Q: Think of a two-word phrase you might see on a laptop computer menu. Remove five letters. What remains, in order, is a three-word phrase you might see on a restaurant menu. What phrases are these?I'm going to have to chew on this one for awhile.
Edit: "À la mode" translates literally to "in the fashion". Chew sounds like (Jimmy) Choo who is known for his fashionable shoes. And "choo choo" is the sound a train makes which leads to Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
A: A(irp)LA(ne) MODE --> À LA MODE
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.
Almost 800 correct responses last week. Will acknowledged his mispronunciation of Maya Angelou's surname (but didn't pronounce "Theron" right).
ReplyDeleteYes, I was happy to hear Will note the Maya Angelou correction.
DeleteSomething like "Sorry, listeners" would have been in order, though. I didn't hear Will say that.
DeleteTrue. It would have been a new high on Angelou.
DeleteSince your starting with things other than clues, I'm assuming no one has gotten the answer yet for this week's puzzle. I'm going back to bed to sleep on it. (Not the bed, the puzzle!)
DeleteIt looks like Blaine may have it. . .
DeleteWith regard to not pronouncing "Theron" right, I'd add that no self respecting Afrikaner would Anglicize it to sound like "Thair'-in". Sorry Charlize, you and I both know it's "Ta-rawn'".
DeleteAnd while I'm at it, that other Afrikaans word is pronounced "a par' tate", not "a' par thide'" or "a par' tide". Enough already.
Don't get me started on how NPR reporters routinely butcher "Johannesburg".
I have an answer; unfortunately, it goes from a three-word computer menu phrase to a two-word restaurant menu phrase. Ironically, it fits Blaine's clue (if it is a clue). In any case, I'm still chewing.
ReplyDeleteI also got a 3-word laptop phrase that led to a 2-word food item (but the 2 words had to be reversed). Back to the drawing board...
DeleteI have an answer, but I'm pretty sure it's not the intended one.
ReplyDeleteFirst, it's not great -- although the 3-word phrase certainly could appear on a restaurant menu, I've never seen it, and it wouldn't surprise me if it never actually *has* appeared on a menu.
Second, for my answer a better puzzle would have asked us to remove *3* letters from a computer menu 2-word phrase. (Using a slightly different phrase.)
As often happens to me, now that I've got an answer that meets the conditions, I'm having a hard time getting motivated to find the intended one. Maybe when people start posting tantalizing clues I'll get inspired!
Oh, I guess I'll give an indirect clue to my answer: Truth and logic, classical and non-classical.
I'm done chewing, and it's a delicious puzzle. The fact that you can switch the three and the two in the the directions and still get a credible answer is a nice dessert! (I hope Lego enjoys all the food imagery.)
ReplyDeleteMusic Clue: Steve Miller Band.
ReplyDeleteNice hint.
DeleteAnother music clue: John Denver
DeleteRed Hot Chili Peppers
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteI have a "speculative" answer. The two-word laptop menu
ReplyDeletephrase is often written as one word...
When you get it, there’s no mistaking the intended answer. No ambiguity on this one. and no hint in this post, either.
DeleteSurprised at only 800 responses last week. I thought Asma Khalid did a good job as host although she didn't get a chance to do a singing hint.
ReplyDeleteNo answer yet for this week but it usually takes me a day.
Certain food items come immediately to mind....
ReplyDeleteOh I have it now.
ReplyDeleteI had a disadvantage compared to many (most, I dare say) listeners. One word summarizes my disadvantage, and that word often appears very close to the three-word phrase on the restaurant menu.
Same here! Nice hint.
DeleteSweet puzzle.
ReplyDeleteNeeds a movie clue, but the ones I thought of would likely be TMI.
We could just start suggesting movies. If any of them are TMI, we would be off to a Rocky start!
DeleteI wonder if I am at a disadvantage, since I'm using a Mac. I don't have the answer yet. I do know that menu terms vary quite a bit between the Mac OS and Windows operating systems. I'm also not asking anyone to say anything about this, in case that would be TMI. Just sharing a thought.
ReplyDeleteThat appears to be the case, but the menu item is on other Apple devices.
DeleteI now have the answer. I think celebrating a nephew's birthday this afternoon, and being outside, not on a device, helped clear my mind. I guess it was good for me to disconnect for a while. I should probably do that more often.
DeleteAs for my thought above, I will wait until Thursday to share whether or not I was at a disadvantage.
Easy. Rearrange the 5 letters to get something that happens to some food.
ReplyDeleteTook me a minute to unscramble the letters to match this. Maybe I'm a little green at this.
Deleteles mots francais peut-etre? Je n'ai aucune idee
ReplyDeleteNo tengo nada. Mon sheri.
DeleteMon général.
DeleteNever had, nor even used, a laptop
ReplyDeleteSince that is specified, this puzzle has nothing for me.
WS did admit a little "trick" was necessary to get last week's, and posted this today:
"Challenge answer: Charlize Theron --> Charles I, throne"
where the i becomes an I.
One of the easiest on-air "puzzles" ever.
Meh. Ok puzzle. Listing the resume of the puzzle creator in the puzzle on the NPR site was a bit odd.
ReplyDeleteGot it! This puzzle might've been more appropriate next month, or maybe in March.
ReplyDeleteOr even more so in August (for reasons that must remain obscure until Thursday).
DeleteThe American Dairy Association created a "Remember the A La Mode!" month in August 1959 to urge people to eat more ice cream with their pie.
Deletehttp://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/remember_the_a_la_mode_pie_a_la_mode/
Nice. And I was thinking of Thanksgiving pie / Pi Day.
DeleteKinda like COVID, i can see a few variants to this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. I see at least 2 valid answers.
DeleteIn the spirit of transparency, that wasn’t the gist of my post/clue.
DeleteSnipper, ah. I'll see your spirit and raise you a ghost (given the season and all).
DeleteCouldn’t think of it. Went for a little ride. The answer came to me. It will for you, too.
ReplyDeleteI am sad to announce that I just now sent the following letter to the letters editor of the Seattle Times:
ReplyDeleteDear Seattle Times:
In more than 75 years of newspaper reading I have never been more shocked by a front page headline than I was Saturday. (October 23, 2021) Shame on you for printing this:
Neither carrot or stick is helping with Seattle Schools' busing woes.
I don't know how I am going to be able to solve a puzzle that requires specific knowledge of laptop computers. I have never used one. And BTW, I can't even recall what a restaurant menu looks like.
ReplyDeleteSdb: I have a laptop and doesn't help me. Would you like to borrow mine?
DeleteYes, but please don't send it via USPS, as it will not get here on time due to the "improvements."
DeleteSBD,
DeleteIf you are having memory problems now, how will you be 7 years from now?
What is so special about "7 years from now?"
DeleteMy age
DeleteClarification: My age for you.
DeleteWell I am hoping by then we might be finished with this pandemic and the restaurants will be open and thriving again. But that is asking a lot considering all the idiots taking up space on our planet.
DeleteActually I have dined 4 or 5 times now inside a restaurant.
Do you have a smart phone, SDB? It has menus, too.
Deletejan,
DeleteI think that is what some may call it. I am not one of them however. I rarely use my Android cell phone because we do not get along well. I already did take a look though, and again after your above suggestion, but no joy.
I can make it disappear.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteUnless I have a 3AM "AHA" moment, this is it for me this week.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteMiles Davis.
Deleteor Don Mclean
DeleteOr perhaps Arlo Guthrie?
DeletepjbStillRemembersWhenFloWorkedAtAlice'sRestaurant
Finding the answer was very hard.
ReplyDeleteFinding the answer is like Finding Nemo. "Airplane mode" contains the word "Nemo" in consecutive letters.
DeleteWow! Can you believe I had the right two-word phrase, right out of the gate—only that I didn't make the connection because I wasn't familiar with that three-word phrase, at least not in that context? Some of the clues posted above encouraged me to take yet another look at the two-word phrase, and…at long last…voilà! (And I don't have the "disadvantage" some folks seem to have alluded to!)
ReplyDeleteI haven't had to use this computer menu item in a couple years.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget the best part of the meal.
ReplyDeleteI'm so frustrated trying to solve this one, I could just scream!
ReplyDeleteI finally solved by working backward. I almost had the 3 word answer this morning, but after tweaking it a bit the 2 word answer came without looking, but just thinking a minute. Not a bad puzzle after all.
ReplyDeleteApparently, John "Prine" was a fan of this three-word phrase.
ReplyDeleteI just got it! What I didn't realize is that little clues were in abundance all around me: I heard the Byrd's sing one of their hits on the radio, I'm watching a movie with a (lesser known) female 80's star whose initials are J.W. I'm re-reading a novel by Philip Roth about someone who would probably use this laptop option if he had lived in the right century (and been smart enough to use a laptop). Oh well, I'm getting carried away. I must try to stay grounded. When do we eat?
ReplyDeleteI have the answer, but I do not see what it has to do with chewing. Yes, you could be chewing food at a restaurant, and you could even be chewing food while using your laptop, but that's all.
ReplyDeleteNot just laptops. Portable devices of all kinds.
ReplyDeletedefinitely not the ans. for al you LISP fans CAR(loadmodule)
ReplyDeleteStudents of alternative prairie management strategies have said as much.
ReplyDeleteI shouldn't have posted this but since I did, here's the explanation. This is a reference to the debate among prairie ecologists and agronomists over the comparative effects of burning versus mowing on restored prairie ecosystems: "ERR PLAINS MOWED." As Casey Stengel used to say, you can look it up: https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/910/200320.pdf;sequence=1.
DeleteI’m a bit of a tech troglodyte (I used to tell my students I was “somewhere between low-tech and mid-tech”; on the other hand, one of my colleagues prided himself on being “no-tech”), but I’m pretty certain that my laptop does not have this “phrase.”
ReplyDeleteSo to solve the puzzle, I had to adopt a novel and somewhat aleatory procedure:
First, I laid my head down to sleep.
Then, I had a bizarre vision.
Finally, I thought of a President.
Et voilà!
This, this, or this.
ReplyDeleteOh, finally! I just knew that the restaurant menu phrase had that third word, but there are a couple of other computer terms that could come before it that just wouldn't fit. I hate having the unsolved puzzle hang around in my mind, but I was beginning to think that for me this one would be up in the air until Thursday. After a wider search, I found that although there is no fitting phrase on my laptop, indeed I found it on another device.
ReplyDeleteThere's a connection to last week's answer. [But isn't there always? See Scalia's comment about "curbstone philosophers" in his concurring opinion in California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement v. Dillingham Construction, NA, Inc., 519 U.S. 316 (1997).]
ReplyDeleteI've already mentioned that obvious joke "Remember the A La Mode." And, as it turns out, Charles I's last word was "Remember."
DeleteI wonder if any laptop owners use a stylus to pick the menu option
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI could have used my cell phone for this puzzle too.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteOhh - but the melody is so haunting.
DeleteI guess “asking Alice” was TMI since Jefferson Airplane wanted us to do that.
DeleteIt's a Windows thing. Mac users are too smart to need it.
ReplyDeleteDon't press.
DeleteAnd redneck cops are too smart to get a covid vaccine shot.
DeleteI'm surprised nobody has posted the old "e" clue this week.
ReplyDeleteI think you just did. Shorter path than usual!
DeleteYup. I'd say 3 steps, more or less.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteAlas, not sure this one will last either.
Deletea glimmer of hope appear through the artic fog
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeletenext time I'll use prime factorization instead or cintued fractions
DeletePerhaps Blaine was just expressing a need to ruminate about the puzzle for a while, or he posted a nice NPR-related chewy clue.
ReplyDeleteI think so too. Perhaps he's pasta that by now dough.
DeleteThere might be a couple reasons...
DeleteDon't leave me hanging, Blaine.
Deleteso that eliminates paste values from the menu
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteMaybe Blaine did not write it. There could be an impasta.
DeleteThere is a Duluth connection.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteGeorgia or Minnesota?
DeleteSweet Minnesota
DeleteThe only Duluth as far as I am concerned.
DeleteHad a great time there once. So close to superior. ;-)
DeleteI'm a bit of a homer and get excited when people have been here. I live close to the lake and get excited when others enjoy it too.
Deleteloop, I enjoyed Duluth on my way from St Paul to Two Harbors on Lake Superior. I had just dropped off my daughter at Macalester so it was a bittersweet time. Lake Superior seemed quite oceanic and rock hunting was fun.
DeleteMy wife has taken up rock hounding with our two pups in the last year. Who knew that greatest gift I could give was a rock tumbler? Foolish me.
DeleteNow that's True Grit. Did you get the National Geographic tumbler? I found some cool Lake Superior agates at various shore stops.
DeleteOddly enough it was the NG tumbler and we are on the final tumble as we speak. We've split the basement between my guitars and her finds. No rock and roll in this house, it's rock and rock. She's cooler than me.
DeleteIt's a fun hobby!
DeleteIt's not the woman I married. I was supposed to be the nerd...
DeleteNerds are cool now.
DeleteI'll take your word for it.
DeleteAnyway, pie à la mode was invented in Duluth at a Superior street restaurant.
DeleteEvery laptop has this function. And I believe there is only one answer. Not ambiguous at all.
ReplyDeleteI have two legitimate answers.
DeleteMy laptop doesn't offer this option, but four of the five letters removed are alphabetically sequential, but not in alphabetical order before removal.
DeleteFor my response, which matches multiple comments made elsewhere, the removed letters are not alphabetically sequential. So, you clearly have a different answer from me.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI’m guessing that it was too obvious for most here to note that 3 of the removed letters can be added back to make a four word menu item.
ReplyDeleteMovie reference: Rocky.
ReplyDeleteNow I've seen everything. One 70's movie referencing another.
DeletepjbEatsLightning,CrapsThunder,AndWillProbablyNeedABiggerBoat,Too
The Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday that a spent shell casing taken from "Rust" director John Souza's shoulder is believed to be a "live round" fired by Alec Baldwin on the set of the Western that ended in tragedy last week.
ReplyDeleteThe above is a cut and paste from USA Today. Talk about lousy reporting. How could a "shell casing" have entered the director's body? No way.
Good point. So much for competence.
DeleteI think they corrected that statement later.
DeleteAs to the cause of Brian Laundrie's demise, and if it was intentional on his part, the coroner said you didn't have to have forensic training to see right through Brian Laundrie.
ReplyDeleteI've got a bone to pick with you over that comment SDB.
DeleteTomR,
DeleteNo problem, but I believe they have all been well picked already. Just in time too.
My, how you two do carrion!
DeleteThat marrow's it down.
DeleteThey might've found the remains quicker if they had a skeleton crew. (Too soon?)
DeleteDid you not see my post from last week?
Deleteskydiveboy Fri Oct 22, 10:38:00 AM PDT
What I find interesting is that after he first went hiking in that wilderness park, even though every spare cop and method was put to the task of locating him, they failed. But all it took in the end to find him was a skeleton crew.
My apologies SDB. I missed that part of the thread last week. I just skimmed the comments and got only the bare bones. :) Will try to be more careful. By the way, if you took all the bones in your body and laid them end to end...... you'd be dead.
DeleteAnd they would never again come together to meat.
DeleteCome and whisper in my ear, "Give us dirty Laundrie!"
DeletepjbKicks'EmWhenThey'reUp,Kicks'EmWhenThey'reDown,Kicks'EmWhenThey'reStiff,Kicks'EmAllAround
And, PJB, you must have missed what I posted 5 or 6 week back:
Deleteskydiveboy Sun Sep 19, 11:03:00 AM PDT
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.
Some survivalist. Tried to hide out inside an alligator. That may not be news; but, it does make for a somewhat predictable end.
DeleteSuicide by crocodile. I suppose fenestration was not an option in that location.
DeleteLike in the movie "Texas Chainsaw Fenestration"?
DeleteGB, Your above post just made me think up this: A specific tribe of North American Indians could be described as a mass o' Cree.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletepower was out 14 hrs sun. getting ther compters back up was very hard had toreset modem and couldn't find thepassword what a cheesy excuse for ot sloving the putz. I I give up absum abesse afui
ReplyDeletela vie quotidienne -vendredi
ReplyDeletejour numero un
A/C estimator 1 was going to show up but we had to cancel as D le chat went to the vent supposedly for the last time but she got a steriod injection and kept one of her 9 lives. I guess she won't be returning punts for the Seahawks
la vie quotidienne saemdi-
ReplyDeletenext A/c man showed up. he stayed almost 3 hours. gave us an estimate for instalation that was very high about4 times what we expected
la vie quotidienne lundi jour 4
ReplyDeleteA/C man 3 showed up he had an entierly diff rec which was 1/3 less than prev guy also wanted to replace and install new combustor.
la vie quotidienne mardi jour 5
ReplyDeleteaudi ann svc rougemond werkshop. I walked home about 9+ miles. ELST mostly paved which caused my hip to hurt at 2.6 miles took me 4.1 hours to do what google estmated as 3.1 hours
la vie quotidienne mercredi jour 6
ReplyDeleteA/C man 1 showed up he had a 3rd rec system
no price yet
daisy refused to eat the cat food with the steroids in it
"I picked a bad week for doing puzzles" $ about 8x higher than estimated
la vie quotidienne jeudi
ReplyDeleterien rien a rien quoting Edith
a la mode I had hence all the pi refs that got deleted but no idea what the original phrase was
DeleteLast moment hint: i.e. NPR
ReplyDeleteAirplane mode/a la mode
ReplyDeleteMy two answers:
ReplyDeleteBALANCED MODE, A LA MODE
"Meh. Ok puzzle. Listing the resume of the puzzle creator in the puzzle on the NPR site was a bit odd." >>> Odd instead of even as in the two sides of a BALANCED equation.
AIRPLANE MODE, A LA MODE Likely the preferred answer...but I think BALANCED MODE is equally valid.
"Snipper, ah. I'll see your spirit and raise you a ghost (given the season and all)." refers to SPIRIT AIRLINES.
"Don't press." >>> DePeche MODE
AIRPLANE MODE -IRPNE = A LA MODE
ReplyDeleteMy Hint:
“Don't leave me hanging, Blaine.”
I wasn’t sure this post would survive. I was hinting at my photo where I am hanging by my feet from the leading edge of a Cessna 170 above Issaquah, Washington. Who needs an inversion table when a perfectly good airplane is available?
Last moment hint: i.e. NPR
i, e, n, p, r These are the 5 discarded letters in the puzzle and look what they anagram to.
AIRPLANE MODE —> À LA MODE
ReplyDeleteMy hint (a covert music clue):
First, I laid my head down to sleep. —> (on a) Pillow
Then, I had a bizarre vision. —> (that was) Surrealistic
Finally, I thought of a President. —> (Finally = Third...President) Jefferson
Et voilà! —> ( ~ à la)
—> Surrealistic Pillow + Jefferson —> Jefferson Airplane —> Airplane Mode
—> À La Mode
N’est-ce pas?
There is no “Airplane Mode” as such on my laptop. Instead, to achieve the same result, you have to disable two other functions, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and the effect is the same.
From "e", I have two sequences:
ReplyDeletee, Euler, Euler equations, airfoils, airplanes, airplane mode, a la mode
e, Euler, Euler's identity e^{i π} + 1 = 0, π, pie, pie a la mode, a la mode, airplane mode
For the Euler equations and application to airfoils, see https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/eulereqs.html
Thanks to Howie Roark for the pointer to "pie."
My idea was simply that e and pi are the two most famous transcendental numbers, so e goes directly to pi, then pie. When I noted that there were 3 steps, more or less, it was just another clue. Pi is a little more than 3, and e is a little less than 3.
DeleteLancek, Cool!
DeleteAirplane Mode --> A La Mode
ReplyDeleteLast Sunday I said, “Couldn’t think of it. Went for a little ride. The answer came to me. It will for you, too.” My little ride was taxiing down the runway to get in line for takeoff. One of the first things the flight crew tells you is to put all electronic devices into Airplane Mode.
I wrote, “I was beginning to think that for me this one would be up in the air until Thursday.” “Up in the air” was my hint.
ReplyDeleteAIRPLANE MODE => A LA MODE
ReplyDelete"disconnect for a while" is because you use airplane mode to disconnect from cell service and wifi.
The movie Rocky has a theme song titled, "Gonna Fly Now."
And yes, I was at a disadvantage. The old mac I'm using does NOT have a menu item called Airplane Mode.
AIRPLANE MODE, A LA MODE
ReplyDelete> Don't forget the best part of the meal.
As they say in Texas, "Remember the A LA MODE!"
> This, this, or this.
"Emerald piano", "lemonade pair", and "redone Impala" are all anagrams of AIRPLANE MODE.
So are:
DeleteA MODERNA PILE
A DEMON, A PERIL
I RAPE MONDALE
MAIDEN PAROLE
LIME ON PARADE
POLE IN A DREAM
ELOPE IN DRAMA
I PONDER A MEAL
PANDORA? ME LIE!
MEDAL IN OPERA
RE: ANIMAL DOPE
A. A. MILNE: "PEDRO"?
DROP MAE A LINE
READ A NIL POEM
RIDE ON, PAMELA!
AMORAL, IN DEEP
DEAR PAL O' MINE
NO DIME, A PEARL
IN REAL POMADE
A LEPER DOMAIN
A PILE? DREAM ON!
NO, A MERE PLAID
NE'ER A DIPLOMA
LAME PORN IDEA
A LEADER, NO IMP
PLEAD NO, MARIE!
A LAD ON "EMPIRE"
A LIE? PARDON ME!
IDEAL PRO NAME
ADELINE: A ROMP
REPLIED, "MOANA!"
O, RIPE MANDELA
IMPALED ON EAR
OPEN MAIL, DEAR
RELIED ON A MAP
OLD PEAR, I MEAN
EMAIL? NO, PADRE!
A RAD LEMON PIE
A DOPE IN REALM
PEE AIR, OLD MAN!
PAINED MORALE
O, AND I'M A LEPER!
I'D LEARN A POEM
OPEN-AIR MEDAL
O, A PRIMAL NEED
pjbIs"AMale,NoPride"
AIRPLANE MODE — A LA MODE
ReplyDeleteMy clues:
“Can you believe I had the right two-word phrase, right out of the gate—only that I didn’t make the connection…”
In an airport, you often have to shuttle from one gate to another to make a connection between flights.
“At long last…voilà!”
(Obviously, «à la mode» is French.)
“Mon général.”
A reference to Charles de Gaulle—and the Paris airport named for him.
Our friend Plantsmith has harvested a “Mixed Halloween ‘boo-quet’ bag” filled with four sweet puzzles on this week's Puzzleria! They appear in his Garden of Puzzley Delights feature.
ReplyDeleteWe upload Puzzleria! in the wee hours of Friday, at Midnight PDT.
Also on our menu:
* a “Bona fidiom” Schpuzzle of the Week,
* a puzzle involving “smart, punchy hipster jive,”
* a Dessert that asks what educated fleas do, and
* a handful of riff-offs of the fa-fa-fa la mode NPR puzzle
LegoDelightfullyPuzzley
Airplane mode, a la mode.
ReplyDeleteAIRPLANE MODE (remove: IRPNE) → A LA MODE.
ReplyDeleteMy “speculative” answer:
ALARM DECODER(remove: RDECR) → A LA MODE.
The only 3-word restaurant menu phrases I could think of at first were “A LA MODE” & “A LA CARTE.”
A further "speculative" answer: an ALT-A CHARACTER (remove: THACR)→ A LA CARTE or ALFA CHARACTER (remove: FHACR)→ A LA CARTE.
DeleteI thought that Blaine's post about chewing might be referring to the full title of the latest book by Roy Blount Jr.
ReplyDeleteYes, what do you make of Blaine’s “chewing” clue?
ReplyDeleteI've added my explanation to the original post.
DeleteAirplane Mode -> A la Mode
ReplyDeleteMy TV Clue (The A Team -- a farce, seriously) was removed by Blaine.
The letter count of (The A Team -- a farce, seriously) is (3 1 4 1 5 9), which was meant to imply Pi, my favorite thing to eat A la Mode.
I noted early on that the puzzle works when you switch the three and the two in the instructions. Starting with the laptop computer menu phrase CHOOSE A NETWORK, you can delete 5 letters to get CHOOSE TWO, which appears on many menus above the list of side dishes. I believe that it appears more commonly these days than A LA MODE, since you can rarely find an apple pie dessert that doesn't come with ice cream by default.
ReplyDeleteLancek—When I did the same, that is, reversed 2 and 3 in the instructions, I came up with “macOS Big Sur,” which, when the 5 letters ”OS and “Sur” are removed, leaves “Mac Big." Reverse them, and you get "Big Mac." Obviously wrong on a number of counts, but interesting.
DeleteAirplane mode, a la mode
ReplyDeleteMy comment about being so frustrated I just want to scream, was a nod to "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream." Also, my music clue, John Denver wrote "Leaving on a Jet Plane".
ReplyDeleteI got the first clue it was critical in confirming a la mode instead of a la carte and one of the few dessert clues that didn't get bounced. saw a bunch of altitude clues but they went right over my head . prob because I haven't flown for biz since '15 and my laptop's battery has to be tethered to an outlet now.
DeleteMy clue that mentioned COVID and variants to the puzzle was a reference to the Delta variant, as in Delta Airlines’ airplanes. My follow up to Word Woman - “in the spirit of transparency” was also referencing Spirit Airlines for its airplanes. Nice puzzle.
ReplyDeleteAirplane….A La Mode
ReplyDeleteI wanted to post the movie clue, “Surely….don’t call me Shirley,” one if the running gags in Leslie Nielson’s movie, “!Airplane,” but was afraid I’d earn a DBA.
Having seen today’s comments, I’m surprised by the lack of references to this movie.
I actually had an inadvertent reference to Airplane " "I picked a bad week for doing puzzles" cf Robert Stack's "I picked a bad week to quit sniffing glue", etc
Deletethis was entirely by accident as I did not solve this puzzle even though I had the a la mode. Question is, Ii it had been kicked out would I have then solved the puzzle?
Ralph earned a DBA for posting "Surely this puzzle can’t be serious."
DeleteAIRPLANE MODE, A LA MODE
DeleteI so wanted to say something related to the movie, but I couldn't think of anything that wouldn't be a dead giveaway. So I referenced Arlo Guthrie, who sang "Coming Into Los Angeles"(1969), which mentions a "big airliner" in line 2.
pjbFiguredSteveMillerWasWayMoreObvious,IMHO
BTW It was Lloyd Bridges, not Robert Stack.
ReplyDeletepjbHasProbablySeenTheFilmMoreOftenThanBirdHas
such a classic line.
DeleteBalanced mode is one of the battery options for most laptop computers. Fun playing with y'all.
ReplyDeleteMister Re..., yes! I use BALANCED MODE on my laptop with much more regularity than AIRPLANE MODE (especially since March 2020).
DeleteThe Byrds' song: Eight Miles High (about a jet ride over L.A.)
ReplyDeleteLesser known 80's star: Jenny Wright from the 1986 movie Out of Bounds ("Wright" as in Wright brothers, as in airplane).
Finally, The Plot Against America. A novel by Philip Roth that imagines America under President Charles A. Lindbergh, flying ace and later Hitler supporter.
Actually it was London ("Rain gray town, known for its sound"), not LA. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kAfeHTrNOY
DeleteOh, very good. Thank you.
DeleteI must have mis-associated it. The "rain gray town" lyric I must have heard as "same gray town" and taken that as a reference to smog.
Ah, mondegreens. My sister was convinced that the Gentrys were singing "Keep on dancing, dancing in a frying pan."
DeleteDoes META stand for Mark's Excellent Tax Advantage?
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This week's challenge: This week's challenge comes from Michael Shteyman of Freeland, Md. Think of a popular tourist attraction in two words. The second, fourth, and sixth letters of the second word, in order, spell the first name of a famous author. The last four letters of the first word spell the author's last name. Who is the author, and what is the tourist attraction?
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