Thursday, June 14, 2007

NPR Sunday Puzzle (June 17): Is it Philadelphia?

NPR Sunday Puzzle (June 17): Is it Philadelphia?
Q: Think of a well-known U.S. city; the letters in its name can be rearranged into a symbol for 1,000, a symbol for 10, and two words meaning zero. What city is it?
All this talk of U.S. cities reminded me of a puzzle from last November; it's likely you'll find a clue there. I got distracted for awhile thinking the answer was LEXINGTON (G, X, NIL, NOT, NONE?) but it obviously wasn't right...

Edit: Well it's after the deadline so here are my clues. First, what really helped me was to use a list of the 100 Most Populous Cities in the U.S., something that I posted in response to an NPR Puzzle post from last Thanksgiving. It's pretty obvious that the answer has to have an 'X' in it, so that narrows it down.

If that wasn't enough help, there were additional clues. The title refers to Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love and there were a couple clues (...November; it's likely... and the list with Lexington) that pointed to LOVE and NIL. So it is time for the answer:
A: KNOXVILLE --> K, X, NIL, LOVE

2 comments:

  1. Why not Adirondack?
    10 = da (metric system)
    1000 = k (metric system)
    Zero = nada, nadir

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well obviously the implication was that all letters in the city were used exactly once. Also I believe Adirondack is a region of northern NY, rather than a well-known U.S. City

    ReplyDelete

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