Sunday, August 16, 2015

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 16, 2015): Easily Say Lei

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 16, 2015): Easily Say Lei:
Q: Take the word EASILY. You can rearrange its letters to spell SAY and LEI. These two words rhyme even though they have no letters in common.

What is the longest familiar word you can find that can be anagrammed into two shorter words that rhyme but have no letters in common? The two shorter words must have only one syllable.
I guess we'll all be spending time with a rhyming dictionary and an anagrammer.
A: CHICKPEAS = CHIC, SPEAK
PHYSICKED = PSYCH, DIKE
HEAPINGLY = NEIGH, HAY
LIGHT-YEARS = SLEIGH, TRAY

177 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. 9 letters in the single word for me so far.

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    Replies
    1. Wordnerd, most impressive!

      Gardening calls, I'm at 10 (truly), and will leave you with the completely silly BEAUXTHROW: Taking several of your suitors to a pottery class.

      13! Wow. . .

      Delete
  3. WW: I've got 10, so I'm a bit ahead of you for once (usually I'm way behind).

    Here's a couple of alternate puzzles:

    1) Take the word love, change the first letter to the next letter in the alphabet and you get move. The two words share the same letters except the first, but don't rhyme. Find another word where you change the first letter to the next in the alphabet, where not only don't the words rhyme, but no letters in the words are pronounced the same. I have 2 answers.
    2) The words love, move, and rove change only the first letter, but none of the words rhyme. What is the combination of words that share all but the first letter but none of them rhyme? (Adding dove or cove to that list doesn't work, as they rhyme with love/ rove).
    3) What are the longest words that share all the same letters except the first but don't rhyme?

    I guess that's a few.

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    Replies
    1. And for #2 I meant to say "What is the largest number of words that share all but the first letter"

      Delete
    2. Oh, good, ecoarchitect. It was going to be a long week with folks just reporting 9, 10, 11(?), eh? Anyone there yet?

      I have 1 answer to your puzzle 1.

      Delete
    3. If you have 1 answer to my puzzle #1 the second should come quickly.

      I have 2 answers to Will's puzzle with 10 letters; one is a little sneaky.

      Delete
    4. The second answer to #1 did come quickly.

      Re: Will's puzzle: I think one of the 10-letter words is a teensy-weensy bit sneaky but I am ok with it.

      Delete
  4. OK, I have ten letters, and I am not going to try for higher, so I am sending my answer in.

    Anyone get eleven?

    ---Rob

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    Replies
    1. Rob, I also got to ten, and sent it in. EKW

      Delete
  5. I don’t like the kind of puzzle where you don’t know if you’re through or not. So I won’t be playing this week. You guys have fun :)

    Chuck

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  6. I have a ten-letter solution and here's a good EIGHT-letter solution: EIGHTHLY = THIGH + LYE.

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  7. jan's posting of this week's puzzle on last week's thread got the following three replies:

    I replied on Sun Aug 16, at 05:20:00 AM PDT:

    I have very quickly come up with a word that's one letter longer than the example.

    I then replied on Sun Aug 16, at 06:00:00 AM PDT:

    Blaine, would you object to some of us posting how many letters long our single word is? (I'm now up to 10 letters long!)

    ...and Blaine replied on Sun Aug 16, at 08:06:00 AM PDT:

    I'm not opposed to people posting the total letters in their single word.

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  8. I can't seem to get started on this one. Must be anxious about my eye doctor appointment tomorrow. How is anyone coming up with a 10-letter word with two anagrams?

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  9. God bless you, E&WAf! I went there, typed in two words I'd been toying with, hit RETURN, and BINGO! -- I've got a 10-letter answer which is plenty good enough for me.

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  10. Paul (and maybe Dave also),

    I'm now wondering if perhaps we have the same 10-letter-word answer. Would you agree that Andy's anagram solver is some very great distances ahead the one Blaine was using?

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  11. I found three nine letter words that work, but couldn't find any more than that. I went through a few on-line 100,000 word dictionaries, and checked every possibility. One of the three is a very familiar word, as are the two anagrams.

    Finding out if two words rhyme is a bit of a challenge computationally, of course!

    I'll submit a nine-letter answer, hoping that the longer ones are not 'familiar words'.

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    1. Found the 10 with a longer word list :)

      Delete
    2. I wonder if I might divert this week's thread to submissions of better, downloadable word lists.

      I'd like to see word lists including all plurals of all nouns and all conjugations and tenses of all verbs. I've seen a number of word lists whose top page includes aardvark and aardwolf, yet neither aardvarks nor aardwolves.

      Delete
    3. I ended up using Grady Ward's page at http://icon.shef.ac.uk/Moby/

      It has a nice list of pronunciations too, helpful for rhyming

      Grady is a hero of mine long term, it's nice to finally use his data.

      Delete
  12. Okey-dokey, EaWAf, I am on that same page.

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  13. I knew I wouldn't stay ahead of WW for long. But I'm curious about Wordnerd's 13 letters.....

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  14. Me, too, ecoarchitect. . .It was hard enough to get to 10!

    Wordnerd, might you hint gently at your word, show us your summer dip(th) thong or two?

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  15. Oh, yes, EaWAf, it sounds like that's the same 10-letter one I got. But we are all to be blown away by the 13-letter answer. It is interesting that no one has found one with 11 or 12 letters.
    ---Rob

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  16. EaWAf - Thanks for pointing us to Andy's a anagram tool. Add me to the list of folks who had a ten letter rhyming pair but who missed the anagram. Andy's tool is simply far better.
    Like several others, I'll wait for WordNerds reveal on Thursday. For me at least, ten is enough.

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  17. There's always pencil and paper and/or Scrabble tiles, my preferred anagram tools sometimes. I have my (tactile) reasons. . .

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  18. Manual methods are fine, and fun, for six letter anagrams. But for ten letter anagrams, with 10! possible arrangements, I'll stick with technology.

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  20. SuperZee,
    I agree with you. That is why I am not working on this crappy puzzle. It is nothing but a time waster with no reward. By that I mean no insight or knowledge is gained by solving it. I have better things to do with my time than this. Lately all we get is super simple puzzles or almost impossible crap. What is the satisfaction that comes from writing a computer program that will solve this? I suppose for a very few who enjoy doing that kind of thing it may have some reward, but I still don't see the point. I just a week ago again sent WS another of my puzzles for consideration before I allow Lego to use it. My puzzle is the kind WS uses, except that it requires some intellectual knowledge, which is sadly lacking in his offerings. I have no illusions that he will stoop to using one of my puzzles, but I only submit them in order to prove to myself that I am not misjudging him. If I sound a bit disgruntled, you are mistaken. I am gruntled!

    For a real puzzle I would suggest the CarTalk offering for this week, it is a logic puzzle and more difficult than the good one they had for last week. No lists required in either case.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Most times, I'd agree, SuperZee. This time, once I had the two words I was fairly sure were "the ones" I then went to the Scrabble tiles and the one word popped right out. Because of the special nature of this word, it was easier to see it this way as it does not appear on all lists used in all anagram tools (Andy's is the exception). It's the honey bear all over again. . .

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  22. So what is a "familiar" word? Familiar to whom?

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    1. I suppose "familiar" is in the mental dictionary of the beholder. One of my 10 letter words (and I think WW, Rob, and EaWAf have the same) is pretty familiar, though some may quibble that it should hyphenated. My second 10 letter (and WW's) is definitely obscure and seldom seen.

      All of my combo words are very familiar.

      But that's all for naught if Wordnerd has blown us away with a 13 letter answer.

      Delete
    2. What fun to sit back and wait for Wordnerd's 13-letter word! I happily sent my ten-letter submission in yesterday.

      I am okey-dokey with the teensy-weensy clue ecoarchitect provided, too. A hyphenated word is a word after all.

      Do you a have word in mind, Ruth?

      I might have worded the puzzle like this:

      [Will's EASILY introductory paragraph]

      "Think of two one-syllable words that rhyme. Rearrange the letters of both words into one ten-letter word that has two different vowel sounds in each of its two syllables. The two one-syllable words may not have any overlapping letters."

      This would have made a closed-end puzzle. And, a good one I think.

      And add "For Extra credit: Think of any longer words that fit the above criteria."

      Thoughts?

      Delete
    3. It's hard to parse clues, at least in the beginning. I didn't have a problem with the wording of the clue, and even kind of enjoy the torment of an open-ended puzzle - apparently SDB wants to know where he's landing, and a hare-brained scheme is not his preference.

      Who knows, there may be something we're not seeing.

      Delete
    4. Wouldn't that make us a bunch of Nazis?

      Delete
  23. Have to agree with skydiveboy. Playing WS weekly puzzle game is becoming annoying.

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    Replies
    1. What are you saying here? Skydiveboy said he's sitting this one out. (I'm with him there.) If you're agreeing with him, does that mean you don't really have a 13-letter answer?

      Delete
    2. There could be a problem with the 13-letter solution in that Wordnerd may have missed, or forgotten, about the stipulation that each single word may not have any letters that are in the other word and that these two words must also be single syllable words. In the past I have thought I had quickly solved a puzzle only to re-read the question again and notice I had missed a stipulation which destroyed my "solution." In any case I am rooting for the 13-letter solution to be acceptable.

      Delete
    3. To add to SDB's comment: Again radio listeners may have been disadvantaged by the fact that when WS repeated the puzzle on air, it was only a partial restatement. The single syllable requirement was skipped.

      I hadn't spotted the 10 letter answer on Sunday. On Monday I think it was Ron's comment that led me to the answer.

      Delete
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  26. Must disqualify my answer...hmmm back to work here!

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    Replies
    1. Sorry to heart that - I hope you'll at least tell us what it was on Thursday. In the meantime, here is a consolation prize - from Queen..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY0WxgSXdEE

      Delete
    2. Sorry too, but slightly relieved that we hadn't missed something.

      Freddie Mercury was definitely out of this world.

      Delete
    3. Me, too. More relieved than a bunch of aardwolves. . .

      Thanks for the song, SuperZee. It's today's earworm!

      Delete
    4. It was very apt. I kept singing it to my self - for every candidate rhyme pair that wouldn't anagram into a single word.

      Delete
    5. Yes, SuperZee, thanks for the royal dust-up. Coincidentally, I just linked to another, somewhat more flamboyant, Queen song in my Tuesday Puzzleria! puzzle answers, posed weekly.

      AnotherOneBitesTheLegoLambda

      Delete
  27. Having said that I was giving up on this puzzle, I have to admit that I found myself driven to continue searching for a solution, and I did find a 10-letter answer. I know, I'm warped. Anyway, I am a bit surprised that Will chose the examples that he did.

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    1. We knew you would determinedly and doggedly find an answer, jan. All warping aside.

      Delete
    2. Being warped can certainly be a driver.

      Delete
    3. Adverbially, there's a lot of hinting going on here.

      Delete
    4. Hmmm....

      "I wonder what Will was thinking?", asked Tom quizzically.

      Delete
    5. jan, your Tom Swifty came swiftly today.

      Since we were discussing the Gold King Mine in Colorado:

      "I'm wearing a ribbon round my arm," said Tom with abandon.

      Delete
  28. With the some of the 16 leftover letters from my 10 letter response, you can form a word which can be anagrammed into two shorter one syllable rhyming words, with no letters in common.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. David,

      That is beautiful!
      I hope you get the call, just so you can reveal that little fillip of elegance to Will and Rachel on-air.

      LegoThenRachelOrWillWillSay"ThatMeritsTwoLapelPins!"

      Delete
    2. I like the sound of a little fillip. . .in the right situation, of course.

      Delete
    3. Raises a slight unclarity in the puzzle - can one of the shorter words use the same letter twice? For example chic + peak to get chickpea.

      I think the answer is yes. Of course I might be obfuscating, I've been called worse.

      Delete
    4. See my EIGHT-letter answer above: EIGHTHLY = THIGH + LYE.

      Delete
    5. Yeah, I think CHICKPEA and EIGHTHLY are both legitimate. Perhaps a double letter in one of the shorter words could get us past the 10- letter barrier. But, I'm not going to look. . .(Of course, jan said something similar.)

      Delete
    6. My second set of rhymes had no repeated letters anywhere.

      Delete
  29. My answer brings up that same dilemma, Eco. I wouldn't worry about it. Just use your best judgment.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Like SDB, I never submit. No interest in going on the radio, and while the lapel pin might be cute, the other prizes don't do anything for me. I just enjoy the mental exercise and the witty banter here.

      Too late I realized there was perhaps a decent puzzle in: "Take (2) 1 syllable rhyming words, move the last letter to the front in one of them, combine and you get a food item"

      Delete
    2. ecoarchitect, I couldn't resist Milton's "Paradise Lost" to "I never submit," especially with the reference to Will:

      All is not lost; the unconquerable Will,
      And study of revenge, immortal hate,
      And courage never to submit or yield:
      And what is else not to be overcome?

      Delete
    3. Actually I do submit my answer each week. I will turn them down if I ever get the call. I wouldn't wear the pin to a public stoning. But then again, I hardly ever attend public stonings anymore. Those who are younger though, seem to think they rock.

      Delete
    4. A-HA! WW, from your quote I've figured out your secret identity:
      1) You are a geologist, i.e. you work with rocks underground, and a hammer is a common tool for geologists
      2) You are in Colorado (Spanish for red colored)
      3) You happen to know a particular quote from Milton, and I checked who said those words.
      4) Earlier you mentioned, "tan gents", one could write that you happened to "say tan" .... gents. Slip of the forked tongue, eh?
      5) You always seem to be in good humor, i.e. you never "get cross".
      6) You see multiple sides, one might call you a "loose if-er".

      Need I go further?

      Delete
    5. Interesting compilation, ecoarchitect. I got them all and now respond:

      1) Red hammer, right?
      2) See 1).
      3) Yes, you got me. I read Milton's Paradise Lost while sitting on the banks of Paradise Pond at Smith.
      4) The "say tan" I prefer is seitan or meat wheat.
      5) I have definitely been known to "get cross."
      6) I do see multiple sides and that is a good thing in my book. The kindergartners and I do work with fireflies and luciferinase, quite an interesting and promising chemical.

      Yes, these words I do submit.

      Well, and I know already that you do submit ;-).

      Anything else?

      Delete
  30. OK, Thank you Super Zee, I did indeed bite the dust, but hopefully can share my Failed Answer now..(.I did find a 10 letter one that complied..) .UGH ! My 13 letter disaster was Sleigh/Cutaway ...Causeway- light...but of course that one would never have worked! Obviously two separate words..Sorry everyone! However I have been enthralled with the word "Inveigh" Go figure?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hmmm, Wordnerd, both cutaway and inveigh are > 1 syllable so. . .Dund Dund Dund, Another One Bites the Dust. . .

      Delete
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  32. Darn it...Shame on me...completely missed the one syllable rule...Must be time for me to bow out gracefully...Am wheezing from the "Dust"! Must go Sway Neigh in the wind right now....You guys are awesome, please forgive me for trying to play in your league! You're all so fun!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wordnerd, hope you'll keep coming back. We do have our fun moments, thankfully! Really, Blaine's is the reason many of us keep coming back for the NPR puzzle, tan gents and all. . .

      Delete
    2. Wordnerd,
      I don't think any of us want you to go away, at least not yet anyway. It is sometimes easy to miss a stipulation or two in these puzzles as they are stated sometimes. As I posted above, I have too. I would suggest that after you think you have solved a puzzle, you go back and read the question again carefully. Oh, I almost forgot, it also helps to solve them when sober. I learn this almost every week.

      Delete
  33. Thank you Word Woman! I'll come back, but will be very quiet...

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  36. Replies
    1. Thanks, Wordnerd!

      (You may stay ;-)).

      Delete
    2. Blaine, we could use more clean-up here than in the Gold King Mine in southwest Colorado. . .

      Delete
  37. Word Woman, forgive me one more time, but I noticed that you are a geologist in Colorado...My grandfather, and father worked the mines in Leadville. Are you familiar with that area?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wordnerd,
      Hey guy, you really should delete an earlier post of yours. The one: Wordnerd Tue Aug 18, 07:34:00 PM PDT . You really do need to play by Blaine's rules. Thanks in advance.

      Delete
    2. Yes, Leadville is a beautiful spot with lots of good hiking, old mines, and interesting geology. There are hundreds of abandoned mines in the area and part of the area is a Superfund site (or more proper verbiage now, on the National Priorities List (NPL)).

      Gold and then silver, and most recently molybdebum or moly, were/are (well, mostly were) big in Leadville. I am guessing your dad and grandfather worked at the Climax molybdebum mine 13 miles northeast of Leadville. Do you know where they worked?

      Delete
  38. Actually my grandfather passed away before I showed up on this planet, But I have Photos of him working the "Lucky Strike" mine in Leadville.(Silver) My dad worked with him when he was really young. I loved getting to see the area as a child, when we went back to Glenwood Springs to visit relatives. We always took side trips, and Leadville was just one of them, besides Silverton, Ouray, Basalt... Apoligize for taking up this space , but thank you Word Woman, for your reply. Will now behave, and not take up this awesome space for anything not related to the Puzzles.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Wordnerd - Add me to the people who hope you'll keep playing and posting here. We've all had our near misses. They're what make it fun and challenging.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LIGHT-YEARS >>> SLEIGH, TRAY

      "Doggedly and determinedly" both include ly, the abbreviation for light years.

      Delete
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  40. LIGHT-YEARS = SLEIGH & TRAY

    It is somewhat funny how I finally solved this one. I was not going to even try, but like jan, I could not help thinking about it from time to time, especially on my daily bike rides. At first I thought it might be a word ending in OUGH. On my Tuesday bike ride the word SLEIGH came to mind and I thought I should see if I could do anything with that later when I got home. Later I pulled up Andy’s Anagram Solver and tried all the *RAY words with SLEIGH. I tried SLEIGHTRAY FIRST, but I did not see that it had located an answer. It was in small type and I completely missed seeing it and so I continued with other four letter words ending in RAY. Later that evening when Wordnerd realized his errors and posted I saw he had used SLEIGH with CUTAWAY, and I almost posted to him that I had also considered that word earlier today, but it did not work. Not to mention that his second word is 3 syllables! I decided not to bother, but sometime later that same evening when WW asked him to delete his post I went back to Andy’s and typed in LIGHTYEARS. I went to the bottom of the long list of two word results and right away saw TRAY & SLEIGH. I thought this was odd since I had typed in SLEIGHTRAY earlier with no result. So I decided to try it again and as I typed in SLEIGH the drop box opened and showed all the earlier SLEIGH_RAY entries I had tried earlier and so I clicked on SLEIGHTRAY in the dropdown box and at first it again looked to me that it had found nothing, but when I looked closer I saw it had indeed found LIGHTYEARS, but it was in small print and blended in to my eyes. So, I had discovered the answer earlier in the day on my own, but did not know it until several hours later that evening.

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  41. LIGHTYEARS ==>>SLEIGH TRAY
    I don’t want to talk about the time I spent trying to anagram TORQUE and CHALK into an 11 letter solution.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SuperZee, the CHALK and TORQUE rhyme doesn't work for my ears. CHALK rhymes with WALK, TORQUE rhymes with CORK.

      Delete
    2. I agree about the lack of rhyme there. I spent too much energy trying to get an anagram out of SQUAWKS and PHLOX.

      And I bet many tried every combination of THROUGH + BLEW/ KNEW/ VIEW/ SKEW/ FLEW etc.

      Delete
    3. A phlox on both your houses. Assuming, of course, you have a summer home.

      Delete
    4. Funny, but to my ear, Torque and Chalk rhyme perfectly. But you have to remember that I'm originally from New Yawk.

      Delete
    5. Mind your L's and R's and W's, New Yawker SuperZee. Forget the P's and Q's. . .

      (The apostrophes aren't really right there, but it looks weird without them.)

      Delete
    6. In the Bronx, where I come from, fork, squawk, and walk all rhyme.

      But it's better than Boston - I don't pahk my cah on yahd..

      Delete
    7. Purple, silver & orange have no words that rhyme with them, so what rhymes with W ? See the answer HERE, only if you give up.

      Delete
    8. In keeping with the light-years answer I was thinking Hubble view. Or bubble goo.

      No rhymes with orange?
      That makes me unhinge!

      Delete
    9. What rhymes with "W"?
      Here's my clue..

      Delete
  42. LIGHTYEARS -> SLEIGH, TRAY

    > Having said that I was giving up on this puzzle, I have to admit that I found myself driven to continue searching for a solution, and I did find a 10-letter answer. I know, I'm warped.

    Nothing like warp drive when you've got lightyears to go.

    > Anyway, I am a bit surprised that Will chose the examples that he did.

    Odd that he picked examples that rhyme with the answer.

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  43. Yes, E&WAf, now that it's Thursday, I'll concur that Andy is, in some respects, ahead of the grave arcanum. Way ahead of me, at any rate.

    I may have dropped an unintentional hint.

    Froydian slip.

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  44. When presented with all those common letters in SLEIGH and TRAY and the possibility of a RIGHT or LIGHT or SIGHT ;-) word within the 10-letter word, I said "pish!" to the two anagram tools I tried.

    Not trusting the technology and going to trusty Scrabble tiles made me feel like a true, happy honey bear.

    Ship it!

    ReplyDelete
  45. Really? REALLY? Since when is "lightyears" - something that doesn't even pass basic spell check, constitute a word, much less a familiar one? Glad I didn't play this week.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, not for a light-year, Ruth, but for a while:

      LIGHT-YEAR

      And, according to Buzz LIGHTYEAR, too. ;-)

      Delete
    2. I'm with you, Ruth! Now that I have seen the answer, I'm glad I devoted absolutely zero time to trying to solve this!

      Anagrams aren't really my thing anyway.

      Delete
  46. Even if you're correct, WW, if hyphenated words were in the universe of options that WS had in mind this week, things might have been more interesting. And if you didn't get the call this week (and you don't have to say yay or nay to that), I'll be as stunned as Buzz Lightyear after his eyeballs were sucked from their sockets!

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  47. My stab at the CarTalk puzzler, SDB:

    (Assumes your friend has some locks of of her own.)

    Put one of your locks, unlocked, inside the box. Mail it to your friend.

    Your friend takes your lock out of the box, puts one of her locks, unlocked, inside, locks the box with your lock, and mails it to you.

    You unlock the box with your lock, remove your friend's lock, place the valuable object inside, lock the box with your friend's lock, and mail it to her.

    Is that close to what you got?

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  48. I thought some, like Ruth and BK, might quibble with light-years (my clues included
    1) being ahead/ behind of WW,
    2) "hard to parse clues" - hidden in that is parsec = 1.3 ly,
    3) SDB wants to know where he's landing, and a hare-brained scheme is not his preference - there was a 1987 or so French animated film called Gandahar; Light Years was an alternate title.

    With those hidden words I couldn't resist adding "Who knows, there may be something we're not seeing."

    The second 10 letter answer I had was spray+neigh = Hypsiglena, a "genus of small, rear-fanged, colubrid snakes commonly referred to as night snakes". I noted this was a little sneaky (snakey?).

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    Replies
    1. " small, rear-fanged, colubrid snakes" Beg pardon for the filthy reference, but, "rear-fanged"? WTF Are you familiar with a little ditty I am ashamed to know, beginning, "The cabin boy, the cabin boy, the feisty little nipper ... "?

      Delete
    2. Bob K, ow.

      ecoarchitect, I stopped at light-years. My okey-dokey, teensy-weensy reference to being sneaky was to the hyphen. Glad to know about Hypsiglena, though.

      Delete
    3. Bob K,

      I am happy to say I didn't know that ditty, and will do everything I can to eliminate it from my memory.

      Until your post I didn't know much about rear-fanged snakes, but there's a nice, brief discussion at http://christopherjrex.hubpages.com/hub/Front-versus-Rear-fanged-Snakes which includes the line "Since rear-fanged snakes are significantly less efficient at transferring venom, they must bite and hold onto their prey (and, in some cases, actually "chew") in order to effectively envenomate them."

      I will try to use the word envenomate every day now, even though this blog's spell check doesn't like it.

      Delete
    4. Tried using "envenomate" with the kindergartners today. It was interesting and snakey.

      I occasionally see a comment here which appears to envenomate. Might I suggest "en vino, mate" instead? ;-)

      Delete
  49. TWO 10-LETTER SOLUTIONS:


    1. LIGHT-YEARS (10 letters) = SLEIGH + TRAY


    2. GYNARCHIES (10 letters) (governments by women) = NEIGH + SCRAY (a tern or sea swallow)

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    1. GYNARCHIES >>> NEIGH, SCRAY is inspired, ron.

      Perhaps gynarchies will be on the rise, becoming more familiar every year. . .

      Delete
    2. I though gynarchies were comics in which Betty and Veronica star...

      Delete
    3. Or shoes for women with high arches. . .

      Delete
  50. For the alternate puzzles:
    1) Take the word love, change the first letter to the next letter in the alphabet and you get move. The two words share the same letters except the first, but don't rhyme. Find another word where you change the first letter to the next in the alphabet, where not only don't the words rhyme, but no letters in the words are pronounced the same. I have 2 answers.

    My answers were bough ---->cough ---->dough

    2) The words love, move, and rove change only the first letter, but none of the words rhyme. What is the combination of words that share all but the first letter but none of them rhyme? (Adding dove or cove to that list doesn't work, as they rhyme with love/ rove).

    Might stir some controversy here, but I was thinking:
    gas - has - was - bas (as in bas-relief) I've heard people pronounce "bas" differently, but usually it's much like "boss" or "bah".

    If you don't think bas is a word on it's own, the alternate is:
    bases (long a, soft s)
    gases (short a, soft s)
    tases (long a, s pronounced as z)
    vases (assuming the more British pronunciation with a short a and a z sounding s).

    3) What are the longest words that share all the same letters except the first but don't rhyme?

    If that isn't enough controversy, I have 3 possibilities for this, and a lot depends on what one's rules are for whether words rhyme.

    7 letter: drought vs brought or wrought. There's also casting/ fasting/ lasting vs basting/ pasting/ tasting/ wasting. Or binging vs. singing; lounger vs. younger

    8 letter: daughter vs laughter. I hope there aren't crashing keyboards here. Could also say discount vs viscount, bringing vs cringing might raise some hackles.

    10 letter: would one say deposition and re-position rhyme? Last 3 syllables do, but they are identical. Do grandfather and godfather rhyme?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "ough" is pronounced 7 different ways, one of the peculiarities of English: click HERE.

      Delete
    2. exactly, people who know that tidbit can guess the answer very quickly.

      Part of the fun of having a "mutt-er" tongue, though it's rough to get through for people learning the language, hence they cough up dough for classes.

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    3. After I got your first two puzzles, ecoarchitect, I threw in the towel as I'd used up my puzzle time with light-years.

      Daughter and laughter--wonderful and inspired and inspiring!

      For me, deposition and re-position are OK but not inspired. Same with grandfather and godfather. . .

      Delete
  51. …Smokers and chokers and suicide bombers,
    Specks, Geins and Gacys, Ted Bundys, Jeff Dahmers,
    Roosevelts (Teddy, among the best trust-fighters!),
    These are a few of my favorite dust-biters:

    tryst (British long-I pronunciation) + diced = strict-dyed
    beaux + strows = bow-surtaxes
    through + spew = through-pews
    crew + slough = ghoul-crews, gruel-chows
    gnus + ooze = zoo-genus
    booze + gnus = bozo-genus, bug-snooze, bogus-zone, bung-oozes
    sleighs + craz = czar-sleighs


    I would be surprised if [sleigh + tray = light-years] is not Will’s intended. But I am willing to be surprised by a greater-than-ten-letter answer, either from him or an entrant.

    I was hoping that a Blainesvillian might get the call this week. Thought the odds were in our favor.

    Welcome to the Blainesville Family, Wordnerd.

    LegoFirmlyEnsconcedInTheBogusZone

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks legolambda to not only you, but skydiveboy, WW and SuperZee :)

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  52. Above I wrote "With the some of the 16 leftover letters from my 10 letter response, you can form a word which can be anagrammed into two shorter one syllable rhyming words, with no letters in common." The word is UNDO, from which you can form DO and NU.

    ReplyDelete
  53. Close. My solution is to simply have the friend mail an unlocked lock without the key. Then all you have to do is put the item in the box and lock it with the lock.

    ReplyDelete
  54. My best effort was HYGIENE=NIGH+EYE. Lightyears or light-years never occurred to me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. HYGIENE is only 7 letters, ONE better than THE GIVEN EXAMPLE!

      The first rhyming pair of words I thought of was SIGH and RYE, which Andy's anagram solver showed me anagrams to GREYISH.

      BTW, I also submitted LIGHTYEARS --> SLEIGH & TRAY.

      Delete
  55. No matter what Moose-jan and Squirreldiveboy do, my solution is breaking into box with hammer, tongs, blowtorch, whatever. Why be neat about it? Or else just keep it all, lock, crock, and bauble. What is "friend" going to do? Scream "no fair, you lousy cheaters" ... all the way to Siberia? Haha!
    What you think, Natasha? Won't Fearless Leader be proud of me?

    ReplyDelete
  56. jan,
    Do you think Paul may be taking this CarTalk puzzler just a tad too seriously?

    ReplyDelete
  57. Thanks to all of you for your kind welcoming notes! I've already learned a great deal from you, so hopefully I'll read directions more closely,and not post an early answer (Word Woman, that was truly unintentional , but you are "Light Years" ahead of me:) I too came up with LIGHT-YEARS. Am really interested in what Will comes up with.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Going down the wrong track is par for the course. As far as I've seen the only unforgivable sin on this blog is to prematurely reveal the answer. Doing so with too obvious a clue will get you a rap on the knuckles; doing so directly will vilify you forever, and your screen name will live in infamy - until folks forget it.

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

    ReplyDelete
  59. Not at all. If the KGB is capable of intercepting the mail and copying keys, they're certainly not above picking a lock or using bolt cutters. Which is why so many "provably secure" cryptosystems haven't been. And why Paul never gave Ashley Madison, or us, his real email address.

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  60. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  61. I guess so. Maybe he used a drone.

    ReplyDelete
  62. bullwinkle at gmail dot com

    I was headed down a similar path, jan. . .

    ReplyDelete
  63. One more (inspired by Word Woman, see top of comments):

    BEAUX + THROWS = BEAR-TUX-SHOW


    LegoPenguinsJustComeAsTheyAre,EternallyTuxed

    ReplyDelete
  64. Are jan's deleted comment and the little shield symbol up in the corner in any way related?
    Should I click on Load unsafe scripts?
    Gotta sleep sometime.

    ReplyDelete
  65. This is beginning to remind me of the rational numbers.

    ReplyDelete
  66. Paul,
    What are you on about? It sounds like you may be suffering from PTPD. (Post Traumatic Puzzle Disorder.)

    ReplyDelete
  67. Paul, if you're using the Chrome browser, the little shield in the upper right means that some kind of content was blocked, maybe a pop-up. The comment I deleted was one of the unintended duplicate postings that's been plaguing us.

    ReplyDelete
  68. I misunderstood the puzzle and looked for one 10 letter word with only two vowels. Needless to say I was pretty frustrated looking for a rhyme in that mess. :)

    ReplyDelete
  69. patjberry, your submission is at least intellectually honest, and for that reason I hope it prevails. Not to cast aspersions on WordWoman or anyone else whose creative genius came up with the ersatz "familiar" hyphenated word. WS has some fessin' up to do.

    ReplyDelete
  70. Er-satz fam-iliar hyphen-ated wo-rd, Ru-th? Ha-rumph!

    Though I should say that I have had a light year in 2015, with my daughter's college graduation and move to Africa. Last year was a dark year. But, this light year is light-years ahead of 2014.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And, Ruth, henceforth, I would like to change my screen name to Word-Woman ;-).

      (No call yet, btw).

      Delete
  71. WW, you are a treasure-trove-of-witticisms-and-intelligent-humor-the-likes of-which-I've-never-seen. May all your years be light. Is your daughter still in Africa and will you visit her there?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ruth, thank you. May all your years be light as well.

      My daughter is at the beginning of her 27-month Peace Corps commitment in Amhara, Ethiopia. I would very much like to visit her before she returns stateside in October 2017. Wishing light years for her as well.

      Delete
    2. Btw, Ruth, I occasionally post images and news of my daughter's Peace Corps adventure over at Partial Ellipsis of the Sun. We would love to have you visit and/or join the conversation.

      Delete
  72. I also sent in LIGHTYEARS = SLEIGH + TRAY.

    ReplyDelete
  73. I had more fun with Thad Beier's reference to Grady Ward's page at http://icon.shef.ac.uk/Moby/

    I never heard of .tar files, and finding out how to get at them was interesting - like the tidbits of information that Blaine used to part with every now and then.

    I wasted time on Sunday with the "ough(t)" bunch. It was Ron's "eighthly" that got me into the "eigh" groups that were sitting there all along in my 7000+ short word pairs. I also appreciated his "ought" reference.

    ReplyDelete
  74. Thanks, jan. I'm accepting the pop-up hypothesis. I think fairies are involved.

    ReplyDelete
  75. Sad news about Will's "old pal" Merl Reagle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Quite sad news. Thanks for sharing, Lorenzo.

      I'd heard this quote before and it makes me think of us at Blaine's: "Language is a playground, that never ends.”

      Thanks for your wit and wisdom, Mr. Reagle. May you rest in peace; may you have every word for every nook and cranny.. May no one again spell Merl "Merle," and may your playground know no bounds.

      Delete
  76. Next week's challenge, from listener Sandy Weisz of Chicago: Name a famous military figure of the past 50 years. The first three letters of his first name and the first three letters of his last name are both well-known military abbreviations. Who is it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've said this before about many past puzzles here and I say it again about this week's puzzle:

      There are many out there who will figure out this week's puzzle in two seconds; - and then kick themselves for not having figured it out in less than ONE SECOND!

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    2. Almost all three-letter combinations are military abbreviations.

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    3. I agree, you can solve this one very quickly (but don't hold me to that!)

      Delete
  77. While not a great puzzle, its subject is a great man, His is a true American success story. He is one of my heroes, and a man with whom I share a proud link.

    ReplyDelete
  78. On the website this morning, Will lists these answers: light-years; chickpeas; physicked; heapingly. ---Rob

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fill the feedbag heapingly, please, Wilbur.

      Delete
  79. He was the first abbreviation for 3 years and 4 months, and never the second.

    ReplyDelete
  80. Thursday, Sept. 10 8:30 p.m.

    ReplyDelete
  81. The first one is a great friend of mine and the second one was my father

    ReplyDelete
  82. Anagram: How some might describe what the FDA just approved.

    ReplyDelete
  83. I'm feeling a bit irritable this morning so I will bow out of offering a clue to this easy puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
  84. I used CMU's list of phonetic spellings to get the one-syllable rhyming words (surprisingly, only 15377 one-syllable words), and Grady Ward's list of 300,000 or so english words, to generate this list. 40 8 letter words, 5 9 letters, and of course the one 10 letter.


    pearlish plea shri
    periques qui spree
    plashier plea shri
    plowshoe plew shoo
    plowshoe pooh slew
    prefixal flea prix
    premixes prix smee
    reequips qui spree
    sleigher glee shri
    spraying ngai spry
    supercow coups rew
    twoscore screw too
    warmouth mau throw
    yachters che stray
    breeziest breeze tis
    chickpeas chic speak
    peckishly like psych
    physicked dike psych
    lightyears sleigh tray

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. actorish cha trois
      aquilege glee quai
      chariots cha trois
      cheshire cree shih
      chestier sci three
      chickees chic seek
      chickpea chic peak
      earlship plea shri
      eighthly lye thigh
      equalise quai slee
      estriche sci three
      etherish shih tree
      flashier flea shri
      fleerish flee shri
      fleshier flee shri
      harelips plea shri
      haricots cha trois
      heretics sci three
      holewort loo threw
      leerfish flee shri
      outdraws dau strow
      outsware eau strow
      outswarm mau strow
      outswear eau strow
      outwards dau strow
      outwears eau strow
      peachick chic peak

      Delete

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.

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