Sunday, June 04, 2023

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 4, 2023): A Singer Does Some Singing

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 4, 2023): A Singer Does Some Singing
Q: Name a famous singer (6,4). Remove the last letter of the first name and the first letter of the last name. The result, reading left to right, is a word for some singing. What is it?
You can also rearrange the 10 letters of the famous singer to get a color and an action.

Edit: ORANGE, LICK
A: CAROLE KING --> CAROLING

144 comments:

  1. I won’t be submitting a solution this week. This is the third time I’ve had the honor of one of my puzzles being selected by Will. Anyway, hard or easy, good or bad, I hope you enjoy solving it.

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    1. Congrats, Chuck. It was a quick solve here.

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    2. Solid puzzle, Chuck. Gonna make sure I submit my answer before the deadline.

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    3. Congratulations! --Margaret G.

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    4. Chuck, you rock! You're a natural puzzle maker. Congratulations!

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    5. Must have the wrong show, some guy named Chad sent in my puzzle.
      First "still-in-bed" poser in a while.

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    6. Congratulations! Fun puzzle to solve early in the day!

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    7. Congratulations Chuck! It is a good puzzle.

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    8. This is a good puzzle. It took me a little longer to solve than usual, but not so long that I gave up

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    9. Cheers, Chuck! I love this puzzle. For many years this singer lived in my hometown.

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    10. I am proud to say that Chuck's puzzles appear regularly on Puzzleria!, in his recurrent and popular "Conundrumbstruck by Chuck!" feature. Here are one or two of his more recent ones.

      LegoWhoNotesThatAllOurGuestPuzzleMakersOnPuzzleria!AreAstoundinglyCreative

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  2. Nearly 800 correct answers last week

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    1. I'm surprised it was that low. I googled "famous authors," and Charlotte Bronte was easily found in the first list in the results. From there, it's easy for someone to look up what sports teams are in Charlotte.

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  3. Nice puzzle, Chuck! It's another chance to reprise my favorite pithy hint, but I fear it might be TMI.

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  4. Rearrange the singer's name, and get a body part and a kind of animal.

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  5. The singer has been an answer to an on-air puzzle.

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  6. An album anagrams to an enzyme.

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  7. Move the first letter of the last name eight places forward in the alphabet to get an appropriate word.

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  8. I have it and it's not Johnny Cash. Well done Chuck.

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    1. Johnny Cash turns into John Nash.

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    2. That's the answer to the spin-off puzzle I posted at the end of last week's blog.

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  9. Got it. Then I rearranged the singer's name to describe an old mine.

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  10. Replace the third letter with two other letters and rearrange to get another famous singer.

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  11. Got it! And I'm glad I was able to post my comment in good time.

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  13. This is a cute puzzle, Chuck. Nice job! I hope you all have a very pleasant Sunday.

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    1. This was my favorite hint of the week, clotheslover. You managed to slip a totally transparent Carole King composition past the censors simply because it surface meaning was so benign. That's my favorite kind of comment.

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  14. Did anyone notice that Will misspoke when he repeated the puzzle from last week? He said there were 8 letters in the last name of the author.

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    1. Yep. Better to screw it up there than on the initial reading. :)

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    2. He also said professional athlete, instead of member of a professional sports team as he said last week.

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  15. And, now I’ve solved the real puzzle. Too embarrassed to post a clue.

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  16. Do you think today’s puzzle was intentional or coincidental? Name a singer - 6,4 - on 6/4 (which happens to be my birthday)! Anyway, I went through my old CD’s, records and tapes trying to find the answer, but no luck, though eventually I got it.

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    1. Snipper, happy birthday, fellow Gemini! At least the on air puzzle didn't include Taurus ;-).

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    2. Great observation, Snipper, and happy birthday—from a TAUrus (lol)!

      WW's phrase "fellow gemini" anagrams to a sentence I hope you are not saying today…or any day, for that matter.

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    3. Wolfgang, hmmm, I decided to stop at "I fell meowing" and "I feign mellow," two sentences I have never yet uttered.

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    4. That would have been "I'm feeling low."

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  17. This puzzle is beautiful in its simplicity.

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  18. My high school civics teacher was emphatic that that is NOT the accented syllable in that college.

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    1. Merriam-Webster has it as "eLECtoral" (with audio), although M-W does admit "elecTORal" as an alternate. My HS civics teacher also said it "eLECtoral," which feels right to me.

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  19. Chat gpt was not very quick today.

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  20. Rearrange the word for some singing, and you get what you might have heard on a legacy NPR show.

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  21. This singer has a direct and a somewhat "broad" connection to two other acts that appeared on U.S. television February 9th, 1964.

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  22. I can't believe how quickly Blaine got this one posted, since he lives West Coast, in the Bay Area!

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  23. No clue here: I am having trouble submitting the puzzle answer. When I click "Submit Your Answer," the page comes back saying "Contact Form Not Found," or if the form does load, the message doesn't get sent (the page stays in limbo). Anyone else experiencing this?

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    1. I first got a message to refresh and try again. When I finally got it sent, I did not receive a response. I waited some time and sent again, this time using an alternate email address. It went okay, but again there was no response. Sometime later I received responses to both. Can't George Santos fix this?

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    2. Maybe he did fix it overnight. I just tried submitting again, it went through without a hitch, and I got confirmation immediately.

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  24. I have to wonder if the character portrayed by Nneka Okafor on "FBI: Most Wanted" might be an informant.

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    1. The character's name is Serena Wade, and "singing" is slang for informing.

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  25. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  26. side note anyone else unable to submit through the NPR page? I've tried on three devices, cell and wifi and it just sits on that spinning circle of dots

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    1. Mine too! And I hate to say that, although Chuck(or Chad)got his challenge idea used for next week, I too have noticed this same property the name of the singer in question possesses(and probably even sent it in myself as well!), so needless to say this one didn't take me any time at all to solve. Oh well. Simpler than the alphabet, IMHO.
      pjbHopingForAnother"CateBlanchett/CarteBlanche"SituationSomeTimeInTheNot-Too-DistantFuture(UsedThreeDifferentTimes,BTW!)

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    2. after doing some weekend work, adulting and driveway beer with my neighbor buddy I came back and tried, it says it went through this time and I got the email confirmation, yay technology

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    3. I just got confirmation from NPR. Submitted early this morning.

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    4. Maybe you haven't been donating enough of your old used cars. They keep track of those things, you know.

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  27. New Puzzle from Today's Headlines: If the top speed of a Cessna Citation is about 2/3 the speed of sound, then how does an F-16 create a sonic boom while "pursuing" the Cessna?

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    1. The F-16 got permission to go supersonic to intercept the Citation.

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    2. Ha! I got your little joke, but keep in mind the F-16 had to get there from Toronto. In other words, they were not coming from the same starting point. Anyway it looks like another case of the pilot losing oxygen and passing out. Or, of course, he could have been stumped by today's Wordle on his cell phone and lost track of time. But then again, we don't know who was on board, and you know of the Mile High Club.

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    3. jan, Did that permission come from George Santos himself?

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    4. No, from NORAD. The plane was carrying the daughter of the owner of the plane, her daughter, and the daughter's nanny. It was taking them home to Long Island (the destination was Islip MacArthur Airport), after a visit to the owner in Tennessee. The plane apparently flew all the way to the area of ISP and turned around and headed back to the DC area, after losing radio contact. The fighters were dispatched when the NORDO (no radio) flight was headed for the restricted airspace around DC. NORAD claims they did not shoot it down. It crashed into wooded terrain at about the point it would have run out of fuel, after an extremely steep descent.

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    5. The F-16 pilots reported seeing the Cessna pilot slumped over, not responding. Sounds to me like loss of cabin pressure at altitude.

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    6. SDB, I read the F-16s were out of Joint Base Andrews.

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    7. You mean I was rong about Toronto? But I was rite about the cause. Whew!

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  28. Hope no one here currently has his or her TV on their PBS station right now. Blaine, you have every right to remove this post if you feel it necessary.
    pjbWondersWhyNobodyStaysOnOneChannelAnymore?

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    1. CAROLE KING, CAROLING
      The PBS pledge drive has been going on all this week on WBIQ-TV in Birmingham(also seen here in Jasper), and Sunday night they just happened to have had a special about Ms. King and her music and career. I felt I had to give a little bit of a heads-up to anyone else here who might have seen it on their PBS station as well(without elaboration, of course!).
      BTW "Simpler than the alphabet"="It's easier than learning your ABC's"(from "The Locomotion", co-written by Carole King and performed by Little Eva in 1962, Grand Funk Railroad in 1974, and Kylie Minogue in 1987).
      pjbAlsoNoticedTheSongCameUpOnThisWeek's"Don'tForgetTheLyrics!"(OnFOX,CheckYourLocalListings)

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    2. (And in my first post I also paraphrased "Doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore?" from "So Far Away", off "Tapestry", her 1971 hit album.)
      pjbSaysBirminghamIsNot"SoFarAway"FromJasper,InCaseYou'reWondering

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  29. One of the singer's songs seems to address an issue of quantum physics

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    1. "CAROLE KING--CAROLING"
      My hint : "One of the singer's songs seems to address an issue in quantum physics."

      So, on Tapestry, in "So Far Away" Carole asks so wistfully "Doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore?" A perfectly poetic expression it seems to me, of existential uncertainty in 2023

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    2. CAROLE KING--CAROLING

      Hint "One of the singer's songs seems to address an issue of quantum physics."
      On Tapestry, in So Far Away, Carole posits wistfully, "Doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore?"

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  30. Nice! It also works if you simply delete the 2nd and 3rd letters in the first name and then put the last name in front.

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  31. Add one letter to the first name and rearrange and you get something that could kill you.

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  32. The singer in this puzzle shares a last name with some well-known singers of the past. But, this singer isn't related to them, nor are they related to each other.

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  33. Not a puzzle you'd expect this time of year.

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  34. This took a little longer than usual for me. Don't know why.

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    1. I was away and just got to it. Funny the name wasn't on any of the singer lists I looked at. The singer was at least as famous as many others that were on them.

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  35. CarTalk answered their coffee puzzle today and also posted a new one. They seem to have posted their answer so that it contradicts itself. Take a look and see if you notice their mistake too.

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    1. Hm, no, I don't see a contradiction. That's what I thought the answer would be, and for the reason they give.
      Heat transfer by conduction is at a rate proportional to the temperature difference between the two subsystems. The coffee will cool by conduction, transferring its heat to the surrounding air (via a cup, of course).
      I thought they left out one part of the explanation: the total amount of heat in the cream-diluted coffee is just going to be the heat from the coffee plus the heat from the cream. So if the coffee loses more heat when you wait to put the cream in, the mixed system will have more heat if you wait to put the cream in.

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    2. I too had guessed the correct answer, but I think this contradicts it:
      "So in order to get the fastest cooling for the coffee, you want the greatest temperature difference between the hot stuff and the cold stuff."
      The greatest temp difference would be adding cold cream when the coffee was just finished heating up. Does this not contradict their intended answer?

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    3. Oh right!
      But the 'cool stuff' is the air in this case. (The *speed* of the heat transfer between coffee and cream doesn't matter to this question.)

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    4. I think I understand what you are saying, but it does not fit with the puzzle presentation. They say: "It is better to wait the 5 minutes before adding the cream." They are not adding the air.

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    5. I've never been a cream and sugar fan, but unless temperature is the only consideration, adding the cream later surely is the better way to a satisfying result.

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  36. Well that took me longer than usual. While I do cardio, I listen to my local "oldie but goodie" radio station. So there I was riding a recombent bike listening to the correct singer ( 6 letters in the first name and 4 in the last). It felt like poetry!

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  37. CAROLE KING, CAROLING

    "311" The Excavator 311 is a piece of earth moving equipment. CAROLE KING didn't need that equipment, though, for Tapestry.

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    1. 311 is a number to call in case of non-emergency. I thought perhaps, as a trained geologist, if you felt the earth move under your feet you might call 311 to calmly inquire about the extent of the seismic disturbance, rather than frantically dial 911 like a Chicken Little, which is what I might do. So I responded 150 (CL).

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    2. Paul, I did think of the 311 call number for non-emergencies, thinking it would be a good diversion. Glad to know about your clue for Chicken Little.

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  38. Our featured guest puzzle-maker on this week's Puzzleria! is our friend Tortitude. She has composed a quartet of beautiful yet baffling conundrums titled "BBC on the telly, Enshrined in Cleveland, Decades-apart Video, and Memento Megacorpi!" You will find them in her "Tortie's Slow But Sure Puzzles," a package of posers that always pose a challenge to even the most quick-witted of puzzle solvers.
    We upload Puzzleria! around midnight tonight Pacific Daylight Time, in the wee hours between Thursday and Friday.
    Also on this week's menu:
    * our Schpuzzle of the Week, titled "Bossie & Bessie down on the farm, roam, roam on the range,"
    * a Capital City Hors d’Oeuvre titled "Hoosier, Sooner, Empire States,"
    * a Synonymous Antonymous "Slice of Puzzle" titled “Just two 4-letter words and a 'sixer',”
    * a Hydroproductivity Dessert Puzzle-Piece titled “Trawling and casting 'aboat' ” and
    * 13 riff-offs of this weeks NPR puzzle, titled "Carole King... caroling!"
    That adds up to 21 puzzles for you to enjoy!

    LegoWhoNotesThatTortie'sPuzzlesMayBe"SlowButSure"ButSheIsSurelyAVeryQuickWittedAndAccomplishedComposerOfPuzzles

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  39. CAROLING (from Carole King)

    My clue:
    Rearrange the word for some singing, and you get what you might have heard on a legacy NPR show.
    That would be "car lingo." 📻

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  40. CAROLING (<— CAROLE KING)

    Hint: “Rearrange the singer’s name, and get a body part and a kind of animal.” CAROLE KING —> ANKLE, CORGI

    Lots of good riffs off the puzzle and clues this week, but my favorite may have been Dr. Awkward’s hint (if I understood it correctly).

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  41. CAROLE KING, CAROLING

    >> Name a famous singer (6,4). Remove the last letter of the first name and the first letter of the last name. The result, reading left to right, is a famous mathematician and economist. (No hint here.)

    > Oh nice, Jan.
    I mean, beautiful.

    At the time I posted this spin-off puzzle, I hadn't yet solved this week's challenge. The answer is Johnny Cash and John Nash. I assumed that Crito's "beautiful" comment referred to the John Nash biopic, A Beautiful Mind. But after solving the NPR puzzle, I realized that it could also point to the CAROLE KING musical, Beautiful, and suggested that Crito delete his comment, which he graciously did.

    > The singer has been an answer to an on-air puzzle.

    Rhymes with "Barrel Swing".

    > An album anagrams to an enzyme.

    Tapestry <-> tryptase.

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  42. Carole King – eK yields Caroling

    Early Sunday morning, when I visited last week’s blog to get an early start on the weekly challenge, the first thing I saw was Jan’s very clever riff on the NPR puzzle (starting with a singer…. winding up with a mathematician/ economist). I came up with the solution, Johnny Cash – yC yielding John Nash. I then posted a comment that the singer’s spouse was also a singer, referring to June Carter Cash, and headed off to the gym.

    It was only later, when I returned to Blaine’s to see what others were doing, that I realized my error, and began working on the correct puzzle.

    OOPS!

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  46. CAROLE KING, CAROLING. I said, "Move the first letter of the last name eight places forward in the alphabet to get an appropriate word." (SING)

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  47. My hint: "Solid puzzle, Chuck. Gonna make sure I submit my answer before the deadline."

    If I were to submit my answer after the deadline, it would be "too late, baby..."

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    1. Very clever and subtle hint, jsulbyrne.

      LegoWhoNotesItWasTooCleverAndSubtleForHim

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    2. I think jsulbyrne and Dr. Awkward were on, so to speak, the same track.

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  48. Replying to SuperZee I asked, "Are you actually blushing?"
    Because in that case he would have been Really Rosie

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  49. The connection to the two other acts on Feb. 9th, 1964 refers to the Beatles' appearance on Ed Sullivan. The "other acts" were the cast of Oliver, featuring Davy Jones, monkey to be, and the comedy duo of Brill and McCall. Carole King was one of the many top songwriters for the Monkees. King wrote many of her hits in the Brill building on Broadway. She was afraid to fly, but despite that, she made a trip to meet the Monkees in California, after which she ended up in tears.

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    1. Carole King was born on February 9, 1942, so there is a connection with the date.

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  50. Remove the O from Carole and add H and S to get Charles. King Charles was in my hint last week, too.

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  51. By the way, Mitzi McCall and Charlie Brill are still alive, and still married after 63 years. They remember nothing of their appearance on Ed Sullivan in Feb. 1964, because the Beatles stole all the thunder of the other acts, which as I said, included a teenage Davy Jones in the cast of Oliver.

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  52. What four letters can complete each of these words and phrases?

    JUSTICE DEPART______
    DOCU_____
    INDICT_____

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    1. Well that conundrum is far too hard for me to decipher, and I hope you understand what I meant by that. However I want to confess that I have now come to realize I actually have something in common with our last president. Both he and I have been anxiously awaiting his indictment on criminal charges today in Florida.

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  53. MENT. Is that what you MEANT? ;-)

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  54. I thought it was a simple and elegant puzzle. Nice work, Chuck!

    CAROLE KING, CAROLING

    My clue was I can't believe how quickly Blaine got this one posted, since he lives West Coast, in the Bay Area!. This was an intimation of Earthquakes, since one of King's many great compositions is I Feel the Earth Move, Under My Feet.

    Not that there are ever Earthquakes in San Francisco any more. Better be true, since I'm flying into SFO in a few hours. Cheers!

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  55. CAROLE KING, CAROLING
    My hint: 1066
    The Norman Conquest of England in 1066 is depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry, and Tapestry is Carole King's second album.

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  56. The "certain tree hugger" to which I referred was the anagram OAK CLINGER. My favorite pithy hint (from many puzzles back) was "e" -- which would have applied here as the critical letter that makes the singer a (6, 4) and not the more common (5,4). Since that was also one of the dropped letters, I figured it would be TMI.

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  57. CAROLE KING; CAROLING

    My hint. Add one letter to the first name and rearrange and you get something that could kill you.
    CAROLE+H anagrams to CHOLERA.

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  58. The Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, was arrested in his rural Montana shack in 1996, at the same time that the bovine spongiform encephalopathy scare was peaking, two facts linked in my brain by a bumper sticker I remember:

    MONTANA: AT LEAST OUR COWS ARE SANE

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  59. Never heard of the singer. Sounds like an odd choice this month.

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  60. Got it. A singer known best in a particular segment of the music world.

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  61. Over 1000 correct entries last week

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  63. The singer's last name anagrams to a person of talent.

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  64. GEORGE STRAIT (—> GORGE, STRAIT)

    My Sunday morning hint:

    “Rearrange the singer’s surname, and get a word that signifies a category of which the singer is a member.”

    STRAIT —> ARTIST

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For NPR puzzle posts, don't post the answer or any hints that could lead to the answer before the deadline (usually Thursday at 3pm ET). If you know the answer, submit it to NPR, but don't give it away here.

You may provide indirect hints to the answer to show you know it, but make sure they don't assist with solving. You can openly discuss your hints and the answer after the deadline. Thank you.