AWESOME FACT ABOUT EVERYTHING CLXXVIII

1. In chess, a bishop can not change the color of its square.

2. Like NOON, SWIMS reads the same upside down.

3. Maine has more than 4,000 islands off its coast, only 15 of which support year-round communities - the "Famous Fifteen". 

4. Another mnemonic for the colors of the rainbow - besides ROY G BIV - is Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain. 

5. Yemen was the first major coffee producer and held a virtual monopoly on the global coffee trade for 200 years (15-17th centuries). It prohibited the export of fertile coffee seeds until Dutch smugglers broke the monopoly in the 1700's. 

6. A hole card is a playing card dealt face down.

7. A lavender marriage is one between a man and woman who are LGBT - for the sake of appearance.  

8. Extreme heat - the "silent killer" - is the most dangerous weather-related hazard in the world. It kills more people than hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes combined. 

9. Anne Frank and Martin Luther King, Jr. were both born in 1929.

10. Abraham Lincoln was 12 years old when Napoleon Bonaparte died in 1821.

11. Neil Armstrong was 18 years old when Orville Wright died in 1948 at the age of 76. 

 

 

ADD A LETTER - GET A NEW WORD CCCVI

Add the designated letter to each word and re-arrange the letters to get a new word.   

1. TYPE + I

2. HOSE + V 

3. OCHER + I 

4. NOIRE + G

5. THICK + S

6. TRIAD + O

7. ASSET + I

8. REBUS + P

9. SPOON + I 

10. CORONA + C 

 

HINTS:

First letters of the new words:

1. P

2. S

3. H

4. R

5. K

6. A

7. S

8. S

9. P

10. R 

 

Answers:

 

1. PIETY

2. SHOVE

3. HEROIC

4. REGION

5. KITSCH

6. ADROIT

7. SIESTA

8. SUPERB

9. POISON

10. RACCOON  

RIDDLES 

1. What city is half golden and half silver?

2. With it, I'm a collection. Without it, I'm litigation. 

3. With it, I'm a moon of Saturn. Without it, I'm a burn. 

4. What do an hourglass and a violin have in common? 

5. Why is a surgeon an important part of a medical team? 

6. Milky Way part? (two answers starting with the same letter) 

7. What do a limousine and a prison sentence have in common? 

8. When it's alive, we sing. When it's dead, we clap our hands? What is it?

9. She's facetious, abstemious, and has had pneumonia. What is her favorite tree? 

10. What is unusual about the name of this country? UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

11. Can you think of two 5-letter words that differ by a single letter and both (roughly) mean pandemonium? 

12. Did you hear about the singer who became a medical examiner? What two anagrams answer this question?

Answers:

1. DENVER

2. SUITE - SUE

3. TITAN - TAN

4. Both are marks on the backs of poisonous spiders. The hourglass on the black widow and the violin on the brown recluse.

5. Because he URGES ON the others.

6. NEBULA - NOUGAT

7. They're both a stretch.

8. Birthday cake candle

9. SEQUOIA (all 5 vowels)

10. Alternating vowel/consonant/vowel

11. CHAOS - HAVOC

12. CROONER - CORONER  

 

Credits: 

6: Mike Shenk

7: David Distenfeld and Seth Weitberg 

 

 

What do the following words have in common?

DEAR

LATER

ANGRY

RENEGE

 

HINT:

Drop a letter

 

Answer:

 

Dropping one letter from each word and re-arranging the remaining letters leaves a color word:

 

DEAR - RED

LATER - TEAL

ANGRY - GRAY

RENEGE - GREEN   

1. The same four letters, in the same order, can fill in the blanks to make common words. 

_ _ _ _ G

_ _ _ _ K 

_ _ _ _ T 

 

HINTS:

a. One of the words means an alloted time. 

b. First letter of the missing words: S

 

 

2. The same three letters, in the same order, can fill the blanks to make common words:

 

_ _ _ D

_ _ _ M 

_ _ _ N

_ _ _ P

_ _ _ T

 

HINTS:

a. One of the words means to clasp.

b. First letter of the missing words is G.  

 

Answers:

 

1. STING

    STINK

    STINT

 

2. GRID

    GRIM

    GRIN

    GRIP

    GRIT  

 

 

Think of an animal whose name satisfies the clue. Wordplay is fair play. For example, the clue "Not telling the truth" could be answered by "Lion"- as in "lyin'." (#4 is a plural.)

1. Chatter incessantly

2. More strange

3. Blowin'

4. Elevate 

5. Minor parish official

6. Internet scam word

7. To couple it 

 

Answers:

 

1. Yak

2. Otter (odder)

3. Puffin

4. Rays

5. Beetle (beadle)

6. Fish (phish)

7. Parrot (pair it)  

 

Credit:
Braingle 

  

LA Times Crossword

March 30, 2026

Michael B. Berg and Brian Callahan

 

The answers to the first four clues below have something in common that is phonetically hinted at by the fifth clue. Can you determine what it is?

 

1. Adrift after a storm, perhaps

2. To be in debt to - in two words

3. Three-word stir fry vegetable

4. Two words for, "Let me explain ....."

5. Protection of intellectual property 

 

Answer to Clue 5:

COPYWRIGHT

 

Answers to Clues 1-4:

 

1. At sea

2. To owe

3. Sugar snap pea

4. "Here's why ....."  

 

The four words to the right in the answers phonetically spell out COPY:

1. sea - C

2. owe - O

3. pea - P

4. why - Y