Thursday, May 26, 2011

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 22, 2011): Five Letter Opposites

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 22, 2011): Five Letter Opposites:
Q: Think of two five-letter words that are exact opposites, in which the first two letters of each word are the same as the first two letters of the other, only reversed. Hint: The fourth letter of each word is A. What two words are these?
I don't know what they mean... for about two months now.

Edit: The lines above are from a funny YouTube clip. Try not to laugh too loudly! Newlywed Game: Urban or Rural
A: URBAN and RURAL

52 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.

    ReplyDelete
  2. If you're dense, you have a remote chance of solving this.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jon Voight might know the answer to this one.

    ReplyDelete
  4. "Frere Jacques" may do as a musical clue

    And I wish to you all bon Sunday.

    'Fore I bid you adieu I'll address the part deux

    And I'll offer to you "Mon Soleil".

    ReplyDelete
  5. Is this the same puzzle posted by NPR, just worded differently???

    ReplyDelete
  6. Musical clue - something Country & Western ?

    ReplyDelete
  7. I was out of town this weekend, listened to Will from my hotel room. Did not find this puzzle even remotely difficult.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Puzzle was pretty easy. Clues not so much. Got EF's but still working on Blaine's and TB's.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sorry DaveJ, but I believe the musical clue should be something Cole Porter.

    Note: I fully agree that this is another stupid, simple to solve puzzle. I was hoping we had gotten away from this kind of garbage. Also, yesterday on their website, I looked at the prize list and noticed they have removed the hardbound and CD dictionaries. This has been the only reason I have been sending in my answers. I have no interest in the other prizes, even the pin or being on the air.

    On another topic, does anyone feel stood up after the Rapture letdown yesterday? I even bought snacks to take with me and extra sunscreen!

    ReplyDelete
  10. We did have an earthquake in the Bay Area yesterday.

    ReplyDelete
  11. So instead of being taken up, some were taken down?

    ReplyDelete
  12. This was not a ridiculously easy puzzle!
    I agree with Lorenzo--hints are hurting,except clues by DaveJ and Tommy Boy were good. So if anyone is still stuck (and picking up on the ruptured Rapture)think of plagues.
    Or, if you like musical hints, try "Rhinestone Cowboy."

    ReplyDelete
  13. Maybe it was only a first step Rapture for our pets. I say this because today I am noticing several new missing pet signs around the neighborhood. I guess only the "bad" cats and dogs are left. Less barking will be good though.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I see we're back to the softball questions. This one was right in my wheelhouse, a couple dozen lines of code, a minute to scan the couple of hundred candidates, and there it was. For my musical clue I offer Donny and Marie. I think that works.

    @Skydiveboy: Do you live in an earthquake zone? There's a theory that a lot of pets suddenly go missing before a big shake. I guess they know when to get out of Dodge.

    ReplyDelete
  15. DT:
    Yes, I live in Seattle, probably even more susceptible to major earthquakes than CA.
    I know that theory, but I was joking about the missing pets. Actually even less missing pet signs today than usual here.
    I am not a programmer, and so I have to solve the puzzles the plodding way of old. It only took me 12 minutes to get the answer though.
    Speaking of Dodge, I once made up a joke about God's car (a Chrysler product) being impounded and detained in Hell. God finally realized it was time to get the Dodge outta Hell. It was a take off on the old joke about God driving a Plymouth.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Several items.

    First, I agree that the dictionary is one of many nice prizes. I played on-air back in ’05 and the dictionary has been on my desktop ever since. The Scrabble game on a turntable is nice, too, if you happen to like Scrabble. And I’ve actually worn my lapel pin on rare occasion. Playing on the air was fun after I correctly answered the first several questions and my nerves settled down.

    Second, I agree with whoever it was who said sometimes it’s easier to figure out the puzzle than some of our clues :) The thread gets pretty long and thin sometimes...

    Third, the joke was on me this week. I made the mistake of just listening to the puzzle on the radio this morning. As a result, I mistakenly made it so hard at first that it didn’t _have_ an answer. Later I actually read the words and corrected the puzzle’s requirements. Much more satisfying. I am reminded of one of Aesop’s Fables.

    Chuck

    ReplyDelete
  17. Is this the same puzzle posted by NPR, just worded differently???

    ReplyDelete
  18. @Emmanuel, you've posted the same question twice now. Is that your hint to the NPR puzzle, or is there something different in the on-air puzzle wording that I missed? I checked the NPR site, read their posting and also listened to the puzzle. I'm not catching a discrepancy, but if there is one, let me know.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I'm sorry, all this time I was reading the on-air challenge instead of reading the actual puzzles, there are no discrepancies.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Yes, Will stated on the radio that the weekly puzzle was inspired by the on-air challenge given to the listener, hence the similarities.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Is my right foot the opposite of my left foot? Or is my right hand the opposite of my right foot?
    Now I have a headache.
    When is the next Rapture?

    ReplyDelete
  22. Yeah yeah, growing up I learned to speak double dutch and would intimidate our country cousins with:
    We r the rough
    We r the tough
    We r the girls who take no stuff!

    But look at us the wrong way and we would run home in a heartbeat.

    ReplyDelete
  23. I meant to say "Bama" cousins.
    I live in Baltimore, whose slogan is "BELIEVE" (o yes, we have fun with that) so we believe the rapture happened but no one was eligible to participate.

    ReplyDelete
  24. My comment that I "did not find this puzzle even remotely difficult" makes it sound like I'm agreeing with others who have criticized the level of difficulty of Will's puzzles. Let me clarify that what I wrote was meant to offer a clue to the answer, not a criticism.

    I guess my puzzle-solving skills are not on a par with those of others on this blog. I am generally pleased with the range of difficulty of Will's puzzles, and my wife and I look forward to listening to the program each Sunday. Hope I haven't offended anyone.

    Regards -- Phil J.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Phil, I got your clue(s). And I agree with your comment. Any puzzle that takes 10 or more minutes to solve is a good puzzle IMO.

    The law of "Conservation of Energy" states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It remains constant within a system and is merely changed from one form to another.

    So let's accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. Latch on to the affirmative. Good night.

    Mister In-Between

    ReplyDelete
  26. Greetings from Brooklyn, NY.

    -- Other Ben

    ReplyDelete
  27. If Ethan is from any other state, is he the opposite of a Texan?

    The answer I submitted this week reminds me of a Seinfeld episode.

    Here's a similar puzzle:
    Think of two five-letter animals, in which the first two letters of each word are the same as the first two letters of the other, only reversed. The third letter of each word is the same. What two animals are these?

    ReplyDelete
  28. One's more well-known than the other. That's the long and the short of it.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Oh, what the heck. I'm posting my weekly puzzle a day early again. How about the "Midweek-eve Puzzle Break"?

    Check it out here.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Anybody see Will's NY Times crossword today?

    ReplyDelete
  31. Any last minute clues? I've been working on combinations of letters all week and I'm stumped. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Where Green Acres meets the Big Apple.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Thanks, Tommy Boy. I misread the puzzle. I thought that the third, fourth and fifth letters of both words are the same, with the fourth letter being an A. The puzzle is much easier than I made it out to be. Muchas gracias, amigo!

    ReplyDelete
  34. Tommy Boy -
    Now how will you feel if thepiranha gets the call from NPR instead of me?

    ReplyDelete
  35. B_D, I suppose if my clue was a dead give-away, then I may have decreased your chances by one fifth of one percent.

    If indeed thepiranha gets the call, you may have to wait in a long line to give me my lumps.

    ReplyDelete
  36. My clues included Jon Voight who in Midnight Cowboy transformed himself into a Drugstore Cowboy in rural Tejas (aka Texas) and immediately relocated to urban Manhattan where he was unable to solve his puzzle of a life.
    Cole Porter is my next clue and refers to his songs glorifying New York and Paris. Of course I am assuming Porter is referring to the Paris in the middle of France and not the Paris in the middle of Texas.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Ruth (Alpern) Madoff - Bernie's wife.

    Ursula Andress - Swiss actress and a sex symbol of the 1960's.

    Take the first two letters of the first and last names.

    RU_AL UR_AN

    Add a little R&B...

    ReplyDelete
  38. B_D, nothing to worry about. I didn't get the call. I made the puzzle much more difficult that it should have been. In fact, it was so easy, that I can hardly consider it a puzzle. I was trying to find two words of the format ABCDE and BACDE that were opposites of each other, with the fourth letter being an A. Pairs such as NOMAD AND ONMAD, SALAD AND ASLAD. Solving an unsolvable puzzle can drive a guy crazy.

    ReplyDelete
  39. I was actually try to think of a hint around (Keith) Urban, but Country & Western (Civilization) seemed to fit.

    ReplyDelete
  40. My reference to one of Aesop's Fables was The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse.

    Chuck

    ReplyDelete
  41. B_D & TB:
    koala - okapi is much better than roach - orang (eww = "every which way")

    ReplyDelete
  42. Will is continuing the same puzzle for next week. I wonder if we need to resubmit the answer.

    ReplyDelete
  43. What a disappointment! The same puzzle for another week! I solved it right away last week and now I have to solve it all over again! Gee, don't tire yourself, Will. I sure hope Blaine doesn't reveal the clue on here.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Blaine's already posted the answer above. I hope he removes it.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Disappointed that I didn't figure out the by the Thursday deadline, found out the answer, there's no new puzzle to submit a new answer to. :(

    ReplyDelete
  46. The lack of a new puzzle this week is a small price to pay to have heard the touching farewell between Will and Liane. Also, the on-air puzzle with special guest Audie Cornish contained some interesting wordplay. Well worth listening to.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Koala - okapi is indeed the animal pair I intended.
    I found that by playing with the spreadsheet I made to solve urban-rural.

    I mentioned Seinfeld for the "urban sombrero".

    thepirahna - I made the same mistake reading the puzzle, but only for a few hours.

    ReplyDelete

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.