Q: Think of a famous singer. Replace the last three letters of the first name with an E. Also replace the last three letters of the last name with an E. The result will be a world-famous location. What singer is this?"Not Again."
Edit: This is a repeat of a puzzle from March 2018. My hint also refers to the frequently misquoted line "Play it, Sam. Play As Time Goes By". The word "again" is not part of the actual quote from Casablanca. Casablanca literally translates to "white house".
A: WHITney HOUSton --> WHITE HOUSE
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ReplyDeleteAnother easy one.
ReplyDeleteI’ve eaten lunch looking at the place.
ReplyDeleteNumerical hint: 7
ReplyDelete2, 2, 3, 3, 11.
ReplyDeleteRearrange the first five letters of the singer’s last name to get something that often emanates from the location.
ReplyDeleteThese are the things we can do without!
DeleteCleveland rocks! ... Cleveland rocks!
ReplyDelete(Also, Go Wolverines!)
Why does Will never check to see if he's used a puzzle previously?
ReplyDeleteAlso Mike Reiss, who has authored some clever (and original) puzzles.
DeleteI should add that I don't believe Mike Reiss would ever deliberately steal someone else's idea. Sometimes stuff gets into our memory banks and can emerge later as an original thought.
DeleteHis mind is gone.
DeleteShortz reminds me of Willie Mays when he played for the Mets.
Delete1793 x 2
ReplyDeleteWas Stondyl Hengles the original lead singer of Spin̈al Tap?
ReplyDeleteNo one knows who he was or what he was doing.
DeleteLe Andere ?
ReplyDeleteIf "le andere" means anything at all, I suppose it's about the same as "die autre".
DeleteReally, it's just the result of applying this week's algorithm to Lynn Anderson, who sang "Rose Garden", which begins "I beg your pardon",which sounds a little like Parton, who wrote a song Whitney Houston did quite well with.
When I first heard about Trump paving the Rose Garden, my mind immediately went to "pave paradise and put up a parking lot", but I've since read an article which makes that project seem not so bad.
Dolly wrote IWALY for Porter Wagoner, who is not Conway Twitty, who sang with Loretta Lynn, who is not Lynn Anderson.
Rearrange the letters of the singer’s name, and get a two-word phrase for a group that is a matter of some interest to the location.
ReplyDeleteThe singer performed at the location.
ReplyDeleteThere’s a problem with this puzzle, besides that it’s been used before.
ReplyDeleteYou and I both, Chuck.
DeleteToday I learned that Colonel Lawrence E. Roberts of the Tuskegee Airmen was born in the Vauxhall section of Union Township, NJ.
ReplyDeleteIt's Will's prerogative to use whatever puzzle.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteI just wish he would check so that he could get the original author right. This is a clever puzzle, and Peter Collins deserves the attribution.
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DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteAt least it's not like the CATE BLANCHETT/CARTE BLANCHE puzzle. As I recall, that one was used on THREE separate occasions! Only one more time now, I guess...
DeletepjbDoesn'tFeelSoBadNowAboutSomeoneElseAlsoNoticingThe[WALGREENS/ALGREEN]PropertyAndSubmittingItBeforeHim!
thought of the answer while doing some calf raises...
ReplyDeleteI did not know you were a cowgirl.
Deleteha, no, just a soccer player with a bruised ACL!
DeleteI see by your outfit. . .
DeleteIris, Thanks for the memory jog. I can’t remember when I last heard Streets of Laredo.. What a haunting lyric….
DeleteI see by your outfit that you are a cowboy.
DeleteI see by your outfit that you are one, too.
We see by our outfits that we are both cowboys.
If you are a cowboy, you can get you one, too.
----------a(possibly not entirely)verbatim version of the song, as performed by the Smothers Brothers way back about when they returned to CBS to do another variety show decades after they'd had their troubles with the network on their first show back in the late 1960s(before my time, of course)
pjbDoesn'tExactlyRememberBackInTheDayWhenTelevisionNetworksReallyKnewHowToEnforceCensorship(HeardAboutIt,Though!)
As I walked out in the streets of Laredo, as I walked out in Laredo one day
DeleteI spied a young cowboy dressed in white linen. Dressed in white linen and cold as the clay
I can see by your outfit that you are a cowboy. You can see by my outfit I'm a cowboy, too
You can see by our outfits that we are both cowboys. Get yourself an outfit and be a cowboy, too!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dptdG-Zfuo
DeleteThere are streets in other world-famous locations.
DeleteAs I walked out in the streets of Laredo, as I walked out in Laredo one day,
DeleteI spied a young cowboy wrapped up in white linen-
Wrapped up in white linen as cold as the clay.
"I see by your outfit that you are a cowboy.",
These words he did say as I boldly stepped by.
"Come sit down beside me and hear my sad story.
I'm shot in the chest and I know I must die.
It was once in the saddle I used to go dashin'
It was once in the saddle I used to go gay;
First to the dramhouse and then to the cardhouse,
Got shot in the chest and I'm dying today."
Chorus:
Oh beat the drum slowly play the fife lowly, play the death march as you carry me along.
Take me to the green valley there lay the sod o'er me
For I'm a young cowboy and I know I've done wrong.
(Whit-knee Houston?)
DeleteWhile thinking of something to say
ReplyDeleteAbout the challenge we had today
It became clear to me
We have nothing new to see
And hope the next one is harder to play
Cheers!
A PuzzleMaster, name of Shortz,
DeleteUsed ideas from his many cohorts.
With some puzzles the same,
Still, 'twas all in the game.
Should be a matter to decide for the courts!
pjbHasNeverEverBeenToNantucket,Though
This puzzle is like somebody associated with the place.
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle has been used twice, like Donald Trump has been president twice. The last time the Whitney Houston, White House puzzle was run, on March 4, 2018, was during Donald Trump's first term as president.
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ReplyDeleteI've been fortunate enough to travel a bit internationally, and I've seen a few famous places. One of my favorites involved dragging my wife around London on the Tube and double-decker buses to visit Abbey Road. That's a fair distance from the location in this puzzle, which I've never visited. And, honestly, I've lost interest in visiting it over the last few years.
ReplyDeleteRegarding repetition of NPR puzzle challenges:
ReplyDeleteAbout four years ago I began typing into Blaine's great search engine the answers to any puzzles I intended to send "Willward." This practice, once in a blue moon, revealed that I had composed a puzzle that some other composer had previously composed and that Will Shortz had already featured on NPR.
For example, I have a nephew who married a New Zealander. They live in New Zealand. I noticed that "New Zealand" is a homophone of "Gnus Eland," and composed a puzzle accordingly. When I typed "New Zealand Gnus Eland" into Blaine's search engine, it tested positive!... "Darn! It was used as an NPR puzzle challenge on March 21, 2010!" After a bit of "Duck Duck Googling," I discovered that Will Shortz himself had composed it! I felt bad of course that "my" GNUS ELAND puzzle would not grace the National Public Radio airwaves. But I also felt good that I had created the same puzzle Will himself had created! So I posted "my puzzle" on Puzzleria!, with an explanation of its genesis, exodus and nexus to the Puzzlemaster.
That said, since it seems that many Blainesvillians have either solved or already knew the answer to this clever NPR puzzle, here is Puzzleria!s current Schpuzzle of the week (that tested negative when I typed its answer into Blaine's "Supercharged" Search Engine!
Schpuzzle of the Week:
Salability and one silly syllable
Name a popular author whose works appeal especially to one particular literary audience.
A single syllable in the name is also popular with this audience.
Who are the author and audience.
What is the syllable?
Note: Please do not post your answer before Wednesday afternoon. Thank you.
LegoWhoUrgesAllNPRPuzzleSendersToOccasionally"Rev"Blaine'sPowerfulEngine
I was going to ask if another syllable of the name rhymed with something the readership is not, but I discovered it actually doesn't.
DeleteI liked this Schpuzzle very much, but I did require a hint. In any case, I also check the archives before submitting potential puzzles to NPR. For example, I wrote something that was basically the same as the 08/02/20 puzzle, but was able to get a longer, different puzzle out of this person's name that made (I think!) a good Puzzleria! puzzle.
DeleteOne thing I still don't know is what puzzles are considered "classics" that Will gets all the time but aren't in the archives. I once submitted a puzzle to NPR. I didn't have Will's email address at that time, so all my failures were just ignored with no feedback. I did submit the puzzle to Puzzleria!, and it turns out it's a classic. Just in case you're wondering, here was my puzzle: Name a famous American historical figure. The last three letters of his first name, combined with the first three letters of his last name, spell the last name of someone associated with him.
Nice one, Tortitude (although I had to look it up). In the process of solving this, I found that if you apply the process to William Taft and read the second part backward, you get something he could say.
DeleteTorti,
DeleteI had not heard of this "classic" puzzle. I am glad you posted it though, because I immediately got the answer. That doesn't usually happen. Thanks.
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DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteIn all fairness, if I recall correctly, the original puzzle was "what place is this?" not "what singer is this?" 😉
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DeleteNot much happening here today, so how about an odd trivia coincidence? Today's Final Jeopardy category was:
ReplyDeleteSCIENCE RECORDS. The clue: It was introduced in 1992 & the record 43.3 was set in the high Andes, where stratospheric ozone levels are naturally low. None of the three contestants had the correct response, which was: the UV Index. Today's featured page on Wikipedia was Licancabur, the stratovolcano on the Bolivia–Chile border in the Andes where that record was set. (There's apparently some dispute about the validity of that measurement, but that's another story.) Tonight's Jeopardy was taped months ago, and pretty much only those present then knew that this factoid would air today. And the featured page on Wikipedia was also chosen well prior to air time. Unless someone involved in that choice also happened to be involved in that Jeopardy taping, that seems a pretty unlikely coincidence to me.
Coincidences are NOT random. Accidents are not random either.
DeleteDid you know you can boil eggs in the water of Lake Titicaca?
DeleteSure, if you take that water down to where the pressure and boiling point are higher and heat it. Or are you thinking of Lake Atitlán, in Guatemala?
DeleteWell, or you could just boil them for a little longer.
DeleteDid you know that the northernmost point in West Virginia is as far north as New York City?
And Greenland is north, south, east, and west of Iceland. But it's still not for sale.
Delete... and Seneca Lake burps.
DeleteIs there really a part of Greenland that's east of part of Ireland? Oh, maybe a little island off the western coast of Ireland?
DeleteThere are more NYC residents south of WV's northernmost point than there are WV residents.
The easternmost point on Greenland is east of the easternmost point on Iceland.
DeleteIn other words, all of Iceland lies between the westernmost and easternmost points of Greenland, and between the northenmost and southernmost points of Greenland.
DeleteHah, I misread "Iceland" as "Ireland"!
DeleteEvolution
DeleteJan is, of course, right. Not everyone is so quick to spot the trick. (I got this from Mad Magazine's parody "Believe It Or Don't" from 65 years ago or so.)
DeleteI never knew there was a magazine called, Mad. Oh well, I'm not going to worry about it.
DeleteHow do I get my down payment back?
ReplyDeleteUpsell it?
DeleteReturn the bag or parka to REI for a refund.
DeleteOne clear disadvantage of the new submission form is that if you have that moment where you think: "Wait, did I send in my submission?" there's no easy way to check. I used to just check my email when that happened, but that doesn't work anymore.
ReplyDeleteThat's why I'm still using the old version.
DeleteWHITNEY HOUSTON, WHITE HOUSE
ReplyDeleteYet another repeat puzzle.
Whitney Houston >>> White House. Same answer as last time this puzzle was used in 2018.
ReplyDeleteWHITNEY HOUSTON
ReplyDelete> The singer's middle name is far from their last name but close to their birthplace, and they performed at the world-famous location.
Elizabeth, NJ, abuts Newark.
WHITNEY HOUSTON ( —> WHITE HOUSE)
ReplyDelete“Numerical hint: 7”
From 1985 to 1988, Whitney Houston had a record-setting 7 consecutive #1 singles on Billboard. (While it’s also true that her first and last names each have 7 letters, that was not what I intended by the hint.)
Hint: “Rearrange the letters of the singer’s name, and get a two-word phrase for a group that is a matter of some interest to the location.”
—> Whitney Houston —> nonwhite youths (This White House does seem to be very concerned with them.)
I tend not to recall repeated puzzles (unless, perhaps, the first iteration was recent), so I am impressed by those on the blog, including Blaine himself, who recognize them as such.
Whitney Houston>>White House
ReplyDeleteWhen I first came to DC, I worked on K Street. On nice days, I would eat my lunch on a park bench in Lafayette Square, across from the White House.
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ReplyDeleteWynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
DeleteSailed off in a wooden shoe,
Sailed on a river of crystal light
Into a sea of dew...
You may recall that Wynken, Blynken, and Nod sailed off in a wooden shoe into a sea of dew. The "brains" of that watercraft was definitely Nod. Well, the "brains" of our "puzzlecraft" is also definitely Nodd!, our friend who is featured "bigly" on this week's edition of Puzzleria! (with his "baker's-half-dozen-or-so" NPR Puzzle riffs and, this week, his always entertaining "Nodd ready for prime time" feature)!
...all which we shall be uploading very very very very very soon, this very afternoon.
Nodd's "Noddingly-Approved Appetizer" comprises five puzzles titled:
~ Exploring our national parks;
~ Celebrity challenge;
~ The dairy aisle;
~ Add a letter, get a letter; and, Nodd's ever-popular...
~ Poetry Corner, with Anna Graham.
Also on this week's menus:
* A Schpuzzle of the Week titled “Nurse a triple shot of ‘branding’,”
* "A Root Rot Hors d’Oeuvre titled "Flowering good... overflowing bad!"
* "An Appliance Science Slice titled “Hubby vacuums the rugby so ruggedly!”
* "A Constant Consonants Dessert (& Yet...) titled "Identical different vowels!" and
* Fifteen Riffing Off Shortz and Reiss puzzles titled "Eli and Sam visit Penn. Ave." (including one from our friend Plantsmith and six from Nodd).
And so, all you Wynkens and Blynkens On Blaine's Blog and Beyond, wooden shoe just love to sail off with Nodd and the rest of us Puzzlerians onto a stimulating satisfying sea of fun-to-dew puzzles? Just open your tablets and MacBooks to "Page Puzzleria!"
LegoAnArklessArtlessModernDayNoahWhoInsteadConstructedAnAmusementParkChockFullOfPuzzlingChaos!
WHITNEY HOUSTON, WHITE HOUSE. Rearrange the first five letters of the singer’s last name to get something that often emanates from the location. (Shout)
ReplyDeleteWhitney Houston, White House
ReplyDeleteI wrote, “2, 2, 3, 3, 11.” Multiply these numbers and you get 396, and it was 396 weeks ago, Sunday 4 March 2018, that this was the broadcast challenge.
ReplyDeleteThe answer to Puzzleria!s Schpuzzle of the Week that I uploaded last Sunday...
ReplyDeleteSchpuzzle of the Week:
Salability and one silly syllable
Name a popular author whose works appeal especially to one particular literary audience.
A single syllable in the name is also popular with this audience.
Who are the author and audience.
What is the syllable?
IS...
ANSWER:
Beatrix Potter is an author of children's literature. "Trix are for Kids!" is a Trix cereal slogan.
LegoAgainfPlayingTrix!
I thought it was Roald Dahl (another author of children's literature), with the syllable "Dahl" pronounced as DOLL. My comment about another syllable of the name rhyming with something the readership is not relied on "Roald" rhyming with "old," but it's actually ROO-AL the Norway way.
DeleteThe answer to the puzzle I posted was Abraham Lincoln -> (Hannibal) Hamlin.
DeleteI submitted "1793 x 2". Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, and Sam Houston was born, in 1793.
ReplyDeleteWhitney Houston, White House
ReplyDeleteI had stated: Today I learned that Colonel Lawrence E. Roberts of the Tuskegee Airmen was born in the Vauxhall section of Union Township, NJ.
I learned that because I knew that there exists a Whitney Houston Service Area on the Garden State Parkway. I also knew that it used to have a different name. That name was Vauxhall. It was while I was googling Vauxhall that I came across the item about Colonel Roberts.
Chuck commented,
ReplyDelete"There’s a problem with this puzzle, besides that it’s been used before."
I added:
"You and I both, Chuck."
Assuming Chuck was hinting at: "Houston, we have a problem." (We = you and I)
Yes, Crito, that's what I was hinting at.
ReplyDeleteChuck
WHITNEY HOUSTON, WHITE HOUSE
ReplyDeletepjbAlsoKnowsWhitneyOnceMadeAGuestAppearanceOnTheSitcom"SilverSpoons",WhichWould'veBeenAGood[TV]ClueHadHeThoughtToPostItEarlierThisWeek
WHITNEY HOUSTON, WHITE HOUSE
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's a repeat. And I LOVED Vandal in Seattle's clue, that it's Will's Prerogative.
I replied Tell Me Why, as does Bobby Brown. But Blaine removed it. Oh well.
Sorry, Blaine!
R. I. P., Diane Keaton.
ReplyDeleteDiane Keaton was 2 weeks older than another actress named D**** ***ton.
ReplyDeleteThis week's challenge comes from Joel Moorhead, of Downers Grove, Ill. Think of a word that means exceptionally good. Add two letters at the end of to make a word that means the exact opposite. What words are these?
ReplyDelete(I assume that's supposed to read "Add two letters at the end of the word. . . .")
Delete