Sunday, November 16, 2025

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 16, 2025): Dry Politics

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 16, 2025): Dry Politics
Q: Take the name of a famous person in American politics (6,6). Hidden in this name reading from left to right, but not in consecutive letters, is the name of a well-known place that's very dry, in 4 letters. Remove these letters. The remaining 8 letters in order from left to right will name another well-known, very dry place. What politician is this?
I referred to a list and one place showed up just after a very familiar place.

49 comments:

  1. Musical clue – The Ink Spots, sorta.

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  2. Always impressed with the speed and reliability of Blaine -- working from the Left Coast, where it's not even 6am yet! Thank you, Dear Leader!

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  3. The puzzle sometimes posts at 3 a.m. I've given up trying to be that early. 🤪

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    1. Blaine must mean on the NPR site itself...although as a fellow west-coaster, I've never seen any Puzzle posted there in the middle of the night!

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  4. Blaine, a name, not a place, just jumped out at me, too.

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  5. I think Will gave us a clue.

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  6. Always good to find a watering hole.

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  7. Pretty sure I have it, but the eight-letter word feels like it's missing some additional descriptor.

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  8. Take the first two syllables.............

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  9. Rearrange the 4-letter dry place, and get a related word.

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  10. Oh that's very nice, well done Dave Shukan.
    Hmmmmmm.
    Oh ok: rearrange to get two deadly things.

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    1. Agreed. What an amazing and well conceived puzzle. I don't see how people come up with these observations!

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  12. For a real trivial treat with a secco theme:
    Take the name of the politician, from left to right: take out letters 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 12. Leaving letters 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and 11. Double letter 5. Re-arrange to spell a noun that qualifies as dry.

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    1. Cute, except you have too many letters there. (Too many occurrences of one of the letters, let's say.)

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    2. Take letters 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 12, and anagram for something that can be dry.

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    3. Oh, okay. Thanks. I'll post a second edition. Whadd'ya think?

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    4. I followed my own directions, and it works. Just double letter 5.

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    5. Huh.
      I get too many of one letter.
      I thought the answer was a six-letter word (your instructions make 7), but I guess you're going for a different word (but I don't see what it is).

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    6. I'm with Crito on this one.

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  13. Replace the 5th letter of the longer answer with the intial letter of the shorter answer to pheoneticaly get an appetizer.

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  14. Got it. Working on a clue...

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    1. Take the municipality where the politician was born, and the first name of the politician. Remove letters that are common in both words, one for one (For example, if the words were WASHINGTON and TOWN, you would be left with ASHIGN or ASHING, because you remove only one N). Rearrange the remaining letters to get one who wanders.

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  15. I cannot find that this politician has been to either place, but did take a trip close to one.

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    1. Several politicians have talked of going to the first one. Many should be sent there.

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  16. The first two syllables of the person in politics sounds a bit like something you'd see in the place with eight letters.

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    1. Unknown's version earlier in the day was more subtle.

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  17. You might want to put on your glasses to solve this puzzle.

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  18. It is not Herbert Hoover, but it is close.

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  19. Roving through the savanna of history.

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    1. This made me think of the second dry place and the rest was easy.

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  20. The politician's name also anagrams to two things only found in very wet places.

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  21. One thing they share is a treaty, a tax and a trading center.

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  22. Terrific puzzle, Dave Shukan! I wouldn't change a thing.

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  23. This took me far longer than it should have. I’ll just blame it on my body sending all available oxygen higher priority needs today.

    The politicians name can be rearranged to something you might see in a remake of Jaws.

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  24. Take letters 2,4,and 6 from the first name and letters 7,9, and 12 from the last name and it anagrams to another famously dry place (actually the first place I thought of when I heard the puzzle but with 6 rather than 8 letters it didn’t fit; it happens to be there anyway)

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  25. What a great day! A very nice puzzle plus a Blaine clue that I understand.

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  26. What makes Dave Shukan's NPR puzzle so elegant is its "no-rearrangement-of-letters-required" aspect. Very nice, Mr, Shukan!

    OgleGenreWhitEvyn!

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    1. Yes, Lego, it really is rather amazing, the more I think about it!

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