Take the resulting subject, remove the 6th, 8th and 10th letters and add an O. Rearrange to get something else pictured in that painting.Q: Name some tools used by shoemakers. After this word place part of a shoe. The result will be the subject of a famous painting. What is it?
A: LASTS + UPPER = LAST SUPPER
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.
Matt and Bob.
ReplyDeleteStones.
ReplyDeleteThe Stones sang, "this could be the last time."
DeleteOr this: Change the final letter of the artist’s name to another letter, rearrange, and get a car.
ReplyDeleteI would say, change the third letter...
DeleteYou could....
DeleteRearrange the letters in the tool. You get something depicted in the painting.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI wrote that the "Puzzle was timely." I was thinking this because Easter was approaching/it is Easter Season ... sorry it was TMI!
DeleteWe can't say directly what the subject is, but we can hint at it.
ReplyDelete225 correct entries last week
ReplyDeleteMakes me feel a little better that I didn't come up with the answer to Joseph's puzzle...
DeleteThere's a clue in the on-air puzzle!
ReplyDeleteIs it a vowel?
DeleteUmmmm.
DeleteWell, not what I was thinking of, no.
It's not a hard clue. I wouldn't say it's an easy clue.
So, it's not an "A"?
DeleteLeonardo da Vinci used TEMPERA paint in his famous mural depicting the moment Jesus reveals to his disciples that there is a TRAITOR in their midst, and they all begin to ask "Is it I?"
DeleteTae letters 2, 3, and 4, plus the last two letters of the subject, and one more. Rearrange to get a related term.
ReplyDeleteSorry for my poor typing.
DeleteTake out letters 2, 3, 4 and the last two letters of the subject, then add one letter and rearrange to get a related term.
I had so wanted to be first to post on the blog this week, but I see I’ve missed by a few.
ReplyDeleteAnagram the name of the painting to get an alternate name for it, maybe.
ReplyDeleteIt’s always amazing to me that ordinary words (like stallion) or subjects (like this week’s) challenge can become clever puzzles. This puzzle is not even of medium difficulty but clever nonetheless and, Crito - that’s a great observation (above)!
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle is timely.
ReplyDeleteAn unrelated question while I'm here: I thought that I heard, when last week's puzzle clue was given, that the animal had nine letters. Did my mind just imagine that it was nine letters when WS went on to mention the first five and last four letters, or was there a broadcast version where he really did say it had nine letters? (I had thought of STALLION and ruled it out because it had only eight letters; by the way, if the split had been six and three instead of five and four, GROUNDHOG would have been a nice answer.)
In the broadcast playing in your head. 😜 You wouldn't be the first to assume first 5 and last 4 mean the animal had to be 9 letters. I think that was part of the beauty of the puzzle last week.
DeleteLast week's challenge
DeleteLiteral: Last week's challenge came from Joseph Young, of St. Cloud, Minn. Name an animal. The first five letters of its name spell a place where you may find it. The last four letters of this animal will name another animal -- but one that would ordinarily not be found in this place. What animals are these?
Thanks! Re your answer about last week's puzzle, it just goes to show how the mind can work (or not work, as the case may be 😜).
DeleteI like Blaine's comment, but Dr. K, Rob, and Jan also posted some good ones.
ReplyDeleteThe people who have gotten their puzzle suggestions on air: did you submit through the NPR site? Because I have submitted several and there is no acknowledgment that they received it. And I have submitted some real bangers, but they never get used
ReplyDeleteI've always submitted through the NPR site and received an email acknowledgment right after submitting. On the Thursdays before the puzzles aired I was notified by email that they would be used.
DeleteI've only submitted puzzle ANSWERS through the site. As for puzzle *ideas,* I've used Will Shortz's email for those.
DeleteI cannot recall how I came upon Will's email, many years ago, but I'm a pretty resourceful guy. Note that Will does read these pages from time to time, so maybe you post something here that will grab his attention?
Also, to set expectations -- I have submitted perhaps ten puzzle ideas to Will. I've also thrown out more than that amount, so my ten ideas were, I thought, pretty slick.
Of my ten, Will dismissed eight of them. Quite politely. (He's a "Puzzles Editor," remember, so it's his job to find the jewels amidst the horses#^t. He doesn't write the NYT Crosswords, for example, just manages a fleet of constructers and designers and such.) Of the two of my ideas he liked, one made it on the air five years ago 8/22/2021. Another one, which he also liked, he said "he was going to use it," but it never made it on the air. I assume that one was a challenge at one of the many puzzle conferences he attends. I thought it was great, but I don't think anyone tuning in on a Sunday will ever hear it.
The moral to the story is -- be humble. Even though everyone in Blainesville is "way above average," we don't always know the optimal kinds of questions to populate the "puzzlesphere."
Except for Lego and Eco. They knows.
The weird thing is that I used to get puzzles selected before the new submission page was around. OTOH, judging from the comments on this blog, none of y’all were very impressed with my puzzles that made it to air.
DeleteIf they were "bangers" then perhaps Will just considered them sausage.
DeleteNow you've made a mash of things.
DeleteHow odd you should say that. Why it was just yesterday Klinger said the very same thing to me. Perhaps I was not wrong in thinking it was corporal punishment.
DeleteA piercing comment.
DeleteIs that awl you have to say?
DeleteThe incisive wit in this place is killing me
DeleteReduce a word in the subject of the painting by one letter, and rearrange the letters remaining in the word to get something depicted in the painting.
ReplyDeleteMusical clue: Lady Gaga.
ReplyDelete("Judas"!)
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteBen, I still can’t figure out how your comment got “removed,” but my comment is OK. Hmmmm.
DeleteOops— I spoke too soon😊
DeleteA better puzzle would be:
ReplyDeleteThink of something you would not desire on your shoe. Add a shoe part to that word and you now have a word that perfectly describes our current president. What is it?
I think I solved the first part ...is it something you'd find on the floor of last week's stall?
DeleteHay!
DeleteShitheel is a vulgar, derogatory slang term for a person who is considered contemptible, obnoxious, or worthless. Earliest Evidence: According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest known written use of the term dates back to 1898.
DeleteIt took me longer to come up with a clue, than to solve the puzzle. Given the number of comments that have been removed by Blaine already, it appears I am not the only one in that situation.
ReplyDeleteSwap positions of two of the vowels in the subject of the painting. You will get something that turns off.
DeleteA shoe puzzle is appropriate because my foot has been hurting.
ReplyDeleteHope you find something to heel your sole.
DeleteThe upper part of my foot was hurting.
DeleteThe first two words of the painting’s name rearrange to a hidden meaning.
ReplyDeleteHey Blaine, I don't see that what's been deleted is TMI.
ReplyDeleteThe blog administrator has to maintain order here.
DeleteBlaine's clue confirmed I have the intended answer. Without posting TMI, I visited the city where you would find the original painting. That was over 40 years ago, though. Not sure I saw the painting, but I think I would remember if I had.
ReplyDeleteStart with another name for the painting. Rearrange the letters to get two things that would be refreshing on a hot summer’s day.
ReplyDeleteOh I get that one! Nice. I was trying to think of a clue that started with a variant of your starting point.
DeleteCritco, the best I could come up with for that variant is a two-word phrase that might describe a koala.
DeleteScarlett, should you be having difficulty discovering the word that answers my conundrum above, you may not have come across it in quite some time, as it is no longer as popular as it was in my youth. It is an American word dating back to 1898. I still come across it in books and perhaps some movies.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct. I am having difficulty. I will await Thursday's reveal.
DeleteYou already have the first half. All you need now is to add the second half and google to see if it works.
DeleteIt's not coming to me, but I'll keep working on it. The irony is that my grandfather (who died when I was 3) worked at a shoe factory and somehow supported 11 children! During the Great Depression (not sure what was so great about it) my grandmother had to wait till her oldest daughter got home from school so she could wear her shoes to the market. 🥺
DeleteI’m reminded of the pictures of Adlai Stevenson with holes in his shoes, and the question, “What’s the difference between Adlai Stevenson and Donald Trump?”
DeleteAdlai Stevenson was sole less.
Duke-UConn unbelievable!
ReplyDeleteCrazy! I’m glad I came across your comment because I’m not a basketball fan but can appreciate a wild ending like this. Would never have seen it if you didn’t bring my attention to it, so TY. Reminds me of the ending of the Gonzaga-UCLA game in 2020.
DeleteNow, back to shoes.
Riffing on SDB’s challenge,
ReplyDeleteThink of something you wouldn’t want to get on your foot and add a shoe part to get a term to describe some southerners. Who are they?
One might say they go toe to toe.
Delete2620
ReplyDeleteJoe Young a.k.a. Lego just phoned me and asked that I post a message to everyone here that his computer crashed and he is having it repaired in a shop. Therefore he will NOT be able to post here or on his blog, Puzzleria until he gets his computer returned from the shop with all his puzzle material. He sends his apologies and hopes to be back in operation within 2 weeks, but he cannot say for certain how long it may take. He also asked me say that he cannot send or receive emails until his computer is back home and running.
ReplyDeleteThis is indeed a sad situation. Even though you won't read this, we miss you.
DeleteOuch, that is bad. Back centuries ago when we had computers only at the office, and they had only 5" floppy drives, my machine's hard drive just crashed, destroying years of work. So: get a USB thumb drive and back up your important files.
DeleteImagine this happening to a guy from St. Cloud.
DeleteThere are two kinds of computer users.
DeleteThose who back up everything, and
Those who haven’t had a disc crash, yet.
Wishing Joe a speedy (disc) recovery.
Yikes. I have three letters of advice -- N. A. S.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteOne more time:
BIG DAY TODAY!
1. THE LAPEL PINS ARE HERE. Nice embossing. Will mail them starting tomorrow
2. I PURCHASED THE DOMAIN NAME FOR "KYANITE 56."
3. My Smith friend, Dot, has listened to me talk about the three polymorphs of Al2SiO5 for two score and more. And yet, here she is reading one of the first copies and her Kyanite, Andalusite, and Sillimanite enthusiasm is still off the charts ;')
.
WTF, those are some good drugs.
DeleteRiff on an old joke:
ReplyDeleteWhat do Cowboy Cut Wrangler jeans and the White House have in common?
No ball room
DeleteBlaine, are you aware that Newer Post does not work on last week's blog? This has been the case since I discovered it very early sunday morning.
ReplyDeleteI was not. I haven't changed anything in that respect but I'll check it out. Thanks sdb
DeleteI'm not sure what caused it, but I was able to unpublish and republish the prior post and that reset the Newer and Older links. Thanks again for catching that.
DeleteYeah, I tried it and it is working again. Now, can you fix my aging back? But what can I expect as I turn 81 today?
DeleteTurn off the smoke alarm before you light the candles
DeleteThanks for that pithy advice, jan. I have to wait until 5:17 pm though. I suppose I should also turn off the old Coleman lantern I restored and am running in the living room against all warnings.
DeleteHappy Birthday, sdb, and many happy returns!
DeleteChag Sameach🍷
ReplyDeleteRight back at you Diz. I don't think we'll get deleted now! I do think our holiday is important as well. Without the seder, there would not have been a Last Supper
DeleteI wear 4E width shoes, so I tend be picky about what I put on my feet. That said, this week's puzzle answer came to me almost immediately
ReplyDelete<<< LOOK! Label pins launched.
ReplyDeleteDad's stamp collection provided an afternoon of choosing the right stamps that:
a) stuck (95% of the glue was no good)
b) would fit on the mailer
The sushi waiter inside the retaurant watched the padded mailers pile up on my dashboard. "I am so interested in this. Is this your job?
"No, this is a labor of community love from idea to design to pricing to mailing.:
BRB.
It did make me miss my dad.
The waiter brought out the seaweed salad I ordered and two plates of sushi and ginger. I did not."
Delete"I want to support thus community of love and support. Please enjoy. We are all happy to see your people get these pins and these stamps."
"And they get kyanite."
"What is this kyanite?"
BRB
So, are we about to go from Epic Fury to Epic Scurry?
ReplyDeleteBye bye Bondi.
ReplyDeleteOh, yeah: such a pity about Bondi.😁😁😁😁😁😁
ReplyDeleteYes, I am in tears. She also qualifies for the answer to my up above puzzle.
DeleteMs Bondi needs to remember a key piece of history. Richard Nixon never went to prison for the criminal acts performed by his administration. But his Attorney General, John Mitchell, did.
DeleteThat reminds me, sdb. What is the answer to your puzzle? Like Scarlett, I'm sure I have the first part.
DeleteLancek, I just posted it above. This was a common term back when I was growing up, but less used today. I still come across it in books though.
DeleteLASTS & UPPER = LAST SUPPER
ReplyDeleteLASTS + UPPER —> LAST SUPPER
ReplyDeleteHint: “Matt and Bob”
—> Matthew 20:16 (KJV)—“So the last shall be first, and the first last….” (I thought “Matthew” might have been tmi.)
—> Bob Dylan—“The first one now will later be last….” (from “The Times They Are A-Changin’”)
Hint: “Change the final letter of the artist’s name to another letter, rearrange, and get a car.”
—> Leonardo -o +e —> DeLorean
Hint: “Reduce a word in the subject of the painting by one letter, and rearrange the letters remaining in the word to get something depicted in the painting.”
—> supper -p —> purse (Judas, fourth from the left, is holding a purse of special significance.)
I considered replying to Jan’s clue about anagramming the name of the painting, “I’ll have to chew on this a bit,” but I thought it might be tmi. His “maybe” threw me, but I assume he was going for “repast plus.”
And many thanks to Word Woman for doing all the work on the pins!
Happy Easter, Chag Sameach, or just have a festive weekend.
ReplyDeleteLASTS, UPPER --> LAST SUPPER
ReplyDelete> modafinil
Provigil: with a half-life of 15 hours, it's an UPPER that LASTS!
> Anagram the name of the painting to get an alternate name for it, maybe.
Could a picture of Jesus and the Apostles be called, "PUREST PALS"?
>> Hey Blaine, I don't see that what's been deleted is TMI.
> The blog administrator has to maintain order here.
The deleted posts all referred to Passover. "The LAST SUPPER" shows a Passover seder ("order" in Hebrew). Since Passover doesn't start for a few days (from last Sunday), those deleted greetings could be considered out of order.
I wrote, “Rearrange the letters in the tool. You get something depicted in the painting.” It’s not in the Bible, but a spilled cellar of SALT is in the painting, supposedly knocked over by Judas. It may be a source of the superstition about spilling salt. But did Judas then throw some over his left shoulder?
ReplyDeleteLet's see who gets their lapel pin first!
ReplyDeleteAlready got a comment on mine...
My clue was removed: "Thirteen, just to be safe." There are 13 men at the table. In medieval England, the bread makers would add an extra loaf (or extra dough) to comply with a law that required a certain weight, lest he be flogged...hence, baker's dozen.
ReplyDeleteLASTS, UPPER - LAST SUPPER
ReplyDeleteI had said, "Swap positions of two of the vowels in the subject of the painting. You will get something that turns off."
That would be a LUST SAPPER.
Last Supper (lasts, upper)
ReplyDeleteMy dear Blainesvillians:
ReplyDeleteLego here. It is true that my laptop crashed sometime late in the weekend and dashed my hopes of uploading this week's Puzzleria! in a timely fashion. But it will be well worth waiting for, when I do upload it... before midnight strikes... and, I hope, well before that stroke.
I am a bit more than halfway finished. As he always does, Plantsmith had sent me his "Garden of Puzzley Delights" puzzles (four of 'em) in plenty of time for me to format and illustrate them properly. They are titled: Affixing a prefix, nixing a word!; “Landing in Blanding? Not so outstanding?”; Domestic “pound-paring” vs. “pound-packing”; “Kissin’ in the Kitchen?”
Our "Riffing Off Shortz And Gordon Slices are titled: Heavenly Puzzley Delights Above... Worldly Delights Below,, featuring a half-dozen "Heaven-on-Earth-shaking" uplifting riffs by Nodd, our very own "Riffmaster General" (at last, and upper-echelon collection of terrific rifficity!) and
Our "Schpuzzle of the Week, which is a timely tale of a kindly dude, benevolent beau and compassionate popinjay, titled “The Lunatic in My Head...”
There will also, per usual, be an Hors d'ouvre, a Puzzle Slice and, for dessert, a Dessert!
DropByLaterForAWorkInProgressWorthWaitingFor!
Lego"LaggingATadLate"Lambda
Last + Upper >>> (The) Last Supper
ReplyDeleteThe hidden word, found in the three-word title of the painting is STEALTH.
Similarly, letters 3,5, 7, 8,12 and 13 rearrange to EASTER.
Whether you are celebrating Passover, will be celebrating Easter this Sunday, or are not observing a holiday, I wish you peace, health, and time with loved ones.
DeleteSeems my typing is only getting worse….
Trying again:
Lasts + Upper >>> (The) Last Supper
The hidden word, found in the three-word title of the painting is STEALTH.
Similarly, letters 3,5, 7, 8,12 and 13 rearrange to EASTER.
Whether you are celebrating Passover, will be celebrating Easter this Sunday, or are not observing a holiday, I wish you peace, health, and time with loved ones.
Reply
LASTS, UPPER, LAST SUPPER
ReplyDeleteNormally, I would be my sardonic self and claim that my Clue was dinged for being overtly Jewish. But our sad, sad world is no longer safe for those who sometimes think comically about religion and ethnicity.
Instead, I'll just say -- Happy Passover, everyone!
My post - “This puzzle is not even of medium difficulty but clever nonetheless and, Crito - that’s a great observation (above)!” - as perhaps Crito clued, the on air puzzle included “tempera” as an answer, which is a painting medium used experimentally in the Last Supper painting.
ReplyDeleteI was indeed talking about the on-air puzzle whose answer was "tempera".
DeleteCrito, I thought you were referring to traitor (Judas).
DeleteI prefer tempura.
DeleteLASTS+UPPER=LAST SUPPER
ReplyDeletepjbIsPrayingForLego'sComputerTroubleToBeResolvedSoon
Hey folks, Will accepted a puzzle of mine for this coming Sunday!
ReplyDeleteCongrats, Cap!
DeleteMazal Tov!!!
DeleteCongratulations Cap! How many is that? I may have a modicum of puzzle-solving skills, but I am nowhere near the skill level of the puzzle creators of Blaineville.
DeleteDr. K, over the years, think it's about six puzzles. Thanks for your good wishes.
DeletePS, Dr.K I think I'm better at making puzzles than solving them. And you are the opposite to me. You answer puzzles much more quickly than I do.
DeleteCap, methinks it is all that CAPillary action going on in your brain that creates this plentiful plethora of puzzles! Congrats to you.
DeleteWonderful news CAP! Looking forward to it!
DeleteGot knee deep in finishing my taxes yesterday. Forgot all about you guys. Sorry about that.
ReplyDeleteLasts + upper --> Last Supper
Last Sunday I said, I had so wanted to be first to post on the blog this week, but I see I’ve missed by a few.” First --> Last
Yes, Congrats, CAP! It's not easy getting through the Shortz filter :)
ReplyDeleteWhen I said in my clue that this puzzle is timely, I was referring (as others have noted) to it being given in the week when Passover started, and to the Last Supper having occurred during Passover.
ReplyDeleteScarlett, did you see the answer to my puzzle that I posted yesterday?
ReplyDeleteI just now saw it. Guess I was overthinking. Oh! And Happy Birthday!
DeleteCongrats, CAP! I look forward to being stumped by you on Sunday.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lorenzo
ReplyDeleteThis week's online challenge comes from Michael Schwartz, of Florence, Ore. Think of a musical instrument. Add two letters at the end, and you'll get the names of two popular automobile models reading left or right. What musical instrument is this?
ReplyDeleteI own the second model, and I used to own the first.
DeleteFirst car I thought of.
DeleteWhere I'm from, the instrument can be cool. Smart puzzle.
ReplyDeleteMy uncle played the instrument and my son owns the second car model.
ReplyDeleteI have an answer, but the second car model is one that I would have said was moderately obscure. Mine fits Iris's clue. Is there another answer with a better-known car model -- or maybe I'm just out of it, and the second model is better-known than I thought?
ReplyDeleteWhat does "automobile models reading left or right" mean?
ReplyDeleteI took it to be a typo and read it as, “left to right”.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteSorry for my typo but, yes, it’s a typo and should read “left to right.”
DeleteWell, I have a whole treatise on women named Sarah at car shows describing the new models from either direction ;-).
ReplyDelete"A bidirectional text contains two text directionalities, right-to-left (RTL) and left-to-right (LTR). It generally involves text containing different types of alphabets, but may also refer to boustrophedon, which is changing text direction in each row.
An example is the RTL Hebrew name Sarah: שרה, spelled sin (ש) on the right, resh (ר) in the middle, and heh (ה) on the left. Many computer programs failed to display this correctly, because they were designed to display text in one direction only.
Some so-called right-to-left scripts such as the Persian script and Arabic are mostly, but not exclusively, right-to-left—mathematical expressions, numeric dates and numbers bearing units are embedded from left to right. That also happens if text from a left-to-right language such as English is embedded in them; or vice versa, if Arabic is embedded in a left-to-right script such as English."
This was worth the price of admusdion!
Um, admission. But I am carefully considering adding "admusdion" to the lexicon. ;)
DeleteAdmusdion, a neologism meaning the ticket price admission to a comedy show?
DeleteEasier variation...Think of a musical instrument. And you'll get the names of two automobile models reading left or right within it. What musical instrument is this?
ReplyDeleteYou actually don't need to add two letters...
ReplyDeleteYour comment has a certain ring to it.
DeleteI agree.
Delete1329 correct entries last week
ReplyDeleteThink of a different musical instrument whose first letters are the surname of a person who behaves like what the last 2 letters can describe when used as the initial letters of a French phrase that describes a child no one would want to be around.
ReplyDeleteKnowing how to spell helps.
ReplyDelete