Sunday, September 30, 2018

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 30, 2018): I'm Turning Pro

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 30, 2018): I'm Turning Pro:
Q: Name a major professional sports team. The first and last letters of the team's name specify something that is an anagram of its interior letters. What team is it?
This does seem pretty easy, unless I've misread something.

Edit: "does" is an anagram of "dose" while "misread something" refers to illegible handwriting attributed to doctors.
A: (Boston) RED SOX --> RX (℞), DOSE

142 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.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Solved it before it aired, and I don’t even follow sportsball.

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  3. It might be the Padres.

    PS Read more below...

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  4. (Copied from last week's blog)
    Peter, Paul and Mary

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  5. Kavanaugh tried to buffalo the country this week, and all that BS made us ill.

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  6. Eco - I was just about to post the following: There are several teams whose exterior letters are BS. Unfortunately, the interior letters do not anagram to any part of Kavanaugh’s testimony. A near miss is, appropriately, Brewers!

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    Replies
    1. In his own words. He said "beer" 10 times in 30 seconds, that's got to be a record in a hearing.

      In case you haven't seen it, Colbert's unusual double monologues were terrific. Blasey Ford and Kavanaugh.

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    2. Was surprised at how many teams in professional sports start and end with "BS". Of the four leagues in Blaine's graphic here are the "BS" teams: Brewers, Blue Jays, Braves, Bills, Bengals, Browns, Broncos, Bears, Buccaneers, Bulls, Bucks, Blazers, Bruins, Blackhawks, Blues.

      Am not saying whether any of these teams satisfy the requirements of this week's answer.

      Delete
  7. Replies
    1. Our normally good seabeaches in PBC seem to be closed today because of red tide. No impact on lakes, canals, or the Intracoastal Waterway, as far as I know.

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  8. I am embarrassed by how long it took me to come up with the answer to this poorly worded puzzle.

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    Replies
    1. jan - My sentiments entirely, and I’m not even sure that I have the intended answer.

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    2. A little bit embarrassed as it was my second time through the lists when I recognized the team name that worked.

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    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    4. Upon further review, my original assessment of the puzzle has been overruled. Aside for some careless wording initially, the rest, which seemed awkward at first, is very precisely stated and confirms that I had the intended answer.

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  9. I am ignorant about a lot of stuff, but I am aggressively ignorant about sports. I don’t know anything and I don’t wanna know anything about sports. So the only remedy for my ignorance, in this one case, was using the internet for appropriate lists, from which I spied the answer.

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  10. Fortunately, I was able to answer this in two minutes and thirty-nine seconds.

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  11. Doesn’t take a JD or MBA to solve this one. Puzzles like this are often way too easy.

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  12. For sports geeks like me: The first two letters of the anagrammed word are the first two letters of a player from the team who is now in that sport’s Hall of Fame.

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  13. Fairly innocuous as anagrams go.

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  14. I do escape boredom on Sundays with puzzle.

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  15. Did anyone notice the nameplate at the hearing that said: Hon. Brett M. Kavanaugh? Wouldn't it have been more appropriate if it had said: Hot Brett M. Kavanaugh?

    There probably wasn't enough room to spell out: Horrible Brett M. Kavanaugh.

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  16. TV clue: SCTV
    We’d have to be idiots not to get this one.

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  17. Bonus riffs from last week's puzzle (aka Great Caesar's Ghost!):

    1) Think of something that is often made of gold in five letters. Shift each letter six spaces later in the alphabet — for example, A would become G, B would become H, etc. The result will be a something else that is often made of gold. What is it?

    2) Think of a state of mind in 5 letters that is often evoked during a certain time of year. Shift each letter seven spaces later in the alphabet — for example, A would become H, B would become I, etc. The result will be a word that is often used to describe someone associated with that time of year.

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  18. Just one went for 1,426,240.

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  19. For anyone interested, tonight is the first episode of season three on PBS of The Durrells in Tofu.

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    Replies
    1. - it's Corfu, where I am pretty sure this team never played. Though maybe where there's tofu, there's hope. --Margaret G.

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    2. Margaret G.:

      Thank you for the correction. I knew it was some kind of foo, but just could not remember which foo it was. Anyway it's a great dramatization of foo fighters in a lovely setting. Not at all footuristic. I watched last season on a footon. No foo-ling.

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    3. When I watch that program (which I do), there often seems to be a feeling of foo with some alcoholic drink. --Margaret G.

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    4. I got foo-led into watching when it first began due to it being filmed in Corfu, but while the landscape is delicious the writing is poor and the acting overdone and unbelievable. It could have been done so much better. I can only hope the overly cute (like this poor puzzle) kid gets killed off before he is able to procreate whatever species he hails from.

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    5. Thank god the first episode is now ended. Well not entirely, because I cannot stop asking myself why I continue to watch this soap opera that is only remarkable in that it makes The Waltons seem sophisticated. And if that damn kid doesn't stop smiling at everything I think I'll.....

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    6. SDB. If the kid - AKA Gerry - got killed off - there would never have been the autobiographical book series written by Gerald Durrell.

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    7. Humor, Jim, humor. I am fully aware of Gerald Durrell's Corfu Trilogy. I think it makes my post even more humorous.

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    8. Jim,
      Don't be sorry, I was expecting, as I wrote it, that someone would probably catch and point out the absurdity of the writer dying before he grew up and wrote what we are watching.

      Delete
  20. Replies
    1. For once I think I actually get a WW clue - she is devilish! And I didn't even have to look it up in my dictionary.

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    2. eco, devilish? Oh, you Californians!

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    3. Worried I might be revealing too much about you?

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    4. Hmmm, I'm wondering if you have a different interpretation of my clue.

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    5. We'll have more information on Thursday, so let's vote on it today!

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    6. Touché. Is that you, Chuck? Mitch? Squi?

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    7. Touched. And it never happened if you don't remember every detail, have several witnesses, and didn't report it to the FBI. K?

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    8. Waiting for the first Ken Burns or Michael Moore Mockumentary. . .

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    9. Just saw Moore's Fahrenheit 11/9. Scary, but kind of all over the place. (What did that erroneous missile alert test in Hawaii have to do with anything?) Fun to hear/see Trump's voice coming out of Hitler's mouth.

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    10. I am not sure it is fair to compare Trump with Hitler. Hitler at least was fairly honest in his book about what he actually thought and wanted.

      Delete
  21. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    1. That was weird. Why did a post repeat when I wasn't even at my computer?

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    2. Sometimes it happily makes mistakes. . .

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  22. No unused clues this week in the on air challenge.
    Mort

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  23. Before I solved this puzzle, a few hours ago, I had been misinterpreting some of its wording. I was going to post: "I should have known that late-night TV ad I saw for retail Romeo Oil was total BS!" But I held off lest the team I was alluding to happened to be the team in the intended NPR answer.
    The puzzle's creator this week is Henrik Strandskov of Luck, Wisconsin. That's near my neck of the woods. When I was about age 8 our mom and dad packed us kids up in our 1955 Ford Ranchero station wagon (with cool cattle-brand seat uphostery), and we spent a week's summer vacation in a cabin near Bone Lake in Wisconsin. Our parents took us on a side trip to the Duncan Yo-Yo Factory in Luck, and we got a tour... and each of us kids got a free yo-yo! Great memory.
    No hints in this post. None are necessary once you interpret the puzzle text correctly.

    LegoWhoChoseADuncanSatelliteYoyoWhileHisSisterMaryHelenChoseADuncanButterflyYoyoAndHisYoungestBrotherMichaelPeterChoseADuncanChiefYoyoAndPromptlyProceededToGnawThePaintOffOfIt!

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    Replies
    1. Lego, there’s a lot of up and down in your family tale. Are you stringing us along?

      Delete
    2. Yo! Word Woman. No! I never put any spin in my stories. But pardon me... I must now go walk the dog (who is no Maizie, alas!) and rock the baby.

      LegoWhoBelievesTheDuncanYoyoCompanyShouldHaveMarketedAToroidYoyoWithAHollowSpindleCalled"TheDuncanDoughnut"

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    3. My better half is from Luck. One of our first dates was a trip to luck. I was disappointed that the yo-yo factory was no longer there.

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    4. So, now your better half is out of Luck?

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    5. jan, you beat me to it.

      loop, does your better half know the puzzle creator?

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    6. To Jan, I was going to say that I was in Luck and out of luck. She had to bring her own yo-yo (me) when visiting.

      To WW, she said that the name didn't ring a bell but, it would come to her later. She knows most people from that area.

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    7. Wow, only around 1000 folks in Luck.

      loop, please pass on to your WI wife my “Go Rockies!” for the baseball game this afternoon. (You, too, Lego) ;-)

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  24. Solved in one minute forty-eight seconds

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  25. The New Yorker just published this article stating the FBI investigation is a sham and there are several witnesses who have been trying to contact the FBI without success.

    https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-confusion-surrounding-the-fbis-renewed-investigation-of-brett-kavanaugh

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  26. Dr. Ford doesn't have to be proven right. It will come out that he lied under oath about his drinking and the words in his yearbook. Drinking game my arse.

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  27. SDB: There is no way BK will not get the position he thoroughly does not deserve. I have given up a long time ago about anything turning out the way it should. To quote a President: "Sad".

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    Replies
    1. You are most likely right, but there are always surprises in life. I have no doubt Trump is doing everything can to interfere and limit the investigation, but it may still succeed. We need to keep pushing back on this monster.

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    2. SDB: Nice to know you think it may succeed. The Democrats need to get into action. There is no strong leader it seems. I am disappointed to say the least.

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    3. We the people must be the leader.

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    4. SDB: Goes to the Preamble. Need to publish it again I guess.

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    5. Those were good, in case you haven't seen it this cartoon sums it up beautifully.

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    6. Thanks. I have the solutions to your "Bonus Riffs" which I will post Thursday.

      Delete
  28. The plural form of the hometown of one of this team's former players was an informal nickname for the team prior to the adoption of its current nickname.

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    Replies
    1. Several layers of obscurity there.

      At one time there was a player on this team who might relate to certain person we all know, at least initially.

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    2. Red Sox broadcaster and former second baseman Jerry Remy is from Somerset MA. Prior to the official adoption of “Red Sox” for the 1908 season, “Somersets” had been one of the team’s unofficial nicknames.

      The SS Meteors would be a fitting name for a charter that takes guests away from artificial light on a pleasant August evening for Perseid gazing. NewboatnameIcallit.

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  29. I don't think Ks are a thing anymore.

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    Replies
    1. Hey, I live in Ks. it's still definitely a thing!!!!

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  30. I hear that Donald Trump Jr can't wait for tomorrow's emergency broadcast and is all ready to receive...

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  31. Neither my daughter or I (St. Louis) received the emergency presidential text mail today. Did anyone else experience this situation?

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    Replies
    1. I also did not receive the alert. Was it something we said? ;-)

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    2. I got it, as did my wife.

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    3. Thursday morning 6:00AM CST. I just got the alert when I powered up my phone this morning. Don't remember hearing the notification yesterday.

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  32. All joking aside, we received it right on time.

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  33. They ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
    And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go
    They ran so fast that the hounds couldn't catch 'em
    On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico

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    Replies
    1. Red Sox >>> Rx, dose

      "Cervidae" is the deer family including DOES, an anagram of DOSE.

      "Palm Beach County, Florida" points to Jupiter, FL. An Rx, perhaps devolved from Rj, is, according to some sources, a “recipe” written to the god, Jupiter, to ask for healing.

      "Mass spectrometry" >>> Scripps (Script) Mass Spectrometry Institute; “eco, devilish? Oh you Californians!” also refers to Scripps in southern CA.

      “Sometimes it happily makes mistakes. . .” refers to “Do err “ >>> Doerr >>> Bobby Doerr, RED SOX Hall of Famer, who died late last year at age 99.

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    2. I thought "mass spec" alluded to the Mass Pike, from which you can see Fenway, right by the Citgo sign.

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  34. Boston RED SOX > RX & DOSE

    My Hint:

    "I got foo-led into watching when it first began due to it being filmed in Corfu, but while the landscape is delicious the writing is poor and the acting overdone and unbelievable. It could have been done so much better. I can only hope the overly cute (like this poor puzzle) kid gets killed off before he is able to procreate whatever species he hails from."

    The word CUTE might refer to the socks being red.

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  35. RED SOX -> RX, DOSE

    > Jealousy.

    It is the GREEN [-eyed] MONSTER which doth mock the meat it feeds on.

    >(Nailed it!)

    You don’t lift an 86-year old curse without a little magic.

    > Just one went for 1,426,240.

    One of Curt Schilling’s bloody red sox from his 2004 victory sold at auction for $92,613. If you Google just that figure, you get a link to the story, but if you multiply by 0.77 British pounds per U.S. dollar and then by 20 shillings per pound, you get 1,426,240 shillings for Schilling’s sock, and no giveaway.

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  37. The Boston RED SOX → an Rx “specifies” a certain DOSE.

    Eco's Bonus Riffs:

    1. A gold CHAIN & a gold INGOT.

    2. 'Tis the season of good CHEER & JOLLY old Saint Nick...

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  38. Boston Red Sox, RX, EDSO or DOSE
    My comment of 'taking 2 minutes and 39 seconds to solve the puzzle' was a reference to the old joke of "Why are there only 239 beans in a box of Boston Baked Beans?"
    "Because one more and it would be "two farty"!

    A common problem near Hahvahd Yahd, I'm sure!!

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  39. Boston Red SoX - dose anagram.

    all that BS made us ill. You might get an Rx if you're ill. Bill Buckner, a decent baseball player is most (in)famous for a fielding error that caused the Red Sox to lose game 6 of the 1986 World Series, sickening Boston fans and extending the "Curse of the Bambino" another 18 years.

    For once I think I actually get a WW clue - she is devilish! And I didn't even have to look it up in my dictionary.
    I assume her clue of Cervidae was to anagram does (doe, a deer, a female deer), and mass spectrometry referred to the microbolometer made by Electro-Optic Sensor Design (EOSD). EoSD is also Touhou Koumakyou ~ "The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil", which you all know as a scrolling shooter character of the Touhou Project video game series. What? You didn't know that?

    Another anagram (STRAP is very ashamed) for dose is SOED - the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. My copy gathers dust as I type.

    Worried I might be revealing too much about you? Red Sox anagrams (oh the shame) to doxers, plural for someone who reveals private information about others on the internet.

    At one time there was a player on this team who might relate to [a] certain person we all know, at least initially. William Shortz, aka William S. (initially) referred to Ted Williams, one of the best Boston Red Sox players ever.

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    Replies
    1. Ah, thanks for clearing up the Scarlet Devil mystery, eco. My clue was less complicated (Scripps —> Script), but yours is a convoluted clue for all time (and all video game players).

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  40. Among other things, I wrote, “So the only remedy for my ignorance...” The hint was that “remedy.”

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  42. Clue: John Keats – the poet was known for writing ODES (anagram, dose).

    Clue: The Mouse That Roared – introduced a fictional country, The Duchy of Grand Fenwick (to suggest Fenway).

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  43. My clue: BATMAN

    One of the "Special Guest Villains" was The Minstrel, played by Van Johnson. Johnson's sartorial trademark was red socks.

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  44. My clue - “Doesn’t take a JD or MBA to solve this one. Puzzles like this are often way too easy.” - included references to JD (JD Martinez) and MB(A) for mookie betts. Also “...often way...” was reference to Fenway.

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  45. Red Sox....Rx..Dose

    My Peter, Paul and Mary comment was a reference to their hit, “Puff The Magic Dragon”.

    Puff was a big Green Monster, and the left field wall at Fenway, where the Red Sox play, is known as the Green Monster.

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  46. I wrote
    "it's Corfu, where I am pretty sure this team never played. Though maybe where there's tofu, there's hope."
    The Red Sox never played in Greece, but they did play in Tokyo, Japan (where I imagine there's tofu). --Margaret G.

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  47. Democracies seem to always be doomed to eventual failure due to self destruction. Our White House is now a failure. Our congress is now a failure. Our supreme court is now a failure. Our F.B.I. is now a failure. How are we doing?

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    Replies
    1. The voters keep electing the same cast of characters and it reminds me of the old story of the frog in the pot of water, and the heat is rising.
      Voters will not change their habits until it really hits them in the pocket books. Things will only get worse before they get better.

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    2. It appears to be reaching, if not already surpassing, the point of no return. Public apathy and ignorance combined with stupidity is destroying us. I don't see any frogs even thinking about leaving the nice warm water.

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    3. I keep wondering when people really turned a blind eye to what is happening around them. I think it began in the late '80's when AM radio no longer had to provide equal time to political talk shows. The elimination of the fairness doctrine I think, has greatly contributed to the polarisation in our political enviroment. Plus, this brought out the worst in people's better judgement. People I worked with began falling to the nut jobs and their many wacky political theories. And it has only grown worse over the years. People follow like sheep.

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    4. Never, ever underestimate the ignorance of the Amerikan public

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  48. (Boston)RED SOX, RX and DOSE
    I hope no one was offended by my "idiots" comment. While looking up the team, I found out their fans lovingly refer to them as "idiots". I also found the name Dutch Leonard associated with them as their umpire(I think). The name sounded familiar to me, and then I remembered on SCTV that Andrea Martin briefly portrayed a lesbian character with a Moe Howard haircut who never said anything but was always offering other women, who were about to smoke, a light. For whatever reason(whether they knew the original guy or not), the character's name was Dutch Leonard. Her character even appeared in a takeoff of one of those Benny Hill chase scenes with "Yakety Sax" playing in the background. So I used it as a clue, even though it's a vague memory for me, I have to admit. It sure beats using Cheers as a TV clue. That would've been a dead giveaway for sure.

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  49. My clue was a verse from Jimmy Driftwood's song Battle of New Orleans.
    They ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
    And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go
    They ran so fast that the hounds couldn't catch 'em
    On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico

    If you are on a dead run through briars, brambles, and bushes where a rabbit couldn't go you are going to end up with lacerations on your legs and likely bloody red socks.
    I thought of using Kurt Schilling's bloody sock game but since he pitched that game for the Red Sox it would have been a dead giveaway.

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  50. ... goOD SEebeaches ... clOSED ...

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  51. On Sunday Dave said: "For sports geeks like me: The first two letters of the anagrammed word are the first two letters of a player from the team who is now in that sport’s Hall of Fame."

    who was it?

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  52. Do what you will
    but think twice before ...

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  53. From Chris Hedges's newest book published this year. AMERICA: THE FAREWELL TOUR

    Page 42

    A society convulsed by disorder and chaos, as Voegelin pointed out, elevates and even celebrates the morally degenerate, those who are cunning, manipulative, deceitful, and violent. In an open society these attributes are despised and criminalized. Those who exhibit them are condemned as stupid—"a man [or woman] who behaves in this way," Voegelin notes, "will be socially boycotted." But the social, cultural, and moral norms in a diseased society are inverted. The attributes that sustain an open society—truth, honesty, trust, and self-sacrifice—are detrimental to existence in a diseased society.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, many of us have certainly been in a state of dis - ease for the past 696 days.

      Convulsed is an apt and disheartening word to describe this current disorder and chaos.

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    2. Sure gets old having nothing optimistic to say except "wait 'til next election, we'll vote 'em out of office!". But, we have no other choice, for now. People better show up at the polls next month!

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    3. You overlook just how much of Amerika supports Trump and the nomination and all of this 1950s thinking. It’s not a rarity, but soon to be the mainstream. Scared old white people vote. A lot.

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    4. BB: You are right on all counts. The 'orange fog' is in our state today campaigning for Kris Kobach. I "can't wait" to see the loyal supporters on tonight's news.

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  54. Next week's challenge: Think of a title for a particular person — two words, 15 letters in total — in which the only vowel is "I." What is it?

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    Replies
    1. Does the Notre Dame golf team have a Fighting Irish pitching niblick?

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  55. In the name of the title holder, the only vowel is "a".

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    Replies
    1. I would say that 'y' is acting like a vowel in the name however.

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  56. ILLICIT DIPSHIT came to mind after watching the news

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  57. "About 800" entries last week. Will mentioned PADRES -> PS, READ as an alternate answer.

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  58. As for the 10-7 Puzzle, I'm proud to say it took me about seven seconds. I'm sporting tears of joy in fact.

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  59. Will is scraping the absolute bottom of the barrel with this one.

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  60. Mitch McConnell: "We stood up for the presumption of innocence, we refused to be intimidated by the mob of people coming after Republican members at their homes and hallways.”

    Ugh.

    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.

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.