I started with Scream but replacing "cream" with a single letter didn't go anywhere. Then I came up with the intended film series.Q: Think of a popular movie franchise with many sequels. Hidden in consecutive letters inside its name is a food. Replace that food with a single letter and you'll get another popular film franchise. What films are these?
Sunday, March 15, 2026
NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 15, 2026): Films and Food
NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 15, 2026): Films and Food
40 comments:
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Change three consecutive letters in the second franchise to three other letters, and get a character associated with the first franchise.
ReplyDeleteOh, nice.
DeleteTake that character's father's name and change one letter to arrive where you started.
I once backed into an actor who played that character on a dance floor!
DeleteSays a guy who is a film franchise himself. Kudos to Dr. K and Crito for a wonderful pair of observations!
DeleteThanks, Lancek.
DeleteThe answer just popped into my head.
ReplyDeleteAdd a vowel to the shorter franchise and rearrange. You get something that may or may not describe the food extracted in the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteRob, IIRC we share something in common with regard to the first franchise.
DeleteI bet you are right, but I am drawing a memory blank.
DeleteOmit the last letter of the first franchise and rearrange to name another food item.
ReplyDeleteThe first movie franchise includes consecutive letters that are associated with windows.
ReplyDeleteThe surname of a character in one episode of the first franchise names the second franchise.
ReplyDeleteI actually yelled at the radio about this one. Not my finest look. But, satisfying nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle is a tad late for Pi Day. But just a tad.
ReplyDeleteAnd, fascinatingly, tad is akin to toad etymologically. And, well, now we're just going in circles. Ribbit!
DeleteI didn't eat the food on Pi Day, but I ate a substitute.
DeleteI did too. Let's go!
DeleteHere is a Doggerelish Pi Day Ditty I posted last evening in Puzzleria!s Comments Section:
DeleteIs your heart black, your mood blue, your sky gray?
Is your 13th each month a Black Friday?
"Do you like me?" you ask... (Your friends cry "Nay!")
Are you deep in despair, and sigh "Why Pray!"?
Are you steered down some Hellfirebound Highway?
... Then have fun on March Fourteenth... It's Pi Day!
Lego"Poetically?...No!Doggerelly!
But, beware: I'd say it's Ides Day!
DeleteA certain color comes to mind.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, for both franchises!
DeleteDid anyone else hear Will say that a "fruit" vs. food was inside the franchise name? I wanted my answer to be the correct answer but was a letter off as that franchise name also contains a fruit name (albeit an uncommon one). Perhaps I just needed more coffee!
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I heard that too.
DeleteAs did I.
DeleteDitto!
DeleteBut only an ingredient not the whole shebang, oui?
DeleteHe said food the first two times but when summarizing the puzzle he actually said fruit (my wife heard that as well so we had to check the online text version to clarify).
DeleteWhat does 'shebang' mean?
DeleteThe word appeared out of nowhere with multiple meanings
Lexicographers have been puzzled by the origin of the rather odd word shebang since its appearance in the English language during the American Civil War. The word has no obvious antecedents, and it appeared with several different meanings used roughly around the same time. In its early years, shebang could refer to such dissimilar things as a type of dwelling, a vehicle, or a drinking establishment, or it could be used in a general sense for the entirety of something, as in the common phrase "the whole shebang."
Squaring these disparate definitions has my brain in a headlock.In computing, a shebang is the character sequence #!, consisting of the characters number sign (also known as sharp or hash) and exclamation mark (also known as bang), at the beginning of a script. It is also called sharp-exclamation, sha-bang,[1][2] hashbang,[3][4] pound-bang,[5][6] or hash-pling.[7]
DeleteI'd like to add my definition of shebang: hair cut just above the eyebrows ;)
DeleteSo, did the Monkees have hebangs?
DeleteIndubitably
DeleteSpeaking of whom, I learned a most remarkable thing about one of them this week.
DeleteAmerican soldiers appear to have coined some of these words, such as "skedaddle," during the Civil War--or maybe words that were formerly limited to isolated rural or immigrant communities became popular when soldiers from all over were mixed together in camp. We see a similar thing happening during WWI ("whizbang," which originally described a particular German artillery shell) and WWII ("blockbuster," based on an even larger German shell, and "snafu," a word that only soldiers could have come up with and only after the Army started using initialisms for everything).
DeleteNo clues here.
I also heard Will say "fruit."
DeleteAfter removing any repeated letters from the first franchise, rearrange the remaining letters to get an adult beverage.
ReplyDeleteCan you measure that much juice in newtons?
ReplyDeleteRemove the first letter of the food and add 2 letters to the end. You will get a character in the second movie.
ReplyDeleteMusical Clue: Rick James
ReplyDeleteIndice: e
ReplyDelete