Exactly the amount of tricky I'd expect from Lego.Q: This week's challenge is a little tricky. Change one letter of a place on earth to get a familiar phrase much heard around this time of year. What is it? The answer consists of three words (5,2,5).
A: PLACE ON EARTH --> PEACE ON EARTH
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.
Rearrange the first phrase and get another place.
ReplyDeleteNice, Dr. K!
DeleteWonderful comment!
DeleteWow, that's good, Dr. K.
DeleteI'm really touched. Thank you!
DeleteYes, nice riff Dr. K (and nice puzzle Lego.)
DeleteSlick work!
DeleteOh, Lego!
ReplyDeleteAnd congrats.
Movie clue: _Dr. Stranglove_.
ReplyDeleteIt's that damned Flouride again!
DeleteVincent
ReplyDeletePeace on Earth
DeleteIt's easy ...
All You Need Is Love
Peace and Love
Ringo Starr
Starry Night
Vincent
Finally, a good one!
ReplyDeleteAm I the only one who thought it was a copout?
DeleteRearrange the letters of one version of a related phrase to get something that might happen in the Arctic.
ReplyDelete..... due to global warming.
DeleteOver 1600 correct entries last week.
ReplyDeleteSo it is written, so shall it be done.
ReplyDeleteI hope.
ReplyDeleteSolving the puzzle took less than a minute. Figuring out a non-TMI clue that has not already been used is taking longer.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'll think about it while I decorate the Christmas tree. My Georgia peach ornament is not where I thought it was, and I need to tear the house apart to find it. It just won't be Christmas without that peach on a tree.
DeleteHave you checked with Melba? I think she had it last.
DeleteSame to you, Lego!! -- Margaret G.
ReplyDeleteA seasonal gift. Tricky? No fun.
ReplyDeleteGood puzzle. Thanks, Lego.
ReplyDeleteNice one, Joseph. I'm curious to know if and how much Will changed your original wording. Maybe you can comment on Thursday...
ReplyDeleteNice puzzle, Lego. In case people need another seasonal challenge, here's a tricky one: Take nine from forty-six and rearrange what's left to build an 8. Who is it?
ReplyDeleteThis is a real puzzle, by the way. I hope some Blainesvillians try it, as I kinda like it. Answer on Thursday.
DeleteI have it!
DeleteUmmm. Without putting too much thought into it: think of two really big noses...
I don't doubt you have it, Crito; it's sort of self-confirming. Nevertheless, I've been unable to link the answer to two really big noses. Thursday?
DeleteOooooh. That's my mistake -- it's just one big nose. I'd forgotten that somebody has a much smaller nose than most of... their conspecifics.
DeleteIn that case, you're right on the nose!
DeleteGot it. (Even without the nose clues :) Good one!
DeleteI can only imagine
ReplyDeleteProvo, Luke, Bono, David
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHope the grammar police don’t come after Will
ReplyDeleteJoe – how low can you go? No clue needed. I notice you’ve now been promoted to “frequent contributor.” Congrats! :)
ReplyDeleteGround control to Der Bingle.
ReplyDeleteSounds like Ziggy Stardust meets the Minute Maid pitchman.
DeletepjbCould'veSaid"TheJeanGenieGoingMyWay?"
Congrats to Lego!
ReplyDeletePulses in a blender
ReplyDeleteThose who know me know my rating scale and I give this puzzle an A-. I think Sarma (above) would agree.
ReplyDeleteVery clever puzzle, Lego!
ReplyDeleteLove it! So clever!
ReplyDeleteWhen we get to that place please teach me to hear mermaids singing.
ReplyDeleteA tune written by Bob Dylan's favorite poet (or one of them, at least--depended when you asked him).
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI'll admit that that phrase brought on an anagram of: radio meltdown glow !
ReplyDeleteRudolfo - I'm sure you will understand my clue posted above.
DeleteI was pleasantly surprised by how easy this one was. Got it in a few seconds.
ReplyDeletepjbWondersHow"Tricky"It'sSupposedToBeWhenYouSolveItIncrediblyFast
Rearrange one of the words in the place, change a letter, and add another word to get something this puzzle has.
ReplyDeleteRearrange "Earth" to get "heart". Change the O in "on" to I to get "in". Add the word "my" to get "place in my heart". This puzzle has a place in my heart.
DeleteMusical Clue: George Harrison
ReplyDeletepjb'sFavoriteSongOfHisIs"CrackerboxPalace"
Great song with an accompanying video directed by Eric Idle that premiered on an episode of Saturday Night Live.
DeleteI didn't know Eric Idle directed it! Of course, it did have many Pythonesque elements in it.
DeletepjbSaid,"NowThisIsSomethingCompletelyDifferent!"
TV Clue - Kimmy Schmidt
ReplyDeleteThis continent has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAnd this continent has been moved by plate tectonics.
DeleteDidn't we just have this "trick" not too long ago?
ReplyDeleteYes, Puzzleria! used a puzzle of mine with a similar kind of solution in 2022 and there are likely other examples, too. It's a fun kind of puzzle. The solver always gets a thrill when he/she figures it out.
DeleteI meant by Shortz a few months ago...
DeleteI think I’ll go tandem water skiing!
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of when the challenge was to delete one letter of a country, Haiti, re-arrange to get a native of a country. Thai.
ReplyDeleteOnce upon a time I submitted to Will a puzzle to take the demonym for a protectorate, not a nation, remove the first letter and rearrange, get the demonym for a nation, remove the last two letters, get a nation, then remove the last letter and rearrange, get the demonym for another nation.
DeleteThe answer was TAHITIAN, HAITIAN, HAITI, THAI. Would have worked better if TAHITI were an actual nation.
That's a good one. Tahiti should be a Nation - independence now, down with the French! My reference was to the demonym puzzle of a few years ago, in which I submitted "Haiti/Thai" but the intended answer was "Vietnam" and delete one, rearrange, come up with a native of a country, it was "native." A place on Earth is in that vein but fortunately I didn't spend much time coming up with any 5-2-5 alternatives. No letter count given, probably a bunch of possible answers, Yale/yule, etc.
DeleteI loved this puzzle—as well as Dr K’s “hint.” Took a few minutes to get the “trick,” but then it was a delight to solve.
ReplyDeleteHey, what happened to the comment I posted at 03:41 AM PST on Monday?
ReplyDeleteMysterious. No notice of removal by blog administrator.
DeleteNo matter. Here it is again, retrieved from my email:
What's worse than having to "read" a Richard Scarry book? Having to find this guy on every page. Never more!
Cute! Reminds me of the concert I just sang.
ReplyDeletePLACE ON EARTH >>> PEACE ON EARTH
ReplyDeleteNothing more needed here. Except actual PEACE ON EARTH, of course.
Wishing you all a season of peace.
Jeff Zarkin (aka SuperZee) has again come up with an original excellent puzzle concept that he is sharing on Puzzleria! In his "Jefferific Appetizer," titled "Ebony, NOT Ivory = THE BLACK KEYS," Jeff gives us sets of words that uniquely fit a well-known band or musical artist.
ReplyDeleteFor two examples:
~ "Romeo, Jay Gatsby, Don Juan, Casanova or Mr. Darcy..." = the band "Loverboy, and
~ "Surf (No Turf) Entree" = the band Hot Tuna.
Jeff has created 21 of these inspired puzzles.
Also on our menus this week:
* a Schpuzzle of the Week titled "Hollandaise Holiday mix... hittin’ the sauce,"
* an Entomological Hors d’Oeuvre titled “Beware the bed buggy’s bite!”
* a “Continental Christmas” Slice titled "Joyeux Noël, Frohe Weihnachten, Buon Natale, Feliz Navidad, God Jul, Mutlu Noeller!"
* an Evergreen Dessert (composed by my sister, Mary Helen), titled “Name that Tannenbaum title!”
* and 10 riffs (including six by riff-master Nodd!) of this week's NPR puzzle challenge, titled "Joy to the where-in-the-world?" (There seem to be not so many places on earth" anymore where the answer to that puzzle prevails!)
So, please join us, for our pre-holiday edition of Puzzleria!
“PLACE ON EARTH” (Change L to E) → PEACE ON EARTH.
ReplyDeletePEACE ON EARTH (<— PLACE ON EARTH)
ReplyDeleteHint: “Rearrange the first phrase and get another place.”
—> PLACE ON EARTH —> ANOTHER PLACE
That was fun. Congrats, Lego!
PEACE ON EARTH
ReplyDeleteI wrote, “Movie clue: _Dr. Strangelove_.” General Jack D. Ripper’s obsession with fluoridation leads to a shot of his doodles which include a sort of crossword including the phrases “Purity Of Essence,” “Preserve Our Essence,” and “Peace On Earth.” The POE sequence is latter used as part of the code to bring all our bombers back from the brink. All but one.
ReplyDeletePLACE ON EARTH -> PEACE ON EARTH
ReplyDelete> What's worse than having to "read" a Richard Scarry book? Having to find this guy on every page. Never more!
SCARY, THE GOLD BUG, and NEVERMORE all point to POE, which, as Group Captain Lionel Mandrake knows, stands for PURITY OF ESSENCE, or PEACE ON EARTH.
PLACE ON EARTH
ReplyDeletePEACE ON EARTH
I had commented (after a story about decorating the Christmas tree, and not finding a peach ornament), "It just won't be Christmas without that peach on a tree."
Of course, peach on a tree is an anagram of peace on earth.
I wrote: Rearrange one version of a related phrase to get something that might happen in the Arctic due to global warming.
ReplyDeleteThe related phrase is “Goodwill to (toward) men”, which anagrams to “igloo meltdown.”
My holiday puzzle above: Take nine from forty-six and rearrange what's left to build an 8. Who is it? The answer: Frosty the Snowman: Take IX from FORTYSIX to get an anagram of FROSTY, a snowman symbolized by 8. Indeed, a score of 8 in golf is sometimes called a snowman.
ReplyDeleteI first said *two* big noses because I'd forgotten that Frosty has "a button nose" and was thinking of the traditional carrot!
DeleteThe other big schnozz belongs to Jimmy Durante, of course.
Another slang for a big nose is a "hooter." I doubted that you could have been referring to "two big hooters," but then I thought, well..
DeletePlace on Earth, Peace on Earth!
ReplyDeletePer my earlier comment, this was basically a rip off from June 4, with the containing a "silent u" and "utensil" puzzle (but less challenging).
ReplyDeleteSorry, June 9.
DeletePlease allow me to thank all you brilliant Blainesvillians for all the kind comments you posted about my NPR "Place om Earth" puzzle this week. Those comments mean so much to me, especially coming from puzzle-experts-and-aficionados like you all are.
ReplyDeleteAlso a special shout-out to Dr. K for his immediate and ingenious riff on my puzzle, a riff that was much more elegant than my puzzle!
As for the comment by JayB: "I'm curious to know if and how much Will changed your original wording. Maybe you can comment on Thursday..."
I sent Will Shortz many versions of this puzzle. In a few of them, I may have revealed that the "letter counts" of the three words were 5, 2 and 5... which is also the letter count in PLACE ON EARTH! But I understand that when Will Shortz uses a puzzle you send him, it his his prerogative to edit it, He is, after all, the Puzzlemaster!
Also, I will upload this week's edition of Puzzleria! as soon as I can this afternoon. I am running a bit behind.
LegoWhoIs(AfterAllHasBeenSaidAndDone)The"Poetaster!"
Thank you, Lego. I thought it would have been a trickier puzzle without the letter counts and the observation that it was "tricky". But puzzlemasters will be puzzlemasters. Happy holidays!
Deleteplace on earth – peace on earth
ReplyDeleteLast Sunday I said, “Joe – how low can you go? No clue needed. And I notice you’ve now been promoted to “frequent contributor.” :) This was a fun puzzle – the kind where the words, themselves, are more important than the concepts behind the words. Merry Christmas to all, particularly our very own Lego.
My post was "I can only imagine". That was a nod to John Lennon's hit whose lyrics include "imagine all the people living life in peace...".
ReplyDeleteMy other post was "pulses in a blender". Another way to say whirled peas (world peace).
Yes, it was place/peace on earth anyway.
ReplyDeleteGood one, Lego—the "trick" on the simplicity of it!
PLACE ON EARTH
ReplyDeletePEACE ON EARTH
I clued The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt because the title role was played by Ellie Kemper.
Ellie, pronounced as L-E, which is what you change to make PLACE into PEACE.
Good one, Scarlett. Mine was "Ground control to Der Bingle." By which I was referring to the vocal duet of David Bowie (Ground control to Major Tom) and Bing Crosby (Der Bingle). In 1977, for some tv special I guess, they sang The Little Drummer Boy as a duet with Bowie improvising a counter melody that started "Peace on Earth..." It is known as The Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth. It's really nice. Just Google Bing Crosby David Bowie.
ReplyDeleteWow! Just Wow! That was beautiful! I'd never seen/heard that before. Two legends indeed. Thanks for the recommendation and the great clue.
Delete... and "RADIO MELTDOWN GLOW" or its anagram: "GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN" and also perhaps women
ReplyDeleteFrom January 2025, Amazon wants its workers back in the office five days a week.
ReplyDeleteNow you may be thinking, "So what?" Well I am here to tell you "So what." Not only are their workers on strike in protest, but it is spreading to other places too. So far, here in Seattle, where I live, and Amazon.com began, there has not been a single snowman in sight so far. They are refusing to show up on our lawns! Can you believe that? This does not bode well for our upcoming 2025. Are you just going to sit back in your smugness and allow this to happen? I sure hope not.
When I posted "When we get to that place please teach me to hear mermaids singing" I was riffing on Rob's comment for the second straight week. Rob mentioned "Dr. Strangelove," in which General Ripper gives his crazed explanation of "purity of essence/peace on earth" to Group Captain Mandrake. That took me to John Donne's poem "Catch a Falling Star," which refers to the Mandrake root and has the line I quoted.
ReplyDeleteThe other clue was too obscure, even for me--I forgot after a few days what I was getting at. But it goes like this: Bob Dylan once said his favorite poet was Smokey Robinson, who wrote "Going to a Go-Go," which suggests the musical group "The Go-Gos," which featured Belinda Carlisle on vocals. Carlisle went on to record "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" as a solo artist.
In 1968 I bought Smokey and the Miracles’ LP Greatest Hits, Vol. 2, where I first saw Dylan's quote about Smokey on the back of the album cover. For years, I would cite it.
DeleteHowever, I recently learned that the quote was invented whole cloth by someone at Motown for promotional purposes and that Dylan never said it. Here’s a link (see esp. ¶7): http://swarmuth.blogspot.com/2012/08...-americas.html.
That said, Smokey and the Miracles did release a song in 1970 called “Peace on Earth (Good Will Toward Men).” It was on the Season for Miracles LP.
This much we know: a Motown publicist took a stray remark by Dylan and blew it up into something bigger. The story is, however, as Alice said, 'curiouser and curiouser."
DeleteI read long ago that Dylan had answered "Smokey Robinson" when asked who was his favorite poet, but that he later said that he had misspoken and meant to say "Rimbaud." I remember thinking at the time "You pretentious ****, you should have stuck with your original answer."
But it turns out that the truth is somewhere in between or maybe just nearby. As a video of Dylan in 1965 shows, when he was asked "What poets do you dig?" He answered "Rimbaud, Allen Ginsburg, Smokey Robinson." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIacHMHetC8&t=77s at 1:02.
But of course even that isn't the whole story. As someone with access to the whole interview has pointed out, Dylan also mentioned Charlie Rich (who had written "Who Will the Next Fool Be," later covered by Bobby Bland) and The Flying Wallendas (who did not, to my knowledge, write any poetry). So Dylan was probably goofing on the press for at least part and maybe all of his answer. Which shouldn't surprise us, since he recorded a song ("Ballad of a Thin Man") devoted to how much he hated answering questions of this sort. (Although, like almost everything connected to Dylan, even that is subject to debate; see the comments to https://genius.com/Bob-dylan-ballad-of-a-thin-man-lyrics).
This explains why Dylan got the Nobel Prize for literature, while Tolstoy, Twain, Joyce, Proust, Woolf, Borges, Achebe and Ibsen didn't.
Great post, Italo Svevo.
DeleteAs Pynchon once said of entropy, the more he learned about it, the less he understood it. Trying to make sense of the mercurial Mr. Dylan is like trying to identify “the truth” in a postmodern hall of mirrors.
That’s a good list of those ignored by the Nobel Committee. I had been especially pulling for Achebe before he died, but now, unfortunately, it’s out of the question.
Thanks. I wonder what Joyce or Borges would have said in their acceptance speeches.
DeleteRobert Jackson, the best writer of all of the Supreme Court Justices of the last 235 years, made the same point (quoting Twain) in dissent: "I give up. Now I realize fully what Mark Twain meant when he said, 'The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it.'" SEC v. Chenery Corp., 332 U.S. 194, 214 (1947).
Blaine's Annual Christmas Puzzle and Video is up!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jan, for the heads up. As always, a great video!
DeleteRIP murder hornets. Never even nominated to the Endangered Species List.
ReplyDelete