Comments on Blaine's Puzzle Blog: NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 12): On Vacation -- Autopil...

DaveJ, How long ago was heavy metal heard anywher...

2009-07-18T11:55:34.845-07:00

DaveJ, How long ago was heavy metal heard anywhere? I'm guessing there will be fewer than 1000 amswers this week.

"Have you been pumping iron, man?" is an...

2009-07-17T15:32:17.455-07:00

"Have you been pumping iron, man?" is an obvious reference to Black Sabbath.

I must admit I still missed quite a few of the hin...

2009-07-17T08:10:22.397-07:00

I must admit I still missed quite a few of the hints posted by Blue... Anyway, my hints were:

"MRIs": stands for "magnetic resonance imaging"; "magnetic" arguably has to do with "metallic"...

"Horseshoes": I don't actually play that, but I know the props are made of... well, heavy metal!

"Weigh in": I hope Blaine wouldn't find this too heavily revealing.

Autopilot = Cruise. Perhaps an Indian Ocean cruis...

2009-07-16T20:37:22.996-07:00

Autopilot = Cruise. Perhaps an Indian Ocean cruise that includes Madagascar.

prison, thralldom = a lotta, lotta, lotta surround...

2009-07-16T20:11:03.395-07:00

prison, thralldom = a lotta, lotta, lotta surrounding heavy metal, like a lotta lead

Occoquan Workhouse Prison’s Night of Terror in the Homeland = occurred on a month’s 15th and, indeed, mightily heavy

speculum = as well as a tool of torture among other uses, is also a specific metal alloy of mostly copper and tin, perhaps a wee bito’ ... arsenic = all heavy metals

gullet = at where the speculum + liquid slop was against all wills ... forced ... down = emotionally, nearly the heaviest and requiring the most ... mettle ... summonable

death = the heaviest that 15 November 1917, New Jersey night

Independence Day = for anyone ... self – explanatory

My reference to The Orb, a very mellow and playful...

2009-07-16T18:12:10.192-07:00

My reference to The Orb, a very mellow and playful electronica ensemble, may be the most obscure clue I've yet offered on this blog, but would make sense to anyone familiar with the movie based on the comic book named for this week's answer.

Not participating much for a couple reasons... Need to get as much done as fast as I can on my remodel project so I can begin to enjoy living there someday in the not-too-distant future, and also I STILL have not resolved the issue of the ear infection from Hades. Getting a CT Scan on Sunday to see if surgery might be the answer!

Sincerely, truly hope all of you are feeling better than I am and have been. I'm confident that I'll be there with you eventually.

re Host Blaine - ? ... autopilot = high planes of...

2009-07-16T18:07:48.042-07:00

re Host Blaine - ?

... autopilot = high planes of heavy metal,

... er, high plains

... of the southeast of Australia, er, ...

... of oZ, that is, of ... Oz ?

So how many heavy metal fans do we predict Liane w...

2009-07-16T16:47:06.281-07:00

So how many heavy metal fans do we predict Liane will mention this Sunday ? I'm guessing "about" 2000.

Re: Where is Blaine? The Madagascar films mentio...

2009-07-16T15:04:30.622-07:00

Re: Where is Blaine? The Madagascar films mention Kenya, New York (Central Park), Antarctica, San Diego and Africa. Since Blaine does not seem to have internet access at the moment, the most likely place is Antarctica.

If he is in Africa, I'm guessing its either Kenya or perhaps South Africa, which is relatively close to Madagascar.

Ken, You are probably correct.

2009-07-15T13:50:55.241-07:00

Ken,
You are probably correct.

Wolftone, I like your solution, even if it doesn&#...

2009-07-14T20:59:22.649-07:00

Wolftone, I like your solution, even if it doesn't make a great deal of sense. Neither does "FIZZY VIXEN" ... I don't know if there is a sensible solution for the puzzle I gave.

Natasha, I guess I don't see the Singleton, Australia hint. I thought Blaine was just giving a hint for last week's puzzle. Besides he gives the "just add Z" hint this week, which suggests the Madagascar puzzle. If Madagascar is an unlikely vacation destination, then maybe Japan (home of Mazda) is the spot. Maybe the Galileo Galelei puzzle suggests Italy ... add Z to Pisa (where GG dropped the ball) to get pizza.

Hugh, Janice appreciated your comment, especially ...

2009-07-14T19:30:05.375-07:00

Hugh, Janice appreciated your comment, especially since her training is in music, as a singer and coral conductor.

Regarding formation of letters as Hugh discussed: ...

2009-07-14T11:53:46.084-07:00

Regarding formation of letters as Hugh discussed: for the Vanna White puzzle, a friend said that Vanna didn't work because Vanna has only 12 straight lines. I reminded him that 'most people' put a cross line to form an 'A' - he just uses an inverted 'V'. He just said 'Oh - yeah - got it.'

Blaine was hinting at Singleton, Australia last we...

2009-07-14T10:12:34.849-07:00

Blaine was hinting at Singleton, Australia last week.

Curtis, I had the same problem of 2 vs 3 strokes f...

2009-07-14T09:20:58.813-07:00

Curtis, I had the same problem of 2 vs 3 strokes for about a minute. However there are fonts (admittedly unusual) that do use 2 strokes for the letter in question, so the puzzle is not all that bulletproof.

Found at www.fonts.com or in windows:
Arquitectura
Shinn
Churchward
Eaglefeather Informal
Generation Gothic
Comic

I also wonder how many crossword solvers use the 3 stroke version. I don't. I have observed solvers who use other letter variations:

A tipped delta for D
Sigma for E
Lambda for A

Jen-Jen, I answered Geri (I think) some time ago about why I thought the puzzles were getting easier. I stopped short of raising your question about automation, but I believe it must be used for at least an initial cull.

Lorenzo, Janice has a pleasant speaking voice.

@ken: how about "to confuse a piece of headge...

2009-07-14T05:30:02.151-07:00

@ken: how about "to confuse a piece of headgear"? in two words, line count (8,11)

Where did Blaine go on vacation? Madagascar? Pis...

2009-07-13T18:59:44.610-07:00

Where did Blaine go on vacation? Madagascar? Pisa? I don't know.

We've now had three related puzzles: KEVIN KLINE, VANNA WHITE, and now this one. Three answers, two names/words each, 5 letters in each word, 30 letters total. The three answers only have two letters in common. Of the 15 available letters (consisting of straight lines), there are 3 that haven't been used. I wonder if anyone can think of fourth puzzle that uses the 2 common letters plus the 3 unused ones.

I went around the globe considering world music ge...

2009-07-13T17:13:56.062-07:00

I went around the globe considering world music genres only to find my answer close to home. Wish I had a nickel for every attempt - maybe I wouldn't have hit my head agaisnt the wall.

Man, this puzzle has been weighing on my brain all...

2009-07-13T15:46:22.803-07:00

Man, this puzzle has been weighing on my brain all day.

Weigh in? Heck, no. I didn't even know my pu...

2009-07-13T15:36:06.740-07:00

Weigh in? Heck, no. I didn't even know my puzzle was being used until it aired on Sunday. The on-air puzzle was taped the previous Thursday.

Hey Les, Blue already set Curtis straight :-) I g...

2009-07-13T14:08:43.389-07:00

Hey Les, Blue already set Curtis straight :-)

I guess I am catching on to the the nature of Blue's clues; at first they were about as cryptic to me as MRIs are to the untrained eye.

Carl, I am with you--not my favorite genre. Seems when I have too much of it I have to do something else afterwards for recreation. (Anyone play horseshoes these days anymore?)

Geri's "answer submitted" post is more compatible with my kind of music. (And I do mean the music; no innuendo here...)

Ben: Congratulations! This wasn't hard, but still a dead-on observation on your part. Do Liane and Will let you weigh in on who gets selected for the on-air puzzle?

Oh, BTW... the above "Blue's clues" is NOT a hint ;-)

There are some good clues here this week. I found...

2009-07-13T13:14:39.653-07:00

There are some good clues here this week. I found that writing out the letters without curves helped, as suddenly a word which fit several clues appeared. The other word followed immediately.

I'm lousy at remembering what song contains specific lyrics, but I'm pretty decent at hearing a few notes and recalling a song (and even some context where I first heard the song).

Ben, congrats on getting your puzzle used. I'v...

2009-07-13T10:51:18.581-07:00

Ben, congrats on getting your puzzle used. I've often wondered if the odds are more in your favor of getting a challenge used by WS or having your name chosen from random from among hundreds if not thousands of entries. I've submitted a couple of challenges over the year, but I've never even heard back that they were were considered.

I've also wondered if they really check to see if all the entries that they choose from are correct, or if they chose randomly from all the entries and see if they answer they chose is correct or not. Not sure it really makes a difference in your odds of having a correct answer chosen, just a difference in the number of correct entries they mention on the air. It might not be that big of a difference, though, since I'm not sure how many people bother to submit answers that are not correct.

This week's puzzle will probably bring thousands of entries, correct or otherwise. If it doesn't, chalk it up to too many listeners being on vacation like Blaine.

Before I even started to think of what answers met the criteria for straight line letters, I was trying to think of two-word music genres of any number of letters. The correct answer is the first one that popped into my head.

But after last week's answer, which I didn't even know AFTER they gave the answer on air, it was good to have one that I could solve again.

Curtis, Regarding your vertical line count, - y...

2009-07-13T10:36:37.831-07:00

Curtis,
Regarding your vertical line count, - you may be forming a certain letter with two lines vs three (remember they are capital letters).

Hey guys, in case you're having trouble sleepi...

2009-07-13T09:49:25.154-07:00

Hey guys, in case you're having trouble sleeping tonight, I wrote on my blog about getting my puzzle on the air:

benbassandbeyond.com