Thursday, February 12, 2009

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 8): What is the Country? What are the Synonyms?

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 8): What is the Country? What are the Synonyms??:
Q: Take the name of a country, interchange two consecutive letters. Add an 'e' after the fifth letter. The result will be two synonyms, one after the other. What is the country, and what are the synonyms?
Anyone notice that the language of this country sounds like another synonym?

Edit: The language is Finnish, a homonym for "finish".
A: FINLAND --> FINAL, END
Posted by Blaine at 1:15 PM
Labels: , ,

37 comments:

  1. It took a while, but using a list of countries I finally got it. (Apropos of nothing, when you go to the symphony, the conductor may ask you to turn off your cell phone.)
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  2. Why won't that guy just leave us alonen?
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  4. For you Monty Python fans, it's the country where you want to be.
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  5. I'm slow today, and the upshot is that I don't have much of a clue.
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  6. Yngvai, thanks for the clue.

    Ben, now I understand your clue.

    Blaine, the language that they speak in that country is rather fishy.
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  7. Great clues, guys! Dave's clue about the language especially helped me figure out the answer. This is the first 2009 NPR puzzle that I've solved on my own.
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  8. This could be the last time I do a Sunday puzzle as they are either too difficult or too easy.
    By the way Blaine, when are you going to give us the Christmas puzzle answers. We are soon getting to new holidays??
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  9. This puzzle reminds me of a composer.
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  10. Thanks for the clues. This puzzle reminded me that Jimmy Buffet tickets go on sale Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. Phoenix is as close as he gets to Kansas City this tour but I'm there!
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  11. Cookieface, the answer to the Christmas puzzle has been there for quite some time now.

    Look in the yellow box in the upper right corner where it says ANSWER.
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  12. Natasha, Me too! And, you probably got my reference to a certain symphony conductor.
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  13. THanks Blaine--I never looked in the right spot
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  14. lorenzo, not sure my composer is the same as the conductor. Curious
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  15. danpendry, glad to be of assistance.
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  16. I recently took on a bigger than average framing project; I guess I forfeited any right to claim I'm not that kind of carpenter...

    Hopefully next job will involve more detail work.

    What? Oh. You want a clue... Okay. When I was in school I typically got a very bad grade in geography. Guess that's why I'm having a hard time with this one...
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  18. While thinking about names of countries for this puzzle, I discovered another neat country puzzle:

    Take the name of a country; replace the first letter with two consonants to form back to back words. The second word that you are left with is both a description of the first word, as well as a synonym of the first word (if you drop the the last letter of the first word).

    I think that is enough information for you guys to solve it pretty easily, but if I'm wrong, I'll drop some more revealing hints later in the week.
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  19. Natasha, I assumed your composer was the one who died in 1957. Mine is very much alive, although he will soon be retiring as a conductor to devote more time to composing. His young successor has already achieved "rock star" status in the classical music world.
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  20. lorenzo, yes you are correct regarding my composer. Not sure about your composer though.
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  21. Okay, must be my turn to say Geri! Where are you?
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  22. carl, Alive and well. I hope this
    one comes to me before the deadline.
    Nice to be missed, thanks.

    Re the bombshell Liane Hansen said:
    "We received more than 1800 entries
    this time."
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  23. Natasha, it might help to know that I live in the Los Angeles area and have seen this conductor in person.
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  24. Geri, read my clues. Pretty revealing...

    You could even say your last post contains a reasonably good clue to the answer.

    I didn't manage to get intrigued enough by last week's puzzle to try hard to figure it out.
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  25. If anyone hasn't figured out the answer to this week's puzzle yet and you're a devotee of the N.Y. Times crossword puzzle, think about the four letter first name of an architect. The Times uses this clue pretty frequently and the answer should lead you to this week's puzzle answer.
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  26. I re-read all the clues and I GOT IT!
    THANK YOU everyone.

    Answer submitted to NPR.
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  27. Nothing to do with anything. But. Watch Frozen River. Love it when a group of creative women show the rest of the industry how to make a great movie. Nytol.
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  28. First off, couldn't agree more about Frozen River --I've been recommending it to everyone since I saw it back and August and was delighted the Academy managed to get something right this year (as well as giving Richard Jenkins a nomination).

    Anyway, regarding the bonus puzzle I suggested earlier, I'll give a further clue:

    Of the two letters added (to replace the first letter of a country's name), the second letter is an "h".
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  29. Natasha, My Finnish conductor/composer was Esa-Pekka Salonen of the L.A. Phil. (The Finnish cell phone referred to in the same post was a Nokia.)
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  30. Lorenzo, Yes, I realized that. My clue was the Finnish composer Sibelius who wrote Finlandia.
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  31. And my "fishy" clue referred to the language being Finnish. The four letter first name of an architect is Eero (Saarinen), a frequently used N.Y. Times crossword puzzle clue.

    David, I'm still trying to figure out your puzzle.
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  32. Alright, another hint for my puzzle:

    The country's name is 8 letters (one word).

    After substituting the first letter with two different letters (the second letter added is an "h"), you will form a six-letter word and a three-letter word in succession.

    The three-letter word describes the appearance of the six-letter word. Also, if you remove the last letter of the six-letter word, the new (five-letter) becomes a synonym of the three-letter word.

    I hope those hints were tailored well enough to help you a little bit.
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  33. And... coincidentally, the country is actually one of the two countries for which the six/five-letter word gets its name (although it is probably more associated with that country's most prominent neighbor).
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  34. *from which* (not for which)
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  35. David, you finally forced me to look up "pink" as it is/was used in the military. I needed your last hint.
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  36. David, I got the answer. Thanks for the puzzle. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's puzzle from Will Shorts.
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  37. For those who are still interested, the answer to my puzzle was "PAKISTAN" -> "KHAKI(S)" & "TAN".

    Sorry for the late notice, but I was away from a computer all weekend.
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