"Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."Q: Name a famous singer — first and last names. Change the last three letters of each name to an E and you'll name a well-known landmark. What is it?
Edit: The actual quote from Forrest Gump is "Life was like a box of chocolates...". The phenomenon where a large number of people incorrectly remember a past event is called the Mandela Effect. Whitney Houston sang for Nelson Mandela at a White House dinner in his honor in October 1994.
A: WHITney HOUSton --> WHITE HOUSE
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 have a problem with this one.
ReplyDeleteBigly.
DeleteMy first concert.
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not, your post led me to the answer.
DeleteWell, I did practically give it away. I'm surprised Blaine hasn't deleted that post yet.
Delete1 August 1986
DeleteBoston Common
My sisters were big fans and they brought their little brother along.
Three Dog Night, Dean Martin
ReplyDeleteDean Martin may have been a bit too direct.
DeleteThree Dog Night was somewhat more inventive.
Well there's Spackle Needlman or Notroro Damsel, n'est-ce pas?
ReplyDeleteI forgot that well-known Istanbul singer, Bluffy Mosquito.
DeleteThanks for your joke answer. I was trying to turn all three letters into E's and was getting nowhere. Turning them into a single E makes so much more sense.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI have a movie clue, and since we are talking Academy Awards, it is a film that won its share of Oscars decades ago.
ReplyDeleteSince we are on the road, I didn’t get to hear this morning’s broadcast. As it turned out, that may have been helpful, as some puzzles are better seen than heard.
ReplyDeleteAnd, for Ron’s benefit, it’s also not the famous rocker, Stonner Hengway.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteHappy March, everyone!
ReplyDelete. . .on this most assertive day of the year.
DeleteWhen I think of the singer, one of the first things I think of can be found in multitudes at the landmark. And now that I think about it, one of the other things that comes to mind seems like it might be being used in great quantities at the landmark as well...
ReplyDeleteMy search tactic revealed the answer in 2 seconds.
ReplyDelete1994.
ReplyDeleteYes, that's when the singer performed at the landmark.
DeleteClick!! That was what I needed to figure it out.
DeleteWe should all be grateful to the singer.
ReplyDeleteI guess we all knew how Dr. PM would deal with last week's mess.
I wonder if the "how did you solve it" question came up?
Parts of a newspaper got cut from today's on-air segment.
opinion, sports, comics, arts, religion
Deleteobits, society section, crossword puzzle, advertisements, reviews/reports.
DeleteI think of this depressing by true New Yorker cartoon for the "o" section, and real estate for "r". Poor Jared, he may have to start looking for a job, and he can't read the classified section any more.
DeleteI meant "depressing but true"
Deletesix
ReplyDeleteI am somewhat surprised I was able to solve this one while still in bed because I am not at all up on famous singers, but I did. One of the words in the puzzle question is so apropos.
ReplyDeleteI'm in New York City where we have a different way of pronouncing the name of the singer.
ReplyDeleteI prefer NYC pics Ben.
DeleteThe dominant Asian currency has changed in the last 30 years.
ReplyDeleteMovie clue: Humphrey Bogart
ReplyDeleteThis morning the answer came to me all at once.
ReplyDeleteI got the answer quickly too, and I've never been to India.
ReplyDeleteBonus Puzzle #1: Name a well-known film, in 6 letters, with the same vowel pronounced 3 different ways.
ReplyDeleteBonus Puzzle #2: Name a less well-known town in the United States (also a city in another state), 6 letters, with the same vowel pronounced 3 different ways.
Bonus Puzzle #3: What is the shortest word you can find that has the same vowel pronounced 4 different ways?
Just as I posted it I realized there are at least 2 answers for BP #1; I think the second film is not that well known, but it does have well-known actors.
DeletePrimo puzzles, ecoarchitect... not that I have solved any of them yet, but I like them. I assume schwas may be involved.
DeleteSpeaking of fine puzzle-making, last week's puzzle by Chris Stuart and this week's by Peter Collins are both very solid, IMUO. The hint I considered giving for Peter's puzzle was posted by iriscorona... I was a bit worried it might be TMI.
LegoUnhumblyOpinesThatEcoOughtToSendHisPuzzlesToWillShortz
And Peter Collins is a math teacher as well.
DeleteLego: we may indeed be in another schwabble or three, but if you study hard the gods may show you are closer than you realize.
Deleteeco,
DeleteI think I have the film title. Spell it backward and you get a terrier and a Gardner. The only possible answer I have for the U.S. city, spelled backward, is a Bartlettish collection and Roosevelt, Deacon, Merlin or Lamar.
No idea yet on BP#3.
LegoSlogging
I think you are on the right track with #1, but I must confess an error in BP #2! There are only 5 letters total, not 6. Still has a vowel pronounced 3 different ways.
DeleteThe evils of cut and paste without proofing.
Okay, then I have an iffy guess on BP#2:
DeleteWould a main character in M*A*S*H be aware of this "town"? (Probably wrong because it is not also a city in another state.)
LegoSutherlandAlda
He might, I'm not up on all the knowledge if MASH characters. But I think Google Maps would say you're close...
DeleteIt was almost too easy. Posted my answer this afternoon.
ReplyDeleteSometimes the answer comes right away, sometimes it never comes, and sometimes it comes after a Sazerac and a glass of red wine, as it did tonight.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe La La Land didn't win again. Two years in a row now!
ReplyDeleteA certain presenter at last night's Oscars has a slight connection to the singer, but I won't say how.
DeleteMusical clue: The Band
ReplyDeleteKnowing the puzzle answer, some of the clues here are harder to solve than the puzzle. Can’t wait to see the explanations on Thursday!
ReplyDeleteTV clue: Silver Spoons
ReplyDeleteMovie clue: Coming To America
ReplyDeleteTV clue: Stranger Things
ReplyDeleteI see a close connection between the singer and the Oscars.
ReplyDeleteMusical Clue: Impossible. (Not a clue).
ReplyDeleteI didn't want to go OT, so yesterday I posted a bonus puzzle based on last week's at the end of that discussion.
ReplyDeleteHint up.
DeleteIt took me a little while to figure out this week's puzzle answer, but I was able to quickly discard this famous landmark's basement as a possible answer.
ReplyDelete"And The Beat Goes On"
ReplyDeleteTake the letters you dropped for this puzzle. Put them together, in order, and change one letter, and you'll have the surname of another famous singer.
ReplyDelete^^^ Complete this same process to get the first name of a football quarterback.
DeleteI expected this group would have said another profession, but I hold back which lest I get administered.
DeleteReverse the order of the letters(last name letters in order, then first name letters in order), and change one letter, to get the assumed last name of a well-known outlaw of the Old West, perhaps the greatest of all time.
DeleteAnybody else see the 3rd grade humor in the initials used, from this section of the Stephanie Clifford (aka Stormy Daniels) lawsuit against you-know-who?
ReplyDelete"18. By design of Mr. Cohen, the Hush Agreement used aliases to refer to Ms. Clifford and Mr. Trump. Specifically, Ms. Clifford was referred to by the alias 'Peggy Peterson' or 'PP.' Mr. Trump, on the other hand, was referred to by the alias 'David Dennison' or 'DD.' ”
No, but I have not kept abreast of this, either.
DeleteMy fear of nuclear Armageddon pales compared to the prospect that she may have texts or photos from Trump.
DeleteBut I am looking forward to the new line of Mattel PP and DD dolls this Christmas.
The is a quote from the article:
Delete"To be clear, the attempts to intimidate Ms. Clifford into silence and 'shut her up' in order to 'protect Mr. Trump' continue unabated," says the suit.
Does this mean our President is The Unabater?
ヅ
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThat may be a bit more information than is appropriate.
DeleteWhitney Houston > White House
ReplyDeleteMY Hint:
"One of the words in the puzzle question is so apropos." CHANGE is the word. Also REMOVE & REPLACE are words applicable to the puzzle and what is needed in the White House.
WHITNEY HOUSTON >>> WHITE HOUSE
ReplyDelete"six" refers to both the 6 years since Ms. Houston's death, as well as the 6 floors of the White House.
"^^^ Complete this same process to get the first name of a football quarterback." refers to NEY TON >>> PEYTON for Peyton Manning. I was unaware of his Papa John franchise-dumping news earlier that day.
WHITNEY HOUSTON -> WHITE HOUSE
ReplyDelete>> 1994.
> Yes, that's when the singer performed at the landmark.
The ten-code for yes is 10-4. On 10/4/1994, Whitney Houston performed at a White House state dinner in honor of Nelsom Mandela.
> The dominant Asian currency has changed in the last 30 years.
In the 1980s, fear of Japanese economic dominance was rampant in the U.S. Back then, the yen was on top. Now, it's not. NOT YEN are the letters you replace (in reverse order) in WHITNEY HOUSTON to get WHITE HOUSE.
Whitney Houston->White House
ReplyDeleteMy comment that this puzzle was better seen than heard was a reference to reading it in black and White.
WHITNEY HOUSTON →
ReplyDeleteWHITE HOUSE
[Peyton Manning, Wayne Newton]
My hint: There are only 4 2-word “well-known landmarks” where each word ends in E:
Space Needle (Seattle)
Notre Dame (Paris)
Blue Mosque (Istanbul)
White House (Washington D.C.) I hinted at 3 of them.
Eco's bonus puzzle #1:
AVATAR (ăv′ə-tär′) Only one schwa!
If you allow removing a space, there’s also Stonehenge.
DeleteWithout removing a space there's also Lake Erie and Lake Tahoe. And don't write they're watermarks; that's on a sheet of paper, and it's hard to hike a paper trail on those.
DeleteAnd very disappointing that NEWTON leads you to Wayne, and not Sir Isaac, who was a very calculating fellow. But I bet he couldn't repair the differential in SDB's Grand Marquis.
Deleteeco:
DeleteDon't say that! Repairing the differential on my car is a nightmare job. I service it regularly.
I was answering LEO's post above that the letters yield "another famous singer" certainly not Isaac Newton.
DeleteDidn't Isaac Newton invent the Apple?
DeleteThe Lake Erie Landmark is the Marblehead Lighthouse. Lake Tahoe holds 5 major landmarks, first among them is Emerald Bay.
DeleteI suspect early pilots considered Lake Tahoe a landmark. Other landmarks ending with e would be Cape Verde and Cape Sable.
DeleteSpeaking of capes, does anyone know what the reason was for Superman wearing a cape?
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI do not find either Lake Tahoe or Lake Erie as famous landmarks; however the Prague Castle should be included. The White House is #37 on this list.
DeleteSDB: Superman has a cape to give us something to tug on.
DeleteAnd I'm surprised you didn't speak out for Pike Place as a landmark, assuming most omit the "Market" part - I only heard people say PP when I was last in Seattle, but they were fishy characters.
Ron, I find your list leaning strongly to the predilections of upper middle class white tourists.
Neither Lake Erie nor Lake Tahoe are included in this list of the 500 Most Important World Landmarks. Be sure to view them all.
Deleteeco: I always say the full name, but many say, The Public Market. I worked part time in the magic shop for awhile, but then that job disappeared.
DeleteI don't have to view them all, the criteria was "well-known" landmarks. I suspect Lakes Erie and Tahoe are known to NPR listeners.
DeleteCome on, eco, Tahoe the line, and stop making it Erie in here.
DeleteAt the Senate briefing the spokesperson lambasted reporters, saying "Huron Michigan"
DeleteMaybe Huron to something Superior now. What are you going to do for an Ontario?
DeleteLandmark definitions and bodies of water? What about an estuary?
DeleteI suppose it could tide us over.
DeleteThis glitchy thread is making me gloomy.
DeleteIt's just a stream of confluence.
DeletePaul, what the 'ell?
DeleteAre you in denile? Just Seine.
DeleteOrinoco, don't you?
DeleteAnyone cotton onto the est reference?
DeleteI did, but resisted commenting. A friend of mine is very involved with them, and I left shaking my head after going to one of their "presentations", thinking all that was missing was the Moon himself.
DeleteBut my friend was nearly killed by a drunk driver last week; I visited her at the ICU Tuesday night, so I held off on making snarky comments. Until now.
I also notices, but didn't want to go there.
DeleteAnd just to deflect, if Jacqueline Kennedy's second husband had a sex reassignment surgery, would his nephews and nieces call him Ontario?
DeleteIf they wanted to stay in the will, they would.
Deleteeco, I had a similar reaction. I was simply testing reflexes here.
DeleteHope your friend is ok.
And Happy International Women's Day, Blainesvilleans!
I GOT PICKED!
ReplyDeleteCongrats! Let us know how the phone call goes tomorrow.
DeleteDo you mean you got the call? Or do you mean you were chosen to be the new White House Press Secretary?
DeleteHooray! Good luck tomorrow.
DeleteMazal Tov!
DeleteDefinitely not Press Secretary. I value my soul too much.
DeleteCongrats! Surprisingly soon after the 3:00 pm ET deadline, which makes me suspect they're using the not-really-random selection technique discussed previously.
DeleteKing Erroneous: Congratulations! Can you reveal the time and day you submitted your answer? Thanks.
DeleteKE:
DeleteCongratulations then. You at least have a chance with the puzzle.
What time did you get the call? If it was more than one minute before you posted your announcement, it really puts the lie to NPR's supposed 3:00 pm ET deadline. It's not much of a deadline if the winner is chosen prior to it.
Deletejan:
DeleteOr it might be that some NPR minion moved the clock ahead an hour in anticipation of daylight saving time this weekend.
Sunday at 1:53PM EST.
DeleteAnd did they call you slightly before 3:00 PM EST?
DeleteAnd yeah... I was called at 2:52 AM EST.
DeletePM from the PM, we presume ;-).
DeleteKE:
DeleteIf that is truly when you got the call, are you sure you didn't just dream it?
PM sorry :)
DeleteI converted 11:52 PST to 2:52 EST and forgot to flip the sign.
DeleteWould like to know the lottery procedure. Is a tightly kept secret.
DeleteIt's so secret even Jared Kushner doesn't know.
DeletePutin knows.
DeleteOf course he knows. It's no use puttin' anything over on Putin.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteNPR states that listener submits number where can be reached at 3 EST.
DeleteIt's 15 minutes after they said they would call... has this happened to anybody else who got the call?
DeleteMaybe it was all a dream and you were called erroneously. . .
DeleteGood luck. Hope they call soon.
Never mind they called me not long after I posted this. That was a fun and interesting experience. I did notice they left out something they usually do.. see if you can figure out what.
DeleteThey actually called me about 15 or more minutes ahead to tell me they would call me back at the correct time. Then there was a major phone problem on their end, probably Will Shortz's phone, and they eventually got back to me. Then I had to go through all kinds of trouble to eventually get my pin, but still have not received some of the prizes. Good luck.
DeleteHow long ago was yours?
DeleteMay 28, 2017
DeleteLooking forward to Sunday's airing, King Erroneous. Any heads up on the new puzzle?
DeleteWW: That is cheating!!
DeleteНаташа: Мы не уверены, что ты принадлежишь нашей команде.
DeleteTrumptransition2016: Где ты был все это время? Шпионя за мной, я вижу. Почему вы говорите, что я не в вашей команде? Пропустили вас здесь.
DeleteНаташа: Приносим извинения за то, что мы не писали в последнее время. Мы очень обеспокоены нашей свободой, особенно с американским «независимым» следователем.
DeleteМы были очень удивлены тем, что вы не одобряете обман. Или вы поддерживаете и цените попытку злоупотребления головоломкой?
The fact that King Erroneous got The Call before the puzzle deadline is consistent with the "randomization" strategy discussed here previously, i.e., that they first pick a day of the week, and then pick randomly from among the correct entries submitted that day. This would clearly NOT be a random selection from among all the correct answers, as NPR claims, since it is all but certain that entries are not randomly distributed among the 5 possible days, especially since there are fewer available hours on Sunday and Thursday.
DeleteSo, if you are bent on maximizing your chance to be chosen (something you could not do if the process were truly random), what is the best time to send in your entry?
DeleteIf the outlined scheme is correct, the time of day shouldn't matter. I'd guess they probably get proportionally more entries on Sunday, when the puzzle airs, even though they get no entries before it's posted, some time between 8:00 and 8:45 a.m., usually. Thursday's the other short day, though there might be a spike of last-minute entries as people realize the deadline is near. Maybe they get the fewest entries on Wednesday, so entering then might maximize your chances? Who knows?
DeleteI don't think I would enter on Thursday. I think those interns might be tempted to pull the "random" entry early in the day, and not enable Thursday to be an option.
DeleteJan, your description of the selection process is only partially correct.
DeleteSomeone here reported they randomly generate a date AND TIME, and whichever correct entry was received closest to that specific time is selected. Could pick the answer before, after, or on either side of that time.
Our Mueller of the puzzle process (Violin Teddy?) was confirmed by someone else who wanted to ask that on the air, and was told that is the process but they didn't want to make that the PM question.
I think your solution to maximizing your chances remains: pick the time that is likely to have the fewest entries. That strikes me as Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday in the middle of the night.
Thanks, eco. A middle-of-the-night choice sounds good, unless their algorithm does something like only generating business-hours times. On the other hand, if the algorithm doesn't eliminate date-time combos that fall before 8:00 am ET on Sunday or after 3:00 pm ET on Thursday, that would give a big advantage to the first or last person to submit a correct answer.
DeleteDuring our last discussion of this I did a Google search (sorry WW) of random time and date generators, and I think I found this site.
DeleteIt allows you to set a start and finish time, and "randomly" generates a time.
I chose March 04, 8 am as the start and March 09 12 noon as the finish (I had to type it in 4 times to make it work right - it kept setting the year to 2200), and got 2018-03-07 08:30:57.
I vaguely recall Excel has a random time/ date generating feature too.
eco, I used the same parameters with a 12 count result and got these results:
DeleteMinimum:
2018-03-04 08:00:00
Maximum:
2018-03-09 12:00:00
Count:
12
Format:
Y-m-d H:i:s
Date and time test values:
2018-03-08 09:22:02
2018-03-08 08:16:59
2018-03-04 09:32:14
2018-03-07 08:42:41
2018-03-05 10:48:55
2018-03-05 08:29:11
2018-03-06 08:18:41
2018-03-08 10:43:39
2018-03-09 11:40:01
2018-03-05 10:11:38
2018-03-06 10:59:00
2018-03-05 11:44:10
When I repeated the process with just 1 count result requested, I got the same first entry:
2018-03-08 09:22:02
That seemed a bit odd. It also seems odd that all of the times are in the a.m. hours, i.e. none after 12:00. Where are all the 13:00 and later results?
Update: I tried 12 values 12 more times and never got a result between 12:01 and 23:59. Something seems amiss.
DeleteWW: Did anyone every tell you science-type people that your analytic methods are annoying? You can't leave well enough alone!
DeleteBUT you didn't observe that not only there are no times after 12:00, there are also no times before 08:00. So their algorithm doesn't use the min and max parameters as macro start and end, rather they are parameters for each individual day.
When I typed 2018-03-04 00:00:01 and 2018-03-08 24:00:00 with 12 results I got:
2018-03-04 20:39:59
2018-03-08 21:17:50
2018-03-08 19:55:27
2018-03-08 01:23:51
2018-03-07 16:41:30
2018-03-07 02:00:34
2018-03-04 12:17:21
2018-03-08 14:30:52
2018-03-06 23:55:41
2018-03-08 00:12:29
2018-03-06 16:55:49
2018-03-08 23:19:10
If they are using this program they could just select the first one that falls within the puzzle time parameters. I also vaguely recall I found an online program that used a specific start and end time, but I'm not interested enough to try and find it.
And I meant "Did anyone ever tell you...."
Deleteeco, ah, indeed. Picking from this random generator then could be fraught with some bias of the picker's choice, if the picker had to pick a time from the times (possible human error in picking the first number in the range, etc.)
DeleteSounds worse that Peter Piper picking a peck of pickled peppers. . .
I wrote, "I have a movie clue, and since we are talking Academy Awards, it is a film that won its share of Oscars decades ago." The movie is _Casablanca_ (1944 Best Picture, Best Director, Best Writing), and "Casablanca" literally means "white house."
ReplyDeleteI too played off of "Casablanca" being Spanish for "white house", when my movie clue was Humphrey Bogart, who of course starred in "Casablanca".
DeleteHappy March, everyone! of course we should be marching on the White House.
ReplyDeleteBonus Puzzle #1 (film in 6 letters, vowel pronounced 3 ways): Avatar - 'ævəˌtɑː(r). The movie "The Eye" also works, though I'd never heard of it, but I have heard of Parker Posey and Jessica Alba.
Bonus Puzzle #2 (town/ city in 5 letters, vowel pronounced 3 ways): Orono, town in Maine, city in Minnesota.
Bonus Puzzle #3 (shortest word with 4 vowels pronouced differently): exegete - ek′si jēt′. Silent "e" is also a pronunciation. Other versions have a schwa for e #2.
"if you study hard the gods may show you are closer than you realize." offered 3 clues: an exegete studies scripture; an avatar is a Hindu manifestation of the deity (hence gods, not god); and Orono MN isn't too far from Lego's home town of St Cloud.
I'd be willing to bet my last satoshi that Lego was thinking of Amana, Iowa and the Amana RADARange.
DeletePaul, what's that bit worth anyway?
DeleteI considered Amana, but most of the guides I saw had the 1st and 3rd a's pronounced the same, and we've had too much discourse on that course. Orono is, I think, less controversial.
DeleteI've got 2 bits in my pocket, in coin form! Can I trade them in?
Paul is, as usual, correct. I was thinking Amana... although it is not a town as much as it is a cluster of colonies. And I gave an erroneous (congrats, King Erroneous!) clue to my Amana answer: "The U.S. city, spelled backward, is a Bartlettish collection of sayings by Roosevelt, Deacon, Merlin or Lamar," or "Ram ana," which is not "Amana" spelled backward at all!
DeleteThe film title, I got, "Avatar," spelled backward is indeed "rat" (terrier) and "Ava" (Gardner).
I am ashamed I did not solve BP#2 and BP#3. Orono is in Minnesota (This just happened!). And, in grad school, I took at least one "Exegetical Methods/Theory" course!
Great puzzles, eco. BP#3, I believe, might have been Will-worthy puzzle fodder. Nice wordplay.
LegoWhoFearsMoreThanJustSomeJonesLundyGrierOlsen
I posted "We all should be grateful to the singer."
ReplyDeleteThe answer should have been "Thank Whitney Houston."
Replacing the last three letters of each word with "e" results in the real name of the landmark:
THE WHITE HOUSE
My clue “...close connection to the Oscars “ referred to Whitney Houston dying near where the Oscars take place.
ReplyDeleteWill Shortz was a question to a Jeopardy answer.
ReplyDeleteWHITNEY HOUSTON, WHITE HOUSE
ReplyDeleteAmong my hints:
I used the phrase "all at once". "All At Once" was the title of one of Whitney's hits.
As I posted earlier, clearly I was not the only one to make the HUMPHREY BOGART/CASABLANCA/WHITE HOUSE connection.
One of the evening's presenters on the Oscars, Maya Rudolph, was known for impersonating Whitney on SNL.
One of Whitney's earliest TV appearances was on "Silver Spoons", where a character admitted to being in love with her.
In "Coming To America", one of Eddie Murphy's many characters in the film was a singer formerly with the group "Sexual Chocolate". He performed a comical version of "The Greatest Love Of All", a good eight years before Whitney recorded it. I think George Benson did the original, but I'm not quite sure.
One of the young actors on "Stranger Things" is named Millie Bobbie Brown. Bobby Brown was married to Whitney Houston.
The removed letters from her name spell NEY and TON, respectively. Change the order to TONNEY, then change the T to a B, and you get BONNEY, as in William H. Bonney, better known as "Billy the Kid". My "greatest of all time" comment refers to the acronym for Greatest Of All Time(GOAT, as in "billy" and "kid").
George Benson recorded "The Greatest Love Of All" in 1977, Whitney Houston in 1985. Also, it's spelled Millie Bobby Brown, not Bobbie.
ReplyDeleteI almost tried to make a reference to Mary Whitehouse, the British social activist who had a longstanding feud with the BBC in the early 60s, but it proved too difficult.
ReplyDeleteIt just hit me, as I was reading Jane Mayer's article about the man behind the Trump dossier: Steele tariffs!
ReplyDeleteRobert Mueller is investigating the role of Erik Prince in setting up a back channel between the Trump transition team and the Kremlin. (Prince lied to Congress about his meeting with the Russians.) Prince is the founder of Blackwater Security, the mercenaries responsible for several atrocities during the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. And who is this prince's sister? Our education secretary, Betsy DeVos.
ReplyDeleteWatergate, Whitewater, Blackwater >>> The scandals do flow on in rushing, er, Russian, waters. . .
DeleteDon't forget Daniel Pinkwater.
DeleteGiven this is Donald Trump I think "John" Waters are appropriate. Drain the swamp and fill the cesspool!
DeleteLive (yellow) streaming right now.
DeleteBut I think you will have to admit that Trump is rather good at cesspooling his resources.
DeleteYour innate (say it fast!) humor will make a splash.
Delete...and perhaps cause a tinkle in his eye.
DeleteTrickle down economics.
DeleteDepends on your point of spew. It is all in the eye of the pee holder.
DeleteAll this elimination talk is starting to sound like an SAT strategy. It's a process. Today, actually.
DeleteIt should all shake out in the end.
DeleteWow, I didn't know those two were brother & sister!! Amazing, go figure.
DeleteOh, you want to go back to the serious discussion? Yes, other than donating copious sums of money, how do you think the Secretary of Education got the job? Some reporters asked questions the other day, her answers were vapid and not as skilled at deflecting as The Huckster.
DeleteContinuing the water analogy >>> Prince of Ti(d)es.
DeleteBack to the serious topic: De Loss
DeleteThanks for the article, WW. Two things I note:
Delete1) Ms DeVos reads from a book written 2 millennia ago, and
2) innovation is not always needed or good, think about all the financial "innovations" of the past 20 years.
To bring it back to the more important topic (SAT for girls, STOOD for boys), the basic design of the toilet hasn't changed much for a very long time.
Thanks for the toilet article, eco. My grandfather was a plumber so I did learn some of this history from him. {I have installed a toilet in my house (and, yes, it took three trips to Ace).}
DeleteWonder how many toilets are in this monster manse summer place and how an architect could live with him/herself after drawing up these plans.
More domes than St Basil's Cathedral, or the Blue Mosque for that matter. And that's only the vacation home! The Google aerial view shows how out of place the house is compared to its modest (though doubtless still rich) neighbors. And the street view shows no fewer than seven (7!) garbage bins in front for collection, and 3 more in front of the modest 6500 sf guest house...
Deleteeco, Don't you consider flush toilets to be a drain on our society?
DeleteYuck. Maybe she's planning to open up the home to myriad school kids in innovative classrooms. (not)
DeleteSuch ostentation! What does our dear Betsy do when outdoors in loo of a toilet?
DeleteIt is quite a mansion, and must have many water-closets, but one wonders: is one labeled Transgender?
DeletePipe down, SDB! And put a lid on it. Urinal the bad puns, many of which have tanked.
DeleteWell what can I say? You now have me all flushed, wiped out and completely bowled over. Who pulled your chain anyway?
DeleteI say this with absolute sincerity: You can hold your own.
Delete:Yes, but it is hard.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNext week's challenge: Name a common article of apparel in 3 letters and another in 4 letters. Rearrange all 7 letters to name a well-known three-word song title. What is it?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAnother anagram puzzle. I need a drink!
ReplyDeleteAn easy puzzle for the start of Daylight Savings Time. I really wish we could stop this nonsense.
ReplyDelete