Sunday, December 21, 2025

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 21, 2025): Out to Sea

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 21, 2025): Out to Sea
Q: I was at a library. On the shelf was a volume whose spine said "OUT TO SEA." When I opened the volume, I found the contents had nothing to do with sailing or the sea in any sense. It wasn't a book of fiction either. What was in the volume?
I can't say that I've read the whole book, but the section I read was riveting. Remember the deadline this week is Wednesday.

19 comments:

  1. I have this book and mine definitely covers sailing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think I solved this right away, but the second sentence threw me.

    E pluribus unum.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The answer I got would, in contradiction to the instructions, have something to do with sailing or the sea.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I see that Blaine thoughtfully corrected NPR's grammatical error.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Does anyone receive entry receipts by email from NPR anymore? Since they went to the new submission form some months ago, I haven't and have wondered if my entries are even received.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Trimmers beware: reefing your sails won't protect you from this week's high winds!
    But in a way, a common aid will help you a lot.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Should be a lot of correct entries this week. Since I can't make it into a puzzle, I thought the wordplay aficionados in Blainesville might appreciate this little poem:
    Weird Sheila Goldstein
    Fancies Marcie's Holstein.

    ReplyDelete
  8. While confident of my answer, I haven’t a clue as to how to clue it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Don't reuse puzzlers like my brother!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I plan to order this book on Amazon

    ReplyDelete
  11. Has anyone seen the Wizard of Oz performance in Las Vegas? Is it worth the money?

    ReplyDelete
  12. (Not a clue but an anecdote) Years ago I worked as the library desk clerk at the Department of Interior's library in DC. Because there was so little to do I started reading the books that were being returned. That, however, annoyed my superiors, who told me it looked out of place, so they gave me the job of putting the checkout slips for the last several years in Dewey decimal order just to keep me occupied. Pure tedium.

    At any rate, going through these hundreds of slips I found one for a book called "How To Hold Up A Bank." I was intrigued, so on my lunch break I went to look for the book in the stacks. I didn't find the book but I did learn that it was on a shelf devoted to . . . soil engineering.

    True story--you can find the book on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/How-hold-bank-Giorgina-Reid/dp/0498067297/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2WQ9V7HMKUWHP&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.jUOcT4YZU5MT9X-oT-WBQQ.B_UOZbnxNXgFpfPiIX_FOC79HVQ1p1EuKKG_-lLb_qI&dib_tag=se&keywords=%22How+to+hold+up+banks%22&qid=1766333196&s=books&sprefix=how+to+hold+up+banks+%2Cstripbooks%2C180&sr=1-1. Unfortunately it isn't helping me get the answer to this week's puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
  13. The book is about pi and prime numbers.

    ReplyDelete

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.