What everyone wants to be? Not me.Q: Name a tree. In the very middle of the word insert a homophone of another tree. The result will be a new word describing what everyone wants to be. What is it?
A: POPLAR + YEW(U) --> POPULAR
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.
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.
Two heavenly entities come to mind.
ReplyDeleteSaint Peter, the pearly gatekeeper, and Gabriel, the angelic bugler.
DeletePeter Gabriel's "Games Without Frontiers" features an evergreen mondegreen (jeux sans frontières / she's so popUlar) as sung by Kate Bush.
Not a very knotty problem.
ReplyDeleteThis one came to me quickly. I am with Blaine: "Not me" either...
ReplyDeleteAww... that's sweet 😊
ReplyDeleteWicked smaht! I know about this answer.
ReplyDeleteRearrange the letters of the two trees. You get a two-word phrase applied to members of the military.
ReplyDeleteA branch of the military?
DeleteNot specifically.
DeleteNice, hint, Rob. The phrase also applies to "combat" in which other helmetted professionals engage.
DeleteOr, rearrange the combined letters of the "another tree" and the answer to the puzzle, that is, "what everyone wants to be." You will form the screen name of a brilliant poster on Blaine's blog and two 3-letter abbreviations that describe a politician with the initials "H.H."
Your riff is nice too, lego. And if you delete the middle letter of the politician's surname, you get the surname of someone who portrayed a character who went by two different initials.
DeleteAdd two letters at the front of the answer to get an appropriate response to this week’s puzzle.
ReplyDeleteWe may as well write a treetise (sic) about this puzzle.
ReplyDelete...Or complete some cabinetree ;-)
DeleteI'll start writing it on loose"leaf" paper.
Delete'Tis elmentary, of course, Word Whisker.
DeleteYes indeed, but I'll go out on a "limb" and say that Holmes is a homophone.
DeleteTree houses/homes perhaps?
DeleteI'm just going with the phloem.
DeleteIs it phonetic or the actual spelling? I have a phonetic answer
ReplyDeleteDepends on how you spell the homophone.
DeleteThe second tree is phonetic.
DeleteEver wonder why phonetic doesn't start with an "f"?
DeleteThat's phunny.
DeleteI phind it inphuriating!
DeleteCute puzzle. Moreover, it relies on a homophone that everyone can support!
ReplyDeleteI'm in agreement with Blaine and Ron: "Not me."
ReplyDeleteGiven the "flora" theme this week, I'm tempted to mention Rachel Bloom.
ReplyDeleteRachel Bloom is the co-creator of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, a show that features the song "What U Missed While U Were PopUlar."
DeleteAn argument can be made that this puzzle is stretching the meaning of homophone. I think the puzzle still works, and I'm not sure that there is a better way to phrase it.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteJaws: I researched this and found homophone is used correctly.
DeleteI will discuss further on Thursday.
DeleteI may have a small advantage in solving this puzzle. I was fortunate enough to grow up in a house with a very big yard. We had several of the first trees. As a young man, I planted the second tree from a cutting from my uncle’s tree and it thrived. There is no clue intended here.
ReplyDeleteStallone...
ReplyDeleteFrank Stallone released a song called "She's so Popular"
DeleteI was sorry to hear recently that one of my favorite NPR programs and a fan favorite of word nerds in general, Says You!, is ending its run and will soon, I gather, no longer be on the air. While there haven’t been new programs for quite a while, there have been recent shows that were cobbled together from previous ones. I will miss it.
ReplyDeleteSeattle stopped running this program some time back without comment. I thought the family just gave up on it. It never worked well for me after Richard Sher died. He made the show work. I listened every week and they frequently came here to Seattle. It was the best.
DeleteI liked Richard also. I thought he was the show's best host. May he rest in peace.
DeleteSame here.
DeleteI was in the audience once, in Waltham. They taped two shows. It was a great atmosphere.
RIP Richard.
I liked the content but found it kind of tedious listening to the same six people play every week. They could have rotated in some different contestants or let listeners play some of the games. Also I sent them a game suggestion with all of the questions and answers and they never even acknowledged receipt. I stopped listening after a while.
DeleteFor those who are interested: There are a couple of hints buried in my comment.
DeleteDr. K, I see one buried hint and one that isn't, which also appears in one of Jan's comments above.
DeleteFunny; I hadn't noticed that "hint" at the time! Certainly not intended.
DeleteRemove a letter within the first word and then add a word that is opposite to get something most people would not want to be.
ReplyDeleteAgain this is an easy puzzle, and I solved it quickly while in bed, but at least it is cute. I hope I am knot going out on a limb saying this.
Don't worry; we won't cut you off.
DeleteThe CarTalk Puzzler yesterday is wonderful, and the kind of puzzle I wish Will Shortz would give us. It is: The Mixed Bag. So easy and yet amazingly satisfying. I suggest you try and solve it in your head without using any pen or paper or marbles. When you solve it, see if you can solve it with 12 marbles in each bag. Wink, wink; nod, nod.
ReplyDeleteIn a word, elegant.
DeleteIt's great. Thank you for steering me that way.
DeleteIf you are lucky, you'll get it before the first intersection.
DeleteIf not, a cross-country trip won't be long enough.
Now what? I sent my answer to CT (where I have actually been the first one twice over the long years).
DeleteIt was a really entertaining show when Tow
m was still functional, The current management is pretty dim in comparison.
Someone give your answer here when you feel it is appropriate.
The answer is you only need to look at one marble, but it must be from the bag that is miss-marked MIXED. Then you know what is in each bag. CarTalk has now posted their answer, but it is incorrectly stated. What numbskull posted their answer is the real puzzle?
DeleteGee, I hate to get bitten twice by one CT Puzzler, but I am not sure how they incorrectly stated the answer.
DeleteNor who the numbskull is? (sic)
I suggest you go back and read it again then. It is clearly impossible for their explanation to be correct. If you really cannot figure it out for yourself, I can do it for you.
DeleteI took my own advice and went back and read the full answer, which I did not do before. I only read the last bit. So I missed them telling us to switch the label on the mixed bag with the other. I solved it without having to switch any labels, but it works the same either way. They got the answer wrong Feb. 4th of this month, so I was not surprised that they miss-stated this. Some of their descriptions are so long and filled with nonsense that I tend to skip over a lot of it. Not to mention that they never proof read them either. They said the answer to where does the expression the whole 9 yards come from is that cement trucks carry 9 square yards. They failed to inform us how cement trucks existed way back in the 1800's.
DeleteI accept your apology.
DeleteSpeaking of proof reading: Since there is no "correct" function here, I suggest you use the delete button.
I did not apologize for my post, but offered an explanation. They post very sloppy presentations and I see no reason to fully read them, but simply get to the gist. Similarly, I did not need to read Daniel Goldhagen's tome, Hitler's Willing Executioners, to know it is a complete diatribe of ignorance.
DeleteIt's just a transcript of the show. That's why Ray's answer to the puzzle is often a bit convoluted and can be hard to understand, and that's why it isn't edited.
DeleteThat may be true way back years ago when the show ran, but Tom is long dead, and so is the show.
Delete???
DeleteIt's still a transcript. It's just a transcript of an old show.
I used to think that too, but I now believe that too has changed and some of the puzzles are new.
DeleteAgain this week no confirmation response from NPR that they received my submission. Maybe if I were to donate more old cars.
ReplyDeleteSDB: I have not received a confirmation email in a number of weeks. Perhaps should write to NPR. Hurts my feelings that others get confirmations and I don't.
DeleteChecked your spam folder?
DeleteNodd: Yes, I just checked. No reply from NPR. I just wrote to NPR in two locations about this. I used to get the confirmations until a few weeks ago. Maybe I will hear from WS. LOL.
DeleteA three part puzzle with two flawed parts, following the worst introduction ever.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Panegyrics are tacky.
DeleteThe intro was palpably awkward.
DeleteI have criticized his crappy puzzles when necessary, berated him for carelessly posting impossible ones and ignoring alternative answers, but today is the first time I have felt sorry for him.
DeleteI just submitted my answer and got an immediate confirmation. I guess it's because I am so
ReplyDeleteThat you R; TomR, that is.
DeleteGood looking is what I was going for.
DeleteHa ha. One of my students asked for a decrease in the number of words in a required essay. I agreed. When he got to the word limit he asked for he stopped mid-sentence. I thought you two might be channeling each
Delete^^^(The previous sentence intentionally stopped mid-stream.)
Take the second tree, add another tree, then another "tree" maybe found in your kitchen, and you'll get something you did today.
ReplyDeleteI still am, though I started seven hours ago.
DeleteAsk Dad to tell you a joke to this effect.
ReplyDeleteKC. No, not that one.
ReplyDeleteHarry Potter comes to mind.
ReplyDeleteThe Merriam-Webster entry for one of the trees gives a recent example from the web that has both trees included in the same sentence.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteOne of the above posts actually led me to the answer. I'll take it.
ReplyDeleteThe inner walls of my living room and dining room are knotty pine. If those walls could talk they wood really be naughty, but so far they have been well behaved.
ReplyDeleteHope you're not pining away ....
DeleteKnot me; can't a fiord to.
DeleteWooden do any good anyway.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteRemove 2 letters from the first tree, add a vowel from the second, anagram, and get a third tree.
There is a connection to a recent puzzle.
ReplyDeleteYew sounds like U, which is like U2.
DeleteSolved it, but I had to find it in a roundabout way on the website. Once again, NPR did not have it on their main page.
ReplyDeletepjbHasMostLikelySeenTheAlmostExactSameWordplayForThe"WhatAllOfUsWantToBe"PartInACrypticCrosswordOrTwo(JustSayin')
They did mention > 2000 correct answers last week.
ReplyDeleteOnce a year I check in with my doctor to see if he is still living. My last one died from pancreatic cancer right at the beginning of the pandemic 3 years ago. He was several years younger than I and in good shape too. Now I am seeing a younger woman who ordered my yearly blood test battery, but due to the pandemic their phlebotomist had yet to return, so I had to drive to a more distant location.
ReplyDeleteWhen I arrived a bit early last Friday morning for my lab appointment I was surprised to be called in to the lab almost as soon as I had sat down after checking in. The lab tech who called me in to his small room was a middle aged man about the size of Jackie Gleason. I was not concerned, but did wonder how this giant was going to perform his draw.
As it turned out I realized right after he inserted his needle into my left arm without any sensation at all that this guy was going to be perhaps the most accomplished of any lab technician I had encountered so far. Before he was finished filling his two vials with my juice I quipped, "So I guess this is your first time, huh?" He quickly answered that he had over fifty thousand draws so far. I replied, "Oh, you're so vein." We both had a good conversation throughout my visit.
My favorite Super Bowl ad this year was Ben Affleck's for Dunkin'. What an accent!
ReplyDeleteI posed the puzzle question to ChatGPT. Interesting output, but I think AI has a ways to go when it comes to solving the Sunday puzzle.
ReplyDeleteSince we appear to be done, not only with the puzzle but with our cluing and commentary, and it's only Monday, here's an amusing word-and-number one I found. (I did not invent.)
ReplyDeleteFill in the blank to make it true:
“This sentence contains _______ letters.”
"several"
Deletethirty six
Deletemany
DeleteThere were several mathematical puzzles posted along with this one on The Guardian website.
DeleteYes, I got it from Alex Bellos's column. (I didn't mention it because the answer is there.) I mentioned this column a couple of weeks ago, as a source of often more difficult puzzles for those who were finding Will Shortz's too easy!
DeleteSDB has the intended answer! But kudos for the 'hack' answers too!
How about 27? It fits the sentence criteria if you don't spell out 27.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWe have two answers. The answer everyone here is talking about is one letter shorter than the second answer, but both work and are pretty well known. We'll be entering the more agreed upon answer but will be curious to see if they accept the second answer too.
ReplyDeleteHappy Mardi Gras, y'all.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't buy a King Cake this year, I just procrastinated too long and the usual bakery was sold out!
DeleteVacationing in Jamaica this week and only this morning did I focus on this week's puzzle. Not going to submit the answer as I'll be miles in the air at 3pm tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteSaw a mongoose yesterday. I had no idea mongooses lived in Jamaica. Nine of them were imported from India in 1872 to control rat populations on sugar plantations. Of course, the mongooses got biz-zay and wrecked havoc on the ecological balance of the island just like the invasive rabbits in Australia and the invasive Europeans in the Americas.
Mongooses have been a huge problem in Hawaii for over a century.
DeleteI am sure that I was told during a trip there in 1956 that they mated with the rats they were supposed to get rid of, making a doubly troublesome critter.
Not true, it turned out, but they still have problems with both.
If the plural of goose is geese, why isn't it mongeese for its plural?
ReplyDelete'Mongoose' derives from a Marathi word pronounced /mungus/. The {-goose} "ending" was a later convention, but the {-geese} plural never caught on.
DeleteMitt Romney said, "Mongooses are corporations, my friend." You may not remember because some judge issued a gaggle order and it was quickly gooseburied.
DeleteThat's really sticking your neck out.
DeleteMongoose like candy!
DeleteA gram at a time.
DeleteIt should be interesting to see which programs and stuff are eliminated now that NPR is slashing its payroll. BBC has got to go, as we are not interested in quality world news coverage. Wait Wait...Don't Bore Me would be an easy choice, but I am not betting my fortune on it leaving anytime soon. Hey, maybe all is not lost. Perhaps we can now look forward to enjoying more creative ways of begging for our coin and pleading for our old cars. Do I sound just a bit cynical? Well keep in mind that I do reside in the richest country on Earth that is only interested in keeping the wealthy wealthy with our toil and abuse. Hurrah for the filthy rich who refuse to pay their fair share and could not care less for democracy.
ReplyDeleteSunday Puzzles will henceforth be created by ChatGPT, which will also conduct the on-air segment using voice software, saving NPR the expense of paying someone to say, "Remind us of last week's challenge"; "Yes, it came from listener ..."; "Are you ready to play the puzzle?"; "Take it away, Will"; and "You did great! How do you feel?"
DeleteI feel with my fingers, of course.
DeleteThat is always a good rule of thumb.
DeleteI got an answer in 2 seconds. I'm not sure it's right but I'm not able to think of another one.
ReplyDeleteOur good friend Jeff Zarkin, aka "SuperZee," presents us with a trio of "Super-Jefferiffic" Pea-Yew-Zee-Zee-Ell-E-Ess on this Friday's Puzzleria! You'll find them in his Jeff Zarkin Puzzle Riffs" feature under the heading "Diviners, Dawdlers, Stockpilers, Publicans & other Mixed Fruits."
ReplyDeleteWe upload P! early on Friday, just after midnight Pacific Standard Time.
Our menu this week also includes:
* our Schpuzzle of the Week featuring five fellows who share the same first name,
* a puzzle in which rhyming words combine to form a longer word in which they no longer rhyme,
* a Dessert Puzzle that suggests a cure for a "conjunctive eye test" diagnosis,
* and 13 cumbersome "lumbersome" riffs-offs of the NPR puzzle, titled "Is YewTwo popUlar on YewTube?" One of the 13 riffs is an anatomical conundrum penned by our good friend Tortitude, whose “Tortie's Slow But Sure Puzzles” are featured regularly on Puzzleria!
Stop on by for some "Jefferiffic" (and a bit of "Tortitudinal") puzzle fun!
LegoWhoIsAMixedUpFruitWhoDawdlesMoreThanHeDivines!
POPLAR + YEW —> POPULAR
ReplyDelete“[B]uried in my comment”—which was all true--about the NPR radio program Says You! were two hints: first, in the show’s title the word “you,” a homophone of the puzzle’s “yew”; and second, the fact that the program was a “fan favorite,” i.e., “popular.”
If you remove 2 letters from “poplar”—“o” and “r”—add a vowel from “yew”—“e”—and anagram, you get “apple,” a third tree.
POPLAR + YEW = POPYEWLAR → POPULAR
ReplyDeletePOPLAR + YEW -> POPULAR
ReplyDelete> Wicked smaht! I know about this answer.
I'm surprised I got away with this hint.
jan, I gnu yew knew.
DeleteI thought your clue was in the word "Wicked". In the musical "Wicked!", one of the songs is "Popular".
DeleteThat's what my reveal links to.
DeletePOPLAR and YEW — POP-U-LAR — POPULAR
ReplyDeleteMy clue (contingent on someone else's):
One of the above posts actually led me to the answer. I'll take it.
It was a post by TomR that led me to the answer. I said "I'll take it" because "TomR" is a (sort of) homophone for the Spanish verb tomar, which often means 'to take.' I was alluding to this post, where TomR said he "got an immediate confirmation. I guess it's because I am so"—popular. IMO, that sentence can be so easily finished, I thought it might get deleted by Blaine. It was how I got the answer. ¡Gracias, TomR!
Not a clue, but an observation:
The Merriam-Webster entry for one of the trees gives a recent example from the web that has both trees included in the same sentence.
As of Sunday, and as of this writing, the Merriam-Webster entry for "yew" includes this example and attribution: "The plants included shrubs and birch trees that still live in Greenland today, but also poplar, spruce and yew trees that are only found further south.—Will Sullivan, Smithsonian Magazine, 9 Dec. 2022."
POPLAR, YEW - POPULAR
ReplyDeleteI had commented that an argument can be made that this is stretching the definition of homophone. A quick search for homophones of "Yew" yields, you and ewe, but not the letter u. As I noted, the puzzle still works, and I can't thin of better phrasing.
*think*
DeleteApparently, I can't type today! :-)
POPLAR + YEW (U) = POPULAR
ReplyDeleteI wrote, “Rearrange the letters of the two trees. You get a two-word phrase applied to members of the military.” That’s WAR PEOPLE.
ReplyDeleteSince the tree is spelled yew, I had rearranged this into POWER PLAY.
DeleteI got power play.
DeleteI thought of giving a round-about clue pointing to EWE, but thought it might be too direct for all of YEW, U know?
DeletePOPLAR, YEW >>> POPULAR
ReplyDelete"KC. No, not that one." refers not to Kansas City but to Kristin Chenoweth's version of "Pop-U-Lar". That darn earworm stayed with me much of Sunday.
What is going on with blogger? I hit send at exactly noon and got the notice my post had been published, but it just froze. I then opened another Blaine's window and did it again, but again got the same message and it froze. Eventually I was able to get it published. UGH!
ReplyDeletepoplar, yew(U)->popular
ReplyDeleteI forgot I had posted a hint on Sunday:
ReplyDelete"Remove a letter within the first word and then add a word that is opposite to get something most people would not want to be." Remove a P from poplar and you get polar then add opposite to get polar opposite. So "add a word that is opposite" is even telling you what the word to add is.
I forgot I had posted a hint on Sunday:
ReplyDelete"Remove a letter within the first word and then add a word that is opposite to get something most people would not want to be." Remove a P from poplar and you get polar then add opposite to get polar opposite. So "add a word that is opposite" is even telling you what the word to add is.
Blogger just did it again with the above posts. But this time it posted it twice after failing to post first.
ReplyDeletePOPLAR, YEW >>> POPULAR
ReplyDeleteor
PINE, THE CAN THROW PIE >>> PICANTHROPINE
Can Thomas H. Edison throw a Pie? No, Thomas Edison can't really throw a pie. He's dead.
And H isn't his middle initial.
And even if it were, Thomas Edison throwing a Pie is NOT a tree.
I just liked this answer.
POPLAR, YEW, POPULAR. My hint was: "Add two letters at the front of the answer to get an appropriate response to this week’s puzzle." In the spirit of peace, dignity and equality, I won't spell out the letters
ReplyDeleteWill's public accepts flawed as well as too-easy puzzles.
ReplyDeletePoplar was ok even though many folks already thought the name of the tree was "popular."
And he mostly gave away the number of letters in the clue.
Yew is not a homophone of "u." "The phonetic name of another tree" would have worked.
As Blaine pointed out, popularity may be a common wish, but it is not universal.
Why is he cut such a break? After all he didn't reveal terminal cancer last week, he only stuck a tentative toe out of the closet.
Will has been out of the closet for years.
DeleteHe obviously did not give away the number of letters in the clue.
And *of course* 'u' is a homophone for 'yew'.
Were you going for the record of number of blatantly false claims in one Blainesville comment?
I just now googled: Are You yew and U homophones? This the first thing that came up:
Delete"Learn how to pronounce the words YOU, EWE, & U with this American English Pronunciation Lesson. These words are homophones and are pronounced exactly the same way.May 10, 2022"
The next authority on homophones lists this:
"ewe, U, you, yew"
And don't forget two-time US Women's Chess Champion Jennifer Yu!
DeleteEwe you yew u Yu…
Oh man, I wish I could see how these anchor tags turn out before I push 'publish'. Oh well, here goes.
Since I Fell for You
DeletePresenting Lenny Welch · 1958
And to think I used to believe it was Since I Fell From A Yew.
"Learn how to pronounce the words YOU, EWE, & U with this..."
DeleteI can define you and ewe (and yew) and use them in sentences, but I am having trouble doing the same with "u."
Here's a tip for when you're having trouble: there are special books whose main purpose is to provide definitions of words, and often these books will also give you examples of how to use them in sentences.
Delete"After you pick up a U bolt at the hardware store, make a U turn and get a U bend at the plumbing shop."
DeleteU-bolt, U-turn, U-bend. We just did YouTube.
DeleteCrito, that is brilliant. Why don't we all know about these books?
DeleteI said he "mostly" gave away the number of letters. His instructions eliminated over half of the possibilities.
Delete"And he mostly gave away the number of letters in the clue."
DeleteActually Will Shortz said nothing at all about the number of letters in his clue. It has always seemed to me that when you unable to find a legitimate reason to slam Will Shortz you manufacture one out of whole cloth. What is your real problem?
Let's see what others here think of your comment before I reply.
DeleteI do not care about your reply. It is a rhetorical question.
DeleteYou say: "Actually Will Shortz said nothing at all about the number of letters in his clue."
DeleteActually, when he said "...in the very middle of the word...", he preemptively and intentionally excluded all the trees of the world with an odd number of letters from consideration.
Clearly POPLAR + YEW->U = POPULAR is the answer. I didn't come anywhere close to solving this. I may have had a chance had POPLAR and/or YEW come up in my tree searching, but (alas) neither did. (I guess I needed to widen my search.) On the other hand, though I would have homophoned YEW to YOU and/or EWE, I doubt I would have considered U.
ReplyDeleteThinking about this more, I suspect I could have made the POPLAR -> POPULAR leap, had I considered POPLAR.
DeletePoplar + Yew (U) >> Popular
ReplyDeleteMy characterization of this puzzle as not being too knotty is a play on the straight grained/knot-free property of poplar wood, making it ideal for many woodworking projects.
Poplar, Yew --> popular
ReplyDeleteLast Sunday I said, “I may have a small advantage in solving this puzzle. I was fortunate enough to grow up in a house with a very big yard. We had several of the first trees. As a young man, I planted the second tree from a cutting from my uncle’s tree and it thrived.” Several huge tulip poplars were already there when my parents purchased my childhood home. I planted the Yew because my father was an accomplished archer, and, prior to fiberglass, the best wooden bows were made of Yew. So I just thought we should have one.
As the woman said to her dubious boyfriend, "Beau, I'll make the best of you."
DeleteWho's more "pop-yew-lar" than Harry Potter?
ReplyDeleteA her suit sir ram a cyst?
DeleteThis week's challenge comes from listener Jim Francis, of Kirkland, Wash. Take this equation: 14 + 116 + 68 = 47. Clearly this doesn't work mathematically. But it does work in a nonmathematical way. Please explain.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete