Sunday, May 10, 2020

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 10, 2020): Car Pets

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 10, 2020): Car Pets:
Q: Name the make and model of a popular car. Change the first and last letters of the make to name an animal. Change the first and fourth letters of the model to name another animal. What car is this?
Well, I can make FORD into WORM, but how will I make an animal out of MUSTANG? :)

Edit: My hint was "how will" --> "howl"
A: TOYOTA COROLLA --> COYOTE, GORILLA

164 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. The trick is not "how to make an animal out of MUSTANG," but how to make an animal out of PINTO!

      (Not the intended answer, of course)

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  2. I can't believe how easy that was. I read it, returned to bed and the answer came immediately.

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  3. Borrowing an idea from Blaine last week: Franklin, Indiana.

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  4. After a little word play, I got it.

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  5. I also got Blaine's FORD into WORM transition. I can think of a Ford model that works if you change the 1st and 3rd, rather than the 1st and 4th.

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    Replies
    1. haha - I got that one right away, too. :) --Margaret G.

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  6. Oh, I am just now seeing Blaine's comment. TMI?

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    Replies
    1. Only if it is pointed out, perhaps. :)

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    2. At first I thought you didn't fully realize what you were doing with that hint, but this reply suggests otherwise. Given that it leads to a legitimate (albeit alternate) solution, I think I'm with Rob.

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    3. Glad to be of service. But it does make my hint seems needlessly obscure.

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  7. Animals live about 7000 miles apart.

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  8. Will mileage (a) increase, (b) decrease, or (c) stay the same when you go from driving in the first animal's habitat to the second?

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    Replies
    1. My clue was:
      "Will mileage (a)"
      which is an anagram for

      MAGILLA, WILE E

      I also found JEEP TREO -> DEER, WREN, which nobody else has mentioned yet. This week there are a *lot* of fine alternative answers.

      Delete
  9. I have actually owned a couple of these, including one currently. No clue here.

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  10. I used to own one of these years ago – the car, not either animal. It was a good, well-designed ride. Finally totaled after being run off the road by a distracted driver. Later I owned another model. Probably the most responsive, comfortable and reliable car I’ve ever owned. No clue here.

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    Replies
    1. Well i guess it was not American--reliable, well designed.

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  11. Chuck, I agree. The current one is my favorite car ever.

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  12. I have 4 answers, 2 different makes and 2 models of each make. And it's not JEEP → DEER...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Make that SEVEN answers.

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    2. That is 2 different MAKES & 7 different MODELS.

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    3. I have answers that use four different makes! And they're all completely legit, not borderline or anything. I bet Will accepts many unintended answers this week.

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    4. I now have answers that use 4 different makes and NINE different models...

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    5. I now have answers that use FIVE different makes of cars and TEN different models.

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    6. No. Abbreviations like VW → OX, or JAG → RAT/CAT are not allowed.

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    7. OK. I did not see how to make XKE work.

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  13. I owned one almost 50 years ago. Piece of crap. Driving in the rain, you could count on it losing power until finally you had to pull over and wipe down the wires to/from the ignition coil, which was conveniently mounted on the front grill.

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    1. I had the same issue with a 6-cylinder, 1969 Camaro.

      The distributor was adjacent to the wheel well and got splashed every time the car went though a puddle.

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    2. Doesn't the distributor rotor have to be physically connected to the crankshaft somehow, to get the timing right? And wasn't that 6-cylinder engine oriented fore-and-aft? So how'd the distributor get all the way over to the side by a wheel well?

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    3. Perhaps it was well distributed.

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    4. The Chevy straight six, was mounted on the vehicle’s centerline, with the distributor side mounted low (connected to the drive shaft) coming out in a slant, between cylinders 3 and 4. The Camaro didn’t have solid inner walls on the wheel wells...it had some rubber sheeting, which at speed, would flex, and if you hit a puddle, the spray would deflect if the rubber sheets, and hit the distributor.

      I kept a roll of paper towels and a screwdriver under the driver’s seat, so I could quickly jump out, dry the points, and be back on the road.

      Eventually, I took a pair of rubber gloves, cut the tips off the fingers, and threaded the coil and plug wires through the fingers, with the gloves pulled down over the distributor.

      It looked weird...esp as the gloves were pink...

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    5. Interesting. It does seem that auto design has gotten more rational since that era.

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    6. If you had the V8, there was no issue, the distributor on the 8 was mounted on top of the manifold...where it stayed dry.

      There were other issues with the design of that car. The entire exhaust system was suspended from two hangers. If you replaced the muffler, and didn’t get things perfectly aligned, when you stepped on the gas, the torque would tilt the engine, and the exhaust pipe would slap into the automatic transmission’s shift linkage...putting the car into neutral.

      Most disconcerting.

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    7. I briefly owned a Suzuki Samurai, until the Consumer Reports exposé convinced my wife to make me sell it. Even on a cold morning, never had any trouble getting it to turn over....

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  14. I can make wino and boozer from Mini Cooper. Does that count?

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  15. I see a “complete” relationship to the Alcatraz puzzle from a few weeks ago.

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  16. Haven't seen any Hummers at my feeder yet this year. (You can change the first and last letters of GMC to get "emu".)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You can change the first and last of 'GM' to get 'ox'! Or, umm... 'ai'!
      Ooooh, or borrowing from a Sunday Puzzle some time back... 'P and A'!

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  17. I own the big brother of the car.

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  18. Got the answer but can't think of a non TMI clue. I guess I'll just have to swing with that.

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  19. It took a while, but I feel good about my answer.

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  20. I finally have an answer. If it's correct, I'm disappointed in a number of ways.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OK, whatever it is that makes the "popular" answer so much better, it completely escapes me.

      Delete
  21. Blaine and Paul: I guess a Pinto is as popular as a dingo in some circles.

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  22. Jaco Pastorious was once the greatest living electric bass player. By the time I met him, he was a drunk with substance abuse issues. That fall, some boorish bouncer killed him outside a Miami club.

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  23. I own this car. It is a sick car.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I own one too. It’s a beast of a car.

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    2. Corolla sounds like "corona". The Coronavirus makes people sick.

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    3. I used to own a Toyota Corona. It was a good car.

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  24. This puzzle nearly drove me into a wall. Then I was seeing double

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  25. Take a different model from the same company -change the last two letters and get a different animal.

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    Replies
    1. Or change the first two letters of another model.

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    2. ... to get yet another animal more closely related to the one derived from the original make.

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    3. remove letters 4, and 5 of another model to get another animal.

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    4. Change no letters of another model to get another animal, another name for an animal model produced by another car company.

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    5. There’s something fishy here

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  26. Got this pretty quickly. It was one of the first cars I thought of, as I owned this make and model for a good chunk of my early adulthood.

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  27. A neighborhood near mine has problems with the first animal, according to Nextdoor. If it were the second animal, the posts would be *way* more interesting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Beautiful Iris - you have saved me this week. HMD.

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    2. Hey WW stay away from those C and C coffee stores in Denver.

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    3. The New Orleans neighborhood called the Irish Channel has a coyote problem. One recent Nextdoor post recounted a *giant* coyote. It would be even more alarming if the writer of that post, one Karen, had seen a giant gorilla.

      Delete
  28. One possible answer is the same as part of an answer from 2009!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well how about that, two models from this company fit the bill!

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  29. Come to think of it, I saw three of the four items comprising my solution in the area this morning.

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  30. The make is so obvious, but I'm having trouble with the model. One way of doing it, you'd have to know the zodiac.

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  31. Now that this puzzle is out of the way, I've a serious totally unrelated question. How many of you are really concerned with now states opening up how many people are acting too readily with the attitude of "yippee the coast is clear let's go back to how it was before the pandemic"? I personally find it frightening.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I find it totally predictable. Idiocy rules!

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    2. The same bozos that voted for the Pestilential President (aka Pennywise) are too dumb to understand the nature of this virus and the dangers of being too immature to wait it out.
      That approach will take the rest of us with them.
      It is of the slightest economic unpleasantness for the 1%, but deadly for everyone else, especially the poor and people of color.

      I am proud to admit my poor performance on Willy's on-air Mothers Day anagram fest.

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    3. MJ, I agree with everything you say, but not about the puzzle which is not an anagram.

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    4. Please note "on-air" in my post.

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    5. Got it. I enjoyed that one though. I am not against anagrams.

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  32. After all you said about anagrams,I started playing with the word. Guess what,backwards it's SMARGANA and it's a real word. If you don't believe me Google it.

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  33. Here in GA there are a bunch of folks from latin America working in chicken factories, and these cases of covid are probably not being reported. Scary place. But the last i heard Tom Hanks and Boris Johnson had both recovered.

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  34. I decided to give up and watch cartoons.

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    1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  35. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    Replies
    1. Was wondering if a single letter could be deemed "too revealing" a Clue. Maybe Experience is telling here. Sorry, Blaine!

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  36. Anyone else buy flowers for Mother's Day?

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    Replies
    1. I have always found it more meaningful to buy my wife flowers just because I love her and want to surprise her. I always react negatively when I'm ordered to care by Hallmark.

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    2. Fine, but take the garbage out. :-)

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    3. SDB,Of course, but that's part of the marital bargain.

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    4. Is that the part you agree to just prior to the minister saying, "You may now kiss the bride?"

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    5. No, it's a bargain necessary to have a happy marriage. Hey, why so cynical? BTW, in my case it was a rabbi, not a minister!

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  37. One might see both the animals in Phoenix.

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    Replies
    1. This is my favorite post of the week because i actually accomplished this a few months ago! (And it ties into my clue above).

      Well done WW2!

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    2. I'm so glad someone got my clue!

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  38. If you're looking for a "common car model" try COUPE which becomes MOUSE when you change the first & fourth letters... There are many MAKES of cars that have produced COUPES....

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  39. This is not a hint, just a memory of puzzles past. For some reason, I recall the answer to another car puzzle from many many many years ago. The answer was Isuzu and Suzuki, but the question escapes me (though we can pretty much figure it out from the answer). What I recall, besides the answer, is that some time after (days, weeks??) the puzzle was posed, I saw an Isuzu on the road while driving and the answer popped into my head. Now whenever I see a Suzuki (I don't think there are Isuzus anymore but not sure) these words pop into my head.

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  40. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I figured that those who've got it know immediately who those characters are, but those who don't are highly unlikely to figure it out from my clue.

      Delete
  41. I hope you are staying away from those C and C coffee stores in Denver.

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    Replies
    1. It's one store in Castle Rock, south of Denver.

      And there's no problem staying away.

      The state closed their operation yesterday.

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  42. Yea it looked like a Rave party on the news.

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  43. Wow! It just came to me 30 minutes ago! I guess it's better late than never. That was my first car!

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  44. TOYOTA COROLLA, COYOTE GORILLA

    "2000" is 20:00 hours or 8 p.m. when Denver residents howl like wolves or COYOTES to show our appreciation for essential workers.

    It is very confusing for our dogs. . .but quite a satisfying time for us humans.

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  45. TOYOTA COROLLA >>> COYOTE & GORILLA

    My Hints:

    “Gael García Bernal”
    He played a young Ernesto "Che" Guevara in the movie, Motorcycle Diaries. Che later became a world famous guerilla fighter.

    “Oh for Pete's sake!”
    Referring to another famous actor: Peter Coyote.

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  46. PTOYOTA COROLLA -> COYOTE, GORILLA

    > Amazon vs. Walmart?

    I read a piece (several years ago) comparing them to a crafty coyote vs. a 600-lb gorilla.

    > Or change the first two letters of another model to get yet another animal more closely related to the one derived from the original make.

    Yaris -> loris.

    > Change no letters of another model to get another animal, another name for an animal model produced by another car company.

    A tercel (Toyota) is a male falcon (Ford).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, jan, I see/hear that the "P" in PTOYOTA is silent.

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    2. No idea how that happened. The P wasn't in the text I cut/pasted to post that comment.

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    3. (My Toyota P-for-Prius is pretty silent when idling at a stop light.)

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    4. Wasn't there a Ptoyota Pterodactyl that ran only on Sinclair gasoline?

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    5. Yes, except it was really fossil pforaminifera and pdiatoms, not fossil pdinosaurs, in that Sinclair (m)(p)(g)asoline.

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  47. Toyota – coyote; Corolla – gorilla

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  48. The time has come to talk of many things.
    I don't understand why the perfectly legitimate WORM DINGO did not receive the protection usually granted to alternative solutions.
    Maybe I mist [sic] something.
    I guess I'm just not crafty or shrewd enough to keep up.
    Shucks!

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  49. TOYOTA COROLLA >>> COYOTE, GORILLA

    My comment about, “…a little word play,” was intended as a double barreled hint. It can either be read as I was Toy(ota)ing, or monkeying around with things.

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  50. TOYOTA COROLLA—>COYOTE, GORILLA

    I wasn’t kidding. My current Corolla—it’s an ’06 I got in '09, so it's been 11 years—is my favorite car ever.

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  51. I wrote, “Borrowing an idea from Blaine last week: Franklin, Indiana.” This refers to the locale of station WFDM, the letters that are involved in the change from FORD to WORM. The other change is RANGER to GANDER. I realize from the comments here that this is _not_ the intended answer!

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    Replies
    1. Using your clue, I checked and there is a Toyota factory in Franklin, Indiana and that led to the answer.

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    2. LOL! Not my intention at all!

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  52. TOYOTA COROLLA → COYOTE + GORILLA.

    More coming up...

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    Replies
    1. 1. TOYOTA COROLLA → COYOTE + GORILLA (probably the “intended answer.”)

      2. TOYOTA NOAH → COYOTE + GOAT (TOAD)

      3. TOYOTA PORTE → COYOTE + HORSE

      4. TOYOTA VIOS → COYOTE + LION

      5. TOYOTA VITZ → COYOTE + MITE (KITE)

      6. KIA FORTE → PIG + HORSE

      7. KIA NIRO → PIG + BIRD

      8. BMW GINA → EMU + MINK

      9. HINO RANGER → MINK + GANDER

      10. FORD PINTO → WORM + DINGO (this one is for Blaine)

      FIVE makes of cars: Toyota, Kia, BMW, Hino, Ford.

      Delete
    2. 1. TOYOTA COROLLA → COYOTE + GORILLA (probably the “intended answer.”)

      2. TOYOTA NOAH → COYOTE + GOAT (TOAD)

      3. TOYOTA PORTE → COYOTE + HORSE

      4. TOYOTA VIOS → COYOTE + LION

      5. TOYOTA VITZ → COYOTE + MITE (KITE)

      6. KIA FORTE → PIG + HORSE

      7. KIA NIRO → PIG + BIRD

      8. BMW GINA → EMU + MINK

      9. HINO RANGER → MINK + GANDER

      10. FORD PINTO → WORM + DINGO (this one is for Blaine)

      FIVE makes of cars: Toyota, Kia, BMW, Hino, Ford.

      Delete
    3. The NOAH, besides making GOAT and TOAD, can also make BOAR.

      ...And you missed TOYOTA DYNA, which can make COYOTE and LYNX.

      Delete
    4. It's TOYOTA VITZ → COYOTE + MITE (KITE)

      I didn't think TRUCKS (TOYOTA DYNA) qualified.

      Delete
  53. Toyota Corolla->coyote, gorilla

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  54. Replies
    1. I did too! Probably many alternate answers this week!
      KIA -> FORTE
      PIG -> HORSE

      Delete
    2. We went with KIA - Forte, PIG - Horse too.

      Delete
  55. “It took a while but I feel good about my answer”
    -Wile E Coyote
    -Feel Good Inc by Gorillaz

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

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    2. I’m so curious what you said!

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    3. Nothing to see here just accidentally placed the original post in the wrong place!

      Delete
  56. Toyota is one of the most mispronounced car names there is. It is not toy-oh-ta; it is toe-yo-ta.

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    1. Japanese syllables are not emphasized. They are not accented.


      Quote:
      Originally Posted by Tabby_Cat View Post
      Huh. It's Japanese, right?

      To - Yo - Ta.

      Bingo. the syllables used to construct the word in the Japanese language are to, yo, and ta (or da, if the story about changing the name is correct). So if a Japanese person is telling another Japanese speaker how to spell Toyota, he'll say it exactly as you've described.

      Interesting to note that Mazda deliberately anglicized their name before they even began selling their cars here in America. The Japanese name is Matsuda, although the pronunciation is very similar to Mazda, since the 'tsu' is a very unstressed syllable.
      Reply With Quote

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    2. Maybe it is the Brooklyn accent. But how did they get Tiguan from a tiger and an iguana?

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    3. Very carefully....and, after making sure the tiger was well fed.��

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  57. I submitted TOYOTA COROLLA -> COYOTE GORILLA.

    I wrote about Jaco Pastorious because (in my humble opinion) some of his best work is on Joni Mitchell's COYOTE [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWUgPIQNgGo], but it wouldn't come up fast in searches for Jaco because he's theoretically a sideman on the project.

    I loved Leo's Clue "I decided to give up and watch cartoons," because it brought me back to my childhood of Road Runner and Magilla Gorilla. But Blaine obviously decided I went a step too far with my clue of just the letter "E," in honor of his highness, Wile E. Coyote.

    And that's okay, because Blaine is ever our able host.

    So I wrote back that I "was wondering if a single letter could be deemed 'too revealing' a Clue. Maybe Experience is telling here. Sorry, Blaine!"

    "a Clue....Maybe Experience" spells out ACME, that manufacturer of ANVILS and DYNAMITE that I came to love as a wee lad.

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  58. TOYOTA COROLLA -> COYOTE GORILLA

    My clue was that one might see both the animals in Phoenix.

    Phoenix is home to the NBA team Phoenix Suns (whose mascot is a gorilla) and also the NHL team Phoenix Coyotes.

    Not a big sports fan, but stumbled on this fact when trying to come up with a cool clue. I am super stoked that Snipper got my clue!

    ReplyDelete

  59. Absolutely WayWordy!!
    I visited Phoenix/Scottsdale in December and I saw the Gorilla at a Suns game (interesting story on its origin as the mascot) and then saw two of the Phoenix Coyotes at a restaurant the next night!

    My clue pasted below was also referencing Arizona (AZ) because of the Coyotes. And “I see...” was cluing “icy” for hockey.

    I see a “complete” relationship to the Alcatraz puzzle from a few weeks ago.

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  60. The late clue I offered that Blaine nixed:

    A Warner Brothers character, and a Hanna Barbara character.

    I figured that only those who had solved it already would come up with Wile E. Coyote and Magilla Gorilla.

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  61. Did anyone notice that if you allow one of the letters to be a numeral, you can do RAV4 to CAVY?

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  62. Granted, there are many alternative answers for this puzzle (see the comments above, especially the amazing one submitted by ron, the "king of alternative answers"). I believe it is possible WS might mention Ford Pinto, Ford Ranger and Kia Forte as alternatives. However, Toyota Corolla is the most "elegant" solution, due to both the number of letters (6,7) and the popularity of the car.
    Indeed, I too owned this car. Loved it. Very responsive, like a sports car, I imagined. After about a year I totaled it. Driving 60 mph at dusk down a two-lane Wisconsin road in November, I glanced down at the speedometer to check my speed. Wham! Hit a deer. My foot never even touched the brake pedal.

    LegoDeerslayer(WithAToyotaNotARemington)

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    Replies
    1. Beautiful, jan!

      LegoWhoWondersHoweverDidHeDriveAMiniCooper?

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  63. I had TOYOTA PRIUS, COYOTE, ARIES. I also had KIA FORTE, PIG, HORSE. I know ARIES doesn't quite get it, but it is the RAM after all.

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  64. Puzzleria! tomorrow features four excellent, mind-bending and just plain fun puzzles created by ecoarchitect. We call them "econfusions." eco, who has posted many of his famous "Bonus Puzzles" here at Blainesville, has generously shared his creativity with Puzzlerian!s. We thank him.
    Stop on over very early on May 15th to see if you can unravel these "econfusions." See Blaine's PUZZLE LINKS: Joseph Young's Puzzleria!

    LegoWhoAddsThereWillAlsoBeA"SchpuzzleOfTheWeek"AboutANun(Anon)!

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  65. Toyota- Gorilla. My allusion to," Tom Hanks doing OK now," was of course a reference to "Toy Story" and Mr. Buzz Lightyear. Forever may he reign.

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  66. My comment "OK" was in reply to Curtis's and Chuck's comments regarding the Mini Cooper. Cooper-->Boomer, as in "OK Boomer."

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  67. This week's challenge: Name a Cabinet department — as in "Department of ___." Rearrange the letters of what goes in the blank to get the brand name of a product you might find at a drugstore or supermarket. What is it?

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    Replies
    1. I couldn't find a single TIRE IRON in my local store the last time I checked.

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    2. I think Betsy DeVos AUCTIONED off her department.

      Delete
  68. I guess there's no Department of Smut.

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  69. LABOR—>Oral-B

    My clue: “effort” involves work, synonymous with labor.

    Even though my hint did not receive the dreaded “This comment has been removed by a blog administrator,” I did wonder if it violated Blaine’s prohibition of “any hints that could lead directly to the answer (e.g., via a chain of thought...).”

    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.