There are a few assumptions being made, but I'll allow it.Q: Think of a two-word phrase a child might shout when walking in the front door. Rearrange the letters and add an "E" at the end, and you get the next two words the child might shout. These are both common expressions. What are they?
Edit: It's a little dated to expect Mom to be the one staying home waiting for the kids to arrive from school. Can't Dad be there too? And how did the child get home? They didn't walk home alone, did they?
A: HI MOM! I'M HOME!
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.
Even as an adult, this is still the best feeling.
ReplyDeleteThe complete four-word expression appears as the title of a kid's book, and, oddly, on laundry bags.
ReplyDeleteNot money laundering, but mommy laundering?
DeleteHappy Mother's Day to all moms here!
Yes, and if you ask Siri to define "mother", don't ask her for a second definition.
DeleteThank you, WW. And Happy Mom's Day back to you!
DeleteThanks, VT!
DeleteFor those who like their Peanuts served with schmaltz.
DeleteSometimes I wonder why I even give a damn about these puzzles.
ReplyDeleteSadly, that was very poignant.
DeleteI have never agreed more with a comment.
DeleteSorry if the video was too much of a bummer.
DeleteHere's the connection.
***Cover Up at the NPR Sunday Puzzle***
ReplyDeleteFrom this week's NPR puzzle site:
"Last week's challenge: Name a person with a certain kind of disorder. Drop the first two letters and the last letter of the word, and you'll name a country. What is it?"
Wow, not being able to say you were wrong and covering it up? Is there a word for that?
Trumpism? Giulianitis?
DeleteNewspeak?
DeleteThey have hidden a "correction" at the bottom, haven't they?
DeleteHaris H., there's no correction on today's NPR puzzle post, though there is one, as you say, buried at the end of LAST week's post (where hardly anyone will see it).
DeleteWill/NPR bungled this puzzle, bungled not noting GABON, and bungled the hidden "correction." You might say it's a new BUNGLE LOW.
We say that a lot in Denver these days. . .
Well, the deadline for submission was April 19, for a puzzle posted May 6 and ``corrected'' May 10.
DeleteIn other news, it seems that, by NPR standards, Trump and Kim Jong-un couldn't find a major country to host their meeting (as others have noted: gar, ponies).
The first phrase takes me back to a movie title, an early work of two relative unknowns just starting up who would go on to become world famous.
ReplyDeleteThis is the best Will can do for Mother's Day?
ReplyDeleteBetter than last week's challenge where, unbeknownst to anyone "Name a certain kind of criminal..." was changed to "Name a person with a certain kind of disorder..."
And "vagabond" originally meant "criminal," as I noted last week.
DeleteI was a SITA criminal/LITA country submitter last week. Make Romania Great Again! But Will certainly left the Gabonese wandering alone in the desert. Not even an Honorable Mention.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea how to clue this week's puzzle.
Following up on WW's cover-up observation, what's annoying is that if the puzzle had simply been, "Name a disorder. Drop the first two letters and you'll name a country. What is it?" It wouldn't have had this problem.
ReplyDeleteAnd considering the weakness of this week's challenge (and while admitting I haven't yet looked for the answer) I wonder if there are multiple solutions to this version.
Any takers?
I don't understand why/how it is so hard for Will to just say "I goofed. I should have said disorder, not criminal. This original phrasing opened the way to another answer--GABON and VAGABOND."
DeleteAs to your question, SuperZee, the most obvious answer to this puzzle is the one all of us have. I'll not bother with anything else (Will surely would not mention it, even if it is very clever.)
Agreed. Will did, on the air, mention that pyromania was not necessarily criminal, but considering the rewording of the on-line version, he should have more directly owned up to the error.
DeleteAnd, as to my version, We all have one answer, which is why I'd be interested to see if there are additional ones.
Not the first time Will's puzzles have been worded incorrectly, referring to last week. I recall a math problem involving a clock with roman numerals that could easily be interpreted many different ways. Really a very poor puzzle and, yet, Will would not respond to the feedback.
ReplyDeleteGlad I slept through the early puzzle airing.
ReplyDeleteBonus Puzzle: Think of a two-word phrase a total loser might mumble when staggering across the finish line. Rearrange the letters and add an "E" at the end, and you get two words that describe this week's puzzle. These are both appropriate expressions. What are they?
The Society To Report Alternative Puzzles is outraged by the repression of Gabon.
Another fine bonus puzzle, eco. Perhaps the reason the loser finished where he did was because he himself was the second word "that describe(s) this week's puzzle."
DeleteI have already written a few Riff-Offs for next Friday's Puzzleria! that I hope are more challenging than the present NPR puzzle. (Incidentally, the present week's Puzzleria! offers many challenging and even educational puzzles, including an excellent offering from "cranberry.")
LegoWhoIsCuttingThisTrackMeetLoser(AndAllLosers)SomeSlack
In Re: Last week's puzzle:
DeleteTo err is human (WILL).
To forgive divine (US).
Please don't respond to this comment with "Gag me with a spoon". Anyway, he did give an easy one this week. Possibly a mea culpa?
Bonus Puzzle withheld from last week: Name a type of person who is breaking the rules, and possibly the law. Replace the last 3 letters with 2 different letters, to name another person breaking the rules and possibly the law.
ReplyDeleteHint: the 3 letters and the 2 letters each describe something found in an army.
This week's puzzle was too easy.
ReplyDeleteWill should have limited contestants to kids under 6 years old! Then we'd have fun hearing whatever puzzle he offered the winner next week.
Rearrange the name of a major American city to get the two-word phrase that will probably follow the first two.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHonestly didn't have a clue till I read the topical discussion above. Got it in about 5 seconds then.
DeleteI’m contractually disallowed from giving a clue this week...
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDidn't you just post the answers? My WHOLE WEEK is ruined!!!
DeleteDoh' Forgot to remove my answers
DeleteFour unused clues for todays on air challenge.
On-air challenge: Change one letter in each word to get a familiar boy's name.
Ex. ALIAS —> ELIAS
4. CORDON —>
6. THRONE —>
8. QUINCE —>
9. ENROLL —>
What were you smoking last night, DD?
DeleteThis weeks answers
DeleteOn-air challenge: Change one letter in each word to get a familiar boy's name.
Ex. ALIAS —> ELIAS
4. CORDON —> Gordon
6. THRONE —> Tyrone
8. QUINCE —> Quincy
9. ENROLL —> Erroll
I still cannot solve it. Here's what I have so far:
ReplyDeleteDrunk again?!
I'm wasted.
You're wasted.
Fuck you!
Where's Dad?
Mutton again?
Spot's missing.
Expelled again.
Wake up!
I'm gay!
Not him!
Hi Dads!
Don't ask.
Empty again!
Nobody home?
Roof's leaking!
Get dressed.
Sdb, this list made me laugh.
DeleteI forgot, Billy's shot!
DeleteExcellent list, SDB, but you forgot a few:
DeleteI'm innocent!
Gotta pee!
Damn leaks! (might be related to #2)
Where's Ivanka?
Call Cohen!
Crooked Hillary!
and
WITCH HUNT!
Don't forget:
DeleteI'm hungry, and
When's dinner?
My favorite: scienceprojectduetomorrow: help?
DeleteEco, you overlooked the obvious: Fake news!
Delete"Heeeere's Johnny!"
DeleteNo collusion!
DeleteUncool lesion!
SDB "and the rest" - I still get a kick out of these. They were better than the real puzzle answer!
DeleteThanks, but how could I have forgotten to list: "You suck!"?
DeleteOr "Car's crashed!" and, of course, "YOU'RE FIRED!"
DeleteThis was the highlight of this week's Puzzledom, emphasis on the last syllable.
Time to get grams her breast test.
ReplyDeleteI don't have kids. How do I know what they yell?
ReplyDeleteCowabunga dude!
ReplyDeleteI hate you. You don't know me.
ReplyDeleteI actually don't remember ever saying this upon my arrival when I was a kid. My mother, however, liked to say a similar phrase that involved the made-up term "jiggedy-jig". Hope that doesn't give anything away here.
ReplyDeleteAdd either of two particular letters to the end of the second word of the second phrase, and the result will spell the two-word self-introduction of either of two fictional characters you might have seen on TV in the early 90s(first names only). Hint: Both appeared on the same network, but not the same show.
ReplyDeleteWhat do a ship’s captain and a cardshark have in common?
ReplyDeleteThey both have command of a slippery deck? Something like that.
DeleteThey both have deckhands.
DeleteNot to put too fine a point on this but "Card Shark" is a corruption of "Card Sharp". Granted the corruption has gained some credibility in popular lexicon and had a TV show named after it.
DeleteMC: I can't schurke my responsibilities; there is some debate about which came first.
DeleteAll I know is you never see a “SHARKS” container at the doctor’s office or hospital.
DeleteWW: I don't see your point.
DeleteEvery girl's crazy 'bout a shark dressed man.
DeleteThere is no need to inject nonsense into this thread.
DeleteEcoA,
DeleteOk, I had always heard Card Sharp was the earliest reference. Thought I had backing from NPR's John Ciardi but even he equivocates on the matter.
I'm not a Shark - I'm a Jet all the way.
DeleteI used to be a Jet but then I took dancing lessons. Now it's Jete all the way. ;-)
DeleteI drove to La jetée but it was dry when I got there.
DeleteI used to be in the jet set, but then I got shark treatment. This was right after I'd just met a girl named Maria.
DeleteIf two thereminists got married at a church with a theremin, would that be considered a theremony?
ReplyDeleteDoctors have determined that musical hesitations for them originate in the therebellum.
DeleteEveryone else is saying "Don't answer, it will only encourage him!"
Actually, they all say he's incorrigible, so it's best not to incorrige him.
DeleteTheremdipidy doo da.
DeleteHow do you make Pheromone?
Ignore his pyramid scheme.
Does it have anything to do with $130,000?
DeleteAren't those lines getting longer now?
DeleteThis puzzle somehow reminds me of Pleasantville...
ReplyDeleteSome hear "yanny", some hear "laurel".
ReplyDeleteI hear "Get a life!"
Yeah, I agree.
DeleteI'm guessing over 2500 correct answers.
ReplyDeleteHi Mom & I'm Home
ReplyDeleteHi, Mom. I'm home.
ReplyDeleteMom's Day wishes and comments were sprinkled throughout.
Hi Mom, I’m home.
ReplyDeleteI started to comment on this puzzle by saying, “…and the next two words were usually, when’s dinner?” but decided it would be too much of a hint for an already too easy puzzle.
HI MOM → I'M HOME → LET'S EAT (Seattle).
ReplyDeleteI'M LAST → This puzzle, IT'S LAME.
Hi mom and I'm home, a strong contender for the easiest puzzle ever.
ReplyDeleteBonus Answer #1, same format, first is what a loser might mumble, second describes this week's puzzle: I'm last --> it's lame. Lego astutely observed one may cause the other.
Bonus Answer #2, rule breakers, replace last 2 letters with 3 different: tru(ant) --> Tru(mp). Both ants and MP's are found in an army.
HI, MOM! I’M HOME!
ReplyDelete> The complete four-word expression appears as the title of a kid's book, and, oddly, on laundry bags.
I'm guessing that is for college students.
DeleteI wrote, "The first phrase takes me back to a movie title, an early work of two relative unknowns just starting up who would go on to become world famous." In _Hi, Mom!_ (1970), Brian DePalma directed Robert De Niro.
ReplyDeleteHI MOM, I'M HOME!
ReplyDeleteMy mom likes to say "Home again, home again, jiggedy-jig" whenever we come home. I don't really know why.
The answers to my bonus puzzles:
I'M HOMEY(D. Clown, played by Damon Wayans, on In Living Color);
I'M HOMER(Simpson, voiced by Dan Castellaneta, on The Simpsons)
Both shows were on the FOX Network in the early 90s. Of course, The Simpsons is still currently on the air.
I meant bonus puzzle, singular.
ReplyDeleteHi Mom. I’m home.
ReplyDeleteI’m sure all serious puzzlers got this week’s challenge in about 5 minutes or less. Sorry I was out this afternoon buying a new mattress. Have you priced these things lately? They’re about the cost of a decent used car!
Yes, they are. I've owned several used cars in my life, and I'm guessing about half of those were indecent.
DeleteMy clue
ReplyDeleteThe answer to this week’s puzzle is ________(insert 8 letter word) to me.
Answer = apparent....as in “a parent to me = mom!
There was a tragic school shooting in Texas today, but not to worry, Trump has offered his condolences.
ReplyDeleteThoughts and Prayers!
DeleteI saw a patient yesterday who was wearing this T-shirt.
Deletejan,
DeleteI guess you didn't hear about the new book that came out yesterday with the identity of D. B. Cooper, a Michigan man who died in 2014. It has been on local and national NPR news reports yesterday and today. I thought I might get a question from you on this.
Anyway, I phoned my local NPR station today informing them why this is another scam, and cannot be true, but the guy asked no questions and just said thanks.
NPR has been playing, on their news, part of a tape of this guy telling how he did it in his own voice. He says he strapped the cash to his body and jumped out and landed in Cle Elem, which is a small town near Ellensburg, WA. Then he deposited the money in a bank in Canada.
I don't know how you open a bank account without an address, but the main problem is that Cle Elem is in Eastern Washington, on the East side of the Cascade Mountain range. The jet flew from Seattle down the coast South and some of the cash was found by a boy along the Columbia River, near the coast. No critical thinking going on with the news folk here.
Cle Elum (not Elem, according to Google/ Wiki) seems more central Washington, about 80 mi ESE of Seattle.
DeleteNotwithstanding, it does seem an unlikely place to drop in; SeaTac's runways go north-south, and they land/ take-off into the wind, as do most airports. If they took off to the south there's no reason to go so far east, and if they took off to the north I'd think they would turn west to go south - safer to fly over the ocean than to head over the mountains. Even if they turned to the east 80 miles seems a pretty wide turn.
Besides, we all know D.B. Cooper was Hillary!
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteIt's elumentary.
DeleteI don't watch TV, but I did notice that some reporter at our local NBC TV station did catch some of the obvious problems with this claim being valid.
DeleteThe lesson from this, as I see it, is most news outlets are taking almost any story they are offered and running with it, without any fact checking, because they know it will attract interest and is not costing them to report it. This is really great for a democracy.
According to Wikipedia, Maria Cooper came forward in July 2011 with the claim that her uncle L.D. Cooper was the hijacker. The FBI therefore had a number of years to look at L.D. Cooper before they suspended active investigation of the case in July 2016.
DeleteSeems like old and possibly fake news to me.
There have been many D.B. Cooper wannabees. Also several deathbed confessions. All nonsense. He died that night. Only an idiot would plan that kind of heist with a jump involved on a national holiday when it would be unlikely a drop zone would be open, and parachutes could be obtained. Issaquah happened to have a couple of people there. The state patrol officer came racing down the dirt road and ran in demanding three parachutes, and he wanted one that would not work, but didn't explain why. He was given the student training reserve for use in the classroom. It was not jumpable. All the rigs were with rounds that were almost unsteerable.
DeleteBack to the Texas shooting, it's apparently all the fault of architects. They can have my knob when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.
DeleteHow do you finger?
DeleteecoA,
DeleteJust wait till they have their next school fire. Then they'll decide they need all those exits back. It'll be the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire all over again.
If you happen to know that I live in Seattle, you will understand my surprise today at seeing a camel, loaded to overflowing with straw, walking downtown. The poor beast could barely maintain itself upright, and I suddenly realized I should send my prayers and condolences to the NRA.
ReplyDeleteWas it Joe or Sopwith?
ReplyDeleteNext you'll be wanting to know if was one hump or two.
DeleteIf it had no humps at all it'd be named Bogart.
DeleteBut then it would be Humpty Dumpty.
DeleteNext week's challenge: The challenge comes from listener Ben Bass of Chicago. Take the title of a famous Hollywood flop. Change an A to an R, then rearrange the letters to spell a famous box office hit — which went on to spawn sequels. What films are these?
ReplyDeleteI've seen neither of these, though I have seen a show with the same name as one of them.
DeleteHollywood flop is one of the first two movies I though about when I heard the word flop.
DeleteLike Jan I have seen and much appreciate the show with the same name. The show had a legendary young actress that put a lot of blonds to SHAME!!!!!
Unnecessary hints for the 10 potential on-air puzzles listed on the website:
ReplyDelete1. WEASEL
2. SILVER HAMMER
3. FAIRY
4. GET REAL
5. SWEET
6. I
7. LIZARD
8. ENTIRE
9. 11
10. CHANGING
Over 2600 correct entries last week.
ReplyDelete