Thursday, April 21, 2011

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 17, 2011): Sports Venue Transforms into Sport Equipment

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 17, 2011): Sports Venue Transforms into Sport Equipment:
Q: Think of a nine-letter word naming a venue for certain sports. Three letters in the word are repeated. Remove all the repetitions, and the remaining six letters can be rearranged to name a piece of sports equipment. What are these two words?
I might have to pray to a Norse god for assistance on this.

Edit: The hint pointed to Odin, the Norse god. O is an oval shape, like a racetrack, while din is a synonym for racket.
A: Racetrack (remove the duplicated letters r,a,c and rearrange) --> Racket

49 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. By the way, did anyone else initially get misled by the wording of the puzzle? I won't say anything more, but if you are struggling, rethink what the question is asking.

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  3. The Queen said, Tom, thanks for the tune
    But now you must be still, son.
    For if you do not sleep you’ll risk
    The ire of young Prince Wilson.”

    Tom’s heart it sank, it did indeed
    As he whimpered to his ma,
    “I’m tired of Wilson trumping me.
    There ought to be a law.”

    “Don’t speak in haste,” the Queen replied,
    “For I have often found
    That when you let your temper run
    Your head spins round and round.”

    “My brother should be cast away,”
    Tom said then fell to sleep
    And dreamed about the Sport of Kings.
    No need for counting sheep.

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  4. If I'm thinking correctly, I believe there are two different spellings on one of the words. Sound right Blaine?

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  5. Might I suggest we don't pile on Will Shortz for his confusion this morning?

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  6. Will certainly was confused this morning!

    He must have received lots of comments about mass vs. weight, but then thought that an Angstrom is a unit of mass as well! LOL!

    As for this new Puzzle, let's keep that down to a dull roar!

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  7. Inspired by the kingly hint above, I really wanted this to be a "polo pitch", leading me to wonder if "colt hip" can be considered equipment.

    Strangely, this lead me to the correct answer...

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  8. Yes, two spellings for one of the words, phredp. One works, the other doesn’t.

    Chuck

    P.S. How much does an angstrom weigh?

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  9. As soon as I read the new puzzle (yesterday) it raised concerns because I am not into the common sports stuff, but I will hold my tongue.

    Is ophthalmology a contact sport?

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  10. Since helmets were mandated in 2003 for Tiddly Wink tournaments head injuries have neither risen nor declined.

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  11. Musical hint this week might be from old song lyrics from The Band. And not "The Weight"...that was last week.

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  12. phredp, nice hint. The Band is one of my favorite groups of all time.

    "Who are your favorite movie characters?" I asked my friend.

    "Scarlett and Rhett," he responded.

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  13. The wording did cause me to go back to school for a while, then I realized it wasn't some kind of scheme from MIT...

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  14. I spent hours last night poring over a list of over 1,200 nine-letter words with triplet letters before I realized this morning I was way off course. I'm pretty confident I have the key now.

    And it's interesting to note that what I wound up throwing away was *also* a piece of sports equipment, and was in quite usable condition for this puzzle.

    For my musical clue I'll use the Beach Boys.

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  15. I was also hobbled by the same misunderstanding referred to up top by Blaine. But after playing with BALLFIELD for five minutes, I realized what they were seeking and the answer (had surely come).

    I also love THE BAND, obviously, and would suggest ACROSS THE GREAT DIVIDE also works for Angstrom, from the same album.

    -- Other Ben

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  16. phredp –

    I know the song and have the album. But how about going back 100+ years before that to Stephen Foster?

    Chuck

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  17. Was totally wracking my brain on this one as I had some 9 letter venues but none worked. So, I said forget it, all bets off, until I re-read Blaine's incredibly helpful comment about paying attention to the wording. Huge help. Hopefully, if you don't have it, there are some clues in this post...

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  18. Janeabelle, thanks, I was preakin out over this til you make me go back to my first (of three) thought and read the hint more carefully. I should know better since I live around the corner from a major venue.

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  19. She is not my lover. Be cautious son, for she has a checkered past.

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  20. Roro,
    Thanks--and GREAT clue in your post!

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  21. still not getting need a little help :(

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  22. Emmanuel, did you see the movie "Castaway"?

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  23. Yes I with Tom Hanks and Helen Hunt

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  24. Another movie clue " My Dinner with Andre"

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  25. Name a movie in which an actor from "My Dinner With Andre" and an actor from "Cast Away" both appear.

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  26. Emmanuel, a lot of the clues point to the venue, rather than the piece of sports equipment.

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  27. Another phrasing of essentially the same puzzle:
    Think of a nine-letter word naming a venue for certain sports. Three letters in the word are repeated. Rearrange these 3 letters to name a piece of sports equipment used at the venue. Remove those 3 letters from the original word and rearrange to name something produced by that piece of sports equipment at that venue. What are the 3 words?

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  28. This was too easy, like a walk over to the neighbors house. No poetry from me, looking forward to Saturday.

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  29. Try changing one letter in the nine-letter venue and scrambling to land a role in a production involving a common sport played in an uncommon venue.

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  30. Worked on this with the family. We guessed the equipment from clues given here ,but rejected the obvious venue by not understanding the question. There'll be lots of moans and groans.

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  31. In my first post here I used the word RAISED and the term HOLD MY TONGUE as a hint for RAISING A RACKET.

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  32. When I first read the puzzle, I assumed that they were looking for answer where you were supposed to remove a single letter that was repeated 3 times (e.g. baLLfieLd).

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  33. Interesting. I was unsure what you all were complaining about because it was unclear to me. I did not have this confusion. I had my own confusion with the puzzle. I was not sure if they wanted a proper name or a generic name for the venue. Astrodome vs. ballfield.

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  34. Yeah SDB, I had same confusion cuz I thought why not say 9 letter word that "means" or "is" rather than "naming". Threw me off for a bit. Blaine, I thought your clue had to do with Thor's hammer. There is some racket named the hypo hammer or something like that. Any way my clue had to do with Preakness here in Maryland,which actually is one of three (maybe Belmont Stakes is actually first). I live 3 blocks away and usually try to leave the area if I am not attending. Police always block off my street and threaten to arrest me if I go the wrong way after they decide my street is suddenly one way.

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  35. I suggested we didn't pile on (pylon) Will.

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  36. @TB, as in pylon --> traffic cone --> car --> racing --> racetrack?

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  37. "As for this new Puzzle, let's keep that down to a dull roar!"

    Classic reaction to a "racket".

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  38. Racket is a dialect of Lisp and a descendant of Scheme, invented at MIT - how's that for an obscure unsporting reference !

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  39. DaveJ:
    Somewhat obscure; unsporting, perhaps. Actually informative...definitely!

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  40. @Blaine, that's what I was going for, though the exact meaning is:

    py·lon   
    [pahy-lon] Show IPA
    –noun
    1. a marking post or tower for guiding aviators, frequently used in races.

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  41. Wallace Shawn had dinner with André Gregory.
    Helen Hunt was an actor in "Cast Away", and, if she prefers the term "actress", I apologize.
    "Castaway" was an entirely different movie.
    Wally and Helen both appeared in "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion", in which two geographical names figure prominently.
    The last syllable of one of these "place names" coincides exactly with the "piece of sports equipment" in jan's really elegant paraphrase/amplification of the NPR puzzle, while the first syllable of the other "place name" is virtually synonomous with "racket", in the "sinister" sense.

    "Con" can refer to "convict"; and "Caretaker" is a character (who happens to be a convict) once portrayed by James (or Jim) Hampton.
    I didn't see the 1995 version with Chris Rock in a similarly named role.
    CARETAKER is also a word in which one letter can be changed, and the resulting letters can be rearranged to form RACETRACK.
    If I recall correctly, Mr. Hampton also did a commercial or two for a certain poultry product (i.e."?").

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  42. Haven't. I "haven't seen the 1995 version"....maybe I'll sleep now.

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  43. Actually, 2005, not 1995, is the correct year for the remake of "The Longest Yard". Is the "decade" a unit of proofreading?

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  44. New puzzle is up. I wonder if it has anything to do with to 2012 elections?

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  45. Another super easy one. I already sent in my answer. This one almost put me to sleep.

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  46. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  47. DaveJ,

    You're hired!

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  48. I really wanted to make "Colosseum" work in such a way that "muscle" was the sports equipment. Damn that O!

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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.