Nothing funny about feldspar

Take the title “Candid Camera.” Write down the first appearance of each letter, ignoring any repeats, in the order these letters appear. You get C, A, N, D, I, M, E, R. By doing the same thing to the title of what other well-known TV program do you get the letters S, E, A, M, T, R?

Plagioclase came up with the answer while I was discussing a solution method with him.

Hint: It’s a two word title.

(RSSers, it appears the WordPress has returned to providing the whole post in the feed. So look away!)

Read the rest of this entry »

The decision to simply license the brand and collect royalties “allows the Philips brand to be very evident in the North American market and de-risks the profit potential,” said Paul Zeven, Philips’ North American chief executive officer. “Margins here are razor-thin; this is a win-win situation. It is part of our worldwide agenda to focus on more stable market sectors.”

— New York Times

From Jeffery Harris of Nashville, Tenn. Think of a six-letter hyphenated word meaning “eager.” Change the fourth and the sixth letters to get another hyphenated word meaning “less than eager.” What are the words?

I didn’t listen this week (it’s pledge drive time, made more annoying by the two weeks of “Don’t forget our pledge drive is coming up!” preceding it), so I’m running a little late. This one took about a minute (while I was composing this little paragraph).

Hint: The hyphen isn’t in the same place in both words.

Read the rest of this entry »