NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 21, 2020): Lake and City in Europe:Q: Think of a famous person whose name consists of three names. The first and last letters of the first name plus the first and last letters of the second name plus the first and last letters of the third name, in order, name a city and lake in Europe. Who is it?
Edit: I didn't have it initially (kept trying to make Geneva or Zurich work). I decided to stay neutral and not say anything...
A: Lulu Garcia-Navarro --> Lake Lugano and Lugano (Switzerland)
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.
The riff that's now stuck in my head isn't helping me solve this.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI’ll skip this puzzle and, after a brief pit stop, will begin my Father’s Day celebration. HFD to all the fellow dads out there!
ReplyDeleteI can think of only one well-known lake in Europe that shares its name with a city, but I can't find any famous people with names that work.
ReplyDeleteGood to know I'm not the only person with that problem.
DeleteI am having the exact same problem.
DeleteI even tried George Foreman Grill.
DeleteAs an assist to everyone still trying to solve this puzzle, let's divide this 6-letter lake/city name into 3 2-letter parts. Assuming we're all agreed that:
Delete1. Parts 1 & 2 are both chemical abbreviations on the Periodic Table of the Elements. Part 3 is not.
2. Part 1 is NOT the 2-letter postal abbreviation for any state in the U.S. Parts 2 & 3 ARE.
3. If we put the 1st letter of Part 1 with the last letter of Part 3, we have BOTH a member of the Periodic Table AND a postal abbreviation for a state,
Then let's call this lake/city name NETA, for Name that Everybody's Thinking About.
Now jan, you claim you've got it. Is it true that the lake/city name really is NETA? Or should we be looking for another 6-letter lake and city name?
EaWAf: Keep looking!
DeleteI went down the NETA rabbit hole too but you might want to expand your search a little.
DeleteI'm going down a META rabbit hole, 'cause that's what this puzzle is.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Delete@ron, please don't discuss details of the actual answer. These details are for the answer that seemed logical to others but that is a red herring.
DeleteBlaine, you've disappointed me. When I made that post above, it had been with the full intention that had NETA, in fact, been the lake in question, that you would've let the post stand. Are you telling us now that had NETA been the lake in question, that you would've deleted THAT post?
DeleteDo you really feel, with so many comments having been given already about how hard this puzzle is to clue, that it's too much of a give-away for anyone to reveal which, if any, of Parts 1, 2, or 3 happen to be the abbreviations for elements on the Periodic Table, or which happen to be postal abbreviations either for states of the U.S. or for other regions, such as other U.S. territories or provinces/territories of Canada?
Yes, honestly the list of 2-letter codes (for elements and postal abbreviations) is finite and it might give someone an indirect way to take a list of lakes and narrow in on the answer.
DeleteEnya, my comment about how hard this puzzle is to clue was, in fact, a clue. C'mon, you know not to take anything here at face value.
DeleteOK, I've got it now, but it's going to be a doozy to clue.
ReplyDeleteThe person, while in the same job as today, used to go by a different first name, which wouldn't have worked in this puzzle.
DeleteI have it also. Quite à propos !
DeleteI was wrong; there are many ways to clue this.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteIf you think about *the* clue, the most obvious clue, then you'd be really close to the lake in question.
DeleteI've never heard of the lake(or City) but certainly the person's name is famous
ReplyDeleteAgreed.
DeleteSo I guess it's safe to say my smoke screen has been completely dispersed.
DeleteYes , Paul , forget the riff and the smoke.
Deletemusical clue: "She's Kerosene."
ReplyDeleteThe elements of the answer are maybe not as famous as you'd expect, but it's totally fair, I think everyone will agree.
ReplyDeleteI love Blaine's clue. He never metahyperlink he didn't like.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDo you think it gives too much away? Like the dog that didn't bark?
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI see your point, though I'll leave the decision to Blaine.
DeleteI also love Blaine's clue, so I've erased my comments above so as not to betray his inspired subtlety.
DeleteMusical clue: MEMDMNLE
ReplyDeleteOkay, Boomer! I can't believe I get it, but I do.
ReplyDeleteHi all. I have a question about being on air. Is it edited to allow puzzlers more time? Often people have solve anagrams that I would need to write down to have any chance at. No one seems to flounder that badly (this week is about as rough as it gets and she did fine in the moment I think). Seems like they'd have to give more time or sometimes call a second person. Just wondering!
ReplyDeleteThe puzzle segment is definitely edited, but, in my experience, not in that way. Often, as today, some of the challenges are omitted, probably for brevity, but I don't think they cut floundering time as a rule. (But that may just have been a fluke.)
DeleteI was on just over 3 years ago and before it began I asked the intern if they might edit and was told yes, they might. However my taping was run exactly as it was. I expected it would be edited. I am suspicious when a guest is only given 3 or 4 questions. I suspect those have been highly edited, but that is just my guess.
DeleteI played once and that was the only time I've heard it in real time (Friday) and on the air (Sunday). They didn't compress time (by taking out "thinking time") but they did remove one of the questions, I think for the overall brevity of the segment. But I also tried to "think out loud" to make the quiet time more fluid.
DeleteWhen I played there were some delays with Will and Lulu, so it was small talk with the assistant. I was instructed to have paper and a pencil. Will came on and said, we are going to do something a little different, which made me choke. But, they made it fun. Mine was edited, they cut out a question or two. I was thrilled to be called.
DeleteThe above post has Lulu's name in it. Why was it not removed?
DeleteThe post by Liz seemed like a genuine response to this thread without trying to be an obvious clue. I did consider deleting it though.
DeleteI don't think Liz's post gave anything away. I seem to remember a few years ago when Will himself used one of the answer words in the presentation.
DeleteSDB. Your diversion four- Puzzleria- is also a neighborhood in North Seattle- not far from your abode? Still working on other one - gather corn crib is not it.
ReplyDeleteNo, but you're in the wrong forum. My 4 puzzles are in Lego's Puzzleria! See link up above.
DeleteOK.Thanks.
DeleteI can see some of those trees outside my patio here.
DeleteDid you bid on Cobain's green cardigan? 334,000 was all it took.Cigarette burns and all. Shame on France.
DeleteWhy do you think I, a classical devote, would be interested and knowledgeable about Curt Cobain?
DeleteJimmy Hendrix?
DeleteI think there are going to be six letters in the answer. With that, I am off to a good start.
ReplyDeleteI had hoped the person would be RBG, but that didn’t work with any of the four European city/lake pairs I knew. Now the verdict is in. It’s not any of the Supremes. So ruled!
ReplyDeleteIs it one of the Marvelettes?
DeleteThe puzzle didn't say that the city and lake had to be well...only that they were in Europe. It was the person who was described as famous. So I'll stick with my answer and be disappointed if I'm wrong.
ReplyDeleteI meant to say not well know for the city. Sorry for the typo
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteCARTOONS OF THE WEEK.
ReplyDeleteHeaviest turnout in years last week, with the briefest of mention and no comment.
ReplyDeleteThis week's response outcome will be instructive.
Great. Another one I can't do. Not in the mood anyway, really.
ReplyDeleteSome cartoons I watched as a kid had theme lyrics that would never fly today.
ReplyDeleteImagine the name a person would have if the answer were "Pontchartrain".
ReplyDeleteThat's better than Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg.
DeleteHow about this guy! (Check out his first middle name.)
DeleteHow about Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim?
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Cornelius_Agrippa
At the other end of the spectrum, I had a work colleague for about 8 years whose last name was simply the letter "E"
DeleteHe was Korean and evidently that isn't uncommon. But after getting rejected by too many computer applications that choked on a one-letter name, he legally changed his last name to Ee.
True story.
Is that THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT?
DeleteI have seen this person's name recently.
ReplyDeleteI saw Lulu's name on NPR when I was doing this puzzle.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you self-censored. Great clue but save it for Thursday.
DeleteWhen I finally figured it out, it was precisely the lake I started with. I'm all out of ideas I could use to clue this.
ReplyDeleteYou could bid on Cobain's Martin D-#3?
DeleteLew Alcindor and I used to go for sails on Lake Kmaljr.
ReplyDeleteI find myself in full agreement with both jan and Ben that this puzzle is not easy to hint at. That being said, I do see a connection to the first three of my four puzzles Lego is now running over at Puzzleria!
ReplyDelete2400 right answers last week. From all indications so far, this week's numbers are going to be at the lower end.
ReplyDeleteBut it would be crude to predict this weeks numbers.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteIt just occurred to me that I made a two part comment and don't know which part got it canned.
DeleteNeither seems to have been TMI.
Famous? In certain circles perhaps.
ReplyDeleteI was going to hold off on my comments on this aspect until the deadline.
DeleteWell we can't forget Mary Kay Latourneau can we? I ran into her once at so. Center Nordstroms. Another N.W.psycho.
DeleteWill said famous; not infamous.
DeleteThat is up for debate. Now that Teddy Roosevelt has been toppled in NYC I am afraid Lewis and clark may be next as apparently Clark's famous slave York who was the best hunter on the journey -was never Freed. Too ad.
DeleteI am curious where you got the information that York was the "best hunter" on the expedition. I do not think that is correct. Also Clark did free York later on.
Delete@Plantsmith - Does she vacation on Lake Mykylu?
DeleteHe was the best hunter. They all would have starved without him.
DeleteI have to say that when i saw Mary Kay Latourneau up close- she was stunningly beautiful. Gorgeous lady. I will not forget.
It's on Wikpedia.
I am moving on to your midwest puzzle.
Yes she did. It is on Kauii somewhere.
DeleteYou need to supply where you are getting this information which is incorrect.
DeleteSeems like that demand cuts both ways, sdb.
DeleteMJ: Coming from you that doesn't surprise me at all.
DeleteHstorian Arlen J. (Jim) Large tallied the journalists' references to hunters by name, and came up with a list of nine who were mentioned in connection with "hunting episodes" a total of twenty-five times or more–a purely arbitrary cutoff number.5 George Drouillard led the list with a total of 153 hunting episodes. The remaining eight men on the honor roll were:
Delete1. Reubin Field, 92
2. Joseph Field, 83
3. John Shields, 63
4. John Collins, 61
5. George Shannon, 53
6. François Labiche, 42
7. John Colter, 32
8. George Gibson, 28
Eleven of the Corps were named as hunters fewer than ten times. Those also-rans, by Large's count, were Robert Frazer with 9 hunting episodes; Joseph Whitehouse, 8; William Bratton, 6; Jean-Baptiste Lepage, 6; Toussaint Charbonneau, 4; Thomas Procter Howard, 5; John Potts, 3; Richard Windsor, 3; John Thompson, 2; Peter Weiser, 2; Silas Goodrich, 1; and Hugh McNeal, 1. Clark's servant, York, carried a gun and was taken along on 10 hunting episodes, but was only given credit for one buffalo, one buck deer, two geese, and eight brants. Two men–Hugh Hall and William Werner, who were among the recruits from South West Point, Tennessee–were never mentioned among the hunters at all. Not very good woodsmen, according to Lewis, they were the lower half of the four who had been sent from South West Point, none of whom were hunters.
On 15 January 1807, Meriwether Lewis submitted to the Secretary of War "A Roll of the men who accompanyed Captains Lewis and Clark on their late tour to the Pacific Ocean through the interior of the continent of North America, showing their rank with some remarks on their rispective merits and services." He wrote remarks on only eleven of the twenty-nine men on the list,1 and cited only one of those as having "uncommon skill as a hunter and woodsman." That was George Drouillard, of course, the "man of much merit" who had been especially valuable on account of his knowledge of "the common language of gesticularion." Lewis went so far as to point out that Drouillard had received the agreed-upon salary of twenty-five dollars per month (plus one ration per day), but added that "it is not unusual for individuals, in similar employments, to receive 30 dollars per month." Neither Dearborn nor Congress took the hint.
DeleteThe only other man Lewis officially recognized as a hunter was John Newman, whom he had discharged from the Corps of Discovery as well as the Army, in punishment for "certain mutinous expressions" committed at "an unguarded moment." In an effort to redeem himself, Lewis admitted, Newman—"a man of uncommon activity and bodily strength"—had exposed himself to extreme risks on a hunting trip at Fort Mandan and suffered severely painful frostbite on his hands and feet. Furthermore, during the return of the expedition's barge to St. Louis, Lewis later learned, Newman had been extremely serviceable as a boatman and hunter despite his status as a civilian. For those reasons Lewis suggested to Dearborn that Newman receive one-third of the sum Lepage earned for taking his place in the outfit. Dearborn passed that on to Congress; Newman received $62.83-1/3, Lepage earned $111.50 (An ordinary private was paid $166.66-1/3.2)
https://www.thoughtco.com/enslaved-member-lewis-and-clark-expedition-1773874
DeleteFascinating stuff "Clark -Said- he freed York but there are no documents to prove it.
At best his history is murky. He was also mentioned by -writer of "little big man," 0Berger
who ran into a band of darker skinned Mandans who claimed to be related to York as progeny.
Growing up in Vancouver i do not recall him ever being mentioned anywhere, anytime.
I just now read that piece and did not find it well presented or revealing. The writer "history expert" does not impress me either.
DeleteIf Clark said it that is documentation enough.
No not really. No document- no proof. Sorry.
DeleteDocumentation was not a requirement for a slaveholder to free a slave.
DeleteYou so far have not provided any documentation as to your false statements about York. Such as: "He was the best hunter. They all would have starved without him." There is evidence York was freed by Clark.
i doubt that very much. "Oh yeah he freed me." said York to the district attorney, Let's take a vote.
DeleteMany of the narratives display York as an "unhappy freeperson" in an effort to justify the happy days of slavery. Grant did "free his slaves" before the civil war and look where he is now. My point was they Lewis and Clark are on a long list.
On the topic of early-ish Western American history (and NPR), was anyone else here unimpressed by Steve Inskeep's recent book on John and Jessie Frémont? (It was the last book I got from my library before it closed.)
DeleteIt is good? Have not heard of it.
DeleteMeh.
Deletejan, I just now attempted to read the first chapter excerpt. I finally had to skim over it. Did you really read the entire book? Are you always this masochistic? :-)
DeleteAs I said, after I got it, the library closed. Lots of time to kill. Yes, I read the whole thing.
DeleteI was at 2 of the branches the last couple of hours before they closed, but only found 2 books left that interested me. The first is, The Last Jew of Treblinka. I found it very informative. The other is, My War Criminal, by Jessica Stern. It is about her interviews with Radovan Karadzic. It too is interesting, but written in a somewhat odd manner.
DeleteI have The Room Where It Happened on order at the library, but they are still closed and I called Barns & Noble yesterday and was told they are sold out.
If you can find a copy of the 1949 Pulitzer Prize novel, Guard of Honor, by James Gould Cozzens, I think you would really enjoy it.
Oh, golly, that took me a long time. I am not surprised now that I did not find this name on lists of famous three-named persons. Add an E to the lake, rearrange, and you get a famous author.
ReplyDeleteor a condiment?
DeleteNortheast and Mendo Jim: Maybe I can put it this way: the shortest drive between the cities takes you through a city whose name Blaine would never let me say this week.
ReplyDeleteWhatever are you talking about? There are no posts by me or the other guy here.
DeleteI look forward to Blaine's reasoning in deleting my comment.
I very seldom make any comment (hint, clue) about the content of a challenge and this one barely even reaches the "You may provide indirect hints to the answer to show you know it" rule.
Blaine seems to think that NE and I are referencing the same place.
Or maybe it is Jan that thinks so.
DeleteI was suggesting a different geographic clue, that might pass muster.
DeleteWell , Jan , you said this week will be a doozy to clue.
DeleteAnd as you see my attempt failed. Oh well...I tried.
It's been a strange week. I took Father's Day off--no puzzle (Happy belated Father's Day to one and all)--and just returned to it this morning. Combine that with the fact that we're in the process of moving and setting up the new house, and puzzle time this week is exceptionally short. But thanks to a posted clue, which shall remain for the moment anonymous, I know the seemingly obscure lake and city (like jan, though, I first thought of the incorrect "well-known lake," but then the correct answer came second in conjunction with the posted clue). It's no small measure of irony that I have as yet not figured out the "famous person." No clue here and no doubt more to come...
ReplyDeleteJust as I thought, a case of LIMNOPHOBIA !
DeleteYes happy father's day. i spent another "childless,"one." Well don't change lakes in the middle of the stream.
ReplyDeleteI just got it. The funny thing is that when I was on with Will as the winner a couple of weeks ago, I joked with him about using this person's name in a puzzle. He laughed, but that exchange was not used on the air. But I may have put the idea in his head.-- Matt from Bethpage, NY
ReplyDeleteI am stumped this week! Been circling around a location famous for it's annual animation. But now reading the clues here I'm totally thrown. I feel like there's something obvious I'm missing?
ReplyDeleteThis is not a clue. You really have to get down in the weeds to find this week’s answer. I expect the number of correct answers will be on the very low side.
ReplyDeleteJust got the "famous person," too. One of Will's devilishly clever puzzles. No clue here, but will post Thursday.
ReplyDeleteI have been picked four times and can assure you that they definitely edit them down. Sometimes they keep my question to Will, sometimes not. It's edited not to exceed 6 minutes or so with the goal of entertainment. Great fun.
ReplyDeleteI fully agree that some are edited down, but mine was run exactly as recorded with no edits.
DeleteHoly *! This one just dawned on me. Nice one Will Shortz!
ReplyDeleteIt's a hyphenated name.
Just figured out the answer, too! I had given up three or four times but kept finding myself coming back to it. I cussed & discussed this one for too long!
DeleteIs there any meaning in an anagram?
ReplyDeleteAn anagram of the famous person's name? Yes, indeed: I alluded to it in a hint above.
DeleteI guess I missed your anagram, jan. I was thinking of ALGUNO, which means "some" or ANY, hence "any meaning".
DeleteOMG! I *just* got it... suddenly so many comments make sense! Clever puzzle.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThree Mile Island.
DeleteI think I would agree.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis pandemic is helping me learn things about myself I had no idea of before. For instance, I have never been good at facial recognition, but I can truly say, I never forget a face mask.
ReplyDeleteLists won't work. I spent a long, grueling night to figure this out.
ReplyDeleteMusical Clues: Santana and the Velvet Underground
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Musical Clues, if you still have time to look into Dave's "MEMDMNLE" clue, it's totally worth it. Very cute, and (like some of the best ones) pretty worthless unless you already have the answer.
DeleteIt just hit me. Guess we'll see by the numbers how clannish we are.
ReplyDeleteMusical clue: Red Holloway
ReplyDelete"The Room Where..." (AKA Scumbag Vs Scumbag) is available online.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteLake Lugano -----> Lulu Garcia-Navarro.
On Monday I commented "This puzzle reminds me of the 'air cushioned' puzzle of a few years back." The answer to that puzzle was Audie Cornish - another NPR WeeSun host.
I quickly deleted that comment when I realized that anyone who had solved that puzzle would see the connection between that puzzle and this one. Also anyone could type "air cushioned" in the blog search window and pretty quickly get the answer.
Blaine commended me for self-censoring!
Lulu Garcia-Navarro >>> Lugano, Switzerland
ReplyDeleteMy Hint:
“I find myself in full agreement with both jan and Ben that this puzzle is not easy to hint at. That being said, I do see a connection to the first three of my four puzzles Lego is now running over at Puzzleria!”
The first 3 of my puzzles were about different types of home dwellings. This puzzle was also referring to the NPR host of our puzzle home, so to speak.
Note: It took me longer to solve this puzzle than it should have because I made the mistake of looking for a “famous person” literally. If this is now what is meant by famous, then this word has lost its’ meaning. Perhaps “well known person” would have been a better choice.
I found lists of famous persons who use their full names to be somewhat lacking. I don’t believe I found any of the following names listed:
Gael Garcia Bernal
James Gould Cozzens
Jan-Michael Vincent
Nathan Bedford Forrest
William Lloyd Garrison
William Butler Yeats
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Carl Maria von Weber
William Randolph Hearst
John Paul Vann
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
George Armstrong Custer
Long John Silver
Red Riding Hood
I did happen to notice that Jan-Michael Vincent is #196 on the list of 500 or so hyphenated names at http://www.amiannoying.com/(S(xbb1gqu3ds2slrmuwc2u2ibf))/collection.aspx?collection=2522.
DeleteI couldn't find a lake or city JNMLVT.
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO -> LUGANO (Switzerland)
ReplyDelete> OK, I've got it now, but it's going to be a doozy to clue.
A real lulu!
> The person, while in the same job as today, used to go by a different first name, which wouldn't have worked in this puzzle.
She used her birth name, Lourdes (admittedly, before hosting "Weekend Edition", but while working for NPR).
> I was wrong; there are many ways to clue this.
A whole host of ways.
> Some cartoons I watched as a kid had theme lyrics that would never fly today.
Little Lulu.
> But it would be crude to predict this week's numbers.
... Since, as Will mentioned over three years ago, "LULU GARCIA NAVARRO" anagrams to "ORACULAR VULGARIAN".
> Northeast and Mendo Jim: Maybe I can put it this way: the shortest drive between the cities takes you through a city whose name Blaine would never let me say this week.
"Novara" is just too close to "Navarro".
I wanted to reply to your doozy clue with "there must be a whole host of good clues", but I figured I's be BA'd
DeleteI never heard of Novara, my hint ....a four hour plus train ride from a different lake . Refered to Lake Geneva the first lake that came to mind.
DeleteLULU GARCIA-NAVARRO—>LAGANO
ReplyDeleteOh, Will, you devil.
I had given up on my first choice, Lake Geneva, because, like jan (who had early on identified an unnamed “well-known” lake), I could not get it to work. As it turned out, there was no such “famous person” as “Georgette Nicole Virginia” (or the like), so I began considering my second choice, Lagano, when Rob’s clue about the “famous author” lit the proverbial (and professional) bulb: Lagano + e anagrams to “Angelou.” Many thanks, Rob. Later that day, I was pondering first names beginning with ‘L” and ending with “u,” especially “Lou,” and that’s when I had the epiphany (or maybe it was a hiccup…or gas): not “Lou” but “Lulu.”
As for the musical clue “Red Holloway”: His 1965 album was titled Red Soul, which anagrams to Lourdes, Lulu’s actual first name.
Oops. That should be "LUGANO."
DeleteLULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, who co-hosts the “Sunday Puzzle” with Will Shortz → LUGANO (everyone's favorite European lake/city).
ReplyDeleteCan Lulu truly be considered “a famous person?”
My clue: “Quite à propos” = quite fitting (appropriate).
LU = Lutetium, element 77.
GA = Gallium, element 31.
NO = Nobelium, element 102.
Lutetium is actually element #71. Since 71+31=102, it all adds up.
DeleteI submitted an alternative answer.
ReplyDeletePerson: Ann Nagase Curry – City/Lake: Annecy, France
Earlier this week I said, “This is not a clue. You really have to get down in the weeds to find this week’s answer. I expect the number of correct answers will be on the very low side.” You have to dig pretty deep for Curry’s middle name and for the city/lake combo.
I too tried to get Annecy to work, but couldn't.
DeleteLUGANO and LULU GARCIA NAVARRO
ReplyDeleteWhose actual name is Lourdes, as noted by xxx, but who am I to torch the Pope?
For clues, I kept thinking about George Clooney, who famously lived in a $152 Billion mansion on Lake Como, which is just next to Lake Lugano.
I may be exaggerating the figure.
So when I wrote that “If you think about *the* clue, the most obvious clue, then you'd be really close to the lake in question.
I was referring to George CLOOney as “the obvious CLOO”.
When I wrote that “I'm all out of ideas I could use to clue this,” I was hinting at Amal Clooney, AKA Mrs. Clooney.
The city/lake I came up with is Lugano, and the famous person is Lulu Garcia-Navarro, currently of NPR!
ReplyDeleteI wrote, “Add an E to the lake, rearrange, and you get a famous author.” That’s ANGELOU.
ReplyDeleteI was swimming in the wrong lake- Annecy-until this clue. I also had Ann Curry but could not find a middle name-as the clever Chuck did above.
DeleteThanks Rob.
Lulu Garcia-Navarro, Lugano
ReplyDeleteMy clues:
ReplyDelete“I’ll skip this puzzle and, after a brief pit stop, will begin my Father’s Day celebration.“
“Skip” was reference to “skip to my Lou “ (for Lulu)
“Brief pit stop” was a reference to “using the loo”
I was going to reference Twinkies as a clue for Hostess but thought better of it.
"Eleven hours, thirty-three minutes by road.
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle has a category."
Those were my Banned by Blaine comments.
Which of you used one or both of them to get the answer?
Google tells you that it takes that time to travel from Lourdes to Lugano.
DeleteThe category is the inclusion of a NPR personality.
Giveaways, Blaine?
In retrospect I should have let it stand. I thought that was the time from *Geneva* to Lugano.
DeleteRight over my head.
ReplyDeleteMy post about the answer not being RBG ended with “So ruled”, which can be rearranged to get Lourdes.
ReplyDeleteAfter Blaine's brilliant clue of two weeks ago, when he hinted at TMI without actually writing the abbreviation of Three Mile Island, I was sure that he had come up with another, equally brilliant, 3-letter clue. I (and apparently Jan) thought that he had DELIBERATELY left no clue, realizing that he had already left a perfect one, hidden in plain sight. His hyperlinked labels for the puzzle: lists, names, npr!
ReplyDeleteI got stuck on Louisa May Alcott whose name gave me LAMYAT which, believe it or not,is a hamlet in Somerset UK. I didn't think it was right because the population of the place was 118. But I got fixated and couldn't seem to get beyond it.
ReplyDeleteShouldn't her name really have been Louisa November Alcott?
DeleteBlaine, in your reveal above you say, "I didn't have it initially (kept trying to make Geneva or Zurich work). I decided to stay neutral and not say anything..."
ReplyDeleteAre you saying that it's just coincidence that the sub-head, "NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 21, 2020): Lake and City in Europe:" doesn't have a hyperlink to the NPR site, as it does in every other week's post???
jan - That is a week objection.
DeleteAh, so THAT's what you meant, jan! I apologize for initiating the confusing colloquy about your clue, which was not as revealing as I had feared. I thought that Blaine's non-comment suggested an actual clue in the hyperlinked labels (see above), and that your comment would point right at it.
DeleteLooking over the staff at the NPR studio I see:
ReplyDeleteAUDIO:
Mike Czech
Cancel that!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteDoes he share office space with their pollster, Marge Inovera?
DeleteYes, he does, who just happens to be down the hall from the Staff Librarian,
DeleteMiss Inga Page.
Don’t forget their Security Director, Barb Dwyer.
DeleteAren't all the first drafts run by Isadora Jarre?
DeleteNo need to re-post the whole list.
DeleteThere are some clever ones, though.
DeleteKudos to Dave for a lovely Musical Clue: MEMDMNLE. For me, the best-known Lulu (aside from Tubby's girlfriend) is the Scottish lass who sang "To Sir With Love." I knew that Lulu was a stage name, but Dave's clue inspired me to discover that she was born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie!
ReplyDeleteI totally misunderstood the puzzle. I thought that the "in order" referred to the lake (like maybe 4 letters) and the city (2 remaining letters)...
ReplyDeleteAn elegant clue.
ReplyDeleteThis week's challenge: This week's challenge comes from listener Ed Pegg Jr., who runs the website MathPuzzle.com. Think of a five-letter animal. Remove the middle letter, and two opposites remain. What animal is it?
ReplyDeleteGot it; back to bed.
DeleteI hope there is a moral to this one.
DeleteAlmost magical.
ReplyDelete