A very timely puzzle.Q: Name a famous living singer whose first and last names together have four syllables. The second and fourth syllables phonetically sound like things a dog walker would likely carry. What singer is this?
Edit: The singer's birthday is January 25, 1981.
A: ALICIA KEYS --> LEASH, KEYS
We're not going to quibble over syllabification of Alicia as A‑leesh‑a versus A‑lee‑sha, are we?
Déjà vu, again?
ReplyDeleteTest
DeleteJust over 200 correct answers last week
ReplyDeleteMy answer was
DeleteSUBNUCLEAR -> NUCLEAR SUB
which seems just as good. I wonder if I got credit.
Also contained therein is something a dog walker might say.
ReplyDeleteI am too old to do well on puzzles related to pop culture, so I had to consult lists. Rearrange the letters in the even positions of the singer’s name. You get something the singer might sing, unless that’s something only sung by singers more to the taste of old coots like me.
ReplyDeleteLove it! I must be an old coot too, because I still use shoe laces, even though Velcro is easier.
DeleteEasy puzzle with a Pete and rePete.
DeleteRob, thanks for bring up old coot, possibly named for the bird called the American coot, a waddling waterbird.
It brought me to this delightful chart of ways to talk about older gentlemen >>>
Old Coot: Eccentric, grumpy, foolish, but potentially endearing.
Old Man: Simply refers to age, often used neutrally.
Geezer: Similar to “old coot,” but perhaps slightly more dismissive and less endearing.
Senior Citizen: Respectful term emphasizing age and often association with benefits or privileges.
Elder: Suggests wisdom, respect, and a position of authority within a community.
So truly, where are you on the Old Coot Elder Scale (OCES)?
Ummm... well, I am eccentric and sometimes foolish. I am seldom grumpy. I have no community authority. I have a bit of wisdom, I guess. I am... off scale!
DeleteCool curmudgeon?
DeleteRob: I had the same problem the first time this name was used, but this time that name jumped right into my consciousness. I don't know what kind of music you are into, but if it parallels mine you might enjoy my spin off puzzle I posted down below.
DeleteA medium that Rob might be fond of is relevant to this one.
ReplyDeleteThispuzzlewastooeasybecausewe'veusedthisnamebefore.
ReplyDeleteOh brother, I also thought this puzzle was on the easy side!
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone else see a possible singular / plural issue here?
ReplyDeleteYes
DeleteWell, not much of a connection with Wordle this time (though I could make a case), but I do see a connection to one of the singer’s songs.
ReplyDeleteHuh, I put the singer's name into Google, restricting to npr.org, and found nothing. But some people seem pretty sure it's a repeat.
ReplyDeleteIf you add "npr puzzle" instead, you should find it.
DeleteAs I said at the end of last week's thread, I have an answer, but...
ReplyDeleteI still do have reservations.
I'm just not seeing it.
ReplyDeleteYour periodic reminder that all syllables begin with a consonant sound. If I've arrived at the intended answer, the singer's name has been missyllabified (as was "subatomic" in last week's puzzle). Upon this hill, I will die.
ReplyDeleteUhhhhh.
DeleteAll syllables begin with a consonant sound??
So how many syllables are there in the word "area"?
The word 'area' is compromised of three syllables, each beginning with a consonant sound. In IPA, ['ʔe-ɹi-jə]...
DeleteOnset syllable /ʔe/
That first sound is the glottal stop, the brief clearing-your-throat sound made way in the back of the mouth in order to release the air for the ensuing vowel. Without the glottal stop, we'd need to be forever exhaling to pronounce vowels and that would eventually kill us. Thank you, glottal stop, for saving our lives!
Penult syllable /ɹi/
Self-explanatory.
Ultimate syllable /jə/
To get from the the high vowel /i/ in the second syllable to the schwa in the third syllable, you articulate the subtle palatal fricative /j/ like the 'y' in yellow or yacht. The phonetic term for this kind of consonant is 'glide' because it allows you to glide from one vowel sound to the next.
I appreciate that this may not jibe with what was drilled into our heads in second-grade phonics, but that was all spelling-based and spelling is a far too fickle representation of actual articulated language.
Very cool.
DeleteI'm still somewhat skeptical, because (a) I feel like if someone said "varia" aloud and we just cut off the 'v' sound it would sound exactly like "area", meaning the glottal stop is not an essential part of the phonetic word; (b) the OED does not include the glottal stop as part of the pronunciation.
However, I find your point interesting, in large part because I've always wondered whether there was a rigorous (scientific?) definition of a syllable. Can you point me toward such a rigorous definition (and discussion of its significance)?
I think I have the intended answer .. definitely a repeat...and also a bit of a stretch for syllabic reasoning
ReplyDeleteI posted the following before the puzzle aired this morning on last week's blog. This is a much better puzzle of the same kind:
ReplyDeleteName a famous living singer whose first and last names together have four syllables. The second and fourth syllables phonetically sound like something horses do. What singer is this?
Wait till Thursday to answer?
DeleteYes, please. However hints of course work. Or you may email me @yahoo.com
DeleteFamous baseball sluggers come to mind, specifically Ruth and Aaron.
DeleteMaybe you found a different answer. I know very little about team sports.
DeleteThey played the same position, although the Babe started out as a pitcher.
DeleteI still do not make a connection. Perhaps that is because I started out today with a pitcher too. [burp]
DeleteHow about, The Left Banke?
DeleteI think you are in the rong genre.
DeleteOn the other hand I now see a connection there.
DeleteSingapore?
DeleteI think you lost me again.
DeleteI'm pretty sure I have SDB's intended answer. And it's entirely possible that I get one of Nodd's clues and that he has the same answer as mine.
DeleteI don't know this singer well enough to give a really good hint, but... the singer makes me think of another great musician, Bob Mould.
Penicillin?
DeleteOne of Nodd's hints makes me think he has the answer, but I do not understand the others.
DeleteAre there any you'd like me to remove?
DeleteNow I'm about 99% sure we have the same answer.
DeleteAnd your baseball sluggers clue fits too. A contemporary player: Aaron Judge.
I agree we most likely have the same answer, though it doesn't comport with the jsulbyrne analysis above.
DeleteI have no issues with your clues.
DeleteI think jsulbyrne would prefer taxonomists rather than horses.
DeleteRENEE FLEMING; NEIGHING
DeleteYes. Renée Fleming
DeleteThe baseball players in the hints were right fielders (RF). The Left Banke sang "Walk Away Renee." Singapore anagrams to "sing opera."
DeleteI got the "Walk Away Renee" hint when I googled the Left Banke. That is when I realized you had solved it.
DeleteI assumed you realized it from the penicillin hint.
DeleteYeah, my "Bob Mould" hint was pointing at penicillin.
Delete? My back brain submitted an answer instantly, and neither it nor I know anything about the singer.
ReplyDeleteOk, why not?
ReplyDeleteRearrange the singer’s surname to get a famous locale.
Or not.
DeleteAha.
ReplyDeleteOkay I can see that an alternative answer (phonetically dubious, imo) would be a repeat, in the sense that the name has been an answer to an NPR Puzzle before.
What I think is the intended answer is not a repeat. That one is definitely the one Blaine clued.
So, Blaine, if you find that it's a repeat, then I'm just wrong about this.
I believe I have the intended answer too, but I'm not remembering it as an NPR puzzle answer previously.
DeleteThis is where I am as well. There is another answer that doesn't work well (IMHO), which was a previous answer. And then there's the intended answer which, as far as I can tell, hasn't been used before.
DeleteNo clues above, though I left one earlier today. So here is a new clue -- PRE-COVID
If I don't come up with it before Thursday, I'll be interested in what the dubious/repeat answer is. I think I have the intended one as clued by some above. Probably not devoting much time to alternative answers. Too tired. Maybe I should have invested in a snow blower at some point...
DeleteOnce you have the intended answer, you're less likely to stumble upon the dubious one.
DeleteThe correct answer recognizes that there are two different words (leash and keys), while the dubious answer (lee-ish) depends on combining them. That's what I was doing at first, until feinstee's comment led me to reread the instructions.
DeleteI also needed to reread the instructions as I was thinking that the syllables in question would *together* describe the items. I was looking for an adjective-noun combo instead of two nouns. I really wanted the answer to be poop bags but I couldn't find a matching singer. :)
DeleteRereading the puzzle, correctly this time, has opened my eyes to a better alternative.
ReplyDeleteNot a fan of this puzzle. But I'm afraid explaining why would be TMI.
ReplyDeleteTrump's Folly.
The last syllable of the first name, and the last name, are located in the southern U.S., though in different states.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteTheir partner isn't Swiss.
ReplyDeleteHer spouse is Swizz Beatz
DeleteThe dubious response (which fits many of the descriptions above) is surely wrong, for all the cited reasons. I recommend feinstee's approach before you settle on it.
ReplyDeleteMy first answer didn't quite fit. Then I reread the puzzle and the phrase "first and last names together have 4 syllables" clicked in a different way and gave me a much better answer.
ReplyDeleteSuper snowy day here, so I am cooking up some hot and spicy food!
ReplyDeleteWho could it be now? Sounds a bit like someone I heard once on NPR.
DeleteAlicia sounds a bit like our friend Ayeesha (sp)?
DeleteMusical hint: "The Boxer"
ReplyDeleteI found one answer. Sent it in. Then found a better answer.
ReplyDeleteI have what I think is the alternative answer, and like others, it doesn't quite work for me. Still looking.
ReplyDeleteAnd now I have found what I believe is the correct answer.
DeleteSome of the letters in the name of the singer can be rearranged to a hard compound. The remaining letters can be rearranged into two words, but they would be TMI.
DeleteLiterary clue: James Joyce.
ReplyDeleteThis person's original surname indicates a different career path. (I, too, don't think the repeat name is the intended answer.)
ReplyDeleteThe original surname also pertains to the birthplace.
DeleteNice one, Paul.
Deleteyes indeed!
DeleteNo, the repeat name is not the intended answer. It occurred to me a little while ago. Now I have to come up with a clue.
ReplyDeleteI think it's safe to rule out Mark Farner.
ReplyDeleteMy first answer was Billie Eilish, but that looked and sounded fishy, which accounts for my funky comment above: if the 2nd and 4th syllables sound like "leash" then the 1st and 3rd sound like "Bligh".
DeleteOn the other hand, "Alicia Augello Cook was born on January 25, 1981, in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City."(Wikipedia)
Recently, every time I log on here I get lots of popup ads. Anyone else have the same problem? I don’t have this problem when logging onto other sites...
ReplyDeleteI only have that problem when I log on with my phone as opposed to my computer. It is very annoying, especially since it's so hard on the phone screen to hit the "X" to dismiss an ad without accidentally opening up the ad!
DeleteI have same issue with phone sign on. Also trouble finding site on phone.
DeleteI just incorporated an Ad/Popup blocker to my browser and now they're all gone. It's funny and unexplained why they were so prevalent on this particular site.
DeleteThere shouldn't be any pop-up ads, but maybe you mean drop-down/overlay ads. Let me play with the ad/revenue settings a bit and see if I can reduce the clutter. Sorry about that. I think Google is getting a little ad happy with their "Auto Ads". Give it a couple hours to apply the changes.
DeleteJoe Walsh had an album entitled, "The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get." It's not him, though.
ReplyDeleteI must now confess to holding off on another similar puzzle I came up with sunday morning, but since the singer is now deceased I restrained myself. Well my self restraint has now receded since Nodd and Crito have apparently solved my up above puzzle. Therefore you are now well informed that I am about to post it below; beware.
ReplyDeleteName a famous recently deceased singer whose first and last names together have four syllables. The second and fourth syllables phonetically sound like something you would encounter on ships at sea. What singer is this?
Encountered on the shore as well?
DeleteTrue, but not always.
DeleteBRIAN WILSON; ENSIGN (?)
DeleteNo. It's another opera diva.
DeleteJESSYE NORMAN; SEAMAN
DeleteYou got it!
DeleteI was thinking of more recently deceased singers. I needed the diva hint to get the answer.
DeleteI quarrel with "sound like."
ReplyDeleteDream big everybody who says they've never heard of this singer. You can do it.
ReplyDeleteConcrete jungle where dreams are made of there's nothing you can't do. Alicia Keys sang with Jay-Z on Empire State of Mind.
DeleteDescribes me.
ReplyDeleteOUR MINNEAPOLIS UNREST
ReplyDeleteIt takes some thought to realize when things are going wrong.
It takes a bit more not to play along and see it all gone.
And yet even more to take the time to join the throng
Of those who have the courage not to tagalong
With all the timid who only hope we'll get along.
Instead of getting involved and trying to make us belong.
And then to take the time to go out and join in song
With those who will not put up with them doing wrong.
But it takes only a moment to end the life of one who dares to be strong.
Springsteen on Minnesota Winter of 2026
ReplyDeleteShades of Neil Young's "Ohio."
DeleteBut, of course.
DeleteAlicia Keys and Billie Eilish
ReplyDeleteI wrote, “Rearrange the letters in the even positions of the singer’s name. You get something the singer might sing.” That’s SCALE; do modern singers do their scales?
ReplyDeleteRob, I commented on this post: "Love it! I must be an old coot too, because I still use shoe laces, even though Velcro is easier." Rearrange SCALE to get LACES.
DeleteALICIA KEYS (—> LEASH, KEYS)
ReplyDelete“Rearrange the singer’s surname to get a famous locale.”
Keys —> (Isle of) Skye
“Literary clue: James Joyce”:
“Keys” figure prominently in Joyce—they’re a significant motif and symbol—in both Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake. Here’s the end of Finnegan’s Wake, which loops back to the first sentence of the book: “The keys to. Given! A way a lone a last a loved a long the”
Dr. K, to your first clue I commented "Or not." I was pretty sure you were going for Skye, but I was thinking of the Florida Keys in which case there's no need to rearrange the surname.
DeleteScarlett, it didn’t seem as much fun to leave it as is.
DeleteDr. K, I agree. Not to rearrange may have been a giveaway, and not as much fun. Being a Floridian, I'm partial to the Keys. However, my not-so-distant ancestors came from Scotland, Isle of Mull. So after "mull"ing it over, I decided to take a chance. 😉
DeleteALICIA KEYS. My hint -- The last syllable of the first name, and the last name, are located in the southern U.S., though in different states. (The CIA in VA; the Keys in FL.)
ReplyDeleteAlicia Keys
ReplyDeleteMy clue - “not much of a connection with Wordle this time (though I could make a case), but I do see a connection to one of the singer’s songs” - the song by Alicia Keys I was referencing was “Underdog”, one of her top 20 songs, given the dog-walker theme of the puzzle. As for Wordle, the answer last Sunday was “STRUT” which Alicia is believed to have, though not a prominent trait of hers.
ReplyDeleteAlicia Keys => Leash, Keys
ReplyDeleteI had the Billie Eilish answer at first, and didn't like it. Then I was noticing that it fit many of the early clues. I kept digging, and Found Alicia Keys, which fit the later clues.
I had then clued, "Some of the letters in the name of the singer can be rearranged to a hard compound. The remaining letters can be rearranged into two words, but they would be TMI." Her name can be rearranged to A SILICA KEY. Silica is a major component of sandstone, and is defined in Webster's as a "hard compound." The remaining letters then form A KEY, which I felt would likely be removed. I thought about phrasing it as, the remaining letters after forming the hard compound become a key to solving the puzzle, but even that seemed too risky.
Interested in the opinions of the group. If I had said, "The singer's name can be rearranged into a hard compound, and a key to solving the puzzle," is that TMI, or just clever?
This week's edition of Puzzleria! features one of the most creative and clever puzzle-makers I have ever known – namely, our friend Plantsmith, whose delightful “Garden of Puzzley Delights” has been gracing our puzzle pages since October of 2020.
ReplyDeletePlantsmith's latest "botanical" artistry consists of five boffo conundrums, titled:
~ “From happy to hoppin’ mad!”
~ “Pens, Guns, Spoons?”
~ Mike KitKat?
~ “O Sole... Kiss me...!” and
~ “Forty Freddy Footpower!”
We vow to upload Puzzleria! very soon... How soon? This-very-afternoon-soon!
Also on our menus this week are:
* a Schpuzzle of the Week titled “Does it ‘smolder’? It may be a ‘holder’!”
* a Hostile Chaotic Hors d’Oeuvre titled “Search Petty Officer?”
* a Spooner: Wisconsin Railroad Capital Slice titled “Throw a SPOONER in the works?”
* an Old MacDonald Had A Dessert titled “Hey! A herd is both seen AND heard!” and
* at least 8 riffs (including 6 composed by our friend Nodd) titled “Unleashing Alicia’s Keys!”
Puzzlewise, it gets no better than this! We invite all puzzle-lovers to join us and join in the fun!
LegoWhoAsks"GotAnyBotany?"ThenProudlyAnswers"YesWeDoCourtesyOfOurPalPlantsmith!"
Alicia Keys
ReplyDeleteTwo clues from me this week. I wrote
Super snowy day here, so I am cooking up some hot and spicy food! because Alicia Keys' life story is currently on Broadway as a musical called Hell's Kitchen
My other clue was PRE-COVID because, even though I couldn't recall Keys being a previous puzzle answer, she did indeed do a well-received NPR Tiny Desk Concert round about February 2020, just before the Pandemic.
ALICIA KEYS (LEASH, KEYS)
ReplyDelete> Not a fan of this puzzle. But I'm afraid explaining why would be TMI.
KEYS isn't phonetically the last syllable. It is the last syllable. And it has nothing to do with dog walking. I have an electronic lock on my front door, so if I don't carry any when I go walking.
> Trump's Folly.
Greenland is another frozen arctic wasteland, bigger than Alaska, whose postal code is the initials of the answer.
Are all keys physical? Is all carrying?
DeleteMy clue: "A medium that Rob might be fond of is relevant to this one."
ReplyDeleteThat is, a 45 vinyl record. Because Alicia turned 45 on Sunday. It was her birthday, as Blaine was hinting.
But the second syllable of Alicia is “Lee”, not “leash”
ReplyDeleteSyllabic turmoil
DeleteIs why I hate, and yet love
The art of haiku
Thank you, Robert.
DeleteI also see her name as Ah Lee Sha Keys, and can’t see how it meets the puzzle criteria.
Interesing how quickly Chatgpt solved the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteEarlier this week I said, “I found one answer. Sent it in. Then found a better answer.”
ReplyDeleteI started with Billie Elish: Billie Eilish --> lie + ish = leash (phonetically).
Then I remembered Alicia Keys: Alicia Keys --> lecia + keys = leash (phonetically), keys
What is the difference between the U.S. House and LA Fitness?
ReplyDeleteCultural literacy is a slippery thing. We played Apples To Apples with the granddaughters the other day. We have to go through the deck of cards, tossing out over half because they're cultural references the kids wouldn't get. The 6-year old picked up one card and said we wouldn't know it. She showed it to her 9-year old sister, who agreed, we wouldn't know it; it's the title of a Taylor Swift song, from her new album. No way, I say, this game was printed long before Taylor Swift. They're sure they're right. The card reads "Elizabeth Taylor".
ReplyDeleteThis week's challenge comes from Alan Hochbaum, of Duluth, Ga. Think of two hooved animals. Take all the letters of one of them and the last three letters of the other, mix them together, and you'll get the first and last names of a famous actress. Who is it?
ReplyDeleteAlmost 900 correct entries last week.
ReplyDelete