Sunday, November 26, 2017

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 26, 2017): C'est la Vie

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 26, 2017): C'est la Vie:
Q: Think of a familiar French expression in three words, containing 3 letters, 2 letters, and 5 letters, respectively. Then take its standard translation in English, which is a two-word phrase. If you have the right phrases, the first words of the two phrases said out loud will sound like a world capital. What is it?
Not the way I say it.

Edit: I'm used to hearing the first P distinctly pronounced, but the other pronunciation where the P is silent is acceptable.
A: NOM DE PLUME = PEN NAME
"NOM PEN" sounds like PHNOM PENH, the capital of Cambodia

214 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. A rather lightweight puzzle this week.

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    3. Not worth posting on fb(in modern day method)

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  3. Working class whites from say "Bawlmer", in the state of "Murrlin". Amtrak conductors, perhaps exasperated by this, will announce the train is arriving in "Ballll-teee-moooorre". John Travolta claims he nailed it, but his version is not right.

    Life on the streets starts with a row (house) in "Charm City".

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  4. "Woody Allen wrote 'Without Feathers'", he said pluckily.

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  5. Remember it is how these words are pronounced in U.S. English that counts... (Not how they are pronounced in French)

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  7. I'm thinking of another French phrase, 2 words, 4 letters and 5 letters, for something that many might like to see happen in this country to a particular person.

    The first word, repeated twice, sounds like an apt description of that person.

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    1. Yes, eco, one can only hope the clock may be running quickly on what many might like to see happen.

      LegoBelievesecoHasCreatedAnotherImpeccablyPeachyKeenRiffOff

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    2. Merveilleux, eco. We can do without those peas.

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    3. Here's another: Take a French phrase in three words (3, 4, 5). If you put the English translation in front of the first French word, you will get the beginning of a phrase you may hear at an opera performance.

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    4. Smile of the day! Well done! Bravo!

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    5. Ah, now that I see the flow of this thread, perhaps you are referring to eco's original post. In that case, I join you in your bravo!

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    6. Bravo both eco and Word Woman. I believe I have solved Word Woman's poser, after a hint. The answer, I think, involves the surname of a diva.

      LegoPuttingPeachPiesInBeveledPieTinsOutToCool

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    7. You may also hear this phrase at a play or the cinema. (Though I like your idea, Lego).

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    8. Something Heidi failed to do? Sorry, I'm just not comprehending this.

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    9. Paul, I will end your searching: S'il vous plaît = Please. The phrase is "Please s'ilence your cell phones."

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    10. Oh, I see, I was focused on pronunciation rather than spelling.

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    11. I surmised you might be going down that path.

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    12. I was in the same place; I thought it was S'il vous plait/ please, but the best I could come up with was "Please seat yourself". But they don't say that.

      If you haven't figured it out, my French phrase was coup d'Etat, some want that for Trump, who is definitely coup-coup. And getting more so every day... I never imagined our national descent into hell would be this fast.

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    13. Yes coup-coup is wonderful, eco. Hence my "We can do without those peas."

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    14. Yes WW, your response did appease any doubters. I wonder if a certain (soon-to-be-ex?) President will have a steady diet of mushed peas. Yum!

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    15. Yes indeed, thanks WW! And we know this week's answer is not Sur La Table!

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  8. I can relate this puzzle to Trump et al in a creative way.

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  9. Beaucoup d'entre nous en utilisent un en ce moment. But my French really doesn't pass for real French.

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  10. I would love to see a puzzle based on the official name....

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    1. I cannot post it here yet, of course, but this Friday on Puzzleria! ye shall see a Riffing-Off-Shortz puzzle based on the official name.

      LegoSays"KnockAndTheDoorShallBeOpened"

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    2. Thanks, Buck. But don't get your hopes up too high. My puzzle is based in the official name's short form, alas. What's worse, the puzzle does involve a hate group.

      LegoSuspectBuckBardWasLongingForALongFormPuzzle

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  11. Je pense que nous devrions poster en français cette semaine en l'honneur du sujet de puzzle et de pratiquer notre français.

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  12. L'origine de l'internet:

    In ancient Israel, it came to pass that a trader by the name of Abraham Com did take unto himself a healthy young wife by the name of Dorothy. And Dot Com was a comely woman, large of breast, broad of shoulder and long of leg. Indeed, she was often called Amazon Dot Com.


    And she said unto Abraham, her husband, "Why dost thou travel so far from town to town with thy goods when thou canst trade without ever leaving thy tent?"



    And Abraham did look at her as though she were several saddle bags short of a camel load, but simply said, "How, dear?"



    And Dot replied, "I will place drums in all the towns and drums in between to send messages saying what you have for sale, and they will reply telling you who hath the best price. The sale can be made on the drums and delivery made by Uriah's Pony Stable (UPS)."



    Abraham thought long and decided he would let Dot have her way with the drums. And the drums rang out and were an immediate success. Abraham sold all the goods he had at the top price, without ever having to move from his tent.



    To prevent neighboring countries from overhearing what the drums were saying, Dot devised a system that only she and the drummers knew. It was known as Must Send Drum Over Sound (MSDOS), and she also developed a language to transmit ideas and pictures—Hebrew To The People (HTTP).



    And the young men did take to Dot Com's trading as doth the greedy horsefly take to camel dung. They were called Nomadic Ecclesiastical Rich Dominican Sybarites, or NERDS. And lo, the land was so feverish with joy at the new riches and the deafening sound of drums that no one noticed that the real riches were going to that enterprising drum dealer, Brother William of Gates, who bought off every drum maker in the land. Indeed he did insist on drums to be made that would work only with Brother Gates' drum heads and drumsticks.



    And Dot did say, "Oh, Abraham, what we have started is being taken over by others." And Abraham looked out over the Bay of Ezekiel , or eBay as it came to be known. He said, "We need a name that reflects what we are."



    And Dot replied, "Young Ambitious Hebrew Owner Operators--YAHOO," said Abraham. And because it was Dot's idea, they named it YAHOO Dot Com.



    Abraham's cousin, Joshua, being the young Gregarious Energetic Educated Kid (GEEK) that he was, soon started using Dot's drums to locate things around the countryside.



    It soon became known as God's Own Official Guide to Locating Everything (GOOGLE).



    That is how it all began. And that's the truth.



    I would not make up this stuff. 😉


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    1. Beautifully creative, ron.

      LegoThinksTheStuffThatron"Doesn't"MakeUpIsEvenBetterThanThanksgivingDayStuffing

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    2. Sdb: E-merge without a tweet.

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    3. Will people debate and argue about the origin of this story, just like the stories in the Bible?

      Earliest I could find (I got bored doing the dead see scroll) was this from Feb 2011. Perhaps there's something earlier.

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    4. eco, the passage above is in this 2000 anthology:

      E-mail humor.

      I believe I read it in the late 1990's. . .

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    5. A geologist must like digging through old stuff.

      From this month's Harper's Crossword: "Concerned with rock and roll? Google 1,100" Guess what that yields?

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    6. Non-leap century year starting on a Monday? {Duckduckgoing gave the same top result.}

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    7. Harper's is a cryptic crossword puzzle, blunt force methods usually don't help.

      Each clue has 2 separate parts leading to the same answer, you have to figure out where to split the clue. In this case it is "Concerned with rock" and "roll? Google 1,100". Roll is one of many cryptic codes for an anagram, and when they show digits it often means a substitution for Roman Numerals, so the answer is geolog (google anagram) + I + C, or geologic.

      Not everyone likes cryptics.

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    8. Hmmm, but 1100 in Roman numerals is MC, not IC. . .Adding 1 (I) and then adding 500 (C)? Pshaw, ICk!

      I believe I'll stick to the joy of cryptobiotic crust in Utah.

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    9. With the comma, 1,100 could be read as either MC or I, C. Cryptic puzzles take joy in ambiguity, nothing rock solid there.

      I remember having to step lightly around the cryptobiotic spots when walking a 320 acre project site in Escalante, Utah. Their simple appearance is very deceiving. Very fragile life forms, but I'm sure the cows won't step on them and they'll do fine with new oil drilling.

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    10. Being picky, but 1,000 is MC and 1, (space) 100 is 1, 100.

      Yeah, that cryptobiotic crust is so very fragile.

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  13. In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their language.

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    1. It has been said they learn at a snail's pace.

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    2. I regret I didn't pursue a career as France's greatest stand-up comic. Every time I said something people would laugh.

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  14. I have heard one part of the answer used in an old Warner Bros. cartoon, another on an old comedy album by a legendary comedian. That's all I got to say about that.

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  15. Worth thinking about what blogging would be without 'em.

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  16. Anyone notice that the On-Air Challenge #4: 4. 1960s soul singer with the No.1 hit "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" [Pa.] asks for a PA city and that city is Reading, but the singer's name is Otis Redding (not Reading) as in Redding, CA?

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    1. Are you writing to NPR about this error?

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    2. To answer your question Ron, you noticed it.

      Out here they only aired about half the challenges listed on-line, but they included one on-air "Actor who starred in Her and Walk the Line (AZ)" that is not on the website.

      Natasha and I are furious that he didn't ask "Choreographer of elaborate dance routines in films from the 1930's to the 1950's (CA)".

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    3. Eco: yes, you are so correct. We both were snubbed.

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    4. And the residents of a certain ghost town in Nevada County could offer up "Choreographer of Tony™-winning productions on Broadway from the 1940's to the 1970's (CA)," but that is much too obscure for a radio quiz.

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  17. A very talented puzzle solver could get this week's challenge perhaps leveraging last week's puzzle.

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  18. Clutch! Well done! Applause applause!

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  19. Isn't France the country where they deliver hot chocolate in a coco van? (I wonder if Henny Youngman would have used that one.)

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  20. Got the answer, but I totally question the pronunciation. Don't care how many times I say it out loud. It might help if you reverse the answer. But if you listen to the Google Translate Voice, it becomes highly questionable.

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  21. Mrs. Peacock in the library with the lead pipe.

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    1. "How?" said he. "Amontillado, A pipe? Impossible! And in the middle of the carnival!"

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  22. I still remember when I first learned President Bill Clinton had nominated Madeleine Albright for Secretary of State. I was expecting a petite cookie, but was soon relieved of that illusion.

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  24. I'm struggling with one. Perhaps because I never studied French. The only thing I can say in that fine language is Chaton avec Fromage.

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    1. Curtis, look no further than (y)our own backyard (well, sort of).

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    2. Personally, I don't think of the French nor English translations as an "expression".

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    3. Yeah, clotheslover, it's more of a descriptive term than an expression.

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    4. ^^^Curtis, that backyard I mentioned is Silver PLUME, CO.

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    5. Ah. I didn’t see that connection...

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  25. This would have been a decently challenging puzzle had the letter count not been given. That made it so simple.

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  26. "They call her Pocohontas."
    They call you Ignoramus.

    LegoSays"Ignoramus"LiterallyMeans"WeDoNotKnow"...AsIn"HowYouEverGotElectedAsOurPresident"

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  27. Just to see if Dr. PM will mention it, I suggest this variation:

    "...the first words of the two phrases said out loud will sound like a common mispronunciation of a world capital. What is it?"

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    1. Mendo Jim, perhaps the Puzzle Master would make those needed changes in bright red Crayola Crayon? ;-)

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    2. I looked it up on Sunday; there are multiple pronunciations for this world capital, including the one WS intends. Apparently even some of the locals pronounce it this way.

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    3. Gee, eco, it never occurred to me to look it up.
      And I don't get the crayon ref.

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    4. MJ, I'll explain on Thursday.

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    5. It’s the way I’ve always pronounced it. The puzzle answer that is.

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  28. I finally got around to figuring this out. Now it seems obvious, but the answer made me think ah,geez.

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  29. If NPR is firing a major celebrity, such as Garrison Keilor, I feel the public is entitled to know more about the allegation(s), not simply stating having acted inappropriately at some time, with no description. I doubt there many who have reached the age of 75 who have not acted inappropriately in some manner during all that time.

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    1. WaPo has an article with some detail, at least Keillor's version. There is a potential of this long overdue recoil (Clarence Thomas, anyone?) going too far - should one get fired for telling a "blue" joke on the job?

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    2. Yes, since I posted above, NPR, on one of their programs, presented GK's side of the story, but I still think NPR needs to be more forthcoming with the other side.

      Change in the workplace is long overdue, but I fear it may be becoming another Salem Witch Trial scenario. I am not a regular fan or listener to PHC, but I do enjoy hearing The Writer's Almanac. So we all lose, and for what?

      Re: The blue joke question. I believe anyone who has a really funny blue joke, and refuses to share it at work should be fired on the spot.

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    3. We're heading toward a U. S. all-female team of journalists, perhaps. . .

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    4. I heartily endorse more women in positions of power; given the state of the world men's dominance can hardly be considered so great.

      But if (and it's a big if) Keillor's version of the events is true, that doesn't strike me as rising to the level of firing. He claims he made a mistake, apologized, and that was the end of it. And he has only been accused of one incident by one person. So far, at least. If more comes out we have to reevaluate, a rebuke or reprimand seems appropriate for one incident, it's not predatory behavior.

      PS: I'm not a fan of Keillor's, I grew tired of PHC in the 1980's, Writer's Almanac is okay, and I don't find his WaPo articles humorous.

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    5. Men are not the only gender that acts in sexually inappropriate workplace behavior.

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    6. eco, I agree that the description of events by GK does not approach the level of termination.

      Yeah, GK's one-note show could have happily ended in the '80's. A friend wrote for PHC and said GK was quite egotistical but not sexually inappropriate to her.

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  30. Geez! Are they going after every guy in every form of broadcasting, entertainment, and government?! Ladies, you have to understand: We're guys! We're going to make mistakes! But don't do this to GK! Not Mr. Lake Wobegon himself! Please! Anyone but him!

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    1. Sexual harrassers/abusers "do this" themselves.

      We'll see what what shakes out with GK.

      And I agree with sdb's assessment of Cosby (below).

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  31. First they came for Mr. Cosby, and I said nothing...

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    1. Mr. Cosby is a vile rapist who belongs in prison. Comparing him to the Dietrich Bonhoeffer quote is way over the top.

      We don't know what GK is accused of, or if there are more allegations about to emerge, but I do agree that things may be getting a little out of reasonable control. And, yes, we are guys, but that doesn't mean most men are sexual predators, and I would not want anyone thinking we are.

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    2. I agree with SDB, except the quote is a poem written by Martin Niemöller.

      The hard part is assessing the degrees of transgression that (mostly) men make against women. Cosby is an apex predator (assuming his guilt), perhaps just below Jeffrey Dahmer. Ailes, Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, Roy Moore, and many others are at the next level down. Al Franken's juvenile prank is gross, but not nearly as repugnant, though we don't know how many bums he groped. Keillor seems like the least sinful. At least so far.

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    3. eco:
      I have to thank you for correcting my error. You, of course, are right about it being Martin Niemöller, not Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I am thanking you for correcting my mistake because I knew that decades ago, but forgot his name along the way. Then some years back I read something erroneously attributing the poem to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I remember very clearly how surprised I was at this, but there it was in print, and I was foolish enough to accept it as fact and not check. Since that time I have seen it incorrectly attributed repeatedly. I keep telling myself to not doubt my memory, but I am sometimes wrong, so I suppose I will continue not always doing the checking I know I should, and usually do.

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  32. Bahtiyar Duysak should be Time's "Person of the Year". At least for 11 minutes.

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  33. I guess I am a little confused. Now it is being reported that members of Congress are going to be required to attend sexual harassment training. Why? Aren't they skilled at this already? I think what they should be attending is how to govern training.

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  34. Now I wonder if women are going to see all this backfire and men will not hire them.

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  35. Getting back to the idea of a US all-female team of journalists, can't you just picture a whole group of them in one room, calling BS on everything Sarah Huckabee Sanders says? That would bring the Trump administration to its knees! Priceless!

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  36. Did anyone else here wonder why Ivy Austin suddenly disappeared from the PHC show years ago? To me it seemed like she made the program. Back then I thought it might have been about money, but now I suspect she may be the one who complained.

    Also, as much as I wish it were not true, the more I think about this, the more trouble I am having believing GK's side of the story. I wonder what will come out in the next few days.

    I just hope Sylvia Poggioli hasn't been flirting with Pope Francis.

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  38. Do you think Will is looking for the first word of the French phrase plus the first word of the English phrase?

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    1. Thanks, WW. Got it pretty quickly after I figured out what he was looking for. Doesn't take a Doctorate Degree to figure this one out.

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    2. NOM DE PLUME + PEN NAME = PHNOM PENH

      "#" refers to the pound sign as in "a pound of feathers (plumes) or a pound of gold"

      "Mendo Jim, perhaps the Puzzle Master would make those needed changes in bright red Crayola Crayon?" refers to an alternative to "Nom de Plume" (Pen Name) or "Nom de Crayon" (Pencil Name). ;-)

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  39. NOM DE PLUME = PEN NAME.

    PHNOM PENH, Capital of CAMBODIA.

    PHNOM is pronounced NOM as in NOMinate or NAM (as in Vietnam) in English; NOM is also pronounced NOM/NAM in English. Be sure to listen to these 2 pronunciations:

    How to pronounce “nom de plume” in English
    .

    How to pronounce “Phnom Penh” in English.

    “Coup d'État” is actually 2½ words and CUCKOO does refer to our current czar.

    I hope everyone enjoyed “the origin of the internet.” I thought it was good enough to share with you.

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  40. nom de plume; pen name; Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia

    Last Sunday I said, “We have some here.” Many pen names are in use here at Blainesville.

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  41. Phnom Penh, Cambodia from nom de plume & pen name.

    My hint:

    “Not Al Gore; the other guy.” The other guy would be Gore Vidal who not only wrote using his own name, but also wrote many novels using several pen names.

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  42. I wrote, "Ce puzzle est une perle." This refers to Phnom Penh having the nickname "The Pearl of Asia."

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  43. NOM DE PLUME, PEN NAME -> PHNOM PENH

    > Do French policemen flic their Bics?

    On a lighter note, that's a pen name.

    > "Woody Allen wrote 'Without Feathers'", he said pluckily.

    A pen name, plumes, and de-plume-ing.

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  44. So am I the only one that regularly hears the capital with a distinct P sound in front? Phnom Penh

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    1. Blaine, I hear the 'p' pronounced most of the time, too.

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    2. Why all this childish talk about P?

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    3. See : how to pronounce "Phnom Penh" above.

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    4. ron: I think you may have missed the joke.

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    5. I usually hear the "p", but an unverified source writes that Cambodian taxi drivers usually say "Nom Penh". Wikipedia lists both pronunciations.

      Others note that it is an aspirated "p", involving tongue movements that would put us 'Murricans into traction.

      There are also sounds in Asian languages that not only can't we pronounce, we can't even hear them. The rising and falling inflections that are critical to Mandarin and Cantonese are among them. In college some friends were trying to teach me some Cantonese phrases, and apparently if you get the inflection wrong you say something very dirty, but they were too busy laughing to tell me what it was.

      If you are not exposed to these sounds early in life (before 12 or so), you will never be able to hear them. Japanese people cannot distinguish between the "l" sound and "r" sound, so rock and lock sound the same to them - a source of cheap ethnic humor. Same with some vowel sounds. A Japanese friend could not hear the difference between look, lock, lack, lock, and luck, and she pronounced them all "ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck."

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    6. My Japanese teacher always called me "Brain" and my friend Robert was pronounced "Robot". I remember the day when he came into class and the two of us stood up and started applauding. He acknowledged us, but we kept going. Finally he got annoyed and said, "Brain, Robot, stop crapping!" Juvenile? Yes.

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    7. I have heard people say the “P”, but they’re usually not familiar with the name. In my experience Asians don’t pronounce it. They say “Nom”

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    8. 🧠🤖🛑💩

      That’s gonna stick with me for a while, Blaine!

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    9. Nuts — looks like some browsers aren’t compatible with iPhone emojis. That’s “brain - robot - stop - poop” above, of course.

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  45. Phnom Penh is called "The Charming City". Baltimore also has "Charm City" as a nickname. And as I noted there are several ways to pronounce Bawlmurr.

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    1. I've lived in the Midwest for decades but I was born and raised in the Mid-Atlantic back east. I can tell you for an absolute fact that Baltimore has but 2 syllables: Ballmer. Similarly, Washington has only 2 syllables: Washnun.

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    2. You forgot the r in Washington.

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    3. As a former Merlinder I never heard anyone from there put an r in Washington. That might be a Boston thing. Washnun and Ballmer (Bawlmurr) is how the white working class would say it, hon.

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    4. Speaking of Ballmer, we haven't heard from RoRo in a l o n g time. . .

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  46. Silent "P" here. Starts with the consonant "N"

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  47. The French phrase nom de plume translates to pen name.
    Put the first words together and it sounds like Phnom Penh, but only if you slur the Ph.

    My calling this puzzle Orwellian was based on Eric Arthur Blair having used the pen name George Orwell.

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  48. I got four of a kind in a little game of pronunciation poker.
    I called the Cambodian Embassy in Washington, the Cambodian Counsel in Los Angeles, a center for Khmer studies and the nearest Cambodian restaurant I could find.
    Responses to the question "How do you say the capital of Cambodia?" from each of the phone answerers all had a clear "p" ("P?") at the beginning.
    In a follow-up question, "Are there acceptable alternatives to that pronunciation?" only two respondents apparently understood, but both said no.
    Since there don't seem to be English words where an initial "p" is sounded before an "n", it is not surprising we think our way is better.

    As I posted earlier, it is interesting to consider how this kind of blog might be different if we didn't use "pen names."

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  49. My clues were 1953, the year Cambodia gained independence, and Mark Twain, a pen name for Samuel Clements.

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    1. Clemens. That "t" is not only silent, it's non-existent.

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    2. Hope you aren’t expecting pay for being my proof reader.

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    3. Careful, I might remove one of the 'r's in Garry. Any interesting story in the more unusual spelling of your first name?

      I grew up near Hartford, CT and toured Samuel Clemens' home next door to Harriet Beecher Stowe's home more than once. The fireplace with a giant window above it was magical in a snowstorm!

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    4. Mom loved I’ve got a secret, and Garry Moore. Many names with double r’s, why not mine? Always considered myself to be a non-conformist. Garry Marshall may take exception as well.

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    5. My favorite non-conformist Rust was Mathias.

      I've been to the Mark Twain house in Hartford, too. I liked his garret (note two r's) with the billiard table.

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    6. jan,

      He had to land somewhere. And people said he was both a pilot and rusty.

      Also it must have been difficult to play on that table when all the balls would have looked either black or white.

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    7. Mathias Rust could be a distant relative. Mine came from Hanover area. In Germany the name Rust is pronounced like Roost.

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    8. As in the [Cessna] Chicken[hawk] coming home to Roost?

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    9. Funny how "Gery" looks strange but Garry is not so unusual. . .

      jan, that billiard table is what I think of when playing Clue.

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    10. Ah, that's all the conflicting edits. . .

      Garry Rust, interesting about your possible connection to Mathias Rust.

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    11. ... And, as I recall, Rust’s first name in German is pronounced Ma-TEE-as. The H is silent. Like in Phnom Penh.

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    12. And I named my first son Matthew, the English form of Mathias I suppose.

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  50. One more reason to not get a tattoo.



    Courtesy-The Onion

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    1. I thought you were just needling us.

      There is a story today about the federal Tattoo Recognition Technology program. I wish I were making this up.

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    2. Eco - Wow! That is something. I have heard of potential criminal suspects being identified by their tattoos but I can see how this could be a slippery slope. No wonder people are seeing red.

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    3. Pretty soon we'll be taken in for wearing the wrong color shirt. They also predicted our current Dotard way back in 2000.

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    4. Jan - "The Onion" is on a 'role'!

      Interesting about that crusty ol' tattoo.

      On a completely different subject, did you feel that 4.1 earthquake centered in Delaware today?

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    5. I understand they are working on an identification system whereby they apply black ink to fingertips and press them onto cardpaper and then believe they can ID someone from looking at the results. Can you believe that!?

      Delete
    6. jan:
      Nope. Didn't hear about it, but glans you shared it with us. I guess it goes to show that this sexually inappropriate behavior thing is being blown sky high.

      And:

      “The Navy holds its aircrew to the highest standards and we find this absolutely unacceptable, of zero training value and we are holding the crew accountable,” the Navy told KREM.

      Highest standards, indeed! Potty Training, I would say.

      Delete
    7. jan:

      I also noticed the following quote in your link:

      "A concerned mother who spotted the phallic renderings told KREM 2 she was upset she might have to explain the drawings to her kids."

      Perhaps she could sing: Penis in the sky, with Hymens (to the tune of Lucy in the Sky.

      I sure hope her kids will live through this ordeal.

      Delete
    8. If you think that's bad, this is what Londoners face every day!

      Keep a stiff upper lip.

      Delete
    9. Is there a giant sky eraser if a drawing is of importance to national security?!

      Delete
    10. eco:
      Again I want to thank you for informing me. I have always wondered what was meant by "a shaft of light."

      Delete
    11. eco:
      Is that bridge in the Cockney District?

      Delete
    12. Now I remember seeing that bridge in the 1987 film, Prick Up Your Ears, about Joe Orton.

      Delete
    13. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm1rif1fASk#t=05m52s

      Delete
  51. NOM DE PLUME, PEN NAME, NOM PEN sounds like PHNOM PENH, the capital of Cambodia.
    My hints suggested a Pepe LePew cartoon and a George Carlin comedy album. Pepe, the French skunk, starts to join the French Foreign Legion. The recruiter asks for his name, using(or perhaps misusing)the term "nom de plume". "Phnom Penh" came from a routine in which the late Mr. Carlin does a sendup of the news and, instead of providing any real details, simply shouts out a number of pertinent names in the news at that time. Then he follows it with "Those stories and more coming up later, etc." I don't recall the whole bit.

    ReplyDelete
  52. RIP Jim Nabors
    Another citizen of Mayberry meets his maker.
    I sure wouldn't want to be Ron Howard right now.
    Hey Gomer, Goober says "Hey!"

    ReplyDelete
  53. My clue - "A very talented puzzle solver could get this week's challenge perhaps leveraging last week's puzzle." - referred to a phenom, and then drop the e to get Phnom.

    ReplyDelete
  54. Today's headline...Former tRump National Security Adviser indicted and expected to shortly plead guilty to one count of lying to the FBI.

    Any bets on what/who he threw under the bus to be allowed to plea to only one count???

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I suspect Mueller's threat to indict Flynn's son was a big motivater in his plea bargain.

      For those who've only peripherally heard about the Kate Steinle/ Jose Zarate trial, I suspect a major piece of evidence was that the bullet ricocheted off the pavement, and the jury reasoned a murderer is unlikely to try and make a bank shot.

      Then it came to the question of did he know he had a gun in his hand? If he did was the shot intentional or accidental? It seems unlikely a homeless guy would intentionally shoot a pistol in the middle of the day on a busy pier. The ones I see seldom try to attract attention, except those with severe mental issues, but their medium is loud ranting, not shooting.

      Defense says the gun was wrapped up, and he simply found a package under a bench and picked it up when it discharged.

      Jury decision seems inconsistent here, they found him guilty of possession of a firearm, but innocent of manslaughter. As I understand the law if you handle a firearm in a crowded place and it discharges you are responsible for the result. It may be they thought it was involuntary manslaughter, but he was not charged with that so they couldn't find him guilty of that.

      Delete
    2. They should be making an issue of why the pistol was left in the car of the government employee, which allowed it to be stolen.

      Delete
    3. Pistol in the car has been raised locally, as has the issue of gun proliferation in general. But the anti-Americans here are simply against the right of Free People to shoot each other.

      Unsolved is who actually stole the gun. My casual observation is homeless folks don't break into cars, they mostly poach bottles from my recycling bin.

      Delete
    4. In my neighborhood we have a problem of homeless persons going around at night looking for cars left unlocked. (Why some neighbors cannot seem to learn to always lock their cars, I simply cannot understand.) They sometimes break in too.

      Is your recycling bin insured? If so, how much is the deductible?

      Delete
    5. Yeah, I never bought the idea that he just found the gun on the ground. Who steals a gun from a car and then drops it? Ironically we just had another incident of an officer having a gun stolen from an unsecured car. There will be no punishment. No one is going to get on the cops.

      Delete
  55. I just searched this page for "pseudonym" and it came up 0/0. I'm disappointed in all of us.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Paul, what about pseudomonas?

      Delete
    2. 1/1
      The same for pseudonoma, and zero for pseudonomae. What's your point?
      Oh, I get it; I "searched" but I didn't really search.
      Ho ho ho

      Delete
    3. BTW, I've always been pro-gram; check my record, you'll see.

      Delete
    4. Indeed. I wonder if Leo da Vinci knows about the false Monas?!

      Delete
    5. I'm so confused!
      I only wanted to point out that there's another word for what we're all talking about this week that has a silent 'p'.
      Sheeesh!

      Delete
    6. Aw raspberries, p's be quiet you psychopaths. This is a topic for a Psyllidae, and it's starting to bug me.

      Jan must have known this at the WW's PEOTS blog (where the P makes a big splash) with a note about pterosaurs.

      Remember we're about to get to the magic pnumber 200 osting threshold, hit reload.

      Delete
    7. Thanks for the plink, eco.

      Paul, I was looking at pseudonym vs. pseudonom and poof, there was pseudomonas! Just a prabbit hole is all. It was a great pthought!

      Delete
  56. I predict that the on-air challenge Will Shortz will offer the lapel-pin winner tomorrow morning will be one of the toughest ever. And, no, I did not get "the call.

    LegoClairvoyant

    ReplyDelete

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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