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
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.
ReplyDeleteYou may provide indirect hints to the answer to show you know it, but make sure they don't give the answer away. Thank you.
If you're dense, you have a remote chance of solving this.
ReplyDeleteJon Voight might know the answer to this one.
ReplyDelete"Frere Jacques" may do as a musical clue
ReplyDeleteAnd 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".
Is this the same puzzle posted by NPR, just worded differently???
ReplyDeleteMusical clue - something Country & Western ?
ReplyDeleteWhere Alpern meets Andress.
ReplyDeleteI was out of town this weekend, listened to Will from my hotel room. Did not find this puzzle even remotely difficult.
ReplyDeletePuzzle was pretty easy. Clues not so much. Got EF's but still working on Blaine's and TB's.
ReplyDeleteTB decoded. But Blaine???
ReplyDeleteSorry DaveJ, but I believe the musical clue should be something Cole Porter.
ReplyDeleteNote: 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!
We did have an earthquake in the Bay Area yesterday.
ReplyDeleteSo instead of being taken up, some were taken down?
ReplyDeleteThis was not a ridiculously easy puzzle!
ReplyDeleteI 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."
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.
ReplyDeleteI 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.
ReplyDelete@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.
DT:
ReplyDeleteYes, 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.
Several items.
ReplyDeleteFirst, 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
Is this the same puzzle posted by NPR, just worded differently???
ReplyDelete@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.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, all this time I was reading the on-air challenge instead of reading the actual puzzles, there are no discrepancies.
ReplyDeleteYes, Will stated on the radio that the weekly puzzle was inspired by the on-air challenge given to the listener, hence the similarities.
ReplyDeleteIs my right foot the opposite of my left foot? Or is my right hand the opposite of my right foot?
ReplyDeleteNow I have a headache.
When is the next Rapture?
Yeah yeah, growing up I learned to speak double dutch and would intimidate our country cousins with:
ReplyDeleteWe 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.
I meant to say "Bama" cousins.
ReplyDeleteI 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.
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.
ReplyDeleteI 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.
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.
ReplyDeleteThe 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
Greetings from Brooklyn, NY.
ReplyDelete-- Other Ben
If Ethan is from any other state, is he the opposite of a Texan?
ReplyDeleteThe 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?
One's more well-known than the other. That's the long and the short of it.
ReplyDeleteOh, what the heck. I'm posting my weekly puzzle a day early again. How about the "Midweek-eve Puzzle Break"?
ReplyDeleteCheck it out here.
...eww...
ReplyDeleteAnybody see Will's NY Times crossword today?
ReplyDeleteAny last minute clues? I've been working on combinations of letters all week and I'm stumped. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteWhere Green Acres meets the Big Apple.
ReplyDeleteThanks, 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!
ReplyDeleteTommy Boy -
ReplyDeleteNow how will you feel if thepiranha gets the call from NPR instead of me?
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.
ReplyDeleteIf indeed thepiranha gets the call, you may have to wait in a long line to give me my lumps.
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.
ReplyDeleteCole 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.
Ruth (Alpern) Madoff - Bernie's wife.
ReplyDeleteUrsula 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...
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.
ReplyDeleteI was actually try to think of a hint around (Keith) Urban, but Country & Western (Civilization) seemed to fit.
ReplyDeleteMy reference to one of Aesop's Fables was The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse.
ReplyDeleteChuck
B_D, koala - okapi
ReplyDeleteB_D & TB:
ReplyDeletekoala - okapi is much better than roach - orang (eww = "every which way")
Will is continuing the same puzzle for next week. I wonder if we need to resubmit the answer.
ReplyDeleteWhat 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.
ReplyDeleteLAME!!!
ReplyDeleteBlaine's already posted the answer above. I hope he removes it.
ReplyDeleteDisappointed 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. :(
ReplyDeleteThe 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.
ReplyDeleteKoala - okapi is indeed the animal pair I intended.
ReplyDeleteI 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.