Q: Think of a word starting with T. Drop the T, and phonetically you'll get a new word that's a synonym of the first one. What words are these?My apologies to all for not posting the puzzle on Sunday. I never finished solving the puzzle and therefore forgot to put up a post.
A: TWIRL and WHIRL
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You may provide indirect hints to the answer to show you know it, but make sure they don't assist with solving. You can openly discuss your hints and the answer after the deadline. Thank you.
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.
There's trouble in the rubble of this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Probably not the intended answer!
DeleteToo easy or too difficult? I thought of two possible answers, but neither seems worthy of Sunday Challenge status. (No hints herein.)
ReplyDeleteYou say that about clueing, Bob K. And yet, I never believe it.
DeleteGlad all is well, Blaine.
I found a pair though they seem too esoteric (T with 3 more letters). Thinking they have to be verbs?
DeleteThink more seasonal, maybe.
DeleteI tried that. Turkey Lurkey won't do it.
DeleteNice clue, WW.
DeleteThanks, Paul. It fits well with the company I hope to be keeping soon. . .
DeleteI am pretty confident there is an answer that anyone would feel comfortable with - common words, synonyms are unambiguous.
ReplyDeleteAs noted in last week's thread, with the answer I have you can change the "t" to another letter and get another synonym. You can also change the first sound in the non-t word to another sound, and get yet another synonym.
Musical hint: Duane Eddy
An easier puzzle on the same lines: Take the name of a college/ university, remove the first letter and the result will be the name of a well-known city.
eco.. brilliant, absolutely brilliant clues. Love your Musical Hint, went to his songs, but alas, you are too clever. Learned much in the meantime. And benmar's seasonal... a bit tricky. When both of your clues fit, I knew I found it. Absolutely brilliant. After the answers, I'll post my two rejects... one quite funny-- amazing how I tried to bend them to fit. Thanks all for your support!
DeleteTo repeat what I said yesterday, I have an answer. I don’t like it all that much, but it’s the only one I have so I went with it. I think the puzzle clue could have been worded better.
ReplyDeleteChuck
Well I refused to spend my time going over lists, but I did occasionally think about the answer. I just now finished submitting a solution that I am not fully comfortable with, but really like a lot. More tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteThe answer hit me while I was sitting at the bar, and I fell off my stool. There may be other answers that fit, but I believe the one I came up with is the intended.
ReplyDeleteEven our dog Carina became obsessed with this puzzle. During our walks, she ughed at her leash and sniffed the rash but didn't get into any serious rubble. Back home, she wagged her ale expecting a REIT for being a well-reigned dog.
ReplyDeleteI had to look up REIT; can't imagine why Carina would want such a thing. But, keeping to the same train of thought (while reining in my prejudices):
Delete1) Are some (not all) traders raiders?
2) Is it possible to turn a profit without earning one? How about vice versa?
I've been reading up on a card game that I've never played, trying to figure out if a hand full of diamonds would be good or bad. So far I think I've determined that winning tricks is good (which is not always the case in some card games).
ReplyDeleteI now think that if you remove the first letter from the correct spelling of the second synonym and try to pronounce what's left you'll have a word describing what a certain young lady recently proved herself exceptionally able to do ... [and also describing what I may have to do any minute now (hint: remove the first letter from Duane)]
TYRANNY > IRONY
ReplyDeleteI came up with this possible answer last night, but I do not believe it is the intended answer. I refused to waste my time going over lists on this one and only thought about it occasionally. I could not handle the tedium required to solve this one.
I cite the late author, David Foster Wallace, who wrote:
“[I]rony tyrannizes us. The reason why our pervasive cultural irony is so powerful and so unsatisfying is that an ironist is impossible to pin down. All U.S. irony is based on an implicit “I don’t really mean what I’m saying.” So what does irony as a cultural norm mean to say? That it’s impossible to mean what you say? That maybe it’s too bad it’s impossible, but wake up and smell the coffee already? Most likely, I think, today’s irony ends up saying: “How totally banal of you to ask what I really mean.” Anyone with the heretical gall to ask an ironist what he actually stands for ends up looking like an hysteric or a prig. And herein lies the oppressiveness of institutionalized irony, the too-successful rebel: the ability to interdict the question without attending to its subject is, when exercised, tyranny. It is the new junta, using the very tool that exposed its enemy to insulate itself.”
- “E Unibus Pluram,” A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, (New York: Little Brown, 1997), 67-68.
-the ability to interdict the question without attending to its subject is, when exercised, tyranny---David Foster Wallace
DeleteI may memorize that. Thanks, sdb, very good stuff.
Now, as for your puzzle solving this week -- I'd pronounce YRANNY two or three other ways before I'd pronounce it that way (on the other hand, why would I ever want to pronounce YRANNY?), but you seem to have your priorities straight. (grin)
Paul,
DeleteI agree with you and would not initially pronounce YRANNY as IRONY either, and I knew this was not going to be the intended answer, but I kinda like it and thought it was worth a posting. I had other potential answers that I also did not think would work, such as TROUBLE > RUBBLE and TWAS > WAS. It was obvious that TWAS did not qualify because WAS is not a homophone. I do not enjoy this kind of puzzle and I find nothing satisfying in solving this type..(grin & frown)
TWIRL WHIRL
ReplyDeleteThanks to Ecoarchitect's whizzer clue, I was able to solve before the 3 PM deadline. About seven minutes before.
twirl, wirl (whirl)
ReplyDeleteLast Tuesday I said, “I have an answer. I don’t like it all that much, but it’s the only one I have so I went with it. I think the puzzle clue could have been worded better.” Since “wirl” is not a word, I think the puzzle clue should have been written as:
Think of a word starting with T. Drop the T and what’s left will phonetically be a synonym of the word starting with T.
My two cents.
Chuck
TWIRL, a blend of twist & whirl.
ReplyDeleteWHIRL
Change the “T” to an “S” to yield SWIRL, another synonym. Change the initial sound to another sound to yield another synonym, CURL/WHORL.
Remove the "O" from OBERLIN (College) to obtain that "well-known city," BERLIN.
Ron got every part that I had clued. I also note that "furl" is another synonym in the hurly-burly.
DeleteApologies to any who went through Duane Eddy's bio to try and find the answer, of course eddy is another synonym. I thought long and hard about Duane vs Nelson....
ecoarchitect:
DeleteAnd I'm sure 'twangy' never crossed your mind, during the Duane/Nelson deliberations.
I figured Will Shortz would not use WANG as a puzzle answer.
DeleteIf I ever meet Connie Chung, the first words out of my mouth will be "Does chung mean perfect, or does chung mean pitch?"
DeleteHave fun tonight, skydiveboy!
I did think about Eddy Arnold as a musical hint, and he could out-twang both of them.
DeleteIn last week's thread I mentioned a musical connection to a previous puzzle: the discussion of Elon Musk turned to Muskrat Love, which has the line "And they whirl and they twirl and they tango"
eco, I thought it was Muskrat Love lyrics. Though I was surprised to see it again since the first go-round received such distain. . .
DeleteOther posts I considered (but decided to go more suttle (sic) with the Nautilus image):
Baton Rouge, LA
Baton twirling in some clever reference I did not actually come up with.
Appliance Clue: (Whirlpool)
Rumi
WW
WW, too bad you couldn't think of a good spin to include Baton Rouge, would have made my top 10 clues of the year.
DeleteAnd your nautilus image reminds me of the stairs in the towers of Antonio Gaudi's Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona.
http://www.chocolate-fish.net/album_173__img_150#view.
I have a similar slide (back before digital cameras), and I remember some very large German tourists insisting that I pass on the inside as they were coming down and I was going up. Note the lack of guardrail, it's a very long drop.
eco, thanks. It's been a pretty busy week. I am >< close to a new job, my son is visiting before his trip to Canada, and driving 2300 miles in 4 days threw off my clueing rhythm. Tonight we are getting snow so had to bring in all the crops, too.
DeleteGreat photo. I too was awed by this Nautilus staircase when I was in Spain in the late 70's. It may have been the first time I learned about the Golden Spiral. . .
eco,
DeleteOkay, I too have been to the gaudy (just kidding) Gaudy spires that aspire to be finished someday. I was killing time after buying my ticket for the corrida that evening and it is just a couple of long blocks up. But more to the point, eco, I believe I am far more Familia with "a very long drop." I'm just saying. :-)
sdb,
DeleteI wouldn't want to shoot that chute, even with a 'chute.
Shoot, eco, nor would I! I would like to be back in Barcelona though.
DeleteAfter toying with "twerk --> work (it)", I got into the "tw" groove and came up with "twirl --> whirl"
ReplyDeleteI never made the connection but submitted twerk as a joke cuz I was so trusfrated at not having the answer. I considered turnover and urn over but that was 2 words. I also considered transit for all the times I took the NY subway and had to run to get a seat but also 2 words.
Delete2 words. Reminding us we're all human. You always have the answer, RoRo -- ev ... especially when you don't.
DeleteRoRo, as I read your comment, my mind jumped ahead to where I thought you were going . . . but you weren't, namely TRANSIT - T = RANSIT homophones (poorly) to RANCID, describing conditions on the NYC subway in hot summer!
DeleteTWIRL WHIRL
ReplyDeleteWell, it has been a bit of a whirling, twirling week.
(see my newly-changed avatar this week)
DeleteThe two possibilities I was thinking of were TWIRL - WHIRL and TURN - EARN. ("To turn a buck" gets about 40,000 Google hits, so I think that is a fair answer.)
ReplyDeleteBut I truly wasn't thrilled with either.
And, WW, sometimes when I say there are no hints hidden in my comment, there really aren't! :>)
So, Bob K., I saw your thinking long and hard about this puzzle as ruminating which brings us to Rumi, the whirling, twirling dervish. . .
DeleteEven when you don't intentionally leave a clue, you do. . .
I had Turn and Earn, as in a profit, and didn't think Turn A Profit was good enough... it was twerk and work that got me to twirl.
DeleteThanks everyone for the great clues!
Tsar czar
ReplyDeleteYeah! I thought of that, too, sometime this week; but is 'sar' the same as 'zar' ... what if you knew it came from 'tsar'?
DeleteIn the words of (I think it was) benmar, "What a mess!"
tsetse/setse
ReplyDeletetsunami/sunami
I submitted Tussle and (H)ustle
ReplyDeleteWhen I was much younger I wrote a song I called "Barstool" - y'all probably remember the hook line - "sit on it and twirl" - sounds kinda raunchy now.
ReplyDeleteI always thought a bar stool is what Davey Crockett stepped on in the woods.
DeleteWhat about "TAPE" and "APE"? They can both mean to copy something...
ReplyDeleteTwerks 4 me!
DeleteIt is so refreshing to know we are now finally going into a new war in the Middle East. I can't even remember when the last time was. I don't believe air strikes have ever worked in the past without ground forces, so let's get the UN to send in ground forces with their blue helmets and (this time) blue serge suits. After all, we are told the surge worked before. (Not that I buy into that one either.)
ReplyDeleteA very disgusted skydiveboy!
Skydiveboy for Secretary of State & UN Secretary.
ReplyDeleteTruth be told "W" destabilized the entire region, that being warned to him by those in the know before the fact. And by the way, then what kind of American hating government will takeover??? Unfortunately, The Shah & Sadaam & Assad & Kadafi work best for us!
By "W" I guess you mean Winston Churchill?
ReplyDeleteSadly the long history of (mostly disastrous) US and European interventions in the Middle East goes back well before Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush, or Reagan. Where does one begin, the CIA overthrow of Mosaddeq in 1953? Gallipoli (Churchill) and other wars to control oil 100 years ago? Or the Crusades, over 900 years ago? While mostly described as religious, there was a strong component of controlling economics and trade involved, as is usually the case.
Side note, the Bushes, as oil men, did not invade to increase oil supply but to control and limit it. Saddam Hussein wasn't playing nice with OPEC, and was threatening to release more oil to the market. This would be very bad for the oil business in the US. On the other hand, when oil prices skyrocket because of a war, profits go straight up, as it doesn't cost more to produce a barrel in Texas.
Not only that but apparently W was convinced that Sadaam had a hit out on his family.
ReplyDeleteeco,
DeleteYou have it exactly right! The Mosaddeq overthrow is just another proof that the U.S.A. is NOT really interested in democracy, as it insists it is. Winston Churchill, shortly prior to the start of WWI, while in the Mid-East, realized the oil could be used to power his navy ships that he was in charge of. He and the Brits created Iraq. Oil? We don't go to war over a silly thing like oil.
benmar,
That was the story at the time, but there is evidence that W actually knew this wasn't true. An American president lying to the public? Never!
right
DeleteNext week's challenge: This three-part challenge comes from listener Lou Gottlieb. If you punch 0-1-4-0 into a calculator, and turn it upside-down, you get the state OHIO. What numbers can you punch in a calculator, and turn upside-down, to get a state capital, a country and a country's capital?
ReplyDeletePrescient? No, but the NPR Weekend Edition Sunday page had a link to the puzzle earlier.
DeleteWhen my brother told me he'd already sent in TURN and EARN (as in "____ a profit"), I submitted my other idea (probably a long shot...we'll find out shortly when the broadcast airs here on the East Coast) which was TRAIN and REIN (as in "_____ a wild horse").
ReplyDeleteWONDERFUL. Another Google up the answer(s) effort. You'll have no trouble finding it either. This is geting irksome.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. I just drove through the capital's state for the first time yesterday.
ReplyDeleteNot only is this easy to solve, but 5151 is a much more difficult problem to solve.
ReplyDeleteUnbelievable that it would be so easy - perhaps easier for men to solve.
ReplyDelete05 618 805 :-)
DeleteSOB BIG SO????
DeleteOr did you intend those one at a time, i.e.,...
SO BIG SOB?
Yeah! That's what you get when I post something in the middle of my night. Thanks for pointing that out. I didn't use a calculator in constructing it and I wanted DEAL, so it would read: SO, BIG DEAL, but I had to settle on sob.
DeleteNot for nothing but, I can spell out both of my parents names on a calculator. I thought it was neat as a kid, maybe not so much now.
ReplyDeleteWill Shortz missed ball-pein or ball-peen hammer.
ReplyDeleteand utopia (or dystopia), trapeze, imperial/ imperious, compete, repeal (too close to repeat(er)), and Ethiopia.
DeleteDoubtless others, but lack of sleep is impeding my thinking...