NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 30, 2013): Truck Part / FEMA Spoonerism Puzzle: Q: Next week's challenge involves a spoonerism, in which you reverse the initial consonant sounds in one phrase to make another phrase. For example, if you spoonerize "light rain," you get "right lane." Name part of a truck in two words; spoonerize it, and you'll name something FEMA uses. What is it?Remove the third letter from "something FEMA uses", swap the letters before and after it to describe an action that can result in disaster for some.
The answer to my mini-puzzle was "fold map"
A: MUD FLAP --> FLOOD MAP
Here's my standard reminder... don't post the answer or any hints that could lead directly to the answer (e.g. via a chain of thought, or an internet search) 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.
Blaine, I like your hint. I could invite you to a
Deletefriendly gathering a week from Friday,,,,
This week's deadline is Wednesday due to the holiday on the fourth. So, an extra day for open discussion, fireworks exploding...
DeleteEKW, we could break into a popular song at your gathering...
The patron saint of quality footwear immediately bopped into my head.
ReplyDeleteTry not to soil them!
DeleteBlaine, welcome baacck!
ReplyDeleteLMProf, hurlin' fusky?
I can foresee some folks getting into a tizzy over this one.
ReplyDeleteChuck
Of course, a truck's right flasher could become a serving of bacon on an airplane trip, a flight rasher...
I solved this right away, but I am reluctant to offer a hint as it is too easy to give the answer away.
ReplyDeleteAs I posted yesterday:
I posted a couple of days ago that because of Al's heads up about our upcoming puzzle being a Spoonerism I had made one up in case Will again decided to do a contest. Well, he didn't, and I'm grateful, so here is my Spoonerism:
What’s the difference between a pioneer family and an estate with a crazy gardener?
Answer:
One has a prairie schooner and the other has a scary pruner.
SDB, what's the difference between Fancy Feast and a large fragrant tree?
DeleteI have no idea. These kinds of jokes are made up from the punch line and then constructing the joke. Did you make up this joke yourself? I make up my own jokes and rarely use other people's jokes.
DeleteIt is my own.
DeleteWhat's the difference between Fancy Feast and a large fragrant tree?
One is a cat feeder and the other is a fat cedar.
It works.
DeleteSo, a young boy is looking through the family bible. A pressed leaf falls out & he holds it up to his parents and says "Look, mom and dad, I think I found Adam's underwear."
DeleteNo clue, just for grins ;-).
WW:
DeleteI am sure your story is gods truth, but I hope they sent the Holy Leaf (or is that lowly heaf?) to the Vatican for scientific scrutiny.
That story was a huge hit with the Farmer's Market crowd.
DeleteAbqGuerrilla, are you ever coming back to laugh at my jokes? ;-)
Maybe he's waiting for you to post some jokes.
DeleteSorry, but I could not stop myself because it is exactly the type of post you would have replied with had your post been by him, directed at you.
That being said, I am on your side. :-)
You, sdb, are right. How could you know me that well after only 6 months? ;-)
DeleteAnd, thanks for being on my side.
How could I not? It's not like you are scarce.
DeleteAn avian nectar-eater becomes a bunch of depressed cattle.
DeleteA depressed bovine becomes an ill-mannered FEMAle porker.
DeleteHummingbird and bumming herd. Internal spoonerism.
DeleteSad cow and a cad sow. They play on one another.
DeleteThat's good Zeke. A popular automotive show on NPR becomes something sticky and potentially deadly.
DeleteFerlin Husky
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle has me thinking of a Spinal Tap song.
ReplyDeleteCurtis, see Loop.
DeleteOui, c'est la musique.
ReplyDeleteGreat pick-up line: "Do you barth grooks?"
ReplyDeleteThat is not a proper Spoonerism. You are supposed to switch ALL the beginning consonants. So it would be Brarth Gooks.
DeleteSdb, next you will be critiquing my knifeisms and forkisms.
DeleteLet us not nonce words! ;-)
Reminds me of yesterday as I was walking around the neighborhood and suddenly there was a plastic fork some jerk had discarded in the road. I had no idea what I should do.
DeleteBrarth Gooks? I resemble that remark ;-)
DeleteI was going to redress that. :-)
DeleteHmmmmm, in the interest of avoiding offensive terms, I'll stick with barth grooks. I think he's been in Barthelona anyway, where the rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain. Yes, RoRo, from last week, doing lots?
DeleteDoesn't Gail Tate work for FEMA?
ReplyDeleteWhy, yes, Ward, she works at FEMA with her working dog, Chassis Lassie.
DeleteAnother hint for today: "O, Canada!"
Funny you should mention that, as I'm planning to defect to Canada for the 4th of July. Did you know that "Dominion Day" anagrams to "Midday Onion"? Or that Uncle Sam's first National Park was Yosemite?
DeleteJan, with obvious clues like that, you'd better defect to Canada ;-).
DeleteJan:
DeleteYellowstone National Park was established in 1872, becoming the first national park in the world as I understand it and Yosemite was established as a N.P. October 1, 1890.
O, Yellowstone! What a wondrous geologic hotspot! Although my kids' remark was "If you've seen one geyser, you've seen 'em all." Of all my visits there, winter was the most magical. More like the year the park opened and 300 visitors came the whole year!
DeleteThanks for the trip down lemory mane, sdb.
And, O, Canada! is a cleal rue.
Yes, and my kids like to say, "If you've seen one geezer, you've seen 'em all."
DeleteWW: You mean it was just a coincidence that your clue came on Canada Day? BTW, my wife, son, his wife & her parents were planning a winter trip to Yellowstone, but decided her new job wouldn't let daughter-in-law be so out-of-contact. Also, some question about whether the 6 of us should risk THAT much togetherness.
DeleteSDB: Yes, but the US ceded Yosemite to California as a park in 1864.
Oh, it's the best to be so out of contact for a week, to wake up to -30°F temps daily, and to cross-country ski every day to wondrous places like frozen Fairy Falls.
DeleteI knew it was Canada or Dominion Day. I was trying to be very clever about things Canadian making a three level jump to part of the answer. . .
Getting a little tired of these easy puzzles; there will probably be an overwhelming response.
ReplyDeleteThe solution came to me at the lead of spite and it isn't ghoul's fold.
ReplyDeleteRon, that clue deserves a pie right in the face.
ReplyDeleteTo each his own. Previous week's challenge: each/ache, now/own.
DeleteAccording to Wikipedia, the truck part is just one word. (Webster says it's two.)
ReplyDeleteWhen I gave this puzzle idea to Will I said it was something that Highway engineers use not FEMA. I was trying to tie the two ends of the puzzle together. Trucks & Highways.
ReplyDeleteWill has a will of his own!
DeleteAl, congratulations on having Will select your puzzle for the Challenge. May I wish you a crumper bomp of future ideas!
DeleteOr maybe a crumper bop. Or maybe just a plethora or an abundant harvest.
DeleteOr a Hale-Bopp or even a Bale Hopp of ideas ;-).
DeleteMaybe we might even venture toward a malapropism or two.
Are malapropisms the norm here?
DeleteNorm was let go last week, didn't you hear?
DeleteIt doesn't take a Stumper to make us Bicker.
DeleteOk, this is a bit of a stretch but I'm feeling limber.
DeleteWhat is the difference between NPR's Puzzle Master and beer mashes of one who deludes?
One is Will Shortz and the other is Shill Worts.
A delicious assortment from Planters becomes the sad fate of dogs that fail to get adopted from the pound.
DeleteMixed nuts and nixed mutts.
DeleteWell, despite all your "hints", I still have no idea what the answer is. This usually means I will react in one of two ways when the answer is revealed. 1) I will give myself a virtual "dope-slap" or 2) I will say "ahhh, now I understand why I didn't come up with the answer". We'll see.
ReplyDeletep.s. The only thing that comes to mind that FEMA uses are Staged News Conferences (but that's three words).
john brown, go with 1). It'll help.
ReplyDeleteI posted on Sun Jun 30, at 02:28:00 AM PDT on last week's thread:
ReplyDelete<quotation of puzzle snipped>
(Now this is not a clue, but I find it interesting that the spell checker on this blog does not recognize the word "spoonerize"!)
This is another one of those puzzles in which there will be some folks who solve this one in two seconds; -- and STILL be angry at themselves for not having solved it in less than one second.
SOME folks, however, might miss this one on account of not realizing an option they had at their disposal. As noted above, in a spoonerism, (Hmmm... the spell checker here did recognize "spoonerism") the initial consonant sounds are switched between the two words. What the stated puzzle does NOT say, however, is that one or both of the vowel sounds within the word(s) may be alternately spelled!
My issue with this puzzle is that the truck part is usually spelled as one word, not two (check parts distributor sites or the Wikipedia). M-W's 10th Collegiate doesn't list it at all.
ReplyDeleteOkay I now came up with a clue for both of you who have not solved this yet.
ReplyDeleteBanish Moy.
Musical Clue: The Meters.
ReplyDeleteHah! My musical clue beat yours by a whole minute. So there! :-)
DeletePlell wayed?
ReplyDeleteOh gosh, thanks. Mom made me practice for hours. She can be such a mask taster. A tricked starter.
DeleteWe could be witnessing the dawn of a new musical style, Blighters' Rock.
ReplyDelete"Baking carrot biscuits" for "Taking care of business," BTO. Favorite mondegreen.
DeleteYours? (Gronde Means accepted).
"There's a bathroom on the right," by CCR, was my Hurricane Sandy anthem, speaking of FEMA.
Delete"Bake Me a Pie of Love" is my favorite Winwood song.
DeleteI always mix up mondegreen and eggcorn.
Loop, Monde Corn (not Monsanto) and Green Eggs and Ham? I've always thought of eggcorns as accidental puns.
DeleteJan, good one. I guess we had our own OMG and LOL but ours were musical groups like CCR and BTO.
Juvenile as it may be, when I hear Dean Martin sing Sway, every time he repeats, "Other dancers may be on the floor..." I hear it as, "Other dancers may pee on the floor..." I always get a laugh from this and wonder if he was aware of this deviation.
DeleteI liked what Blaine wrote. (Or is that "Rain Bloat"?)
ReplyDeleteWhat you may have said about a cowgirl,
ReplyDelete"Gal had spurs"
Even though family members came up with the truck part, they had problems forming the spoonerism.
Even though you spoon fed them?
DeleteEvery donut tells a pcture story. Rod Stewart.
ReplyDeleteI really like that one, zeke, but I'm afraid donuts make my brown eyes blue.
DeleteYes!
DeleteEyed eclaire. Getting ready to turn over after listening to some Jelly Roll whilest lounging in my long johns. Wake me when it's time to get up and make the...
DeleteI got to the donut shop before dawn this morning and they hadn't made the donuts yet.
DeleteThey said I could have as many leftover crullers as I wanted for half price.
They called it an 'Early Bird Special'.
OK, that didn't really happen.
And, OK, I was eavesdropping on phredp and RoRo
I always thought the Crystal Gayle song should have been part of the Dune soundtrack.
DeleteGames without frontiers/Jeux sans frontierre.
ReplyDeleteOld friend sang "She's so popular", priceless and no correction necessary.
Three years ago, minus one month, when Will had his Spoonerism contest, I submitted the following one that I made up:
ReplyDeleteWhat’s the difference between Casper the Friendly Ghost and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? One is a curious spook and the other is a spurious kook.
Haunting.
ReplyDeleteFinally! I just had to figure out the rules of spooning (wait, that's something completely different). I was looking at the terms verbatim.
ReplyDeleteBut Phredp, vorms are for baiting
ReplyDeleteOnly if your waiting for birds
Delete"Worms: ter bait 'em" has become a melodious earworm, RoRo. So good.
DeleteHere in the land of 10000 lakes, the most popular romantic movie among fishermen (and women) is "The Boat Nook".
ReplyDeleteWhat's the difference between Will Shortz and someone who ministers to the spiritual needs of dogs?
ReplyDeleteOne is a Puzzle Master and the other is a Muzzle Pastor.
MUD FLAPS >>> FLOOD MAPS
DeleteGreat pick-up (truck) line: Do you barth grooks? Garth Brooks has a country song with mud flaps in the lyrics.
Barth Grooks in Barcelona where the rain in Spain stays mainly on the (flood) plain.
O, Canada! >>>maple syrup>>>pancakes>>>flap jacks>>>flaps>>>mud flaps.
Pie right (pyrite) in the face.
"Poker Face" ~~You gotta know when to fold 'em!
I was sure you were referring to the recent floods in Calgary!
DeleteNo, I hadn't heard about those floods, Jan. CO has its hands full with fires and ensuing run-off issues here.
DeleteI live just outside the 100- year flood plain so the flood maps part came to me first.
mud flap/flud (flood) map
ReplyDeletemy clues: last week re-"rainey day," & re-don't "soil shoes."
MUD FLAPS > FLOOD MAPS
ReplyDeleteMy Hint:
"Okay I now came up with a clue for both of you who have not solved this yet. Banish Moy."
Muddy Waters is known for his rock song "Mannish Boy." This Spoonerizes into Banish Moy. I didn't want to make it too obvious.
mud flap, flood map
ReplyDeleteLast Monday I said, “I can foresee some folks getting into a tizzy over this one.” Tizzy – like flap :) They won’t like changing the vowel from “u” to “oo.”
Chuck
No one should have a problem with letter changes in a Spoonerism. It is all about the sounds of the two words.
DeleteThe 'excellent' football game I had in mind was Super Bowl XL.
ReplyDeleteNot the game, really, but the Honda Ridgeline commercial.
Jan apparently thought along similar lines.
I thought of mentioning my favorite artist, James Taylor, and Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon.
Delete> The agency's initials suggest, initially, a common adornment.
ReplyDeleteFEMAle nudes.
> Or that Uncle Sam's first National Park was Yosemite?
Back Off!
It is true that when you know the answer, some clues seem overly obvious. John Brown, did Jan's clue help at all? Yosemite Sam sure was yelling "Back Off!" at me.
ReplyDeleteI finally figured out the answer sometime Monday evening. Unfortunately, none of the hints made sense until after I had solved it, and none of them helped me find the answer. As usual, most hints still didn't make sense until they're explained. Still don't understand Pyrite/fool's gold hint.
DeleteI was riffing off Ron's clue which I thought was riffing off Blaine's clue about knowing when to fold 'em in poker. . .Just another Spoonerism.
DeleteHappy 4th, all! Jan, it will be good to hear what it's like defecting to Canada for the 4th.
Quiet. Exchanged wishes for a happy Independence Day and belated happy Canada Day with several Torontonians. Lots of walking around the big city, nice lunch in Chinatown, nice dinner and (meh) Fringe Festival theatre. But it's no Vancouver.
DeleteSo you live in New Jersey and you have been to Vancouver, Canada? And did you know the original/first city of Vancouver is Vancouver, WA? It is at the far South of Washington on the Columbia River where it crosses into Portland, Oregon. Captain Vancouver established it and then later on moved up North and established Vancouver, Canada.
DeleteLittle known fact: While ours here in Washington is the first city of Vancouver, the Vancouver in Canada is actually the oldest. Can you guess how that can possibly be?
A town in Kentucky, or Ohio, becomes a threatening legume.
DeleteDat's a mean bean, Woody.
DeleteI didn't bocci that one up.
DeleteThanks for the Canadian scoop, Jan. Hope you found something to put maple syrup on. For east coast Canada, I like PEI and Montreal.
DeleteSdb, since Vancouver, B.C. is B.C. (Before Christ), of course it's older than Vancouver, WA. ;-)
Word Woman:
DeleteCORRECT!
I run into tourists from Vancouver, B.C. here in Seattle frequently and find most of them ignorant of our Vancouver. I like to inform them of the history and while doing this several years ago I came up with that nonsense. They never figure it out on their own, but love the punch line when it is delivered.
Of course I also have met several Canadians who are visiting here who are completely ignorant of who their Prime Minister is. It always astonishes me when I meet these people who seem educated on the surface.
DeleteBowling Green and growling bean.
DeleteSkyDiveBoy, it's a wee bit scary that we are thinking on the same wavelength. As to the prime minister of Canada, will you continue to harp on that question?
DeleteI had a great trip in college from my friend's house in Coos Bay, OR, through Sequim ( pronounced Squim) to Vancouver, WA, and Victoria. Quite gorgeous.
That's Victoria, B.C, though went in A.D.;-)
DeleteWhile you were in Coos Bay I was enjoying a drink in Boos Cay.
DeleteI was wondering about your itinerary. Yes, people like it here, but you really can't beat Kansas.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteMany. My favorite being a month driving a new rental car all over Spain and Portugal—my second favorite country (Spain, not Portugal).
DeleteOui c'est la musique.
ReplyDeleteYes music clue
The album Topographic Oceans
diminutive character void of the truth
lying runt
running light
not a true spoonerism, but funny.
what houses that FEMA inspects look like.
More flat
floor mat
I posted on Mon Jul 01, at 05:28:00 PM PDT a long post which included the following:
ReplyDeleteSOME folks, however, might miss this one on account of not realizing an option they had at their disposal. As noted above, in a spoonerism, ... the initial consonant sounds are switched between the two words. What the stated puzzle does NOT say, however, is that one or both of the vowel sounds within the word(s) may be alternately spelled!
In MUD FLAPS ==> FLOOD MAPS, the U sound in MUD is now spelled as OO in FLOOD.
My post Sunday morning included "consternation" or a flap, and the assurance that further posts would be "clear as usual", i.e. clear as mud!
ReplyDelete"Tired" of easy puzzles referred to the tires by the mud flap. "Overwhelming response" referred to flood. "Blaine wrote" spoonerized to "rain bloat" also referred to flood.
ReplyDeleteToward the end of last week's blog, I wrote:
ReplyDelete"Name part of a truck in two words; spoonerize it, and you'll name something a male might give to a FEMAle. What is it?"
Gear Shift / Sheer Gift
Or, David, if she was into gardening/pruning (scary or not), it could be a Shear Gift. ;-)
DeleteThe new puzzle is up:
ReplyDeleteNext week's challenge: Rearrange the letters of INDIA + BELARUS to name two other countries. What are they?
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Ok, what I post this Thursday won't look quite as nice as this post above, but it shouldn't look too bad.
I just wanted to see if the grid below fits. Unfortunately, I have to post this just to see if indeed it DOES FIT.
ReplyDelete──┬──┬──┬──┬──┬──+──┬──┬──┬──┬──┬──┬──┬──
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