Thursday, May 06, 2010

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 2, 2010): A Number of Cities...

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 2, 2010): A Number of Cities...:
Q: Write down the number '100.' Underneath it write '100/500.' How the numbers align doesn't matter. What U.S. city does this represent?
Another numeric hint --> 12:21

Edit: As Ben surmised, my hint was to the Bible, specifically the book of Romans, chapter 12, verse 21: "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." An alternate translation found in some versions of the Bible is "Do not be CONQUERED by evil, but conquer evil with good." Romans is a hint to Roman numerals. Conquered is a homonym of the answer.
A: C on C or D --> Concord

65 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. I found the answer while roaming around in North Carolina, on my way to mass. My feet were in agony, and I never did see what I had come to see.

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  3. Are we in agreement that this is a good puzzle.

    Does anyone remember an oddly addressed envelope cited by Robert Ripley that was actually delivered?

    Another question: How can a backslash be altered to mean the same as a slash in some applications?

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  4. Agreed, Hugh.

    I grew up in a town of the same name.

    I have since joined the jet-set and haven't been back in years. All caught up in work and thoroughly exhausted.

    It'd be nice to sit down by a quiet pond and do some meditation.

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  5. Hill
    John
    Mass

    To whom was the letter delivered? :-)

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  6. I'll ponder this over a PB & J

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  7. qu1dd1tch and Dave:
    Could you please answer the questions you asked last week pertaining to that puzzle. I am sure that there are many of us who would like to hear the answers.
    Thanks

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  8. I grew up near this city on the opposite coast. Great clues, everyone

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  9. The clues last week had me flying all over but I didn't get anywhere! This week however, I find that these clues are way too revealing, only took about 2 seconds to figure the answer out this week! (No hints here, not needed)

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  10. As Mrs. Lorenzo, I, too, am commenting that, after a thorough search, I've decided this is so not an easy puzzle.

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  11. Janice, I agree. I tried using Roman numerals to no avail. Additional clues would be welcome.

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  12. just another guy - This week, I had the opposite experience. Initially the hints were of no help whatsoever. Only in hindsight, after I got the answer, did I see how they all led to the same place.

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  13. just another guy, I have to agree with you. In fact, I still don't know what the original puzzle is referring to, but the clues can mean only one thing.

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  14. Is the answer the city and the state or just the city?

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  15. Cookieface, referring to the answer to last week's puzzle (Stephen Hawking), I posed the following puzzle: Insert the name of a well-known alien into this person's field of study and you get a different field of study.

    Answer: cosmETology

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  16. Apologies for the deception in this thread.

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  17. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  18. The answer is at best ambiguous, as there are no fewer than 74 places in the U.S. with the same name! However, I am sitting NOW in the one that is probably best known. It is raining hard again and I may have to spend another week on the river.

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  19. Mario
    you are on the right track. you just need to step back and ponder your present position.

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  20. cookieface: My apologies for not posting it earlier--completely forgot amidst final exams and grading. Anyway, here is what I had posted last week: "Think of a famous person with seven letters in her/his first and last names. Both the first and last names end with a type of bird that may be considered to be "opposites" of each other, so to say. Who is the person?"

    The answer is: StepHEN LeaCOCK.

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  21. TY qu1--good puzzle and hope you did well on the exams and/or graded them high for those students of yours.(BTW, what do you teach if I may ask?)

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  22. Roxie, Very good! I didn't realize that there were different versions of the envelope's address. "Ripley's Believe it or Not" was, as I remember, different. Can you figure out the other version?

    William, I have connection with the capitol 70 miles north of you, and family half way in between.

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  23. I finally solvedc the puzzle this week but am curious about the 12:21 clue that Blaine gave???

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  24. qu1dd1tch, Stephen Leacock may be famous, but has anyone heard of him?

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  25. Yes, we are all in agreement that there are many places in the US with this name. Perhaps there should be a collection noun for a bunch of them, like, e.g., a gaggle of geese, a parliament of owls, etc. I propose a "flight" of these...

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  26. Dave--finally a puzzle with a famous Canadian--S
    tephen Leacock--in fact, McGill University has a building named after him.
    I think that's a great puzzle for some of us North of the border.

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  27. Any more clues? I'm stumped. Blaine, is 12:21 a specific time, a length of time, a ratio, or something else?

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  28. Dave, Blaine's clue comes close to my Google criterion for a "spoiler."

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  29. I would suggest a musical hint of "Come Together" by the Beatles.

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  30. @cookieface: Thanks for your kind note. Glad you liked the puzzle--I think Leacock was an outstanding humorist. I teach in a school of journalism and mass communication, although I am not a journalist! :-)

    @Curtis: Good of you to weave in Lennon-McCartney.

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  31. GAH!!! I keep trying and trying and I just can't figure it out. Any other clues?

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  32. Sam Lee,

    It took me awhile too, but I did get it. The whole Blaine community seems as one here. Just focus on the above comments, which contain some great clues. You might even look back to the beautiful comments from the Eland puzzle.

    -- Other Ben

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  33. If I remember correctly, letters to Ripley were addressed thus:

    To Rip

    To the Biggest Liar in the World

    Ripley lived in Santa Rosa, CA

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  34. Finally got it! Whew! I'll probably have a margarita since it's Cinco de Mayo, but I may have a glass of red wine.

    Muchas gracias, Ben.

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  35. Curtis: nice clue...mine was musical as well......and here's another musical clue: Sam the Barber

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  36. Janice: I loved your clue - it helped me get unstuck with this puzzle.

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  37. Read the puzzle carefully to get the answer.

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  38. While everybody is waiting for the name of that city, here is a classic puzzle that has been seen posted over fireplaces:

    If the B mt put:
    If the B. putting:
    Don’t put : a - der
    You’d be a jack* it

    Please translate this into normal English instructions.

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  39. Okay time's up... time to make me feel stupid. What's the answer?

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  40. I went with CONCORD.

    As in Concord, Mass.

    As in C ON C OR D.

    It seems to be supprted by many of the above clues, so presumably I'm not the only Concordian.

    -- Other Ben

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  41. By the way, Blaine's bonus clue was 12:21, which I think refers to the Biblical passage "Romans," though I'm an infidel and perhaps someone else should elaborate. But I think he was pushing us towards Roman numerals.

    When I first searched it on Google, I got that the passage reads "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." But then I found a second translation of "Do not be CONQUERed by evil, but CONQUER evil with good."

    So it was a rather slick double clue.

    -- Other Ben

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  42. OR!!!!! Jeezus.... I was thinking over, by, quotient.. kekeke... yup, i was right, I feel stupid

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  43. For the same roman numeral con wee word - shuffling, the state capital - 'city' of Concord, New Hampshire, with recent population of ~42.2K ... ... rather than the 'town' of Concord, Massachusetts, population circa 16.8K ? ... Blue

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  44. The biggest Concord in the U.S. seems to be Concord, CA in Contra Costa (Spanish for "opposite coast") County. Population is around 120,000.

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  45. Blue, I love your posts but I'm in Brooklyn, where we regard anything less than 100,000 people as a small town.

    And, as noted by William, there are a whole lotta Concords so take your pick!

    (I didn't submit a state.)

    -- Other Ben

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  46. So Ken, you grew up in the East Bay?

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  47. William,

    If the (grate be) (empty) put (coal on).
    If the (grate be) (full, stop) putting (coal on).
    Don't put (coal on) a (high fen)der.
    You'd be an jack (a$$ to risk) it.

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  48. Blaine,
    I liked your Bible clue! Yes, I grew up in the East Bay - Skyline High of Oakland, then UC Berkeley.

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  49. Ken, go Bears! My daughter is a freshman at Berkeley.

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  50. I live in Berkeley...so close to Concord, CA.

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  51. Here in NC, we all say CON-cord, the home of the Concord Motor Speedway. If the chicken bones don't getcha, the fumes will.

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  52. Not only did I attend college at UC Berkeley's arch rival, but I was actually on the field in the Stanford Band during "The Play"!

    Sorry, Blaine...

    -- Other Ben

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  53. Blaine, which UC? Ben, Cal pulled out another great win over Stanford last season. Don't tell me that you're the guy with the tuba who got run over during "The Play." I went to school on the other side of the country at University of Rochester.

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  54. I may have an Axe to grind, but there was an NPR Sunday Puzzle about Stanford. Who'll represent Cal?

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  55. My clues explained:

    After a thorough [Thoreau] search, I've (Charles Ives) discovered this was so not [Sonata} an easy puzzle= Charles Ives 2nd Piano Sonata aka "Concord Sonata" which was later rearranged as a string quartet....and even performed by the Concord String Quartet

    Although the Concord String Quartet also performed and recorded many work by Samuel Barber, my clue of "Sam the Barber" should actually have been "Ben the Brit" = two segments of "Gloriana" are called "Concord" and "Concord is Here". Anyone who like choral music should look these up. The music is gorgeous and the lyrics aren't half bad either:

    "Concord, Concord is here, Concord is here Our days to bless And this our land, our land to endue With plenty, peace and happiness. Concord, Concord and Time, Concord and Time Each needeth each: The ripest fruit hangs where Not one, not one, but only two, only two can reach."

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  56. Oops, meant to say UC Berkeley alum, too. I guess Cal can't take credit for having Tiger Woods as an alumnus, like Stanford can.

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  57. The new puzzle is posted already.

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  58. As do nearly all litigators whom I know in my sphere of acquaintances, I happen to hold with literalness ––– since it can make for far less ... misunderstanding ... among submitters, competitors and (litiginous) folks rather, some say, ... cantankerous.

    When Mr Shortz, therefore, asks as he does with this puzzle, "What U.S. city does this represent?" ... I have taken him at his precise words, then, to mean ... exactly ... what he states here ––– using a singular noun: city ... with its singular verb: does.

    Thus, I gave as submission one specific city's name: Concord, New Hampshire.

    Likely, this literalness ––– or not ––– will be made known ... tomorrow morning.

    Or, ... later on this evening: It has become apparent that public radio personnel post the present week's answer ( + its winner with the played, on - air game) at http://npr.org/puzzle ... along there, then as well, with the next week's puzzle offering ... circa 6:00 pm Eastern or after on any week's particular Saturday evening.

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  59. Did anyone besides me think that the answer might be Century City (CA)?
    100 (years) = Century
    100/500 = C/D (Roman numerals) = "city" (sloppy pronunciation).
    That was all I came up with, but I didn't submit it. Will probably would not have accepted that, would he have?

    So what movie is this?:
    150
    field

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  60. Hey Barnes_Durco - I did look at that as a possible answer. It didn't quite fit the clues posted, so I waited until I found the Concord answer.

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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.