MIND FLEXERS CXLIII

Answer each clue by matching it with one of the choices below. The relationships are disguised by double meanings, altered spacing within words, and/or other wordplay.  

1. Rite aid  

2. A minor

3. An older you

4. Bridle suite 

5. Curling iron 

6. Oil container 

7. Boring outcome 

8. Record producer 

9. Names, when doubled

10. Heart of a hero, perhaps 

 

CHOICES:

a. Bodybuilding

b. Stable

c. Salami

d. Acolyte

e. Thee

f. Arrest

g. Hole

h. Sings

i. Key

j. Frame

 

Answers:

 

1. d - Acolyte (rite aid)

2. i - key (music)

3. e - Thee

4. b - Stable (not bridal)

5. a - Bodybuilding

6. j - Frame (oil painting)

7. g - Hole

8. f - Arrest (police record)

9. h - Sings (confesses, rats out)

10. c - Salami (hero sandwich) 

 

Credits:

1: Constructor unknown 

2-3: Matthew Luter

4: David P. Williams

5: John Peterman

6: Mike Shenk

7: Jeffrey Wechsler

8: Aiden Glenn

9: Mike Shenk 

10: Wendy Brandes and  Barbara Lin 

  

 

POINTS TO PONDER CXXXI

People have asked why I don't put people into my pictures of the natural scene. I respond, "There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer."

Ansel Adams

 

Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.

Abraham Lincoln

 

Advice is like the snow. The softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon and the deeper it sinks into the mind.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge  

QUOTES CCLXXI

Comedy is tragedy plus time.

Carol Burnett

 

No good deed goes unpunished.

(Attributed to) Oscar Wilde

 

Thoughts come clearly while one walks.

Thomas Mann 

 

The harshest truth is better than the sweetest lie.

Rod B. Johnson

 

Perfect happiness, even in memory, is not common.

Jane Austen 

 

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. 

Lord (John Dalberg) Acton

 

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

Martin Luther King, Jr. 

 

I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than to be crowded on a velvet cushion.

Henry David Thoreau 

 

When all is said and done, the weather and love are the two elements about which one can never be sure.

Alice Hoffman

 

There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.

Elie Wiesel

 

When a diplomat says yes, he means perhaps; when he says perhaps, he means no; and when he says no, he's no longer a diplomat.

Author Unknown

 

 

 

 

SHUFFLE 'EM LXII

Dell PennyPress Variety Puzzles

Autumn, 2025

 

Two six-letter words with their letters in the correct but not consecutive order are combined in each row of letters below. To solve the puzzle, separate both words. There are no extra letters, and no letter is used more than once. Hint: the two words are opposites.

 

Ex: D F E A T S A T E C N H  

       D f  E a  T s  A  t  e C n  H - DETACH /fasten

 

1. B E F B E O H R I E N D

2. A DA F R A R I N I D G

3. D I C H S E M E R A Y L

4. R E R A T P I E F A L Y

5. F S T E I T A D F U Y L

6. S O R O T A H T T E L E 

7. M I E D G N D O L E R E

8. H A M A S P S I E S R T 

 

Answers:

 

1. BEFORE - behind

2. AFRAID - daring

3. DISMAL - cheery

4. REPEAL - ratify

5. FITFUL - steady

6. SOOTHE - rattle

7. MEDDLE - ignore

8. HAMPER - assist  

CRYPTO CLUES CCXXVII

GAMES/World of Puzzles

August, 2021

Bob Stigger (1-2)

Henry Hook (3-10)

 

1. Load vehicle and depart 

2. Removing the head, skin a slimy fish

3. Clam soup he'd crow about

4. Billeted in four  

5. Awful squeeze in bed

6 Weight confused on cue

7. Eerie tune had tormented

8. Frizzy hairdo for a stranger 

9. Awkwardly reach up at skydiver's gear 

10. Single piece of furniture in a brief performance 

 

HINTS:

1. Two words

2. Beheadment

3. Anagram

4. Homograph

5-9: Anagrams

10: Two phrases, one hyphenated / stressonym 

 

Answers:

 

1. CARGO

2. EEL

3. CHOWDER (he'd crow)

4. QUARTERED

5. QUEEN SIZE ( squeeze in)

6. OUNCE (on cue)

7. HAUNTED (tune had)

8. AFRO (for a)

9. PARACHUTE (reach up at)

10. One-night stand (one nightstand)  

 

 

 

  

NPR Weekend Edition Sunday Puzzle

May 24, 2026

Will Shortz (1-10)

 

Change the two words in each clue below to a familiar phrase by anagramming one of them. For example, APPLE DICER would become APPLE CIDER. Which of the words to be anagrammed is for you to determine. 

 

1. Baker pedal

2. Blank serve

3. Legal fiber

4. Maids touch

5. Regal print

6. Dream guard

7. Dutch tater

8. Pearl drive

9. Clean tales

10. Shore sense

11. Quilt trinket

12. Junk reward

 

Answers:

 

1. Brake pedal

2. Blank verse

3. Legal brief

4. Midas touch

5. Large print

6. Armed guard

7. Dutch treat

8. Pearl diver

9. Clean slate

10. Horse sense 

11. Quilt knitter  

12. Junk drawer (perfect anagram) [semordnilap]

 

Fill in the same three-letter word to complete the words below.

1. E _ _ _ H

2. HE _ _ _ H 

3. QU _ _ _ Z

4. ST _ _ _ LE 

5. M _ _ _ IAN 

 

Answer:

 

The missing word is ART:

1. EARTH

2. HEARTH

3. QUARTZ

4. STARTLE

5. MARTIAN

 

Credit:
Braingle