Friday, May 22, 2009

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 17): Back to Words

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 17): Back to Words:
Q: Think of a 6-letter word in which the third letter is 'S'. Remove the 'S' and you'll be left with a 5-letter word that means the opposite of the 6-letter one. What is it?
For anyone that gave up on the difficult puzzle last week, don't worry. This week's puzzle is so easy that it sounds like NPR will be deluged with answers.

Edit: We have a synonym for "give up" and a homonym for "deluge".
A: RESIGN --> REIGN
Posted by Blaine at 12:30 PM
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75 comments:

  1. Here's my standard reminder... don't post the answer or any outright spoilers before the deadline of Thursday at 3pm ET. If you know the answer, click the link and submit it to NPR, but don't give it away here. Thank you.
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  2. 37? Oh, sorry! Wrong puzzle!

    Message to other Ben: In case you're still thinking about my question, think Vancouver Island.
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  3. Really? Every one of these word puzzles are so easy compared to last week's. In case you have trouble with this, consult a dictionary. Get online if you have to. Noone post the actual answer...pay attention to Blaine's reminder!

    --Jim
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  4. this puzzle is driving me batty. i need another clue.
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  5. NPR states that the six letter word in two syllables and the five letter word is one syllable.
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  6. ....really? oh wow, i missed that :P

    no i didn't. i meant another witty Blaine Puzzle Blog clue.
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  7. Ive poured over past weeks puzzles thinking this one was a repeat. Did the answer sound familiar to anyone else?
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  8. How topical, to have a Miss Universe-themed puzzle this week!

    -- Other Ben
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  9. Ben's clue leads me to believe I have the correct answer.
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  10. phredp- I've thought that the past 3 or so word puzzles seemed familiar. Since I feel older than dirt, it's entirely possible that they ARE repeats! (sorry, no clues here)
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  11. Even with May’s as well as after April’s, I have to keep putting back up that notice in my yard so that its message prevails: Support the Troops; End the War.
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  12. Too easy - perhaps Will ought to quit - he no longer rules !
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  13. Yes, this is essentially an repeat of a puzzle from several years ago. I can give you the exact info after the deadline.
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  15. Hi Geri! Gee, I feel so special! Someone misses me! I'm right here, in Seattle, where it, um, where the weather is not always so clement...

    Sunny today. Not a hint of, um, not-nice weather...

    Okay, I'm gonna quit this now.
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  16. I just get bored with number puzzles, generally. So I took a sabbatical, of sorts...

    I checked in several times but I was very quiet so you didn't know I was there.
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  17. Hey there,

    Blaine, how right you are--this took me a mere two minutes! Last week I was just about ready to say farewell to all @#$%^&* NPR puzzles, but now I feel in control once again!

    Take care,

    Wolfgang
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  18. And davejtaylor is right as well--this puzzle was so easy as to be suspicious. Perhaps Will Shortz already has passed the baton, and some ghostwriter is pulling the strings now. (Did you notice the NPR post didn't say who came up with this puzzle?)
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  19. I tape the NPR broadcasts and I checked this week's. No credit was given to whomever submitted this puzzle. "Only two hundred" answers
    were received for last week's puzzle.
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  20. Am I the only one who's stumped by this week's puzzle? Any more clues? Thanks much!
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  21. Dave, think homonyms. Think word association, with a certain city that's famous for its weather. This clue is so blatant it should be removed, and I should get out of the business of making clues, for good...
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  22. Wolfgang, my previous post was only meant for hints (and a bit obvious at that - thought I might get removed!) I think Will Shortz is great and understand he chooses to vary the level of challenge to please most of the people most of the time. (this post contains no hints)
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  23. Dave-I'm stumped too. Blaine's "sounds like" NPR clue might be helpful.
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  24. I'll risk a clue that might get removed (I won't be offended if it is). Both these words apply to Edward VIII.
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  25. BTW, Carl, I spent last week playing tourist in your fair city. Gorgeous place - very different from my native Denver.
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  26. Curtis, and today I'm working on the house of a friend who moved here from Denver. I've extensively remodeled everything but her basement, and soon I'll be doing that, and renting it from her. So, was it nice when you were here? Did you go see the troll?
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  27. Carl, I'll think about your hints while I'm gardening this afternoon. I know the city, I know the type of weather (hey, I'm in Eugene), but I don't know the word. I'll come up with it. Thanks!
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  28. Dave-Eugene is a great city. I'm still working on this one...Is the city you know "Better?"
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  29. Carl - didn't see the troll (didn't know about it). The weather was sunny some days, a little wet others. Saw the Space Noodle, Snoqualmie Falls, EMP/SciFi Museum, Boeing 777/787 plant, Pike Place Market, Port Townsend, and a beach. Quite the city you have there.
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  30. You could also apply this to the answer of last week's puzzle as he did the five letter word while in office but he NEVER did the six letter word...
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  31. Davejtaylor, I know you were only dropping hints there--and my reply was meant in the same vein!

    By the way, for Dave and whoever else may think they are stuck: Although Lorenzo had the wrong puzzle in mind, he wasn't that far off...

    Actually, if my guess is correct as to what puzzle Lorenzo was thinking of, 37 would be the only possible answer under the premise of that puzzle. Applied to the current puzzle, "37 = 37," so to speak.
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  32. No further delays in posting my answer. It took 37 and VII! Thanks for the clues.
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  33. JR, what do you mean by "Better?"
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  34. Dave, It's from an advertisement. I'm refering to where your city is- "It's Better In The ..." I also meant VIII (sorry Curtis) and not VII. I might add 37=III.
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  35. I actually came up with two sets of words but I submitted the one that fits into the clues you all have posted. The other set might have Paris HILTON as a clue although I might be the only person in the world that would see these two words as opposites. Care to guess? Vickie
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  36. Wolfgang,
    Your "guess" is correct. Thanks for noticing.
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  37. JR, is that 37 = one hundred and eleven or 37 = Roman Numberal 3?

    MLF, I don't think that those words are opposites, but it's a good try.
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  38. Dave-Roman Numeral III. I'm following Curtis and Lorenzo...
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  39. BINGO!!! Thanks for all of your help. I actually got the answer from Lorenzo's clue linking this week's puzzle to last week's. My problem was that I was thinking too literally about the climate in a certain city. The six letter answer is actually a heteronym, which means that it can be pronounced two ways just like wind/wind and attaches/attaches.

    I'll sleep better tonight knowing that I have the answer.
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  40. i got the HILTON one but that doesn't match the syllable clue so idk i have to keep thinking
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  41. No tourist trip to Seattle, that lasts for more than two or three days, is complete without a photo of you and your friends climbing on the Fremont Troll. Go to Google and click on the image tab and search "fremont troll," and you'll see what I mean. I have photos of my girlfriend, and a relative of hers who was visiting from Taiwan, sitting on the troll's hand, on my facebook page.
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  42. I wracked my brain so hard trying to get the answer that I'm quadraphrenic now.
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  43. For me it took awhile, but the "opposites" finally did attract.
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  44. I would just have to say I wouldn't "quit" looking for the right answer if you haven't got it already.
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  45. I just listened to a You TUBE Seals and Croft Summer Breeze -Live-LA -1974.
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  46. i got it! not too bad i was about to retire but i finally got this one under control.
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  47. One more cool Seattle tourism tip: Bhutan, the world's largest book, a collection of beautiful photographs of the title country, is on display at University of Washington's Suzzallo Library. It's worth going out of the way to see, or you could buy it from Amazon for $30,000.00. Read about it here: http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcoll/exhibits/bhutan
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  48. Blaine, Where are you? Did you
    resign?
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  49. Carl, how about the little tourist shop on the waterfront that has shrunken heads? That's a pretty cool Seattle attraction.
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  51. Oops! Almost forgot to post the answer. It's there now and yes, the answer is RESIGN --> REIGN.

    I like the hints towards #37 NIXON (resign) and the clues about rain (reign). Also Blue's clue about "putting back notices in her yard" was a fun way to hint at "re-sign".

    Oh, and Jim did the "initial letter" thing in his comment where each sentence starts with R-E-I-G-N respectively. I thought he gave it away later where he emphasized the word "initial" too much, so I deleted that comment.
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  52. Did anybody get my reference to being "quadraphrenic?"
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  53. Lovely re noting i) re - signs - - yes -- -- as well as ii) the implied May's and April's showers' homynym of ... rains ... and iii) prevail = synonym in several googled sites for reign.
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  54. ... and, additionally, iv) end (of the sign's message) = synonym for resign ... Blue
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  55. Dave, I got your reference to Love Reign O'er Me, from the Who album. But there's no second "r" in Quadrophenia.
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  56. Carl, you're definitely up on your tunes. I'm aware that there is no second "r" in Quadrophenia, but quadrophrenic sounds better than quadrophenic. I had an "a" where the "o" is supposed to be, but that's a different mistake.

    By the way, Quadrophenia is one of the greatest albums ever recorded. It's not quite as good as Who's Next, but it's excellent. The last chord in Love Reign O'er Me is one of the all-time greatest chords in rock and roll. It's up there with the last chord in The Beatles' A Day in the Life.
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  57. I just listened to Love Reign O'er Me from the last show on The Who's Amreican tour-Live at the Capital Centre in Largo, MD 12.06.1973. Eight months later in the summer breezes of 1974 Nixon (37) would resign.
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  58. I spent an inordinate amount of time listening to that album while lying on the floor with headphones on when I was a teenager. That one and Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall and a few others, including Sticky Fingers. I still think Can't You Hear Me Knocking is one of the very best songs the Stones ever recorded.
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  59. RESIGN--REIGN got only 850 correct
    answers.
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  60. This comment has been removed by the author.
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  61. New puzzle. Focus on the first name only. I had to look up the last name.
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  62. Where is everyone??? Finally got the answer!!!
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  63. I solved it; the price I paid is that I haven't left the house since Will asked the question!

    -- Other Ben
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  64. Is this person living or dead?
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  65. Too big a hint for a Monday, I think.
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  66. To solve this, focus on something other than Hollywood stars.
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  68. You could call this person a visionary, describe them as a farsighted individual. Despite the commonly held belief that this person died MANY years ago, they made their first of numerous appearances in a popular television show on January 5, 1967.
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  69. I've been listening to Queen and the Indigo Girls. It helped solve the puzzle this week.
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  70. On a(nother) Memorial Day and re (what should always be a legitimate) query, "male or female?" wha' … I mean, rillyrilly, wha'da'ya' think? What do you truly believe in your witchy brain of brains, the gender of this person to moooost liiiikely be?

    Study the flip / reverse – maxim of life's paragraph three of the biosketch of a popular encyclopedic entry and tell me if – ever – there could've been any truly inquisitive doubt as to this person's gender, knowing, as we all do, the short – sightedness of even scientific h i s tory.

    Know, too, that a philosophically contemporaneous colleague of and neighbor to this person publicly, loudly, repeatedly blathered the following, "Let them bear children for him till they DIE OF IT. They are there to do it."

    http://bluemAAs.public.iastate.edu
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  71. OJ has a connection to this person.
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  72. Blue,
    Isn't it interesting that the phrase "the mother of all" is usually followed by something negative (battles, scandals, pandemics, Ponzi schemes)while "the father of" denotes pioneering accomplishments, such as the many associated with this week's person.
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  73. Indeed, agreed, Lorenzo –– as interesting, at the least, as to how the scientific mama of all monkeys as well as the scientific papa of all monkeys sorta' approximates this particular Homo sapiens monkey ... well except for, come to think of it now, both of Mr Shortz's two – consonant – only and first – half – of – the – alphabet rules, not?

    At his minimum, however, the seven – letter first and last name thingy fits. heh. heh.
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  74. I think that August and Hawaii have a connection to this person too.
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  75. Golly gee! The person in question is one of those people like Cher or Fabio, but a person who often came close to repeating theirself/themself.

    Blue of Central Iowa, if you haven't already read John McWhorter's "Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue", you might be interested in his discussion of "the singular they" on pages 65-66.
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