Comments on Blaine's Puzzle Blog: NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 10): Another Numeric Braint...

All these clues make so much sense once you know t...

2009-05-18T12:42:00.000-07:00

All these clues make so much sense once you know the answer. I particularly enjoyed the oval references.

According to Liane, there were fewer than 200 entr...

2009-05-17T09:16:00.000-07:00

According to Liane, there were fewer than 200 entries for this puzzle!

Geri, and 1, not l.

2009-05-16T18:49:00.000-07:00

Geri, and 1, not l.

Blaine, We all make 'em--typo, not type.

2009-05-15T20:10:00.000-07:00

Blaine, We all make 'em--typo, not type.

Blaine, I'm glad you approve. I think you have a...

2009-05-15T20:08:00.000-07:00

Blaine, I'm glad you approve. I think you have a type in you spoiler alert: It's 39+l, not 29+1.

Thanks, Dave...I'm sure I will.

2009-05-15T19:48:00.000-07:00

Thanks, Dave...I'm sure I will.

Jim, you were so close to getting the answer but j...

2009-05-15T17:36:00.000-07:00

Jim, you were so close to getting the answer but just couldn't nail it down. You'll get next week's puzzle.

I actually considered it had something to do with ...

2009-05-15T16:20:00.000-07:00

I actually considered it had something to do with president names and the relationship between their position and the number of letters in the names. But after reading some of the clues I thought not. I was totally confused this week and did not submit.

I adore Merl Reagle puzzles! Thanks for the recom...

2009-05-15T09:25:00.000-07:00

I adore Merl Reagle puzzles! Thanks for the recommendation, Geri and for the link, Joe W.

Spoiler alert:
31+9,52-12,5x8,22+18,4x10,29+1

Anyone who wants Geri's recommended crossword puzz...

2009-05-15T01:31:00.000-07:00

Anyone who wants Geri's recommended crossword puzzle by Merl Reagle "Testing Your Forty-Tude" can get it at:

http://www.sundaycrosswords.com/ccpuz/TestingYourFortytude.pdf

I repeat: If you are hankering for a word/number ...

2009-05-14T22:20:00.000-07:00

I repeat: If you are hankering for a word/number puzzle get the Washington Post Sunday puzzle "Testing Your Forty-Tude." It's by Mel Reagle. All the theme answers involve word answers representing numbers that total 40.

This was ridiculous. I never would have gotten it...

2009-05-14T21:37:00.000-07:00

This was ridiculous. I never would have gotten it.

O O O ... NO idea, I'm told? As in ... "not led...

2009-05-14T19:24:00.000-07:00

O O O ... NO idea, I'm told?

As in ... "not led." Because no one of us has ever been in THIS "lead"ership so there is no idea that it even could happen -- or has, ... even at the least, been hoped to happen?

Well, having "no idea"'d be NOT surprising to me, BUT NOT everyone operates under the (utterly usual) standard androcentric measure.

In fact, (most of) the 53 percent of the World who are us Not Males do not ... automatically ... twist into only one thinking's direction. We Not Males FLIP / REVERSE aaaaall matters.

4 = 8, 92 = 8, 52 = 80, 52 also = 96, 84 = 88, 92 = 96 and 88 = 92 is ONLY (purposefully) missing a few 20s and a few more 19s ... as in

2004 = 2008
1992 = 2008
1952 = 1980
1952 = 1996
1984 = 1988
1992 = 1996
1988 = 1992

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_United_States_presidential_and_vice-presidential_candidates

= ... every quad THE ... -POT- sooo NOT in the smoked pipes of -US-, the MAJority.

Hi folks. Alan Alda played Benjamin FRANKLIN PIER...

2009-05-14T19:23:00.000-07:00

Hi folks. Alan Alda played Benjamin FRANKLIN PIERCE on M*A*S*H. aka (...hawk. I...)as it appeared in my clue. I waited by the phone at 3pm but no luck,

Thanks for all your help.

I spent hours on this, but had to give up...**sigh...

2009-05-14T17:32:00.000-07:00

I spent hours on this, but had to give up...**sigh**. While I had knew the clue was about presidents, I kept thinking we were ranking them somehow...It never occurred to me to match up the second number to a different president. Had I done that, the first name idea would have clicked. Thanks all for the clues. This was a fun one.

Oh, and I hope Al gets on here to explain his M*A*S*H clue...I liked that one.

Jim

Oops, I meant three times in two sentences.

2009-05-14T14:35:00.000-07:00

Oops, I meant three times in two sentences.

Ben helped me out immensely last night. He e-mail...

2009-05-14T14:34:00.000-07:00

Ben helped me out immensely last night. He e-mailed me a clue that mentioned the term "term" three times in one sentence. After I figured out the answer, he told me that he didn't intentionally use the term "term," but as soon as I read it the answer jumped out at me.

Blue, I have no idea what your clues are about. How does 88=92? If anything, you just threw everybody off track unless I'm missing something here.

i hope there's more puzzles like the number ones. ...

2009-05-14T14:26:00.000-07:00

i hope there's more puzzles like the number ones. i really enjoy trying to figure them out

i can't believe i didn't get that! i was thinking ...

2009-05-14T14:24:00.000-07:00

i can't believe i didn't get that! i was thinking of the presidents, which number they were, where they came from, what year they were born, and pretty much everything but their names... that was a great puzzle and you all dropped some really clever hints that i didn't really catch!

I knew Kennedy was the second youngest president a...

2009-05-14T14:22:00.000-07:00

I knew Kennedy was the second youngest president at inauguration. I checked and found he was the 35th president (35=2!). I was sure that was the formula but it didn't work for the others. 44=44 (Obama) and references to "egg-shaped" (oval) made me sure I was somewhere in the ballpark. Another clue mentioned needing to "look it up". So back to the list of presidents and it was just a matter of time to see the pattern.

I questioned 44=44 also, but in the absence of ano...

2009-05-14T13:48:00.000-07:00

I questioned 44=44 also, but in the absence of another president with the name Barack... plus, as you noted, it gives you the last number in the list.

My thinking was similar to yours. I looked at the range of the numbers. I first thought the "answers" had to be letters because they were in the range 1-26 but that wasn't working. Thinking of other lists, I thought of states (50) and or capitals. Comparing the lists alphabetically and then in entry into the union looked promising, but again didn't work. Finally I settled on presidents. Again I tried comparing rank order to alphabetical order, both with last name and then first name. That finally revealed the answer to the puzzle.

"44 = 44" is logically flawed under the premise of...

2009-05-14T13:30:00.000-07:00

"44 = 44" is logically flawed under the premise of this puzzle--see Blaine's hint "same name but they are different people." ("Different" is key! But I can't blame the puzzle author David Hill here...)

That flawed inclusion of "44" threw me off, but I do acknowledge others still found that helpful...

What should have done the trick for me was the MacKenzie hint, since the #1 probability I was considering was still U.S. presidents. Just google "MacKenzie president," and the first search result you get is a Wikipedia page that talks about the TV show Ken cited. Arrrrgh!

My clue about "informal conversations making a spa...

2009-05-14T13:18:00.000-07:00

My clue about "informal conversations making a spark" was pointing to the fireside chats FDR had, and then I put in about this being a better February puzzle ie President's Day...see you all on Sunday for more rousing puzzle solving...

In the fictional TV series "Commander In Chief", M...

2009-05-14T12:46:00.002-07:00

In the fictional TV series "Commander In Chief", MacKenzie Allen (played by Geena Davis) is the President of the United States. So my clue is to look at the first name of the President. Also, since I wrongly assumed Blue's gender, I flipped my thinking and chose a woman president (hear her roar). I could have said "Josiah makes the list", but that would have been more of a give-away.

I leave it to others to explain their clues, but I...

2009-05-14T12:46:00.001-07:00

I leave it to others to explain their clues, but I did want to say that Eddie had a good clue when he replied "Bonnie, your first comment was already inside the "pot", even if it wasn't meant for us."

That was a hint to POTUS --> President of the United States. He used the same words in a later comment but put POT and US in big letters which I thought was too obvious a clue so I deleted it.