Another example of my trying to get too creative with the answer. As soon as I stopped thinking so hard, it just came to me.Q: Name something you see when going to the movies, in two words. Change the sixth letter to an R, and you'll get something you might buy at a grocery, in three words. What things are these?
Edit: I was thinking outside the box instead of inside the box. And rice is hard before it is cooked.
A: BOX OFFICE --> BOX OF RICE
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.
Rearrange the grocery item to yield a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID)
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteTaken together, this thread goes too far.
DeleteInfidels!
DeleteHey. Wait a minute.
DeleteMy hint was okay, brilliant, even! It was the other comments ruined it! "Infidels", is right!
DeleteI came up with a gross answer.
ReplyDeleteYou used an "L" instead of an "R"?
DeleteMost people who eat this food won't buy the answer.
ReplyDeleteAnd why don't grocery stores sell goose rumps?
You see it at the movies, but buy it at a grocery, whatever the heck that is.
ReplyDeleteToday was one of the most poorly thought through on-air puzzles ever.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteLeave it alone.
Delete;)
DeleteYeah, because y'all ALL watched that program.
DeleteYou don't have to watch "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" to be able to Google that dialog referring to a rice cooker
DeleteTook me a lot longer than it should have.
ReplyDeleteThis time, I got the answer in an instant. Are the odds better to be chosen by waiting one or two days to submit the answer on the NPR website or is it a truly random selection?
ReplyDeleteImpossible to say. The consensus is that the winner is selected as first correct entry submitted after a randomly chosen day/time. Each week, it could be Sunday morning or Thursday afternoon or any time in between.
DeleteOne thing about this week's puzzle: this is one puzzle which you should NOT try to solve by working backwards!
ReplyDeleteI second that. Again, not the best wording, which is becoming a staple of the puzzle.
DeleteI got this one in less than a minute.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouragement.
DeleteIt took me longer than that because I don't usually call the theater thing by this name. But I got it while I was on my Sunday run with my dog, a conjunction of events I enjoy whenever it happens.
ReplyDeleteI don’t usually call the grocery thing by this name.
DeleteI had a different term for the movie thing, which didn't lead to a different grocery item.
DeleteI figured out the right answer after about 20 minutes.
I got it. This is really lame.
ReplyDeleteCARTOONS OF THE WEEK! Enjoy...
ReplyDeleteOr, speaking of South Africa, why is it abbreviated ZA?
ReplyDeleteGEOGRAPHY QUIZ.
DeleteTo answer your question, see THIS.
DeleteIs "grocery" instead of "grocery store" a regional thing?
ReplyDeleteI guess they are the same, but I have never heard the former term alone,
And what's a "supermarket"?
DeleteIt's a grocery with a cape.
DeleteWhich would explain the phone booth just outside the door (back when there were phone booths).
DeleteYes, that's the one. Did you happen to see a black pair of horn rimmed glasses?
DeleteActually, Spider-Man would be better suited for this puzzle
DeletePuzzles like this get me steamed.
ReplyDeleteTake the thing you see at the movies, move the last 3 letters to the front, and the result will be something you technically can't have.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ozarksfirst.com/video/caught-on-camera-meteor-falling-from-sky-seen-in-florida_20190331140305/1890022727
ReplyDeletePshaw, a mere pretender. Now here's what happens after a REAL meteor.
DeleteFunny. Took me 2 minutes to solve and yet it was still hard.
ReplyDeleteA katydid walks into a bar and orders a Bloody Mary.
ReplyDeleteBarry, the bartender, figures a bug won't know any better, charges him $17.00 (USD) and says "We have a drink named after you."
The katydid asks "You have a drink named Tom Collins?"
The bartender says "Well, we do, but I meant we have one called a Grasshopper. We don't get a lot of y'all in here."
The katydid says "I am a katydid, you ignorant bartender, and these prices, you won't see any of us here, either."
April Fool! Katydids don't speak human language, or carry money.
Subject: This is Truly An Incredible Story:
DeleteIn 1986, Peter Davies was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from Northwestern University. On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Peter approached it very carefully. He got down on one knee, inspected the elephants foot, and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it.
As carefully and as gently as he could, Peter worked the wood out with his knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot. The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments. Peter stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away.
Peter never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.
Twenty years later, Peter was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teenage son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Peter and his son Cameron were standing. The large bull elephant stared at Peter, lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.
Remembering the encounter in 1986, Peter could not help wondering if this was the same elephant. Peter summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing, and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder.
The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Peter legs and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly.
Probably wasn’t the same elephant.
Or consume alcohol. But perhaps Katy did ;-)
DeleteMoral of the story is don't go to the zoo on April 1st.
DeleteWhat makes you think katydids don’t? Katy Prudic says they do.
DeleteAh, now it makes sense why they flutter around... FWI.
DeleteCinemaCon this week in Las Vegas. Coincidence? Probably.
ReplyDeleteAirforce One was grounded today, or rather kept flying, due to the airline computer glitch.
ReplyDeleteHoots!
ReplyDeleteDo you have a subscription?
ReplyDeleteGotta wait till Thursday...
ReplyDeleteOwl take it!
ReplyDeleteIt has been quite a while since I have gone to a movie theatre. I give up. Uncle is all i can say.
ReplyDeleteBeen there, done that!
DeleteFinally got it! Now thinking I might treat myself to a movie while here in San Francisco.
ReplyDeleteBack in another century, in the first season of the relaunched Jeopardy™ with Alex Trebek, I got the latter as a consolation prize for finishing second. We served it to our guests, who responded with bitter laughter, when we watched the broadcast several months later.
DeleteUnknown was invoking "Rice-a-Roni," which I got as a consolation prize. The reference to bitter laughter is a veiled reference to "Riso Amare," an Italian movie from the 40s whose title can be translated as either "Bitter Rice" or "Bitter Laughter."
DeleteWhat is the difference between the people who are buried in a modern cemetery and those buried in the Titanic?
ReplyDeleteThose buried in the Titanic were in their liner before they died.
DeleteOne of them has a plot?
DeleteThat's good, but the answer is the liner. Some will not be familiar with grave liners, which are usually concrete vaults inserted into the dug grave with the lid removed and the coffin is lowered into the open vault and then the concrete lid is placed and it is now filled in. The concrete liner is to prevent the collapse of the earth when the coffin disintegrates along with the corpse.
DeleteI don’t go to the movies much these days, but I can see this “something” at home now.
ReplyDeleteThat is sad. There are much better options available.
DeleteMy friend Warren was also at the zoo recently. Walking by the lion's cage he saw a loaf of bread in a corner. Puzzled, he asked the zookeeper who said", oh it was bred in captivity."
ReplyDeleteSo now the FDA is warning that vaping while at Little Caesars may cause little seizures.
ReplyDeleteNPR news just reported Chicago Mayor Elect Lori Lightfoot is the first openly gay mayor of a city this large and that she has declared a mandate. This raises questions in my mind right away, such as why would a lesbian want anything to do with a man date?
ReplyDeleteor·i·gin - /ˈôrÉ™nj,ˈärÉ™nj/
ReplyDeleteDefinition: Those little thingies that grow on trees in Florida & Calfornia.
Used in a sentence: My Dad was born in Germany, a little east of New York, orange you glad you know that?
Why does Trump Nazi that his father may have been a Nazi sympathizer, but he was born here?
DeleteOn the other hand, why would anyone expect Trump to tell the truth about his father's birth when he can't tell the truth about anything else?
BOX OFFICE, BOX OF RICE
ReplyDeleteMy first clue:
“Or, speaking of South Africa, why is it abbreviated ZA?” refers to the Genus for rice, Oryza, >>> "Or why za."
My second clue:
“42” = the answer to everything in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy >>> Deep Thought >>> rice pudding.
BOX OFFICE -> BOX OF RICE
ReplyDelete> It's frequently sold at certain movie theaters I've been to.
There are many people from South Asia in northern New Jersey. One nearby theater shows a lot of Indian films, and the concession stand sells bhel puri, a savory chaat made from puffed rice.
Berf wrote: "Got it."
I replied: "Of course you got it..."
If you ask what letters got changed in the two phrases, the answer BE R-F.
> CinemaCon this week in Las Vegas. Coincidence? Probably.
> Not this.
Those are NATO magazines. But NATO is also the National Association of Theater Owners, the CinemaCon people, and their magazine is Boxoffice.
BOX OFFICE – BOX OF RICE
ReplyDeleteMy comment about getting steamed was a reference to my preferred method of preparing rice.
BOX OFFICE > BOX OF RICE
ReplyDeleteBOX OFFICE → BOX OF RICE
ReplyDeleteRearrange the grocery item to yield a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) → Box of Rice = ROFECOXIB.
With all the “minute” clues, it seems jan thought only to object to my “Ben” clue.
MINUTE Rice.
UNCLE BEN'S.
I wrote, with trepidation that I was giving too much away, “I came up with a gross answer.” This refers to a movie’s box office gross. I mentioned that we called the movie thing something different; we say “ticket booth.”
ReplyDeleteBOX OFFICE -> BOX OF RICE
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of "Box Office", has anyone ever seen John Wayne's footprints cast in the sidewalk in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater? They sure are tiny.
Box Office → Box of Rice
ReplyDeleteMost people who eat this food won't buy the answer. The Asians I know buy rice in bags.
I had a different term for the movie thing, which didn't lead to a different grocery item. I started with ticket booth → broth, nothing came of that.
I figured out the right answer after about 20 minutes. About the time it takes to cook rice traditionally.
Take the thing you see at the movies, move the last 3 letters to the front, and the result will be something you technically can't have. Ice Box off, from the time before refrigerators, you either had ice or you didn't, no on/ off switch.
I buy Basmati rice in 25 pound sacks. It comes from India and is the best rice there is, but it must be properly prepared. The idea of eating Uncle Ben's is disgusting to me. Food should taste good. But then this was not a good puzzle.
DeleteAnd, if you delete the 4th, 5th and 6th letter and rearrange you get a place where you wouldn't store the grocery item - the ICEBOX.
DeleteSDB: You probably don't like Spam or pasteurized prepared cheese product. Especially the kind that comes in a squirt can. Yum!
Deleteeco: You are probably right about that. I sure miss all the great cheeses I used to eat in Europe, that I cannot get in this country.
DeleteI miss that you can get beer and wine in European fast food restaurants - even Little Caesars! This ad isn't satire.
DeleteIt does raise an issue: does red or white pair best with onion rings?
That ad has more than one whopper in it. Thankfully I have never entered a Burger King joint. Why do people eat crap like this?
DeleteDid anyone else notice that you can find POPCORN at a movie theater. And if you change the 6th letter of popcorn to an R, you get POPCORN, which you can find at a grocery store? Granted, it is not three words.
ReplyDeleteHow clever! There is certainly a colonel of truth in what you say.
DeleteGood thinkin', Ben. Popcorn may not be three words, but "Pop, corn" gives you something you might buy in the grocery in two words.
DeleteBetter yet:
Name something you see when going to the movies, in two words: POPCORN SHRIMP (or POPCORN CHICKEN). Change the sixth letter to an R, and you'll get something you might buy at a grocery, in three words. What things are these? (POP, CORN, SHRIMP; or POP, CORN, CHICKEN)!
LegoRiffingOffBen
My wonderful niece is now 20 years old. But when my sister-in-law got pregnant, she and my brother gifted me a box of rice in wrapping paper.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I am an able PUZZLER. When I picked up the BOX and could hear the RICE, I shouted out "I'm an UNCLE!" ruining their surprise.
It sucks to have puzzlers in your family.
In defense of boxed rice: wild rice usually (although not always) comes in a box. Of course it's not really rice at all, but Humpty Dumpty would like to have a word with you on that subject.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about wild rice not being rice at all but disagree about the box packaging. At our store, wild rice is in plastic wrap or in bulk, but not in a box.
DeleteCan wild rice be tamed?
DeleteNobody puts (Baby) wild rice in a corner/box!
DeleteYou really can't be too careful around wild rice. Years ago Marlin Perkins was attacked by a band of wild rice as he was filming a segment for Wild Kingdom. He recovered, but was really steamed about it.
DeleteA few years ago one of the small local theaters near here recently had on display, by its box office, one of the props of "Gort" the robot, from the 1951 movie "The Day The Earth Stood Still". I went to see it and it was pretty cool looking. This "Gort" suit was one of two used in the movie. It was used for shots that were filmed from the front. This one had lacings on the back near the neck.
ReplyDeleteI always considered the term "box-office" to mean something more along the lines of the national gate receipts a movie takes in. But, box office can also mean the "local ticket window", too!
BOX OFFICE, BOX OF RICE
ReplyDelete"I got this one in less than a minute." Minute rice comes in a box, last time I checked.
Now that Ralph Nader has joined in the 737 MAX debacle I suspect Boeing stock will really take a nose dive.
ReplyDeleteOh shoot. I can't tell you how inadequate I feel at this time. It's just a good thing that Whatley and I do this together. It's something we've been sharing in our marriage since they first aired it.
ReplyDeleteJust a shameless plug here for Joseph Young's Puzzleria! (see Blaine's PUZZLE LINKS) which will be uploaded in just a bit less than 2.5 hours from now.
ReplyDeleteWe feature another fine puzzle created by our friend skydiveboy. It has a geographical theme.
Among the other 11 puzzles this week are three that involve fossils, an adage, and a word in a title of a play by Will Shakespeare.
Drop by and have some fun.
LegoWhoRemindsEverybodyAndEverymindTo"ThinkGoodIt'sFriday!"
I looked at a pair of boots this morning at a shoe, but bought a novel at a book instead.
ReplyDeleteA baker entered the shoe shop and asked if the cobbler was in. The clerk replied, "We're expecting him back any moment as he went to the bakery to purchase cobbler before they soled out. What is it you knead?"
ReplyDeleteHere is a must see (40 minutes) CIVIL debate with Glenn Greenwald and Cenk (of The Young Turks) on the Mueller investigation. Well-worth the time to view. Click HERE.
ReplyDeleteGreenwald was too quick to accept Barr's 4 page pack of lies in his debate with David Cay Johnston on Democracy Now!
DeleteI think it may look that way on the surface, but if you listen carefully both are saying they need to see the whole report and have been calling for that all along. Greenwald is trying to inform us that the media have been focusing on a rabbit hole for all this time instead of the many more important issues surrounding Trump and Congress. The media almost completely ignore what Mitch McConnell is doing to undermine democracy and enable all the evil Trump is doing. Both of these journalist know the harm Trump is doing, but do not agree on what is, and is not, being done about it. Keep in mind that while Trump is indeed an idiot, he is also a master at smokescreens and getting away with all the crimes he is mired in.
DeleteThis week's challenge: This challenge might require a little research. Name a country. Remove its last letter. The remaining letters can be rearranged to spell a word that means "country" in that country's main language. What country is it?
ReplyDeleteWay too easy, and pretty much zero research. I predict over 3400 correct answers. --Margaret G.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, another one where thinking of an annoying clue is harder than the puzzle.
Delete30 seconds. Wow, a new low.
ReplyDeleteTranslate is your friend.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete