NICKEL & DIME (& PENNY)

Answer the clues with expressions containing pennies, nickels, and/or dimes.

1. Expensive 

2. Skinflint/miser 

3. "Do you finally get it?"

4. "What's on your mind?"

5. Slip-on shoe with a slot

6. Locale in a Beatles' song

7. Something of absolutely no value

8. Low stakes - like some poker games 

9. Be careful not to be tricked or scammed 

10. To brake heavily and come to an abrupt halt 

11. Saving a little money, wasting a lot of money 

12. Once you start something, you should finish it 

13. Musical drama by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill 

14. Make a covert phone all (to inform on someone) 

15. Metaphor for a tiny amount of money or poverty 

16. To charge small, cumulative, and often hidden fees 

17. To pivot, maneuver, or change direction with great agility 

18. Something so common or plentiful that it holds little value

19. Do something with precision - like make a perfect football pass 

20. Old-fashioned  variety store that sold a wide assortment of  small, everyday household goods. 

 

Answers:

 

1. Pretty penny

2. Penny-pincher 

3. "Has the penny dropped?"

4. "A penny for your thoughts"

5. Penny loafer

6. Penny Lane

7. Not worth a plug nickel

8. Penny-ante

9. "Don't take any wooden nickels."

10. Stop on a dime 

11. Penny wise, pound foolish

12. In for a penny, in for a pound

13. The Threepenny Opera  

14. Drop a dime

15. One thin dime

16. Nickel and dime

17. Turn on a dime 

18. A dime a dozen

19. Drop a dime 

20. Five-and-dime (or five-and-ten)

PORTION CONTROL 

GAMES/World of Puzzles

May, 2026

Todd Kreisman

 

The answers to the clues below will have something in common.

 

1. Pirate booty 

2. "No problem!" 

3. Watch or clock 

4. Unharmed - informally 

5. Experience a breakdown

6. Ornamental table decoration 

7. Some kings, queens, and bishops

8. How a jigsaw puzzle is put together 

9. Individual who is difficult to deal with 

10. Acclaimed PBS drama anthology series

11. Like actions lacking a cohesive or overall plan

 

Answers:

 

1. Pieces of Eight  

2. Piece of cake

3. Timepiece

4. All in one piece  

5. Go or Fall to pieces

6. Centerpiece

7. Chess pieces

8. Piece by piece

9. Piece of work

10. Masterpiece Theater

11. Piecemeal  

CONSONANTCY X

The Enigma

NPL Magazine

March, 2026 

CONSONANTCY is a form of wordplay developed by The Enigma  in which two or more words or phrases share the same consonants in the same order, with any number of vowels in between (Y being treated as a vowel). For example, acorn, crayon, ocarina share the same consonants c - r - n in the same order, with various vowels in between.  

The keywords FAIR and FORAY in the flat below share consonantcy.

The travel guidebooks love to boast

About the famed Mosquito Coast.

If you should ever visit FAIR,

I'd FORAY you to see it there.

 

Answer:

 

If you should ever visit NICARAGUA,  

I'd ENCOURAGE you to see it there.

 

(The consonants N, C, R, G in NICARAGUA are repeated in the same order in ENCOURAGE.) 

 

POINTS TO PONDER CXXXII

Americans have always attached particular importance to the word neighbor. While the spirit of neighborliness was important on the frontier just because neighbors were so few, it is even more important now because neighbors are so many.

Lady Bird Johnson

(On) Being a Good Neighbor

 

**********************************

 

A pin whose sharp point is enclosed in a covering may seem the most mundane of items, but it is actually a remarkable piece of design. Safety pins are fashioned inexpensively from a single piece of wire to create a spring, hinge, point, and clasp.

 

Clive Gifford

Great Inventions (We Take for Granted) 

QUOTES CCLXXII

Make new friends, but keep the old: one is silver, the other gold.

Traditional Girl Scouts camp song

 

You're almost pretty enough to play me.

Muhammad Ali to Will Smith 

 

Anyone can be at the helm when the sea is calm.

Author Unknown  

  

Each generation must find our for itself that the stove is hot.

Author Unknown  

 

To desire nothing beyond what you have is surely happiness.

Author Unknown 

 

There is nothing trivial if you love the person to whom it happens. 

Edward  f. Benson 

 

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Author Unknown 

 

There never was an infant so lovely that his mother was not glad to get him to sleep.

Author Unknown 

 

It takes as much courage to have tried and failed as it does to have tried and succeeded.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh 

 

The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself. 

Henry Miller 

 

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.  

 

                     

The words below are the first half of words which are made up of two smaller words - but are not compounds. For example, SEA could be combined with SON to get SEASON. SEASON is not a compound word (like BEDROOM), since its two halves are not related. Can you think of the other half of the words below to make longer, but not compound words. Some of the words have more than one answer. 

1. CUR

2. LEG

3. IMP

4. CAR

5. SUN

6. MEN

7. ROT

8. RAT

9. SURF

10. PROSE

 

(Possible) Answers:

 

1. CURFEW / CURRENT / CURRANT  

2. LEGEND / LEGATE

3. IMPART / IMPACT / IMPAIR

4. CARGO / CARROT / CARTON / CARMINE

5. SUNDRY

6. MENACE

7. ROTTEN / ROTATE

8. RATION / RATTAN

9. SURFACE

10. PROSECUTE 

  

CRYPTO CLUES CCXXVIII 

GAMES/World of Puzzles

April, 2026

Chris Crossman (1-4)

Bob Stigger (5-9)

Patrick Berry (10)

 

1. The night before could go either way

2. Irate Lois played game for one

3. Freedom fighter is a great ape, they say

4. Way to reduce animal population - rat about income

5. Signifies wealth

6. Dope wrapped in tin foil

7. Wail "Dance" to the audience 

8. I want a better place to get Chinese food 

9. Somewhat romantic locale on the Arabian Peninsula 

10. Variety of green bananas

 

HINTS:
1. Palindrome

2. Anagram

3. Homophone

4. Container

5. Homograph

6. Definition / hidden word

7. Homophone

8. Anagram

9. Hidden word

10. Anagram 

 

Answers:

 

1. EVE

2. SOLITAIRE (irate lois)

3. GUERRILLA (gorilla)

4. SPAYING (S PAY ING) [sing = rat out]  

5. MEANS 

6. INFO (tIN FOil)

7. BAWL (ball = dance)

8. TAIWAN (i want a)

9. OMAN (rOMANtic)

10. GENRE (green)