Blogscapes

OK...try this one:

My uncle's 70th birthday was last week. I got to meet up with some of my relatives when we gathered to celebrate. I saw my brother Bert, my sister-in-law Lena and auntie Tina as well as my half-cousin Flo. At the end of the evening, we toasted my uncle. What is his name?

Without mirrors, smoke, wires or any other tricks (we think), Kelli Marks has figured out that my uncle's name is LEN. How? Each person's name is contained in their title. (thus the name Daryl for the god of April Fool's Day.) Congratulations Kelli, and happy April to all!

As they say at the airport...this is your last and final puzzle.

Here it is:

A man wanted to encrypt his password but he needed to do it in a way that he could remember. His password is 7 characters long. The password consists of letters and numbers only (no symbols like ! or <). In order to remember it he wrote down "You force heaven to be empty." What is his password?

LENA DIBBLE of Salt Lake City...come on down!!!  Lena nailed it with the password U472BMT.

We may have to put up one more puzzle...

Check back at 3 central.

By changing the second letter of each word below, you can make another valid word. Can you change each word such that the second letters will reveal an eleven letter word when read downwards? (Therefore, what now reads AWPYRNUCEPA will be a real word.

Go!

BAKE
SWAP
OPAL
DYED
ARKS
SNOW
LUMP
ACES
MELT
SPUN
RANT

We have a winner for this one—Brent Pelloquin picks up $20 in iTunes for the answer: INVESTIGATE. The words now read:

BIKE
SNAP
OVAL
DEED
ASKS
STOW
LIMP
AGES
MALT
STUN
RENT

Another puzzle...your last chance at glory...appears here at 1pm central. Good luck!

This paragraph is unusual. How quickly can you find out what's so unusual about it? It looks so plain you would think nothing's wrong with it. In fact, nothing IS wrong with it! It is unusual, though. Study it, think about it, and you still may not find anything odd. But if you work at it a bit, you might find out. Try to do so without any coaching.

OK...this one went fast. Mark Schulte nabbed the prize on this one, although Derek Wacaster and Brent Pelloquin saw the fact that the most commonly used letter in the English language, E, does not appear anywhere in this paragraph.

Congrats to Mark for being speedy as well as right, and another puzzle goes up at 11:00 central time.

Snowed in...rummaging around the storeroom, we ran across some old equipment.

You'll notice that the controls are slightly different.

...not like that comes as a surprise. Enjoy this bit from the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Freeman performs "outtakes" from his new gig as CBS announcer.

(ps--if you're feeling a tad puritanical this might not be for you.)

The staff certainly enjoyed the impromptu peanut-butter tasting party earlier this week. It was hosted by our good friend, voice actor Athena Coleman. Cinnamon Raisin Swirl peanut butter? More, please!

But who would have guessed a brawl would break out over the best flavor?