I can think of another duo that ties the two duos together.Q: Name a famous musical duo. Remove four consecutive letters of the duo's name and phonetically you'll name a famous nonmusical duo. Who are they?
Edit: I was thinking of Maverick and Goose who sang You've Lost That Loving Feelin' in Top Gun. They also flew a plane together.
A: RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS --> WRIGHT BROTHERS
Bow-wow.
ReplyDeleteThe non-musical duo is associated with a duo of animals.
ReplyDeleteTake the four removed letters. Change the first letter to the one that precedes it in the alphabet. Rearrange. You get something related to the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteClever! And a helpful confirmation for me this week!
DeleteI'm such a fan, I keep their picture in my wallet.
ReplyDeleteWow, jan, props to you for that level of dedication!
DeleteMy answer matches Rob's. I don't get the other clues, including Blaine's.
ReplyDeleteOh, I overlooked something. I think I do get Jan's hint.
ReplyDeleteI got an answer that fits, I hope I am correct!
ReplyDeleteICYMI:
ReplyDeleteI have placed and paid for our order of 50 lapel pins. It takes 3 weeks for production and 3 days for shipping so the lapel pins should be here about April Fool's Day.
I'll then address and send them out to you in padded egnvelopes.
Thanks for your patience!
I’m in. Thanks.
DeleteMore than 900 correct answers last week.
ReplyDeletePoetry hint: Edward Lear
ReplyDeleteThe on-air player said that he first came up with AYN RAND and ARAN last week.
ReplyDeleteYeah at least I got some consolation from that since Will didn’t make any mention of it. As for this week’s puzzle, what are you setting the over/under at?
DeleteThe 900 from last week seems about right.
DeleteGot this one immediately, which is rare for me. Congratulations, Nodd!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Tortie!
DeleteI second Tortitude's congratulatory nod to our friend Nodd, an extremely prolific and proficient puzzle-maker!
DeleteLegoSendingAColossalKuDoDon'sWay(EvenThoughNoddIsTheFarthestThingFromADodoThatLegoKnows!)
Congrats Nodd. Felicitations.
DeleteDid not take long to get this one.
ReplyDeleteTake the four letters that are removed. Rearrange three of them into a useful word.
DeleteA good basis for a future puzzle would be to think of a word in which those first two dropped letters are pronounced as two such unexpectedly different letters.
ReplyDeleteRIGHTEOUS is a word in which the letters EO are pronounced as CH. Strange.
DeleteAn Italian movie comes to mind,
ReplyDeleteThe Bicyce Thief
DeleteThank you, Word Woman! And congrats to Nodd!
ReplyDeleteYes, a nod to Nodd!
DeleteOops, I think I missed that Nodd is Donn Dimichele, of Redlands, CA. Congrats!
DeleteOhhhh, I was wondering what I missed!
DeleteCongrats, Nodd!
Thanks to you all!
DeleteCongratulations, Nodd! I almost forgot you were Donn, too! Great puzzle! Started to look up famous musical duos, and there it was! Made perfect sense to me!
DeletepjbIsAlwaysGladToSolveTheseThingsThatQuickly!
Late to the party but congrats, Nodd. Nifty puzzle.
DeleteI'll add my congratulations, both for the puzzle and for the clever nom de plume now that I've learned that Nodd's real name is Donn!
DeleteMusical clue: John Philip Sousa
ReplyDeleteAs is frequently the case, this one will be easier to solve for some than for others.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations once again, Nodd. For the moment I'm actually only about 100 miles away from you instead of the usual 2,000, but we're flying home in a few hours. Oh, yes, I solved the puzzle once I remembered that it stipulated "phonetically." Here's another spinoff puzzle: Think of a famous musical duo. Remove 3 consecutive letters, and get another famous musical duo.
ReplyDeleteI think I've got it, Dr. K...do the three removed letters spell a word that is relevant to us both?
DeleteRight you are, Dr. A!
DeleteMusical clue: Janis Joplin, et al
ReplyDeleteAnd add my congratulations, Mr. Nodd!
ReplyDeleteI would like the answer to be the opposite of what it is.
ReplyDeleteGarfunkel and Simon??
DeleteMy favorite direction is the left. Therefore, I would rather have the answer be Lefteous Brothers, Left Brothers.
DeleteI am reading a book about cover songs. There's a chapter about the musical duo in question.
ReplyDeleteCongrats Nodd, good job on air too.
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of Sérgio Mendes, but not the siblings with the same surname.
NOTE BIG RE: LAPEL PIN MONEY: Please no longer use my Venmo to send lapel pin money. If you used it and it crashed on you, please either use Zelle or email me and I will provide you my physical address.
ReplyDeleteI use Venmo for teaching chess, math and science, and its crashing for so many days is a headache I did not expect.
AGAIN, DO NOT use my Venmo going forward. If you already paid by Venmo and got confirmation you are good. Use Zelle or I will send you a bricks and mortar address.
It's always something.
Thanks!
Thank you for originating and driving on with this project!
DeleteThere's a punny commonality between these duos...
ReplyDelete(In a sense, they've both been on the air.)
DeleteCan a horse eat popcorn?
ReplyDeleteOf course.
DeleteMy question is: will a horse eat popcorn? Do I know the answer? Neigh!
DeleteNot to derail Nodd's excellent puzzle, but I submitted a 'music duo' puzzle to NPR in 2023. I think it's safe to assume that Will didn't care for it, so I'll put it out here:
ReplyDeleteThink of something you might do (in two words) when moving house or starting a business. Add an "r" and rearrange to get the name of a famous music duo. What duo is this?
Scarlett, I think the answer is the same duo that serves as the answer to my spinoff puzzle above.
DeleteI think you hit the nail on the head!
Delete....and, if I solved your puzzle correctly, I see a connection in your two duos.
DeleteSpeaking of musical duos, don't you wish that this week's puzzle had been submitted by Peter Gordon?
ReplyDelete"On 28 February 2026, the first day of the 2026 Iran war, the Shajareh Tayyebeh[a] girls' elementary school in Minab, Hormozgan province in southern Iran was destroyed by a missile strike."
ReplyDeleteNow there appears to be a thinly veiled coverup.
I hope my double entendre did not go totally unnoticed.
DeleteThat took me too long. Here's another spinoff: Remove four consecutive letters from a musical duo to obtain a business trio.
ReplyDeleteMy hint above could also be a hint for this spinoff.
DeletePet Shop Boys, Pep Boys.
Delete👍
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHappy 78th birthday, Janes Taylor!
ReplyDeleteI am celebrating the completion of my mystery novel "Ky 56," today on James' birthday. It is also the birthday of Kyanite (Ky), a six-foot tall forensic geologist who maps the blue-gray limestones of Stone County, Arkansas with her black lab, Labradorite. The story takes place centered on the hollows of the tiny hamlet of Fifty Six, Arkansas. Take a look at some beautiful bladed minerals of kyanite as Ky discovers misplaceous novoculite, originally found much further south in the Ouachita Mountains than the Ozarks!
^^^ misplaced
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on completing your novel! I look forward to it's release. Sounds like a rock solid story!
DeleteThanks, Scarlett! Meeting with book agents this week and next. Rather exciting, positively Precambrian. ;)
DeleteBtw, your lapel pin check arrived this week.
DeleteWhoa, I thought that was some cleverness I didn't understand. Congrats on your book! Can't wait to read it!
DeleteThanks, jan! The forensic mystery was conceived in 2019. I started writing in 2022-2024 but most of the writing was from January 7 - March 8 of this year.
DeleteMazal Tov!!
DeleteThanks, SuperZee!
DeleteCongratulations, Word Woman!
DeleteCongratulations, and let us know when the book is available!
DeleteCongrats!!
DeleteThat's wonderful, WW, and very apropos of your screen name.
DeleteThanks, Dr K and JAWS. Love our little supportive puzzle connunity.
DeleteThanks, Nodd and Jay B! It gets more and more real by the mimute.
DeleteAnother lapel pin check from Chuck. So far, Blainesvillians have the neatest,most legible handwriting ever...
DeleteMy Congrats to Word Woman Also!
ReplyDeleteI am posting my Puzzleria! Preview a tad early:
A Nodd is not “just as good as” but is very much better than a Wink (or even a Blink!)... at least when it comes to composing word puzzles!
Our friend Donn Dimichele (aka “Nodd”) shall prove that particular albeit-updated truism to truly be true on this week’s edition of Puzzleria! His ever-popular feature, “Nodd ready for prime time” shall be on full display (including his latest edition of “Poetry Corner, With Anna Graham”), as will his National Public Radio puzzle challenge that Will Shortz unveiled Sunday over the airwaves. And, because Nodd routinely writes a half-dozen weekly “riffs” that “play off” of every weekly NPR puzzle challenge (!), he has also composed a sextet of those “self-riffs” this week also...
So, that adds up to one dozen of Nodd’s puzzles that are on “diswordplay” on this week’s edition of Puzzleria!:
FIVE in his “Nodd ready for prime time” feature,
ONE that is National Public Radio’s current puzzle challenge, plus...
SIX self-riffs of that NPR challenge!
Also (as if it is necessary!) on this week's edition of P! are:
* a Schpuzzle of the Week titled “Javelin? Jackknife? Jar of Jam?”
* a Period Piece Kitty Hawk Hors d’Oeuvre titled “Fight or Flight?” (a puzzle that – I swear! – I composed on the eve of Donn Dimichele’s puzzle being broadcast on Will Shortz’s NPR Weekend Edition Sunday Puzzle Broadcast!)
* a National Public Rascoe Slice titled “AlphaBeethoven-Baked Puzzle-Poem”
* a Risqué Dessert titled “Instrument... or ‘in-strumpet’?” and
* a handful-or-two of riffs of this week of Nodd’s NPR puzzle, titled “Singer-Song********* ********.” (too early to reveal the title)
So, join us! I guarantee than you will not Nodd off!
LegoThinkin'Winkin'Blinkin'...
Thanks so much lego!
DeleteYou are welcome, Word Woman.
DeleteNote: The two strings of missing letters in my Puzzleria! Prieview Post (just above Word Woman's gracious "Thanks") read:
“Singer-SongRighteous Brothers.”
LegoWhoDeemsWordWomanA"RighteousSister!"
RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS —> WRIGHT BROTHERS
ReplyDeleteEmbedded in my congratulations to Nodd was a reference to “flying” (which was true; we actually did fly cross-country on Sunday). I was concerned Blaine would remove it as tmi.
The answer to the spinoff puzzle was “The Carpenters” —> “The Carters,’ i.e., Beyoncé and Jay-Z. Kudos to Dr. Awkward and Scarlett, who solved it. Btw, my comment to Dr. Awkward, “Right you are” played on “right/write” and “pen.”
And, of course, "right" was also an indirect reference to the NPR puzzle.
DeleteI must confess that my initial thought was the Carter family (June, etc.). Of course, that makes no sense, because the Carters were not a duo. So when I said there's a connection, I was thinking of Johnny and June singing "If I were a Carpenter."
DeleteBefore I looked it up this week, I had no idea that Beyonce and Jay-Z are known as the Carters. I need to get out from under my rock more often! 🤓
Scarlett, rock? Did you say rock?!
DeleteWhoops! No offense there, WW,, but sometimes igneous is bliss.
DeleteScarlett, right you are, woman!
DeleteToday the Blue Eyes Granite from Labrador will abut the Blue Pearl Granite from Norway. Makes my geologic provence heart happy in a totally igneous way. Geologically the two granites with big crystals can coexist and abut one another. Both have pleochroism. Both have large crystals. Their contact zone is going to Sing out Louise!
Thanks, Dr. K—neat spinoff!
DeleteTHE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS, THE WRIGHT BROTHERS
ReplyDelete> I'm such a fan, I keep their picture in my wallet.
THE WRIGHT BROTHERS appear on the front and back of every U.S. pilot's license.
>> Can a horse eat popcorn?
> Of course.
A horse doing something only humans usually do reminds me of Mister Ed ("A horse is a horse, of course, of course, etc."). Mister Ed's owner, uh, human companion, was Wilbur Post (I never knew he had a surname). The big name in popcorn is Orville Redenbacher. Wilbur and Orville, of course....
>> As for this week’s puzzle, what are you setting the over/under at?
> The 900 from last week seems about right.
Right/Wright
You interpreted my comment correctly, jan.
DeleteThe Righteous Brothers>> The Wright Brothers
ReplyDeleteThe duo of animals associated with the Wright Brothers are kitten and hawk, as their first flights were at Kill Devil Hills, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
I wrote, “Take the four removed letters. Change the first letter to the one that precedes it in the alphabet. Rearrange. You get something related to the puzzle.” That’s DUOS.
ReplyDeleteThe Righteous Brothers --> The Wright Brothers
ReplyDeleteLast Sunday I said, “As is frequently the case, this one will be easier to solve for some than for others.” I’m not sure how familiar with the Righteous Brothers non-Boomers are.
RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS, WRIGHT BROTHERS
ReplyDeleteMy Musical Clue of John Philip Sousa is because of his many, many marches -- the lyrics to which are typically LEFT, LEFT, LEFT RIGHT LEFT.
The Righteous Brothers, The (W)right Brothers
ReplyDeleteI posted the clue, take the four letters that were removed. Rearrange three of them into a useful word. Taking the E, U, and S from EOUS, you can spell USE, which is a "useful" word! :-)
Perhaps the most useful word?
DeleteProps as in propellers to jan.
ReplyDeleteRIGHTEOUS BROTHERS
WRIGHT BROTHERS
RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS >>> WRIGHT BROTHERS
ReplyDeleteMy HInt:
"I am reminded of Sérgio Mendes, but not the siblings with the same surname." He was from Brazil and Brazil believes it was the first to fly because they did not use a rail for launching.
Righteous Brothers, Wright Brothers
ReplyDeleteMy musical clue was: Janis Joplin, et al. I was thinking of the Righteous Brothers' hit "Rock 'n Roll Heaven." Janis, Jimi (Hendrix), Otis, Jim (Morrison), Jimmy (Croce) and Bobby. All gone too soon. A helluva band!
ReplyDeleteMy hint, "bow-wow," contains the first initials of Righteous Brothers Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield, and Wright brothers Wilbur and Orville.
ReplyDeleteMy only post this week was setting up Jan by asking what the over / under was (for right answers, as he duly replied).
ReplyDeleteJan, wow that probiotic packaging is something. I thought I was getting a heart packed in ice..or at least a kidney. Just 2 small packages of 60 probiotic capsules each.
ReplyDeleteHospitalist was totally on board with pro biotic to complement 17 bags of liquids infused over 3 days.
DeleteI can't afford probiotics, so what I do instead is to eat anything I inadvertently drop on my far less than pristine kitchen floor. Seems to work well and I haven't even had a cold in 18 years. Oh, and I almost forgot that I rarely wash my hands before eating.
DeleteSo, you're amateurbiotics, then, sdb?
DeleteLOL
DeleteYes, but I'm 3 weeks from becoming 81, and that's just too old for me to go full time. I will have to see what I can pick up along the way.
THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS, THE WRIGHT BROTHERS
ReplyDeleteI actually prefer Hall and Oates' version of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" better than that of TRB.
pjbDoesAgree,However,ThatIfThereIsARock'N'RollHeaven,YouKnowThey'veGotAHellOfABand!
Chuck, got your check.
ReplyDeleteSo far, our lapel pin could say "Blaine's Puzzle Blog--very precise handwriting"
As to Venmo, they want a selfie of me holding my id. Nope, nope. Not happening.
Ben A got your check. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteLDH, got your check. Thanksĺ
The NPR intern found a new way to mess up: The new puzzle page has been posted, including the new on-air puzzle and the winner of last week's take-home puzzle. But, for this week's challenge, they just restated last week's. So, we'll have to wait for the puzzle to air, or for them to catch their mistake.
ReplyDeleteYup. I think trump invaded NPR while we were sleeping.
DeleteYes… disappointing !!
Delete"Cover Me: The Stories Behind the Greatest Cover Songs of All Time" by Ray Padgett, uh, covers The Righteous Brothers' version of "Unchained Melody" in its third chapter.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/ray-padgett/cover-me/9781454930655/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0EBs6uRgtw
Here is this week's puzzle from the morning NPR email newsletter: 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?
ReplyDeletePraise the lord, I have it!
DeleteMe, too!
DeleteLast time this came up my comment was taken down. Will try to do better this time.
Delete543 correct answers last week
ReplyDelete