NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 25, 2013): Open for Business: Q: Think of a business that's found in most towns. Its name consists of two words, each starting with a consonant. Interchange the consonants and you'll get two new words — neither of which rhymes with the original words. What business is it?Checking with my dictionary, I can confirm the words don't rhyme. That goes double for last week's answer.
Edit: My hints: The words "Checking with" start with the same letters as the answer. Doubling 38 from last week you get 76 which is the name of a gas station (which may also have a car wash) and is the year the movie Car Wash was released.
A: CAR WASH --> WAR and CASH
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.
This Week's Challenge is relatively easy.
ReplyDeleteThe initial letters of this “Week's Challenge” uses the 2 consonants, W&C, of the answer CAR WASH. In addition, the letters, “sCha” anagram to CASH. The missing letters, A&R, of “WAR” are found in the word: RELATIVELY.
DeleteAre we being hosed? Read it carefully.
ReplyDeleteCan't hardly have the blues over a puzzle this easy.
ReplyDeleteA business. A song. A movie.
ReplyDeleteChuck
Some prior restraint may be needed here.
DeleteAu contraire, Monsieur Johnson. I have the mini blues when I don't have to put pen to paper to figure it out. And when they are this easy, giving a clue seems superfluous.
ReplyDeleteOut to enjoy our great Colorado day!
Did I forget to mention it's also a book?
ReplyDeleteChuck
And the words with the swapped first letters are in a book title too.
DeleteThat clue left me cold.
DeletePerhaps you need to take an Asprin.
DeleteI was going to say something about taking Less Aspirin, but found myself circling back in time to the puzzle answer again!
DeleteLeth Mab?
ReplyDeleteLeth Mab? That's funny. Speaking of labs, I've become addicted to Breaking Bad and have been watching them non-stop on Netflix all weekend. Could tie in with this weeks puzzle (what rhymes with druglords?)
DeleteNear the end of last week's thread, I posted on Sun Aug 25, at 04:53:00 AM PDT:
ReplyDeleteTo those who might wonder "Any relationship between the new words to the original words, or to each other?":
I don't think one would feel <2nd new word> if he or she were to find him or herself unexpectedly in the midst of a <1st new word>.
and jan replied on Sun Aug 25, at 05:27:00 AM PDT:
I've got an answer that doesn't fit in your sentence.
Jan:
I believe I've figured out your answer and upon reflection, I think your's is the expected answer; but I'm sure that the answer I submitted will be considered an acceptable alternate.
I now have thought of the following relationships with your words and mine:
President Eisenhower once warned us about something that wants to make a lot of <Jan's 1st new word> <Jan's 2nd new word>.
A <my 1st new word> could be a cause of, or a result of <Jan's 1st new word>.
<Jan's 2nd new word> could be put in a <my 2nd new word>.
In 1951 Seattle had the first one of these in Washington State and I suppose you could say they were truncated.
ReplyDeletePretty good memory!
DeletePer Wikipedia, then, Seattle was not in the vanguard on this, by a decade or two. But this may be giving too much away. (Hint: it's not a blacksmith shop, nor an Internet cafe.)
DeleteSo, Mike H., did you used to live in Seattle and work for the Times?
DeleteSDB, speaking of firsts, does Seattle still have the pink toe truck?
DeleteYes, and it is now in the Museum of History and Industry in it's new location at the South end of Lake Union.
Deleteseattletimes.com/html/localnews/2002175953_toetruck10m.html
did you say pink elephants? oh that was probably the hard ice tea I drank earlier.
DeleteRoRo:
DeleteYou might want to wait until Thursday for me to answer that question.
Never lived in Seattle, but thought the "memory" play on elephant would slip through without being too obvious...while perhaps also sounding like an unintentional ageist jab (as is the NPR puzzle stereotype)!
DeleteAbout $1,000,000,000,000, for the US.
ReplyDeleteShockingly appalling. Or appallingly shocking.
DeleteI am also ready to report that every little town in South Dakota & Wyoming has a Rubway Sestaurant. October Break to the Black Hills and Devil's Tower confirmed this info. I am not a fan but my kids are.
Subway sandwiches are beneath me.
DeleteHa ha...my daughter saw lots of horned critters enroute: "Oh, mom, look, this is where the deer and the antelope play."
DeleteGuess you had to be there.
"Oh, Give Me a Home Where the Buffalo Roam" and I'll show you a dirty house!
DeleteI think I just heard a discouraging word!
DeleteIt was probably just rumbling in the herd. We could convene a hearing I suppose.
DeleteYour musings reminded me of her additional question: "What were the deer and the antelope playing? Poker?"
DeleteLike mother, like daughter. :-)
After raving about Mount Rushmore for hundreds of miles we arrived to the monument to find it completely, utterly enveloped in fog. No faces that day, except the kids' rolling eye ones.
Good times.
In an ideal world: if you wanted to come up with the second pair of words you would have to hold a(n) [insert first pair of words]. Blaine might bleep this.
DeleteUncle John, I really liked your bumper sticker-inspired clue. Heading off for the local school bake sale next!
DeleteYou're gr8, WW!
DeleteThe betting money here says that most have a fighting chance of solving this one.
ReplyDeleteBtw, not sure "most towns" have this.
I agree and do not think they are found in most towns.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteCute, Charles, but we will have to deduct points for cribbing. :)
DeleteTMI, Charles.
DeleteIt's odd that even this year, my town restricts these.
DeleteIn Uncle John's hometown it is doggies too. Ian Fleming had a fascination of the second set.
DeleteWow, ZC, beat me to the punch. I'm surprised El Blano has permitted your hint! I might add that the business SUCKS!
DeleteThe structure of the answer made me wonder if Will is planning an on-air challenge where the answers are words that have the same "stem" but different beginning consonant sounds and don't rhyme. These could form some interesting two word phrases. For instance, to bake bread you need to first POUR FLOUR. A person who transfers birds that coo MOVES DOVES. An inlet where romantic couples frequent is a LOVE COVE, etc.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't we see how many of these we can come up with? It's certainly more challenging than coming up with the answer to Will's challenge.
Shakespearean two who do: BOTH DOTH
DeleteReminds me of a prior NPR puzzle:
DeleteI'm not a Poet.
Live & thrive.
DeleteYour, Sour.
DeleteBete, Mete.
Cord, Word (Woman) ;-)
Fête, Pete.
DeleteCome Home.
Phone None.
Zone Done.
Tête, Mete.
My Tone Done Gone!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
Deletesaid raid
Deletegreat beat
height weight
tough bough
bear rear
dead bead
mow cow
The threat is no great treat.
Deleteoh, and
Deletewere here
lint pint
We were here, not there.
Deletetough cough bough
DeleteDetails, details. Dough, lough not yet included:
DeleteA new word for me, fough, was fun, urban, and crude - not sure of pronunciation.
Because he had only 5 minutes before closing the tailor could only SEW FEW garments.
ReplyDeleteThe hog farmer fed his female to make his SOW GROW.
With all the government subsidies, there may soon be a wind farm in every town.
ReplyDeleteBlow how?
DeleteBesides "in the" and "Gone with the?"
The answer, my friend, is ...
Friend, Fiend.
so I wound up with a wound when I tried to wind my watch in a wind storm. I now have a mind wind and a sound wound.
DeleteNo government subsides needed for a WORM FARM. Don't most towns have this business?
DeleteNo, but the worms need to sign a worm form before they can participate.
DeleteYou meant a warm worm form, of course.
DeleteI have no qualm about the calm before the storm if the worms work the fork lift at the warm farm
DeleteRuth's truth: I wax nostalgic every time I hear the song named after this business.
ReplyDeleteEvery time I need this business I have a hard time seeing it.
ReplyDeleteI do too makes me almost want to go into business for myself
DeletePardon my obtuseness, is it a proper name (e.g. Home Depot) or a generic name for a TYPE of business (e.g. barber shop?
ReplyDeleteThanks!
A generic name, definitely.
DeleteThe answer which I submitted (which I'm still hoping will be considered an acceptable alternate), was also a generic name for a TYPE of business.
(See my post above for clues to my alternate solution.)
Thank you for replying,Enya. I was thinking Pizza Hut may work, although "Hizza" is a slang obscure term.
DeleteWork Dork
ReplyDeleteSword word
Broad Road
Wind Bind
It's a generic type of business, Harvey.
ReplyDeleteThank you sir for replying. See above.
DeleteI hope this will not come as a shock to blog readers here, but I listen to NPR Radio daily. (I know, I know, I should have warned you to sit down prior to reading this.)
ReplyDeleteAnyway a segment just finished on All Things Inconsiderate describing Base Jumping with Wing Suits and how extremely dangerous it is and how many have died doing it. Prior to this segment, my local station, in their teaser, stated that these people jump and land without parachutes. I just got off the phone with their news room after correcting this stupid and totally false statement. I am posting this here in case other listeners were also misled by their respective stations. The ignorance regarding skydiving (and this is NOT skydiving) is rampant and I try to rectify this when I encounter it.
The answer isn't a vague "some tower," but a real business that yields words less obscure than "tome" and "sower." That was my first, pitiable, solution, but then I closed my eyes and pretended to drive down Main Street. I'm a baby boomer--like many on this webpage,--so the funeral home and nursing home evoked memories and momentarily detoured my thought experiment. "Nursing home," is not the answer, but I had to share the unsuccessful result with my late mother in my reverie. I explained that a "hearsing gnome" had driven her from nursing to funeral home. It's been a couple of years, but she still loved the wordplay. I explained that spoonerisms are fun, but the challenge this week is a sort of pseudo-quasi-eye-rhyme spoonerism. She didn't get it any more than she got Facebook. I thanked her for bestowing my love of wordplay and knew it was time to leave.
ReplyDeleteThe traffic on Main Street was now too real too ignore. I was stuck in traffic and stuck wishing that I had started this thought experiment an hour earlier. (I'm no Einstein when it comes to thought experiments.) Then I remembered that gravity can be nullified by bending space-time. After unbuckling and gently applying the necessary environmental tweak, I pushed off at an angle that would cover most of Main Street, although I couldn't quite see the businesses at the bend where it crosses Whetstone Brook. I didn't worry, because thought experiments are the most generous rides. The next one is always going my direction. Look! Food coop. No, that's another puzzle for another day to go along with anti-eye-rhymes like toe shoe. Candy store. No, initial consonant clusters are plainly not allowed in this puzzle. Sports bar. Same problem. Mexican restaurant. If that worked, it would be the best word puzzle ever. This null-gravity trajectory is fun now, although I worry that my tangential, non-orbital path means oxygen starvation after a while. I'm floating past the hospital. Here's a puzzle: When is "ity" a painfully ironic suffix? Now I see the historic marker about the parlor organ factory. I love music, but, unlike local people a century ago, I have no urge to show off my organ in the parlor. Across the street! There it is! Yes, Will was right about "most towns," at least in America. I did it. Now I just need to re-warp space-time and get back home. Oh, misfortune. (Please excuse my polysyllabic language.) I have no idea how to re-warp space-time. Please tell my wife that I'm on a happy trajectory, doing something I love.
Dan, Do you hear the sound of my one hand clapping?
DeleteKoan, you can do it!
Deletevillage usurer
Deletepart of evil syndicate
will never get smart
I am 75% involved in this week's puzzle.
ReplyDeleteWard,
DeleteThat’s more than Wally and the Beav can say, and June just has no clue apparently.
Dan,
Enjoyed your dreamily creamy stream of “astronishing” (that is, starstruck) consciousness. Like Thor with his lightning bolt, you are attuned to the sound of one thunder clapping. But that “something in the air” is no thunderstorm. According to an old, unrandy new man, it’s a revolution, so it must be a tornado/cyclone, Toto, and I don’t think you’re in Africa anymore either. (Riddle: What does one call skivvies worn by people with too-thick thighs? Thunderwear!)
Per your Riddle, Dan: ironic “ity” suffix? Hospital(ity), of course, but maybe also personal(ity).
Incidentally:
Foods served in hospitality rooms: prawns, lobster, crab legs, caviar, brie cheese, pistachios, cashews (gesundheit!), champagne…
Foods served in hospital rooms: dry toast, gruel, applesauce, string beans, Jell-o, juice boxes, Tater-Tots, Tang…
Agree with you that Will’s wording of this week’s puzzle probably disallows initial multiple consonants, except arguably for word pairs such as “cherry shop” (sherry chop) or “prawn dealer” (drawn pealer).
If multiple consonants were indeed allowed (in the way that, say, that “worm store” transforms to “storm wore,” alas with the store/wore aural rhyme intact), there is a business frequented by teens during the young-Elvis era. It generates new words, also alas with only one aural rhyme intact, that constitute two-thirds of a terse Eleventh Commandment suggesting cleanliness really is next to Godliness.
Lego…
Lego, enjoyed some (if not all) of your tome.
DeleteWard, put me down for 75 % also, for completeness.
There is a new venture in Silver Plume, CO, that sells bread from an honor box during the week and bitters on the weekend (Bread Bar). From Bitters Store to Sitter's Bore waiting for the bread to rise? With a little of Will's Grace ;-)
Regarding the Eleventh Commandment, from above (no, not the heavenly above):
Delete"Malt SHop" becomes "(Thou) SHalt Mop."
WW,
I appreciate your comments and incisive, objective critiques. Like many on this blog, I suspect, I am feedback-needy.
Lego...
Feedback-needy, legolambda, that brings me back...to my first Sunday on Blaine's World in January. Boldface truth ;-). How about you?
DeleteI'm not a sports fan, but could this week's puzzle be tied in to recent ESPN doings?
ReplyDeleteGiven recent headlines, is Will Shortz pre$cient?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteCAR WASH >>> WAR CASH
ReplyDeleteMini blues and superflu(id)ous were both nods toward water used in a car wash.
Hoping Will brings out the good stuff for Labor Day Weekend.
CAR WASH > WAR CASH
ReplyDeleteMy Hint:
"In 1951 Seattle had the first one of these in Washington State and I suppose you could say they were truncated."
The first automatic car wash in Washington State started with their initial location here in Seattle and is named Elephant Car Wash and sports a large sign that is a pink elephant, which accounts for my "truncated" reference.
www.elephantcarwash.com/about-elephant-car-wash-seattle-wa/car-wash-history
hardware--my hint re-"hosed."
ReplyDeletecar wash, war, cash
ReplyDeleteA business. A song. A movie. A book.
Chuck
> Some prior restraint may be needed here.
ReplyDeleteRichard Pryor was in the movie.
> I was going to say something about taking Less Aspirin, but found myself circling back in time to the puzzle answer again!
Les Aspin was Clinton's Defense Secretary, i.e., in charge of WAR CASH.
> About $1,000,000,000,000, for the US.
Total annual military spending, i.e., WAR CASH.
> It's odd that even this year, my town restricts these.
It's been wet, but you can still only WASH your CAR on odd or even days, depending on your license plate.
> I'm not a sports fan, but could this week's puzzle be tied in to recent ESPN doings?
Why do they call it The Coaches' CAR WASH?
I posted on Sun Aug 25, 01:20:00 PM PDT:
ReplyDeleteNear the end of last week's thread, I posted on Sun Aug 25, at 04:53:00 AM PDT:
To those who might wonder "Any relationship between the new words to the original words, or to each other?":
I don't think one would feel <2nd new word> if he or she were to find him or herself unexpectedly in the midst of a <1st new word>.
and jan replied on Sun Aug 25, at 05:27:00 AM PDT:
I've got an answer that doesn't fit in your sentence.
Jan:
I believe I've figured out your answer and upon reflection, I think your's is the expected answer; but I'm sure that the answer I submitted will be considered an acceptable alternate.
I now have thought of the following relationships with your words and mine:
President Eisenhower once warned us about something that wants to make a lot of <Jan's 1st new word> <Jan's 2nd new word>.
A <my 1st new word> could be a cause of, or a result of <Jan's 1st new word>.
<Jan's 2nd new word> could be put in a <my 2nd new word>.
The intended answer is CAR WASH (WAR & CASH)
My alternate answer is SOUP CAFE (COUP & SAFE)
I don't think one would feel <safe> if he or she were to find him or herself unexpectedly in the midst of a <coup>.
President Eisenhower once warned us about the military industrial complex wants to make a lot of <war> <cash>.
A <coup> could be a cause of, or a result of <war>.
<Cash> could be put in a <safe>.
in Yellow Springs, Ohio there is a combination car wash dog wash. Ian Fleming and his James Bond thing correlates to war cash/bonds.
ReplyDeleteHey Zeke. Let's meet at Young's some time.
DeleteI don't know why I bother to play the puzzler. I apparently got the call today, but missed it because my phone way away from my body on the charger.
ReplyDeleteCurses, foiled again, Curtis.
DeleteMy clue: "The betting money here says that most have a fighting chance of solving this one." referred to cash and war.
ReplyDeleteMy thanks to SDB for this week's give away clue. I had no idea what the answer was, but when I typed "1951 Seattle" in the Google search bar, one of the things that popped up was a photo of the Pink Elephant Car Wash sign. The response that mentioned "pink elephants" was just overkill.
ReplyDeleteI would have said something earlier, but it's been my experience that posters can be recalcitrant when asked to remove an obvious clue.
Just saying...
I am glad you posted this comment because I thought I had an iron clad clue that would not be decryptable. Had I known I would not have given the year and had you said something earlier I would have deleted the post, but it might have been difficult for you to find a way to inform me without another giveaway. I do try to make my hints almost impossible to figure out unless you have already solved the puzzle. Maybe you were just clever to actually Google 1951 Seattle. I am very surprised that worked. Oh well.
DeleteFunny, I already had the answer but just for the heck I also googled Seattle 1951 but did not see the carwash til I included car wash in the google. That's why I thought it was safe to joke with SDB about seeing pink elephants. As for my reply to Cactus about having a hard time seeing the business, I have a white car and I have not felt the car wash did an adequate job (besides tearing my magnetic presidential candidate sticker off (there should be a warning sign) So when I said go into business for myself I meant I could do a better job myself by hand
ReplyDeleteYeah, I just now tried Googling Seattle 1951 and got nothing about car wash or pink elephants. I wonder just how many of those numbers at the bottom of the Google page john brown clicked on to get there. Maybe I won't take those cyanide pills tonight after all. Another glass of wine perhaps instead.
DeleteGoogle Seattle 1951 but choose "Images" rather than "Web" before you search. It's there in all it's purdy pink glory, RoRo and skydiveboy.
DeleteGoogle "1951 Seattle," then click on "Images for 1951 seattle." Scroll own TEN lines of photos et voilà your picture of Elephant Super Car Wash: https://www.google.com/search?q=1951+seattle&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS239&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=vx8iUrbcMeahiQKkjoCwCQ&ved=0CDsQsAQ&biw=1130&bih=674#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=_EVwCaVpQh5qOM%3A%3BImKbf-Vn2cyEtM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fcdn.c.photoshelter.com%252Fimg-get%252FI0000a.O3sVrrn9w%252Fs%252F750%252F750%252F20130503SEA-2548.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fjoelrogers.photoshelter.com%252Fimage%252FI0000a.O3sVrrn9w%3B500%3B750
DeleteWW:
DeleteTook your advice and I had to go all the way to page 6 and way down that page before it came up. I suspect everyone does not get the same when we Google. Maybe when I Googled they didn't have enough trunk space.
On the first page of some google searches, the 2nd item is a set of 5, apparantly random, images. It was titled, in this case "Images for 1951 Seattle". In my case, the 4th one was the elephant car wash image. Sorry for the hasty accusation. (Now when you enter "seattle pink elephant", that's a whole other story.)
DeleteI agree, and want to point out that I did not use the words, pink or elephant in my post, but RoRo did in her response. I still think my hint was very obscure and you were just clever in using it to solve the puzzle, but if we keep harping on this you may miss your appointment at the ferry. :)
DeleteSDB, my googling produced a lovely, large ele font. ;-)
DeleteYes, according to scriptures, at a car wash one must go with the flow. Otherwise it could be a drain. Now, let us spray.
Delete...the squat pen rests...SH
ReplyDeleteNew puzzle just came up and I already passed the test and submitted my answer.
ReplyDelete"Next week's challenge from listener Henry Hook of Brooklyn, N.Y.: Think of a well-known celebrity who goes by a single name — the last two letters of which are alphabetically separated by only one letter (like A and C, or B and D). Replace this pair of letters with the one that separates them, and you'll have a common, everyday word. What is it?"
ReplyDeleteUgh. Now think of a celebrity whose name sounds like two letters alphabetically separated by 15 letters.
It's sad and creepy how easy these "puzzles" have become.
No more Ivy League puzzles, Jan.
DeleteThis is interesting, I have some old school style.
ReplyDeletehttp://exuberantindia.com/?p=193
I know so little about celebrities and pop culture that this is way too hard for me to think of myself, yet it is easily researched - which I have done so it doesn't bother me all week.
ReplyDeleteNothing to do with the right answer, but if you are a fan of Weird Al you would not have to go to the enz of the Earth to find a cute but totally twice-wrong answer!
Don't have a clue, either.
DeleteThink patriotism!
ReplyDeleteSome of these puzzles leave me breathless.
ReplyDeleteI think I'll change my name to Word.
ReplyDeleteOff to shop for an appropriate bit of memorabilia.
Some of the entertainment shows might mention the celebrity's name just in time for many to beat the deadline!
ReplyDelete