Saturday, October 13, 2007

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 7): Say That Again?

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 7): Say That Again?:
Q: Name a well-known city in the United States, two words, 10 letters altogether. Add the letter A at the front, add the city's two-letter state postal abbreviation at the end, the resulting 13-letter chain will be palindromic, that is, it will read backward and forward the same. What city is this?
Well, at least letter 'A' is guaranteed to be the first and last letter... I just had to read it a second time and voilà, I knew the answer.

Edit: If you look carefully at the first letters in "Well, at least letter 'A'" you come up with WALLA. In addition voilà sounds a lot like WALLA also. Read them a second time and you get the answer.
A: WALLA WALLA (Washington) --> AWALLAWALLAWA
at

1 comment:

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.