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
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.
I think I got the answer, but I don't understand blaines clue...
ReplyDeleteFind what those two characters have in common.
DeleteSorry to tease you. It'll make sense on Thursday.
DeleteThis puzzle is easy, and Blaine's clue is a real giveaway. (Perhaps it should be deleted.)
DeleteI see what you mean... I guess I'll have to censor my clue.
DeleteThe 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
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, there's a U.S. city where 10 - 3 - 4 = 10.
ReplyDeleteAnd one where 7 - 5 = 9 :)
Delete... or 11, if you turn it upside-down!
DeleteToothpick puzzle
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of toothpicks, start with none, take away three and leave one.
DeleteBlaine,
DeleteNice 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
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.
ReplyDeleteDamn fine work, Snipper.
DeleteNot sure this helps
ReplyDeleteFor a couple of reasons, this puzzle doesn't amount to much. Sally forth and solve puzzlers !
ReplyDeleteOrwell said, "2 + 2 = 5", and math geeks like the joke "2 + 2 = 5, for extremely large values of 2."
ReplyDeleteI guess you have to round up.
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?
DeleteTWO x TWO = THREE
Here's one where two 2's can make FIVE:
DeleteUsing exactly two 2's and any of the standard mathematical symbols, write down an expression whose value is five.
ron, Roman matchsticks?
DeleteLegoCicero
Hmmm, I'm thinking a square root and exponent are involved. . .
DeleteNo Roman matchsticks, but WW is on the right track.
DeleteI get WW's point, but I don't like going negative. But what must be done must be done.
DeleteMust! We don't need no stinking must!
DeleteFor what it's worth, I thought blaines clue was an obscure one rather than a clever one. I like clever clues better.
ReplyDeleteDuly noted. I'll work on that for next week... Do you have a clever clue?
DeleteObviously ; - )
DeleteAh.
DeleteOoh.
DeleteI thought the picture that Blaine used is a clever clue in itself, with the middle letters highlighted.
DeleteSRV + JV = fifth of six (depending what you count)
ReplyDeleteIn many languages it is called 15 days.
ReplyDeleteChuck
They have W. Jenkins, we have W. Oliver.
ReplyDeleteThe city I am considering might have been involved in an earlier puzzle.
ReplyDeleteYup.
DeleteHey Blaine,
ReplyDeleteThere 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.
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.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of earlier puzzles, there's a Halle Berry role that has the same property.
ReplyDeleteYul's movie, too.
ReplyDeleteI agree 100%.
DeleteSeveral of his, actually.
DeleteOoh.
DeleteIn 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:
ReplyDeleteChuck 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/
Enya,
DeleteThat is a giveaway clue.
I was just about to point out that the posts were made in 2013 when I saw your reply.
DeleteIt'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.
allattateli
DeleteEnya_and_Weird_Al_fan,
ReplyDeleteThat 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
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?
ReplyDeleteAnswer leaves me flat, where I should be hearing noise.
DeleteHere 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?
DeleteThink 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?
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.
DeleteBonus: For one of the answers, there are two words that result--and each word is the name of a car model!
Just a few:
DeleteCleveland>>>leave
Fairbanks>>>brain
Palm Beach>>>amble, blame
Pocatello>>>eclat, cleat
Rochester>>>chest
Waterbury>>>tuber, brute
Ypsilanti>>>slain, snail, nails
A few more:
DeleteAnchorage>>>roach
Eau Claire>>>Lucia
Fort Wayne>>>warty
Jamestown>>>smote, tomes, motes
Lancaster>>>scant
Long Beach>>>began
So many--wow! Wasn't aware there were so many.
DeleteI had Anchorage and Fairbanks. The car models will surprise you (hint: the city is not a major city, but is well-known indirectly)
I can't believe it took me 8 miles into my run to solve this one.
ReplyDeleteI 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
I miss the days when a celebrity read a list of the prizes. Leonardo DiCaprio would be good for this week's puzzle.
ReplyDeleteCan't buy anything for a dollar anymore. Currency is useless.
ReplyDeleteCharles
ReplyDeleteI'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.
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.
ReplyDeleteTHX!!!
ReplyDeleteU 2 is an OK band.
ReplyDeleteBlaine, 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?
ReplyDeleteThink 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?
ReplyDeleteA cup of coffee might help.
DeleteCouldn't hurt.
DeleteIf you sail there on the Pequod, befriend the Mate.
DeleteThink 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.
DeleteConman's city is in a state whose name has nine letters. You do the math.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteYeah, but if you remove 6 letters from the end of the name of the state, you're left with 10.
DeleteConman'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).
DeleteThis has got to be the most “piggybackable” puzzle Will has ever purveyed.
LegoPeterPiperPickedaPeckofPiedPiperPitts
I admire your avoidance of negativity.
DeleteMy comment, above, was directed at jan, but lego snuck in there. Doesn't make any difference -- I admire anyone's avoidance of negativity.
DeletePaul,
DeleteAre you positive?
I cling to my neutrality.
DeleteDon't get caught in the Net.
DeleteDid I mention I abhor anyone's attraction to negativity?
DeleteI'm positive you didn't.
DeleteSo am I.
DeleteWell 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.
DeleteSpeaking of being mistaken. Was Dorothy misstaken when the tornado took her away? Are you positive?
DeleteSee what's so attractive about neutrality?
DeleteDuring WWII the Norwegians didn't feel that way about Sweden.
DeleteKindly enlighten the group.
DeleteThe Germans invaded Norway, while Sweden managed to stay neutral, which caused a lot of friction between the two countries.
DeleteHow're those two doin' these days? And speaking of friction, ICE has been causing some trouble for me recently. Any suggestions?
DeleteWell 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.)
DeleteAs to ICE. It is not my custom to delve into their affairs which border on the absurd at times.
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.
Deletehttps://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.
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.
DeleteDid 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!).
ReplyDeleteDon't worry if you can't work this one out!
ReplyDeleteI always thought the badlands were somewhere in the midwest, but research indicates Lorenzo may have solved my riddle last Sunday morning:
ReplyDeleteΦlaDElφa [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.
FORT WORTH - FOR - RTH = TWO
Delete"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.
My last clue had two examples of the T_WO thing goin' on.
DeleteExcellent, UJ.
DeleteTWO 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.
ReplyDeleteMy 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.
The word, “two,” remains, not two letters. Fort Worth.
ReplyDeleteLast 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
FORT WORTH
ReplyDelete> 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
jan,
DeleteIn 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...
ForT WOrth.
ReplyDeletemy 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
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.
ReplyDeleteKno XVI lle
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.
ReplyDeleteSorry about the extra "Flatwoods is" in the second sentence...
DeleteFort Worth- TWO
ReplyDeleteWestworld 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.
From above:
ReplyDeleteI 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.
FORT WORTH, Texas. Remove FOR & RTH, leaving TWO.
ReplyDeleteThis 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.
My clue was "....back and FORTH"
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the reply of word woman!
Kalamazoo: ama, 2 letters (a & m)
ReplyDeleteThat was my submission as well. And it works.
DeleteArguably!
DeleteI'm not sure I'd argue on your behalves. But, if you need a character witness ...
DeleteIf Kalamazoo works, then why not Calabasas, CA?
Delete"2 + 2 = 5, for extremely large values of 2. I guess you have to round up."
ReplyDeleteFort 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).
In my Sunday 6:14 PM comment, in response to Blaine’s matchstick puzzle, I wrote:
ReplyDelete“…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
allattateli?
ReplyDeleteYul Brynner pictures, other than Westworld?
U2OK?
???
:)
The Magnificent SEVEN.
DeleteThe TEN Commandments.
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.
DeleteCould be a specialized form of tattle tail, Practice your French with all the Mohammad cartoons from Charlie Hebdo.
DeleteI was referring to feeding us the specific online tool to solve the puzzle. It was an easy enough puzzle. . .But, you knew that, right?
DeleteYes, I knew that, but it was EaWAf who feed us the tool this time.
DeleteAnd by "you knew that, right?" I meant a collective you, you all, all of you ;-).
DeleteSo, is "feed" a typo, or not?
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteron, how about the square root of 22, with a round up symbol?
ReplyDeleteAnd I still don't know what Rev. Lovejoy and the professor have to do with this.
ReplyDeleteBoth went to TCU in Ft Worth.
DeleteAh. (No toad jokes)
DeleteNext 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?
ReplyDeleteWell, let's see, Bob is my valet ... nah!
DeleteAt first, I thought Will was up to his old tricks, but don't be led astray.
ReplyDelete