Q: What 6 letter word beginning with the letter 'S' would be the same if it started with 'TH?'So I was thinking I should have words like SOUGHT and THOUGHT, or SINNER and THINNER. But those aren't the same in the end. I'm open to any hints...
Edit: Indeed I did have "open" as my hidden hint. The puzzle intentionally tried to mislead us into thinking we were looking for synonyms. You'll notice I didn't put this puzzle in the synonym category however.
A: SESAME --> THE SAME
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.
ReplyDeleteDon't let Blaine deceive you - he obviously has the answer.
ReplyDeleteUnlike some recent puzzles, this one is worded precisely and unambiguously.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Blaine's clue makes that apparent!
ReplyDeleteWill is being cute with us this time.
Some listeners may be annoyed, and we'll see later how that plays on the street!
This puzzle is definitely easier than last week, says me, anyway.
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle is most appealing to small children.
ReplyDeleteOkay, okay!
ReplyDeleteEverybody has it!
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ReplyDeleteYou may all think this puzzle is as easy as... whatever, and you may think your comments aren't giveaways, but if you add them all up they make the answer obvious.
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle reminds me of a song from My Fair Lady.
ReplyDeleteThis is not the first time a comment of mine has been removed, even though I've always taken care to follow the rules.
ReplyDeleteThis will not stand, man. I cannot abide censorship, and so I'm afraid I must take my puzzling elsewhere.
It was fun while it lasted, but I'm outta here.
Toodles!
Chezedog said that the last puzzle "knocked him out"- you know, the puzzle that was not about Ukraine plural females... but it was actually this puzzle that did it.
ReplyDeleteOK, man, maybe you should think about posting your own puzzle blog.
Blaine, I think it's really hard to have a blog like this and prevent folks from unintentionally giving the answer away. Maybe your standard reminder should include some examples of good and bad clues.
Having said all that, I'll refrain from attempting a good clue.
What's not the answer:
Although a cinema puts people in chairs,
a theater is not the same as a seater.
Let's all remember two things: 1) This is for FUN! 2) Giveaways are not OK. Blaine's job is to make sure that doesn't happen, and he is right that today the string of clues several of us provided amounted to a giveaway.
ReplyDeleteI had a bagel, lox and cream cheese this morning and it came to me.
ReplyDeleteChuck
I think that eventually I got the same answer as everyone else, but when I was looking for a more traditional answer, I did come across SWACKS and THWACKS, which work, except they only have the right number of letters because of the S at the end, so they can't really be what Will intended.
ReplyDelete---Rob
My brain just got opened from the clues. I "chuck"led with the bagel clue.Had to go down the street and get the same kind.
ReplyDeleteMy god Blaine! You removed my post. Makes it look like I did a Joe Biden on you.
ReplyDeleteI saw all four posts before they were removed. None of them individually were particularly offensive but when read one after the other it was a bit of a giveaway.
ReplyDeleteIt's tough to discuss this puzzle, I think. I heard Will give the puzzle on the Podcast today, but I didn't realize I was going down the wrong path until I saw the puzzle written out in Blaine's weekly post.
ReplyDeleteOpen wide and eat those yummy bagels with all the toppings-what a treat! Perfect for Sunday breakfast or brunch.
ReplyDeleteDid you watch the teams battle for the Final Four? Only one top seed left.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ken. Little kids would really love this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteFOLLOW THE LEADER:
ReplyDeleteThink of a famous business leader in history. Replace the first and last letters of the person’s last name with other letters of your choosing (keeping the middle letters the same). You get the last name of a person who later occupied the same position as the first person. Name the two people.
Wow... just as I had ceded defeat, it comes to me.
ReplyDeleteWow Good thing I love to eat. I just opened my brain and the light went on inside.
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ReplyDeleteKen,
ReplyDeleteI think I have it.
Does the first name of the first business leader rhyme with something you might drink?
Does the second guy share his initials with a state in the northeast?
Does one of them have big ears?
-- Other Ben
Ben,
ReplyDeleteSay no more. You hit it out of the park.
I waited on WS's puzzle til I saw if others latched on to my tenative first choice for a clue. They did.
ReplyDeleteKen's puzzle (without Ben's clues) might have been a good submission.
Woo Hoo, got my first comment removed by Blaine.... I feel so, so, inducted. You love me, you really really love me.
ReplyDeleteWait, Blaine.... I thought I got one free block pass for brown nosing you a couple months ago??
Just got back from vacation, so I haven't been following what's been going on with this week's puzzle. I went through all the possible letter combinations that could work with S and Th six and seven letter words, then all of a sudden, a door in my mind opened and I got the answer.
ReplyDeleteDave, Clever clue.
ReplyDeleteKen--can I please have another clue about the leader.....
ReplyDeleteThanks
Ken -- may I have another clue about the leader???
ReplyDeleteI hope I'm not divulging too much, but, after all, one function of this blog is to provide subtle clues. So here goes mine: This word we're all thinking about is associated in a magical kind of way with an octagonal number. Honestly!
ReplyDeleteKen-another clue about the leader please
ReplyDeleteKen--may I have another clue to your famous person??
ReplyDeletecookieface,
ReplyDeleteI am the happiest person to give you another clue.
Ken, that last clue gave it away. Great puzzle. You should submit it to Will.
ReplyDeleteBen (and anyone else), not only does the name of the first business leader rhyme with something that you can drink, but there's a company making that drink that makes a product with a name that relates to the first business leader.
What is the name of that product?
When will you be posting the Leader answer???
ReplyDeletecookieface,
ReplyDeleteYour persistence is nervy. I'd hate to resort to a more blatant clue...I'll just post the answer tomorrow afternoon.
ken,
ReplyDeletethat's a pretty good puzzle.
cookieface,
Here are some clues that may help. But it's not going to help unless you've known or heard of the second person in the puzzle.
(1) Practically everyone in America, from 9 to 90, knows the name of this famous business leader in history.
(2) This person died at the age of 65 when the second person was about 25 years old.
(3) The first letter of their first names appear to be an inversion (upside-down) of each other.
sorry Ken--my first posts did not appear to go thru and that is why it looks like there were so many--I never intended to be NERVY-please forgive me.
ReplyDeleteSecond, I am a true born Canadian and if these people were better known in the USA (and Altho I am quite well-read), that could be why I am having some trouble with your puzzle
Cookieface, everybody in the world has heard of the first business leader, even Canadians. Outside of the U.S., his products are particularly noticeable near Hong Kong, Tokyo and Paris. The second business leader is less well known.
ReplyDeleteThe answer isn't someone who is a real estate mogul, such as Donald Trump, or an athlete, such as Mickey Mantle.
I got the idea for FOLLOW THE LEADER while reading an article several months ago. I noticed that Walt DISNEY and Michael EISNER (CEO of the Walt Disney Company from 1984-2005) shared the same last-name spelling except for the first and last letters. Amazing? Well maybe not that much, but I think many puzzles (even esteemed NPR puzzles) are drawn with less animation.
ReplyDeleteIn constructing a puzzle around this attribute, I tried to word it so that it would not be too easy or too hard. Was it just right? Are the subjects famous enough? No one can argue about Walt Disney’s fame, but what about Eisner? I remember differences of opinion in Blainesville about the supposed fame of past NPR puzzle subjects like Cheri Oteri, Teri Hatcher, Vanna White, Kevin Kline, Larry King, Maria Callas, Suze Orman, Lisa Bonet, etc.
This week I dropped words like “park”, “happiest”, and “resort” as clues to Disney. Lastly, I am not at all annoyed with cookieface. On the contrary, I greatly appreciate the interest. I meant only to embed the second leader’s name in the phrase “your persistencE IS NERvy.”
Dave,
ReplyDeleteWere you referring to Cold Duck?
I still want a cookie!
ReplyDeleteNow that the puzzle deadline has passed, I just want to say that none of the deleted posts were blatant giveaways, but they all referenced Sesame Street ("Sunny Days", "an Oscar", "a Grouch", "TV Show", etc.). They all added up to too much of a clue to the answer.
ReplyDeleteRoro, I was referring to Mickey's Big Mouth, a malt liquor. Ben's clue was that the first name of the first business leader rhymed with something that you can drink, and I assumed that he meant malt.
ReplyDeleteThanks everybody--Ken, your puzzle was actually one of the best that I have ever seen! Walt Disney did come across my mind at one time but not Michael Eisner.
ReplyDeleteWill called the sesame puzzle "tricky" when he announced it; Lorenzo said it was "worded precisely and unambiguously"; Blaine said it, "intentionally tried to mislead us"; and William said, "Will is being cute with us this time" and that, "Some listeners may be annoyed." I am more than annoyed
ReplyDeleteI'm a little disappointed that Lorenzo didn't call me out on a clue that was too easily Googled.
ReplyDeleteHugh, I guess Lorenzo wasn't clever enough to understand your clue!
ReplyDeleteLorenzo, You did come up with the answer before I did, but I had a bigger problem coming up with a clue. Finally I came across "til", Hindi for sesame. I hoped the nonstandard use of that word for "until" would alert people that something was going on.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, the fine folks at NPR have posted the puzzle on Saturday: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125538716
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ReplyDeleteCurtis, thanks for the site. I used it and got the answer easily...too easily...using these tools really sours the puzzle-solving experience.
ReplyDeleteThe 15 letter word was not found in my Merriam Webster 11th (but the 13 letter root was).
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