Sunday, August 10, 2025

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 10, 2025): What's Up, Doc?

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 10, 2025): What's Up, Doc?
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).
I wasn't looking in the right place.

Edit: Don't look inside the hospital. The title was a hint, to look UP.
A: HELIPAD --> HELP, AID

93 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    2. Sorry, Blaine, but I didn't think that would give anything away.

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  2. Now 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.

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  3. Well, they do! Traditionally, unintelligible cursive!

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  4. Hell, 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.

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    1. Too 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.

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    2. Penmanship is irrelevant for doctors now. Pretty much all office and hospital notes, orders, and prescriptions are digital only these days.

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    3. Yes. 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.

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    4. Doctors today use transcription apps. They set their phones down and commence the examination. At the end the transcript is approved by the doc and made available as notes. What they don't tell the docs is that the AI creating the notes is also diagnosing. That is compared the doc's diagnosis. Once the AI can score the same as the doc consistently over time is when the medical profession will shrink by a lot.

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  5. As 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.

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  6. Over 100 correct entries last week.

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    1. But 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.

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    2. Lancek, thanks! I did not submit an answer this week so it's all good.

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    3. I agree 100% with Lancek.
      Two 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!

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    4. Take the name of a world capital and move the seventh letter to the front to get a description of hockey.

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    5. I 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.

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    6. On 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...

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    7. To Jaws' point, I don't see how the answer could be anything BUT Sports Center, considering the clues were the "center" of the team names. And Sports Center is exclusive to ESPN. Maybe Shortz is confused.

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  7. Many hospitals have MORGUES. You could get SERUM to GO. Or SUM GORE.

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  8. Hospital are often undergoing renovation and/or expansion, so you might find a NEW WALL; and sometimes you get WAN before you get WELL.

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  9. Replies
    1. "Hey, Bro" is kinda like "Hi, Pal" which is an anagram of PHILA, and you know what DELPHIA anagrams to.

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  10. When I got this week's answer I shrugged a little.

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  11. Npr Sunday Puzzle site has date as August 9.

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  12. I'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.

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  13. I had a pile of laundry to do this AM so it took me a while to get this.

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  14. This 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...

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  15. Once you do solve it, be sure to go back and appreciate Blaine's masterful header. Just don't spoil it.

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  16. The 7-letter word can also be rearranged into 2 things that can be operated on at a hospital.

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  17. I think I got the answer. If not, I hope they can take it as acceptable.

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  18. After hearing this morning’s broadcast, which failed to mention SportsCenter, I sent the following to Will Shortz….

    “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!

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    1. Great comment, SuperZee. Thanks for posting it, after doing the "spadework" to get it.

      LegoKudosIndeedBothToWWAndToSZ

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    2. 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.

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  19. My 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

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    1. Curtis, When I read your post, I guessed you lived near the Rockies.

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    2. I 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

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  20. Solved it, but am not impressed. Going tent camping again tomorrow, so may not be able to post on thursday.

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  21. I like this one.
    I 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.

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    1. I was walking in St Louis, with my sons, and I had told them the puzzle. We were walking right across the street from the Washington University medical complex, when we heard a helicopter overhead! Within seconds all three of us got the answer to the puzzle.

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  22. 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]

    Anyway, 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.

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  23. I finally got it. The first job my wife had at a hospital involved using the 7 letter word that some not all, hospitals have.

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  24. I 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.

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  25. I would say that you can get these two things in a hospital, but a hospital is certainly not the only place that provides them.

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  26. He didn't say what part of the answer he wants. All three?

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  27. Or one might say, both things?

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  28. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    1. For civilian hospitals use, but military hospitals had them for a couple decades by then.

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  29. The 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.
    pjbHopesHeWon'tEndUpBeingAngryAtTheOnlyPersonOn"Wait,Wait"ToHaveADifferentEndCreditWeekAfterWeek(WhichHeProbablyWritesHimself!)

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    1. Reframing the puzzle as something that not all hospitals have helped me get it (I think) this morning. And interestingly, if you take the colloquial/common word for something that uses that 7-letter thing, you also get two words for things you can get in a hospital...

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  30. 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.

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  31. I'm sure I'm not the only poster on here who has a story or few remotely related to the hospital something.

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  32. Replies
    1. I 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.

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  33. There's a seven letter verb I often associate with the "hospital something" which if you anagram, might take you to a dark place.

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  34. For 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!

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  35. Paging Dr. Schmear--but please leave the test tube behind.

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    1. I know what you mean. Anyway, I just happen to be looking at one of the hospital things right now.

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  37. Helipad, Help, Aid

    For all intents and purposes, help and aid are synonyms. That makes the puzzle wording a little incomplete, IMHO.

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  38. HELIPAD; HELP, AID

    "When I got this week's answer I shrugged a little." It was a small aha for me this week.

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  39. HELIPAD --> AID, HELP

    > I've got a good answer, but my two things you can get inside a hospital are synonyms. [deleted]

    I don't see how this could lead anyone to the answer.

    > I'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 had only a very small infirmary, but we had one of these.

    Of course, the HELIPAD had nothing to do with the medical department. It was for VIPs only.

    >> Once you do solve it, be sure to go back and appreciate Blaine's masterful header.
    > I see a misdirection.

    Unlike in Blaine's illustration, the big "H" on the roof of a hospital with a HELIPAD is horizontal, parallel to the ground, not vertical.

    >> Music Clue: Traffic
    > I'll go with ABBA's Arrival.

    The cover features a Bell 47, the civilian version of the medevac chopper seen in M*A*S*H, e.g.

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  40. Our friend Ecoarchitect (aka Greg VanMechelen) designs beautiful puzzles as well as, perhaps, plazas. (The number of Eco's puzzles that Will Shortz has featured on NPR runs well into the double-digits!... and we have long been privileged to run Eco's exclusive and oft-elusive "Econfusions" features on Puzzleria!).
    Greg's latest offering on Puzzleria! is “Just another Clawedyus Ophilia Grrrtrude in the Shakespeare Machine!” megapuzzle titled “The Wordplay’s The Thing!” This “Poached, Scrambled Hamlet of an Appetizer” invites the solver to fill-in a wealth of blanks with a dearth of words, thereby one-upping and besting This Verbose Bard who was “blest/curst!” with “logophilia,” an obsessive love of words!
    We upload Puzzleria! very soon this very afternoon!
    Also on our menus this week:
    *a Schpuzzle of the Week titled “Breaking ground and records (as well as appellative conventions),”
    * a Hairy Hoary Hors d’Oeuvre titled “Slash the ’stache! Muttonchop the ’burns!”
    * an “Ol’ Smoothie” Slice titled “Having a ‘kinder gelider’ summer,”
    * a Remarkably Unlikely Dessert titled “A TeeVee character truncation,” and
    * 10 Riffing Off Shortz And Gwinn Entrees titled “Help! Aid copter on the helipad!” (including six riffs composed by our friend and riffmeister par excellence, Nodd).
    So, join us. Test your mettle as a “logophile.” Match your wits with Shakespeare. Experience “Bardy-Art-D’Eco!”

    LegoWhoBelievesThatHamLetTheDoveOuttaTheArkAndItReturnedWithAnOliveBranchInItsBeak

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  41. Blaine’s header this week was particularly brilliant, with at least three clues hidden in plain sight. The hint that he wasn’t looking in the right place was cryptic enough, but the title (What’s Up, Doc?) cleverly suggested that he should have been looking up. Then there was the hospital graphic with the delightfully ambiguous “H” on the roof, where a Helipad would be. The man is always good, but this week he deserves a standing ovation.

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    1. Lancek is correct. Blaine is a genius. We ought never take him (or his wonderful blog) for granted.

      LegoAppreciative

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  42. Helipad>>>Aid and Help

    Since a large H is commonly used to mark helipads, I thought Blaine’s image, with a large H on the roof of the hospital was borderline TMI. Did anyone else think so?

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    1. Thanx.
      But, at least, no one referred to M*A*S*H!

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    2. At the hospital near me, they recently put a helipad smack dab in the middle of the parking lot. Available parking was already sadly lacking.

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    3. A great hint is useless for solving, but obvious in hindsight. Since H is also the common sign for a hospital, it's only TMI after you know you're looking for a helipad.

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  43. HELIPAD/HELP, AID.
    My reference to “Dr. Schmear” was an allusion to Philadelphia cream cheese. If you eliminate “phial” (“test tube”) and rearrange the remaining letters that gives you “helipad.”

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  44. I got helipad (help, aid) this morning when I changed my thinking to things some hospitals *don't* have. Much easier mindset. And then I suggested that the thing that uses the helipad is also 7 letters and can be anagrammed to two things you can "get" inside a hospital: hope and CPR.

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  45. I submitted HELIPAD, HELP, AID.

    I thought this puzzle was truly WEAK TEA.

    And WEAK TEA doesn't even anagram to anything of interest.

    But ANYTHING OF INTEREST does anagram to A Festering Ninth Toy.

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  46. My clues - the first (with removing the 1st/2nd and last letters) resulted in Lipa, as in Dua Lipa, a famous musical artist. My second clue about a 7 letter verb associated with a helipad was referring to "medivac" (which takes you to the helipad); medivac anagrams to "dim cave", which is a dark place.

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  47. My hint said I "had a pile" of laundry; anagrams to "a helipad."

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  48. Helipad, Help, Aid

    I had commented: I 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.

    I actually named the place in that comment. The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant complex had a heliport, which included at least one helipad. It was used a lot during the 1979 cleanup of the Incident with reactor #1.

    If you search for Three Mile Island on Google Maps, the heliport is still marked. So, to name TMI, would be TMI!

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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.