Thursday, September 29, 2011

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 25, 2011): Occupational Study Puzzle

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 25, 2011): Occupational Study Puzzle:
Q: Think of a ten-letter occupation ending in "er." The first four letters can be rearranged to spell something that person would study, and the next four letters can be rearranged to spell something else that person would study. What is the occupation?
This week I'm going to put my feet up and let everyone else come up with the obvious clues.

Edit: You put your feet up on a footstool or ottoman. The flag of the Ottoman Empire had both a STAR and a MOON.
A: ASTRONOMER --> STAR, MOON

38 comments:

  1. Here's my standard reminder... don't post the answer or any hints that could lead directly to the answer (e.g. via Google or Bing) 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.

    You may provide indirect hints to the answer to show you know it, but make sure they don't give the answer away. You can openly discuss your hints and the answer after the Thursday deadline. Thank you.

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  2. The easiest way to get the answer to this week's challenge would be to ask Audie Cornish and Will Shortz.

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  3. Change one letter and rearrange to name something Charles Lindbergh received.

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

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  5. Well then, how about Ryan O'Neil, who is an actor I dislike?

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  6. I think the most famous person in that occupation died last year. Too bad he didn't live to see his name in a "Jeopardy!" clue.

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  7. Lorenzo, and all for naught.

    I think I'm spending too much time on these.

    My wife said, "That's the last straw. No more puzzles for you."

    I wish it hadn't come to this.

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  8. Enya_and_Weird_Al_fan: I'm trying without success to figure out whom you're referring to. Consulting a list of people in this occupation that I found on Wikipedia, I couldn't find anyone I'd consider famous who's died since 2006. And that one DID appear in a Jeopardy clue while living. What were his/her initials?

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  9. The answer is so obvious that it put a twinkle in my eye! Musical Clue: American Top 40.

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  10. Jan,
    I think the person Enya_and_Weird_Al_fan
    is referring to has the initials GB, and it's not Glenn Beck. There was also a news story this week that had lots of people interested in this occupation. Enough said.

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  11. Same musical clue as last week - Crosby Stills Nash and Young - but a different song.

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  12. A famous newspaper and something on TV.

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

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  14. In spite of a bad economy, the prospects for this occupation are generally looking up.

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

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  16. Tom W.:
    My J. G. post above was deleted by Blaine as being too obvious. Perhaps I did not display your eloquence.

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

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  18. William:
    Good point; I did spell it incorrectly in my Saturday post that was also deleted, but not in the post above, here. Also, I am not in any way criticizing Tom W., whose post I happen to like. I am still amazed that mine were removed, as they are not at all obvious to the answer.

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  19. OK SDB and William. I came up with the answer before reading any comments here. I live in Florida, and the recent thunderstorms have been playing games with my Internet connection, so it's good to be back on line. I wonder what the combined IQ of this group is? Surely we could solve all the world's problems! Thanks for being here and Blaine for providing the web site.

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  20. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  21. jan said...
    Enya_and_Weird_Al_fan: I'm trying without success to figure out whom you're referring to. Consulting a list of people in this occupation that I found on Wikipedia, I couldn't find anyone I'd consider famous who's died since 2006. And that one DID appear in a Jeopardy clue while living. What were his/her initials?

    Sun Sep 25, 01:08:00 PM PDT

    Tom W. said...
    Jan,
    I think the person Enya_and_Weird_Al_fan
    is referring to has the initials GB, and it's not Glenn Beck. There was also a news story this week that had lots of people interested in this occupation. Enough said.

    Sun Sep 25, 03:43:00 PM PDT

    No, Tom, the person to whom I was referring had the initials J.H. In fact, the Jeopardy catagory was
    "Jack of all trades."

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  22. I think Jack Handey is still living.

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  23. OK E&WAF, I think I know who you mean. I don't think having a 5-minute PBS show makes you particularly famous. By which I mean that *I* hadn't heard of him. Unlike that *REALLY* famous PBS personality in this field, who died 15 years ago.

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  24. I thought the clue was referring to the person Jan mentioned - the personality that died 15 years ago. He was a real luminary.

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  25. The new puzzle is up and it has multiple challenges. Check it out.

    Follow this link

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  26. A sad day at the Jetson's ...?

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  27. My Jackie Gleason clue was not in reference to the title of his TV show "The Honeymooners," but to his threat to Audrey Meadows: "To the Moon, Alice! To the Moon!" Neither one should be obvious to the answer in my opinion.

    My second clue was Ryan O'Neil in the movie: Paper Moon.

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  28. "The easiest way to get the answer to this week's challenge would be to ask Audie Cornish and Will Shortz. " . . . . because they are the "stars" of the show.

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  29. At the 2005 UK Music Hall of Fame awards, rock STAR Ozzy Osbourne MOONed the crowd. I think that Enya_and_Weird_Al_fan was referring to Jack Horkheimer: Star Gazer (formerly Star Hustler), not to Carl Sagan or James Van Allen. I also liked DaveJ's parsing of "Astro no mer"

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  30. My comment in last week's blog:

    "William said...
    Last week there were 1600 entries.
    It would be appropriate to look up this new answer.
    Sun Sep 25, 06:08:00 AM PDT"

    Which DIRECTION does an astronomer LOOK? LOL!

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  31. When I saw Jackie Gleason, I immediately thought of both "HoneyMOONers" and "To the MOON, Alice!" I ran the clue by family members that hadn't even solved the puzzle and they immediately got the answer. Some got sidetracked for a second on astronaut but then came back to astronomer.

    The follow-on comments about a certain nursery rhyme cow just reinforced the clue so they had to be deleted as well.

    Honestly I thought the replacement clue of Ryan O'Neal was too obviously tied to "Paper MOON", but at that point I felt bad for having deleted all of SDB's post and let it go.

    It wasn't personal and when I saw the repeat clue of Jackie Gleason, I deleted it too. Not before SDB saw it and commented on it however. :-)

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  32. By the way, my favorite hints were Lorenzo's clue to Lindbergh's "ransom note" and Tommy Boy's "...last straw. No more..."

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  33. Blaine:
    Thanks for posting the above explanation as I suspected you would do. It also answered my internal question of which Gleason moon reference you were thinking of.
    I really did not think it was at all revealing and others on a different blog told me they did not either, but then you obviously have a smart family (Points!). And I agree about the Paper Moon hint giving away more than Jackie Gleason, but I am still surprised anyone would get the answer from "moon." Also, I did not even think of the title: The Honeymooners when I first posted. It was only after you deleted our posts that it finally occurred to me. It also seems to me that one needs to be older than dirt (as I am) to remember any of this.
    BTW: I saw the Tom W. post shortly after he posted it, but I did not comment until the next day just to see what transpired. And my comment was meant to be taken as humorous and not a comment on Tom W. except that I indeed did and still do like his post.
    Now, let's all hope for a real puzzle this weekend.

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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.