Q: Think of two famous singers with the same five-letter first name. Take the last name of one of these singers. Switch the second and third letters. Then advance the resulting first and third letters each to the next letter in the alphabet. The result will be the last name of the other singer. What singers are these?I created an Excel spreadsheet with functions to perform the transformations. Fortunately my wife suggested I do letter transformations both ways because one of the names wasn't in my original list.
Edit: My hint contained both the phrase "I do" (as in White Wedding) and the consecutive letters "I do l". My original list only had Billy Joel so it was good that I worked it backwards to get Billy Idol.
A: BILLY IDOL, BILLY JOEL
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.
A purely syntactical question, born of confusion: to what does the phrase "of each" refer?? Am I advancing letters in both surnames?
ReplyDeleteJust in the one where the letters are swapped.
DeleteThanks for the clarification :). I'm puzzled by that "of each" phrasing (of each...what?), so I'm glad to know someone has cracked it!
DeleteDavid Crosby → David Dossby
DeleteThe correct phrasing does not have the word "of". So basically you advance each of the letters in the *one* last name to get the other last name.
DeleteThanks. I too was confused by the wording.
DeleteIndeed, the original wording was a bit of-putting.
DeleteThis puzzle is both of-putting and off-putting. So tedious. Off to put some supports under my peach tree branches; it is loaded with juicy orbs this year.
DeleteIs that a hint at Juicy Orbison?
DeleteThat’d be *quite* the duet!
ReplyDeleteA love letter!
DeleteI like Blaine's picture , the first names I thought of.
ReplyDeleteSadly not the answers.
DeleteOnly one of them got the [polio] vax live on the Ed Sullivan Show, helping boost teen vaccination rates from under 1% to 80% in six months.
DeleteIt makes so much more sense to trust a pop singer on a TV variety show than to trust your doctor and the top medical professionals when it comes to life threatening decisions.
DeleteI hope the "famous singers" are Boomer-friendly. I discovered Dua Lipa by solving the puzzle and then looking her up, but this week it seems that prior knowledge will be required.
ReplyDeleteThat's right, Buck, but I can't help thinking that their younger siblings would have an advantage for one of the singers.
DeleteWell done, Crito.
DeleteNice.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many of the 50 correct answers this past week were from Blainesvillians.
Blainesville is an atypical sample in so many ways. There may be others like me who enjoy the challenges and the postings, but who have never submitted for the drawing.
DeleteFor a time, both singers lived in the same state.
ReplyDeleteOur fellow Blainesvillian Dave (Treber) did himself (and us) proud by conquering Will Shortz's clever but tough on-air challenge. As Lulu said, he did "super-well!"
ReplyDeleteBlaine, as usual, is correct about the wording of this week's puzzle; its fourth sentence, as transcribed on the NPR website, reads:
Then advance the resulting first and third letters of each to the next letter in the alphabet.
But, as Will actually read it on-air, it reads:
Then advance the resulting first and third letters each to the next letter in the alphabet.
So, remove that "phantom 'of'"!
To Dr. K: It seems that many of us on this blog solved last week's "gangly wolfpack puzzle". I'll wager a majority of those 50 correct answers came from Blainesvillians... including, likely, one from our friend Wolfgang!
(this post is 100% intentional-hint-free)
LegoWhoAddsThatDave(JudgingFromHisOnAirDemeanor)SeemsLikeAReallyGoodGuy
Thanks for explaining the phantom of. Confused me.
DeleteIs there another Dave here?
DeleteYour guess is right, I did submit an answer. This must be the first time 2% of correct answer submissions was just me! 😆
DeleteAnd to your question, Dave, it looks like there is a David on this blog. But the clever on-air puzzle solver was you, of course. BTW, I did know Rex Stout! Then again, there were several others you got that I wouldn't have gotten. Congrats! 👍👍
DeleteIt actually wasn’t me, Wolfgang. My last name is Taube. I was an on-air solver many years ago, and despite my almost weekly submissions, I haven’t gotten the call again.
DeleteSorry about the misdirection. I hope the right Dave gets to read the accolades.
DeleteMy apologies also, Dave. If you have not yet done so, I hope you do indeed play someday on NPR air.
DeleteThe "other Dave" posted on last week's Blaine's blog:
Fri Sep 10, 07:59:00 AM PDT
Oh, no, don't go Lulu! Thursday was a NPR Puzzle low point for me with that announcement and then a high later on in the day.
(In subsequent posts, that Dave revealed that he would be today's on-air NPR player.)
LegoWhoseMottoHasAlwaysBen"TheMoreDaves(AndDavids)TheMerrier!"(AndLotsO'BensAreNiceAlso!)
Hey all, it wasn’t this David who answered the on-air challenge last week either.
DeleteTake the last name of a recent contestant who's also a Blaine Puzzle Blog commenter, and remove its final letter. Now change rhenium to gold, and you'll get the name of *another* Blaine Puzzle Blog commenter who shares a first name with the contestant!
DeleteI noticed there was another Dave on here, and a David, too. Back in school days, there were usually 6 or 8 of us. Maybe I will switch on this site to "Teri Garr!" ("Shoulda started at the end of the alphabet" was edited out there, as well as 6 other names/fame). Thank you to all, quite an honor to get to play on-air, cool then getting random messages, some from friends from 30+ years ago, "Was that you on NPR?!" Now, on to the complete works of Rex Stout. Or, perhaps turning rhenium into gold. And figuring out this latest puzzle, of course. Nicki Nnjaj?
DeleteHmmm...probably not Tupac or Björk.
ReplyDeleteNor is it Engelbert Humperdink, Dua Lipa, or Placido Domingo.
DeleteI am much more familiar with one of the singers than I am of the other.
ReplyDeleteI see some connections between one of the singers and a certain person referred to frequently on this site (which may come to light later on today).
ReplyDeleteonly 50? I figured at least 50 on this blog had the ans
ReplyDeletemean wait time given correct ans 1 year. after ~35 years (postcard days) i quit
bird—Don’t give up hope. I had been submitting for about as long as you when I got the call. I think we go back, not to postcard or pony express days, but to carrier pigeons, drums, and smoke signals.
DeleteI remember when we had to use styluses to write our answers in unbaked clay and then send them by messenger.
DeleteBlaine's puzz blog is like salted peanuts or Oxycontin I swear off it but keep coming back for more
DeleteHow about that krimlin kroonr, Mick KGBgr
Bird, Hang in there. Been playing about 11 years and got the call in my fifth year on a week where there were 150 correct answers and I entered the answer within an hour of the deadline. I was shocked when it was only 50 this week. Over the course of playing we are at 82% for correct entries. At least made me feel good knowing I was one of 50 when I heard it while out on my run, and then even felt better knowing I answered this week’s puzzle while still on said run!
DeleteI got the answer to this one by working backwards.
ReplyDeleteI somehow anticipated the answer to this one yesterday.
ReplyDeleteLego
(And I have proof!)
DeleteLego(AndSadlyForThoseOfYouWhoAreNotFansOfTheEerieAndEldritchThere'sMoreMinWhereTheseCameFrom)
I too can sympathize
DeleteMy friend John shares a birthday with one of these singers. You don’t know my friend John, so this isn’t TMI.
ReplyDeleteMusical clue: Bob Dylan
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle took a lot of pain to solve.
ReplyDeleteThe last time the Wolfgang Puck puzzle was aired, there were about 240 correct answers. The wording back in 2008 made it easier. This weeks puzzle sounds familiar too. I am sure that one of the singers was the subject of the puzzle some years ago. Just pointing this out, don't want to make a scene.
ReplyDeleteI have the occasional nightmare about something one of these singers experienced in real life.
ReplyDeleteI have that same nightmare, Wolfgang.
DeleteLegoWhoBelievesWolfgang'sAbovePostAndHis(Lego's)ReplyMayBothBe"ThreeMileIsland(AnotherNightmare!)NotBecauseItIsAGiveawayHintToThisWeek'sPuzzleAnswerButBecauseWeMayBeRevealingTooMuchAboutOurPersonalSubconsciouses!
I doubt that! 😏
DeleteLet's find out on Thursday! 😴
That's what happens when you get a trophy wife.
DeleteWait, I checked my calendar. It is 2021.
DeleteYou mean Eric Clapton?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the clarifications, all. I've got it now! Would it be too professorial to say that one of these singers is subtly Tennysonian?
ReplyDeleteYes, subtly. Tennyson, anyone? Or, as we used to parody during the canon wars, "Canons to the left of us, canons to the right..."
DeleteGood old Lawn Tennyson! I trust you've heard the amazing recording of him reading the Charge aloud...
DeleteIndeed I have. I'm actually lisitening to it now.
DeleteOops. "listening"
DeleteWell, time to back off and see if a name pops into my mind.
ReplyDeleteMusical clue: Red Garland 😎
ReplyDeleteI am not even trying to solve this one. I doubt I would know the singers anyway, but my favorite female singer has been the puzzle answer at least twice in the past.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that Florence Foster Jenkins had been the answer even once!
DeleteThe boldface bug seems to have been exterminated.
Yes indeed. Would you like me to burn copies of my extensive FFJ for you? I think I may have room in the fireplace.
DeleteSDB,
DeleteI too will sit this one out I’m sure that with the right list and time to waste I could find two singers with the same 5-letter first name and equal-length last names beginning with successive letters of the alphabet. But I can’t imagine deriving any satisfaction from the exercise.
Lorenzo,
DeleteWell said; I couldn't agree more. I have been telling myself that even if I did solve it there would be no reward. You might want to try solving my first of four puzzles Lego is running now. I think you will enjoy it.
I have the answer even though I am hardly a pop music fan...
ReplyDeleteOne of the answers reminds me of Monty Python in a way. One of them reminds me of Hollywood in a way. In the same way?
ReplyDeleteI like the music of one more than the other.
ReplyDeletepjbSaysDon'tLookForAClueHere,JustKnowI'veSolvedItAndLeaveItAtThat
I am reminded of one of my early rejected puzzles. Take the initials of a well known songwriting team, and move each initial one step back in the alphabet. The resulting letters can be arranged to spell a cause for which they advocate awareness. Who are these songwriters and what is their cause ?
ReplyDeleteNice one. Should I wait until Thursday?
DeleteIf you wait until Saturday - you’ll start a fight
DeleteOnly if we meet up face to face.
DeleteFace to Face was the highly successful concert tour with BILLY JOEL and Elton John dueling pianos. It also brings to mind Eyes Without A Face, the top ten hit by BILLY IDOL.
DeleteMusical/Television Clue: "Zoom"
ReplyDelete02134!
DeleteI don't recall either singer ever recording a song in Ubbi Dubbi.
Delete;-D
DeleteWubbut, jsulbyrne?
DeleteI clued ZOOM because my answer was BILLY IDOL and BILLY JOEL. And the guitar player in the 80's punk Band "X" was BILLY ZOOM.
And Billy Idol started another similarly-named Punk Band, Generation X.
So it was a way of confirming to those who had BILLY IDOL that they were on the right track, without it being "back searchable" in Google.
Subbo thubere yubbou gubbo.
50 accepted answers.
ReplyDeleteWill Shortz made an unfortunate and serious mistake in his phrasing of last week's clue.
Not admitting that mistake this morning turned it into an insult.
What was the mistake in phrasing?
DeleteHis/her significant other did not adore the singer as much as I do.
ReplyDeleteI've seen one of the singers in concert once and the other at the movies a couple times.
ReplyDeleteThis one came to me this p.m., post peach-propping.
ReplyDeleteDid you refill the Brita?
ReplyDeleteThat's A -> B.
DeleteApparently not.
DeleteBoth last names are words that have biblical associations.
ReplyDeleteEchoed, in one respect, by one of the Everly Brothers' sweetest numbers.
DeleteBoth singers are loosely associated with automobiles.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why the answer just popped into my head as I was trying to go to sleep, but it did.
ReplyDeleteNow I think I will take a day off and go for a long drive over the mountains to enjoy the sun in Eastern Washington.
DeleteAnd the fires too.
DeleteHeaded downtown?
DeleteI drove to Leavenworth. It was a nice blue sky day. This town reinvented itself decades ago pretending to be a Bavarian picturesque town. In my opinion it fails completely and in no way reminds me of the two and a half years I lived in Germany. However it has worked well for the economy of the town. For me, the attraction of the place is that it is located in the middle of great rock climbing.
DeleteA nice town to visit or live in. Usually cold as heck, but hotter than ever this summer.
Deletemusical clue: CCR
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteMea culpa.
DeleteFelix culpa!
DeleteI do love it when I solve without Google or spreadsheets. I found this one to be rather easy.
ReplyDeleteWhat? People use Google and spreadsheets to solve these puzzles? I thought that was cheating!
DeleteMy first date with the girl who became my wife was at a concert by one of them.
ReplyDeleteI’d gotten absolutely nowhere with this week’s challenge. I’d combed through hundreds of five letter names, and numerous lists of singers.
ReplyDeleteMy wife, who hates, abhors, and detests, puzzles, is 13 years younger than I am and is far more into popular music than I am. At dinner tonight, I said, “Honey, can you help me? I’m looking for two singers, with the same first name,….”
Before I could even finish the puzzle statement, she said, “Like X and Y?”
She’d nailed it.
Not only is she younger, and better looking, than i am, she’s smarter.
Well since I'm not young (83), it's time to give up.
DeleteIf it does not bring you joy, by all means. I would add that my mother is 80 and knows both of these musicians. Then again, she watched a lot of MTV long after I had moved on to VH1.
DeleteWait. I think you’re describing my wife, but she’s only five years my junior.
DeleteThis is crazy. I read your hilarious comment to my wife and after 30 seconds of throwing out 5 letter names, I not knowingly, mentioned one of the answers and she immediately blurted out the other. I’ll sleep better tonight.
DeleteLet’s hear it for younger wives!
Finally got it. I could imagine seeing both of them in a nightclub.
ReplyDeletetook the most common 8000 American surnames threw out those w/two letters found 3 matches then searched for singers with those last names with five letter first names. 5 lttrs are quite common. but I've never heard of any of these guys/gals except 1. he went by a 3 letter nickname and matched with an old AFL footballer. there is a 4th which matches with an animal not in the top 8k of surnames and would not make for a marketable singers name. wot nxt? go to 12k nams? he he
ReplyDeleteYou should probably punt.
DeleteDid you see my hint above?
Deleteyes I gave up and watched the end of the Raiders-Raven
Deletegame(?)
O loathsome Mio
Delete12k surnames 10 matches too late I summitted likely incorrect ans. this morn and went for hike up rattlesnake mtn. < named for the camas plant whose pods rattle in the wind>
Delete16k surnames 18 matches one opera singer (asymptotic to .1% match rate)
Deletemany searches claim to be singers but I've never heard of any except the C+W guy who isn't it
I'm conjecturing that the famous singer will be unknown to me Gassr? Loop? gr? Bnn? baty? Imu? gainr?
Here is another hint for you guys who haven't solved it yet. Gunfight at the O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881.
ReplyDeleteBoy,that wind really hit my face.
DeleteGood clue
DeleteYes, but I would say that naming certain Star Trek characters would definitely be TMI.
DeleteThanks, SDB, that clue worked! Now I can join the club of those who solved it!
DeleteReally! I did not think it would get anyone to the answer.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrdOEdx_gbo
ReplyDeleteI was at my wife's parents' 60th anniversary party when one of her cousins came to our table to ask how we liked the dessert. I said I liked it a lot, to which she responded "I'm glad. That recipe has been in the family for generations." At which point I exclaimed, "But I always heard you can't have archaic and eat it too." True story.
DeleteAnother singer spells their first name a little differently as these or those.or them.But it sounds much the same. or exactly the same.
ReplyDeleteActually, I can think of two singers who use/used an/the alternate spelling, and I believe someone here has alluded to one of them.
DeleteBillie Eilish and Billie Holiday
DeleteSkydiveboy seems to have enjoyed his holiday in Leavenworth. That’s good.I was happy to help myself to the crust of bread he left. God bless you, sdb. After wracking my brain for the better part of two days (Alice?, Carol? Frank?, David?, Wayne?, Elton?, Janet?, Louis?, Sammy?, Paula?, Willie?, Helen?, Barry?, Robin?, Debby?...), scanning a short list of OK Corral gunfight participants was refreshingly simple.
Billy. Why had I not thought of Billy?
Billy Clanton was still a teenager on that fateful day in Tombstone; does that mean he was good?
Kate was Doc’s gal. Édith starred in Eyes Without a Face.
Whenever I think things can’t get any stranger…
What Paul said.
ReplyDeleteTheir fans think they're the greatest of all time.
ReplyDeleteGreat puzzle due to the musicians selected. Listening to sound track of one of them now. Thank you WS for the inspiring puzzle even though I was just lucky to go down the right list finally. Important to use logic to solve this puzzle.
ReplyDelete:
ReplyDeleteR.I.P. Norm Macdonald
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Norm's comedic talents. I like his view on humour: "A joke should catch someone by surprise, it should never pander."
DeleteSearch for "moth joke" on youtube.
DeleteI was unaware of Macdonald before his death. But, the moth joke is really great.
DeleteActually I will have to disagree. The moth joke is not bad, but just an ordinary short joke. What is great is what Norm did with the joke. He explains this in another interview where he said he had nothing left to say and was expecting his time to be almost up, but had to fill in 4 minutes or so. What he did was take this simple joke and drag it out with a nonsense fill in story that included ridiculous names before the surprise ending. For him to come up with all that banter off the cuff is due to his genius and not to the joke itself. It reminds me of The Aristocrats joke that Gilbert Gottfried arguable was able to present better than all the others. Sorry I do not have the link handy, but it is easy to find.
DeleteSure, his delivery is certainly what sets him apart.
DeleteIn an article in this week's New Yorker about California agriculture and the drought, I found this joke, which immediately reminded me of the jokes my 2-year old granddaughter tells me:
Two cows are in a field. One cow says to the other, “Hey, are you worried about that mad-cow disease?” The other cow shakes her head. “Mad-cow disease?” she asks. “I’m a helicopter.”
You are reminding me that I made up a Mad-cow disease joke several years ago, but I just looked and can't find it, nor can I remember what it was, I think it was a good one. Anyway in my search I discovered I have made up several cow jokes and cowboy jokes, most of which I had forgotten. This is one of those:
DeleteWhat do you call a group of cowboys who get together to sing while riding together?
A corral movement.
jan, try this punchline on your granddaughter: "No soap, radio!"
DeleteIt works for any joke.
???. My gtr age 7 would not try the artesinal vanilla with real bits of vanilla bean as she said they were pieces of dirt."
DeleteI had some more thoughts on Norm Macdonald and his moth joke I want to share.
DeleteBrevity is the soul of wit. This the axiom that is well understood, but Norm was able to break it in this instance and succeed wildly. He was able to do this due to his unique personality and comedic genius. I can see Christopher Walken doing this and also getting away with it.
I suppose this was the inspiration for The Moth Radio Hour.
I was going berserk trying to solve this one but finally got it by revisiting a singer I had previously passed over. One of the singers has a connection to another singer with a five-letter first name, though the connection does not involve the other singer's singing.
ReplyDeleteOne of the singers also has a connection to another singer with a five-letter first name and a last name with the same amount of letters as both of the original singers.
DeleteI finally got this one. I am familiar with one of the singers, not the other, and trying that first one didn’t get the other until I reversed the transformation. Take the initials of the singers, rearrange, and you get a nautical word I like.
ReplyDeleteConfirms my answer. great.
DeleteIs this what is meant my a stay of execution?
ReplyDeletehttps://news.yahoo.com/woman-tied-dog-dragged-death-203918105.html
I'd take a jaundiced view of a duo of either singer with Rubén Blades.
ReplyDeleteA repeat puzzle of sorts.
ReplyDeleteEven the few minutes I spent on this one before giving up seem wasted.
ReplyDeleteFor those who may still be struggling with the puzzle, here’s a penultimate-day (musical?!) hint: George H. W. Bush.
ReplyDeleteAs a word of encouragement: Try using a list of singers. At least one name should be on the list. I found one familiar name and derived the other singer's name from the last name. I never heard of the second person. You may need to go backwards from the name you find. It depends which one is familiar. Good luck! It is possible to solve this possible with little time spent. I almost gave up. Also, think logically. Will explain later if needed.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeletePlant: I changed it to Giselle. Cannot figure out how to change it on here. My friends have been informed. Giselle is my favorite ballet. Glad to have a new name.
DeleteGreat idea! Let's all of us change our screen names. Maybe we should do this every season. That would only be 4 times a year and it would be so much fun trying to figure out just who was posting what. I just love unnecessary change, don't you?
DeleteSDB: Never considered liking unnecessary change. Hmm.
DeleteWould be interesting re. changing our names. Like wearing masks...which is in style these days. I just do not know how to change my name on here. I could go on as guest.
Natasha:
DeleteMy post is meant as sarcasm.
I know. So was my reply. Lol
DeleteThe difficulty of this puzzle stems from the relative obscurity of the first singer. I met the second one outside a Broadway theater years ago. The first singer took a different path to fame.
ReplyDeleteIf you stop after the first step (switching the letters), the last name sounds like a musical style (which I have never heard either singer perform).
ReplyDeleteafter downloading ~19k surnames I got a match with a recognizable singer. ( besides don gibson) The match was with an odd name very low on the freq chart. Have not checked if the other constraints are met but since I've already subbed an incorrect answer, I can stop now. No doubt about it, I gotta get a job
ReplyDeleteYes, agreed. But at least you seem to have your ee's (ease?) back!
Deleteif you bang on the keys hard enough you can squeeze the toothpaste out of the tube
DeleteJobs are overrated.
Deletewhat isn't overrated? I gave my nephew this advice when he moved from VT to the PNW, " things matter, but not as much as you think", which admittedly is not nearly as pithy Dylan/Hendrix, " there are many here among us who think that life is but a joke"
DeleteBack in the Dawg house. A hint by any other name.
ReplyDeleteAlthough neither name is the answer, two members of the Bee Gees have 5-letter first names. Bee Gee itself is an interesting musical hint, but I waited until Thursday to point it out.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI don't understand why "NPR should not call on Yom Kippur out of respect. Why should anyone be held hostage to any religion? We do not have any responsibility whatsoever to have or show any respect to any religion. What we must do however is to respect the right of people to believe anything they want, no matter how stupid or ridiculous it may seem to us. And we should not be expected to know anything at all about any religion; that is not our responsibility.
DeleteSDB: I stand corrected. Good point.
DeleteYom kippur started after sundown yesterday. Today starts in morning. I think I am correct. NPR should honor the holiday I think.
ReplyDeleteAh, yes, I see.
DeleteWe frequently mock people's political beliefs. Why must we respect and honor their religious ones?
DeleteAs I said above:
DeleteI don't understand why "NPR should not call on Yom Kippur out of respect. Why should anyone be held hostage to any religion? We do not have any responsibility whatsoever to have or show any respect to any religion. What we must do however is to respect the right of people to believe anything they want, no matter how stupid or ridiculous it may seem to us. And we should not be expected to know anything at all about any religion; that is not our responsibility.
SDB: Good point. I stand corrected.
DeleteContemporary, but different genres.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteEveryone entitled to opinion.
ReplyDeleteSo they should call on December 25th if on a Thursday?
ReplyDeleteOf course they should. Why not? And, of course it has been on thursdays.
DeleteThey better not call on Flat Earth Day though!
DeleteSDB: I just looked it up. The last time December 25 on a Thursday was 2014 and the call was rescheduled for Wednesday December 24. Dec. 25 a Federal Holiday. I can understand the call day change in that case.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete> So they should call on December 25th if on a Thursday?
ReplyDeleteI'd have no objection, but since that's a national holiday, the NPR offices would undoubtedly be closed, and the call day would have been announced as moved to Wednesday.
In 2014 December 25 was on Thursday. The call was scheduled for December 24 that year. December 25 is a Federal Holiday. I read that the United States does not have any National Holidays. I guess it is too complicated to take into consideration the different religions for the calls. Sorry for the can of worms.
DeleteBILLY IDOL, BILLY JOEL
ReplyDelete"This one came to me this p.m., post peach-propping." >>> p.m. refers to the Piano Man, BILLY JOEL.
Our friend Chad Graham, creator of last month's wonderful "LOO/007" NPR puzzle, has created three more wonderful puzzles that will appear on this week's Puzzleria! They involve 1. a popular brand of liquid refreshment; 2. a European literary character; and 3. a device used by outdoorsmen.
ReplyDeleteWe upload Puzzleria early Friday morning, just after Midnight PDT.
Also on this week's menu:
* a Schpuzzle of the Week about dinner and dessert dishes,
* a Puzzle Slice that has been gripped by the metatarsals of time (oops, we mean metacarpals!),
* a Dessert about palms and paws, and
* seven riff-offs of this week's "Idol worship in the Book of Joel!" NPR puzzle.
Come join in the fun!
Note: Last Sunday at 08:36:00 AM PDT I posted: "I somehow anticipated the answer to this (NPR Puzzle) yesterday," then added in a later post, "(And I have proof!)"
That proof occurred in a "Schpuzzle of the Week" hint I posted on Puzzleria! on Saturday. It read:
Joseph YoungSeptember 11, 2021 at 2:23 PM
Seems as if an early Schpuzzle hint may be in order...
Had I created this puzzle when I wore a younger man's clothes, I might have instead asked "What do these four things have in common?"
LegoWhoAdmitsThatWhileTheSchpuzzleMayTestYourWitsItIsAtLeastOneOfMyMoreTastefulEfforts
Two more loose ends:
1. The occasional nightmare about something one of these singers experienced in real life (WolfgangSun Sep 12, 10:08:00 AM PDT) that I claimed to share with Wolfgang is Billy Idol's motorcycle crash.
2. The annoying "theremin music" in the links on my Sunday posts on Blaine's blog were a sly nod to the first puzzle of Chuck's that I used on Puzzleria!, back in May of 2016.
LegoWhoIsProudToPresentPuzzlesCreatedByIngenious"Guest"PuzzleMakers(LikeForExampleGraham,ChadGraham)
BILLY IDOL & BILLY JOEL
ReplyDeleteMy Hints:
“Now I think I will take a day off and go for a long drive over the mountains to enjoy the sun in Eastern Washington.” Hinting at a holiday. Also Billie Holiday.
AND:
“Here is another hint for you guys who haven't solved it yet. Gunfight at the O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881.” Hinting at John Henry "Doc" Holliday. I was not hinting at Billy Clanton, but I soon noticed others may have thought I was, and putting Billy and Holliday together is humorous, although unintended.
BILLY IDOL —> BILLY JOEL
ReplyDeleteI thought there were many good hints this week, almost a Hints Hall of Fame—sdb’s Gunfight at the O . K. Corral, Wolfgang’s Red Garland, etc., but almost every one I considered posting (especially the musical ones) would likely have been TMI. As for literary clues, Dr. Awkward (aka Veronica) came closest to the one I had been considering: Tennyson (—> The Idylls of the King).
My one “(musical?!) hint” (as oblique as I could make it): “George H. W. Bush.” One of the elder Bush’s nicknames was “Poppy.” The Poppy Family had the 1970 hit, “Which Way You Goin’, Billy?”
Music for December nuptials?
DeleteBILLY IDOL → BILLY JOEL.
ReplyDeleteIDOL → IODL
(IODL) → JOEL.
We had one previous Sunday NPR Challenge, May 20, 2019, that featured Billy Joel's signature song: Piano Man. Click HERE to see it.
BILLY IDOL, BILLY JOEL
ReplyDelete> I could imagine seeing both of them in a nightclub.
They could form a Billy club. A nightstick, or nightclub, I guess.
> Their fans think they're the greatest of all time.
Billy GOATs.
>> That’d be *quite* the duet!
> A love letter!
A billet-doux-et.
>> Gunfight at the O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881.
> I would say that naming certain Star Trek characters would definitely be TMI.
Scotty was Billy Clanton, and Chekov was Billy Claiborne, in Spectre of the Gun (TOS, S3E6).
> I'd take a jaundiced view of a duo of either singer with Rubén Blades.
A bilirubin joke!
BILLY IDOL => BILLY JOEL
ReplyDeleteI was looking at a list of artists, sorted by first name, that I came across on Sunday afternoon. I figured that would make it easy to spot the singer. The list had all kinds of people and bands, including Bing Crosby, AHA, Taylor Swift, etc. However, it never said it was a complete list, and I was unable to get the combination of singers.
The SDB posted his OK Corral clue. I looked up the participants, and saw two of them named Billy. That led me to look up singers named Billy, and I got the answer quickly.
I went back and looked at the list I had slogged through on Sunday, and neither of the two Billy's were on it! No wonder I couldn't get it!
So, many thinks for SDB's obscure clue, it ended up pointing me in the right direction.
I wrote, “Take the initials of the singers, rearrange, and you get a nautical word I like.” That’s as in “I like the cut of his JIBB.”
ReplyDeleteBILLY IDOL, BILLY JOEL.
ReplyDeleteI clued the TV show ZOOM because Billy Zoom played guitar in the seminal punk band X, and Billy Idol started the band Generation X.
Also -- GREAT clue, Crito
My Bee Gee reference was as close as I dared come to Bobbie Gentry, whose Ode to Billy Joe was one letter short of perfect. Ironically, she used a feminine spelling of Bobby that paralleled the feminine spelling of Billy to which many posts hinted.
ReplyDelete