Thursday, December 08, 2011

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 4, 2011): Forget this music, let's get some food!

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 4, 2011): Forget this music, let's get some food!:
Q: Name a style of music. Change the middle letter to a B, and you'll name a style of cooking. What are the style of music and the style of cooking? (There are several ways to spell the cooking style, but the answer is one of them.)
Hint: Bert Lance

Edit: Bert Lance, Jimmy Carter's Budget Director, is credited with popularizing the colloquial southern phrase "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
A: Baroque --> Bar-B-Que

81 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. There are many references to this type of cooking on the web or in cookbooks.

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  3. Who is the jerk who came up with this turkey? This is worse than leftovers in the school cafeteria.

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  4. Initially, I went one step forward and two steps back: another awkward puzzle.

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  5. That food, she's an aging beauty!

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  6. Sorry if this sounds like I'm looking a gift horse in the mouth, but I think Will gave away too much in his clue re my puzzle. I bet there are at least 1200 correct answers next week. Anybody care to organize a betting pool? Monte M., Washington

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  7. Monte: regarding your bet, you might want to check out this other blog, in case you are not aware of it yet:

    http://www.crosswordmanblog.com/search/label/NPR%20Sunday%20Puzzle

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  8. Monte, I see the NPR intern spelled your name wrong incorrectly on their web site.

    Anyone else hear Will announce the previous weeks puzzle (MAYO) in the first puzzle airing or was I still asleep ?

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  9. ...and she said, "Oh, Ken, you'd better be quiet."

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  10. Maybe fortuitously, PBS features a show on this method of cooking, and spells it the same way Will Shortz suggests!

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  11. I thought this weeks' puzzle was a masterpiece!

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  12. Blaine, I never knew you were an Australian surfer.

    When you get a minute, can you send me an email that I can reply to? I have a question for you.

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  13. @ DaveJ:
    Yes, I noticed that, too. Maybe he was thinking of using MAYO with this type of food...or he was just absent-minded; his thoughts seemed wandering back centuries and across the pond. He fixed it in time for the second airing, though.

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  14. Monte, et al,

    Regarding the number of “correct” answers that are submitted (which at times may be subject to interpretation) you reminded me of a method that I came up with for tilting the chances of being called in favor of the long-time listeners – sort of a bonus for being loyal to the show:

    Along with the answer to the puzzle, the listener must guess how many correct answers will be received. Only those guesses within 100 of the correct answers will be in the pool for being called. Typically, the long-time listeners will have a better feel for that number than the newbies. This needn’t be done every week, but might add a little interest if done occasionally. Any thoughts?

    DaveJ – yes – saw and heard the same misteaks.

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  15. @DaveJ - Listening to NPR on WNYC-AM from New York, I heard the incorrect challenge from last week at 8:40 AM, but just now on the rebroadcast at 10:40, they ran the correct challenge.

    I hadn't worked out the answer to this week's challenge on my own, but after reading some of the comments above, I will take a break from trying.

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  16. Monte - Well done! (or should I say medium rare?)

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  17. Phredp, along the same lines, I was thinking of the home of Luther, for example.

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  18. Musical Clue: A Lover's Concerto

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  19. There’s a relation to Swing here...

    Chuck

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  20. Just listening to Britten's Simple Symphony. Doesn't have too much to do with the music style, although at first it will have you believe it does.

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  21. Reverse the syllables of the music style to get (phonetically) something that might be found in a fine restaurant.

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  22. Strange day. My daughter, who doesn't as a rule do puzzles, solved this very quickly beating me. She said she always turns off the Sunday morning music program that I always listen to on W--U.

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  23. @Tommy Boy,

    Send an email to this address:
    nprfan(at)penguin(dot)e4ward(dot)com

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  24. Just think of this as a Spelling B.

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  25. For the engineers: 1 Wb = 1 V·s = 1 T·m2 = 1 J/A = 108 Mx (maxwells). OK?

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  26. What do you call the long line of Christmas shoppers waiting to buy a popular fashion doll?

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  27. Now listening to another Benjamin Britten composition: The Young Persons' Guide to the Orchestra. (I find it enjoyable throughout the ages.)

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  28. Jan -> Hopefully the shoppers have enough money and are not out of pocket. Yet another puzzle solution that may remind you of a person frequently in the news. Did you enjoy my engineering hint?

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  29. @Tom W., Now you're cooking with gauss!

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  30. This, like last week's puzzle, is adding a syllable by changing a letter. I'm hoping no one is submitting Jazz/Jbzz or Swing/Swbng.

    www.curtisjohnsonimages.com

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  31. I'm pretty certain I have Will's intended answer.

    I'm going to go for it.

    -- Other Ben

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  32. Thank you William!!! I thought everyone else was confused with cgs, mks, and SI!

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  33. Has anyone else found that logging into this blog is easier with Firefox than Internet Explorer? I almost always get errors when trying to log in with IE9, but never with Firefox.

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  34. I was in the Big Easy looking at all those curley iron works and did not hear the original Mayo clue but apparently someone thought I should hear it anyway. De ja vue for the rest of you. Good one Jan!

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  35. Jan
    Clever, you old doll shopper.
    Old? Life begins at her age.
    Hey, I have a tip for the ending syllable but won't wax philosophic

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  36. I figured out this answer rather quickly standing in line at the bank.

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  37. I thought about arguing for "Cuban" as a possible answer, but I'd probably be barred from ever entering again!

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  38. Will has sculpted an extravagant puzzle. Unrelated to the puzzle answer, here's a style of food AND music without changing any letters: Fusion

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  39. One kind of cooking with a B in the middle is canniBalism, but I can't match it with a kind of music. Am I missing something?

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  40. My favorite canniBalism dish is ramen

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  41. With a little more research I found the proper music to go with canniBalism.

    Just last month NPR ran a piece on cannibalism, and immediately followed it with the theme music from The French Chef! I don't know whether Julia would have approved!

    Anybody know the title of that theme? Cannizalism? Cannitalism?

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  42. My family used to do cannibal about twice a month, but that ended when Safeway stopped stocking Cannibal Helper. I still miss it.

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  43. SDB - Cannibal Helper was always a little to salty for my taste; I prefer just a hint of cumin and chili powder instead. That leads me into an old joke: If vegetarians eat vegetables, what do humanitarians eat?

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  44. Curtis:
    How long do you usually marinate? Try using cayenne next time instead of chili powder for more of a kick.
    I like to tease vegetarians by telling them that I am also a vegetarian, but I eat beef. I then explain that since we are what we eat, and cows eat grass, then I am eating grass when I eat beef. It works for me.

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  45. SDB: I've been marinating for years. In real life, I'm a vegetarian, but very quiet about it (and I can joke about it). In fact, I'm low-key enough about it that I usually end up carving the turkey at Thanksgiving, cuz my family figured out that I know how to do it right.

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  46. Maybe next week we can all have a discussion on Baby Oil and Baby Powder.

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  47. B fore I B came vegequarian (I eat fish) I saw two big birds noshing off of kentucky fried chicken from the garbage. Is that cannibalism?

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  48. Gosh! I see that garBage also has a B in the middle. You don't suppose ....

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  49. RoRo:
    And one of the birds looked at the other and said, "Mmm, tastes just like snake!"

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  50. @william, my Wasbeen (ex-husband) would describe my cooking as such. Just read that Erykah Badu has a digital band and is calling the phenomenon Cannabinoids but I don't think that would count for this puzzle.

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  51. Monte- I miss making music and cooking with you and Claire. Thank God we have the puzzle as our lifeline!

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  52. Name an instrument of yore in five letters. Change the two vowels, and you get a type of food, popular both in days of yore as well as today.

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  53. RoRo - I like your word for your dietary choice. i usually see that described as pescetarian. I'm pretty sure the birds at KFC weren't cannibals, since they weren't eating their own species.

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  54. Mr. & Mrs. Lorenzo: miss you guys, too! Come visit us in Washington --

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  55. I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals.
    I'm a vegetarian because I hate plants.

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  56. Remember what Mitt Romney said, "Plants are people too!"

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  57. The Answer is: BAROQUE & BARBQUE or maybe that should be BAR B Q or maybe BAR B KEN.

    I think this puzzle is way over cooked and should have been presented as: Name a style of music. Change the middle letter to a different letter to name a style of cooking. No hints!

    My Hints:

    "Who is the jerk who came up with this turkey?" JERK seems to be the popular grilling fad lately.

    I think I also posted a hint or two in last week's blog, but they should be obvious now.

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  58. Science clue:
    Zeta Orionis, Rigel

    Those two stars are respectively of spectral classes O and B, the letter change that takes place in going from barOque to barBque.

    Cooking with gauss? Weber, cleverly abbreviated Wb by Tom W., is a well known brand of barbque grill. In his equation, Weber is also a unit of magnetic flux, and gauss is a unit of magnetic field strength.

    Cannibals may not use grills. In the cartoons, they boil their food in a large pot.

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  59. I think Blaine's clue refers to Bert Lance being the first to say, "If it ain't baroque, don't fix it," or words to that effect. But that might not be obscure enough....

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  60. Right, and I always wondered where those cannibals obtained their large pots. I never did find out because it is extremely difficult to grill a cannibal.

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  61. Here is some advice about cooking garbage. You also boil it in a pot:
    http://www.thesweetbeet.com/vegetable-stock/

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  62. ". . . I will take a break from trying." -- I "broke" (play on Baroque, a la Bert Lance) off my efforts when I had the answer.

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  63. On Sunday I said, “There’s a relation to Swing here...”

    In 1964, the Swingle Singers won a Grammy for their second album released in the U.S.: “Going Baroque.”

    Chuck

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  64. I was hinting to weber a unit of magnetic flux and also a famous barbeque grill company. I also confirmed Blaine's hint: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" two times. Now who is the famous person in the news?

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  65. ...and she (Barbie) said, "Oh, Ken, you'd (B)etter (B)e (Q)uiet."

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  66. My hints were:

    (1) On Will Shortz's initial misquote of the previous week's puzzle: "his thoughts seemed wandering back centuries and across the pond," i.e., a long time ago in Europe = Baroque.

    (2) B. Britten's Simple Symphony: The first movement is called "Boisterous Bourée." A bourée is a Baroque dance; therefore, the Simple Symphony "at first will have you believe" it has to do with the style of music.

    (3) B. Britten's Young Persons' Guide to the Orchestra is a set of variations on a theme by Henry Purcell, an English Baroque composer. I hinted at that by saying I found the music "enjoyable throughout the ages."

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  67. Tom W. said...

    07-15-09
    Sat Dec 03, 10:37:00 PM PST

    did you explain this hint?

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  68. OK Jim. Here is the link:

    http://www.npr.org/2011/06/16/92746082/jazz-bbq-songs-for-a-summer-grill

    Now who do you think the famous person in the news might be?

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  69. > Initially, I went one step forward and two steps back: another awkward puzzle.

    Starting with the letters B, B and Q, going one step back (+1-2=-1) alphabetically yields: A, A and P, which I used as initials in "Another Awkward Puzzle).

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  70. I like to say Merry Christmas at this time of the year. July 4 and Labor Day are holidays because they are vacation days from work.

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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.