Thursday, March 24, 2011

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 20, 2011): Consumer Protection Laws Anagram

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 20, 2011): Consumer Protection Laws Anagram:
Q: Take the phrase 'consumer protection laws,' and rearrange the letters to name a person in broadcasting and an issue of public debate. Hints: The name of the person in broadcasting has five letters in the first name and five letters in the last name. For the issue of public debate, it's a familiar two-word phrase with seven letters in the first word and five letters in the second. What name and phrase are these?
If NPR keeps posting the puzzle this early we'll have to stop calling it the Sunday puzzle! Are you following what I'm saying? Are you clear? Cool.

Edit: The NPR puzzle is part of Weekend Edition Sunday (host Liane Hansen). The day before, NPR broadcasts Weekend Edition Saturday (host Scott Simon). "Are you following what I'm saying?" was a hint to the game Simon Says. "You clear" was a hint to "nuclear" while "Cool." was a hint to cooling down a reactor.
A: SCOTT SIMON, NUCLEAR POWER

42 comments:

  1. Here's my standard reminder... don't post the answer or any hints that could lead directly to the answer (e.g. via Google or Bing) 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.

    You may provide indirect hints to the answer to show you know it, but make sure they don't give the answer away. Thank you.

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  2. Once again I wrote a small program that was critical to my solving of the puzzle. For a musical selection I think something by a German techno group...

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  3. Oh yeah! Who says, Doctechnical?
    Yes, Blaine, I am.
    I thought this was going to take a while for me to figure out, but I got it in just a few minutes. I must be energized with the coming of Spring tomorrow.

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  4. Interesting how anagrams related to several recent puzzles point to a stew of some kind.

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  5. Reminds me of my patron saint.

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  6. Solved this in short order, and didn't use any programming at all.
    How about some other type of puzzle... I don't seem to have Will's passion for rearranging vowels and consonants.

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  7. I just cannot believe people are actually complaining that Will has finally reached a point in his life where he is having regular vowel movements.

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  8. Child's play, I say. Churning past puzzle themes, are we?

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  9. Sends me beyond the boiling point that Will can't come up with more difficult puzzles! Got this one in just a few moments. Timely but way too simple.

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  10. Lorenzo, your post reminds me of my mother's sister who seized every opportunity to create her own stew with her "Aunt-isms".

    Barnes_Durco -

    John sat at the dinner table with his parents and new bride. At one point he said, "My Darling Jane Doe, do you know what time it is?" She glanced at her watch and precisely answered him.

    Somewhat confused, he turned to his mother. "Mother Doe, do you know what time it is?" She looked at her watch and gave the same response.

    Clearly baffled, John turned and said, "Father Doe, do you know what time it is?" He pulled out his pocket watch and gave the exact same response.

    A frustrated John left the table to find his own watch.

    What was the response of the three?

    Dave, what was the answer to your ethnicity puzzle last week?

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  11. I think that Jules Verne would have liked this week's puzzle.

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  12. Tommy Boy,

    Was the answer to your brain teaser the same as your answer would be if Will asked "Can you tell me who the broadcasting person is and what the topic of debate is?"

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  13. Phil J, if I was clueless, you would be correct. I believe you have only half of the intent. The other is a bit skewed.

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  14. The issue was the second one that just flooded into my mind. I confess I resorted to using my previously-collected, unedited all boys and all girls names lists to help me score the person. 50 clues come to mind but I won’t give them away here.

    Chuck

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  15. TB -
    Was your clearly non-NPR-puzzle-related question actually directed to me?
    If so, I suspect when you can see my answer, it will be 3:00 PM EDT.

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  16. At first I thought the answers must be: ARIANNA HUFFINGTON & JUSTIN BIEBER MUSTACHE, but then I began the laborious task of working out the math. Thankfully I was given a slide rule for Xmas and eventually came to the stark realization that there were the wrong number of letters in my choices. Imagine my shock.

    I then went on to make a surprising discovery. If you take the name ED PEGG JR (the designer of many puzzles Will uses) and remove the first four letters and add these 14 letters AIKLMPSSSTUUZZ and then rearrange them you will come up with: MAKES STUPID PUZZLES.
    Talk about a Eureka moment! (Not the vacuum cleaners; they suck.)

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  17. Not to be a mockingbird, but I wait with anticipation the force of the summer's heat melting down my ice cream cone or do I wait in vain?

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  18. Nice musical clues, Chuck and Janeabelle.

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  19. Re: skydiveboy
    JUSTIN BIEBER MUSTACHE + no-count oaf =
    The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

    --Ed Pegg Jr

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  20. I would say that this/these name(s) are/is common - but Midge and Martha - eh, not so much.

    Does anybody know the story about Mike Judge influencing the name of the Albuquerque minor league baseball team?

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  21. A fellow actor of Pernell Roberts has a name that also fills the bill in a perverse way, but not as well as the desired name,(which is new to me.)

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  22. Is TRINA RUCCO the name of someone in broadcasting? Okay, so much for that being the issue of public debate. :)

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  23. Blaine, too bad, because a public debate about the altitude (or lack thereof) of rhymes might be interesting.

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  24. Tommy Boy, did I have an ethnicity puzzle last week?

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  25. Sorry, Dave. It was Ben. How about it Ben?

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  26. Xeipon:
    Did you figure that out while driving in reverse?

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  27. I didn't know how to react at first, I felt all weak in the knees. But then I firmly planted my feet, let out a sigh and submitted my answer.

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  28. Tommy Boy -
    I'm still wondering why my name was in your post above. It's gotta be an accident - or was it just too much information?

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  29. Tommy Boy -
    All three answered, "yes".

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  30. B_D, you asked for some other type of puzzle besides the standard anagram. I was happy to oblige.

    Phil J and dumpsterdivelad, your answers are correct. However, I was going for "I, Doe, know."

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  31. TB - Okay, thanks. My "how about" was "directed" more towards Will and NPR.
    Hence my confusion.

    I guess correct answers to your puzzle could also include "yes", "no", "I don't know", and "go jump in the lake".

    But your answer includes the Doe detail, and is homophonic with an antonymic response.

    Hence, John's confusion.
    Excellent.

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  32. My clues:
    When I asked DT, who cares?, it was only to give the clue: Simple Simon Says, in reference to Scott Simon.
    I then used the word "energized" as a clue for Nuclear Power.

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  33. The 9/26/10 NPR Puzzler involved taking the phrase "Patron Saint", removing one letter, and rearranging to get "NPR Station" (where Scott Simon can be heard).

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  34. This week's stew was not made from lamb or goat but from WESAT, the abbreviation and partial email address for Weekend Edition Saturday.

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  35. My musical selection would have been "Radioactivity" by Kraftwerk, and I was going to use the band's name, but on second thoughts I didn't as it might be considered too obvious of a clue: "Kraftwerk" is German for "Power station".

    My use of the word "critical" was also a clue. I just recently learned that a critical reactor is a *good* thing :)

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  36. @DT, I'm very familiar with Kraftwerk. I almost dinged your post since no other German techno group comes to mind, but I just hoped others weren't as familiar.

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  37. @Blaine - I *could* have been referring to Tangerine Dream :)

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  38. My first post included the phrase
    "passion for rearranging vowels and consonants".
    The consonants in "passion" are the initial letters of the four words of the answers (SSNP).

    My later post included "it's gotta be" : Scott (Simon).
    and "too much information" = TMI = Three Mile Island : Nuclear Power.

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  39. The Saturday Night Puzzle is up again!

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  40. Hi I got inspired by your blog and created my own puzzle blog
    Brain Teasers

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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.