A person from Oman is an Omanganese, right?Q: This week's challenge sounds easy, but it's a little tricky. Name a well-known nationality. Drop a letter, and the remaining letters in order will name a metal — one of the elements on the periodic table. What is it?
Update: I included a better clue in the comments about whether Will Shortz ever tests these puzzles. Software companies will often release a BETA version of their software to let customers test features before the final version is released.
A: TIBETAN, remove β (BETA) and you get TIN
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.
I will be naming names.
ReplyDeleteI bet a lot of people will be flummoxed by this one, until they see the trick. Good puzzle.
ReplyDeleteWill gave the additional clue on air that the nationality and the language are the same. Splendid hint.
ReplyDeleteDo you speak irony?
DeleteAll the time, ron, on the sick Ferris Wheel at the Amusement Park.
DeleteHe also said there were "millions of people."
DeleteI haven't seen the trick yet, unless dropping a letter from the nationality leaves the symbol, rather than the name of an element, which would be bogus, IMHO.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if that's the trick, other answers are possible. I'm a citizen of the U.S. Drop any letter you like.
Deletejan, don't get Shortz with us!
DeletePathetic! I'm going back to finish watching Ken Burns' Vietnam War.
DeleteI saw the DVD set at the store the other day for about $30. I was a little surprised to see it so soon.
DeleteHaven't solved the puzzle yet.
I may have the answer and am not impressed.
DeleteUkrainian/Uranium really wants to work.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen the trick either. I assume it's in the interpretation of the puzzle. Here's what I want it to say: Name a well-known, unabbreviated nationality, in English. Remove one letter, and the remaining letters will spell the full name of one of the elements on the periodic table, in English.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Some solvers seem to relish "tricky" puzzles. I do not. That doesn't mean I want them to be easy. I just mean that once I realize there's some "trick" (for lack of a better term) involved, I lose interest. Just give it to me straight. For those of you who enjoy this, have fun.
DeleteA tricky puzzle for Halloween week? I'll not have any more complaining. . .
DeleteOn-a-par with last weeks 4³ and 1².
ReplyDeleteno-holds-barred
DeleteLast weeks puzzle was much better!
DeletePerhaps a 1 out of 10² for this week...
By George, I’ve got it! Can’t think of a good hint right now, but I’ll work on that later.
ReplyDeleteOK, here’s my musical clue: do re mi fa so la ti do.
ReplyDeleteChuck, you can't be serious?!
DeleteCarly Simon
ReplyDeleteBut what about Neil Sedaka? Not to mention Opus 31.
DeleteI am comfortable with both categories and have lists of both in front of me.
ReplyDeleteStill no solution, so I begin to wonder who I am going to be ticked off at, me or Willy.
Ooh, it really makes me wonder
DeleteMJ, perhaps you will be ticked off at one or both WS's, Will Shortz and William Shakespeare. But, I'm not sure.
DeleteWhichever one it is, I'm calling it the tickname.
DeleteI have the "trick." The answer is quite legitimate. Think outside the box. I also have a second answer which is a bit suspect.
ReplyDeleteNo abbreviations are involved and John Brown's formulation is accurate.
DeleteAn okay puzzle, though some my protest the wording.
ReplyDeleteBonus (loosely related) puzzle: Take the common name of a tree in six letters. Drop a letter, and the result will be the common name of another tree. No tricks. One tree is found in cool climates, the other in tropical zones.
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ReplyDeleteBonus Puzzle: Remove two letters in order to name a source of metal.
ReplyDeleteIf it were any other promulgator than Wee Willy, I would continue to waste time on this in belief that there is a nice tricky answer and not just the stupid one I have.
ReplyDeleteNote that only the metal is asked for.
I think I have a nice tricky answer and that is indeed tricky yet not annoying.
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed sly, but I love it. It may help that I have a degree in chemistry that I never use.
Except for today -- I guess I used it today.
I've slept on my answer and I think it's right. Like Jon, above, I think it's legit. And there are two "tricks," as I see it. The first -- I'll echo Jon's note to "think outside the box." The second -- I'll just say pay attention to the Chemistry.
ReplyDeleteI still haven't solved this one. I suspect that I'll groan a bit when I see the solution.
ReplyDeleteThe first trick I thought of didn't work, but the second trick did.
DeleteBen, I think you'll know when you have it, I only needed 1 "trick".
I hope it's not a giveway that I downloaded the handy metal list Jan posted at the end of last week's blog, and then cut and paste the Wikipedia list of people by nationalities.
Odd that we haven't heard from Lego all week.....
eco,
DeleteI've been preoccupied with trying to discover the atomic number of the criminal element Papadopoulos!
LegoWhoThinksThatWordsDon'tGetAnyFunnerToSayThan"Papadopoulos"...PeriodicallySpeaking
Somehow, I was reminded of The Beagle Boys.
DeleteDoes Mr. Shortz ever test these puzzles before throwing them out for solving?
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DeleteLove those Beagle Boys, Paul!
DeleteI'm not sure what Will Shortz's procedure is, Blaine, but over at Puzzleria! we always run each puzzle by my pet kitten, Smitten. If she solves them too easily, or is utterly stymied, I just toss them in her litter box.
Basically, my process goes something like this. Whatever sticks, or Smitten picks, goes into the Puzzleria! mix.
LegoWhoWondersIfCharlesDarwinWasABeagleBoy
He has admitted that he often does not even solve (test) them himself.
DeleteThere have been dozens of examples of the results of this approach over the years.
By the dearth of comments I'm guessing a lot of folks haven't solved the puzzle, or they are too busy collecting treats (or turning tricks). Edgar Allan Poe is a hint, though probably not very useful unless you were in my 5th grade English class.
Deleteeco, I agree. We're usually well past 100, often even past 200, comments by this time in the week. I haven't solved it yet. And, I think this week I'll just wait for the answer. I'm pretty sure I know what trick the puzzle uses, but I don't have the patience this week to sort through it.
DeleteEco, are you a Cal architect grad?
ReplyDeleteNo, I just live in Berkeley - SF is too expensive.
DeleteGotcha. You're an architect, right?
DeleteYes.
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ReplyDeleteThis puzzle was eating me alive... found this blog with a Google search in hopes of getting a nudge. Happy to say that I figured it out, and in hindsight I appreciate that no one here really offered much of a nudge at all. More of a "you can do it!" support group. Thanks, y'all!
ReplyDeleteBonus boys of summer Puzzle:
ReplyDeleteThe "home field advantage" for the World Series is determined by the All-Star game. The current sequence is games 1 and 2 are played at Team A's stadium, as are games 6 and 7, if necessary; and games 3, 4, and (if necessary) 5 are played at Team B's stadium.
Strategically, what is the most important game for Team A to win? And what is most important for Team B to win?
Provide justification for your answers.
The last one.
DeleteI need a number.
DeleteI have always thought that winning the first game is always a big strategic & psychological one to win. Usually, the best pitchers start that game and if you can beat that guy it is a big morale booster. Plus, if you can somehow wear him down, so much the better when you face him in a few more games.
DeleteIf you can beat the other team again, in game two, you are really in the driver's seat. Just don't get overconfident!
68C and SuperZee are on the track I was hoping for, but not exactly right.
DeleteI'll rephrase the puzzle: If a magic genie approached you, as the manager, and said "I will grant you victory in only 1 game, tell me which game number", which would you choose? And which for Team A and which for Team B?
Eco - I'm kind of thinking along the lines of Word Woman, you want to win the last one. But, putting that aside, I'd also want to win game #6, at least you'd know that your team is still in the running and, you have the ability to compete in what would appear to be an evenly matched series.
DeleteBuck Bard has the right answer.
DeleteWord Woman got it right away, I tried to deflect her answer in the hope that others would try to do some form of statistical analysis, and 68C and SuperZee obliged. I didn't say they were on the right track, only "the track I was hoping for". I never said I was a nice Puzzler.
The puzzle works well on heavy duty baseball fans, especially if you ask it after a few six packs.
I wonder if, potentially, there is more money to be made from endorsements and stuff, the longer the series goes? I assume WS pay stays the same no matter how many games are played.
DeleteThanks for the fun puzzle, eco.
Delete68C: Let's leave Will Shortz and his pay out of this. ;-)
WW - Ha! I didn't even think about that, good one!!
DeleteFox is certainly very happy that the WS is going to 7 games, they're earning more money to destroy decency and democracy.
DeleteI think the players only get paid for participating in the event (winners paid more than losers), not on how many games it goes.
Otherwise there'd be an incentive for another Black Sox scandal.
Buck Bard: I'm sure you can solve this puzzle!
They finally did away with the crazy All Star Game home rule! I have an element symbol and a nationality / language, but still not a spelled out metal element.
DeleteI didn't know they rescinded the All Star Game rule. How are my favorite team, the Washington Senators, doing this year?
DeleteElement symbols from nationalities are not what the puzzle is looking for, otherwise Lao --> La --> Lanthanum would be too easy.
Team A has to win games 1 and 2 to ensure that Team B can't win the series by sweeping its three home games.
ReplyDeleteConversely, Team B wants to win at least one of the first two games so it can, by winning three at home, end the series before returning to Team A's home field.
I found the answer and it was a tricky one! Reading the hints by several people here, I did realize my original answer was not right. The correct answer does indeed spell out the element in English, not an abbreviation. I am not sure how to give a hint without spilling the beans.
ReplyDeleteI am still not very pleased with the puzzle, though.
The last of the Trick-or-Treaters finally came by last night and I started to run ought of candy. To make things stretch a little longer, I printed out some pocket sized Periodic Tables, to hand out.
ReplyDeleteA group of four kids came by so I gave one to each of them.
The 1st kid said: "Look, The NPR Sunday Puzzle!"
A 2nd kid said: "Thank you sir, may I have another?"
A 3rd kid said: "Good, I'll put it next to my book of Trig values"
4th kid: "I dress up as Colonel Sanders & all I get is this? Why don't you throw in a pocket protector while you're at it?"
So far no damage to the house!
If you had given me and my friends a "pocket sized Periodic Table" on Halloween we would have left some elements on your doorstep, and they wouldn't be found in the Table.
DeleteWhen I was a kid we would sometimes get small message cards & they'd just end up in the "round file" pretty quick!
Deleteeco,
DeleteWould those elements be clumps of Bagoturdsium, Atomic Number Two? (which are especially effective when first torched with a Bunsen Burner and catalyzed with the element Bottomobootium).
BTW, great 12:39 post, 68Charger. Quite clever.
LegoTalkingAboutYour"Ick"OrTreat!
Thanks Lego, good one! Yeah, I was just having some fun with that posting. If I were to really hand out Periodic Tables you & Eco would be right about a "back to nature" attack. I'd have the garden hose hooked up & ready to go!! I'd be even more afraid of the house getting egged, though.
DeleteThe reality is that the number of kids trick-or-treating around here is slowly going down. We usually over buy on candy & are stuck with way too much the next day. Same thing this year & we bought far less candy than previous years. Oh well!!
One metal is spelled out in order in four nationalities.
ReplyDeleteI used to like watching John Smoltz pitch even though it was for Atlanta. Now he nearly matches Joe Buck and Fox in making the mute button a total necessity.
It is amazing how many sports championships are essentially ties, but with regrettable take-all finishes.
I feel ok on my answer. I would give a hint but if I am wrong, I don't want to open up Pandora's box.
ReplyDeleteI had time to sit down and think about this one for a while tonight, and somehow I finally unraveled it. My DH says I'm tenacious. I think obsessed is more like it. Musical clue: Kenny Rogers --Margaret G.
ReplyDeleteI quite liked this week's puzzle (especially after solving it). What took time was not divining the "trick" but the fact that my original nationality/language-list imposed an additional constraint that ruled out the wanted answer,
ReplyDeleteTrump has denounced the justice system, and given his Teutonic roots, how long before he calls out the SS?
ReplyDeleteBig white Prussian feet enjoy the streets....
Can't you wait until he finishes using the SA a.k.a. Der Sturmabteilung?
DeleteI thought the SA was over when Bannon left the troops, though they still wear their red hats.
DeleteYou may be right, but Bannon hasn't been shot yet, and Heinrich Sessions still is in mufti.
DeleteI wonder how many correct answers will have been submitted. Not sure I like this tricky puzzle but it goes with Halloween I guess. Wonder if it would have been easier solved working backwards. No hint here.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is 100 correct answers & 200 total. I will be curious how they phrase it.
DeleteThis was a tough one.
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DeleteNatasha,
DeleteI solved Will's fine and tricky puzzle just last evening by working backward. There are fewer likely metals that would work than there are nationalities. My guess is there will be fewer than 100 correct answers, Ross and Magdalen... oops, I mean Natasha.
Quite a few Shortz Riff-Offs of this puzzle are afoot on tomorrow's Puzzleria!
In response to 68Charger's Thur 6:46 AM comment above:
True, these days there are fewer cosutumed kiddies combing our neighborhoods for candy handouts. I belive most have gravitated mallward, where it is safer... maybe.
LegoTestingEveryones'Mettle
Legolambda, Glad you told me about working it backwards.
ReplyDeleteThe "can" hints and the "Poe" hint (especially) had me almost certain about the metal, and, after getting nowhere with "dropping" an "l" preceding an "o" and putting them together to get a "p", it eventually occurred to me to investigate other alphabets. It all came together for me about six hours ago as I was perusing this page, not even really thinking about the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteThere was a puzzle back in 2011 about a world leader sounding like things you might see in a mine. The intended answer was Helmut Kohl. On a different blog, I suggested an alternative answer. That world leader reportedly once walked into a pizza shop and asked, "...?"
1. TIBETAN (6 million speakers). “Drop a letter,” drop the letter: BETA, leaving TIN, element 50 ! This is an extremely clever puzzle in my opinion...
ReplyDelete2. Germanicum, meaning German. Drop the c yielding Germanium, element 32, a semiconductor and a metalloid.
As I said, this second answer is a bit suspect.
I predict there will be fewer than 150 correct answers submitted to NPR this week.
Lao, LA, Lanthanum
ReplyDeleteLast Sunday I said, “OK, here’s my musical clue: do re mi fa so la ti do.” O as in OK is the letter to drop. LA is the chemical symbol for Lanthanum.
I wrote, "I bet a lot of people will be flummoxed by this one, until they see the trick." BET A is hiding in there.
ReplyDeleteURANIUM is the answer I got. It is arrived at by dropping the K in UKRAINIUM, which is indicating the duality of UKRAINIAN, and it indicates the civil war going on there. The first I also must be pushed into the adjoining N. In other words, you must remove the Iodine. Poorly worded puzzle in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it may appear abserb, Serbium to ERBIUM may also work, and without the I problem, as it can be said Serbs are in many locations, but I doubt this is the answer either.
Hassidum > HASSIUM?
I don’t think I had much chance of solving this one even though I did attend elementary school, where we were not exposed to the Periodic Table—only the mystery of chocolate milk. I know little about kemistree, other than it can be a mixed up study.
My Hints:
“But what about Neil Sedaka? Not to mention Opus 31.” The song is Breaking Up Is Hard To Do. Tchaikovsky’s Opus 31 is named March Slave.
In the spirit of Prince using a symbol as his name, I present:
ReplyDeleteLao >>> La (Lanthanum)
** "I will be naming names," referred to the chemical symbol being used as a name as well as "I am pro-(name) dropping:" >>>
"The Lao language is a tonal, analytic, right-branching, pronoun pro-drop language of the Tai–Kadai language family, closely related to Thai and other languages of Tai peoples."
** "Will gave the additional clue on air that the nationality and the language are the same. Splendid hint." referred to the "lan" in both language and lanthanum.
** "No-holds-barred" referred to the Bard, the other WS, and the infamous "What's in a name?" from Romeo and Juliet .
** "Chuck, you can't be serious?!" referred to the Lanthanide Series.
**"A tricky puzzle for Halloween week? I'll not have any more complaining. . ." >>> La, la la, not listening. . .
But, I will listen to other answers ;-).
So I submitted LATIN --> going to TIN.
ReplyDeleteThe first "think outside the box" trick is that I had to leave behind my list of CURRENT nationalities.
But LATIN is a well-known FORMER nationality and their language was LATIN.
Also, significantly, their numerals used L to mean "fifty." And there it is on the Periodic Table:
50 TIN
Alas, I didn't get the call.
Ben,
DeleteYour solution is extremely clever, IMHO, and deserves mention on-air on NPR Sunday...
Drop the letter A from the nationality "LATIN," leaving the atomic number of tin (namely, L), a space, and then TIN!
(L, as Ben notes, equals 50 in Roman Numerals... and Latin, along with Greek, was one of two official languages of the Roman Empire.)
Simply ingenious!
LegoWhoWishesHeHadThoughtOfIt
I said, "Does Mr. Shortz ever test these puzzles..." hinting at software BETA testing.
ReplyDeleteTIBETAN, remove β (BETA) and you get TIN
“BETA” has 4 letters, “BAMBOOZLE” has 9!
DeleteAll I can say is "doh!"
ReplyDeleteTibetan - beta = tin.
ReplyDelete"some may protest the wording" of the puzzle - strictly speaking, Tibet is not a nation, so Tibetans aren't a nationality. Many of us have protested this sad situation.
The first trick I thought of didn't work, but the second trick did. The alpha trick didn't work, but the beta did.
Reference to Lego --> his full name is Legolambda, the 11th letter of the Greek alphabet. I'm sure Mama Lambda is proud.
Edgar Allan Poe: Poe invented the word tintinnabulation in his poem "The Bells".
Buck Bard: I'm sure you can solve this puzzle! Of course cans are often made of tin.
how long before he calls out the SS? The Greek letter beta is written as β, very similar shape to the ß that Germans sometimes use for a double s. "Big white Prussian feet enjoy the streets...." translates to "Große weiße preußische Füße genießen die Straßen....", in San Francisco they call that Beta Breakers. Only a coincident that Trump is eine Nuß.
I thought all the "You can do it" talk referred to trying hard to get a bronze metal. Bronze, of course, is made of copper and tin. Tried to make TIN work but never got to BETA. Gone fishin' (!) with the spirit of the artist formerly known as Prince. . .
DeleteYeah, as Rob said "bet a lot of people..."
DeleteLike Lego, I worked backwards, figuring the puzzle was honest about the metal name, and the likelihood was the metal had to have a short name - gold, iron, lead, tin, zinc.
I also thought it might be one of the short words you list, and I did see that TIN is in Tibetan, but forgot all about BETA being a letter in the Greek alphabet. I also tried several other language alphabets with no joy. Even though I didn't solve it, I have to agree that it is a good puzzle.
DeleteI didn't see the TIBETAN - BETA = TIN trick. I was outraged by what I thought was the answer, LAO - O = LA.
ReplyDelete> Pathetic! I'm going back to finish watching Ken Burns' Vietnam War.
During the war, the Pathet Lao were Laotian communists, allied with the NVA and the Viet Cong.
I got Tibetan-Beta=Tin. My hint about Pandora's box was to hint at Greek as part of the answer.
ReplyDeleteMaybe my hint should have been "Curses! Foiled again."
Lao lanthanum, Carley Simon, Anticipation being the Heinz 57 ketchup song, 57 is lanthanum's periodic table number. I went no further in exploring another answer since the puzzle stated the table. LAme :)
ReplyDeleteDamn you, Shortz.
ReplyDeleteI think my answer is more valid.
In my estimation, beta is not a letter. β is, but that's another beast.
I think LATIN is a better. But I already won my lapel pin a decade ago. Sigh.
But, bettas are Siamese fighting fish, not Laotian. Something fishy here...
ReplyDeleteར ཆ
ReplyDeleteThose are a couple of Tibetan letters Will can use in future puzzles. With others from about 46 other alphabets in use around the world, we all have some studying to do.
I mentioned yesterday that the name of one metal is spelled in order in four nationalities.
Tin, of course, is in Lithuanian, Italian. Latvian and Laotian.
If Tibetan and Latin were nationalities, that would make six.
I forgot Estonian, which makes five real matches and two that fall short.
ReplyDeleteBuck and Smoltz had their worst series ever, but baseball had one of its best.
It's also in Croatian, and Haitian Creole.
DeleteBut not in America. The song is better than the syntax.
And Catalonian is trying to join the club!
DeleteI thought about Haitian, but their language isn't Haitian, it's either French or Kreyol.
DeleteFrench and Haitian Creole are the official languages, so it sort of works. Not sure Haitian Creole is a nationality....
DeleteOh btw, beta is a word and not a letter just as double u is two words and not a letter. Nice trick...eye think.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of eyes, I am turning a tin ear to this puzzle. ;-)
DeleteAnd if we went with the Latin stannum, (Hence the symbol for tin = Sn) think of all the metals ending in -um we might have gone through.
Laos, Lao, and LA which specifies, (names), the lanthanum entry inside the periodic table.
ReplyDelete4³ and 1²: 4,3, and 2 hinted at word lengths.
Hint (not posted): Carol Channing and Salvador.
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ReplyDeleteI thought it was "Lao" at first but realized from everyone's clues that it must not be right. I finally came up with the answer by thinking "way, way" outside the box.
DeleteI was just not very happy with this puzzle.
By the way. We submitted our answer late on Wednesday. Why might this fact be of interest?
ReplyDeleteYou got the call?!
DeleteIndeed!! One us drew the Shortz straw, but we're negotiating with NPR to be on the air together.
DeleteIs one of you the BETA half, then?
DeleteI vote for your duo, most certainly.
Congrats and good luck!
Hi--this is right-brain musician artist jewelry designer Janice who lives with left-brain mathematician 'Lorenzo' and we've worked together for over 30 years as financial advisors. Our 5lb Maltese Carina is the alpha.
DeleteCongrats! I look forward to hearing you on Sunday.
DeleteMe 2.
DeleteI imagine you two will do a beta job than Carina ;-). Enjoy!
DeleteCongrats and great luck, Lorenzo and Janice!
DeleteI got NPR's automated response for my TIbetaN submission at "Nov 02, 2017 01:49AM EDT" so I was probably competing with you. Of course, if I would have gotten the call and accepted it, the fourth lapel pin I would have received would quickly be buried beneath the massive Blainevillian-generated pile of the element Bagoturdsium heaped upon my front porch!
LegoDreamsWistfullyAboutAGlimmeringGoldenPinEmbeddedWithinA"HeyThat'sSh*t!"Stack
Well done. They should come up with a "pairs" puzzle and give it on air to both of you!
DeleteI'm gonna call bogus on this one. There's no way that I was going to parse through all the letter names in all the writing systems of the world to find one name that fit into a metal. I hoped that the trick here would be that the metal wasn't elemental, but rather an alloy that could be spelled out with the symbols on the periodic table. Obviously, that didn't work out for me.
ReplyDeleteI was shocked that SDB liked this puzzle, and I wouldn't call it bogus - the trick was tricky, but not unreasonable.
DeleteI don't know the letters of other alphabets, but the letters of the Greek alphabet are pretty much infused not only in science and mathematics, but even popular culture: the alpha male, betamax, Delta House etc.
Congratulations Lorenzo and Janice! I submitted Wednesday afternoon. It would be nice to know how many correct submissions there were.
ReplyDeleteI think Blaine's example might have been misleading.
ReplyDeleteYes, I took Blaine's clue as confirmation of lanthanum as the metal since Oman and Omanganese made as much sense.
Delete... and you'd drop the same O from Lao and Omanganese to get the element.
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Deletejan, yes, that, too. Misleading is ok. . .It's all part of the fun of interpretation, yes?
DeleteHard to imagine Blaine was purposely misleading, that's a conspiracy theory for, well, the tin foil hat folks. As he admitted it wasn't his best clue - in retrospect "OMG, it's the end of the world!" might have been a good clue.
DeleteBlaine's under more pressure than the rest of us, we can sit back silently if we don't have a solution, but he has to get the blog going every Sunday morning. And it's rare that he hasn't solved the puzzle by then.
A little misleading goes a long way. . .
DeleteI reread Blaine's clue and edit. Now it makes sense that it was fine to give that clue.
DeleteCongratulations to Lorenzo and Janice! I sent in my submission last night, BTW... Tibetan - beta = tin. My musical hint of Kenny Rogers referred to his using Tibet in his song "Farther I Go" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Risivzf_QL8 (by the way, Blaine's second hint I took as a confirmation of my answer... he said that he wondered if WS *tested* the puzzle first... like beta testing :) ) --Margaret G.
ReplyDeleteJust got word that the sound engineers want only one of us on the line. So join me in wishing Janice good luck!
ReplyDeleteNOT FAIR!
DeleteThey don't seem to mind having a "guest participant," I never even heard of, in the studio. I suggest you accuse them of sexual harassment. It seems to be all the rage these days.
Good luck, Janice, and support crew, Lorenzo and Carina.
DeleteAny ideas for questions for WS?
ReplyDeleteI look forward to hearing both your voices on the single line.
I hope we get to hear Janice sing!
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ReplyDeleteFixed, at no charge:
ReplyDeleteName a large, well-known ethnic group, remove a grámma and the result, in order, will name a metal.
A gutsy military judge!!
There are two military judges in the news today. I doubt you are referring to both of them.
DeleteWhich two?
DeleteThe Bowe Bergdahl court-martial and the Guantanamo judge who placed a general under house arrest.
Delete
DeleteI read about the Marine General yesterday.
He joins Bergdahl's judge as two of this week's heroes.
The Marine General is not the judge. I am referring to the judge who is a colonel in the Air Force and appears to be unqualified.
DeleteThat is what I said, along with he who looks for fault, finds it.
DeleteAlas, my answer "Goldi/Gold" doesn't work because there aren't enough Goldi (properly called Nanai) in the world. Go watch "Dress Uzala" if you've never heard of the Goldi before.
ReplyDeleteFailed to proofread my own message: it's "Dersu," not "Dress." Goddamn autocorrect.
ReplyDeleteI saw that wonderful movie back when it came out and won the Oscar for best foreign film. I did not remember the Goldi people though. Good memory!
DeleteHi, this is Janice. I just finished taping Sunday's puzzle on the air with Will and Lulu, and it was an engineering disaster. It will be a miracle if it can be edited to be coherent. Will was at the Crawfordsville IN Public Library and I was in a hotel room in Carmel, CA. Both Will and Lulu sounded faint, and worse, there was a multi-second delay for Will to hear Lulu and/or me, so we ended up speaking over one another. Multiple times I answered correctly, only for Will to give me a clue because he had not yet heard my answer. They had just given me the last category, and the phone connection was lost. When they called back on my cell phone, the connection and voices were crystal clear, but the puzzle part was over. I did, however, manage to "give a shout out" to the participants of Blaine's Puzzle Blog, but it may end up on the cutting room floor. Lorenzo described the experience as an "E-Ticket ride: five minutes of exhilarating terror, after which you wanted to get in line to do it all over again."
ReplyDeleteJanice - Thanks for that great report. I suspect you will be surprised at how normal it will come out on air. They have a great deal of experience editing interviews. I wish they were better at some other things too. I can't wait to hear it Sunday. Congrats.
DeleteMaybe it wasn't ideal but it still sounded fun. I'm looking forward to Sunday. Congratulations!
DeleteSounds like an ordeal! I look forward to hearing it.
DeleteIt's always amazed me how often in life someone needs to call a kid from the AV squad for help. (That was me in high school, usually re-threading or changing a bulb in a 16 mm movie projector.) At Bell Labs, there were frequently Friday afternoon general research colloquia, usually very interesting, always videocast to remote locations, which usually didn't work. In PA school, I got so tired of the professor discovering that the batteries in the laser pointer were dead that I ended up buying one, and running up to the front to lend mine so the lecture could continue.
Some additiional comments from Lorenzo.
ReplyDelete1. Janice did really well!
2. Only 52 correct answers this week.
3. Perhaps the phone connection would have been better if we had been in Carmel, IN rather than CA!
4. Paul: You almost got your wish. The last category (which was interrupted when the connection failed) involved Beatles songs, and Janice started to sing Yellow Submarine.
And a preview of the puzzle next week?
DeleteNext week's puzzle (as best as we can remember):
ReplyDeleteTake the last name of a famous film director. The first two and last two letters of the name, in order, spell a word. The remaining letters can be rearranged to spell a synonym of this word. Who is the director?
(We're pretty sure we remembered this correctly, and, if so, it's quite easy.)
Now that I solved it, what do I do come Sunday? LOL
DeleteYou could take a break... you could also dance.
DeleteI live just one block from a church. In Seattle we are not allowed to dance within 2 blocks of a place of worship.
DeleteWow, that was easy. Last week 52, this week 3000?
DeleteThanks for the insight into the taping. Looking forward to Sunday!
Congrats Janice and Lorenzo!
DeleteI think you're happier in Carmel CA than Carmel IN. Point Lobos State Reserve is an amazing place and very close. Even better is a trip down to Big Sur, but a lot of it is closed from landslides and collapsing bridges..
Did they mention any of the alternative submissions?
Alternate answer for next week: David Lean, removing the first and last two letters is as lean as you can get.
Lorenzo, your secret is safe with us. On Sunday, I shall pretend it's the first time I've heard it. But I just looked up film directors and found the answer right away. It feels so good to be way ahead of the game sometimes. Especially when you've been under the weather lately like me. I had absolutely nothing last week. Probably never would've even crossed my mind that the letter could be one of the Greek ones. This week I've got a better chance. Thanks Lorenzo.
DeleteWe were having dinner in a restaurant last night, and when my wife got up to use the rest room, I pulled out my phone, read Lorenzo's (or Janice's?) posting of next week's puzzle, and figured it out before she got back. But when I read it to her, she got the answer before I finished the third sentence.
DeleteOf course, there are two correct answers this week.
Of course. And no anagramming tool needed.
DeleteWhy, y₀?
Deletexx to that. . .
Deleteeco,
DeleteI love your David Lean alternative/riff-off. Very minimalist and Philip Glass-like. May I mention it on Puzzleria! next Friday?
BTW, thanks to Janice and Lorenzo for giving us a head start on next week's NPR puzzle. Too bad it's not the type of puzzle (like TIbetaN, for example) that we might need extra time to solve. We even get a bonus hour tonight that we don't need!
LegoInTheFallBackPosition
Lego: You are welcome to use it, make sure all royalties are sent directly to my Swiss bank account.
DeleteBonus puzzle: Take the name of an island, the first two and last two letters spell the last name of a well-known actor, whose son is also a well-known actor (I guess, I know of the father). The remaining letters don't spell anything.
I Googled the director's last name, along with the two words, and found a disturbing image in pink.
DeleteHmmm, jan, nothing disturbing in pink for me on Google.
DeleteBut, I did come up with a clue on duckduckgo.com: Phillippines.
Cylindrical. That's the last straw. But it's no use whining.
DeleteEco: Take the name of an island, the first two and last two letters spell the first name of a well-known actor, whose son is also a well-known actor. The remaining letters don't spell anything.
Deleteeco,
DeleteBonus puzzle: Polynesian isle/French actors?
Bonus puzzle riff-off: Name an island. The first two and last two letters spell the first name of a somewhat well known actor... Who has the same name as his father.
I wired your payment to your Zurich account...but you should probably know that Bob Mueller is interviewing me next Tuesday regarding payments I wired to Paul Manafort's Swiss bank account for a puzzle he submitted to me last December. Your name might come up.
LegoWhoAwaysSeparatesHisSawbucksFromFins
Ooh la la, Lego's alter ego, Joseph Young!
DeleteAnd, eco and jan, "not spelling anything?" >>> What's up with that?!
Jan,
DeleteI had almost used your puzzle, I think, but I'm still havin' a great time. Though I can't say the father is well known as an actor.
Lego,
I wonder if the answer to yours is the same as Jan's?
Bonus bonus puzzle: Name an island, the first two and last two letters spell the name of a well known film director. The remaining letters are the abbreviation for another island.
WW: I thought about the wording, I suppose the remaining letters in my bonus puzzle spell something, just not a word or even a decent abbreviation or acronym.
DeleteI'm not making much sense of any of this, but I guess everybody plays the fool, sometimes.
DeleteName a large island, take the first 2 and last 2 letters to make you smile. The remaining letters, in order, could be a slogan for a baking show.
DeleteIs the slogan only good if you filter your food?
DeleteNot necessarily.
DeleteYes, eco. Or, keep the slogan, and use the first 2 and last 3 letters to name a raw material for the baking show.
DeleteAh, jan, much better! Gracias.
DeleteHere is Janice again. When asked about our local NPR affilliate, I mentioned that my license plate was "KPCC 89.3". (I hope they didn't edit Will's comment "Wow!"). A few minutes later I logged on to Facerbook to report on my experience, and the photo that came up as a memory from two years ago, was the picture of my license plate. Who thinks that is a coincidence? Could the FB algorhithm have connected my comments yesterday saying the interview was going to happen? I unplugged my Alexa because of stuff like this. Does anyone else find this disconcerting?
ReplyDeleteJanice - I do not use Facebook, or similar sites, so don't know much about how things are done there, but I do know these strange coincidences happen all the time in my life, and not having anything to do with the internet. I sometimes am convinced some of them are hints we are given that there is more than we realize happening. An analogy I came up with is: You most likely remember the ant farms that were all the rage back in the late 1950's. I sometimes wonder if the ants realize they are being observed by us outside their tiny world, or are oblivious to us.
DeleteLorenzo -
ReplyDeleteIf you guys remembered next week's puzzle correctly, it _is_ pretty easy. Can't wait 'til Sunday to hear the show.
Looks like Lorenzo and Janice remembered the next puzzle correctly:
ReplyDeleteNext week's challenge: This week's challenge comes from listener Peter Collins of Ann Arbor, Mich. Think of the last name of a famous film director. The first two letters and last two letters in order spell a word. And the remaining letters, rearranged, spell a synonym of that word. What film director is it?