Thursday, October 29, 2009

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 25): Where in the World...

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 25): Where in the World...:
Q: Take the name 'Boris Karloff.' It contains the letters of 'Oslo' in left-to-right order (although not consecutively). Now write down these three names: Leonardo da Vinci, Frank Sinatra, Stephen Douglas. Each conceals the name of another world capital in left-to-right order, although not in consecutive letters. What capitals are these?
I wasn't able to post the puzzle earlier because I had just pulled an all-nighter. We had intended to get to bed at an hour that was reasonable. However, since we needed to construct our Halloween costumes in time for the parade today, we couldn't settle for inaction.

Edit: Three airport codes are hidden in the last word of each sentence (alL-nigHteR=LHR, rEaSonaBle=ESB, InaCtioN=ICN). Doesn't really help you solve the puzzle, but it might have confirmed you had the right locations.
A: LONDON (England), ANKARA (Turkey), SEOUL (South Korea)

24 comments:

  1. Here's my standard reminder... don't post the answer or any outright spoilers 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. Thank you.

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  2. One could take this week's answer and re-arrange the letters to get three words that might describe an unhappy spectator at a yearly event.

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  3. Chezedog, thanks for the additional puzzle. That was fun.

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  4. Agreed. A fun little ditty, Chezedog.

    Answer submitted.

    -- Other Ben

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  5. Chezedog, another rearrangement advises to tie down a cursed marsupial.

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  6. The author of "Murder on the Orient Express" provides several clues without giving it away.

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  7. Chezedog, nice puzzle. Lorenzo, I'm working on yours.

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  8. Anyone able to spot the hidden answers in my post?

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  9. I found one, Blaine, relating to your all-nighter. But once I had the puzzle I didn't search for the other two.

    -- Other Ben

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  10. Around the table.
    The Clash answered to find out who was on the other end of the ringing phone while the Michael Jackson collaborator on what is now "This is It" praised the Sun God during Thanksgiving dinner. Then Neil Young dropped by to pick up a reason.

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  11. hmmmmmmmmm could the answers be in exact order consecutively??

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  12. Submitted. Hey, what's happened to Blue?

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  13. Deadline passed.

    I submitted London, Ankara, and Seoul.

    Thanks to ChezeDog I now know that the three cities anagram into "sad annual onlooker."

    And if I'm reading Blaine correctly, his hint that he "pulled" an all-nighter related to Turkish Toffee. Or maybe I'm on crack.

    -- Other Ben

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  14. P.S. Ben from Chicago is on notice. If he doesn't show up for a few more months, I'm changing from "Other Ben" to "Ben."

    Squatter's rights, you know.

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  15. And for Lorenzo's anagram, I think it is:
    "unloosen darn koala"

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  16. Is unloosen a real word? I tried Lorenzo's anagram and was certain that it had to do with a roo, so I didn't get very far.

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  17. Well, I think Lorenzo thought that unloosen would be the opposite of loosen, so it should mean tighten.

    Apparently it is a word, but it is essentially a synonym for loosen. Unloose

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  18. I revisited the "hot chocolate" and "manhattan" grid with text message abbreviations.

    G T K Good To Know
    O B U Okay By yoU? ( I made this one up)
    R R R haR haR haR

    The capital's countries (in IOC abbreviations) are on the diagonals.

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  19. Blaine, interesting linguistic phenomenon (unloosen = loosen). A similar example is inflammable = flammable. Are there others? Does this phenomenon have a name?

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  20. Dave, the misdirection toward a 'roo was intentional, but the misuse of "unloosen" was not. Sorry, mate!

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  21. Lorenzo, I got curious about those words. After checking:

    http://www.merriam-webster.com/
    http://www.etymonline.com/

    Unloose seems to be an emphasis:
    un(2) meaning "release from", and loose meaning the same.

    Inflammable seems to be a literal translation from Latin "able to be put "in flamma", in flames.

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  22. From the "Handbook of Good English", There are many words formed with the usually negative prefix in and a few words formed with the almost always negative prefixes dis and un that are not negative: inflammable, disannul, unloose. In these words the prefixes are intensifiers.

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  23. You know the capital of the Isle of Man, a autonomous British crown dependency, has as its capital city Douglas, which is an anagram of the word Stephen Douglas. Just thought you should know the Seoul is not the only world capital that can be formed with those letters.

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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.