Thursday, February 25, 2010

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb. 21, 2010): Anagramming Brooklynite

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb. 21, 2010): Anagramming Brooklynite:
Q: Take this word: Brooklynite. Rearrange these 11 letters to get the names of two world capitals. What are they?
Talk about déjà vu. Didn't we just have a puzzle involving anagrams?

Edit: Last week's answer involved troops fighting in a war. Déjà vu should have led you to think of experiencing a second war as in World War II, where the U.S. fought Germany and Japan. I had intended for deja to be another clue for the internet domains of Germany (.de) and Japan (.ja) except the correct domain is .jp. Oops!
A: Brooklynite --> Berlin + Tokyo

33 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 of the capitals has an interesting property that may be unique among world capital names.

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  3. How easy can it get?
    I predict 4000 replies on this one

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  4. Couldn't hear the puzzle over me Deep Purple and Lou Reed 8-tracks...

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  5. Anyone stumped by this could stand to study a 2007 album by Wilco. Isn't it nice to know someone's listening?

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  6. Russian rapists and comfort women: "god's plan is a cover for man's plan." -- Mary Daly, 20th Century.

    "For I (god) shall gather all the nations to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses looted and the women raped." Zechariah 14:2

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  7. I don't get it. Is it two capitals that each use all letters or 2 capitals that together use all 1etters?

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  8. Chris, it would be the latter: Together they use all 11 letters.

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  9. Just submitted my answer. I agree that there should be at least 3,900 correct answers this week. There is a hint hidden somewhere inconspicuously in this post :)

    Chuck

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  10. The metro in London is painted a deep purple.

    Chris, the answers are two capitals that together use all of the letters.

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  11. To elaborate on my comment above, a case can be made that there are two correct answers to this puzzle.

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  12. Here's one: Think of 3 digits commonly used to refer to a certain historical event and rearrange the digits to get a reference to another historical event. What are the digits and what are the events?

    (Let's follow the usual protocol: no answers or spoilers before the Thursday deadline. Thanks.)

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  13. Thank goodness, my work on tax is finished, (except for paying it.)

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  14. Lorenzo, Right on for both of your observations. Actually, it appears as if the most familiar 3 digits can be rearranged into 2 historical references with something in common to both.

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  15. I almost picked a wrong city with this one because one city name is an anagram of another city in the same country.

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  16. This puzzle is so easy, I predict over 4,000 correct responses this week. Here is a clue beyond the clues already provided: There is at least one instance of strong historical association between the countries of these two capitals.

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  17. Curtis,
    If we were doing this before 1868, your other answer would've been correct. However, the capital of the other country would've been wrong before 1871.

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  18. Eddie,
    Your point is well taken, but there appears to be an ongoing controversy about whether the change you are talking about was ever legally made! I can't give you a link to that argument until Thursday afternoon!

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  19. I think these easy puzzles are Will's way of getting a listener tally.

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  20. William,
    Curtis's comment that the name of the capital city is an anagram of another city in the same country is true. It is also true that, if we were living 150 years ago, the other city would've been the correct answer.

    OK, I just looked it up. You're correct about the controversy regarding the legality of the transfer of the capital from one city to another in 1868. It's very interesting. Part of the problem is that the language of this country at that time didn't have the exact translation for the term "Capital City" as we know it today. At the present time, there's really no controversy about which city is the capital except for a handful of traditionalists who still want to glorify that ancient cultural and spiritual capital.

    Thank you for your comments. I learned something new today.

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  21. Eddie,
    Careful with those clues! Now everybody knows that Washington and London aren't in the correct answer!

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  22. So, I'm guessing it's not Sri Jayewardenepura-Kotte (Sri Lanka) and Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia)

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  23. The ratio of the number of letters in the capital of the larger country to the number of letters in the capital of the smaller country is 1.20.

    The ratio of the number of letters in the larger country to the number of letters in the smaller country is 1.40

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  24. In the same vein, Sam, we can rule out Flying Fish Cove (Christmas Island) and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso).

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  25. Still watching the Games of the XI Olmpiad and cheering for the home team, although finished my Bartles and Jaymes wine cooler from last week's clue("Thank you for your support") and drinking hot wine to kick this cold of mine.

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  26. I almost nixed Mario's comment. He gave away that the capital names are 6 letters and 5 letters (6/5 = 1.2). And the ratio of 1.4 for the country names meant 7/5 or 14/10 which pretty much pointed to 7 letters and 5 letters. Oh well, I think people pretty much had this puzzle right away so I don't think it was a spoiler.

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  27. We’re currently having the Olympics in Vancouver. Both Berlin and Tokyo have hosted the Olympics in the past so I thought I would provide a clue that – at least obliquely – referenced the tie-in.

    The 1936 Olympics, sometimes unofficially referred to as the Hitler Olympics or the Nazi Olympics, were held in Berlin. The 1964 Olympics were held in Tokyo.

    Since we make Brooklynite by combining the letters of Berlin and Tokyo, I thought I would combine the cities’ respective years of hosting the Olympics. 1936 + 1964 = 3,900 so I included that number in my clue.

    I apologize in advance to anyone who wants to groan and growl.

    Chuck

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  28. Chuck, nice 3,900 clue. I wonder if anybody added the years together and figured it out.

    I hope that Will moves on to some more difficult puzzles. It's not much fun if we can figure them out in a minute or two. Maybe he got some complaints about my puzzle being too difficult ;-).

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  29. Hugh, what was the third historical event you had in mind besides 911 and 11/9 (the fall of the Berlin Wall)?

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  30. Lorenzo, is it possible that Hugh was alluding to WWII?

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  31. Lorenzo, Two events associated with 11/9 and Germany:

    http://www.datesinhistory.com/big.php?v1=nov09

    1938 Kristallnacht, Nazi Germany's first large-scale physical act of anti-Jewish violence, begins.

    1989 East Berlin opens its borders.

    My hint was "work on tAX IS finished.

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  32. Another historical event is 1/19...January 19, 1977 was the day President Ford pardoned Tokyo Rose.
    Tokyo Rose

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  33. New NPR Puzzle: Name an animal in two syllables. Add an S at the end of the first syllable, and you'll get the name of an old TV show. The second syllable, phonetically, is the name of a current TV show. What animal is this?
    Too easy for clues.

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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.