Sunday, July 16, 2023

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 16, 2023): Lovely Day for a Picnic

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 16, 2023): Lovely Day for a Picnic
Q: Name a famous singer (first and last names, 12 letters in all). Add a Y at the end, and the result, with respacing but not rearranging any letters, will spell a possible contribution to a picnic and how it might be served. What singer is it?
The answer is a little contrived, but at least I don't need to use my "Phone a Friend" lifeline.

Edit: My hint was to the song "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" from "High Society"
A: Frank Sinatra --> Franks in a tray

212 comments:

  1. First name I thought of. Back to bed.

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  2. Easy, but changing the name to a picnic item made me laugh with surprise. Take the singer’s last name, rearrange, and you get someone with a non-singing sort of skill.

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  3. Five second solve. Another puzzle related to a recent one.

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  4. Holy cow, SDB must be up before dawn to listen to the puzzle!

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    1. SDB posted at 5:29 a.m. PDT, which happens to have been the same time as sunrise today in Seattle. But Merriam-Webster defines "dawn" as "the first appearance of light in the morning followed by sunrise". Civil twilight began at 4:50.

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    2. But clearly he was awake before that to listen to the puzzle.
      (And anyway, I was giving a clue :) )

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    3. SDB was on the late shift.

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    4. NPR posts text (approximate) of puzzle on website before it airs on radio in Eastern timezone.

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  5. More than 1200 correct entries this week.

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  6. First singer I thought of...

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  7. A recent news story comes to mind.

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  8. This is my week! Sacha Pfeiffer lives in my city, one of my alma maters is in the singer's home town, I had the answer at a BBQ last night.

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    1. Yeah. I have a bunch of alma maters.

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    2. Serendipity! I have quite a few friends who attended your alma mater (perhaps at the same time as you) in the singer's home town, and as a youngster I learned how to swim at the YMCA there.

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    3. Often smelled like coffee.

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    4. Wow Jan, that has to be the fastest anyone has ever solved the puzzle! You solved it last night‽

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    5. I didn't say I solved the puzzle last night. I said I had the answer.

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    6. LOL, Jaws. Clever and humorous – a great combination in a comment.

      LegoWhoIsCuriousAboutHowJawsProducedThatWonderfulInterrobang

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  9. Hate puzzles I get before Will finishes repeating the clues. But I didn't know that college was in that town, and I lived not far from it. So I learned something.

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  10. I often bring a basket of willienel to to the Sony company picnic.

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    2. TMI? I solved the puzzle by reading this clue. Blaine?

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  12. Instead of a Y, add a letter that is always a consonant to the end (and an apostrophe someplace else) to get a caption of a photo texted to me by my Aunt Phoebe, who is vacationing abroad with her hubby.
    Or, Instead of a Y, add a different letter that is always a consonant to the end (and an apostrophe someplace else) to get disturbing news about one's pet rat.

    LegoPeddlingGladNews&SadNews

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  13. The answer would fit in a Dr Seuss story! Made me chuckle.

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  14. I'd rather watch the Twisted Metal trailer again than solve this crap

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  15. Rearrange the singer's last name to get something in New York City that a different singer wrote a song about.

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    1. Oh nice, I'd never noticed that about the name.
      I always thought Wonder Mike should cover that song.

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    2. JAWS meant "A Trains", I assume.
      And I always thought Wonder Mike's Sugar Hill Gang should cover it, because you must take the A Train if you wanna get to Sugar Hill in Harlem...

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    3. Crito, you assume correctly. I was referring to Duke Ellington's Take the A Train.

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  16. I agree with Blaine that this puzzle is contrived. My contrived clue is that the last name anagrams into a type of monarch

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  17. Where's Dr. Awkward when you need her?

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  18. More contrivance: Take the last name. Add the first name of US Vice President. Anagram the results to get an adjective applied to many foods.

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  19. There is grammatical flaw with this puzzle answer involving a preposition. Also, why did WS pronounce Henri as plain old Henry? I've always understood Henri to be pronounced AHN-REE. Otherwise, why not just spell it Henry. Maybe AHN-REE is not a native English speaker. That might account the for the error in the wording of the answer. This is our diversity puzzle. Henry, yes. Hank, never. We're not that diverse!

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  21. I won’t be able to think of this singer ever again without seeing a certain image prompted by this puzzle (no e clue here).

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  23. To tell the truth, this is a good puzzle.

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  24. This does not seem like a picnic food to me, rather a cookout or BBQ.

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  25. Sure, the Great Depression was bad, but 1933 and 1937 weren’t so terrible, and despite the Cold War and the advent of nuclear weapons, 1951 wasn’t so terrible either.

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  26. May I ask a question to those who have gotten on air fairly recently? I missed a call at 3:06 pm edt this past Thursday from an (888) number. Did not leave message. Could that have been NPR?

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    1. Maybe. I recall the calls coming a bit later than that. The first time I got the call, it was from a 202 area code, which indicated the Washington DC area, but the second call some years later wasn't. I think it that was from a staffer's cellphone. Basically, if you get a call from an unknown number between 3 and 4 on Thursday, take it.

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    2. Wow. Twice. Jan, do you know of anyone else on the blog who’s received the call twice?

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    3. Amazing. It took me 30 years for the first and (thus far) only time.

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    4. I have gotten the call twice, once around 1996 and once around 2019. I am still submitting answers, but I let them know that I have been called enough, and will forgo playing again.

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    5. Well done, Rob. After I got the call, my wife, egalitarian that she is, insisted that I should never again submit answers, but others (on the blog) encouraged me to continue to do so. As a compromise, I refrained from submissions for a year and then recommenced. Someday, perhaps...

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    6. "Basically, if you get a call from an unknown number between 3 and 4 on Thursday, take it."

      @Jan, if that's the requirement then that's terrible. I always have them ring a landline (as I don't always have a cellphone near me), and this would suggest that I need to be "chained" to that phone for an hour. Seriously, they can't narrow it down any further?

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    7. Terrible? If you don't answer, maybe someone else here will. Doesn't sound that terrible.

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    8. It sometimes may take several tries for them to reach an actual human and, even then, he may not want to be on air. That can all take up a chunk of time.

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    9. Fair, but they don't really even give an estimate of when they START calling. Tell me when they'll start calling and about how long it normally takes them to find someone willing to play, and then I'll know when and for how long I need to reasonably stay near a phone. Demanding that I stay put for a whole hour because they can't be more precise than "after 'by 3:00PM'" is absurd.

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    10. To put it another way, I've generally operated under the assumption that if I haven't been called between 3:00PM and 3:15PM then I won't be. Is that fair, or do I need to expand my window? Do I really need to expand it to a full hour?

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    11. Depends on how many other people don't take the call, and how much you want that lapel pin. And whether you remembered to enter.

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    12. Suppose I know all those values. How do I convert them into a timeframe?

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    13. I think I may be able to provide a definitive answer to this timely (not another pun!) topic. They begin at noon Eastern Time, and will go until they succeed in their quest for a willing on air contestant. However, I think it can be safely said that they will not go past when the cows come home—Pacific Time, of course. It is not so easy to accurately predict the future.

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    14. I remember about 20 years back, before I actually did get the call, when I was sitting here at my desktop computer about to post the answer to that week's puzzle, and the phone rang exactly at noon Pacific Time. It was a woman retired from the corporate life I knew who was calling to tell me she had finished reading my book manuscript. So, I couldn't even yell a string of obscenities into my phone. You just never know.

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    16. In answer to PuzzleArt's question (which by now is kinda far up the chain), I've gotten the call twice....four years and almost four months apart.

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    17. My recommendation is to answer any phone call you receive Thursday afternoon. I think I dismissed the call once because I saw the 202 number and assumed it was an alma mater looking for money.

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  27. I enjoy a puzzle that gives me a chuckle like this one did.

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  28. Not about the puzzle - just FYI.

    The date of New Years Eve this year is
    123123.

    We now return you to our regular programming.

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    1. Okay. But if today is the anniversary of the Trinity test, why isn't Oppenheimer coming out until Friday?

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    2. Perhaps he's still in the closet.

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  29. I'll just repeat my clue of last week. An Elton John song comes to mind, maybe make that two.

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  31. Okay - who has an alternate answer?

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    1. Too easy: Remove the Y from the end of the name of another singer (and another letter as well), and rearrange slightly to name two fruit varieties.

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    2. Bing Crosby --> bing + bosc.

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  32. The only thing I like about this puzzle is that for me it is coincidental, because Friday last I coined a similar type puzzle which I did not send to Will Shortz. He would never even consider using it on NPR. However, I did send it to Lego to use on P! should he so desire. He can still use it later, as no one will remember it anyway, but here it is:

    Take the name of one of our States and, without changing the letter order, add spaces and upper/lower case as required in order to discover what a police officer might do. What is it?

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    1. A hair stylist might color a do.

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    2. Quite a bit of laundry to do might be a washing ton.
      pjbDidAlsoQuestionTheChoiceOfPrepositionInThePicnicPhraseAsWell,AtFirst

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    3. Aha.
      Am I allowed to add a punctuation mark?

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    4. I do not think you should need to, but as long as it does not change the answer it should be okay.

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    6. have to be careful of my post

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    7. Funny puzzle! Still laughing.

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    8. Yes, it was TMI, but I enjoyed it anyway.

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    9. Oh, my goodness, I just got this and can see why Will would never consder it.

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    10. Yes, it is just a tad too sophisticated for NPR.

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    11. I wonder if anyone here a resident of that state.

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    12. If so, we will probably find out soon.

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    13. There's a Southern politician who sounds like he lives there, but probably doesn't read this blog.

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    14. We have discussed this state about this topic before a long time ago as I recall.

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    15. Cute one, sdb. Maybe Ken Jennings can adapt it for Jeopardy!

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    16. Let me know if he does. I might even have to watch.

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    18. I don't think you refer to someone who died almost 70 years ago as "late". Anyway, I don't know who's more despicable -- Will's classmate, or the nephew and son of a slew of northeastern politicians (note the lack of capitalization -- they all went to school a little northwest of Northeastern) with apparently hereditary delusions of grandeur.

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    19. Sorry, make that almost 60 years ago.

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    21. @skydiveboy, I think you meant to post that in another thread, but thanks. Knowing that they start exactly at noon Eastern Time is helpful.

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    22. I believe he meant noon, Pacific Time. They can't start calling until the contest closes.

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    23. Right. I conferred with him directly; and I can tell you that he indeed did mean 3pm Eastern Thyme.

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    24. A police officer might "ID a ho" ho=prostitue.

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    25. That is right, but they also can be frequent customers, so I hear.

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  33. The last three letters of the last name, plus the last two letters of the first name, are a group of musicians, or something to keep on hand, or a pill.

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  34. Yeah, okay. No clue from me.

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  35. Honestly, if you are ever in this artist's hometown, they don't let you forget it.

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  36. Pleasingly, the final answer has the same scansion as the title of a comedy song I've been listening to this week.

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    1. A Samberg and Timberlake collaboration—if you know, you know!

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    2. And now I know. A trochee and an iamb?

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    3. Indeed! Juvenile, sure, but I am here for just about anything Andy Samberg does (Brooklyn 99, Lonely Island, etc).

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  37. OK puzzle spinoff time....Think of a famous singer in a total of eleven letters, first and last name. Add the letter D between the the fourth and fifth letters of the last name. With appropriate spacing of the eleven letters you will phonetically name two body parts and how the may be used. Who is the singer?

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    1. If it ain't Maria Callas, I ain't going any further.

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    2. CAP, may I answer now, or should I wait until Thursday?

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    3. Dr. K Go for it now. I'm curious of what you think of it.

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    4. SDB, It ain't Maria Callas by a long shot.

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    5. I knew that, but only she matters.

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    6. Tony Bennett —> toe, knee, bend it. CAP, i like it and think you might have saved it to submit to Will.

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    7. Dr.K, You got it. If I'd thought of it first rather than as a spinoff puzzle, I would have submitted it. But now, it would only be plagiarism.

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    8. CAP and others--R. I. P., Tony Bennett.

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  38. If like myself you are wondering if this Trumpian odyssey will ever end. I find solace in the old platitude, Time wounds all heels.

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  39. Chat gpt answered the on air puzzle in two seconds just now.

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    1. Do you know why it took so long?

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    2. It might have been immediate as showed on the screen as soon as I posted the puzzle. I just had to scroll down to see it all. It was exactly as appeared on the NPR site. Chat was not able to solve the Sunday puzzle though. Needs more changes in its programming. It does apologize when I say the answer is not correct.

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    3. I thought you said it was answered in 2 seconds?

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    4. Yes, but that was for me to view the answer. It started posting at once but now all was visible unless I scrolled down the page. 2 seconds at the most.

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    5. BEATEN (insects) --> BEE, ANT
      GENIAL (alcoholic beverages) --> GIN, ALE
      ARDENT (colors) --> RED, TAN
      BAITER (things to wear) --> BRA, TIE
      TACKLE (animals) --> CAT, ELK
      LAUGHS (boys' nicknames) --> HAL, GUS
      SHARIF (trees) --> FIR, ASH
      AUTHOR (Greek letters) --> RHO, TAU
      ORIOLE (resources from the earth) --> ORE, OIL
      THEIRS (possessive pronouns) --> HER, ITS



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  40. Dr. K, I did think of another puzzle involving yet another famous singer. If it's not accepted, I'll post it next week.

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  41. I answered to a higher authority on this one.

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    1. Hmmm... Yesterday, at 7:37 PM PDT, I commented "Nice." to this post. Now, that comment is gone without explanation.

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    2. Sometimes really short replies get auto-moderated into SPAM. That's where it went.

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    3. I value succinctness.

      Man, the last thing we need is an artificially intelligent blog administrator!

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    4. If you move the first and third letters one later in the alphabet, and the middle letter 19 later, and rearrange, HAL becomes TMI. Coincidence?

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    5. I hate SPAM, but I love MAPS.

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    6. Spacey Ship: I liked your clue about higher authority. Referred to Kosher Hot dogs, I believe. I already had the answer but it could have been a great clue too.

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    7. Jan, Yes. I meant to include that commercial for Hebrew National.

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  43. Musical clue: not a Billie Holiday song.

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  44. Now, when I think of Trump, I take solace in the old cli·ché: Time wounds all heels.

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  45. FRANK SINATRA + Y; FRANKS IN A TRAY

    "Pleochroic" >>> My kitchen has pleochroic labradorite crystals in the countertops. They look a Sinatrian shade of blue from certain angles/positions. However, pleochroic does not have to refer to blue but may refer to any change of color from different angles.

    "Where's Dr. Awkward when you need her?" referred to the awkward phrasing of the puzzle answer (as others have noted).

    I assumed Dr. K was referring to the years FRANK SINATRA was 17, 31, and 35 as in the song It was a very good year. Since Sinatra was born in December 1915, most of the following years (1931, 1937, 1951) would refer to his age that year. Did I guess right, Dr. K?

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  46. FRANK SINATRA, FRANKS IN A TRAY The first Elton John song that came to mind was "Blue Eyes", and at one point Ol' Blue Eyes himself had "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" in his live concert set list.

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  47. FRANK SINATRA —> FRANKS IN A TRAY

    I piggybacked on Rob’s anagrammatic hint about the singer’s surname with one of my own: “Or a royal title.”
    SINATRA —> TSARINA

    Hint: “SDB was on the late shift.” LATE SHIFT, rearranged, yields THAT’S LIFE (a 1966 Sinatra song).

    Hint: “Sure, the Great Depression was bad, but 1933 and 1937 weren’t so terrible, and despite the Cold War and the advent of nuclear weapons, 1951 wasn’t so terrible either.” The years 1933, 1937, and 1951 correspond to the years that Sinatra would—mostly—have been 17, 21, and 35, the ages about which he glowingly sang in “It Was a Very Good Year.” (He was born in mid-December, so I chose the subsequent year in each case. He actually turned 17, 21, and 35 in 1932, 1936, and 1950, but he was those ages mostly in each subsequent year.)

    An aside: Sinatra was the vocalist on “I’ll Never Smile Again,” by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra, which on July 27, 1940, became the very first #1 on Billboard’s new Best-Selling Retail Records chart. It was Billboard’s first chart that surveyed actual retail sales across the country, a standard that in one variation or another has remained the metric for subsequent Billboard music surveys. Prior charts had used a hodgepodge of sheet music sales, jukebox plays, and some New York City radio stations’ airplay to determine chart position.

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  48. FRANK SINATRA -> FRANKS IN A TRAY

    > This is my week! Sacha Pfeiffer lives in my city, one of my alma maters is in the singer's home town, I had the answer at a BBQ last night.

    Stevens Tech is in Hoboken.

    > Bullshit

    Harry G. Frankfurt, philosopher and author of the 2005 bestseller, "On Bullshit", died on Sunday, but with a name like that, I had to wait until Thursday afternoon to say so.

    > Musical clue: not a Billie Holiday song.

    But close!

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    1. Puzzleria! this week features a long-time fan favorite, Chad, as our guest puzzle-maker. He has concocted for us a quartet of bewilderingly brilliant “Lightning-Round Appetizers” titled:
      “Poached Eggbeater,”
      “Purchasing Personal Care,”
      “The Yankee Clipper?” and
      “State, Star & Scale.”
      We upload Puzzleria! on the "midnight melding" of Thursday and Friday, sometime around Midnight Pacific Daylight Time.
      Also on our menus this week are:
      * a Schpuzzle of the Week featuring Goldilocks and squaring numbers titled “A square is ‘just right’ angles, 4 of ’em,”
      * an Hors d’Oeuvre in which a fictional title becomes a “poem, periodical and newspaper,”
      * a “Palindrome Of Boundless Proportions?” Slice, inspired by our friend Rudolfo, titled “Dennis the first-stone caster,”
      * a Dessert that involves a TV character and a verb that a small child or ESL student might use to describe what she did, and
      * about ten-or-so riff-offs of this week's "Strangers in the night/Franks in a tray" NPR Puzzle.
      Come join us for eggs, yankees, clippers and other stars!

      LegoWhoThinksThis Week'sPuzzleria!IsNotTooDifficultAndNotTooEasyButIs"JustRight!"

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    2. Chad is Chuck on this blog.

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    3. Yes, the “Lightning-Round Appetizers” appear in the always entertaining and challenging "Conundrumbstruck by Chuck" feature on this week's Puzzleria!
      Thank you, Chad.

      LegoWhoIsDumbstruckAsWellAsConundrumbstruck!

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  50. <FRANK SINATRA + Y → Franks in a tray.

    See THIS

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  51. Frank Sinatra…Franks in a Tray
    Connection to prior (Della Street) puzzle:
    The DA in the Perry Mason stories was Hamilton Burger. At a picnic, one might eat either a hot dog or a burger.

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  52. I wrote, “Take the singer’s last name, rearrange, and you get someone with a non-singing sort of skill.” That’s ARTISAN.

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  53. Frank Sinatra. Franks in a tray.

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  54. FRANK SINATRA >>> FRANKS IN A TRAY

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  55. FRANK SINATRA >>> FRANKS IN A TRAY

    An imperfect puzzle, I think. Because things are usually ON a TRAY, rarely IN a TRAY. And I don't eat meat anyway.

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  56. My clue was:

    "Holy cow, SDB must be up before dawn to listen to the puzzle!"

    Frank had an album "In the Wee Small Hours", and of course a hit with "Strangers in the Night".

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  57. FRANK SINATRA. "The last three letters of the last name, plus the last two letters of the first name, are a group of musicians, or something to keep on hand, or a pill." (TRANK)

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  58. I did not hint this week, but did consider hinting: Gone With The Wind, but thought it might be TMI. Frankly, I don't give a damn.

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  59. Nodd:
    I finished reading the book you recommended last night. Great read. I do think the maps could have been better done. The title did not have a subtitle. Perhaps: There Was Gaiety In Leyte?

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  60. Frank Sinatra, franks in a tray

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  61. My clue "Albert 11". Albert was Frank's middle name, and 11 was a nod to the original Oceans Eleven movie, in which he starred.

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  62. Frank Sinatra --> franks in a tray

    Last Sunday I said, “In spite of what the puzzle-writer may have intended, I solved this puzzle in my own way.” Of course this was intended to evoke My Way, by Frank Sinatra. However, Blaine thought it was a little too close and removed the post. Sorry about that – it was not my intention provide a straight line to the answer.

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  63. As I was just now driving back home I had the inspiration to rename a certain pol, Margarine Trailer Greene. However, looking just now via Google, I see I am not the first. Darn!

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  64. Blaine's hint was more obscure than I thought! I had assumed that his "lifeline" reference was hinting at "That's Life." My silly Willie Nelson comment was intended to sneak in a hint to "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain."

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  65. R.I.P. Tony Bennett

    Now I suppose his body will be interred in some cemetery and he will become a bony tenant .

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    1. SDB, I enjoyed your pun about Trump, ie. Time wounds all heels. But this one is too soon.

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    2. CAP:
      Comedy is always risky, and can be dangerous, perhaps even more dangerous than skydiving. There is always the chance of offending someone, and that chance is probably 99%. Then some jerk, such as Will Smith, who first laughed at the harmless joke, may storm up on the stage and slug the comic in the face because he is not man enough to stand up to his wife. It has always been my nature to be a risk taker.

      I can accept that my joke is "too soon" for you, but it is the perfect timing that makes it funny. Also it is not at all too soon for me because I find nothing at all sad about Tony Bennett crossing over. In fact, I am happy for him.

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    3. SBD, Not a problem. I did feel a sense of loss about his death. I know your thoughts about crossing over. We're good.

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    4. CAP:
      I was just about to leave the house a couple of hours ago to go bike riding, but just before I left I checked an email message that had just come. It was a guy offering to come over right away and buy a hitch mount bike rack I got free off Craigslist Monday evening. So I agreed and he came over 15 minutes later and bought it. We then had a lengthy conversation about several interests we have in common. Something about humor came up and I told him I already got in trouble for a joke I made up today. He had not heard that Tony had died, but when I told him the joke he was laughing out loud and said that it was really clever. You can't please everyone all the time. :-)

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    5. SDB,
      I meant it when I said we were good. Friends can disagree and still be friends. No, if you found it necessary to agree with all people all the time, you wouldn't be an honest human being.

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    6. Yes, but I could be a politician.

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    7. Wait, isn't that what CaP said??

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    8. Yes, but I thought it needed clarification.

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  66. Frank Sinatra: Franks in a tray. I guess it depends on where you have a Picnic as to whether or not you would cook up hotdogs. Grassy park? Probably not. Campground? Possibly. Most hot dogs come fully cooked, but never-have-I-ever put a cold hot dog in a bun, topped it up with toppings and taken a bite.

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  67. I clued “no e clue here.” It would have been better to punctuate that as “no e; clue here,” i.e., there is no e in the puzzle solution (nod to Lynn Truss’s “Eats, Shoots & Leaves”).

    I also wrote, “I won’t be able to think of this singer ever again without seeing a certain image prompted by this puzzle.” The image is, of course, a tray of hot dogs.

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  68. Dr. K, Since it appears that my puzzle wasn't accepted by Will, here it is.

    Take the name of a famous singer, both first and last , in a total of eight letters. Remove the second and third letters of the last name. Read the resulting letters left to right to get a two word phrase the might be sarcastically uttered by someone experiencing a heat wave.

    Who is the singer?

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    1. CAP, I have an answer, but I don't think it's right.

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    2. Dr. K What did you get? I'll tell you yes or no.

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  69. Typo: that (not, the) might be sarcastically uttered...

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  70. CAP, cute! WWW comes to mind ;-).

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  72. FRANK SINATRA, FRANKS IN A TRAY
    I still believe it should be ON a tray, BTW.
    pjbLikedSDB's"Idaho"Puzzle,Though

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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.

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