I have a sense of déjà vu — more than a decade's worth.Q: Name a major U.S. city in 10 letters. If you have the right one, you can rearrange its letters to get two 5-letter words that are synonyms. What are they?
A: SACRAMENTO --> SCENT + AROMA
For NPR puzzle posts, don't post the answer or any hints that could lead to the answer before the deadline (usually Thursday at 3pm ET). If you know the answer, submit it to NPR, but don't give it away here.
You may provide indirect hints to the answer to show you know it, but make sure they don't assist with solving. You can openly discuss your hints and the answer after the deadline. Thank you.
Here's my standard reminder... don't post the answer or any hints that could lead directly to the answer (e.g. via a chain of thought, or an internet search) before the deadline of Thursday at 3pm ET. If you know the answer, click the link and submit it to NPR, but don't give it away here.
ReplyDeleteYou may provide indirect hints to the answer to show you know it, but make sure they don't give the answer away. You can openly discuss your hints and the answer after the Thursday deadline. Thank you.
Kurt Cobain
ReplyDeletePROVIDENCE → PRIDE + COVEN.
ReplyDeleteSAN ANTONIO → SATAN + ONION 🙂
DeleteYeah, I noticed that one also.
DeleteI think you should delete this one
DeleteGreensboro --> Sober + Goner
DeleteHagerstown --> Hates + Wrong
DeleteBoth are descriptors for 45.
Petersburg --> Burps + Egret.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeletePortsmouth --> Mouth + Sports or Tooth + Rumps.
Delete...and lastly,
Cedar Falls --> Fecal + Lards
Portsmouth has another interesting anagram, but I won’t post it for fear of attracting the attention of the Secret Service.
DeleteQuite clever, SuperZee. It might be best not to schedule a campaign rally there.
DeleteLegoWhoHasBeenInThePast(AndEvenTheRecentPast)AProudPurveyorOfAnagramsPuzzlesButWhoIsNowSeriouslyConsideringJoiningSTRAP(SocietyToRejectAnagramPuzzles)
Portsmouth also got me concerned...
DeleteNot very soothing is it?
DeleteAt least my "pride + coven" describes two groups of females.
DeleteOver 1500 entries last week.
ReplyDeleteHoly humbug! Got it.
ReplyDeleteMy small town alternate solution:
ReplyDeleteGRANTS PASS (Oregon, Population 37,579)....SNAGS, TRAPS
Or Grants Ass as we Oregonians affectionately call it.
DeleteIs that patchouli?
ReplyDeleteBlaine, as we have come to expect, has done the responsible thing.
ReplyDeleteTake a common 7-word adage that is a translation of Ecclesiastes 1:9.
The initials of its first four words are the first four letters in a word meaning "ringing in the ears."
The initials of its sixth, fifth and seventh words are the last three letters in the same word meaning "ringing in the ears."
What is this saying? (It applies to this week's puzzle.)
LegoWhoAsks"IfTheBlueManGroupIsABlueActAndPrinceWasAPurpleActWhereAreAllTheRedacts?
In addition to Blaine’s redaction, I found an earlier NPR Sunday Puzzle use of this anagram. The key difference is that this time, we weren’t given the name of the city.
DeleteAs Yogi Berra said, “It was like deja vu all over again.”
LL, it seems like Diane Lane would know the answer to this one.
DeleteEspresso brewing
ReplyDeleteHmm... I might use another synonym to describe what comes out of this place.
ReplyDeletePay up and get out.
ReplyDeleteI forgot the part about two 5-letter synonyms, and thought the answer might be WASHINGTON -> HAST and OWNING. Just my $0.02.
ReplyDeleteAnother anARGHram for a puzzle? To be frank, the proud members of STRAP rescind all ties to this puzzle and have a new rallying cry: "Shout On, we have a problem!"
ReplyDelete"Venerable Mahout Whoops"????
DeleteIt does have a certain cache but I don't many will get behind it.
"Loons Heehaw above Trump"???
Delete"Urbane Homeopath Wolves"???
"Whalebone Pushover Moat"???
Are you a "Venomous Alphabet Whore"?
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteWell, that was a surprise.
DeleteClue number 2: SR.
2 weeks ago Blaine was asking your help, and now this. Oh, what a fall from grace!
DeleteI missed the original comment. WW built her hopes on a shaky foundation?
DeleteAs Margaret G said, that stinks! Reminds me of a movie...
DeleteThat reminds me of yesterday at a wine tasting when a bottle fell to the floor and shattered and I said it must be a shard'n'A. Someone then said I was a pun gent. I still don't whether to take it as a compliment or a slur.
DeleteI know, eco, a fall from grace, or, at least a winter from grace. . .
DeleteStill befuddled as to why the removal happened as I carefully crafted my clue. Not carefully enough, though, it would appear.
I noticed that Blaine is in a redacting mood today.
DeleteIsn’t redacting starring in a play in Mississippi? :-)
Deleteww: Please post your clue again on Thursday. I missed it.
DeleteHave I ever mentioned the night I got lost in the eastern Missouri desert? I couldn't find the unlit oasis.
ReplyDeleteWell *that* stinks! --Margaret G.
DeleteIf you're in western Nevada you can get some scary tonic (forgive me STRAP)!
DeleteI think you were looking for jitney coffers.
DeleteWW rba'ed! My, my.
ReplyDeleteIndeed a repeat. Old anagrams never die, they just continue to waste effort.
So much for Muscat-mudcat and Male-mare.
It is one of the biggest downers of playing Will Shortz's puzzles that, instead of delighting in and celebrating answers he or the submitter did not expect, he ignores them, refuses them or only very occasionally grudgingly (or is it begrudgingly) acknowledges them.
At the risk of being rba'ed myself, I have to say that the NYT's crossword editor's claiming ignorance of the meaning of "beaner" cheapens his apology.
Yeah, WW needs to seek out some reconciliation.
DeleteI hadn't heard the slur until maybe 10 years ago. I was made aware of it by a relative in California. Will lives in the New York area, like me. Might this be more common in states along our southern border? Sounds to me like Will's apology, which can be read here, was sincere.
DeleteI am on Will's side on this one and say shame on NPR for bringing it up, especially when they constantly call gay people queer, which is to many more offensive than the word everyone is now afraid of saying except by its initial letter. Even though President Obama used it in a speech to the public once.
DeleteThe "controversy" did make it to several news sites in the last week, so I suppose WS felt he had to address it on air. I'd never heard the term, in the baseball nor derogatory sense.
DeleteWe did call one guy Beaner in the freshman dorm, but that's because he was from Boston and anything related to flatulence is funny to boys, even when they are ostensibly men.
If you want a multi-day read on words-probably-no-longer-usable, Wikipedia has lists of ethnic slurs, ethnic group names used as insults, religious slurs and more.
DeletePerhaps Google is reacting to the NYT fracas, but "beaner" as an offensive term dominates a search.
I think the Mexican kids I went to elementary and high school with in Southern California would sometimes self-describe themselves thus. That was long ago.
I don't think anyone would claim that using "beaner" to describe a Mexican isn't offensive. The question here is, is the term so beyond the pale that it's offensive to use it to describe a pitch aimed at the batter's head? I don't see that.
DeleteBrits have long been called Limeys which is referring to Lima beans. Next thing you know, we will be calling the French Frogs.
DeleteI assume you're kidding about Lima beans, right?
DeleteYeah! What Jan said!!!
DeleteYes, I do know that Limey is referring to drinking lime juice to prevent scurvy, but I have memories of reading many decades ago that some believed it did have to do with Lima beans. Anyway this Gringo, Cracker, Honky profusely apologizes to any other sub-humans he may have offended.
Deletejan's Jan 06, 04:23:00 PM PST comment, seconded by Mort Canard, above, stated the issue elegantly and concisely... so of course I will elaborate:
DeleteThe English language is rife with words beginning with "homo-": homonyms, homophones, homographs...
Were this not the case, our language would be much less fun -- completely punless and considerably more puzzleless (Thank God we would still have anagrams!)
I do not want to live in a world where it is taboo for Will Shortz to use clues like "Exclamations after Westward" (HOS), "Achilles heel in the armor" (CHINK), or "Number 7's nickname, with 'the'" (MICK).
LegoWhoSomewhatReluctantlySubmitsThisEnlightening(AlbeitBenightedAndDepressing)ThisDatabase
Quite the list, fortunately it does include the Belgians.
DeleteJust be careful whilst hitchhiking around the galaxy.
Rock Island = drink colas
ReplyDeleteThis does not smell like an answer that WS will accept.
There are so many Internet resources to send you on the way to the answer, this week’s puzzle seems like a giveaway to me. I predict a gazillion right answers.
ReplyDeleteRisky business. The candidate who became 45 held rallies in Portsmouth on February 4, 2016 and October 15, 201.
ReplyDeleteSpanish steps.
ReplyDeleteNow everyone's solved this idiotic puzzle you might want to try and solve my idiotic puzzle Lego is running over at Puzzleria! Link is available above in the right margin.
ReplyDeleteJust where at the link is it?
DeleteNot sure I understand your question. My puzzle is near the beginning of the current Puzzlearia! Blaine's link to Puzzlearia is under Puzzle Links.
DeleteI have the page open but I don't see an acrostic. I have to admit this is a common problem I have had for many moons at the sire.
Deletesite
DeleteI didn't say anything about an acrostic.
DeleteSorry, "cryptic." Is it the bones thing?
DeleteLyme Disease keeps me from coming across tics.
DeleteAnother alternate not likely to meet with the Puzzlemaster’s approval, EVANSVILLE >>>VENAL, EVILS
ReplyDeleteAt least this one was easy to solve. I still smell a rat, just the same.
ReplyDeleteI smell a rat with SDB's puzzle too, BTW. Haven't got it yet.
ReplyDeleteSearchable even though redacted.
ReplyDeleteThis week's Bonus Puzzle is going postal! - codes that is.
ReplyDeleteIn each puzzle the first clue answer contains a standard 2 letter US state postal code. Substitute another postal code in the same location to yield the second answer.
For example, if the clues were "US State - Small city in California" the answers would be IoWA - IoNE, with WAshington and NEbraska being the postal codes. Note that none of the answers is related to nor in the abbreviated state.
1. US state - Well-known (but not major) US city
2. US state - Last name of Founding Father
3. US State - Musical instrument of yore.
4. US city (major) - Automotive occupation
5. US city (major) - Asian ethnicity
6. US President - Watergate conspirator - Famous musician - Beer brand
7. Small bugs - Last name of person who might give you bugs
1. MissouRI - MissouLA
Delete2. MAine - Thomas PAine
3. VirginIA - virginAL
4. DeNVer - DeALer
5. TamPA - TamIL
6. Woodrow WIlson - Chuck COlson - Willie NElson - MOlson
7. MItes - Bill GAtes
Finally. But I had fun. Frogs drink, and if you remove the letter 'n' from a certain city, you get what is being pulled in that city.
ReplyDeleteKudos to NPR for just now doing a long, and much overdo, piece on Bayard Rustin. If you missed it, please do yourself and everyone else a huge favor and look it up because Bayard Rustin is one of the most overlooked and unknown American heroes there is. He is even unknown by most Negros in this country, which is a major shame. Had it not been for Bayard Rustin there would never have been MLK. This is just one reason why I hate Martin Luther King Day. It is so obviously nothing more than throwing a bone to one marginalized group and not working well at all. Instead what we need is Civil Rights Day and this would actually be a step in the right direction in resisting bigotry. It is all inclusive and does not single out any one person which makes it so easy for us to turn away.
ReplyDeleteI could've had a V8...
ReplyDeleteBut instead your pissed and broke?
DeleteMy pissed and broke what?
DeleteYour piston broke.
DeleteSorry but if you have a moss heart you should playwright.
DeleteOoh, you’re so clever...
Delete"I think he's got it! I think he's got it" "The reign in Spain will after Franco be disdained."
DeleteAnother s#!%ty puzzle repeat by Will. I get the sense this is becoming a habit.
ReplyDeleteI do know that when our Dear Leader visits WALLA WALLA WASHINGTON, his talk is ALL WALL LAW. Yeah, I know.
Coincidentally, I was a neighbor of BAYARD RUSTIN when I was a kid. I didn't know much about his politics, just thought he was a nice old man with a cane.
It was Bayard Rustin who talked MLK into removing all the guns MLK had in his house, including under furniture cushions. He then talked him into the concept of passive and non-violent resistance. He was also a better orator in my opinion.
DeleteYou might want to read this book:
Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin, D'Emilio
https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/L/bo3644370.html
The book Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin, John D'Emilio is published by University of Chicago Press.
But perhaps overratted?
ReplyDeleteWhy struggle to open a door between us when the whole wall is an illusion?
ReplyDelete~Rumi~
If we don't build the wall would that make us a rumination or a roomynation?
DeleteIf people from the south drilled large holes in a concrete wall would that make Mexico a coronation?
DeleteDo lethargic male deer come from stagnation?
Do the Vietnamese and Iraqis think of US as an abomination?
Mexico is already a Coronanation.
DeleteMay a wall not divide us!
ReplyDeleteDon't build this wall.
DeleteRon, I like those cartoons you post! This one from this week stood out the most, for me.
DeleteI hate January. Makes searching for my comments so inefficient!
ReplyDeleteA couple of the hints here gave it away for me ....
ReplyDeleteBut while working on it I was reminded to RENEW my library LOANS, so that's good.
This is one of those that I just won't solve. After slogging through lists of cities for 90 minutes I'm not finding it.
ReplyDeleteYour very calm about it - some among us would be fuming mad at this point.
Deleteeco, yore being ironic, right?
DeletePresidential History and Math: a new bonus feature.
ReplyDelete1824 had one of the biggest electoral scandals in US History, when neither candidate received a majority and Congress - led by Speaker Henry Clay - selected John Quincy Adams over Andrew Jackson. Adams then appointed Clay as Secretary of State, which Jackson decried as a corrupt bargain, afterwards founding the Democratic Party and winning in 1828.
1824 + 48 = 1872, the year Ulysses S Grant won reelection. 3 years later, Grant was embroiled in the Whiskey Ring scandal, which was the first use of a special prosecutor, the first time a president testified in a criminal case, and which ended up with 238 indictments and 110 convictions.
1872 + 48 = 1920, and the election of Warren G. Harding. In 1922 Harding's interior secretary Albert Fall awarded no-bid contracts to private oil companies on federal land in Wyoming, known as the Teapot Dome scandal. Fall was the first Cabinet member to go to prison.
1920 + 48 = 1968, of course the election of Richard "I am not a crook!" Nixon. I suspect most folks here know enough about the Watergate scandal that started in January 1972.
1968 + 48 = 2016, thank goodness that streak is over! Class dismissed.
History the way it ought to be taught. Thanks, ecoarchitect.
DeleteLegoWhoObservesThatTheWholeDamnMessBeganIn1824Minus48Equals1776!
It is incorrect to refer to Ulysses S. Grant as Ulysses S Grant. I believe he always used a period after the S, which stood for nothing and not Simpson, whereas Truman did not use a period after his S middle name that stood for nothing. It is also interesting that his name was actually Hiram Ulysses Grant.
DeleteSACRAMENTO ~~~> SCENT, AROMA
DeleteMy Blaine-obliterated clue (I still don’t know why):
“Sheesh, this puzzle certainly opens up an entryway to past puzzles. Perhaps Will is going for “puz-imento,” with pent up challenges of yore.*
* “yore” = one more way for folks to misuse your/you’re. {Not here, of course.}”
I was riffing off pentimento, reusing canvases by painting over the old painting, to puz-imento, reusing puzzles by plastering over the old ones.
“AR and SR” refer to the American River and Sacramento Rivers which join in Sacramento.
Blaine, kindly let us know your thinking when you have time. Thanks!
DeleteI suspect Blaine thought puz-imento sounded too close to Sac-ramento (out here many pronounce it more like Sac ri mento than Sac rah mento.
DeleteI blame lack of sleep for my You're/ Your/ Yore to Curtis.
I would like to know why no one is referring to Trump's wall fiasco as Adobe Gate.
ReplyDeleteSACRAMENTO > AROMA & SCENT
ReplyDeleteMy hint:
“That reminds me of yesterday at a wine tasting when a bottle fell to the floor and shattered and I said it must be a shard'n'A. Someone then said I was a pun gent. I still don't whether to take it as a compliment or a slur.”
Pun gent as in pungent which is an aroma or scent.
SACRAMENTO → AROMA + SCENT
ReplyDeleteMy hint: “Providence” is a 10-letter State Capital.
There are NINE 10-letter State Capitals: Baton Rouge, Carson City, Charleston, Harrisburg, Little Rock, Montgomery, Montpelier, Providence, Sacramento.
This Challenge is a repeat from November 26, 2006, Blaine's “déjà vu.” Blaine has “temporarily” blocked out the blog entries and solution for that date.
LEGO's TINNITUS.Yes, “There is nothing new under the sun,” certainly not this week's challenge!
SuperZee: Portsmouth = shoot whom?
TRUMP'S SEVEN DEADLY SINS.
DeleteYou wouldn't expect that!
DeleteBe sure to turn on the audio.
Delete“Spanish steps” = A Rome ascent. “Espresso brewing” = A Roma scent.
ReplyDeleteSacramento --> aroma, scent
ReplyDelete"To be frank, the proud members of STRAP rescind all ties to this puzzle" The franc is still the Swiss currency, and the Swiss city of Liestal (all ties anARGHram) is a sister city to Sacramento.
"Oh, what a fall from grace!" A sacrament is "a Christian rite ... held to be a means of divine grace" and the o falls right behind.
some among us would be fuming mad at this point.
I wrote, “Holy humbug! Got it.” “Holy” is for “Sacra-,” and “humbug” is a form of mint, as are Mentos.
ReplyDelete"Pay up and get out."
ReplyDeleteATONE and SCRAM
"WW built her hopes..."
BUILT HER > THURIBLE
I like the GRANTS PASS > SNAGS TRAPS answer.
Paul, your clue made me incensed!
DeleteSACRAMENTO -> SCENT, AROMA
ReplyDelete> Some here might think they know why I didn't detect it first.
I lost my senses of taste and smell last month. (They've since returned.)
[After Blaine deleted one of Word Woman's posts:]
> As Margaret G said, that stinks! Reminds me of a movie...
Scent of a Word Woman
"...WW needs to seek out some reconciliation."
ReplyDeleteReconciliation (aka Penance or Confession) is one of Catholicism's Seven Sacraments. I had initially typed "reconciliación," but decided that would lead too directly to Sacramento.
Shamelessly cribbed from a friend's Facebook post:
ReplyDeleteOkay, here’s the compromise. The Republicans give 5.7 billion to the National Endowment for the Arts and the NEA gets Christo to build the wall.
It's curtains for you!
DeleteSide note: the Running Curtain was before my time in CA, but in 1991 a friend and I drove down to SoCal to see The Umbrellas. We saw one of the umbrellas roll down a hill on that windy and rainy day, and we agreed it wouldn't be a good idea to get hit by one - they were almost 30' in diameter.
DeleteLater that day a woman was killed by a toppled umbrella.
SDB will doubtless say "I hope Christo's insurance included umbrella coverage."
My wife has a piece of Christo's saffron "Gates" ("red schmatte", in her terms), that was given away after the Central Park display was dismantled.
DeleteWe drove down to see The Running Fence a couple of times, but the best view was a long lunch hour when I rented a Cherokee and took three co-workers for a fly over.
DeleteIt was great whether, a nice flight and nobody jumped out.
Flew into Scentaroma many times in those days as well.
It is not much of a crisis when the solution will take ten years to build.
Do you still fly, Mendo Jim? I used to, but gave it up when I bought a house and had a kid.
DeleteI won't make that comment, but if you were drinking lots of beer on that trip you might have had to resort to a canopy in the desert.
DeleteHey eco,
DeleteSince we're being so flagrantly un-PC, when you were down there in the desert and it was raining so hard, did you take a poncho with you, or come across one in the desert?
Flying eventually got too expensive for me too, and gave way to other things.
DeleteI feel a little sheepish in that I meant to say "wether," but spell-check wouldn't cooperate.
SACRAMENTO, SCENT and AROMA
ReplyDeleteHence my "smell a rat" comments.
As it did on August 15, 1999 and November 26, 2006, two other times variants of this puzzle puzzle showed up on NPR, Sacramento anagrams to aroma, scent.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to my earlier offering of Grants Pass....traps/snags
two other smaller 10 letter cities, which when anagrammed have paired, if not synonymous, 5 letter results are:
Evansville.......venal/evils, and
Rock Island ... drink/colas.
Yes but one of those was in an earlier scentury.
DeleteBut timeless none the less.
DeleteNot to mention odorable.
DeleteGoing back to the discussion about the racist slur in the NYT Crosswords, I notice this brand hasn't changed its name.
ReplyDeleteThey're probably just too niggardly.....
Not only that, but it is a degreaser!
DeleteGreat news. Jayme Closs, missing 3 months, is alive. I am originally from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, and have great friends who live in Barron and Rice Lake, Wisconsin. Jayme is from Barron.
ReplyDeleteThis good news has made my year.
LegoThankfulThatJayme'sHopeIsRealized
That is great news, indeed! It was sure neat to hear the reactions of the people who found her. Very uplifting!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMy hint about Kurt Cobain was a reference to Nirvana's hit "SMELLS like Teen Spirit". Goes with Scent - Aroma.
ReplyDeleteI think any clever puzzler can SENSE the AROMATIC hints in my note:
ReplyDeleteAnother s#!%ty puzzle repeat by Will. I get the sense this is becoming a habit.
SENSE + AROMATIC = TASSIE CAMERON.
DeleteDid anyone watch Wheel of Fortune tonight?
ReplyDeleteI don't watch TV. Also you will be interested to know I just now returned back home from attending a Alonzo King LINES Ballet performance.
DeleteIt was sad. This woman just missed winning a million dollars
DeleteEasy puzzle. Good you saw Lines. Never saw them. I knew someone who designed his studio and was his friend. Great company.
Interesting because the British gentleman sitting to my right, and is a few years older than I, knows him too. I know he is older because he told me he remembers hearing the German bombers flying over his home during the war when he was a child. He did not leave me with the impression of him being a Teutonophile.
DeleteSDB: That is very interesting. The person who designed his studio had an accent too. He may be the same person I know. Did you get his name? Is he from Berkeley? He did go to ballets.
DeleteAs I posted, he is British. Yes I have his name and yes he goes to ballets.
DeleteSorry, Natasha, I forgot to mention his first name is Maurice. I told him I knew of the book about him by E.M. Forster, and he insisted he did not know what I was referring to. I said he was pulling my leg, but he insisted and said he would look for it. He also agreed with me that Seattle and San Francisco are the only two cities in this country worth living in, and so he may have lived in Berkley at one time.
DeleteSdb: tks for info. He is not the person I knew.
DeleteNatasha: That happens to a lot of us as we grow older.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe new puzzle page is up, sort of. It includes last week's puzzle and the name of the winner/on-air player, but, so far, omits the answer, the on-air challenge, and the puzzle for next week.
ReplyDeleteIt shouldn't really be a problem though. I checked, and the submit your answer link is working. I submitted the same answer, since it's worked three times already.
DeleteIt's still asking for answer submissions.
DeleteSDB,
DeleteSubmitted under my pseudonym. Thinking about submitting answers to previous puzzles just for fun.
Mort
502 responses this week.
ReplyDeleteNext week's challenge: Find a 9-letter word meaning "left" using a B and one D.
ReplyDeleteNo clue needed.
DeleteDoes this mean one and only one D? Or is it like the old riddle "How many months have 28 days?"
DeleteI got the answer almost instantly.
ReplyDeleteApparently the appropriate movie clue has one D in it as well.
ReplyDeleteBlaine’s dilemma: If he posts this puzzle it will probably be removed by the blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteEven the NPR intern is afraid to post it. :)
DeleteIt's up now (without the on-air puzzle, so far):
DeleteThe challenge is to make a 9-letter word meaning "left" using only a B and one D.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteOf course. Blaine?
DeleteI can't make anything out of SPELLINGD, QUILTINGD, or SAMANTHAD. I think I'm misinterpreting the question.
ReplyDelete