Norman Gilliland reads the quiz question on air on weekdays at 12:30pm.
To answer the quiz question, you can call 1-800-442-7106 or email wpr-midday@wpr.org.
Most Recent Quiz Question:
Thursday, December 4, 2025
Covid and more casual travel have reduced the number of airports with these services, although some major hubs still have them.
Shoeshine stands.
Winner: Jill Hanes, Oostburg, WI
Wednesday, December 3, 2025
By some accounts, a piece of published fiction popularized these elaborate structures, by others, it was the other way around.
The gingerbread house, possibly popularized by Grimm’s fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel.
Winner: Ben Loritz, Madison, WI
Tuesday, December 2, 2025
A 3×3 word square: Across—Esquire’s test, Swedish name for a Finnish port, she comes of age. Down—the big wolf for one, known for honesty, to do so is not honest.
Across—Bar, Abo, Deb. Down—Bad, Abe, Rob.
Winner: Heidi Beckman, Madison, WI
Monday, December 1, 2025
The distance may be the same, but because of their separate descents, no two are alike when they arrive.
Snowflakes.
Winner: Ralph Winrich, Dunkirk, WI
2025
November 2025
Friday, November 28, 2025
The retailer in this film is fictitious, although he’s named after the founder of a real company that’s had his name since the 1850s.
Miracle on 34th Street.
Winner: Stacey Bruder, Nekoosa, WI
Thursday, November 27, 2025
The son of a president began the tradition, the father of another made it official.
Sparing the White House Thanksgiving turkey. Tad Lincoln requested the first “pardon,” George H.W. Bush made the tradition official.
Winner: Thomas Busciglio-Ritter, Milwaukee, WI
Wednesday, November 26, 2025
What associates these places: A Mackinac Island landmark, a serious southwestern gorge, a Wyoming mountain, a cognac, a New York transportation hub.
All are grand—The Grand Hotel, the Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Grand Marnier, Grand Central Station.
Winner: Karl Dalland, Middleton, WI
Tuesday, November 25, 2025
The vast majority of humans, many primates, and a lesser majority of cats exhibit this preference.
Being right-handed or pawed.
Winner: Jess S., Racine, WI
Monday, November 24, 2025
Songs by The Beatles, The Carpenters, America, The Mamas and the Papas, and Peter, Paul & Mary all mention this span of time.
Monday—in Lady Madonna, Rainy Days and Mondays, Sister Golden Hair, Monday Monday, and The Cruel War.
Winner: Wayne Blicharz, Wausau, WI
Friday, November 21, 2025
For this reason, some actors are disdainful of any talent agency that will sign a certain personality.
The personality is AI-generated actor Tilly Norwood.
Winner: Jim Koehler, Green Bay, WI
Thursday, November 20, 2025
In this population ranking, Texas is far and away #1 with Michigan #2, Wisconsin #5, Wyoming #47, and several sates below ranking.
White-tailed deer population.
Winner: Blaine LeGault, Sun Prairie, WI
Wednesday, November 19, 2025
The name of this wooded state is the only one to appear twice in this real estate lineup.
Pennsylvania Avenue and Railroad in Monopoly.
Winner: Mary and Joe Watermolen, Green Bay, WI
Tuesday, November 18, 2025
Everyone showed up for the event but the British declined to sit still for a commemorative picture of it.
The signing of the Treaty of Paris ending the American Revolution.
Winner: Barry C. Hopkins, Janesville, WI
Monday, November 17, 2025
Social restrictions aside, this form of self expression can provide pain relief, increase strength, and expand vocabulary.
Swearing
Winner: Dave Arnold, Stevens Point, WI
Friday, November 14, 2025
Although the use of these generally undesirable entities in medicine declined in the 19th century, in the 20th they returned for certain medical treatments.
Leeches.
Winner: Will Houts, Sussex, WI
Thursday, November 13, 2025
Start with a six-letter word for a celestial wanderer, take off the first and last letters to get a word for where an earth-bound wanderer may go. Take off the first and last letters to get a word that can go before opera or orange. What’s the first word?
Planet
Winner: Paul Bonadurer, La Crosse, WI
Wednesday, November 12, 2025
An 1860s Congressional law prohibits the images of living people reproduced this way.
On “bonds, securities, notes, fractional or postal currency of the United States”… There are some loopholes, however, when it comes to commemorative coins.
Winner: Tom Normington, Edgar, WI
Tuesday, November 11, 2025
Thirty-one presidents in all, the earliest being George Washington and the latest George W. Bush.
Were veterans.
Winner: Belinda S., Milwaukee, WI
Monday, November 10, 2025
Two women have this Old Testament distinction, or three depending upon the version.
Have books of the Bible named after them—Ruth and Esther, plus Judith in the Catholic canon.
Winner: Philip Elbaum, Madison, WI
Friday, November 7, 2025
Superior several times, Michigan not quite; Huron, no; Erie occasionally, Ontario several times.
Frozen over.
Winner: Jeannie Jerde, Deerfield, WI
Thursday, November 6, 2025
What’s the progression: Mates not going to St. Ives, antiquated audio, mythical feline longevity, strike knockdown, crunch time.
Seven wives, 8 Track, Nine Lives, ten pins, eleventh hour.
Winner: Tim Brubaker, De Forest, WI
Wednesday, November 5, 2025
What distinction do these words share: Snout, Slender, Blunt, Belch, Snug?
(Also Bottom, Pistol, and Shallow.)
All are Shakespeare characters in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Henry IV, Part 1, Twelfth Night, and The Merry Wives of Windsor.
Winner: Paul Bentzen, Madison, WI
Tuesday, November 4, 2025
A secretive American political party got its name from the feigned ignorance of its members.
The Know Nothing Party.
Winner: Ian Martin, Cedarburg, WI
Monday, November 3, 2025
They rarely if ever have words in them anyway, but the illiterate sometimes look at one with symbols.
Eye charts.
Winner: Dara Pinkert, Cos Cob, CT
October 2025
Friday, October 31, 2025
For the sake of the crew, rice and toast are taboo at some participating locations.
Theaters showing the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Winner: Emily Gage, Minneapolis, MN
Thursday, October 30, 2025
Famously, one sibling becomes a cook, the other not an entree.
Hansel and Gretel.
Winner: Marina Agerter, Reston, VA
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
Vintage overnight accommodations in Chicago, New Orleans, Milwaukee, Fond du Lac , and Oklahoma City also have this attraction or repulsion.
Being haunted.
Winner: Kelly and Dan Carpenter, Appleton, WI
Tuesday, October 28, 2025
A Halloween 3×3 word square: Across—nightmare location, Star Trek character, entity associated with the End of Days, Down—a place to find ancient deceased, Godzilla’s target traditionally, the Baskervilles terror was one.
ACROSS–Bed, Odo, Gog. DOWN–Bog, Edo, Dog.
BED
ODO
GOG
Peat bog in Store Vildmose, Denmark which is relatively untouched when compared to surrounding intensively altered fields.
Winner: Stan Burns, Stillwater, MN
Monday, October 27, 2025
Who is it?
From his napping the poet awoke
And, though groggy, in rhyming lines spoke
About life’s short repast.
But in verse you will last,
You’re immortal although you will croak.
The Raven.
Winner: Wyatt Podgorski, Weston, WI
Friday, October 24, 2025
Just a few years after the fact a character in this novel was tied to a notorious sports scandal.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Winner: RuthAnn Reynen, De Pere, WI
Thursday, October 23, 2025
What stellar English words go with the following: E,E,D,C,C,G,G,A?
“…like a diamond in the sky. Twinkle, twinkle, lit(tle).
Or letters from the ABC Song or words from “Ba, Ba, Black Sheep.”
Winner: Randy Williams, Beloit, WI
Wednesday, October 22, 2025
A prominent music critic who wrote a concert review at a convenient time was embarrassed for this reason.
He wrote the review before the concert and the program was changed.
Winner: John Schauf, Madison, WI
Tuesday, October 21, 2025
Only about one percent of the US output is for a direct application of salt or butter.
Corn. The rest is used for indirect human consumption, animal feed, or ethanol.
Winner: Zaccai Lewis, Madison, WI
Monday, October 20, 2025
Several places in Kentucky and other states were named after this Pennsylvania native, but apparently he wouldn’t have been very good at surveying then.
Daniel Boone. Some of his surveys resulted in lawsuits.
Winner: Tom Lhost, Appleton, WI
Friday, October 17, 2025
No one knows what the accompanying entertainment was, but this still popular accessory has been found in ancient American habitation sites.
Popcorn.
Winner: Jennifer Lhost, Lawrence Township, NJ
Thursday, October 16, 2025
In the last ten years, sales of these devices have rebounded, with the new ones perhaps having greater fidelity and fewer tangles.
Audio cassette tapes.
Winner: Tom Jackson, St. Germaine, WI
Wednesday, October 15, 2025
An exciting conveyance was built to be a bit shorter than her nearby castle.
Cinderella’s Castle in Walt Disney World, which is 189 feet tall.
The height of Space Mountain is 183 feet.
Winners: Bob and Betty Kleemeier, Eau Claire, WI
Tuesday, October 14, 2025
A recent average came out to a liter for each of 7 million attendees.
Oktoberfest.
Winner: Jeff Brown, Chippewa Falls, WI
Monday, October 13, 2025
A 3×3 word square:
Across—Not all of them lose their leaves, Nothing, All of them lose their leaves, often colorfully.
Down—Flanked by an eagle and a pyramid, to be under the weather, Dutch transport.
Across—Oak, Nil, Elm.
Down—One, Ail, KLM.
Winner: Susan Schauf, Madison, WI
Friday, October 10, 2025
A painting by Manet may be an early example of this form of income generation, which has been a Hollywood phenomenon from the earliest days of film.
Product placement. The Manet painting A Bar at the Folies-Bergère appears to show the brand names on some of the bottles.
Winner: Bill Toman, Green Lake, WI
Thursday, October 9, 2025
Actually, the fruit is unspecified. A fig would’ve been convenient.
The Forbidden Fruit in the Garden of Eden. An apple became a popular supposition because the Latin word “malus” means both “apple” and “evil.”
Winner: Arthur Ness, Dodgeville, WI
Wednesday, October 8, 2025
The names of the following places share what in common: Lake Michigan, the River Avon, Lake Ontario, Lake Tahoe, Mount Katahdin?
They are redundant. Michigan means large lake, Avon means river, Ontario means beautiful lake, Tahoe means lake, and Katahdin means the greatest mountain.
Winner: Karl Nilson, New Berlin, WI
Tuesday, October 7, 2025
What do the following refer to: California 1906, 60 seconds; Alaska 1964, 4 or 5 minutes; California 1989, about 15 seconds.
The duration of major earthquakes.
Winner: Janet Wolfe, Marshfield, WI
Monday, October 6, 2025
The juxtaposition of darkened lava flows and lighter highlands inspired this fanciful face.
The Man in the Moon.
Winner: Robert Factor, Madison, WI
Friday, October 3, 2025
The most famous and accessible one in the US is in Arizona, but Kentucky has a city in one.
Meteor crater. Middlesboro, Kentucky reposes inside one.
Winner: Cheryl Bracht, Cascade, WI
Thursday, October 2, 2025
Twenty-two in 50 years, ranging from a weekend to more than a month.
US government shutdowns. The longest, at 35 days, was in 2018-19.
Winner: Doug Henderson, Stevens Point, WI
Wednesday, October 1, 2025
This new world fruit had become quite popular in France by the time one underwent a famous fictional transformation.
A pumpkin. In the original French version of “Cinderella”, “citrouille.”
Winner: Tom Contrastand, Sheboygan, WI
September 2025
Tuesday, September 30, 2025
A New York governor dumping water into the ocean celebrated the completion of this iconic project.
The Erie Canal.
Winner: Marc Steele, Conover, WI
Monday, September 29, 2025
Who is it?
All too tame, this extinct protein source
Will come back thanks to mankind’s remorse.
Will it rejoin life’s fest
As a most honored guest
Or return to its role as main course?
A Dodo
Winner: Carol Shaddy
Friday, September 26, 2025
For a key scene in this sci fi film the director told the composer he would adjust the images to fit the music.
ET-: The Extraterrestrial. For the final chase scene, Steven Spielberg told John Williams to write the music the way he wanted and adjusted to scene to match it.
Winner: John Aaholm, Appleton, WI
Thursday, September 25, 2025
The belief that elegant birds sing just before dying led to this term for a final act.
A swan song.
Winner: Francesca Molgaard, Milwaukee, WI
Wednesday, September 24, 2025
A failed 18th century opera may have been the source of this familiar agrarian catalogue song.
Old MacDonald Had a Farm, which was in the 1706 opera The Kingdom of the Birds or Wonders of the Sun written by Thomas d’Urfey.
Winner: Howard Schmitt, Appleton, WI
Tuesday, September 23, 2025
The titles of a Paul McCartney song, a song by the Smashing Pumpkins or the New Christy Minstrels, and a song from the musical Annie give what progression?
Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.
Winner: Jim Long, Madison, WI
Monday, September 22, 2025
A ship playing classical music to lead hundreds of whales to safety is a brighter version of this legend.
The Pied Piper. In 1985 Operation Beluga led 3000 trapped whales through a crack in the Arctic ice in 1985.
Winner: Peggy Reindl, Two Rivers, WI
Friday, September 19, 2025
Films about a nautical disaster, a bear, a deaf-mute, a plane crash survivor, and a family avoiding extraterrestrials all minimize this.
Spoken dialogue. The films are All is Lost, The Bear, Hush, Cast Away, and A Quiet Place.
Thomas Wolf, www.foto-tw.de
Winner: Holly Cole
Thursday, September 18, 2025
Annoyed by the overly learned epigraphs used by some authors, this novelist was the first to include one in pseudo-Egyptian hieroglyphics.
Mark Twain.
Winner: Tom Jones, Ft. Atkinson, WI
Wednesday, September 17, 2025
Who is it?
He steps out for a dinner affair
In his tux, looking quite debonair.
When he rejoins the fold
The reception is cold,
As it is for the rest of them there.
A Penguin.
Winner: Roger F., Green Bay, WI
Tuesday, September 16, 2025
What place to the following have in common: False teeth, civil war photographs, a hula hoop, a Marc Chagall paining, and an alligator?
The dead letter office.
Winner: Philip Mayer, Wisconsin Dells, WI
Monday, September 15, 2025
Change one letter and you’ll go from clover to volcanoes.
Ireland and Iceland
Winner: Arthur Derse, Whitefish Bay, WI
Friday, September 12, 2025
The inventor of this popular circular treat never had to pay the maker of its most prominent ingredient.
The chocolate chip cookie. Inventor Ruth Graves Wakefield cut a deal with Nestle for a lifetime supply of free chocolate in exchange for the right to print her recipe on their chocolate bars.
Winner: Josh Mose, Jefferson, WI
Thursday, September 11, 2025
AI has been paricularly useful applied to established film actors when the story line calls for one of these.
A flashback. AI can de-age the actor.
Winner: Mary Patza, Egg Harbor, WI
Wednesday, September 10, 2025
Setting this speed record was loud and kept secret, and the person setting it kept silent about having broken bones.
Breaking the sound barrier. Pilot Chuck Yeager flew despite having broken two ribs while horseback riding two nights before.
Winner: Claire D., Baraboo, WI
Tuesday, September 9, 2025
A dream about a staircase led to the understanding of this structure.
DNA. James Watson dreamed of a spiral staircase.
Winner: Drew Mosley, Allouez, WI
Monday, September 8, 2025
No longer familiar to many students, these classroom accessories are still favored by some college math and physics departments, allergies notwithstanding.
Blackboards.
Winner: Micah West, Oconomowoc, WI
Friday, September 5, 2025
What do they have in common: Isaac, William, John, Adam, and Jack?
Apples—Sir Isaac Newton, William Tell, Johnny Appleseed, Adam, Applejack.
Winner: Ed Miller, Bailey’s Harbor, WI
Thursday, September 4, 2025
Given its traditional role, this low-slung canine would be incompatible with the Badger State.
The Dachshund. Originally bred to expel badgers.
Winner: Todd W., Superior, WI
Wednesday, September 3, 2025
Illinois with the longest, Tennessee the shortest at less than 12 miles.
Mississippi River coastline.
Winner: Judy B., Mt. Morris, WI
Tuesday, September 2, 2025
Although it’s known worldwide for its production of alcohol, this state has a bewildering patchwork of laws governing it.
Kentucky.
Winner: Tom C., Sheboygan, WI
Monday, September 1, 2025
This fashion tradition could symbolize the last day of summer surrending to fall.
Ceasing to wear white after Labor Day.
Winner: Bruce Parkinson, Two Rivers, WI
August 2025
Friday, August 29, 2025
Who is it?
All your barking and clapping, I know,
Get applause, but your talent’s below.
With gymnastics aquatic
Snagging herring and haddock
You could have your own exercise show.
(Let’s just say that I hope this gets your seal of approval.)
Winner: Dick Trexel, Madison, WI
Thursday, August 28, 2025
After going through a multi-step recognition process, not quite 4 percent is ultimately rejected.
US mail. From the reject bin, it will be returned to the sender or sent to the dead letter office.
Winner: Evelyn Fisher, Wausau, WI
Wednesday, August 27, 2025
After going through a multi-step recognition process, not quite 4 percent is ultimately rejected.
No winner.
Tuesday, August 26, 2025
Unauthorized holes drilled in a NASA vehicle forced a delay but the perpetrator had immunity for this reason.
He was a protected species of woodpecker.
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Winner: Bob Bruss, Wausau, WI
Monday, August 25, 2025
Thanks to AI, this feature of college essay exams has returned.
The blue book.
Winner: Tom Normington, Edgar, WI
Friday, August 22, 2025
An early circumnavigator wrote about relaxing on the beach after one of these outdoor meals.
A Barbecue.
Winner: Jonathan Niehaus, Grafton, WI
Thursday, August 21, 2025
What’s the date on a newspaper that advertises milk sold in plastic cartons, a number to call to get the correct time, TV listings, a sport coat for $24.90, a 6-transistor pocket radio for $10.99., and a headline in which CD means Civil Defense?
October 25, 1962.
Winner: Benn Passmore, Madison, WI
Wednesday, August 20, 2025
According to surveys, 150 to 200 of these consultations a day for Americans.
Smartphones.
Winner: Michael F. Stemper, Waunakee, WI
Tuesday, August 19, 2025
Reversed and reproduced many times for everyday viewing, the original image is incomplete.
George Washington’s portrait on the dollar bill. Gilbert Stuart never finished the original.
Winner: Gordon Miller, Stevens Point, WI
Monday, August 18, 2025
New ones are relatively rare, but, in the tradition of Mark Twain, Raymond Chandler, and Agatha Christie, some contemporary novelists prefer to use them.
Typewriters.
Winner: Dennis O’Connell, Sturgeon Bay, WI (and Anchorage, Alaska)
Friday, August 15, 2025
When the president lost his temper, a visitor with this profession said that now he had what he needed.
He was a portrait painter. John Singer Sargent had come to paint the portrait of Theodore Roosevelt.
Winner: Aaron Schinder, Madison, WI
Thursday, August 14, 2025
The first golden twins in California—25 feet tall. The solo in Missouri, more than 600 feet.
Arches—the first McDonald’s arches and the St. Louis Gateway Arch.
Winner: Will Anderson
Wednesday, August 13, 2025
Images of lemons first appeared in this context as a way of being legal.
Slot machines, when fruit-flavored gum was the prize instead of cash.
Winner: Patrick Lutz, Beaver Dam, WI
Tuesday, August 12, 2025
Developed in the 1970s by a college student for the equivalent of not quite $300, this streamlined logo is now worth billions.
The Nike Swoosh, developed by Carolyn Davidson in 1971 for $35. Nike cofounder Phil Knight later gave her enough Nike stock to allow her to live comfortably.
Winner: Tony Woodruff, Washington Island, WI
Monday, August 11, 2025
Who are these Social Climbers?
As a course with brown bread and baked bean,
You raged red, lost your ocean-bed green.
From your home in the glop,
Clawed your way to the top
To a niche for expensive cuisine.
Lobsters.
Winner: Dorothy Brar, Middleton, WI
Friday, August 8, 2025
These spontaneous and generally harmless conflicts occur in several films, including Dawn of the Dead and The Great Race but ultimately not Dr. Strangelove.
Food fights. One was filmed for but not used in Dr. Strangelove.
Winner: Victoria Minsloff, Manitowish Waters, WI
Thursday, August 7, 2025
Russian travelers have been known to paint faces around these to show disapproval of inactive local officials.
Potholes
Winner: Helen Bruni, Plymouth, WI
Wednesday, August 6, 2025
Descriptions of his height vary by three feet.
Goliath
Winner: Alan Dodds, Sheboygan Falls, WI
Tuesday, August 5, 2025
Ernest Hemingway was among the American writers who have disdained these hybrids; they’ve become increasingly rare in British fiction.
Semicolons.
Winner: Joel Lenshek, Waunakee, WI
Monday, August 4, 2025
When the chief engineer was incapacitated by decompression sickness, his wife became the overarching supervisor of this transportation project.
The Brooklyn Bridge. Engineer Emily Roebling took over from her husband Washington Roebling, whose father John Roebling designed the bridge.
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Winner: Greg Anderson, McFarland, WI
Friday, August 1, 2025
What do these films have in common: The Lion King, Forbidden Planet, West Side Story, Throne of Blood, Anyone But You?
All are based on Shakespeare plays: Hamlet, The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing.
Procession of characters from Shakespeare’s plays, by an unknown 19th-century artist
Winner: Karen McCullough, Whitewater, WI
July 2025
Thursday, July 31, 2025
This labor phenomenon gets its name from actions discontented sailors took to disable ships.
A strike. Striking, i.e., lowering the sails slowed or immobilized the ships.
Winner: Dave Anderson, Lake Mills, WI
Wednesday, July 30, 2025
An LA area cold case investigation determined that the deceased was neither murdered nor stuck in this place nine millennia ago.
The La Brea Tar Pits.
Winner: Jim Stiefvater, Sturgeon Bay, WI
Tuesday, July 29, 2025
A dime spent on this immigrant hero’s debut, adjust4ed for inflation, netted 3 million times that 86 years later.
Superman. A copy of Action Comics #1 from 1938 sold for $6 million at auction in 2024.
Winner: Brian D. Johnson, Madison, WI
Monday, July 28, 2025
A 3×3 word square:
Across—Newman’s periodical, Hollywood Gardner, Crucial shuteye.
Down—To blemish, Latin greeting, mammal’s mother
Across—MAD, Ava, REM
Down—Mar, Ave, Dam
Winner: Tom Uphaus, La Crescent, MN
Friday, July 25, 2025
As part of a fundraising effort, her hand arrived several years before the rest of her.
The Statue of Liberty. Her torch hand arrived in 1876, completion took place in 1886.
Winner: Ani Saryan Kopf, Oak Creek, WI
Thursday, July 24, 2025
Who is he?
He lives at a very low station, Has a name that’s an overinflation, A big blunder numerical Or hyperbole clerical. But can give his own standing ovation.
A centipede or millipede.
Winner: Julie Shiner-Bazan, Madison, WI
Wednesday, July 23, 2025
If the subject of the famous experiment had appeared, this scientist would probably have perished.
Benjamin Franklin conducing the kite experiment.
Winner: Jonathan Rost, Plymouth, WI
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
US per capita consumption of this food has declined from somewhere around 600 per year in just one state to fewer than three.
Oysters
Winner: John Powlaites, Mount Pleasant, WI
Monday, July 21, 2025
At just over $1.5 million per foot at auction, it’s the priciest of its kind so far.
A dinosaur fossil, the Stegosaurus named Apex.
Winner: Gary Kuchenbecker, Tigerton, WI
Friday, July 18, 2025
The last three presidents have televised events from a double of this place.
The Oval Office. It’s actually a studio in the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is part of the White House complex.
Winner: Kathy LeGault, Sun Prairie, WI
Thursday, July 17, 2025
A Minnesota governor holds the record, having made this effort ten times.
Running for the US Presidency. Harold Stassen ran 10 times.
Winner: Sam Poser, Columbus, WI
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
This sport was banned several times by the country credited with inventing it.
Golf.
Winner: Rogene Behrenger, Manitowoc, WI
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
Originally intended for both men and women, the oldest one still available was introduced in the 1530s.
Perfume.
Winner: Jack Chandler, Madison, WI
Monday, July 14, 2025
In the heat of this trial the defense called the prosecuting attorney as a witness.
The Scopes trial.
Winner: Tony Reindl, Two Rivers, WI
Friday, July 11, 2025
Contrary to popular belief, his or her nose was gone long before the French arrived.
The Great Sphinx of Giza.
Winner: Andrea Carpenter, Madison, WI
Thursday, July 10, 2025
Given the location of crucial letters in this classic film, it’s fortunate that the forbidden song sounds so good.
Casablanca. The much-sought transit letters are hidden in the piano.
Winner: George Ramponi, St. Francis, WI
Wednesday, July 9, 2025
According to an oft-repeated statistic, at any given moment about ¾ of one percent of the world’s population has this impairment.
Being drunk.
Winner: Mary Hall, Wausau, WI
Tuesday, July 8, 2025
Assembling its 500 parts takes about half a minute each, the result being a better memory, reduced stress, and an ability to see the big picture.
A jigsaw puzzle.
Winner: Margaret Wood, La Crosse, WI
Monday, July 7, 2025
More than 13,000 years ago a form of tar was used for this purpose and, more recently, gold and silver among other materials.
Dental fillings.
Friday, July 4, 2025
The story of this upholsterer’s contribution to American iconography first surfaced via her grandson almost a hundred years after the alleged event.
Betsy Ross.
Thursday, July 3, 2025
With more than 1300 monuments, this park averages 4 or 5 per acre.
Gettysburg National Military Park.
Wednesday, July 2, 2025
What distinction do these words share: Cramp, Straps, Bright, Closed, Grown.
All have words inside them: Ram, Trap, Rig, Lose, Row.
Tuesday, July 1, 2025
The grandfather of this Broadway composer named after him was paid more than a million dollars not to produce a US opera for a decade.
Oscar Hammerstein II. Circa 1910 the Met paid Oscar Hammerstein I $1.2 not to produce an opera in the US for ten years
Winner: Judy Ashley, Kenosha, WI
June 2025
Monday, June 30, 2025
The formal name of this passing sport doesn’t include the name of its central piece of equipment because of a Trademark.
Ultimate Frisbee. Frisbee is a Trademark of the Wham-O toy company.
Winner: Tami Roll, Cross Plains, WI
Friday, June 27, 2025
Recently famous for playing the title character in one horror film, the actor wanted to play the title character in this film and quit when he was cast to play his creation instead.
Frankenstein. Bela Lugosi, having played Dracula, wanted to play Dr. Frankenstein and quit when cast to play the monster.
Winner: Roger Black, Windsor, WI
Thursday, June 26, 2025
In the 1940s Pacific-based meteorologists began bestowing this dubious honor upon their wives and girlfriends.
Naming cyclones after them.
Winner: Joan Jones, Fort Atkinson, WI
Wednesday, June 25, 2025
Q: A 3×3 Word Square:
Across–Apparition exclamation, Indicates more to come, Bull charge target
Down–Sand obstacle, cardinals beginner, the foregoing is
A: Across: Boo, And, Red
Down: Bar, One, Odd
Winner: Meg Albrinck, Madison, WI
Tuesday, June 24, 2025
South Africa has the world’s longest, which will move you more than 10,000 feet in about three minutes.
Zip line.
Winner: Tom Brubaker, De Forest, WI
Monday, June 23, 2025
A double question. This transportation service’s most requested destination is this art deco 1930s landmark.
Uber and the Empire State Building.
Winner: Larry Frye, Green Bay
Friday, June 20, 2025
Who are they?
They move slowly through litter and grime
Unconcerned by the passage of time.
Staying snug in their shells,
They eschew fare-the-wells
As they pass in a trailing of slime.
Snails
Winner: Dal Drummer, Baraboo, WI
Thursday, June 19, 2025
What distinction do they share: Soldier, Grass, Robe, Fish, Berry?
The word buffalo can go before all of them.
Winner: Mark Midbon, Madison, WI
Wednesday, June 18, 2025
Well acquainted with paternity, he famously settled a child custody dispute.
Solomon. Said to have had 700 wives and 300 concubines.
Winner: Debbie Trexel, Madison, WI
Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Although a recipe for this snack food appeared in a cookbook more than 200 years ago, their first known mention in fiction is in an 1850s bestseller.
Potato chips. Mentioned n Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities.
Winner: Jim Muhlenbeck, Wisconsin Rapids, WI
Monday, June 16, 2025
Although he wrote hit songs about the sport a founding member of this group said he never tried it.
The Beach Boys. Brian Wilson reportedly didn’t care for the ocean.
Winner: Amy Kluetz, Wausau, WI
Friday, June 13, 2025
According to a health organization, a recent four-year survey determined that French films had more than twice as many such scenes that there were in Hollywood productions.
Smoking. Ninety percent of French films had smoking scenes in them.
Winner:
Thursday, June 12, 2025
What distinction do these words share: Dollar, Flea, County, Trap, Fly.
The word sand can go before all of them.
Winner: Susan Harris, Belleville, WI
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
Named for its German developer, this form of transportation in turn gave its name to a band whose music was both heavy and light.
The Zeppelin.
Winner: J Depner, Menasha, WI
Tuesday, June 10, 2025
One Roosevelt was the first former president to go this way, another the first incumbent. Fly in an airplane.
Theodore Roosevelt in 1910, FDR in 1943.
Winner: Julie Laakaniemi, Eau Claire, WI
Monday, June 9, 2025
A 3×3 word square. Across: Smokey’s place, Intruding there may incur his, His status as a preventer. Down: Could take one in the pool to cool, To do so is human, Goes with Nate.
Across–Den, Ire, Pro. Down—Dip, Err, Neo.
Winner: Lois Palmer, Herbster, WI
Friday, June 6, 2025
Thirteen three-year-olds in 106 years.
Triple Crown winners.
Winner: Joseph Bula, San Francisco, CA
Thursday, June 5, 2025
A three-cent stamp commemorated holders of this job once held by Martin Luther King, Jr., and Walt Disney.
Newspaper carrier, which includes Tom Cruise, Warren Buffett, Joe Biden, Kathy Ireland, Bob Hope, James Michener, Tom Cruise, and David Lynch.
Winner: Scott Brown, Lake Geneva, WI
Wednesday, June 4, 2025
A 1950s drill that required New Yorkers to go to air raid shelters exempted restaurant patrons for this reason.
Concern that they wouldn’t bother to go back and pay.
Winner: John Briody, Marinette, WI
Tuesday, June 3, 2025
This prosperous portrait painter patented a way to dash off his ideas much faster.
Samuel Morse.
Winner: Don Lawson, South Milwaukee, WI
Monday, June 2, 2025
In the 1930s,more than half of the states in the U.S. restricted the access to women with this status to state government jobs.
Married.
Winner: Steve Reynen, De Pere, WI
May 2025
Friday, May 30, 2025
The Dakotas, New Hampshire, and Montana top the per capita consumption list, with Wisconsin in fifth place and—not surprisingly—Utah last.
Beer.
Winner: Chris Lofgren, Eau Claire, WI
Thursday, May 29, 2025
This wife famously undid her day’s work for social reasons.
Penelope, wife of Odysseus, putting off suitors who thought she was a widow.
Winner: Hannah Nies, Waunakee, WI
Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Statues of George Washington, Kobe Bryant, John Harvard, Abraham Lincoln, and Babe Ruth share this dubious distinction.
Errors. Wrong dates, misspellings, and representing Babe Ruth as right-handed. The John Harvard statue is known as The Statue of 3 Lies.
Winner: Patricia Whitely, Middleton, WI
Tuesday, May 27, 2025
Introduced in a Toyota in the 1970s, as of 2025, this technology is available in about two thirds of new cars sold in the US .
Stop-start.
Winner: Bonnie Walbeck, Irma, WI
Monday, May 26, 2025
As of 2025 only three members of Congress remained who had this conflict their resumes.
The Vietnam War. There are a total of 97 members who are veterans, including 80 in the House and 17 in the Senate.
Winner: Paul Rahn, Madison, WI
Friday, May 23, 2025
This 2025 college commencement speaker may be green at the job but is a TV and movie star.
Kermit the Frog, commencement speaker for the University of Maryland. Creator Jim Henson was an alumnus.
Winner: Brian Royston, Madison, WI
Thursday, May 22, 2025
Perhaps derived from a Manhattan address, this number indicates a lack or desired lack of something.
86
Winner: Gail Anderson, Madison, WI
Wednesday, May 21, 2025
Legal or illegal in colonial America, depending upon who was in charge, these are traditional springtime focal points for adults or children.
Maypoles.
Winner: Shelley Hagan, Madison, WI
Tuesday, May 20, 2025
What pattern underlies the following:
Last Supper attendees
An archaeologist’s dating system
Men on a chest
Sweet age
Come Sunday….
13, C-14, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen Come Sunday
Winner: Ed Bruni, Plymouth, WI
Monday, May 19, 2025
Which word doesn’t belong: Let, Set, Bat, Shut, Cast?
Bat. The others all have the same past and present tense.
Winner: Jon Kane, Madison, WI
Friday, May 16, 2025
Why did a New Englander say that residents of Bombay drank from his well?
Because its winter ice was shipped to them. The New Englander was Henry Thoreau writing of Walden Pond.
Winner: Becky Glomstad, La Crescent, MN
Thursday, May 15, 2025
This form of oral communication is usually beneficial and doesn’t usually spark an argument.
Talking to oneself, aka Intrapersonal communication.
Winner: Bennette Harris, Belleville, WI
Wednesday, May 14, 2025
A 3×3 word square:
Across—Often second guessed, guess for when I’ll see you, to distress.
Down—To spin with a disengaged clutch , summer for Colette, largely obsolete communication.
Across—Ref, ETA, Vex. Down—Rev, Ete, Fax.
Winner: Brian Thern, Oshkosh, WI
Tuesday, May 13, 2025
What do these rankings refer to: Crocodiles and alligators, hippo, jaguar, grizzly bear, the man with the world record.
Bite strength.
Winner: Cullen Bright, Jim Falls, WI
Monday, May 12, 2025
Thomas Jefferson did, Jack Benny notoriously did, Sherlock Holmes did, Mephistopheles notoriously did, Nero notoriously did not. Did or did not what?
Play the violin. The story of Nero fiddling while Rome burned was a mistranslation for Nero “fretted.”
Winner: Rocky Webb, Wausau, WI
Friday, May 9, 2025
Not intended to arouse sympathy, this form of acting is particularly well known in some shore birds.
Pretending to have a broken wing.
Winner: Fred Smith, North Kingstown, RI
Thursday, May 8, 2025
What do they have in common: American trees given to Japan, a mint family member very attractive to some, a plant once thought to poison some, a red orange American flower, a tropical broad-leafed perennial?
Animal names—Dogwood, catnip, wolf’s bane, tiger lily elephant ear.
Winner: Dana Brzezinski, Milwaukee, WI
Wednesday, May 7, 2025
If it were for sale, its bar code would link to a two-digit number followed by 12 zeroes, which transaction would include a lot of doughnuts and syrup.
Canada. Its approximate value if it were for sale, which it’s not, would be somewhere between 20 and 100 trillion dollars. Canadians are the world’s leading consumers of doughnuts.
Winner: Tom Davey, Eau Claire, WI
Tuesday, May 6, 2025
What are they?
Not the sort for arrangements in pots,
They run riot in overgrown lots.
I will not hesitate
To root up, extirpate
Those lowlifes so beloved of Scots.
–Thistles
Winner: Jackson Lindsay, Shorewood, WI
Monday, May 5, 2025
Hit songs recorded by Peter, Paul, and Mary, The Mamas & the Papas, The Beatles, The Carpenters, and Steve Goodman all mention this day.
Monday—”The Cruel War, is Raging,” ” Monday, Monday,” “Lady Madonna,” “Rainy Days and Mondays,” and “The City of New Orleans.”
Winner: John Reilly, Janesville, WI
Friday, May 2, 2025
The source of its name is uncertain but its popularity in America heated up fast thanks to immigrants and GI’s returning from Europe.
Pizza.
Winner: Susan Mackreth, Washburn, WI
Thursday, May 1, 2025
They can distinguish different languages, but don’t understand the words, especially the one for “jump.”
Elephants. They ‘re the only land mammal that can’t jump.
Winner: Charles Williams, Beloit, WI
April 2025
Wednesday, April 30, 2025
Now voters will have to watch the competitors for this award.
The Oscar.
Winner: Carol Gottinger, Madison, WI
Tuesday, April 29, 2025
About one in four people have these features, which are traditionally thought to be signs of innocence or heroism.
Dimples.
Winner: Nora Manheim, Madison, WI
Monday, April 28, 2025
Contrary to rumor, a Renaissance man did not design this elite military unit’s flashy attire.
A: The Vatican Swiss Guard. The current dress uniform, not designed by Michelangelo, was inspired by later Renaissance designs, was introduced in 1914.
Winner: Keith Sellers, Appleton, WI
Friday, April 25, 2025
Wilbur could’ve learned to play video games because his relatives know how to despite this disadvantage.
They are pigs. Omelette, Hamlet, Ebony and Ivory have learned to play video games with their snouts.
Winner: Josh M., Jefferson, WI
Thursday, April 24, 2025
When it opened on the former site of an orange grove, the main complaint was the cost at about $4.90 a day.
Disneyland.
Winner: Sally Fisher, Wausau, WI
Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Named for a vulture, the longest recorded in a straight line occurred in 2022, assisted by high altitude light air.
Hole-in-one. It occurred on a 517-yard par 5. A four under par is called a Condor.
Winner: Donna Gilson, Madison, WI
Tuesday, April 22, 2025
A 3×3 word square: Across—Rain result, Goes before Miss, To get by. Down—An ill, Big game, Golf aid.
Across—Wet, Ole, Eke. Down—Woe, Elk, Tee.
Winner: Lowell Ferris, Madison, WI
Monday, April 21, 2025
What distinction do these words share: Eagle, Horse, Deck, Note, Sheet?
The word Quarter can go before all of them.
Winner: Cheryl Dodds, Sheboygan Falls, WI
Friday, April 18, 2025
In 1951 police in Tennessee arrested a youth on suspicion of possessing narcotics because he was found with a suspicious brown powder which turned out to be this recently mass marketed product.
Instant coffee.
Winner: Esther Criscuola de Laix, Madison, WI
Thursday, April 17, 2025
In what year did headlines appear saying “Yanks push 8 miles past red border,” Judge sentences third espionage defendant, ouster of general sets off uproar in Congress, Screen actor Geer refuses query on Reds, and angry solons raise cry of impeachment?
1951
Winner: Jim Dahlberg, Madison, WI
Wednesday, April 16, 2025
This country has a time zone with just eight permanent residents in it.
Greenland.
Winner: David Larsen, Sioux Falls, SD
Tuesday, April 15, 2025
What distinction do these words share: Pins, Rabbit, Bee, Crab, Bandage.
Ten, Jack, Queen, King, Ace.
Winner: Brian Edwards, Egg Harbor, WI
Friday, April 14, 2025
It’s the cruelest part of the year according to a first line by a prominent 20th century English poet and a time for pilgrimages according a first line by a 14th.
April, the cruelest month in T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland and the time for Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
Winner: Paul Bentzen, Madison, WI
Friday, April 11, 2025
The person most harmed by this iconic monster was probably actor who had to wear the 200-pound suit.
Godzilla. Kenpachiro Satsuma suffered from oxygen deprivation, near-drowning, concussions, electric shocks and lacerations to the legs.
Winner: Mark Dorn, Whitewater, WI
Thursday, April 10, 2025
Who is it?
It’s a heck of a letdown for you
If the story we’re hearing is true.
For rappelling puts stresses
On low hanging tresses,
Overworking your brand of shampoo.
Rapunzel.
Winner: Anna Veith, Richland Center, WI
Wednesday, April 9, 2025
The individual record is more than 32,000 of them sold in 2021, but the digital portal may enable someone to eclipse that.
Boxes of Girl Scout cookies.
Winner: Bernie Mrazik, Deerfield, WI
Tuesday, April 8, 2025
The author who wrote a now famous literary cliche also wrote this famous statement about the power of words vs. violence.
“The pen is mightier than the sword.” Written by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in his 1839 play, Richelieu. He also wrote the opening line “It was a dark and stormy night.”
Winner: Steve Miller
Monday, April 7, 2025
A motorist who set a speed record for driving across the United States was arrested for this shortly after returning to his New England hometown.
Speeding. Horatio Nelson Jackson was ticketed in Burlington for exceeding the 6 mph speed limit.
Winner: Barb Strand, Rice Lake, WI
Friday, April 4, 2025
Although best known for her study of bipedal creatures, she prefers a variety of quadrupeds.
Jane Goodall, chimpanzee researcher, prefers dogs
Winner: Pat Andreesen, Reedsburg, WI
Thursday, April 3, 2025
If the legendary water feature exists, it might be in Utah, which is first in this category, Wisconsin being 39th, and Maine 50th.
The youth of their populations. The median age in Utah is 32, In Wisconsin 40 and Maine 44.8.
Winner: Charles McDonald, Mount Pleasant, WI
Wednesday, April 2, 2025
According to a recent study, in the course of a year a digit of the average adult travels the equivalent of the distance from Madison to Milwaukee while engaged in this form of communication.
Phone scrolling, about 78 miles annually.
Winner: John Mahnke, Washington Island, WI
Tuesday, April 1, 2025
Many listeners reported feeling the effects of the planetary alignment, with one reporting an injury. The only problem being….?
The alleged Jovian-Plutonian alignment of 1976 was a hoax.
Winner: Robert Gage, Madison, WI
March 2025
Monday, March 31, 2025
About 5 out of 6 American women go through it for the sake of adornment.
Getting their ears pierced.
Winner: Becky Glomstad, La Crescent, MN
Friday, March 28, 2025
Three different towns can claim having Wisconsin’s first, circa 1840. Now there are about 200.
Breweries
Winner: Neal Fleming, Eau Claire, WI
Thursday, March 27, 2025
Theories about her identity have included the artist’s mother, the artist himself, and the wife of a prosperous merchant.
Mona Lisa. Most likely Lisa Gherardini.
Winner: Marina Agerter, Reston, VA
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
This term for an iconic American profession was first used in print by an Irish author who wrote a bestseller about a fanciful voyage to four lands.
Cowboy. First used in print in 1725 by Jonathan Swift.
Winner: Adam Allison Verona, WI
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Occasionally forgotten anyway, this restaurant phenomenon seems to be going away.
The doggy bag.
Winner: Sam Fontaine, De Pere, WI
Monday, March 24, 2025
During its 2025 previews, a play by this writer set a record for gross receipts on the Great White Way, but the playwright will not be receiving royalties.
Shakespeare’s Othello grossed more at the box office than any other nonmusical play had ever grossed on Broadway.
Winner: Kart Strutz, Waupaca, WI
Friday, March 21, 2025
Although not quite the first to get one, during FRD’s administration, a New Hampshire woman got the lowest.
Social Security number. In 1936 Grace D. Owen of Concord, New Hampshire received SSN 001-01-0001.
Winner: Mike Cooper, Baraboo, WI
Thursday, March 20, 2025
For many years a prominent American art museum displays several framed portions of its walls for this reason.
The paintings were stolen from The Gardner Art Museum in Boston 35 years ago.
Winner: Mark Schultz, Wausau, WI
Wednesday, March 19, 2025
These Japanese innovations of the 1990s are increasingly being incorporated in tombstone.
QR Codes.
Winner: Elizabeth Osowski, Wisconsin Rapids, WI
Tuesday, March 18, 2025
What do they have in common: Hope, Cadence, Flag, Bottom, Start?
The word false can go before all of them.
Winner: T.H. Mark Belknap, Ashland, WI
Monday, March 17, 2025
The legendary expulsion may be metaphorical since an ice age phenomenon probably made a literal one unnecessary.
St. Patrick expelling the snakes from Ireland.
Winner: T.H. Binro, Greendale, WI
Friday, March 14, 2025
You’d be lucky to find one in the first place since only about one in 5,000 come this way.
A Four-leaf clover.
Winner: Sherri Messerschmidt, Wausau, WI
Thursday, March 13, 2025
The mass marketing of this Midwestern novelty apparel began in the 1980s with a man cutting up a sofa.
The Cheesehead.
Winner: John Cecco, Peshtigo, WI
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
The Fox River in Wisconsin has this not-so-unusual distinction as do rivers in Montana, Florida, Oregon, and Pennsylvania.
They flow north.
Winner: Alan Wanek, Green Bay, WI
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
An IRS office on Long Island has the lowest one.
Zip code. Holtsville, NY, has 00501. Ketchikan, Alaska has the highest, 99950.
Winner: Diane Stemke., Milwaukee, WI
Monday, March 10, 2025
The belief that the original title of this dystopian novel was simply an inversion of the time of its writing has been called into question.
1984
Winner: Philip Mayer, Wisconsin Dells, WI
Friday, March 7, 2025
What do these words have in common: Lunch, turtle, Spring, Seat, and Kite?
The word box can go before all of them.
Winner:
Thursday, March 6, 2025
What sequence connects the following: A fragrance, an overnight accommodation, a lemon-lime beverage, a Spielberg production, feline feed?
Chanel No. 5, Motel 6, 7 Up, Super 8, 9Lives.
Winner: James Sharp, Beloit, WI
Wednesday, March 5, 2025
Male lizards have been observed doing what common physical fitness exercise, apparently to attract females?
Push-ups.
Winner: James Sharp, Beloit, WI
Tuesday, March 4, 2025
What do these letters stand for: C or R, K, B, Q, another K, B again, K again, and C or R again?
Chess pieces—Castle or Rook, Knight, Bishop, Queen, King,, etc.
Winner: Tom Jones, Fort Atkinson, WI
Monday, March 3, 2025
This oversized work of art is not mentioned in the Iliad, and only briefly in the Odyssey. It appears in detail much later.
The Trojan Horse. Described in Virgil’s Aeneid.
February 2025
Friday, February 28, 2025
A pair of swindlers and a boy blurting out the truth are the beginning and end of this Nordic morality tale about imperial vanity.
The Emperor Has No Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen.
Winner: Martha Jacobs, Conover, WI
Thursday, February 27, 2025
A place of ultimate earthly remoteness gets its name from this famous submariner.
Captain Nemo. Point Nemo is the place on earth that is farthest from land.
Winner: Leslie Zuelke, Appleton, WI
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
The top 1000 feet or so of this iconic volcano is privately owned.
A: Mount Fuji.
Winner: Donna Gilson, Madison, WI
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
What are they? There’s one for Accountants, Actors, Air travelers, Bricklayers, and Lost Causes, among many others.
Patron saints. Matthew, Vitus, Joseph of Cupertino, Stephen and Jude the Apostle respectively.
Winner: Mary Adams, Port St. Lucie, FL
Monday, February 24, 2025
You can walk up the 1800 or so steps to the top or take one of the 70-plus elevators, which, like the rest of this famous building, are now 100 percent wind-powered.
The Empire State Building.
Winner: Sherrill Wanek, Green Bay, WI
Friday, February 21, 2025
This famous cover was intended to provide the maximum contrast with its vivid, ornate predecessor.
The Beatles’ White Album.
Winner: Mike Wettstein, Appleton, WI
Thursday, February 20, 2025
Fashion changes led to the general disappearance of this traditional masculine courtesy by the mid 20th century.
Tipping one’s hat.
Winner: Larry Riedinger, Kimberly, WI
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Once popular at circuses and fairs , this type of performance has been useful in the development of endoscopy.
Sword swallowing.
Winner: Erik McFarland, Stevens Point, WI
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Who is it?
A Neanderthal, shy and aloof
Skulking close to the earth’s frozen roof
Was a trick of the snow
Where it’s twenty below,
An illusion, when warmed, that went poof!
The Abominable Snowman, aka Yeti
Winner: Adrian Volden, Wauwatosa, WI
Monday, February 17, 2025
This series of seven books begins with a girl evacuated from the Blitz exploring a house.
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Winner: Bob Konkol, Stevens Point, WI
Friday, February 14, 2025
Q: A 3×3 word square: Across—a masculine or feminine name, stands for doctor of some head areas, suffix meaning having the nature of. Down—Scale measuring volcanic eruptions, a feminine name, a wireless standard. What’s the underlying message?
A: Across Val, ENT, ine. Down VEI, Ann, LTE. I.e., VALENTINE
Winner: Sean Strache, Madison, WI
Thursday, February 13, 2025
The number of kids singing these English lyrics to a French tune is astronomical.
Twinkle-Twinkle Little Star.
Winner: Erik and Mary Sue Osby, Howard’s Grove, WI
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
According to the book, sibling rivalry laid him low, but his food management suggestion won him a high government position.
Joseph in the Book of Genesis.
Winner: Karen Olson, Zion, IL
Tuesday, February 11, 2025
Q: A river and a bay are named after this missing person.
Henry Hudson.
Winner: Bill Sparr, Tomahawk, WI
Monday, February 10, 2025
For the first one, 245 and 6 3 , for the 59th 338 and 6 6.
Average height and weight for the winning Super Bowl teams..Green Bay in 1967, Philadelphia Eagles in 2025.
Winner: Jim Gross, Eau Claire, WI
Friday, February 7, 2025
This state gets its nickname not from its famous boundary but from a battle.
Maryland, the Old Line State, derived from a Revolutionary War battle.
Winner: Ross Michaels, Middleton, WI
Thursday, February 6, 2025
What distinction do these words share: Ax, Hotel, Box, Station, Worm?
Ice can go before them.
Winner: Jessica Chamberlain, Eagle, WI
Wednesday, February 5, 2025
Canada has the longest in the Western Hemisphere, Estonia the longest in Europe, but neither distinction is good for more than six or eight weeks.
A: Ice roads.
Winner: Margaret Brubaker, Stratford, WI
Tuesday, February 4, 2025
A Polish predecessor inspired by Hal could be considered the forebear of this household presence.
A: Alexa.
Winner: Alan Hughes, Pittsville, WI
Monday, February 3, 2025
Begun in England in the 1960s, this form of real estate is particularly popular with millennials and Gen Z.
Timeshares.
Winner: Peter Flood, Eden, WI
January 2025
Friday, January 31, 2025
In order to get ahead financially, 11th century German monks began what would become the world’s oldest continuously operated_________.
Brewery.
Winner: Susan Schaefer, Wausau, WI
Thursday, January 30, 2025
After the last dribble, a storm in one of these places can bring a six-figure fine.
A basketball court. Fans storming the court after a basketball game const Vanderbilt a $500,000 fine.
Winner: Chris Fox, Cedarburg, WI
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
A 3×3 word square: Across—ends a Jerome Kern song title, represented by an O, I love for Juanita. Down: Same as Eureka, pirate beverage, Freud had one.
Across–Are, Hug, Amo. Down—Aha, Rum, Ego.
Winner: Lois Palmer, Clover, WI
Winner: Chris Fox, Cedarburg, WI
Tuesday, January 28, 2025
On 1/26/25 for the first time in a long time all 50 states had this in common.
Snow on the ground.
Winner: Marc Steele, Conover, WI
Monday, January 27, 2025
Despite the English cartoonists, he was about average height for his time and place.
Napoleon.
Winner: Susan Schaefer, Wausau, WI
Friday, January 24, 2025
In 2023, a woman from India got the credit for the longest. In 2024 a Ukrainian took it.
Longest hair on a living person. The Indian’s was 7 feet nine inches. The Ukrainian’s is 8 feet 5.3 inches.
Winner: Brian Johnson, Madison, WI
Thursday, January 23, 2025
Great singers need great vocal chords, but these vocal chord pioneers will probably never sing a solo onstage.
Frogs. According to the American Museum of Natural History, frogs were the first land animals with vocal chords.
Winner: John Powlaites, Mount Pleasant, WI
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Representing a queen and a marsupial, one of the world’s biggest is unlikely to assist in any decision-making.
Coin. It’s the Perth Mint One-Tonne Gold Coin.
Winner: Charles McDonald, Mount Pleasant, WI
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
A property owner’s imagination or a mischievous sense of humor led to the naming of this island.
Greenland.
Winner: Daniel Greenspan, Madison, WI
Monday, January 20, 2025
Greenland.
Winner: Daniel Greenspan, Madison, WI
Friday, January 17, 2025
Very popular in the 1950s, wide ones are rare as factory automobile options.
Whitewall tires.
Winner: Anson Mount, Trout Valley, IL
Thursday, January 16, 2025
Three at the beginning, four in the sequels.
Musketeers.
Winner: Mary Cook, Green Bay, WI
Tuesday, January 15, 2025
What are they?
Warm and fuzzy? The image has merit.
Climb a tree? Yes, we routinely dare it.
But the fates have equipped us
To consume eucalyptus,
So that nickname–
I simply can’t bear it.
Koalas. (which are not bears)
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
What do they have in common: A close-fitting collar, a bifurcated girl’s hairstyle, another girl’s hairstyle, a white tie accessory, an untamable hair style?
They’re all named after animals—a turtleneck, pigtails, a ponytail, a swallow-tail coat, a cowlick.
Winner: Valerie White, Beaver Dam, WI
Monday, January 13, 2025
While getting a fake one may lower your overhead, so to speak, real ones are far more effective deterrents.
Security cameras.
Winner: Jake Wood, Madison, WI
Friday, January 10, 2025
A national day of observance acknowledges the high rate of failure of these statements of intent.
New Year’s resolutions. The second Friday in January is National Quitter’s Day.
Winner: Marilyn Sell, Black Creek, WI
Thursday, January 9, 2025
What do they have in common: New Orleans, a lounger, a board game, a song from “Annie,” a breakfast egg.
Easy—The Big Easy, easy chair, Easy Money, “Easy Street,” over easy.
Winner: Mary Miller, West Bend, WI
Wednesday, January 8, 2025
Seen in rural and urban settings, this lofty display of footwear may represent a rite of passage or a practical joke.
Shoe tossing. I.e., shoes tied together and hung from power lines.
Winner: Randy Williams, Beloit, WI
Tuesday, January 7, 2025
The desserts were made less than tasty to keep these people from eating them too soon or swapping them.
US Army troops. They were Hershey D Bars.
Winner: Robert Molina, Green Bay, WI
Monday, January 6, 2025
What pattern connects the following: A shirt, a turn, vintage mail, Roman numeral II, Ray.
T, U, V, W, X.
Winner: Will Houts, Sussex, WI
Friday, January 3, 2025
When introducing this product its maker said that you could slice it, dice it, fry it or bake it.
A: Spam.
Winner: Elizabeth Smith, Wickford, RI
Thursday, January 2, 2025
In the 1940s several of these caused one out of five military draftees to be rejected.
Bad teeth.
Winner: Vicki Wickliffe, Lake Mills, WI
Wednesday, January 1, 2025
Without walking out of his house, the unnamed traveler in this literary classic watches it disappear.
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells.
Winner: Tom Byerly, Holman, WI
2024
December 2024
Monday, December 2, 2024
Organized labor leaders once opposed them, several states tried to ban them, and taxing them has never been very accurate.
Tips.
Winner: Anna Campbell, Monona, WI
Tuesday, December 3, 2024
Start with a 9-letter word for what the giant fish did to Jonah. Take off first letters to get words for what buffalo did in mud and for permitted; take off the next two letters for a word for what Bossie did; then take off first letters for what a loan is, for what George and Martha did, for learning and a cell popular at Christmastime. What’s the first word?
Swallowed.
Winner: Gary Strand, Rice Lake, WI
Wednesday, December 4, 2024
In keeping with a quickly abandoned 1930s law, a confiscated sturgeon was the first deposit in the Capitol building of this state.
Wisconsin. The 1932 law, quickly abandoned, required confiscated fish and game to be deposited in an un-air-airconditioned storeroom in the Capitol.
Winner: Pam Midbon, Madison, WI
Thursday, December 5, 2024
Fittingly, this rapid delivery service was the first entity commemorated pictorially by the government agency that replaced it.
The Pony Express. On an 1869 2-cent stamp.
Winner: Peggy Haas, Menomonee Falls, WI
Friday, December 6, 2024
Like its namesake, this 1920s literary classic had a long transit–through international publishing and censorship.
James Joyce’s Ulysses.
Winner: Willa Schmidt, Madison, WI
Monday, December 9, 2024
A national park is named after this allegorical American worker.
Rosie the Riveter. Namesake of a National Historical Park in Richmond, California.
Winner: Louise Elbaum, Madison, WI
Tuesday, December 10, 2024
People wielding bamboo poles, batons, and in one case a pea shooter were once paid to do this for industrial workers.
A: Wake them up for work. They were known as knocker-uppers.
Winner: Anne Alessondro, Waunakakee, WI
Wednesday, December 11, 2024
This Caribbean teenager’s neighbors were so impressed with his writing that they helped finance his college education, but they never got to see the musical about him.
Alexander Hamilton.
Winner: Brian Schildroth, Madison, WI
Thursday, December 12, 2024
A 50-kilo halibut may be the largest obtained this way.
Ice fishing.
Winner: Joe Statz, Madison, WI
Friday, December 13, 2024
A late 19th century French film shows one of these seasonal conflicts.
A snowball fight.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowball fight.
Winner: Ryan Yanke, Madison, WI
Monday, December 16, 2024
Popular at Christmastime, it was once used to confuse radar.
Tinsel.
Winner: John W. Fenner, Green Bay, WI
Tuesday, December 17, 2024
When rescuers couldn’t reach a senior citizen who had fallen through thin ice his friend was able to help for this reason.
She was a dog. Ruby brought the rescue disc to him.
Winner: Debbie Trexel, Madison, WI
Wednesday, December 18, 2024
A 3×3 word square: Across—Polar assistant, shirt, wood shaper. Down—when Santa could get here, what Rudolph did, tasseled headgear.
Elf, Tee, Adz, ETA, Led, Fez.
Winner: Henry L., Milwaukee, WI
Thursday, December 19, 2024
Since they have the same name, it would be fitting for the gift-giver to leave one under the tree.
Kringle.
Winner: Cheryl Bracht, Cascade, WI
Friday, December 20, 2024
These confections are said to represent St. Nick’s pastoral status, rather than a travel accessory
Candy canes.
Winner: Charmaine Uphaus, La Crescent, MN
Monday, December 23, 2024
What does this refer to: About a thousand in 1843, more like 2 billion in the US today.
Christmas cards sent.
Winner: Charles Wickliffe, Lake Mills, WI
Thursday, December 26, 2024
After some ridicule, the city of Wausau dropped them from its list of illegal projectiles.
Snowballs.
Winner: Larry Frye, Green Bay, WI
Thursday, December 27, 2024
What distinction do some species of the following have in common: Hares, weasels, foxes, lemmings, and hamsters?
They turn white in winter.
Winner:
Friday, December 27, 2024
What distinction do some species of the following have in common: Hares, weasels, foxes, lemmings, and hamsters?
They turn white in winter.
Winner:
Monday, December 30, 2024
This adulatory term in hockey and other sports comes from the sartorial award given to a 19th century cricket player.
A hat trick.
Winner: Neil Fleming, Eau Claire, WI
Tuesday, December 31, 2024
What distinction do the following movies share: A Marlin Brando film, a Daniel Day-Lewis film, a Cybil Shepherd film, a Chinese epic film, two Jeff Bridges films.
Their titles all include the word last: Last Tango in Paris, The Last of the
Mohicans, The Last Picture Show, The Last Emperor, and The Last American
Hero. Bridges was also in The Last Picture Show.
Winner: Diane Lutz, Beaver Dam, WI
November 2024
Friday, November 1, 2024
A famous 18th century actor actually did this while performing in a Shakespearian play before it was traditional for friends to wish it.
David Garrick broke a leg while acting in Richard III.
Winner: Todd Fillingham, Milwaukee
Monday, November 4, 2024
As of 2020, 90 of them have not voted as expected in a US presidential election but did not affect the outcome.
A: Electors. They’re known as faithless electors.
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
George Washington all of them, James Monroe all but one.
A: Electoral College votes.
Winner: H.M. Tamlin, Greendale, WI
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
What are they: concealed for a lie, displayed for good luck.
Crossed fingers.
Winner: Wes Ebert, Wausau
Thursday, November 7, 2024
This photographic preliminary was first documented in 1943, but without any reference to Wisconsin.
A:Saying “cheese” when posing for a picture.
Winner: Kim Genich, Madison, WI
Friday, November 8, 2024
Some critics were concerned that it would collapse, others that it would be around too long, and still others that it was being built by an engineer instead of an architect.
The Eiffel Tower.
Winner: Bryn Jacobson, Duluth, MN
Monday, November 11, 2024
A 3×3 word square:
Across–Monday holiday honoree, wrath, soldier chow
Down—Required for obstacle course, proverbially human, duffer’s first shot.
A: Vet, Ire, MRE, vim, err, tee.
Winner: Joseph Bula, San Francisco, CA
Tuesday, November 12, 2024
The teller of this story promises to tell all except for the exact location of the place in the title, for monetary reasons.
Winner: Jan Burns, Stillwater, MN
Wednesday, November 13, 2024
If the legend is true, this trait would’ve enabled one Roman consul to outrun all of the others.
A: Being a horse. Caligula supposedly made his horse Incitatus a consul. Or intended to do so, perhaps as a joke.
Winner: Ben Passmore, Madison, WI
Thursday, November 14, 2024
What do they have in common: Rossano Brazzi in the film South Pacific, Deborah Kerr in The King and I, Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, Sidney Poitier in Porgy and Bess, and Christopher Plummer in The Sound of Music?
All of their songs were dubbed by other singers—Georgio Tozzi, Marni Nixon, Marni Nixon again, Robert McFerrin, Bill Lee.
Winner: Susan O’Sullivan, Wauwatosa, WI
Friday, November 15, 2024
Who is it?
As he foraged, his heart skipped a beat
At the sound of a predator’s feet,
So he raised a defense
That made uncommon scents
And inspired a hasty retreat.
A skunk.
Winner: Bill Bracken, Oshkosh, WI
Monday, November 18, 2024
Like the song, this snack food is not named for the beast but for the city.
Buffalo wings. Named for Buffalo, NY as is the song “Buffalo Gals.”
Winner: Frank Winkel, Madison, WI
Tuesday, November 19, 2024
Stricter international quarantine laws largely ended the traditional role of these shipboard assistants.
Cats.
Winner: Dena Sedlmayr, Madison, WI
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Start with a letter for a kind of corporation, put letters in front of it to get a Nintendo game console, sales messages, a Mississippi River bridge, what a ruler does and what a defendant does. What’s the final word?
Pleads.
Winner: Dagney Lund, Whitehall, WI
Thursday, November 21, 2024
The only US president to have one sported his family crest.
Tattoo. Theodore Roosevelt had a tattoo on his chest.
Friday, November 22, 2024
A lake on the continental divide is believed to be the only lake in the US that does this.
Drains into two oceans.
Monday, November 25, 2024
Cake, break, table, mill, and house share what distinction?
The word coffee can go before all of them.
Tuesday, November 26, 2024
This spice may have gotten its English name from the way the bark curls when it dries.
Cinnamon.
Winner: Melissa Dettmann, Peoria, IL
Wednesday, November 27, 2024
Perhaps because of the symbolism digging up one of these plants in Massachusetts can result in a fine.
A mayflower.
Winner: Leo Jacoby, Stevens Point, WI
Thursday, November 28, 2024
Who is she?
Still unwed? Is your fella afraid
Of the vows that so many have made?
Well, you’ve risen above
Disappointments in love
At the Macy Thanksgiving parade.
Minnie Mouse.
Winner: Dee Meyer, Galina, IL
Friday, November 29, 2024
Over the years the term has been applied to the start of a financial crisis, to a day of worker absences and to a time of traffic congestion to a retailer’s blessing.
Black Friday.
Winner: Steve Fisher, Wausau
October 2024
Tuesday, October 1, 2024
In 19th century France opera composers were known to hire off-stage actors for this purpose.
As audience members to laugh, weep, or applaud at appropriate points in their opera.
Winner: Mark C. Brill, Madison, WI
Wednesday, October 2, 2024
The sponsors led to the generic name for this form of ongoing entertainment.
Soap operas.
Winner: Michael Higgins, Rothschild, WI
Thursday, October 3, 2024
In her final film this actor—perhaps to the consternation of a previous character she played—sings backup in a performance of a ’60s pop song.
Dame Maggie Smith sings “He’s So Fine” in “The Miracle Club.:” Would Lady Grantham have been horrified?
Winner: Joan Downs, Madison, WI
Friday, October 4, 2024
Because one part of the set is sold by the pound and the other made by the pan, the two are typically numerically mismatched.
Ten hot dogs to the pack vs. eight buns.
Winner: Kevin J. Mack, Madison, WI
Monday, October 7, 2024
Start with a five-letter word for a hold. Take off first letters and you get words for what you might do running uphill, Cleo’s demise, once seen in red on essays, and an initial for Sloan and Morgan. What’s the first word?
Grasp.
Winner: Robert Factor, Madison, WI
Tuesday, October 8, 2024
Un-hollowed and unhallowed, rutabagas often served the purpose in the British Isles but were supplanted in the New World.
Jack o’Lanterns.
Winner: George Rampoli, St. Francis, WI
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
Several companies have placed ads in this predictive food.
Fortune cookies.
Winner: Sam Gratz, Madison, WI
Thursday, October 10, 2024
One of these two famous American writers recognized the other by the aroma of cigars.
Helen Keller and Mark Twain.
Winner: Marc Steele, Conover, WI
Friday, October 11, 2024
A campsite decision on this journey may have been the first American vote to include a Black man and a woman.
The Lewis and Clark expedition. The Black man was the enslaved man York. The woman was Sacagawea.
Winner: Dan Dettmann, Madison, WI
Monday, October 14, 2024
Diet soft drinks were among the products introduced at this extravagant lakeside event.
The World’s Columbian Exposition, AKA Chicago World’s Fair, of 1893.
Winner: Jim Rose, Washington Island, WI
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
Perhaps seeing through the ping-pong balls this character has admired his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Kermit the Frog. His eyes are made of ping-pong ball halves.
Winner: RuthAnn Reynen, De Pere, WI
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
A 3×3 word square: Across—Relaxing place, brew unit, aurora reaction.
Down—Jamaican music, church feature, follows pack and garb.
Across—Spa, Keg, Awe. Down—Ska, Pew, Age.
Winner: Benjamin Loritz, Madison, WI
Thursday, October 17, 2024
These women’s fashion accessories fell out of style in the 19th century, made a brief comeback in the 1960s and are now marketed as apparel for winter weddings.
Muffs.
Winner: Don Carpenter, Appleton, WI
Friday, October 18, 2024
This character is often mistakenly called by the name of his assembler.
Frankenstein’s monster.
Winner: Catherine Claire, Green Bay
Monday, October 21, 2024
Those of the earliest vintage are best not shared in polite company.
Jokes.
Winner: Bonnie Cera, Racine, WI
Tuesday, October 22, 2024
This 1930s DuPont development put some caterpillars out of work.
Nylon.
Winner: David Murray, Janesville, WI
Wednesday, October 23, 2024
As of a 2023 survey, Hawaii is No. 1, followed by Washington, with four New England states in the top ten and Wisconsin at No. 15.A: Life expectancy.
Winner: Paul Cera, Racine, WI
Thursday, October 24, 2024
A defunct flying mammal is named for this literary character.
Dracula. Desmodus draculae is an extinct species of vampire bat that inhabited Central and South America during the Pleistocene.
Winner: Margaret, Ruf, Platteville, WI
Friday, October 25, 2024
A famous American story ends with the discovery of a shattered one near a hat.
A pumpkin. In The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
Winner: Johnny Quartuccio, Madison, WI
Monday, October 28, 2024
The real monster in this film was the fake one that ate up the budget because of its incompatibility with water.
Jaws.
Winner: Rita Bogolub, Conover, WI
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
What distinction do they share: Town, Dance, Write, Crab, and Word?
The word ghost can go before all of them.
Winner: Patrick Lutz, Beaver Dam, WI
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
This American printer’s epitaph, written long before it was needed, expressed optimism that the deceased would return in a corrected edition.
Benjamin Franklin.
Winner: Jon Rost, Plymouth, WI
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Despite the mysteries and rumors, Lloyd’s of London doesn’t charge higher premiums for traffic passing through this section of ocean.
The Bermuda Triangle.
Winner: Barb Strand, Rice Lake, WI
September 2024
Monday, September 2, 2024
Although safety advocates in the US have called for the removal of these time-savers, they remain in use in many fire stations around the world.
Fireman’s poles.
Winner: Loren Trick, Green Bay, WI
Tuesday, September 3, 2024
From our traffic department: It’s unlikely that after almost two weeks, anyone helping to set this 60-mile record was happy about it.
A: Longest traffic jam. Set outside Beijing in 2010.
Winner: Bill Toman, Green Lake, WI
Wednesday, September 4, 2024
What distinction do they share: A queen, a Broadway musical character, a prophetic apparition, a game, a drink?
Bloody Mary.
Winner: Kristen Christensen, Washburn, WI
Thursday, September 5, 2024
Q: What’s the significance of these dates and numbers:
1789—6, 1807—7, 1837—9, 1863—10, 1869—9?
The number of US Supreme Court justices established in the corresponding dates.
Winner: Patrick Downing, Blanchardville, WI
Friday, September 6, 2024
The demand for low-alcoholic beverages and its increasing popularity among millennials point to this traditional drink’s increasing share of the US soda market.
A: Root beer.
Winner: Mary Haarrmann, Waukesha, WI
Monday, September 9, 2024
The length of this event, an approximation of the original, was determined by the distance from Windsor Castle to the Royal Observatory.
A marathon.
Winner: Thomas McClurg, Verona, WI
Tuesday, September 10, 2024
Once glorified in upscale architecture, this plant is still represented in household ornamentation.
The pineapple.
Winner: Fred Smith, North Kingstown, Rhode Island
Wednesday, September 11, 2024
What question goes with the answer:
A: Perhaps in the mistaken belief that they’re expressing solidarity with another pack.
Q: Why do coyotes and dogs howl at sirens?
Winner: U. Allen Plum, Madison, WI
Thursday, September 12, 2024
A company selling this type of insurance bestows an annual award in remembrance of a policy-holder who reportedly survived after eating an entire ham.
Pet insurance. It’s the annual Hambone Award.
Winner: Kim Schardin, Milwaukee, WI
Friday, September 13, 2024
Contrary to popular belief, this ballad about a migrant who steals a sheep does not have national anthem status.
Waltzing Matilda. The Australian nation anthem is Advance Australia Fair.
Winner: Evelyn Rohrer, Eau Claire, WI
Monday, September 16, 2024
When the wind is right you can see this image in Australia, Hawaii, the Cayman Islands, Fiji, and Somerset County, Maryland.
The Union Jack. It’s on the flag of all of those places.
Winner: Tom Wanamaker, Neenah, WI
Tuesday, September 17, 2024
The US government accomplished this common household goal most recently during the Clinton and Lyndon Johnson administrations.
A balanced federal budget.
Winner: John Brauer, Fish Creek, WI
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
Instead of hanging cameras railroads now use these to check the tracks.
A: Drones.
Winner: Judy Ashley, Kenosha, WI
Thursday, September 19, 2024
This mogul is the great uncle of triplets.
A: Scrooge McDuck.
Winners: Debby and Jeff Magnuson, Minneapolis, MN
Friday, September 20, 2024
Q: This masked rural crime fighter is the great uncle of a masked urban crime fighter.
The Lone Ranger. He’s the great uncle of The Green Hornet.
Winner: Jo Ann Busalacchi, Madison, WI
Monday, September 23, 2024
What kind of landmark is mentioned?
Short of funds as he aimlessly wandered,
He sat down at a landmark and pondered.
With a deft bit of fishing,
He had no need for wishing.
He got money conveniently laundered.
A fountain or, less likely, a wishing well.
Winner: Elizabeth Carlson, Oconto, WI
Tuesday, September 24, 2024
Tried for centuries by those hoping for quick wealth, this feat was accomplished in the 1980s but without commercial feasibility.
Turning lead into gold.
Winner: Cindy Bloczynski, Madison, WI
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
A dog has this latitudinal first to is credit, and because of an international treaty at one end, may remain the only one.
Bothie the Jack Russell Terrier, went to both the North and South Poles. Dogs have since been banned in Antarctica.
Winner: Austin Guenther, Milwaukee, WI
Thursday, September 26, 2024
About 3500 years ago, a transportation innovation popularized this now ubiquitous fashion component.
Pants. Horseback riding made them practical.
Winner: Jennifer Lhost, Princeton, NJ
Friday, September 27, 2024
Charles Darwin, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Tchaikovsky, Steve Jobs, and Albert Einstein famously have done this to facilitate problem-solving.
A: Take a walk.
Winner: Julie Shiner-Bazan, Madison WI
Monday, September 30, 2024
A dog, an octopus, a cricket, a gorilla, and a crow have this literary distinction.
Narrators of books.
Winner: Jessica Chamberlain, Eagle, WI
August 2024
Thursday, August 1, 2024
In 2002, a 5000-year-old example of this innovation was found in a marsh in eastern Europe, but given its sophistication, it’s probably not the first of its kind.
A wheel.
Winner: Gail Russell, Chicago
Friday, August 2, 2024
Mostly found on the outside of it, the trace amount of this element in the human body is important for conducting electrical signals.
Gold.
Winner: Val Siler, Lake Villa, IL
Monday, August 5, 2024
Once named for its turbulent weather, this African landmark has long since had a more positive name.
The Cape of Good Hope, formerly the Cape of Storms.
Winner: Neal Fleming, Eau Claire
Tuesday, August 6, 2024
Most people begin to respond to this fleetingly pleasant stimulus at the age of about 6 months.
Tickling.
Winner: Todd DeMad, McFarland
Wednesday, August 7, 2024
It isn’t the deepest of its kind, but it’s bigger than Rhode Island.
The Grand Canyon.
Thursday, August 8, 2024
Once upon a time you could find the name of one of 1400 or so cities embossed on the bottom of one.
A Coke bottle, which had the name of the bottler’s city.
Winner: Bob Cook, Santa Fe, NM
Friday, August 9, 2024
The world’s top producers of this crop are Costa Rica, the Netherlands, Philippines, Belgium, and the US, thanks to the 50th state.
Pineapples.
Winner: Cyrus Quinones, Appleton, WI
Monday, August 12, 2024
France has had ten, Spain four, and England three so far.
Kings named Charles.
Winner: Sue Ward, Middleton
Tuesday, August 13, 2024
They emerge white and develop as many as 500 spots.
Dalmations.
Winner: Andrea Goede, Monona
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
New York City removed the last of its 30,000 in 2022.
Payphones.
Thursday, August 15, 2024
After an absence of about 10,000 years, they returned with Columbus.
Horses.
Winner: Barry Y., Oshkosh
Friday, August 16, 2024
Especially among couples in their 30s, the demand for these understandings has increased significantly.
Prenups.
Winner: Deanna Johnson, Two Rivers
Monday, August 19, 2024
Who is it?
Having scented the danger and bounded
To a place where he’s nicely surrounded
By the green haut cuisine
About which he’s quite keen,
He gets high and yet stays totally grounded.
A giraffe.
Winner: Clint Sprott, Madison, WI
Tuesday, August 20, 2024
The 1920 Republican national convention is said to have led to the coining of this phrase for an element of the candidate selection process.
The smoke-filled room.
Winner: Mara Munroe, Neenah, WI
Wednesday, August 21, 2024
In road travel seasons past and present you might see the letters A,S,T,X and Y in this context.
No correct answers today. Tune in tomorrow at 12:30 CT!
Winner: Could be you….
Thursday, August 22, 2024
In road travel seasons past and present you might see the letters A,S,T,X and Y in this context.
On the road. The word “model” can go before all of them.
Winner: Will Busse, Oshkosh, WI
Friday, August 23, 2024
Start with a five-letter word for a popular backyard device. Take off first letters and you get words for a water flow, indisposed, a camping mogul’s initials, and a negative social media notation. What’s the first word?
Grill.
Winner: Janet Johnson, Madison, WI
Monday, August 26, 2024
His goal was to live to 100 and make $100,000. He fell 2 % short of the first and far exceeded the second.
John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
Winner: Doug Kroll, Kaukauna, WI
Tuesday, August 27, 2024
What distinction do these words share: Pump, Shield, Sink, Wave, Rash?
The word heat can go before all of them.
Winner: Mike Eastman, Waunakee, WI
Wednesday, August 28, 2024
Not exactly the food of the gods as the formal name implies, this New World native is now wreaking seasonal havoc in other parts of the world.
Ragweed, aka Ambrosia artemisiifolia.
Winner: Paula Kocken, Ellison Bay, WI
Thursday, August 29, 2024
Although this Mexican was said to be responsible for raids in Texas and New Mexico, an American president likened him to Robin Hood.
Pancho Villa. The president was Woodrow Wilson.
Winner: Randall Colton, Wausau
Friday, August 30, 2024
World War II efforts to conserve gasoline and rubber and the 1970s oil crisis helped to popularize this automotive convenience.
Cruise control.
Winner: Lois Mueller, Oshkosh, WI
July 2024
Monday, July 1, 2024
One becomes a mentor to a lost child in a Kipling story that endures in Scouting lore.
A wolf. Akela in the Jungle Book.
Winner: Michael F. Stemper, Waunakee, WI
Tuesday, July 2, 2024
What distinction do these words share: mayor, media, once, arena, sin.
All are false cognates—i.e., English words that have different meanings from the corresponding Spanish words.
Winner: Jeff Bracht, Cascade, WI
Wednesday, July 3, 2024
What are they?
Long maligned at your outdoor repast,
Research gives them due credit at last.
They have surgical skills
(And will never send bills)
To repair a game leg with no cast.
A: Carpenter Ants
Winner: James Bowman, Stevens Point, WI
Friday, July 4, 2024
Who was the first US president to warn about the dangers of political parties?
George Washington.
Winner: Ruth Vos, Wisconsin Rapids, WI
Friday, July 5, 2024
What distinction do these words share: onion, county, cab, snake, book, girls, shrinking.
A color of the spectrum goes with each of them. Red onion, Orange County, Yellow Cab, green snake, blue book, Indigo Girls, shrinking violet
Winner: Robert Gage, Madison, WI
Monday, July 8, 2024
Named for a philosopher known for denying the existence of material objects, this California city has an average home price of about $1.5 million.
A: Berkeley, California, named for Bishop Berkeley.
Winner: Chuck Mahnke, Fond du Lac, WI
Tuesday, July 9, 2024
Popularized in the Pacific islands, this apparel was named after a nursery rhyme character.
The Mother Hubbard dress.
Winner: Sean Strache, Madison, WI
Wednesday, July 10, 2024
The family in this book drives much of Route 66 at 35 mph.
The Grapes of Wrath.
Winner: Judy Ashley, Kenosha, WI
Thursday, July 11, 2024
Later discoveries about the effects of mercury explain the name often given to this character by readers of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
The Mad Hatter. Lewis Carroll refers to him simply as The Hatter.
Friday, July 12, 2024
This summertime accessory gets it name not from its country of origin but from its country of export.
The Panama hat, which originates in Ecuador.
Winner: Heidi Beckman, Madison, WI
Monday, July 15, 2024
As its name suggests, this game was developed for the entertainment of passengers on a luxury craft.
Yahtzee.
Winner: Aaron Schindler, Madison, WI
Tuesday, July 16, 2024
A 3×3 word square: Across–Begins beach tongue-twister, Lone Star tea, stock holder’s delights. Down—French coin of little worth, two with hooray, they begin love letters.
She, Oil, Ups, Sou, Hip, Els
Winner: Jeannie Jerde, Deerfield, WI
Wednesday, July 17, 2024
A prominent American author said that readying this instrument to play included shaking out bits of tobacco.
The harmonica. So says John Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath.
Winner: Paula Tracy, Eau Claire, WI
Thursday, July 18, 2024
Taken impulsively, a 1945 photograph of this event won a Pulitzer and became the model for a statue.
Joe Rosenthal’s photo “The Raising of the Flag on Iwo Jima.”
Friday, July 19, 2024
Producers of films starring Carrie Fisher, Oliver Reed, Shemp Howard, Crispian Glover, and Bela Lugosi all required one.
A body double, aka Fake Shemp, to replace an actor unavailable to complete a film. Such doubles are sometimes known as Fake Shemps.
Winner: John Casey, McFarland, WI
Monday, July 22, 2024
50 states have at least one, with California the leader (or should that be liter?) by far.
Wineries.
Winner: Susan Christensen, Madison, WI
Tuesday, July 23, 2024
Who is it?
In the days before forecasts abounded,
Shakespeare’s monarch stormed, thundered, and sounded
His belief that the weather
Had turned altogether
Against him and left him confounded.
King Lear
Winner: Joe Layde, Madison, WI
Wednesday, July 24, 2024
Start with a 5-letter word for a negotiation subject. Take off the first letter and you get, successively, words for what is sometimes found in a saltshaker, diamonds to fences, refers to our time, and 2.7 or so. What’s the first word?
Price.
Winner: Jake Stockinger, Madison, WI
Thursday, July 25, 2024
An extended growing season has enabled wry grocery store managers in this country to advertise “the only true iceberg lettuce.
Greenland.
Winner: Brian Mero, Eau Claire, WI
Friday, July 26, 2024
Parts of this landmark are being repurposed to recognize 3 levels of achievement.
The Eiffel Tower. For Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals in the Paris Olympics.
Winner: Tara Opstein-Van Dyke, Kimberly, WI
Monday, July 29, 2024
This European capital long ago bought the distant source of the river that runs through it.
Paris.
Winner: Helen Bruni, Plymouth, WI
Tuesday, July 30, 2024
What does this refer to: Wisconsin—Virginia, Missouri—Hawaii, Iowa—California, Texas—Texas, New Jersey—New Jersey?
US battleships and their current locations.
Winner: Peter Graening, Baltimore, MD
Wednesday, July 31, 2024
Who are they?
They may not be ready to croon
By the light of the silvery moon,
But new lab tests reveal
That the rhythm they feel
Makes them nod to a favorite tune.
Rats.
Winner: Tom Phelps, DeForest, WI
June 2024
Monday, June 3, 2024
Because of a promise to their father, these two flew together only once.
Wilber and Orville Wright.
Winner: Wayne Carroll, Eau Claire, WI
Tuesday, June 4, 2024
The developers of this condiment couldn’t get the trademark for its name because it was already on the map of England.
Worcestershire sauce.
Winner: Tom Normington, Edgar, WI
Wednesday, June 5, 2024
During World War II, why would an American officer be on a German ship flying an American flag over a German one?
The German ship had been captured by an American one. It was U-505, a German submarine captured by the Americans off the coast of Africa.
Winner: Bob & Betty Kleemeier, Eau Claire, WI
Thursday, June 6, 2024
The future Obi-Wan Kenobi and Scotty were there. So were Medgar Evers, Charles Durning, and Yogi Berra.
All participated in D-Day. James Doohan—aka Scotty—and Charles Durning were wounded. Also there were David Niven, J.D. Salinger, and Henry Fonda.
Winner: Carl Creager, Middleton, WI
Friday, June 7, 2024
A dog, a rabbit, an insect, a parrot, and an angel all take on this literary role.
Narrator. In the Art of Racing in the Rain, Watership Down, and books by Robertson Davies, Rebecca Miller, and Michael Chabon.
Winner: Annie, Arena, WI
Monday, June 10, 2024
US production of them peaked in 1965 and, during the next decade, plummeted to zero, in part because of the greater availability of air conditioning.
Convertibles.
Winner: Gary Edelstein, Madison, WI
Tuesday, June 11, 2024
Its plural varies, and its first public demonstration took place way back in 1968.
A computer mouse.
Winner: Andrew Bruce, Fitchburg, WI
Tuesday, June 12, 2024
A 3×3 word square: Across—in summer forecast, Keats wrote about one, goes with informal potato. Down—Goes with ten in the military, conquistadors’ object, used to find the foregoing?
Hot, Urn, Tot, Hut, Oro, TNT.
Winner: Barbara Moldenhauer, Herbster, WI
Thursday, June 13, 2024
The largest artificial one is shared by two African countries.
Lake or reservoir
Winner: Jill Ellis, Oregon, WI
Friday, June 14, 2024
A life-sized replica of this legendary gift stands outside a city in Turkey.
The Trojan Horse.
Winner: Nancy Fuller, Middleton, WI
Monday, June 17, 2024
A Greek astronomer could’ve told you 2300 years ago, a Polish one 500 years ago, but according to a recent poll, one American in four cannot.
Tell you that the earth revolves around the sun.
Winner: Ann Marie Godfrey, Ripon, WI
Tuesday, June 18, 2024
From three to 8 feet or so they can manage. Higher or lower may cost one of their mythical nine.
A: Cats. They can right themselves in that height zone.
Winner: Chris Simonson, Muscoda, WI
Wednesday, June 19, 2024
What are they?
It’s a family reunion perhaps,
Taking place after quite a long lapse.
Once you’re roused from a dream
You can let off some steam,
Then resume your spectacular naps.
Winner: Emily Gage, Minneapolis, MN
Thursday, June 20, 2024
Fidel Castro was. So were Napoleon, Juan Peron, Joan of Arc, Elizabeth I and her father.
Were excommunicated.
Winner: Carol Rost, Plymouth, WI
Friday, June 21, 2024
According to the Library of Congress, this satirical film was no bomb although it has one in the title.
Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
Winner: Carol Sparr, Tomahawk, WI
Monday, June 24, 2024
The accessory in this famous Dutch painting may be fake since a real one would’ve been very expensive.
The Girl with the Pearl Earring by Vermeer.
Winner: Dana Brzezinski, Milwaukee, WI
Tuesday, June 25, 2024
The story about the men on the bridge, the boat and the trees was made up to sell more of this English product.
Blue Willow China.
Winner: Mary Ann Hall
Wednesday, June 26, 2024
This classic satire tells of a place where small thinkers develop political parties based on how to crack open an egg.
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift.
Winner: Charles R. Williams, Beloit, WI
Thursday, June 27, 2024
Contrary to expectations, hundreds in the Pacific are getting larger.
Islands.
Winner: Pixie Martin, La Pointe, WI
Friday, June 28, 2024
Watched by thousands of Americans, these two opponents hammered away at each other inconclusively for 3 or 4 hours, the only victor being innovation.
The Monitor and the Merrimack.
Winner: John Dodge, Bristol, WI
May 2024
Wednesday, May 1, 2024
Q: The debut game at this venerable park was overshadowed by a calamity that had taken place hundreds of miles to the northeast.
Fenway Park. Opened April 20, 1912, five days after the sinking of the Titanic.
Winner: Arn Chamberlain, Eagle, WI
Thursday, May 2, 2024
Q: George Washington advised his agents to write messages of this kind in the margins of books.
A: Messages written in invisible ink.
Winner: Paul Cera, Racine, WI
Friday, May 3, 2024
A journalist thought that a lamp was a more suitable image for her than the hammer she used for breaking the locks of cabinets to get to medicines for soldiers.
A: Florence Nightingale, known generally as The Lady with the Lamp, although soldiers called her The Lady with the Hammer.
Winner: Robert Kopeke, Watertown, WI
Monday, May 6, 2024
This world capital recently slipped a notch in its ranking among the highest capitals in the world.
A: Mexico City, which is sinking as much as 10 inches a year.
Winner: Ed Bruni, Plymouth, WI
Tuesday, May 7, 2024
This geological feature got its name, not from animals or its extent, but from the proportions of its entrance.
A: Mammoth Cave, KY
Winner: Brian Clancey, Alpha, MN
Wednesday, May 8, 2024
A Swedish biologist came up with the concept for this more or less accurate timekeeper.
A flower clock with the hour of the day indicated by when its flowers open. The biologist was Carl Linnaeus.
Thursday, May 9, 2024
This 18th century Pennsylvania native ran afoul of lawsuits over his faulty surveys of land to the southwest.
Daniel Boone.
Daniel Elsass, Madison, WI
Friday, May 10, 2024
What do they have in common: A Boston transit route, a road marker, a World War II novel, an Errol Morris documentary, a document showing the differences between two versions of another document
Lines—The Green Line, the yellow line, The Thin Red Line, The Thin Blue Line, blackline.
Winner: Keli Goodchild, Baraboo, WI
Monday, May 13, 2024
A 3×3 word square:
Across: To know, archaically
A population indigenous to India
A racket
Down: Member of a former feminine military branch
Heard at weddings
A transgression and—with 1 and 3 across—a state.
Wis, Adi, Con, WAC, I Do, Sin.
Winner: Paul Bentzen, Lone Rock, WI
Tuesday, May 14, 2024
What’s the progression: A fluid quantity, extraordinary perception, an astrological phenomenon, a musical designation, pastime finale.
A fifth of liquor, sixth sense, the seventh house, an eighth note, the ninth inning.
Winner: Joseph Rohrer, Eau Claire, WI
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Popular deep-fried at fairs, in their factory state, they’re about 65 percent air.
Twinkies.
Winner: Joshua Mose, Jefferson, WI
Thursday, May 16, 2024
Seaside spectators and news crews were horrified to discover that they were standing too close to the demolition of one.
A deceased whale. A half ton of dynamite covered the onlookers with parts of the whale, most of which remained intact.
Winner: Robert Borchers, Middleton, WI
Friday, May 17, 2024
What distinction do they share: A mathematical genius, a naval officer, a gladiator, a hard-boiled detective, and an outlaw leader.
Russell Crowe played them all.
Winner: U. Allen Plum, Madison
Monday, May 20, 2024
This municipality got nickname not from dairy but from the color of a prominent building material.
Milwaukee, the Cream City, named for its cream-colored bricks.
Winner: Marc Sanders, Cedarburg, WI
Tuesday, May 21, 2024
What do these plants have in common: An unwelcome lawn feature, freshwater greenery, a bitter root, digitalis, vampire repellent?
All are named after animals—crabgrass, duckweed, horseradish, foxglove, wolfsbane.
Winner: Philip Munroe, Neenah, WI
Wednesday, May 22, 2024
Where in America? As many as 300,000 exit this dwelling every night.
Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico.
Winner: Tom Russell, Stevens Point, WI
Thursday, May 23, 2024
Typically, 16 rows with 50 in a row.
Kernels on an ear of corn.
Winner: Diane Ekar, Lake Nebagamon, WI
Friday, May 24, 2024
Taking Emerson’s advice, she built a better one and theater-goers have beaten a path to the doors of theaters ever since.
Agatha Christie with er play Mouse Trap.
Winner: Donna Gilson, Madison, WI
Wednesday, May 29, 2024
Q: The smallest and the largest states haven’t had any for a quarter century, while other states have seen them in record numbers.
A: Tornadoes.
Winner: Maxine Smith, Kewaunee, WI
Thursday, May 30, 2024
The recipient opposed receiving the highest of honors, but this landmark is named for him anyway.
Mount Everest Sir George Everest , Surveyor General of India, who preferred a local name for the mountain.
Winner: John Powilaites, Mount Pleasant, WI
Friday, May 31, 2024
Because of Inflation this symbol was omitted from computer keyboards.
The cent sign.
Winner: Steve Lasco, Shawano, WI
April 2024
Monday, April 1, 2024
An announcement that this famous instrument was going to go digital for the convenience of visitors met surprising disapproval.
Big Ben. The redesigned clock was to be renamed digital Dave. Surprisingly few listeners thought the BBC April Fool’s joke was amusing.
Winner: Charles Wickliffe, Lake Mills, WI
Tuesday, April 2, 2024
A 3×3 word square:
Across—Rain feature, business communication method, stand here to get #1 across.
Down—Lies form one, Tokyo once, Norse god.
Wet, EDI, bow, web, Edo, Tiw.
Winner: John Reilly, Janesville, WI
Wednesday, April 3, 2024
A servant’s monologue in one of Shakespeare’s plays may be the source of this childhood form of humor.
The knock-knock joke. The play is Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 3.
Winner: Diane Hodson, Belvedere, IL
Thursday, April 4, 2024
About one American in 11 has this economic distinction, with New York, California, and Florida having the most.
Millionaire.
Winner: June Varney, Elm Grove, WI
Friday, April 5, 2024
People in this profession pay $20 or more for a snack food bag, not its contents.
The movies. Let’s brand potato chip bags are made of vinyl that won’t make noise during dialogue and won’t create copyright issues.
Winner: Jim Tortorellli, Madison, WI
Monday, April 8, 2024
Columbus predicted one to impress the locals. So did the Connecticut Yankee.
A Solar eclipse.
Winner: Linda Hyer, Sheboygan, WI
Tuesday, April 9, 2024
What do they have in common: Pneumonia, an amicus brief, a plunger, a dog, and a 1941 novel and 1943 movie?
All are “friends.” The old man’s friend, friend of the court, plumber’s friend, man’s best friend, My Friend Flicka.
Winner: Neil Fleming, Eau Claire, WI
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
While he lived in the only home he owned, he adopted stray kittens, and continued with some he found on a battlefield after he had moved into government housing.
Abraham Lincoln.
Winner: Susan Harris, Belleville, WI
Thursday, April 11, 2024
A still life by Cezanne, Head of a Peasant Woman by Van Gogh, The Old Guitarist by Picasso, a portrait of John Medford, and Portrait of a Woman by Degas all exhibit his kind of economy.
Reusing a canvas. All have paintings underneath them.
Winner: David Snook, Madison, WI
Friday, April 12, 2024
The solution to a famous mystery by this American author hinges on confusion over what language the perp speaks.
Edgar Allan Poe. The mystery is Murders in the Rue Morgue.
Winner: Ron Frager, Portage, WI
Monday, April 15, 2024
Just under a million dollars a year, about ten percent of it at JFK.
How much money passengers left behind at airport screening.
Winner: RuthAnn Reynen, De Pere, WI
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Q: These plans for Alaska and the Danish West Indies went through. Greenland, Iceland, and part of the Dominican Republic did not.
U.S. purchases.
Winner: Dan Elsass, Madison, WI
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
The starting point of this prominent American feature was Identified at a place about 9000 feet above sea level in the 1880s, but now nobody’s quite sure where it is.
The Missouri River.
Winner: Dena Sedlmayr, Madison, WI
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Charles Darwin observed that every animal makes way for this one.
The skunk.
Winner: Hazel Jonjak, Hayward, WI
Friday, April 19, 2024
There’s no need to worry about a spoiler when talking about a mystery that was the last book by this Victorian author because
Charles Dickens left The Mystery of Edwin Drood unfinished.
Winner: Pat Malcolm, Madison, WI
Monday, April 22, 2024
What are they?
Though they may be considered the least
Of the gems in spring’s flowery feast
And a lowly discard
From a homeowner’s yard,
They’re the teeth of the kingliest beast.
Dandelions. The name comes from the French for “lion’s tooth.”
Winner: Barry Yarbro, Wisconsin Rapids, WI
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Q: What do these words have in common: trap, cake, grass, cactus, apple?
Crab can go before all of them.
Winner: Lori Brost, Marshfield, WI
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Q: During an effort to develop a nonalcoholic painkiller, a Confederate veteran inadvertently developed the mainstay of this major corporation.
Coca-Cola
Winner: Greg Polacheck, Lake Mills, WI
Thursday, April 25, 2024
A woodpecker grounded one of these billion-dollar pieces of government property for a month.
A space shuttle. The Discovery.
Winner: Lynn Hammill, Menominee, MI
Friday, April 26, 2024
Generally frowned upon, they were introduced by this name in the National Lampoon as a way of saving the time and money required to see a movie or buy a mystery novel.
Spoilers.
Winner: Helene Androski, Madison, WI
Monday, April 29, 2024
What is it?
Rubbing Liberty’s risks a great fall,
Likewise, Lincoln’s at Rushmore’s too tall,
Giving David’s a touch
Would presume way too much,
And the Sphinx doesn’t have one at all.
Noses.
Winner: Randy Williams, Beloit, WI
Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Various university libraries have been tied to this urban legend about a design miscalculation.
That the building is sinking because the architect failed to account for the weight of the books.
Winner: Tod, Penfield, NY
March 2024
Friday, March 1, 2024
These rural phenomena, most popular from the 1880s to the 1910s, were touted for their efficiency.
Round barns.
Winner: Julie Nelson, Mazomanie
Monday, March 4, 2024
A 3×3 word square:
Across: Reason request; a voter; split resistant wood.
Down: Welsh river, Norse underworld denizen, edible tuber.
A: Why, yea, elm, Wye, Hel, Yam.
Winner: David Larsen, Sioux Falls, SD
Tuesday, March 5, 2024
A short story and play set on American island during a downpour has this name.
A: Rain. The story is by Somerset Maugham. The play was written by John Colton and Clemence Randolph.
Winner: Jan Adelman, Fond du Lac, WI
Wednesday, March 6, 2024
What do they have in common: A tree disease, influenza, measles, a respiratory illness, a pesky scarab?
Rightly or wrongly, all are named after countries—Dutch elm disease, Spanish flu, German measles, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, Japanese beetle.
Winner: Robert Newton, Madison, WI
Thursday, March 7, 2024
Particularly popular in Wisconsin, its most prominent characteristic comes from a bacterium also found on human skin.
Limburger cheese.
Winner: Rhonda Kilker, Shelburne, VT
Friday, March 8, 2024
This popular character was named after one of the creator’s relatives, who was named after an American Chief Executive.
Garfield the cat. Named after James A. Garfield Davis, grandfather of cartoonist Jim Davis.
Winner: Fred Koerschner, Algona, IA
Monday, March 11, 2024
Start with a six-letter word for a blade seller. Take off first letters and you get words for “what’s in a shell,” “bumpkin,” “disgusting!,” clothier logo, and a vitamin. What’s the first word?
Schick.
Winner: Erin Kotenberg, De Pere, WI
Tuesday, March 12, 2024
It may take as long as a thousand years to biodegrade, as visitors to a wall in Seattle may one day aver.
Chewing gum. A Seattle landmark is the gum wall.
Winner: Stephanie Doose, Eau Claire, WI
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
What distinction do they share: Music popularized in the ’60s, a decorative ball, a lively French dance, a Pacific capital, a West African belief system?
All have double names: go-go, pom-pom, can-can, Pago-Pago, Juju.
Winner: Charles McDonald, Mount Pleasant, WI
Thursday, March 14, 2024
At the dawn of the 20th century, the New York Times asserted that a nation that eats this food can never be permanently vanquished.
Pie.
Winner: Karl Stubenvoll, Fish Creek, WI
Friday, March 15, 2024
What is it? ‘Tis no object, I think, for affection, With its mottled and slimy complexion. Tourists give it a kiss With their eyes closed in bliss— Saints be praised–-and no closer inspection.
The Blarney Stone.
Winner: J Depner, Menasha, WI
Monday, March 18, 2024
This opera—most famous for its beginning—was based on a play inspired by the French and American revolutions.
William Tell by Rossini. Based on the play of the same name by Friedrich Schiller.
Winner: Petra Streiff, New Glarus, WI
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Tracking the world record for this was discontinued at 18 days because of the danger to the health of the contestants.
Sleep deprivation.
Winner: Elizabeth Barrett, Madison, WI
Wednesday, March 20, 2024
Derived from the name of a play from the 1930s, this term for a form of psychological deception came back into common usage in the 2010s.
Gaslighting.
Winner: Tyler Jones, Appleton, WI
Thursday, March 21, 2024
Who is it? A king of charisma and means Took the lead in historical scenes. Was he started and floored? No Best Actor award–Just his name on a can of sardines.
King Oscar of Norway
Winner: TBA
Friday, March 22, 2024
A prominent feature of this African landmark may disappear within a few decades.
Mount Kilimanjaro.
Winner: Daniel S. Greenspan
Monday, March 25, 2024
What do they have in common: A Mozart and Rossini character, a longtime sportscaster, a Fleet Street businessman, the Adagio for Strings, Johnny Depp.
A: All are barbers. Figaro–The Barber of Seville, Red Barber, Sweeney Todd—the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, composer Samuel Barber, beautician Edward Scissorhands played by Johnny Depp.
Winner: Arthur Ness, Dodgeville, WI
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Smuggling is a factor in the price increase of this Easter favorite.
Chocolate. Drier, hotter weather in West Africa is another factor.
Winner: John Lightfield, Burlington, WI
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
Who are they: Although it’s more dangerous for one of the two to head in that direction, they go with the flow.
Huckleberry Finn and Jim.
Winner: Adam Allison, Verona, WI
Thursday, March 28, 2024
For the sake of their mental health, some young people are reverting to this pre-2015 form of communication.
Flip phones. For various reasons, including the “always-on” mentality of email.
Winner: Taylor, Schultz, Sarona, WI
Friday, March 29, 2024
Although the odds are not good for getting through, this ancient form of communication resulted in a wedding between a Swede and an Italian.
A message in a bottle. In 1956, Swedish sailor Ake Viking sent a bottled message “To Someone Beautiful and Far Away.” Two years later he and the Sicilian girl who found it were married.
Winner: Mike Cooper, Baraboo, WI
February 2024
Thursday, February 1, 2024
Despite the marketing images, the source of about half of it is a tap.
Bottled water.
Winner: Wes Ebert, Wausau, WI
Friday, February 2, 2024
Appropriately, the first film to make this statement was about dogs.
No animals were harmed in the making of this film.
Winner: Ken Braband, Green Bay, WI
Monday, February 5, 2024
What’s the progression: Cyclops, Odysseus, a Twilight Zone Venusian, the bespectacled, an Opabinia, Cerberus?
Number of eyes from 1 through 6.
Winner: Samuel Bates, Madison, WI
Tuesday, February 6, 2024
An 18th century English playwright who found that a sound effect he had created had been co-opted is thought to have initiated what familiar saying?
They’ve stolen my thunder.
Winner: Joe Turzynski, Genesee Depot, WI
Wednesday, February 7, 2024
Who is it?
There’s no time now to think twice or freeze.
You’re a whirlwind of hands, feet, and knees.
When you take to the air
You must look debonnair,
And then land with a force of 10Gs.
A: A figure skater doing a quadruple jump
Winner: John Powlaites, Mt. Pleasant, WI
Thursday, February 8, 2024
This term for a nonconforming pedestrian was once applied to drivers.
Jaywalker, jaydriver
Winner: Marina Agerter, Reston, VA
Monday, February 12, 2024
It’s second to Thanksgiving in this regard and has a menu heavy on pizza.
Food consumption in the U.S. on Super Bowl Sunday.
Winner: Paul Hesse, Tomahawk, WI
Wednesday, February 14, 2024
Decode the following message: 91215225251521.
I Love You.
Winner: Chris Lofgren, Eau Claire, WI
Thursday, February 15, 2024
What distinction do they share: Chickadee, Ping-Pong, Bobwhite, Kodak, Whippoorwill?
Their names are all onomatopoetic, named for the sounds they make.
Winner: Karl Nilson, New Berlin, WI
Friday, February 16, 2024
Some of the extras in this classic film were recruited at a garbage dump.
A: Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.
Winner: Blaine LeGault, Sun Prairie, WI
Monday, February 19, 2024
An automotive engineer exasperated by working with his team uttered this famous saying.
No correct answer today. We’ll repeat this question tomorrow.
Winner: Find out tomorrow!
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Repeat Question: An automotive engineer exasperated by working with his team uttered this famous saying.
“A camel is a horse designed by a committee.” Sir Alec Issigonis, designer of the Mini, 1959.
Winner: Donford Anderson, Green Bay, WI
Wednesday, February 21, 2024
The biggest was about 80 inches in circumference, a record that has stuck and the substance may making it may have also.
Bubble gum bubble.
Winner: Jim Hess, Sheboygan, WI
Thursday, February 22, 2024
What is it?
Within earshot of Westminster chimes,
A short walk from the venerable Times,
It stands massive and mute.
As grim goes, it’s a beaut,
A concealer of myriad crimes.
The Tower of London.
Winner: Andrew Hellpap, Belleville, WI
Friday, February 23, 2024
This familiar theater designation isn’t based on geography, but on capacity.
Off Broadway.
Winner: Ross Michaels, Middleton, WI
Monday, February 26, 2024
What distinction do these words share: Gray, Whiskey, Judgement, Kidnapped, Traveled?
A: All can be spelled two different ways in American English: Grey, Whisky, Judgment, Kidnaped, Travelled.
Winner: Daniel Lee, Evansville, WI
Tuesday, February 27, 2024
This innovation occurred when an American merchant sent separately packaged samples of his product to Europe and found out that the samples were being used while still in the packaging.
A: The teabag.
Winner: Robert K. Leedham, Jr., Madison, WI
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
What does this refer to: Hundred—Number 1, one—number 2, twenty—number 3, five–number 4, fifty—number 5, ten–number 6, two–number 7.
Number of bills in each denomination in circulation.
Winner: Tony Reindl, Two Rivers, WI
Thursday, February 29, 2024
Born in Kansas to formerly enslaved parents, an actor in this movie set a film precedent.
A: Gone With the Wind. Hattie McDaniel became the first Black actor to win an Academy Award on February 29, 1940.
Winner: Pat Hammeke, Applrteon, WI
January 2024
Monday, January 1, 2024
What do they have in common: Elizabeth Tudor, Hydrogen, Delaware, Alpha, New Year’s Day?
All are firsts: Elizabeth I, Atomic Number 1, first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution, first letter of the Greek alphabet, the first day of the year.
Winner: Joe Layde, Madison
Tuesday, January 2, 2024
He was the second to do so and his mother’s maiden name was the same as the place he did it.
Buzz Aldren. Second person to walk on the moon. His mother’s maiden name was Marion Moon.
Winner: Katherine Cera, Lodi
Wednesday, January 3, 2024
A certain sleigh driver might not approve, but paces in Finland, Iceland, and Alaska serve it as a pizza topping.
Reindeer meat.
Winner: Denny Blum, Sun Prairie
Thursday, January 4, 2024
Circus strongmen inspired the seemingly improbable attire of these law enforcers.
Superheroes.
Winner: Sarah Minsloff, New York, NY
Friday, January 5, 2024
This state is tied with Missouri for adjacency.
Tennessee.
Winner: Susan Riesch, Middleton
Monday, January 8, 2024
What do they have in common: A songbird, a fish, part of a cooked turkey, a channel marker, and a chess piece?
All are named for religious figures–cardinal, monkfish, pope’s nose, nun, bishop.
Winner: Kathleen Lhost, Appleton, WI
Tuesday, January 9, 2024
In 2011 a royal couple used them to issue wedding invitations. About half of US small businesses still use them. Many people prefer them for sharing sensitive information.
Fax machines.
Winner Bill Toman, Green Lake, WI
Wednesday, January 10, 2024
A 3 x 3 word square:
Across: Traveler’s bane, may freeze, with #1 across, stolen diamonds
Down: Somewhat, corporate top, usually enjoyable to
Across: Ice, Sea, Hot
Down: Ish, CEO, Eat
Winner: Erik & Mary Sue Osby, Plover, WI
Winner: Erik and Mary Sue Osby, Plover, WI
Thursday, January 11, 2024
See a line of its clones and you’ll know That you have a good healthy cash flow Or a boom in your coffers; Alone, though, it offers The sad news that you’re flat out of dough.
A: A Zero
Winner: Beth Dinkela, Madison, WI
Monday, January 15, 2024
The Empire Strikes Back, The Revenant, Nanook of the North, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and Way Down East did. It’s a Wonderful Life, The Shining, Lost Horizon, Citizen Kane and Fargo did not.
Use real snow.
Winner: David Hastings, Tomahawk, WI
Tuesday, January 16, 2024
From almost 3/4 of a million gallons a second to, seemingly, nothing during several early 20th century winters.
Niagara Falls.
Winner: George Savage, Madison
Wednesday, January 17, 2024
The engineer didn’t change his German name until a few years before he developed this famous French project.
The Eiffel Tower. Gustave Bonickhausen’s family had long since used the name Eiffel.
Winner: Martha Sumi, Madison
Thursday, January 18, 2024
Start with a 5-letter word for what mathematicians like. Take off first letters and you have words for an upper extremity, a comic book word, the first word of titles by Steinbeck and Somerset Maugham, and a white letter in a blue field. What’s the first word?
Proof.
Winner: Leo Van Asten, Fitchburg, WI
Friday, January 19, 2024
For now, the largest is about 39 miles by 39 miles by a sixth of a mile.
Iceberg. A23a is about the size of Rhode Island.
Winner: Gary Edelstein, Madison, WI
Winner: Leo Van Asten, Fitchburg, WI
Monday, January 22, 2024
Word word applies:
Will he be at the rollicking game?
Make some racket, ongoing acclaim?
Though the lowly grass feeder
Is no raucous cheerleader,
He should come since they have the same name.
Cricket
Winner: Liz Walker, Madison, WI
Tuesday, January 23, 2024
Batman does. So do Miss Piggy, Count Tyrone Rugen, Audrey Hepburn, and the Lone Ranger.
Wear gloves.
Winner: Dana Brzezinski, Milwaukee, WI
Wednesday, January 24, 2024
A mouse passed this test, joining several primates, dolphins, an elephant, and an evil queen
The mirror test of self-recognition.
Winner: Jim Miller, Manitowoc, WI
Thursday, January 25, 2024
Actually, the total is about 200 stories, the title being hyperbole.
The 1001 Nights, aka The Arabian Nights.
Winner: Yoyi Steele, Fort Atkinson, WI
Friday, January 26, 2024
About three quarters of the world’s remaining reserves of this life-sustaining element are in an African country and a disputed area adjacent to it.
Phosphorus. In Morocco and Western Sahara.
Winner: Jake Wood, Madison, WI
Friday, January 26, 2024
About three quarters of the world’s remaining reserves of this life-sustaining element are in an African country and a disputed area adjacent to it.
Phosphorus. In Morocco and Western Sahara.
Winner: Jake Wood, Madison, WI
Monday, January 29, 2024
A workman’s error spelled a bad future for this presidential monument.
The Lincoln Memorial. The word “future” was spelled “euture.”
Winner: Bennette Harris, Belleville, WI
Tuesday, January 30, 2024
Q: Named in 2017, these notorious media do have positive uses in healthcare.
Deepfakes.
Winner: Aaron Gaetzke, Madison, WI
Wednesday, January 31, 2024
What do they have in common: A marine mammal with a prominent proboscis, a manatee, a fish with a prehensile tail, a predatory marine mammal, a fish with barbels?
All are named for land animals: An elephant seal, a sea cow, a seahorse, a leopard seal, and a catfish.
Winner: Gary Kuchenbecker, Tigerton, WI