01/10/2022 Just Add Vowels
In this small crossword, all of the consonants in the answer words are provided, in alphabetic order. The missing vowels - and the words themselves - are for you to guess. The letter Y isn’t used.
Across
1 DPQ
4 NRS
5 LZ
Down
1 HPR
2 QRS
3 KSV
01/11/2022 Opposite Day
For each word below, find an antonym that begins with the middle letter of the words given. For example, given the word ATTRACT, you might say REPEL, which starts with R, the middle letter of the word ATTRACT. Can you find middle-letter antonyms for them all?
1 CHEAP
2 AWAKE
3 RISKY
4 CLOSE
5 CONCAVE
6 BOORISH
7 WHISPER
8 LUCKY
9 AFT
10 ABUNDANCE
11 SPENDTHRIFT
12 VERSO
I’m glad they didn’t say “common words” here, because I know I’ve never come across the word VERSO.
I posted the last two puzzlers thinking “OK, I’ll just post these now and people will see them when they come in for work today”, completely forgetting that it was Saturday. Sad.
1/11
1 CHEAP - Expensive
2 AWAKE - Asleep
3 RISKY - Safe
4 CLOSE - Open
5 CONCAVE - Convex
6 BOORISH - Refined
7 WHISPER - Shout
8 LUCKY - Cursed
9 AFT - Fore
10 ABUNDANCE - Deficient
11 SPENDTHRIFT - Thrifty? Seems like cheating. Tight?
12 VERSO - Reverse?
1/11
1 CHEAP - EXPENSIVE
2 AWAKE - ASLEEP
3 RISKY - SAFE
4 CLOSE - OPEN (as opposed to “close” as synonymous with “near”)
5 CONCAVE - CONVEX
6 BOORISH - RIBALD
7 WHISPER - SHOUT
8 LUCKY - CLEVER(?)
9 AFT - FORE
10 ABUNDANCE - DESTITUTION
11 SPENDTHRIFT - TIGHTWAD
12 VERSO - RECTO
not sure about #11 or #8.
Correct!
The official answer had a few different answers.
10 - dearth
11 - tightwad
12 - recto
01/12/2022 Mind Your P’s And Q’s
Divide the rectangle along the lines into two identically shaped 12-block pieces so that one piece contains all the P’s and the other piece contains all the Q’s.
01/13/2022 Rhyme Scheme
Find rhymes for the words in each quartet so that the first word or phrase becomes a category and the second, third, and fourth words become specific items in that category. For example: TOWER: lazy, faster, knows —> FLOWER: daisy, aster,rose
1/12
|Q|Q|Q|Q|Q|Q|
|Q|P|P|P|Q|Q|
|P|P|Q|Q|Q|P|
|P|P|P|P|P|P|
1/13
1 Bug: Beatle, Cricket, Locust
2: Dance: Salsa, Jitterbug, waltz
3: Canine Breed: Beagle, terrier. spaniel
4: Hat: Bonnet, cap, Bowler
Correct!
And Correct!
1/13
BUG: beetle, cricket, locust
DANCE: salsa, jitterbug, waltz
CANINE BREED: beagle, terrier, spaniel
HAT: bonnet, cap, bowler
01/14/2022 Jellybean Guess
Four children tried to guess the number of jellybeans in a small jar. Their guesses were 73, 79, 84, and 88. Gautam’s guess was 1 away from the correct number, Hiroko’s guess was 4 away, and Mateo’s guess was 10 away. How far away from the correct number of jellybeans was Zasha’s guess?
01/15/2022 Music, Maestro!
Start at the top and choose one letter from each successive row to form the last names of six 6-letter composers. You may jump to any column as you go down. There is never a need to rearrange the letters, and every letter will be used exactly once. Who are the six composers?
1/14
83 jellybeans. Zasha is 5 away.
1/15
