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?
Sunday, March 29, 2026
NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 29, 2026): If the Shoe Fits...
NPR Sunday Puzzle (Mar 29, 2026): If the Shoe Fits...
52 comments:
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.
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Matt and Bob.
ReplyDeleteStones.
ReplyDeleteOr 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.
ReplyDeleteWe 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.
Tae 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.
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.
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
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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!
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 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.
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.
ReplyDeleteDuke-UConn unbelievable!
ReplyDelete