Q: The name of what well-known U.S. city, in 10 letters, contains only three different letters of the alphabet?The same could be said about a city in Australia.The Australia city is WAGGA WAGGA.
A: WALLA WALLA (Washington)
Q: The name of what well-known U.S. city, in 10 letters, contains only three different letters of the alphabet?The same could be said about a city in Australia.The Australia city is WAGGA WAGGA.
A: WALLA WALLA (Washington)
For NPR puzzle posts, don't post the answer or any hints that could lead to the answer before the deadline (usually Thursday at 3pm ET). If you know the answer, submit it to NPR, but don't give it away here.
You may provide indirect hints to the answer to show you know it, but make sure they don't assist with solving. You can openly discuss your hints and the answer after the deadline. Thank you.
Here's my standard reminder... don't post the answer or any hints that could lead directly to the answer (e.g. via a chain of thought, or an internet search) before the deadline of Thursday at 3pm ET. If you know the answer, click the link and submit it to NPR, but don't give it away here.
ReplyDeleteYou may provide indirect hints to the answer to show you know it, but make sure they don't give the answer away. You can openly discuss your hints and the answer after the Thursday deadline. Thank you.
blue
ReplyDeleteIf I had to refer to something twice, wouldn't that make me a re-referrer? Or if I made someone a referee a second time, would I be a re-referee-er?
ReplyDeleteLongest "real" word using just 3 letters: assesses (8 letters) and some others. Can you come up with longer "real" words? SENSELESSNESS, doesn't work (4 letters).
Deletereferrer
Deleteredeeded
Deleteassesses
DeleteAre you re-gifting Ron's answer already?
DeleteSnarky Christmas! I can't use the M-word since DJT ruined it.
Shame on you if you don't solve this.
ReplyDeleteSHAME ON >_> SHAMAN
Delete—————ZOOM
ReplyDeleteWALLAZOOM, the name of a digital advertising venture that will be a competitor to YELP, as a digital version of the Yellow Pages with interactive capacities.
DeleteI bet I am not the only one who got this immediately. Goody goody for me!
ReplyDeleteOf Thee I Sing...
Delete“Goody Goody”, Of Thee I Sing Sing – Sing Sing and Walla Walla, both are double-named places that have prisons.
DeleteGood King Sauerkraut...
ReplyDeleteGoogle “Good King Sauerkraut”, and You will get a page with several links, one of them being “A Pogo Christmas Carol” by Walt Kelly:
DeleteDeck us all with Boston Charlie
Walla Walla Wash and Kalamazoo
Nora’s freezin on the trolley
It's all wet.
ReplyDeleteI selected all the squares with street signs and all the squares with vehicles.
ReplyDeleteI had to successfully “perform” this Captcha test in order to submit the puzzle answer to NPR.
DeleteDon't HANG on this one too long. (Ouch!)
ReplyDeleteGo with Plan B.
ReplyDeleteHappy Holidays my blog friends. Thank you for all the fun. Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteHas a college, a pen, an iceburg, and a well known red firehouse. (typing on my phone)
ReplyDeleteAn easy puzzle is a good idea.
ReplyDeleteTrump's favorite puzzle of the year.
ReplyDeleteThis is the second time that Will has used a puzzle that I've sent him and didn't cite me on air. This was his response when I emailed it to him:
ReplyDeleteHi Dave,
Thanks for the NPR puzzle suggestion -- which I'm afraid I don't love quite enough to use on the air.
But I appreciate the offer.
--Will
Hmmm . . .
You and Anita Hill with all your false accusations! (Just kidding, it says more about WS than it does about you.)
Delete"...to see who's naughty or nice."
ReplyDeleteA slightly shorter and easier repeat of an earlier Shortzer puz.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid I got hit with the disappearing post problem this morning. I had posted something very similar to Siz's post above. But it ain't here.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I was busy for the first airing of today's puzzle. And the repeat was preempted by a seasonal music special. So could some kind soul tell me how many folks got last week's puzzle right?
Merry Christmas, all.
"Around 150," Chuck.
Delete--Kind Soul here--
And I only submitted twice!
DeleteWordnerd posted an incorrect answer to last weeks's puzzle at noon Thursday that didn't make the cut either. I think it may be the Grinch.
DeleteChuck: the sunday puzzle is broadcast of the website. You can listen to tape.
DeleteThank you Skydiveboy For pointing out my incorrect answer! And Yes, it did get "cut"! We have a lot in common. My first Dive still remains as a lasting memory....still haunting me today! Merry Christmas to you, and all of the bloggers here!
DeleteYou have me curious now. Why is your first jump haunting? How many do you have?
DeleteMerry Christmas.
Bugs bunny
DeleteJust makes me wanna cry.
ReplyDeleteRoughly 150
ReplyDeleteThis answer should be no problem for this crowd.
ReplyDeleteThis was a reference to the Walla Walla crowd radio sound effects.
DeleteMerry, Merry...
ReplyDeleteThis is one of those cities, like Rancho Cucamonga, that just seems fun to say.
ReplyDeleteI like the address of the city's official website.
DeleteJohn & Maxine & Roger & Alice should move there.
I suppose we could play either popular version of Take Me to the River, from Al Green or the Talking Heads.
DeleteI think there is one blogger on here who can view this city from their window at home.
ReplyDeleteTake a two letter state abbreviation - then with the remaining letters of that state name, write all next to the abbreviation. Shuffle the result and you'll be half-way there. (my first post disappeared again - what up wit dat?)
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThat leads directly to the answer via a Google search.
DeleteSorry for my late participation. I was busy playing in the pool with my granddaughter, biking the Bermuda Railway Trail, and basically just relaxing with the family.
Merry Christmas to all of my Blainesville friends!
jan: Glad it helped you, but confirming a suspected breech of hinting rules may only compound the offense.
DeleteMy season's best to this puzzling crew.
No, Mendo Jim: once the offending clue is removed, my comment gives no hint at all.
DeleteA simple challenge for the holidays. How perfect. Merry Christmas to all!
ReplyDeleteMy hints: Bugs Bunny and Bill Murray have both mentioned this city, but out of context.
A Glen Miller top hit: A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I got a gal in Kalamazoo zoo zoo zoo zoo
ReplyDeletetoo too too much. . .
DeleteChipmonks
ReplyDeleteReligious guys in Vegas?
DeleteI heard it as a story about a monastery's fish-and-chips dinner. "I'm the fish friar, he's the chip monk."
DeleteAnyway, I sometimes used the song to tease a somewhat unorthodox colleague of mine at work.
DeleteHa! Enjoy the warmth in Bermuda! It was 2 degrees F this morning and we are getting a new furnace next week.
DeleteJan - that’s an old and favorite joke. But neither your, nor WW’s, comments appear to have divined my intent.
DeleteWe have, I believe, divined intent, SuperZee...We are merely pointing out the chipmonk vs chipmunk spelling (at least, I am).
DeleteIf you know my line of work, SuperZee, you can see how my second comment confirms that I got your hint.
DeleteJan, I hadn't been aware of your professional activities until I clicked your details. But now that I am, I see the link. I also recall another old joke, one which, under the circumstances is best saved for Thursday.
DeleteWW - I never said I could spell! (Same old joke applies.)
Which doctor would you be less inclined to visit - Dr. Ben Dover or Dr. Acula?
DeleteSurprised Trump doesn't have a real estate operation there. Will Will be on air next week or is this a two weeker?
ReplyDeleteToo weaker, you say?
DeleteThat too!!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteHarriet's back!
DeleteSdb:was the other ones name harriet?
DeleteYes, Virginia, there is a Harriet.
DeleteSo she gave away the answer and i missed it! Now millions have the answer and i have no chance of getting the call. Btw.. Did you see the nurcracker? Trying to get thete with a ballet friend. Need inspiration
DeleteIt would take an enormous amount of "inspiration" to get me to suffer through another Nutcracker performance.
DeleteSDB: Most people I know will not go anymore. Going tonight with loyal ballet friend. Maria Kochetkova is dancing and she is worth all the boring moments of the ballet to see her perform.
DeleteI left my Dish there....
ReplyDeleteDish Wallah?
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLooney tunes
ReplyDeleteI love this puzzle. 'Twas made for someone with my particular interests.
ReplyDeleteHappy Holidaze to all. Me thinks this puzzle pails in comparison to some others recently.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas everyone!
ReplyDeleteI am ready for Spring!!!
Merry Christmas everyone!
ReplyDeleteI am ready for Spring!!!
I am really excited at how much longer the daylight hours are now!
Deletesdb, I'll second(s) that.
DeleteMerry Christmas!
That won't take you long.
Delete(Personal note: Did you get the email I sent you last week?)
(sdb, I just checked that email and wrote to you. )
DeleteThis state has had at least one other city appear as a puzzle answer.
ReplyDeleteWhat if a letter to Santa had just one little typo? Patrick Stewart tells us. (Don't say, "Make it so!")
ReplyDeleteWell, that was odd. Patrick Stewart seems to pick somewhat non-mainstream projects lately.
DeleteDe do do do de da da da that is all I say to you
ReplyDeleteta da ta da
DeleteUsually is it sad movies that make me tear up but there a few sweet ones that make me as well.
ReplyDeleteta da! ta da! oui oui.
ReplyDeleteANSWER: Walla Walla.
Deleteta-da! ta-da! is an English translation
for the FRENCH 'voila! voila!' which is
pronounced: /vvwäˈlä/, i.e., walla. (x2)
How to pronounce voilà exclamation
in American English;
https://dictionarcambridge.org/us/pronunciation/
english/voila
oui oui is a a reference to French.
ta-da! ta-da! is voila! voila! is vwalla! wvalla! is
Walla Walla.
This was a fun puzzle, mainly because I got it immediately. The first time I heard the name, when I was a very small child, I thought of hippopotami.
ReplyDeleteIf this week is Will's annual New Names in the News, any thoughts on what names might come up in the 2017 edition?
ReplyDeleteTarana Burke
DeleteDoug Jones
George Papadopoulos
Natalia Veselnitskaya
Christopher Steele
and Stephen Paddock and Devin Kelley.
DeleteHarvey, Irma, and Maria
Carmen YulÃn Cruz Soto
Doug Jones
DeleteSummer Zervos
Samantha Holvey
Jessica Leeds
Rachel Crooks
Good heads-up, whost. One of us might be called in about an hour to play on-air on Sunday, and we gotta be prepared!
DeleteSome possibilities:
Greg Gianforte/Ben Jacobs
Louise Linton
Shelly Simonds/David Yancey
LegoWhoIsInTheJunkanoos(SeeTomorrow'sPuzzleria!)
Danica Roem
DeleteWas Anthony Scaramucci a known entity before this year?
How odd. A word of the year 2017 by Oxford English dictionary that "no one " has heard of before.
DeleteIt's a young word.
DeleteFethullah Gulen, not a young Turk.
DeleteNeil
DeleteEmmanuel Macron should certainly be on the list
DeleteJon Ossoff
DeleteSarah Huckabee Sanders
DeleteReality Winner.
ReplyDeleteWALLA WALLA (WA)
ReplyDelete"This came to me right away." -- WW knows WW.
"blue" >>> Vida Blue >>>Vidalia Onions >>> Sweet Onions grown in WALLA WALLA, WA.
"Curtis, I don't know how you could have missed WW's blue clue (not!)."
DeleteAre we even yet?
Thank you, eco. Obscurity is my middle name. {WOW}
DeleteWalla Walla, Washington
ReplyDeleteMy hint:
"...to see who's naughty or nice."
I left out the earlier part where he's checking it twice, as a hint at their being two walla's.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWalla Walla
ReplyDeleteLast Sunday I posted, “Only Trump supporters live there” but no one read my words because the Blainesville post poacher ate the post. Anyway, the residents really like the concept of a wall, just like Donald. In fact, they might even support building two walls…
Wall, I'll be!
DeleteWALLA WALLA, WA.(Washington)
ReplyDeleteThe State, itself, has 10 letters and the State Abbreviation (WA) uses 2 of the city's letters...
The 10-letter city in Australia with the same property: WAGGA WAGGA.
There's also a Walla Walla in New South Wales, Australia.
DeleteMy clue was also a Trump wall reference. I also asked "will will be on air next week" with "will will" being a reference to walla walla.
ReplyDeleteAn easy puzzle is a good idea - in the 70's there was an ad campaign "55 mph, not just a good idea, it's the law". The 3 letters can spell law. I prefer this version.
ReplyDeleteI like the address of the city's official website - https://www.wallawallawa.gov/ - almost palindromic.
John & Maxine & Roger & Alice should move there: Walla Walla's name means "place of many Waters".
De doo doo doo de da da da, Song hint by the Police. Walla Walla, WA is the home of a Dada museum
ReplyDeleteOn October 7, 2007, the puzzle was "Name a well-known city in the United States, two words, 10 letters altogether. Add the letter A at the front, add the city's two-letter state postal abbreviation at the end, the resulting 13-letter chain will be palindromic, that is, it will read backward and forward the same. What city is this?"
ReplyDeleteIt looks like Blaine only had one comment that week. (from old phredp, wherever he may be).
That shortage of input seems to have been common back then. Maybe Blaine remembers why.
Greetings from Tasmania where we saw a pair of wallabies this morning
ReplyDeleteWouldn't a pair be wallawallabies?
DeleteWALLA WALLA.
ReplyDeleteMy misspelled Chipmunk comment was a reference to Dave Seville, who in addition to recording the Chipmunk songs, recorded the Witch Doctor song, with the lyric, “Ooo eee ooo ah ah, ting tang Walla Walla bing bang.”
I know that song. I just couldn't figure out a good way to clue it without giving away the whole shootin' match.
DeleteI’d figured the same artist link was sufficiently obscure...but Word Woman and Jan, who had both already solved the puzzle quickly saw the linkage.
DeleteChuck, Could it have been clued, 'bing bang'? or 'ching chang'? Or would one of those also give it away?
DeleteWALLA WALLA(Washington)
ReplyDeleteIn the 1963 Warner Bros. cartoon "Transylvania 6-5000", Bugs Bunny fights off a vampire at a spooky hotel after reading a book about "Magic Words and Phrases". Bugs mixes up "hocus-pocus" and "abracadabra", which mixes up the vampire's body parts(half-man, half-bat), then says "Newport News", which turns him into a witch, and finally says "Walla Walla Washington", which turns him into a two-headed vulture and a possible love interest for a female two-headed vulture seen earlier in the cartoon.
Bill Murray sang a made-up song in the 1979 film "Meatballs" in a scene where everyone is canoeing on the lake. Murray's character, "Tripper", sings as his would-be girlfriend "Roxanne" paddles the boat. At some point in the song Tripper sings the line, "let's walla walla down by the mango tree".
I had actually forgotten "walla walla" was part of the lyrics in "Witch Doctor". When I first saw the "oo we oo ah ah" part, I didn't make the connection. How silly of me! BTW Happy 75th Birthday to my mother Linda today!
I deleted my clue,'OO EE OO AH AH', originally posted 12-25-2017, 6:30p, PST, because Natasha
Deleteobjected to it as too revealing.
Walla walla, my hint at pails, refers to pails of water, indian name means many waters.
ReplyDeleteWhich Indians? Which tribe?
DeleteA related clue could be: 'Helen Keller' But maybe too revealing?
WALLA WALLA (Washington)
ReplyDeleteMy clue: I love this puzzle. 'Twas made for someone with my particular interests.
"'Twas made" is an anagram of Adam West, who was born in Walla Walla, Washington. I learned this at a young age when I was in the first throes of Batmania. We had an almanac that listed celebrity birthplaces and, of course, I immediately looked to see if Adam West was listed.
ta da! ta da! oui oui. Ta da!(but more correctly ta-da) is one English translation for the French expression voila! Times 2, voila! voila! Pronounced: /vwa la/ /vwa la/, walla walla!
ReplyDeleteThis week's Puzzleria! is now available. Go to Blaine's PUZZLE LINKS and click "Joseph Young's Puzzleria!"
ReplyDeleteYou can:
1. Take a Ramblin' ride to a Bahamian Junkanoo (and learn what the heck a "junkanoo" is too);
2. Learn what it means to "be little";
3. Slip crib notes to your classmates under the oblivious nose of your substitute teacher;
4. Revisit and solve updates of the best pre-Puzzleria! puzzle I ever posted on Blainesville; and
5. Grapple with five piggyback puzzles that riff off Will Shortz's WallaWallapalooza puzzle from this past Sunday.
Hey, like WS himself said, and I quote, Puzzleria! "is a lot of fun!"
LegoWhoWasBornWithAPlasticSporkInHisMouth
Would a carpenter in the Indian navy be referred to as a Bulkhead Wallah?
ReplyDeleteta-da! ta-da! oui oui = the english translation of the FRENCH voila! voila! = \vwä-ˈlä\ \ vwä-ˈlä\ = Walla Walla.
ReplyDeleteWee Wee! I have a friend who likes to tell about a former coworker of his in IT who like to pronounce that word as VI-ola whenever he solved a computer issue.
DeleteNext week's challenge: This challenge comes from listener Patrick Berry (go cranberry!) of Jasper, Ala. Name a famous singer — 3 letters in the first name, 5 letters in the last. Drop the middle letter of the last name and rearrange the result to name a variety of singing group. What is it?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteSorry, that was too revealing.
DeleteI gotta stop spending so much time watching Cookie Monster videos on my cell phone.
Next week's challenge: This challenge comes from listener Patrick Berry of Jasper, Ala. Name a famous singer — 3 letters in the first name, 5 letters in the last. Drop the middle letter of the last name and rearrange the result to name a variety of singing group. What is it?
ReplyDeleteIf I am counting correctly, that is the THIRD puzzle created by Patrick J. Berry (cranberry, to us) that Will has used in 2017. That must be some kind of record. Hearty congratulations, Patrick!
DeleteLegoImpressed
Almost 2000 correct answers last week. (The winner said he was helped by thinking of the Pogo song.)
ReplyDeleteGood puzzle! Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteSome might need help to solve this good puzzle.
ReplyDeletethis was so easy
ReplyDelete