Q: Take the phrase WINTER SEASON. Add a letter of your choosing. Then rearrange all 13 letters to spell three related words. What are they?Christmas is coming...
Edit: WINTER SEASON has no "L" (Noel)
A: WINTER SEASON + L = RAIN, SNOW, SLEET
Sunday, December 10, 2023
NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 10, 2023): Winter Season Approaches
NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 10, 2023): Winter Season Approaches
Edit: WINTER SEASON has no "L" (Noel)
Edit: WINTER SEASON has no "L" (Noel)
146 comments:
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.
Herodotus.
ReplyDeleteCan you use a letter more than once? It does not say
ReplyDeleteEach letter is used once.
DeleteThank you
DeleteFebruary 2016.
ReplyDeleteThe question is whether to try anagram solvers or pencil and paper. I managed with the latter. Good puzzle.
ReplyDeleteSolved quickly, after I grabbed the Bananagrams tiles to more easily move letters around.
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of a Dr. Seuss story.
Lorax?
DeleteI will explain on Thursday.
DeleteWho?
DeleteI was reminded of Bartholomew and the Oobleck, where the king complains about The Things That Come Down From the Sky, two of which are snow and rain.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI was actually rethinking that one myself.
DeleteTough one...
ReplyDeleteThis implies that I have the answer. All true...
Delete8th Avenue and 33rd Street
ReplyDeleteLegoNotesThatTwoOuttaThreeAintBad
Nice. Exactly.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteDr. K
DeleteUnbelievably Amazing quick response... One minute!
LegoMaybeI'mAmazed
Thanks, lego. Just a good day when the synapses seem to be firing. I had a moment of early insight (related to Lancek’s later comment removed by Blaine) that led to the answer. I even did Wordle in 2. (Don’t ask about other days, though.)
DeleteAnd certainly not a good day or week for Liz Magill, former president of my alma mater. In June 2022 I walked past her new office just before she became the university’s president. How are the mighty fallen….
TMI in my particular case.
DeleteThere is an oblique connection between this puzzle and the University of Pennsylvania.
DeleteAren't thing rather blique there too right now?
DeleteThey’re stuffed to the gills with problems.
DeleteDespite Penn’s problems, the founder would insist my comments be PG.
DeleteMy father went to school at U. of Penn. Lots of family went there.
DeleteA Quaker family!
DeleteOh, very nice clue. This one or Leo's might very easily have given me the answer, but in fact I got it before the clues helped me.
DeleteHey, the Polar Express is very seasonal, right?
Easy, now back to bed.
ReplyDelete●Done
ReplyDeleteCan we still mail in responses via postcard? I know it will get there.
ReplyDeleteNice!
DeleteThanks. Trying to be subtle.
DeleteI get wrong mail all the time. Not sending a postcard to NPR.
DeleteEasy puzzle. Think of a term that describes a process that happens when solutions of BaCl2 and H2SO4 are mixed.
ReplyDeleteAdorn in sweets! Isn't that what Gingerbread houses are for?
ReplyDeleteJolly good puzzle, I’d say. And I agree with whoever it was that said above they just used their own noggin, not an online tool.
ReplyDeleteI realized that there were way too many anagrams possible for a brute force approach. Fortunately, the solution just came to me while I was out for a walk.
ReplyDeleteLoose, ambiguous phrasing. Does "related" mean "related to WINTER SEASON" or merely "related to each other"? There are lots of words that can be made from WINTER SEASON that one could argue are related.
ReplyDeleteI think the ambiguity is intentional, and part of the puzzle. It probably allows for alternate answers, but when you hit the intended answer, you will of course have the answer to your question.
Delete@JAWS and @Buck Bard, thanks. I think I've got it.
DeleteAs a Jewish Atheist who is bracing himself until January 2nd and is just tolerating having Christianity forced upon him once more, I am inwardly cringing a little bit here. Blaine, might not your hint be TMI itself and worthy of removal by a blog administrator? ;-)
ReplyDeleteI (for a change) get Blaine's hint, and I think it is excellent. It is not TMI.
DeleteThe three words I have are not associated with Christmas, at least not in the southern hemisphere.
DeleteOr Christianity!
DeleteHaving done some grocery shopping recently, I can see Bing Cherry's point.
DeleteI had come up with adding "M": WISEMEN, STAR, NO (as in North). However, it turns out it wasn't the NOrth Star the Magi supposedly followed. And I didn't want a religious answer, either.
DeleteHow apropos, at least where I live.
ReplyDeletePop! I got it.
ReplyDeleteWow, Shortz stiffed us on the car parts solutions. OK ... this week needs a challenge already: WINTER SEASON with no addition can be rearranged into 2 other 6-letter words that name a building complex in Warsaw or a superwoman (thanks, Internet).
ReplyDeleteI have two possible solutions, one of which fits Blaine’s clue. I need to decide whether to pick one, or to submit both.
ReplyDelete42nd Street
ReplyDeletePuzzle answered. Now to steel myself for the Winter Season...
ReplyDeleteSteel acronyms to sleet
DeleteI don't get it. Are we supposed to add our own letter, and make three thirteen letter words, or make three smaller words out of the thirteen?
ReplyDeleteYes
DeleteFrom some of the above comments I suspect there will be numerous submissions of an unintended answer.
ReplyDeleteYes
ReplyDeleteIf be pretty impressed if you could get even one 13 letter word that way, let alone three. 😉
ReplyDeleteOkay, I just solved it, or at least I have an answer using the three smaller word solution method. The three I came up with are related to Winter, not Christmas, so Bing Cherry doesn't have to compromise his Atheist-Jewish principles. By the way, the Christmas Season ends with the Feast of the Presentation which is February 2nd. It also includes Epiphany, traditionally January 6th, which celebrates the visit of the Magi (pronounced MAY-ji, rhymes with "cage my," That is, the Feast of the Three Kings). I'm sure the Jewish-Atheist doesn't care, but at least he will be informed that the Christmas Season extends past December 25th, and past January 2nd. I am sure that if anyone made an error regarding a Jewish holiday, that S/he would be corrected as well. I submit this in a spirit of clarity and understanding.
ReplyDeleteThe words remind me of 3 related terms in Pokemon.
ReplyDeleteThe types of Pokemon include water (like rain), ice (like snow), and steel (an anagram of sleet).
DeleteUser some of the letters of WINTER SEASON to name something the three words of the puzzle’s answer have in common.
ReplyDeleteWell, I tried anagramming using the phrase with each vowel in turn. I think I have three words that work, but I ain't sure. I don't have the patience to do the same with the 22 consonants that remain. Happy Chanukah to those who don't celebrate Christmas but Merry Christmas to the remainder. Not being repetitive, just all in inclusive. And of course, atheists. OK, I'm done. In any case be well all of you.
ReplyDeleteLOL
DeleteI wonder if Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and so many others feel included?
Come on SDB, everybody knows there are only two true religions, plus atheism. Agnostics and Wiccans don't count.
DeletePower & greed are the 2 that come my mind.
DeleteI knew I wasn,t mentioning the rest, but I was too ignorant to know what what else in celebrated at this time of year. BTY, SDB, I didn't think the puzzle as easy as you did.
ReplyDeleteI solved it just by looking at the phrase, which is how I believe the puzzle was coined.
DeleteI knew you meant everyone, but had to respond anyway.
I'm not sure whether or not you celebrate anything this time of year. The solstice is enlightening for some folks.
ReplyDeleteOnce I realized the three related words were not going to be Taylor Swift boyfriends names, I turned my attention to the Ravens game. They are going to lose.
ReplyDeleteSadly, while I can't remember her boyfriends' names (think the latest one is Travis), I remember that her cats are named Meredith, Olivia, and Benjamin.
DeleteThat is rather hilarious, Tortie!
DeleteSolved it (good puzzle!), but I also came up with a not-as-satisfying alt answer.
ReplyDeleteSolved it. Time to go! 👋
ReplyDeleteI'm also happy to say I didn't need to look up anything OR put pen(cil)to paper to get it either. Hopefully it's not TMI to say that, around here, I've only really seen one of the three things more often than the other two over these many years.
ReplyDeletepjbHasSomeoneComingOverTomorrowMorningToRedoHisBathroom,SoHe'sHadToCleanItAsWellAsHisMother's(WillHaveToGetBackToThatAfterThisPost,Unfortunately)
Shhh,
ReplyDeleteI think I finally got it
Are we all here?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBC0QxgGl4c&t=151s
DeleteThe :) I posted in response to "grapple" seems to have melted away.
This is more a creative puzzle than anything! I have one answer that I'm pretty sure is the intended one, given Blaine's clue and my interest in poetry. But I also have another answer that I like better (poetic clue: Charles Wright).
ReplyDeleteHow is it a "creative puzzle?" A person created it and we are to solve it with his intended answer. What is creative about that?
DeleteAh, I just mean that adding different letters and re-arranging might well result in a wide variety of answers that do indeed "spell three related words"—so a solver can be creative in her responses. I do agree, however, that there's probably one intended answer. To be clear, I was not criticizing the puzzle—I find the flexibility interesting!
DeleteBy that logic then I assume you also find Wordle to be creative, rather than simply a scavenger hunt. I cannot buy into that.
DeleteOkay! :) Wordle doesn't seem to me to invite the same kind of creativity, unless I'm playing it wrong! All I'm saying is that I have some fairly cute alternative answers that fit the rules, and I'm curious to see whether others do too :).
DeleteI have two additional answers, although neither is as satisfying as the intended one. One of my answers would be slightly better if you could add two letters to WINTER SEASON instead of just one.
DeleteDr. Awkward,
DeleteOkay, if you want to be creative:
What is the difference between a homeowner and a home moaner?
I have no answer; be creative and post all you want.
Or:
Delete...a ho moaner? If you prefer.
I now have an answer that works, but will wait and see what you come up with.
DeleteA homeowner wants their house to look the way they like. A home moaner forms an HOA, so they can tell everyone else to make their houses look the way the home moaner likes! :-)
DeleteI like it. I'll post my answer later.
DeleteHow about this?:
DeleteThe difference is in the time it took for each to realize they had been hosed.
One has a cat, the other has a communication.
DeleteDr. A—To return to your initial comment, clever by half.
Delete"Winter is icumen in, / Lhude sing Goddamm, / Raineth drop and staineth slop, / And how the wind doth ramm! / Sing: Goddamm."
DeleteMy variant solutions included "snow, tree, saint"; "snow, tea, singer"; "snow, rain: beset!"
DeleteTrue that I must wait longer than January 2, alas. This reminds me of when, as a little boy, my neighbor invited me to their house to put up their Christmas tree with them. I asked them what the twelve days of Christmas were, very sincerely wondering if that was how long it took to clean up? They never invited me over again.
ReplyDeleteDecember prediction : When Ayesha' announces the number of correct answers on Sunday, YULE be surprised, you all
ReplyDeleteNot a tough puzzle to grapple with this week unless you get stuck on interpretations.
ReplyDeleteFeed me!
ReplyDeleteRobots are eating my lunch: I asked Bing AI: "We can chain any two 6-letter English words if the last 3 letters of the first word are the same as the first 3 letters of the next word. Can you make a list of 6-letter English words where each word is chained to the one before it (if any) AND the one after it (if any)?" It came back with: "Sure, here are some examples of 6-letter English words that can be chained together in the way you described: beggar - garden - dental - talent - entail - ailing - ingest - stable - bleach - aching". I don't know which is more remarkable: the fact that it did this - and on request supplied me with a Python program to do it - or the fact that "ingest - stable" is wrong. Well, we all make mistakes ...
ReplyDelete...INGEST - ESTRUS - RUSSET - SETTEE - TEETHE -THESIS - SISTER - TERSER -SERENE- ENERGY!
DeleteLegoWhoJustRanOutOfEnergy
united - tedious - ouster - terminator - torrent - enticed - cedar - daredevil - village - ageless - essential
DeleteHmm, speaking of INGEST, I found an old program that will string together 3-letter clumps such that each successive pair will make a word, e.g.:
DeleteABA CUS TOM CAT SUP PER MIT TEN DER AIL ING LES SEN ORA TOR QUE ASY LUM BAR BED PAN TRY OUT LAW MEN TOR RID DEN TAL ENT REE FER RET ARD ENT ICE BOX CAR BON BON NET HER BAL LON GER MAN GOS PEL VIC TIM BER LIN EAR FUL FIL MED USA BLE ACH ING EST
This sort of thing is very dependent on what you accept at each level, e.g. the above 3-letter clumps need not be words. Still, slightly interesting.
Don't forget, the NYT's Supermega Puzzle comes out this Sunday!
ReplyDeleteWINTER SEASON + L = SNOW, RAIN, SLEET
ReplyDelete"●Done" included a SNOWball shape.
"I'm not sure whether or not you celebrate anything this time of year. The solstice is enlightening for some folks." Note the WEATHER embedded there.
WINTER SEASON + L → RAIN, SNOW, SLEET.
ReplyDeleteWINTER SEASON + L —> RAIN, SNOW, SLEET
ReplyDeleteHint: “Herodotus.”
In Herodotus’s Histories there occurs a passage from which the USPS derives its informal motto, “Neither rain nor snow,” etc., which, as Lego astutely hinted, appears on the entablature of the building at 8th Avenue and 33rd Street, New York City’s James A. Farley Building, formerly a U. S. Post Office.
The repeated references to my alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, and to its former President, Liz Magill, were of course all (sadly) true, but the triple allusion to 1) the “oblique connection” between Penn and the puzzle; 2) the school’s “founder” (Benjamin Franklin); and 3) “PG” had to do with the fact that Franklin was the nation’s first Postmaster General.
I considered “Karl Malone” as a hint but thought better of it.
+L -> RAIN, SLEET, SNOW
ReplyDelete> Fortunately, the solution just came to me while I was out for a walk.
As opposed to the precipitation.
Feed me!
RSS could stand for RAIN, SLEET, SNOW
Ready for some "Puzzle Fun"?
ReplyDeleteOur good friend Bobby Jacobs – the featured puzzle-maker on Puzzleria! this week – has composed a pair of appetizingly entertaining yet cannily, cunnungly “DiscomBobbylating” puzzles titled “Clothes and Countries.”
We upload Puzzleria! tonight around Midnight PST (but most likely sooner).
Our menu also features:
* a Schpuzzle of the Week titled "A tale of 2 nations, 1 landmark, 3 letters,"
* a Ready-To-Wear Hors d’Oeuvre titled “You gotta be putting me on!,
* an Authoritarian Puzzle Slice titled "Three-course four-letter-each lunch,"
* an After The Deluge Dessert titled "Dove extends an olive branch..." and
* ten Riffing Off Shortz And Baggish Slices titled “Neither snow nor rain nor sleet...”
Come join us for some “Ingenious ‘Jacobian’ Ingenuity.”
LegoWhoNotesThatBobbyAndAllOthersWhoCreate AndContributePuzzlesAreTheLifebloodOfPuzzleria!
WINTER SEASON + L >>>> SNOW, SLEET, RAIN
ReplyDeleteSeveral comments on this week's puzzle, mine included, used the word, whether.
WINTER SEASON + L -> RAIN, SLEET, SNOW
ReplyDeleteAlt 1: WINTER SEASON + T -> SNOW, TREE, SAINT (as in SAINT NICHOLAS)
Alt 2: WINTER SEASON + L -> SNOW, TINSEL, ERA (as in New Year; adding LY gives a better answer -> SNOW, TINSEL, YEAR)
SNOW & RAIN & SLEET by adding L
ReplyDeleteI wrote, “The question is whether to try anagram solvers or pencil and paper.” The clue is whether / weather.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, I used a method that Will mentioned years ago, and probably everyone knows. Take your letters and make them into a pyramid, with one letter in the top row, two letters in the second row, and so on. This encourages seeing links.
interesting.
DeleteI placed Scrabble tiles on the control panel of my exercise bicycle. As I was pumping on the pedals, my brain kicked into gear ...
Snow, sleet, rain
ReplyDelete(From “winter season” + L)
My clue:
Time to go.
A reference to a song by U2, A Sort of Homecoming.
The song opens with the verses:
And you know it’s time to go
Through the sleet and driving snow….
Toward the end, there are these verses:
And your heart beats so slow
Through the rain and fallen snow….
It was between this clue and mentioning U2 by name. People might have googled “U2 snow,” and all results would have pointed to a much more recent song, White as Snow, which contains no references to sleet or rain. On the other hand, googling “U2 snow sleet” would immediately show the song A Sort of Homecoming. Therefore, I thought it better not to mention U2 by name.
snow, rain, sleet
ReplyDeleteAdd an L to "winter season" to get snow, rain, and sleet.
When mixed, solutions of barium chloride (BaCl2) and sulfuric acid (H2SO4) yield a white precipitate of barium sulfate (BaSO4). So the process is precipitation.
ReplyDeleteSNOW, SLEET, RAIN.
ReplyDeleteWhen Lego wrote 8th Avenue and 33rd Street, I replied that this was TMI in my specific case.
And this is because I grew up on 8th Avenue and the General Post Office of New York City was my local PO.
My Zip Code was 10001 -- 10 for Manhattan Island and 001 for the big house.
But, Ben, did you know the answer before you read my post? If not, I apologize for ruining this fine puzzle for you by posting a TMI hint.
DeleteLegoSuspecting(AndHoping)ThatBenHadAlreadyFiguredOutTheAnswer
Bonus puzzle solution: WINTER SEASON with no addition can be rearranged into 2 other 6-letter words that name a building complex in Warsaw or a superwoman
ReplyDelete=> SIENNA TOWERS
Add an L for rain, sleet and snow. Oh, I wish the weather outside here was frightful. It's nice enough out at my house to do more yard work in a tee shirt. Bring on the snow!
ReplyDeleteI really liked Lego's clue. Since the Farley building is now the home of Moynihan Train Hall, I mentioned the Polar Express.
ReplyDeleteWINTER SEASON + L = RAIN, SNOW, SLEET
ReplyDeleteLast Sunday I said, “Jolly good puzzle, I’d say. And I agree with whoever it was that said above they just used their own noggin, not an online tool.” Jolly because it has an unnecessary L to lend. After that, just think about things that frequently accompany the winter season, especially the weather.
Add "L" to get SNOW, RAIN, SLEET. My hint was "February 2016," the month in which Super Bowl L was played.
ReplyDeleteMy mind was in a particular place this week after a co-worker brought in homemade Italian holiday cookies...
ReplyDelete+e, snow, tree, anise
My clue (42nd Street): The musical which featured the tune "Shuffle Off to Buffalo". Buffalo, NY's snowy weather often makes news headlines.
ReplyDeleteI submitted RAIN, S(L)EET, SNOW. In fact, SNOW was perhaps the first word I saw in the letters, but I was trying to go other directions from it like TREE, REIN, and SANTA. It was only when I considered generic weather that I saw everything else.
ReplyDeleteI completely whiffed on Blaine's clue this week, thinking it was just some redundant reference to snow. In reality, it was a brilliant reference to the letter that must be added. Bravo!
ReplyDeleteWhat living room furniture may be used in order to determine when the planet will no longer be able to support human life?
ReplyDeleteLoveseat? ;-)
DeleteEnd table?
DeleteExactly! I have no doubt that if you were to consult your end-tables you would be able to calculate the end-times.
DeleteOk, I "whiffed" too, and I am turning as red as Rudolph's nose. I thought the answer was to add a "T" and spell "snow," "tree," and "Saint"...all references to Christmas.
ReplyDeleteGreat way to end the week!!!!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cnn.com/2023/12/15/politics/rudy-giuliani-verdict-pay-defamed-election-workers?cid=ios_app
Rudy who?
DeleteGood enough for him. I don't think he has learned anything from this and he shows no remorse!
Why did the Spanish guitarist use the last name of a famous composer to name his dog?
ReplyDeleteWINTER SEASON+L=SLEET, SNOW, and RAIN
ReplyDeleteShould've referenced Journey as a "musical clue", but it's obviously too late. SLEET and RAIN are mentioned in the lyrics to "Wheel in the Sky"(1978).
pjbAlsoDoesn'tKnowWhereHe'llBeTomorrow(ParaphraseOfTheSong'sChorus),ButOnlyInTheSenseThatTheyMayOrMayNotBeMakingARunToWinn-DixieSometimeTomorrowAfternoon
My clue - not a tough puzzle to grapple with - was a phonetic reference to graupel which is another form of precipitation, similar to hail (and one I’d never heard of before!).
ReplyDeleteThis week's challenge comes from listener Samantha Robison, of Eugene, Ore. Think of a word that means "required." Rearrange its letters to name two school subjects, one of which is often required, and one of which often isn't. What are they?
ReplyDeletePretty easy. Waiting for Blaine...
ReplyDeleteAnne
ReplyDeleteSo F-ing easy!
ReplyDeleteYes. It's another ho hum week.
ReplyDeleteHVC
ReplyDeleteNot the intended answer, but one synonym for "required" anagrams to a school subject and the day of the week I had it, or the subject and something I might have muttered under my breath.
ReplyDeleteI don't think either subject is required. I went through H.S. without taking either class back in the early 70s.
ReplyDelete