Q: Take two three-letter tree names and combine them phonetically to get a clue for a type of fabric, then change one letter in that word to get something related to trees. What are the two trees?Anagram the letters of the clue to get an appropriate surname.
Edit: Well, I had ASH + YEW --> A SHOE --> LEATHER --> HEATHER, so I was hinting at O'SHEA for St. Patrick's Day. So can I say I was half right?
A: YEW + FIR --> EWE FUR --> WOOL --> WOOD
I got this right away but didn't like the final answer, so I worked on it some more, but now I see it must be right. Since the puzzle requests only the two trees, that last answer is extraneous and not integral.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, rearrange the word for something associated with trees, and get an animal you might see there.
Blaine's clue above: "Anagram the letters of the clue..." YEW FIR = WIFREY (Oprah's real surname)
DeleteNice puzzle! The phonetic wordplay with the trees is particularly cool. I'm not sure how to get Dr. K's animal, though.
ReplyDeleteI have an answer, but I don't like it. I feel like it's too much of a stretch. Also, it doesn't work with Dr. K's clue.
ReplyDeleteI can rearrange the word related to trees to get a different word that describes something that can happen in a forest.
DeleteThe above clue is for an alternate answer. See my comment below from early Monday morning.
DeleteNow, given Lancek and JAWS' comments, I'm beginning to wonder again whether or not I have the intended answer, especially since that last answer I have also seemed from the beginning like a stretch.
ReplyDeleteI can't rearrange my final word related to trees to get any other word.
ReplyDeleteThink back to last week.
DeleteYeah I might have the same answer as Dr. K. Mine doesn't work with either Jaws' or Lancek's clues. (Well, unless I'm being thick -- but I tried an online anagrammer.)
ReplyDeleteI'll try to think of a clue for mine so others can see if theirs matches any of ours!
OTOH, there are several related-to-tree words you can get by changing one letter in the clued-type-of-fabric word, and some of them work with above clues.
ReplyDeleteBlaine, I think you need to find a different picture!
ReplyDeleteI can assure you the answer isn't two sycamores.
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DeleteSo much for a subtle clue
DeleteHah! Do you work for the royal family?
Delete😉
DeleteI was just starting to type that I was certain that I have a different answer, when I realized that the above interaction between Jan and Blaine could be used to point to a clue. So, maybe I have the right answer? I think I need to work on other words related to trees, to get to Dr. K's clue.
DeleteThanks to Jan's attempt at being subtle, I was able to solve the puzzle working somewhat backwards.
DeleteThis is really hard to clue. The problem is that there are so few 3-letter trees that if I do the "not hard to get from the answer to my clue but very hard to get from the clue to my answer" trick, it's just too easy to plug in trees one at a time.
ReplyDeleteHmmmmm.
Like Jan, I have a final word that has no anagrams.
I thought it would be easy for you simply to consult a list of trees and find a fabric; it wasn’t.
ReplyDeleteA question: Is the "something related to trees" phonetic or actual?
ReplyDeleteMy final word can be anagrammed to apparently to only one other word, relating to silk. I do not get Dr. K's clue.
ReplyDeleteIs it significant that the wording of the puzzle stipulates "get a clue for a type of fabric" (Blaine even italicized "clue") and not "get a type of fabric"?
ReplyDeleteGreg also emphasized it on the air. Hmm... I wonder why.
DeleteIn that case, with regard to my hint above, as Roseanne Roseannadanna put it, "Never mind." (Although it might make an interesting alternate puzzle.)
DeleteTake two three-letter tree names and combine them phonetically to get a clue for a type of fabric, then change one letter in that word to get something related to trees. What are the two trees?
ReplyDeleteQuestion: Is that word the clue or the type of fabric?
LegoInSearchOfClarification
Yul Brynner
ReplyDeleteI read you, Scarlett! That's like a chess gambit that's three moves from mate, but thus all the more lovely.
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DeleteLancek, kudos for connecting the dots! I worked backwards to come up with the clue. Btw, when I read your comment to my hubby, I said "I think there was a gameshow called Gambit!" Sure enough....guess my memory's not so bad after all. And Wink Martindale is still alive.
DeleteMy answer does match some of the ones clued here now.
ReplyDeleteI have a couple of answers...but for the one I'm happiest with, I'll just say that the fabric points back phonetically to one of the original trees.
ReplyDeleteHa, possibly disregard this...I think I took a circuitous route to the right answer! New clue: if you knock the final letter off my "related-to-trees" final word, you get a verb.
DeleteThis definitely does not match what I have so far.
DeleteDr. Awkward, your hint is the only hint I see here that matches my answer.
DeleteMy word matches Dr. A's clue
DeleteGlad to help! I went on quite a journey for this one...shall explain anon.
DeleteSo yes, my second hint is pointing at WOOD becoming WOO. But I initially thought that the two trees might be "ASH-YEW," aka ACHOO, with WOOL being a fabric sometimes used for handkerchiefs.
DeleteI have it...
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to Emma Meersman for a fine puzzle. I suspect, however, that her original wording may have been tweaked by the "editors" at NPR – employees who, I presume had good intentions, but who, alas, generated a bad result.
ReplyDeleteMs. Meersman's puzzle, as it appears on the NPR website reads:
Take two three-letter tree names and combine them phonetically to get a clue for a type of fabric, then change one letter in that word to get something related to trees. Your answer should be the two tree names you started with.
Blaine wisely tweaked that wording, so that the puzzle on this site reads;
Take two three-letter tree names and combine them phonetically to get a clue for a type of fabric, then change one letter in that word to get something related to trees. What are the two trees?
Notice that Blaine changed the last sentence to make the puzzle's wording less confusing.
The NPR wording makes it sound like "your answer" (which one might logically but falsely assume is the immmediately preceding "something related to trees") is somehow the same as "the two tree names you started with."
But it is not.
Great editing by Blaine.
LegoBlaineophile
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ReplyDeleteSwitch the order of the 2 trees, and it will sound like another phrase that can describe the fabric.
ReplyDelete"Fir yew" sounds like "for you". Wool can be for you, as in "This wool shirt is for you."
DeleteI think I have the answer, but it doesn't match any of the hints I see here.
ReplyDeleteExcept Dr. Awkward's!
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ReplyDeleteI'm trying to be sew cute. Do I have you guys in stitches?
ReplyDeleteMethinks that first hint seams to come a little too clothes.
DeleteSuch a tree tease will be written about this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteThink BIG!
ReplyDeleteMy aged brain is getting in the way. May have to give up on puzzles...SAD
ReplyDeleteJoin 2 other 3 letter trees together and change one letter and pluralize the second tree to phonetically get something that could help them stay together. What are the 2 trees, and the thing?
ReplyDeleteThink of an actor of the past with one-syllable first and last names containing the same vowel sound. Change that vowel sound to a different vowel sound, and anagram the resulting words to get the two trees we're looking for.
ReplyDeleteJan, this hint is a thing of beauty.
DeleteNot bad, jan.
DeleteI especially like how the second name and the second word match up more perfectly than strictly necessary. Another jan classic.
DeleteAnother clever puzzle, though I would word it differently for enhanced clarity and to level the playing field. And sending good wishes for Will to get well soon…..
ReplyDeleteStreisand.
ReplyDeleteThis is one clue that I can fit to my answer.
DeleteStrange — I have an answer that I think is fairly solid, but I can't easily fit it to any of the clues here.
ReplyDeleteThe intended answer popped into my head early this morning.
ReplyDeletePreviously, Lego had asked, "Question: Is that word the clue or the type of fabric?"
What I believe is the intended answer goes one way with this question, and my other answer goes the other way.
Rearrange the letters of the two trees and the fabric, and get a shrewd speaker.
ReplyDeleteOdd they would ask for the interim solution in the puzzle chain and not the final.
ReplyDeleteGot it.
ReplyDeleteMusical Clue: Benny Goodman
How about Lenny Welch?
DeleteYou've got me there. I was thinking Yale.
DeleteThis is another clue that I can fit to my answer. However, this one and Iris's seem to be the only ones.
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ReplyDeleteI thought these puzzles were getting too easy. Nice for the one this week to keep me grounded.
ReplyDeleteCould there be a clue In our illogical ritual of daylight savings time? If there is, i''ll bet G. M. Hopkins could see the poetry in it
ReplyDeleteI think I got it, but the sheer awkwardness makes me wonder...
ReplyDeleteAre you doing a better job fitting the clues here than I am?
DeleteI just noticed that, as of last Thursday, Joel Fagliano is listed as the editor of New York Times crosswords, while Will Shortz is taking time to recover from his stroke.
ReplyDeleteI don't have it yet, but all I can think of is tea fir -> teefers -> cat teeth 😻
ReplyDeleteAs a crazy cat lady, I approve! 😸
DeleteThere is also apparently a tree or shrub called kat. (cat tree -> kitty condo)
Yes!! Kat fir would work so well :) hopefully I'm not giving it away! I still haven't gotten the puzzle...
DeleteAre teefers a thing? I think I've had that rack of tiles in Scrabble before.
ReplyDeleteI think in a few years Scrabble will catch up and add teefers to the dictionary
DeleteIn the meantime, I think the superlative of free really ought to be freeest.
Delete"Tortitude" needs to be added to the dictionary. It's in the Cat Daddy (Jackson Galaxy) dictionary, however, as well as Wiktionary.
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ReplyDeleteI note that there is a 'hop' tree, and that HOP can be muddled with another 3-letter tree name to get part of a tree's anatomy.
ReplyDeletePHLOEM
DeleteYEW, FIR; EWE FUR; WOOL
ReplyDelete"Tree tease" refers to the awkwardness of this week's puzzle. It's a bit of a stretch to go from EWE FUR to sheepskin to WOOL.
YEW, FIR,wool, wood UFER is also slang for a concrete-encased grounding electrode popular in residential construction.
ReplyDeleteYEW + FIR = YEW (ewe, female sheep) + FIR (fur) = EWE FUR → fabric clue: WOOL(en) → related to trees: WOOD(en).
ReplyDeleteWOOLEN FABRIC & WOODEN ASPECT OF TREES.
YEW & FIR >>> ewe fur is wool change L to D and get wood
ReplyDeleteMy Hints:
"Think BIG!" Like thinking of a Woolly Mammoth.
"How about Lenny Welch?" His hit 1963 song: "Since I Fell For You."
YEW + FIR —> EWE FUR —> WOOL —> WOOD
ReplyDeleteA clever and subtle puzzle from Emma Meersman.
Hint: “Rearrange the letters of the 2 trees and the fabric, and get a shrewd speaker.”
YEW + FIR + WOOL —> WILY WOOFER
My first, mistaken guess was ASH + OAK —> ASHOKE (a Yoruban hand-woven cloth) —> ASHORE ( —> A HORSE was “the animal you might see there”), but I was soon disabused of my (several) errors. I hope I didn’t lead too many astray.
My comment (“a thing of beauty”) on Jan’s excellent hint was of course itself a hint at Robert Armstrong’s famous line about Fay Wray in King Kong, “It was beauty killed the beast.”
Ben’s Benny Goodman clue got me thinking of Yale (“The Whiffenpoof Song,” Rudy Vallee, etc.): “We’re poor little lambs who have lost our way / Baa, baa, baa….”
Meanwhile, back at the NCAA…
Those lyrics reminds me a bit of "Glad to Be Unhappy": "Like a straying baby lamb, with no mama and no papa"
DeleteI had HEATHER as my last word which anagrams to THE HARE, so I thought your clue confirmed mine. 😉
DeleteI was unfamiliar with "Glad to Be Unhappy." Thanks for the connection.
DeleteI tried to work backwards from an animal to find Dr. K's answer. MERINO (a type of wool) could lead to ERMINE, but I couldn't find an intermediate word related to trees.
DeleteYEW, FIR -> EWE FUR -> WOOL -> WOOD (or WOLD, WOOF, OWLS, etc.)
ReplyDelete> So, this is really two puzzles for the price of one.
It's a YEW-FIR ewe fur twofer.
> Blaine, I think you need to find a different picture!
In Blaine's original picture, you can see sheep sheltering under those trees. He photoshopped them out after deleting my post pointing them out.
> Think of an actor of the past with one-syllable first and last names containing the same vowel sound. Change that vowel sound to a different vowel sound, and anagram the resulting words to get the two trees we're looking for.
FAY WRAY -> FIE WRY -> YEW, FIR
Jan gets extra style points for the fact that WRAY and WRY retain the silent "W" after changing the vowel sound. Changing WRAY to RYE doesn't work. I slipped in an early Sunday clue by noting that the phonetic word play was particularly COOL -- another word that can be formed by changing one letter of WOOL.
DeleteMy answer, which doesn’t seem to match most hints: yew, fir (“ewe fur” -> wool -> wood)
ReplyDeleteYEW FIR / EWE FUR / WOOL / WOOD
ReplyDeleteMy clue was "Yul Brynner." He played Pharaoh Ramses in The Ten Commandments. The 1965 song Wooly Bully was sung by Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs.
ReplyDeleteLoved it. A hidden musical clue!
DeleteThanks!
DeleteI wrote, “I thought it would be easy for you simply to consult a list of trees and find a fabric; it wasn’t.” “For you” hints “fir ewe.”
ReplyDeleteFir Ash=Furrish=Forest
ReplyDeleteposed:
ReplyDelete"Join 2 other 3 letter trees together and change one letter and pluralize the second tree to phonetically get something that could help them stay together. What are the 2 trees, and the thing?"
Answer: ELM & FIR change F to E then add an S and phonetically you get Elmers, as in the wood glue.
Blaine, I am wondering why you removed my SPAM ALERT post? Did I miss something that appeared to you as being a hint? You have not removed my spam alerts previously.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure why you were calling hohum's post spam. They've posted here occasionally for several years. I think they were hinting at Yew + Elm = Ulm. I kept their post for awhile until they explicitly posted the word "yew" but otherwise I didn't see a reason to mark it as spam.
Delete...and all I saw with his post was a very long advertisement.
DeleteI thought it was a clue. It was an ad for felt shoes. So that led me to Ash and yew... A shoe....felt (wool) ..wood. I wonder why he posted that site.
Deleteyew, fir->ewe fur=wool->wood
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ReplyDeleteIt seems that I did not solve this week's NPR puzzle. But I did come up with a possible alternative answer (see below) that I did not submit, I no longer submit answers.
ReplyDeleteThis week's Puzzleria! features Half-A-Dozen excellentPuzzling Doozies Appetizers by our friend Tortitude, titled 'Initials, Isles, Prezzes,'Pop,Toys & Dolls ." They are titled: "Initials, Isles, Prezzes, Pop,Toys & Dolls."
We upload Puzzleria! before midnight tonight PST.
Also on our menu this week:
* a Schpuzzle of the Week titled "Gophers & badgers & deer, oh my!"
* a Political Two-step Hors d’Oeuvre:titled Italian Shadow Dancing
* a Givin’ Me The Willys Slice titled “Stop, Rewolf!”
* a Nontemporal Temples Dessert titled "E pluribus una dea,"
* and a dozen Riffing Off Shortz And Meersman Slices titled "Blue BayYew TapEntry," including seven excellent riffs composed by our friend Nodd.
Visit us! We guarantee "Tortitudinal" and "Noddular" puzzling excellence
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I'm just excited that I had the same (wrong) answer as Blaine!
ReplyDeleteYou were kind of on the right track with "kat fir"
DeleteInterestingly, ASH YEW sounds like my reaction to KAT FIR.
DeleteOmg I tried so hard to make achoo work before I came up with a shoe! I was like, what letter can I change in tissue?
DeleteAnd yes, kat fir was so close! (Yet so far)
DeleteSorry Yew had a tissue issue. Did you think to ask your Elders?
DeleteAsh, yew can be correct. There are shoes made from wool (felt is made from wool). I got both answers.
ReplyDeleteThe answer submitted was only the two trees? Not the other parts?
ReplyDelete"Your answer should be the two tree names you started with."
DeleteSo how does that show the rest of the answer is correct?
DeleteI agree that it is unsatisfying that only the two tree names were required. Changing a different letter in WOOL can lead to WOLD (an English word related to a German word for forest), or WOOF (trees have bark, and dogs like peeing on trees), or, with a little rearrangement, OWLS (who who who live in trees).
DeleteI didn't like this puzzle. It was cute, I guess, but WOOL is not FUR. Sheep do not have FUR.
ReplyDeleteWool is a type of fur.
DeleteQ: Do you get fur from a skunk?
DeleteA: Yes, as fur as possible!
I submitted Tea and Sal. Teasle. Leaves.
ReplyDeleteIt took me a while to come up with what I (and most others here) believe is the intended answer, YEW, FIR. I struggled to get it, partly because I kept thinking YOU and not EWE. Luckily, I had seen the original picture Blaine posted, and Jan's comment, so my early Monday thoughts were around wool (which easily changes to wood), and sheep. Then it hit me.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, I had originally thought of ASH,YEW, phonetically sounding like ACHOO, which is a clue for a fabric handkerchief. Due to the wording of the puzzle, I had changed the last letter of ACHOO to get A CHOP. I had originally commented that it was a bit of a stretch. But then Blaine also made a comment about thinking back to last week, which made me think adding the space was necessary. Also, lamb chops are a thing, so removing the sheep from the picture made sense.
Ultimately, I included both in my submission, with explanations about how the puzzle phrasing made it difficult to interpret what was meant by "that word."
We were barking up the same tree with ASH-YEW / ACHOO, it seems—see my comment above!
DeleteSome of us here were Pining for a puzzle like this, and others probably think it was a Birch if they got Stumped. I thought it a Poplar Plum for a change, and a bit of a Whin.
ReplyDeleteKnot having got this one, I feel like a sap for having embarked upon such a fruitless task.
DeleteNo need to explain Firther. Yew can solve the next one and that May Spruce things up, Snowberry.
DeleteI may need to branch out to other puzzle sites. It was hard to figyew this one out. The instructions were shady and gummed up my week.
DeleteI will go out on a limb and say everyone here will miss yew.
DeleteI am not leafing. Thank yew. May the forest be with you.
DeleteI bough to your decision. I don't want yew to feel yew are being left in the larch. Now, let's see if we can spruce things up a bit here. We hold the future in our palm.
DeleteFir yew, SDB: It can be difficult to plant new roots in other puzzle places. - Weeping Willow.
DeleteMaple it wood be too hard. Yew don't want to mango it up.
DeleteI had yew and fir = ewe fur = wool = wood, but it didn't match so many of the clues that I assumed I was wrong.
ReplyDeleteMy clues: “though I would word it differently….” was using the word “would” for “wood” and the good wishes to Will were using “will” and “well” as words like “wool”.
ReplyDeleteI had to do my taxes rather than spend more than an hour on this puzzle. Now seeing "EWE FUR", I regret the hour spent on the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteConfession: I may have led some Blainesvillians astray with a clue about daylight savings time and Gerard Manley Hopkins.
ReplyDeleteMea culpa, as Father Hopkins might have said.
First, I studied the small universe of 3 letter trees. I played with oak and fir and elm, but was convinced " bay" and "yew" in that sequence were the phonetic indicators of what could only be a very special fabric, the Bayeux Tapestry. I could discern no one-off lettered word from tapestry cluing a tree-related term. So I thought a synonym might apply, like embroidery, or "weaving."
Some folks posted clues about Benny Goodman and Lenny Welch and others that I thought referred to the song "Falling Leaves." I rationalized that "weaving" was the answer and the letter w should be replaced with an l, for the awkward term "leaving."
The only usage of that term in an arboreal context I could find was in Hopkins' poem "Spring and Fall" (hence daylight savings time) which begins "Margaret, are you grieving/ Over golden Grove un-LEAVING."
Hope nobody wishes me a hickory stick.
This week's challenge: This week's challenge comes to us from Mae McAllister, from Bath, in the United Kingdom. As you may know, each chemical element can be represented by a one or two-letter symbol. Hydrogen is H, helium is He, and so on. McAllister points out that there are two commonly known elements whose names each can be spelled using three other element symbols. Name either one.
ReplyDeleteThere are two possible answers, but you only have to submit one for credit
DeleteGot one. Not the other, though. Pretty easy.
DeleteGot them both, but as a Chemical Engineer I had an advantage. The two elements are often paired.
ReplyDeleteJust got the second one, too. I'm having more trouble with my NCAA brackets.
DeleteI found a second one, but it doesn't readily form a stable compound with the first one. I wonder if there are more than two?
DeleteSuper easy. It won't take you long.
ReplyDeleteI have one answer and two non-answers. Key words: 'three' & 'other'.
ReplyDelete