Sunday, November 23, 2025

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 23, 2025): Horsing Around

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 23, 2025): Horsing Around
Q: Name some equipment an equestrian might use. Remove the second, third and fourth letters, and reverse those that remain. The result will be some more equipment an equestrian might use. What things are these?
Change the fourth letter in the original equipment to an A and rearrange. The result is a place you wouldn't expect to see a horse.

Note: The deadline this week is Wednesday

Edit: Upstairs
A: STIRRUPS, SPURS

95 comments:

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    1. Certain 20th Century artists would be appropriate.

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    2. Speaking of 20th Century artists, Will's a related musical clue.

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  4. Rearrange the even letters of the longer word. You get something equestrians using such equipment try to avoid.

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  5. Got it. It might take me longer to come up with a non-TMI clue.

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    1. I am reminded of a Saturday Night Live recurring sketch, from way back.

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  7. Will expects his minions to solve by Wednesday, y'all!

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  8. Congratulations again, ecoarchitect!

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  9. I know this a little creepy, but here goes: Dr. Huxtable.

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    1. I rarely watched this show. Now that I’ve googled it, I see the connection

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  10. Did Ayesha say over 500 correct responses to last week's? I predict well over a thousand for this week.

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  11. I'm heavily allergic to horses, so I'll never participate in equestrian sports. Nonetheless, I needed little encouragement to solve this week's puzzle

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    1. I guess my equipment would be a hazmat suit and a handful of antihistamines. Not what Will is looking for...

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    2. I needed little encouragement - i.e. spurring - to solve the puzzle

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  12. Seems like Blaine's getting pretty agitated this morning. His guidelines go in one ear and out the other.

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  15. The onomatopoeia *is* the song title, thus TMI.

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  16. It looks like we - collectively - are keeping Blaine busy today

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  17. I especially like Blaine's clue since it makes me recall the antics of an ancestor, William Dummer, Lieutenant Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, 1716-1730. Especially when he got a snoot full. Let me just say in regard to Blaine's clue: Not in the Dimmer Mansion!

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  18. Replies
    1. I heard it with my ears, which have stirrups.

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  19. I think I had to figure this one out for Puzzleria!
    pjbKnowsMr.VanMechelenVeryWell

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  20. Now that I got the answer I'll have a cup of tea with sugar and take out my oatmeal from the microwave and add agave.

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  21. President Donald J. Trump, US military standing: 4f.

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  22. No clue here just a question. Did any one else besides me keep getting the wrong puzzle when the went to the NPR website? The puzzle that came up was from 11/16. Without Blaine, I'd still be trying to find it.

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    1. I posted it right after it came up at the end of last week's blog:

      "skydiveboySun Nov 23, 05:10:00 AM PST
      This week's challenge comes from Greg VanMechelen, of Berkeley, Calif. Name some equipment an equestrian might use. Remove the second, third and fourth letters, and reverse those that remain. The result will be some more equipment an equestrian might use. What things are these?

      If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it below by Wednesday, November 26 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle."

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    2. And now I see Blaine's answer link no longer goes to their older form, so we no longer get confirmations with our answer included, which makes thursdays easier. I suppose it was one of the last things DOGE took away before quitting.

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    3. Yes, I kept getting the puzzle from the 16th. The annoying thing is, that it was up about a half hour or 45 minutes before the broadcast!

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  24. Reminds me of a recent Casey Kasem rerun, where the artist at #1 was twice as old as when he released his first single.

    The NYT has released the winners of its Spelling Bee challenge. I was most impressed by frequent NPR puzzle contributor Andrew Chaikin's entry, in which he reimagined the Gilligan's Island theme song! Spelling Bee Writing Contest Winners

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  25. Change the same letters (2nd, 3rd and 4th) to a single letter and you get something sweet.

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  27. [updated version to add some previously omitted words] Well, as they say, to the victor go the spoils, so having solved the puzzle, I will pop a bottle of champagne and celebrate. And wishing my fellow Blainesvillian's a happy thanksgiving this week!

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  28. Add a C and an E to the longer word and rearrange to get something sacred.

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  29. While we're on the subject of Dante and exile, another exile devoted a book of his to a character from the Divine Comedy.

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  30. Come mister dally man dally my bandana
    Twilight come and I wanna go roam.

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    1. I have been banned from singing this song when I brought home day-old bagels. (Now that I've implanted that ear worm, ask RFK Jr. how to treat it.)

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    2. RFK Jr. is a fright for sore eyes, or is that whore sighs? But I digress in degenerate spoonerism, as does the subject of this post.

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  31. Today's (Monday) Strands is entitled "Horsing Around"

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  32. Regarding the outrage at those who inform soldiers of the truth the following is from a draft of my experience in basic training in 1963:

    Basic training was mostly a long series of never ending work involving drill and practice and being yelled at. Frequently we would hear a sergeant scream at some recruit with the rhetorical question, “What do you think you’re doing? Are you a fucking individualist?” Thinking creatively was not an option and every effort was made to quash it wherever it appeared. What they wanted was uniformity accompanied by mindless adherence to orders, no matter how absurd they might seem at the time. The operative term that most applied was “spontaneous, mindless conformity.” (My term; not theirs.)
    Many hours were spent sitting in classrooms listening to one of our lieutenants or sergeants attempting to teach us a myriad of things we were required to learn and know. Each class was begun by the teacher telling us that classes always began with a joke first. Sometimes I thought this was redundant.
    One of these classes was on the Military Code of Conduct which resulted from soldiers being captured and brainwashed and tortured during the Korean War. This was a directive on just how we were to behave should we become a prisoner of war and we were required to memorize it verbatim. Another was all the many crimes the military did not approve of, including sexual relations with animals. Some of this was obviously humorous to both teachers and students alike and I recall numerous comments being made regarding sheep which made me wonder if some of us were experienced in this regard and would have to change their habits. No distinction was made between sexual relations with friendly or enemy animals, and this seemed fair and reasonable to me.
    Another topic we were subjected to was how important it was for us to obey orders—lawful orders. This brought up the inevitable questions about what constituted a legal order and how we were to determine that. Also if we felt an order was unlawful and we were required not to obey it, how would we handle this situation? This is where things began to get very complicated and confused. It was clear that not only did we recruits not know the answers to these important questions, but our leaders were just as unclear. It came down to the very unsatisfactory explanation that we were not to obey any unlawful order, but should we be given one, we should obey it and complain later.
    Does this make any sense to you the reader? It didn’t make sense to us either. What actually came out clearly was that we had better obey all orders. This is why I have not been at all surprised at what went on at Abu Garib Prison in Iraq. What does surprise me is that a very few actually rebelled and tried to do the right thing. Standing up to absolute authority is never an easy thing for anyone.
    What the system did was work extremely hard at convincing each of us that we must mindlessly obey any and all orders. Then in order to protect themselves they threw in the caveat that these orders must be legal, so they would be protected. Never mind that we were never adequately informed how we were to negotiate this impossible task. And so, basically good, well meaning, improperly trained soldiers sometimes find themselves in Catch 22 situations which in some cases land them in military prison. Those leaders who are directly responsible for these debacles, such as Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Chaney, George W. Bush and the generals usually escape what they themselves created. This is deplorable, but no doubt will continue to be the way things are done. Hey, it works for them.

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    1. It's not just the military--the same "obey now and complain later" rule is applied in the workplace, even unionized ones, where it is called "work then grieve." I had a case where employees were entitled to a clean pair of overalls every so many days. Our member was ordered to go paint some place or thing, to which he said "Sure, but let me first have that pair of overalls that's sitting on the file cabinet in your office."

      The supervisor refused. Why? Because he was a supervisor who gave, rather than took orders. The arbitrator upheld the member's termination under the rule of "work then grieve."

      The justification for the rule is that we need to expect unquestioning obedience or the workplace would turn into a debating society and eventually descend into chaos. But that's just another way of saying that managers like the power over others that our system gives them. It lets them think that nothing would ever get done if they didn't rule their little corner of the world--the secular equivalent of the divine right of kings.

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    2. Thanks for sharing that, sdb. It's interesting but not surprising. I don't know what other policy the military could endorse without inviting widespread disobedience, given the difficulty of determining in real time whether an order is unlawful. And when your own country doesn't care what the International Criminal Court says, the wiser course is to shut up and do as you're told. (Of course, "only following orders" didn't work out so well for the Germans after WW II.)

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    3. Yes, Nodd, that was the first time in history that we know of. But remember the only ones who were punished for their crimes at Abu Garib Prison in Iraq were the lowest level enlisted men and women. None of those who were actually responsible for encouraging, and perhaps even ordering, it to happen were punished. I think there was one female woman in command who was used as a scapegoat now I think about it, but most lower rank enlisted personnel would find it next to impossible to refuse an order. I refused an order from a major and made him back down. It did not involve harm to others though.

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  33. STIRRUPS —> SPURS

    Hint: “In a bit of irony, I had to divulge the answer to my equestrian wife.”

    This was true but removed by Blaine, presumably as tmi. I’m not so sure.

    irony —> stirrup iron/s; “bit” was a nice touch, too, if I do say so myself.

    And thank you, Nodd.

    Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!

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  34. Stirrups & spurs and I still have my set of spurs and chaps.

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  35. Stirrups, spurs
    I wrote: Reminds me of a recent Casey Kasem rerun, where the artist at #1 was twice as old as when he released his first single.
    That would be Johnny Nash with “I Can See Clearly Now.” He also sang “Stir It Up” (stirrups).

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  36. I picked up on Nodd’s San Antonio theme with “Will’s a related musical clue.” The signature song of Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys was “San Antonio Rose.”

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  37. And I followed up that San Antonio clue by saying, "Man, u r n Artist."
    Manu... Ginobili.
    Artis... Gilmore.
    Two all-time great Spurs.

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  38. STIRRUPS, SPURS

    "Misbegot" is a synonym for SPURious.

    Oops! Forgot we were early today.

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    1. Huh, I never noticed/realized that. I guess I knew each meant 'illegitimate', but I thought quite different senses. But the older meaning of 'spurious' is indeed the 'bastard' sense of 'illegitimate'.

      I saw "Long Day's Journey into Night" on Broadway, but I've never seen "A Moon for the Misbegotten".

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  39. STIRRUPS —> SPURS

    My hint was Will expects his minions to solve by Wednesday, y'all! which points at the Spurs star center, Wembyanama

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  40. Stirrups/Spurs.
    Gene Autry (The Singing Cowboy) is among the people who recurred, “I’ve Got Spurs that Jingle, Jangle, Jingle.”

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    1. Darn typos…Who RECORDED……

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    2. I heard this song centuries ago at a movie theater special for kids. I am *still* puzzled by its lyrics:
      "And they sing, oh, ain't you glad you're single?"
      "And that song ain't so very far from wrong"

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    3. The song, written in 1942, reflects the fictional image of the American Cowboy, as strong and independent. He, and it always was he, might have a friend or sidekick, but had no emotional attachments. Think of 1950’s TV, and hero’s like The Lone Ranger, riding through The West, fighting evil, needing no one…. Or think of the Joe Friday in the original Dragnet shows.

      Does that help?

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    4. "Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear." And I must now confess that I did just that, in complete ignorance of reality. How absurd, a Texas Ranger, dressed in immaculate white and sporting a black mask, cavorting with an Indian compatriot while pretending to be anonymous. Who would believe such nonsense? Well, I did at my tender age of innocence. Thankfully I later on began to look into the reality of the Texas Rangers and all of the evil they participated in. I would say he had feet of Clay, a ton Moore than was revealed in those revision of history TV shows in the 1950's. Nice horse though.No, not Scout, but Silver.

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    5. I was a Long Ranger fan, too, as a little kid [and adored the horse!] But just as with Superman, it ALWAYS annoyed me (i.e. it was beyond believability) that anybody could 'disguise' their real identity with just a mask (or in reverse in Superman's case, the glasses)....Even as a child, I thought everyone around them must be pretty stupid!

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    6. I recall there were a couple of episodes where Kemosabe discarded his usual outfit and went among the hoi polloi dressed so as to disguise who he was. It made no sense to me at all. So, which is it? Wear a disguise everyone will recognize, or none at all and expect to not be recognized?

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    7. Ah, “The willing suspension of disbelief,” the basis for all enjoyment of fiction.

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  41. This week's Thanksgiving Edition of Puzzleria! is still a "Work in Progress." Still, we shall give all of you the following partial sneak peek."
    "Our Thanksgiving Day Menu kicks off with an Appetizer Menu that features a Half-a-Dozen Appetizers titled "3-Factorial Gordian-Knotty Enigmas." All six were lovingly cooked-up and prepared by our beloved "Friend of Puzzleria!" This sextet of perplexities are tentatively titled:
    * A Substantial Subject Matter.
    * An All-thumbs Author?
    * Interjection Rejection
    * “Two’s company, three’s too LOUD!”
    * Messing with Endings of “Leading” Maintains its Sense,
    and (for the fans who prefer to feast on football over "all the fixins'"...
    * an Unsportsmanlike Conduct Penalty Puzzle!
    Also on our Turkey Day Menus:
    * a Schpuzzle of the Week titled "Cardiac Stress-fracture" (which, to be frank, does not sound all that appetizing!),
    * an hors d'oeuvre that contains body parts (these will be turkey body parts, we trust!)
    * a puzzle slice and a dessert that are still gourmet works in progress,
    * and an as-yet-undetermined number of riffs of our friend Ecoarchitect's current National Public Radio puzzle, titled, "Stir up some soup in the spur of a moment."
    All will be "more completely fleshed-out" by tomorrow. We're still working round-the-clock in our state-of-the-art puzzle-making kitchens so that we can upload Puzzleria! tomorrow, very soon in the early afternoon.
    Have a Great Day of Restful Thankfulness, Blainesvillians! (with just a bit of puzzle-solving for dessert)

    LegoBackToWorkingOnEleventhHourPreparations!

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  42. STIRRUPS, SPURS

    > Seems like Blaine's getting pretty agitated this morning.

    Agitate = STIR UP

    > His guidelines go in one ear and out the other.

    The STIRRUP (stapes, in Latin) is a tiny bone in the middle ear that helps to transmit sound from the eardrum to the inner ear.

    > Some don't approve.

    Animal rights groups oppose the use of spurs.

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  43. Stirrups, spurs. As some have noted above, my hint about the Alamo referred to San Antonio, home of the Spurs.

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  44. I wrote "While we're on the subject of Dante and exile, another exile devoted a book of his to a character from the Divine Comedy." The exile was Beckett, who spent most of his adult life in France. One of his first books was "More Pricks Than Kicks," a book of short stories about Belacqua Shuah, named after an old friend of Dante who shows up in Purgatory. And the title "More Pricks Than Kicks" refers to the prick, the sharp pointy end of the spur, which the poor animal feels when being kicked. At least it does in this clue; I can't speak for Beckett.

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    1. So many pricks these days, and so little astringent.

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  45. Stirrups, Spurs

    I had commented: I am reminded of a Saturday Night Live recurring sketch, from way back.

    After I solved the puzzle, I thought of the San Antonio Spurs, but that seemed too obviously TMI. I ten remembered the days of David Robinson playing for them, and how some commentators were calling his area of the court Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood, which of course, was also an SNL recurring skit with Eddie Murphy.

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  46. I wouldn't want to start any trouble...

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  47. Hey Blainesville! Happy Thanksgiving. Will Shortz will be presenting one of my puzzles tomorrow. I can't wait to share it with you all!

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  48. This week's challenge comes from Al Gori, of Cozy Lake, N.J. Name a place where games are played. Move the last two letters to the beginning. Change the new last letter to an "H." The result, sadly, is what you might have when you leave this place.

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  49. Cute puzzle. I can think of a number of clues, but one fits uniquely well.

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  50. Remove the second letter of the place. Rearrange to name what you can use to play the games.

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  51. Rearrange the letters in the sad result. You get something tasty.

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  52. The initials JC come to mind. A different JC, not the first one that came to mind.

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  53. I like Jan's and Rob's hints. Now for one of my own...

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  54. The place came to my mind quickly, but it's not arcade.

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    1. That depends on how you feel about Carol Ann Hooker, who works the arcade at night.

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  55. 1228 correct answers last week.

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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.