Sunday, January 11, 2015

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 11, 2015): Nine minus six is...

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 11, 2015): Nine minus six is...:
Q: Think of a U.S. city whose name has nine letters. Remove three letters from the start of the name and three letters from the end. Only two will remain. How is this possible, and what city is it?

Both ******* (from The Simpsons) and ******* (from Gilligan's Island) should be able to answer this.

Edit: The fictional characters Rev. Lovejoy and The Professor went to Texas Christian University (TCU) in Fort Worth, TX.
A: Fort Worth (Texas)

Alternate answers also accepted by Will:
Flatwoods, Wentworth, Pontoosuc

131 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 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.

    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.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think I got the answer, but I don't understand blaines clue...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Find what those two characters have in common.

      Delete
    2. Sorry to tease you. It'll make sense on Thursday.

      Delete
    3. This puzzle is easy, and Blaine's clue is a real giveaway. (Perhaps it should be deleted.)

      Delete
    4. I see what you mean... I guess I'll have to censor my clue.

      Delete
  3. The trick to this one is pretty easy; it was more mysterious on the air and would be obvious if the written transcript were grammatically correct. However, looking for cities that met the rules led me only to cities I had not heard of before. But one will do! ---Rob

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  4. Similarly, there's a U.S. city where 10 - 3 - 4 = 10.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Replies
    1. Speaking of toothpicks, start with none, take away three and leave one.

      Delete
    2. Blaine,
      Nice one. I think I get it. …
      …Or, start with none, time-travel back to ancient Rome, take away one, and leave one-hundred.

      LegoRondD’Alembert

      Delete
  6. I was surprised by this city's size ranking among u.s. cities. I've been back and forth a few times over the years.

    ReplyDelete
  7. For a couple of reasons, this puzzle doesn't amount to much. Sally forth and solve puzzlers !

    ReplyDelete
  8. Orwell said, "2 + 2 = 5", and math geeks like the joke "2 + 2 = 5, for extremely large values of 2."

    I guess you have to round up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. All the digits in the following multiplication problem have been replaced by letters. (A letter always represents the same digit throughout the problem.) Can you reconstruct the original multiplication?

      TWO x TWO = THREE

      Delete
    2. Here's one where two 2's can make FIVE:

      Using exactly two 2's and any of the standard mathematical symbols, write down an expression whose value is five.

      Delete
    3. ron, Roman matchsticks?
      LegoCicero

      Delete
    4. Hmmm, I'm thinking a square root and exponent are involved. . .

      Delete
    5. No Roman matchsticks, but WW is on the right track.

      Delete
    6. I get WW's point, but I don't like going negative. But what must be done must be done.

      Delete
    7. Must! We don't need no stinking must!

      Delete
  9. For what it's worth, I thought blaines clue was an obscure one rather than a clever one. I like clever clues better.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Duly noted. I'll work on that for next week... Do you have a clever clue?

      Delete
    2. I thought the picture that Blaine used is a clever clue in itself, with the middle letters highlighted.

      Delete
  10. SRV + JV = fifth of six (depending what you count)

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  11. In many languages it is called 15 days.

    Chuck

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  12. They have W. Jenkins, we have W. Oliver.

    ReplyDelete
  13. The city I am considering might have been involved in an earlier puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hey Blaine,
    There is a movie with the same property for the title with the location having a name similar to the city closely located to said city. BTW someone we know has a close namesake to the protagonist.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I thought the comics were so last week's news! Anyway I had a merry time solving this one almost instantly while still in bed. No list required.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Speaking of earlier puzzles, there's a Halle Berry role that has the same property.

    ReplyDelete
  17. In a Blaine's Puzzle Blog thread from long ago, a request was made and an answer was given, which I saved, and which I've found has proven more helpful this week than it was then:

    Chuck posted on Sun Dec 08, at 09:30:00 AM PST:

    My current list of cities is pretty limited. OK for some uses, but not this. Can some kind person give me the URL of where I can find a useful list?

    Chuck

    and ron replied on Sun Dec 08, at 09:52:00 AM PST:

    http://bestforpuzzles.com/lists/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Enya,
      That is a giveaway clue.

      Delete
    2. I was just about to point out that the posts were made in 2013 when I saw your reply.

      It's true that for everyone who gets the "A-Ha!" insight needed to solve the puzzle, then yes, following the link and setting things up correctly can then have it give you the answer, but one still needs to arrive at that "A-Ha!" insight.

      Delete
  18. Enya_and_Weird_Al_fan,
    That link ron provided will likely, alas, render my following effort (as well as the related puzzle on my Puzzleria! blog) easy as pie:

    Remove six letters from the name of a large seven-letter U.S. city, leaving a little less than three. Remove five letters from the same city, leaving a little more than three. Remove four letters from the same city, leaving less than two but more than one.

    There is a “mathematical” puzzle in this week’s Puzzleria! menu that is somewhat related to the above “piggyback” puzzle of today's NPR puzzle.

    LegoNoChargeI’veWaivedMyStipend

    ReplyDelete
  19. Think of a U.S. city whose name has six letters. Remove three letters from the end. Only one will remain. How is this possible, and what city is it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Answer leaves me flat, where I should be hearing noise.

      Delete
    2. Here are a few more: Think of a U.S. city whose name has six letters. Remove four letters from the beginning and you will have eleven left. How is this possible, and what city is it?

      Think of a U.S. city whose name has six letters. Remove three letters from the end and you will be left with a hairy animal, what city is it?

      Think of a U.S. city whose name has six letters. Remove three letters from the beginning and you will have part of a cooked pig what city is it?

      Delete
    3. There are at least three US cities with nine letters that have the property that removing the TWO letters at the start and end leaves FIVE letters that form the anagram of a word.

      Bonus: For one of the answers, there are two words that result--and each word is the name of a car model!

      Delete
    4. Just a few:
      Cleveland>>>leave
      Fairbanks>>>brain
      Palm Beach>>>amble, blame
      Pocatello>>>eclat, cleat
      Rochester>>>chest
      Waterbury>>>tuber, brute
      Ypsilanti>>>slain, snail, nails

      Delete
    5. A few more:
      Anchorage>>>roach
      Eau Claire>>>Lucia
      Fort Wayne>>>warty
      Jamestown>>>smote, tomes, motes
      Lancaster>>>scant
      Long Beach>>>began

      Delete
    6. So many--wow! Wasn't aware there were so many.

      I had Anchorage and Fairbanks. The car models will surprise you (hint: the city is not a major city, but is well-known indirectly)

      Delete
  20. I can't believe it took me 8 miles into my run to solve this one.

    I thought of another city first, almost like Will's, except:
    -the city is 11 letters long
    -remove all but the middle of the first 7
    -remove the last 2

    ReplyDelete
  21. I miss the days when a celebrity read a list of the prizes. Leonardo DiCaprio would be good for this week's puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Can't buy anything for a dollar anymore. Currency is useless.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Charles
    I'd arrived at an answer.
    Mamaw Creek told me to start at zero, subtract one and it leaves me with you.
    I'm flattered, I think.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Just got back from Carnival in Saint Croix. though it is not a city, it has something in common with answer. My city has nine letters but the way most people pronounce it you would only have one letter left.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Blaine, did you know that Zsa Zsa Gabor (as Erika Tiffany Smith, [who] shows up and wants to buy the island, but falls in love with the Professor) was on one episode of Gilligan's Island?

    ReplyDelete
  26. Think of a country whose name has nine letters. Remove three letters from the start of the name and three letters from the end. Only one will remain. How is this possible, and what country is it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you sail there on the Pequod, befriend the Mate.

      Delete
    2. Think of a U.S. city whose name has nine letters. Remove three letters from the start of the name and three letters from the end. Sixteen will remain.

      Delete
    3. Conman's city is in a state whose name has nine letters. You do the math.

      Delete
    4. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    5. Yeah, but if you remove 6 letters from the end of the name of the state, you're left with 10.

      Delete
    6. Conman's city reminds me of a sound effect link used over on Puzzleria! this week, in a dialogue at the Pearly Gates between St. Peter (not Crispian) and Elijah (not Pitts).

      This has got to be the most “piggybackable” puzzle Will has ever purveyed.

      LegoPeterPiperPickedaPeckofPiedPiperPitts

      Delete
    7. I admire your avoidance of negativity.

      Delete
    8. My comment, above, was directed at jan, but lego snuck in there. Doesn't make any difference -- I admire anyone's avoidance of negativity.

      Delete
    9. I cling to my neutrality.

      Delete
    10. Did I mention I abhor anyone's attraction to negativity?

      Delete
    11. Well I am positive that if two negatives make a positive, then two positives make a negative. Now please don't be negative and tell me I am mistaken.

      Delete
    12. Speaking of being mistaken. Was Dorothy misstaken when the tornado took her away? Are you positive?

      Delete
    13. See what's so attractive about neutrality?

      Delete
    14. During WWII the Norwegians didn't feel that way about Sweden.

      Delete
    15. Kindly enlighten the group.

      Delete
    16. The Germans invaded Norway, while Sweden managed to stay neutral, which caused a lot of friction between the two countries.

      Delete
    17. How're those two doin' these days? And speaking of friction, ICE has been causing some trouble for me recently. Any suggestions?

      Delete
    18. Well we here in Seattle have a large community of Norwegians and a lot of Swedes too. (You can tell them apart by the shoes they wear. Swedes never wear Weejuns.) There have been very few uprisings lately however between the two.)

      As to ICE. It is not my custom to delve into their affairs which border on the absurd at times.

      Delete
    19. Since SDB mentioned Dorothy, if you've never seen Wizard of Oz with Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon as a soundtrack it's pretty trippy.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gXvVUg-VAE

      The first 8 minutes are a little subtle (some might say boring), but the second half of "Time" is terrific, and "The Great Gig in the Sky" is astounding. And "Money" and "Us and Them" are hilarious. I can't watch the original any more.

      Delete
    20. But speaking of Dorothy, what I really want to know is after she got back to the farm in Kansas there was a lawsuit brought by the family. During a meeting the lawyer had with Dorothy, her dog ate his briefs. I never did hear if the judge accepted her testimony in Toto.

      Delete
  27. Did anyone see the Buckeyes vs. Ducks last night? It was a decent game, but I can't help but feel as if it should have been TCU playing Oregon. Oh well. For what it's worth, I am glad OSU won (even though I would have much preferred to see the 'Noles and 'Bama instead!).

    ReplyDelete
  28. Don't worry if you can't work this one out!

    ReplyDelete
  29. I always thought the badlands were somewhere in the midwest, but research indicates Lorenzo may have solved my riddle last Sunday morning:

    ΦlaDElφa [Step onto the boat. Remain standing (just like George). Go with the flow (unlike George). At the opportune moment, step off.]



    I think any Buffalo Springfield reference would be a giveaway clue this week. Ooh!


    Moses, the king, and I await jan's response. Ooh!

    So let it be written; so let it be done.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. FORT WORTH - FOR - RTH = TWO

      "Toothpick puzzle" Like Blaine's example, the 13 toothpicks - 4 toothpicks = TEN puzzle relies on spelling out the word TEN, rather than counting 9 toothpicks.

      "Damn Fine Work, Snipper" referred to Dallas-Fort Worth

      "They have W. Jenkins, we have W. Oliver" referred to William Jenkins Worth and William Oliver Collins, the two men for whom Fort Worth, TX, and Fort Collins, CO, are named.

      And Charles' puzzle: "A little coffee might help" referred to IndONEsia and Java Man.

      Delete
    2. My last clue had two examples of the T_WO thing goin' on.

      Delete
  30. TWO is all that remains when the first 3 letters and the last 3 letters of FORT WORTH are removed. For[TWO]rth. And that is it in toto.
    My hint:
    “I thought the comics were so last week's news! Anyway I had a merry time solving this one almost instantly while still in bed. No list required.”

    This is hinting at the comic, Mary Worth. Again, that is it in toto.

    ReplyDelete
  31. The word, “two,” remains, not two letters. Fort Worth.

    Last Sunday I said, “In many languages it is called 15 days” though it is sometimes called 14 nights. In English it is called a fortnight. Fort as in Fort Worth. And all of this information may be worth about two cents :) Hope your ductworks...

    Chuck

    ReplyDelete
  32. FORT WORTH

    > Similarly, there's a U.S. city where 10 - 3 - 4 = 10.

    CENTENNIAL, CO, down the block from Word Woman.

    > Speaking of earlier puzzles, there's a Halle Berry role that has the same property.

    CATWOMAN

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. jan,

      In your post on Sun Jan 11, at 06:44:00 AM PST:

      Similarly, there's a U.S. city where 10 - 3 - 4 = 10.

      There were two replies:

      First Blaine on Sun Jan 11, at 06:49:00 AM PST:

      And one where 7 - 5 = 9 :)

      ...And your own reply on Sun Jan 11, at 09:36:00 AM PST:

      ... or 11, if you turn it upside-down!

      I believe the answer you were both thinking of is the same city to which legolamba gives in his challenge:

      legolambda posted on Sun Jan 11, at 02:59:00 PM PST:

      Enya_and_Weird_Al_fan,
      That link ron provided will likely, alas, render my following effort (as well as the related puzzle on my Puzzleria! blog) easy as pie:

      Remove six letters from the name of a large seven-letter U.S. city, leaving a little less than three. Remove five letters from the same city, leaving a little more than three. Remove four letters from the same city, leaving less than two but more than one.

      There is a “mathematical” puzzle in this week’s Puzzleria! menu that is somewhat related to the above “piggyback” puzzle of today's NPR puzzle.

      LegoNoChargeI’veWaivedMyStipend

      The same answer in each case is Phoenix, AZ

      Remove the first 5 letters from the 7-letter city PHOENIX, and you're left with IX (9 in Roman Numerals).

      Remove 6 letters leaving just the E, and well, you have e, the base of the natural logarithms, approx. equal to 2.7 1828 1828 45 90 45.... (spaces added to assist in remembering that much of it.)

      Remove 5 letters, leaving P and I and you have PI, approx. equal to 3.14159265358979....

      Remove 4 letters, leaving PH and I and you have phi, aka the golden ratio, equal to (SQR(5) + 1)/2, approx. equal to 1.6180339887498948482045868343656...

      Delete
  33. ForT WOrth.

    my other puzzles:

    Think of a U.S. city whose name has six letters. Remove four letters from the beginning and you will have eleven left. How is this possible, and what city is it? BiloXI MS

    Think of a U.S. city whose name has six letters. Remove three letters from the end and you will be left with a hairy animal, what city is it? YAKima WA

    Think of a U.S. city whose name has six letters. Remove three letters from the beginning and you will have part of a cooked pig what city is it? DurHAM

    ReplyDelete
  34. Think of a U.S. city whose name has nine letters. Remove three letters from the start of the name and three letters from the end. Sixteen will remain.

    Kno XVI lle

    ReplyDelete
  35. Also, Flatwoods (KY, WV, or several other states) works. The clue did not say it had to be a major city. It is perhaps Flatwoods is even better than Fort Worth since there is no space to worry about.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry about the extra "Flatwoods is" in the second sentence...

      Delete
  36. Fort Worth- TWO
    Westworld has the same property.
    It's location was Delos which is similar to Dallas, a neighbor of Fort Worth. One of the characters was named, Blane.

    ReplyDelete
  37. From above:

    I thought of another city first, almost like Will's, except:
    -the city is 11 letters long
    -remove all but the middle of the first 7
    -remove the last 2

    Chattanooga --> too (homophonically like Will's, hence the almost).

    Also, this past Sunday's NPR Puzzle / Crossword Puzzle overlap is courtesy of "our old pal" Merl Reagle: 30 down clue- Worth and Wayne, for ex. and the answer is FTS.

    ReplyDelete
  38. FORT WORTH, Texas. Remove FOR & RTH, leaving TWO.

    This city was used in the “ATLAS OF THE WORLD” puzzle on March 1st, 2009.

    My clue: TWO x TWO = THREE. “Two” (again “two”) is a three-letter word. And , yes, my multiplication problem does have a solution: 138 x 138 = 19044!

    Lego's & Blaine's 7-letter city: PHOENIX.

    Using exactly two 2's and any of the standard mathematical symbols, write down an expression whose value is five.
    Solution: √.2⁻² which
    shows that two 2's can make five. So, .2 = ⅕, raise that to the -2 power = 25 and take the square root (√25) = 5.

    Jim's cities:
    BILOXI>>>XI
    YAKIMA>>>YAK
    DURHAM>>>HAM

    Charles' country = Indonesia.

    Conman's city = Knoxville, Tennessee.

    ReplyDelete
  39. My clue was "....back and FORTH"
    I enjoyed the reply of word woman!

    ReplyDelete
  40. Kalamazoo: ama, 2 letters (a & m)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That was my submission as well. And it works.

      Delete
    2. I'm not sure I'd argue on your behalves. But, if you need a character witness ...

      Delete
    3. If Kalamazoo works, then why not Calabasas, CA?

      Delete
  41. "2 + 2 = 5, for extremely large values of 2. I guess you have to round up."

    Fort Worth is the home of the Cowgirl Hall of Fame, and they have a rodeo every Friday and Saturday. Round 'em up!

    And Charles wrote:
    "Think of a U.S. city whose name has six letters. Remove three letters from the end. Only one will remain. How is this possible, and what city is it?"
    My answer was Oneida, in upstate New York, and I wrote "Answer leaves me flat, where I should be hearing noise."

    In 1848 the Oneida Community was founded by John Humphrey Noyes (noise), a utopian society with free love, fully six SCORE years before Woodstock. The lasting legacy of the community is Oneida flatware (flat where).

    ReplyDelete
  42. In my Sunday 6:14 PM comment, in response to Blaine’s matchstick puzzle, I wrote:
    “…Or, start with none, time-travel back to ancient Rome, take away one, and leave one-hundred.”

    So, you make a zero (actually a square) with four matchsticks. (You must do this before you time-travel back to ancient Rome because Roman numerals have no zero.)

    When in Rome, however, you do what the Romans do to solve the puzzle: take away the one matchstick on the right of the square, leaving C, or one hundred.

    Also my sign-off at the end of my Sunday 2:59 PM comment, “LegoNoChargeI’veWaivedMyStipend,” hinted at the answer to the puzzle I posted:
    “Waived My Stipend” = “Fee Nix” = Phoenix.

    LegoCirclingTheWagonsAndSquaringTheCircle

    ReplyDelete
  43. allattateli?

    Yul Brynner pictures, other than Westworld?

    U2OK?

    ???

    :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Magnificent SEVEN.
      The TEN Commandments.

      Delete
    2. But I, too, have no idea what Word Woman meant by "allattateli". As far as I can tell, it's colloquial Italian for "breastfeeding". The Pope recently said it's OK in church if your bambino is hungry. I imagine Charlie Hebdo might have something amusing to print about that, on a slower, happier news week. But, as for WW, your guess is as good as mine.

      Delete
    3. Could be a specialized form of tattle tail, Practice your French with all the Mohammad cartoons from Charlie Hebdo.

      Delete
    4. I was referring to feeding us the specific online tool to solve the puzzle. It was an easy enough puzzle. . .But, you knew that, right?

      Delete
    5. Yes, I knew that, but it was EaWAf who feed us the tool this time.

      Delete
    6. And by "you knew that, right?" I meant a collective you, you all, all of you ;-).

      Delete
    7. So, is "feed" a typo, or not?

      Delete
  44. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  45. ron, how about the square root of 22, with a round up symbol?

    ReplyDelete
  46. And I still don't know what Rev. Lovejoy and the professor have to do with this.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Next week's challenge: Name two animals, both mammals, one of them domestic, the other wild. Put their letters together, and rearrange the result to name another mammal, this one wild, and not seen naturally around North America. What mammal is it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, let's see, Bob is my valet ... nah!

      Delete
  48. At first, I thought Will was up to his old tricks, but don't be led astray.

    ReplyDelete

For NPR puzzle posts, don't post the answer or any hints that could lead to the answer before the deadline (usually Thursday at 3pm ET). If you know the answer, 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 assist with solving. You can openly discuss your hints and the answer after the deadline. Thank you.