Tricky little word puzzle

[feppytweed]

My friend posed to me this little riddle:

Take a common 3 letter word, shift all letters 3 spaces, and the resulting word is a synonym for the first.

A hint was that it only uses the first half of the alphabet.
That would mean the second word has no A,B, or C in it, and the first word wouldn't have an N in it, for sure.

Any ideas?

[jackelope]

Your friend is looking for help with this week's "Sunday Puzzle" from Will Shortz, on Shortz's weekly NPR radio show. Submitting the correct answer at this page gets you entered into a random drawing, the winner of which will appear on next week's show.

Your friend has also misstated the question slightly. The challenge is to take a common three-letter word, shift each letter three spaces forward (e.g., A becomes D), and then rearrange the resulting three letters to get a synonym for the original word. As you stated, all letters in both words are in the first half of the alphabet.

The answer is:

SPOILER:

FIB. You move each letter forward by three to get I-L-E. These can be rearranged to spell LIE, a synonym for FIB.

By the way, you can subscribe to the show's podcast here.

[feppytweed]

Well damn. Had I known that little detail, I would've had it an hour ago. Thanks jackelope.

[commasense]

Working on my own, I had just come to the conclusion that that must be the solution, and that the OP had missed part of the puzzle.

[jackelope]

By the way, here's how I solved it:

SPOILER:

Since the letters must be moved forward three spaces, and each word must contain at least one vowel:

The first word must contain an A, E, or I. Thus the second word must contain D, H, or L.

Also, the second word must contain a vowel, but it can't be A because the letter three spaces before it must be in the first half of the alphabet.

So:

First word contains A, E, or I.

Second word contains [D, H, or L] and [E or I].

Since I had two clues toward the second word and only one for the first, I started working on three-letter words that met the criteria for the second word, then worked backward from those to see what I'd get for the first word.

(This is what I do after the Sunday night football game: Listen to the podcast, then figure on it until I get it. Nerd Power!)

[twickster]

Originally Posted by jackelope

By the way, here's how I solved it:

(This is what I do after the Sunday night football game: Listen to the podcast, then figure on it until I get it. Nerd Power!)

**rises to feet and starts the ovation**

[Plynck]

Originally Posted by jackelope

Your friend is looking for help with this week's "Sunday Puzzle" from Will Shortz, on Shortz's weekly NPR radio show.

So, anyone ever submit a puzzle answer to Weekend Edition/Sunday? Anyone ever get chosen and played the on-air puzzle? Occasionally I'll get the weekly challenge before they finish giving the email submission address, sometimes it escapes me entirely, most of the time I work on it and solve it during the week. But I think that I have only submitted the answer twice (once by email, once by mail before they accepted email), and both times I sweated it out hoping that they would never call me and have me play on-air.

I mean, my bleary eyed Sunday morning is drinking a cup of coffee while shouting "You knucklehead!" at the person playing on-air. I don't want someone doing that to me!

[twickster]

I'm pretty sure they do the actual taping in advance, IIRC on Thursday afternoon.

twicks, who doesn't compete, but knows Will Shortz

[jackelope]

Originally Posted by Plynck

So, anyone ever submit a puzzle answer to Weekend Edition/Sunday? Anyone ever get chosen and played the on-air puzzle?

I've submitted answers many times, but never been chosen. The first time I submitted was back in about 1994; back then you had to put your answer on a postcard and mail it in.

I'm not sure if I'm even eligible now, because my wife works for our local PBS TV station, and they're in the same building as the NPR station and have the same call letters. I keep submitting anyway, though.

(Thanks, twickster!)

ETA: Are we name-dropping? Because I have Will Shortz's home address.

[twickster]

Which I think makes you a creepy stalker guy ...

[Sternvogel]

I've been submitting answers for the last couple of months. I've always correctly solved the puzzle (including the current one, which I figured out before reading this thread). If I "get the call" some Thursday afternoon, I'll announce the fact on the board, but you'll have to listen to the show on Sunday to see how I do!

[jackelope]

Originally Posted by twickster

Which I think makes you a creepy stalker guy ...

Hogwash. I was a creepy stalker guy WAY before I got Mr. Shortz's address.

(I have his e-mail address, too.)