Sunday, February 10, 2019

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 10, 2019): I'm Pickin' Up Good Vibrations

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 10, 2019): I'm Pickin' Up Good Vibrations:
Q: Name a well-known rock band in three words. Change the first and third letters to the first and third letters of the alphabet — that is, A and C. You can rearrange the result to name another famous rock band in three words. What is it?
If you change the first and third letters of the new band's name to M and E and rearrange, you get a type of claim.

Edit: If you rearrange the letters, you get MECHANICS LIEN
A: NINE INCH NAILS --> ALICE IN CHAINS

140 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. If you take the first letters of the six words involved, you get something that is good for you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Now I know my answer is correct. Thanks, Rob.

      Delete
    2. If you take Rob's thing that is good for you, you'll end up with a good poker hand.

      Delete
  3. Hmm, I suppose he doesn’t mean gneiss rock bands. . .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Those would probably be more well known than the intended answers.

      Delete
  4. Change the first and third letters of the first band's name to A and R, rearrange and you get another group that sounds like they have a lot of Type A personalities.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well! We card-carrying members of STRAP are not happy that one of our charter members, ecoarchitect, is perpetuating such anagramania! However, now that eco has reopened this "maw of scorn," I have a question:
      If you change the first and third letters of the first band's name to A and R, can you rearrange the result differently to get just one person with a Type A personality?
      Oh, and I like it too!

      LegoWhoAlsoLikesThisWeek'sNPRPuzzleThateco(TheKingOfBonusPuzzles)RiffedOff

      Delete
    2. Scramble Eco's permutation and you get a large transportation outfit.

      Delete
    3. Uh, you mean like a fat bus driver's uniform, Leo? Sorry, I should have said a gravity challenged bus driver...

      Delete
  5. There's "a hole" in this puzzle.

    (The first one is my offspring's favorite band, thus the first name I tried.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think your clue is too obvious IMO now that I've solved it.

      Delete
    2. Before you solved it, it wasn’t.

      Delete
    3. NIN had "Head Like a Hole"
      AIC had "Down in a Hole"

      Delete
    4. Hmmm, I thought the hole referred to Lewis Carroll's Alice going down the rabbit hole, and the postulation that Nine Inch Nail's name derived from the Crucifixion, where the nails would have left holes... a bit grimmer than your intent.

      Delete
  6. My SO and I play the Sunday puzzle every week. This time I solved it before him. It's been torture not to blurt out the answer or even give him a hint.

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  7. Clearly, I don't know jack about rock music.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clearly I don't either and I was a child of the 60s who got tickets or passes to every rock concert till my dad died in 1981.

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

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  9. If you combine the first two words of one of the first bands songs with the last two of another song, you get one of the second bands songs

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  10. Sounds like a lot of heavy metal.

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  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  12. The last letter of each of the six words can be rearranged to yield glossy surfaces.

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  13. It's depressing to make a list of three-word bands that you know, then look at an Internet list of "100 Top Rock Bands" and find none of them listed. I didn't expect to find "Strawberry Alarm Clock," but are "The Four Tops" now chopped liver?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And how about Little River Band and Three Dog Night?

      Delete
    2. and CCR and The Lovin Spoonful. It must be a generational thing.

      Delete
    3. If you've got any of their old records, take another look -- they're always listed simply as "Four Tops," no definite article. (But in any case, the Tops were an r&b vocal group, not a rock band.)

      Delete
  14. I never heard of either of these bands. I am happy with that too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have definitely heard of both bands but am only marginally familiar with either bands music. From what I know of the music, I can live with that!

      Delete
    2. Alas, it pains me to see puzzle-y people proclaiming so proudly the glaring gaps in their grasp of 'general knowledge.'

      Delete
    3. IKR? So you haven't heard of it. That's not a positive or a negative. It's odd to be happy or sad about that.

      One of the bands is my adult child's favorite, so it's the one I tried first, leading to an immediate correct response. Someone from one of the bands has gained some acclaim, but further detail would give more away.

      Delete
    4. Trent Reznor of NIN and Atticus Ross won an Oscar for the score of "The Social Network."

      Delete
  15. SDB - I agree with you first sentence. Can't comment about your second sentence because of the first.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lorenzo,
      I think I know what you mean about the second sentence. Let's just chalk it up to our taste in music.

      Delete
    2. Are you speaking with a cocco lith now?

      Delete
    3. Is that some kind of speech sediment, WW?

      Delete
  16. I solved this sitting in church. Hope I don’t go to hell!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you do go to hell, you might be surprised to find that these two bands provide the soundtrack on Satan's PA system...

      Delete
  17. I read on line that the second band used to drive to their gigs in a certain type of large vehicle. If you take the name of that vehicle and change one letter, you'll get the name of the driving force behind the first band.

    ReplyDelete
  18. If you change the second and third letter of the first band to the fourth and fifth letters of the alphabet, rearrange them to get where you might hear the band.

    By the way, most hints on this site are not hints, but rather checksums. :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Just another thing for me to worry about this week. I'm sure I've never heard of either group, and when I checked lists of groups earlier, nothing really jumped out at me. I give up already.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cranberry,
      Think logically. I never heard of these groups. You can solve it with the right list.

      Delete
    2. The Berry doth protest too much, methinks.

      Delete
    3. Oh Berry me not on the lone prairie. Thait's it! Sons of the Pioneers.

      Delete
    4. BTW "checksum" must mean "a hint that won't help at all".

      Delete
    5. If so, plenty of checksums here.

      Delete
  20. It is so much fun when you find the answer and realize one of the bands some of us never heard of.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I read where these two bands made the list of the top "100,000 Bands You Must Hear Before You Die".

    ReplyDelete
  22. The first strike against this challenge is, of course, the "r" word. STRAPers unite!
    The second thing that argues against wasting time on it is that at least four posters have claimed they never heard of these two "famous" "well-known" groups.

    I would like to know if "islet/inlet" had more submissions than "bay/cay."
    That doesn't even take into account the other five or more perfectly good alternatives.
    Besides, most dictionaries prefer pronouncing "cay" as "kay" not "key>"

    ReplyDelete
  23. While everyone's grousing about the relevance of these bands, how about a Bonus On Air Challenge?

    Same rules as the broadcast, two words, think of a third word that can follow the first one and precede the second one, in each case to complete a common two-word phrase. As a help, each answer starts with the letter O.

    1. Atlantic Liner (start off with an easy one)
    2. Raw Bay
    3. Kick Beat
    4. Time Back
    5. Home Ship
    6. Age Time
    7. Black Oil
    8. Netflix Sin
    9. Electrical Store
    10. Surgical Manual
    11. Liquid Mask
    12. Shiny Lesson

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How about these?

      13. Steak Nomination
      14. Capital Direction
      15. Black Descending
      16. Colloidal Cookie
      17. Musk Cart
      18. Jackie Henry

      Delete
    2. some of those are single words, not two-word phrases, but ok.

      May I?
      remunerative force
      unexpected course
      valley plank
      Old champion
      Out office
      Out fund
      Out move

      Delete
    3. 27. Columbus Express
      28. Even Bodkins
      29. Eugene Trail
      30. Johnny Elevator
      31. Lunar Gum
      32. Sadaharu Canada
      33. Who Taylor ("Who" is not a word but the beginning of a word ending with the missing word beginning with O.)

      34. LegHenry?(TheAnswerIs"O")

      Delete
    4. LL, 32 doesn't quite work ... I would try something like 'Sandra Susannah' for a more satisfying snap.
      34 seems to be biting 18 a little bit, though I guess I'd argue they're both sorta imperfect/sloppy.
      30 could have been 'Johnny Campbell' if you wanted to have two residents of a certain town represented on your list.

      MJ, are you talking about 17? I believe both halves are acceptable as one word or two.

      Delete
    5. I agree with your suggestions on #32 and #30, hodiau016. Each is an improvement. Thank you. But I like your #18... 'tis neither imperfect nor sloppy. Sorry though about my rip-off and reveal.

      LegOvineLambDa!

      Delete
    6. Sorry about the last four (beginning with "old") of my offerings, they came from my worksheet and distracted brain and do not work in the pattern.
      First three are ok.

      Delete
  24. You may not realize you know a particular song by the first band because you know only the cover version, which, for my money, is among the greatest rock covers ever.

    ReplyDelete
  25. In case you might be wondering why Trump is trying to overthrow the Venezuela government:

    In Venezuela, White Supremacy is a Key to Trump's Coup - Greg Palast
    https://www.gregpalast.com/in-venezuela-white-supremacy-is-a-key-to-trump-coup/

    3 days ago - On January 23, right after a phone call from Donald Trump, Juan Guaidó, former speaker of Venezuela's National Assembly, declared himself ...

    ReplyDelete
  26. At first I was thinking HOT TUNA, but they aren't three words. People used to call them HOT F%^&ING TUNA, but I went earlier than that.

    ReplyDelete
  27. There is a loose connection to the Beatles here - very loose.

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  28. Congratulations to Mathew Huffman for having his excellent puzzle chosen by Will Shortz as "The Puzzle" on today's Weekend Edition Sunday broadcast.
    Mathew is a longtime contributor to and friend of Puzzleria! About 100 of his excellent puzzles have appeared on Joseph Young's Puzzleria! within the past three years. Since this past September, for example, Puzzleria! has been privileged to purvey "Mathew Huffman's Conundrum Set," a weekly handful of quick-hitting, tough-to-beat, NPR-worthy puzzles.
    Here is the first of the scores of puzzles Mathew has let me publish on Puzzleria! It ran on August 12, 2016:
    Think of a well-known actor, first and last names, whose last name phonetically sounds like a type of physical motion. Remove the last two letters of the first name, and change the last name to a different type of physical motion, to name another well-known actor. Who are the actors?

    LegoWhoGreatlyAppreciatesTheBeingAbleToDisplayTheCreativeTalentsOfMathewHuffmanPatrickJBerryMarkScottAndManyOthersOnPuzzleria!

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  29. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  30. Not a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to scrambling the letters.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Leo,
      Thank you for weighing in.

      Delete
    2. That's the weigh it goes. Unless you're a hippo-crite.

      Delete
  31. I thought of the exact same pun but did not want to come off as a dumbbell.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Name a well-known rock band in three words. Change the first and third letters to the first and third letters of the alphabet — that is, A and C. You can rearrange the result to name another famous rock band in three words. What is it?
    David Dahari,
    What I will do when I submit my answer is name the second band (which would seem to be the answer to "What is it?"). Then, just to show it is not a wild guess, I will parenthetically add the name of the first band.

    Lego(Lambda)

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  33. On the air, WS asked two different questions - the first time asking 'what is it?' then after repeating the challenge, ended with 'what bands are these?'

    ReplyDelete
  34. I find this very irritating when not sure what WS is asking to submit. I always give as much info as can so as not to be deselected. Also, the NPR site usually spells out what is requested. I have to check that again as forget what it says. I worked backwards on this puzzle and got quickly.

    ReplyDelete
  35. The NPR site just asks "What is it?". This is very confusing. What is wrong with them????

    ReplyDelete
  36. For those who still need a clue, the first band has a foreign-sounding name.

    ReplyDelete
  37. I’m still amused that, during the on air game, Will’s on air female partner said she didn’t know too many words that start with “O” that can come before “sex”. Really??

    ReplyDelete
  38. Here's something to mull over:
    Browns 51 - Seahawks 43

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'd heard the names of these bands, so the answer popped out at me as I scanned this list. I knew nothing of their music. In particular, I'd never heard Man In The Box.

      Delete
    2. What kind of list leaves out the Grateful Dead?

      Delete
    3. Not sure. Have you asked Schlinder?

      Delete
  39. I spent the weekend in Philly. The art museum was awesome, at least the European Masters area was. Two hours is not long enough, but alas, the Liberty Bell called. On Friday we saw "Donna the Buffalo" at the Ardmore Music Hall. Donna the Buffalo is not the the answer to this weeks puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That reminds me of my buffalo story. When I turned 18 I enlisted in the army for 3 years, and when the recruiter came to drive me to the airport the last thing I heard was my father saying, "Good bison."

      Delete
  40. Me? I'm a ram-blin man. I think you might be pasture prime.

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  41. Who's calling my answer ridiculous?!? 😁

    ReplyDelete
  42. NINE INCH NAILS, ALICE IN CHAINS

    M. S. refers to the Mirror Symmetry of the NIN (NINE INCH NAILS) logo, with the second N flipped:

                              https://logoeps.com/nine-inch-nails-vector-logo/43908/

    ReplyDelete
  43. NINE INCH NAILSALICE IN CHAINS

    I've also never heard of either of these "bands." I used THIS LIST of Best 100 Rock Bands and numbers 62 & 21 worked.
    I also wondered whether “The” before a two-word band name made it a three-word band name. Is it “The Grateful Dead” (3 words) or just “Grateful Dead” (2 words), “The Jefferson Airplane” (3 words) or just “Jefferson Airplane” (2 words), etc.?

    Blaine's clue yields MECHANIC'S LIEN.

    ECO's clue yields CHINA AIRLINES.

    Rob's clue yields NIACIN.

    My clue: “The last letter of each of the six words can be rearranged to yield glossy surfaces” → SHEENS.


    ECO's Bonus On Air Challenge:
    1. Atlantic ocean liner
    2. raw oyster bay (N.Y.)
    3. kick off beat
    4. time out back
    5. home owner ship
    6. age old time
    7. black olive oil
    8. Netflix original sin
    9. electrical outlet store
    10. surgical operations manual
    11. liquid oxygen mask
    12. shiny object lesson
    13. steak Oscar nomination
    14. capital outflow direction
    15. black Orpheus descending
    16. colloidal oatmeal cookie
    17. musk ox cart
    18. Jackie O. Henry

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Since Ron posted the answers, I will only add that I had limited my challenges to ones that were both common phrases and/ or that had double meanings:

      3. Kick Off Beat (note the semi-synonymous words!)
      6. Age Old Time (another semi-synonym!)
      7. Black Olive Oil (black oil is slang for hashish, but you dopes knew that)
      8. Netflix Original Sin (is binge-watching a sin?)

      A clever puzzler would have used 11. Liquid Oxygen Tank, to acknowledge the puzzle from 2 weeks ago, where Renople noted that the (military) tank's name derived from the (water carrying) tank. And I would have been really clever if I used 5. Land Owner Ship; In 1915 Winston Churchill convened the "Landship Committee" which was formed to develop the tank, and also came up with the secret name.

      But I'm not that clever.

      Delete
  44. Nine Inch Nails → Alice In Chains 30 years of headbanging. And more headbanging (the videos are short and cute). I've heard of both bands, but they came out after my headbanging days.

    Changing the first and third letters to A and R anagrams to China Airlines. Cryptic crossword fans know that "sounds like" usually indicates a homophone; Type A → Taipei, the headquarters of the airline.

    Homophones rule this week: Nine Inch Nails contains 4 N's (foreign-sounding).

    ReplyDelete
  45. NINE INCH NAILS > ALICE IN CHAINS

    My hint was in my reply to Lorenzo,
    "I think I know what you mean about the second sentence. Let's just chalk it up to our taste in music." I was alluding to fingers on a chalk board.

    ReplyDelete
  46. OK, maybe the singing groups didn't strike your fancy, if so just look on the bright side of life!

    ReplyDelete
  47. No time spent on this. Glad I didn't.
    I had heard the names but not the music.
    Just YouTubed a song from each. Wish I hadn't.

    For the three extras I posted:
    Remunerative Occupation Force
    Unexpected Obstacle Course
    Valley Oak Plank

    ReplyDelete
  48. I should have known. But I didn't.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Replies
    1. Happened... to you? Rats! Condolences, Blaine.

      Delete
    2. Wow, glad no one was hurt, that was a big tree! Do you think it was due to heavy rains? Have you been able to move the car yet?

      Delete
    3. Darn, Blaine. Happy VD, right? Glad it’s just a vehicle.

      Delete
    4. I added some more photos to the album.

      Delete
    5. Wow. And that was just the crown of the tree. If the trunk had hit it, you would still be looking for pieces.
      My neighbor lost one last night, too, but his truck roof-rack got most of it.

      Delete
    6. OUCH! Glad no one was injured.

      Delete
    7. Good thing it was the middle of the night, and aimed at your car and not your house.

      Was that a eucalyptus tree? The leaves appear so, but the bark looked a little oak-like in the pics. Both are notorious for falling in heavy winds, and we certainly had those last night.

      Was that why you were posting comments at 3:00 am? If it were SDB I'd say it Depends®.

      Delete
    8. It was a eucalyptus. I will say it smelled really nice as they were running the branches through the wood chipper. :)

      And yeah, that was why I was up at 3 am.

      Delete
    9. Blaine,

      Sorry to see you are having more trouble getting around than I am with the snow here, but at least it wasn't a Bentley.

      I grew up in a neighborhood where many of the very tall fir trees were left standing. Occasionally one would fall during the night at its base. They could be lethal to a house. They always fell due North because the strong winds in Seattle come from the South. I remember one on the border between the two houses across the street that fell exactly between the small, bare space between these two houses and did no damage to either house. I wish I had taken photos.

      Anyway, I am going to behave myself and not make any jokes about you branching out with your photo album.

      Delete
    10. We're rooting for you to leave it alone, SDB.

      Eucalypti[?] do smell nice in the chipper, which is where they all belong.

      It kind of looks like there's another just to the left of the fallen? You've probably already called the arborist, I'd skip the middle(wo)man and just call the chainsaw massacre crew.

      Delete
    11. Yes, I could have stooped to saying something about Blaine feeling chipper today, but I am not going to go out on a limb with that. However, I see you are a bit stumped today, eco.

      Delete
    12. Your bark is worse than your bite, Twiggy, so your needling goes nowhere.

      Delete
    13. @eco, the sister tree is definitely a concern. Working with the HOA on that, since it is also in the common area.

      Delete
    14. From your picture on the right, I'd go two steps higher than "concern" - more like DeCon(struction) 1. Urban Ore in Berkeley (one of my clients) usually has very cheap hard hats. Adjustable ones can fit the entire family.

      I used mine today for the first time in a while; last night a guy tried to turn a cafe I designed into a drive-through restaurant. No wind at his back, just a lot of booze in his brain.

      Delete
    15. Blaine,
      You most likely know this already, but just in case, I would caution you not to top the remaining tree. Either take the tree out, or leave it as it is. Topping trees causes them to die and in the process they become dangerous.

      Delete
    16. I am still impressed/shocked at the size of that tree and how lucky it was that no one was hurt and it was only the car that suffered property damage. Wow!!
      I like that picture from the second group showing the size of that tree. It looks like at it's base, it is at least 4 feet in diameter!

      Delete
    17. Imagine if all trees became radicalized and decided to do that? Better round them up into internment camps. There's a Green New Deal for ya!

      Delete
    18. People liked eucalyptus because they grow very fast in the Northern California climate. SF's Presidio was quickly transformed from a desolate windy sand dune hell into a much more habitable place after the army planted thousands of them (in neat rows) 100 years ago.

      But now they are met with mixed affection.

      Delete
    19. "You clipped us." said the small rectangular pieces of shiny paper to the grocery shopper.

      ♡♡♡♡♡☆☆☆☆☆♡♡♡♡♡♡

      Maybe replant with very slow growing bristlecone pines? And wait a few hundred years. . .

      Delete
    20. jan,
      Those camps are a very good idea. My only concern is, will we be able to get Mexico to pay for them? And will there be an Obrador, or some other exit strategy? I suspect there will be much birching. Oh how I pine for the old days.

      Delete
  50. jsulbyrneSun Feb 10, 02:10:00 PM PST

    You may not realize you know a particular song by the first band because you know only the cover version, which, for my money, is among the greatest rock covers ever.


    Johnny Cash's cover of NIN's Hurt is exceptional. The original is pretty great too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sounds like he was Hurt and Honoured both:

      https://www.nme.com/news/music/nine-inch-nails-149-1326704

      Delete
  51. hodiau016's On-Air Bonus Challenges:
    13. Steak OSCAR Nomination
    14. Capital ONE Direction
    15. Black ORPHEUS Descending
    16. Colloidal OATMEAL Cookie
    17. Musk OX Cart
    18. Jackie O Henry

    legolambda's On-Air Bonus Challenges:
    27. Columbus OHIO Express
    28. Even ODDS Bodkins
    29. Eugene OREGON Trail
    30. Johnny OTIS Elevator
    31. Lunar ORBIT Gum
    32. Sadaharu OH Canada
    33. Who OPIE Taylor ("Who" is not a word but the beginning of a word ending with the missing word beginning with O.)

    LegoWhoSuggestsThatBlaine'sCarMayNotSportAFourOnTheFloorOrAThreeOnTheTreeButItDefinitelyDoesFeatureATrunkOnTheTrunk

    ReplyDelete
  52. In the thread Leo began by saying, ``Not a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to scrambling the letters,'' I replied ``e.''

    Substituting the A and C into NINEINCHNAILS gives AICEINCHNAILS. As alluded to by Leo, you can anagram AICEINCHNAILS to ALICEINCHAINS by leaving the leading A in place, moving the ICEINCH one place to the right, moving the N three places to the right, leaving the AI in place, moving the L ten places to the left, and leaving the S in place. Under this permutation, only the L and the N move more than one place. Euler's number e is the base of the natural logarithms, which are often denoted LN (as in LN(2) = 0.69315, etc.).

    ReplyDelete
  53. For what it's worth I was clueing that NINEINCHNAILS would become INDIE CHANNELS from changing the IN to DE.

    ReplyDelete
  54. Just now reported on NPR that our Slander in Chief is officially obese. I wonder how long it will take him to weigh in on that proclamation via Twitter.

    I also heard that when he was asked by his physician for a stool sample, he said, "That pigeon, Michael Cohen has said enough already!"

    ReplyDelete
  55. Why is it that while Theresa May has Brexit, no one has pointed out that Trump has Mexit?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SDB: LOL. Send Mexit idea to Trump.

      Delete
    2. Trump already has a US policy called Messit. Wildly successful so far.

      Delete
  56. I think I typed as a clue something about being "earlier than Hot Tuna."

    To me, typing Jefferson Airplane was too obvious a clue since the Jefferson Airplane had a hit with "Go Ask Alice."

    But Hot Tuna spun out from the members of Jefferson Airplane, hence my clue.

    ReplyDelete
  57. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  58. This week's challenge: The numbers 1, 12, 80, and 1 million have something in common that only one other number has. What is it ... and what's the other number?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. About 400 responses last week.

      Delete
    2. When Will read the challenge on the air, he said "million", not "one million". Significant?

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

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  60. I don't know if it makes any difference, but when Will read the puzzle on air, it was "One, twelve, eighty, million."

    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.