Thursday, March 05, 2009

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 1): A Tale of Two Cities

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 1): A Tale of Two Cities:
Q: Take the phrase 'atlas of the world,' change the 'E' to an 'R,' and rearrange all the letters to name two cities that are closely related.
The puzzle implies an atlas of the world is required... but maybe not.

Edit: A U.S. atlas would suffice.
A: DALLAS, FORT WORTH

35 comments:

  1. Sit back and relax and you'll arrive at the answer.

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  2. That was the easiest puzzle yet, especially considering the number of x's.

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  3. I decided to celebrate St. David's Day by talking the barista at Borders into two extra froths as I worked my way through my cappuccino.

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  4. This puzzle reminded me of something I read not too long ago about what is possibly the dumbest response ever to a question on a quiz show. Question had to do with a pretty important event in American history...

    This might be an even better time, Blaine, for your IRS cleu, I mean cule... dang it! CLUE!

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  5. FWIW, I got this almost immediately!

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  6. i figured out the METROpolitan area -- it wasn't perPLEXing.

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  7. Re: Sin/stray ". . .we ONLY received
    just over 750 correct answes."

    I got this one in about fifteen minutes. Answer submitted.

    No "n" or "e" and cities with
    "w" or "f" in their names are scarce.

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  8. Howdy pardner-Long anagrams are tough for some. But cowboys make it easy.

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  9. Even the Oracle of Omaha from alongside that museum – like mausoleum advises a looooong world view out over his prairie as he certainly and most presciently knows, along with one of his starriest friends, Katharine Graham, that just as in Tennessee, this city’s 1916 (male, of course) mayor utterly and absolutely refused their ancestral colleagues, Ms Maud Younger and Ms Inez Milholland even a soapbox upon which to stand, let alone, a whole darn hall or building with an actual stage’s platform and podium from which to orate their own oracles.

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  10. I got this one very quickly. Maybe it's because I used to like to build play sites when I was a boy. Or maybe it's because I make a lot of airline connections.

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  11. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  12. last comment should have been deleted!!

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  13. Timmy, we're not supposed to give the answer away, but hints are acceptable. Can you please remove your post? Thanks.

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  14. This one took me about a minute to figure out, even before Timmy gave it away. Buffalo Springfield knew what they were singing about. I don't understand the clues about baristas (Hugh) and x's (three humans).

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  15. what color was george washington's WHITE horse?

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  16. Alan Jackson would have been proud of my last clue!

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  17. Dave, do you have any ex's as sung by George Straight?

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  18. I never did figure out who shot J.R.

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  19. Don't believe J.R. was shot by only one gunman! It was a conspiracy.

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  20. As a boy, one of my favorite football coaches was Tom Landry. I hate to admit it, but I also purchased toys at Woolworths.

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  21. It is somewhat fortuitous that the initials in my name are JWR. One of my former co-workers first name is directly related to radiohead and carl's comments.

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  22. MLF, thanks for explaining that to me. By the way, to what do we owe the pleasure of all the new participants in the past couple of weeks? We must have half a dozen new people.

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  23. I noticed that too, Dave. Anyone care to share how they heard about this site?

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  24. I have known about this site for over 26 fortnights. I just had trouble posting comments. I finally signed on to Google Account instead of Live Journal. Thanks for all the previous help. It has definately been worthwhile. JR in Bellingham, WA

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  25. Au, Natasha, … golden be the query as many of us evolve as beasts from Earth’s earliest common moment, its Cryptic Era (er, CE), thereby safely emerging online here at blainesville by way of self – crypsis. Others of us? Fairly committed to lexiconical correctness re us beasts’ evolution: ie, flipped / reversed, how would I feel about … any … (puzzles’) answers?

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  26. I was unsure of the "in-tray" answer because I've always known it as an "in-box" so I Googled to see if anyone else was working on it. I've returned several times since my initial visit. I've enjoyed reading the hints. Vickie in Clearwater, FL

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  27. I too found this site while looking for hyphenated office products (in-tray..never heard of that!). anyway I was reading the past posts and liked what I read so I returned..Happy solving!

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  28. Thanks for chiming in, newbies. I discovered Blaine's Blog a few months ago when I was googling an answer to Will's puzzle.

    JR, I used to live in Oak Harbor, which isn't too far from you. Bellingham was the closest "big city" so we used to go up there every few months. My kids loved Tube Time when they were little, especially the purple slide.

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  29. Dave, It's just the same-old-same-old. Play with the awkward phrase centered on the magic letter for a half baked answer which doesn't give the whole thing away.

    Last Sunday, St. David's Day, is to Wales what
    St. Patrick's Day is to the Ireland, a time to hoist a cup of some kind to and to provide cover for some nonsense.

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  30. Dave-Tube Time is no longer...However a new venue opened off of Guide Meridian Road. It's called Jump Zone. There are a lot of inflatable climbing, sliding and jumping structures. The businees is up for a new small business of the year award. My 4 year olds love it.

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  31. JR, sorry to hear about the demise of Tube Time, but I'm sure that it was getting a little antiquated. Sounds as if you have a good replacement. If my memory serves me correctly, isn't Guide Meridian where Costco is located? There's a little brewpub off of Guide Meridian on the other side of the freeway from Costco that I remember, but I forget the name.

    Hugh, I've actually been to St. David's, Wales. It's located at the very southwest tip of the country. I was there at this time of year many years ago and it was cold, wet and windy. Visiting remote castles in that kind of weather is pretty cool, though, because I was imagining what it would have been like to have lived in those castles in those conditions centuries ago.

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  32. March 8 puzzle: Will said this one might be too easy. I agree but it's fun--especially for all the freely verbalizing Blaine bloggers.

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  33. Geri, I agree. The real challenge this week will be to come up with some creative hints (not that any are needed).

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  34. Two easy! Okay, a hint. One of the words in the answer is a homonym of one of the words in the puzzle's clues. Beyond that, I just can't manage to articulate... I mean, my vocabulary just fails me...

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For NPR puzzle posts, don't post the answer or any hints that could lead to the answer before the deadline (usually Thursday at 3pm ET). If you know the answer, submit it to NPR, but don't give it away here.

You may provide indirect hints to the answer to show you know it, but make sure they don't assist with solving. You can openly discuss your hints and the answer after the deadline. Thank you.