Q: Take a child's game, in eight letters. Change the sixth letter to 'ch' and, phonetically, you'll have a popular animated children's character. What are the game and the character?How manu of us remember the first time we played this?
The first time I played this game, I was on the receiving end and don't remember playing. But I do remember later when I was on the giving end.
A: PEEK-A-BOO, PIKACHU
Have you ever seen a Danish auto ski?
ReplyDeleteWow you are fast, Blaine.
ReplyDeleteIt's not the healthiest puzzle ever, but I'm not saying it needs intensive care, either.
Rearrange the odd letters of the character and you get the name of another imaginary character.
ReplyDeleteAnd read the even letters backwards to get an affirmative.
DeleteGeez, can't believe we're going down this road again.
ReplyDeleteWith potholes like the craters of the moon.
Deletei don't see a way to clue this.
ReplyDeleteBut now I think I do.
DeleteI wondered how long that was going to take.
Deletetupo
ReplyDeleteThe character has become popular again in recent years.
ReplyDeleteThe original Pokemon game was introduced for the Nintendo Game Boy in 1996. The augmented reality mobile game, Pokemon GO, was introduced in 2016 and is still popular today among college age kids and young adults. Can you tell that I have a son in that age group!!
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ReplyDeleteA German word comes to mind.
ReplyDeleteAbout 400 correct entries last week
ReplyDeleteMusical Clue: Neville Brothers
ReplyDeleteAre they a jawaiian music group?
DeleteI don't approve of those chemical treatments some people subject themselves to in order to make their hair curl.
ReplyDeleteI love puzzles that reveal phonetic coincidences hiding in plain sight (e.g., A. Blinken, Abe Lincoln), but this one has never been hiding. If you've heard of the character, you've probably already made the connection.
ReplyDeleteHey folks, just jumping on here quickly to say I'll be on the road most of the day. At least I can work on the puzzle while I drive!
ReplyDeleteThis did not take long to solve, even while I kept my eyes on the road while driving.
DeleteAn easy one today, I'm sure there will be a high number of responders with this answer.....and wishing all the dads out there a happy father's day (including to the guy who made me my tuna fish sandwiches when I was a child!).
ReplyDeleteYou have to either get this or not. No great way to get it through research. The answer will likely be elusive for a while, but will come to you eventually.
ReplyDeletePretty sure I heard a related bit of wordplay on Car Talk, some 30 years ago.
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThis is the first Sunday puzzle I've bee able to solve in a few weeks (didn't get the last 2).
ReplyDeleteThe game was "oerformed" during the last superbowl.
ReplyDeleteI remember often hearing about the game during the Olympics, too!
DeleteOh, well done.
DeleteI thought a bit about how to give this type of clue, but I'm glad I didn't try -- I would have taken a different road, and yours is elegant.
Thanks! Sounds like my clue was right up your alley.
DeleteGot the answer fairly quickly, but I always wait to hear clues from you guys, just to confirm, before I submit.
ReplyDeleteAnd you provide very good clues.
Rob’s was helpful if you’re a Shakespeare fan.
Jan was helpful if you’re a world traveler.
Good luck to all other Sunday puzzle addicts!
And happy Fathers Day to all Dads!
ReplyDeleteIf you have solved this week's NPR challenge and hanker for a second helping of wordplayfulness, try solving this week's "Schpuzzle of the Week" on Puzzleria! It reads:
ReplyDeleteAdd an “F” to the beginning of the name of a novel character. Transpose two adjacent vowels. Insert a space someplace. The result describes what a part of another character in the novel became.
Who are these characters? What did the part of another character become?
Please don't spill your answers until Wednesday afternoon. Hints are okay though. Speaking of hints...
The novel's author's surname rhymes with the last word in "one of those ‘Road’ pictures."
LegoWhoNotesThatAlsoFeaturedOnTheCurrentPuzzleriaIsThe39thCrypticCrosswordPuzzleCreated&ContributedByMasterCrypticCrosswordSetterPatrickJ.Berry(Aka“Cranberry”)
Call me a fawn, but I dote on Lego's puzzles. Nice one!
DeleteYou don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure this one out.
ReplyDeleteGod bless us, every one!
ReplyDeleteHoyle does not seem to have the rules for this game.
ReplyDeleteI solved it while still in bed fairly easily, but had to confirm via the internet because I have never heard of the character.
Also, this puzzle caused me to think of all the times I have seen chess boards set up incorrectly, as I have posted about here recently, especially in movies. So I quickly came up with a simple word play way to remember which way to orient the board, if not the pieces. I hesitate to post it here because I fear someone will be offended and not get the humor. We have to be so careful these days, I even had a comment I posted to a Yahoo news piece deleted because I correctly referred to someone as our Rapist In Chief.
I love your last four words above. Too bad Yahoo didn't see fit to agree.
DeleteIt does have a certain ring to it. I wonder how many other right wing, tyrannical world leaders are jealous of this noble attainment?
DeleteWell, we are now getting NPR confirmation email replies to our puzzle answer submissions! Maybe our country will survive after all.
ReplyDeleteOver spring break, I hiked a canyon with the same name as the game.
ReplyDeleteThat must have been grand.
DeleteGorgeous scenery.
DeleteDeeply so.
DeleteGneiss!
DeleteDeepending on your point of view.
DeleteI was there 10 years ago.
DeleteNot gneiss at all though. . .
DeleteSo inspiring!
DeleteEight years Diane and I joined a weeklong organized tour of that area. When we got back to the tour’s starting point, we rented a pair of motorcycles and, in the next three days, rode 485 miles through more of the surrounding area. Spectacular!
DeleteI think our Rapist in Chief is full of schist.
DeleteThe animated character is a huge favorite of my nephew's. And I played the childhood game just over a week ago, with a relative at a wedding reception.
ReplyDeleteReading about this, I learned it's not just a silly game. It helps with social development and motor skills, among other things. Who knew?!
ReplyDeleteI got this one in a few minutes, by consulting a list of characters for kids.
ReplyDeleteThe bad news is that since June 16th, 2024, I have been on a 51 week winning streak. Not a single miss. I was going for an even 52 week streak, but I couldn't get last week's puzzle . A fifty-two week winning streak was within sight. Oh, well...now you see it, now you don't.
Oh, yes, sorry about the TMI earlier, Blaine.
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DeleteOops. GMTA.
DeleteYou don't have to be Columbo to solve this one. I'd share a meme indicating how easy/obvious I found this puzzle, but it would really give the game away.
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ReplyDeleteThis puzzle is NOT for boomers.
ReplyDeleteRIP William Langewiesche.
ReplyDeleteI was just looking at the news about where the G-7 is meeting in Canada; KANANASKIS. If you change the syllable that you emphasize, as I did, you'll get laugh
ReplyDeletePS The answer: It may have cheeks but no lips!
DeleteThe word on the street is that this is an easy puzzle…
ReplyDeleteA real triumph.
DeleteRIP Alfred Brendel
ReplyDeleteI searched off and on since Sunday, but only this morning did the character appear on my mental map. As soon as I found it, the game was staring me right in the face.
ReplyDeleteThere’s phrases associated with each, each three words. Take the middle word of the character’s, remove an involuntary phrase from it, add one letter back in to that middle word, you get the phrase from the children’s game. Remove any consonants from that children’s game, add in the consonants removed earlier, anagram, phonetically, you get another involuntary phrase. I hope I phrased this well enough to be a puzzle master, at least at this gym.
ReplyDelete“I choose you,” if you remove a choo, add an E on the end, you get “I see you.” First consonant, wording got awkward, eek, ah, boo, Ash Ketchum needed a little more training before he successfully took on Blaine’s gym. Much later, after a long journey spanning over 25 years and 1,200+ episodes/Pokémon journeys, Ash finally achieved his lifelong dream, became a Pokémon master.
DeleteTake letters 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7 from the name of the character, rearrange, and get a two-word phrase for something associated with a recent major sporting event.
ReplyDeletePEEKABOO - B + CH >> PEEKACHOO >> PIKACHU
ReplyDeletePicabo Street is a retired Alpine skier. She took a Silver Medal in the Downhill at the 1994 Winter Olympics and a Gold Medal in the Super-G at the 1998 Winter Olympics.
Tom and Ray Magliozzi, the Cart Talk brothers, had fun with her name, quipping she used some of her winnings to endow a hospital facility, known as the Picabo-ICU.
PEEKABOO, "PEEKACHOO" (PIKACHU)
ReplyDelete"Geez, can't believe we're going down this road again." This points toward skier PICABO Street.
PEEKABOO Trail in Bryce Canyon National Park is one of my favorite hikes. But, there's no gneiss there.
PEEKABOO —> PIKACHU
ReplyDeleteHints:
“I don’t see a way to clue this.”
“But now I think I do.”
—> “don’t see” / “do [see]” —> PEEKABOO 🫣
"Take letters 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7 from the name of the character, rearrange, and get a two-word phrase for something associated with a recent major sporting event."
—> P, K, A, C, U —> A PUCK (STANLEY CUP)
PEEKABOO, PIKACHU
ReplyDelete> Have you ever seen a Danish auto ski?
Anagram of Atsuko Nishida, the creator of PIKACHU, among other Pokémon species.
>> Rearrange the odd letters of the character and you get the name of another imaginary character.
> And read the even letters backwards to get an affirmative.
"Hai" in Japanese means "yes".
>> Over spring break, I hiked a canyon with the same name as the game.
> I was there 10 years ago.
In Bryce Canyon National Park.
> Who do you think you're fooling?
Hoodoos are what you see there.
>> Geez, can't believe we're going down this road again. [ I assume a reference to Picabo Street. ]
>> With potholes like the craters of the moon.
Picabo, ID, the village near her home whose name the skier chose, is very close to Craters of the Moon National Monument.
Broken Japanese: Atsuko Nishida: Atsu-ko literally means "hot child" though there are more sensible interpretations. The name (and cartoonist) are female. Nishida means Westfield. Pika means a flash, and ... it sez here: chuu means the sound a Japanese mouse makes. Unfortunately reminiscent of "pika-don": "don" is Japanese for "boom", and pika-don means the experience of an atomic bomb detonating.
Delete"Hai" in Japanese means "yes": Sometimes. Most often it is what is called an "aizuchi", which is a sound made to show that you are listening, like English "unh" ... and for sure you cannot count on that to mean "yes".
DeletePuzzles can be labyrinthine, like a Rube Goldberg contraption...
ReplyDeleteOr they can be beautiful, like Ruby Velvet Tulips, Golden Dahlia or Marigolds.
Puzzles cultivated by our friend Plantsmith, however, are both labyrinthine and beautiful. Proof of this can be found on this week's edition of Puzzleria! in which Plantsmith's latest edition of his popular "Garden of Puzzley Delights" has been planted. Among the beautifully labyrinthine puzzles you shall behold in his garden are four breathtaking (yet "brain-breaking") beauties, entitled:
~ “Food Fight at the Golden Corral?”
~ “Cars and Carnations,”
~ “A travel magazine?,” and
~ The “Improbable bobbable Egg... nog?”
We will upload Puzzleria! this very afternoon, and very soon too!
Also on our menus this week are:
* a Schpuzzle of the Week titled “Making essential scriptural scents,”
*a “Foaming At The Mouth Of A Beer Mug Hors d’Oeuvre” titled “Hoppin’ mad with heaps o’ hops?”
* a “Work Like An Ox Slice” titled “Payrolling” along on ergocycles,
* a “Pleated Skirt” Dessert titled “Opposites attract, apposites are apt,” and
* Ten riffs of this week's Riffing Off Shortz And Kalish Entrees titled “Schussing down Pikachu Avenue.”
So come, be delighted, "Puzzleywise, Plantsmithian, Delightfully!"
LegoWhoNotesThatOurFriendPlantsmithIsAnAmalgamOfGoldbergAndMarigolds
PEEKABOO, PIKACHU. My hint was "a German word comes to mind." (Gesundheit, as you might say after "achoo.")
ReplyDeleteNPR thanks you for playing the Sunday Puzzle and confirms they've received your entry, which transforms '.Peekaboo' into ' Peekachoo' (Pikachu').
ReplyDeleteThat was the Yahoo headline to the NPR response to my submission this week.
I wrote "I don't approve of those chemical treatments some people subject themselves to in order to make their hair curl." That's an oblique reference to "object permanence" ("don't approve" = object; "chemical treatments some people subject themselves to in order to make their hair curl" = permanents), which is what very young children learn by playing peekaboo.
ReplyDeleteOh, and Picabo Street is from Triumph, Idaho, near the town of Picabo. Her parents let her choose her own name at age 3.
Pikachu morphed from peek-a-boo, now you see it, now you don't.
ReplyDeleteChange A to M and B to N in Peekaboo to get Peekmnoo. Remove an E to get Pekmnoo, an anagram of Pokemon. Pikachu is a Pokemon.
ReplyDeletePeekaboo, Pikachu
ReplyDeleteMy reference to "a high number of responders with this answer" was referring to the response to "Peekaboo" "I see you"; the Father's Day wishes to "the guy who made me my tuna fish sandwiches" was a reference to my (tuna) "poke man"
ReplyDelete"Keeping my eyes on the road," was, of course, a reference to the peekaboo game. I solved the puzzle at the first rest stop, but didn't submit until I got home that night.
ReplyDeleteI thought of commenting that the puzzle was nothing to sneeze at, as a reference to the last two syllable of pikachu. I decided in the end to not use it.
Peekaboo --> Pikachu (Pokeman)
ReplyDeleteLast Sunday I said “You have to either get this or not. No great way to get it through research. The answer will likely be elusive for a while, but will come to you eventually.” Just like peekaboo. The face is hidden for a while but then revealed.
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ReplyDeletePEEKABOO, PIKACHU(Pokemon character)
ReplyDeleteAt least I didn't have to deal with synonyms like "dotes" and "fawns" this time around.
pjbKnowsInTheWorldOfSundayPuzzles,ItIsn'tAlwaysEasyTo"Catch'EmAll"!
Well don't spy over crilled milk.
DeleteA long time driver for a beer brewery was involved in a tragic accident one day that it lost him an arm and a keg.
ReplyDeleteSome will insist our days are numbered. I counter that our neighbors are dumber.
ReplyDeleteI have never in my life been so confused as to what is happening. Are we preparing for war against Iran, Panama, Canada, Greenland, Denmark, or the American people? Which is it?
ReplyDeleteMy clue was:
ReplyDelete"It's not the healthiest puzzle ever, but I'm not saying it needs intensive care, either."
I guess that doesn't need an explanation, but intensive care is given in the ICU...
My hint: "You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure this one out." This was a reference to the movie "Detective Pikachu".
ReplyDeletePEEKABOO, PIKACHU. My Musical Clue: Neville Brothers resulted from their hit song YELLOW MOON.
ReplyDeleteChatgpt got the answer right away today.
ReplyDeleteIs that affected by the number of right answers posted here (and possibly elsewhere)?
DeleteI wondered about that also. The reasoning method was given and then the answer.
DeleteI’m traveling outside of the country and I got a call from New York with no message on Thursday at about the time NPR would be calling the weekly winner. It’s been at least 15 years since I was on the show and I have no idea what the number was when they called. Does anyone know the number or at least the area code?
ReplyDeleteI gots to know.
(What movie is that from, without googling.)
Their area code is 202, and I believe it comes from Warshingtub D.C.
DeleteOops, I forgot to post (surprised pikachu face)! You'll just have to take it on faith that the whole family solved it on Fathers' Day.
ReplyDeleteSo our Rapist Idiot in Chief has gone and done it.
ReplyDeleteIt should only take an hour or so for U.S.A. flags to adorn the cars and trucks of MAGA morons, thereby giving notice to normal citizens who the real enemy are.
ReplyDeleteThis morning, at least, we do not have the pre-broadcast web reveal of the week's puzzle. I got my weights done without fretting over an answer!
ReplyDeleteThe on-air noted first and last name of the director.
ReplyDelete