If I combine the first names I get a third person.Q: Think of four 4-letter proper names that are all anagrams of each other. Two of them are first names — one male and one female. The other two are well-known geographical names. What names are these?
Edit: Liam Neeson and Mila Kunis starred together in the movie Third Person
A: LIAM, MILA, LIMA, MALI
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.
If I were Kris Sandine, I'd be pissed at Peter Sagal for hogging all the air time today. I like Wait Wait as much as the next guy, but having a celebrity play-along guest was a bad idea.
ReplyDeleteI had the same thought. Irritating to say the least.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeletePeter Sagal and the WWDTM crew are taping here in Denver Thursday. We'll be sure to properly chastise him.
DeleteDo you have tickets? I saw the show in Chicago several years ago, when I was visiting a niece there.
DeleteI agree and I hate that stupid show. I call it, Wait, Wait, Don't Bore Me.
DeleteGood friends Mary and Tom have tickets. The show sold out very quickly; I missed getting tickets by a few hours. I shall pass along the message to them, though!
DeleteI like WWDTM, but must admit I have evidence supporting SDB's position. My wife and I have a weekend afternoon ritual: We turn on the show, lie down, and are usually asleep before the "Bluff The Listener" segment, waking up toward the end of "Lightning Fill In The Blanks". No prescription required. May be habit-forming.
DeleteI agree and said the same thing to my co-worker. He's in studio as well so that made his voice even more dominant.
DeleteI am lucky - I have a friend with the name and I tried it early. ---Rob
ReplyDeleteOh that's great, um… Who's your friend?
DeleteI searched the Internet diligently and came up with nothing.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis clue is a dead give away and should be removed. I had no idea what the answer was, but after reading this oddly worded clue, I knew exactly where to look.
DeleteSorry, I posted this same one below and removed when I saw this. A rather unfortunate event. The first version, I mean.
DeletePerhaps obvious for an unintended answer. Not so for the intended answer IMO. There are enough of those below. See you Thursday ;)
DeleteAll four names are also all boy names.
ReplyDeleteSecond choice answer: NOAM (Chomsky) MONA OMAN MA'ON.
ReplyDeleteHey! I was going to post that!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteOther contenders:
DeleteDean, Edna, Aden, and Dena
Aron, Nora, Arno (river of Florence and Pisa), and Oran
Cole, Cloe (or Cleo), Ocle, and Elco
Neal, Lena, Alen, Alne, Anle, or Elna
Jean, Jane, Jena, and Enaj.
Not sure these reveals are kosher, but I sent in Dean, Edna, Aden, Dane (one from the geographical area of Denmark), and Ande (if one of the Alps is an Alp, then one of the Andes must be and Ande, no?).
DeleteI sent in the same answer also.
DeleteI wouldn't post an acceptable anagram before Thursday, lest SDB name me Harriet.
DeleteThere is a Dane County in Wisconsin, and some towns by that name, but hardly well known. Same with the French commune of Andé.
Terrain tremblant, Messieurs.
DeleteDane is the name of person from the geographic area Denmark. It fulfills the condition of "being a geographic name."
DeletePuzzle asked for geographical. Merriam Webster says:
Delete1: of or relating to geography
2: belonging to or characteristic of a particular region [e.g.] the geographic features of Ohio
Dictionary.com allows the term to apply to the population too, but I'm pretty sure it's not what the PM wants. Still doesn't solve the Ande issue, people of that part of the world are called Andeans.
Blaine's clue confirmed my answer, a rarity that I actually got his clue.
I have Blaine's threesome with my answer also. The Dane, the American, the Brit are all "well-known geographical names" of persons.
DeleteI don't think so, eco. My understanding is the people of Peru are called Andys. It is common to hear people say, "You should be sure to see the Peruvian Andys."
Delete"Well-known geographical names" of places: Elba, Bâle (French for Basel)>>>Abel, Bela.
DeleteThere are also "well-known geographical names" of persons, as we have seen, the Dane, the Brit, the Italian, the Finn, etc.
I like your pluck, but to be frank you're in for a disappointment.
DeleteIn reality, I sent in 3 answers, two of them yours. Also Blaine's threesome is actually a foursome. I will post Thursday.
DeleteShowing my age: I wasn't familiar with the female name until I looked it up and discovered that it is now quite popular.
ReplyDeleteThere’s something dark about this week’s puzzle.
ReplyDeleteWell, beans...
ReplyDeleteIf you crane your neck far enough as you're looking at the list of names, you'll come up with the answer.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteYou too! Really!
DeleteWho are you referring to, 11thplace?
DeleteTommy Boy
DeletePretty swanky puzzle...
ReplyDeleteAm I crazy, or did they skip the letter P for the girls' names category? And I'll add my agreement that the guest contestant was an annoyance. We should all send them some strongly-worded postcards saying as such.
ReplyDeleteI'm a long-time lurker on this blog, but now that I'm here commenting I just want to let you all know that you're a pretty cool batch of commenters, and I get as much enjoyment out of reading these comments as I do listening to the puzzle each week. :)
Welcome, RB!
DeleteSpeaking on behalf of Peter Sagal, I'd like to say "Thank you and Patty."
Are you calling me a son of a batch?
DeleteYes, neither of them could come up with a 5-letter girl's name beginning with P such as Paige, Patsy, Pearl, Peggy, Penny, Phebe, Polly and others...
DeleteI had almost forgotten that skydiveboy's real name is Mark.
ReplyDeleteSeveral posts this week included the word "post", which I took as a hint for MAIL, another arrangement of the four letters in question. I believe skydiveboy's was first.
DeletePOSTMARK
There is at least one person I've heard of with the girl's name. One of my geographical names also sounds like a girl's name.
ReplyDeleteHaving twice had my solution rejected by the NPR website, which does not like my browser, I really miss the postcard days.
ReplyDeleteThere is something to be said about that system!
DeleteCards can get lost in the mail.
DeleteIn past years I would give it a stamp of approval and send it on it's way!
DeleteNice one, Jan.
DeleteI regularly use Mozilla Firefox and occasionally use Internet Explorer. Haven't had any problems with either.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that the two geographical names are anagrams has come up a number of times on this blog. The most recent occasion was about two years ago; I think the time before that was in 2014. It also showed up in 2010. But none of those times were either of the place names used in the actual puzzle for the week.
ReplyDeleteThe anagram pair was used, though, in an on-air puzzle in 2004!
Rearrange the eight letters from any two of the four names to form two words that might have been enthusiastically intoned (in the form, "It's ___ _____!") by a "homer" play-by-play announcer or color commentator during a game in which:
ReplyDelete1. LeBron James had scored 48 points on the way to a triple double;
2. Paul Warfield had gained 213 recieving yards and scored three touchdowns; or
3. Ichiro Suzuki had gone 4-for-4 with 8 total bases, plus two stolen bases.
If we focus only on the two geographical names, you can add strings of letters to the end of each to form two new words: a geometrical term rooted in snails, and an adjective rooted in spite. And be aware, very aware, that if your place those two strings of letters together you can form a 9-letter adjective.
LegoWhoEnthusiasticallyIntones"Touch'EmAllKirbyPuckett!"
Gee, an anagram challenge for a change.
ReplyDeleteI think there may be only one answer, even though I'll bet Short Willy is the only here one to have known the odd name out before today.
Hard to say whether the celebrity guest player is a bad idea in general or if they just started off with the wrong one.
I'd happily trade this puzzle for a hill of beans.
ReplyDeleteNow is the season of reflection and/or genuflection for many people.
ReplyDeleteDo you have documentation for that?
DeleteBe careful of reading health books, you might die of a misprint.
Delete-Mark Twain
This is what some Jeopardy™ contestants refer to as "a Karen Quinlan" question. No clue here, just a grouse.
ReplyDeleteI'm unfamiliar with that term. Is it supposed to mean one so easy it can be answered by the brain-dead?
DeleteIndeed. If nearly 1000 folks sent in answers for griddle/knife/fridge/kindle, then I would guess that 1500 will do that for this week's puzzle. If not, then we know that 1000 is a ceiling.
DeletePointy
ReplyDeleteJeopardy tonight had a great hint.
ReplyDeleteYou won't hear me say a word about it.
DeleteI can't hear here.
DeleteSunday's celebrity guest is a brilliant host on his own show , but proved to be ill-matched with "our" show : the gentle play of words, their meanings, usages, grammar, etc...it's a "language" show, not an urbane comic "current events " show. I think we already have it all : the all-knowing unflappable Puzzlemaster, the lucky contestant (anxious nevertheless) and the cheery host assistant, ready to smooth over any rough spot which could possibly arise....and then .....we have THE PIN !..I have seen World Series Rings for sale in pawn shops several times, but NEVER a Weekend Edition Lapel Pin. On Sunday, the whole pace of the Puzzle was off...there was so much agitation that I was left breathless, and I may even have blacked out, because afterwards I couldn't remember a word that was said !!!!...no improvements needed, i.m.h.o.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteWell said, Big Ron. Peter Sagal is fine on WWDTM, but on Sunday he was a puzzle piece that just did not seem to fit in.
DeleteNPR ought to scotc this guest celebrity experiment (I infer that it is now going to be "a thing.")
This past Sunday, at least, was a case of too many cooks spoiling the broadcast broth, of three's company but four's a cacaphony. We learned little about the on-air contestant -- these non-celebs are often quite interesting and entertaining (although, admittedly, I was pretty boring when I basked in my own "6 minutes and 53 seconds of infamy").
Sunday's PETER SAGAL star-turn broadcast was like the LARGEST APE in the jungle thumping his chest and overshadowing Tarzan (Will), Jane (Lulu) and Boy (Chris, the contestant)... or like the LARGEST APE in New York City lumbering roughshod over Times editors (like Will), Fay-Wrayish damsels (like Lulu) and innocent men in the street (like Chris, the contestant).
LegoWhoLikesToThinkThatLessIsMore...MoreOrLess
Regulars here may remember when Seattle's super large tunneling machine, Big Bertha, broke down and it took a very long time to repair. Well it just a few minutes ago broke through at the finish line. It will now be dismantled and the tunnel is due to open in 2019.
ReplyDeleteAnd you called Peter Sagal a big bore!
DeleteThere can be more than just one big bore.
DeleteSo, did Bertha see her shadow when she emerged? Does that mean two more years of traffic jams?
DeleteAfter all that time I imagine she was blinded by the light. As to Seattle traffic, it will always be congested due to all our hills, bridges, being surrounded by water and other problems.
DeleteI see that elected officials were on hand, risking not being identified by those who can't tell an ass from a hole in the ground...
DeleteYes, but our mayor is a great guy and a strong opponent of Trumpelstiltskin, as is our city council.
DeleteThat is exciting to hear that Big Bertha broke through. I hope it does some good on the traffic congestion, though. What an engineering feat to get this far. Here's a brief article about Big Bertha.
DeleteWhen I was growing up they were building the St. Louis Gateway Arch. It seemed like it took a long, long time to see it completed. Time has shown that it was worth it, though!
But were they in a state of rapture at this holey event?
DeleteI'm so sad I missed the live stream of the event. I guess I'll go back to watching the other live emergence for April.
All huge projects just take a little time!
DeleteBreaking news, ecoarchitect! I see the head!
DeleteIt took a moment, but then I spotted it.
DeleteOMG, that is great!
DeleteYou really stuck your neck out, Jan.
DeleteI wonder how happy a giraffe is in upstate NY, where the winters are long and cold. "Zarafa", the book about the real trip a giraffe took from Africa to Paris was a good read, the film is just a little bit off.
I think most giraffes are about as happy as they want to be.
DeleteI think a giraffe's reach should exceed its bite, Or what's a seven-foot neck for?
DeleteLegoBrowningNosing
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis is for SDB: Noam Chomsky on Trump's first 75 days. Read it or watch it.
ReplyDeleteron,
ReplyDeleteThanks for that link. Very interesting as Noam always is. (I watched it) I wonder where he is flying off to now.
Day two of the Noam Chomsky interview:
DeletePart I on Syria.
Part II on Fascism in the U.S.
ron, Those are parts of the larger piece you linked to yesterday.
DeleteYou are right. My error.
DeleteI have to revise my original observation that there seems to be one answer, since I have found another girl's name that works.
ReplyDeleteUnless I am way off, I don't think the PM has any choice but to accept both.
Godfrey Daniels!
ReplyDeleteLiam Neeson played Godfrey de Ibelin in Kingdom of Heaven.
DeleteAs our failed leader meets with China's leader in Florida today the media are speculating on the outcome, instead of waiting to find out at the end of the day, when I am sure it will just be another case of, he said; Xi said.
ReplyDeleteMedia speculation is to justify the newscasters' jobs. It is just a scam.
DeleteNatasha, perhaps you didn't understand my joke?
DeleteI got it...but I wanted to make my point. Very clever!!!
DeleteThanks, and I do agree with your comment.
DeleteAlso, did not want to give it away so others could have the fun too.
DeleteLIAM, MILA, LIMA, MALI
ReplyDeleteLIAM, MILA, LIMA, MALI
ReplyDelete(also, DEAN, EDNA, ADEN, ANDE, DANE)
> I'm reminded of a musical duo.
Jan and Dean.
> Cards can get lost in the mail.
Another anagram.
Also:
Delete>> Jeopardy tonight had a great hint.
> You won't hear me say a word about it.
THE ROCK & ROLL QUINTET
This quintet became a temporary quartet on "MTV Unplugged" in 1996 when singer Liam Gallagher had laryngitis
What is Oasis?
I wrote, "I am lucky - I have a friend with the name and I tried it early." This happens to be true, but the hint is that the first four letters in that post are the ones I used: LIAM, MILA, LIMA, MALI. ---Rob
ReplyDeleteLiam, Mila, Mali, Lima
ReplyDeleteLast Sunday I said, “There’s something dark about this week’s puzzle.” As in Mila Kunis in The Black Swan.
LIAM, MILA, LIMA, MALI
ReplyDelete"Now is the season of reflection and/or genuflection for many people." as in LIAM (K)NEE-SON.
"Pointy" refers to the cactus genus and species, MILA caespitosa whose genus is, itself, an anagram of LIMA, Peru. WS is not the first anagrammer, by a long shot.
As luck/coincidence/giant puppetry would have it, our Dames and Docs group watched a video of the ruby mines in Montepuez, Mozambique, featuring MILA Kunis, on Sunday evening.
Was your reflection/ genuflection a reference to Liam Neeson as narrator for the TV documentary 1916, which told of the Irish uprising on Easter Monday 1916?
DeleteNo, eco, it was to kneeling and (K)Neeson, but, I like your idea.
DeleteOF course you wrote that at the beginning, but I got caught up in the cacti and mines....
DeleteI can see how that might happen. . .
DeleteIck! Maybe that's why Dems choose to remain spineless.
DeleteAs a substitute for Mila, there is Amil Kahala Whitehead, a 38 year old American rapper that I figured Will had heard of but not the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe hints in my Sunday @ #:57 PM post, explained:
ReplyDeleteRearrange the eight letters from any two of the four names to form two words that might have been enthusiastically intoned (in the form, "It's ___ _____!") by a "homer" play-by-play announcer or color commentator during a game in which:
1. LeBron James had scored 48 points on the way to a triple double;
2. Paul Warfield had gained 213 recieving yards and scored three touchdowns; or
3. Ichiro Suzuki had gone 4-for-4 with 8 total bases, plus two stolen bases.
The homers might have intoned, "It's ALL MIAMI!", which has double A's, I's, L's and M's.
(James played for the Miami Heat. Warfield played for the Miami Dolphins. Suzuki plays for the Miami Marlins.)
If we focus only on the two geographical names, you can add strings of letters to the end of each to form two new words: a geometrical term rooted in snails, and an adjective rooted in spite. And be aware, very aware, that if your place those two strings of letters together you can form a 9-letter adjective.
LIMA + CONS = limacons
MALI + CIOUS = malicious
CONS + CIOUS = conscious = "aware,very aware"
LegoWhoIsAware,VeryAware,ThatHeIsSlowAsASnailMentallyAndSpitefulAsAShrewEmotionally
In reality, it's limaçon. The Ç or C cedilla means the consonant is pronounced as a S, so ÇONS + CIOUS would be pronounced "SONSCIOUS."
DeleteLIMAÇON
DeleteI came up with Neil, Elin, Nile, and Inle which is a lake region in Myammar.
ReplyDeleteBlaine's clue (I think) referred to the movie "Third Person", which starred Liam Neeson and Mila Kunis.
ReplyDeleteI wrote to Ron "I like your pluck, but to be frank you're in for a disappointment".
- "Third Person" was directed by Paul Haggis, and we all know haggis "is a savoury pudding containing sheep's pluck". Yum.
- To be frank referred to the film's partial setting in France.
- Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a "disappointing" 24%.
The film "Zarafa" was a bit off in that the character's name was Maki.
My "taken" clue was also a reference to Liam Neeson. Sorry to cause such a ruckus.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think your clue was obvious at all, until I solved it. I certainly didn't use it to solve it either. Isn't that how posting hints on here is supposed to work?
Delete1st choice: AMIL or LIAM = MILA or ILMA = MALI = LIMA.
ReplyDeleteSo Blaine's threesome becomes a foursome: Amil, Liam, Mila, Ilma.
Lego: “It's ALL MIAMI!”
2nd choice: DEAN = EDNA = ADEN = DANE (a “well-known geographical name” of a person).
All four names here are boy names as well.
Blaine's threesome for this solution: ED, NED, ANA. (For examples of ANA, click HERE).
3rd choice: ARON = NORA = ARNO (the river) = ORAN.
I submitted all 3 solutions.
AMIL, MILA, LIMA, MALI
ReplyDeleteMila Kunis is the only Mila I've ever heard of. Mali is pronounced the same as "Molly". I found AMIL, didn't even think of LIAM.
I got the place names first before the names.
ReplyDeleteI tried a few names first and got nowhere. ANDY and DYAN came to mind, but couldn't think of any place names.
LMP
DeleteLima and Mali were part of a puzzle several years ago
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteMali was part of answer Aug.22, 2010.
DeleteSearched diligently, peruse, Peru-Lima
ReplyDeleteLiam Mila Mali Lima
The boy's name I arrived at ( with the help of Google ) is Amil ...I think that's just as good as Liam , but we shall soon see !... (personally if I had it all to do over, I'd name him John, and then call him "Jack"....he'd have an easier life )....Listening on the radio, I was "breathless, ? blacked out and couldn't remember" , because Lima is around 5000 feet and I had altitude sickness.
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. just fired over 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian air base. Those missiles cost about $1.6 million apiece, so that Syrian air base just destroyed about $80 million worth of U.S. missiles. I wonder how much damage was done to the air base?
ReplyDeleteProbably a lot of damage to the base. I wonder how many Russian advisers/ tech folk were killed, and how Moscow will respond?
DeleteI hope they have the constraint to only release the videos and tax forms, and nothing deadly.
I think it is interesting that Trump had this sudden "awakening" on how bad a person Assad is or had been. Trump has a steep learning curve ahead of him on many issues.
DeleteIt is ironic, around here, how this attack occurs on this particular day. In Kansas City, MO, they commemorated the 100th anniversary of the USA entering WW1. In KC, we have the Liberty Memorial and WW1 Museum, so it was a big deal around here. Even the French Patrouille Acrobatique team (similar to the AF Thunderbirds or Navy Blue Angels)did a flyby over downtown KC.
DeleteI just hope this administration knows what it is doing!
Close a few Planned Parenthood sites, cut back on schools, Social Security, National Parks, and PBS and we should be alright.
DeleteWWDTM was being taped last night as news of the 59 US Tomahawk cruise missiles hitting Syria was breaking. And our Governor Hickenlooper was the guest. . .
DeleteOK, I know were were talking about that show just a couple of days ago, but we were talking politics more recently, so when I saw this post, I tried to parse it like those WWJD wrist bands: Who Would Donald Trump Murder? Women Whom Donald Trump Married? ...
DeleteYou were close: Women Whom Donald Trump Molested.
DeleteMuch longer list, eco. . .
DeletePeter Sagal presses Gov. John Hickenlooper about a Presidential run in 2020 during WWDTM. My friends at the taping in Denver last night said it was especially hilarious and revealing.
I thought the Accoster-in-Chief's comment about Bill O'Reilly (he did nothing wrong) was telling: he didn't say O'Reilly didn't do it, which implies that what he did was not wrong.
DeleteTo cop a phrase, "Hey girls, I helped you get this job, how about a little tit for tat?"
I'd sent in AMIL, MILA, LIMA, MALI before realizing that LIAM also worked, and that it was probably the PM's intended answer. This made me pine for the postcard days, when I would have still had the card on my desk, waiting to go into the mail. Recognizing mail as a sixth anagram, I lamented the passing of the "postcard days" In my comment.
ReplyDeleteThe new Puzzleria! is now sitting at your cyber-doorstep. Just open "Joseph Young's Puzzleria!" on Blaine's PUZZLE LINKS.
ReplyDeleteWe are proud to feature this week a challenging puzzle created by our friend ron. It involves a vital albeit underappreciated and unhyped mark of punctuation.
We also offer these additional puzzles:
1. one ripped from recent headlines,
2. one with an answer that is not the sartorial trademark of Orville Redenbacher or Paul Simon,
3. four rip-offs of Will Shortz's name-game-anagram puzzle, including one composed of five (count 'em, five) poems, and
4. for dessert, a grammatical Whitman Sampler!
Also, here a cryptic couplet, that may come more into focus come April 9:
Yes I realize my puzzle's too easy...
Not too hard on me I hope you'll please be!
LegoMusesThatThereAreSeldomSlimPickins'InWhitman'sSamplers
I sent my thoughts about the new celebrity guest role on the Sunday Puzzle segment to NPR via their comments page, and got back a polite reply that said they're "very interested in feedback from Sunday Puzzle fans" (in case you need a break from dunning your congresscritter). They also said this experiment is planned for April and May, so now is the time for your input.
ReplyDeleteI just now did the same and received their stock reply.
DeleteI got the robo-reply on Sunday, and an email from Kendra, in NPR Audience & Community Relations, today.
DeleteNext week's challenge: Name a well-known U.S. city in two words. Replace each of these words with a word that rhymes with it, and you'll name a large sea creature in two words. What is it?
ReplyDeleteHey, Berf, you buried the lead: This week's challenge comes from listener Joe Young of St. Cloud, Minn., our own legolambda!
DeleteCongrats, Lego! I started telling my wife this week's puzzle, got as far as "Name a well-known U.S. city in two words...", and she blurted out the answer without knowing about the sea creature part. Whereas I had the devil of a time figuring it out.
DeleteRhymes with something Gorsuch will never do.
ReplyDelete@jan some people can be such wet blankets
ReplyDelete