Sunday, April 12, 2015

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 12, 2015): Lights, Camera, Action

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 12, 2015): Lights, Camera, Action:
Q: Think of a job, in 8 letters, that names someone who might work with actors. Change one letter in this to the following letter of the alphabet to name another person who works with actors. What jobs are these?
A: PROMOTER --> PROMPTER

98 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.

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  2. Let's all try to avoid being one this week.

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  3. This one took me way too long; I should have been faster.
    ---Rob

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  4. I got up to read the question at six this morning and went right back to bed and had the answer in ten or twelve minutes. I think I should get an Oscar for solving it so quick.

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  7. I rejected one answer and then thought backwards and got both answers.

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  8. On the old Andy Griffith show, did Opie have one?

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  9. Everyone here knows I'm in favor of biking or walking.

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  10. Should anyone here find this puzzle as dull as I did, you might enjoy a geography puzzle of my creation Lego is using over at:

    http://puzzleria.blogspot.com/4553

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  11. Yesterday I was driving home in a rain shower and happened to witness a Lincoln skid off the road into the ditch. Now I understand the meaning of Continental Drift.

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  12. I finally got it after looking through lists that were no help at all. Sometimes after doing that the answer just pops into my head. Couldn't have been faster.

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    1. pjb,
      Have you checked out the Spring 2015 edition of Will Shortz's WordPlay? Just curious.

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  13. I came up with the second word first and worked backwards. Anyone else do it this way? It makes the answer no less right...

    Chuck

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    1. Natasha already posted above that she did the same.

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    2. Me too, and in hindsight I see why.

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    3. I have used that technique before on these puzzles and had forgotten about it at first. Have to think out of the box.

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    4. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Sir Francis Drake have Hinde sight? At least in retrospect.

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  14. A few actors will always outperform their protégés.

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  15. I find this puzzle appropriate to the first day after Pesach as I passed over the solution at first. I blame my lack of speed on a matzoh hangover.

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  16. Hooray! I got it, finally! But very hard to think of a good hint. I will say some of the comments above reflect my experience also: On Sunday I had written down all the possibilities I could think of, and that list included half of the answer, but I didn't recognize it as such.

    I think it would be fair to add that Sunday afternoon I saw "Dr. Zhivago, The Musical" (that title looks so absurd when typed out!) on Broadway. Playbill lists all the job titles involved, from writer and director through "Etiquette advisor" to "Fight Co-ordinator" and "Flight Co-ordinator" (you don't want to know), but I don't believe either job title which is part of the challenge answer appears.

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    1. I'm sympathetic to your "fight or flight" dilemma. (Sorry, that's a very little neurology joke.)

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    2. People who tell neurology jokes have a lot of nerve.

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    3. I see no possible way this could end right(ly).

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  17. Came up with the answer while working on the restoration of the old house in which I'm living.

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  18. I have a unsatisfying rhyming answer that I don't think is right.

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    1. Me too. I sent in the answer e'en tho' my lapel be already pinned (1997). I think it's a worthy alternate answer. The unstable letter in either form is found elsewhere in the word, middle-ish. The jobs are 18th-19th century-ish, so I'm thinking this is too obscure, even for NPR.

      If I'm picked, the lapel pin goes to my puzzling uncle for his 80th birthday belatedly.

      I look forward to being wrong and enjoying Mr. Shortz's cleverer wordplay.

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    2. Al and DanAxtell,

      I hope WS accepts your alternative rhyming answer. And, DanAxtell, I look forward to Will calling you later today so that your undoubtedly deserving uncle gets his lapel pin.

      Advice to our young people as the school year winds down:
      Taking your sweetie to the big dance? Forget the limousine… it’s been done to death. Rent instead a vintage Sikorski HO3S-1. Give that a whirl, will ya?

      LegoNotSoClever

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    3. I had Seamster and Teamster. The correct answer is much more satisfactory.

      Delete
  19. Alternate puzzle:
    Take a common 9 letter word, change the first 2 letters to the next letter in the alphabet (e.g. notion becomes option). The new word isn't quite an antonym, but it is something the first word probably isn't.

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    1. Excellent puzzle, ecoarchitect. It is a word puzzle, but logic can be used in solving it. The puzzle did what you meant it to do. It is far from faulty. Bravo!

      LegoItMightBeWillWorthy!

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  20. Eco, I think I have this one. Thank goodness I didn't have to look anything up for it. Good one. I agree with Lego.

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  21. I don't have the skill to create puzzles worthy of this crowd, but I can offer a logic puzzle (not too hard) that showed up on a math exam for teenagers in Singapore:

    Albert and Bernard just became friends with Cheryl, and they want to know when her birthday is. Cheryl gives them a list of 10 possible dates.
    May 15 May 16 May 19
    June 17 June 18
    July 14 July 16
    August 14 August 15 August 17
    Cheryl then tells Albert and Bernard separately the month and the day of her birthday respectively.
    Albert: I don’t know when Cheryl’s birthday is, but I know that Bernard does not know too.
    Bernard: At first I don’t know when Cheryl’s birthday is, but I know now.
    Albert: Then I also know when Cheryl’s birthday is.
    So when is Cheryl’s birthday?

    No harm in offering the answer, since it has also rocketed around the internet.

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    1. Send Beelzebub some mittens, it only took 20 years for something intelligent to go viral on the internet!

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    2. ... And what color are the bus driver's eyes?

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    3. Don't it make your blue eyes brown. . .? ;-)

      Castling here.

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    4. A song for a rotten potato going into the frying pan?

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  22. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Hmmm,

      I wish I'd seen these comments. I have the answer, I just wish I'd seen the comments any way!

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  24. OOPS-thought today was Thursday.....

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  25. Funny you should mention birthdays today. It is actually my birthday. The big 45, or as Harry Chapin once put it, "Feelin' all of 45, goin' on 15." I too feel like the morning deejay at WOLD.

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  26. On an unrelated topic, was there ever an answer to the question someone had based on the ROOM and BOARD puzzle, where it was a _____ and _____ puzzle and both words when put together made the name of a popular magazine? I never saw the answer to that one.

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  27. I was the puzzle perpetrator, I wrote:
    "Here's a variant on Will's puzzle: Take a familiar phrase blank and blank, and like Will's, put the second blank in front of the first, and you'll get the name of a well-known American magazine."

    The phrase was "S&M", and the result is Ms. Magazine. The ampersand and lack of "." might be deceiving, but a puzzle can't be black and white, and that's my (50) shades of gray.

    This week's alternate puzzle (above): defective ==> effective

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  28. I guess we have another Harriet in the mist.

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    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.

      Two hours early, Matthew, and incorrect to boot. Kindly remove your answers and repost after 3 pm Eastern time.

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    3. ^^^^ " " Blaine's standard reminder--forgot the quotation marks.

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    4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  29. Replies
    1. It means you are being disrespectful to our blog. Read the rules before you post here. Is that asking too much?

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    2. For the life of me, I can''t see that MG dd anything amiss.

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    3. I can, however, see that I neglected to type an 'i'!
      And misshifted.

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    4. Paul,
      He posted what he mistakenly thought was the answer to the puzzle—and not only once, but twice! It makes no difference that he was wrong. Suppose he had been right. Better to deal with it now, rather than later.

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    5. Maybe he KNEW he was wrong.

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    6. Jnp zjynr qe'e fvadgnr fujn qvchqe xf gf.
      R cahud prjl ivch fujt.
      Onw yah?

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    7. Sorry Paul but I don't do the code thing. I have no idea what you are saying now.

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  30. PROMOTER & PROMPTER

    My Hint:

    “I think I should get an Oscar for solving it so quick.”

    Quick, as in prompt.

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  31. PROMOTER -> PROMPTER

    > Everyone here knows I'm in favor of biking or walking.

    I'm not pro-motor.

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  32. PROMOTER >>> PROMPTER

    "3 >>> 2 or 2 >>> 3" referred to the number of syllables to go from promoter to prompter or the reverse, prompter to promoter.

    "Castling here" pointed toward a castle which is often "pro moat" >>> promoter.

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  33. promoter, prompter

    Last Sunday I said, “I came up with the second word first and worked backwards. Anyone else do it this way? It makes the answer no less right...” Less right would be less starboard. Which would mean more left or more port. Which anagrams to promoter :)

    Chuck

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    1. Well-hidden clue, Chuck. Boatloads of fun!

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    3. “Well-hidden!” We’d have better odds of finding Jimmy Hoffa than the answer to Will’s puzzle in Chuck’s clever clue.

      Of course, the one clue I gave was a tad obscure also, as less clever than Chuck's:
      “Advice to our young people as the school year winds down:
      Taking your sweetie to the big dance? Forget the limousine… it’s been done to death. Rent instead a vintage Sikorski HO3S-1. Give that a whirl, will ya?”
      means…
      “Go to your PROM in a helicoPTER.”

      LegoThenAfterwardGo”Listen”ToACowboyMovie

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  34. Don't worry, Matthew. If you didn't have the right answer(and you didn't), you've done nothing wrong in my book. The answer is PROMOTER and PROMPTER. Now as for the Ms. Magazine puzzle, that was pretty sneaky. I don't normally think about S&M or things like that.

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    1. patjberry,

      I realize that S&M may not be everyone’s cup of tea. I hesitate to admit to people that I am into it. When I do, people tend to treat me like a pocket-protectored, four-eyed nerd (which, of course, I am).

      But I am confident that many Blainesvillians share my love of S&M… Science and Mathematics rule, Dude!

      LegoWhips&Chains

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    2. It was indeed sneaky, but that's the spirit of many in this blog. A few of us, including our host, live in the S(in)F(ul) Bay Area, and we have to keep our minds wide open while keeping our eyes wide shut. That week's puzzle (room + board) was pretty easy, and I thought we needed something to keep us sharp.

      I have to deal with Structural & Mechanical systems in many of my projects; Sales & Marketing take too much of my time; many clients are concerned with Service & Maintenance; and I sometimes have to apply Smoke & Mirrors to convince a regulatory agency to approve a project.

      But mostly I enjoy Spaghetti & Meatballs (vegan) while whistling at the Sun & Moon.

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    3. I'm open minded, but tend to prefer S&W® BBQ Baked Beans. You can whip 'em up in a jiffy.

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    4. Reminds me of a few other S&Ms: Secret and Mysterious. Or perhaps Silly and Misleading.

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    5. BTW I had Spaghetti & Meatballs for supper tonight. Far from vegan, though.

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    6. Are Pastafarians allowed to wear spaghetti strainers on their heads in driver's license photos where you live? Not in NJ, apparently.

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  35. I had sfxstunt and...
    Oh well, I never said I knew anything about actors.

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  36. PROMOTER. Change the second O to a P to yield:
    PROMPTER.

    My hint: “A few... OUTPERFORM...” which contains the letters: PROMOTER + FU (a few/F...YOU)

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  37. > Came up with the answer while working on the restoration of the old house in which I'm living.

    Reference to the old TV series, DARK SHADOWS, in which Barnabas Collins lived in the Old House, which he was restoring. The actor who played Barnabas -- Jonathan Frid -- was known for his reliance on the TelePrompter.

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  38. Next week's challenge: The challenge comes from listener Steve Daubenspeck of Fleetwood, Pa. Take the first names of two politicians in the news. Switch the first letters of their names and read the result backward to name something that each of these politicians is not.

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    1. Took a guess as to the second part and worked backwards to get the answer in a few seconds. Way too easy.

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    2. Why bother trying to solve this? jan's on it already.

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  39. Agree. Way too easy, which is becoming conventional around here.

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  40. Definitely easy, but that's a good thing: Now I can get away on vacation!

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  41. Joseph Merrick was definitely not an animal.

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  42. Yes, clever obvservation but easy puzzle,

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  43. The on-air puzzle overlooked someone near and dear to us.

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  44. I had the correct names rather quickly, but was looking at things the wrong way. This seems to be my week for being found "Out of Order."
    To avoid the potential for an inappropriate clue, I will simply misquote Charles Dudley Warner and observe that, "Bedfellows make strange politics."

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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.