If I add up the years that each of my four countries became members of the U.N. and divide by 5, I get a prime number.Q: This week's challenge is a spinoff of the on-air puzzle. Name two countries that have "consonyms" that are nationalities of other countries. In each case, the consonants in the name of the country are the same consonants in the same order as those in the nationality of another country. No extra consonants can appear in either name. The letter Y isn't used.
Edit: My countries were Lebanon (1945), Albania (1955), Cameroon (1960) and Comoros (1975). The sum is 7835 and the prime is 1567. My list of nationalities separated North and South Korea, so I didn't get the more obvious answer of UKRAINE and KOREAN.
A: LEBANON → ALBANIAN (from Albania)
UKRAINE → KOREAN (from N. or S. Korea)
CAMEROON → COMORAN/COMORIAN (from Comoros)
MAURITANIA → MAURITIAN (from Mauritius)
RÉUNION → IRANIAN (from Iran)
Any others?
I would like to acknowledge Ron as the inspiration for this week's hint. I really liked the prime number clue he gave for last week's puzzle.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! Don't you love it when numbers cooperate? --Margaret G.
DeleteHm, one of the pairs is interestingly uninteresting.
ReplyDelete(I am assuming that Will means by 'nationality' is what we here in Blainesville call 'demonyms'.)
I found an alternate demonym for one of the countries, but either works.
DeleteOh yeah! Okay I have the same.
DeleteI think I am in luck—if you can spell "Rusha" as such, that is. 😏
ReplyDeleteI am off to a vacay for a couple of weeks. Happy blogging, Blainesvilleans! 👋
DeleteHave a good trip. Going anywhere with interesting consonyms? Or, can you rearrange its letters to make a word found in DC tourist attractions? Or, ...
DeleteHmmm... I'd've though our demonym would be "Blainesvillians", with an "i", or maybe "Blainesvillagers"?
DeleteFor the answer I got, write the two countries and the two nationalities. If a letter repeats, remove all instances of that letter. Put the remaining letters in alphabetical order. You get a term used in biological measurements.
ReplyDeleteI'm confused. Since they are "consonyms" all the consonants would be duplicated and hence removed leaving only vowels. Then when duplicates of vowels are removed, at most I can see 1 vowel (possibly 0 vowels) remaining. I must not be understanding the transformation you intend.
DeleteI deliberately didn't say how many letters are left, because that could be TMI (although I don't see how). I get more than one left, and perhaps I am using a different set of nations / nationalities. And perhaps I am completely wrong!
DeleteRob, I'm going to ask a different way to try to clarify this. If, for example, the answer was Mississippi and the demonym is Mississippian, are you saying that the "repeated" letters are the S and the P? Because When I list those two words together, the M, I, A, and N also repeat in the string of letters, leaving nothing.
DeleteSo, using my example, what letters should remain after eliminating those that "repeat?"
For MISSISSIPPI MISSISSIPPIAN, eliminating every letter that has a repeat, only the one A and the one N are left. Remember I said this was for the answer I got, which might not be everybody else's answer. And I could just be wrong (I am often wrong).
DeleteI think I have the same answer as you, Rob, because your clue worked for me with my answers.
DeleteOh, good; thanks for the confirmation.
DeleteI have a nice alt solution, except that it uses a name that the country no longer goes by. Darn.
ReplyDeleteI have the reverse: a modern country name and a not-so-modern "nationality."
DeleteThe puzzle does not say it has to be the name that a country currently uses.
Delete
ReplyDeleteIs "nationality" meant to be singular, plural, or a little of both?
I don't think plurals are necessary since the eponyms describe the whole nationality. A person from Denmark is Danish. A person from Norway is Norwegian. I suppose you could think of Danes and Norwegians, but it's not necessary for the answers I found.
DeleteI would agree. There's an alternate answer that uses a plural, and it will be interesting to find out whether Will accepts it.
DeleteYes, I see it, too.
DeleteWikipedia lists adjectival and demonymic forms for countries and nations. In most, but by no means all cases, they differ by only a final "s". I would think that either form should be accepted as a "nationality". Unfortunately, another poorly defined puzzle! I predict many alternative answers.
Deletejan, agreed. I have at least 3 pairs of answers that all work perfectly well. From hints here, it appears there is a 4th pair.
DeleteI guess Will is looking for the adjectival form. Demonyms are different -- although as Jan says, they very commonly are 'the same word'. But I think 'Danish' and not 'Dane' is what Will means.
DeleteI was going to comment that the flags of the four countries all have either red, white, or blue. But, every flag I can find uses at least one of these colors.
ReplyDeleteAt least i can be certain my comment won’t be TMI.
Until 2011 the flag of Libya was all green.
DeleteJamaica's flag is green, yellow and black. So I guess you've given that away as not the answer. :)
DeleteI have only one of the two countries/nationalities... Hopefully "Roman" is not considered a nationality.
ReplyDeleteNor "Romani"
DeleteI had been considering "Romani" (and a country I should know well), but as the Romani are a nomadic ethnicity (and also depending on what precisely the relationship between "ethnicity" and "nationality" is), they do not satisfy the puzzle's condition of "nationality of another [singular] country." In any case, I have both answers.
DeleteI have both countries/nationalities now. The second pair are not obvious...
DeleteI have one country/nationality pair that I hope is correct.
ReplyDeleteWell, now I have another pair, but my numbers don't align with Blaine's.
DeleteMine don't align either...
DeleteHOPE chests are often made of CEDAR (perhaps from
DeleteLEBANON)
I have one pair also.
ReplyDeleteOk, I now have both pairs. I got the "hard" one first.
DeleteDifficult to hint at, but here’s a confirmatory one for those who have already solved it:
ReplyDeleteAnagram together the first country alphabetically and the second nationality alphabetically, and get two words that mean an animal disease and a musical instrument.
Hmm... I guess Hutu are a people, not a nationality...
ReplyDeleteThere is a solution with Y as a vowel. There are also solutions with the demonym of the capital of a country and another country.
ReplyDeleteGeology helped this time.
ReplyDeleteTake one copy of each consonant involved, add some vowels, and get a car part. And then another car part.
ReplyDeleteStarting with nationalities first made the puzzle easier to solve.
ReplyDeleteGreen/blue
ReplyDeleteI have three pairs. Two are less interesting than the third.
ReplyDeleteMe too. For two of the six countries, UN admission dates could be two different dates due to political considerations. So answers using those countries may or may not satisfy Blaine's hint depending on the admission dates chosen.
DeleteOne of the four countries has been internationally popular for a while now.”
ReplyDeleteI have another alt answer, but... the adjective (for the nationality) isn't really the proper one. But I bet it's used more than the proper one!
ReplyDeleteA very hard puzzle to clue cleverly. A crow could visit all four capitals by flying less than 5400 miles.
ReplyDeleteIt may be possible to walk to all four countries without having to cross water.
ReplyDeleteHmmm. I am dubious. What about streams and rivers?
DeleteThere might be a way around them.
DeleteFor the four countries I've found, this is definitely not possible.
DeleteOne of my countries sounds sort of like a bird, and another sounds like a disease.
ReplyDeleteOkay I think I might have a variant answer.
ReplyDeleteMine don't fit Blaine's clue, my crow-flies distances come to quite a lot more than Jan's clue, and it's definitely not possible to walk a route connecting all my countries. Oh, I couldn't get an anagram to fit Dr. K's clue either.
Take the first and last of the four countries alphabetically. Anagram the names of their currencies to get a vegetable and a (different) country.
Anyone else have those?? Am I all alone??
Crito, I have the same two answer pairs!
DeleteWhew.
DeleteI second that whew.
DeleteCrito, WW, and Paul: I reviewed my answer carefully, and it satisfies the conditions of the puzzle. The anagrams I suggested also work. I can only surmise there are alternate answers.,
DeleteCrito: I also tried your anagram suggestion about the currencies with my answer, and it did not work, a further indication there may well be alternate answers.
DeleteAha.
DeleteI wonder whose answer is the one Will has in mind. I guess we can discuss further on Thursday!
One (final?) afterthought:
DeleteIt is possible that Will is aware of more than two solutions but only asked for two without mentioning there could be more.
Or, to quote Rob, “[P]erhaps I am completely wrong!”
Thursday or Sunday may tell the tale.
Dr. K,
DeleteNo, he was unaware, but knows now.
sdb,
DeleteI was giving Will the benefit of the doubt, but you may very well be right.
Are you lisitening, Will?
He was glad to learn there is another answer, and he wanted to know what it is. He will mention it come Sunday next.
DeleteI now have 5 pairs of answers.
DeleteIf they involve plurals of nationalities, he is not accepting those.
DeleteOne does. The other 4 do not.
DeleteCrito, this fits with my answers as well...
DeleteSDB, I haven't submitted yet, but I have a pair that clearly fits the language of the puzzle, but necessarily involves a plural of the nationality. The puzzle says nothing about plurals. Why wouldn't Will accept them? I realize this discussion may need to continue on Thursday.
DeleteJAWS, I would continue looking if I were you. He seems to not enjoy plurals when it comes to puzzle answers.
DeleteDarn! I decide to sit out a puzzle and there is a flurry of alternative answers, some of my favorite things. Oh, well.
DeleteBTW, sdb, do you think Will Shortz realizes the advantage that your access to him provides to the small portion of his listenership that resides here in Blainesville?
When I informed him there was at least one alternate answer, and perhaps two, he was very appreciative and asked me to let me know what it is if I knew. I then told him and he was glad to know so he could mention it come Sunday. Then the next day I discovered the 4th answer and informed him. He agreed with me and said he would accept it too, but he did not care for it, and neither do I.
DeleteHe has no way of knowing if there are not alternate answers if someone does not inform him, and the NPR interns do not seem to do this. Will Shortz is not against mentioning alternate puzzle answers, but he frequently does not know of them.
Well imagine that! The Academy Awards ceremony that has such a reputation for going way over time actually finished under time this year at only one hour 23 minutes. (I hope I got that right.) And it still managed to award the best movie award to an undeserving, crappy, TV quality garbage film. Thank God for foreign movies produced by truly talented professionals.
ReplyDeleteWell, what a lively discussion.
ReplyDeleteAfter a look-see, I decided to add consonyms to my anagrams file and enjoy the week.
My DST-fogged brain first thought Niger:Nigerian::Nigeria:Nigerien, but I acknowledge my mistake and have submitted the correct answer.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
John
PS- Very happy for Sarah Polley, a writer/director/actor I've admired for a long time. (Dawned on me years after my wedding how much she and my wife resemble each other. Bravo, subconscious!) I highly recommend her film Women Talking, for which she won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar last night. It's a very powerful movie, unlike any I'd seen before.
Hi John, same here. But, how do you determine which is the "correct" set of answer pairs?
ReplyDeleteWill check out Women Talking! Thanks!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess this NPR puzzle would be easier to solve today than it was this past October.
ReplyDeleteLegoEverybody'sEverythingAllAtOnce!
Every time I hear about this movie I think of that NPR Puzzle!
DeleteHappy Pi Day to everyone here!
ReplyDeleteCircling back to this, Chuck. Happy Pi Day!
DeleteGot a text from my brother-in-law:
Delete"My friend's daughter who is a math teacher claims that Pi Day is a fake holiday created by the math companies to sell more math."
jan, That just doesn't add up. Crust not the flakes on this.
DeleteThe trouble with Pi Day is the Ides of March.
Deletejan, great text about selling more math. Yes!
DeleteWe could combine 3.1415 into the Pides of March :-).
By the way, our local grocery store sold out of pies on Pi Day by 3:30 p.m. You do the math.
DeletePurely by coincidence I built a large apple pie Monday, which I will finish consuming today. I was not even aware of it being pi day. Is it true George Santos coined the term, pi day?
Deletesdb, I came across this today and thought you (and others) would appreciate it:
DeleteEating too much cake is the sin of gluttony. However, eating too much pie is okay because the sin of pi is always zero.
Dr K.--
DeleteYou must have got that from Bartlett's Familiar Quotients.
East is East and West is West and never feed Mark Twain meat. Just kidding. I got two pairs of answers that I am very comfortable with. Not going to try to identify any others.
ReplyDeleteI found the 4th pair last night and Will agrees it works and will accept it, but neither of us likes it.
ReplyDeleteThe pairs I submitted seem to be a valid solution. They don't fit with a lot of the comments above though. There should be multiple acceptable solutions this week. I hope WS takes time to identify all correct, even if not intended, solutions entered.
ReplyDeleteI took a list of countries and nationalities and dumped them into a spreadsheet, extracting aeiouy. I was a bit concerned that my countries and nationalities didn't match up with Blaine's clue, so I was glad to see there are apparently more than two answers, as I stopped when I found 2.
ReplyDeleteI went a little further than Splainit, sending in five different possibilities. One of them clearly does not fit Blaine's clue, but saying why would be TMI, so it will have to wait until Thursday. In the meantime, I'm going to go enjoy the apple pie I made for Pi Day.
ReplyDeleteFinally got it, I think! I have three possible matches (one is a bit of a cheat). They make me think of a tree, an event, and Rupaul's Drag Race.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of cedars (Lebanon), reunions, and the Cameroonian drag performer BeBe Zahara Benet.
Deletejan and NODD et al--
ReplyDeleteImagine for a moment a person making his living by transporting honey bees to different agricultural locations around the country for the purpose of pollinating fields in order to increase crop yields. Now the scene is set, see if you can artistically describe this endeavor in no more than 3 words.
Commercial beekeeping?
Delete"artistically describe"
DeleteArtistic commercial beekeeping ;)
DeleteLOL, but NO!
DeleteFor some reason, I'm thinking once again of Cole Porter.
DeleteWell, it Ain't Mass Bee Having....
DeleteRight jan, it ain't right to alter boys. Especially in Florida.
DeleteDr. K,
DeleteI can see where a connection might be made.
Cross-nation pollen.
DeleteCOURIER AND HIVES
DeleteExcellent!
DeleteI made that one up in bed before I got up this morning. I was sure you would like it.
DeleteIndeed. One of your best, IMO.
DeleteThanks, I thought you'd agree it's a honey.
DeleteI doubt there is any truth to the rumor that Carnival Cruise Line underwrote the shooting down of balloons last month.
ReplyDeleteNorwegian would.
DeleteKinda like shootin' balloons at a carnival, but higher up.
DeleteIn that case, they'd have to use a cruise missile. Or maybe Tom Cruise in an F-14.
DeleteMake mine a Tom Collins.
DeleteWhy did Dale Evans practice her marksmansip?
DeleteI didn't know she did, but perhaps it was because she saw that Roy was Trigger happy, and so she was game.
DeleteShe wanted to Rob Roy.
DeleteThose were indeed stirring times of yesteryear, and never shaken.
DeleteAt first Roy and Dale had problems with their dog, and so they began to Bullet train.
DeleteOlive us remember them fondly.
DeleteThey were fondue you too.
DeleteAnd Jane was Fonda Peter.
DeleteMy barber, Ella, is a Jane Fonda fan.
DeleteMy answers do not result in a prime number such as Blaine hinted at, so I'll be interested to see his and other answers.
ReplyDeleteMAURITANIA, MAURITIAN (native of MAURITIUS, not MAURITANIA)
ReplyDeleteLEBANON, ALBANIAN;
CAMEROON, COMORAN or COMORIAN;
UKRAINE, KOREAN;
MAURITIUS, EMIRATIS
I first got to MAURITIUS and EMIRATIS.
>>>
Geology helped this time. EMIRATIS anagrams to TIME ERAS.
The puzzle as defined does not seem to me to preclude plurals. Specifically "those in the nationality of another country" seems to actually include the plural form.
Thanks to ecoarchitect and SuperZee for talking over possible answers. Collaboration helped!
*******************************
Answers 1 and 2 jibe with Crito.
Answers 2 and 3 two answers fit with Blaine's prime number clue.
Answer 4 doesn't tie precisely to North or South Korea but is rather elegant.
So many answers, so little time.
Too bad Will didn't specify parameters like Blaine's prime number to make the puzzle more precise.
I enjoy geography puzzles so this was fun!
in his "Garden of Puzzley Delights" on Puzzleria! this Friday, Our good friend Plantsmith serves up a masterful package of three puzzles, including a recipe for "Vehicle Parmesan" (an F-250 truck!) and a town in Georgia that should ring a bell with those who frequent this blog.
ReplyDeleteWe upload Puzzleria! in the wee hours of Friday, Pacific Daylight Time.
Our menus this week also feature:
* a "couplet of claptrap" that we are serving up as our Schpuzzle of the Week,
* an “Ailimentery, My Dear Watson” Appetizer,
* a Dessert Slice titled “Ward, I’m worried about the Beaver,” and
* 13 "guaranteed-NoNMiCRoBiaL" riff-offs of this week's NPR puzzle by Will Shortz.
Join us, won't you, for Plantsmith's Garden Of "also-guaranteed-nonmicrobial" Puzzley Delights!
LegoWhoLikeJuneCleaverIsAlsoWorriedAboutTheBeaver(ButIsNotWorriedAboutTheHighQualityOfOurPuzzleLineUpOnPuzzleria!ThisWeek!
One of the last things I heard was that The Beav was considering attending a political rally. I doubt if there is much to worry about.
DeleteMAURITANIA —> MAURITIAN
ReplyDeletePALAU —> POLE
I had been considering ARMENIA —> ROMAN? ROMANI? but saw that neither quite worked as a nationality.
Like some others, I did come up with an alternate (but apparently impermissible) plural possibility: MAURITIUS —> EMIRATIS
I am interested to see Blainevillians’ alternate answers and to hear what Will will say about them on Sunday.
And many thanks to skydiveboy, who took the initiative and got in touch with Will so that alternate answers will now be part of Sunday’s segment.
Back to the Big Dance. Go, Furman! Go, FDU!
Based on these answers, I also posted an anagram hint:
Delete"Anagram together the first country alphabetically and the second nationality alphabetically, and get two words that mean an animal disease and a musical instrument."
MAURITANIA + POLE --> TULAREMIA (aka "rabbit fever") + PIANO
INDONESIA (NDNS) - INDIANS (from India)
ReplyDeleteUKRAINE(KRN) - KOREAN (from either North or South Korea, which used to just be Korea, and the puzzle did not state it had to be current countries.
MAURITANIA(MRTN) - MAURITIAN(from Mauritius)
CAMEROON(CMRN) - COMORAN (from Comoros)
Additionally, you could use REUNION(RNN) - IRANIAN (from Iran) - however, REUNION is technically part of France, and not it's own country.
The INDONESIA-INDIANS violates the "no plurals" rule that SDB mentioned, but it clearly fits the puzzle requirements.
Additionally, Korea (neither North nor South) is a member of the UN, so that pair doesn't work for Blaine's clue. But I did find that pair to be a rather elegant solution to the puzzle, and I'm guessing it is one of the originally intended pairs.
Ukraine and Korean (KRN), Lebanon and Albanian (LBNN)
ReplyDeleteLast Sunday I said, “One of the four countries has been internationally popular for a while, now.” Witness the growing popularity of the Korean K-Pop boy bands worldwide.
There was a third possible pair that I chose not to use: Albania and Libyan (LBN). While the Y in Libyan is indisputably used as a vowel – not a consonant – it is nonetheless a letter in the name of the nationality so I felt Will’s prohibition against using Y’s prevented one from using it.
I write, “For the answer I got, write the two countries and the two nationalities. If a letter repeats, remove all instances of that letter. Put the remaining letters in alphabetical order. You get a term used in biological measurements.” PALAU, POLE / LEBANON ALBANIAN reduces to IU, a measurement of the biological activity of drugs and vitamins.
ReplyDeleteLEBANON, ALBANIAN
ReplyDeleteMAURITIUS, EMIRATIS
UKRAINE = KOREAN (KOREA) Intended answer
ReplyDeleteLEBANON = ALBANIAN (ALBANIA) Intended answer
Alternates:
MAURITANIA = MAURITIAN (MAURITIUS)
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC = DOMINICAN (DOMINICA)
My Hint: "Blue/Green" That is the color of Korean Celedon.
1 CAMEROON, COMORAN or COMORIAN
ReplyDelete2 UKRAINE, KOREAN
3 LEBANON, ALBANIAN
4 PALAU, POLE
Hint: One of my countries sounds sort of like a bird, and another sounds like a disease. (COMOROS, cormorant; KOREA, chorea.)
I had 2 and 4. I wish I'd had 3. All four seem acceptable to me!
DeleteI think so, too. I suspect the "intended" answer was 2 and 3, because they are less obvious in that none of the countries start with the same letters. (Though, as Blaine indicated, some lists don't treat "Korea" as a unitary "country," so that one may be questionable.) It will be interesting on Sunday to see what makes the "cut."
Delete2 & 3 are the intended answers.
DeleteThanks, sbd. I see you listed those two plus two others in your post above. Do you know if WS considered 1 and/or 4? I can't see any basis for rejecting 1.
DeleteHe was unaware of 1 & 4 when I last heard from him.
DeleteMy notes:
ReplyDeleteAlbania
Date of Admission: 14-12-1955 ALBANIAN LEK
Lebanon
Date of Admission: 24-10-1945
Mauritania
Date of Admission: 27-10-1961
Mauritius
Date of Admission: 24-04-1968 MAURITIAN RUPEE
https://www.un.org/en/about-us/member-states
1955+1945+1961+1968=7829, which is not a multiple of 5, and I believe a prime number has to be an integer.
I don’t know if LEEKs can be grown in PERU, but that doesn’t matter.
1. LEBANON → ALBANIAN
ReplyDelete2. MAURITANIA → MAURITIAN (from Mauritius)
3. The island state of RÉUNION → IRANIAN
I used THIS SITE to verify the spelling of the countries and their nationalities.
UKRAINE -> KOREAN
ReplyDeleteLEBANON -> ALBANIAN
Well, I batted .500
ReplyDeleteAlbanian, Lebanon and Korean, Ukraine
ReplyDeleteThere was a similar puzzle on May 17, 2015.
My answers (as Word Woman surmised) were Mauritiania/Mauritian and Albania/Lebanon.
ReplyDeleteI thought of Ukraine/Korean, but I didn't think it was quite right, since there is no country of Korea. SDB, did you get it from the horse's mouth that that's one of the intended solutions?
I'm amazed at how many good alternatives there are. I guess technically Reunion isn't a country, but it's still really good.
Word Woman: in "those in the nationality of another country", the word 'those' doesn't refer to people. It refers to consonants in the word for the nationality! I think Will is within his rights to reject plurals. (If asked, "What nationality are you?", I think a Canadian should not answer, "Canadians.")
Also I really love Pulau/Pole, but is Pole a nationality? Clearly he was looking for the adjective, and not (as I originally thought) the demonym.
Still, a real bonanza of alternative answers this week; nice job Blainesville!
Crito,
DeleteThe answer to your question is a qualified YES. He did not name them, but said what the letter numbers are. He also mentioned that he wondered if there might be alt answers.
Crito, although I submitted Palau/Pole as one of my answers, I agree it is questionable since most people would think of "Polish" and not "Pole" as the "nationality" of Poland. But I think you can make a case that "Pole" is an alternative way of expressing Polish nationality, as someone could say "I am a Pole" as an alternative to "I am Polish." (Or, as Simon and Garfunkel put it, "I am Iraq.") In that context, it can be argued that "Pole" is actually more accurate, because it conveys more precisely that the speaker is a citizen of Poland, which is the definition of nationality -- whereas people often use "nationality" incorrectly to mean heritage, as when they say "I am Polish" even though they aren't a citizen of Poland and haven't ever been there. Anyway, that's my story and I'm stickin' with it.
DeleteDon't forget to wax now you've Polished.
Deletesbd, I thought that by posting that long-winded exposition, I would "wax" eloquent, though it probably is too full of holes to be polished or waxed, and needs refinishing instead.
DeleteJust give it a good swift polka.
DeleteI shall proceed accordionly.
DeleteThat's a gibbon.
DeleteJust let the chimps fall where they may.
DeletepjbDecidedToSneakIntoTheConversation(I'mHopingThey'llNeverSimianHere!)
My use of "Cheers" in my 3/13 post was a very subtle hint. In a season 3 episode of Cheers, Coach is studying for his GED and uses the tune of When the Saints Go Marching In to help with geography: "Al-ba-ni-a, Al-ba-ni-a, it borders on the A-dri-atic."
ReplyDelete"... you're a communist re-pub-lic
DeleteAnd your chief ex-port is chrome!"
I submitted Ukraine - Korean and Albania - Libyan. In saying that the letter Y was not used, I interpreted the puzzle to mean that Y did not count as a vowel or a consonant, not that we could not use a word with Y in it.
ReplyDeleteTake one copy of each consonant, add some vowels, get a car part: BLiNKeR, BRaKeLiNe
ReplyDeleteI intentionally didn’t solve the puzzle this week. I looked at it, and a little voice inside me said “nah, that’s not gonna be fun…”
ReplyDeleteGood call!
DeleteShout out to Dr K regarding Furman and FDU, two big upset winners, especially FDU!! Great picking!!
ReplyDeleteRegarding this weeks puzzle, I liked it a lot and solved it without looking at any lists. I was pretty sure the answers were not going to be obscure and fell into Ukraine/Korean answer as I was falling asleep. Then a day and a half later, I got Lebanon/Albanian while out walking in the wind. I did Google Albania to make sure it was still a country. It is and maybe so is the USA, as TRUMP TO BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY!!!
That's only per The Orange One himself. If you take his pronouncements as fact, I've got a bridge for sale.
DeleteWhen will the Orange Menace era/nightmare ever end??
DeleteAnd back atcha, TomR! Great game last night. FDU is quick and aggressive defensively, and can hit clutch shots (including 3s and free throws under pressure). Most of all, they have no fear (Purdue played scared) and are dangerous, capable of beating just about anybody. And don’t let the size difference fool you: Other things being equal, quickness beats size (look what they did to Zach Edey). Go, FDU!
Deletejan,
DeleteI think there must be something to his upcoming arrest because for him to call for a protest and if only a few show up it will backfire and make him look weak.
Speaking of black holes backfiring. Do you think when they perform a cavity check more classified documents will be found? Who knows what he may have been Putin up there?
68Charger,
DeleteWe still have not recovered from back when Ron Reagan Jr.'s daddy soiled the White House and the nation.
Why would he block the orifice through which he speaks?
DeleteI said nothing about him blocking the big gusher. The term spread sheet may have another meaning come Tuesday.
DeleteI would consider protesting, too, if he is just arrested, and not taken out back and shot.
DeleteThat would be wasting a perfectly good bullet. I want him sitting in a jail cell.
DeleteWhere's that gallows he wanted to hang Mike Pence from? Ropes are reusable.
DeletePer former Republican and Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson: "Sure he’s a pussy-grabbing, lavishly corrupt, 2x impeached, soon-to-be-indicted Putin-fellating shambling umber mound who ordered a terrorist attack on the Capitol and tried to steal the election but otherwise drag queen antifa BLM Muslim Mexicans will impose sharia communism.”
DeleteOld thinking, jan. Sitting in a jail cell is far more painful.
DeleteFrom Tom Nichols, another former Republican: "Trump is a deranged authoritarian. I used to think that was a problem for the Republicans, but for the base, that's a feature, not a bug."
DeleteHmmm... sitting in a cell... let me consider that over a cask of amontillado...
DeleteJan, great symbolism!!
DeleteI agree with SDB, though.
I'd like to see ol' Orange Head, get sent to a regular prison for a long time and in a full, public humiliation.
If he is indicted, he will most likely be arrested, booked and arraigned.
DeleteThen there will be discussion bail and conditions such as where he is allowed to go and which ankle to wear his GPS device.
I think about 24 hours in, one of the biggest cheats and cowards in American history will shit his britches and begin to seek a deal (how appropriate) and come up with friends (and family?) to rat out.
That is going to be something to savor.!
CAMEROON/COMORAN or COMORIAN
ReplyDeleteUKRAINE/KOREAN
pjbHopesThatIrateOversizedOompaLoompaMeetsHisWaterlooEventually,Too(SomebodyPleaseLockUp"AgentOrange"!)
This week's challenge: Name two well-known commercial products in five letters whose names are anagrams of each other. One product is something you'd probably see in your bathroom. The second is more likely to be in your refrigerator. What products are these?
ReplyDeleteOh man. I'm never one of the first Blainesvillains to answer! But I have it. It's not exactly a sophisticated puzzle.
ReplyDeleteI got my answers within minutes of listening to the podcast and he didn't mention either, did I do something wrong?
ReplyDeleteLebanon to Albanian
Oman to Yemeni
Mike, he gave Lebanon to Albanian as one answer. He excluded any answer with a Y.
DeleteAh I thought he meant don't include y, misheard while driving, oh well try again this week
DeleteMy entry, without much thought, was Lebanon/Albanian and Palau/Pole. My guess is the "low number" includes quite who submitted this, don't understand why it would be incorrect. It may be I'm just missing something in the wording of the puzzle. I'm reminded of a couple years ago when the intended answer was Vietnam/Native (country, drop one letter, anagram is the name of a native of a country) and there was a low number but Haiti/Thai was not accepted.
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