ArcaMax

Below is a (very) short story with 8 capitalized words or phrases which are anagrams of words that all fit in a certain category. Can you find the anagrams and determine the category?

An old car, which was REGAL BLACK, was traveling on a road named LONE OLD WAY. There were two people in the front seat. The man said, "We're going to the office. IT'S NEAR BRAD'S BAR. The new car gives A FASTER RIDE than normal, but I OWE DAN A LOT, as I've paid ONLY NORM, MARIE. I filled out the REBATE REPORTS, but they came back with a note that said, 'REDO FOR DR. BRET.'"

The following sentences have two blanks that can be filled with two words that are anagrams of each other. Can you figure out those words?

1. The burglar had __________ the entire apartment, and it seemed locating even one clue of his identity would be impossible. However, the skilled detective needed but a few __________ of the burglar's torn jeans to start the process of finding the perpetrator.

2. The construction boss sent Jim to the store for more __________. After an hour of Jim being gone, the boss remarked, "It's a good thing Jim is a hard worker because that boy is as slow as a __________.

3. What started out as a peaceful march turned into complete __________ and the National...

Do you know what the following abbreviations mean?

COM DRA ADV ACT SPO MUS HOR SCI

In the four sentences below, are two blanks. You must fill them in with words that are either anagrams, synonyms, antonyms, or homonyms. You can only use each of these one time each sentence. Can you figure out each word?

1. The golfer has yelled out "____" ____ times today.

2. They began to ____ scones, and drink ____.

3. She used one ____ to look down at her wrist and see her ____.

4. He ran ____ the dog in order ____ not get bitten by it.

For each of the following clues, what is a synonym that contains the letters in the () consecutively?

1. A talk (LEC)
2. A challenge between 2 or more people (CON)
3. To sign up (REG)
4. An organization established to help the needy (TY)
5. To talk (CATE)
6. In charge (SPON)
7. Place (CA)

Fred, who owns a restaurant, is convinced that one of his employees is stealing root beer from him. Since he is a bad businessman, he doesn't keep very good records of his inventory or his employees, so he doesn't know who is doing it. He decides to set a trap to find out who is stealing from him.

He assigns each of his employees a different night to close up shop. He then arranges the last 28 bottles of root beer in a square so that each side has nine bottles, as shown below:

2 5 2
5 0 5
2 5 2

Fred figures that whatever day he comes in where there are no longer nine bottles to a side, he will know it was the person who closed the night before who is doing it.

...

A sundial is the timepiece with the fewest moving parts. Do you know which timepiece has the most?

Someone has stolen Beethoven's Wig and has put it in one of four locked boxes. The boxes are numbered from 1,2,3,4 in that order. There are four different keys that each has their own color. Use the clues below to figure out which key goes in which box and to find the box where Beethoven's wig is being kept.

1. The green key goes to the third or fourth box
2. The wig is to the left of the fourth box
3. The wig is to the right of the first box
4. The yellow key is to the left of the wig
5. The blue key is to the right of the yellow key and to the left of the green key
6. The red key goes to the first box

7 dogs were boarding at the local Pet Lodge: Beau, Duke, Fluffy, Lady, Princess, Rover, and Spike. Each dog was in a separate run, all in a single row. One of the employees left the cages unlocked and the dogs have all gotten out of their runs. She needs to put each of them back in the right cage, but this is all she remembers. Can you help her get them into the right cages?

1. Spike doesn't like other dogs much, so he was on one of the ends.
2. Princess was somewhere to the left of Beau.
3. Rover was in the third run from the right.
4. The only dog between Fluffy and Lady was Princess.
5. Duke was directly to the left of Lady.

In a far-off kingdom, it is well known that the only way to counteract being poisoned is to drink a stronger poison, in order to neutralize the weaker one. Long ago, the king who ruled this kingdom wanted to ensure that he possessed the strongest poison in the kingdom, to ensure that he could counteract any attempts on his life.

So the king called the royal treasurer and the kingdom's best pharmacist. He gave each the task of concocting the strongest poison possible within one week. At the end of this week, each of the two men would drink the other's poison, followed by his own -- whoever survived, succeeded.

The pharmacist went straight to work, but the treasurer knew he had no ...

After recent events, Question Mark is annoyed with his brother, Skid Mark. Skid thought it would be funny to hide Question's wallet. He told Question that he would get it back if he finds it. So, first off, Skid laid five colored keys in a row. One of them is a key to a room where Skid is hiding Question's wallet. Using the clues, can you determine the order of the keys and which is the right key?

Red: This key is somewhere to the left of the key to the door.
Blue: This key is not at one of the ends
Green: This key is three spaces away from the key to the door (2 between)
Yellow: This key is next to the key to the door.
Orange: This key is in the middle.

I was going through some old family photos in the attic when I stumbled upon our family tree. I studied it for a couple minutes then went back down stairs to tell my mom about the family tree. The problem is I didn't study it long enough to remember the whole thing. I only remembered a couple things about it, and recent memories. Can you help me figure out my family tree? There are two grandparents, who had two children, who both got married and had 2 more children each. Totaling 10 people in all (Alex, David, Jamie, Jessica, John, Justin, Lincoln, Martha, Mary and Tina).

1. One of Jamie's ancestors was David.
2. John's sister gave birth to Tina.
3. Mary went bowling with her...

You have a four-liter jug and a nine-liter jug. You also have a pool of water.

What is the fewest number of steps it takes to come up with exactly 6 liters of water?

(A step is defined as pouring water into a jug. For instance, filling the four-liter jug and emptying it into the nine-liter jug would be two steps.)

Doria, Libby, Robb, TJ, and Vinny searched the lost and found table. By the time they finished, two gloves (one red, one blue), a blue hat, a striped sweater, and one pair of black sneakers had all made it back to their original owners. Each of the students found one of these missing items.

1. Libby and TJ both found something with red in it.
2. TJ and Doria each found a glove.
3. Vinny was the only one to walk off with something in each hand.

What items did each person find at the lost and found table?