Q: Think of a 4-letter word for something commonly seen in the winter. Write it in lowercase letters. Turn it upside down, and you'll name a device you use with this thing. What is it?
I didn't have this initially because I didn't consider a lowercase 'l' looking like itself upside down since it would have to shift up/down to work. But I believe that is the answer.A: wool --> loom
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.
I have 3 answers, none entirely satisfactory. But that may appear to be from the ambiguous wording. Again.
ReplyDeleteI think I know which one WS intends, but I drank too much last night so back to bed.
I had the same idea - just woke up again. --Margaret G.
DeleteSo do you flip each letter upside down or the whole word where the first letter becomes the last letter?
ReplyDeleteyes.
DeleteSorry for the snark, but I don't want to get another BA from Blaine University.
Baby snark, doo doo doo doo doo doo ...
DeleteSolved with nary a Pitstop.
ReplyDeletePenelope Pitstop, that is.
DeleteBlaine, don’t pull that upside down image nonsense on us on an upside down puzzle day when the time change is already making me feel upside down. . .
ReplyDeleteFeeling topsy turvy myself. Have a sore throat and headache which portends misery during spring break.
DeleteTotally unfair. I live in San Diego. My son said "sand."
ReplyDeleteHoots!
DeleteThen can you ask your son, "what sort of device is a pues?"
ReplyDeletea wouldn't necessarily become e. There is no mention of what font the letters are in.
DeleteWell, well, well.
DeletePete Seeger was a founding member of The Weavers.
DeleteTakes me back to my childhood.
Well, it's not "lock → loɔʞ"
ReplyDeleteI hope the mold is not so thick to need a plow.
ReplyDeleteThe upside down of plow is dloʍ.
DeleteGrrr.
DeleteOk, or ok then Lou.
DeleteRon: wouldn't plow → bloʍ?
DeleteYes, if you turn each letter upside down separately.
DeleteSEE: THIS LINK.
DeleteIf you mirror around the X axis you get bloʍ, whether individual letters or the whole word.
DeleteIf you rotate each letter 180° separately you get dloʍ.
If you rotate the entire word 180° you get ʍold.
Some apps for generating "upside down text" show plow --> dlom and others show plow --> mold. I would make also make a case for plow-->blom. Actually, I have no idea which is "correct." Are we to rotate the paper on which the word is written by 180 degrees in a plane (mold) or in space around a horizontal axis (blom)? (dlom involves rotating the individual letters in a plane, which is not what the puzzle is asking for.) Somebody, help!
DeleteNow I want pineapple upside down cake.
DeleteGeologists, particularly structural geologists, may more often say downside up.
Don't worry, Lorenzo, I'm sure cranberry will be here in a minute.
DeleteDid anyone not that the puzzle does not say "turn it upside DOWN" but "turn in upside" ? Blaine has added "upside DOWN" in his transcription.
DeleteMake that NOTICE for "not"
DeleteBut in the broadcast WS clearly said "Turn it upside down". And I think that's more official than the typing of some underpaid intern....
DeleteSometimes I think the interns are overpaid.
DeleteThere are three ways to turn a two-dimensional figure upside down. You can rotate it around any of the three axes, X, Y, Z.
DeleteJust go back and forth among the different ways until you think of the answer...
Nice clue, Crito...
DeleteYes Crito - nice clue.
DeleteBtw, Lindsay at the Waffle House said, “What kind of fruit cake comes up with this stuff?”
ReplyDeleteThis seems like a puzzle worthy of some praise. Must have been easy for the puzzle master to solve.
ReplyDeleteGood thing my pals only show up in the winter.
ReplyDeleteI didn't expect I would solve this one while still in bed, but I did.
ReplyDeleteOh, and STEAKHOUSE is a relevant word this week too. However Mort Canard may find STAKEOUT more relevant.
Since I posted my riddle/puzzle at the tail end of last week's blog, here it is again:
ReplyDeleteWhen you’re in a cocktail lounge how can you know you’re sitting near classical musicians?
Thanks to the overwhelming interest in my riddle I am now posting my answer.
DeleteANSWER: By istening carefully to their Bartók.
Don't get me started with musician jokes.
ReplyDeleteMike Nesmith might be appropriate, though.
DeleteApropos of not much, I have a suggestion. Catch the teevee mystery movie tonight that WS plugged today. See if the puzzles in the story he wrote in part and consulted on are as mysterious as some of the on-air ones. Could be some interesting, enlightening klew unraveling.
ReplyDeleteI was going with mold and plow too. Snow leads to mous, which is not a word.
ReplyDeleteTook about two minutes to solve. There are only certain letters of the alphabet which still form letters when upside-down.
ReplyDeleteO, OK, I C
DeleteOH for Pete's sake, the instructions are lower case!
DeleteI NO.
Deletemust be nice!!
DeleteJust broke my losing streak! Hooray!
ReplyDeleteWith me its two steps forward and one back. In endless repetition.
Deletelucky!
DeleteTurn it upside down means to literally rotate your paper 180º. Not flip, rotate.
ReplyDeleteAt breakfast, I wrote the word, then said to my husband, who was across the table from me, "See?"
DeleteWe used one of these devices in elementary school, when we were studying early America.
ReplyDeleteShout out to Sue Monnell (RIP), my teacher. She had us shearing sheep, carding the wool, then spinning it into yarn, dying it with Sumac or Goldenrod, and then using a LOOM to weave it into crappy belts.
DeleteMike Nesmith could also solve this with nary a Pitstop.
ReplyDeleteVery good. Safe to say most people have never used the device Will is referring to.
DeleteIf my answer is correct, I had one growing up.
DeleteMike Nesmith wore a wool hat, and Ms. Pitstop's name is Penelope.
DeleteThis is at least the third time Wee Willy has put out a challenge that involves this instruction.
ReplyDeleteEach time a discussion such as this ensues, with Willy of course learning nothing.
Ron's link is an interesting place.
Shortz said the on air guy got 100% (well, except for the wonderful Donald Westlake, who wrote under many pseudonyms).
And Lulu removed herself from the game by stating she hated mysteries.
Westlake's caper novels are fun, but my favorite book of his is non-fiction: "Under an English Heaven," an account of Britain's 1969 invasion of Anguilla, to put down their bloodless rebellion against independence.
DeleteI don't like mystery novels, but I love non-pareil capers.
DeleteBonus puzzle:
ReplyDeleteTake the name of a particular celebrity whose first and last names contain one vowel sound each. Swap the vowel sounds and the result, phonetically, will name certain products of the device in this week's Sunday Puzzle answer.
Who is the famous person and what are the products?
If it's what (I) say, I love it, but not especially later in the summer. Watch out for Ron, chief of the Pronunciation Police.
DeleteSecond Bonus Puzzle:
DeleteTake two terms associated with the device, also with one vowel sound each. Change the first letter of each to another letter, and you'll get the present and past tense of a common verb.
____…it’s not just for winter anymore.
ReplyDeleteIn this case, "to turn a word upside down" means to rotate it in a plane by 180 degrees (which is not my understanding of the phrase). With this interpretation,the puzzle is pretty trivial and I would have had the answer hours ago. As Paul said above, grrr!
ReplyDeleteTHIS WEEK'S CARTOONS ! Enjoy, ugh...
ReplyDeleteTax return submitted by a New Jersey resident
DeleteTax return submitted by a New Jersey resident - The IRS returned a tax return to a man in New Jersey after he apparently answered one of the questions incorrectly. In response to question 23: "Do you have anyone dependent on you?", the man wrote: "2.1 million illegal immigrants, 1.1 million crack-heads, 4.4 million unemployable scroungers, 80,000 criminals in over 85 prisons, plus 650 idiots in Washington, and the entire group that call themselves politicians".
On the returned form, someone at the IRS had attached a Post-it Note beside the question with an arrow and the words: “Your response to question 23 is unacceptable.”
The man sent it back to the IRS with his response on the bottom of the Post It Note: "Who did I leave out?"
The hardest part of this week's puzzle is figuring out why Will mused, after the last three puzzles, that it might be comparably hard. Take away the Internet, and the entry pools for the Oscar numbers, tar pits, and eclairs/lattes would surely all have been 50% less. This one requires only good, old-fashioned logic, and I predict a return of the entry pool to four digits.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree. Over a thousand easily.
DeleteIt might help to remember a puzzle from almost exactly two years ago:
ReplyDelete"SHORTZ: Yeah. I said write the name of the game in lower case letters, reverse the second and third letters, turn the fourth letter upside down and the result will name something else to play. When I said upside down, I meant rotate 180 degrees. That, to me, is what upside down is. And the answer is craps to cards."
p to d
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteT. Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth
ReplyDeleteNice obfuscation, WW
DeleteExchange of emails with WS earlier today...
ReplyDeleteJB: Which way do you mean upside-down? Does "b" become "p"? Or "q"? Does snow become mous?
WS: Hmm. Didn't think of that ambiguity. I meant the whole thing gets rotated... "snow" becomes "mous." The instructions did say "Turn *it* upside-down," so I think this is the natural interpretation of the instructions.
JB: Perhaps better to say "If you look at it upside down..."
WS: [No reply]
For the next puzzle how about: Calculate how many more upside-down puzzles till WS thinks of the ambiguity.
If Will took a mineralogy class and learned about crystallography, symmetry, and mirror planes, he would get it. . . I have a wallpaper sample waiting for his final exam.
DeleteWS is into S&M
DeleteBravo! That is hilarious.
DeleteI looked up similar puzzles on here and that helped.
DeleteNatasha and/or Trumptransition:
DeletePlease, PLEASE hack into Jeff and Will's email accounts and determine if the transcription above is accurate or FAKE NEWS.
Paul,
DeleteI could provide you with some of my own, which I think you would find more than a little amusing.
Paul: Sadly, quite accurate. No fakery. I omitted a bit but left in WS's defensive comment as I find it telling. He shrugs off an acknowledged ambiguity.
DeletePaul: Glad Paul responded. Not worth my time.
DeleteI also don't like ambiguities, but there's something to be said for brevity and common-sense assumptions/heuristics:
DeleteAsk 100 people* to 'write a word in lowercase letters, then turn it upside down and read it' -- observe what most or nearly all of them do. Most will not flip it over, hold it up to a light and read it through the back of the paper; or re-write each letter upside down; or re-write it mirrored over the x-axis; or choose to write in a serif font.
(*Literally, if you have time...but a thought experiment should do the trick, for certain imaginations.)
We got it. Actually Whatley got it. We spent too many winters in Juneau not to get it.
ReplyDeleteJeepers. It took me this long to get the answer. There are two words that describe how I feel about this, and I thought of using them, but too big a giveaway. As it is, take the two answer words, change the first letter of each, jam them together into an eight-letter word for a place of recreation.
ReplyDeleteThat hint really takes balls!
DeleteI feel like being a NW OR resident puts me at a disadvantage for this week's puzzle.
ReplyDeleteYou'll survive.
DeleteNot according to Schulz.
Deletehttps://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one
This week's puzzle has connections with the previous two puzzles.
ReplyDeleteI solved this puzzle quickly and very much enjoyed the next story about hipsters all looking the same despite their attempts at non-conformity.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting, to me anyway. I did not hear it earlier, but because of your post I just listened. It reminds me of what I have been saying for many years about the young who have to rebel against our society's norms. This is natural, but only a very few, and perhaps only a single one, is actually rebelling by not conforming. I say this because all the rest of them simply cannot control themselves from following their leader's example in exactly the same fashion. And I say fashion, because it is usually a fashion faux pas that it embodies. And if a person is following that original rebel is he really doing anything more than following another directive?
DeleteOne of the outstanding examples of this phenomenon is when young males began wearing an earring in their left ear. God forbid a guy might hang this bobble from his right ear and reveal to all the world he is a faggot.
Another is a short period when young males would turn up their sport coat collar in back. I once managed to embarrass myself by informing the young guy standing in front of me at the movie line that his collar was turned up. If sarcastic looks could kill, well I would not be writing this now. Not watching TV I had no idea it had something to do with a popular TV star of the period. If he had only known his hero was gay.
I used to occasionally advise a few of these "rebels" that if they really wanted to rebel and be different then they would have to find a way of doing that themselves in their own way, and not by following the latest sartorial commandment in order to be "different." I rather doubt anyone ever took my advice seriously, but at least I tried. And, you know, you don't really have to dress in an unusual manner to demonstrate your breaking away from the expected norms of society, you can always use your brain instead.
And it's so different than those hippies of the 1960's.
DeleteOh those awful hippies. Whatever came of them anyway?
DeleteHedge fund managers and Raytheon executives.
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ReplyDeleteBah humbug!
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle isn't exactly a challenge of mammoth proportions.
ReplyDeleteAnyone watch "The Crossword Mysteries" last night? I forgot to, but WS was listed as a writer and producer, with a cameo ping-pong scene.
ReplyDeleteThe last time he was on TV, it was the god-awful Brooklyn 99 show.
The highlight of his trip to LA that time was meeting and getting the autograph of Jon Voight, a strong and active supporter of Donald J. Trump. I see such leanings in our esteemed PM as well.
SDB's house in on today's Earth Science Picture of the Day (epod.nsra.edu) website.
That picture must be of the snow 2 weeks ago. This weekend was clear blue skies. Also they keep saying we had the most snow since 1916. This is not true. I remember several much worse snow falls, from 1949 on. We don't get them often, but we do get them sometimes.
DeleteOne of the problems with Seattle weather reporting and statistics is the official location for these readings is not even in Seattle. It is at the Seattle/Tacoma Airport (SEATAC). Seattle is a very large geographical area that is stretched North and South for many miles. The airport is farther South and the weather is not the same there as it is in Seattle. There is even a wide range of weather in different neighborhoods of the city due to all the hills and water. Our NPR radio station is located in the University district and they take their readings there and they are much more reliable than the official readings at the airport.
DeleteTemperature at the airport is 88 degrees; which is stupid, man, 'cause I don't know anybody that lives at the airport.
DeleteIf you turn 88 upside-down, you get...88...
Deleteswims upside-down is.....
Deleteswims → sɯᴉʍs See my link above.
DeleteSerendipity
ReplyDeleteWould anyone want some hot coffee with this week's answer??
ReplyDeleteThose are excellent airplanes. I've flown in them, but never landed in one.
DeleteSDB -Regarding Seattle weather conditions, go to https://a.atmos.washington.edu/~neal/uwuhp/latest24.svg
ReplyDeletefor observations at the arboretum near UW, or look at
https://a.atmos.washington.edu/~neal/uwp/index24.cgi
for observations on the roof of the UW Atmospheric Sciences Building. - EKW
EKW:
DeleteNone of that changes the fact that the official Seattle temperature is taken at the airport, outside of Seattle where the weather is different. Cliff Mass, the chief atmospheric scientist at the UofW, complains about it all the time.
I dare say the Bay Area is even more extreme: San Francisco (about 15 miles north of the airport) is shaped like a rough square 7 miles in each direction. The temperatures can vary by 15° or more between the "sun belt" of the Mission District and the ocean front areas of the Richmond and Sunset Districts only 5 miles away.
DeleteSo the TV weather reports (which are an obsessively large part of the news broadcast, surprising since we really don't have much weather) have a scattershot listing of different temperatures for different neighborhoods.
Even little Berkeley has quite the variety. My office, close to the bay, can be 10° cooler than one of my projects in Berkeley's banana belt near the (locally famous) Claremont Hotel - I think that's Natasha's neighborhood - even though it's only about 3.5 miles away.
Exactly! My house is just 1 3/4 miles due East of Puget Sound. If I drive to the park directly West of my house on a hot summer day the temp at the park will be ten to fifteen degrees cooler. The temperature varies widely all over the city.
DeleteRadio and especially TV stations have long known that the weather gets people worked up, and the worse the aspect the better.
DeleteWeather extremes increase viewership which goes right to the bottom line.
Weather men and women talking heads (don't call them meteorologists) across the country have glommed onto "microclimates" for its cache.
Back in 15 minutes for more on YOUR neighborhood.
I also think that staying on standard time (sun overhead at noon) year round would be far better than "saving time."
Does anyone here have any idea who benefits, i.e., makes money, from Daylight Saving Time? That may be the key.
I was born in Seattle in April 1945 and it was neither Pacific Standard Time nor Pacific Daylight Saving Time. Figure that one out.
DeleteWar Time.
DeleteYes, and if I remember correctly, we were involved in that one.
DeleteWrapped it up in under 4 years, unlike the 17+ we've wasted in Afghanistan.
DeleteWell, why didn't someone warn us that we couldn't win a war with Afghanistan?
DeleteI love Spy's World Championship bracketology from 1989.
DeleteI sure hope our president is paying close attention to what our intelligence people are telling him so we don't get into a war.
DeleteIf nothing else Spy (Graydon Carter) coined the term "short-fingered vulgarian" to describe our, um, short-fingered vulgarian. It took me years and many moves to finally recycle my old copies, wish I hadn't.
DeleteHelp me out here. Isn't Vulgaria an Eastern Bloc country located somewhere on the Potomac?
DeleteAnd I think they're gearing for war. They took the now-classic step of showing outrage by alleging the destruction of the "aid trucks" was from Maduro forces, when video shows it was from an anti-government protestor hurling a Molotov cocktail.
DeleteRemember the Maine, the Gulf of Tonkin, or the little babies being thrown out of their incubators in Kuwait. It's all of a pattern, history rhymes a lot. Just waiting for when they really need the distraction.
I saw that video, the one with the revealing parts cut out, so we wouldn't be able to tell.
DeleteJust try to keep the faith and always remember Hope Hicks.
DeleteThe more I look into DST the more I think it's most modern evolution is furthered by those in power who play way too much golf. Today's movers and shakers seem to spend most of their power time while hitting the links. It is to their advantage to spend as much time hobnobbing on the golf course as they can and extending DST does just that. There's nothing wrong with golf but it does seem like those in power have a penchant for it.
DeleteThere you go, talking about cars again.
DeleteFunny you mention it, the other day in the NYT Crossword, the clue was a three letter word for "Golfs and such". It took me a few tries but it turned out to be "VWS"
DeleteMy favorite golf goes putt-putt.
DeleteThis clue may get lost in the shuffle but here goes: "may the gods grant thee all that thy heart desires."
ReplyDeleteYou didn't even have to make a pitstop.
DeleteNausicaa
DeleteBracing for a major blizzard here in CO. Schools, offices closed for tomorrow already. March is our snowiest month as she always shows us, with her 50-75 mph predicted winds.
ReplyDeleteKeep track of the barometer, there is supposed to be an "eye" associated with this storm similar to a tropical storm.
DeleteIn our area we are supposed to miss the snow but not the heavy rain and high winds. I am a little worried about it.
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DeleteI used to pay close attention to my barometer, but I couldn't take the pressure.
DeleteAt first I was jealous of you Colorado folk getting the big snow, but then I remembered what it's like....
DeleteJust get a snow cone and be happy.
DeleteIt’s official. It’s a bombcyclone. I heard it. 😲
Deletehttp://isitabombcyclone.com/
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBREAKING NEWS
ReplyDeletePursuant to the influence peddling of rich people to get their underqualified children into elite schools, including fake images of the child's athletic abilities, this photo from the Wharton School has been revealed.
Another uncovered photo!
DeleteI think Mitch McConnell is better known for her floor exercises.
Deletehttps://extranewsfeed.com/does-mitch-mcconnell-have-teeth-f36be893f157
DeleteIs igloo camping less intense?
ReplyDeleteIf airlines all across the planet are grounding their Boeing 737 Max 8 jets due to as yet undiagnosed safety issues linked to recent fatal crashes, but airlines in this country are still flying them, does this mean they are safe to fly as long as we do not fly them outside our borders, walled or unwalled?
ReplyDeleteEco & Sdb: Great pictures!
DeleteJust saw that Trump has grounded all those 737 Max 8's. I don't know what to think about all of this.
So good of him to allow the 737's still in the air to land before being grounded.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteBoeing used to promote from within the company to president and CEO. Then they changed all that and hired people from outside aviation who only knew that Boeing made things that fly. Then they moved the headquarters from Seattle to Chicago and began opening plants in parts of the country where they could hire cheap labor with no history of working in aviation. The focus was now on making money for the stockholders and less about making quality, safe aircraft.
DeleteNote: Former chief Boeing test pilot Tex Johnston no longer flies on Boeing planes.
Great Scott! And that's a clue for the puzzle, not a compliment to you.
DeleteI believe these days, Tex flies exclusively on Malaise Airways.
DeleteMarmion!
DeleteBack to this week's puzzle: MOVIE CLUE: The word for the device is SPOKEN in NOT one, but TWO Cecile B. DeMille biblical epics!
ReplyDeletewool → looʍ
ReplyDeleteTo turn the word upside down, rotate it 180°. I was turning each letter upside down and not rotating it, so “wool” became “ʍool.”
See THIS LINK (again) & put in “wool” to obtain “looʍ.”
I wrote: “Jeepers. It took me this long to get the answer. There are two words that describe how I feel about this, and I thought of using them, but too big a giveaway.”
ReplyDeleteThat is, I could have said, “Boy, do I feel sheepish.” A little more obscurely, I could have said, “Boy, do I feel mutton-headed.” What do you think: was I wise to restrain myself from posting too-obvious clues?
I continued, “As it is, take the two answer words, change the first letter of each, jam them together into an eight-letter word for a place of recreation. “ This is: POOLROOM.
wool → loom
ReplyDeleteOther answers I had were:
mold → plow ; in California we see more mold in the winter with the cool damp weather, freezing temperatures kill mold for you lucky folk in the rest of the country. And a plow mold is a real thing.
clam → claw; the flipped version, clams are in season during the colder months. cool → cool also works, but is pretty lame.
"I drank too much last night so " For those reading this who happen to be my insurance agent, this was a hint about a hangover, which in verb form is a synonym for loom, as is appear from the previous sentence. "back to bed." with nice warm wool blankets.
"OH for Pete's sake" the late great Pete Seeger sang with The Weavers.
"two terms associated with the device": weave and weft → leave and left.
"connections with the previous two puzzles": wooly mammoths have been found in La Brea Tar Pits, and Little (and big) Caesar's togas were woven of wool fibers.
"Great Scott!" Walter Scott (not Shakespeare) wrote
Oh, what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practice to deceive.
Was he playing on the lyre at the time?
wool >>> loom
ReplyDeleteMy “By the Skin of Our Teeth” clue refers to the woolly mammoth featured in the T. Wilder play.
I was thingking of a television clue: Robert Conrad (Baa Baa Blacksheep), but thought it might have been too obvious.
ReplyDeleteWOOL > LOOM
ReplyDeleteI almost forgot to post.
I don't think I posted a hint this week. I thought anything I came up with would give it away.
DeleteMy first thought was mold & plow, but I knew that would not be the intended answer.
Lego is running a puzzle of mine tomorrow that I recently sent in to Will Shortz to run, but he wrote back saying it was a really good puzzle, but he thought it was too easy. It may be for some, not for others. Go check it out tomorrow. Link to Puzzleria! is listed above on right margin.
While I did submit wool --> loom, I was not happy with the actual rotation. First w and m don't look exactly like each other when rotated. Second, the l would have to be shifted down to work correctly.
ReplyDeleteI am not particularly bothered by that MWI problem. What I find irritating is the way the puzzle was presented, especially this part:
Delete...and you'll name a device you use with this thing.
I think it should have said, ...a device that may be used with this thing. NOT YOU USE WITH...
I do not use a loom with anything.
As I mentioned above (not sure why my google acct name is Unknown, I need to fix), I find it best to approach it from a perspective of *most people's reasonable interpretation*.
DeleteGlad you got it! The 'most people' heuristic helps me know that, if something about the solution might be still disputable, it's correct if most people would (likely) interpret it so.
Also, when his puzzles explicitly say to 'write' something (instead of 'Think of a word...'), then things like font (or something to do with keyboard layout, etc.) don't come into play.
So, most people who 'write' the word 'wool', if asked to 'turn it over and read it' would likely say 'loom' instead of shrugging their shoulders, IMHO.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
DeleteTo me it looks like the camera is a Go Pro mounted so it is taking a photo of the nose of a 737 Max. The fuselage is rotating, but the wings aren't. Why it is smiling is a mystery.
Delete¯\_(ツ)_/¯
DeleteThat's only two flaws, Blaine, give Will a break,
ReplyDeleteIf you look around you have to wonder why this "device" is not on all top 10 or 20 lists of important inventions.
Woven stuff everywhere.
WOOL(wool), LOOM(loom)
ReplyDeleteBad weather situation down here. We have a TORNADO WATCH for our area until 7:00 PM.
ReplyDeleteBONUS PUZZLE
ReplyDeleteTake the name of a particular celebrity whose first and last names contain one vowel sound each. Swap the vowel sounds and the result, phonetically, will name certain products of the device in this week's Sunday Puzzle answer.
Who is the famous person and what are the products?
ANSWER
Will Shortz > wool shirts
I think that is very clever.
DeleteYes, excellent riff-off jsulbyrne.
DeleteLegoStumpedAndEnvious
The four vowel sounds are all phonetically different from each other. The i in Will is not the same as the i in shirts and the o in Shortz is not the same as the oo in wool.
ReplyDeleteDang, I had my money on Ron being the pronunciation police! He does have a strong track record and is usually first out of the gate....
DeleteMy clue - “ worthy” referenced Woolworth.
ReplyDeleteAlso mentioned puzzle master because his first name sounds like the answer (will = wool).
Thought about cluing wool shorts but I don’t see those in winter!
I thought this week's answer was interesting in that examples of the named device's output is seen almost every day in the news. The operator of this device must have a certain job security for at least the next couple of years.
ReplyDeleteI posted on Wed Mar 13, at 12:05:00 PM PDT:
ReplyDeleteBack to this week's puzzle: MOVIE CLUE: The word for the device is SPOKEN in NOT one, but TWO Cecile B. DeMille biblical epics!
In "The Ten Commandments", just before Moses is to come before Pharoh, two streamers of a mysterious, fine fabric are flung before Ramses and Nefretiri. "This is the finest fabric I've ever seen!", says Nefretiri. One of them asks how it's made. The Tribune replies "No one knows. It is spun in the loom of the gods. We call it 'silk' ".
In "Samson and Delilah", before Samson finally cracks and reveals the secret of his strength, Delilah complains about his lies, at one point saying "You told me that you would be as weak as any man if I wove your hair in my loom. Now look at my loom!"
Whoever is responsible for posting a new puzzle from the Car Talk archives each Saturday is a real credit to mediocrity. Last week it was done properly, but the two previous weeks the answer was included. A couple of days later, probably due to complaints, the answer was removed. Today they again have forgotten to even post a puzzle as has happened a few time in the past.
ReplyDeleteIf they fire this idiot I sure hope he doesn't enter medical school to become a surgeon.
Wouldn't all medical schools have tests to weed him out and consequently not graduate him?
DeleteGood point. However what it tells me is that you most likely were never in the military. I was in the army for 3 years and discovered it is populated with an abundance of quacks.
DeleteWhen it was time for me to leave Germany for the States and discharge at the end of my enlistment, I had to have an exit exam. At the completion I was asked by the newer doctor who ran our small clinic what I thought of the army. I could have answered in numerous ways, but what I chose to say was, "For one thing I found it is loaded with quacks." This captain sat there at his desk looking at me and smiled and said he completely agreed with me. I thought it was very unusual and odd for him to have asked and to then respond the way he did and I found it refreshing.
I have always wondered how so many incompetents could graduate from medical schools, but never found the answer. Maybe jan knows.
Wouldn't all medical schools have tests to weed him out and consequently not graduate him?
DeleteI have run into doctors who would rate over the whole one to ten scale.
ReplyDeleteI have been lucky to have the few surgeons I have needed in the top of that range.
Not so other kinds.
I was even luckier, I think, not to need serious care in the Army.
In the VA, I have met only one who was competent; she was also the only one not bonkers. I no longer use the VA medical system.
In the VA benefits system, they have contracted qualification exams to private companies who seem to have incompetence and bonkers as requirements for the Keystone Stooges they hire. i think I could prove that.
Interestingly one of those companies is run by former VA head Principi, with a budget of 6.8 Billion dollars.
I did my psychiatry rotation at a VA hospital maybe 17 years ago, back when the VA was unusual in having an electronic medical records system. All the terminals were in one room, and that's where everyone did their charting. There was one attending psychiatrist who would come in each morning, rip open a half dozen alcohol wipes, and wipe down every key on the keyboard before getting to work.
DeleteThat poor man! Maybe he didn't know a good therapist.
DeleteThis week's challenge: Take the letters S Y T O Y. Add the same letter of the alphabet six times to complete a familiar phrase. What is it?
ReplyDeleteEven Blaine will agree that this is easy,
DeleteI suspect we'll all agree about this one!
ReplyDeleteI'll second that.
Delete6q6Ɛ
ReplyDelete