Lion
by Wei-Hwa Huang, Emily Cox & Henry Rathvon, Frank Longo, Patrick Berry
Answers: DOLPHIN, FUMES, TAU
Each image contains a letter (occasionally two) from a magazine logo.
Step 1: Identify the set of magazines represented. To help this, the article titles on the bottom are humorous cryptic-charade-style misinterpretations of the magazine title, often taking liberty with word spacing. The article titles are in alphabetical order by magazine title, which should help with getting the full list.
Step 2: For each image, figure out which magazine it comes from. The specific issue of the magazine is never relevant. The image cropping has often been strategically chosen to help the solver by showing parts of surrounding letters.
Step 3: As hinted by the phrase "The next character" in the flavor text, the solver has to figure out what the next letter after the depicted letter is in each magazine title:
Char. | Next | Magazine | Clue | Explanation |
---|---|---|---|---|
O | P | O, The Oprah Magazine | Everyone Reading This Gets a Car! | refers to Oprah's giveaway of 276 free cars on her show on Sep. 13, 2004 (and again in Nov. 2010) |
R | A | National Geographic | Domestic Earth-Based Informational Image | national = domestic; geo = prefix for earth; graphic = informational image |
& | G | Better Homes & Gardens | Joneses' Mansions: Where the Grass Is Greener | "Keeping up with the Joneses" and "The grass is greener" are common aphorisms for feeling like others are better than you |
IP | E | Allrecipes | Different Ways to Make Henkel Laundry Detergent | "All" is a brand of laundry detergent purchased by Henkel from Unilever in 2016 |
E | W | The New Yorker | Baby Born in Modern-Day Eboracum | Eboracum is the Roman name for the British city currently known as York |
L | I | Cooking Light | Heating Up Photons | light is made out of photons |
É | T | Bon appétit | A Small Siesta With Diddley and Derek | Bo = Diddley and Derek; nap = siesta; petit = French for small |
S | H | Men's Health | Strength of the Roman Goddess of Mind | Mens = the Roman goddess of the the mind |
P | L | People | Sounds Like an Opening for Spies | homophone of "peephole" |
D | I | Discover | Insult Your Lid | dis = slang term meaning insult; cover = lid |
V | O | Teen Vogue | Hamasaki's 2000 Double-Platinum Is Almost Twenty Years Old | "Vogue" is the title of the only Ayumi Hamasaki single from 2000 to hit double platinum but not a million; "teen" refers to an age more than 12 but less than 20 |
E | N | National Enquirer | The Man Who Asks Alamo and Enterprise About Their Partner | Alamo, Enterprise, and National are all rental car agencies owned by the same company |
E | P | Guideposts | A Sherpa Starts a Blog | sherpas are well known for being guides; posts = verb meaning to add an entry to a blog |
S | H | Shape | Circle, Square, or Triangle? | these are names of geometric shapes |
S | D | Reader's Digest | Lector's Use of Hydrochloric Acid | a lector is a person who reads; hydrochloric acid is the main chemical used in stomachs to digest food |
L | I | Life | Famous Cellular Automata | Life is the name of a famous set of rules for cellular automata invented by John Horton Conway in 1970 |
I | N | Game Informer | Preduckduckgoosevious | "game" in "former", where "game" = "duck duck goose" and "former" = "previous" |
N | T | Entertainment Weekly | Sunday Comics | Sunday comics = a section in most newspapers that provides entertainment |
T | H | Health | Hit Points | "hit points" is a metric often used in video games to represent an entity's health |
L | I | Southern Living | Evading Death in Australia | Australia literally means "southern" in Latin |
D& | S | Field & Stream | Catch a Baseball Live on the Internet | field = specific baseball activities that include catching; stream = term for downloading data on the Internet |
W | W | Weight Watchers | Ballast Monitors | weight = ballast; watchers = monitors |
M | E | Time | Beyond the Third Dimension | time is often called "the fourth dimension" |
R | E | Esquire | An Apprentice Knight for the Twenty-First Century | E = electronic (common prefix for 21st century technology); squire = apprentice knight in the Middle Ages |
C | K | Jack and Jill | Hill Climbing Comes With Mishaps | Jack and Jill are nursery rhyme characters who had a mishap when climbing a hill |
E | S | ESPN The Magazine | Unknown Integer Has Psychic Powers | ESP = type of psychic power; N = unknown integer (in mathematics) |
I | N | Martha Stewart Living | Mickey Mantle Jr.'s Babysitter Is Alive | Martha Stewart was actually the babysitter for Mickey Mantle Jr. |
O | Y | Playboy | Let's Stream Taika Waititi's 2010 Movie | play = verb meaning to show a movie; Boy = name of 2010 movie directed by Taika Waititi |
N | T | Seventeen | Sudoku With the Fewest Given Numbers | seventeen is the fewest number of given numbers that can be in a Sudoku that still has a unique solution |
B | M | WebMD | Home of the Old Line Spiders | MD = abbreviation for Maryland, nicknamed "The Old Line State" |
E | A | House Beautiful | The Vainest Family in Westeros | families in Westeros (the land in the TV show Game of Thrones, based on the books "A Song of Ice and Fire") are often called "House [Name]" |
H | G | HGTV Magazine | Wells on the Small Screen | H.G. Wells = famous author; "small screen" = slang term for television (TV) |
R | S | Harper's | The Estate of Camille and Kennerly Kitt | Camille Kitt and Kennerly Kitt are famous harp players |
H | O | Taste of Home | Garish and Old Fashioned (Since Your Parents Are There) | "taste" in the sense of "critical judgment" |
O | L | Rolling Stone | Oliver Unexpectedly Watching Rick Astley Video | Oliver Stone is a famous movie director; showing someone the Rick Astley video for "Never Gonna Give You Up" when they don't expect is an Internet prank called "Rickrolling", or sometimes "rolling" for short |
E | V | Prevention | Letting Some Fresh Air In Before You Need It | pre = prefix meaning "done before"; vention = playful way to say "using an (air) vent" |
C | E | Reminisce | Ex-Scientologist Leah Is Not Lawful Good | "Remini's CE": Leah Remini is a famous ex-Scientologist; 's is an abbreviation for is; CE is a Dungeons & Dragons abbreviation for Chaotic Evil, an opposite alignment to Lawful Good |
M | A | marie claire | Curie and Danes | Marie Curie is a famous scientist; Claire Danes is a famous actor |
N | C | Essence | Quiddity | synonym |
A | R | Parents | When Dad Can't Afford to Buy His Own House | Pa = Dad; rents = alternative to buying a house |
M | O | Glamour | Thousand-Dollar French Love | g = slang term for a thousand dollars; l'amour = French word for love |
S | S | Bloomberg Businessweek | 7 Days of Work With Ex-NYC Mayor Michael | Michael Bloomberg was mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013 |
LI | T | Cosmopolitan | All About Pink Vodka-Based Cocktails | a cosmopolitan is the name of a pink vodka-based cocktail |
S | I | Sports illustrated | Drawings of Mutant Humans | infrequently used definition of sport = an individual who is abnormal, usually through mutation |
I | C | The Atlantic | From South Georgia to Iceland | South Georgia is an island in the South Atlantic; Iceland is an island in the North Atlantic |
C | W | Macworld | Ronald the Clown's Planet | Ronald McDonald is the mascot of McDonald's, a restaurant chain that often prefixes their products with "Mc" |
T | O | Motor Trend | Using Reluctance to Generate Torque for Higher Power Density | the title describes the functioning of a reluctance motor; a design that was not viable before the 21st century but is becoming more popular in recent years |
I | R | Wired | Bush (the Younger) Gets Angry | "W ired": W = nickname for George W. Bush, the younger U.S. President with the name Bush; ired = became angry |
A | D | Architectural Digest | Using Wright and Gehry's Stomachs | Frank Lloyd Wright and Frank Gehry are famous architects; stomachs digest |
A | S | Fast Company | Making Friends at a Hunger Strike | fast = not eating (a property of hunger strikes); company = making friends |
V | G | TV Guide | Once an Ellice Islands Tour Leader | the Ellice Islands were a British colony in modern-day Tuvalu, which has the two-letter country code "tv" |
A | X | Maxim | Up to 999 but No More | max = abbreviation for maximum; IM = incorrect but common way to write 999 in roman numerals |
M | A | Mad | The Haters of Inspector Gadget | the main organization who worked against Inspector Gadget is named M.A.D. |
A | N | Smithsonian | Jaden and Willow Get a Piggyback Ride From Gandalf | "Smiths on Ian": Jaden and Willow are famous siblings named Smith; Ian McKellen has portrayed the fictional character Gandalf multiple times |
D | D | Car and Driver | What Uber Gets You | Uber is a ride-hailing company that connects customers with a car and driver |
S | T | Costco Connection | A Street Joining Cobalt and Colorado | Co = cobalt (chemical symbol); st. = street; CO = Colorado (postal abbreviations) |
F | A | Vanity Fair | Dressing Table Showcase | vanity = dressing table; fair = showcase |
O | P | Popular Mechanics | Deck Building and Worker Placement | these are mechanics used in tabletop gaming that started in the mid 2000s and are still popular today |
E | P | Consumer Reports | A Diner Turns the Boat Widdershins (Again) | diner = consumer; again = prefix "re"; turning a boat widdershins = turning to port |
S | L | Boys' Life | Cereal for Mikey (and Other Male Kids) | "Mikey" was a famous character in an ad for Life cereal that ran in the 1970s and 1980s |
T | Y | InStyle | Newsreaders Find Fashion Articles Here | the "style" section of a newspaper is usually where fashion articles are |
A | A | AAA living | The Best Kind of Surviving | "AAA" in the sense of a rating |
D | B | Redbook | The Communist Manifesto | red is associated with socialism (and, by extension, communism) |
M | O | Money | One in My Heart | "one" in the heart of the word "my" |
E | V | MIT Technology Review | Industry Has Transhumanist Future? Pshaw! | the title is a (short) technology review, that happens to have the acronym IHTFP, implying that it is from MIT |
E | E | Good Housekeeping | Fresh Towels and a Chocolate on Your Pillow | hotel hospitality staff is often called "housekeeping" |
L | F | Self | Santa's Helpers Sure Are Small | s = abbreviation for "small"; elf = Santa's helper |
O | O | Birds & Blooms | Tits and Asters | tits are a type of bird; asters are a type of flower |
U | R | Allure | Setting a Trap for Vice President Gore | a "lure" for "Al" Gore |
R | T | Fortune | Melody's Sake | for = preposition indicating purpose; tune = melody |
G | H | Highlights for Children | Transparent Markers That Won't Stain Your Walls | highlighters = markers that draw in transparent ink |
A | R | Card Player | Where You Can Load the "Ender's Game" Audiobook | "Ender's Game" was written by Orson Scott Card; audiobooks are often loaded on MP3 players |
S | E | Sunset | Alien From the Stars | suns = stars; E.T. = alien (short of extra-terrestrial) |
S | E | This Old House | Hugh Laurie Gets On in Years | Hugh Laurie played the character Gregory House in the TV show "House" |
L | A | Popular Science | The Field of Bill Nye | Bill Nye is a famous science popularizer |
O | N | Ebony | Ecstasy: Not Enough Fat? | E and ecstasy = slang term for the drug MDMA; bony = description of one who doesn't have enough fat |
N | S | Woman's Day | March Eighth for Just One Person | March 8th is International Women's Day; "Woman" is the singular form of "Women" |
E | W | Newsweek | Compass Points to 7 Days | NEWS = compass points |
E | E | The Economist | About Ebenezer Scrooge | Ebenezer Scrooge is a fictional miser; stingy people are often said (euphemistically) to be "economic" |
O | R | Forbes | The Sound of Loud Balls | f = abbreviation of forte, used in music to mean loud; orbs = balls; "the sound of" means that this is a homophone |
U | S | Us Weekly | Every Seven Days in America | U.S. = abbreviation for United States (often called America) |
Doing this yields the string: PAGE WITH LION PHD IN THIS WEEKS NYT MAG SOLVE ACROSTIC WORDS G X AND T APPLY ABOVE FOR THREE ANSWERS
Step 4: Follow those instructions. The January 19th, 2020 New York Times Magazine had a variety puzzle page that contained a Spelling Bee by Frank Longo, a Switchbacks puzzle by Patrick Berry, a logic puzzle by Wei-Hwa Huang, and an acrostic by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon.
The solver's hint to stop at that page, in addition to the fact that there are puzzles on it, is that the Spelling Bee puzzle's letters read out LION PHD. (This is abnormal, as usually in a Spelling Bee puzzle, the letters around the outside are in alphabetical order clockwise, starting at the top.)
The solver should start at the acrostic, which will end up having a cute quote about lions, further confirming that they are on the right track. The answer words for G, X, and T on the acrostic are PANGRAM, DIAGONAL, and SEVENS.
The solver should also solve the three puzzles on top.
Every Spelling Bee puzzle has a "pangram" answer, which is a single word that uses all seven letters. For this puzzle, the pangram is DOLPHIN.
When the Switchbacks grid is completed, the diagonal reading from upper-left to lower-right spells out the word FUMES.
After the Walls puzzle is solved, the solver should look at all the sevens in the grid, and connect all those that "see" each other. Doing so draws the letter shapes T, A, and U.
Those are the three answers to this puzzle: DOLPHIN, FUMES, and TAU.