ANSWER:  Terraforming

The letters that are swapped are:

BLUR / EIGHT becomes BLUE and RIGHT

PARCH / SCOUT becomes PATCH and SCOUR

LUNA / GLUM becomes LUNG and ALUM

GRAFT / NIFTY becomes GRANT and FIFTY

SPOOL / TRILL becomes SPOIL and TROLL

BLARE / MAVEN becomes BLAME and RAVEN
The circled or swapped letters from the words on the left are: R, R, A, F, O, and R
Those on the right are: E, T, G, N, I, and M.

Making a circular path of these letters, starting with the T and running anticlockwise, one can spell Terraforming.

ANSWER:  Higher / Hire

The paired homophones are as follows:

SIGN ≠ SINE

HANGAR ≠ HANGER

BLUE ≠ BLEW

PLAIN ≠ PLANE

BITE ≠ BYTE

FEAT ≠ FEET

ROAM ≠ ROME

PATIENTS ≠ PATIENCE

WHALE ≠ WAIL

MANNER ≠ MANOR

NEIGH ≠ NAY

The selected letters, in this case in bold, gave two more clues – one in each column.  GREATER THAN ≠ NEWLY EMPLOY

The homophone pair answer is HIGHER and HIRE.

ANSWER:  Little

The Before and After pairings are:

Hat TRICK or Treat

Ferris WHEEL of Fortune

The Price is RIGHT Guard

Bicycle KICK the Bucket

Great White SHARK Tank

How Green Was My VALLEY Forge

Home on the RANGE Rover

The Shape of WATER Music

The Hunt for Red OCTOBER Sky

My Old Kentucky HOME Alone

The Madness of King GEORGE of the Jungle

How to Train Your DRAGON Ball Z

The underlined letters spell out: CHICKENWOMEN.  The word that can be placed between the two words CHICKEN and WOMEN to make another Before and After is LITTLE for Chicken Little and Little Women.

ANSWER:  Fern

The completed words that made up each pair are:

REEF / ROOF

NUDE / NOSE

RAIN / RUIN

FIVE / FREE

The letters needed were R F N E.  These can be rearranged to spell FERN.

ANSWER:  Calmness

Each of the preferences of our whimsical agent contains three consecutive letters of the alphabet.

THIRSTY

MONOPOLY

NEIGHING

ASTUTE

TUVALU

AFGHAN

SOMNOLENT
Looking at the list of seven words given to choose from, only CALMNESS also contains a similar sequence. 

ANSWER:  Cartographer

The answers to the ART clues are:

MARTINI

QUARTERBACK

SPARTANS

CARTILAGE

PARTRIDGE

ARTERY

PARTIAL

TARTAN

WARTHOG

KINDERGARTEN

Extracting the letter for each word indicated by the number given gave the phrase, MAP CREATOR which led to the final answer, CARTOGRAPHER.

ANSWER:  Bingo

Your task was to use a letter from each column so that you can create five words in which each letter is used once.

The five unique words are:

CLIMB

DEVIL

FANCY

IGLOO

OPERA

Once placed in alphabetical order as instructed, the word along the diagonal from right to left, top to bottom spells BINGO.

ANSWER:  Exchange Rate

Each pair of definitions in the puzzle represents two words which differ by only one letter.  Writing the changed letters into the indicated spaces gave a final answer.

The paired words are:

SWEET; SWEAT

EXACT; ENACT

CASE; EASE

SHAKE; STAKE

LOAD; LORD

SWING; SWINE

Once the letters are placed in the correct order the message reads:  EXCHANGE RATE.

ANSWER:  Shadow

The pair of letters in each puzzle is as follows.

Puzzle 1: AD – making CADET, ADULT, and BREAD

Puzzle 2: OW – making CROWD, OWNER, and TOWEL

Puzzle 3: SH – making USHER, FLASH, and MUSHY

Rearranging these pairs of letters gives the word, SHADOW.

ANSWER:  Poetry

The six images in the puzzle are six-letter words that must be placed logically in the correct order using the two statements given.

The six words in the correct order are:

YOGURT

BRONZE

BATMAN

SPHERE

POISON

BISHOP

Once the words are placed in the grid in the correct order with GOTH in the third column and MESH in the fourth column, the word POETRY may be read along the diagonal bottom to top, right to left.

ANSWER:  Cairn Terrier

The mini rebus puzzles all solve to the names of dog breeds.  They are:

ROTTWEILER (5) W

CHIHUAHUA (3) I

SHIH TZU (6) Z

BEAGLE (3) A

CORGI (3) R

DACHSHUND (1) D

POODLE (2) O 

MASTIFF (6) F

COLLIE (2) O 

SCHNAUZER (7) Z

The letters that fall into the highlighted spaces (and are here in bold) may be anagrammed by an amazing solver into an answer that finishes the question.  However, a close inspection reveals the out of order numbering, which indicates the position of the letters as well.  Placing the letters in this order spells WIZARD OF OZ.

Toto in the Wizard of Oz film was a Cairn Terrier.

ANSWER:  Vermin

The overlapping words in each set are as follows:

1. PUNCH; CHROME; ROMEO = PUNCHROMEO

2. HOBO; BONSAI; SAINT = HOBONSAINT

3. GUAVA; VACANT; ANTE = GUAVACANTE

4. DOCENT; CENTAUR; AURA = DOCENTAURA

5. SHARE; ARENA; NASTY = SHARENASTY

The letters reading down the left column are COVER.

The letters reading down the right column are MINUS.

Putting them together = COVERMINUS.  The middle word of this trio of overlaps is VERMIN.

ANSWER:  Precious Stones

Words in bold in the sentences below are those hiding in plain sight.

1. Not yet ready to meet his redeemer, Alderman Jack Handey packed himself in bubble wrap before taking the bell tower challenge.

2. "Hmmmm, to die, to sleep, to sleep, perchance to dream. Aye, there's the rub, yeah, I don't know Will", said Chris.  "What are you really trying to say here?"

3. It might seem obvious, but if you're looking to create a new "for Dummies" app, hire the best dummies you can.

4. Speaking with the media Monday morning following the big event, Jack recounted the harrowing tale of his experience.

The hidden words are: EMERALD, RUBY, SAPPHIRE, DIAMOND.  These are all precious stones.

ANSWER:  Miley Cyrus

The answers to the M-C clues are:

MULTIPLE CHOICE

MIDDLE CLASS

MARINE CORPS

MARK CUBAN

MAGNA CARTA

MONTE CARLO

MINT CHIP

MILK CHOCOLATE

MARVEL COMICS

MARIAH CAREY

MORSE CODE

MAD COW

Turning the page, and reading the letters that fall in the blue boxes from bottom to top, revealed the clue WRECKING BALL – the name of a hit single by Miley Cyrus.

ANSWER:  Mutual Friend

Each pair of images in the puzzle represents two words which differ by only one letter.  Writing the changed letters into the indicated spaces gives a final answer.

The paired words are:

STORM, STORE
MOUTH, MONTH
HOOT, HOOF
PUNCH, PINCH
COAT, COLT
RICE, DICE

Once the letters are placed in the correct order the message reads:  MUTUAL FRIEND.

ANSWER:  Wing

The answers to each group are:

#1. RIGHT – making Right Guard, Right Whale, and Right Triangle.

#2. CHICKEN – making Spring Chicken, Chicken Nugget, and Rubber Chicken.

#3. WEST – making Key West, West Point, and Wild West.

These three words have the connection WING – creating Right Wing, Chicken Wing, and West Wing.

ANSWER:  Sycamore

The letters in each of the six words can be rearranged into a tree by adding one extra letter.  The added letters spell out a phrase and can be rearranged into another tree by adding a letter.

The solutions are:

PALM = LAP + M

HICKORY = OH RICK + Y

ASPEN = PANE + S

SPRUCE = SUPER + C

REDWOOD = WORDED + O

CEDAR = ACED + R

MAPLE = LAMP + E

The remaining letters spell out MY SCORE.  Adding a final letter, an A, gives the answer tree, a SYCAMORE

ANSWER:  Flipped

By sliding each column of the puzzle up or down, and retaining the same letter order, it is possible to create a set of related words in each of the nine rows.

The solved set of words is:

RECORD
COIN
PANCAKE
CARD
SWITCH
IMAGE
BURGER
LID
HOUSE 

The final step is answering the question.  Leftover letters read: EACH OF THESE THINGS CAN BE WHAT.  These are all things that are often FLIPPED.

ANSWER:  Patch

Your task was to shift the letters up and down so that you can create five words in which each letter is used once.

The five unique words are:

DOUGH
ERECT
KITTY
MAGIC
PEARL

Once placed in alphabetical order as instructed, the word along the diagonal from left to right, bottom to top spells Patch.

ANSWER:  MELD

The completed words that made up each pair are:

DEAL / DUEL

MUSE / MINE

DOOM / DRUM

LAKE / LIVE

The letters needed were L M E D.  These can be rearranged to spell MELD.

ANSWER:  Freelance

Each of the preferences of our whimsical agent contains a three-letter animal.

MAGNUM P.I.

TOCCATAS

CARAMEL

GROWLERS

LEMURS

FRISBEE

RASPBERRIES

SUNBATHING

KAYAK
Looking at the list of seven words given to choose from, only FREELANCE also contains a body part. 

ANSWER: Bandwagon

The answers to the GET clues are:

BUDGET

TARGET

NUGGETS

FIDGETED

GETAWAY

APOLOGETIC

GADGET

UNFORGETTABLE

ENERGETIC

Extracting the letter for each word indicated by the number given gave the answer, BANDWAGON.

ANSWER: Cactus

The pair of letters in each puzzle is as follows.

Puzzle 1: US – making DUSTY, USHER, and BONUS

Puzzle 2: CA – making VOCAL, CAUSE, and SCARY

Puzzle 3: CT – making OCTET, EXACT, and FACTS

Rearranging these pairs of letters gives the word, CACTUS.

ANSWER: Koala

The separated animals are:

LION / SKUNK

GOAT / SLOTH

ORCA / BURRO

SEAL / HYENA

BEAR / LLAMA

WOLF / LEMUR

LYNX / CAMEL

BOAR / WHALE

VOLE / PANDA

The last letters of the five-letter animals are KHOAARLEA, and may be separated into HARE and KOALA.

The answer is the five-letter animal, Koala.

ANSWER: Monty Hall

The GAME to SHOW ladder steps are:

GAME

SAME

SANE

SAND

SAID

SLID

SLIP

SHIP

SHOP

SHOW

Swapping each new letter with the corresponding letter given (S=L; A=N; etc.), the message decoded reads:

Originally, who was THE HOST OF LET'S MAKE A DEAL

The original and longtime host of Let’s Make a Deal was Monty Hall.

ANSWER: Routine

The missing vowels in the puzzle are those that are found in spelled out single digit numbers. Reading top down by column the words are ZERO; ONE; TWO; THREE; FOUR; FIVE; SIX; SEVEN; EIGHT; NINE.

Transferring the letters in each of the colored boxes gives the word ROUTINE.

ANSWER: Zodiac Signs

Words underlined and in bold in the sentences below are those hiding in plain sight.

Those who accepted the chef's challenge of Blazing Inferno ginger jalapeño chili bravely lifted their spoonfuls.

Knowing well the pitfalls of pass-through taxation when operating an S Corp, I offered to help my friends set up their budding hot sauce company.

With a paint job of flames and smoke, the orange MINI Cooper looked awesome making chili deliveries across town.

The new company logo featuring a fiery mountain forge and Vulcan certainly was eye-catching.

The hidden words are: LIBRA, SCORPIO, GEMINI, CANCER. These are all signs of the zodiac.

ANSWER: Sextet

The six images in the puzzle are six-letter words that must be placed logically in the correct order using the two statements given.

The six words in the correct order are:

SITCOM

BEETLE

TUXEDO

STATUE

CASHEW

THROAT

Once the words are placed in the grid in the correct order with UTAH in the second column and TEXAS in the third column, the word SEXTET may be read along the diagonal top to bottom, left to right

ANSWER: Bargaining Chip

Each pair of images in the puzzle represents two words which differ by only one letter. Writing the changed letters into the indicated spaces gave a final answer.

The paired words are:

BASTE, PASTE

STAR, STIR

WRITE, WHITE

FORGE, FORCE

BEAD, BEND

BRAID, BRAND

GRATE, IRATE

Once the letters are placed in the correct order the message reads: BARGAINING CHIP

ANSWER: Cut

By sliding each column of the puzzle up or down, and retaining the same letter order, it is possible to create a set of related words in each of the nine rows.

The solved set of words is:

HAIR

BUDGET

CORNERS

PRICES

CARDS

RIBBON

CLASS

FLOWERS

CAKE

The final step is answering the question. Leftover letters read: THINGS THAT CAN ALL BE WHAT. These are all things that may all be CUT.

ANSWER: Artemis

The mini rebus puzzles all solve to the names of Greek gods and goddesses. They are:

5. ZEUS

7. APHRODITE

4. HERA

2. HERMES

1. ATHENA

6. POSEIDON

3. ARES

The letters that fall into the highlighted spaces (and are here in bold) may be anagrammed by an amazing solver into an answer that finishes the question. However, a close inspection reveals the out of order numbering, which indicates the position of the letters as well. Placing the letters in this order spells THE HUNT.

Artemis was Greek goddess of the hunt.

ANSWER: Chile

The letters in each of the six words can be rearranged into a country, plus one extra letter. The leftover letters will spell a word and can be rearranged into another country plus one letter.

The solutions are:

GALLERIA = ALGERIA + L

FANCIER = FRANCE + I

PANICS = SPAIN + C

VINE MATH = VIETNAM + H

PUREE = PERU + E

ALBUM ICON = COLUMBIA + N

The remaining letters spell LICHEN. The last country plus one letter is N + CHILE.

ANSWER: Garnet

The answers to the B-S clues are:

BIG SCREEN

BLARNEY STONE

BROWN SUGAR

BUMPER STICKER

BABY SHOWER

BARBER SHOP

BRITNEY SPEARS

BUFFALO SABRES

BLIND SPOT

BLACK SABBATH

Turning the page, and reading the letters that fall in the blue boxes from bottom to top, revealed another B-S pair – BIRTH STONE. January’s birth stone is the garnet.

ANSWER: Staple

The overlapping words in each set are as follows:

1. VESPA; SPARE; REPLY = VESPAREPLY

2. SONAR; NARWAL; WALTZ = SONARWALTZ

3. PRESTO; STOLE; TOLEDO = PRESTOLEDO

4. PLUTO; UTOPIA; PIANO = PLUTOPIANO

5. GARAGE; AGENT; GENTLE = GARAGENTLE

The letters reading down the left column are PASTA.

The letters reading down the right column are PLEAT.

Putting them together = PASTAPLEAT. The middle word of this trio of overlaps is STAPLE.

ANSWER: Trick

The answers to each group are:

#1. CHEAP – making cheap thrill, dirt cheap, and cheap seats.

#2. HAT – making top hat, Panama hat, and cowboy hat.

#3. MAGIC – making magic flute, magic kingdom, and black magic.

These three words have the connection TRICK – creating cheap trick, hat trick, and magic trick.

ANSWER Flour Flower

The paired homophones are as follows:

GOFER ≠ GOPHER

REAL ≠ REEL

CARROT ≠ CARAT

MOURNING ≠ MORNING

KNIGHT ≠ NIGHT

BRAID ≠ BRAYED

SYMBOL ≠ CYMBAL

ROSE ≠ ROWS

TOAD ≠ TOWED

MEDAL ≠ METTLE

The selected letters, in this case in bold, gave two more clues – one in each column. Ground Meal ≠ Plant Bloom

The homophone pair answer is FLOUR and FLOWER.

ANSWER: Eros

The six words clued in alphabetical order are:

ANCHOR

BOTTLE

CACTUS

DOMINO

ERASER

FLOWER

Here are the words placed in the order suggested by the logic statements:

ERASER

BOTTLE

FLOWER

DOMINO

CACTUS

ANCHOR

This sequence shows the highlighted words as well as the final answer of Eros, the Greek god of love.

ANSWER: Above Below

The sets of antonyms untangled are:

ABSENT / PRESENT

FAR / NEAR

BLUNT / SHARP

CRAZY SANE

ALIVE / DEAD

POOR / RICH

GIVE / RECEIVE

HEAVY / LIGHT

BETTER / WORSE

DEEP / SHALLOW

The letters that fall into the circled spaces (and are here in bold) read BABELOVEOW. These letters can be untangled in the same way to form the words ABOVE and BELOW.

ANSWER: Carter

The mini rebus puzzles all solve to the last names of U.S. presidents. They are:

5. OBAMA
7. ROOSEVELT
4. FORD
2. EISENHOWER
1. FILLMORE
6. WILSON
3. BUCHANAN

The letters that fall into the highlighted spaces (and are here in bold) may be anagrammed into a vice president’s last name. However, a close inspection reveals the out of order numbering, which indicates the position of the letters as well. Placing the letters in this order spells MONDALE.

Walter Mondale was Jimmy Carter’s vice president.

ANSWER: Switch

The letters that are swapped are:
HATCH / SCORE becomes CATCH and SHORE
COWLS / BRAIN becomes COILS and BRAWN
SLOSH / LATER becomes SLOTH and LASER

The circled or swapped letters are: C H W I T and S.
These letters can be anagrammed into SWITCH.

ANSWER: Mingle

The overlapping words in each set are as follows:

1. DISCO; SCORE; OREGON = DISCOREGON

2. REBUS; BUSHEL; HELIX = REBUSHELIX

3. STUMP; UMPIRE; REEL = STUMPIREEL

4. RAMI; MIMOSA; MOSAIC = RAMIMOSAIC

5. SLANG; ANGER; GERMAN = SLANGERMAN

The letters reading down the left column are CUMIN.

The letters reading down the right column are GLEAM.

Putting them together = CUMINGLEAM. The middle word of this trio of overlaps is MINGLE.

ANSWER: Nepal

The letters in each of the six words can be rearranged into a country, plus one extra letter. The leftover letters will spell a word and can be rearranged into another country plus one letter.

The solutions are:
UPPER = PERU + P

INLAID = INDIA + L

MANDRAKE = DENMARK + A

LICHEN = CHILE + N

EMAIL = MALI + E

TRAIN = IRAN + T

The remaining letters spell PLANET. The last country plus one letter is T + NEPAL.

ANSWER: Allen & Wright

The matches between the logos and the mini rebus puzzles are these:

7up
Coca-Cola
Tab
Mountain Dew
Dr Pepper
Mug
Fanta

Drawing lines between the redacted image and the correct mini rebus crossed out letters in the field between them.

The uncrossed-out letters read: AANDW ROOTBEER WAS FOUNDED IN LODI CA.

Crossed out letters read: WHAT DO A AND W STAND FOR?

A quick internet search reveals that the A and the W of A&W Root Beer are the last names of the partners in the company, Allen and Wright.

ANSWER: Root Vegetables

All the words hidden in plain sight in this set of four loosely connected sentences are Root Vegetables.

The orphaned young Angora, disheartened as he was by his latest set of troubles spotted an opportunity.

“Let me see, I was at the counter making the return, I placed my sack of groceries beside me, and well, when I looked around they were gone.”

“Yes sir, I saw him jump onto a streetcar, rotten thief!”

At the train depot, a toothy rabbit was spotted making for the out of town warrens.

The hidden words are RADISH, TURNIP, CARROT, and POTATO.

ANSWER: Cheese

The answers to each group are:

#1. BLUE – making blue moon, blue ribbon, and blue whale.

#2. CREAM – making whipping cream, ice cream, and sour cream.

#3. STRING – making string bean, string theory, and string quartet.

These three words have the connection CHEESE – creating blue cheese, cream cheese, and string cheese.

ANSWER: Ketanji Brown Jackson

The answers to the S-C clues are:

SENIOR CITIZEN

SHERYL CROW

STANLEY CUP

SEAN CONNERY

SHORT CIRCUIT

STEPHEN COLBERT

STORM CELLAR

SWEET CAROLINE

SPORTS CENTER

SUMMER CAMP

SOUTH CAROLINA

SISTINE CHAPEL

Turning the page, and reading the letters that fall in the blue boxes from bottom to top, revealed another S-C pair – SUPREME COURT. Ketanji Brown Jackson is the justice that joined the highest court in the U.S. in 2022.

ANSWER: Soaking

The six images are: BASKET, CRAYON, DONKEY, ENGINE, FOREST, GEYSER.

The correct order so as to spell both GRAY and SKY is:

ENGINE

FOREST

BRAZIL

GEYSER

DONKEY

CRAYON

The letters that fall in the colored outlined boxes are therefore NSAIGKO and placing them in rainbow order (ROYGBIV) anagram to SOAKING.

ANSWER: Eclipse

Each of the preferences of our whimsical agent contains a part of the body.

PHILHARMONIC

COLLEGE

HANDSOME

PLUNGER

BIGFOOT

NANOSECOND

CHAIR

OBEYED

THANKLESS

VERMOUTH

CRISPINESS

Looking at the list of seven words given to choose from, only ECLIPSE also contains a body part.

ANSWER: René Auberjonois

The SOUP to FISH ladder steps are:

SOUR
POUR
POUT
POST
PAST
FAST
FIST
FISH

Swapping the changed letters with those given in the right hand column, the message reads: WHO PERFORMS CHEF LOUIS IN THE FIRST LITTLE MERMAID FILM?

From Disney’s 1989 The Little Mermaid, Chef Louis, is voiced by René Auberjonois.

ANSWER: A Dorito

The Shell word ladder consists of these shells:

AUGER - given

NAUTILUS

SAND DOLLAR

SNAIL

ABALONE

CLAM

COCKLE

COWRIE

OYSTER

MUSSEL

SCALLOP

CONCH

When the letters are placed in their correct numbered locations in the message, the resulting sentence asks, “Marcel the Shell hang glides on what?”

Marcel is a YouTube sensation who hang glides on a dorito.

ANSWER: Mary Ann Mobley

By sliding each column of the puzzle up or down, and retaining the same letter order, it was possible to create common English words in each of the nine rows.

Each letter in red served as a starting point for its column, and when solved, the words created starting with those letters asked a question. The solved sets of words are:

1. Who, Beg, Hat, Axe, Jab, Low, Sin, Rum, Cry.

2. First, Uncle, Skirt, Dogma, Alias, Humor, Green, Tango, Eight.

3. Played, Sonata, Empire, Crisis, String, Reason, Gadget, Slouch, Hidden.

4. April, Third, Dream, Store, Often, Tempo, Usher, Rings, Cable.

5. Dancer, Return, Boxing, Lethal, Coupon, Around, Emerge, Insect, Guilty.

The final step is answering the question. April Dancer is the main character in the spin-off series, The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., in which she was portrayed by Stefanie Powers. However, the character’s first appearance was in the parent show The Man From U.N.C.L.E. “The Moonglow Affair” featured Mary Ann Mobley as April Dancer.

ANSWER: Liberty

Each flag represents a country whose recognized independence date is listed among those in the puzzle:

4 October 1966 - Lesotho

17 August 1945 - Indonesia

6 August 1825 - Bolivia

12 October 1968 – Equatorial Guinea

1 July 1962 - Rwanda

9 September 1991 - Tajikistan

30 November 1967 – Yemen

What’s first is the first letter in their country name. Reading down the first letters spells LIBERTY.

ANSWER: Connecticut

This puzzle is essentially about carefully following directions. The steps are:

1. Write down the name of the first month
JANUARY

2. Insert the three letter airport code associated with Rush after the first vowel
JAYYZNUARY

3. Change the first letter into an H
HAYYZNUARY

4. Switch the R and the N
HAYYZRUANY

5. Add an L after the only two-letter State abbreviation (NY)
HAYYZRUANYL

6. Change atomic number 40 to atomic number 26 (Zr to Fe)
HAYYFEUANYL

7. Change the A’s to D’s
HDYYFEUDNYL

8. Switch the second consonant with the U
HUYYFEDDNYL

9. Add an O before any doubled pairs
HUOYYFEODDNYL

10. Reverse the 2nd through 8th letters
HDOEFYYOUDNYL

11. Change You to Me
HDOEFYMEDNYL

12. Change the Doe to a Stag
HSTAGFYMEDNYL

13. Move the 7th letter to the front
YHSTAGFMEDNYL

14. Make an O of the G
YHSTAOFMEDNYL

15. Reverse the 6th through 9th letters
YHSTAEMFODNYL

16. Add to the front the four-letter institute that looks for life on other worlds (SETI)
SETIYHSTAEMFODNYL

17. Add a B after the 2nd vowel
SETIBYHSTAEMFODNYL

18. Reverse all letters
LYNDOFMEATSHYBITES

19. Change the M to D
LYNDOFDEATSHYBITES

20. Eliminate all E’s
LYNDOFDATSHYBITS

21. Reverse the 7th through 10th letters
LYNDOFSTADHYBITS

22. Add an E after the first T from the left
LYNDOFSTEADHYBITS

23. Change the Y’s into A’s
LANDOFSTEADHABITS

24. Add a Y after the second D
LANDOFSTEADYHABITS

The sequence of letters revealed following step 24 is Land of Steady Habits. This is the nickname given to the industrious American State of Connecticut.

ANSWER: Howard Carter

This puzzle has four quick searches for two letters and two numbers.

The protagonist of Franz Kafka’s The Castle is the singly named K.

The science fiction franchise is Kenneth Johnson’s V, which enjoyed a miniseries in 1983 and subsequent remakes and a video game.

Carbon, atomic number 6, is the element upon which life is based.

Milk jugs and bottle crates are made from high-density polyethylene or HDPE which is number 2 on the Resin Coding system.

Taken together KV62 is the tomb number for the burial place of Tutankhamun, the boy pharaoh who reigned over ancient Egypt c.1334-1325 BCE.

The tomb was rediscovered in the Valley of the Kings in 1922 and opened by Egyptologist Howard Carter.

ANSWER: 38

The puzzle is solved by solving the mini rebus puzzles for each of the cities on the right side of the page, and then matching each with its state flag on the left side. By drawing lines between the dots that match each flag with its city, many letters in the field between are crossed through.

The correct pairings are (in order by city):

Carson City, Nevada

Topeka, Kansas

Tacoma, Washington

Honolulu, Hawaii

Nome, Alaska

Bozeman, Montana

Hartford, Connecticut

Pierre, South Dakota

Syracuse, New York

Jackson, Mississippi

The uncrossed out letters read, “From the bottom of the page read the crossed out letters backward.” Following the instruction, the letters read backward from the bottom of the page say, “How many stars did the US flag have when Flag Day was first formally observed?”

ANSWER: Harp

The hidden message from Vera (which can be discovered by reading the letters with dots beneath them) reads: “A chief symbol of the emerald isle is on this Leeward Island’s flag. Name it.”

All of the events hinted at in the postcard from Ireland lead to the island of Montserrat. This island is part of the Leeward Island chain of the West Indies, and has seen its share of natural disasters in recent years. Hurricane Hugo wiped out much of the island in 1989, and in 1995, its long-dormant Soufriere Hills volcano erupted bringing lava flows that covered its capital. The island is nicknamed the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean due to its resemblance to coastal Ireland and because of the number of Irish inhabitants who came here as indentured servants. Montserrat’s flag bears a coat of arms that includes a harp – a chief symbol of Ireland.

ANSWER: Tangerine

Here, the hint – “Take the smallest U.S. state's abbreviation. The first letter of the abbreviation stands for its second letter” - gives a way into the puzzle. The smallest state is Rhode Island. So, if ‘R’ = ‘I’, replace all the ‘R’s in the puzzle with ‘I’s. The reverse is not necessarily true.

Solving the Cryptogram reveals the message:

The only United States National Landmark on foreign soil is located in the country which was first to recognize its sovereignty. This place is in a city that lends its name to a citrus. Name the fruit.

The National Historic Landmark (NHL) of the United States is a building, structure, site, object or district that is officially recognized for its historical significance. The American Legation building in Tangier, Morocco is the only site with this designation on foreign soil. The building was presented to the U.S. in 1821, and is symbolic of the 1786 Moroccan-American Treaty of Friendship and the 1777 declaration by Moroccan sultan Muhammad III that his country’s ports were open to America – publicly recognizing the new country.

Tangier was an important port city, and was perhaps the first from which citrus was shipped to Europe from Asia. In any case, this variant of the mandarin orange grew well in the Moroccan climate and became known as the tangerine.

ANSWER: George Bernard Shaw

Answering each of the clues A through N, and replacing the number and letter combinations of the individual answers with the correct letter will solve this acrostic. Working backward, placed letters might reveal patterns that suggest words that can then be used as clues to unknown answers of A through N, thereby completing the puzzle.

The answers A through N are:

A, Truant; B, Wyoming; C, Dryad; D, Gluttony; E, Isaac Newton; F, Befuddle; G, Thrush; H, Danube; I, Troy; J, Bohemian; K, Gorgon; L, Twinkle; M, Tally; N, Goldenrod.

The revealed quotation reads: “You don’t learn to hold your own in the world by standing on guard, but by attacking and getting well-hammered yourself.”

This quote is from the play Getting Married by Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw.

ANSWER: Allardyce

Solving a rebus puzzle is essentially by trial and error, guessing what each picture is referring to and stringing the words together to form a sentence - in this case, a question.

The first part of the rebus reads, “Fifteen men on a dead man’s chest.” There are fifteen stick men followed by the Grateful Dead logo, plus one stick man made plural by the “s” and a picture of a man’s chest. The pirates in Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson continually sing these lyrics.

The second part of the rebus reads, “Whose skeleton marks the treasure on Stevenson’s Island?” Here, the picture asks for the sound an owl would make (Whoo) followed by an “s” for whose. Then, a flask minus FLA (state of Florida) leaving “SK”, followed by Ellen, minus the N, plus a 2000 pound weight or a “ton” - sounding this out makes “skeleton.” Next are three guys named Mark for marks, followed by a chest of jewels and coins for “treasure”. Then, a “star” minus the pirates “arr” leaves ST. Next, there is the sequence of even numbers for “evens”, followed by a pair of “suns”, and the whole thing gives Stevenson’s. The remainder is simply an “eye” plus “land” for “island.”

Stevenson’s Island refers to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, in which the crew stumbles upon a skeleton while looking for the treasure. They recognize the skeleton as belonging to Allardyce, a former member of their company.

ANSWER: Flint Castle

Baptista’s question to Gremio is spoken in Padua and is quoted from William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.

In 1387, the Battle of Castagnaro was fought in Northern Italy between the city-states of Padua and Verona. An English mercenary named John Hawkwood led the Paduan forces to victory over the Veronese.

Hawkwood was recognized as one of the Nine Worthies of London in a book by Richard Johnson, in which Johnson celebrates the rise of famous Londoners. One of the other Worthies is Sir William Walworth who among other things became Lord Mayor of London. He died in 1385 and was buried in the church of St. Michael, Crooked Lane, the crooked place of this clue.

Walworth served during the reign of Richard II who took the throne in 1377. (Walworth dies eight years into the reign of his king.) Richard II’s uncle was known as John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster. John of Gaunt’s heir was Henry Bolingbroke, who returned from his exile to depose Richard in 1399, taking the crown as Henry IV.

Shakespeare in his Richard II recounts these events. In Act III scene iii, Bolingbroke remarks, “What, will not this castle yield?” as he besieges and defeats Richard in Wales before the walls of Flint Castle.

ANSWER: Tulsa

All three questions refer to men who have the first name of John, or a variant of the name John.

1. The 22nd century explorer refers to Jonathan Archer, played by Scott Bakula in the Star Trek prequel series Star Trek: Enterprise. Bakula also played a time-shifting scientist on the show Quantum Leap.

2. Jonathan Pine is the name of the main character in John le Carré's The Night Manager. He is played in the TV series of the same name by Tom Hiddleston who also plays Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

3. The picture shows a guitar player with a radio for a head, or a radio-head guitarist. Jonny Greenwood is the lead guitarist for the British band Radiohead.

The three last names taken together, Greenwood, Archer and Pine refer to the musical group known as the Greenwood, Archer and Pine Street Band, better known as the Gap Band. In naming the band, The Wilson brothers, Charlie, Ronnie and Robert took the names of three streets comprising the historical “Black Wall Street”, the African-American business district of Tulsa, Oklahoma, their hometown.

ANSWER: Christopher Wren

The first group is made up of Atomic numbers. Adding Nitrogen's 7 to Oxygen's 8 is 15; minus the 13 of Aluminum leaves 2.

The second group is made up of Formula 1 driver numbers. Adding Charles Leclerc's 16 to Kimi Räikkönen’s 7, and then subtracting Fernando Alonso's 14, leaves 9.

The final group is made up of events in history, and gives an additional clue as to what to do with the numbers taken together, since they are all dates. The Magna Carta was signed in 1215, Martin Luther’s 95 theses were posted in 1517, and the Battle of Hastings took place in 1066. Doing the addition and subtraction leaves 1666.

The solutions are then, 2, 9, and 1666 - or, as day, month, and year - the Second of September, 1666. This is the date of the Great Fire of London, an event that is memorialized by a monumental column designed by Christopher Wren.

ANSWER: Davy Crockett

He’s the most tip top – Top Cat!

The cats referred in the puzzle are:
Milo; Bill the Cat; Mrs. Norris; Attila; Morris; Minnaloushe; Snowball; Lucky; Socks; Stimpy; Toonces; Duchess; Bustopher Jones; Spot; Tom; Towser; Crookshanks; Figaro; Garfield; Graymalkin; Sylvester; Jonesy; Azrael; Mehitabel; and Mr. Bigglesworth.

Placing the letters in their correct locations within the grid, reveals the question: When Top Cat and the gang go to Hawaii, whose picture is on the phoney money?
(And, yes, we could have used Phony, instead of Phoney)

It’s a tricky find, but it’s possible to locate this program on YouTube.
The Hanna-Barbera animated TV program Top Cat, aired for one season from 1961-1962. In Top Cat Episode 1, “Hawaii-Here We Come”, the gang finds a suitcase filled with money, which, as it turns out, is counterfeit. The man depicted on the money is Davy Crockett.

ANSWER: William McKinley

This puzzle is essentially about carefully following directions. The steps are:

1. Write down the name of the first month
JANUARY

2. Switch the R and the N
JARUANY

3. Change atomic number 44 to atomic number 46 (Ru to Pd)
JAPDANY

4. Insert an O after the P
JAPODANY

5. Change the Eastern Bluebird's state into the Yellow-shafted Flicker's (NY to AL)
JAPODAAL

6. Switch the 3rd letter with the last
JALODAAP

7. Change the P to a T
JALODAAT

8. Add to the front the four-letter abbreviation for the organization that hosts the World Cup (FIFA)
FIFAJALODAAT

9. Delete the third consonant from the left
FIFAALODAAT

10. Change the first pair of doubled vowels to O’s
FIFOOLODAAT

11. Reverse all letters
TAADOLOOFIF

12. Switch the 3rd letter with the last
TAFDOLOOFIA

13. Reverse the 8th through 10th letters
TAFDOLOIFOA

14. Turn the second consonant from the left into the vowel that precedes it alphabetically
TAEDOLOIFOA

15. Move the I to the left of the D
TAEIDOLOFOA

16. Add the first Galilean moon to the end (Io)
TAEIDOLOFOAIO

17. Change the A’s to H’s
THEIDOLOFOHIO

The sequence of letters revealed following step 17 is The Idol of Ohio. This was the nickname given to the twenty-fifth president of the United States, William McKinley.

ANSWERS: Sunflower; American Beauty

Once all of the state flowers are crossed out of the grid, there are two questions that can be read left to right, top to bottom.

They are:
?WHICH OF THESE STATE FLOWERS IS GROWN AS A CROP FOR ITS EDIBLE SEEDS?

For which the answer is Kansas' SUNFLOWER

WHAT TYPE OF ROSE IS THE OFFICIAL FLOWER OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA?

For which the answer is AMERICAN BEAUTY.

ANSWER: George Dewey

After locating all of the ships in the Battleships logic puzzle, the letters silhouetted by the sunken ships reveal the message “Only one man held the rank US Admiral of the Navy Q.”

A quick internet search reveals the answer, George Dewey.

In recognition for his victory at Manila Bay in the Philippines, the U.S. Congress promoted George Dewey to this rank effective March 1899. The Dewey Monument commemorating his victory stands in San Francisco’s Union Square.

ANSWER: Lucy

Breaking the cipher can be done in a variety of ways.

One could simply take the encoded letters and solve by trial and error similar to the way a cryptogram is solved. Each unique symbol stands for one letter of the alphabet.

The code can also be broken by entering “cipher” into an internet search engine and locating the cipher that corresponds to the one used in the puzzle. The one used here is the Pigpen cipher, closely related to certain Masonic ciphers.

Using the Pigpen cipher the code translates to:

“Nod to the ceiling, bow to the floor; who is the third Peanut to call the Pigpen hoedown?”

Run a web search for Pigpen hoedown. Once the YouTube video is found, watch Charlie Brown, Peppermint Patty, Pigpen and the other characters from Charles Schultz’ Peanuts dance about in the dust in the Pigpen Hoedown.

The first part of the coded message comes from this video (part of the Charlie Brown special: It’s Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown,) and is called out by Lucy during the third verse of the Pigpen Hoedown.

ANSWER: South Dakota

Here, the hint – “The element symbol for Potassium (K) is the second letter of Santa's word (Ho, from Ho, Ho, Ho)” - gives a way into the puzzle. So, if ‘K’ = ‘O’, replace all the ‘K’s in the puzzle with ‘O’s. The reverse is not necessarily true.

Once deciphered, the cryptogram reads:
“Saturn’s sixth largest moon is named for a mythological giant. This giant appears in a vision to the title character of a work by an American novelist. The title character of that ambiguous book shares a name with the capital of which U.S. State?”

The sixth largest moon of Saturn is called Enceladus, named for the Giant son of Gaia in Greek mythology.

A vision of Enceladus comes to the title character in Herman Melville's 1852 novel Pierre; or, The Ambiguities. Pierre is the capital of South Dakota.

ANSWER: Yukon Cornelius

The puzzle asked for four separate answers that when taken together are items required by a certain explorer.

1. The first clue asks for four two letter abbreviations. Atomic number 27 is Cobalt or “CO”; a nursing degree is, in this case, “RN”; the Pine Tree State is Maine or “ME”; and the 16th U.S. President is Abraham Lincoln or “AL.” Place these together to form the word Cornmeal.

2. These three ingredients can be mixed together to make Gunpowder.

3. The two definitions that start with the same letter are: a.) lamb; and b.) lox. Change the starting letters to an “H” and put the new words together to get Hamhocks.

4. Each mini rebus puzzle refers to a word. The first puzzle starts with a gift, from which the “F” is eliminated and an “R” is added to the end. Sounding it out (git-r) gives Guitar. The second word begins with a piece of Toast. Take Toast and subtract the Toe of the following picture, leaves the “St” sound. Add this to the front of the telephone ringing, to get Strings.

The four words are Cornmeal, Gunpowder, Hamhocks, and Guitar Strings.

Plugging these four items into a search engine, or if you just happen to know, reveals that one explorer requires these (in his words) “life sustaining supplies.” That singing prospector, famed for seeking silver and gold, oddly licking his pickaxe in the hopes of finding peppermint, reforming the Abominable Snow Monster, and for being part of the 1964 stop-motion animated Christmas special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is the great Yukon Cornelius.

ANSWER: George Washington

The four-letter answers to the seventeen words, each differing by one letter, are:

WARN
WART
BART
BURT
HURT
HART
HALT
HILT
HINT
HIND
BIND
BEND
REND
RIND
WIND
WING
WINE

The circled letters in the puzzle spell NATURAL BRIDGE

The Natural Bridge in Virginia’s Rockbridge County is a Virginia Historic Landmark. It is rumored that George Washington, while surveying the site, threw a rock over its 215’ measured from Cedar Creek below.