Author Archive | Kevan Choset

Today’s Times Crossword:

I wrote today’s NY Times crossword puzzle, which will be of particular interest to some of you who tend to prefer a certain type of my puzzles on here. I’ll leave it at that, lest I give too much away…

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Box Switching:

One of my all-time favorite problems: I have two boxes. Each has some positive amount of money in it, but I will give you no information about the possible dollar amounts other than the fact that one box has exactly twice the amount of money in it as the other. You randomly select one of […]

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Name Rearranging II:

In April I posted this puzzle about rearranging letters in the name of someone in the news. Today’s challenge is very similar. A person who was in the news recently has first name that is 6 letters and last name that is 4 letters. Take the letters in the last name, add two letters and […]

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Presidents by the Numbers:

According to what rule have I assigned each President the number listed? Everyone before Coolidge – N/A Coolidge – 0 Hoover – 0 FDR – 3 Eisenhower – 2 Truman – 2 Kennedy – 1 Johnson – 2 Nixon – 2 Ford – 0 Carter – 1 Reagan – 2 GHW Bush – 1 Clinton […]

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DaVinci Decision Code:

Thanks to reader Andy Treese for the heads up on this article in the Times about a code embedded in the London judge’s decision in the DaVinci Code matter. The decision itself is here.

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Name Rearranging:

Take the last name of someone who has been in the news recently. If you drop the first and last letters of that name and rearrange the remaining letters, you will get that person’s first name. Who is the person?

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Cabinet List:

Who is the next person in this list? Bill Richardson, Anthony Principi, Gale Norton, John Ashcroft, Donald Evans, _________. I have two separate possible answers in mind. One is/was a Cabinet Secretary; the other is/was not.

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Presidential Numbers:

It happened to Andrew Johnson 15 times, and Ford and Truman 12 times each. It never happened to LBJ, even though there were many opportunities, and it only happened to Cleveland twice, despite hundreds of opportunities. It couldn’t have happened to 8 Presidents, starting with John Adams and running through George W. Bush. What is […]

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Oscar Records:

Besides the upset for Best Picture at last night’s Oscars, the awards were also notable in that the Best Picture winner (Crash) only won in three categories (Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing). What was the last Best Picture winner not to win more than three Oscars? Besides Crash, no other movie this year […]

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Some Oscar Trivia:

What two people won Oscars for portraying the same character in two different movies? What two people were nominated for Oscars for portraying the same character in the same movie? (There are two sets of answers to this one.)

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Actors:

An easy one. What do these actors have in common? Warren Beatty Kevin Costner Clint Eastwood Mel Gibson Robert Redford

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