter word has letters totaling 124 points? Thats an average of more than 20 points per letter.

Hint: The word means overly sweet.

Change three of the seven Zs in the line of letters below to different consonants to spell a familiar 10-letter word.

Z A Z Z Z A Z A Z Z

A three-word phrase meaning obvious, when said out loud, sounds like two letters of the alphabet plus a digit plus another letter of the alphabet. Whats the phrase?

Add the same letter of the alphabet six times in the line below to complete a familiar four-word phrase. What is it?

S Y T O Y

Say the words Sea Candy Shelf Hind quickly out loud, and they sort of sound like Seek and ye shall find. What familiar saying do the following words sort of sound like, when said quickly out loud:

Deepen Knee Smite He Earth Andy Sort

What seven-letter word can precede both break and wagon to complete familiar two-word phrases?

Think of a word meaning worthwhile. If you say it with a lisp (pronouncing the s like a th), youll get a new word meaning opposite of old.

What words are these?

If a small piece of sandwich meat is a hamlet, and a small sailor is a goblet, what is a small journey?

If you switch the P and the C of EXPECT, you get EXCEPT. What new word do you get by switching two letters of BUSTLE?

Complete the following sentence with three six-letter words. Drop the first letter of the first word and add a new letter at the end to make the second word.

Then drop the first letter of the second word and add a new letter at the end to make the third word.

The __________ uniform of the forest __________ sometimes _______ the wild animals.

The names of two makes of cars are hidden in the following sentence, each concealed in consecutive letters reading left to right. What are they?

The boxing arena ultimately will be razed to make room for downtown businesses.

The middle five letters of STOREROOM (that is, ORERO) read backward and forward the same. Put five letters in the following blank spaces that read backward and forward the same in order to complete a familiar nine-letter word:

CH_ _ _ _ _KE

Add the five vowels A, E, I, O, and U to the consonants PHR (keeping the consonants in this order) to complete a familiar eight-letter word. What is it?

Change one letter in each of the following words to the same new letter to get a pair of opposites:

SHIRT LUNG

Rearrange the letters of one of the three words below to get a synonym of the other two.

ADHESIVE TAPES CLOBBER

Add two letters to the word REVISITING and rearrange the result to name one of the 50 U.S. states.

Which one is it?

If you move the last letter of STARLET two positions earlier in the word, you get STARTLE. Name part of a baseball stadium in seven letters. Move the last letter two positions earlier in the word, and youll get a new word meaning nonbeliever.

What words are these?

Name a nationality in five letters. Drop the first letter, and the remaining four letters will sound like the name of an Oscar-winning motion picture.

What is it?

The name of a certain color, when a space is inserted somewhere inside it, becomes a two-word phrase that names something you might do when you hit your finger with a hammer. What is it?

Take the last name of a famous actress of the past in five letters. Move the third letter to the end, and the result will be the last name of another famous actress of the past.

Who are these two women?

Name an animal in four letters. Change its second letter to a different letter, and youll get the name of an insect. What is it?

The last two letters of what state capital are the first two letters of its states name?

Name a popular variety of soup. Read the word backward, and youll get a phrase meaning later. What soup is it?

Rearrange the letters of BANTERINGS to name a popular garden vegetable.

A certain, common nine-letter word consists of six vowels plus the three consonants