Thursday, February 11, 2010

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb. 7, 2010): In Honor of the Super Bowl

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb. 7, 2010): In Honor of the Super Bowl:
Q: The nickname of well known queen is an anagram of the name of a well known king. What are their names?
The bigger question for most people will be, who's going to win? The Saints or the Colts? Or are you just watching to see who has the best commercial?

Edit: An annual award for the best commercials is called the Clio which sounds like "Cleo". Additionally, Colts starts with the sound "Cole" and if you remember the nursery rhyme, Old King Cole called for his pipe, and he called for his Bowl...
A: Queen: CLEO (as in Cleopatra)
King: COLE (as in Old King Cole)
Posted by Blaine at 3:18 PM
Labels: , ,

72 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. Whether Blainesville is a real or historical kingdom or not, Blaine is the King. That means there might be a real queen in history whose nickname is Neibla or Eblani. Speaking of Blainesville, wasn't this very puzzle shared by a Blainesville citizen some time ago? I forget when and by whom.
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  3. Good memory. Dave gave us this puzzle in the comments of the Dec. 13, 2009 NPR puzzler. But nobody picked it up and posted any hints or the answer then, so I think I'm safe in linking to it.
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  4. Despite Will's statement that this was a simple one, and that it's supposedly well-known royalty, my husband and I are stumped. What are the chances that there is/was a queen well-known for passing gas?!
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  5. I've never heard that trait attributed to the queen.
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  6. Ken and Blaine, nice pickup! Yes, I submitted this puzzle to Blainesville a couple of months ago, but nobody ventured a guess. One of my goals in life is to have my puzzle selected by Will. Another is to get chosen as the on air contestant.

    I like the Colts today (no clues in post).
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  7. The comments about last week's puzzle were entirely called for. Let's hope this Supper Bowl day puzzle is better.
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  9. Will's clues leave me in a state of denial even when I have the correct answer. Hopefully that is the case again this week.
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  10. Too excited about the game! The sole comment I have is that the Super Bowl won't be the same without the Pats.
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  11. This puzzle is giving me a major headache. Gonna go take an aspirin. Yahoo! Glad the Saints finally won the Super Bowl.
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  12. 'Twas my lady's birthday today, so I tried all day to solve this for her. Some 12 hours after hearing it, I finally have it.
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  13. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
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  14. Another Monday, another Weekend Edition puzzle by the Puzzlemaster. Without your clues, I would be lost!
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  15. My first post removal! I feel like I've graduated. :)
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  16. Dave, congrats on getting your puzzle chosen!
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  17. I woke up in the middle of the night (couldn't sleep with all the Superbowl hoopla) and finally came up with the answer. these puzzles are like splinters in your finger, you just have to keep digging at them until they finally come out!
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  18. And, Jen-Jen, I would agree that this queen may be infamous for her gaseous tendencies, and these figures are about as well-known as Cheri Oteri!
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  19. Dave, why didn't WS credit you with submitting this week's puzzle? That's not right! Anyway, we here on this blog give you credit.
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  20. @Ken: Will credited Dave on the air, but the NPR website failed to credit him in print.
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  21. Ken and Ben, I was surprised that Will didn't credit me on the website, but it's pretty cool that my dad heard the puzzle live and he lives 2,000 miles from me. It definitely made his day.

    Ben, now I can join you as a fellow Blainesblogger who has gotten his puzzle chosen by Will.
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  22. Are these current royalty, or are they historical?
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  24. Dave, doesn't your post that states "no clues in post" contain one of the same clues that Blaine gave?
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  25. Lorenzo, Dave's "hint" may have been accidental. As I emailed you, to me it's not much of a hint at all.

    @Dave, you might post a comment on the NPR website, if comment posts aren't closed off already, asking to be given credit. I did that the second time they used one of my puzzles, and they added my name to the writeup!

    @Sam Lee @Julia: The queen was an actual ruler of a foreign land. The king, maybe not, but his is nonetheless a name that everyone knows.
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  26. Lorenzo, I really don't think that I left any clues in my post. I'll leave that to everybody else this week.

    Ben, I sent an e-mail asking that my name be included with this week's question.
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  27. Dave, clearly your clue was unintentional, while I'll bet Blaine's was carefully constructed.

    Knowing your passion for sports, I thought for a (brief) while that your well-known kings might include Rogie Vachon, Wayne Gretzky, Luc Robitaille or Kelly Hrudey. A quick attempt at anagramming convinced me otherwise.
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  28. Is this king a contemporary of ours? Is it possible I wouldn't know this king?
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  29. Sam, you may have met him as a child.
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  30. Lorenzo, is my alleged hint in the pronunciation of a certain word? I agree that Blaine's hint was intentional. It's also an occasional N.Y. Times crossword puzzle answer.

    WHO WAS THE ONLY U.S. PRESIDENT WHO WAS A KING?

    Does anybody know the answer without using the internet?
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  31. Dave,
    I don't need the internet for that...it wouldn't trip me up.
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  32. Dave, I know that offhand. Learned it when I was studying for Jeopardy.
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  33. Dave, your alleged hint was a hidden anagram.
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  34. Suddenly I wanna listen to Jerry Reed...
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  35. Ahh, Jerry Reed...I didn't even know he had died! Didn't they name an award after Reed?
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  36. Finally got it. Nice puzzle, Dave! BTW, you’re still not credited on NPR’s website :(

    I first started down a close-but-no-cigar path. However, my wrong answer finally led me to the right answer. Interesting how your mind works sometimes.

    Anyway, it’s fun to go back and re-read everyone’s comments after the veil has been lifted.

    Chuck
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  37. Chuck, hey thanks! I checked the website this morning and my name still wasn't posted. Oh well, at least they mentioned my name on the air.
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  38. OK, folks! It's 3:30 p.m. EST, what is the answer?! I never did figure it out!
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  40. Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, known as Daisy, and
    King Sayid (constitutional monarchy of Libya, 1951)
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  41. I came up with a totally different answer: World of Warcraft Queen Lana’thel (nickname Lana) and deceased comedian Alan King.

    Chuck
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  42. Wow. I can hold my own at most games of trivia and have never heard of any of those four, except for Alan King. And I wouldn't call any of them "well known," which is Will's clue.

    Any other answers?

    -- Other Ben
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  43. I went with Cleo(patra) and (Old King) Cole.
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  44. Crossword Man says CLEO and COLE, but I see that as more a contraction than a nickname.

    When Will said the puzzle was simple, I think he meant simple to state not to solve.

    Well done Dave - I believe you have stumped many a puzzler !
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  45. Queen Margrethe is still alive (I believe--I would have to do an online search to confirm that--anybody know for sure?) and was a notorious smoker, hence my comment about her "gaseous" tendencies.
    King Sayid was a constitutional monarch, 1951, deposed the mid-early 1960's. Time Magazine, grist for our family discussions as a kid, carried information regarding him.

    Also, Sayid is a name of one of the characters in the TV series, Lost, hence my earlier clue saying I was "lost" without this column.

    I also suspect these are the names that Blaine came up with, as his first comment mirrors Hamlet's famous soliloquy, To be or not to be, and that play takes place in Denmark, which is where Queen Daisy is from.

    Of interest is that the name, Hamlet, is itself an anagram of Amleth, a play about a prince of Denmark which was the source of Shakespeare's inspiration for Hamlet!
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  46. Ditto with Cleo and Cole. Most of this week's clues were directed to this answer. Let's hear from Dave.
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  47. I went with CLEO and COLE, but, alas!, got no call at 3PM.
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  48. I too went with CLEO and COLE. My hints are explained in my edited post.
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  49. Wow, am I ever crying foul on this one.

    (Probably cause it's the first puzzle I missed in some months and I'm being an a**. Someone please set me straight.)

    I spent an hour or so anagramming Cleopatra and came up with nothing. And I have NEVER in my life heard anyone refer to her as Queen CLEO of Egypt.

    As stated earlier, Cleo is a contraction but not a nickname. If you Google "Queen Cleo," you get exactly ZERO hits related to the queen of Egypt. Just some beauty products and a tranny or two.

    Bogus bogus bogus.

    (Sorry, Dave, I'f I'm being a grump )

    -- Other Ben
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  50. I was irked to learn that I didn't know the 2nd definition of "nickname" but all the good dictionaries include it - a shortened version of a familiar name (never though Dave was my nickname).
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  51. Being new here, I'm grateful I didn't get my comment pulled. I thought I was being really obvious with "sole"(merry old soul) and "without the Pat...". I actually took out "cheering for" (rah!) And didn't dare repeat Ken's "Supper Bowl".

    Missed Ben's comment that got axed. Can someone fill me in so I can see what kind of comment it was, to avoid overstepping the mark in future?
    Ta.
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  52. My clues were "aspirin". Cleo was bitten by an asp.
    "Middle of the night with a headache" referred to "Old King Cole was a merry old soul, and a merry old soul was he,
    He called for his pipe in the middle of the night, and he called for his fiddlers three."
    The Jerry Reed comment referred to his wife Cleo.
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  53. Dave and Blaine, I seem to be finding clues where none were intended. You both used the word pair "the Colts", of which letters 3,4,5,and 6 (ecol) are an anagram of the probable answer.
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  54. phredp, I finally got your aspirin reference, but not before your mention of "headache" had me searching for monarchs who had been beheaded!
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  55. I feel the need to add on to Ben's discontent with the probable answer to this puzzle as Cleopatra has several WEEL KNOWN nicknames but none which are Cleo; Most notable & common - The Queen of The Nile & The Queen of Kings. If Cleo is the answer, I will be very underwhelmed with this week's puzzle.
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  56. I agree that the intended answer is very weak--and I have never heard that OLd King Cole's rhyme say that he called for his pipe in THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. These last words are not in the lyrics of the song.
    So be it said, this puzzle was not one of the best....Sorry Dave
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  57. If we can agree that one definition of "nickname" is a shortened version of a familiar name, then Cleo makes a lot of sense. As a culture we abhor long names and will surely find ways to shorten them: Frederick = Fred, Mortimer = Mort, Rosalind = Roz, Elizabeth = Liz, Beth, etc.
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  58. We learn every day. My mother
    called me Geraldine. I hever
    thought of Geri as a "nickname."
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  59. p.s. My first grade teacher called
    me "Miss Ribbons" and the kids
    called me "Jellybeans."
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  60. Well I certainly stirred things up this week, didn't I. As most of you figured out, the answers I submitted were Cleo and Cole. I submitted Old King Cole and Nat King Cole as acceptable answers to the second part of the puzzle.

    JenJen, your clue about a gaseous queen led me to google Cleopatra Gas, and sure enough, there is a Cleopatra Gas Gathering Company and a Cleopatra Pipeline, so that's what I thought you were alluding to.

    Suzyq, very creative, but I wouldn't consider the queen or king to be well known.

    Chuck, a lot of us have heard of Alan King, but you haven't heard of Queen Lana unless you're a World of Warcraft participant.

    Lorenzo, nice job in picking up the unintential anagram (thE COLts). Looking back on my earlier posts, I thought you might have been referring to COupLE.

    Some of you didn't like the fact that I used Cleo as a nickname for Cleopatra. While Cleo probably wasn't the nickname of the queen of Egypt, it is a common nickname for Cleopatra.

    Ben, why did you spend an hour anagramming Cleopatra if Cleopatra isn't a nickname?

    I hope that I caused a few neurons to fire while you were trying to figure out my puzzle. To those of you who didn't like the puzzle, Sunday will be here very soon. Keep on solving!
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  61. Long time lurker, first time poster:

    I have two solutions, neither of which jive with the aforementioned...

    I) Trivial: The Queen of Kings(Cleopatra) ~ The King of Queens(Guy on TV)

    II) Obscure: Virgin(referring to Elizabeth I) ~ Irving(pseudonym of songwriting duo from Britain)

    What say you?

    -A
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  62. bcgal, Ben's clue deleted comment was "Super Bowl or goldfish bowl?". With a reference to the fish in Pinocchio named Cleo. It was right on the cusp, since you probably need to know the answer to see it as a giveaway clue, but I wasn't sure...
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  63. Dave--I think the crew is being unnecessarily harsh--no question that Cleo is a nickname for Cleopatra, when one considers the definition of nickname. It's less clear to me that Cleo was a nickname for Queen Cleopatra. I suspect no one ever called the Queen of the Nile by that moniker. But it's splitting hairs. Great puzzle! Had us all thinking and anagraming. I still like my answer--thought it captured the essence of a royal nickname, and, with respect to King Sayid, as I learned from the Cheri Oteri, well-known is in the mind of the beholder. Neither I nor an office mate knew Cheri Oteri at all, but the janitor cleaning our office at the time was VERY familiar with both Oteri and Hatcher... go figure. Congrats on a great puzzle!
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  64. After anagramming every possible nickname I could find for Cleopatra as I got the "aspirin" clue and the "denial" clue, I finally submitted Queen of Kings and King of Queens. Never thought of Cleo as a nickname either, as many above have said. Got hooked on the clues of "post" as the King of Queens delivered for UPS or some parcel delivery company, so thought I got it right. What were those clues about? Win or lose, I always have fun getting my brain to make some sense of the clues, so yes, the synapses fired this week. That will keep us all young, heh?
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  65. http://www.kidsreads.com/wordscrambles/cleo-pyramid.asp
    This kids' website lists Cleo as the nickname for Cleopatra. Guess I am not smarter than a fifth grader!!
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  66. Thank you Blaine! And apologies to Hugh. It was his "Supper Bowl", not Ken's.
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  67. According to those Web organizations who keep track of such metrics, World of Warcraft is now played by 10 million folks worldwide. Even though I don’t play, I wouldn’t consider Queen Lana as not well known :)

    Having said that, I think we have unearthed three interesting and diverse answers here but Cleo and Cole it is! Dave, I congratulate you that your puzzle was chosen. Since I appeared on-the-air several years ago I have submitted several puzzle ideas to Will myself but none have been selected. It’s a tough selection committee to get through :)

    Chuck
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  68. Cookieface, The original rhyme did have the "middle of the night" line. www.rhymes.org.uk/old_king_cole.htm
    Do a google of "called for his pipe in the middle of the night" and there are bunches of references. My mother was from Wales and that's the way she always recited the poem to me.
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  69. OK but when I googled it, it did not come out that way and I always heard it the other way--but even Ring around a Rosie is often said differently too!!! I accept your way also...
    CF
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  70. Phredp--I looked again and the version on google lyrics was:
    Old King Cole was a merry old soul and a merry old soul was he; he called for his pipe and he called for his bowl and he called for his fiddlers three....
    NEW PUZZLE IS ON ALREADY--a good one for all of us....
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  71. February 14 Sunday Puzzle is posted.
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  72. NPR seems to be posting the puzzler on Saturday frequently. Tomorrow's puzzler (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123697268) is already out there for those who want to get a jump on it.
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