Thursday, March 04, 2010

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb. 28, 2010): Name Those TV Shows

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb. 28, 2010): Name Those TV Shows:
Q: Name an animal in two syllables. Add an S at the end of the first syllable, and you'll get the name of an old TV show. The second syllable, phonetically, is the name of a current TV show. What animal is this?
This puzzle is really easy if you interpret it correctly and really hard if you don't. The primary actors on the old TV show were born about the same time as the main actor on the current TV show.

Edit: I initially read the puzzle and thought the S was inserted between the first and second syllables to form the name of the old TV show. When I focused more on the second syllable, all of a sudden I figured out my mistake and came up with the answer.
A: Chipmunk --> CHiPs and Monk
Posted by Blaine at 1:41 PM
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53 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. I attended the 33rd American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Brooklyn last weekend. Since we're all Will Shortz fans here, I thought I'd throw in a link to my tournament recap.

    p.s. I solved the puzzle (thanks Blaine for posting it even before the NPR site did) but no hints here for now.
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  3. A little music helps me solve puzzles. The Blasters, in this case...
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  4. Oh man, what a wealth of dead-giveaway clues occur to me... I have to resist a powerful impulse to make it too easy. One could deduce plenty from what I've already said, if one's paying attention...
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  5. The second syllable could have been used on this week's NPR on-air puzzle.
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  6. Hey Folks! It's me Al Gori creator of today's challenge and fan of Blaines Puzzle blog. This is the fourth time Will has used a puzzle of mine on air. If you'd like to see my ugly mug try these links; http://homespunmerrygoround.com/
    http://www.vbs.tv/watch/the-cute-show/homespun-merry-go-round
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  7. “Get thee to a nunnery!” ya’ know, the Magdalene Sisters’ and Brothers’ screed for mucked – up female children literally sentenced by their own shaming fathers and by their own shaming brothers –– and, there, to be held prisoner looooooong into their adulthoods. Many ... to die of old age ... there.

    Not exactly your basic Irish potato washings’ venues were these several sexist workhouse laundries … either.

    The systematic opprobrium of religion and patriarchy not to be chiseled at and whacked away and finally outed until … 1996. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318411
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  8. I don’t watch TV so I’m usually really bad with “Popular Culture” type of puzzles. However, even I had the answer to this one in about 5 minutes so it can’t be that hard.

    BTW, about 5,000 entries last week. Probably some kind of record...

    Chuck
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  9. I was sure I had the current show(or at least it was current when the puzzle was created, I assume) but was having a tough time with old show, until I came back and reread Blaine's clue about reading the puzzle carefully and, elementary, I solved the case!
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  10. My 12-yr-old just solved it before me. Harsh.
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  11. Al, we always like hearing from the puzzle submitters and the on-air players. I'm sorry that NPR has once again been unable to get the submitter's name spelled correctly.
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  12. Solved this one as I was writing a check to the Alumni Fund for my alma mater, Carleton College, for pete's sake. A liberal arts education is good for trivia, I'll say that!
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  13. If you solve my puzzle, I bet it shall make the wheels of your mind turn more freely:
    An actor in the new show appeared in an old show that (Lord willing) is already on your radar.
    1. Drop the last letter from this old show.
    2. Drop the first letter from a well-known TV channel.
    The resultant two syllables name a feature of a type of animal.
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  14. Rick, I'm sympathetic.
    I had the old show on my list of possibilities, but the animal was elusive.
    When I said it while listing all "my" old shows, my 16 year old son immediately named the animal and (of course) the new show.
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  15. I submitted an answer that is probably
    wrong unless this in another "flawed"
    puzzle because my answer does not need
    to add an "s".
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  16. Geri, the puzzle needs the 's'.
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  17. Well, I would say the puzzle is flawed, but not for that reason. Still, I'm willing to go with the flow.

    orangebus42
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  18. You could also link both of the shows to an aquatic animal...
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  19. Geri, I think I know what animal you're thinking of, but that's not it. Does the animal you're thinking of have three vowels, two of which are the same?

    I don't think that the puzzle is flawed, but being that I tend to be pretty verbose, I'm taking a vow of silence this week.
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  20. It's time once again (March 2)to celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss. Pick up your favorite Seuss book tomorrow, grab a kid, and start reading! Horton Hatches the Egg is my favorite!
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  21. I got this one while snacking after sunday mass...
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  22. I have a partIcular and inexplicable weakness for the older of these two shows. Perhaps it's the theme music?

    -- Other Ben
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  23. Perhaps It's that it remInds me of my dearest, Kari? I don't know.

    -- Other Ben
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  24. Are both these shows well known?
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  25. Sam Lee, depends on your age and which network/cable channels you watch, but I would say yes to both.
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  26. Here’s a fun puzzle if you haven’t run across it before. No word play and no old TV shows required :)

    Get three matches and form an equilateral triangle. Now get three more matches (for a total of six) and make four equilateral triangles the same size as the first one you made.

    Chuck
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  27. There are two big, loud clues in the first three words of the last sentence of my previous post.
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  28. I solved this while watching one of my favorite Val Kilmer movies. Too bad his brothers couldn't be in it with him.
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  29. Chuck, I believe I solved your puzzle, if I read it correctly.
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  30. The animal and shows sped into my brain as soon as I let go of my syndrome about submitting a sloppy answer.
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  31. Dave, et al; The answer I submitted
    has five letters, two different vowels
    and three consnants, but it is wrong.
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  32. Al, congratulations on having your fourth puzzle chosen. I've gotten one chosen and I'll try to catch up.
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  33. Blue, I just, in the last two weeks, watched The Magdalene Sisters. That and countless other examples of hideous treatment of women by men has me wanting to apologize for the behavior of so many, many males. I am too often made to feel ashamed and unimaginably embarrassed by male bipeds who have the nerve to call themselves "men"--to the point where I feel it's a fine compliment to be told by one of them that I'm not a "real man."
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  34. Natasha –

    Good work on solving the triangle puzzle :) Go ahead and post your answer tomorrow – that should give everyone who’s interested enough time to think through their own answers.

    Chuck
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  35. Chuck, I could work on your triangle puzzle, or I could buy one of those new HDTVs. Which one do you suggest?
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  36. Got it as soon as I read your hint, Blaine. Thanks!
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  37. Triangle puzzle answer.

    Make the first equilateral triangle as before. Take the other three matches and stand them on top of the first triangle to make a pyramid. Voila! You've made four equilateral triangles with just six matches. A little airplane glue on the vertices will help if you have reasonably unsteady hands :)

    Chuck
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  38. My aquatic creature clue was a Wheel of Fortune Before and After:

    Monk fish and chips ?
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  39. There are more solutions to the triangle puzzle.
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  40. nunnery –––– monkery

    brothers –––– monks

    fathers / brothers –––– patriarchal religious entitlements or appellations

    basic potato –––– chips’ main component

    religion / patriarchy –––– anything monk – like

    screed / opprobrium = a long, biased discourse or monotonous, shaming harangue against –––– women under religion

    chiseled at / whacked away –––– chipped away at
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  41. So please tell me I wasn't the only one that thought the S was placed between the first and second syllables and that was supposed to form the name of a TV show. I must have spent 30 minutes with that erroneous assumption.
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  42. I can see how it could have been worded better.
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  43. I submitted that the older TV show in this puzzle made me think of my dearest, Kari.

    This was of course an anagram for Erik Estrada.

    I also swapped small I's and big I's at random, since CHiPs is an old favorite.

    -- Other Ben

    P.S. Ms. Blue of Central, I believe oil and not potatos is the central ingredient of potato CHiPs.

    P.P.S. Original Ben -- you come all the way from Chicago to Brooklyn and you can't say hi? You are a disgrace to the kingdom of Bens. I hope you placed well.
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  44. Blaine - I also grappled with whether the older show would be one syllable with an s at the end or two with an s in the middle.

    For anyone interested, my clue about "syndrome" involved Jason Lee, who played the character Syndrome in "The Incredibles" and also had a role in both recent "Chipmunks" movies. And, Erik Estrada also appeared in one or two episodes of Jason Lee's TV show, "My Name is Earl."
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  45. Wondering if anyone noticed, before or after I called attention to it, the words "one could deduce" in my earlier post, begin with "O," "C," and "D." And at the same time make reference to detecting.
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  46. I was stuck on jaguar for a while, but the television show was called "JAG" not "JAGS," and as far as I know, there was never a show called "War." Ken Burns had a documentary called "The War."

    Carl, did one of the characters in "CHIPs" or "Monk" have OCD?

    Blaine, I can see how you were confused by the wording of the puzzle, but I think that most of us read it as intended. Mr. Shortz probably would have worded the puzzle, "Put an S between the two syllables . . . " if he had intended us to read the puzzle as you originally read it.
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  47. No comment on my post? Oh, well, here's what I meant:

    "it shall make the wheels of your mind turn more freely" = Shall Lube (Tony Shalhoub of Monk)

    "An actor in the new show appeared in an old show that (Lord willing) is already on your radar." = WINGS (another one-syllable old show ending in "S", so it's "on your radar" for this puzzle.

    "1. Drop the last letter from this old show.
    2. Drop the first letter from a well-known TV channel." = C-SPAN
    "The resultant two syllables name a feature of a type of animal." = WINGSPAN

    No good?
    I will try harder in the future to meet the high standards of Blainesville, but don't expect the height of Blue's clues.
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  48. Dave, are you serious? Have you ever watched Monk? Part of the appeal of that show for me, and many others, is that it presents a character with obvious struggles with OCD as a valuable and capable figure. OCD is, in my understanding, a relative thing; I'm affected by it slightly, and have known plenty of people who have serious trouble with it. And Monk is the guy who gets laughs with things like the following: A man who runs a security company is suspected in a murder. Monk and company are checking him out at his place of business. Monk asks to look at some little gizmo in a locked glass case. The guy compliments Monk on his taste, as this is one of the finest pieces he offers, and one of the most expensive. When the case is opened, Monk reaches in and straightens the little sign, mounted on a piece of wire, above the item. Because he MUST.
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  49. I think I have CDO...







    It's just like OCD, but alphabetical like it should be.
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  50. My clue was it's time once again (March 2)to celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss. Pick up your favorite Seuss book tomorrow, grab a kid, and start reading! Horton Hatches the Egg is my favorite!
    Theodore is Dr. Seuss' real first name and one of the chipmunks (Alvin's group)
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  51. Blaine, I thought you were saying you struggle with a need to maintain disorder.
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  52. The Blasters are a rock and roll music group formed in 1979 in Downey, California by brothers Phil Alvin (vocals and guitar) and Dave Alvin (guitar).
    Alvin is also the name of a very famous Chipmunk.
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  53. I guess since I've never heard of the show "Monk" I had no chance this week. I did consider "CHiPs" but couldn't come up with anything that worked. Doh.
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