Q: This challenge involves a spoonerism. (To recap, that's where you exchange the initial consonant sounds of two words to get two new words. For example, a spoonerism of "light rain" is "right lane.")
Name two animals. Exchange their initial consonant sounds, and the result in two words will be the name of a third animal. What is it?
A: BUNNY + HARE --> HONEY BEAR
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.
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.
Given the example, can I assume phonetics are more important than spelling?
ReplyDeleteOui, wee, whee!
DeleteIs it OK if the first two animals aren't so different? Now that I've posted, back to breakfast.
ReplyDeleteWell there's always PIG, BUG yielding BIG PUG.
Deleteyes to Bryan and Jan for my answers. watchu eatin jan?
ReplyDeleteAs I've hinted, a cereal so politically incorrect, they had to change the name.
DeleteOh, wait a minute, if it's what I now think it is, I think I like my "in one word" answer better.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI was wrong. I missed the "in two words" part. Back to the drawing board.
ReplyDeleteOnly 315 correct entries last week. We had over 350 responses on this blog. Vacationitis or NPR's server? This was not a puzzle that had me hopping to the internet.
ReplyDeleteToday's on air puzzle is how it goes in my "NPR caller nightmare," complete with the brain 'ffreeze' we all get at times and Rachel's overdoing the praise a bit at the end. Perhaps I hope I don't get called, after all.
ReplyDeletezeke creek, 350+, oui, but the bulk of those were the triple rhymes, yes?
I'm with you, WW. I've already decided if I do get the call, I won't answer. A lapel pin just isn't worth the humiliation of freezing or worse on a national radio program. Now if the prize was money, I might reconsider.
DeleteSounds like an unorthodox Hebrew.
ReplyDeleteIsn't that what you see an orthodontist for?
DeleteMellow-bellied yarmot?
ReplyDeleteWhat do you serve to vulpes vulpes?
DeleteOh, btw, over 350 instances of fun :)
GOAT, MOOSE, MOAT-GOOSE (A goose to swim around in the moat around your castle)?
ReplyDeleteSo I am playing with names using the "( ) at" sound, as in "(c)at" and "(r)at." Thought of "ringtail cat" and "kingtail rat." Googled the latter to see if it exists.
ReplyDeleteIf you dare, click the link to see the result https://www.google.com/search?q=king+tail+rat&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CCUQsARqFQoTCI_B2vKWi8cCFQyigAodgvANBQ&biw=1338&bih=630
But your link, (which, BTW, you could set up with <A href="https://www.google.com/search?q=king+tail+rat&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CCUQsARqFQoTCI_B2vKWi8cCFQyigAodgvANBQ&biw=1338&bih=630">link</A>), clearly shows that you were searching for king tail rat! (three words; we have been asked for "the result in TWO WORDS").
DeleteTIGER, LIGER yields a LIGER TIGER.
ReplyDeleteThe HERRING HOG is a type of porpoise. Performing the spoonerism, we get HERRING and HOG. Success! ---Rob
ReplyDeleteRob, ok for all intents and porpoises.
DeleteChecking in to say "hey," MrScience.
ReplyDeleteAnyone else have a solution in which the name of the two-word animal is somewhat oxymoronic?
ReplyDelete(a little bit of a pregnant pause)
DeleteI can see that, Lorenzo. I can see that, Paul
DeleteAntithetical?
DeleteHypothetically, of course.
Anti-and uncle-thetical, surely.
DeleteMy answer, as often, seems inexpertly redundant.
ReplyDeleteHow about from redundant to oxymoronic?
DeleteYes, exactly. But now, haven't we just given away the answer?
DeletePerhaps a species-ous argument?
DeleteOnly if you'd already known it.
DeleteMais, oui, zc (see above, way above).
DeleteHmm... if there's such a thing as a bat ray (like a manta ray), and one allows horse colorations, then I think I've got it. Just kidding! --Margaret G.
ReplyDeleteCurly Larry, Moe or less.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHow about a LOOSE MOUSE? MOOSE/LOUSE, not to mention mice & lice.
ReplyDeletePONY/BUG yields a BONEY PUG.
DeleteFILLY/SOLE yields a SILLY FOAL.
DeleteIs a Filly cheese steak made with horsemeat? It would be a silly foal who aspired to that.
DeleteFILLY/SOLE.
DeleteLegoLambIsFineButNothing'sBetterThanWhiteWine&FiletOfSoleWithPhillySoulPlayingOnTheVictrolaInTheBackground!
Has everyone missed CAT/FOX yielding FAT COCKS?
DeleteLooks bad for Beetle.
ReplyDeleteIf either Sarge or Ms. Buxley catch him with a Bunny hair on his uniform.
DeleteGetting back to the CarTalk puzzler:
DeleteThe time of year seems relevant, to me.
The fact that the guy's a salesman really doesn't, yet.
Unless the VW he's driving is a red microbus, carrying shovels and rakes and implements of destruction (bein' what he sells, an' all), in which case the motel owner prob'ly woulda taken the toilet paper out of the room so he couldn't roll the toilet paper out the window, slide down the roll and have an escape.
An occupation and a whim??
ReplyDeleteYou could say that.
DeleteI'm going to be in Ft. Walton Beach, FL for the weekend. If by some miracle they pick me again(I won't hold my breath), I won't even be home Thursday to take the call. Besides, I'm not even sure I have the right answer to this one. I do know I've got the two good puzzles on Puzzleria! answered, so that's something. Depending on whether or not I can find time at the condo to do next week's Puzzleria!, the Guardian Prize puzzle, the Private Eye crossword, the Guardian Everyman puzzle, and next week's Sunday Puzzle(if my two young nieces can keep occupied with something else and they won't be wanting me to play with them), then I'll do that. Otherwise we'll just be enjoying Florida for the umpteenth time.
ReplyDeleteYou could joke about that last post, but just know if all my word puzzle ability were to go away tomorrow, I'd still have the love of Mia Kate and Maddy. They can never take away my being a fun uncle.
ReplyDeleteI think I meant word puzzle-solving abilities.
DeleteIf you crossed a reality TV show star with a classic TV cartoon co-star...
ReplyDeleteSquirrel!
ReplyDeleteadd em together and they have a quad middle name.
ReplyDeleteHaving written "Dog vase the Queen!" four weeks ago, I should note that the eponymous William Archibald Spooner himself is said to have proposed, "Let us glaze our asses to the queer old Dean".
ReplyDeleteBUNNY, HARE -> HONEY BEAR
ReplyDelete> Is it OK if the first two animals aren't so different? Now that I've posted, back to breakfast.
> ... a cereal so politically incorrect, they had to change the name.
Post Golden Crisp used to be called Sugar Crisp, and was hyped by their smooth-talking Sugar Bear mascot.
> Sounds like an unorthodox Hebrew.
Kinky Jew -> kinkajou -> honey bear.
> If you crossed a reality TV show star with a classic TV cartoon co-star...
Say, Honey Boo-Boo and Boo-Boo Bear...
Kink a kinkajou, a kink a kink ...
DeleteStop the music, stop the music!
Everybody wants ta get inta the act!
DeleteAnd good night, Mrs. Calabash.
DeleteBtw, was Sugar Bear voiced by Bing or a sound-alike? I know I could Google it, but it's more fun this way.
Great to learn about the kinkajou (funniest clue of the week, jan).
DeleteI only knew of the American Black Bear, the Sun Bear, and the Sloth Bear. The chest markings on the latter two are spectacular.
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DeletePaul, Gerry Matthews was the sugar bear but
DeleteJerry Mathers was the beaver.
Let me Google that for you
DeleteBut,
Deletewhich came first,
In the Hall of the Mountain King
or
Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho
?
http://wrongplanet.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=101688
DeleteWhich brings up a between-puzzles downtime thought:
DeleteMy in-laws, who went through the New York City public school system in the 1930s, roughly, described learning about classical music, or at least titles and composers, through mnemonic lyrics sung to their themes.
E.g.:
In the Hall of the Mountain King, Mountain King, Mountain King,
In the Hall of the Mountain King, from Peer Gynt Suite, by Grieg.
Or, from another movement in that piece:
Morning is dawning, and Peer Gynt is yawning,
That's Peer Gynt, by Grieg, the Norwegian composer.
(In Brooklyn, "morning" and "dawning" rhyme.)
Others I remember them telling me about include:
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik das ist,
Written by Herr Mozart, not by Liszt.
This is the symphony that Schubert wrote and never finished.
Overture, overture, William Tell,
Overture, overture, William Tell,
Overture, overture, William Tell,
By Rossini.
I've been unable to discover the text, if any, that contained these mnemonics. Many years later, Josefa Heifitz (daughter of violinist Jascha) published a version of these, some of them original, I think, in From Bach to Verse, which I didn't think was great.
Does anyone know of others of these, or of a earlier source?
Try Sigmund Spaeth's "Great Symphonies and How to Recognize Them." There are copies on Amazon in several languages.
DeleteMore accurately-- full author name and title:
DeleteSigmund Gottfried Spaeth
"Great Symphonies: How to Recognize and Remember Them."


That was fast! Thanks, WW!
Delete
ReplyDeleteBUNNY, HARE >>> HONEY BEAR
"Oui, wee, whee!" referred to the A. L. Sykes short story Wee Hare and the Red Fire.
"Curly Larry, Moe or less." refers to the Sesame Street character, Curly Bear, who is often referred to as HONEY BEAR. >>> CURLY lives in a LAIR(Y), MORE or less.
"Squirrel!" refers to the Abert Squirrel as in "A bear" as in HonA BEAR.
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ReplyDeleteI tend to think of a HONEY BEAR as one of those plastic squeeze bottle things you see in the supermarket, or maybe a character in a book for children, but I guess other people use the term to refer to an actual animal.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the Difference Between Rabbits and Hares?
For one, they're separate species—and hares are bigger, have longer ears, and are less social than bunnies.
So maybe a charge of redundancy is ... unwarrented.
Or maybe not. Maybe BUNNY is an umbrella term encompassing both the HARE and the rabbit.
Like DOG.
All HOUNDs are DOGs, but not all DOGs are HOUNDs.
I think a DOWNED HOG is more chimerical than oxymoronic.
Unless you're talking about that other type of DOWNED HOG, whose numbers have probably increased by several thousand since I started to write this ... then it's just pork.
Cob, bat -> bobcat breaks the rules. Unless you have a pet tomcat and decide to name him Bob in a pathetic attempt to garner a lapel pin.
I hope there's a better answer. It would be a great relief. [cob:bull::pen:cow]
Paul, I think of honey bear as the honey squeeze bottle thingie, too, or my favorite feline, Maizie May.
DeleteWW, you have a cat named Maizie May? Doesn't that get confusing when you call out "Here Maizie, here Maizie?"
DeleteOr, even worse, when you call out "Here Maizie, Maizie, Maizie."
DeleteCanine, of course! Too much "cat" talk this week over at Partial Ellipsis of the Sun, I guess. . .
DeleteRabbits, bunnies: I think we're just splitting hares now.
DeleteIs that a rare bit in your comedic repertoire, jan?
DeleteBetter than my operatic repertoire.
DeleteSHEPHERD, LARK >> LEOPARD SHARK
ReplyDeleteThe animal name "shepherd" includes several dog breeds.
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DeleteWhew.
DeleteI like it, Barbara H!
DeleteWill Will Shortz like it? Not sure.
DeleteHe'll like it.
DeleteWill he admit it?
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DeleteBarbara H.,
DeleteLeopard Shark, shepherd, lark… Very nice answer! Hope Mr. Shortz’s interns are on the ball. If he spots it, Will will bite. When he does, Will Shortz should shout in exaltation like a crèche figure!
That said, I believe WS’s intended answer is bunny, hare, honey bear. But you might/should have a spot… I mean, shot at the lapel pin... but I guess not because you probably would have told us you "got the call.".
LegoAwayInAMangerWithMangyBearsHares&SheepTenders
Maybe. It would be nice if they said some of the answers they considered.
DeleteThe puzzle didn't say official or formal animal names. Many dog breeds have "shepherd" in their names. If people saw a German Shepherd Dog, Anatolian Shepherd dog and an Australian shepherd dog playing together, they might say something like the shepherds are playing together. A Wikipedia entry uses the heading "shepherd dog." It's an informal, not uncommon way to refer to some dogs.
They might, but we still wouldn't know if they were referring to the three shepherd dogs or the three human shepherds who were also playing together. Also if they, the dogs, were playing together, who was watching the sheep? Oh, I forgot about Allah.
DeleteI thing the heading 'shepherd dog' is indicating a following list or description of dogs who play together, I meant work with sheep herds, not a particular animal. Picky huh?
oh bother, no call again.
ReplyDelete...hopping to the internet-bunny, hare.
Congrats to those who got to Bunny Hare.
ReplyDeleteI got hung up trying to do something with Llama-Mouse yielding Mama-Louse but I couldn't see NPR going there.
I also tried to do something with Mother Goose - but although Moose was obvious, I couldn't find an animal called a Gother..
Oh well..
I have given 6 legitimate solutions to this week's challenge/puzzle and none of them were removed by the blog administrator:
ReplyDelete1. PIG/BUG yielding a BIG PUG.
2. TIGER/LIGER yielding a LIGER TIGER.
3. MOOSE/LOUSE yielding a LOOSE MOUSE.
4. PONY/BUG yielding a BONEY PUG.
5. FILLY/SOLE yielding a SILLY FOAL.
6. CAT/FOX yielding FAT COCKS.
And the winner is:BUNNY/HARE yielding a HONEY BEAR.
I'm not sure if it's the intended answer, ron. SHEPHERD, LARK >>> LEOPARD SHARK is growing on me. . .
DeleteHow about COB/BAT to get BOBCAT
ReplyDeleteGreat minds think alike, Scott; they tend to ignore trivial details.
DeleteYestheydo.
DeleteEver tried to change where you leave your comment and Blogger says "Oh, no you don't!"
I really hope there's a different answer than bunny/ hare. Bunny is not the name of an animal, it's an informal term, used mostly by pre-schoolers and geezers aspiring to be Hefner.
ReplyDeleteI intend no disrespect to those that got that answer, I just wonder if the Puzzle has dropped an (Ed) peg or two.
I agree. I checked in reluctantly, debating on if I should keep thinking about it, having looked at several good animal lists. I've actually never heard of it applied to an animal name.
DeleteI haven't seen (or thought of) a better alternative. And, multiple people getting it -- wisdom of the crowds -- is leaning toward it.
But, one last thing is stuck in my craw: this answer could have had the puzzle stated as, "Think of two different animal names for the same animal..." This wording would have been slightly easier, but more clever and elegant, IMHO.
Oh, I was thinking that it was a nickname for, like, actual ursine animals (albeit in children's books), and didn't know kinkajou's were called this.
DeleteA bit more legitimate than I originally thought.
Although it has me wondering, what other animal nicknames are out there that I've never heard?
They are different species--bunny rabbit vs. hare as Paul's link points out. Different gestation times, habitats, names for the young, etc.
DeleteOr maybe we should just call a coney a coney. . .
Sure enough! But is it Easter Bunny, or Easter Hare? What is a jackrabbit? Is the honey bear more closely related to bears, or honey badgers?
DeleteOrder, please!
Yeah, that's probably the answer. It's a weird mix of colloquial animal names for sure. But at least now I'm certain I wouldn't have solved it!
All great questions, mike_hinterberg. Throw in a jackelope for good measure while we're at it.
DeleteWe've all heard of bunny rabbits, but most likely not bunny hares, right?
And learning about the kinkajou made it all worthwhile for me.
So ordered.
Sorry WW, there is no species "bunny rabbit", except in the minds of candy makers and women exploiters.
DeleteOtherwise you're a Class act and surely a Genus. As to Will's clues, Phylum under futile.
ecoarchitect, did you type that in pika?
DeleteI ought to have said (bunny) rabbit, I suppose. In any case, you made me laugh and that is a good thing.
Take two different animals (one word, two syllables each), say then in alphabetical order to get what sort of sounds like a third animal, again one word.
ReplyDeleteDavid,
DeleteI thought your puzzle would be easy, but I was wrong. But I like it. Though I have not yet solved it. I am not giving up, but I also have to work on Puzzleria!
My Aunt Monica, who always kept a bowl of fresh pears as a centerpiece on her breakfast nook table. It attracted “fruit flies.” She called them “pearbugs.”
My Uncle Elmer hunted waterfowl on a swampy pond on his property. He called his prey “bogducks.”
LegoIThinkMCDonald’sNowHasFluteFriesOnTheirMenu…Groovy!
I did not solve this one. I congratulate anyone who came up with any of the posted solutions. That being said, I expected I would be laughing at myself today when I learned the answer, but that is not the case. I do not find any of these answers acceptable as the puzzle is stated. I am glad I did not spend much time on this one either.
ReplyDeleteThere is no such animal as a honey bear, nor is there any such animal as a Shepard.
I've heard the term honey bear used colloquially for black bears and the Malaysian sun bear (as well as kinkajou's as others noted), so I was willing to forgive that jump in terminology. Can't do the bunny hop though.
DeleteStarsky and Hutch fans will remember Huggy Bear.
Ursus, foiled again! ;-)
DeleteIf honey bear is acceptable, then I would insist that chocolate bear is too. I won't mention salmon bear, or berry bear, or garbage-can bear, or running bear, or runny-nose bear. I also will not mention Playboy Bunny either. I promise.
DeleteCloak we all.
DeleteWait for it. . .
Those Playboy Bunnies are usually bear, too, I hear...
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DeleteJust the bear essentials. And while there is no teddy bear, I bet some of them had them.
Delete
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dhSdnDb3tk
DeleteHaven't thought about that for many decades.....
Really fun!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteNatasha,
DeleteThanks
SDB: I was commenting on your first message and it got inserted in wrong place so I deleted it.
DeleteNatasha,
DeleteIf you mean the one at the top of this thread:
Thu Aug 06, 04:34:00 PM PDT
that is what I assumed you meant. And, thanks again. I always appreciate it when someone agrees with me.
Yes, that is what I meant. I could not solve this puzzle.
DeleteLOVE IT!
ReplyDeleteVT,
DeleteSince your above post is isolated, and not in a thread, some of us are unsure just what it is you love so much.
Winnie T. Pooh is a family favorite.
DeleteTake Jan's clue of Honey Boo Boo and Boo Boo Bear: replace the middle initial T. with the B.B.B.B. and your left with Winnie Boo Boo Boo Boo Pooh.
Like SDB, I didn't solve this one. I solve most of them, probably 50 a year, but not this week. The fact that two or three answers have been posited tells me that the puzzle isn't terribly elegant. As for the probable answer, Shepherd, Lark, and Leopard Shark, I understand why I didn't solve it; Lark and shepherd are categories of animals, not animals in their own right. And, arguably, a shepherd is someone who tends sheep, and the canine is a shepherding dog. I guess I feel a little nit-picky today.
ReplyDeleteThough I did like the cleverness of the Leophard Shark answer, I agree Shepherd is not an animal name. But I don't have a problem going on a Lark, it is a species of bird, just like, say, a Turkey, which is an appropriate response for this puzzle - unless there's something we've all missed. Something to Crow about.
DeleteI think the intended answer will be the bunny/ hare fiasco, and I Lagomorpha-bulous answer.
All this discussion of Bunny Bugs you? ;-)
DeleteWhat about - LLAMA MINKS -->> MAMA LYNX?
ReplyDeleteOh, I don't know. Sometimes CLOAK WE ALL ISMS are quite interesting, fun and/or weird.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking of "The Lark Ascending." The poem by the English poet George Meredith. It was later put to music by the great British classical composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and it too is called "The Lark Ascending."
ReplyDeleteNow, form a mental picture of a lark ascending. That was easy. And now think of a Shepard ascending. Did you visualize a Dog floating upward? Probably not.
I have no problem with Lark, but Bunny and Shepard and Honey Bear, come on!
This puzzle was no lark!
There he goes. Wave goodbye!"
DeleteIf you'd Laika picture of a Shepherd ascending higher, how's this?
Another Shepard ascending.
Enjoyed the Shepherds and Shepards, jan.
DeleteHow about Annika Sörenstam? She parred also. . .(and even better--birdy, lark, what have you ;-)).
Huh. Birdie, eagle, albatross, condor, lark?
DeleteWas the last one Alien Shepard?
DeleteFull disclosure: Laika was a mutt, not a Shepherd, Soviet scientists chose to use Moscow strays since they assumed that such animals had already learned to endure conditions of extreme cold and hunger.
DeleteThen maybe we should have sent John Cainine.
DeleteSpurs another puzzle:
DeleteThink of a well-known politician, first and last name. Spoonerize their name, and you get a sport, roughly speaking.
I made that up as a joke many years ago.
DeleteI'm not at all surprised.
DeleteRight, and I suspect we both know of a politician who is unaware of this, but shouldn't be. One who is rather pale in comparison to some of the others.
DeleteMy farmer friend, David, made it up, too. And he couldn't even see Russia from his house. . .
DeleteHang gliding?
DeleteThe cobbler was not very adept at making shoelaces out of pieces of tanned leather, but he resolved to die skiving.
DeleteLegoGramaMizzlin’&HangGlidin’AreForSissies...ButSkyDivin’,Shoot!NowThatTakesMettle
jan,
DeleteI have to compliment you on your rather quick and clever response to my leaving myself wide open with my rhetorical question regarding the visualization of an ascending shepherd. I have been silently laughing all day. I think you encapsulated it well.
Here is what Maizie, my canine, visualized.
ReplyDeleteLet us know if she gets the call.
DeleteNext week's challenge: Name part of a car. Drop the fifth letter. Now reverse the order of the last three letters. The result, reading from left to right, will name a major American city. What city is it?
ReplyDeleteI know someone who's gonna find this puzzle to be a real kick in the pants.
DeleteYup. I came across this puzzle many moons ago.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI think most people will solve this puzzle the same way I did; -- working backwards!
DeleteSure thing Jan, this one just came hurtling down from the heavens.
DeleteInteresting that you say that EaWAF. I'd started looking at a list of cities, but nothing clicked as I went down the list. Then, when I started thinking about my car, it did.
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump clue: Matthew 19:24.
ReplyDeleteOlivia
ReplyDeleteAt first I thought I would need a little help but then, while driving on the turnpike, I got it.
ReplyDeleteI am still almost sleepwalking after getting up to take a whiz. I have to walk past my computer where I saw the puzzle and got the answer in a whiz, but that should no;t surprise anyone.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first heard the puzzle it sounded hard and I said to myself "I think I'll pass". In the end, what a mistake that would have been!
ReplyDelete