Q: Think of a two-word name of a nationally known chain of retail stores. Insert the second word of the name into the exact middle of the first. The result will spell the name of a well-known electronics manufacturer. What are these names?
A: Pier One (Imports) --> Pioneer
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.
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.
ReplyDeleteYou 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.
As I posted in our previous week's blog:
ReplyDeleteNew puzzle just came up folks.
It is a real looker this time too. Am I the first to solve it?
SDB, you may not have been the first, but you certainly have paved the way for other posters.
ReplyDeleteTB:
ReplyDeleteSteve Martin might say my computer has Happy Keys.
let me get my monacle out and i'll tell you more.
ReplyDeleteMusical hint -Dinah Washington song (her least politically correct)
Here's what I posted on last week's thread regarding this week's puzzle:
ReplyDeleteI've solved it and I'm the first to offer a complaint about it.
[copy of puzzle snipped]
My complaint is this: Isn't the answer to the first part actually the first two parts of A THREE-WORD NAME?
Just to be sure I entered that answer -- JUST the first two parts into Wikipedia's search engine and not only did that third word show up, the second word WAS REPLACED by a symbol *representing* the second word! How's THAT for a clue!?
At first this one was hard to see:)
ReplyDeleteP.S. It seems from reading this blog, especially last week, that some people know what the Sunday puzzle is a day or 2 before Will reads it on the air on Sunday AM. If true, where is it published? Thanks.
janeabelle:
ReplyDeleteNPR itself publishes the Sunday puzzle usually the day before in the late afternoon or early evening.
(Here's one time it might be an advantage to live on the west coast.)
A couple weeks ago, though, there was this time in the early Sunday morning hours that NPR had still not yet published the upcomming puzzle but BLAINE HAD IT UP on HIS SITE!!
I still wonder about that. Blaine, how'd you do it?
Oh, silly me, I meant to include this link:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.npr.org/puzzle
Favoritize that link, and it will take you to NPR's list of links to the most recent Sunday puzzles.
Open a window on Saturday, click on the above link and to get to the puzzle link list page, and periodically refresh that page until you see over the link to last Sunday's dated puzzle, a new puzzle link most likely not yet dated. That'll be the link to the next day's puzzle.
So where is Blaine and his weekly hint? Gone fishing? When I was a youngster, I caught a really big fish. At least it seemed big at the time.
ReplyDeletemusical clue: Otis Redding
ReplyDeleteRemove the sign on the door during business hours and rearrange to get another retail chain.
ReplyDeletePosted this morning on last week's blog, but then had to go out to family gathering:
ReplyDeleteThere may be too much pressure to be the first to post a comment here.
Literary Clue: Willa Cather
ReplyDeletewww.curtisjohnsonimages.com
Can't work on the puzzle right now. I have to run out to Hodepotme for a few things.
ReplyDelete@enya,etc.. You are so right although I believe the company changed its name in stages.
ReplyDeleteEver miss those good old days when life was simpler? NOT!
Musical Clue: Home on The Range.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Enya, et al! I will give it a try.
ReplyDeleteFinally got it, but I needed to let all of your clues simmer. The sad part is that I've used a product (name prominently displayed)to listen to the puzzle for years. Both names are pretty far down on my list of names to remember.
ReplyDeleteMore musical clues -- the theme song from the Andy Griffith Show and the Grateful Dead's Friend of the Devil.
ReplyDelete-- Other Ben
Our leader of this blog, Blaine,
ReplyDeleteFrom solving has taken a refrain.
__He wants us to assume,
__He's making a costume,
But we would like him to further explain.
Art Vandelay anyone?
ReplyDeleteDavy Crockett would have an asthma attack if he stepped foot in one of those outlets.
ReplyDeleteEven though the FBI was created much later, Davy Crockett was tailed throughout his life.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of the FBI, it's time to investigate the midweek puzzle.
ReplyDelete???????
TB:
ReplyDeleteDo you mean what happened to Blaine?
While Blaine is feverishly preparing for the upcoming holiday, I'm sure he'll drop by tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteClick on the ??????? for a new challenge.
"Feverishly"!? Is this a hint? R U privy to inside info?
ReplyDeleteYes, no and no.
ReplyDeleteHmmm,...
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect to Tommy Boy, maybe we now have an *additional* mid-week puzzle this week: guessing Blaine's family-theme of his Halloween costumes this year!
A family theme that actually fits with the NPR puzzle answer: Could it be... the Ingall's family from "Little House on the Prairie"?
I have it!
ReplyDeleteIt's that they are all going as shopping carts.
My clues:
ReplyDelete"It is a real looker this time too. Am I the first to solve it?" Three clues here; One for each answer word. "Looker" refers to Pier (peer). "First" refers to both 1 and Pioneer.
In last week's blog I posted another clue at the end of a long, rambling paragraph. "One never knows." This was a sly way for me to actually post one of the answer words without it being obvious.
If you watch the Food Network, then you might be familiar with Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Women, hence the musical clue reference to Home on The Range. I couldn't help thinging that "Home" sounds like "ohm" which is an electrical component in all electronic equipment. I hope Blaine gives up an update on his costume activities, and maybe a photo?
ReplyDeleteActually, the resistor is the electrical component and ohm is the unit of resistance. Now what is the unit measurement for conductance? Bonus points for time varying voltage sources.
ReplyDeleteMy clues:
ReplyDeleteDavy Crockett: a pioneer
Pier One Stores tend to have that sharp odor of incense that might trigger an asthma attack to susceptible individuals.
Davy Crockett was many interesting things during his life, but I am not at all convinced he was a pioneer. If so, in what sense?
ReplyDeleteWilla Cather wrote "O, Pioneers!". Never read it.
ReplyDeleteEqual = peer.
Tom W: conductance is the inverse of resistance, so it's measured in Mhos. Can't think of another unit that's a play on words like that.
My comments were about the Pioneer spaceship heading out of our solar system. I also spelled out my numbers, just like the puzzle requires.
ReplyDeleteWhen our costumes are done and we have some pictures, I'll post details.
@jan, Guam is the southernmost of the Northern Mariana islands. Maug is the northernmost. Reminds me of your Ohm/Mho reference.
ReplyDeleteJan,
ReplyDeleteThat's correct. And then there are reactance and susceptance, the imaginary components for time varying signals. The resulting vector sum of these are impedance and admittance. Now back to my Smith Chart!
"There may be too much pressure to be the first to post a comment here."
ReplyDelete"too much (peer/homonym PIER) pressure"
"to be the first (number ONE)"
also "to be the first" (PIONEER).
Answer to my side puzzle: Remove "open" and rearrange to get REI.
ReplyDeletemy Dinah Washington hint was a song she sang about losing her one legged man to a one eyed woman and how she took his crutch and banged the woman in her one good eye. That much drama I can do without.
ReplyDeleteSkydiveboy:
ReplyDeleteBesides being a pioneer, Davy was a backwoodsman, congressman & Alamo suicide volunteer.
benmar:
ReplyDeleteI know all the major things Davy Crockett was, but you have not offered any explanation why you include pioneer. What did he pioneer? Just saying something does not make it true. And since you mention it, he did not go to defend the Alamo thinking it was a suicide mission. I still would like you to offer anything that will show that he was a pioneer. Clothing does not make someone a pioneer. Being born in the wilderness does not make one a pioneer and then going to Washington, D. C. does not make one a pioneer either. Nor does going to Texas to take already inhabited land from the Mexicans made someone a pioneer.
Daniel Boone was a pioneer. While I am no fan of Walt Disney it could be said that he too was a pioneer, but hardly an historian.
ReplyDeleteI don't know whether or not to call Shigeru Kondo a pioneer, but I found it interesting/amusing that NPR aired a story about him last Sunday before the puzzle segment.
ReplyDeleteI posted the clue "Constant angular velocity vs constant linear velocity", but it either was removed or vanished into the ether, I don't know which.
ReplyDeleteThe clue refers to Laserdiscs, an old video format (think of an LP sized DVD). It came in two basic formats: CAV and CLV. Pioneer basically brought the format to the consumers.
Anyone interested in the uber-geeky details is invited to look it up on Wikipedia :)
skydiveboy:
ReplyDeleteYou are truely a pioneer!
Otis Redding: "Sittin' on the Dock (Pier) of the Bay"
ReplyDeleteArt Vandalay -In the TV program "Sienfeld" he was George's alter ego who was in the Import/export business.
New puzzle is up now and it may be difficult for many of us to reach the correct answer.
ReplyDeleteMusical clue: Lionel Richie
ReplyDeleteOther Musical clues: Steely Dan, Sugarloaf, Tommy Tutone, Blondie, Jim Croche.
ReplyDeleteSDB and EaWA fan - Also, Carole King
ReplyDeleteWhat the commander-in-chief might say to his spouse.
ReplyDelete