Q: 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?Perhaps it is a one-letter abbreviation?
Edit: CHI could also be the single Greek letter Χ (Chi).
A: Chicago (CHI) + O'Hare (ORD) = ORCHID
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.
Take the second and fourth letter of the flower, and you get an abbreviation related to an anagram of the flower.
ReplyDeleteIs this a reworking of a previous puzzle?
ReplyDeleteREWORKING = ADAPTATION
DeleteAmazing how far a name like Hubert and a degree in philosophy from Yale can get you.
ReplyDeleteThere is a distant relationship between this puzzle and last week's. As in VERY distant.
ReplyDeleteBoth were rather easy...
DeleteI wonder if you're thinking what I'm thinking? I'm thinking agriculture.
DeleteThere is an alternate "sounds like" answer. But you must use a Southern accent.
ReplyDeleteFewer than 300 correct entries for the radish puzzle? I was going to predict four digits this week for sure, but I'd probably wind up being wrong again.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised it was that low as well.
DeleteMaybe the reason is not that the puzzle was hard, rather that there are few listeners?
DeleteBuck - I agree and am typically one of the non-submitters. Apart from hearing loss, I have no interest to be on the electric radio.
DeleteThat said, there is likely a correlation between the number of listeners (along with the difficulty of the given puzzle). A function of multiple variables.
in th postcard days, before using computer to solve, th only puzzles I'd get were the ones with 2000+ correct answers. radish puz was that easy, certainly easier than prior 5 wks of puz. This wks. can also be solved via enumeration
DeleteI have wrestled with the response numbers for 20 years. We even had a neat contest every week on the old "Englishman" blog; thanks Magdalen.
DeleteThe upshot is that I stopped believing them several years ago.
Last week's should have been much higher based on the difficulty of the puzzle.
I think that there are probably very few new listeners. The last few weeks' offerings would have discouraged old timers as well as new.
And who would want to run into an on-air mess like today's? Way up with the worst ever. Lady did well, however.
Sorry to say that Will Shortz may be simply failing as we all do.
I needed a list for today's challenge, the answer to which I won't be submitting.
To follow up on geofan's question: a public TV station in Western Massachusetts, as part of a fundraising marathon in the late 60s, offered a toaster to anyone who called in, no contribution required. No one called. They concluded that either no one was watching or no one watching wanted a new toaster.
DeleteMoral: there are a limited number of people who (1) solved the puzzle and (2) want a lapel pin. I am one of those who crave the pin enough to submit an answer when I get it (and sometimes when I don't).
Interesting NPR toaster experiment, Italo Svevo. Would you be willing to fight for the lapel pin?
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteTMI
DeleteOK. I have another music clue. It's a band that started in the 1960's. Is it ... TMI?
DeleteIs 3:35 TMI?
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
Delete...in and around the lake, mountains come out of the sky and they stand there...
DeleteHmmm...I'm curious to know what residents of this city would say about this puzzle...
ReplyDeletemy sister is a resident of this city and I'm pretty sure she has never referred to it by the abbreviation
DeleteMy sister was born there and I agree the puzzle statement is not fully accurate.
DeleteIt's an abbreviation (think "SF"), not a nickname (such as "Frisco," with apologies to the late Herb Caen). Some abbreviations are also nicknames, others aren't.
DeleteWell, there's a sport that uses the abbreviated form, no?
DeleteI have an amazing photograph of Herb Caen and Barnaby Conrad, in business suits, on the sidewalk in front of El Matador. They are bowling with melons and coconuts at bottles of Metaxa and Galliano substituting as pins. It was taken in 1959.
DeleteAll the major travel websites accept this abbreviation when searching for flights to this city.
DeleteYes, there's a specific reason for that...
DeleteSome people from the town might call it this
DeleteOne hundred
ReplyDeleteAlternatively, you can take the common abbreviation for an American state, follow it with an airport code, and name a flower.
ReplyDeleteGA + LAX
DeleteRearrange the mayor's name to get something found in a theater.
ReplyDeleteFirst and last names?
DeleteJust the last name. Including the first name might be muddying the waters.
DeleteCharles -that was awesome
DeleteAnd I’m not referring to your mayor clue
DeleteBoth Buffalo Bill and the Buffalo Bills have a connection to this City and its airport.
DeleteGiven how so few correct answers were received for the reddish radish puzzle, I'm guessing this week there will be under 505 correct answers.
ReplyDeleteHmmm,... I noticed that the number of correct answers for last week's puzzle, 260, is the common sum of all rows, columns, and diagonals of any order-8 magic square. Your suggested number of correct answers for this puzzle, 505, is the sum of all rows, columns, and diagonals of any order-10 magic square. Coincidence?
DeleteYes, that is completely a coincidence. I hadn't even thought of that.
DeleteI feel 680 will be correct
DeleteNah, I really think I captured it with under 505.
DeleteDifferent approaches.
DeleteMNOSY is my favorite flower!
ReplyDeleteSometimes called MNOLASY!
DeleteAnd what a miserable airport the answer is. No clue here.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite airport food stand is there!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteOf course, as we all know, great food is a good test of an airport. I wonder how many folks go to an airport just for the haute cuisine.
DeleteBack when I owned half a plane, I once flew to Kobelt Airport, in Wallkill, NY, to have dinner at a restaurant there. Essex County Airport, in NJ, has a pretty good restaurant, too.
DeleteAnyway, I wouldn't fly to this airport just for the food, but when I have to change planes there, I try to arrange to eat at this place.
Oops -- was haute supposed to be an aviation pun?
DeleteIt was!
DeleteLILAX, PHLAX, PhorDX, X is on my mind :-)
ReplyDeleteI think this is a Class B puzzle. SDB probably agrees with me.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteSDB: I think I read your comment and did not think TMI. Please remind on thursday what you wrote. Wow...you got removed from a plane related question.
DeleteNatasha:
DeleteThanks, and yes, I plan to. Also, I am a plane sorta guy.
As and airline pilot, it is one of my favorite airports
DeleteSDB's idea of fun is to voluntarily remove himself from a plane in flight.
DeletePlace the name of a professional athlete who uses this airport in front of its code, add a "p" in the third position, then an "a" in the sixth, to get a place where we store things.
ReplyDeleteClever.
Deletelast flower was solved by starting at the a's so lets start at the z's
ReplyDelete13,2909 8269
ReplyDeleteprime factorization of 3 Chicago area codes
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI got a kick out of the original meaning of the flower. Ouch!
ReplyDeleteTMI?
DeleteI don't think so, but I'll defer to the blog administrator.
DeleteI started out in a bit of a fog (slight side-eye at that abbreviation), but ended up solving with minimal hassle.
ReplyDelete(I'm also tempted to say that the '80s are back.)
DeleteI thought it would be obscure, but I won't chide Will for this one.
ReplyDeleteIn a park in the city, one can see a sculpture of the flower.
ReplyDeleteI got engaged in this city.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThree Mile Island
Deletesdb: Agree.
Deletebug's WWII classic
ReplyDelete"falling hare" 1943
DeleteBeen through that airport a bunch of times.
ReplyDeleteBen Been Through sounds like it could be a city in Vietnam.
DeleteI can’t begin to count the number of times I’ve been in that airport.
DeleteC'mon, my 2-year old granddaughter could tell you, you begin to count: 1, 2, 3, ...
DeleteNumbers and letters
ReplyDeleteORD is like ordinal numbers. Chi is a Greek letter.
DeleteThank you (you know who you are) for your help! Answer submitted, now hoping for "the call" on Thursday. 😁👍
ReplyDeleteUsing a list of airport abbreviations made it relatively easy to pin this one down.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I did. Got it right away.
DeletepjbHasNeverHadToTravelThere,Though(Doesn'tLikeFlying,Actually)
(Pin down, as in pinning on a corsage.)
DeleteOolites (I meant to post it here).
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteAvocados
DeleteJottfylcu!... wfuclpisuhn uauch!
ReplyDeleteLegoQbiMusm'HozzMucx
(~5*5)^(~((2**4)*3*13)))
ReplyDeleteVery nice
DeleteI thought lawyer jokes were prohibited.
ReplyDeleteThe city, my cousin, that's my story.
ReplyDeleteEd & Clem
ReplyDeleteAnyone ever abbreviated Phoenix as "LO" for "like (an) oven?"
ReplyDeleteI never set foot outside Sky Harbor, but I was left with the impression "like many an oven." 😉
DeleteAnd I am! Thanks for the chuckle.
DeleteAs an airline pilot, I thought that this would be easie-peasy. Instead, it was only later in the day, while my wife and I were picking apples on a breezy day, that it finally dawned on me.
ReplyDeleteThis is my kind of puzzle.
ReplyDeleteTake the name of the flower, drop a letter, re-arrange and you have the name of an electronics firm that I didn't even know was still around. Re-arrange again, and you might hear voices!
ReplyDeleteI got the "rearrange again" before I got the electronics firm. Until about two years ago, we actually had several gizmos by that firm at work.
DeleteGood one, Wordsmythe—Ricoh and choir.
DeleteI still have a compact 35mm Ricoh point-and-shoot camera. Haven't used it since 2003, but it would still work, I'm sure. 😃
Now that everyone has solved this floury puzzle, and because most would have missed my posting this last night, here it is again to augment this public transportation conundrum:
ReplyDeleteAn 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?
I don't give a dime!
DeleteAnd I give no quarter.
DeleteYour cent is recent.
DeleteI think we may be getting a little off track here.
DeleteI guess I'll throw in my 2 cents worth. BTW, am I the only one who remembers going to a soda fountain and asking for 2 cents plain? Maybe it was just a Brooklyn thing.
DeletePosted my reply yesterday.
DeleteCaP - 2 cents plain wasn't only a Brooklyn thing, as I remember it from Manhattan. Do you also remember Egg Creams?
DeleteLet's move on from Brooklyn now and discuss Manhattan. And mine must be stirred; never shaken!
DeleteSZ, My parents owned a candy store/luncheonette in Brooklyn where I learned to make an egg cream with white foam on top of the chocolate soda below. The secret is to foam up the milk and soda first then add the syrup and stir gently.
DeleteSDB, You're conflating James Bond with my childhood in Brooklyn.
DeleteImportant things to remember about egg creams: No egg, no cream.
DeleteAnd will any old chocolate syrup do? No. Is there a particular one to use? U-bet! (And no foxes, either.)
CaP - my Dad was born in Brooklyn. His family moved to the Bronx where my Grandfather had a chicken market. I was born in the Bronx, but we moved to Manhattan when I was a year old. My earliest memories are of Stuyvesant Town (20th Street and 1st Avenue).
DeleteI remember getting egg creams, with Dad, from a storefront window on 1st Avenue. As I recall, the recipe was 16 oz glass, 3 pumps of syrup, 4oz milk, stirred while topping off with seltzer. Was that how you made them?
Super Zee, The syrup went in last so that you could stir the milk and seltzer to get the white foam first. I used to date a girl who lived in Stuyvesant Town. I also went to Stuyvesant High School.
DeleteCap,
DeleteThe issue of James Bond insisting his Martini be shaken, not stirred is Hollywood nonsense. You would ruin a Manhattan, Martini or Negroni by shaking it because that waters it down and ruins the taste along with the presentation which should not be cloudy.
No, the Manhattan being stirred was even demanded by none other than Victor Hugo, who knew the concoction well.
I would suggest reading this informative article I just now discovered although it was published in 2007.
https://www.sfgate.com/wine/article/The-Manhattan-project-A-bartender-spills-his-2502224.php
I'll have a broccoli and radish salad - layered, not tossed.
DeleteCaP. Small world! I started school at PS40 in Manhattan, but we moved to Queens when I was 9. I went to Martin VanBuren HS, then on to CCNY for my Engineering degree, followed by an MS from RPI. I left NY in 1969, and have lived in CT and VA since then.
DeleteSZ,
DeleteWhile you guys were attending your above named schools I was attending skydiving school, but dropped out.
I wanted to be an astronaut. I took up space in school.
DeleteI think I can understand the gravity of the situation.
DeleteSkydiving certainly has its ups and downs.
DeleteLike any job with an open door policy.
DeleteOn the shaking and stirring:
DeleteI agree, except it isn't *Hollywood* nonsense, exactly. It was Ian Fleming's own nonsense, in Casino Royale, long before the Bond movies.
I am glad you posted that because I have long wondered if Hollywood actually came up with the shaken, not stirred line, or if it was actually in a Bond book. I never read any of Ian Fleming's books. I enjoyed the Sean Connery Bond films, but soon lost all interest when he moved on from the Bond role.
DeleteKinda like an elevator operator. Reminds me of my not-so-bright friend. He didn't like elevators. When the power went out at a department store, he was stuck for hours on the escalator.
DeleteMaybe he was just being polite because it is impolite to stair.
DeleteSDB, I think I need to step up my puns here. I'm falling fast! ;)
DeleteWell don't over chute.
DeleteParach the thought!
DeleteThis is all nonsense!
ReplyDeleteAre you trying to buck the trend?
DeleteAdd the postal abbreviation of a neighboring state to the abbreviation for the city in question to get my favorite dessert.
ReplyDeleteYou come here, post a snide remark, then get ribbed or chided, all in good fun, until someone's feelings get hurt. Fortunately for me, I do not have any feelings.
ReplyDeleteOh, are you a stoic?
DeleteAre stoics good at stoichiometry?
DeletePlease try and control your integers.
DeleteWell played, TomR, well played!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteYeah SDB, I had to look up stoichiometry too.
DeleteYou caught me, TR. :-)
DeleteClark, I have had a real Brooklyn egg cream. It was fantastic. You must have a lot of nice memories. It reminds of the soda shop in West Side Story.
ReplyDeleteJohn Lovitz of SNL said that one of his inspirations was Ned Glass, the soda shop owner in the movie version.
Missed the puzzle yesterday. I need to get back in the habit of Sunday listening. I started going through the list of cities and got the answer in 5 min. I'm super embarrassed that it took me that long.
ReplyDeleteHow can you tell that a ship is doomed?
ReplyDeleteBy observing the wake.
DeleteThe rats are leaving...I wish I could say the same of Republicans
ReplyDeleteNot the answer to my riddle.
DeleteSo, I give up.
DeleteSee above.
DeleteI like Clark's answer.
DeleteMaybe you didn't understand my answer.
DeleteNo, I didn't see it before I sent my guess. I also was ready to send another guess...they noticed the swimming pool was bottomless
DeleteThanks, Natasha
DeleteThat joke doesn't work. For the ship to be doomed, it would have to have a future. If there is a wake, it's already run out of future. Just snidely saying.
DeleteTomR: I know that. It's a joke, not a doctoral thesis.
DeleteI wonder if rats left the titanic.
DeleteWhat did Capt. Hazelwood say when he came to the bridge?
Delete"What happened to my tanker, Ray?"
Delete"Any port in a storm"?
DeleteThee are lots of different helicopters; do you know which is the most colorful?
ReplyDeleteA Huey?
DeleteYes, a Huey.
DeleteInteresting how the "Apache", "Chinook", and "Blackhawk" names stuck to those helicopters, but no one calls a UH-1 an "Iroquois".
DeleteCayuse became better known as a Loach.
DeleteAnd Chinook became better known as a Shithook.
DeleteProbably named by someone who forgot to wear earplugs?
DeleteHuey is green. Is that the most colorful Helicopter?
DeleteNatasha, Hue
DeleteOn Sunday, I posted:
ReplyDeleteJottfylcu!... wfuclpisuhn uauch!
LegoQbiMusm'HozzMucx
If you move each letter in that post (except for the four in "Lego") six places later in the alphabet, the post reads:
Puzzleria!... clairvoyant again!
[Lego]WhoSays'NuffSaid
"How was Puzzleria! clairvoyant?" you may ask...
On the current Puzzleria! (uploaded just this past Friday), our fourth "riff-off" of last week's RADISH/REDDISH puzzle on NPR reads:
ENTREE #4
Name a place where you can pick anything “from fruit to nuts.”
Change the fifth letter, and delete the sixth letter, to name something grown in a garden.
What are this place and thing grown in a garden?
Answer:
Orchard; Orchid
LegoAgainClairvoyant!
ORD + CHI = ORCHID
ReplyDelete"Of course, as we all know, great food is a good test of an airport. I wonder how many folks go to an airport just for the haute cuisine." refers to a CHI (X) TEST in statistics. {jan, haute cuisine was a deflection from the word "test."} I believe Blaine also referred to this test with his one-letter, X, clue.
"One hundred" The American Orchid Society began dispensing orchid advice in 1921, one hundred years ago.
"Would you be willing to fight for the lapel pin?" refers to many ORCHIDS being epiphytes (epi-FIGHTS).
"Oolites" refers to the preference of bee ORCHIDS to grow in oolites and other limy materials.
"Ed & Clem" refer to Cinderella's stepsisters, Edwina and Clementine, who also wanted to wear the solitary ladyslipper (also a member of the ORCHID family).
CHI is the all-airport code for both Chicago airports, MDW (Midway) and ORD (O'Hare) just as NYC refers to both JFK and Laguardia. That way, one can search on CHI to go to/from either airport. That's likely partly why CHI seems like a well-known abbreviation for Chicago.
I enjoyed learning that "ORD" for O'Hare came from the original airport name of OrchaRD, quite similar to ORCHID!
WW: I just read that Chicago's O'Hare's Code is ORD, named after the space’s previous incarnation as Orchard Field.
Deletehttps://www.cntraveler.com/story/how-airports-get-their-codes
Also found this source:The airport ORD which became O'Hare was originally Orchard Field and the letters come from ORcharD.
DeleteNot sure last post accurate for source of the R.
DeleteIndeed. My last paragraph states this, yes?
DeleteI was thinking "one hundred" referred to the prominent "C" in a certain baseball team's logo.
DeleteGo, Cubbies!
So, I almost posted .007, but then it occurred to me that someone might think I was alluding to Hoffman, Rubin, Dellinger, Hayden, Davis, Froines, and Weiner. I did contrive to work "broccoli" into the Bond-related thread, however.
CHICAGO → CHI
ReplyDeleteO'HARE International Airport → ORD
CHI+ORD → ORCHID
ORCHID from ORD + CHI Chicago O'Hare
ReplyDeleteMy Hint: (Removed)
"Agreed. SDB thinks this puzzle blows!" Chicago is nicknamed the Windy City.
CHICAGO, ORCHID
ReplyDeleteChicago abbreviated as CHI (such as in sports score displays), combined with the ORD airport code, gives us ORCHID.
My clues, including "Under 505 correct guesses" and "captured" were references to U-505, the captured German submarine at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.
ORCHID <—ORD + CHI (CHICAGO)
ReplyDeleteMy hint: “Amazing how far a name like Hubert and a degree in philosophy from Yale can get you.” I was alluding to Rudy Vallée, whose given birth name was Hubert and who earned a degree in philosophy from Yale. In 1933-34 Vallée had a major chart hit called “Orchids in the Moonlight.” (The song premiered in the 1933 movie Flying Down to Rio, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers’ first film together. Coincidentally, Rogers starred in a 1942 film called Roxie Hart, aka Chicago or Chicago Gal.)
In June 2015, because of storms, my wife and I were stranded all day and overnight at O’Hare. (It happened to be the night the Black Hawks were playing at home in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals.) For a while, it looked as if we’d be sleeping on cots in the terminal, but we got lucky. Because of a cancellation, we snagged the last available room at the airport Hilton, an expense also luckily covered by flight cancellation insurance. (And, yes, that night the Black Hawks won the Stanley Cup.) The next day was an adventure: it took us a couple of planes and many hours, including a projected 8-hour stopover at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, to get back to New Jersey. (That’s right, we went west to go east.) We had spent several days in Chicago (a gift from our son), visiting and revisiting the Art Institute and stopping by the original home of Chess Records, now the Willie Dixon Blues Heaven Foundation, where Dixon’s grandson, Keith Dixon Nelson, gave us a solo guided tour and allowed me to to hold his grandfather’s original standup bass. As our son might say, mad cool.
Chicago = CHI; O’Hare = ORD --> ORCHID
ReplyDeleteLast Sunday I said, “And what a miserable airport the answer is. No clue here,” as anyone unfortunate enough to go there or be there during rush hour can attest.
Puzzleria! this week features four fantastic puzzles penned by our Good Buddy GB in his regular "GB's Baffler's" showcase. This time out, GB has cooked up a "GeoBaffical" collection called "Cities, States and Hemispheres."
ReplyDeleteEleven other puzzles are on our menus:
* a Schpuzzle of the Week in which the metaphorically mortal meets the metaphysical,
* a "40-1derful" puzzle that will require "40-2de" to solve,
* a dessert puzzle about what it takes for a diplomat to “clothes” a deal, and
* eight riff-offs of this week's NPR "O'Hairy Mork-from-Orchid" puzzle.
Drop by to be Baffled!
LegoBaffledByBraniff!
ORCHID (CHI + ORD)
ReplyDelete> A recent "news" event is relevant.
Nicki Minaj's cousin's friend claims his testicles became swollen after getting a Covid shot. ORCHID is from the Greek for "testicle".
>> And what a miserable airport the answer is. No clue here.
> My favorite airport food stand is there!
Tortas Frontera by Rick Bayless, Terminal 3, Concourse K, Gate K4.
>> I can’t begin to count the number of times I’ve been in that airport.
> C'mon, my 2-year old granddaughter could tell you, you begin to count: 1, 2, 3, ...
Of course, those are cardinal numbers, not ORDinal ones.
ORCHID
ReplyDelete(From "Chi," the abbreviation for "Chicago," inserted into ORD)
My clue:
Thank you (you know who you are) for your help!
The clue about the city experiencing issues with the 1960 presidential-election ballots—rightly deemed TMI by SDB and Dr. K—gave me the answer. The clue had been posted by Unknown, to which I alluded with you know who you are.
A couple of really good clues posted here this week, from Blaine's "one-letter abbreviation" (a reference to the Greek "X," of course) to Word Whisker's "kick out of the original meaning." (Yeah. "Ouch!" it is.)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you liked it! I was having fun posting it. My significant other thought I was nuts.
DeleteI wrote, “Take the second and fourth letter of the flower, and you get an abbreviation related to an anagram of the flower.” Rh is the symbol of Rhodium, and “orchid” anagrams to “rhodic” which means “containing rhodium.”
ReplyDeleteTwo Orchids, 2015 by artist Isa Genzken is a large sculpture located in Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois. Chi+Ord=Orchid
ReplyDeleteMy clue: Add the postal abbreviation of a neighboring state to the abbreviation for the city in question to get my favorite dessert.
ReplyDeleteMO (Missouri) + CHI (Chicago) = MOCHI.
I think flying into O'Hare would be an interesting experience just for the view.
ReplyDeleteNever having done so, the ORD code wasn't a familiar one, so I had to use a list.
Should be a response number in the high hundreds.
ORD, Chi->orchid
ReplyDeleteChi is Chicago. ORD is the O'Hare International Airport.
With apologies to anyone waiting for an explanation of my comment that this week's puzzle had a link to the prior week's, my priority today was to get out for a motorcycle ride with my wife, and enjoy Virginia's early fall weather. (And yes, we both ride, she has a Harley, while I, being older and less well coordinated, ride a CanAm Spyder.)
ReplyDeleteORD (O’Hare International Airport) + CHI (Chicago) = ORCHID
According to various sources, the explorer Robert de Lasalle first referred to the area we know as Chicago as, "Checagou,” in 1679 memoir. The name coming from a French rendering of the native American word, shikaakwa) for a species of wild onion, also known as a ramp, common in the area.
That makes two puzzles in a row related to vegetables.