I remember watching this channel back in the days of standard definition CRTs. Anyone else?Q: "I turned on the TV and saw anger, evil, slander, and ruin. It was all pleasant news. What channel was I watching and what specifically was on the screen?"
Edit: CRTs often exhibit overscan where part of the TV signal is outside the visible region of the screen. Broadcasters had to be careful not to put titles in these areas or else they might get cutoff, like in this puzzle. "Anyone" (NE-one) was a clue to the states being in the North East.
A: They were watching ice hockey (NHL Eastern division) probably on ESPN. The particular teams are the New York Rangers, New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders and the Boston Bruins.
I don't remember that, Blaine.
ReplyDeleteBut I did get the answer from what sounds like a programming language.
Got the answer, and I can echo Blaine's comment.
ReplyDeleteHow many people will think this puzzle is lame?
DeleteLiterally my first thought.
DeleteThe wording is a bit awkward, but I think it's the first clever puzzle in longer than I can remember.
DeleteMay be a tad easier for people who live in my part of the country.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteYup!
DeleteI'm thinking of two people associated with the space program.
ReplyDeleteSo, what's a car with a 12-letter name with four E's and no other vowel?
ReplyDeleteNever mind; I looked it up.
DeleteAMG
DeleteOK, got it. Moving on.
ReplyDeleteFun to add more to the list.
ReplyDeleteOne such addition is a word from a past puzzle that was one of my favorite bits of wordplay ever. It might be too old for Blaine's archive.
DeleteSlippery puzzle
ReplyDeleteIf I have the right answer, since I'm 87 years old, its my favorite channel.
ReplyDeleteC-SPAN works except for the all pleasant part.
ReplyDeleteI also see a rake
ReplyDeleteSince my answer does not imply a specific channel, I think I might be missing one aspect of the complete solution. I did a little further research, but only enough to suggest that there might be some controversy ahead.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on this one. When I submitted my answer, I included a brief mention of how multiple channels are possible.
DeleteThey saw something else bad.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteDevils are bad.
DeleteI am surprised I was able to solve this one fairly quickly because I do not watch TV, but I have been holding off submitting my answer because I suspect the chanel/screen may be specific to older technology, and I am unfamiliar with stations other than NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS. I have a roof antenna for 60 Minutes, and the occasional debate or something out of the ordinary I may want to watch. Otherwise my big screen is for DVD films only.
ReplyDeleteMy own solution was kind of comical, but o3 has me beat.
ReplyDeleteIt was the last role he performed
ReplyDeleteThe answer may actually be too long for the "Short Answer" part of the form. Seemed to be for me anyway. Almost thought I would have trouble proofreading what I had just written, as small as that part appears to be now. Wouldn't give me enough room to show my entire explanation in more than the one line, and it actually takes up a few more lines than I was given. I hope they don't count off for that.
ReplyDeletepjbIsNotAlwaysAManOfFewWords
Clever.
DeleteBTW The 12-letter car brand with the four E's is MERCEDES BENZ.
ReplyDeletepjbWillNowHaveThatJanisJoplinSongStuckInHisHeadAllDay
The CHEVY CHEVELLE also works. Except for that pesky Y. And the fact that the CHEVELLE is a model and not a BRAND. And the fact that it's 13 Letters, thus the wrong answer.
ReplyDeleteBut other than that....
Really not my wheelhouse, but I after I chilled a bit, I got the answer.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a sports fan, but I figured it out.
DeleteThere's an interesting connection between the founder of the channel and the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteWell, from my experience of channels like this, it probably wasn't ALL pleasant news.
ReplyDelete(the thrill of victory! the agony of defeat!)
DeleteI would've listed those words in THIS order: ruin, slander, anger, THEN evil as the last. I believe those who have figured it out can see why.
ReplyDelete[taps mic] Is this thing on? [clears throat] Knock, knock.
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle pushed the outer limits of my TV viewing memory. Hope I have the right idea.
ReplyDeleteThat must have been a lame night to watch.
ReplyDeleteHark, half pleasant, other areas of TV-land not rakeing in as many who phone home for this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteMy reference is other areas (West) and the San Jose S(hark)s, Seattle K(rake)n, Los Angeles K(ing)s and phone home, the Winnipeg J(ET)s. A bit lame, but someone had already made note of Calgary. Half pleasant, I assume two of these teams on the East Coast lost. Better luck to them next game.
DeleteI have definitely found the connection in this puzzle but I'm struggling to come up with anything specific in terms of what is showing on the tv screen. I could answer in a general sense but my hunch is that the answer need be more distinct...
ReplyDeleteSame with me
DeleteHuh. Whereas I was doubtful that we'd know what the channel was.
DeleteBut I'm pretty confident we're all thinking of the same idea.
Came back to this after not thinking about it for a few days and the answer finally came to me. Like one or two others, I also doubt that it would be *all* pleasant news to any individual viewer. Also very odd to run this puzzle in August, as I seriously doubt you could turn on the channel in question right now and see the four things mentioned in the puzzle even if you watched for a full 24 hours straight.
ReplyDeleteIf you watch this channel in August, it's true, you'll still see anger. Ay, you might even be irate to see a rave.
DeleteBack, back, back, back. Gone.
ReplyDeleteFinally figured it out. But since it's already Thursday morning, there's no point in leaving a clue.
ReplyDeleteWho else does the Out of Left Field cryptics here?
ReplyDeleteThe four given words are at the CENTER of NHL hockey teams BRUINS, RANGERS, ISLANDERS and DEVILS. These teams were featured on ESPN's Sports CENTER.
ReplyDeleteCENTER on!
Ohhhhh.
DeleteI didn't get the CENTER part! So I did guess ESPN but didn't have the conclusive, canonical reason. Very nice!
Kudos to Word Woman for coming up with a reasonable explanation that could explain the unique channel! Like Blaine, I was trying to come up with a reason the ends might be clipped off due to the aspect ratio of the TV set. The real question now is whether Will will accept pro hockey teams as a complete answer. Technically, you would see those words if you see those teams.
DeleteThanks, Lancek! Feeling quite centered today. ;-)
DeleteMy answer is they were watching HOCKEY on either ESPN or Center Sports, because the first and last letters of each word are missing and would make a hockey team if added. At least that is what I think it may be; keeping in mind that I do not watch TV, nor team sports, and do not even have cable access.
ReplyDeleteESPN (?), hockey games
ReplyDeleteThose words are all NHL team names, missing the first letter (and final S).
For some of us, puzzle-solving and puzzle-making is merely a diversion... just a pleasant way to pass the time-of-day. Fortunately for us, however, our good friend Bobby Jacobs approaches puzzling the same way any talented mathematician (which is exactly what Bobby is) would approach integrals and derivatives – with analytical rigor and youthful vigor.
ReplyDeleteBobby, in his "Puzzle Fun by Bobby Jacobs" features, has been gracing Puzzleria!s pages for years with sage and ageless center-stage-worthy conundrums. We all want that gift-of-creativity to continue... And, continue it does!
"Puzzle Fun..." on this week's Puzzleria!, titled “The late radio host’s great organization,” involves a puzzle Bobby composed featuring pair of peerless radio hosts along with a very worthwhile nonprofit organization. This “Collegiate Encouragement Of Youths” Appetizer shines the spotlight on a truly positive national initiative.
We shall upload P! very soon this very afternoon!
Also on our menus:
* a Schpuzzle of the Week titled “Does this restaurant serve port?”
* a Hot Cold-War-Era Teen Idols Hors d’Oeuvre titled “Salamander Mineo?”
* a Caretakers Of Culture Slice titled “Exhibitors of uninhibited artistry,”
* a Tinny Time Dessert titled Dickens’ “Scrooge-Cratchit Stitchcraft,” and
* a dozen Riffing Off Shortz And Chaikin Entrees titled “Angry Rangers, Evil Devils, Slander Islanders, Ruin Bruins!” (a half-dozen of them developed by our friend Nodd).
LegoInvitingAllToMatchWitsWithBobbyJacobsOur"MasterPurveyorOfPuzzleFun"
💗
DeleteThe channel is a Hockey Channel. The teams are the Rangers, Devils, Islanders, and Bruins.
ReplyDeleteI said it was odd to run this puzzle in August, as you probably will not see hockey teams mentioned much in the middle of the off-season. I added: "If you watch this channel in August, it's true, you'll still see anger. Ay, you might even be irate to see a rave."
ReplyDeleteMajor League Baseball is the biggest sport that is actually active at the moment, so you will still see mention of Rangers. You'll also hear about the (R)ay(s), (P)irate(s), and (B)rave(s).
Let the pleasantries begin:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwUCnzCpsRI&t=204s
Okay, so I figured out they were 4 hockey teams, and I thought of ESPN, but I felt like the answer should be more specific than "hockey" on the screen. I guess I should have tried submitting something general like that, but I was trying to figure out if there had been a specific incident featuring the four teams, like an awards ceremony when all four were honored or something.
ReplyDeleteI thought that maybe it was referring to a NHL All-Star Game, but the last one took place in 2024 and that's probably way too specific. It's more likely the TV program is just reporting scores and highlights.
DeleteI live in NJ, so 3 out of the 4 teams would also be regularly mentioned on local news. The Bruins would also be mentioned if they played one of the other teams.
ReplyDeleteI was not a fan of this vague phrasing, even though it was a bit more creative than the normal phrasing of a puzzle. I fairly quickly caught on to the theme of the four words (thanks, NYT Connections, for flexing that muscle for me!) but I couldn't tell if I was supposed to come up with a date or moment that all four teams would be relevant together, or if they were all covered together on some regional sports channel or something. The teams aren't even in the same division, so a standings table didn't really make sense. I ultimately didn't answer, because the cut-off "S"s from each team felt strange and I was trying to be too literal or practical to come up with a concise answer to fit in the newly-shortened submission field. This honestly would be better suited for a Connections puzzle than a Shortz/NPR collaboration. Not a fan.
ReplyDeleteBig fan of NYT Connections and Sports Connections (via The Athletic). Sad to say that I didn't pick up on this. I think WW has the definitive answer but I'd guess that any channel that carries hockey will be acceptable to WS since the wording wasn't asking specifically for the name of a "show". If "SportsCenter" is required then I think correct answers will number in the low double digits, if that. Brava, WW!)
DeleteThanks, JayB!
Delete"I turned on the TV and saw anger, evil, slander, and ruin. It was all pleasant news. What channel was I watching and what specifically was on the screen?"
ReplyDeleteThere are several possible channels that broadcast NHL games including NHL Network, MSG network, ESPN, etc. You might see a live hockey game plus commentary and analysis.
And might I add, this is one of the poorest-worded puzzles we’ve seen in a long time. I'm surprised Will let this through in this form.
I would have agreed with you yesterday, Chuck, but I think most of us just missed the "SportCenter" kicker in the puzzle. Was Word Woman the only one who caught it?
DeleteNo, I got it too, but in my posting today I made the mistake of reversing the words as I forgot it was not Center Sport, but Sport Center. I had not heard of this channel prior to sunday. I hope never to hear of it again.
DeleteMy answer was watching "Network" on TCM
ReplyDeleteNatasha noted that it was fun to "add to the list," and many did, with LAME being the clear favorite. I was reminded of the answer to an old puzzle, which challenged us to find a 6-letter word that could be written in a circle (as in numbers on a clock) so that any 3 consecutive letters going around the circle formed a word. The remarkable answer can be found in a Florida hockey team.
ReplyDeleteI’d gotten the hockey teams, but the missing letters had me thinking, the show was ABC’s Wide World of Sports.
ReplyDeleteSo, now I feel, “….the agony of defeat….”
It will be interesting to see what Will says on Sunday. I had submitted the four teams, and said the channel would be ESPN, or any channel that is showing NHL scores or standings. If responses that do not say Sports Center are rejected, there will be a lot of upset people, because, IMHO, that is a heck of a technicality to reject a response that had still figured out it was hockey teams.
ReplyDeleteI submitted that the person was watching Northeastern HOCKEY and seeing the BRUINS, RANGERS, ISLANDERS and DEVILS, without their first or last letters.
ReplyDeleteI'm in the NYC region, so I associate the Rangers, Islanders, and Devils with MSG Networks, and I associate all Boston Sports Teams with evil. And I also think the NJ Devils are evil, too, because I've been taught that the Devil is a BAD PERSON.
I clued that the puzzle tested the OUTER LIMITS of my wisdom, because early in the TV era, when TV sets actually had a knob that would expand the screen horizontally, the OUTER LIMITS had an opening that started "we control the horizontal, we control the vertical," etc.
The channel would most likely be ESPN, and you would be watching hockey teams. The teams in question are the New York Rangers, the New Jersey Devils, the New York Islanders, and the Boston Bruins. Remove the first and last letters of each team name(or "nickname", as Lego says on Puzzleria! this week), and you will get (r)ANGER(s), (d)EVIL(s), (i)SLANDER(s), and (b)RUIN(say it with me, everybody: s). If this explanation does not seem all that wordy to you, then you obviously weren't there when I tried to explain this in the "Short Answer" portion of the "Submit Your Answer" form on the NPR website. I had no idea they had shortened it so that it could only fit on one line, and one line only. You really have to have a short answer when you fill the thing out now. I'm surprised I was still able to proofread everything I typed, because it was not easy to do that either. BTW To whoever actually responded to my post and said it was "clever", I was not trying to post any sort of "hint" about the answer's length. I merely said the "Short Answer" part proved to be sort of problematic, what with this week's answer being so much of an explanation to have to type out all at one time, and then there's VERY LITTLE ROOM FOR IT ON THE DA#N FORM! Let's hope next week's challenge will not have such a wordy answer/explanation(or for that matter, all other subsequent challenges thereafter!)to have to type in while one is submitting one's answer.
ReplyDeletepjbIsAlreadyTiredFromDoingHisBestOnTheLatestPuzzleria!OfferingsThisEvening,BTW
Instead of SportsCenter, I said it was one of the games played by Team USA in February's 4 Nations Face-Off, since that was the only team that included players from the Rangers, Devils, Bruins, and Islanders.
ReplyDeleteI posted on Sun Aug 03, at 09:27:00 PM PDT:
ReplyDeleteI would've listed those words in THIS order: ruin, slander,
anger, THEN evil as the last. I believe those who have
figured it out can see why.
Writing them down, top to bottom in that order allows you to complete those hockey team names by writing the word "BIRD" top to bottom at their adjacent lefts (and then adding Ss at the ends, of course.)
Or you could use a different answer, if the solution comes to you in DRIBs and drabs. I figured you were referring to an alphabetical order, since that is usually how teams are listed in the standings when they are otherwise tied. Of course, since we are in the offseason currently, they all have the same record, unless you want to use the end of last season.
DeleteIn Buffalo, we watched Hockey Night in Canada on the CBC.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone here happen to notice that DRT issued another executive order today declaring both English and Russian as our official languages? I tend to believe it may indicate a red flag.
ReplyDeleteR.I.P.
ReplyDeleteJim Lovell, famed astronaut and Apollo 13 mission commander, dead at 97.
Here is the latest CarTalk Puzzler:
ReplyDelete"A farmer had a 40 pound stone, which he could use to weigh 40 pounds of feed or hay.
He would sell feed in 40 pound bundles and hay in 40 pound bales. He had a balance scale. He put the stone on one side, and he piled the other side with feed or hay. When it balanced, he knew he had enough to sell.
Then one day, a neighbor borrows the stone.
But he had to apologize when he returned it, because he broke it into four pieces. And he felt really bad about it.
As it turns out, the farmer who owned the stone later told the neighbor that he actually had done him a favor.
The pieces of the broken stone could now be used to weigh any item, assuming those items were in one pound increments, from one pound to 40 pounds, so the farmer thought this was a great improvement.
So the puzzler is, what were the weights of the 4 individual stones after the large stone was broken?"
I recalled it from the past, but had to solve it again. Blaine and Bobby will solve it quickly too, but still there is something wrong with this puzzle that makes it not only improbable, but impossible. Can you see what it is that I am seeing?
I forgot to add, that in a strict interpretation of our Constipation, (i.e. no shit) this story could not have happened. Do you see why that is?
DeleteThe weights of the stones just happen to be powers of 3: 1, 3, 9, and 27 lbs. To weigh 2 lbs of hay, put the 1 lb stone on one side and the 2 lb stone on the other, and add hay to the 1 lb side until they balance.
DeleteWe all got that, but why is the puzzle impossible?
DeleteThe puzzle is not possible because there would be no way the farmer could tell how much each of the 4 stone pieces weighed.
DeleteI know a way he could tell...
DeleteTo find out, how much will it cost me?
DeleteUsing the smallest weight, he weighs out some flour -- as it happens it's a pound of flour. (Could be sand. Could be water.) Then he weighs another one.
DeleteNow he finds that thoses two bags of flour plus the smallest weight balances against the second smallest... and they balance.
He can weight out more flour, pull the same trick again, and he'll learn the ratios of the weights of his four stones. Since he knows their sum is 40 pounds, he'll know what weights they are.
I do not think you are understanding my complaint with the puzzle. The farmer would have no way to know what the weight of each of the 4 broken pieces was, therefore he could not realize how he might be able to weigh all those possibilities.
DeleteHe has a large stone we are told he knows weights 40 pounds. He uses this stone to sell 40 pounds of grain at a time. He apparently has no other means of measuring anything other than his stupidity. So if he stone is returned to him broken how would he know the weight of each of the 4 pieces? No way could he figure this out, therefore the puzzle is not realistic, although interesting.
Hm.
DeleteI think the procedure I outlined works. He can figure out the weights of each individual stone, knowing only that the sum of the weights is 40 pounds.
He weighs out some flour by balancing it against the smallest stone. Then he weighs out the same quantity again. He doesn't yet know those bags of flour weigh a pound. He can just call their weight 's', for 'smallest stone'.
Now, balancing the two bags of flour plus the smallest stone against the second-smallest, he finds they are equal, so the second-smallest stone is 3s.
He can now weigh out a bigger bag of flour against this second-smallest, and he knows this bigger bag is 3s pounds. Then he can take that bigger bag, the two smaller bags, the smallest stone, and the second smallest stone, and balance them with the next-biggest stone. So he knows that next-biggest is 9s.
He'll have to do the trick one more time, weighing out an even bigger bag of flour, one that balances with the 9s stone. Then he'll find that his largest stone balances with all his smaller stones plus all the flour he has measured out, so it weighs 27s.
Since his stones weight s, 3s, 9s, and 27s, and their sum is 40 pounds, s = 1 pound and he knows the weight of each stone, QED.
This week's challenge comes from Peter Gwinn, who writes for "Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me!" 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).
ReplyDeleteThe NPR puzzle page makes no mention of Sports Center.
ReplyDelete