Daily Brain Teaser: What's the Hidden Link?
A Friday "What Connects These?" challenge to sharpen your mind before the weekend
It's the last Friday of July, which means summer is winding down — but your brain doesn't get a vacation. Today we've got a "What Connects These?" puzzle. Each numbered set of five clues shares one hidden link. Figure out what ties each group together, then check your work below.
1. Compass, Skeleton, Master, Passe — what precedes all of these?
2. Everest, Fuji, Rushmore, Vesuvius, Kilimanjaro — what do these all have in common (besides being big)?
3. Monopoly, Clue, Risk, Battleship, Sorry! — what category do these all belong to, and what one company currently owns all of them?
4. Apple, BlackBerry, Orange, Peach — what do these four words have in common beyond being fruit?
5. Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, the Colosseum, the Statue of Liberty, the Taj Mahal — what do these five landmarks share that most people don't realize?
Hint: Think beyond the obvious "tourist attraction" answer for #5 — it's about how each one is actually structured or classified.
Answers
Key — compass key, skeleton key, master key, passkey.
Mountains — all are famous named mountains (Everest, Fuji, and Kilimanjaro are natural peaks; Rushmore and Vesuvius round out the set as a mountain and a volcano respectively — the shared thread is they're all iconic "mountains" people can name on sight).
Board games — Monopoly, Clue, Risk, Battleship, and Sorry! are all currently owned by Hasbro, which acquired them through two separate deals: it bought Milton Bradley in 1984 and Parker Brothers in 1991.
They're all also tech/telecom brand names — Apple (computers), BlackBerry (phones), Orange (telecom carrier), Peach (a budget airline) — the connection: fruit names borrowed by companies.
They're all technically "towers" or monuments with a lesser-known twin/replica somewhere else in the world — for example, there are full-scale or near-scale replicas of the Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower, and Taj Mahal built in other countries (Las Vegas, Tokyo, China, etc.).
(Stumped on a couple? That's the fun of it — send your best guesses to a friend and see who cracks it first.)