The Roman Empire » Puzzles

A Genius Is A Guy Like Norman Einstein

hroman — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 04:59:37 +0000

We had to endure three tedious, lopsided matches, and the prospect of a lost weekend before we got a decent NFL playoff game. But boy, was it ever decent. Here’s hoping this mini-quiz is as exciting as the Cardinals/Packers tilt was.

The following are OLD logos that current NFL teams once used as either their primary or alternate logos. Can you identify all twelve teams? Good luck.

It’s Not You, It’s Me

hroman — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 05:40:25 +0000

Happy New Year to you. Here are a few unscrambling puzzles to kick off the new year. Bonus points if you can identify everything in the list. Good luck.

Question 1
Unscramble the following letters to find the Word/Phrase that is not a GANGSTER MOVIE.

AACCEFRS
EHT ADEFGHORT
ADEFGLLOOS
EHT ABCEHLNOSTUU
EHT CEINPRSS BDEIR
EILLMRS CGINORSS

Question 2
Unscramble the following letters to find the Word/Phrase that is not a BEATLES SONG.

EHY DEJU
EHILLRRT
AEELNOR BGIRY
AEHINPPSS IS A AMRW GNU
ELLOWY ABEIMNRSU
EHLP

Question 3
Unscramble the following letters to find the Word/Phrase that is not a SPORT.

ABFLLOOT
AABBEKLLST
AERTW
CEFINNG
ACEHRRY
CEHKOY

Question 4
Unscramble the following letters to find the Word/Phrase that is not an ITEM OF FURNITURE.

AEERSTW
ACHIR
AMNOOTT
ADERRW
CEEILNRR
ACEHIS

Jingle Bells, Batman Smells

hroman — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 05:30:56 +0000

I’ll post some time-wasters over the next few days for those of you stuck working over the holidays. Meanwhile, see how many of the following 15 Christmas movies you can identify (click for a larger image).

Have a Merry Christmas!

Gimme Ape Tit For 400

hroman — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 02:34:41 +0000

A thematic quiz for you today. Nine trivia questions. The first letter of each response, stringed together, forms a relevant word. Good luck.

They Call Me Unkie Ham

hroman — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:48:37 +0000

A somewhat topical new quiz I have up on Sporcle:

Can you name the Famous Uncles?

Crazy week!
Good luck.

The Answer Is In The Fifth

hroman — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:22:42 +0000

Here’s a puzzle, “Dominant Fifth,” from William Wu’s archive attributed to Nootch. I love it for its simplicity.

“What’s the Dominant Fifth?” asked Dr. Dingo, as his daughter Cicely came in from school.
Cicely blushed. “Just a secret society,” she said. “I’m one of the vice-presidents.”
“And you’re meeting tonight; is that right?”
“How on earth did you know?” asked Cicely.
“You left this lying about. That’s no way to keep secrets, my girl.” He handed Cicely this paper:

Dominant Fifth

REASM NCNVE OTMLE SEHST TAOEI

“How did you manage to read it?” asked Cicely. “The code is known to only about eight of us.”
“Change it,” said Dingo. “Any fool can read that.”

Where and When is the next meeting scheduled?

While you’re chewing on that, here’s a classic puzzle:

You have twelve balls that seem to be identical, but one of them is actually slightly heavier or lighter. You also have a balance scale with pans that will hold the balls. Using only three weighings, how can you tell which ball is different and whether it is heavier or lighter?

Here’s a great answer to that puzzle from Marilyn vos Savant’s Parade column.

Sporcle Items of Canadian Miscellany

hroman — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:13:55 +0000

Folks, I have a quiz up at Sporcle.com for you to try (link below):

Canadian Miscellany

You have 8 minutes to get as many answers as possible. Good luck!

We Have To Steal The Declaration Of Independence!

hroman — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:51:04 +0000

Nicolas Cage would have no trouble with these puzzles:

The first one is from the Mensa “Genius Quiz-A-Day Book”

Each of the following four words has had the same vowel removed. At least three of that vowel are missing from each word. What are the reconstructed words?

PRMAT … RHARS … TNAGR … FORSR

The next one below has a single word as an answer. No other clues!

Good luck!

A Trio Of Use It Or Lose It Puzzles

hroman — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:58:40 +0000

The following three puzzles are from the daily puzzle calendar “USE IT OR LOSE IT.”

Question 1
Doubling the perimeter of a triangle, keeping the shape the same, multiplies the area by how much?

Question 2
A woman has a job that requires her to work eight straight days and rest on the ninth day. If she started work on a Monday, the twelfth time she rests will be on what day of the week?

Question 3
The following words were in a sentence in the following sequence:
XYere; ZYere, Xere.
What letters do X, Y, and Z represent?

BONUS QUESTION
Can you reveal the city this picture represents?

Where The Devil Are My Slippers?

hroman — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 01:41:20 +0000

A handful of rebuses for your Monday morning.

I Went To A Fight The Other Night And A Hockey Game Broke Out

hroman — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:50:39 +0000

Ah, good ol’ Rodney Dangerfield.

Tonight, the hockey season starts. Why? Because I have my first hockey fantasy draft of the season! Here’s a quiz while the topic’s hot. See how many NHL teams you can identify in 5 minutes. Enter only team names. That is, for “Toronto Maple Leafs” type in “Maple Leafs”

CAN YOU IDENTIFY THE TEAMS OF THE NHL?

Click This Space To Start (HAPPY SCHEMING)

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Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense

hroman — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:13:49 +0000

The celebration of Eid ul-Fitr will cause a slight delay in my Monday puzzle post. Expect an update later this afternoon/evening!

UPDATE

Okay, here it is. This weekend featured a lot of westerns, a lot of football, and a lot of holiday merriment. So this week’s puzzle requires you to decrypt the 3 westerns, 3 football teams, and 3 holidays pictured below. Good luck.

Revenge Is Good For Your Health, But Pain Will Find You Again

hroman — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 04:21:55 +0000

I recently went on a bender of random Korean, Chinese, and Japanese movies and every now and then you’d get these hilarious translations of the original into English. It’s the “Engrish” lost in translation. It reminded me of an Oscar acceptance speech by Dutch filmmaker Mike van Diem, who said that the award ought to tell you that his film had damn stunning subtitles.

With the Toronto International Film Festival in full swing, now is as good a reason as any to test your knowledge of foreign subtitled movies.

See how well you can identify the country and title of these foreign movies. Good luck.

If You Don’t Show Up Tomorrow Don’t Bother Showing Up On Monday

hroman — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 04:19:45 +0000

First off, we’ll shrug off the unannounced absence from the site. With August officially over, now I’ll be forced to deal with the work I’ve been procrastinating all summer.

(Speaking of summer: I think I’ve officially gotten to the age where my weekends for the next few summers will be spent mostly at weddings. This summer I’ve been to three weddings and an engagement party – and talk about the awkward peer pressure!)

So to get off the topic, here’s a challenge. The following nine images depict scenes from the Simpsons with a character blurred out. Your task is to identify the character. BONUS points if you can also name the episode the image is from. Good luck!

As Far Back As I Can Remember, I Always Wanted To Be Obsessive Compulsive

hroman — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 03:55:06 +0000

I hope you folks are ready for this next quiz. I don’t quite know what to call it. Good luck!

CAN YOU IDENTIFY THE FOLLOWING … UM … THINGS?

Click This Space To Start (HAPPY SCHEMING)

Fastest Hundred Meter Dash (9.58 s)	?
World’s Most Expensive City In Which To Live	?
Most Points In A Single NBA Basketball Game (100)	?
Country That Consumes The Most Beer Per Capita	?
Time’s Person Of The Century	?
Female With The Most Tennis Grand Slam Singles Titles (22)	?
Most Spoken Language In The World	?
Longest Harry Potter Book (Full Title)	?
Fastest Land Mammal	?
Most Goals In An NHL Regular Season (92)	?
The Longest Running Broadway show	?
Most Visited Website	?
Most Career Hits in Baseball (4,256)	?
First Person To Win Two Nobel Prizes	?
Actress With Most Academy Award Nominations	?