Thursday, February 18, 2010

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb. 14, 2010): Anagramming Proust

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb. 14, 2010): Anagramming Proust:
Q: Take the name 'Proust,' as in Marcel Proust. Using these six letters, repeating them as often as necessary, spell a familiar bumper sticker with three words, 16 letters altogether. What bumper sticker is it?
This puzzle is so obvious it doesn't need a hint. Instead, I'm going back to watching the downhill heats. My two favorite skiers are currently tied for 4th place.

Edit: The hints were "tied" and "4th place". Typically one receives a yellow ribbon for a 4th place finish, but it is also a symbol in support of military troops away from home.
A: SUPPORT OUR TROOPS
Posted by Blaine at 12:00 PM
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34 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. Yes, this one seems to be the easiest puzzle in a long while. Evidently, only 400 answered Dave's correctly.

    Chuck
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  3. I'm glad this was an easy puzzle this week, cause my daughter's need my help selling their thin mints around the neighborhood..
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  4. Bumper stickers take private feelings to the general public.
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  5. The letters in this week's solution could be re-arranged such that they describe one's state after eating far too many new, but inferior quality, growths of germinating seed.
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  6. Although not any true Olympic spфrt, one forced - alone gender seems to have to be the one always expected to root, root, root for the home team: that which is the actual vast majority - sparring gender.

    And -- Worldwide over All of Time -- certainly NEVER ... The Flip / Reverse.
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  7. Buy Girl Scout cookies!

    Will never posted my name with last week's puzzle, but he posted it today along with the answer. Unfortunately, two of the five letters in my last name are incorrect.
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  8. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
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  9. It's nice to have the big group of people like this blog to get hints from and share my frustrations with on a weekly basis. Especially after last week which was such a tough one
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  10. Clifton Webb as John Philip Sousa (1952)
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  11. Well, we’ll just have to wait a whole week to found out the correct answer to the bumper sticker puzzle :) So here’s a foot bridge puzzle in the meantime...

    You come to a ravine over which there is a rickety foot bridge. It looks very unsafe. In the county across the ravine, only truth tellers and liars reside. You want to know if the bridge is safe so, of course, you'd like to ask a truth teller.

    You shout to the first man, A, "Are you a truth teller?" Unfortunately you can't hear his answer. Then the second man, B, shouts, "He said he was a truth teller." Finally, the third man, C, shouts, "No he didn't, he said he was a liar."

    Which man should you ask about the condition of the foot bridge?

    Chuck
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  12. Olympics and all, there is no country more patriotic that the United States of America--go USA!
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  13. Did anyone else think Gwen Tompkins really enjoyed doing the puzzle?

    Dave, Will said your name on air today.
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  14. Having some work done on the house, but thankfully not on a load-bearing wall.
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  15. Chuck - Are answers to be posted on the blog page or kept to oneself until a point at which you will ask for answers?
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  16. I have the answer to Chuck's puzzle, but I would point out that if you phrase the question correctly, you can ask any of the 3 men about the bridge.
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  17. Christian et al. –

    Fire at will!

    Chezedog –

    My question was, “Which man should you ask about the condition of the foot bridge?” I repeat, fire at will!

    All –

    Please explain your answer so that everyone can understand :)

    Chuck
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  18. Chuck,

    I think it may be a good idea to emphasize that a "truth teller" ALWAYS tells the truth, and a "liar" NEVER tells the truth. I don't know, would that make it too easy?
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  19. If man "A" was a truth teller then he said he was a truth teller. If he was a liar, then he said he was a truth teller. So man "B" is a truth teller.

    But, if you ask any of the men, "If I were to ask you if this bridge is safe, what would you say?" then you will get the same answer no matter which kind of man you ask.
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  20. To clarify, I meant that if the person concerned about the state of the bridge asks his question correctly, he can ask any of the men.

    I didn't mean to imply that Chuck didn't phrase his puzzle properly!
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  21. Here's my answer:

    In the county across the ravine, everyone who is asked the question, "Are you a truth teller?" will obviously answer "Yes". All truth tellers will answer truthfully. All liars will lie and claim that they are truth tellers. Therefore, you can't determine whether A is a truth teller or a liar.

    When B shouted out (referring to A), "He said he was a truth teller", B was telling the truth, since everyone would answer "Yes" to the original question.

    When C shouted out (also referring to A), "No he didn't, he said he was a liar", C was lying because no one could possibly answer "No" to the original question.

    Therefore, A's status remains uncertain, B is a truth teller, and C is a liar. So, you should ask B about the condition of the bridge.
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  22. To recap all the correct answers, you couldn't hear man A. However, if he was a liar, he would have said that he was a truth teller. And if he was a truth teller, he would also have said he was a truth teller.

    Therefore, man B was telling the truth and man C was lying. And since we don't know which man A is, my pick to have an in-depth conversation with concerning bridge conditions would be man B.

    Since we seem to have unstuck the bumper sticker, here’s another logic type of puzzle - this one a little more complicated - if you want to while away some hours ‘til Sunday.

    A train runs between New York and Chicago. The Brakeman, Engineer and Fireman are named Hurst, Giardina and Leuking, not necessarily in that order. Besides the crew, there are also three and only three passengers on the train: Mr. Hurst, Mr. Giardina and Mr. Leuking. One of the passengers lives in New York, one lives in Chicago and one lives halfway between New York and Chicago. Mr. Leuking lives in New York. The Brakeman lives halfway between New York and Chicago. Mr. Giardina earns exactly $20,000 per year. Hurst beat the Fireman at cards. The Brakeman's next-door neighbor, one of the passengers, earns exactly three times as much as the Brakeman. The passenger who lives in Chicago has the same last name as the Brakeman.

    What are the respective occupations of Hurst, Giardina and Leuking?

    Again, my hope would be that if you answer you give enough detail so that all can see how you arrived at your conclusions.

    Chuck
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  23. Glad I got this puzzle so quickly.

    I'm down at Disney World and have tickets for The Hall of Presidents tomorrow, don't want to stay up until Dawn like I did trying to get the last puzzle.

    -- Other Ben
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  24. Other Ben, Guess my hint was too obvious. Let's see if yours sneaks by.
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  25. I hope Bob figures this one out.
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  26. Chuck,

    1) Mr. Leuking lives in New York.
    2) The Brakeman lives halfway between New York and Chicago.
    3) Mr. Giardina earns exactly $20,000 per year. 4) Hurst beat the Fireman at cards.
    5) The Brakeman's next-door neighbor, one of the passengers, earns exactly three times as much as the Brakeman.
    6) The passenger who lives in Chicago has the same last name as the Brakeman.

    From #1, we know that the passenger named Mr. Leuking lives in New York.
    From #2 & #5, we know that Brakeman lives halfway and he earns exactly 1/3 of the passenger that is his neighbor.
    From #3, we know that the neighbor can't be Mr. Giardina because 20,000 isn't evenly divisible by 3. So his neighbor is Mr. Hurst. Also the passenger in Chicago is Mr. Giardina.
    From #6 we know that the Brakeman's name is also Giardina.
    From #4 we know that the Fireman isn't named Hurst, so he must be Leuking. Thus the Engineer must be named Hurst.

    Answer:
    Brakeman = Giardina
    Engineer = Hurst
    Fireman = Leuking
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  27. I am going to watch the Olympics drinking my Bartles and Jaymes and root for the hometeam!
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  28. Blaine –

    Nice work – all correct! Now let’s stay tuned for the exciting and surprising answer to this week’s NPR puzzle :)

    Chuck
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  29. spo\ort = the flip / reverse spelling of troops

    root, root, root = support

    for the home team = ours ... and soooo not theirs, o'course, whoever Worldwide the 'them and theirs' ... is
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  30. My brother's in Afghanistan right now as an Army Chaplain.... so this one came easy.
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  31. Chuck, regarding your rickety bridge, man A is undetermined, man B is a truth teller and man C is a liar. You could also ask man C, "is the bridge safe to cross?" You'd then only cross if he says "no". Similarly, you could ask any of them the following question, "If I were to ask you if the bridge was safe, would you say 'yes'". A truth-teller would say 'yes' so answering "yes" would be the truth. A liar would say, 'no' but they'd have to lie again about their answer and say "yes". So it would negate the need to know which person was a liar or truth teller.
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  32. Chezedog / Blaine / All –

    No problem with asking Man A, B or C one definite Yes / No question. You’re absolutely right.

    But if things weren’t quite as simple as that – if you needed to ask several questions regarding the relative safety of certain parts of the bridge or certain actions you could or couldn’t take on the bridge – then you’d best go with the known truth-teller.

    That’s my half-pipe and I’m stickin’ with it :)

    Chuck
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  33. Naw, you can still ask all of the questions in the form of "If I were to ask you..." and still get the answers you need, regardless of fellow's inclination towards prevarication.
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  34. The new NPR puzzle has been posted and it's even easier than last week's.
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