How well do you know 80s and 90s movies? Here's a fun alphabet quiz, courtesy of UK designer Stephen Wildish. (Note: Unfortunately, the answers are not yet posted on his site.)
NPR Sunday Puzzle for Dec. 25:
Name an occupation in nine letters. It's an entertainer of sorts — an unusual and uncommon but well-known sort of entertainer. Drop the third letter of the name, and read the result backward. You'll get two four-letter words that are exact opposites. What are they?
Take a look back at how the world searched in 2011. It's sort of a Google ad, but an interesting one nonetheless. > Explore more of the Google Zeitgeist 2011
Answer: ANTELOPE (change O to H, rearrange) → ELEPHANT
NPR Sunday Puzzle for Dec. 18:
Take the word "at." Put a man's first name on each side of it, and say the word out loud. Phonetically, you'll get a word that describes a growing part of our country. What is it?
Answer: Baroque (style of music) → bar-b-que (cooking style)
NPR Sunday Puzzle for Dec. 11:
Think of an animal whose name contains an O. Change the O to an H, and rearrange the result to name another animal. What animals are these?
“Sophisticated but at the same time dramatic and seductive, Tangerine Tango is an orange with a lot of depth to it,” the company explained.
“Reminiscent of the radiant shadings of a sunset, Tangerine Tango marries the vivaciousness and adrenaline rush of red with the friendliness and warmth of yellow, to form a high-visibility, magnetic hue that emanates heat and energy.”
From apparel to cosmetics to interior design, we can expect to see the hue everywhere in the coming year.
Artist Miguel Endara creates magnificent works of art; it just takes a really good ink pen and a whole lot of patience. Like way more patience than you'll ever have. Watch:
Detroit's own College for Creative Studies (CCS) recently launched a new ad campaign in the style of anti-drug PSAs. It's very, well, creative. Take a look:
ter·gi·ver·sate
Pronunciation: tur-JI-ver-seyt
Part of speech: verb
Etymology: Latin tergiversātus (past participle of tergiversārī to turn one's back), equivalent to tergi- (combining form of tergum back) + versātus, past participle of versāre, frequentative of vertere to turn
Date: 1645–55
Meaning: to change repeatedly one's attitude or opinions with respect to a cause, subject, etc.; equivocate.
"We're taking a stand on this choice," said Jay Schwartz, Dictionary.com's Head of Content. "We think that it's immensely rewarding to find existing words that capture a precise experience, and this year, tumult has been the norm rather than the exception. There are contested public spaces around the world, where people are demonstrating in one direction or another. Opinions and circumstances have been oscillating so much."
Like many, I'm unfamiliar with the word "tergiversate," and thus I find it an interesting choice. With so many options, I imagine it would be difficult to come to a consensus on just one word. In fact, I wonder how many times the lexicographers tergiversated their final selection prior to announcing the official winner.
Answer: There are multiple answers to this challenge, including: blare → blasé, charm → chasm, gents → genus, kilns → kilos, mints → minus, torts → torus, etc.
NPR Sunday Puzzle for Dec. 4:
Name a style of music. Change the middle letter to a B, and you'll name a style of cooking. What are the style of music and the style of cooking? (There are several ways to spell the cooking style, but the answer is one of them.)