Clue: DolourQ: Name a classic song with a two-word title. Drop the first letter. Add an R after the new first letter. The result will be the names of two countries one after the other. What song is this?
A: PIANO MAN --> IRAN, OMAN
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The first line of the song is a lie. Rearrange the letters of the song to get two foods, one good, the other maybe not quite so.
ReplyDeleteI was standing on my porch one day when a couple of young people walked by and asked me to settle the argument they were having about the first line of this song. When I checked the answer I gave them, I found out I was wrong. I still find it problematic.
DeleteI'm looking forward to Thursday to find out what y'all mean.
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DeletePaul, that experience has real properties for a novel.
DeleteHmm ... I don't know ... maybe a short story.
DeleteOh, I know why.
DeleteSiz, you have no taste.
E.
Rearrange the letters of the countries. You get a word related to another country.
ReplyDeleteJust a personal note: The artist and I share a birth year.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of personal notes, it’s 1999 redux. The last NBA Finals game I attended (with the wife and kids) was Game 1 in 1999 in San Antonio, when the Knicks played the Spurs. I hope the outcome of this series is different. Go, Knicks!
I also grew up a Knicks fan.
DeleteIt's been a long time since the Knicks have appeared in a finals, but a really long time since they've won one!
When I was in college, I met the daughter of the owner of the Knicks, who was a classmate and graciously offered tickets to two of the 1970 Conference Finals against the Bucks (when Jabbar was still Alcindor) and two of the Finals against the Lakers. Great memories!
DeleteOh wow. That was Alcindor/Jabbar's rookie year. Willis Reed had to curtail him, and then Wilt!
DeleteI was not yet in college and definitely did see the games live, but I remember vividly when the injured Reed returned for game seven...
Great memories and, by the way, great seats, center court two or three rows behind the press table. I had never been to the Garden before and was a stranger in a strange land. An usher approached me and my group when I first arrived, wide-eyed and mouth agape, and asked--not "May I help you?" but--"Are you sure you're in the right section?" I silently handed him our tickets, still wide-eyed and mouth agape, and he said, "This way, sir." Those playoffs will forever remain, to me, unforgettable.
DeleteAs a Lakers fan, that last game featuring Reed's heroic appearance still rankles a little. That was back when we were the perpetually disappointed fan base and it looked as if Jerry and Elgin would never get a ring. The only consolation (but only cold comfort) was that it wasn't the Celtics torturing us that time.
DeleteMeanwhile this puzzle reminds me of a Thelonious Monk number.
I don't get any of the clues so far (except for Jan's in the previous thread), but I'm quite sure I have the intended answer. Here is my clue:
ReplyDelete𐌠 𐌡 𐌢 𐌣
Drop the last letter of the singer to get what sounds like part of another classic song title.
ReplyDelete"Ode to Billie Joe"
DeleteYesterday, the 3rd of June, was the day “Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.”
DeleteOk, here’s a hint: Remove the first letter of the second country’s name, rearrange a bit, and get the name of an Academy Award-winning film.
ReplyDeleteRemove the first letter of the second country's name and replace a letter in the first country's name with that letter to get a non-academy award-winning movie.
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DeleteI had a hard time with Dr. K's hint until I realized that the first country is also involved in the rearrangement.
DeleteMy apologies, Lancek (and anyone else having trouble). I should have specified that you need to rearrange both countries’ names minus that one letter.
DeleteBack when I thought only the second country was involved, I was able to remove the first THREE letters of the second country's Name, rearrange a bit, and get the name of an Academy Award winning film. Is that worth extra credit?
DeleteRemove the first three letters of OMAN and lay the remaining letter on its side to get "Z," the 1969 film that won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film.
DeleteCongrats to Mike Reiss for another entertaining puzzle! I doubt the successful entries will approach 2,000 again this week, but 1,000 is a possibility.
ReplyDeleteThis hints at another Billy Joel son, "The Entertainer." It also mentions 1,000, as in grand (piano).
DeleteBy the way, I'm glad the on-air player was a Chicagoan. For me (and I know for a lot of Blainesvillains), the words do not start with the same syllable!
ReplyDeleteThe singer is mentioned in the Epstein files, but only in reference to a concert. It's unlikely that he had his feet massaged aboard the Lolita express, like Mike Reiss's boss.
ReplyDeleteMusinglink, somehow, someway, your clue brought me to the answer! And to go with a theme from the folks above, the artist most likely has a rooting interest in the NBA finals! P.S. When our kids were younger we used to sing this song all the time!
DeleteThe second verse of the song has a somewhat unique property. By the way, I initially thought of a different two word song title that shares the same second word but that one didn’t work out :)
ReplyDeletePlease don't try to solve this puzzle while driving. Go Knicks! I saw them win Game 3 in Cleveland.
ReplyDeleteTimely!
ReplyDeleteIndeed. I once had dealings with these two countries when it was "one after the other".
DeleteIt was a little jarring to hear that over 2,000 folks got the correct answer to last week’s puzzle. It was pretty easy, but not _that_ easy.
ReplyDeleteI see what you did there.
DeleteRemove one letter, a vowel, from one of the two countries. Rearrange the remaining letters to name a character that has appeared in multiple movies.
ReplyDeleteJaws, I followed your instructions and got a character that was only in one movie with Dustin Hoffman.
DeleteI think feinstee knows the character JAWS is cluing.
DeleteCap, remove a different vowel.
DeleteJaws, I did as you suggested and got the answer you describe.
DeleteThere's an ice cream place in my town that has the same initials as the person who composed and played the song .
ReplyDeleteYou can rearrange the song into an emotion and what you might do when you have that emotion.
ReplyDeletePiano Man turns into pain, moan. This was a puzzle on January 20, 2019.
DeleteGreat puzzle from Mike Reiss, nice wordplay. I didn't solve it too soon, since I was up late watching the NBA Playoffs, getting ready for my beloved Knicks this coming Wednesday!
ReplyDeleteI'm also a lifelong Knicks-fan, and I was a kid when they last won a championship. My childhood home, in fact, was four city blocks from MSG.
Numerical hint: 44 and 7
ReplyDeleteSounds like Mardi gras.
ReplyDeleteJames Monroe
ReplyDeleteVentus secundus reinterpreted for modern ears.
ReplyDeleteThe singer's middle name sounds like it might enjoy something mentioned in the song.
ReplyDeleteI suspect a martin would enjoy bread in a jar.
DeleteJust back home from 9 days tent camping in Eastern Oregon on the Deschutes River and now checking in.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read this week's puzzle on my crappy cell phone I figured I would have to get back home and solve it via my PC, but actually the answer came quickly via logic instead. I was afraid I would not know the "popular song" although it turned out I surprisingly knew it plus the singer. There aren't all that many countries with a second letter R. I won't say more, but that helped get me there. So I kinda like this one.
Now THAT is a brilliant one. The Charlie Chaplin/Chan puzzle was LAME.
ReplyDeleteI like to SING this song, but find the lyrics offensive, cuz they're condescending and ELITIST/snobbish. And conceited! Seriously?! Talk about megalomania! "Oh pleez, deliver us from our meaningless existence."
Piano Man >>> Iran & Oman
ReplyDeletePIANO MAN (—> IRAN, OMAN)
ReplyDelete“Remove the first letter of the second country’s name, rearrange a bit, and get the name of an Academy Award-winning film.”
(P.S. I meant that both countries’ names were involved.)
—> IRAN + MAN —> Rain Man
The reminiscences about my attendance at the Knicks 1970 NBA playoff games against the Bucks and the Lakers in Madison Square Garden were all true. Of course, it is also true that MSG was the site of a famous 10-year series of Billy Joel concerts, aka “The Greatest Arena Run In History.”
One down, three to go. Go, Knicks!
I wrote, “Rearrange the letters of the countries. You get a word related to another country.” That's ROMANIAN.
ReplyDeleteMy clue was "Sounds like Mardi gras." Refers to the line in the song: "And the piano, it sounds like a carnival....."
ReplyDeletePIANO MAN, IRAN, OMAN
ReplyDeleteAnd, like many others, my clue was my (true !) story of watching the Knicks play as kid, and growing up four city blocks from MSG.
They are broadcasting a video of Billy Joel's performances from MSG, as described above by Dr. K.
Go Knicks!
PIANO MAN – P + R --> IRAN, OMAN
ReplyDeleteLast Sunday I said, "It was a little jarring to hear that over 2,000 folks got the correct answer to last week’s puzzle. It was pretty easy, but not _that_ easy. …a little jarring… “…put bread in my jar…” lyrics from Piano Man.
Piano Man->Iran, Oman
ReplyDeleteI'm no real estate novelist. I lean more toward short stories. "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" , for example. Only after posting my hint did I discover the 1995 memoir: "Bobby Short: The Life and Times of a Saloon Singer ".
ReplyDeleteFive o'clock always seemed to me to be a more reasonable hour for a regular crowd of businessmen to shuffle into a bar, but I was forgetting it wasn't a weekday.
PIANO MAN (IRAN, OMAN)
ReplyDelete> The artist anagrams to a recipe step.
BOIL JELLY
> Timely!
Refers both to the first line of the song ("It's nine o'clock on a Saturday"), as discussed here, and to the fact that the two countries share a maritime border that's been in the news a lot lately: the Strait of Hormuz.
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ReplyDeleteIn our March 19th edition of Puzzleria!, our friend Ecoarchitect, master puzzlecrafter and conundrum designer, treated us to his first installment of an "Ecoarchitectural Appetizer titled “Don’t know much about geography: Around the World in 8.0 Daze.”
DeleteIn this week's edition of Puzzleria! we complete the project bty presenting you with Round 2: an “Ecosmopolitan” Appetizer titled
"Around the World in 8.0 Daze PART II!"
Geography has never been so wonderfully fun!
We shall upload Eco's architectural conundrummery very soon this very afternoon.
Also on this week's menus:
~ a Schpuzzle of the Week titled "Herculean Circular Logic,"
~ an Art Studio Hors d’Oeuvre titled “Be not Led Astray!”
~ an Affected Pretentious Slice titled “Stylish Chic Hip Duds, Dude!”
~ a Dead-lifting the Weight of the World Dessert titled “Do strong-tough-guys wear chaps?” and
~ eight riffs of this week's NPR puzzle titled Pia“No Man Is An Island...”, including six contributed by our friend Nodd.
So... open your glove boxes or compartments, unfold those Rand-McNally roadmaps, and just try your best to connect the dots! (And if there's partially full box of Dots in the glove box, eat a few as you solve... they may be brain food).
Lego...
My clue was:
ReplyDelete𐌠 𐌡 𐌢 𐌣
Those are Etruscan numerals.
ETRUSCAN MATH anagrams to "Tehran Muscat", the capitals of the two countries.
Piano Man, Iran, Oman. A comedian once said of Billy Joel's 1985 hit, Second Wind (You're Only Human), a sort of exhortation against teen suicide, that it was probably the song Piano Man that made everyone suicidal to begin with! It is a depressing song.
ReplyDeleteSorry, one more thing. Ventus secundus, does not mean second wind but another wind. Usually referring to the tail wind on a boat, as distinguished from the wind blowing the mainsail forward.
ReplyDeleteI clued "this puzzle reminds me of a Thelonious Monk number," referring to "Straight No Chaser." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJs2eCqhTN0
ReplyDeleteMy posts -
ReplyDelete“The second verse of the song has a somewhat unique property.” - referred to the lyric when one of the patrons refers to Billy Joel as “Bill” - perhaps his only song that he refers to himself (and by a name he doesn’t really go by)
“ By the way, I initially thought of a different two word song title that shares the same second word but that one didn’t work out” - this referred to “Macho Man” (with references to working out in the lyrics).
I was pleased to see that tomorrow's featured picture on the Wikipedia home page is of an adder, and that they identify the snake as a female. But I was disappointed that they failed to mention why the snake was found, as pictured, on a horizontal tree trunk. I'm sure it's because she's about to give birth. I know this because, as anyone familiar with a little math knows, it's easy for adders to multiply on a log table.
ReplyDeleteAre you sure it wasn't a bark-a lounger?
Deletejan, A+++++.
DeletePIANO MAN (IRAN, OMAN)
ReplyDelete"James Monroe" >>> One of Billy Joel's wives, Christie Brinkley, was born on Groundhog Day in Monroe, Michigan
Blaine, your lapel pins are on their third try to get to you. Took them to the post office this time. I did learn, for future reference, one can turn in old stamps for the face value of postage bought. Not for cash, mind you, but to send a package or letter. Did not know that.
ReplyDeleteUSPS promises a Saturday delivery. Let's see how they do, 2 months after I mailed them originally.
As we approach our country's 250th anniversary it would do us well to remember that Benjamin Franklin was a KEY player in our history.
ReplyDeleteMy numerical hint of 44 and 7 refer to the most prominent retired sports number at Syracuse University and the number that was similarly recognized for Billy Joel's record-setting seventh performance at the Carrier Dome (as the stadium was known at the time). Unfortunately his 8th scheduled performance was cancelled due to his NPH diagnosis.
ReplyDeleteI said, "Remove one letter, a vowel, from one of the two countries. Rearrange the remaining letters to name a character that has appeared in multiple movies."
ReplyDeleteIRAN, OMAN - A = IRON MAN, who appeared in many of the MCU movies.