And remove two more letters to name something that the experience might involve.Q: Name an occupation starting with the letter B. Remove the second, third and fourth letters. The remaining letters in order will name something you might experience in the presence of someone who has this occupation.
What is it?
Remove two more letters (ND) and you end up with BEER.
A: BARTENDER --> BENDER
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.
The occupation makes me think of the Simpsons last season. ---Rob
ReplyDeleteNo Rob, you are thinking of the wrong grating series!
DeleteNot one of Will's more artful puzzles.
ReplyDeleteD'oh!!
ReplyDeleteFrom the tail end of last week: No Monet.
ReplyDeleteExcuse me, has anyone seen Romeo? I'm looking for Romeo.
ReplyDeleteThe following post and all its replies are from near the end of last week's thread:
ReplyDeletejan posted on Sun Jul 12, at 05:50:00 AM PDT:
You could be with beekeeper and experience her beeper going off.
Word Woman replied on Sun Jul 12, at 05:55:00 AM PDT:
Hey, that was my quip!
SuperZee replied on Sun Jul 12, at 06:23:00 AM PDT:
I was going to comment that, once again, I found it easier to solve the puzzle than to come up with an appropriately subtle clue. Then I saw this exchange and realized it precisely hit the sweet spot I was aiming for.
Word Woman replied on Sun Jul 12, at 06:58:00 AM PDT:
:-)
Quick! Can you name a famous one?
<Some more replies were removed by their authors.>
And I replied on Sun Jul 12, at 07:59:00 AM PDT:
jan,
I'm surprised that Blaine let your post remain. Suppose someone has actually submitted your suggested answer. Wouldn't Will and his team have to at least consider that answer as a reasonable alternate solution?
When you take this to the mat, I think we're in a real gray area here.
smithy
ReplyDeleteChuck
Chuck, didn't you mean:
DeleteSɯıʇɥʎ ?
I though this was relevant, but had to wait.
DeleteA bibliographer (librarian) might experience a biographer in his/her presence, n'est-ce pas?
ReplyDeleteAgain, that looks like another possible alternate answer!
DeleteI wonder what brand of shampoo Nutnaree Pipit-Suksun uses?
Delete[Yet another possible alternate answer!]
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteOr, yet another alternate answer: this with a yeoman warder.
Delete. . .at The Tower of London.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThanks, Paul. I may have your clue deciphered. . but, maybe not.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeletePaul,
DeleteWhat brand of shampoo does Nutnaree Pipit-Suksun use?Pert or Bed Head, I bet.
LegoTuTu(ButNotThe Rev.Desmond)
I already submitted exactly what you posted here, Ron, as an alternative. I'd indeed thought it was more clever (cleverer?) than the probably real answer.
DeleteI'll call this an easy puzzle.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid I'm gonna have a lost weekend trying to figure this one out. I need a sympathetic ear.
ReplyDeleteGo for oblique and obscure, Alice.
ReplyDeleteWas it too obvious?
DeleteFor me? Yes.
DeleteMy two cents: In recent weeks, broadly speaking, the hints here have been far too obvious, and not nearly clever enough. Better to say nothing than to trod all over the rules of this site, which exist for reasons that go far beyond the scope of this site.
DeleteIf I come here not knowing the answer, and leave knowing it because of your post, then you've said too much. If it's more important to you to prove that you have the answer than to show your own wit and ingenuity above and beyond the answer, then you should have kept silent.
Alice, in no way do I mean you specifically. This is a recent epidemic, in my opinion.
movie clue:
ReplyDeleteWhite House
movie clue:
DeleteMrs. Hyde
Or place one more letter within the answer (leaving the others in place) to get something else this experience might involve.
ReplyDeletelot
DeleteThere are no buttons, icons, or menus on my toolbars for this one. Too hard for me - so I'll take this week off from puzzle solving. Cheers to those of you who figure it out!
ReplyDeleteI posted the following earlier this morning at the end of last week's blog:
ReplyDeleteskydiveboy Sun Jul 12, 06:44:00 AM PDT
I'm throwing in the towel! It only took me 15 seconds to figure this one out..
Skydiveboy: Granted, deadstick landing a plane on a highway isn't that much of a feat, but why would you risk it when you could just bail out as planned?
Deletejan:
DeleteThere is not enough information to know for certain what happened, but I suspect the plane/pilot lost power on takeoff, or soon after, and there may not have been sufficient altitude for the skydivers to jump. This is fairly obvious because had the plane been higher when the problem occurred, the jumpers would most likely have been told to jump by the pilot, assuming they had not done so already on their own, and the pilot most likely would have been able to make it back to the airstrip. It looks to me like this incident was handled properly and well, unless the plane ran out of fuel due to the pilot not checking. Keep me posted if more information is made available. Thanks.
That's the only road to Long Beach Island. On a sunny summer weekend, you might want to take your chances jumping without a chute.
DeleteI wonder if any of those on board was as old as the 1963 Cessna 210?
That road is over 3 miles from the airport, BTW.
DeleteThere aren't a lot of choices when an engine quits on takeoff. Any decent pilot considers his options in advance in case it happens to him sometime. What kills a planeload on similar situations frequently is the pilot attempting to turn around and land back on the airstrip. You lose altitude super fast in doing that suicidal stunt, and they nose right in and explode in most cases.
DeleteIn all my many thousands of skydives, plus hundreds more plane trips where I jumpmastered, but did not jump myself, I only experienced one time that I recall the engine quitting. It was on a special weekend of jumping in the San Juan Islands and I was taking a first time jumper on a Tandem skydive, as was another jumper. We were almost at jump altitude when the engine quit and I was not at all concerned. It started up again and we jumped as planned. So, I have never had a scary flight, but I have had some extremely hairy skydives.
The plane looks like a nice one. Most likely the jumpers are younger, but the pilot could be that old.
Since the road is more than 3 miles crosswind from the runway, it doesn't seem that likely that the engine quit on takeoff.
DeleteAs to the distance from the airport being over 3 miles, there are still too many unknowables here. (Sorry for reminding anyone of the other idiot Donald.) There may have been a fuel problem after takeoff that prevented a normal ascent and they may still have been too low to jump safely. I doubt the true cause will ever come out in the media. It never does with skydiving incidents. The reporters don't know how to ask questions or to find out information that someone does not want out. You can tell a reporter anything and he will run with it. You don't need to do that though, because they make up their own nonsense anyway. I have frequently been quoted in articles as saying the most ridiculous things, such as the parachute allows us to gently set down at thirty miles an hour. I still laugh at that one.
DeleteAs long as we're speculating, I'm guessing something like vapor lock. Hot day, normally aspirated engine. Wonder if he was using auto gas (higher vapor pressure) to save money?
DeleteWhen it comes to speculating, I would say the sky's the limit. Well perhaps not in this case, literally I mean. All kinds of stuff goes on that most people don't know about, or really want to know about.
DeleteWe'll see, when the NTSB report comes out.
DeleteIf you really trust it. I lost my trust long ago.
DeletePreliminary update from the NTSB: the plane was at 4,000 feet when the engine quit. Afterwards, when "the engine was rotated by hand, utilizing the propeller... the crankshaft was not rotating at the rear accessory gears, and no motion was observed on the piston heads for Cylinders No. 1 and 2; however, motion was observed on all other cylinder pistons during the manual rotation of the propeller." Sounds like a busted crankshaft. Isn't 4,000 feet enough for a safe skydive?
Deletejan,
DeleteThanks for the update. We still do not have all the pertinent facts, such as the experience level of the three passengers, and if they were all skydivers, which I assume they were, but don't know for sure. I suspect they were all experienced and would have had no problem jumping at 4K, but the pilot did not order them out. I suspect he thought he would be able to restart the engine and while trying the plane was losing altitude and perhaps by the time he realized he would have to make an unplanned landing he felt it was too late for them to exit safely and for him to then land. I am not so sure I agree with the situation, but I hate to second guess on this one without more information. I suspect had I been on board, and if I was not jump-mastering, I would have opened the door and dived out when I realized the engine would not restart. I would have had no problem jumping, but would not enjoy a crash landing. I intentionally jumped at exactly 1,000 feet AGL once on purpose and was completely comfortable doing so, although before hand I thought I might be nervous.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteA grammer check might be useful. Here's another puzzle:
ReplyDeleteThink of another occupation, reverse the second and third letters to get something more significant that 14 people in the occupation became.
Seinfeld
DeleteI'm pretty sure it's not Batboy/boy or Batman/ban
ReplyDeleteProbably not BANDLEADER either.
DeleteIn his hot, sweaty Batman suit, he probably does rely on Ban.
DeleteTake 2 aspirin and call me in the morning.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDoes a termite have anything to do with the answer?
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle does make one think of the Simpsons. Anybody else happy that Harry Shearer isn't leaving after all? Funny, when I solved this one I thought of Hank Azaria.
ReplyDeleteThis is one occupation that doesn't deviate from the norm.
ReplyDeleteSorry, no time to read any comments right now.
ReplyDeleteBut when I stepped out of my luxury apartment in Manhattan after hearing the puzzle, the first person I encountered was a BagLady, who made me experience feeling bad-y, so I promptly went to my local bottler, who left me in my current state of feeling bler . . .
Nope, no idea what the answer is.
I have long since maintained that when you feel you must give up, you should just face reality.
ReplyDeleteI have been told that this is too obscure. I'm hoping someone here will disagree.
DeleteSounds like a stalker"s manifesto to me.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWhat "professions" yield these non-answers?
ReplyDelete- Bee Jumper
- Bet Manager
- Biff
- Bar
- Bop
Ward,
Delete-Bunjee Jumper
-Ballet Manager (?)
-Bailiff
-?
-Barhop
That's as far as I got.
Bailiff was my favorite.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteBursar for the fourth item.
DeleteBungee Jumper
ReplyDeleteBudget Manager
Bailiff
Beggar
Bishop
Yeah! I like dancing with Bishops. Feels so ceremonial
DeleteRon, better!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGetting back to the Simpsons, it should also be noted that if you place a space somewhere within the answer, it might actually sort of describe what Sideshow Bob has tried many times(and unsuccessfully)to be.
ReplyDeleteI was toying with the notion that the occupation was [a synonym of apiarist], and began to suspect that Will’s puzzle was blatant “piggyback” puzzle of Puzzleria!’s June 26 “Moon, June, Spoonerism Slice.” But eventually I concluded, after deleting the trio of letters, that the “something you might experience in the presence of someone with this occupation” didn’t really work out (unless the apiarist was moonlighting as an EMT, physician or banker in the 1980s).
ReplyDeleteI read Dr. Shortz’s puzzle to my girlfriend today. She is not a big puzzle-person. But she got Will’s intended answer within three seconds, literally!
Despite my encouragement, alas, she would never deign to submit her correct answers to NPR, even when I try enticing her with the promise of irresistible lapel-pin bling!
I dozed off later in the day, and dreamt her on-air appearance went something like thisssss~~~~~:
Rachel: So [Lego’s girlfriend], was this a tough or easy puzzle for you? How long did it take for you to solve?
[LG]: Three seconds.
Will: Wow, that is impressive! You must be a real puzzle aficionado.
[LG]: No, not really. I think puzzles are a monumental waste of one’s mental capital and time. Puzzles bore me. That’s why I choose to solve them so quickly.
Rachel: If I may ask, why then did you even submit your entry?
[LG]: Oh, that was my dopey boyfriend’s doing. He’s too cheap to buy me jewelry, so he figures I’ll be satisfied with this cheap lapel pin piece of…
Will: Okay. That’s very interesting. Now let’s see how you do with this on-air challenge…
LegoBumBlingTowardBedlambda
I think you are being unfair. NPR has spared no expense in designing and manufacturing their lapel pin of the highest quality pot metal donations can buy.
DeleteAnd away we go!
ReplyDeleteThere have been many bars/bartenders in entertainment. "Cheers" is perhaps the best known. However, there is also Archie Bunker's Place (who famously asked a father who said his son passed the bar exam "Where's he tending bar?"), Miss Kitty from "Gunsmoke", and Joe the Bartender, one of the characters played by Jackie Gleason on his variety show. One of Gleason's signature phrases was "And away we go!" They don't ,make 'em like Jackie anymore. His girth is exceeded only by his wit and enthusiasm. How sweet it is, indeed!
DeleteObservation: my hunch is that only a small number of people employed in this profession, and an even smaller number who experienced the item described as the other part of the clue heard the puzzle when it first aired over the air.
ReplyDeleteSaturday is a busy workday for many bartenders, with Saturday being the biggest night at bars, plus numerous weddings and other special occasions where bartenders work occurring frequently on that day. Thus, many will sleep late on Sunday.
DeleteDitto for those on benders. They'll sleep through anything, certainly easy puzzles.
I've entertained the thought of trying out this occupation after I retire from my present job, but the leaning curve scares me a little. Is it necessary to go to school?
ReplyDeleteThe leaning curve is a little steep, Ruth.
DeleteYou got it (me), WW! :) Still can't do italics, bold, upside down, underline or any other enhanced fonts on my computer.
Delete'Tis the font-ain of youth, Ruth! ;-)
DeleteAnd, on another note: Vive la France! Happy Bastille Day!
Oui, oui!
DeleteDown with the plutocrats, up with Pluto!
DeleteI can't speak for anyone else, but I thought the photos of Pluto (the Phlutos?) were breathtaking.
DeleteBeing 3 billion miles from oxygen will do that.
DeleteEasy for you both to say.
DeleteThey are incredible images.
I solved this one in mid-sentence of the clue, for it was the first occupation I thought of that began with B. Thus, all I had to do was wait for the rest of the clue. Indeed, my first instinct was correct.
ReplyDeleteAnd two weeks ago, I did indeed solve the puzzle while bringing in the Sunday paper. After Will gave the clue, I thought of such companies as Intel, Microsoft, Starbucks that dominate the landscape. Inside the Sunday paper was a Walgreens ad insert, and upon seeing it, I realized that was the answer.
I get it - the "happy and healthy" experience that Walgreens touts.
DeleteIn some countries, people in this occupation are legally required not to allow you to experience this.
ReplyDeleteExperienced three last week - all legal
ReplyDeleteexperienced daily until 12-4-84.
DeleteSimpsons? I'm leaning toward Futurama!
ReplyDeleteDon't you have to pass an exam to work in this occupation? And even then, you can work at it in states where you pass this exam.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a lawyer, but I think there may be some confusion here.
DeleteAgreed. Particularly among attorneys for Misty Copeland. . .
DeleteArrr! (Sorry, it's not Talk Like A Pirate Day, yet.)
DeleteNo confusion....it's a word play designed to add to the fun. Details to be revealed on Thursday.
DeleteWe know and appreciate said word play, libertarianmathprofessor ;-).
DeleteShould we devote this cognitive time and energy to some more productive endeavors instead of this gratuitous puzzle?
ReplyDeleteI thought that is exactly what many of us do here. Will Shortz treats us like children and presents us with crappy toys and then we either ignore them for the most part, after we quickly destroy them, and/or we go on to make up our own playthings. So, yes, you are quite right and that is what we should be doing.
DeleteOn a personal note I enjoy playing with my virtual friends.
DeleteI'm with you, zeke creek!
DeleteMe, too, zeke creek.
DeleteVirtual and virtuous?
Of course, we're always open to productive endeavors. Suggestions, Karie?
Deletesho nuff
DeleteThe reason I enjoy this blog so much is that it's nice to go somewhere that almost nobody knows my name.:)
DeleteSam, right? Born on the 4th of July?
Deletezeke, That seems a bit abnormal to me.
DeleteIs this necessarily a bad thing? Being somewhat twisted fits in fine this week, bromigo.
ReplyDeleteThe three stool pigeons, Abner, Norm and Al.
DeleteJust checked the Puzzleria! answers. Those hints helped this time. I got most of the duo puzzle(though I'm unfamiliar with DAM being an antonym for SAVE in hockey), and once I figured out RE-MAX I got everything in that puzzle but Pearl Buck. As for the puzzle about the late novelists and the smiles puzzle, they went over my head, much like the balloon in the RE-MAX logo. Took me until some time before or after midnight to find out. Lego, I thought the answers were to be revealed at 3PM. Why did it take so long this time?
ReplyDeleteBARTENDER - ART = BENDER
Delete"No Monet" referred to subtracting "ART" from BARTENDER to get BENDER.
My other possible answer was BEEFEATER - EEF = BEATER.
"lot" referred to a parking lot where one might have a fender BENDER.
"Agreed. Particularly among attorneys for Misty Copeland. . ." referred to passing the barre (versus passing the BAR).
"Sam, right?" referred to Sam of "Cheers," riffing off zeke creek's "where nobody knows your name."
Word Woman,
DeleteI believe beefeater/beater is a legit alternative answer.
patjberry,
Sorry to respond so tardily to your excellent questions. I have addressed them in the Puzzleria! I have just now posted.
The reason I do not post the answers at 3 PM EDT is because I want to give Puzzlerians! an ample window during which they can post their answers. Ideally, I would like never to have to post any answers at all! (I would enjoy just confirming the answers posted by all of you.) I hate it when I have to post an answer to puzzles that I am sure someone must have solved.
LegoReliesOnPuzzlerians!
BARTENDER > BENDER\
ReplyDeleteMy hints:
"I'm throwing in the towel! It only took me 15 seconds to figure this one out." A BAR TOWEL of course.
"zeke, That seems a bit abnormal to me" abNORMal as in Norm in Cheers. I only saw it once, but I keep hearing the name. Wasn't he a patron, rather than a bartender though?
bartender, bender
ReplyDeleteLast Sunday I said, “smithy.” A blacksmith bends iron and thus might be considered a bender.
Chuck
BARTENDER, BENDER
ReplyDelete> Not one of Will's more artful puzzles.
Because the ART is removed from BARTENDER.
> In some countries, people in this occupation are legally required not to allow you to experience this.
In Australia and Sweden, e.g., bartenders must refuse to serve more alcohol to drunk customers.
Bartender/bender...thank you for not correcting my "leaning" curve, because after all, how else do you learn bartending if you're on a bender?
ReplyDeleteRuth, I thought your comment was spot on!
DeleteI say we raise a glass in honor of kindred "spirits" everywhere!
DeleteIndeed! In answer to your question about bartending school, Ruth, I think it varies by community. During the three-week January inter-term at college, I took a bartending class. We met twice a week for a couple of hours at a go. We learned most of the basic drinks, garnishes, shaking vs. stirring, etc. I learned how to make a "jellybean." It was a fun three weeks that also included Japanese flower arranging, traying near Paradise Pond, and gemology.
DeleteHave you taken a bartending class?
No but I'm considering it once I move to FL after retirement....just a few months away.
DeleteOh, the danger of posting when I don't know the answer! I had only heard the challenge on the car radio, and as I turned it over in my mind during the day, I didn't even have the exact wording right. So when I jokingly posted my known-to-be-wrong answers, BOTTLER >> BLER actually came a bit close to the right answer. Sorry if this verged on giving it away!
ReplyDeleteBARTENDER/BENDER - My comment that Jan and Word Woman's alternate answer (Beekeeper/Beeper) hit a sweet spot was a play on the BUZZ ing sound from a hive - and the BUZZ of being on a BENDER.
ReplyDeleteIn a post which I had made on last week's thread and copied to this week's thread, there was included this:
ReplyDeleteWhen you take this to the mat, I think we're in a real gray area here.
Matt Groening (pronounced "GRAY-ning") is the cartoonist who created "The Simpsons" and also created another cartoon series, "Futurama", among whose characters includes Bender the robot.
BARTENDER. A BENDER is something one might “tie on” in the presence of a BARTENDER.
ReplyDeleteRemove ND from “bender” to obtain BEER, something the experience might involve.
Leo: Add a letter (L) for “something else this experience might involve:” BLENDER.
BARTENDER-ART=BENDER And since Sideshow Bob was always trying to kill Bart Simpson, or end his life, you could say he wanted to be a BART ENDER. Then again, Moe the bartender always threatened to get back at Bart whenever he prank-called Moe's Tavern.
ReplyDelete"A grammer check might be useful."
ReplyDeleteNo, I don't need spell check, the reference of course is to Kelsey Grammer, a bar patron on Cheers and, as others noted, the infamous Bart Ender.
"Here's another puzzle:
Think of another occupation, reverse the second and third letters to get something more significant that 14 people in the occupation became."
The occupation is farmer, and 14 (white men) were framers of the Declaration of Independence.
Sports bar BARTENDER turns on football/soccer game including a free-kick BENDER. Probably no laws broken there.
ReplyDeleteRvjuzkej go jdice = requires no skill. Don't get me wrong; there's an ART to being a bartender, but any dufus can go on a bender. Maybe WW deciphered it, maybe not. I got the impression she did.
ReplyDeleteI'll say it again for those who may have missed it: WW is a better cardplayer than I am.
I wasn't really thinking about a ballet barre. I saw a Thai between a ballerina and a brand of hair care products, that's all.
In Coming Home, Jane Fonda played Sally Hyde, née Bender.
WW, Sam exactly, white house/Casablanca, ...of all the gin joints...
ReplyDeletePierre-Auguste, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
DeletePerhaps you are simply Renoiring an old one.
DeleteIt never Rains, but it pours.
DeleteAh, Louis and Rick, rolling off into the fog...
DeleteCurious. Any one else remember a time when just before the new puzzle is to come up, NPR's Games & Humor page still has last week's puzzle link on it?
ReplyDeleteNext week's challenge: The challenge comes from puzzle-maker Rodolfo Kurchan. Write down the following six numbers: 19, 28, 38, 81, 83, 85. What are the next three numbers in the series?
ReplyDeleteAppropriate for Sunday, a puzzle of biblical proportions.
ReplyDeleteAre you recalling perhaps 3 particular verses in Isaiah, or perhaps 2 particular verses in Revelation?
DeleteI had a different verse in mind - but we're on the same path. Afraid if I say any more it may be too much, will provide citation on Thursday.
Delete.After that next third one, the following eight numbers are somewhat similar to it!
ReplyDeleteand the 18 numbers after that, too.
DeleteThe ease of solving this puzzle reminds me that pop quizzes are often enjoyable!
ReplyDeleteAm I now allowed to say "Bite my shiny metal a$$"? :)
ReplyDeleteYes, as long as you are quoting Bender. :)
Delete