Q: Think of a popular food item in six letters. Change the last two letters to a K to make a common five-letter word in which none of the letters are pronounced the same as in the six-letter food. What food is this?Add the letters in the word DOTES to the food item, rearrange to get a place that was popular in the last century.
A: QUICHE --> QUICK
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.
Great clue, Blaine! Did you visit that place regularly?
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed that you saw that anagram, Blaine!
DeleteI found a site for that kind of search. Thanks for the inspiration, Blaire.
DeleteVery nice.
ReplyDeleteWould you say this puzzle is lateral or linear?
Take the last three letters of the first word and the last two of the second. You get something that happens to kings.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised how fast I solved this.
ReplyDeleteDeciphering Blaine's clue took longer than the puzzle, but now it's time for breakfast.
ReplyDeleteI finally deciphered Blaine's Clue. Brilliant ! (him, not me)
DeleteI have it and it's not CHEESE & CHEEK...
ReplyDeleteReplace 1 letter in the food item, rearrange and you get a fruit.
ReplyDeleteI think I have an alternate answer, but it might not get by the pronunciation police. Then there's an issue with the spelling.
ReplyDeleteUh oh, the answer may have been leaked.
ReplyDeleteI’m not convinced that ‘none of the letters are pronounced the same.’
ReplyDeleteThere’s a very general issue about determining what sound a given letter contributes, but even though it’s very general if I gave any details at all it would be at least a bit narrowing, so I’ll wait until Thursday.
Sorry, I don't mean to be petty! I still think it’s an excellent puzzle: this problem didn’t stop me from getting the answer, and it didn’t at all make me worry that my answer doesn’t work.
I'm in the same boat with you. In the only answer I've come up with so far, one of the letters is pronounced exactly the same way.
DeleteDitto. I found the common answer, the one clued by Blaine's comment, but it does seem to have that flaw. Maybe there's a better answer out there.
DeleteActually, at the time I made that reply above, I had not yet discovered quiche ==> quick, but instead I had gelato ==> gelak.
DeleteNice puzzle Eco and nice hint Blaine.
ReplyDeleteDitto to both!
DeleteDitto here!
DeletePronunciation puzzles are always difficult to nail down.
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree. The first letter of this "food item" (I like mine with a Brut Riesling, by the way) is clearly pronounced the same as the five-letter word, thereby violating its own prescribed puzzle "rules." For the record, I have never driven 96 in 55 mile-an-hour zone, unlike Tim Walz. And I would imagine he was drinking something a damn sight stronger than Riesling. Neither has J.D. Vance, who penned his autobiography at the age of 31, while Waltzy was posing for a mugshot.
ReplyDeleteIf you guys are putting Walz's 29-year old reckless driving count up against Trump's 34 felony convictions, you must be even more desperate than the latest polls would suggest.
Deletejan this gadfly just wants attention don't bother responding it's her only outlet in socializing
DeleteWrong! You're supposed to be impressed that I know what a Brut Riesling is.
DeleteGot the answer. Maybe I'll watch a movie this afternoon.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I did watch a movie, but it was not Creed.
DeleteThe movie I was reminded of was The Quick and the Dead (1995). I watched it, and it was not worth it. Terribly predictable. Later in the week, I enjoyed Everything Everywhere All at Once. That was much more enjoyable.
DeleteMusical clue: The Knockouts
ReplyDeleteGood clue, Blaine. Amazing how you get the puzzle answers so early. We get the broadcast at 8:45-ish, in the east. That must be 5:45 your time, in the square states. Amazing indeed.
ReplyDeleteThe NPR website is usually updated with the puzzle ahead of the broadcast in the eastern time zone.
DeleteToday it was not. As far as I know, as of 1124 a.m., Eastern time, the audio portion is available, the web page was not. My inquiry is how Blaine gets it so early. Is he up at 5:30 a.m. dictating it? How does he get the answer so fast? And the clue?
DeleteThat's right. I had to click on it here on this website to be able to listen to it. BTW Is this the same "Knockouts" fronted by a man named Franke(no I in it)? I only know one song by them(almost another), but you could definitely call them a "one-hit wonder".
DeletepjbFindsNoConnectionBetweenTheSongAndTheFoodItemWhatsoever,Though
Cranberry--No. If I say more, it might be TMI.
DeleteThe word is similar to a car name.
ReplyDeleteAdd the letters in the word TEN to the food item, rearrange to get something on display the last two weeks.
ReplyDeleteIt's not the ten that are on display in Louisiana schools!
DeleteIs anybody else experiencing difficulty submitting the answer on the NPR Sunday Puzzle website? The 'submit your answer' link is not appearing on today's puzzle. The link 'submit your answer' takes me to last week's puzzle. Anybody else notice this?
ReplyDeleteThe 'submit' link is the same each week. In fact, I always include it at the bottom of the comments. Or you can just go to an older puzzle to find the link.
DeleteBlaine - Thank you for pointing that out to me. I never noticed the link at the bottom of your page. (BTW, I adore this blog. Keep up the good work!)
DeleteI agree with one of the above comments, and amazed that Blaine didn't think it was TMI. But I'm pretty sure I have the answer.
ReplyDeleteI solved this puzzle very fast.
ReplyDeleteMe, too, but I don't like the intended answer. If only challah were spelled with a single L!
DeleteOh wow, that's beautiful. Hm, are even the vowels pronounced differently?
DeleteYes, in many dialects! (Including my dad's Bronx accent.) (As in that SNL sketch 'cawfee tawk'.)
That was the alternate answer I referred to above. I think chalah is an acceptable spelling.
DeleteHey it is! So says WIkipedia.
DeleteWow, you got that in the blintz of an eye!
DeleteFast is quick.
DeleteFinally, a REAL puzzle. Happy Birthday!
ReplyDeleteLangston Hughes.
ReplyDeleteI don't perceive a pronunciation problem.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe I'm saying this, but Blaine's hint was TMI. I got the answer within a few seconds of reading it.
ReplyDeleteThis week was very easy for me. If you want some simple diversions, here are four posers I submitted that were rejected. Rank them from easiest to hardest, but don't give away the answers yet.
ReplyDelete1) Think of a common twelve letter word, four syllables - switch the position of two of its letters (like mated/tamed or talent/latent) to get another common twelve letter word. The two words in order could refer to library etiquette. When read in the opposite order they could refer to a management exchange. What are these words?
2) Think of a word for something unusual. Change the third letter to be the same as the fifth letter. Rearrange to name something found in a drugstore. What are these things?
3) Think of a highly rated athlete and change the last letter of their last name to two letters later in the alphabet. Reading backwards is their sport. Who is this?
4) Write the name of a two word U.S. city. Repeat the second letter of the first word and anagram to get a food item. What is it?
Pass your ideas to Lego. Let the Puzzleria!ns have a crack at them.
DeleteThanks for that suggestion, Cloak 'n' Dagger. In the past, Puzzleria! has published a few excellent puzzles that TomR has created and contributed.
DeleteIn a happily coincidental happenstance, the current Puzzleria! features seven excellent "Econfusions" created by EcoArchitect!
LegoWhoNotesThatOurNextEditionOfPuzzleria!WhichWillBeUploadedThisThursdayWillFeatureTheCreativePuzzlingWizardryOf"PuzzleFunByBobbyJacobs!"
I wonder if this is based on a joke about mispronouncing the food item?
ReplyDeleteI still don't know how Blaine gets the puzzle so fast.
ReplyDeleteI don't think this is for real men.
ReplyDeleteI could gorge myself on the food item.
ReplyDeleteThere's some blatant TMI out there.
ReplyDeleteWW, I agree
ReplyDeleteI can anagram the 6 letter food into 2 three letter city abbreviations that I might have seen on a sports scoreboard.
ReplyDeleteBefore 1995, I'd guess.
Delete(As you know) If you remove a part of the first letter of the answer, then the first three letters will spell an appropriate answer to your comment!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWhat have i gotten myself into?
DeletePut ICH (German for "I") into QUE (Spanish for "what") ..see what I did there?
DeleteEarlier I wrote something about "nailing down" the puzzle. Apparently Blaine didn't think that was TMI.
And, prior to that, while I was trying to avoid any too obvious reference to how quickly I got it, I murmured something about Peter Gabriel, alluding to the "she's so popular" mondegreen, because I was questioning how popular quiche is ... I mean, get real!
The mondegreen in question is "Games Without Frontiers" in French:
DeleteJeux sans frontieres.
pjbDidUsedToThinkHeWasSaying"She'sSoPopular",Too
Got it—hey presto!
ReplyDelete(cf. the musical marking)
DeleteWhere is SDB this week? Anybody? Anybody?
ReplyDeleteA good chef can make the food item as prescribed by the second word.
ReplyDeleteThink of an 8-letter word frequently associated in a 2-word phrase with the six-letter food item. Remove letters 1 and 2 from the 8-letter word, and add to it letters 2, 4, and 5 from the six-letter food item. Rearrange the 9-letter result, and get a general term for something we’ve all been hearing a great deal about recently.
ReplyDeleteMaybe a certain Burt Bacharach hit comes to mind, only worse.
DeleteFortunately, I have never lived where the thing we've all been hearing about has been an issue. Lightning strikes, that's another matter.
DeleteAs are earthquakes.
DeleteDid anybody in California feel the earthquake? 4.4, epicenter in Highland Park, Los Angeles?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteProfoundly searchable
DeleteHoliday ro-oo-oo-ode.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHaving come of age in the 1980s, I don't eat the food item.
ReplyDeletequiche, quick
ReplyDeleteLast Sunday I said, “The word is similar to a car name.” Of course, I was thinking of Buick, spelled similarly to – but not pronounced like – quick.
QUICHE (kēsh) → QUICK (kwĭk)
ReplyDeleteQUICHE, QUICK
ReplyDelete"Uh oh, the answer may have been leaked." LEEKS are a popular ingredient in QUICHE.
QUICHE (—> QUICK)
ReplyDeleteHint: “I was surprised how fast I solved this.”
fast —> quick
Hint: “Musical clue: The Knockouts.”
That is, the doo-wop quartet whose 1960 Billboard hit was “Darling Lorraine.”
—> quiche Lorraine
HInt: “Think of an 8-letter word frequently associated in a 2-word phrase with the six-letter food item. Remove letters 1 and 2 from the 8-letter word, and add to it letters 2, 4, and 5 from the six-letter food item. Rearrange the 9-letter result, and get a general term for something we’ve all been hearing a great deal about recently.”
lorraine —> rraine + huc —> hurricane
For those who might be interested: There were several musical clues I considered—e.g., “Sweet Lorraine” by, among others, Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra--as well as literary clues centering on Lorraine Hansberry—see Nodd’s clue above and comment below), but I decided on the Knockouts’ “Darling Lorraine” for purely personal reasons. Two of the Knockouts’ original four members were Bob D’Andrea (lead vocalist on “Darling Lorraine”) and Eddie Parente (guitar and the song’s co-writer), both of whom were from my New Jersey home town. Of late, D’Andrea and Gary Chriss (not an original member) continue to perform as the Knockouts on the oldies circuit. A few years ago, I saw them at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel and, remarkably, D’Andrea is still performing at 92, purportedly the world’s oldest living active doo-wop performer.
DeleteQUICHE -> QUICK
ReplyDelete> I don't like the intended answer.
The Q in both words is pronounced like a K.
> If only challah were spelled with a single L!
Thanks to Crito for pointing out that Wikipedia considers it a valid alternate spelling. I like CHALAH -> CHALK better than the apparently intended answer.
Quiche/Quick
ReplyDeleteLike the others who solved this puzzle fast, I refrained from saying I did so quickly.
Ready for some Puzzle Fun? Bobby Jacobs has got you covered!
ReplyDeleteOur wise-beyond-his-years “wunderkindly” friend Bobby (whose “Puzzle Fun by Bobby Jacobs” has been proudly displayed on Puzzleria! since September of 2020) has again come through with a masterpiece of puzzling mastery – a “Stylish” And “Eventful” Appetizer titled “The boy and the 7-letter word.” It is subtitled:
1) “Playing Hangman, Stylishly” and
2) Does “Bobby” eventually become “an Event?”
We shall download Puzzleria! today – sometime very soon after noon PDT.
Also on this week's menus:
* a Schpuzzle of the Week titled “Nouns & names, not the same,”
* a Jumbo Jet Hors d’Oeuvre titled “Small & wingless, large & winged,”
* a Newsworthy Slice titled “Disaster: name, rescue, cause!”
* a Dendrological Dessert titled “The Puzzle-Solver’s Motto?” and
* ten riffs-of Ecoarchitect's NPR puzzle challenge, titled “Quick-as-whip-up-a-quiche!” (including six penned by Nodd, and one penned by Eco (a 1-2-3-4-letter riff-off of Will Shortz’s 1-2-3-letter on-air puzzle segment on the August 11th NPR broadcast, on which Eco's "Quick/Quiche" puzzle was featured).
So, please join us. Sit back and enjoy the devilishly-difficult (yet-somehow-angelic) stickleresque stumpers concocted by our friend Bobby Jacobs!
LegoWhoBelievesThat“BobbyHasAlreadyBecomeAnEvent”ParExcellenceOnPuzzleria!
I wrote, “Take the last three letters of the first word and the last two of the second. You get something that happens to kings.” I chess, you can CHECK a king.
ReplyDeletequiche, quick
ReplyDeleteQUICHE, QUICK. My hint referenced Langston Hughes, who used the phrase “a raisin in the sun” in one of his poems, inspiring Lorraine Hansberry’s play of the same name. Quiche Lorraine is a classic French dish.
ReplyDeleteWhat happens to a dream deferred?
DeleteDoes it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Good.
DeleteYeah, I like Jan's 'chalah' better too, actually.
ReplyDeleteIt's starting to seem to me that the question of how a particular letter is pronounced in a given word may have no definite answer, just as the idea of a 'silent letter' probably can't be given a rigorous definition. But, I think the 'chalah'/'chalk/ pair has a much better claim to having no letter pronounced the same in both, than the 'quiche'/'quick' pair has. (As Jan said, because of the initial sound, which it seems most natural to say is a 'k' that is contributed by the 'q' in both words.)
Oh, and I forgot: I gave a clue! "Would you say this puzzle is lateral or linear?" The 'or linear' is an anagram of... Lorraine, of course. (Cf. Dr. K and Nodd, supra.)
ReplyDeleteFirst, Blains clue: Discotheque. Second, Dr.K: Hurricane, formed from Lorraine + h, u, and c. My reference was to Bacharach's "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head " "Only worse" meant the heavy winds and destruction associated with hurricanes. As for my comment about liking (quiche) with a Brut Riesling, well, I had it once, quiche with Riesling that is, and it gave me acid reflux. I guess I'm not a real man.
ReplyDeleteMy clue: "I could gorge myself on the food item." I was alluding to the Quechee Gorge in Vermont. (Spelling is kinda close to quiche.)
ReplyDeleteQUICHE, QUICK.
ReplyDeleteI clued on Sunday Finally, a REAL puzzle. Happy Birthday!
Sunday was the 70th Birthday of Joe Jackson. And, in 1982, we got the popular bestselling comedy book Real Men Don't Eat Quiche and Joe Jackson's song Real Men.
Dr. K's musical hints plus Musinglink's Brut Riesling combine for a musical clue of Jimmie Rodgers' "Quiches Sweeter than Wine". (Or at least, that's how I remember it.
ReplyDeleteI think Pete Seeger originally sang that in a slower, more somber tone.
DeleteQ u i c h e and quick I was poised to post this answer right at noon today while I am camping in eastern Oregon on the Deschutes River but I got into a fascinating conversation and did not look at the clock my watch until 10 minutes after noon well now I am finally getting to it will be back in Seattle fairly soon.
ReplyDeleteThis Oregon State Park caters to salmon and steelhead fishermen. I did not know this the first time I went there to camp several years ago. I do not enjoy fishing, but do like eating them. My dad was really into fishing and died suddenly after trout fishing with a friend of his on opening day in 1974. He had the heart attack the following day. I enjoyed eating the fish. Anyway I am back home now.
DeleteIn addition to Quiche ==> Quick, I also submitted as an alternate answer: Gelato ==> Gelak. Gelato is pronounced with a soft G, like J. Gelak is pronounced with a hard G.
ReplyDeleteWhat is "gelak"? I find reference only to a village in Afghanistan or a Malay word for "laugh".
Delete200 years ago today, the Marquis de Lafayette arrived in New York for his tour of the 24 United States he helped birth four decades earlier. If you've never heard historian Sarah Vowell's "French Kiss", you have to.
ReplyDeletethe worst puzzle. quiche is not a "popular" food item. maybe if we're living in the 1970s? it's not even really a food in my opinion because it's made up of many foods -- eggs, cream, etc. the instructions for these puzzles often make no sense and this is one of those cases for me.
ReplyDeleteHaving come of age in the 1980s, I don't eat the food item--refers to the 1982 best-selling book, Real Men Don't Eat Quiche.
ReplyDeleteThis week's challenge comes from listener Peter Collins, of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Think of a famous movie star -- first and last names, nine letters in all. The third, fourth, fifth, seventh, and eighth letters, in order, name a profession. The star's last name is something that this profession uses. Who is the movie star and what is the profession?
ReplyDelete[The on-air player today is Eli Shear-Baggish of Arlington, Mass. I'm guessing he's the son of frequent WESUN puzzle contributor Steve Baggish.]
ReplyDeleteGot it. Waiting for Blaine...
ReplyDeleteI'd like to meet the actor.
ReplyDelete