Sunday, February 24, 2019

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 24, 2019): U.S. Natural Landmark Puzzle

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Feb 24, 2019): U.S. Natural Landmark Puzzle:
Q: I'm thinking of a well-known U.S. natural landmark. Take the two-word name of its location. Then change the first letter of the second word to the immediately previous letter of the alphabet, and you'll get another description of the landmark's location. What's the landmark, and what are the two descriptions of its location?
Edit: I was stuck for awhile this week... but I couldn't say that. :)
A: Rancho La Brea Tar Pits --> LA BREA / L.A. AREA

143 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
    Replies
    1. You like big buttes, Blaine?

      Delete
    2. Only if they're natural. :)

      Delete
    3. Aren’t all buttes “natural?”

      Mitten Buttes in AZ are my favorite, hands down.

      Delete
    4. Arizona may be fine but up here on the frozen tundra we prefer mitten butts!

      LegoNotesHoweverThatTheLiningsOfTheseMittensEventuallyBecomePollutedWithNicotineAndTarAndSoTheyHaveToBeBuried...InterMittently

      Delete
    5. I'm sure some buttes are enhanced. ;)

      Delete
    6. Blaine, yes, although natural enhancement involves an erosional process not an additive one ;-).

      Lego, yuck. Sadly, the look of those mitten holes may presage a tracheotomy hole.

      Delete
    7. The DEVILS TOWER, CROOK COUNTY, Utah → CROOK BOUNTY?

      Delete
    8. My granddaughter's stroller has a pair of mittens velcroed to the handle (at least during the long Cambridge winters).

      My father-in-law used to be careless with his cigar ashes; he had a few sweaters that matched those smoking mittens.

      Delete
    9. Ron, Devil's Tower is in Wyoming, is it not?

      Delete
    10. It was in Wyoming when I was there.

      Delete
    11. Yes. It's CROOK COUNTY, Wyoming, and certainly a CROOK BOUNTY is an attribute of the DEVILS TOWER.

      Delete
    12. I was going to say something about being at fault for the "butt/butte" comments. But I thought the "ass-fault/asphalt" hint might get removed by an administrator. :)

      Delete
    13. I agree, you might have found yourself on rather shaky ground.

      Delete
    14. I too was tempted to say this week's wording was as faulty as they go, but feared admin wrath.

      Blaine, do you still have a tree aimed at your roof?

      Delete
    15. All that's missing from the movie is the Benny Hill soundtrack. Lot of truckloads to haul that away, and I bet the chipper noise drove you nuts.

      Tuesday I ran into an old friend who now has a business crafting furniture (mostly tables, bars and benches) from large slabs of trees. He might have been interested in the trunk, but too late now.

      Delete
  2. Is this a sub-par puzzle?

    Bonus (kind of related) Puzzle:

    Think of an event that you might want to join, two words, eleven letters total. The second letter is a vowel, change that to the next vowel in the alphabet and you get an historic event that you might not have wanted to join. What are the events?

    Hints welcome, but keep your powder dry on the answer until Thursday.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I confused Bob Ross's advice and ended up with something disgusting.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is a rerun of an old puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's a clever puzzle though, Al, and it's new to me. Whenever I create a puzzle I always worry that it has been done before. The further our years usher us from our origins, the tougher it is to be original.

      LegoWhoNotesThatIsraelitesBeholdingAMiracleExclaimed...

      Delete
    2. "... Take two tablets and call me in the morning?"

      Delete
  5. Not a lot of action in this unnatural formation of Puzzlers. If this were last week I'd wonder if it were a "Silence of the Lambs."

    ReplyDelete
  6. Well it's not the Florida Keys, found among the Florida Cays which have Florida Bays...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Will's explanation of last week's challenge was rather frustrating. Does he think there is only one Oscar awarded to one movie every year? Not once did he bother to specify which Oscar category the films had in common. Yes, everyone knew what he MEANT, but if you can't trust the Puzzlemaster to be exacting and precise, who can you trust? As my grandmother used to say, it might be time for WS to change his brand of glue.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well we can always put our trust in FOX News and Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

      Delete
    2. hodiau016, re: glue >>> from Wikipedia >>> “In 2013, Elmer's partnered with researcher Richard Rende, Ph.D., to explore the benefits arts and crafts can offer children in the early years of growth and development. His research revealed that creative interaction between parents and young children engaging in activities like arts and crafts not only provides immediate and lasting cognitive benefits, but also creates a unique bonding experience.” (really) >>>

      https://celebbabylaundry.com/2014/05/discover-the-lasting-benefits-of-arts-and-crafts-take-the-lets-bond-pledge/

      Delete
    3. Word Woman,
      Did cut and paste that?

      Delete
    4. Is that a product endorsement? Your Adhere.

      Delete
  8. It's a new puzzle to me too, and as such I'm having trouble with it, same as last week's.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm not sure I have the answer, but if I am, the description of the location is for the birds. Anyone agree?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Speaking of stretches, switch the second and second-last letters of the two-word location, then replace the last two letters of the result with a common preposition to name a relatively recent transplant to the location.

      LegoWhoHasHadNoTractionInSolvingeco'sBonusPuzzle

      Delete
    2. "Sorry to see you suffer," he typed, smirking. There are 6 letters in the first word, 5 in the second.

      Swap the last two letters of the two word landmark, then change the (new) last letter, and the result is a terrible career choice.

      Delete
    3. Trying to solve the Sunday Puzzle sometimes seems like a terrible career choice, but then I remember I make no money off it and move on with my life.

      Delete
    4. To avoid any misunderstanding (and a potential BA), the 6 letters/ 5 letters refers to my Bonus Puzzle, which vies for Lego's attention along with the official Sunday Puzzle.

      I assiduously strive to not give any useful hints on the Sunday Puzzle.

      Delete
  10. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I'm oft focused on the arts, so William Blake is my tip:

    Read "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell," by the English poet.

    Blake wrote that "if the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern."

    That may lead you to the right place.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I offered an ARTS TIP,as an anagram for Tar Pits. The Blake quote that I referenced was famously used by Aldous Huxley for the "doors of perception." That was the source of the band name for Los Angeles-based the Doors. Who also had a hit with LA Woman.

      Delete
  12. Don't wish to type too much, but does anyone else think that WS has a personal beef with ecoarchitect?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Now I wonder why you write that? To the best of my knowledge WS and I never communicated.

      Or do you refer to the persistence of anagrams? I would be honored if he were doing that out of spite, but I suspect anagrams are just easier puzzles to craft.

      STRAP shall avenge (and there are plenty here who shall feel our wrath), and we shall not veil our vile punishment on the evil who live.

      Delete
    2. BY the way, ecoarchitect, the reason I wrote about a potential "Will Shortz beef with you" was another hint:

      You are known as the founder and chief protagonist of STRAP. And although this isn't an ANAGRAM puzzle, one can anagram STRAP IT into TAR PITS.

      So it's always possible WS was taunting you with this answer, no?

      Delete
    3. "So it's always possible WS was taunting you with this answer, no?" Not nearly as much as the many anagrammers here tau - er, haunt me.

      Delete
  13. Not really into the wording of this puzzle. It leads me to believe that the "location" is not your standard town, state format. Looking forward to more clues!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I cannot get a link to work via this blog, but if you haven't yet seen Sen. Dianne Feinstein lectures kids over the Green New Deal, you can google it and find dozens of links there. It is short and very revealing and you will be amazed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Here's THE VIDEO.

      I have submitted 3 solutions to this week's CHALLENGE.

      Delete
    2. Sorry. You had to find the video on that page. Here is the direct link to THE VIDEO.

      Delete
    3. Glad I stopped voting for her long ago. Last November we only had 2 Dems on the ballot for Senator; California bars the GOP from running in statewide elections.

      Delete
  15. ron,

    I also came up with 3 solutions, but I only submitted the intended one, which is bogus. It is worded incorrectly, and that is why I had so much trouble solving it, although I discovered the landmark quickly. I am not thrilled with my alternate answers, but believe them to be more legitimate. I may say more come Thursday's deadline for submissions. I wonder if yours are similar to mine.

    ReplyDelete
  16. On a scale of 1 to 10, how familiar to the average person would you say this landmark is? 1 would be a landmark that people living near it may not know about and 10 being the Grand Canyon.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I've heard about this type of landmark, but I'm not very familiar with this particular one. I do know that cranberry has heard of it. (I suppose if it were a big tree of a specific variety, spelled creatively, and located in the right place, it could be a grand banyon!) --Margaret G.

    ReplyDelete
  18. No, I haven't. What makes you think I have? I have no idea whatsoever.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Cranberry, I will reveal my reasoning on Thursday. --Margaret G.

    ReplyDelete
  20. And then there was the prostitute who insisted she only did it on the side. She didn’t want people saying she earned her living on her back.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I'm predicting a low number of entries this week, and I applaud those who have solved this. I'm not great on geographic puzzles, but I can usually compensate for my ignorance with web research. I've looked at natural landmarks until my eyeballs ache, and I've still got zilch. On the plus side, I've discovered a lot of scenic places I had never heard of before.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I had a somewhat similar problem in trying to solve this one. It is completely misstated. In order to solve this you will either have to be ignorant of some of the facts or look beyond them. I will explain tomorrow.

      Delete
    2. The landmark is naturally occurring.

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

    ReplyDelete
  23. It just came to me as I was trying to think out of the box. Lists of landmarks were no help to me. Puzzle could have been better stated. Is misleading I think the way it reads.

    ReplyDelete
  24. This is a place I’ve heard about, and I think most of us are familiar with. I honestly never knew it was an official landmark. I was really hoping for something campy like Hole in the Rock, near Moab UT.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Elect more people like Elijah Cummings.
    LegoSerious

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, he reminds me of Senator Sam Ervin (D-N.C.).

      Delete
    2. My memory is the Senators and Rep's at the Watergate Hearings were better prepared, of course we were all younger, perhaps more impressionable, and not flooded with as much information. Today seemed more like the Table of Contents of the last 2 years, and many years before that.

      Granted this is just the first hearing, and their time was severely limited, but I didn't hear much questioning about money until Ocasio-Cortez, who started to dive into Deutsche Bank, money laundering, and tax fraud.

      Stay tuned for the next episode of Season 3 of the Appresidentice, "Money is the root of (almost) all investigations."

      Delete
    3. Addendum: I think I lived in Elijah Cummings' district many years ago, well before his time.

      Any Marylander's here? The district maps could make for a fun creative Rorschach challenge. Cummings' district #7 looks like a Jack-In-The-Box conceived by Charles Manson. And it's not even the most egregious: 2, 3, 4 & 8 are even sillier.

      Delete
    4. You don't have to be a mathematician to see that addendum Republican reps up leads to a lot of zeros.

      Delete
  26. There may be sane Republican Representatives in the House, but it doesn't look like any of them are on the Oversight Committee.

    ReplyDelete
  27. There is absolutely no truth to the rumors of Trump requesting political asylum in Hanoi today.

    ReplyDelete
  28. When you look at the photos of Trump shaking hands with Kim it is difficult not have thoughts of a meet and greet at Weight Watchers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The now stalled (failed?) Trump-Kim bromance reminds me of the 13 days that led to the Camp David Accords and ultimately the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty.

      Who knew peace negotiations could be so hard?

      Delete
  29. That Amazon.com cargo jet crashing into the Houston, Texas bay must be a true tragedy for those Prime customers who got soaked after paying extra for timely delivery of their orders.

    ReplyDelete
  30. The La Brea Tar Pits > La Brea & LA Area

    Alternate solutions:

    ALCATRAZ > Sea Side & Sea Ride or California Coast & California Boast or Bay Side & Bay Ride

    BIG SUR > California Coast & California Boast

    The intended answer is BOGUS because La Brea is not a location in the United States, although it is in Trinidad. La is Spanish for the and brea is Spanish for tar and pitch. Therefore “The La Brea Tar Pits” translates as “The The Tar Tar Pits.” There are other tar pits in California, such as Carpinteria Tar Pits – a series of natural asphalt lakes located in Carpinteria, Santa Barbara County, California, US. And then there is McKittrick Tar Pits – a series of natural asphalt lakes situated in McKittrick near Bakersfield, California, US. The location of the La Brea Tar Pits is Hancock Park which is located in Los Angeles, CA.

    Pitch Lake – largest natural deposit of asphalt in the world is located at La Brea, Trinidad and Tobago. That is a true place named La Brea, and it is not in our country.

    Also, the puzzle asks for the location, followed by the description when the word change is made. So they got that backwards too.

    The puzzle starts out by inviting us to try and discover the U.S. natural landmark upon which it evolves. We are given no hint as to what kind of natural landmark it may be nor are we informed of how many words it is. Next we must then determine its location. Again we are not given any clue as to what is meant by its location. We must determine if that may mean a state, a battlefield, a mountain, a lake, a canyon, a desert, or who knows what. However we are informed that its location is two words. We then are told if we change a letter in the second word we will have a description of its location.

    Assuming we quickly discover the intended landmark is The La Brea Tar Pits, or Rancho La Brea Tar Pits, we would then have several obvious choices as to what the puzzle intends for us to choose for its location. Los Angeles, Hancock Park, California State, West Coast, but certainly not La Brea, as there is no such location in the United States. I can understand why some might imagine, or believe, there is, but the only location with the name La Brea is in Trinidad.
    For the sake of argument let’s say we accept La Brea as its location. Next then we are asked to locate the last part of the puzzle, which is going to describe the location of the landmark. LA Area in no way describes The La Brea Tar Pits.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What if Jar Jar Binks fell into The The Tar Tar Pits, because he forgot his PIN number at the ATM machine?

      Delete
    2. jan,
      I googled Jar Jar Binks so I could respond with my erudite answer, only to discover I didn't really want to know.

      Delete
  31. The obvious answer to this “poorly worded” challenge is:
    The Natural "Landmark:" The LA BREA TAR PITS, the 2-word location: LA BREA, further location description: L.A. (Los Angles) AREA.
    It's not in fact “La Brea, CA” (except for Mapquest), it's actually “Brea, CA.”

    This challenge was difficult because the “La Brea Tar Pits” is not on any “natural landmarks or monuments” list.

    The following 3 solutions are all official U.S. Natural landmarks.

    1. HAYSTACK ROCK.
    Location: OREGON COAST.
    Description of the Caves: an OREGON BOAST.

    2. POINT LOBOS.
    Location: CALIFORNIA COAST, or MONTEREY COUNTY.
    Another description of the landmark's location: a CALIFORNIA BOAST, or a MONTEREY BOUNTY.

    3. Wassaw National Wildlife Refuge, designated a Natural Landmark in 1975.
    Location:Georgia Coast. Second description of landmark: a Georgia Boast.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Make that (Los Angeles) & Description of the Oregon ROCK, not "Cave."

      Delete
    2. It's listed as Rancho La Brea in the National Registry of Natural Landmarks - https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nnlandmarks/upload/NNLRegistry.pdf

      Delete
    3. They are listed as Rancho La Brea which I assume is why WS said to use the two word "name of its location".

      I went through that list of 600 or so National Natural Landmarks and missed it the first time. I wasn't even focused on the puzzle one morning and the LA BREA / LA AREA part of the answer just popped into my head.

      Delete
    4. Just click on my LA BREA and Brea, CA above.

      Delete
    5. La Brea is on this list. Not how I solved the puzzle, I reverse engineered it from the word "area".

      Delete
    6. After the answer popped into my head I looked up lists again. It was on a list titled National Natural Landmarks not U.S Natural Landmarks.

      Delete
    7. Blaine commented: "They are listed as Rancho La Brea which I assume is why WS said to use the two word "name of its location".
      How generous.


      Delete
    8. La Brea, CA, recognized by mapquest, is a park in Los Angeles and BREA, CA is a city 33 miles southeast of Los Angeles. See above.

      Delete
    9. Park La Brea is a sprawling apartment community in the Miracle Mile District of Los Angeles, California. With 4,255 units located in eighteen 13-story towers and ...

      There is no La Brea Park mapquest notwithstanding.

      Delete
    10. Tt seems the "Rancho La Brea" excuse didn't fly.

      Delete
  32. La Brea Tar Pits → LA Area

    Is this puzzle sub-par? Not a judgement on the puzzle, but golf references:

    Both tar pits and golf have numerous holes, hazards and traps; involve sinking (a putt or a mastodon); have pitch, as tar or as a golf shot (can you say animals get "wedged" in the tar?); golfers use a driver, and there are many drivers in LA, on asphaltic tar.

    A golf course has 18 fairways, the City of Los Angeles has 18 freeways within its boundaries (8 federal, 10 state*). Is choosing this clue a free and fair election?

    Tar balls from ocean spills are about the same size and shape as golf balls, and golf balls were considered for use in the BP oil spill.

    If this were last week I'd wonder if it were a "Silence of the Lambs." Only partially snarky, The La Brea Tar Pits is in the same large city block as The Academy of Motion Pictures, a 7 minute walk. Any lambs that happened on the tar pits were probably silenced. Ewe.

    "That's a stretch." In baseball one can pitch from the stretch; again, pitch is another word for tar.

    "Sorry to see you suffer," the tar pits were probably not the happiest place on earth.

    Swap the last two letters, change the last letter"Lab Rat

    "vies for Lego's attention" and "strive" are both synonyms for contend, or pitted against.

    * Federal Highways: 5, 10, 101, 105, 110, 210, 405, 710. State Highways: 2 (Glendale Freeway) 47 (Seaside) 60 (Pomona) 90 (Marina), 91 (Gardena), 103 (Terminal Island) 110 (Arroyo Seco)

    ReplyDelete
  33. Bonus Answer: Event you might want to join, change second letter yields historic event you wouldn't want to join Dinner Party → Donner Party

    ReplyDelete
  34. LA BREA -> L.A. AREA

    > I glad I'm not stuck this week!

    As in tar.

    > I confused Bob Ross's advice and ended up with something disgusting.

    ART TIPS -> RAT SPIT -> TAR PITS

    > 0.0214 mph.

    Last week’s puzzle involved the Oscars, held at the Dolby Theater, on Hollywood Blvd. It’s 3.6 miles from there to the LA BREA Tar Pits Museum, on Wilshire Blvd. 3.6 miles in one week works out to 0.0214 mph. About as fast as tar oozes?

    ReplyDelete
  35. Well, good luck to whichever of the other 77 correct entrants gets picked. I got called but was DQed for having played within the past year :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, dang! Good luck, bad luck.

      Delete
    2. That's too bad, Pandamonium. I guess they see it as a black & white issue.

      Delete
    3. In utter desperation, I came up with Diamond Head, located on Hawaii's turf, and near Hawaii's surf. Now that I have seen the correct answer, I feel a little better about mine.

      Delete
  36. Revealing my reasoning of why I knew cranberry had heard of the landmark...

    If you google
    cranberry "la brea" blaine
    Then you get the following from the June 10 2018 puzzle on Blainesville, where cranberry wrote (among other things) "LOTSA MUCK: Sitcom about tourists who regularly visit the La Brea Tarpits." Thus I know that cranberry had heard of the landmark. But I, too, thought this week's puzzle was badly worded. I only got the answer when I started looking for something sticky, and La Brea Tar Pits seemed to match some of what others were saying.

    --Margaret G.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I had heard of the La Brea Tar Pits, but I just didn't make the connection this week. Sometimes it's hard to get it together on a Sunday morning to be able to solve the Puzzle, and it just never came to me. I've had other things on my mind lately. Doctor's appointments, Spring Break, my niece Maddy is going to be in a play next month, lots of things. But it's so obvious now that I see it. Another swing and a miss for the boy from AL.

      Delete
  37. Been to La Brea Tar Pits. Lived not too far away. While natural and a landmark, it would never register with me as a "natural landmark" - an attraction, yes, but not a natural landmark.

    ReplyDelete
  38. My sign-off hint from mySun Feb 24, 08:58:00 AM PST post:
    "LegoWhoNotesThatIsraelitesBeholdingAMiracleExclaimed..."...
    The Israelites, beholding the parting of the Red Sea, may have exclaimed, "It parts!" (TAR PITS)
    In my legolambdaSun Feb 24, 10:12:00 AM PST post:
    My sign-off provided two possibe giveaway hints:
    "LegoNotesHoweverThatTheLiningsOfTheseMittensEventuallyBecomePollutedWithNicotineAndTarAndSoTheyHaveToBeBuried...InterMittently"
    Also, I struck out on eco's bonus puzzle. I was hung up on thinking "March" was the second, 5-letter, word. Tunnel vision thwarted me.

    LegoHeston

    ReplyDelete
  39. Skydiveboy, I just saw your response to my comment of last week. Good question. Since I did win the office pool, I should be able to move the Oscars to a drier area. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Congrats! And remember: You separate the men from the bouys by the price of their pool toys.

      Delete
  40. This afternoon I spent three hours explaining Gaussian elimination and matrices in linear algebra to my Senegalese student partly in French, partly in English, and partly in frustration.

    I completely forgot it was Thursday.

    Even so, I think I had a better day than spending any time on this very poorly worded puzzle. . .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I received this email from NPR @ 1:39 PST today:

      Hi Mr. Scott,

      Thank you for your email. In this case the location was meant to be a reference to the La Brea neighborhood in L.A. I am sorry if the language was not clearer. But we will take your comments and try to be more precise with our language in the puzzles in future.

      Regards,

      Caitlyn


      NOTE:
      I just looked at a comprehensive list of districts and neighborhoods in Los Angles, CA. There is no La Brea or Rancho La Brea listed.

      Delete
    2. At the right zoom level Google Maps does call it La Brea.

      30 years ago I stayed for a week at the modest rowhouse of actress Signe Hasso (in the 1940's she was promoted as "the next Garbo", didn't quite work out that way) who lived just a few blocks north. She and her neighbors called it Mid-Wilshire.

      Delete
  41. From the LA Times in 2013:

    “La Brea tar pits celebrate a century of stink, ooze and amazement. The La Brea tar pits are marking 100 years of digging history out of the muck. The aroma of the pits is notorious along Los Angeles' Miracle Mile, where they have been burbling since prehistoric times.”

    So there’s that.

    Stink, ooze, and amazement—wow. . .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well I don't mean to boast, but the aroma of my pits is every bit as notorious and has its own special quality of animal magnetism.

      Delete
    2. sdb, no doubt. My friend and I send each other really tacky postcards. My favorite was a woman tester, in a hairnet, smelling the pits of a row of guys. I wish I could find it online. It’s truly the tackiest of all time.

      I thought you might also relate to “burbling since prehistoric time.”

      Delete
    3. My pits don't burble. Not so far anyway. BTW I do charge to smell my pits, but it's only a pittance.

      Delete
    4. Burbling? You mean that farting noise you make with your hands there that Dave Barry refers to as The Wind Beneath My Wings?

      Delete
    5. Isn't it a shame they don't make advertisements like they used to?

      Men Are Gender Antagonists!

      Delete
  42. Trump now wants to be declared a war hero since he was shot down in Hanoi.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, but remember when he declared John McCain was not a hero because he was shot down.

      Delete
  43. It's hard to believe Donald Trump is trusted with our national secrets when Vladimir Putin won't even grant him a clearance.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Here’s my take on the Hanoi meeting.

    Kim stuck with his Train of thought, while Trump was simply on a Flight of fancy.

    ReplyDelete
  45. As to the recent Congressional Hearings it appears both Trump and his fixer/lawyer were on the same page at one time. Now it looks like they have changed to Cohen side.

    ReplyDelete

  46. This is for you re-arrangers.
    I didn't know this could be done and am awed.
    Credit upon request.

    From Martin Rand:

    "Gerbil! Gerbil! Toasty warm
    On the filthy hamster farm,
    Grind thy huge symmetric teeth
    On fruit of fig (or underneath)."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am awed also, Mendo Jim. One would need to do much picking, sticking and clicking together of Scrabble or Bananagram tiles to create such poetic symmetry. (It even has a rhyme that is not actually a rhyme, just like the original!)

      LegoLegoBurningWithEnvy

      Delete
    2. Hanoi summit ruined
      A Dire Munition Mush

      Delete
    3. Thanks Lego.
      The poem above is an anagram of the first stanza of William Blake's "The Tyger."

      Delete
  47. This week's challenge: This challenge comes from listener Alan Hochbaum, of Dunwoody, Ga. Name a popular restaurant chain in two words. Its letters can be rearranged to spell some things to eat and some things to drink. Both are plural words. What things are these, and what's the chain?

    ReplyDelete
  48. This week's challenge: This challenge comes from listener Alan Hochbaum, of Dunwoody, Ga. Name a popular restaurant chain in two words. Its letters can be rearranged to spell some things to eat and some things to drink. Both are plural words. What things are these, and what's the chain?

    ReplyDelete
  49. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  50. This puzzler was the pits. People who visit, live nearby and volunteer here call this landmark the Tar Pits, NOT La Brea.Plus it is neither wellknown nor popular. We are such sticky wickets

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I basically agree with you—the puzzle is bogus and incorrectly stated, but since La brea means the same thing in Spanish, and Spanish speaking people live where you live, and most likely call it La brea, and we call it The La Brea Tar Pits because of that fact, I think either term we call it by is the same thing, since the name La Brea Tar Pits is redundant. If we had not stolen the land from the original Spanish speaking inhabitants it would simply be referred to as La Brea.

      Delete

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.