Sunday, March 26, 2023

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 26, 2023): Household Products

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 26, 2023): Household Products
Q: Name two brands of household products, each in three syllables. All of the syllables in the two brands rhyme with each other. That is, the first syllable in the first brand rhymes with the first syllable in the second brand, the second syllables in the two brands rhyme, and the third syllables rhyme. What brand names are these?
If my answer is correct, both products also rhyme with a centenarian.

Edit: Jean Dolores Schmidt is better known as Sister Jean.
A: LISTERINE and MR. CLEAN

174 comments:

  1. I definitely wouldn't want to mix these two products up.

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    1. But they do have similar uses.

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    2. Actually, according to Internet, the longer product can be used in place of the shorter. Though I haven't seen any posts claiming the reverse, using a similar product in that way was much discussed a couple years ago.

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  2. I think I have the right answer, but one of those syllables is gonna cause controversy.

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    1. Oh, I'm pretty sure they rhyme.

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    2. I guess it depends how you enunciate. May be a bit of a conundrum.

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    5. Methinks thou hath it right. Let me repeat that. I think you are correct.

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    6. Yeah, that's the only thing keeping me from submitting my pair.

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    7. Apologies for crossing over the TMI threshold. I will do better!

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  3. Dove. Nailed it. On with my day.

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  4. Not only do we get another puzzle with brand names, but we also get one involving rhyming, so we get an opportunity to argue over pronunciation!

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Yes, it's a brand new day for our habit of arguing over pronunciation.

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  5. Blaine would know best. It shouldn't detract from a cute puzzle and a nice Blaine hint!

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  6. The longer of the two names, minus one letter, anagrams to a word that is consistently heard on the Sunday Puzzle broadcast.

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  7. First thing I thought of. Another silly puzzle. Ever since SDB recommended the CarTalk puzzle awhile back, I've been checking it out. Some are equally questionable... but I thought last week's was great! I thought about it off and on for a few days, but nothing... It's called, "Out of Jail". So cute! Careful, the answer is now at the bottom!

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    1. I almost mentioned that one here last week. At first when I read it I had no idea and quit. Several hours later when I finished a meditation for some reason I thought of it again and realized it had to be a trick and then the answer came to me right away, but I had to check and make sure because I did not remember about the car connection.

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    2. When I read the answer, I felt so stupid. But in a good way. The Marble Bag one, I did actually get. Excellent puzzle. Thanks for steering me to it.

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  8. I'm gratified that Will used the unambiguous terms "brand," "brands," and "brand names."

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  9. It also anagrams to a word which could describe the regulars on this blog.

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  10. By the way, sine and cosine might be interrelated functions, but they are certainly not inverse functions. Just sayin'.

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    1. Glad I'm not the only one that noticed that.

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    2. Same here. The inverses are explicitly named inverse sine, inverse cosine (and inverse tangent).

      Speaking of math issues, anyone have thoughts about the "less than" question on Final Jeopardy Friday?

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    3. Yeah, I thought a case could be made instead for Lambda, as in the LGBT symbol.

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    4. Glad you pointed this out -- I thought Will must have said "Arcsine" and I misheard it!

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    5. At first I was hoping the transcriber made a mistake, but I listened to the audio and was dismayed to see Will had it wrong.

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    6. I noticed (and was slightly annoyed by) this error in the WeSun puzzle, too.
      By the way, inverse sine is also (and perhaps more commonly) called arcsine.
      I submitted the following correction to NPR:

      In the Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle on March 26, 2023, Will Shortz gave, as a clue for the answer "inverse function," what cosine is to sine. This is incorrect. The inverse function of the sine is the arcsine, not the cosine.
      Since fewer people will have heard of the arcsine than of the cosine, one correct clue for the answer "inverse function" that more people are likely to have heard of is what square root is to square.
      Having been a math major, I was stumped by the clue until I heard the contestant get what turned out to be the right answer to the wrong question.

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  11. Two hints for one of the products: James Randi and Harry Houdini.

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  12. I've got two rhyming brands of the exact same specific product category (both foods, but much more similar than that), which don't match any of the hints here. There will be multiple valid answers this week.

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    1. If I'm thinking the same brands, the rhyme is the reason.

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    2. The hints here didn't help me any.

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    3. The two products I found are decidedly not foods

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    4. No foods in my answer...

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    5. I wouldn't eat the products in my answer.

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    6. The food answer I have isn't the intended, but the rhyme is intended.

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    7. I think I know jan's alternate answer, in which case there's also a brand of clothing with that rhyme scheme. Having opened the door with the intended answer, it would seem he'd have to accept it.

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    8. If I have jan's answer, an actor's name has that rhyme scheme too, if the diminutive form is used.

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  13. Replies
    1. But, then, this is just a pedestrian comment.

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  14. One of the products reminds me of a vulgar jingle, but when I try to recall the exact wording I keep drawing a blank.

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  15. As I fell back to sleep the jingle for one of these products started to ring in my ear and the only way to turn it off was to send in the answer. So now back to bed.

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  16. I thought I'd probably skip this puzzle, since it seemed like it would involve combing through lists of products. But, the came to me in a flash.

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  17. Blaine, for a third rhyming name, I have none.

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  18. I have no idea who the centenarian is. But I'm thinking of a Baron.

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  19. I had considered both brand names (and even saw both at home!) but never put them together until I considered Blaine's hint. So thank you, Blaine. At the moment, it's an especially apposite clue!

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  20. My girlfriend and I usually try to solve the Sunday Puzzle together, at breakfast. Two heads are definitely better than one. This morning, I thought of the shorter brand and she immediately thought of the longer brand. Hint it’s not Ty-D-Bol or any other brand using a hyphen. Not much of a clue, but as so many have said, I’m frequently clueless :)

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    1. Good question. This is what I'm wondering, as it affects the validity of my pair (which I believe fits plenty of the posted clues).

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  22. It's hard to get started on Spring cleaning when it's a blizzard outside!

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  23. I finally got Blaine's clue.

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  24. The brands rhyme with George. Another famous person might look like they rhyme with the brands, but the pronunciation is different.

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    1. Mr. Green is a character in the game Clue. His name is George Green. Sister Prejean might look like she rhymes with Listerine and Mr. Clean, but Prejean is pronounced like "pray-zhon". Also, Helen Prejean is a nun, which is in the word "pronunciation".

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  25. The world's third ranked centenarian lives 15 miles from me. I met her about 50 years ago.

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  26. Funnily, the two products sit next to each other in my storage cabinet.

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  27. One apparently has a more advanced education than the other!

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  28. Wonder about the use of rhyme in this puzzle.

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  29. Excellent items with multiple uses each - but not interchangeable.

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  30. I've found two rhyming pairs so far. One pair has 12 letters altogether, the other has 16.

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    1. I was thinking we might have the same alternate but we must not; mine has 18 letters.

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    2. So does mine, Nodd, but I don't know your actor. Are you sure it isn't a character the actor plays?

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    3. Mine has 20, and I am certain it is the right one.

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    4. Like I said, I'm sure there are many valid answers!

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    5. Well... I think Jan's 16 and SDB's 20 might be the same one.

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    6. Check the product spelling, sdb.

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    7. jan, I now have one with 12 as well.

      Lancek, the actor (using the diminutive) has the same name as one of the products. Maybe our alternate answers are different.

      sdb, I think the intended answer, which rhymes with Blaine's centenarian, has 16, but if you wrote it differently it would have 20.

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    8. I am fully aware of all that. So, now we know we have the same answer. I have no idea re: Blaine's clue.

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    9. I guess my 18-letter alternate must be different from Nodd's, lending further support to jan's hypothesis. I found a 7-letter cast character that rhymes with my answer, but no actor would have the same name, even with a diminutive.

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    10. Lancek, my 18-letter answer involves two foods but is otherwise different from Jan's. The actor in my answer, like the form of their first name in the answer, was diminutive, which is ironic given the title of one of their films. There was a hugely popular song in the 1970's that mentioned the actor. The song's author's last name, minus the first two letters, is one of the words in my answer. The two foods are superficially similar but quite different in substance.

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    11. Thanks, Nodd, for the well-scaffolded guide to your answer. I got the film first, then the actor, then one of the brands, then the song, then the author, then the word, and finally (with a little web search) the other product. My 18-letter alternate answer rhymes with a character in a certain TV entourage, and also with a flower named in a 2011 film that was definitely not directed by a hall-of-fame NFL coach.

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    12. Lancek, I figured out the film (nice NFL hint) and two products that rhyme with the flower, but I only get 17 letters due to a spelling variation for one of the brands. Maybe there are more than two brands with that rhyme scheme?

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    13. Woops! I made a hasty assumption about that spelling in my confidence that it was jan's alternate, and I was wrong on both counts. It's 17.

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    14. Well, I still think your answer is great and encourage you to submit it. Maybe WS will acknowledge it, along with the others I and other solvers will be submitting -- hahahaha.

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    15. Keep in mind that Will does not know about alternate answers unless someone informs him. He does not see all the submissions. The interns cannot be relied upon to inform him of alternate answers. It is an imperfect system.

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    16. Thanks, sdb. BTW, do you know who Roger Clemens' strength training coach was when he won all those Cy Young Awards?

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    17. I know nothing at all about who RC is and that topic.

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    18. Too bad, you won't appreciate this, but I'll post it anyway, WTH: Anna Ballick.

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    19. No idea what you are referring to.

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    20. As in anabolic steroids.

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  31. Each week I submit my answer in exactly the same way and computer to NPR. More often than not lately I do not get their computer generated reply indicating they received it. Do you think it would help if I doubled my financial contribution?

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    1. NPR just laid off 10% of their staff and axed four podcasts. I don't think fixing their email acknowledgments is a high priority right now. OTOH, how big a contribution are we talking here?

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    2. I received an NPR reply immediately for my submission. Strange you did not.

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  33. Almost ten years ago, we were working on a puzzle whose answer was "underwear drawer". I remarked at that time, "I keep imagining Will in his Puzzle Master super-hero outfit: cape, tights, shorts on the outside, Shortz on the inside." Well, yesterday I was sitting at an author talk at a local bookstore, and guess what I happened to notice?

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    1. Hmmm... I wonder if this could be related to Blaine's hint?

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    2. Wow! Thanks for sharing this.

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    3. OK, I found a non-fictional 103-year old who's a better rhyme.

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  34. I JUST FIGURED OUT YOUR CLUE, BLAINE. IT WAS MORE DIFFICULT THAN THE PUZZLE ITSELF!

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    1. Thanks, now I figured it out too. Not that I was really working on it though.

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  35. Long after I decided to spend my time elsewhere for a third week, the answer came unbidden, shortly followed by an understanding of our leader's non-hint (not allowed, you know).
    I can't find out where to find out if Will Shortz is a two syllable name.

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  36. Can't think of a brief clue and I don't want to ramble. Sorry.

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  37. Solved WORDL in 2 both yesterday and today! And in both cases I only got 2 green letters from my starting word.

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    1. Challenges abound. On Wordplay (unlimited Wordle), you can progress from Level 1 to 100 by guessing progressively harder words. It's a real slog to reach 100 because the game only gives you a hard word once in a while, and there are very few higher than Level 90. I finally got to 100 but it took several weeks. My longest win streak was 309 in a row but I've never been able to match it since.

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    2. Took me 3 yesterday. It was good that I'd read Elizabeth Kolbert's recent New Yorker piece on phosphorus. And saw Dr. Strangelove. (Bat Guano figures prominently in both.)

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  38. Geez, seeing the news about Nashville today... It's getting way too common!!

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  39. Ugh, I finally managed to think of one of the products, and shortly afterward, got what I think is the intended answer. What got me there? Stumbling across the name of a third product that fits the rhyme, but is not in the USA.

    This is certainly one of those puzzles that is easy--once you get the right starting point. It took me entirely too long to think of one of the product names, which then quickly led to the other.

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  40. Is it a rhyme if there is no variance? I suppose so.

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    1. -Identical rhyme employs the same word, identically in sound and in sense, twice in rhyming positions. -Internal rhyme is rhyme within a single line of verse, when a word from the middle of a line is rhymed with a word at the end of the line.

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    2. For anyone still asking, check the fourth and fifth lines of each stanza of "The Raven"

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    3. I'll have something to add to the thread this afternoon.

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    4. I don't believe your poetic license must be in date either.

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    5. Since poetry and poetics were once upon a time a significant part of my professional calling, let me add this to the conversation: The rhyme vs. repetition question (e.g, TomR’s clever query, “Does cow rhyme with cow?”) has a complicated answer, depending at least in part on the fact that in both puzzle answers “ter” is an unaccented, not an accented, syllable. One vade mecum, A Handbook to Literature, defines rhyme in part as “[i]dentity of terminal sound between accented syllables.” In short, in the case of determining rhymes, unaccented syllables like the puzzle’s 2 “ter” syllables don’t seem to count.

      In its “Identical Rhyme” entry, the Handbook defines it as a “[p]henomenon…in which a syllable both begins and ends in the same way as a rhyming syllable, without being the same word” (e.g., rain and rein). This would seem to suggest the possibility that the 2 “ter” syllables, if accented, could be identical rhymes as they are not from the same word. The entry also equates identical rhyme with the terms “redundant rhyme or rime riche” and then cites as a counterexample Tennyson, who employed the “lazy no rhyme” in “The Lotos-Eaters” of “land” and “land,” which the Handbook asserts “is technically a repetition and not an identical rhyme.” So same, whole-word repetition does not seem to be a rhyme, as in Blaine’s Poe example of “door” and “door”…except that…

      …the website of the Poetry Foundation, which sdb correctly cited above, seems to disagree, claiming the same word can rhyme with itself.

      And to complicate matters further, the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics defines “Rime riche” as “[r]hyming pairs pronounced in the same way without having the same meaning.” In the ensuing examples, it cites only complete-word examples—homographs and homophones (e.g., stare and stair)—not syllabic ones.

      As a result, I’m not sure there is a simple answer to the question of whether the corresponding “ter” syllables in the puzzle constitute a genuine rhyme, identical or otherwise, or merely a repetition or even something else. It seems the more I know, the less I understand. Perhaps someone—Dr. Awkward?—can lead us out of this maze?

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    6. I am flattered to be asked! I am a poetry scholar as well; I suppose I'd say that "Listerine" and "Mister Clean" comprise a feminine rhyme, but since we are taking the extra step of considering the three syllables in isolation, "ter" and "ter" in this context comprise an identical rhyme. Does that make sense to you, Dr. K?

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    7. First of all, Dr. Awkward, thank you for responding.

      I must admit that I began to feel like the writer who, attempting to figure out “entropy,” lamented, “I have kept trying to understand entropy, but my grasp becomes less sure the more I read.” That said, I think that, considering context, feminine rhyme and identical rhyme could work.

      Or I could invoke Keats’ “negative capability” and accept “uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.”

      Or Marianne Moore: “I too, dislike it: there are things that are important beyond all this / fiddle”-- to wit, the good news from the Manhattan grand jury.

      Besides, it’s NCAA Men’s and Women’s Final Four weekend.

      Go, Gamecocks!

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    8. Yes, I think it was WCW who reminded us that "It is difficult to get the news from poems"—but at least there are good things in the news today!

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  42. MR. CLEAN, LISTERINE

    "Yes, it's a brand new day for our habit of arguing over pronunciation." >>> points to SISTER JEAN, the centenarian Blaine highlighted. I was a little surprised, but pleased, Blaine let it stay up.

    "Footware" >>> Boots UK Limited (formerly Boots the Chemists) sells the flavored LISTERINE in the UK.

    "But, then, this is just a pedestrian comment." The band Beware of Pedestrians plays a song called MR. CLEAN'S LISTERINE

    "Ah, that is tempting." The italicized letters are the ones used to go from Mr. to Mister, the presumed difference between jan's and sdb's letter count.

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  43. Our good friend Tortitude has created a heaven-sent "seavenly" Septet of Stumpers for this Friday's Puzzleria!
    They are featured in her "Tortie's Slow but Sure Puzzles," and are titled:
    1. “Fairest of the Fairytale Princesses,”
    2. “Nicknamelodeon,”
    3. “A ‘quirky’... no, a ‘qwerty!’ type of writer,”
    4. “Sam I am... name’s the same as my Uncle Sam!”
    5. “Connecticutah!” “Ohiowa!” “Vermontana!” “New Mexicolorado!”
    6. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus; John, Acts, Romans, and
    7. “Utah” becomes “Eta!”
    Puzzleria! is uploaded every early Friday, just after Midnight PDT.
    Also on this week's menu are:
    * a Schpuzzle of the Week titled Merrimac vs. Monitor? Merimad vs. Minuotar?
    * a “Celebritish” Slice of puzzle titled "Monarchy? Parliament? Beatles?"
    * a "See-Eye-See-Eye-Otic" Dessert titled "Holst Seen and Herd on the Farm," and
    * 11 riff-offs of this week's NPR puzzle, titled "Mister Joseph Lister Clean."
    Come join us for some good clean scrubbing-bubble-no-toil-or-trouble-puzzling fun!

    LegoInvitesAllToEnjoyTortie'sFairytales"Quertyness"OhiowaysAndIngeniousJarsOfGel!

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  44. LISTERINE → MR. CLEAN.

    Britain's oldest centenarian dies at age 110: MR. DEAN (Reg Dean)

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  45. LISTERINE, MR. CLEAN

    I had observed both brand names in my home as I was trying to solve the puzzle and did not put them together until I considered Blaine’s clue. Of course, his hint was timely because of the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Sister Jean is a staunch and inspiring supporter of the Loyola-Chicago basketball team.

    I am especially curious to learn Jan’s, Nodd’s, Lancek’s, and skydiveboy’s alternate answers.

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  46. Replies
    1. I forgot to post my hint. That is because I also forgot I had posted a hint, but I just noticed it:
      "One of the products reminds me of a vulgar jingle, but when I try to recall the exact wording I keep drawing a blank." The jingle is of course the Mr. Clean ad jingle. The vulgar parody is when you leave the word HOLE out, but pause at that point for a second. When I posted I was drawing a BLANK, that is the hint.

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  47. Listerine/Mr. Clean

    Both brands are known for leaving something clean, but although Listerine can be used to disinfect surfaces, rinsing one’s mouth with Mr. Clean wouldn’t be something I’d care to try.

    On the other hand, Listerine does anagram into resilient, so maybe there are some denizens of Blaine's World who’d care to experiment


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  48. "The hints here didn't help me any." > not any > none > nun > Sister Jean > Listerine / Mr. Clean

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  49. TURTLE WAX, HERBAL MAX
    LISTERINE, MR. CLEAN

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    1. I'm surprised everyone is using my second answer as their only. Because the second syllables of LISTERINE & MR. CLEAN are both "STER," to my ear, whereas TURTLE WAX & HERBAL MAX are actually pure rhymes.

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    2. Ben--Merriam-Webster syllabicates "mister" as mis-ter. Listerine is certainly arguable, either Lis-ter-ine or List-er-ine. In certain pronumciations, the final syllable could even be "-rine" (Ironically, "Webster" syllabicates Web-ster, as in your answer Li-ster-ine.)

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    3. I doubt there is any real fact of the matter about syllabification, but for some reason words *look* wrong if you hyphenate them in some other way that the standard way. In 'mister' you would have to hyphenate between the consonants, and I think that is a general rule except when there is a very plain semantic/lexical break, as for a prefix or suffix. (For example, 'monoclonal' would be 'mono-clonal', not 'monoc-lonal'.)

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  50. LISTERINE, MR. CLEAN, MR SHEEN (Australia)

    It took me a while to come across the right product. What was funny to me is that the first product name I came across was an Australian furniture polish, Mr Sheen. I immediately noticed that it rhymed with Mr Clean (magic eraser, other cleaning products). I was chuckling that it fit so nicely with the "does cow rhyme with cow" comment, when my brain suddenly clicked, and I realized that the other product was Listerine!

    I spent so much time looking through supermarket pages and other places on the interwebs that I am probably on every advertiser's list.

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  51. OREOS and DO-SI-DOS

    LISTERINE and MR. CLEAN


    > Hmmm... I wonder if this could be related to Blaine's hint?

    Wolverine is a superhero centenarian (born in the "late-19th-century") who rhymes with "Listerine" and "Mr. Clean", sort of.

    > OK, I found a non-fictional 103-year old who's a better rhyme.

    Sister Jean (Jean Dolores Schmidt), the chaplain for the Loyola Ramblers. Probably who Blaine meant. I'm not a basketball fan.


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    1. I only know of her because I often turn on ABC World News Tonight right before Jeopardy!, and they've featured her a few times.

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  52. Listerine, Mr Clean
    Jimmy Dean, Gimme Lean
    Tostitos, Doritos
    Campari, Atari
    Figaro, Bigelow
    Oreo, Florio

    My hint noted that an anagram of the longer product, minus a letter, anagrams to a word that is consistently heard on the Sunday Puzzle broadcast. (Listerine, listener)

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  53. Marigold (Creme) KerryGold (butter)

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  54. I believe Blaine's hint is referring to Superman.
    I also forgot that the first 3 syllable brand I thought of was LISTERINE, but then I returned back to bed and a few minutes got Mr. Clean. I really do not enjoy product puzzles. I rarely buy name brand stuff.

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    1. I don't like brand name puzzles either. It's NPR for god's sake -- is there no sanctuary from product placement?
      On the other hand, recent brand name puzzles have set the stage for Blainesville to flaunt some excellent alternative answers, so there's that.

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  55. Nodd wrote above:
    "Lancek, my 18-letter answer involves two foods but is otherwise different from Jan's. The actor in my answer, like the form of their first name in the answer, was diminutive, which is ironic given the title of one of their films. There was a hugely popular song in the 1970's that mentioned the actor. The song's author's last name, minus the first two letters, is one of the words in my answer. The two foods are superficially similar but quite different in substance."

    My first guess for the song and singer were "Rock On" by David Essex, which mentions Jimmy Dean/James Dean. Then I took off the first two letters, and... huh? Would Will Shortz really feature a product with that word?

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    1. LOL. You could remove the first letter of the singer's first name as well, to spell a hypothetical product that would be a competitor of Viagra. (Darn! I should have submitted "Viagra-Niagara" along with my other alternate answers!)

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    2. Back when they testing meds for erectile function, a double blind study was done. What was the placebo group called?

      Answer: VIAGRA FALLS.

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    3. That must have been hard on their egos.

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  56. Mr. Clean, Listerine

    Last Sunday I said, “My girlfriend and I usually try to solve the Sunday Puzzle together, at breakfast. Two heads are definitely better than one. This morning, I thought of the shorter brand and she immediately thought of the longer brand. Hint: it’s not Ty-D-Bol or any other brand using a hyphen. Not much of a clue, but as so many have said, I’m frequently clueless :)” Of course, my hint suggested the possibility of using punctuation – such as a period – in the answer.

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  57. Replies
    1. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/indite

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    2. I'm Googling to find out where tar and feathers may be obtained.

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    3. Thanks Paul. Damn you spellcheck.

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    4. I guess I am not the only one who is capable of misspelling INDICTED:

      "He [Trump] also issued another furious rant on his social media platform Truth Social, complete with an unfortunate, all-caps misspelling saying he had been “INDICATED.” "

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    5. Knowing the orange menace, I won't believe it until it actually happens...

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    6. skydiveboy: Tar and feathers may be obtained in the L. A. AREA.

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    7. Yes, I considered mentioning La Brea, but thought I should make the comment short. I quickly forget most of the NPR puzzles, but not the tar pit one, and I did think of it. Remember I posted something about it actually translates to: The the tar tar pits.

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    8. Just like The Los Angeles Angels (before they moved to Anaheim).

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  58. My alternate was Kerry Gold and Darigold, both being brands of butter. It requires rhyming "gold" with "gold," but Will opened the door by rhyming "ter" with "ter." I really like Jimmy Dean and Gimme Lean, since the latter was obviously named after the former in the spirit of Will's puzzle. I also love Blaine's timely March Madness hint.

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  59. I didn't enter this week. I found MISTER CLEAN and LISTERINE, but discounted it because of identical middle syllables. You might as well say that all the syllables of CAMPBELL'S SOUP all rhyme with those of CAMPBELL'S SOUP, and if you object that this is only one brand name, I will tell you one is tomato and one is mushroom.

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  60. Here is one of the most famous WW I poems of all time that I memorized years ago and it includes DROWNING AND DROWNING rhyming with each other. I have capitalized both instances for your convenience.

    Dulce et Decorum Est

    Wilfred Owen (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918)


    Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
    Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
    Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
    And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
    Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
    But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
    Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
    Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

    Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
    Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
    But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
    And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.

    Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
    As under a green sea, I saw him DROWNING.
    In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
    He plunges at me, guttering, choking, DROWNING.

    If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
    Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
    And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
    His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
    If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
    Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
    Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
    Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
    My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
    To children ardent for some desperate glory,
    The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
    Pro patria mori

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    Replies
    1. I learned that poem in eighth grade! The second stanza with its "ecstasy of fumbling" is the only bit that really stuck in my brain.

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    2. I learned it about 19 years ago when Chris Hedges used one stanza on a blank page before the beginning of one of his books I was reading. I had heard of the poem, but decided to google up the full poem, which, BTW, has several minor revisions. I then decided I would memorize it. I still recite it frequently. One other thing I like doing with it is to recite it in numerous dialects and voices, most being British of all ages and class status. Are you listening Hollywood?

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    3. "An ecstasy of fumbling" is pure poetic genius. Wilfred Owen at age 25 was killed in action a week before the WWI Armistice was signed.

      LegoWhoHopesHollywoodIsListeningAndThatskydiveboy"GetsDiscovered"AndGetsToSchmoozeWithTheGlitterati!

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    4. Makes me think of a line from J.D. Salinger's
      "For Esmé — With Love and Squalor":

      I'd packed all my belongings into my barrack
      bag, including a canvas gas-mask container full of books I'd brought
      over from the Other Side. (The gas mask itself I'd slipped through a
      porthole of the Mauretania some weeks earlier, fully aware that if the
      enemy ever did use gas I'd never get the damn thing on in time.)

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  61. Sister Jean needs to pray a little harder. The Loyola-Chicago Ramblers ended the year 10-21, last place in the Atlantic-10 Conference. Blaine's hint left me nun the wiser.

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  62. Listerine/Mr. Clean. I rarely remember to post my answers on time. I mentioned Spring cleaning, which I am still struggling with. We had another blizzard yesterday, and another forecast for tomorrow. I'm really not complaining. I love winter, and a nice wet and soggy spring.

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  63. This week's challenge comes from listener Mark Maxwell-Smith. Think of an eight-letter word for a certain musician. Switch the order of the second and fourth letters and you'll get a word for a certain writer. What words are these? I'm looking for words, not famous people.

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  64. This one's pretty straightforward; the trouble is finding a hint.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I thought of an example of the writer pretty quickly. The musician, too.

      Delete
  65. Change one letter in the instrument and rearrange to get a character in classical fiction.

    ReplyDelete
  66. The "inverse function" error from last week was acknowledged, complete with an engineering math professor discussing the topic.

    ReplyDelete

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