Changing States (Solution)

by Charles Steinhardt, Robyn Speer, and David Roe

All of these clues have been transformed by some operation. Apply the same operation to the answer to get the name of an administrative division (state, province, etc.) of a country.

  • ALMEFTEMAINGRMMASUPIAL → LEAF EATING MARSUPIAL (move the third letter to the beginning, add an M in the new third spot) → KOALA → AKMOLA, Kazakhstan
  • SUSUSUALALALABORORODENT → USUAL LAB RODENT ("stutter" the beginning of the word) → RAT → ARARAT, Armenia
  • STECKYRECECEKEFREMJEPAN → STICKY RICE CAKE FROM JAPAN (first vowel changes to E) → MOCHI → MECHI, Nepal
  • WALKOKOWITHOHODIFFICULTYOYO → WALK WITH DIFFICULTY (change end from ? to ?O?O) → LIMP → LIMPOPO, South Africa
  • HEADGEARXOROFNANDMEDIEVALORKNIGHTSNOT → HEADGEAR OF MEDIEVAL KNIGHTS (append logic gates) = HELM → HELMAND, Afghanistan
  • OETYLEETLWHETEMETTTETAWITETNUNIETDSTAETS → ONLY LEGAL WHITE MEAT TUNA WITHIN UNITED STATES (change third-to-last and second-to-last letters to ET) → ALBACORE → ALBACETE, Spain
  • CHOLDEDCHORTILLACHITHCHILLING → FOLDED TORTILLA WITH FILLING (change first letter to CH) → TACO → CHACO, Argentina
  • MAOWHPSIOGSHEZYEYAAEYAAAEYAEYAA → MAN WHO SINGS HEYYEYAAEYAAAEYAEYAA (increment third letter) → HEMAN → HENAN, China
  • GNIKCALHTGNERTSOTEHTEMASTNETXE → LACKING STRENGTH TO THE SAME EXTENT (spell each word backward) → AS WEAK → SA KAEW, Thailand
  • MUOPEOMUTOEEMUFOOTWEAS → OPEN TOED FOOTWEAR (increment final letter and prepend MU) → SANDAL → MUSANDAM, Oman
  • GILBSULLIPIRA → GILBERT [AND] SULLIVAN PIRATES (remove last three letters) → PENZANCE → PENZA, Russia
  • RILOGYNANANACOREDNANANAYNANANAHILIPNANANALASSNANANA → TRILOGY SCORED BY PHILIP GLASS (drop first letter and add NANANA) → QATSI → ATSINANANA, Madagascar
  • UNIONEUROPEORAFRICABLOTASIA → UNION OR BLOT (append continent) → WESTERN → WESTERN AUSTRALIA, Australia
  • WHERECTHERUBYSUNPYTHONRISESSCHEME → WHERE THE SUN RISES (append programming language) → EAST JAVA, Indonesia
  • UNISOEGOLCPURITX → UNIT OF GOLD PURITY (decrement last letter) → KARAT → KARAS, Namibia
  • PARTPIOFOMICRONAALPHATRAINTAU → PART OF A TRAIN (append Greek letter starting with the same first letter as the word) → CAR → CARCHI, Ecuador
  • COUNTBYWIBHTBEMOBTPEOPBE → COUNTRY WITH THE MOST PEOPLE (change second-to-last letter to B) → CHINA → CHIBA, Japan
  • TNEDISERPFOTIM → PRESIDENT OF MIT (spell each word backward) → REIF → FIER, Albania
  • OPPOSITEELOFLASLESSLA → OPPOSITE OF LESS (append Spanish definite article) → MORE → MORELOS, Mexico
  • ATHIOIPIAIUNDEDJBOIUTIANIGHIBOR → ETHIOPIA AND DJIBOUTI NEIGHBOR (move first vowel to front, shift to previous vowel, insert I fourth from the end) → SOMALIA → ISMAILIA, Egypt
  • HIGENEVALLDOPARTICLEOYOUPHYSICSNGLONGALABBARDI → GENEVA PARTICLE PHYSICS LAB (surround the word with the name of a Celtics assistant coach) → CERN → LUCERNE, Switzerland
  • IONALFUNCTAMMERPROGRIBLYPOSSTHWIECHSPEIMENTIMPED → FUNCTIONAL PROGRAMMER POSSIBLY WITH SPEECH IMPEDIMENT (move second half of word to front) → LISPER → PERLIS, Malaysia
  • ISNGEIRBADUILRIOHCEIFEDEIN → SINGER ABDUL OR CHEF DEEN (move second letter to front, insert I before last letter) → PAULA → APULIA, Italy
  • FOLLOWDIORDSWRESTLGROBYCEANMELOGDBEATLNOTAMOTUAE → FOLLOWS WRESTLE AND BEATLE (insert an artificial human backward before the last letter) → MANIA → MANITOBA, Canada
  • ICTITIONALUBTISTANCERETIEZINGEBTIELMUTIGGLER → FICTIONAL SUBSTANCE FREEZING REBEL SMUGGLER (drop first letter, insert TI after two letters) → CARBONITE → ARTIBONITE, Haiti
  • ONISIANOTOILIOUCE → TUNISIAN HOT CHILI SAUCE (change first two letters to O) → HARISSA → ORISSA, India
  • ENNYEJORNENDEIMEUSICALE → BENNY BJORN AND TIM MUSICAL (drop first letter, append E) → CHESS → HESSE, Germany
  • GOLFNOARTOECORRIBEAN → GULF NEAR THE CARRIBEAN (change second letter to O) → MEXICO → MOXICO, Angola
  • OSSIBLTHENIANIMATEEERKA → POSSIBLY ATHENIAN ANIMATED MEERKAT (drop first and last letters) → TIMON → IMO, Nigeria
  • NATURBAPHOTOGRAPHEBAADAMBA → NATURE PHOTOGRAPHER ADAMS (change last letter to BA) → ANSEL → ANSEBA, Eritria
  • CHANBHETHREBLEOHRBHASS → CAN BE TREBLE OR BASS (insert H after first letter) → CLEF → CHLEF, Algeria
  • DEAPNAROWPASIJOARRAVEENBITWEENKLIFS → DEEP NARROW PASSAGE OR RAVINE BETWEEN CLIFFS (misspell words) → GORGE → GORJ, Romania
  • SOLDIBLOKCFOBREDA → SOLID BLOCK OF BREAD (swap last two letters) → LOAF → LOFA, Liberia

Take the first letters of the country names to spell KANSAS ACTOR MAINE JAMES MICHIGAN EARL. This is a transformation of the clue ACTOR JAMES EARL where you prepend a U.S. state to each word. The answer to the clue is JONES, so the person you want to recruit is INDIANA JONES.