NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 28, 2013): Six-word Proverb Puzzle: Q: The first 12 letters of the alphabet are A to L. Think of a familiar, six-word proverb that contains 11 of these 12 letters. The letters may be used more than once, and you may use additional letters from the second half of the alphabet. What proverb is this?Will has given us a task that's akin to finding a needle in a haystack, but I'm not one to judge a book by its cover. Let's not count our chickens before they hatch, but we can figure this out, can't we?
Edit: Several proverbs get close to using most of the letters in A through L, but the ones I gave weren't the answer. But if we work together...
A: Birds of a feather flock together
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.
De mi cama super-super king size en Ciudad Panama:
ReplyDeleteHere on Blainz Blahg, we come from distinct locations and have various nom de plumes (or is that noms de plume?). Yet despite our differences, we are connected by a common love of double entendre that point to (mostly) singular solutions. So each Sunday, we gather here in cyberspace like a herd of sheep, where we tweet each other with respect and civility (mostly) as the clues drop gently (mostly) like excrement from those other winged creatures that inhabit the caves here in the rain forest. So let the dropping begin.
Guano happens!
GuerrillaBoy
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteGiven your Guatemalan location, AbqGuerrillaBoy, let's go with "A rolling stone gathers no mas."
Oh, dear me, Blaine, you ought to ban from your blog such language as may seem to appear in the intended proverb.
ReplyDeleteWe might bring it before Congress.
ReplyDeleteDo you really think they're shrewd enough to decide the matter?
DeleteWe should all be able to solve this one giving appropriate weight to the clues above.
ReplyDeleteWhile on a bike ride yesterday, I saw some jheep grazing and I think I witnessed a murder!
ReplyDeleteNo dout, Siz.
DeleteTo b or not to b, and in that sleep, what dreams......................
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Ok, my post this Thursday won't look quite as good as that, but it shouldn't look too bad!
Oh, and if anyone's thinking they needn't bother with this one, because they used a browser other than Internet Explorer and they've alread saved my 201st comment from last week's thread, I'm saying NO!! Dump that one!! Replace it with what I've posted HERE!!
I realized after I posted that last one that I had blundered.
My 200th comment was also a blunder. I'll see if I can remedy that by Thursday. Maybe I need to go back to school.
DeleteI got the proverb fairly quickly and have already submitted it. I can’t think of a really good clue without giving away the answer. So I’ll just say there was an inane and insane 60s group that had a couple of inane and insane charted hits. The title of one of them will lead you directly to the proverb.
ReplyDeleteChuck
I'd like to chime in with the music of George Clinton & Bootsy Collins...
ReplyDeleteI would like to offer a Sunday Challenge that I have previously suggested to Will Shortz, but he has never taken me up on it. Maybe he has used it before?
ReplyDeleteTake a common six-letter word, add a hyphen between the second & third letters to obtain a new word that is the OPPOSITE of the original word. What are these two words?
If you know the answer, don't give it away. We will let Blaine give the solution on Thursday along with his solution to this week's challenge.
I have solved this week's challenge. It was fairly easy.
I think I solved your puzzle. Would you care to know the letter the words end with or would even that be too much info?
DeleteChuck
No. Don't give the letter the words end with. I will give the answer Thursday if Blaine doesn't give it then.
DeleteRon
One day you RESIGN from the team and two days later you RE-SIGN with the same team? You're a classic flip-flopper!
DeleteChuck, was this your answer?
It's always a same thing - some puzzle - and the same people visit this blog and post every week, including myself. We all have the same interests.
ReplyDeleteI just love landing on this blog every week. Kumbaya!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBTW - I expect Kimmel, Ferguson and O'Brien will be making jokes about this one, but Leno won't touch it!
ReplyDeleteJK, just tweeted this.
DeleteLet's save this one for our 25 year reunion!
ReplyDeleteI still maintain that Miami Dade would work for last week & when I mentioned "car AGENCY," I had no clue that this was a good hint for the intended answer as it was.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle is a real dinosaur.
ReplyDeleteSee if you can come up with the common proverb that is most ignored in this country.
ReplyDeleteHint: Pay close attention next time you are in line at the supermarket.
That's an easy one, SDB. I was in the checkout line at a supermarket just last week and I witnessed a guy shoplifting several lottery tickets while the cashier's back was turned. A moment later, I saw him scratching them off in the parking lot, when he suddenly started shouting to his buddy that he had a $1000 winner. Proverb: "God helps those who help themselves."
DeleteI said the proverb that is most ignored.
DeleteTen items or less. You can count on me, SDB.
DeletePaula Abdul cocked a musical snook at this saying. Nature also disagrees in some cases.
ReplyDeleteI hope Blaine doesn't have to give his proverbial middle finger to any of the above comments. Good clues, once you know the answer.
ReplyDeleteWhy are there proverbs and pronouns but no proadjectives?
ReplyDeleteChuck
The proadjectives got off the train at the conjunction junction.
DeleteI share your disappointment in the lack of proadjectives in this world, Chuck. No words can describe my chagrin...
DeleteI knew you were jovial, AbqGerrila, but I did not know you were from Iran or India.
DeleteDid you ever have the feeling you're not in on a joke you started¿
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI just went to NPR's website and listened. For some reason the time is a little muffled but I believe she said 3PM. Plus the written puzzle segment says 3PM.
DeleteChuck
Thanks Chuck.
DeleteAs if the missing letter doesn't fit the proverb, too?
ReplyDeleteWhat's a party without a band?
1. Stellar 2. Fete Shhhh.
DeleteAnd that poor missing letter is so sad about it, singing it's heart out.
DeleteThe missing letter is "J"; phonetically, a bird (e.g. "Stellar Jay" as in WW's allusion), and grouped collectively as a "party" or "band" (or a "scold!") of jays.
DeleteI suppose it is expected that I weigh in on this one
ReplyDelete"Me and my homeys goin out on the town. we don't flip all around we respect getting down. I take back what I said to SDB way back when. If at first you don't succeed DON'T fry fry a hen
I'm down with that, RoRo.
DeleteJoe Furchi, Blaine & Word Woman:
ReplyDeleteFrom last week: google Route 183, which appeared on Blaine's map, and one hit is "183rd local Miami Dade portal."
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DeleteI still don't get it. How is Miami-Dade (IEDA) an answer to the four letters that when pronounced sound like a geographical location?
DeleteOpera singers have no idea either.
DeleteIsn't Miami Dade a geographic location or are you just teasing me?
DeleteTeasing...but I don't think it fits the puzzle all that well.
DeleteWord Woman: "In your opinion."
DeleteGiving AbqGuerrilla's or ZekeCreek's opinion just didn't seem right.
DeleteOpinions are great. Mix em with green peppers, pierogies, and sour cream. Now your talkin'.
DeleteZC :-)
What we need now are some amateur verbs.
ReplyDeleteChance would be a fine thing.
DeletePondering. . .
DeletePondering - Pinky and the Brain style?
DeleteZort! What do you want to do tonight?
DeleteTroz, stalling. . .
Poit was my favorite. First ran into that in Mad Magazine - Don Martin. Thought you might enjoy the 6 word (with 10 required letters) catchphrase I stumbled on while solving the puzzle. Translation - In your dreams?
DeleteI was talking to one of my puzzle buddies after Church last night. He and his girlfiend (both 16) really enjoy the Sunday puzzle. I enquired of her opinion and she responded, "I'm really happy for you." As she walked off I could only say, "That's one sharp chick, Seth."
ReplyDeleteChecking in from SFO, waiting for my flight to EWR, looking out at all the planes on the tarmac in identical United livery. Guess it's true.
ReplyDeleteAfter discussing it with a few members of my congregation yesterday, I decided to go with a fascinator for this year's Derby.
ReplyDeleteYou give my old mint julep a kick, Ruth.
DeleteBack in '83 we went to the derby and sat in the sheep seats. In the infield sitting on coolers. Couldn't really see, but my horse won.
DeleteCheap cheap seats. Oh, that android keyboard of mine :-)
DeleteI wondered what ewe meant by sheep seats.
DeleteI wouldn't dream of trying to ram a pun through on this gang. Y'alls wise as hoot owls to that kind of stuff.
DeleteYeah! I don't want any wool pulled over my I's.
DeleteAre hoot owls decidedly smarter than barn owls that make a hissing shriek?
DeleteSome of them to rather well on MENSA tests.
DeleteThose wouldn't be Barn'rd owls would they?
DeleteYou say derby, I say Preakness
Touche, RoRo. Hats off to you.
DeleteSurprised none of my fellow nit-pickers mentioned this yet, but what about the letter M? The puzzle sez you have to use 11 or the first 12 letters, and can use any from the second half of the alphabet. Are you allowed to use M, which is in the first half. Don't want to give anything away here...
ReplyDeleteMy affianced pointed out to me that there wouldn't be an "m" in the proverb or the clue would be that the proverb used 12 of the first 13 letters. I hope that isn't TMI - it seems like an obvious conclusion.
DeleteMake that "11 OF the first 12 letters". Darn iPhone keyboard!
ReplyDeleteCannot understand half of the cuckoo "clues" on this blog. We're all a bunch of raven' loons, no doubt about it.
ReplyDelete180 wwwwwww
ReplyDeleteAgreed, Jan. Thinking of the tarmac (short for tarmacadam after the guy, Macadam, who created it) and macadamia nuts named after another guy Macadam. Guess it would be the asphalt that we're all so nuts.
ReplyDeleteI have seed a lot in my old age Who was the Doan-Givea Dam named after?
DeleteDunno, but she was sired bt the pygmy pony, Wee Charles.
DeleteJust got back from a slam where the poets carefully spun their rhymes in dribs and drabs. Felt bad for the ill-prepared fellow who just tried to wing it.
ReplyDeleteAh, those ill-prepared fellows!
DeleteHmmm...T2!
Delete¿
DeleteUrl lelzbuqck cm Ulrhbk qg 3900'.
Qu'g gc mbh bdbp mhcf Ybhoqbflku bkw Wcdkqks Guhllu, urbu Ahquqgr mbeecd ftgu hbolw uc sbu urlhr.
Obeqgub dctewk'u al achl mch klbhep 21 plbhg.
I see I left out a rbzl somewhere. Ostentation is mischief; ultimately it makes you crash.
DeleteKeeps you in company with the peacocks, though.
DeleteI'd rather keep company with the peahens; not that there's anything right with that.
DeleteRot 13: Zzzzzzz.
ReplyDelete90 NNNNNNN.
ReplyDeleteBILL COSBY'S GO-CART RACING SONG.
Original 90 EEEEEEE. Oh wait, that was a fortnight ago.
ReplyDeleteOK, snow is coming to CO again so that must mean May arrives tomorrow. May 1: What has your niece decided for college, Jan?
ReplyDeleteThe People's Republic of Berkeley.
DeleteBe sure to get some flowers for her hair...Exciting news, congrats to her!
DeleteJan
DeleteJust to add some balance, Michael Savage graduated fron Berkeley. Perhaps there's somewhere within those poles that will be appealing to you.
WW - I'm pretty tired of looking at the snow come down between the trees. This makes something like five consecutive weeks with a significant storm here in Denver. I'm done with it. How about you?
DeleteCurtis, we need the moisture, it was fun making snow angels with my pup, it is quite pretty...but, yes, calling a May Day, May Day too!
DeleteIt's not really 'tea time' where I am; but, next time it is, I think I'll try mine with a slice of lemon.
ReplyDeleteNo, not really.
Friday afternoon tea~so lovely. Lemon or not. ;-)
DeleteAnd, Lorenzo, according to Buzzfeed, Brown students have the best sexy/smart ratio of all colleges. Dartmouth was second. Top 5 are in New England. Maybe the weather keeps 'em fresh. ;-)
Kindergartners? Tea? That's wrong! So let it be written; so let it be done.
Delete"The moment you walked in the joint...achoo achoo"
DeleteI went to Dartmouth my Junior year and all the women in the exchange program were sexy and smart, including Meryl Streep who had hair past her waist. and yes, going out each day in temps below zero (18 or 30) can make one feel very fresh. The earlier the better
RoRo, the 12 College Exchange Program sounds like fun, especially while Dartmouth was still all male. And Meryl is one of my favorite actresses...Did you ever act together (keepin' it fresh)?
DeleteWe were in acting classes and did exercises together but we chose different one-act plays to perform and when we started our major work (Him by EE Cummings) she left to return to her school after only one or 2 rehearsals. We learned an interesting lesson one day. When our director said he wanted to hear our singing voice most of us sang a few bars of happy birthday. But Meryl sang Amazing Grace and that was the last time I went anywhere without a song prepared. Now if anyone says Robin, sing us a song, I have a whole repertoire
DeleteRobin, sing us a song. ;-) Thanks for sharing.
DeleteIt's ok. Judging from our age profile we rather enjoy rebleats.
ReplyDeleteBirds of a feather flock together
ReplyDeleteLast Sunday I said, “I got the proverb fairly quickly and have already submitted it. I can’t think of a really good clue without giving away the answer. So I’ll just say there was an inane and insane 60s group that had a couple of inane and insane charted hits. The title of one of them will lead you directly to the proverb.” The group was The Rivingtons. The song was The Bird’s the Word.
Chuck
Birds of a feather flock together
ReplyDeleteMy hint:
“This puzzle is a real dinosaur.”
All birds are dinosaurs.
I also posed this puzzle:
“See if you can come up with the common proverb that is most ignored in this country.
Hint: Pay close attention next time you are in line at the supermarket.”
Answer: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
So this guy's walkin' down the street and a bum comes up to him and says hey buddy can you give me a million dollars for a cup of coffee and the guy says a million dollars for a cup of coffee are you kiddin' me and the bum says I'm puttin' all my begs in one ask-it.
DeleteSdb, there is some controversy as to whether all birds are dinosaurs.
DeleteWW:
Deletewww.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/avians.html
This is a good place to look for reliable information on the subject.
Not much of a controversy from what I can tell. About like that re: did Neil Armstrong actually land on the moon? Most of us, of course, realize it was done with mirrors.
My cursory investigation of the matter indicates that flock may apply to either birds or dinosaurs, but I'm content not to be contentious.
DeleteMany birds may be descendants of dinosaurs but all birds are not dinosaurs.
DeleteNot according to the sources I trust. Where are you getting your info? Are you saying the same thing for crocodiles too?
DeleteMan is descended from apes but all men are not apes.
DeleteMost (if not all) birds are descended from dinosaurs but all birds are not dinosaurs.
Now you are simply repeating yourself. And your argument is apples and oranges. Back it up, if you can.
DeleteI think the evidence is with skydiveboy on this one, tho cladistics is my least favorite branch of bio. Anyway, there's gotta be a reason why every time I bike past a big, open field of geese or turkeys, the theme from "Jurassic Park" plays in my head. And why a great blue heron flying overhead looks exactly like every pterodactyl I've ever seen.
Delete...Not that I'm implying for a moment, SDB, that plummeting through the air like a stooping falcon as you do makes you a dinosaur.
DeleteNow, I'd like to see a stooping falcon, Jan. Most I've see swoop. ;-) But, perhaps they may be in stoopor after all . . .
DeleteThere are some researchers who disagree, SDB. The article you cited mentions them. I did not say I was one of them.
My issue is one of semantics. I prefer to call a bird a bird and to say it was descended from sauropods (terribly ironic that they descended from the lizard-hipped dinos, not the bird-hipped ones). Cladistics are interesting but problematic in some respects...Where do you draw the distinction? How do you call a clade a clade ? ;-)
The breathing mechanisms (air sacs, etc.) of dinosaurs and birds are interesting...but I much prefer fish gills.
Long week. The kindies had intense spring fever after our snowy week.
Oh Gawd! Now she stoops to conquer!
DeleteAccording to our friends at Merriam-Webster, stoop can mean "to fly or dive down swiftly usually to attack prey".
DeleteBird lungs and fish gills share a neat counter-current exchange system that extracts oxygen with great efficiency. The air (or water) moves in one direction, the blood in the other direction, so the blood leaving the lung in contact with the most oxygen-rich air (or water). Birds can do this even though breathing tidally by having the incoming air go first to one air sac, then through the lungs, then into another air sac, and then back out.
When I learned of this scheme in college, it occurred to me that it would be cool to re-route the outflow from the second air sac to the bird's butt, and inoculate that air sac with methane-producing bacteria from a cow's intestine. The bird goes into a stoop -- okay, a dive, if you like -- scrapes its butt along the ground to make sparks, and PHOOOM: ramjet chicken!
SDB, I thought you were the one stooping!
DeleteJan, you went a long way for that!
DeleteInteresting to learn more about stoop. And speaking of breathing sacs and oxymorons: attack pray. ;-)
"That's one small stoop for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind".
DeleteI understand stoop and roop!
DeleteThat's hcir!
DeleteAll clever remarks are not fart jokes.
Sometimes it seems we speak a different language.
DeleteThat different language!
DeleteOh, dear me, Blaine, you ought to ban from your blog such language as may seem to appear in the intended proverb.
ReplyDeleteI expect Kimmel, Ferguson and O'Brien will be making jokes about this one, but Leno won't touch it!
"Ought to ban", appropriately slurred, should sound like "Audubon", forever associated with birds of a feather.
"such language" . . . Those birds do what?!? Oh, "flock" -- I see, sorry, false alarm.
"Leno won't touch it" -- because the "Jay" is the one letter of the first 12 not used. (And I don't think anyone refers to Jimmy Kimmel as "Jay".) (Word Woman, I don't quite understand your reply to this comment.)
Just got back from a slam where the poets carefully spun their rhymes in dribs and drabs. Felt bad for the ill-prepared fellow who just tried to wing it.
ReplyDeleteAnother word for poet is a bard. Dribs and drabs --> birds and bards.
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ReplyDelete═╪═╪═╪═╪═╪═╪═╪═╪═╪═╪═╪═╪═╬═╪═╪═╪═╪═
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─┼───┼───┼─f─┼─┼───┼─┼─┼─╫─┼─┼───┼─f
─┼───┼───┼─┼─┼─┼───┼─┼─┼─╫─┼─┼───┼─
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─a───┼───┼─┼─┼─┼───┼─┼─┼─╫─┼─┼───┼─a
─────┼───┼─┼─┼─┼───┼─┼─┼─╫─┼─┼───t─t
─────┼───┼─┼─┼─h───┼─┼─┼─╫─┼─┼───┼─h
─────┼───e─┼─┼─┼───┼─┼─┼─╫─┼─┼───┼─e
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─────┼───┼─┼─┼─┼───┼─┼─┼─╫─┼─┼───┼─
─────┼───┼─f─┼─┼───┼─┼─┼─╫─┼─┼───┼─f
─────┼───┼───┼─┼───┼─┼─l─╫─┼─┼───┼─l
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─────c───┼───┼─┼───┼─┼───╫─┼─┼───┼─c
─────────┼───┼─┼───┼─k───╫─┼─┼───┼─k
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─────────┼───┼─┼───┼─────╫─┼─┼───t─t
─────────┼───┼─┼───┼─────╫─o─┼───┼─o
─────────┼───g─┼───┼─────╫───┼───┼─g
─────────e─────┼───┼─────╫───┼───┼─e
─────────┼─────┼───┼─────╫───┼───t─t
─────────┼─────h───┼─────╫───┼─────h
─────────e─────────┼─────╫───┼─────e
───────────────────┼─────╫───r─────r
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───────────────────j───────────────<──No─j
Anyone who had counted would've noticed 12 of the "┬" box-characters before the double-border "╥" box-character. Replacing these with the letters a-l, correspondingly replacing the "┴" box-characters below with the same letters, then having those same letters one more time replace the "─" box-character at the each intersected line, and also regarding the slightly shortened lines as spaces between words would yield
"Bi-d- -- - --a---- fl-ck --g--he-."
as the preliminary solution. Guessing the first word to be "Birds" would establish the only "s" in the proverb and help conclude that the remaining letters were o,r,s and t; thus leading to
"Birds -- - --a---- fl-ck -og-ther."
It shouldn't be too hard from there to reach
"Birds of a feather flock together."
BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER.
ReplyDeleteAlthough being a water person, I prefer "Fish of a cod fin, let us majorly begin!" It works and it has a bonus M. ;-)
Other groups of animals:congress of baboons, dout of cats.
JK as in Jay Kidding. Tweet as in bird.
Chagrin as in Shah grin. Smile for/at the birdie. :-).
Down as in duck or goose down.
Hoot owls, barn owls, owls all around the bird world.
Thanks for this flight together. Next up, a group swim? Perhaps in the AGNC!
Took some doing, but I actually found 'dout of cats'.
DeleteMakes me hungry for cham clowder.
Paul, you doubted the dout? ;-)
DeleteI b guilty as charged.
DeleteMy Reunion clue is apparent.
ReplyDeleteMom or Dad? Couldn't resist, benmar. ;-)
DeleteMom
DeleteAnd it's only a motion away.
WW: Which are you? Mom or Dad???
DeleteMy post (I'd like to chime in with the music of George Clinton & Bootsy Collins) had two clues. Chime is the collective noun for wrens. Clinton and Collins both participated in the band Parliament, which also happens to be the collective noun for owls.
ReplyDelete"Middle finger" is "the bird".
ReplyDeleteYeah I was respectfully not flippin the bird in my rap song. and I was sneezing from imaginary feathers from a feather boa with my Edie Adams impression. Good ones Curtis, I started to quote a song from Donald Byrd but thought that was too close
ReplyDeleteChurch-flock.
ReplyDeletehappy for you-ewe-flock.
Sharp chick-birds.
sheep seats-flock.
Cheap cheap-birds.
Ram-flock.
Hoot owls-birds.
Rebleats-flock.
Lotta nouns, collective and otherwise. ;-)
ReplyDeleteHim-her
ReplyDeleteyou-them
they-those
We are very pronouns too.
The new puzzle is up, and it is very easy. It seems to me
ReplyDeleteto be a repeat.
"Name a famous performer whose last name has six letters. Move the first three letters to the end — without otherwise changing the order of the letters — and add one more letter at the end. The result, in seven letters, will name a place where this person famously performed. Who is it, and what's the place?"
ReplyDeleteRemove a letter from the performer's first name to name something performed there.
Could be a hard fight - my hands hurt already - but I think AA has shown me the way.
ReplyDeleteWhen they did this previously, they said there were about 2000 correct entries. Haven't had that many in quite a while.
ReplyDelete