Thursday, December 02, 2010

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 28, 2010): Name the Places

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 28, 2010): Name the Places:
Q: Name the setting for an old television show that was also a series of popular movies. The answer consists of two words, with five letters in each word. The last three letters of the last word plus the first three letters of the first word, in that order, name a country. What country is it?
As long as I'm up and not sleeping, I might as well post the puzzle. The puzzle is so easy that I'm providing no hints; you are on your own.

Edit: Okay, so I really did hide some hints. First, "up and not sleeping" was a reference to the movie Insomnia. The original Insomnia (1997) was a Norwegian movie. The remake Insomnia (2002) was directed by Christopher Nolan who also directed Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. The second hint was the phrase "you are on your own". This both alludes to Batman's parents being killed, and to the word solo, which anagrams to Oslo (Norway). The final clue was the word name in the title. Those are the letters in the setting that remain after forming the country.
A: Wayne Manor --> Norway

38 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 remember the theme song vividly and there was some controversy as to whether the singing was human voices or instrumental.

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  3. Gad, but I loved that series as a kid. Oh, who am I kidding - I still do :) Wish it was available (legally) on DVD.

    Before I had the details of the puzzle correct I had a close answer that named a place but not a country, and was a popular setting for any number of series and movies.

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  4. Holy cow - yet another easy one. I have driven past this location - you can actually see it from the freeway

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  5. Blaine, I think I've guessed your hint. Or was there more than one?

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  6. Doctechnical, I'm with you. This series needs to be in my collection. Too bad the music rights carry such hefty fees.

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

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  8. I too saw the puzzle last night but was led astray, probably by three margaritas and a mighty taco.

    The solution dawned on me this morning, though certainly not at dawn.

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  9. I believe I see a possible (not definite) connection to last week's puzzle.

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  10. A relationship between Peter Ustinov and David Niven should in a manner of speaking lead to a solution.

    WS mentioned TV and movies. How about all of my early reading?

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  11. During my undergraduate days I was in a pretty good band for several years – had a record out, etc. The biggest job we ever played was during the summer of 1966 in Central Park, NYC. There were 8,000 people there that afternoon. It was a public service (charity) performance. The headliners were the stars of the show in question and we were the band. Among other things, we had to learn to play the show’s theme song that one of you mentioned in an earlier post.

    Backstage, the star of the show was quite nice – personable, complimentary, etc. The co-star was an idiot. Wouldn’t even get out of character. Go figure. Anyway, I have a B&W photograph of all of us backstage. If I could figure out a way to upload it to this blog and do so in a way that wouldn’t violate any copyright laws, I’d be happy to share it with all of you. The costumes – there’s and ours – are quite a hoot.

    Chuck

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  12. At the risk of being evicted from Blainesville, I have to confess that I solved this one the hard way. Not being an aficionado of the genre, I worked with country names until I found something that seemed plausible, which I then had to verify was actually a TV setting.

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  13. And if anyone should need additional clues for this puzzle, the missing four letters – in the order they appear in the name of the TV show setting but read backwards – are a declaration of affirmation and also a Top Ten song title from the 60s.

    Chuck

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  14. Since the consensus (other than Lorenzo and myself) is that the puzzle was too easy, I will pull a Blaine and offer this related challenge.

    Take the phrase "rose teacup" and the phrase "ladies trends". Rearrange the letters in each to name two settings (5/5 and 6/6) of two old TV shows that were made into movies.

    Both had very memorable theme songs.

    What are the settings and the TV/Movies.

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  15. Tommy Boy: I've solved your puzzle, but I don't think the show set in "rose teacup" had a theme *SONG*, per se, i.e., the theme music didn't have sung lyrics (unlike "ladies trends", which had the best). And if it did, I *KNOW* I don't want to hear the star of the show singing them!

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  16. @Jan: I'm enough of a geek of the show to know that the theme did indeed have lyrics. Luckily we were spared the star (or pretty much anyone one else) from singing them.

    And when Will said his puzzle was a setting in two 5/5 words, "rose teacup" was the very first thing to pop into my mind.

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  17. @Chuck - also a group taking their lead from the Augusta golf club..

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  18. Musical clue here for all of us who aren't fountains of information.

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  19. Thanks, Lorenzo. I should have gotten this one considering what my alias is a minuative for (is that a word?) Anyway, Chuck weren't those missing letters also a TV show?

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  20. I guess there's no old TV shows set in Amami,Japan - it was founded in 2006!

    Tommy Boy - I got your puzzle - two of my favorite shows.
    The name of the star of each has the same property, if formal names are used, as the star of the NPR puzzle's series.

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  21. Barnes_Durco, I spent a long time looking for that city. Never found it.

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  22. Doctechnical is exactly right about the lyrics. The creator of the show wrote lyrics in order to claim "co-composer" status. This reduced the music composer's performance royalties by 50%. True story.

    For those that are curious (I know you are), I found the lyrics below:

    SPOILER ALERT
    Don't read this if you are still working on Tommy Boy's "rose teacup" puzzle.

    Beyond
    The rim of the star-light
    My love
    Is wand'ring in star-flight
    I know
    He'll find in star-clustered reaches
    Love,
    Strange love a star woman teaches.
    I know
    His journey ends never
    His star trek
    Will go on forever.
    But tell him
    While he wanders his starry sea
    Remember, remember me.

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  23. Those "rose teacup" lyrics are really bad! Surely, somewhere, a great poet must be throwing back his head in laughter.

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  24. Finally, I got it. If this was easy, I'm scared of the others! I've seen old re-runs on t.v. and for some reason always laugh.

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  25. I wasted some time trying to get things like "Brady House" work with this puzzle. Then, after awhile, BAM, the answer struck me.

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  26. I just made my trek back to Las Vegas for the winter. Came back to still a lot of foreclosures and bankruptsies. Even Wayne Newton, Mr. Las Vegas, is trying to make some bucks with bus tours to his manor or ranch on Pecos and Sunset. Doubt if this is really going to be a hit. Nor do I think there is any way he will actually pay his debts with the proceeds. We'll see. Meanwhile, I am happy to be back trying my best with the NPR puzzle. Got any clues to help? Got to submit a correct answer. Amen to that!!!!!

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  27. I got Will's answer by cheating a bit, starting with the country, rather than the normal way. Came to me while listening to Guy Noir later in the day.

    I also had the "rose teacup" TV show setting in mind first.

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  28. @Harvey... that's more or less how I approached the puzzle. I already had a list of country names from another puzzle, so I had the computer show me all six-letter countries in the format "456__ __123" (where the digits are corresponding letters of the country), perused the list, and went "Aha!"

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  29. Blaine, I took your "up and not sleeping" comment to mean nocturnal. Bats, Batman, etc.

    I was led astray by a mighty taco, an anagram for Gotham City. 6/4 and not 5/5.

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  30. Tommy, the star of Batman was Adam West (4/4).

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  31. Thanks, Harvey. I missed the apostrophe and thought the NPR puzzle series star was Will Shortz. Duh.

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  32. The new puzzle is posted on line, but may not be worded correctly. It is a geometric puzzle involving dividing a "4x4 square" into "6 individual boxes". I interpret a "4x4 square" as one with 4 rows and 4 columns, and therefore 16 individual cells or boxes. As worded, the puzzle seems to call for superimposing a 2x3 square over a 4x4 square. I written NPR for clarification. Does anyone have a different interpretation?

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  33. This week's challenge: This challenge comes from listener Daniel Nathan of Washington, D.C. Think of a common greeting in another country. You can rearrange its letters to get the capital of a country that neighbors the country where this greeting is commonly spoken. What greeting is it?

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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.

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