Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Wednesday Wordplay: Middle Riddle

I idolize Will Shortz, editor of the New York Times crossword puzzles. I used to lie in bed on Sunday mornings and wait for his Puzzlemaster segment to air on NPR. Then I'd rattle off as many answers as I could and try to beat whomever the contestant was that morning. I never phoned in, but lying there in my Sunday morning reverie (before the mad rush to get ready for church) I usually won.

Here's a Will Shortz-esque word puzzle I made up (not for the faint of heart):
I have a standing offer to anyone in my family of $20 to the first person who can beat me at Scrabble®. So far no one has claimed it. So I'm extending it here to you. First person who solves this puzzle (all 5 word pairs) wins a $20 gift certificate to Amazon. (Answers published next week, along with the winner, if there is one.) I'm thinking this puzzle would be right up Luisa's alley (of Novembrance fame) but since she's out on maternity leave, that might just give everyone else a better chance at the prize.


MIDDLE RIDDLE

Add three letters to the middle of one answer to form the other.

Example: Picnic pest / Quantity A N T A M O U N T

1. To take offense / To take on as a client _________ ____________

2. Blog Remark / Personal Resolution _________ ___________

3. Summon or imagine / Venture a guess _________ ____________

4. Runs a museum / Runs an automobile _________ ____________

5. Female Relative / Increase _________ ____________



HINTS:
Following are the letters you add to solve each puzzle above:

1. P R E

2. M I T

3. E C T

4. A R B

5. G M E


p.s. It's lucky I prepared this one ahead of time, because last night I came down with the flu, and today I'm just grateful for Gatorade. :)

11 comments:

Kimberly Vanderhorst said...

Oooo...I love word games! This was so much fun!

1. resent represent
2. comment commitment
3. conjure conjecture
4. curator carburator
5. aunt augment

Dedee said...

Shoot. Kims going to win because I looked at her answers before I figured them out. Rats.

breckster said...

Word problems are part of my heritage. My father won interest from my mother when he came up with the best clues and no one could stump him on a art trip in Mexico.

My dad has a a stink pink book he'd like published, but publishers aren't to keen on it "we don't need another Dr. Suess is the common rejection. He won't invest anymore time in it until it will pay, but he would have clue on one page, and then the illustration and answer on the next. http://reasor.blogspot.com/search?q=tomato

Annette Lyon said...

Very cool game. Darn that Kimberly snagged the answers first. The stinker. :)

I bet you're right. Luisa would love this kind of thing.

Brillig said...

Ow. My head hurts.

:-)

charrette said...

Ooh, I LOVE that some anonymous genius just answered my puzzle with another puzzle! Brilliant!

1. mint migrant

2. bang bagging

3. clod clothed

4. mates matrixes

5. point poignant

Especially love that last one....

Some of these answers are a bit of a stretch, so if Anonymous wants to come back and correct me, cool.

Anonymous said...

The only change would be ring to rigging instead of bang to bagging.

Here's another to work on when you can't sleep...
1. to endure / to excoriate
2. to wear or corrode / to burden or charge
3. to indicate / to walk, glide, go
4. whip used for flogging / something sentationally striking
5. to arrange, adjust / covert or stealthy

letters to add:
1.mba 2.igh 3.sha 4.cko 5.cre

Anonymous said...

oops...bad typing should be sensational...not sentational, but you probably caught that pretty quick.

charrette said...

Oh, THAT must be why I'm stumped on number four! (hahaha)

Here's what I have so far:

1. Last Lambast
2. Fret Freight
3. Say Sashay
4. ?
5. Set Secret

charrette said...

HA! I got it!

4. Knout Knockout

That was a tough one.

Anonymous said...

Oh you're good....
More?
1. father/small projecting bodily part
2. to join or fit together/ morning
3. sun/ brownish orange
4. a going out or away / to parade
5.inquisitive / small bunch of flowers
1.ILL 2.INE 3.RRE 4.HIB 5.EGA

Just tell me if you don't want to play any more.