Zany (But Not-So-Brainy) Word Nerd

I’m on a particular self-imposed geocaching quest – to complete the Florida-Style Alphabet Soup Challenge using nothing but puzzle caches.

I mentioned this quest to lorriebird and that I had no caches (neither found nor unfound) that I could use for the letters K or Z. Since she knew that I would be traveling to her area soon for an event cache, she graciously hid two appropriately-named puzzle caches for me to find – Ken(Ken) Moves to Naples and Zany Brainy Word Nerd (aka ZBWN).

I zipped through KenKen fairly quickly and took a cursory look at ZBWN. I tried a few ideas that have worked in other caches, but I couldn’t discover a pattern that made sense to me. I put it aside and went onto a few other caches, returning to ZWBN every now and then.

But as the weeks went by, I started to panic: “What if I don’t solve it before the event? Unless I figure it out, I’m going to be the laughing stock of every puzzlehead south of I-4!” And yet, other people seemed to be cracking it in mere seconds – every Found It log entry on ZBWN that claimed how easily each cacher solved it deflated my oversized ego more and more.

Finally, after the event cache and just as I was about to leave, one of the other cachers asked if he could give me a hint for ZBWN. I finally broke down and said yes, only to discover that I had the solution in front of me the entire time – it was one of the very first things I tried – and I was too blind to see it.

In my defense, I had a very good reason – it was because I’ve attempted too many puzzles like it in the past and they clouded my opinion of what the solution would be.

Below are 12 examples of just the sort of puzzle that kept me from solving ZBWN without a hint. I would strongly recommend that you solve ZBWN first before tackling these, or you will be as lost in the weeds as I was.

Good luck!

The Last Word

Each of the 12 sets of words below has a common denominator, some unusual factor that is shared by the six words in the set. It’s up to you to determine what that factor is and identify which one of the three words after the list has it, too.

For example, given SEXES, MOM, DEIFIED, LEVEL, POP, and REDDER, with choices DIVINED, ROTATOR, and STARTS, you’d pick ROTATOR: All the words are spelled the same forward and back.

For how many of the following sets can you get the last word?

1. SETTEE, RACCOON, EMBARRASS, APPELLATION, BASSOON, SUFFRAGETTE
a. BEDROOM   b. PROPELLER   c. EGGSHELL   [spoiler /Show Answer/ /Hide Answer/]c. EGGSHELL – words with two pairs of double letters[/spoiler]

2. TEA, EYE, SEA, QUEUE, ARE, WHY
a. YOU   b. ATE   c. WEE   [spoiler /Show Answer/ /Hide Answer/]a. YOU – homophones of letters of the alphabet[/spoiler]

3. MUSEUM, EARLOBE, YEARLY, SEAMSTRESS, WILLOW, DOODAD
a. COCOON   b. ERASER   c. TABLET   [spoiler /Show Answer/ /Hide Answer/]c. TABLET – words that begin and end with the same letter[/spoiler]

4. YOUTH, THEMATIC, USHER, SHEIK, ITALICS, MEDIUM
a. THEATER   b. WEEVIL   c. DOMESTIC   [spoiler /Show Answer/ /Hide Answer/]b. WEEVIL – words beginning with a pronoun[/spoiler]

5. GIGGLING, REARRANGER, ASSESS, MINIMIZING, DIDDLED, PIZZAZZ
a. DEEDED   b. INTERMITTENT   c. CANDIDACY   [spoiler /Show Answer/ /Hide Answer/]b. INTERMITTENT – words with one letter appearing four times[/spoiler]

6. REVILED, STRESSED, REPAID, STAR, DRAWER, PARTS
a. VILE   b. REGARD   c. STINK   [spoiler /Show Answer/ /Hide Answer/]c. STINK – words that can be reversed to spell other words[/spoiler]

7. PREVIEW, TALLOW, SELECTION, GOLDEN, BRAIDED, CLAMP
a. TRACING   b. CASHEW   c. CONVERT   [spoiler /Show Answer/ /Hide Answer/]a. TRACING – words that become new words when the first letter is removed[/spoiler]

8. CIVIC, LIVID, MIX, MILL, VIVID, DILL
a. MIMIC   b. LICIT   c. MINIM   [spoiler /Show Answer/ /Hide Answer/]a. MIMIC – words consisting of letters that are Roman numerals[/spoiler]

9. BANANA, DEMONIC, FICKLE, HUMBUG, JABORANDI, LUCK
a. NEMESIS   b. NUDISM   c. MEGATION   [spoiler /Show Answer/ /Hide Answer/]b. NUDISM – words whose last letters immediately precede their first letters in the alphabet[/spoiler]

10. GEL, GROUP, PLACE, FIXED, RESOLUTE, ADJUST
a. USELESS   b. COLLECTION   c. AFGHAN   [spoiler /Show Answer/ /Hide Answer/]b. COLLECTION – synonyms of the word “set”[/spoiler]

11. RING, TOPS, MANATEE, WINDLESS, EARTH, ANGER
a. MATTER   b. TUNES   c. OUGHT   [spoiler /Show Answer/ /Hide Answer/]c. OUGHT – words that become new words when the last letter is moved to the front[/spoiler]

12. ACCEPT, BEGINS, ABHORS, CHINOS, BILLOW, EFFORT
a. ALMOST   b. BEFORE   c. CENSOR   [spoiler /Show Answer/ /Hide Answer/]a. ALMOST – words whose letters are in alphabetical order[/spoiler]

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ePeterso2

Who I Am ePeterso2I’m Eric Peterson, and my email address is epeterso2@puzzlehead.org. I’m a software engineer who lives in a suburb of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I’ve enjoyed solving puzzles for years, and a few years ago I began constructing puzzles of my own. If you’re ever in Broward County and would like to get together some time, please send me a note by email and let me know. I love the opportunity to meet with other puzzleheads, especially if it involves lunch. Puzzle Testing I believe that the best way to make a puzzle even better is to ask someone else to solve it. You learn so much about how people think, how people approach your puzzle, pitfalls they may encounter, and outright errors in your construction by having someone else try it before you unleash it upon the world. If you’re a puzzle constructor, I would be honored to test your puzzle for you. Send me email with your puzzle or a link to it, and I’ll try solving it, as long as I have time available to do so. I’m a busy guy, so my time is limited … but I’m always open to a challenge. My Public Profiles * My Linked In profile * My Geocaching.com profile * My FloridaCaching.com profile Puzzles I’ve Written * Geocaching puzzles Puzzles I’ve Solved * Geocaching puzzles (solved and found) What Happened to ePeterso1? ePeterso1 was a horrible experiment gone wrong that had to be hunted down and killed before he claimed the lives of any more innocent victims. Most of the bugs that caused ePeterso1 to go haywire have been corectted in ePeterso2.

One thought on “Zany (But Not-So-Brainy) Word Nerd”

  1. Regarding puzzle caches..I so need to up the number in that category. Slowly but surely, I did just solve Palindrome Dome and hope to find it soon (b4 we leave on Tuesday, maybe).

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