Gasoline is NOT the answer, but an example. While "gas" is a shortened form of gasoline, "line" is not.Q: What common eight-letter noun can be shortened in two ways — using either its first three letters or its last four letters? The answer is a familiar item.
Edit: Gasoline has the same syllable structure as the answer. You might see the item in the checkout line
A: MAGAZINE --> MAG, ZINE
"Common" is a bit of a hint.
ReplyDeleteThe first letter followed by the last three can be an adjective, noun, or verb. But don’t use the first four letters, please.
ReplyDelete😉
DeleteHmm…then my answer is not the intended one (although it seemed to work with SDB's hint above, and his earlier comment that this puzzle would have been better last week).
DeleteThen there may be two good answers -- my answer fits Nodd's clue (and there's no doubt I have the same one) and I don't get SDB's clue.
DeleteMy hints are for what I now realize is an alternative answer. I have the intended answer now, but I like my alt answer more.
DeleteThat makes me pretty sure (1) SDB and I had the same answer, and (2) I don't have the intended answer, yet. (And I just finished going over a list of 1,000 eight-letter nouns!)
DeleteI wouldn't dream of it.
DeleteI went over those same 1,000 nouns on that list again, all of them. The fact that I have the answer now is no thanks to the list, though, but thanks to another thread on this blog. 🙂
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThe middle three letters are the first three letters in a seven-letter synonym.
ReplyDeleteHow can any eight-letter word have "the middle three letters"?
DeleteYou are right, of course, and I am wrong. I mean the third, fourth, and fifth letters.
DeleteA yearbook is a book that makes me go Yea! every so often as I sift through it.
ReplyDeleteSo KEYSTONE yielding KEY & TONE would be the correct form of an answer?
ReplyDeleteYes, as well as the original word.
DeleteYup.
DeleteThanks. I have the answer now.
DeleteThe three and eight letter words have two different usages. The four letter word only fits one of them.
ReplyDeleteI don't have the answer yet. But I did think of a response that has a different number of letters, and the first X and last Y letters are different lengths. I might work on phrasing it into a puzzle and submitting it. I'll wait to see how well this one is received first.
ReplyDeleteI figured it out. Musical hint: Beastie Boys.
DeleteThink of a well-known song lyric that contains this word. The next line in the song also contains a four-letter shortening of an eight-letter word.
ReplyDeleteIf the song containing this word also contains stuttering, then should I think of a different song containing this word?
DeleteAh, I know what you're thinking of! Yes, it's a different song. Clarifying clue: in the song I have in mind, the 8-letter answer to this puzzle *rhymes with* a four-letter shortening of a different 8-letter word.
DeleteYou also have the two artists who sang the songs mixed up as well. Similar but different, and that's all I can say about that.
DeletepjbAlsoNoticesASimilarityInTheNumberOfLettersInTheirNames,ButAgainHeMustStopRightThere
Hey cranberry, I've refreshed, looked all the way up to the top of this page, and all the way down to the most currently recent post, and NOWHERE do I see any post in this blog page from Dr. Awkward outside of THIS VERY mini-thread.
DeleteSo how can you possibly know who the two artists are who Dr. Awkward THINKS sang the songs being talked about, let alone that she's wrong about who they are?
I got to sing along live to one of these songs a week ago Sunday. Sadly for the last time.
DeleteBelieve me, EAWAF, I know popular music, particularly from the decades of both songs. Not too many songs feature the answer word in their lyrics. But I know at least two that do(those you and the good doctor are referring to). First two I would've thought of, had I needed to think of any that feature the word in question.
DeletepjbSaysJudgingFromHisLastFewTripsToHisOwnDoctor,TheWordInQuestionAppearsToBeSomethingFromABygoneEraNow
There are dozens of songs, perhaps even hundreds, with the word in their lyrics. (I won't name any names, but the roster of artists is impressive.)
DeleteMy best guess about Dr. Awkward’s hint is that if she and I are thinking of the same artist/s and song, then it may help to know the song was one of 3 by X that topped the charts.
"It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" fits the bill for the first song. "Bennie and the Jets" is clearly the latter. BTW, if you catch the live stream from Dodger Stadium on Disney+, I'm the tall guy in the front row.
DeleteHowie is on the money—"magazine" rhymes with "teen." Partial credit for a certain Sir Mix-a-Lot classic, too: "I'm tired of magazines / Saying flat butts are the thing."
Delete(Which means Dr. K is on the money too!)
DeleteFinally got around to solving this. I don't use any of the three words very often. You?
ReplyDeleteI do not either, Word Woman, especially the shorther ones.
DeleteThere have been many great hints posted here by skydiveboy, Nodd, Rob, SuperZee and Dr. Awkward, etc.
Regarding Blaine's fine "gas/o/line" example, here is a Puzzleria! puzzle I wrote and posted on 5/21/21:
Name something that flows.
Remove an interior letter to name what it flows through.
What flows?
What does it flow through?
LegoGoingWithTheFlow
It's not the correct answer, but I sure am hungry for the San Francisco treat right about now.
ReplyDeleteThat was my idea too
DeleteGot answer after some struggle… the hints here are never useful to get the answer but very very useful to confirm the answer
ReplyDeleteAs the end of the first major holiday weekend draws to a close, here’s wishing everyone health and happiness through the end of this year and into the new year. No clue here – just a thought.
ReplyDeletesubtracting a letter and rearranging gives surprising result
ReplyDeleteTest
ReplyDeleteRoger. Copy that, good buddy.
DeleteRemove one letter to get a fourth synonym.
ReplyDeleteRemove the last letter of the 8-letter word and rearrange to get a word that describes this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteGood clue to puzzles in general, but I disagree on this one. I was kind of disappointed in it.
DeleteThis puzzle is amazing.
DeleteAs I posted at the end of last week's blog before Blaine opened up here:
ReplyDeleteThis would have been a better puzzle for last week.
WW,
ReplyDeleteI've never used either of the two words. It's easier to think of them as slang for the familiar item. One of the words I recall seeing on my computer.
it is time we had an easy puzzle, but if my answer is wrong- oh well, such is life
ReplyDeleteNearly 1500 correct responses to last week's puzzle. And it was easier than this turkey.
DeleteIt took some time, but I have the intended answer and and alternative.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteAh, man!? I thought that clue was sufficiently opaque. Sorry, Blaine.
DeleteI never would have defined the 4 letter word that way. The three letter word has more than one meaning.
ReplyDeleteWe got an answer that fits, but is even more lame than usual.
ReplyDeleteThat matches my week, with having to get a new cell phone on Monday and a new computer on Wednesday.
The 8 letter word has an older meaning, more closely related to its origin.
ReplyDeleteMy doctor says I need to lose weight (even before stuffing myself at Thanksgiving). Anyone have experience with stomach stapling?
ReplyDeleteTry contacting some past Playboy Playmates, Pandamonium.
DeleteLegOuch!
Claudia Cardinale was always my fave. I.K.Y.N
DeleteGuy must have been a Navy pilot: night, bad weather, and he still caught the wire on the first try.
ReplyDeleteMost pilots have nightmares (literally) about power lines.
DeleteCaused 100,000 homes to lose power, so it is only fitting that they suffered hypothermia.
Too soon to assign blame here. If the engine quit (and not because he ran out of gas or did something else stupid), it's not pilot error. Given the fog, turbulence probably wasn't a factor.
DeleteAssuming he was rated and current for instrument and night flying, though, yeah, most likely he just busted minimums and hit a tower clearly marked on the approach plate for that airport.
You're reminding me of the flying around power line dreams I used to have. I had forgotten about them. With all the very close calls I have had with death I should be the poster child for PTSD. However, I do not have dreams about them at all. I do have occasional dreams of my car having been towed that are annoying until I wake and realize my car is where I park it at home.
DeleteLots of news stories use this word.
ReplyDeleteIt took me only 60 minutes to solve this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteI put the puzzle aside for days, but after stopping by this blog again today, I got the answer in just a few minutes. Weird.
DeleteI was alluding to the news magazine show "60 Minutes". It actually took longer than that, but the clue about the street in New Orleans led me right to it.
DeleteRearrange the 8 letter word to get two informal nouns: One is something you might bring to help you win a competition, and the other is something you might bring to celebrate your victory
ReplyDeleteJust to check if I am receiving on my new POS computer.
ReplyDeleteAt noon Tuesday, is Noah's post the last one?
No, yours is the last one.
DeleteCharles is now the king of England, but so far there has yet to be a coronation. Are they taking their time in crowning Chuck out of respect for Elizabeth II, or are they considering chucking the crown?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSomeone needs to go look up Spoonerism.
DeleteThe early bird gets the --?
DeleteHow about spoonitorium? A place for those driven insane by spoonerisms to convalesce.
DeleteIs TMZ TMI?
ReplyDeleteYes.
DeleteTransthalmic microexcitatory zones?
Deletejan, I doubt that pilot who landed on the tower is from a Dutch town or he would have had a gentle touch down.
ReplyDeleteIf there had been a brighter Mooney probably would have seen that tower.
DeleteIt was the nerds' best shot at a birds nest.
DeleteThey will sue the crop duster. Like the Sioux were able to drop Custer.
DeleteNice "spunoonerism," skydiveboy.
DeleteLegoCrashin'InAnd"Cash"in'InOnASkydiveboyNamedSue!
Thanks Lego, but you can sure tell Johnny Cash never flew a plane. And who wrote the script of a guy attempting to exit a plane with an unpacked chute?
DeleteBTW, the NPR Puzzle page says, "If you know the answer to the two-week challenge, submit it here by Wednesday, Dec. 1 at 3 p.m. ET". This is a one-week challenge, of course, and the deadline is tomorrow, Thursday.
ReplyDeleteIt's been like that for several months now, ever since the last creative two-week challenge in August. Dr. K noted this at the time.
DeleteActually they corrected it on August 28. I do not believe they feed the interns enough, or high quality junk food.
DeleteThe "two week" challenge wording has NOT been corrected under the submission section. The intern has just been happily copying the wrong wording each time.
DeleteI have been adding the "two-week" problem to my submission for a few weeks now. I'm thinking about contacting NPR and telling them time travel has been discovered, as a news tip. Then, I can show them that the Sunday Puzzle must be traveling through time.
DeleteFigured this out yesterday. No real AHA moment. Kudos to JAWS for the Beastie Boys' reference.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteFinally got it. In the nick of time.
ReplyDeleteWhat common twelve-letter noun can be shortened in two ways — using either its first six letters or its last six letters? The answer is a familiar item. Hint: The two shortened forms begin with "m" and "f", respectively.
ReplyDeleteYes, common it is.
DeleteAnd yet again!
ReplyDeleteI think I know what you mean.
DeleteMAGAZINE, MAG, ZINE
ReplyDelete"Finally got around to solving this. I don't use any of the three words very often. You?" >>> A round refers to a round of ammunition or MAGAZINE.
Puzzleria! this week features a Fantastic double-puzzle Appetizer titled "Instrumental journeys & chronophobia." The creator of this Beautifully Bemusing Bamboozlement is a "fan of Puzzleria! who wishes to remain mysterious." Future mysteries from this puzzle-maker may well be in the offing...
ReplyDeleteWe upload P! in the wee Friday hours, just past Midnight PST.
Also on this week's menus are:
* a Schpuzzle of the Week about a "Confectioner-in-chief,"
* a Puzzle Slice that is "Poetically proverbial breakfast fare,"
* a "James Herriot Dessert" entitled "Two creatures great and small," and
* eight riff-offs of this week's NPR puzzle, titled “The Gift of the (Zane Grey) Magi.” (Our friend Plantsmith contributed a wonerful one of these eight riffs.)
Join us for amaZingly Zip-roaring puZZles, marZipan, magaZines, Zwiebacks, Zebras...
LegoPeriodicalPuzzleProducer
Is it the masked Puzzler?
DeleteMAGAZINE, MAG, ZINE
ReplyDeleteThe Beastie Boys song, Fight for Your Right (To Party) includes the line, "your mom took away your best porno mag."
As for the word ZINE, I think I have only used it in Scrabble and Words with Friends.
That reminds me...
DeleteMy hint this week was my response to Pandamonium's question: "Anyone have experience with stomach stapling?"
I replied, "Try contacting some past Playboy Playmates..." some who appeared in Playboy Magazine as centerfolds with staples in their stomachs!
LegoWhoAdds"...OrSoI'veBeenTold"
MAGAZINE (shortened “mag” or “zine”)
ReplyDeleteMy clues:
“All of them.”
A reference to Sarah Palin’s famous answer to Katie Couric asking her what newspapers (and, I thought, magazines) she’d read before being tapped as John McCain’s running mate.
“Weird.”
Anagrams to Wired—a magazine.
The answer I was considering originally was kinsfolk, shortened to “kin” or “folk.” I didn’t go with that because I wasn’t happy with “folk,” in the singular (rather than the plural, “folks”).
Had the same thought.
DeleteSometimes folk is used as a plural. At least some folk would say so.
DeleteMagazine/Mag and Zine
ReplyDeleteMagazine, Mag and Zine can all refer to a periodical publication.
Magazine and Mag, but not Zine, can also refer to a bullet holding device.
I thought I had an alternate answer, Yourself/You and Self, until a friend pointed out that yourself isn’t a noun.
Sigh…
According to numerous Internet sites (which are of course infallible), a pronoun is a subclass of nouns, so your alternate answer is valid.
DeleteYeah I agree.
Delete'Someone' is counted by pretty much all dictionaries as both a noun and a pronoun. It's true that 'yourself' is reflexive, and so more pronoun-y, but I think it's a good alternative answer.
Two thumbs up.
DeleteMAGAZINE —> MAG, ZINE
ReplyDeleteMy comment--“It didn’t take me much time to solve it, but for the life of me I can’t think of a hint to post’—had three magazine titles in it: TIME, LIFE, and (the Saturday Evening) POST.
I considered Byron’s The Siege of Corinth—“Here, throughout the siege, had been / The Christians’ chiefest magazine….”—but thought better of it.
And thank you, Dr. Awkward, for the provocative hint about the lines in Billy Joel’s “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” that rhymed “magazine” and “teen.”
Thanks, Dr. K! And for what it's worth, I'm a big fan of the Byron hint.
DeleteMAGAZINE
ReplyDelete(KINSFOLK works, too)
> It took some TIME, but I have the intended answer and an alternative.
> There are lots of streets in New Orleans. Many PEOPLE live there.
> Care to share some HIGHLIGHTS?
> LOOK, I know what you're saying; just trying for a more COSMOPOLITAN perspective. [Deleted]
> Assuming he was rated and current for instrument and night FLYING, though, yeah, most likely he just busted minimums and hit a tower clearly marked on the approach plate for that airport. [I hadn't intended this to be a clue, but I'll take it.]
> Is TMZ TMI?
In Wednesday's New York Times Crossword, "44A: Online competitor of US WEEKLY" = TMZ.
> And yet again!
In Thursday's New York Times Crossword: "7A: GQ or S.I." = MAG!
Kinsfolk does not work - kin is not an abbreviation of kinsfolk, folk is also not an abbreviation of kinsfolk
DeleteWho said anything about abbreviations?
DeleteSheep Launcher:
DeleteWill Shortz liked it and said he will probably mention it come Sunday.
I hate it. It's a compound word, broken into its constituent parts.
DeleteI think it's very good.
Delete'kin' clearly has a sense that's almost identical to 'kinsfolk', and 'folk' is often used with that same meaning even if its most common meaning is just 'people'.
I actually like it better than the intended answer. It is more sophisticated and elegant than simply using syllables as hip words. Kin and folk are true words, not to mention, nouns too. After I discovered the intended answer I was disappointed and felt it to be more sophomoric than kinsfolk. But, then, that is how most of these NPR puzzles tend to be in my opinion.
DeleteI think alternative answers should be encouraged because they demonstrate creativity and add to the fun, which is what the Sunday Puzzle is supposed to be about. I'm unclear whether "one answer only" means you can't submit both what you think is the intended and an alternative; you must submit one or the other. Anyone know?
DeleteNodd: Will Shortz has a true phobia about alternative answers. One would think he would rejoice in them.
DeleteThis pathology has ruined many NPR Sunday Puzzles over the past thirty years and come close to doing so to hundreds more.
He says he doesn't see them. If that is so, then he has chosen not to.
I hope you have success in changing it.
Does WS really have a phobia about alternative answers? One of my favorite parts of GAMES magazine was the Eureka! column, where you could win a t-shirt for providing an alternate solution.
DeleteI would greatly prefer to hear Will and the WeSun host discuss the alternative answers submitted.
JAWS:
DeleteNo, I do not believe he does. On Monday I emailed him this heads up:
Will,
Thought you might want to know there are two answers to this week's NPR puzzle.
MAGAZINE minus A = MAG & ZINE
KINSFOLK minus S = KIN & FOLK
M/W accepts both kinfolk and kinsfolk.
Mark
Will replied:
Thanks, Mark.
Not bad!
I said the answer was a "familiar item," tho, so only MAGAZINE really works.
(I'll probably mention both on the air next Sunday.)
--Will
Nope, no phobia and I'll just bet his "Not bad!" cleared up your foolish error for you. What were you thinking?
DeleteI just got off the boat, so "zine" is not "'familiar'" to me even though I've heard of it.
I'd say his answer to you is simply arrogant.
I see you have once again missed the entire point to my post. And just so you won't miss this one, it is that he has no way of knowing what alternative answers may be if they are not forwarded to him by the NPR interns who know little or nothing about what they are doing. He has explained this to us in the past, but you refuse to accept his explanations. However, I do agree with you that he is indeed arrogant.
DeleteMAGAZINE ==> MAG & ZINE
ReplyDeleteMAGAZINE → MAG = ZINE
ReplyDeleteMAGAZINE minus A = MAG & ZINE
ReplyDeleteKINSFOLK minus S = KIN & FOLK (alternate answer)
My hints were directed at my alternate answer because it is what I came up with first, but a bit later I realized from some of the hints that there was another answer, which I then quickly found.
MAGAZINE>>>>MAG & ZINE
ReplyDeletemagazine (mag, zine)
ReplyDeleteMacaroni
ReplyDeleteI hear roni for macaroni about as often as I hear zine for magazine.
jan,
ReplyDeleteElvis Presley’s 1962 Lockheed 1329 JetStar is going up for auction in early January. I assume you will be bidding on this?
No. A JetStar figures in Cormac McCarthy's awful new book, "The Passenger". Put me off them on principle.
DeleteI happened to see that book displayed at my library branch this week. They only have 243 normal size print copies, but more large print are also available. I didn't even pick up a copy to examine it. I have never read anything by him. Thanks for the warning.
DeleteI liked "The Road", but the new book is a dog.
DeleteI was given a copy of Blood Meridian many years back by my brother, and I tried 2 or 3 times to read it, but hated it and could not finish. I hate the way he writes.
DeleteFwiw, the word MAGAZINE comes from Arabic root KH-Z-N meaning "to store". The form M-KH-Z-N meaning "store" became French MAGASIN shop or warehouse, from there into Russian. In English, the word narrowed to the store of ammunition for a gun.
ReplyDeleteI found Magazine quickly in list of New Orleans streets...thanks to Iris's clue.
ReplyDeleteSame here. That's why Blaine eventually obliterated the whole thread.
DeleteI thought perhaps that was what jan meant by "And yet again!"
(It turned out he meant something else.)
MAGAZINE. I commented that the first and last three letters can form an adjective, noun, or verb. (Some sources call "mine" a predicate adjective, others a possessive pronoun. In archaic English it often appears as an adjective, e.g., "weep o mine eyes" or "mine eyes have seen the glory ....")
ReplyDeleteI also suggested that the first four letters not be used by themselves.
Magazine --> mag, zine
ReplyDeleteEarlier this week I said, “Lots of news stories use this word,” like the ones that concern high-capacity gun magazines.
I was going to post something like "Look people, this is making us mad. Life is too short to waste time on this." (containing 6 magazine names)
ReplyDeleteI said it took me only 60 minutes to solve this puzzle. I was alluding to the news magazine show "60 Minutes". It actually took me longer than that, but the clue about the street in New Orleans led me right to it. Never knew about that street before I checked a list.
ReplyDeleteThere's a seven-letter word that can be shortened to either its first four or last three letters. Both shortened forms are used pretty much interchangeably; the long form is used relatively rarely.
ReplyDeleteThis week's challenge: This week's challenge comes from Joseph Young of St. Cloud, Minn. who runs the website Puzzleria! Name a symbol punctuation mark on a computer keyboard. Anagram it to get the brand name of a product you might buy at a grocery, in two words. What is it?
ReplyDeleteCongrats, Lego!
Yes, congratulations, Lego!
DeleteI buy tomatoes from a Mexico plantation.
I'm not especially fond of reused corn.
ReplyDelete