Sunday, September 19, 2021

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 19, 2021): Grown in a Garden

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 19, 2021): Grown in a Garden
Q: Name something grown in a garden. Change the second letter, and double the third letter, to get an adjective that describes this thing. What is it?
I guess it can be considered a word that describes the item.

Edit: My uncertainty was a hint toward the adjective.
A: RADISH --> REDDISH

164 comments:

  1. Here's my standard reminder... don't post the answer or any hints that could lead directly to the answer (e.g. via a chain of thought, or an internet search) before the deadline of Thursday at 3pm ET. If you know the answer, click the link and submit it to NPR, but don't give it away here.

    You may provide indirect hints to the answer to show you know it, but make sure they don't give the answer away. You can openly discuss your hints and the answer after the Thursday deadline. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Blaine, is that vegetable cake pic a stock photo, or is it from a family album? (I've seen enough of your Christmas videos to be familiar with your artistry.)

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    2. It was a cake we made for my mother a few years back.

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    3. I dig it! Stunning cake artistry.

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    4. Beautiful! That's my kind of carrot cake.

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  2. Move the first 2 letters to the end and append a letter to get something you might find in the kitchen.

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    1. thanks, that confirms my answer. I don't find this one very satisfying! --Margaret G.

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    2. Agreed on both counts. But, at least we're at the finish line.

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    3. I'm with Margaret as well. "Thanks, but no thanks," in a sense.

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    4. you can also append two letters to the end to get another thing you might find in the kitchen.

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  3. Answer submitted. This didn't take long. 😎

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  4. The answer pool could be back to four digits this week. I am reminded of a classic quote from Marx.

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  5. This adjective sometimes describes me.

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  6. After falling off the wagon and not doing the puzzle for almost 3 months, returned this week to an easy one.

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  7. Similar to some fellow bloggers last week, I only just solved this puzzle after my wife read it to me out loud.

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  8. The word pair was used in an on-air puzzle within the past decade.

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  10. Sometimes the adjective doesn't describe the growing thing at all.

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

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  11. Think of something you may have in your closet. Remove an "e". Hope this helps. God bless.

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  12. had a hard tim submitting this ans.

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  13. I have never felt so sure that I'm going to win the competition.

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    Replies
    1. RADISH, REDDISH

      with Marzipan's radish, we're gonna win the competition!

      https://youtu.be/ey1lxyLzpyI

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  14. Too bad, suet is close enough to be sweet. Cows grow fat in a garden…right?

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  15. Looks like it's not ROSET/RUSSET. Also probably not POSY ...

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    Replies
    1. And what type of salad do newlyweds order on their honeymoon?

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    2. I'm not sure what type of salad but I'm sure it has very little dressing. :)

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    3. I thought a Honeymoon Salad was Lettuce Alone!

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  16. I have an interesting WRONG answer. Feet are planted in a garden. Change the first "e" to an "l" double the second, to get fleet, which could describe feet. Unfortunately feet are not "grown" in a garden.

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  17. I'm thinking about this all wrong. Think I'll take a different route.

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  18. Change one letter in the growing thing and rearrange to get a Harry Potter character (no, not Professor Sprout)!

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    Replies
    1. I was thinking of RADISH to RADIGH to HAGRID...this may not be a very Potterish forum! :)

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    2. Yes, I got this right away (my children were avid Potter fans), but I thought I'd give someone else the satisfaction of a public solution.

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    3. A change of pace from Tennyson, at any rate!

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  19. "Peanuts" is not the answer, though there is a "Charlie Brown" connection.

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    1. Yes. That’s what they are called in Danish.

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    2. (Charlie Brown had a hopeless crush on an unseen little red-haired girl.)

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  20. What did Jack and the Beans talk about anyway?

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    Replies
    1. Speaking of beans and [fee, fie, fo, fum] Englishmen, I learned about beaning during the part of "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" I didn't sleep through.

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    2. A mom and pop grocery got their license suspended for 30 days recently for selling canned beans to a minor and not checking I.D.

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    3. At least they open the cans first! In the good ole days we threw eggs. Now I'm gonna be like an egg and beet it. :)

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  21. The grown thing was actually the first item that came to mind….but, being a notoriously poor speller, I missed an easy solve.

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  22. I first thought of Soylent Green, but it is not grown in a garden.

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  23. Does this week's challenge come from listener Rachel Cole or Rachel Coleslaw?

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  24. In case you may have missed my post Friday:

    Utah police have released the full bodycam recording of Gabby Petito and her fiance, Brian Laundrie being pulled over a month ago. The tape is 1:17:38 long. This is a rare instance of police airing dirty Laundrie in public.

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    1. SDB: Surprised the police did not explore further after they left.

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    2. Make sure ok. Follow up visit.

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    3. They just found her body in Grand Teton National Park.

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    4. Yeah, a couple of hours ago, but they are not saying anything about how she may have died. I suspect they want to keep this secret. It is ridiculous how the cops keep saying he is not a suspect, but a person of interest. He has been the primary, and only, suspect since the beginning. It will be interesting to find out the cause of death, and if it indicates foul play. It could be lots of scenarios, but I doubt we will find much more out for a while.

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    5. In that video his face was scratched. He said his fiance did it. But don't know why.

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  25. Well I got it...in spite of how many people early on said it was easy. I'm embarrassed.

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  26. I once grew this in a garden in grammar school

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    1. me too, the seed packets said Rarin' to grow w/ pix of bucking horse but the 40 acres we had were such poor soil that when we tried to sell + move to town an old VT farmer came by took on look at the red fescue growing in the fields and left immediately. Needless to say the were no largr than thstms sthygrw on

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    2. my old man was an air traffic controller at BTV who bought a 49 ford pickup and tried to grow potatoes in sandy lake Champlain soil. 30 years later you could still see where rows were plowed. he went back to his main hobby, draining a case of beer on his days off. the radishes we kids grew were 1 mm in diameter

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  27. Blaine, the descriptive adjective is a real word.

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  28. If I have the right answer, phrasing the words as a question could be the first line of a very bad poem.

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  29. Replies
    1. That's a lie.
      "This week" is my clue. [Because This Week With George Stephanopoulos is co-anchored by Martha Whatshername.]

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  30. My method of solving got me answer in 2 seconds

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  31. The two words together would be a great name for a horticultural Super Hero.
    Also, Google Image agrees with Blaine.

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  32. Take the item grown in a garden. Shift all of the letters to one later in the alphabet (like last week's puzzle). Rearrange to get a nautical command.

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    1. Cannot wait to see the answer.

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    2. [If she gives the answer away before Thursday, Blaine'll spanker...]

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    3. Jan: I meant after Thursday. My answer does not work and I am pretty sure I have the designated answer.

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    4. I was just letting JAWS know that I understood their hint.

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    5. Jan: So you got her answer? I was one letter too short.

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  33. This one took me too long, and I must have not been thinking when I was consulting lists. I wasn't thinking when I was taking the dogs for a walk this evening, but the answer just came to me then. The thing grown in a garden may be connected to a mammal.

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  34. The puzzle is Eurocentric. Look up the thing grown in the garden on Wikipedia -- the adjective does not always work.

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    Replies
    1. It may not work in the Far East, but it's more than Eurocentric. We use it here

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    2. The red radish we are used to seeing in our salads is called the European radish -- at least on wikipedia.

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  36. Yesterday's post seems to have disappeared - so I'll try again.

    Reminds me of some pretty popular TV skits.

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  37. Movie clue: An old favorite, Medium Cool.

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  38. Reminds me of a Bugs Bunny episode.

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  39. Figuring this out will take some gardening experiences

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  40. This puzzle is kind of awesome.

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  41. puzz rlatd to riddl and 2, 269 (that's a prime)

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    Replies
    1. 538= 2* 269 538.com Riddler was how to bake a radish pie

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  42. bird: New keyboards are really cheap

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    1. so is my sense of humor

      http://davesainsbury.com/hit-any-key-to-continue/

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    2. pulling the keyboard out of laptop sms difficult. Wireless auxiliary keyboard would probably work

      either that or use the rubber mallet

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    3. bird: Wireless keyboard and wireless mouse work great with laptop for me.

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  47. Fry, Clyde, Bun & Gun

    LegoWhoObservesThat"IncapableOfBeingSeen"IsWhat_________ _____

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  50. I’m embarrassed that I didn’t even try to solve this until today

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  51. I have been known to roast this garden product. Yeah, I know, right?

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  52. The name of the thing grown could also be a term for someone who’s almost good enough to compete in the X Games

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  53. RADISH, REDDISH

    "18" >>> Radish is a diploid species having 18 chromosomes.

    "Agreed on both counts. But, at least we're at the finish line." >>> as in RACE ME to the finish. A radish will grow in a cluster known as a RACEME.

    "Eric T, I guess that's kinda cool." KINDA COOL = RAD-ISH

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  54. RADISH —> REDDISH

    My hint: “Howlin’ Wolf.” Chester Burnett, better known as Howlin’ Wolf, recorded “Oh, Red!!” in 1952 and in 1961 recorded the first version of Willie Dixon’s blues standard, “The Red Rooster.”

    My reply to Word Whisker, “You’ve been had, sir,” included in its final 2 words an anagram of “radish.”

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    Replies
    1. Now I get it ..very clever! My comment about taking a different route was supposed to be for people who pronounce "route" as "root". Radish is root. (O-true)

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  55. RADISHREDDISH

    Reddish Radishes are certainly appealing...

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  56. RADISH, REDDISH

    > I'm guessing 625–740 this week.

    Light with a wavelength of 625-740 nm is REDDISH

    > The word pair was used in an on-air puzzle within the past decade.

    On September 29, 2013:

    WILL SHORTZ: Every answer today is a made-up two-word phrase in which the first word has two or more syllables. The first vowel sound in the first word is a short E. Change that short E to a short A and phonetically you'll get the second word of the phrase. For example, if I said energetic backwoods father, you would say peppy pappy. . . .
    . . .
    SHORTZ: Hot tasting salad ingredient with a slightly crimson hue. . . .
    CARLA FINK: REDDISH RADISH.

    > Movie clue: An old favorite, Medium Cool.

    Or, as we might say now, RAD-ISH.

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  57. RADISH, which is sometimes REDDISH

    If you take all of the letters and advance them one further in the alphabet, RADISH becomes SBEJTI, which can be rearranged to SET JIB.

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  58. Someone who is almost rad enough to compete is rad-ish

    Radish - Reddish

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  59. The Marxian quote that I referenced is from the movie Horsefeathers.

    Connie (Thelma Todd): Oh, Professor, you're so full of whimsy.
    Professor Wagstaff (Groucho): Can you notice it from there? I'm always that way after I eat radishes.

    Not only is it funny, but it avoids the facile scapegoating of legumes.

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    1. Sorry for stepping on your line--when you hinted at Marx I started thinking of opiates, poppies and other items, none of which fit. By the time I came up with radish and quoted "Horsefeathers" to hint at it I had forgotten your reference to Marx. You got there first and did it better.

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  60. rpRADISH….REDDISH

    I’d have solved faster if I hadn’t initially spelled RADISH…..RADDISH. Ooops

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  61. RADISH — REDDISH

    My clue: This didn't take long.
    Radishes can be ready for harvesting in as little time as 18 days.

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  62. I wrote, “The thing grown in a garden may be connected to a mammal.” That horseradish.

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  63. radish --> reddish

    Last Sunday I said, “Reminds me of some pretty popular TV skits.” Anybody else remember Red Skelton and Red Buttons?

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  64. Circa 1996, when my child was 12, I had an accident at home one night (something not too dire, but requiring stitches) and took him with me to the ER. Another patient, in the next cubicle was a young man who'd been struck by something thrown from a car. He was giving a statement to a policeman, and described the passenger in the car as "A reddish white man, like a Mexican." My child looked at me and asked "Is he saying 'radish'?"

    Talking about the puzzle Sunday, my now-adult child recalled the occasion and said that at that time, he'd never heard a person described as "reddish", in addition to not being used to different vernaculars.

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    1. Interesting story because I do not understand how this cop could possibly perceive Mexicans as being at all of a red tint. That being said, I do know several Mexicans who are well read.

      NOTE: I was camping in Eastern Oregon and did not even try to come up with a hint this week. Wonderful sunny, blue sky weather and no smoke.

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    2. It was not the cop who said it, it was the injured young man, who was African-American. It seemed that he was working with the vocabulary he had.

      Another nearby patient was learning, in the presence of his mother, that he had an STI. It was an educational evening for my child.

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  65. On Tuesday I posted this hint:
    Fry, Clyde, Bun & Gun
    LegoWhoObservesThat"IncapableOfBeingSeen"IsWhat_________ ____

    The group French Frith Kaiser Thompson's second album was entitled "Invisible Means," which are the two words that belong in the blanks in my sign off...
    French Fry,
    Frith (sic) of Clyde,
    Kaiser Bun,
    Thompson (submachine) Gun

    LegoWhoSays"NowWeAllKnowWhatInvisibleMeans"

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  66. This week's Puzzleria! features three beautiful conundrums created by our multitalented friend Mathew Huffman:
    1 one involving a noun is associated with relaxation and as a verb is associated with tension,
    2 a second featuring a European artist and ‘80s sitcom, and
    3 a third puzzle that ponders a female member of royalty.
    Also on our menu:
    * a Schpuzzle of the Week about an effortless coupet,
    * a "Camelotical" Slice,
    * a "mendacious" Dessert, and
    * seven riff-offs, titled "Radiant reddish radishes in red dishes," of NPR's Sunday Puzzle.
    Come for the mendacity, stay for the puzzles!

    LegoCamelottaCoupletting

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  67. RADISH, REDDISH, whatevs.

    I don't think I clued this one, can't remember.

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  68. Replies
    1. That's actually not too bad - more of a grinner than a groaner.

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    2. Agreed. Verily, skydiveboy hath spun bounteous amounts of such Web-worthy wordplay on this blog over the years.

      LegoCobwebbily

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    3. While I am most grateful for the kind words I want you to know I am still holding out for a Pulitzer Prize.

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  69. Radish/Reddish. Some are also greenish, whitish, and purplish.

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  70. My clue - “….after my wife read it to me”. Read = Red

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  71. An Amtrak passenger train derailing on a flat and straight part of Montana raises numerous questions, not least of which is, will I get my penny back?

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    1. A little macabre, sdb, but maybe the first chuckle I've gotten from one of your jokes

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  72. This week's challenge: This week's challenge comes from listener Dan Pitt of Palo Alto, Calif. Take the common abbreviation for a major American city. Insert it inside an airport code for that city. And you'll name a flower. What flower is it?

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  74. Another one where it will take me longer to come up with a decent clue than it did to solve.

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  75. Here's a separate "puzzle," with about 16 minutes left to solve it: What is the on-air challenge?

    They inadvertently put next week's challenge again, instead of explaining the on-air challenge. So is each Spanish word supposed to anagram to the name of something botanical in English?

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    1. https://www.npr.org/2021/09/26/1040699335/sunday-puzzle-spanish-anagrams

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    2. I think the Spanish word just anagrams to a common English word.

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    3. Right you are. I am feeling like a "SOLER" already. 😉

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  76. A recent "news" event is relevant.

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  77. 260 correct responses this week.

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For NPR puzzle posts, don't post the answer or any hints that could lead to the answer before the deadline (usually Thursday at 3pm ET). If you know the answer, submit it to NPR, but don't give it away here.

You may provide indirect hints to the answer to show you know it, but make sure they don't assist with solving. You can openly discuss your hints and the answer after the deadline. Thank you.