Unscramble: Decipher each of the anagrams at the right into an ordinary English word, writing one letter in each box. Then arrange the circled letters to reveal what the difference is between a rapidly moving domestic pet and a sneaky rodent. Give yourself extra credit if you can identify the type of wordplay this exemplifies.

What’s That You Say?: The paragraph and rhyme to the right fall into a category of wordplay their author calls “Furry Tells and Noisier Rams.” (YOPE¹ will identify the author and the tome from which these were borrowed in a future issue, along with the solution.) Your task right now is to render it into plain English simple enough for a child to understand:

From the Triskaidekaahobe’s Almanac: Former Intelligencer Editor, Dean Howard, poses the following two questions… 1)Friday the 13^th happened three times in 1998 — in February, March, and November. What will be the next year in which no month contains a Friday the 13^th? 2)What is the largest number of months that can pass without a Friday the 13^th? To which YOPE adds the following third question: 3)Same as question #2, but what is the largest number of days between consecutive Friday the 13^ths (not including either one)?

A GREAT Puzzle: This puzzle was sent to me in early September by Geoff Wilkie, who appears to have received it from an Ed Boyno. There was no solution included, and between trying to keep the SFRM@KTEH! events going, doing shows at the local theater (tech only—I’m no actor), dealing with a geriatric car that finally died permanently, attending a 35^thhigh school reunion in Baltimore, and going to work, I quite frankly haven’t had time to sit down and figure it out myself. So I’m going to throw it open to all you puzzle mavens out there. The first person to get a valid solution back to me gets his/her name in my next column. No deadline.

a and b are integers. a>1, b>1, a+b≤100. S is told the sum of a and b and P is told their product. The following dialogue takes place:

What are the values of a and b?