Sunday, January 29, 2023

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 29, 2023): Fruit Salad

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 29, 2023): Fruit Salad
Q: Name a fruit in one word. Drop the last two letters. The remaining letters can be rearranged to name two other fruits. What are they?
Or if you remove the 2nd and 4th letters, you can rearrange to get a symbol.

Edit: POMEGRANATE-OE --> PENTAGRAM
A: POMEGRANATE-TE --> PEAR, MANGO

196 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.

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  2. My first guess turned out to be right; I guess there wasn't any threat there.

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  3. You don't have to be a magician to solve this conundrum.

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  4. Me, too, Wolfgang. First guess. Not bad for someone who got Covid this week. No clue here. Maybe later.

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    1. Sorry to hear that. I got COVID before Christmas, and finally threw it out together with the old year. Fingers crossed you won't have it that long.

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    2. Thank you for the kind words. My wife just tested positive this morning. For a while, it'll be a rough ride.

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    3. Sorry to hear that. I hope you all get well soon.

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    4. Dr. K, sorry covid hit your home. Feel better soon.

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    5. My sympathies as well. I recall you are a hoops devotee and hope your athleticism will power you through with minimal ill effects.

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    6. Thank you, sdb, word woman, and Nodd. We managed to avoid it for years. If there's a quasi silver lining, it's that I received the diagnosis literally the day before we were to go out of the country for a holiday. Needless to say, trip's off.

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    7. So far, my girlfriend and I have avoided the dreadful disease. Several of our friends have had it, though. No one described it as fun. I hope you get well in short order.

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    8. Thank you, Chuck. May your girlfriend and you continue to avoid it. Your friends (or you) certainly have the gift of understatement. Fun, it most definitely is not. Fortunately, we're both maximally vacccinated and boosted and have excellent medical care.

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    9. Best wishes for a speedy recovery! And definitely get the paxlovid asap if you're eligible.

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    10. Thank you, Dr. A. I’m already into day 3 of Paxlovid. My wife will start tomorrow.

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    11. Dr K, I wish both of you a speedy recovery. I advise you to reach out to your medical provider (if you have not already), and request some of the treatments available. I also recommend that you get as much fresh air as you can, to reduce how much you breathe back in the virus. Either getting outside, a Corsi-Rosenthal box, or even just taping an air filter to the back of a fan can help.

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    12. I just saw your paxlovid comment above, so it's good to see you're ahead of me! :-) Please be aware of the "rebound" associated with that.

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    13. Dr. K,
      So sorry. Best wishes to you and your wife for a speedy and complete recovery. With both of you infected, you will not be the best caregivers for each other but at least you can isolate together.

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    14. Thank you, JAWS and Lorenzo. My better half is also my angel. She's a day or so behind me, but she's without question much tougher. I don't know what I'd do without her.

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    15. My wife and I had Covid last month. Sick for a day or two, tested positive for 15 days. Of course, that's with 5 shots and Paxlovid, but I found the illness itself to be much less bothersome than all the masking and testing and quarantining.

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  5. As always, there are connections to earlier puzzles. My comment last week about royalty also applies.

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  6. Royal secret agent 007 finally meets his demise.

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  9. You can make quite a fruit salad out of these letters.

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  10. I've having a hard time coming up with a really good clue.

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  11. And changing one letter of the job rearranges too.

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  12. I'll bet I'm not the only one who will find the right fruit for the wrong reason.

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  13. Slightly rearrange the four deleted letters, and get another "job," albeit one that usually pays significantly less than Rob's "type of job." Interestingly, if you move one of the letters from Rob's "type of job" and add it to the one I've alluded to, you get a phrase that's relevant to the "job" I've alluded to.

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  14. Hey Coach Z! Hey Coach Z! Whaddaya got? Whaddaya got for me? How about that? Wanna play some soccer? Some hockeyjock? I got whatever it takes! Hey, ya want some salad? Pasta salad? Tuna salad? Fruit salad? Fruit salad! Fruit salad! Fruit salad! Salad ...Salad as a rock? Um... Coach Z, what are we doin' here?

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    1. I'm sure there's a clue in there, but sounds like word salad to me.

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  15. My girlfriend and I started out in the watermelon patch but soon realized we had to go elsewhere.

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  16. I have tried all three of the fruits. None of them are in my regular rotation. No clue here, unless you know what I've been eating.

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    1. Two of the three fruits flourish in my neck of the woods. No clue here either, unless you know where I live. ;)

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  17. What do you call a skydiving dwarf?

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    1. Jumpin' Trumpkin? Do they skydive in Narnia?

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    2. The reason you may not have heard of dwarfs and midgets skydiving is because they tend to be the most overlooked members of our society.

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    3. You mean they canopy easily seen?

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    4. That's right, and if you can't see 'em, you can't chute 'em.

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    5. But wouldn't their presence on the plane be manifest anyway?

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    6. Not if they're quiet and reserved.

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    7. They'd have to be spotted eventually or they might miss the drop zone.

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    8. I don't think they'd by missed if it were a sunny day.

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    9. When I was jumping in the 1970's there were strato clouds every day.

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    10. I figured if a skydiving soldier is a "paratrooper", then a skydiving dwarf might be a "paragnome".

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    11. That's clever; I didn't think of trying an anagram.

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  18. Or, another fruit and a place you can find all 3 of them.

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  19. Same puzzle, but instead, name a third fruit that is not part of the intended solution, and the name of a country whose capital is also the name of a type of the fruit.

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  20. I have an answer. But is "fur" a fruit?

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  21. The single-word requirement eliminates some of the more interesting fruit names, like Buddha's hand, Monstera deliciosa, & Ugli fruit

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  22. Movie clue: The Philadelphia Story.

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    1. Are you C.K. Dexter Haven?

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    2. In this case, C. K. Dexter Haven is just half of the equation!

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    3. Jimmy (Stewart) and (Cary) Grant give you Jimmy Grant—with the Aussie link to pomegranate :).

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  23. Is this in the Goldilock's zone for puzzles?

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  24. Sports clue: Roberto Durán

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Leo! It's only phonetic but I thought it fit pretty well ....

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  25. I ate one of these fruits last night, but explaining how it was prepared would be TMI.

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  26. Like Wolfgang, I guessed the long fruit first. Apparently unlike Wolfgang, I got sidetracked by trying to squeeze another fruit out of it, and when I was left with just a country, I gave up on that one.
    But I have it now! And I even understand Blaine's clue! And, come to think of it, a remark *about* Blaine's clue kind of wraps around itself and forms another clue.

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  27. Okay, I would call this a puzzle, so no pffft this week. A fairly easy puzzle, but still, a bit of a challenge until I took pen to paper. The first fruit has more than five letters.

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    1. The first fruit as 10 or more letters since there is no fruit with less than 4 letters (except fig), so 4 + 4 + 2(the two removed letters) = 10, a minimum...

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    2. Aha!

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gac

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  28. Slightly tougher than last week. I wonder if anyone has had all three at one sitting.
    It was nice to hear Will's gracious welcome and discussion of old times with his repeat guest.
    I'm not sure I know about the 1996 "no answer" episode, only the later one. Ayesha seemed to think they are common.

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    1. Ayesha also remarked about how it became clearer after Will REPEATED the same presentation he gave last Sunday. Did anyone else notice that? And the guest was allowed to indicate the myth that old age means decline of brain function without her correcting that crap. Strange, when they interview some people over 100 on NPR who are as tarp as a shack.

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    2. Well said, plus where would Japanese culture be without us fold arts?

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    3. That's what the papers say.

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    4. Well, they always manage to put their own wrinkle on things.

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    5. Especially on big stories like Ucrane.

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    6. Old editors never die; they just flatline.

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    7. Periodically you hear of one dying of organ failure.

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    8. Depends on how you reed it, and I believe it is an uh choired taste.

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    9. Why don't skydivers complain about rising prices?

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  29. Solved this one while still in bed on a sad day for our family. Our beloved 14-year-old Maltese dog Carina is terminally ill, and we have arranged to have her euthanized later today. It was a hard decision but this is the right time, before she endures days of pain and discomfort.

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    1. Lorenzo, the hardest day and the right choice to help Carina along. Amazing how much they love us and we love them. So very sorry.

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    2. Lots of us have been in the same place, and know a bit of what you are going through. Condolences.

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    3. I do not know if this will help you deal with the grief, but I have met many, many people who have had NDEs where they were met by deceased relatives and friends on the other side. And sometimes they are also met by a deceased pet who they had put down due to illness, and the pet(s) would thank them for having done that for them.

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    4. Lorenzo, Please accept my sincere condolences. Such a decision is never easy. We euthnanized our loyal and devoted family dog several years ago. It broke our hearts, especially our daughter's.

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    6. Lorenzo, There are support groups for loss of pets. I am grieving too over pets. I wish you strength.

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    7. SDB, Dr. K and Natasha – Thank you for your kind and supportive words. I don’t know what Carina is thinking, but she would certainly be thankful to know that we protected her from unnecessary suffering. As for support groups, all your condolences are already a step in that direction and we are thankful to have Blaine’s community supporting us during this difficult time.

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    8. My sincere condolences as well, Lorenzo. Pets are family, especially dogs. I hope she had an easy, safe journey. Peace to her; comfort to you and yours.

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    9. Thank you Wolfgang. The vet came to our house Sunday afternoon and Carina passed peacefully on the bed in our arms.

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    10. Lorenzo,
      Again, if it helps, you can take comfort in knowing that your pet did all it could for you, and you did all you could for your pet, and that is all well and good. My condolences.

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    11. SDB - Yes, that knowledge helps ease the pain. Thanks.

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  30. What's your favorite comic? The Green Lantern? Or Ernie Pook's Comeek?

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    1. Neither, I prefer George Santos.

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    2. Apt anagram for GEORGE SANTOS:
      EGO SO STRANGE
      pjbWouldAlsoLikeToOffer"SaturdayNightLiveGoingIntoThe2000s"AsAnAcceptableTVClue(EverNoticeHowManyCastMembersThey'veHadNamedChris?)

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    3. Ben, was that a clue for Lynda J. Boysenberry?

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    4. Patrick no offense, but you had a birthday last year right- so are you now an Elderberry?

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    5. I will be 53 this April, but my Mom just had her 80th this past December. She truly is.
      POMEGRANATE, PEAR, MANGO
      "Mango" was the name of a character played by Chris Kattan on SNL. Not Rock, Farley, Elliott, Parnell, or Redd. Kattan.
      pjbWillActuallyBeHavingABirthdayEveryYear,NotJustTheLastOne(SameAsEverybodyElse,LastHeChecked)

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  32. Got this one too. I have had all three of these fruits in a single fruit salad.
    And I understood Blaine's clue for once.

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  33. Replies
    1. Pomegranate phonetically contains "granite", a type of rock.

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  34. I have all three in my fruit bowl. And part of one in my fridge.

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  35. It *was* the first one I thought of, though it took me a bit to get which other fruits it mixed into. I guess I was rusty.

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  36. One of the fruits reminds me of a two word exhortation.

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  37. It looks like we will be in for a year of insipid, childish puzzles from what we have been given so far. How sad.

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  38. Name a common animal in one word. Drop the last two letters. The remaining letters can be rearranged to name two other common animals.

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    1. I have a proposed answer. Should I post it, or wait till Thursday?

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    2. I have an answer too... except I wouldn't say all the animals are common! Hm.

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    3. I would say all the animals in my answer are commonly known, but not all are commonly seen by most people. One of them is much larger than the other two and would not encounter the other two absent some bizarre circumstance.

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    4. My answer: tarantula --> rat, tuna.

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    5. Thanks! Your puzzle was more interesting than the NPR challenge, since there are more animals to choose from than there are fruits.

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    6. I hadn't thought of that ... thank you!

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  39. A couple of weeks ago, there was a brief discussion here of Boston accents. I was biking past a group of school kids walking home today, and was surprised to catch a snippet of conversation about the diarrhea Anne Frank.

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    1. A rather frank discussion I suppose. Check out:

      Barbro Karlén, later Barbro Ask-Upmark, was a Swedish writer of both prose and poetry, and a dressage rider. Wikipedia
      Born: 1954, Sweden
      Died: October 12, 2022, United States
      Children: Erik Ask-Upmark

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  40. The etymology of the name of the first fruit includes a group of fruits that includes one of the second fruits, and something common to pretty much all fruits.

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  41. RE Blaine's hint: The fruit itself is a symbol in English royalty.

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    1. This Friday's Puzzleria! will feature a pair of "Ripcord-Roarin’ geogastronomical Skydiversions" cooked up by our friend skydiveboy. They are titled: “You can’t get there from here...” and “A stately country dish.”
      You can find these two gems on our blog Puzzleria! just after Midnight PST early Friday morn.
      Also on our menus this week:
      * a Schpuzzle of the Week titled "Laureates and Lariats,"
      * a Tropical Tourism Puzzle Slice titled "Lying supine on the Seychelles,"
      * a Dessert about a movie starring a dapper lead character interestingly attired, and
      * 10 riff-offs of this week's NPR puzzle, titled "Pomegranates-mangled yield mango and pears."
      Drop by (like skydiveboy does!), to get "Skydiverted," and to mangle pomegranates into mangos.

      LegoMangoManglee

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  43. POMEGRANATE (- TE) →
    PEAR + MANGO

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  44. POMEGRANATE —> PEAR, MANGO

    About Rob’s hint: The “type of job” was of course “manager,” but the four deleted letters yield “poet,” another kind of "job" that “pays significantly less.” And if you remove the letter “r” from “manager” and add it to “poet,” you get something poets are wont to do, that is, “manage trope.” A bit of a stretch, I admit, but in my Covid-addled state it was the best I could come up with.

    Many thanks to all for the good wishes. We continue to heal here in Casa K.

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  45. POMEGRANATE -> PEAR, MANGO

    > As always, there are connections to earlier puzzles. My comment last week about royalty also applies.

    Persephone was all about the pomegranates. Also, wonderful Pom, King Babar's eldest son, is heir to the throne of Celesteville.

    > The etymology of the name of the first fruit includes a group of fruits that includes one of the second fruits, and something common to pretty much all fruits.

    Pears are pomes, and "granate" refers to seeds.

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  46. POMEGRANATE - PEAR, MANGO Guessing that my observation about it being another wonderful puzzle would have been TMI.

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  47. POMEGRANATE, MANGO, PEAR

    I have eaten all three of these fruits, but I will generally choose others first.

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  48. POMEGRANATE; MANGO, PEAR

    "Silly" >>> Sill >>> A sill in geology may be made of granite, similar to pomeGRANATE.

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  49. POMEGRANATE → PEAR, MANGO. My hints:

    1. “Royal secret agent 007 finally meets his demise.”

    (Royal Riviera is a kind of pear. In the Bond film “Dr. No,” Honeychile Ryder sings “Underneath the Mango Tree.” In Greek mythology, the pomegranate was known as the “fruit of the dead.”)

    2. “Sports clue: Roberto Durán.” (Durán was said to have “manos de piedra” (“hands of stone”), which could be loosely paraphrased as a “palm o’ granite.”)

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  50. Pomegranate also has grape. I tried that first and put it aside at first.

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    1. Pomegranate also has an orange in there. That's why I felt safe in saying that I would probably not be the only one to find the right word for the wrong reason. Just to be sure, one has to look up things like tempa and menato.

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    3. Wait, the only words in your vocabulary are the names of things you eat???

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  51. (Replace the "e" in "manager" with an "a" to get "anagram.")

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  52. POMEGRANATE —> PEAR, MANGO
    My lame hint "I've having a hard time coming up with a really good clue" was "a real" reference to arils aka pomegranate seeds.

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  53. I forgot I had posted a hint:
    "You don't have to be a magician to solve this conundrum."
    Magicians palm (pom) things.

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  54. Pomegranate -te --> mango, pear

    Last Sunday I said, “My girlfriend and I started out in the watermelon patch but soon realized we had to go elsewhere.” Go as in Mango.

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  55. It's been a bit crazy here today as we just got a furniture delivery...so I'm a bit late posting....

    Pomegranate - te >> Mango and Pear

    You can also find the fruits Orange and Grape in these letters, making for an interesting fruit salad.

    Happy Groundhog Day all!

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  56. I probably should have hinted: Jesse Owens. Because it was amazing watching that mango.

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  58. All right…by now everybody knows it's pomegrana[te] — pear, mango.

    My clue:
    My first guess turned out to be right; I guess there wasn't any threat there.
    An allusion to the conservation status of the pomegranate—which I thought was "Not Threatened," but according to Wikipedia, it is even beyond that ("Least Concern"). Good! More power to the pomegranate! 💪

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  59. POMEGRANATE —> PEAR, MANGO my clue about Comics related to Stewart and Lydia Resnick, the billionaire owners of Pom Wonderful.

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  60. I have been buying pomegranate arils in bulk at Costco. They add a nice crunch and color to salads while they are in season.

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  61. Among the hors d'oeuvres at a dinner party I went to last Saturday was muhammara, an Armenian dip with roasted red peppers, walnuts, and pomegranate molasses. It was amazing.

    An Armenian grocery is about to open around the corner and I will be relieving them of their muhammara (and lahmejun and lavash and...) on a regular basis.

    https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017492-muhammara-red-pepper-and-walnut-spread

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  62. Okay, run, don't walk, on over to Lego's http://puzzleria.blogspot.com/
    and check out my 2 puzzles he is running now that were recently rejected by Will Shortz. I think you will find them at least a step up from the puzzles he is serving us. Both of them are geographical and the second one is also culinary. They could be easy for some and not so easy for others. Enjoy!

    Blaine also has a link in his links section upper right.

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    1. Are there not two answers to this first puzzle or is "town" doing some heavy lifting?

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    2. Good point, and I think we should wait until Lego's deadline before I comment, other than to say I do not believe the alternate answer fully complies.

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    3. Which ones?
      I've been to the town.

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  63. Growing up in NE Pennsylvania "coal country" I am embarressed to inform that we used to call a green pepper a mango. I know. How, who, what the heck!! I have met some other people who are not my family who have reported the same strange mis-idendifcation. Weird, huh?

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  64. Anybody been able to spot that Chinese surveillance balloon, or have an App that shows its location??
    The last I've heard is that it's near Kansas City but that is an hour or two old. A quick check and I haven't spotted it. I wonder if Big Brother is blocking its location on some of the usual apps.

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    1. I doubt it's being tracked on any app like, e.g., Flightradar24, since spy aircraft don't generally have transponders broadcasting their positions on while over hostile territory. There is a U.S.-registered balloon 61,000 feet over the southeast; maybe that's what people are tracking.

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    2. I bet it is!
      One of our local TV stations had this on its website.

      https://www.kmbc.com/article/chinese-spy-balloon-allegedly-spotted-over-missouri/42760623

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    3. I don't think a 400mm lens would get that clear an image of a balloon 12 miles overhead.

      Why are we ok with satellites spying from maybe 6 times as high, but a balloon drifting uncontrolled gets our knickers in a twist?

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    4. I don't think we should jump to conclusions. Maybe it's not a Chinese spy balloon. Maybe it's just dropping skydiving Guatemalans over Martha's Vineyard.

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    5. I am not at all convinced it is a Chinese balloon. I suspect it is George Santos's inflated ego.

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    6. I'm not too upset that it is floating by, it's just the principle of the thing. Why would they bother sending it over when satellites can probably do the same job?
      I'd like to see it get shot down though, as soon as it gets over the Atlantic, just to see what info and/or equipment it has.
      But, only if it can be done safely.

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    7. You ever fly over the middle of the U.S. and look down? Whole lotta nothing. You send a balloon drifting with the wind over the middle of the U.S., and that's how much valuable intelligence you're going to collect. The chances of it drifting over something of interest about about nil. I'd guess it's a mistake.

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    8. Almost 25 years ago, a large runaway weather balloon proved to be quite challenge a for a pair of fighter jets trying to shoot it down, staying in the air even after more than 1,000 rounds were fired at it.

      The research balloon was measuring ozone levels above Canada, the Associated Press reported at the time. It went rogue in August 1998, passing across Canada, over the Atlantic Ocean, and through British airspace before entering Iceland's airspace and then drifting northward.

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    9. Satellite passes are carefully choreographed. Same with U-2 and SR-71 overflights in the old days. I don't think this is a serious spy effort.

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    10. I suspect it will become more difficult to track as it gets later and visibility begins to dim sum.

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    11. ... And it will start to drift low, mainly because of helium leakage.

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    12. The Chinese are building up a helium balloon imbalance. We must not allow a helium balloon gap!

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    13. Actually, an interesting question might be, why have I never noticed that Raven Aerostar balloon, N257TH, or anything like it, flying around until that Chinese balloon showed up? (Probably because aviation foamers weren't looking for balloons before.)

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    14. Could it be the Chinese are sending it as a balloon payment?

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    15. Looks like they might be getting ready to shoot it down off the coast of SC. There's a few military aircraft there, and the FAA's imposed a Temporary Flight Restriction on the area. (Good thing they got that system back up!)

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    16. I see that there is talk of the U.S. maybe trying to shoot down that balloon today.
      "Mr. President, I can walk!"

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    17. It's been destroyed. Didn't put up much of a fight.

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    18. Probably a lot of the sensors have been destroyed after that high free fall. I also wonder if there is some kind of self destruct mechanism going on.

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    19. This sounds like just a case of the Chinese checkers checking up on us.

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    20. sdb, maybe the ballon is actually Santos' ego, but parachutes depend on full inflation too.

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    21. 68Charger,
      Yes there is, and it is called the Republican Party.

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    22. So, why did we shoot down the balloon? Did it represent a threat after it was no longer over the U.S.? Were we absolutely certain no one was aboard? Were we more justified than the Soviets were when they shot down KAL 007 after it had left their airspace?

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  67. -9 F in Cambridge this morning.

    "Cold! If the thermometer had been an inch longer we'd all have frozen to death."

    -- Mark Twain

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    1. Exposed cells see us looking blue, especially taller folks who have more surface area -- life is not fair in height.

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  70. Oops -- NPR put up a new puzzle page, but it contains last week's puzzle.

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    1. Yes… has anyone listened live?

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    2. The on-air puzzle on that page appears to be new. But it appears under the topic heading "SPECIAL SERIES -- FIFA World Cup 2022" for some reason.

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  71. Next week's puzzle (from memory): Name a food item you might order at a fast food restaurant. The first, second, and last letters, in order, name another food item. Remove those letters, and the remaining letters read backwards name another food item. What food items are these?

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    2. That makes sense, Jan - I have the answer for *that* puzzle, anyway. Although I take issue with the "a".

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  72. Great capture Jan.. I have the same from listening

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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.