Sunday, June 14, 2026

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 14, 2026): From the Kitchen to Something Unwanted

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 14, 2026): From the Kitchen to Something Unwanted
Q: Name something in 10 letters that's found in a kitchen. Drop its sixth letter to name something on a keyboard. Then drop the new word's fifth letter to name something no one wants to get. What words are these?
Normally I have something to add here, but today it's the opposite.

33 comments:

  1. Puzzle makers often get the third thing.

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  2. Just over 150 correct entries last week.

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    1. So 149 turned out to be a pretty good prediction after all!

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  3. I solved it working both ways, to and fro, from the 9-letter keyboard word.

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    1. Same. Can’t say I’d heard of the kitchen item before.

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  4. Was that the first time "biblical erotica" has been uttered on NPR?

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  5. Isn't it just like Michael Pickard to deliver us roses?

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  6. From the third word, remove two letters and rearrange. You get a locale which is musically associated with something you get when you remove three letters from the third word.

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  7. Repeat the removed letters a couple of times. The result is something associated with cats.

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  8. Musical Clue: Guns 'n Roses

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    1. If everything I'm seeing in the clue is intentional, then M5's is plenty subtle!
      But mine was going in a totally different direction, actually.

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  9. Trying saying all three words aloud in quick succession. Go ahead...I know you want to.

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  10. Relocate one letter in the third word, and get some flora.

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  11. Think of an old time movie character.

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  12. I tried looking for other 10-/9-/8-letter words that met the letter-deletion criteria. (There are several, none of them common, and none with the stated properties.) I was surprised that the 10-letter word doesn't appear on the Moby word list of single words (at least not in the version I downloaded years ago), and that the 9-letter word isn't on its list of common words.

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  13. Fun puzzle, which I enjoyed while eating my gourmet breakfast of cornflakes, hashbrowns, and plaintoast. Then I went over to my piano to tickle the ivorykeys (some ebonykeys as well, like when I used a cminor9th chord).

    Btw, I didn’t realize what the most common synonym was for the first word.

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    1. Usually with a G major chord, though I play around with different bass notes depending on the progression.

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  14. Finally got it. Now, maybe I'll run & fix sangria.

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  15. Chuck Norris would have no problem with this one.

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  18. If you take a different first kitchen item word, remove the 6th letter, then the 5th, then the 4th, you get a synonym for the first word.

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