I wasn't looking in the right place.Q: Name something many hospitals have, in 7 letters. Rearrange the letters to name two things you can get inside a hospital (4 and 3 letters each).
Sunday, August 10, 2025
NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 10, 2025): What's Up, Doc?
NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 10, 2025): What's Up, Doc?
62 comments:
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.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteSorry, Blaine, but I didn't think that would give anything away.
DeleteNow that I have the answer, I can, without risking it being TMI, note that if Doctors wrote in CURSIVE, you might get IVS, and a CURE.
ReplyDeleteHootz!
DeleteWell, they do! Traditionally, unintelligible cursive!
ReplyDeleteHell, when I was in practice, the nurses told me I had excellent penmanship that they could read. But then, it was a low bar that I was compared to.
ReplyDeleteToo true, to this day I have legilble penmenship. I wish I had a buck for how many times I was told I couldn't be an M.D. because of that.
DeletePenmanship is irrelevant for doctors now. Pretty much all office and hospital notes, orders, and prescriptions are digital only these days.
DeleteYes. I have worked for decades in clinics that are pretty slow to modernize because they deal largely with indigent clients. But it has been many years since I hand-wrote a prescription or a note. When I was in high school sixty years ago, my dad insisted I take typing. He had no idea that everyone would eventually have a computer and a keyboard on the desk, of course. I see others in the clinic hunt-and-pecking, and I am glad I can type.
DeleteAs an engineering student in the 60’s I had to take technical drawing, which included relearning printing. I never went back to cursive, which made me quite popular with administrative and records personnel.
ReplyDeleteOver 100 correct entries last week.
ReplyDeleteBut I do think only Word Woman should get full credit for the "what channel was I watching and what specifically was on the screen" part.
DeleteLancek, thanks! I did not submit an answer this week so it's all good.
DeleteI agree 100% with Lancek.
DeleteTwo observations about last week's puzzle:
1. "Over 100" seems like too low a number of "correct entries," although...
2. The only truly correct (and elegant) potential entry was the ingenious "Sports Center" answer that (as far as we can tell) only Word Woman unearthed!
LegoWhoAdds:AndNotOnlyThat...TheCenterOf"Sports"Is"Port"AndTheNewYork(Rangers&Islanders)TheBoston(Bruins)AndThe"PortState"OfNewJersey(Devils)AreEachA"Port"InTheCenterOfS"port"s!
Take the name of a world capital and move the seventh letter to the front to get a description of hockey.
DeleteI think many more than 100 submitted answers that were on the right track. My answer got to the point of the puzzle, but I chose the NHL network instead of ESPN. I don’t watch any sports, even though I played hockey in high school.
DeleteOn the air, Will stated that the network was "probably ESPN." That demonstrates how wide open this puzzle really was. I wonder if it was originally submitted as a wordplay on SportsCenter, to remove the first and last letters of the team names to get the words in the puzzle. Something like, I was watching a show, and applied the name of the show to what I saw on the screen. I saw ruin, anger, evil, and slander...
DeleteMany hospitals have MORGUES. You could get SERUM to GO. Or SUM GORE.
ReplyDeleteYou can also get gum and a rose...
DeleteHospital are often undergoing renovation and/or expansion, so you might find a NEW WALL; and sometimes you get WAN before you get WELL.
ReplyDeleteHey, Bro!
ReplyDeleteWhen I got this week's answer I shrugged a little.
ReplyDeleteNpr Sunday Puzzle site has date as August 9.
ReplyDeleteI've been at many hospitals that don't have this thing. When I worked at Bell Labs, many years ago, I helped start a medical emergency response team for our site. We have only a very small infirmary, but we had one of these.
ReplyDeleteI had a pile of laundry to do this AM so it took me a while to get this.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of those puzzles that is relatively easy, once you think of the right word or words. However, I have not managed to come across them yet...
ReplyDeleteOnce you do solve it, be sure to go back and appreciate Blaine's masterful header. Just don't spoil it.
ReplyDeleteI see a misdirection.
DeleteThe 7-letter word can also be rearranged into 2 things that can be operated on at a hospital.
ReplyDeleteMy confidence in my answer grows!
DeleteI think I got the answer. If not, I hope they can take it as acceptable.
ReplyDeleteAfter hearing this morning’s broadcast, which failed to mention SportsCenter, I sent the following to Will Shortz….
ReplyDelete“A friend, who chose not to submit an answer to last week’s puzzle (partial names of hockey teams) pointed out that after the first and last letters of the team names were removed, all that was left were the centers….
Therefore, the show being watched was ESPN’s Sports Center….
Comment?”
To which, Will replied,
“Ha! That's a good one!
--Will”
So it appears that Word Woman’s answer was unique…and beyond what either Will or the puzzle crafter had in mind.
Kudos again to Word Woman!
Great comment, SuperZee. Thanks for posting it, after doing the "spadework" to get it.
DeleteLegoKudosIndeedBothToWWAndToSZ
As I posted thursday, I also sent in Sports Center, but reversed the 2 words on my thursday post by mistake. I used to do a cut and paste from the NPR response, but since they no longer do that I have to go by memory, and I usually do it quickly and I did not notice my error. I had not heard of Sports Center until I ran across it while solving the puzzle.
DeleteThanks SuperZee and Will!
DeleteMy company's office has a good view of a hospital that has one of the seven letter things. And, one time when I got sick, I sought the other two things at that same hospital
ReplyDeleteCurtis, When I read your post, I guessed you lived near the Rockies.
DeleteI do live near the Rockies. My company’s office is right at the edge of the foothills in the western suburbs of Denver, and I live just a short distance from there. I live right next to a highway that’ll get me into the mountains in under 10 minutes
DeleteSolved it, but am not impressed. Going tent camping again tomorrow, so may not be able to post on thursday.
ReplyDeleteI like this one.
ReplyDeleteI didn't get it right away. I'm visiting Saint Louis and on a walk this morning I had an experience that made me think of the answer almost immediately. It was quite a coincidence -- I dare not say more.
IMO last week’s puzzle was among the worst ever. Why would you see the partial names of hockey teams? Why are the standings pleasant news? etc So many things wrong with it. [Thankfully I was away on vacation so didn't spend much time on it]
ReplyDeleteAnyway, for this week’s seven letter word, if you take last week’s puzzle operation, where you truncate the first/last letters, and then also remove the second letter as well, you’d get the last name of a famous musical artist.
The last name only
DeleteI finally got it. The first job my wife had at a hospital involved using the 7 letter word that some not all, hospitals have.
ReplyDeleteI submitted my answer today via the link here that Blaine provides, and I received a response from NPR. Then I opened a new tab and there I found the new, shortened submit form, and not the older one. I also noticed it still says August 9th. I wonder if submitting works either way.
ReplyDeleteI would say that you can get these two things in a hospital, but a hospital is certainly not the only place that provides them.
ReplyDeleteDid someone say sin?
ReplyDeleteHe didn't say what part of the answer he wants. All three?
ReplyDeleteOr one might say, both things?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteFor civilian hospitals use, but military hospitals had them for a couple decades by then.
DeleteThree Mile Island
DeleteThe only thing I can get out of any hospital "things" is BEDPANS, and a BED and NAPS. I hope that's not it, especially because everyone here so far has talked about it like it is something much bigger in a hospital. I just know I'd be taking quite a few NAPS in the BED until it was time for my surgery. If this is Peter Gwynn's first attempt at a puzzle to be accepted by WS, I'm stumped.
ReplyDeletepjbHopesHeWon'tEndUpBeingAngryAtTheOnlyPersonOn"Wait,Wait"ToHaveADifferentEndCreditWeekAfterWeek(WhichHeProbablyWritesHimself!)
I hope I'm not TMI if I ask this -- I think I've solved the puzzle, but could the answer really be as corny as it seems to be? No clues here.
ReplyDeleteYep
DeleteI'm sure I'm not the only poster on here who has a story or few remotely related to the hospital something.
ReplyDeleteI finally got it!
ReplyDeleteI did think of another place that has the 7-letter thing. However, to name the place would violate the Simple Google Search rule, and people would say that is TMI.
DeleteThere's a seven letter verb I often associate with the "hospital something" which if you anagram, might take you to a dark place.
ReplyDeleteMusic Clue: Traffic
ReplyDeleteI'll go with ABBA's Arrival.
DeleteFor last week's "hockey" puzzle, after deciphering the four words, I suggested that the channel was Time Warner and that the TV screen was showing the scoreboard for a game in progress, as which would no doubt show a clock counting down remaining minutes in a period, thus functioning as a warner of time!
ReplyDelete