Sunday, March 14, 2021

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 14, 2021): Not Six Flags

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 14, 2021): Not Six Flags
Q: This week's challenge is more challenging than it sounds. Name a well-known tourist locale that attracts millions of visitors a year. It has a two-word name. The first word is a number. And that number is the same as the total number of letters in the name. What's the tourist site?
The nearby airport is associated with a number that is one smaller.

Edit: The nearby airport is Ian Fleming International author of the James Bond (aka "007") novels. By the way, this list was helpful to solving the puzzle.
A: OCHO RIOS (Jamaica)

227 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.

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  2. I came up with what must be the intended answer while still in bed and not using any list or other tool, but I never heard of the place. It may be difficult for me to come up with a hint.

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    1. How did you come up with the name if you've never heard of the place?

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    2. Not to sound like a jerk, but I'd never heard of it either.

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    3. All I can say without giving the answer away is that I solved it using pure logic.

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    4. At times, I take my logic impure.

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  3. It is not Thousand Islandsislandsislandsislands ...

    I may have an alternate answer. Hard to visit in your Dodge pickup.

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  4. Replies
    1. Or as they say in Europe, does a soft count drink?

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  6. This comment has been posted by the author.

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    1. Why is that silly, PA Puzzler? Please delete.

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    2. Isn't that TMI? Seems like that could be a legit answer.

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    3. I was going to say, I’m surprised this answer hasn’t been deleted yet, particularly with Blaine’s clue

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    4. Duly deleted. Seriously thought it was a silly guess. My apologies to all of Blainesville.

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    5. Just catching up. I'd say the bloom is off the rose.

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    6. ... or, at least he closed the barn door after the cat was out of the bag?

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    7. And the Blainevillian Award for Best Mixed Metaphor goes to...

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    8. Sorry, the time change made me sleepy so I missed this.

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    9. I have two answers not including the above: "Trece Martires."

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  9. Venus....roman numeral V enus
    But I don't think millions are going there.

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  10. 13 Coins in Seattle is a fun place. They have a great happy hour.

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  11. If I’ve got the right answer, my favorite musical genre would be a giveaway. Also, the accent has something in common with the accent of my people.

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  12. This spot has less than half a million yearly visitors, so the wording of the puzzle is not totally accurate.

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    1. I've got a source that says it's over two million.

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    2. Okay good, that was my worry too (that it didn't seem to get 'millions' every year). My answer fits Blaine's clue and Iris's, but I don't get Dr. K's.

      I'd love to give a double clue of my own that doesn't give tmi, but that's a big ask.

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    3. Just double checked. I must have read some fake news.

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    4. Will explain Thursday, Crito.

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    5. (I feel like I'm getting away with something.)

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  13. This author has been removed by a comment.

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    1. Bahaha! Don't sweat it. There are too many busybodies at work on this blog. Blaine's the boss, and he didn't say anything.

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  14. Happy Pi Day! Change some arcs to diameters, rearrange, and say your goodbyes.

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    Replies
    1. No matter how you slice it...

      I'd forgotten. Thanks, Jan, for the reminder.

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  15. I wonder if a certain entertainer has been there given the last name that they share.

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  16. I wish Twentieth Century Fox had a hyphen and a theme park.

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  17. Depending upon your knowledge of geography and tourism the answer is or is not obvious.

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  18. This puzzle is makin' me crazy.

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  19. In a way, two places (one a ghost town) in the Netherlands could qualify. But neither is a well-known tourist site:
    1. Ten Esschen
    2. Ten Massche (ghost location).

    Only problem is that 10 in Dutch is "tien" not "ten"

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  20. Five less and you get a nickname for a well-known place.

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  21. I kinda like my answer. We'll see how it ends up.

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    1. Since WW is a fellow birder I'll toss out an alternative puzzle
      ....Name a N.American shore bird in 2 words that when words are reversed phonetically describes how this bird looks in the winter.

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    2. Clever, Northeast!
      ^
      ^
      ^
      <<<And current sitch.

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    3. Thanks , it's my only homemade puzzle but not the "right stuff" for WS

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  22. If abbreviations were allowed (and a hyphen were used), then TMI itself could be an answer.

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  23. Reminds me of a gag from Dodgeball.

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    1. Well played. Also a former NFL player.

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    2. Now I know I have the right answer. Thanks, Buck.
      pjbGotLuckyPlayingThisNumbersGame!

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  24. It's a lot easier to find answers if you change "millions of visitors a year" to "dozens of visitors a year."

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    1. Maybe pre covid it had millions

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    2. Sadly, it seems it'll be many a day before tourists return

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    3. This clue of mine was a reference to a lyric from the Harry Belafonte song, "Jamaica Farewell": "Sad to say, I'm on my way, won't be back for many a day"

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  25. Several filming locations there.

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  26. I have the right answer, but I've literally never heard of this place. I asked my wife about it and she got excited thinking I'm trying to book a trip. Had to let her down easy.

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    1. Let her down easy is a song by George Michaels - Michaels has 8 letters like OCHO

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  27. I thought at first it was going to be an uphill battle trying to solve this one, but it turned out to be just the opposite.

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    1. I found that a yellow brick road could be helpful.

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  29. A person from a neighboring country directly to the east told me that, despite the name, he didn't see a drop of water there.

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  30. My answer has a connection to a well-known doctor. -LT

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    1. I think my 21-month old granddaughter has the same doctor.

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    2. I realized after I posted that there's a connection to another doctor too. I hope neither of them is attending to your granddaughter, though. -LT

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  31. IF (big if) I got the right answer, the puzzle could have been worded better.

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    1. Reminds me of last week. Will, this morning, said "We accepted 3 answers." I do not know who the we represents, but not me for sure. I wrote the puzzle to only have one answer. I am happy the on air guest solved it with that answer. I don't think any author enjoys it when his creations are tampered with. It reminds me of how Hollywood spoils good books.

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    2. I sent in ARMENIA and A MARINE, so I was an "off answer" solver. Though I insist it's a perfectly acceptable answer.

      And I clued musical hints JETHRO TULL and YES. JETHRO TULL, because the one-legged lead singer/floutist is IAN Anderson, and IAN ends the last names of most Armenians I know (and even Dr. K., who I don't know).
      And YES, because the bass player Chris Square was obsessed with FISHES, and I am obsessed with the electric bass.

      All "Flute/Flout" puns are welcome here, of course. But no clues to this week's puzzle in this one post, which has not been removed by the author, posted by the blog administrator, or otherwise touched by human hands or otherwise encumbered by rational human thought.

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    3. FWIW, I'm with SDB. I think it's a better, more challenging puzzle as originally written. I don't think it matters that the transposition of Marine to Airmen isn't that "interesting." The point is that to solve the original puzzle you need to expand your thinking to include US in the answer, which didn't occur to me when I submitted A Marine and, having "solved" the puzzle as published, didn't go any further. -LT

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    4. As marines are not specific to “our country” I did not see “a marine” to be an acceptable solution. Likewise for “army man”. Airmen is also plural when a singular was asked for.

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    5. Howie Roark:

      Exactly! And that is why in my original composition I stated: "You can also unscramble it to name members (plural) of another of our armed forces." I also, in that version, stated, "our armed forces (services)" 3 times so there would be no confusion.

      It is a joy to have Will Shortz choose one of our puzzles for his segment on NPR. It is also a major disappointment to have it diminished by unwelcome editing. This has been my experience both times a puzzle of mine has been used on Sunday Edition. It may sound ungrateful to some by complaining, but how else can we make our voices heard? I am not getting any remuneration for my puzzle submissions, but I would like them to be presented as I created them. I do not think that is too much to ask for helping them to have their show.

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  32. Cinco Ranch is a suburb of Houston. Thousands live there, but millions drive past it.

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    1. It's probably a home in Texas that weighs 2 thousand pounds.

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  33. Musical Clue: Bingo & Fleegle

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  35. Blaine's clue is superb.

    The Chuck Berry clue through me as he is associated so much with St. Louis, and Six Flags clearly does not work.

    Ten Downing is a bit abbreviated.

    Actually, the intended locale is one of the origins of a major scandal that beset Ten Downing Street.

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    1. The common name of that scandal would be too much a giveaway.

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    2. *through--->threw

      SDB is correct that you have to use logic to reason through.

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    3. Agreed. I laughed out loud when I got it.

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  36. I really wanted Twelve Apostles in Australia to work but it has too many letters. I think I have the intended answer now, but, like many others, I had never heard of this tourist attraction.

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    1. I only know of the Twelve Apostles (mountains) in Cape Town.

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    2. Well I want to mention Half Dome so as not to offend this wonder, although I see no way it could ever work. For us climbers there is no place like Dome.

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    3. Miley Cyrus Doesn't quite measure up this time either.

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  37. I have heard of this place, but not for many years. I think perhaps it was more popular in the past, especially during the coke-fueled excesses of the 1980s. It’s a place I’d like to visit someday.

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  38. I have one answer that works except for the volume of tourists. Probably not it.
    I am having trouble justifying the claim of well known with millions and the fact that several savvy folks here are not familiar with it. Can't be.

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  39. I took A second look At Blaine's answer, and realized that I had indeed gotten the answer. That's because I did the same thing he did in his clue.

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  40. I thought Blaine's clue had led me to the solution when I stumbled on Fibonacci Regional Airport outside of Pisa, but the answer kept changing.

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  41. Happy Pi day! I recall last year's Pi Day puzzle which was cool.

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  42. Here is something I find interesting:

    I am now half way through reading:

    Memoirs of a Kamikaze: A World War II Pilot's Inspiring Story of Survival, Honor and Reconciliation
    by Kazuo Odachi, Alexander Bennett (Translator), Shigeru Ohta, Hiroyoshi Nishijima

    He is now 93 years old and I am finding his memoir very informative and moving. A tragic story of powerful older men exploiting youth in order to maintain their power.

    We have had amazingly sunny weather the last few days, but today it has rained most of the day. I stayed inside and read from this book. On page 83 of the new English translation I read: "My first sortie was on April 4, 1945, in what was the fourth suicide attack mission of the Taigitai." This was his 4th suicide attempt and as I read this I realized this was the day after I was born here in Seattle. My first thought then was that it was just the day after I was born, but then I realized it was only a couple of hours from the moment of my birth do to the time difference. I was actually born as he was flying on his mission that he thought would certainly end his life attacking one of our aircraft carriers. I know it is simply coincidental, but it does affect how I read that passage.

    Most Americans are unaware that Kamikazes were not only pilots of aircraft but also of torpedoes and other weapons. The inhumanity of how these young men were coerced into killing themselves in order to preserve the status quo of Japan's elite is horrific. It shows the lengths those in power will go to in order to maintain their position in society. It defies understanding by the common man. It is a mistake to believe it is only because they were Japanese. It is only having to do with how we are raised.

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    1. I am reminded of Buffy Sainte-Marie's song from 1964, "Universal Soldier."

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  43. I'm waiting for Nine Flags to be built by somebody like the Trump kids. "50% More Flags!!"

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  45. If I have the right answer (my guess last week was "army man" and I'm still...never mind). Anyway, if I'm right, this week, then another musical clue is: Led Zeppelin. Not Kashmir, either.

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    2. Yes, and yet another musical clue, Wordsmythe: The Beach Boys.

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    3. I was more thinking Houses of the Holy? If so, then we have the same answer.

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  46. [Off topic] Word Woman, Because of you I was on CPR this morning! One of your clues for the A. Blinken puzzle involved the Wynken, Blynken, and Nod statue at Washington Park, and mentioned the playground. That led me to check all this out and the playground is now part of the rotation for me and my granddaughters. Last week, John Daley interviewed me at the park! A URL for the story is:

    https://www.cpr.org/2021/03/15/pandemic-fatigue-stings-but-colorado-is-asking-restriction-weary-residents-wait-just-a-little-longer-and-please-get-vaccinated/

    About half way down, that's me with a granddaughter on a swing.

    So, thanks!


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    1. Cool, FloridaGuy/John. Isn't it a great playground? Glad it's part of your rotation with your granddaughters.

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    2. P.S. Are you going to change your handle to ColoradoGuy?

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    3. I went to elementary, junior high, and high school with David Ginder, classical music host on CPR. Excellent guy--was then and is now.

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    4. WW--I will probably change my handle at some point, but ColoradoGuy doesn't seem to fit, at least so far, and I just haven't thought of anything I like better than FloridaGuy yet.

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    5. Mar-a-LagoGuy is already taken I think.

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    6. WW and SDB--Good thoughts. But maybe PuzzlerFormerlyKnownAsFloridaGuy. Maybe not.

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    7. FamilyGuyFormerlyKnownAsFloridaGuy?

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    8. WouldRatherBeSailingButTheWaterIsTooHardTodayAndIHaveToShovelSnowAnywayGuy?

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  47. OK, put me in the "never heard of" group.
    I wonder if its fame is regional.

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    1. You’re probably just the wrong demographic.

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  48. Even with everyone's clues, this is driving me crazy

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  49. Tricky puzzle, but solving it made me feel like quite a wise man indeed.

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    1. Another James Bond clue: "wise man" = Wiseman, as in Joseph Wiseman, the actor who played Dr. No himself

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  50. When Will says a puzzle is more puzzling than it sounds,expect "Tricky"

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  51. Been working on this so long, I'm ready to jump off a cliff.

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    1. I can see clearly what you’re going with there.

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  52. Is it true that any member of the anti-anagram bunch who ignores the side of March dies?

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    1. Yes, of course, but after the pro-side.

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    2. And, as Heather Cox Richardson started today's letter:

      As the man who taught me to use a chainsaw said, it is immortalized by Shakespeare’s famous warning: “Cedar! Beware the adze of March!”

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    3. Ah WW, Shame on you. I groaned when I read your pun. But usually the louder the groan, the better the pun!

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    4. C a p, groan credit is not to me. 'Twas Heather Cox Richardson who ended up explaining the pun to some.

      Explaining puns is the worst!

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    5. Whether it's Shakespeare or Swift or Joyce or Heather Cox Richardson, there is "that high magic to low puns."

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    6. My impression, on reading Richardson's essay, was that she's been waiting a long time to use that pun. The context is that March 15 is the day that Maine, the Pine Tree State, joined the Union. Pine, not cedar, and the rest of the essay is about a couple of abolitionist Mainers. I spent a lot of time last fall calling Democrats in Maine, trying unsuccessfully to get them to dump that awful Susan Collins, so I'm feeling a lot less kindly toward them than HCR is.

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    7. Yes, I think HCR has been saving that pun. I enjoyed knowing that the Maine story she describes is what transformed her from a mediocre student to an (outstanding, emphasis mine) scholar.

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    8. I saved a pun I coined for years waiting for a certain person to die so I could send it to The New York Times Letters department. In 2007 one morning I awoke to the news the time had come. I jumped (rolled perhaps) out of bed and wrote this and emailed it to the N.Y.T., but I do not think they printed it:

      My heart goes out to the people of France with the passing of Marcel Marceau. It is a terrible thing to lose one's mime.

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    9. Vengeance is mime, sayeth the Lord.(which goes without saying!)
      pjbSaysMarcelMarceau'sJobWas,ToSayTheLeast,ToSayTheLeast

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  53. This was an appropriate puzzle for Pi Day.

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    1. Deleted because it might have given a bit too much away, and seems to actually have some connections to some of the clues given here.

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    2. Otherwise, the integrity of the blog might have been diluted.

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  55. Well, it ain't three mile island.

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

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    1. Cultural appropriation mixed with TMI

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    2. I beg to differ. A reference to a culture is not the same as appropriation. And how do you know who I am or where I’m from? TMI is your opinion... just how tenuous must the hint be to NOT be TMI?

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

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  58. I visited this location 40 years ago, and there were FAR fewer visitors then!

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  59. Wednesday night and I still have no idea. Ahha!

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  60. I've been there. My clue, LONG LINES.

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    1. Read my comment at the top. Anything that narrows the solution set (for example giving away a gender of a person or hinting at a trick to solving) is TMI. It may not even give away the exact answer but may steer someone closer to it. Both your deleted comments did that.

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  62. Skydiveboy: what is your definition of a clue that’s not TMI? A clue that leads to a convoluted chain of thought privy only to you? None of the clues posted here have ever assisted me in getting the answer - and rarely have they ever helped me confirm that I do in fact have the correct answer. Is that the intention? My clue nudges in the right direction but still leaves the entire world a possibility.

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    1. We are not here to "nudge" or in any help others obtain the answer. Read what Blaine just posted above.

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    2. For the rest of us interested in the post-mortem now that the deadline has passed, what was your clue cyclops?

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  63. Then perhaps Skydiveboy can Skyfall into the airport there to relax at the Casino Royale.

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  64. TEN(T) CITIES is probably not the intended answer.

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  65. OCHO RIOS

    My musical clue: Chuck Berry.

    In 2017, Berry released his final album, Chuck, one song of which was “Jamaica Moon,” a reworking of his ’56 song “Havana Moon.” I had considered other musical clues—artists, song titles, lyrics, etc.—associated one way or another with Jamaica and its music , e.g., Harry Belafonte, Jimmy Cliff, Bob Marley, Johnny Nash--even Led Zeppelin-- etc., but thought they’d all be TMI (although others seem to have offered such clues and managed to escape Blaine’s hammer), except for the Beach Boys, whose song “Kokomo” refers to Jamaica.

    In response to PA Puzzler’s unwitting revelation of the answer, my reply—“I’d say the bloom is off the rose”—was actually another, if covert, musical clue: Bobby Bloom sang “Montego Bay.”

    When Unknown posted “my answer has a connection to a well-known doctor,” I assumed he meant Dr. No and considered as a reply, “Well, yes and no,” but thought that would be TMI. (In part, Dr. No was filmed in Ocho Rios.) As to the identity of the second doctor he alluded to, I am in the dark.

    And Blaine’s clue—hinting at Ian Fleming International Airport and 007—was, well, cool.

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  66. Ocho Rios (Spanish for "Eight Rivers") in Jamaica

    My Hint:
    “I thought at first it was going to be an uphill battle trying to solve this one, but it turned out to be just the opposite.” Rivers tend to run downhill toward the sea.

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  67. OCHO RIOS

    > Happy Pi Day! Change some arcs to diameters, rearrange, and say your goodbyes.

    Change two os to es and anagram to get "cheerios".

    >> My answer has a connection to a well-known doctor. -LT
    > I think my 21-month old granddaughter has the same doctor.

    After being traumatized by two visits for routine vaccinations, "Doctor -- NO!" is her position.

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    1. My clue was intended to refer to NBA coach Doc Rivers, as in "Rios," but after I posted I realized another connection was to Dr. No, subject of the novel and film of the same name set in Jamaica. Sorry your granddaughter's vaccination experiences have been so "negative," though. -LT

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    2. I noticed the "Cheerios" possibility but couldn't think of a way to clue it....Clever, Jan.

      And, yes, Unknown, of course, Doc Rivers (as a former ball player, I should have known), as well as the "Rivers" connection to Rob's "Three Rivers" hint (with a close friend in Pittsburgh, another I should have known)...

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  68. Ocho Rios (Eight Rivers), Jamaica

    Last Sunday I said, “Depending upon your knowledge of geography and tourism the answer is or is not obvious.” Is_ or is an anagram of Rios.

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  69. 1. NINE LAKES region of East Tennessee.

    2. Jiufeng Mountain → in the NINE PEAKS Mountain Tourist Area, China.

    3. TRECE MARTIRES, Philippines. → Spanish for “Thirteen Martyrs.”

    4. ELEVEN LAKES (Finger Lakes Region of New York)

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  70. I wrote, “Five less and you get a nickname for a well-known place.” Pittsburg is known as Three Rivers. (I had never before heard of the place that is the answer, and I do not think it is really fair to pose a puzzle that has an answer in a language other than English.)

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    1. Why is that? English is not our official language.

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    2. It isn't a matter of official languages. In my opinion, a puzzle posed in English should have an answer in English. I may be wrong.

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    3. Several of these NPR puzzles have had answers in languages other than English.

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    4. I agree. That it has happened before does not change my opinion, but my opinion may be wrong.

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    5. Well I doubt neither NPR nor Will Shortz are going to present us with puzzles in Spanish. I don't see any other way that this puzzle could be presented.

      BTW do you remember when the answer was: The The Tar Tar Pits?

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    7. Wikipedia tells us that "Ocho Rios" was not given this site by Spanish-speakers but by the English, who may have misunderstood the Spanish name "Las Chorreras" ("the waterfalls"). There never were eight rivers meeting at this site but there was a waterfall nearby. So it is an English name after all, just as "kickshaw": is English, not French.

      As for the La Brea Tarpits (and "The La Fonda Hotel" while we're at it) there is a place in England, Torpenhow Hill, whose name is the word for "hill" in four different languages piled on top of each other.

      And while we're discussing Brits and place names there is a place in England, Torpenhow Hill, that is the word for "hill" in four different language, stacked in succession. I'm sure there's a geological term for this phenomenon when we're talking about physical hills rather than just names for towns.

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    8. Please excuse that last redundant paragraph--although it seems fitting, given the theme.

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  71. My hint: "Smucker's" = jam maker >> .....

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  72. Seven eleven doesn't fit, but millions go there every day.

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  73. Sixteen mile beach, SA. Very popular.

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  74. Yes, Ocho Rios. It's on the north coast of Jamaica, hence the ref to Led Zeppelin: D'Yer Make'er.

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  75. Our friend geofan has concocted four ingenious puzzles for tomorrow's Puzzleria!:
    One involves an antique gun,
    another involves heredity and Paris suburban railways,
    a third involves a service economy product,
    and the last involves trees and woods.

    Also on our menus tomorrow are:
    * a Schpuzzle of the Week about "Taking a temperature and getting relief,
    * a Slice about Saints,
    * a "bumper-to-bumper" Dessert, and
    * eight riff-offs of the current NPR puzzle.
    Please drop by for a bite.

    LegoWhoObservesThatTomorrowIsTheObservableFeastDayOfStJoseph

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  76. My clue was referring to whether Joan “Rivers” had ever performed there.

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  77. Ocho Rios

    It has 8 letters. "Ocho" is Spanish for "eight".

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  79. I appreciate my public school teachers who taught me basic Spanish and inspired me to study so I could become bilingual. That's why Ocho Rios popped into my head when I heard the clue. (I thought my answer was silly bcs I'd underestimated how many people visit there.) Anyway, our country would be vastly enriched if more Americans would learn to listen and speak in languages other than English.

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  80. I came up with Ocho Rios, but it's not a place I had previously heard of. I figure anywhere in Jamaica probably has a fair share of tourists.

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  81. OCHO RIOS, St. Ann - Tourism Minister Hon. Edmund Bartlett says Ocho Rios has emerged as the number one port in the country, having contributed forty percent of total visitor arrivals in 2019. Preliminary data from the Jamaica Tourist Board indicate that Jamaica welcomed approximately 4.3million visitors last year.Jan 13, 2020

    That seems to me to be a large number of tourists, so I would say it qualifies as "a well-known tourist locale that attracts millions of visitors a year."

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  82. OCHO RIOS.

    My musical clues were Bingo & Fleegle, because they were two leads in the kids' TV show The Banana Splits. And, as everyone should know, Bob Marley stole the Banana Splits theme song to create Buffalo Soldier.

    My other clue was Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy. I knew the song D'yer Maker, but I never knew growing up that it was pronounced like JAMAICA. Evidently, the song title comes from a bad crusty old British locker room joke -- A. I met a girls from Kingston! Q. "D'yer Maker?"

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    1. Actually, the joke is even cornier than that, at least the way I've understood the origin of the joke. It's where a guy mentions that his wife is on a cruise to the islands, and the straight man responds, "Jamaica?"
      And the punchline is, "No, she wanted to go."
      When I was a kid, I used to read Andy Capo, which uses Cockney slang, so I've always known about the pronunciation of this song. Oh, well...

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  83. My hint: "Hard to visit in your Dodge pickup." referred to Dodge 4x4 pickups and 4 + 4 letters in the two answer words. Also it is hard to drive a Dodge (or other) pickup to Ocho Rios, unless said pickup is already on Jamaica.

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  84. Ocho Rios. I was thinking of Jimmy Cliff (Many Rivers to Cross)as a musical hint, decided maybe TMI. Jimmy made an appearance anyhow ...

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