Sunday, October 14, 2018

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 14, 2018): Famous Women

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 14, 2018): Famous Women:
Q: Take the 7-letter last name of a famous woman. Drop the letter E. Add an I and an F. You can rearrange the result to get a word that famously describes this woman. Who's the woman, and what's the word?
This took me 3 minutes 10 seconds to solve.

Edit: Her stepson, Christian Bale, was in 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
A: (Gloria) STEINEM - E + IF --> FEMINIST

125 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
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    1. Blaine, re: your illustration: I was about to comment that (Mother) Teresa has but 6 letters and, poof, she was replaced by Beyoncé.

      Here’s 3 minutes and 10 seconds that made me forget puzzle lists:

      https://youtu.be/-YJlzsTTi50

      ^^^This was our day yesterday. Today, it’s 23 degrees and snowing. ❄️ ❄️ ❄️

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    2. That's some sediment, Mother Theresa.

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    3. One list had her as Mother Theresa but it isn't a last name anyway, so she was replaced by Beyonce Knowles. In my RSS feed it still has the prior image. :)

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  2. Take the last letter of the name and the first letter of the name, and you get a connection.

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  3. Add an S to the name, shake well, and you'll get a competition she probably don't cotton to.

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  4. In a break with our charter, the Society To Reproduce Anagram Puzzles offers this Bonus Puzzle: Take the last name of another famous woman also described by the Puzzle answer word. Remove an I and an F, reverse the letters and the result will be the last name of a contemporary of the first woman, famous for different reasons.

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    1. Nice Bonus Puzzle, ecoarchitect ("King of the Riff-off")... although this paricular riff-off may be verging on unsafe territory.
      Incidentally, I guess "fiction is imitated by fact."

      LegoWhoFeelsSomewhatMoreSafeTakingALeisurelyStrollWhenIvyCoversArch

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    2. Lego: "The physician can bury his mistakes,—but the architect can only advise his client to plant vines." - Frank Lloyd Wright

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    3. Judging from our locale, FLW may have been a fan of Parthenocissus quinquefolia.

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    4. eco, you may now have reached a low point in STRAP history.

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    5. Eco - What a coincidence, just as I realized who your trivia answer was, this person was being interviewed on one of the news channels.

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  5. I have solved this one as well.
    Musical clue: The Eurythmics

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    1. I can think of many other musical clues, but am not going to list any of them.

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    2. It's simply Eurythmics. No The. It's a concept from Rudolf Steiner.

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    3. "...not going to list any of them."

      I thought about capitalizing THEM, which is in reference to the Northern Irish band Them, led by Van Morrison, which released "Gloria" in 1964. Dozens of cover versions followed, most notably by The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, and Patti Smith. I would argue, as perhaps would Ben (see below), that the Patti Smith version has become the definitive version of the song.

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  7. One of the most important women of a certain era...

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  8. As said before, compared to last week's puzzle, I find this one much more complimentary to women. --Margaret G.

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  9. I heard Will say that "knightship" has 17 letters.
    I heard Will say that hardness of the hand and hardness of the heart are spelled differently.
    What did I miss?

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    1. He said "British knightship" has 17 letters.

      "Callous" means feeling no emotion, "callus" is a thickened area of skin.

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  10. In case you are stuck trying to solve this one, the 8 letter word is not fellatio.

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  11. All I can say is Marian Wright EDELMAN was certainly an INFLAMED Head Start & Children's Defense Fund (CDF) advocate, but she is not the "intended answer" to this challenge.

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  12. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  13. One cooper is embedded in this puzzle.

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  14. P___ is a lot of work. Some of it quite taxing.

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  15. I went from almost bailing on this puzzle to now mailing it in! (The answer, that is).

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    1. erm, ok.

      How about “list?”

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    2. Snipper,
      Your post has opulence.

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    3. Upon further review, Snipper, I will say your clue has opalescence. . .

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    4. While I’m familiar with the clue(s) in my post, unfortunately I don’t follow these responses so I’ll look forward to Thursday!

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  17. Whoever this famous woman is, it could be said this gal is to ire men. I, however, am unfazed by her.

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  19. I’d have solved this puzzle hours earlier if I hadn’t misspelled her name.

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  20. After removing the letter E and reversing syllables in place: A pet peeve?

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  21. Solved puzzle quickly by determining the word first.

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  22. I finally have a Monday off, so I’m going to ditch all technology and the rat race and the grind and take my bicycle down to go fishing. Maybe the puzzle answer will just magically come to me as I fill clear my mind of all reason and accountability.

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  23. I have always heard that one should never challenge this person to thumb wrestling. She was very adept at this sport!

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  24. Oboes, brass, and strings, but no bassoon.

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  25. Replies
    1. Anybody else feeling discouraged that
      - 45 nominates a horrible person for SCOTUS,
      - they conduct sham hearings without reviewing pertinent information from his years in the White House, and his finances, and his receiving documents stolen from the opposition
      - they then torment Dr. Blasey Ford
      - and this SCOTUS nominee gives a bizarre and perjured rant that any parent is relieved to see their 4 year old grow out of (or maybe 13 year old)
      - they then have the FBI conduct what has to be one of the shallowest investigations in history, where they don't even question the two parties to the event, not to mention all the other potential witnesses
      - they then approve the scumbag, with a certain Senator from Maine saying she hopes he will bring the country together

      And then their approval ratings go up in the polls, and it looks more likely that the GrOPers will hold onto the Senate?

      Forgive the rant, I'm really disgusted in so many ways.

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    2. Eco - Open this if you dare, but you may want to take a stress pill first.
      It is now hanging up in the White House.

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    3. Thanks 68C, I already got this in the morning email, then the article in WaPo. The perfect holiday gift.

      Or this.

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    4. OMG! I may postpone Christmas...

      then,

      LMAO!!

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    5. Beyond discouraged, eco.

      46-1 taking credit for Kavanaugh’s appointment going through because he mocked Dr. Blasey Ford at the Mississippi rally was the last straw of many last straws.

      And, another point: Why would Will would choose last week to feature Mississippi, where the mocking was laughed at soundly? I just don’t get it.

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    6. The guy seems to be made of Teflon.
      All I can say is "the bigger they are, the harder they fall". The real fly in the ointment is of course, the Supreme Court...

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    7. I am starting to doubt whether he will get his dues, and that they will continue to get away with the lying, cheating, fraud, and destruction of the country, and the world for that matter.

      Kris Kobach should be in jail, not Congress. Maybe there's an inkling of hope. But I'm not optimistic.

      I wish I knew what was going on with Mueller, and the only other hope is that the Dems take the House and actually discover they are not invertebrates - with no disrespect to invertebrates.

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    8. Trump is a fascist criminal and lots more, but he is not the real problem. It is similar to someone who has a sore and the doctor discovers it is a syphilis sore. I learned in school that this disease has 3 stages. The sore is stage 1. The sore will not kill you, but is a major indication of the disease lurking in the body, and the disease will kill you if not treated, but in the meantime the sore will go away, even if not treated. Treating the sore will not solve the real problem. The disease must be treated. Stage 2 I think I remember is the return of the sore. It can still be treated at this time. Stage 3 is where the disease cannot be cured and the patient will die of something horrible. Jan can correct me if I have this wrong, but I think it is basically how it works. I see Trump as a syphilis sore. It gets a lot of attention, but it is not the real disease that has begun taking over the body in general. He may disappear sooner or later one way or another, but if we do not address and correct the real root problems with the country we will sooner or later move into stage 3, and then it will be too late. Putting Trump away and returning the Democrats, while it may seem wonderful at the time, will not solve what is actually killing our nation.

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    9. I think Reagan was Stage 1, W was Stage 2, and we are now in Stage 3, heading rapidly to Stage 4 - I personally think the economy crashes in 2019 or early 2020, with a good 'ole war as distraction and revenge.

      At least with Reagan and W we had a somewhat rational congress and supreme court to at least cauterize their worst impulses.

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    10. eco,
      You seem to have completely misunderstood my analogy. Probably my fault as analogies are not perfect, but do frequently help people understand a problem.

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    11. I think the root of the problem has been a festering sore caused by same disease that began spreading with the likes of Barry Goldwater. Conservatives seem to act like no one should ever tell them what to do. All the discord & problems begat by the Vietnam War gave rise to Nixon & the promise of law and order, no matter what the cost. Reagan came later promising the Goldwater mentality. The U.S. has never gotten over his "legacy". 
      Voters never really accepted Harry Truman's line about "if you want to live like republicans, vote democratic". Today, people want things now in a "me first" mindset. For example, workers seem to have rejected the idea of unionized labor, thinking they can get what they want on their own.
      For some reason, conservatives are drawn to AM radio and the unbalanced rhetoric found there.

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    12. BTW, over the weekend I put out my yard sign for Laura Kelly, Kobach's opponent. 
      Kobach scares the heck out of me! He seems like somone you'd see in early 1930's German politiks.

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    13. To be fair to Barry G., he did warn Republicans of the religious right and their absoluteism in the 1960s. They still let them take over the party.

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    14. Eco a lot of people trace this atmosphere back to Lee Atwater. he kind of introduced the win at all costs while you demonize the “enemy.” Fear and hate are powerful, and it ended up consuming him.

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    15. BB: Lee Atwater's work with Reagan was a big step, as was Goldwater 16 years earlier. Of course it's rare to trace a movement to a singular point (Know Nothings? Lindbergh? McCarthy? John Birch Society?), I try to look for the big jumps.

      I'm still not understanding why I don't understand SDB's analogy, but maybe I'll take a long retreat on that.

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    16. I believe he is saying that Trump is the sore but the disease is the toxic 2 sides “good versus evil” political system we have, and that not breaking that lock will result in our country dying. It’s possible. If there were a clearly better system out there I would bet on it. I have hope for the next generation - when mine and maybe the next dies off - that they will reject the vitriol. I see it in my millennial kids, how their values are different (for the better). My generation took all of the values of the previous and just went darker.

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  26. Yippee! But, I have been having fun with anagrams.

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  27. I am surprised no one here has mentioned that the founder of Microsoft died today.

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    1. Correction: The co-founder of Microsoft, Paul Allen, died. Not Bill Gates. Had he died it probably would've been a bigger story, no offense to Mr. Allen, God rest his soul. It's just maybe more people know Mr. Gates. I just had to check and make sure after seeing SDB's post myself. Once again, Bill Gates is alive and well, but co-founder Paul Allen, 65, has passed away.

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    2. That is not a correction. Paul Allen was the founder of MS. Gates is also the founder of MS. And Allen was more of the tech genius than Gates. He had to leave MS earlier than Gates due to the first time he came down with this disease. Were it not for that he would most likely be as well known, although Gates is more the PR man.

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    3. Yet another billionaire the tax-payers built a stadium for. I live in the age of morons.

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    4. I could not agree with you more on that. If they can't afford to build their own facility then they should not be in the business. I also believe football is just another strong indication of how violent our nation is. It needs to go.

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  28. Tennis anyone? With a tiger?

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  29. Anagramming the plural of her first name yields something you might give to her.

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    1. Anagramming the full name (w/o the E that Will dropped) yields a student of Snipper's gift.

      Delete
    2. Alternatively, anagram the full name, minus an E and get a field closely related to that of one of our regulars.

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    3. We share a target anagram, SuperZee.

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  30. SHE DID NOT APPEAR IN ANY OF MY LISTS.

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  31. (Gloria) STEINEM - E + IF = FEMINIST

    “23 degrees” refers to the first proposal of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1923. {Sheesh!}

    “~106 linear feet” refers to the length of the boxes of Gloria Steinem archival material in the Sophia Smith collection at our alma mater, Smith College.

    “Judging from our locale, FLW may have been a fan of Parthenocissus quinquefolia.” Virginia creeper, also known as 5-leaved ivy, refers to the ivy-covered buildings at Smith.

    “Push is a lot of work. some of it quite taxing.” >>> I met Gloria Steinem at Smith when I was there for Sophomore Push and she was there for reunion:

    https://www.smith.edu/newssmith/spring2004/push.php

    “List” >>> Gloria Steinem posted this list of “Ten Ways Kavanaugh’s Victory could be Worse” on 10-10:

    https://forward.com/schmooze/411764/gloria-steinem-wrote-a-list-called-ten-ways-kavanaughs-victory-could-be/

    "Upon further review, Snipper, I will say your clue has opalescence. . ." >>> It refers to a different aspect and fire of Gloria Steinem's life (sadly, short though her marriage to David Bale was). Snipper’s subsequent referral to fire opal or GIRASOL delighted me (as did Jeff Balch's and SuperZee's anagram to MINERALOGIST.)

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  32. Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    3. My hint (that I forgot about):

      Snipper,
      Your post has opulence."

      The actor Christian Bale is her stepson and he used the word Opulence in a memorable moment in the movie, Empire of the Sun, from the book by J. D. Ballard.

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    4. Pretty sure Ballard's middle name is GRAHAM... His forward-thinking parents likely wanted to avoid confusion with songwriters LOUDERMILK and SOUTHER, authors ROBB, VANCE and SALINGER, and longtime Patti Smith drummer JAY DEE DAUGHERTY.

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    5. You are right. I posted it incorrectly. It should be J. G. Ballard.

      Delete
  33. Steinem – e + i + f >>> Feminist

    Gloria Steinem was one of the first famous women I thought of, but I misspelled her name as Steinam. It was only later, when a friend pointed out my error, that I solved the puzzle. Hence, my, “misspelled,” comment.

    I was sorely tempted to say I’d ms-spelled the name, but figured that would result in a, “…removed by a blog administrator.”

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  34. Gloria STEINEM
    STINEM+IF → FEMINIST

    My hint:
    sediment” -d anagrams to “Steinem.”

    Eco's Bonus Puzzle:
    Betty FRIEDAN -IF → NADER.

    Add an S to STEINEM and rearrange, to yield the “competition” MISS TEEN.

    GLORIA STEINEM (-E) → MINERALOGIST

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  35. I commented: "No spreadsheet required."
    I thought it was an EXCELlent hint.

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  37. Gloria Steinem - feminist

    the Society To Reproduce Anagram Puzzles offers this Bonus Puzzle: Don't panic, STRAP's mission remains unchanged. This was a nod to Steinem's work towards reproductive rights.

    Bonus Puzzle Answer: Betty Friedan, remove the I and F and reverse to yield Ralph Nader, born a month before Gloria Steinem.

    I'll snap out of it. I hope WW was referring to STRAP in the context of removing bras as a liberating gesture. Some have snaps.

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    1. eco, “low point in STRAP history” refers to your bonus puzzle >>> NADIR >>> NADER

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    2. I wasn't sure if you were referring to Ralph Nader or the infamous GEORGE NADER.

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    3. Clever WW. Related note: were the Kavanaugh hearings the first time in recorded history that the Senate Judiciary Committee (or any other committee in any government) had a discussion of the definition of "Ralph"?

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    4. eco, it was a definite nadir in any committee discussion anywhere.

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    5. I once had tea with Ralph Nader's sister in her home near Berkeley years ago. Nice person.

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  38. GLORIA STEINEM -> FEMINIST

    > As was unwittingly mentioned earlier, there is a connection to last week's puzzle.

    Steinem founded Ms -- not Miss -- magazine.

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    1. I would like to know if Will and NPR got lots of flack about the Miss Mississippi puzzle, prompting the puzzle pendulum to swing to Ms. Steinem.

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  39. "Drop the letter E"... ugh... Steinem you are not dropping THE letter E, you are dropping AN E. Not a very well presented puzzle. Onto next week....

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    1. Although, saying “AN E” fills in at least one more letter for us puzzle solvers. I’m ok with it.

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    2. A way to avoid that issue would have been to to say, “...remove the third letter...”

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    3. Agree with you both, cant give us too much, dropping the 3rd letter would have circumvented both issues. Oh well. :)

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  40. My clues - “bailing on this puzzle “ referred to her late husband David Bale. “Mailing it in” referred to “male” as opposite of female or feminist.

    Anagram of Gloria’s was girasole, as noted by some above.

    WW/SDB - thanks for clarifying your comments! And when I came across Girasole, and saw it referred to it as an opal, I thought there was a connection!

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    Replies

    1. Indeed. Snipper, but no ‘E’ in your Glorias puzzle (though both GIRASOL and GIRASOLE are acceptable). {GIRASOL/E can also refer to the sunflower variety of Jerusalem artichoke.}

      And, of course, males can be feminists!

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    2. Oops - yes Girasol. Must have been auto text!

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    3. Funny, my auto text turns Girasol into Bissell.

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  41. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  42. GLORIA STEINEM, FEMINIST
    "I have solved this one as well" was another way of saying "me too", as in the MeToo Movement, of which Ms. Steinem would probably be proud.
    Eurythmics recorded "Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves" in 1985, a duet with the late Aretha Franklin. Ms. Steinem became known as a leader and spokeswoman for the American feminist movement in the 1960s and early 1970s.
    "Gal is to ire men" is(sort of)an apt anagram for GLORIA STEINEM.

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    1. "as in the MeToo Movement, of which Ms. Steinem would probably be proud."

      Proud? For me, that's not the right word. Angry, pissed off, thinking it is well past time? Yes.

      "Gal is to ire men?" Nope, not even for an anagram. Just no.

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    2. Sorry, WW, if my attempts to provide clues were not perfect. Now that I think of it, there was a somewhat popular musical group called Enchantment who had a minor hit in 1977 called "Gloria". I could have just put the word "Enchantment", and others would have wondered what it meant, unless they know a lot about music like I do. I could have referenced Archie Bunker, saying even though he'd named his daughter Gloria, he most definitely did not agree with Ms. Steinem on many issues, something like that. I try not to even think about the MeToo Movement anyway, let alone understand it fully. Excuse me if I've insulted anybody here. I do have a life outside this blog, you know. I can't be worrying about every little comment I may make on a puzzle blog. Sometimes you can say much worse things in real life than you might online. Excuse me for attempting an anagram of her name, for that matter, whether "apt" or not. I surely don't intend to create any further division than there already is in this country right now. Let's just call it what it is: I'm a guy, I said something wrong, I've offended one of my fellow bloggers. I'm truly sorry for that. WW, please forgive me.

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    3. Sure.

      New topic: DANDELIONS and VORTEXES >>>

      http://wordwomanpartialellipsisofthesun.blogspot.com/

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  43. I would have solved this earlier if I remembered that Christian Bale was in '3 10 to Yuma' (Blaine's clue). Why does Google list actresses when 'Famous Women' is asked? Not all actresses are famous and not all famous women are actresses.

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  44. “ A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.”

    Gloria Steinem

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    1. You'll probably need to explain that to eco.

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    2. Gloria Steinem gave credit to the author of the above quote, Irina Dunn. It is often misattributed to Ms. Steinem.

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    3. Isn’t it grand to learn something new every day?

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  45. Next week's challenge:
    Take the 9 letters of BEER MOUTH. Arrange them in a 3x3 array so that the three lines Across, three lines Down, and both diagonals spell common 3-letter words.

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  46. Yes! (I was afraid I'd be disappointed,)

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  47. Thx for posting. My on air version cut off after the winner played the game so I didn’t hear this week’s puzzle!

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  48. I thought it odd that Will thought it was cool that Steinem's name could be anagrammed to feminist. Well, yeah, IF you add IF and remove E. Not the most elegant anagram, I must say.

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    1. WW, you beat me to it and I guess this is a better place than the new thread.
      I think it explains a lot about Willy's attitude toward anagrams when he thinks it makes a "cool" one when 42% of the letters are non-native, so to speak.
      That statement should have a place in STRAP's mission statement.

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  49. Blaine:
    Not in the version I saw. :-)

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, he wouldn't have even been born in your version. Let me add the date to my comment.

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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.