Q: 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?Alternatively, rearrange the letters to name a subject and something you might study in that subject.
A: OBLIGATORY --> BIOLOGY and ART
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Rearrange again, and get a word from legend and a word that signifies what it was to those who sought it.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dr. K, that did it for me!
DeleteYou're welcome, Nodd.
DeleteThere is another school subject embedded in the place where a person associated with this legend is from.
DeleteI have a book by a nicer fisher.
ReplyDeleteNot the intended answer, but one synonym for "required" anagrams to a school subject and the day of the week I had it, or a subject and something I might have muttered under my breath.
ReplyDeleteTake the longer of the two school subject words. If a letter repeats, remove all instances of that letter. Rearrange. You get a description of the degree of simplicity of this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteha ha ha
DeleteNearly 1000 correct entries this week.
ReplyDeleteSome irony on the air this week.
ReplyDeleteGot it. I have one clue I thought of, but it would likely be ruled TMI. Still working on one...
ReplyDeleteRemove three letters from one of the subjects, do not rearrange the remaining letters, and you get something we have all seen.
DeleteI like this!! I never knew the origin of that word, so just looked it up. Clever.
DeleteTake a five letter word for things discussed in one subject, delete one letter to get things which may be seen in the other.
ReplyDeleteAyeshas vocal tribute to Donny Hathaway's "This Christmas" absolutely BETTER than Alvin and the Chipmunks. A gift!!!!
ReplyDeleteRearrange to get something that might help you solve the puzzle, and how you might go about your day after you have solved it.
ReplyDeleteA nice puzzle by by Samantha Robison of Eugene, Oregon, but there just are not that many words that mean "required."
ReplyDeleteLegoWhoPredictsTwoThousandPlusCorrectEntries
A significantly harder puzzle might have been crafted by playing with "whatever means required."
DeleteAt least 6 more anagramming puzzles offered here?! How we do like the gram, Ana.
ReplyDeleteMusical Clue:
ReplyDeleteLouis Jordan
Musical clue: not Armstrong.
ReplyDelete(...but the OTHER "What a Wonderful World.")
DeleteTake the two subject words you end up with. Remove all of the letters. You get the emptiness and void in the pit of my heart at the close of Scott and Ayesha's Holiday music sing-off.
ReplyDeleteI have it, but I don't think either subject is "often required."
ReplyDeleteYes, I do not know which subject is supposed to be the required one.
DeleteOne is supposed to be an elective and the other "sometimes required." Does that clear things up?
DeleteAs I remember it, they were both required for me.
DeleteTo follow up on Lego’s comment about synonyms and Word Woman’s comment about anagrams, take another synonym for “required,” and rearrange to get a 2-word phrase for the “subject” all school kids love.
ReplyDelete...not to mention following up on Blaine!
DeleteI knew that had to be the case, especially since you were so careful to cite your other sources. This is certainly not the first inadvertent reposting of an earlier idea, and I have probably been guilty myself!
DeleteI always loved any recess...
DeleteMusic Clue: Simon and Garfunkel.
ReplyDeleteOne of the three words is included in the title of a well-known 1987 book.
ReplyDeleteTake one of the school subjects and add a word for when you might take that subject. You can rearrange the letters into another synonym of "required".
ReplyDeleteYou might have art class on Monday. "Art Monday" is an anagram of "mandatory".
DeleteI taught one of those classes.
ReplyDeleteWhy did the Spanish guitarist use the last name of a famous composer to name his dog?
ReplyDelete(I posted this one I made up at the end of last week's blog, but no one replied, so I wonder if no one even saw it.)
I saw it. I looked up lists of composers and Spanish guitarists. I'm stumped. Been anxiously awaiting your answer (in your due time).
DeleteScarlett, you are on the right track, but you need to tweak your googling a bit.
DeleteProteus
ReplyDeleteLoved hearing how Ayesha's daughter's Christmas wish came true with a dusting of snow
ReplyDeleteGot it pretty quickly. I was pretty good at one of these subjects and pretty bad at the other.
ReplyDeleteOk, which way around? Good at art and bad at biology?
DeleteA 1978 hit song comes to mind.
ReplyDeleteA ski resort comes to mind...
ReplyDeleteThe "required" word can also be anagrammed to spell a male name and a female name.
ReplyDeletepjbDoesKnowThereWasAHitSongFrom1978Called"JackAndJill",ByRaydio(RayParker,Jr.'sFirstBand),ButThoseAreObviouslyNotTheNamesObtainedHere
Someone from the south might use a form of this word when expressing gratitude.
ReplyDeleteSomeone from Portugal might, also.
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle is easy enough for any of us native earthlings to solve.
ReplyDeleteA Sam Cooke song and a Joel Coen Movie
ReplyDeleteThink of another word that means "required" (which is the one I first played with before I got the right answer to this week's puzzle).
ReplyDeleteYou can rearrange the letters to form a title for a certain professional and a required subject for that professional.
You can also rearrange the letters to form an activity and a recognition for excellence in that activity.
I found at least 2 or 3 answers just based on a cursory review of "required" synonyms.
ReplyDeleteWell, it sounds like I'm one of the few who can't seem to get this one.
ReplyDeleteCap, here's a thesaurus to find synonyms for "required", and here's an anagram server to rearrange the results. Have at it!
DeleteJan, thanks, but I've tried both to no avail. That's why I'm so frustrated.
DeleteIf I Had a Million Dollars comes to mind for me with this puzzle…
ReplyDelete“Well, I'd buy you some art
DeleteA Picasso or a Garfunkel“
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteron, did you forget to turn your clocks back one hour now we are back to Standard Time? LOL
DeleteOr drop one letter, rearrange the remaining letters to spell something you would find in Austria and something you would find in Alaska.
ReplyDeleteOBLIGATORY --> BIOLOGY, ART
DeleteDrop the "B" to get IGLOO and YART
(Yamaha Austria Racing Team is a World Endurance Championship racing team based in Heimschuh, Styria, Austria).
OBLIGATORY; BIOLOGY, ART
ReplyDeleteOBLIGATORY >>> ART & BIOLOGY
ReplyDeleteOBLIGATORY → ART ("not often required," usually an elective) + BIOLOGY ("often required" for science majors)
ReplyDeleteOBIGATORY —> BIOLOGY, ART
ReplyDeleteHint: “Rearrange again, and get a word from legend and a word that signifies what it was to those who sought it.”
OBLIGATORY —> GRAIL + BOOTY
Spin-off puzzle (I did miss Blaine’s comment): “[T]ake another synonym for ‘required’, and rearrange to get a 2-word phrase for the ‘subject’ all school kids love.”
NECESSARY —> ANY RECESS
Happy Winter Solstice and, on the date that James Naismith invented the game in 1891, Happy World Basketball Day!
Dr. K, my comment on your grail/booty hint was: "There is another school subject embedded in the place where a person associated with this legend is from." I was thinking of Joseph of AriMATHea.
DeleteExcellent.
DeleteNice, I was on an entirely wrong track with Arthur and Camelot, pondering whether Scarlett's school might have offered a course on camels.
DeleteWe did have a course on camels, but only on Wednesdays (hump day).
DeleteWas it an obligatory dromedary course, or an elective bactrian class?
DeleteI don't recall. But I do remember that was the year I had my first cup of coffee. When I asked for sugar, they said "one lump, or two?"
DeleteI was a slow learner. At first I thought a dromedary was a place where you were likely to see milk cows reciting lines from Shakespeare.
DeleteI was a slow learner too. First time I tried to smoke a Camel, the darn think spit at me.
DeleteYour mistake was in not starting out with Camel Lights.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteA Christmas-stockingful of mystifying gifts awaits you this week on Puzzleria! Our friend (and "Santa Lambda's" helper!) ViolinTeddy has cobbled together eleven "homographical" puzzley presents titled “Verbal Equivocation, Strad-Steiff Style.” (Steiff, fittingly, has been a manufacturer of Teddy Bears and other such cuddly Christmas presents since 1880!). "Yule" find these gifts in ViolinTeddy's "Strad-Steiff Subtleties" Christmas package of Appetizers.
DeleteYou can begin opening your "early Christmas bounty" sometime tonight around Midnight PST, but probably earlier.
Also "enstockinged" and spread under our Yuletide tree are:
* a Schpuzzle of the Week depicting a Christmas morning scene titled “Toy jet! Yo-yo! Toffy! Wowee!”
* a “Mixologists Need Not Apply” Hors d'Oeuvre titled "Only the brainy will solve this puzzle,"
* a "When Holidays Collide" Slice titled "Only the "wise" will solve this puzzle,"
* a “Do You Hear What I Hear” Dessert titled "A horse of a different color, two things of the same color," and
* ten Riffing Off Shortz And Robison Slices titled "The human body and a humanity," including one by Plantsmith, who "Garden of Puzzley Delights" appears regularly on Puzzleria.
Drop by and try to "open" ViolinTeddy's plush and cuddly puzzles (although some of them may be "bears"!)
LegoWhoWishesAllBlainesvilliansAHolidaySeasonFilledWithJoy
OBLIGATORY -> ART, BIOLOGY
ReplyDelete> Anne
Princess Anne was exposed as the ROYAL BIGOT (another anagram of OBLIGATORY) who objected to Prince Harry's marriage to Meghan Markle.
> I have a book by a nicer fisher.
"Nicer" in German is "netter", which also describes some fishers. One of the few books from my medical training that I still own is Frank Netter's "Atlas of Human Anatomy", which beautifully combines ART and BIOLOGY.
> Some irony on the air this week.
The on-air player was Crystal VanArtsdalen, who is a scenic artist.
I focused on the "Gray area" (the intersection of the two subjects), and posted the initials of Henry Vandyke Carter.
ReplyDeleteObligatory — Biology, Art
ReplyDeleteMy “clue”:
Not the intended answer, but one synonym for “required” anagrams to a school subject and the day of the week I had it, or a subject and something I might have muttered under my breath.
That would have been Art and Monday, or Art and Damn yo! :)
I wrote, “Take the longer of the two school subject words. If a letter repeats, remove all instances of that letter. Rearrange. You get a description of the degree of simplicity of this puzzle.” That’s “bigly.”
ReplyDeleteOBLIGATORY -> BIOLOGY, ART
ReplyDeleteI hinted about a hit from 1978. I was referring to “(What a) Wonderful World,” which mentions biology in the lyrics and was sung by Art Garfunkel.
Leo also mentioned Art Garfunkle -- Quester was referring to the same song, but mentioned Sam Cooke (who wrote it).
DeleteOBLIGATORY, BIOLOGY, ART
ReplyDelete"I have a clue that would be TMI" - I was thinking of Sam Cooke's song, What a Wonderful World (don't know much about history...), where biology is mentioned very early. Even searching Sam Cooke's name yields that song high in the results.
"Remove 3 letters, and get something we've all seen" - Remove I, O, and Y from BIOLOGY, and you get BLOG, which you are reading right now!
And thanks to you, Jaws, I learned the word Blog is a truncation of "weblog". I learn something nearly every week here.
DeleteOBLIGATORY; BIOLOGY, ART. "Rearrange to get something that might help you solve the puzzle, and how you might go about your day after you have solved it." (ROBOT, GAILY)
ReplyDeleteSo, skydiveboy, why DID the Spanish guitarist use the last name of a famous composer to name his dog? An anxious world awaits.
ReplyDeleteobligatory (art, biology)
ReplyDeleteWhy did the Spanish guitarist use the last name of a famous composer to name his dog?
ReplyDeleteHe named his dog Rodrigo, because he enjoyed Joaquín Rodrigo.
Cute. I can see how Scarlett might have missed that name when researching famous composers.
DeleteI was going with Offenbach because that's where his doghouse was. I just couldn't justify the Spanish guitarist.
DeleteClever SDB. I never would've solved it. However, I'm happy to report that hubby and I were fortunate to see Andre Segovia in concert in the mid 1980s, not long before he died. It was a treat!
DeleteGlad you both enjoyed it. I jumped (well, not exactly jumped) in my car and was heading back home and could not deal with NPR begging, so I switched to our local classical FM station. It was in the middle of Fantasía para un gentilhombre, and so I came up with the idea for a joke. I mentioned "Spanish guitarist" in order to make it easier to solve. At lease I thought it would.
DeleteRevisiting your October 8, Joaquin Phoenix joke.
DeleteAh! I forgot about that.
DeleteThe classical music station I like most, out of Portland, is ALWAYS begging. Not just during marathons. Increasingly, OPB is doing the same thing.
DeleteThe classical station here in Seattle also stopped with the vile advertisers and switched over to begging, but it is far better than back then. So far the Seattle Symphony has not stopped in the middle of a piece to ask for donations. I hope they don't see this post though.
DeleteObligatory --> biology, art
ReplyDeleteLast Sunday I said, “One of the three words is included in the title of a well-known 1987 book.” The Art of the Deal – published in 1987 – was cowritten by Donald J. Trump (supposedly).
OBLIGATORY, BIOLOGY and ART
ReplyDeleteGLORIA and TOBY are the names you'd get from rearranging the letters in OBLIGATORY.
pjbAlsoFiguredOutItCouldBe"GIRL, TO A BOY"AsTheMainReasonToHaveRulesForWhoWillNotBeAllowedInsideTheTreehouseOrClubhouse(WhichWouldBe"BoysOnly",OfCourse)
I was not expecting when I decided I must separate the words in "GIRL, TO A BOY" for the signoff, that they would have so much space between them. Sorry about that.
ReplyDeletepjbShouldHaveJustGoneWith"GIRL,TOABOY"TheFirstTime,AndLetEveryoneBeConfusedByThatPart("What'sA'Toaboy'?")
OBLIGATORY, BIOLOGY and ART
ReplyDeleteI didn't DARE use the Musical Clue: Joe Jackson, because of his song BIOLOGY.
So instead I used the Musical Clue: Louis Jordan, since it wouldn't reveal the answer. But people who know will remember that Louis Jordan was the subject of Joe Jackson's third album, Jumpin Jive.
The answer to the side puzzle I posted on Mon Dec 18, 04:13:00 PM PST was MANDATORY, which can be rearranged to either DR + ANATOMY or DRAMA + TONY.
ReplyDeleteAnd I see that a couple of people noted yet a third rearrangement that I didn't, namely ART + MONDAY.
Got too busy to post yesterday, but here's the explanation for my comment...
ReplyDeleteOBLIGATORY >>>> BIOLOGY, ART
Biology focusses on CELLS. Drop one L to get CELS, the units of cartoon art.
This week's challenge comes from listener Neville Fogarty, of Newport News, Va. Think of an area found in many workplaces, in two words. Move the first letter of the first word to the start of the second word. Phonetically you'll name two items that have a similar use — one of which might be used in the workplace. What place is this?
ReplyDeleteFirst area that came to mind!
DeleteThanks for posting this fine Neville Fogarty puzzle, jan.
DeleteI would have presented it, with a slight tweak, as:
Think of an area found in many workplaces, in two words. Move the first letter of the first word to the start of the second word. Phonetically you'll name two items that have a similar use — both which might be used in workplaces. What workplace area is this?
LegoMeddling
My thought exactly, Lego.
DeleteThat was quick Time for coffee and a bagel.
ReplyDeleteFirst area I thought of. I wonder what that says about me. Anyway, enjoy your holidays!
ReplyDeleteMe too. I'm expecting a lot of correct answers this week.
DeleteAnd there's a connection to last week's puzzle here.
ReplyDelete