Thursday, January 17, 2013

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 13, 2013): ABCDEF + two more

CBAEFDNPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 13, 2013): ABCDEF + two more:
Q: Think of two familiar, unhyphenated, eight-letter words that contain the letters A, B, C, D, E and F, plus two others, in any order. What words are these?
The trick to all these puzzles is... well, I'll let you figure it out and add your comments below.

Edit: The first hint can be found by reading the last letters in the initial words in my post: ThE tricK tO alL.... The letter pairs EK and OL are what you need to add to ABCDEF to make the new words. The obvious other clue was the word comments (feedback) in bold (boldface).
A: FEEDBACK and BOLDFACE

168 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. I really don't think I'm giving anything away if I say that the trick to all these puzzles is the mind of Shortz.

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  3. I hope I'm not being too gutsy by saying this, but you're going to have to face it: You wrote Jan 6 in two places, but it should be the 13th. I'm just trying to be constructive here.

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    Replies
    1. Dropping subtle hints in the midst of being critical. Were we ever married, Laura?

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    2. If I should be so brazen it sounds as if she should just back off the grocs. Was this a weeklong bowling excursion?
      Zeke on the lookout. I guess you could say I'm on the barfdeck.

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    3. Oops. Plrase insert the last smart aleck remark after the abq short story.

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    4. And that would be just above the poop deck, no doubt?

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    5. Arrrr, good to have you back on board matey.

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  4. I'm sure Mr. Shortz will take some guff for how blatantly easily one can solve this puzzle.

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    Replies
    1. After last week's gem left me dumbfaced I could use a breather.

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    2. I agree, Zeke.

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  5. No lie, it's ironic that people on this blog howl only when the comments are negative.

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  6. I think one post and its replies from the end of last week's thread should be repeated here, as an important question concerning this puzzle is raised:

    skydiveboy posted on Sat Jan 12, at 10:51:00 PM PST:

    I am unsure if we have to find two words with the same eight letters, or if the added two letters can be different.

    <to which the following replies came.>

    PlannedChaos replied on Sat Jan 12, at 10:52:00 PM PST:

    I believe the letters can be different.

    Then skydiveboy replied on Sat Jan 12, 11:04:00 PM PST:

    Then I'm half way there.

    And I, Enya_and_Weird_Al_fan, on Sat Jan 12, 11:44:00 PM PST:

    Not only may the added two letters be different, but in one case one of the two added letters can be a repeat from the initial letter set of {A,B,C,D,E & F}.

    Then skydiveboy replied on Sun Jan 13, 12:03:00 AM PST:

    If that is indeed true, then I solved this puzzle shortly after it was posted at 9:05 PM this evening West Coast Time.

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  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  8. Okay. Using all the comments Blaine has received thus far (and probably the tons that Will should receive for posting an ambiguous puzzle), I think I have discovered the answer and probably have the same answer as SDB.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for using the word "ambiguous," Phred. I totally forgot that I had promised I would go to OfficeMax this weekend and buy a special chair for my secretary with an extra-large seat.

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  9. It is interesting to hear the responses about this type of puzzle.

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  10. Back up one week and only 80 entrants got the correct answer to Sam Loyd’s puzzle: 16! Face it folks – a very significant percentage of those people were from this small blog.

    Chuck

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    Replies
    1. Yay. Now I can feel even worse for not having been randomly selected.

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  11. Replies
    1. Hey Pete, no one likes getting amped up and listening to Hendrix more than I do, but I think this clue is a bit fuzzy, bro. My former neighbor, Mike, used to blast Hendrix at all hours, Fortunately, now that Mike has moved, we can get some sleep...

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    2. You're right Abq, clarity was never Jimi's strongest profile. When he sings of smooching the heavens, I always hear "'Scuse me while I kiss this guy."

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    3. Oh, I get it. So Purple Haze was actually a veiled reference to his eye shadow color.

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  12. Replies
    1. Forgive me for sticking my proboscis in yet again, but I should like to add that this clue is only relevant when the subject utters falsehoods. Just my two cents.

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    2. Isn't this comment a bit of a stretch?

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  13. I get discouraged when ambiguities in Will's clues make it impossible to know whether I have indeed come up with the answer(s) he is seeking. Within a few minutes, I came up with the same two words that most of today's bloggers have been alluding to, but SDB and Weird Al's questions continued to gnaw at me. (I.e., "can a letter be repeated" and "do the two solution words have to be comprised of the exact same letters"). Finally, I resorted to a computer program that searches for words containing certain combinations of letters. Convinced that the letters _, _ and _ were the three most unique components, I based my search on that pre-requisite. In short, I am quite certain now that A) You must repeat at least one letter for at least one of the words, and B) The two words do NOT contain the same exact combination of letters.

    That being said, allow me to ramble on a bit about my weekend. Last night, I took the family to Provo Lanes for a little 10-pin fun. As I cradled the ball and prepared to approach the line in the very first frame, I turned to my right and to my shock, my ex-wife, Peggy, was standing at the head of the next lane glaring at me. Now I'm not sure if you've ever bowled face-to-face with an ex in the next lane, but it can be pretty unnerving. I divorced Peggy because she had a compulsive eating disorder that she refused to deal with. Last night as I watched her cram french fries into her pie hole, I thought to myself, "Why not just get a feed bag, Peggy? It would enable you to actually bowl while eating." Sorry. I'm sure no one wants to hear this drivel, so I'll sign off and go visit that other blog where at least they give you the option of using italics and a variety of fonts.

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    Replies
    1. Abq- I ran a search as well, and looked at all 351 possible pairs of letters to fill the two blanks. Your conclusions A and B seem to hold, and the answer to the puzzle is unique in the mathematical sense. There is only one pair of words that solves this puzzle.

      P.S. I get these wrong a lot of the time!

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  14. This easy puzzle may give Will an indication of audience size.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, Natasha, that's a great observation, however, it's not the size of Will's audience that matters, it's the adventurousness of the individual members.

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    2. I agree,Abq. My comment was not totally clueless,though.

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    3. I'm aware of that, Natasha. And the same can be said of mine. Especially if you read between the loins.

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    4. Goethe would have appreciated all this info.

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    5. I try to keep my mind out of the Goethe; I've been known to fail miserably.

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    6. Appreciate your high brow/low brow humor, Paul.

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    7. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

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    8. Oh and all this info was meant to allude to
      feedback.

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  15. To broaden the puzzle a bit...

    Besides this week’s answers, think of an eight-letter word that contains any six consecutive letters, plus two others, in any order. There are several answers some more common than others.

    Think of a word of any length that contains any seven consecutive letters in any order. Again, there are several answers some more common than others.

    Think of a word of any length that contains any eight consecutive letters in any order. I know of only one.

    Chuck

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    Replies
    1. Good puzzles, Chuck. With my Linux PC operating system comes a text file of English words, common and uncommon, almost 500,000 in number. I wrote a 15-line program (in the Perl language) to review each of those words for eight consecutive letters. It came up with 14 hyphenated and 13 non-hyphenated words, most of which bore the prefix "pre," or "super." Those I'd call too lame for purposes of your 8-letters puzzle. But two words seem worthy. I'd be aptly named by one of the words if I asserted, falsely, that I believed all computer programmers are created equal. The other word names what goes on in bureaucracies where triplicate is not good enough. There's a third word that I couldn't find in my 1987 Random House Dictionary; Google says it appears on 20,000 web pages, but those pages all seem designed to lure Scrabble players into buying pharmaceuticals across international borders.

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  16. I am reminded of Mick Jagger lamenting, "I can't get no satisfaction." Clearly this is a double negative, yet I doubt there is anyone who does not immediately comprehend the intended meaning of this lyric. Can the same be said of this, and many other, Will Shortz puzzles, even though they may contain no double negatives? I will leave it to you who are reading this to decide. But I can tell you that I am not getting much satisfaction with a puzzle such as this one. What is satisfying about slaving over a keyboard as we enter combinations of letters into an anagram program? Tedious is more accurate a term in my opinion. At least we should be presented with puzzles that are well stated with little room for ambiguity. Why this is not the case is for me the real puzzle.

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    Replies
    1. A hillbilly view: 2 other letters. Does it mean '2 more' or '2 other than those previously stated?'

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    2. @ Word Woman:
      I am unsure if your above post is directed at me or zeke creek, but what I am sure of is that your statement is nothing if not indicative of the typical American ignoramus.

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    3. Hey, ah say ah resemble that remark. We'uns jest tryin' to get along, now. Ms. W.W., thanks for your concern. :-)

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    4. The comment was directed at Zeke. Sometimes, methinks, we all overthink.

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    5. Nice view on the profile pic, w.w. Getting any skiing in?
      Zeke the headache boy :-)

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    6. Yes, cross country skiing is great here...Do you have altitude troubles, Zeke?

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    7. Only when it comes to lofty thinking. :-)
      Zeke the mountaineer.

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    8. Glad to hear it. And glad to hear you quoting Twain. Enjoyed his house in Hartford with the picture window right above the fireplace so he could see the snow fall "into" the fire.

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    9. SDB, et al: There is one reason you are bored with many of Will's puzzles...you are substituting computer analog solvers and other programs for your own brain! Solve using your own abilities and other basics such as pencil and paper, as I did, for an interesting challenge instead of a boring waste of time and energy.

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    10. Evans,
      You are correct in your observation regarding a few of these puzzles, but, at least in my case, not the majority of them. I solve most of them by brute force, and frequently have the answer before I get out of bed, where I usually listen to them only half awake. The puzzles where I resort to lists are usually what I consider to be excrement puzzles, requiring no degreee of intelligent thinking. I see no reason to waste my time slaving over stupidly devised puzzles. Thank you for being just the latest in a very long list of people who seem to know so much better than I just how I should live my life.

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    11. Dunno bout dis puter stuff, but I's havin a gud time werkin de puzzles.
      Zeke the ol'timer proachin alltimer.

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    12. Hey Evy buddy, ye kin borry mah chisel n granite anytime.

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    13. SDB, The Broncos could have used your defense on Saturday. ;-)

      Zeke, are you always the smoother-over go to guy?

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    14. I'm able to stir the pot, just not all the burnt stuff on the bottom.
      Keep the soup tasty, Blai...oops I mean Zeke.

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    15. Some peeps on this blog take it all very seriously and can get their panties in a wad more easily than others. Zeke does an excellent job at conciliation. Zeke, I'll bet if you were a professional mediator, you could pull down a couple hundred a day with ease.

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    16. So that would be Blai, ne Zeke? ;-) Thanks for the s(c)oup.

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    17. Sitting cross-legged on the floor with my eyes shut. ouoooooom. That's the job for me. :-)

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    18. Sounds great, Zeke, but it did not work out so well for Buddha. His wife was constantly nagging him, "Oh, I suppose you plan to waste another by just sitting around the house!"

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  17. If I might be so daring: I have my own gauge of how easy/unsatisfying any particular puzzle of Will's is.

    I have a 3-year-old son. My family and I, between Sunday school and service and donuts, spend at least three hours every Sunday morning at church. After lunch, we usually have some kind of Sunday afternoon activity -- going to a museum, going to a thrift store, looking for Peanuts statues throughout the Twin Cities here, etc. After dinner, it's bath and story time. And generally, when it comes to solving puzzles, I have to admit that I'm a little thick compared to others on this blog.

    Considering all of that, if I've already solved the puzzle on Sunday itself, AND engaged in several rounds of witty clue-making repartee on this blog, the puzzle was a bit of a letdown. I really enjoy the puzzles that don't "click" until sometime on Tuesday or Wednesday.

    Just my two cents.

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    Replies
    1. Peter, my son-in-law and I play the puzzle while picking up Sunday school children on our separate routes. At least with the easier ones I'm keeping my mind on my driving while fielding his calls. The parents of about thirty children thank W.S. on these occasions. Peanuts statues?

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    2. Yep, Peanuts -- as in Charles Schulz, Saint Paul native -- statues:

      http://peterspuppets.blogspot.com/2012/07/peanuts-statues-in-twin-cities.html

      ...there's no official list of where the surviving statues are located, so hunting them down is always good for an afternoon activity.

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    3. My daughter is at Mac...I wonder if college kids track them down for glod ckean fun ;-). I will ask her.

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    4. Probably not. Most people only see the one or two that they know about, and don't think much about them. In the year or so I've been looking for them, I've only found two other people online who've made a concerted effort to track them down one by one. I know Hamline has two statues, and St. Kate's has one, but I don't know that Macalester has one (but if your daughter knows better, please let me know!).

      Dining tip: if you visit her during the summer, make sure to go to the Blue Door for burgers, and to the Grand Ole Creamery for ice cream (if you're meat- and lactose-inclined, respectively).

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    5. Seems like it might be a great relaxing scavenger hunt thing for college kids to balance out how hard they work. My daughter is a biochem major; organic chem was tough last semester. She does love Life at Mac, though.
      Thanks for the dining suggestions. She is a vegetarian...but we both enjoy ice cream.
      We stayed in Woodland when I dropped her off when we drove to MN from CO. Any suggestions for closer accomodations that are not too pricey? B and B's?
      Thanks, Peter.

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    6. My wife and I aren't B&B people, but I would imagine there'd be a few of them on Cathedral Hill, the old "historic" part of the city. We've stayed at the famous Saint Paul Hotel downtown, which was great but pricey. I've heard good things about the Holiday Inn nearby (downtown Saint Paul), and that's really close to the Liffey, an Irish pub I'd also recommend. New Ulm or Northfield might be cities on your way into town that would have a lot more B&B choices. Stillwater is good too, but that's further east on your way into Wisconsin.

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  18. What was Lady Gaga when wearing her meat dress?
    Where do you eat at intermission of a Shakespeare play?
    What do you and your spouse(s) have when waking up after sleeping on wrinkled sheets?

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    Replies
    1. 1. A cut above the rest.
      2. Around.
      3. A shower.

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    2. I should have said that the answers are made up words that otherwise meet the requirements of this weeks puzzles.

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    3. Not sure about the wrinkled sheets, Dave, but have you heard about the new courderoy pillows on the market? They're making headlines from coast to coast...

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    4. I really must say Ab old boy, you do more recycling than Lance Armstrong.

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    5. Oops, you're totally right, SDB! But since you've already noted the answer, we'll just have to update David's question list:

      • What was Lady Gaga when wearing her meat dress?
      • Where do you eat at intermission of a
      Shakespeare play?
      • What do you and your spouse(s) have when
      waking up after sleeping on wrinkled sheets?
      • How would you describe the majority of SDB's
      jokes as of late? ;-)

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    6. I would have to say they are some of the best jokes of 2013! :-)

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    7. Blaine's comments are the best so far. Thought you all should know.

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    8. Come on, Ruthie. There's no extra credit for assuming the position of teacher's pet on this blog. I've often wondered if Blaine has an assumed identity on this forum thereby enabling him to freely join the discussion and/or pat himself on the back while incognito (that means in disguise, Zeke). Now you've got us wonderin' if he could be you, or rather, you could be him.

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    9. Abq, I am flattered but Blaine and I are not one and the same. It's just that font envy makes me do and say strange things sometimes.

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    10. Come on AbqGuerrilla, everyone knows Blain's alter ego is mtbiker.

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    11. Elemetary my dear sbd/abq. Dr. Blaine ane Mt. Biker are one in the same. What say you, Simon Saiz? Hmmmm?

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    12. Holy Sekhemkhet! Did someone mention my name? Plenty of camel dust has settled on my tomb since I was last summoned to the Pyzzle Blogh of the NPR-worshipping infidels. Ustaaz أستاذ Zeke, I think it unlikely that Ustaaz Blaine would foul his own tent. That is to say, it is my opinion that the one known has Mt. Biker was merely a passing barbarian bent on wreaking havoc. I doubt that we shall see the likes of him again. Until next time, Happy New Year everyone!

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    13. I can't claim to have any doppelgangers... my kids, however, are a different story.

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    14. Good job, Blaino. Couldn't even see the splice seam!

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    15. And, Blaine, how do you share a link on a blog? I was married to a coder but didn't pick up how to embed a link (or bold and italicize text, for that matter.) Thanks.

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    16. Links are a little more complicated:

      <a href="http://puzzles.blainesville.com">Blaine's Puzzle Blog</a>

      The first part in quotes is the URL. The other part between the tags is the text you want to display as the hyperlink. The result will be a link like the following:

      Blaine's Puzzle Blog

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  19. AMBIGUOUS STATEMENTS

    Since this puzzle is yet another bust and we all know the answer, might I propose that we follow Will's lead with a few of our own.

    As high school sophomores, we were tasked with composing our own examples of ambiguous sentences. Finally, my years as class clown paid off! I wrote this on the blackboard and took top honors:

    TWO MAGGOTS WERE FIGHTING IN DEAD EARNEST.

    A few classics gleaned from the web this morning:

    • The newly elected Bosnian head will seek
    arms at this week's NATO summit.
    • A child’s stool is great for use in the
    garden.
    • Stiff opposition is expected in response
    to proposed casketless funeral legislation.
    • The convicted thief received nine months
    in Italy's high-profile Stradivarius
    violin case.

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    Replies
    1. From the Huffington Post: When officials inspected the truck, they discovered 42 packages of pot hidden in the boxes of carrots that had an estimated street value of $500,000, the Los Angeles Times reported.

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    2. If I were in hs with you I would be in the office everyday cuz I would be ROTL every time you took the teacher for a loop But then I always say "Life ain't for the timid

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    3. People in the big cities get ripped off on consumables, David. Why, here in Provo I can get a dime bag of carrots for, well, a dime.

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  20. My answers include two words that could be 4 words standing alone.

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  21. OK, Lisa got the one that is the essence of Rock 'n' Roll. I'm coming up with one that would seem to pertain to liars or to certain fonts. Is everybody getting ones that are sort of compound words?

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    Replies
    1. Hey Uncle John ~
      You got the font part right, but the expression that describes certain types of liars actually uses an "a" for the first vowel and not an "o". Google it and see for yourself. I thought of that one, too, but decided to pass after I discovered the correct spelling of the expression.
      I wouldn't lie to ya.

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    2. Correct, and thank you. Yes, and the liar thing might even be hyphenated and not compound etc.

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    3. Oops, I think I referred to the "liar" word on Akzidenz. I'll try not to do that in the Futura.

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    4. Several online sources credit the "o" spelling (both hyphenated and not) as well as the "a" version. I don't have an a-version to either...

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    5. Actually, Uncle John, I slipped into my Dr. Scholl's orthopedic shoes and now...I stand corrected. Your liar descriptor works either way (with an A or an O) since you already have the "A" covered in the second word (duh).

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  22. Barf deck: the part of a ship designed to accommodate seasick passengers.

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    Replies
    1. So then, what is the poop deck for?

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    2. Frightened passengers in the Mediteranean.

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    3. @SDB, the poop deck is at the other end.

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    4. Ward, now don't you go getting stern with me. :-)

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    5. Give him a little leeway, SDB.

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    6. Gee. Usually the potty jokes don't roll out until Wednesday or Thursday, guys. I guess Einstein was right, the universe IS speeding up! And yes, Ward, don't you think you were a little hard on the SkyDiveBoy last night?

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    7. Speaking of thrones, most royalty would take a "shoot the messenger" attitude over one of the words

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  23. I like this puzzle so much more than last week's. I am not much for number puzzles except an occasional Sudoku. I do like number games though. Last night I was playing Crazy 8's with my kiddos, a great family game by the way. I always try to let the kids win, but hubby is quite the opposite. I think he even peeks at the kids' cards to make sure he is the winner. That hubby of mine :)

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    Replies
    1. Welcome to Blaine's Blog, L.I. And thanks for sharing.

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    2. Welcome to the fun! Reading your post made me yearn for the good old days: Dad, Mom, little brother, and Zeke all around the kitchen table for full contact Scrabble. No pads, no blood, no foul. Dad and Mom smoked us everytime. :-)

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  24. Thanks for the welcome. I lived in Provo for 7 years, but recently moved to Pacific Northwest. Ha ha to Scrabble - I have a scar from a family Pictionary game that got out of hand.

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  25. Thought people on this blog might appreciate a cartoon in this week's New Yorker: Family sitting around the dinner table. Boy says, "Mom, Dad, sis -- I'm not like you. I'm -- I'm not a palindrome."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually, the kid's name is Otto, so that's not entirely correct, Jan.

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    2. Yeah, but he changed it to Robert.

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    3. Wasn't Harah Palindrome 1st place loser in the 2008 vp election?

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    4. You ever pass her on your way down?

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  26. Replies
    1. Jumped the gun by 60 seconds, SDB. . .I know you appreciate boldfaced feedback.

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    2. Never noticed before, but seems like all these posts have 00 after the second :
      So... maybe sdb only jumped the gun by 30-31 seconds

      Mother Superior jumped the gu...un,
      Mother Superior jumped the gu...un...


      Heck, now that I think about it, maybe it was only a couple of seconds...or a few....I suppose split second timing is an asset to skydivers.

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    3. RE: Early Posting. I figue I posted 1 second before the blog time, but several seconds after my computer indicated 12:00 Noon. I have had this problem lately and keep waiting a few seconds longer than my computer clock shows. A few months back I noticed Blaine had it happen to him too. I am wondering if my computer is not always updating the time as it is supposed to and so I forced it today after I posted.

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  27. About my font envy comment...how does one BOLD words on a blog? I couldn't find a way and boy, did that tie me down!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ruth, you can use a limited set of HTML tags to add formatting to your comments. For example:

      <b>bold</b> = bold
      <i>italics</i> = italics

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    2. And for everybody wondering "So How did Blaine just now display those bracket characters '<' and '>' ?"

      The answer is:

      &lt; = <
      &gt; = >

      and finally

      &amp; = &

      *SIGH* Now if only we could enter '<FONT face="Courier">' or even <TABLE> tags! Remember my last week's post where I made such nice use of box characters, but then had to give directions on how to copy it and paste it into your local text editor?

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    3. Has anyone from this blog been randomly selected to play the Sunday puzzle with Will? I am a newbie.Excited to learn how to create bold and italicized words. Thanks, Blaine.

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    4. I was the on air player once. ...MANY years ago...

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    5. Enya and Weird Al Fan, Do you remember the puzzle and how was it playing on air with Will?

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    6. Word Woman -

      I played on air in '05. I remember I was nervous as hell until I got a few right answers under my belt. Then I calmed down and had fun.

      Chuck

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    7. Chuck,
      Thanks for the scoop. It's on my bucket list, including being relaxed and cool as a cucumber during the on-air play.
      w.w.

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    8. In case you're still checking this thread, you can listen to my on-air play at http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/wesun/19990509.wesun.06.ram

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    9. Thank you, EWAL. Alas, I've not been able to play your file. Will try later in the week on a different computer!

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  28. The riddle I couldn't ask until now:
    Q. How do certain men look at certain women?
    A. ???

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  29. My clue, each word containing 2 words.

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  30. There is, apparently, bad feces and good feces:
    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/17/health/disgusting-maybe-but-treatment-works-study-finds.html?ref=health

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  31. > No lie, it's ironic that people on this blog howl only when the comments are negative.

    Whereas audio circuits howl when there's positive feedback.

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  32. Barfdeck Dumbface. Two words manufactured for fun, but they fit.

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  33. To illustrate just how trivial this puzzle was: download the Moby Word list, then, using basic Unix tools (get Cygwin on Windows machines):

    cat COMMON.TXT | grep "^........$" | grep a | grep b | grep c | grep d | grep e | grep f

    In other words, search the list of common words for all 8-letter words, then search the result for all words containing "a", search the result of that for all words containing "b", etc. Out pops "boldface" and "feedback".

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have to admit I used Ross Beresford's TEA crossword solver. Limit the answers to 8 letter words and type the following to get the answer right away:

      *;abcdef??

      That means anagrams that include a-f and two more letters.

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    2. $40? I never paid for it in my life! ;-) The Moby Word package and Cygwin are free downloads.

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  34. boldface, feedback

    I was busy yesterday afternoon and when I got home, I forgot to post :) Sorry about that. Anyway, late is better than never so...

    Last Sunday I said, “Back up one week and only 80 entrants got the correct answer to Sam Loyd’s puzzle: 16! Face it folks – a very significant percentage of those were from this very blog.” Back was intended to evoke feedback. Face was intended to evoke boldface.

    Chuck

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  35. MY KRYPTIC KLUES:
    I took the family to Provo Lanes for a little 10-pin fun. As I cradled the ball and prepared to approach the line in the very first frame, I turned to my right and to my shock, my ex-wife, Peggy, was standing at the head of the next lane glaring at me. Now I'm not sure if you've ever bowled (BOLDFACE) face-to-face with an ex in the next lane, but it can be pretty unnerving. I divorced Peggy because she had a compulsive eating disorder that she refused to deal with. Last night as I watched her cram french fries into her pie hole, I thought to myself, "Why not just get a feed bag (FEEDBACK), Peggy? It would enable you to actually bowl while eating." Sorry. I'm sure no one wants to hear this drivel, so I'll sign off and go visit that other blog where at least they give you the option of using italics and a variety of fonts (and maybe even BOLDFACE type).

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  36. There are 10 kinds of people, those that understand binary, and those that don't.

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    Replies
    1. We sing "Old McDonald had a farm 10101." (only 21 tlimes)

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    2. 2 in base 2 is 10
      3 in base 3 is 10
      4 in base 4 is 10
      etc.

      So you could write this joke for lots of different bases. :)

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    3. There are x kinds of people in this world, those that divide the world into x kinds, and those that don't. I wouldn't want to try to defend this.

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    4. But it does give you something to think about, doesn't it?

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    5. By definition there aren't any unkinds that are allowed to divide the world into x kinds. Unkinds being nonekinds.

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  37. I was volunteering in my son's elementary school classroom, teaching about the binary system. The principal walked in to see me writing "10 + 10 = 100." The look on her face was priceless.

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    Replies
    1. If you had written 10 x 10 = 100 she wouldn't have been concerned. :)

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  38. New puzzle is now up. I hope none of you get too bogged down trying to figure it out.

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  39. Use your brain to remember the last name of the leader's successor, who was assassinated by someone whose last name is pretty much the same as the type of world leader.

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  40. Good clues SDB! Is the suggested motto on the coin "In God We Rust"?

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  41. Until Blaine posts this week's puzzle, here's my recollection of it:
    Take the last name of a world leader. Re-arrange the letters to make the name of a kind of leader, like "czar" or "prime minister". Who is the world leader?

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  42. I think I have an answer but the "kind" of leader is quite generic. Don't know how much weight my answer will hold?

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  43. Not sure of the exact wording for the puzzler, I was only paraphrasing. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused. Which makes me wonder if people with agoraphobia find it hard to feel safe in public forums?

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  44. Wonder if these two leaders ever got together for a picnic with beer and brats.

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