Q: Take the 10-letter (2-word) title of a popular TV series for which most of its seasons have been filmed in a foreign country. Remove the first and last letters, and the remaining letters can be rearranged to spell the name of a country. What are the two names?Take the 4th letter of the country and change it to a G. Rearrange to get the name of a popular liquid.
Edit: The liquid is GASOLINE
A: LOVE ISLAND --> SLOVENIA

I'm surprised that there were only 900 low-fat entries this week. As this week's guess, I'll take 550.
ReplyDeleteThe letters you take away are L and D, which add up to 550 in Roman numerals.
DeleteOh my. Lindsay Graham is dead but Mitch McMcConnell is "alive." What a way to start a Sunday morning.
ReplyDeleteThird time's the charm.
DeleteHmmm, Dr. K, who will it be, who will it be?
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteOops! I obviously had my eye on the thread and wasn't thinking about the puzzle. Sorry.
DeleteOn air, Will said that the TV series had a two-word title.
ReplyDeleteThanks, I've updated the wording but I'm still waiting for a link to the puzzle that aired.
DeleteI think I have it. But a clue?
ReplyDeleteGood one. I think I can see a connection to last week’s puzzle. Hope everyone is enjoying the thrilling World Cup this month.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteMea culpa.
DeleteI don’t know anything about TV series, but I was surprised to find this show as a subject on a podcast I listened to this morning as I did weights. Remove the first two and the last two letters from the show, rearrange, and you get a container.
ReplyDeleteRob - it seems we listen the same podcasts.
DeleteRemove the second letter, rearrange a bit, and get a possible synonym for a famous home.
ReplyDeleteAmazing! But be sure to start with the TV show, not the country.
DeleteRight. Thanks for the clarification, Lancek.
DeleteOh goody, an anagram of a tv series, what could be more fun than that?
ReplyDeleteOkay I have it, but I'm not going to rack my brain for a good hint. Maybe one will just come to me.
Trump
ReplyDeleteThere's a local version of the series coming to the country.
ReplyDeleteThe NPR Sunday Puzzle Page still hasn't been updated.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. Just listened to last week's offering where the winner says she has 5 grandchildren, does geneology, and plays puzzles. Will's retort "I like how you collect things." Did he mean "collecting grandchildren" is a thing?
DeleteThat"s weird phrasing about one's kin, if so.
I am collecting photos of my pup in many places (including a Nebraska cornfield at sunrise -' in my thumbnail) but I would not say I have collected Maizie, Bruno, and now, Maxx.
I have two children but they are not in any "collection."
Weird. Just weird to me.
The new puzzle is up now.
DeleteCapisce paisan?!
DeleteRemove the first and last letters from the second word of the TV show, rearrange the remaining letters to spell something read rather than watched. Appropriate for me, who’s never owned a TV.
ReplyDeleteThat's an approach.
DeleteThe team from this country did not qualify for the 2026 World Cup.
ReplyDeleteThe answer is similar to a lot of recent puzzles.
ReplyDeleteThere was a recent puzzle about Courtney Love on May 24. Also, Los Angeles, low-fat, and Love Island all start with LO. There have been a LOt of puzzles starting with LO.
DeleteThe only one I found with 10 letters was if I didn't include the?
ReplyDeleteNever mind....I finally cheated and used AI, so I won't submit the answer... I should say that this a series I NEVER would have watched. I hated the title.
ReplyDeleteYes, especially in view of things along the same line.
DeleteThis puzzle was a bit slippery, for sure. --Margaret G.
ReplyDeleteThe two words in the show title appear in the titles of two shows that used to air back-to-back. (I'd never heard of the show. I solved it working backwards from Blaine's hint.)
ReplyDeleteGreat clue!
DeleteThank you. I watched way too much TV in those days.
DeleteGreat observation! And kudos for using Blaine’s clue to solve the puzzle! (Perhaps you’re suggesting the need for a blog administrator action!)
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteNodd, Snipper, and anyone else interested: Take the last word of the show that Nodd referenced and aired first in the lineup and the first word of the second show. Remove the first two letters from the first and the final letter from the second, rearrange what remains, and get a common holiday redundancy.
DeleteI had to search for the two shows to confirm the titles because I'd never seen them although I had heard of them. That was a busy decade. And you can add them to the NPR puzzle answer, another show I've also never seen but had not even heard of.
Reminds me of a bowl full of jelly.
DeleteFat Santa?
DeleteYes, sir.
Delete(The shows referred to in my hint were "The Love Boat" and "Fantasy Island," which contain the words to make "Love Island," which after you remove the first and last letters anagrams to Slovenia.)
DeleteI am sorry to report that Mitch McConnell is reported to be recovering and may someday return to the Senate. I was hoping for more good news such as we got earlier today.
ReplyDeleteIt's beginning to look like Mitch McConnell may not be on the mend after all. There are questions regarding his "statement" informing us he is on the mend. No voice or video after a month now. It reeks of an AI scam. So we do not know what the truth is.
DeleteThe best advice used to be: Believe nothing you hear and only half of what you see. That was pre-photoshop and AI. Now it's best to believe nothing one hears or sees.
DeleteApparently he said he was “briefly unconscious,” which is ironic given that he's been without a conscience for his entire political career, if not his entire life.
DeleteDrop the first 3 letters of the first word and the last letter of the last word....rearrange to get one of the coolest sequels of all time.
ReplyDeleteAnd change fourth letter to a g in country name -per Blaine- and drop last letter =mix gently -to get a libation -not as popular now as it once was.
DeleteYea it's Sloe gin
DeleteIs there any other way to listen to the on-air puzzle? The NPR site still says "audio will be available later today", and it is already much later today than when I first checked it earlier this morning. Another few hours, and it will NO LONGER be available later today, because it will no longer be today. I was able to solve the puzzle, though, and I totally relate to Nodd's earlier post. Sometimes the first show would do a crossover with the second show.
ReplyDeletepjbAlsoRecallsACertainAttractiveGroupOfSistersWithTheLastNameOf
"Mandrell"WhoHadTheirOwnVarietyShowAnHourEarlierThanTheOtherTwoShows,OnlyOnAnotherNetwork
Sorry, I don't know how "Puzzles & Brainteasers" ended up at the end of my post. I must've hit a wrong button or something.
ReplyDeletepjbHasHadTooMuchToHaveToThinkAboutWithoutSomething(Strangely)GoingWrongWithHisCorrespondenceOnThisWebsite!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid I'm becoming too apathetic.
ReplyDeletehttps://s.abcnews.com/images/Politics/melania-trump-dont-care-jacket-gty-jc-_hpMain_16x9_992.jpg?w=384
DeleteRIP Sam Neill 🦖
ReplyDeleteSam Neill and Lindsey Graham are two more examples of the wealthy claiming more than their fair share of resources. Come the revolution, everyone will get just one first name.
DeleteScarlett
ReplyDeleteMy apologies for not responding sooner to your correct answer to my puzzle last week. My significant other has come down with a serious disease and things have been rather hectic here lately.
Oh my! Life can change so quickly. I do hope things turn around. Sending positive thoughts your way.
DeleteBest wishes for a quick recovery.
DeleteChuck, I echo good thoughts for your significant other.
DeleteChuck, looking firward to hearing that your SO is on the mend.
DeleteShift a letter in the show name backwards one and rearrange to get a word that could describe the cast.
ReplyDeleteWho or what is tagging stuff? I smell AI.
Delete@ Blaine, might you stop the automatic tagging by AI?!
DeleteIt appears that Google introduced a new text ad format with "related" text links. I think I found the setting and have disabled it.
DeleteThanks, Blaine. I hope it sticks.
DeleteWell, "Puzzles & Brainteasers" must've only appeared on my end, but you can clearly see "Language Resources" ended up on two different posts from two different posters.
ReplyDeletepjbStillDoesn'tKnowHowThatCanHappenOnAnyBlaine'sBlogPostNow,ButHeThinksEveryoneShouldBeCarefulWhenTheyPostAnythingHereRightNow!
Yeah, that's some strange stuff showing up the past few weeks. I noticed it on my posts too.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteHappy Bastille Day tomorrow! Vive la France in the World Cup!
ReplyDeleteTrying to look at all the angles in the game.
DeleteJe suis d'accord!
Delete❤️🤍💙
DeleteWe’re sitting in the San Diego Airport awaiting our flight back home. I am rooting for la France, natutrellement. Mon père a vécu juste à côté de Paris pendant plus de vingt ans. Mais oui!.
Delete*naturellement*
Delete
DeleteMerde! L'Espagne a gagné. Tant pis. Perdre le jour de la Bastille, ça fait un peu mal. Une autre année, je suppose.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLarry Hart came close to getting the answer.
ReplyDeleteSummer provides a respite from our local NPR station's semiannual ask. Not enough listeners around for a fundraiser.
ReplyDeleteGeologists and Time >>>
ReplyDeletehttps://www.themarginalian.org/2024/09/18/chronodiversity/
And then there's James Taylor >>> "The thing about Time is that Time isn't Really Real."
On a more mundane note:
DeleteLe temps est un chien qui ne mord que les pauvres.
(Time is a dog that bites only the poor.)
Léon Bloy
I used to think that this was just high-sounding nonsense a la Rimbaud, but apparently it's a proverb that teaches us that time (and all its misfortunes) weighs more heavily on the poor.
¿Por qué no los dos?
DeleteMusical Clue: YMCA
ReplyDeleteI don't think the solution is: ASIAN LOVER => SLOVENIA
ReplyDeleteLOVE ISLAND, SLOVENIA
ReplyDelete“Remove the second letter [of the show], rearrange a bit, and get a possible synonym for a famous home.”
—> "Elvisland" (otherwise known as Graceland)
Love Island, Slovenia
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI wrote, “I don’t know anything about TV series, but I was surprised to find this show as a subject on a podcast I listened to this morning as I did weights.” That was a recording of the “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” program of the very day before, making jokes about “Love Island.”
ReplyDelete“Remove the first two and the last two letters from the show, rearrange, and you get a container.” That’s VALISE.
LOVE ISLAND, SLOVENIA
ReplyDelete> There's a local version of the series coming to the country.
LOVE ISLAND Adria airs in September.
> Summer provides a respite from our local NPR station's semiannual ask. Not enough listeners around for a fundraiser.
Anagrams to MELANIA KNAUSS, the former name of our SLOVENIAN First Lady.
Love Island and Slovenia sorry it took me so long to get this posted but I am camping on the Washington coast and my cell phone is almost impossible to use and takes me forever to find the current Blaine's NPR puzzle blog so anyway back to enjoying my vacation camping on the coast although we had a wild thunderstorm the early this morning but it's going to be pretty nice
ReplyDeleteI keep trying to post the answer on this damned cell phone I'm camping on the Washington coast on the ocean but it doesn't it takes me forever to even get to this site anyway it's the same as everybody else what does it love Island in Slovenia but I can't get this to post we'll try again I don't even know where to hit to get it to post
ReplyDeleteI suffered a rare Blaine double-deletion this week, both well-deserved. I replied to Snipper’s post on watching the World Cup with “…to say nothing of Wimbledon!” I thought it was a subtle hint at LOVE, but not subtle enough. I enjoyed Word Woman’s post about Lindsay Graham and Mitch McConnell and wanted to get in on the fun, so I replied to Dr. K’s “Third Time’s the charm” with “Just don’t make that 3 out of seashells.” I didn’t notice how this was TMI for the show Love Island. So…two yellow cards and sent off.
ReplyDeleteLOVE ISLAND, SLOVENIA
ReplyDeleteI alluded to the flags of France and Slovenia being similar with their blue, white, and red stripes going vertically and horizontally respectively.
Never saw the show. Have I missed anything?
My posts:
ReplyDelete- “I think I can see a connection to last week’s puzzle.” - Slo (from “slow-fast”) is the beginning of Slovenia.
- “Hope everyone is enjoying the thrilling World Cup this month.” - while Slovenia didn’t qualify, its World Cup country code is SVN which might also be short for “seven”, and “this month” of July is the seventh month.
A shout out to Nodd for the fun memories of watching Love Boat and Fantasy Island back-to-back.
And a shout out to Lancek - as a big tennis fan, I liked your comment, though apparently Blaine considered you a “sinner” and deleted it (I would have let it slide!)
Blainsvillians! You need some Skydiversions!
ReplyDeleteOn this week’s edition of Puzzleria!, our friend skydiveboy has prepared a payload of four excellent posers that he is dumping down upon us from the heavens above. They should land softly upon your laptops and phones sometime very soon this very afternoon.
They are titled:
~ “Vive la différence”;
~ “Sleeping-bag no-no”;
~ “Now, Presenting on stage...”; and
~ A pump implies the past.
Also on our menus this week:
* A Schpuzzle of the Week titled: “Transparency At Last!” that involves 20th-Century fiction;
* Eight riffs of this week’s Riffing Off Shortz And Baggish NPR Puzzle Challenge, titled “ ‘I love slander!’ said the Love Islander,” including seven from Nodd and one from Plantsmith, redoubtable riffmasters both!, and
* an Hors d’Oeuvre, a Appetizer, and, to top it all off... a Dessert!
Ans, so, join us... get “Skydiverted!”
Lego...
LOVE ISLAND, SLOVENIA
ReplyDeleteMy Musical Clue of YMCA was because Donald Trump loves the song YMCA and he also (pretends he?) loves Melania, who is from SLOVENIA.
The Trump administration is ALL about LOVE and SLOVENIA!
I commented that Larry Hart almost got the answer, a reference to "I'll Take Manhattan," in which the refrain ends with "We'll turn Manhattan/Into an isle of joy!" That sounds much sweeter, to my ears at least, than "Love Island," but I suppose the producers of that show were probably aiming for the crasser tone of the title they chose.
ReplyDeleteI thought Rudolfo's post late Wednesday was hilarious. I assume it was an innocent mistake, but nobody seemed too bothered by it.
ReplyDeleteI thought flagging it as TMI would be too confirming.
DeleteSame here, Jan. I was going to reply with "Hmm?" but then thought I better not.
DeleteAnd that, in a nutshell, is the paradox of pointing out something as TMI.
DeleteTMI might also have conjured up Three Mile Island, which itself contains part of the answer!
DeleteScarlett, I also thought it was hilarious and decided to say LOVE of it ;-).
DeleteIgnorance, madam, pure ignorance: neither I nor my computer ever heard of LOVE ISLAND! Good thing I didn't post:
ReplyDeletePORNO CAMEL => CAMEROON
I hadn't heard of it either. I finally gave up and cheated to get the answer. So I didn't post any hints here.
DeleteRudolfo, I love it. Someone should write a show called PORNO CAMEL. It would, of course, air on Wednesday.
DeleteLancek, airing on hump day for sure.
DeleteIf I had 3 camels -- a dromedary, a bactrian, and a wild bactrian, I would definitely name them Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian.
Because, you know, whatcha ma column? ;-)
Speak of classical Greek columns, my wife noticed that although today's New York Times Spelling Bee game featured the letters D A C I R T Y, for some reason Sam Ezersky refused to accept the pangram "CARYATID".
DeleteLove Island, Slovenia
ReplyDeleteLast Sunday my clue was “Trump.” The country this puzzle produces is the same country the First Lady comes from.
"LOVE ISLAND", SLOVENIA
ReplyDeletepjbMustPointOutThat,ImmediatelyFollowingLastNight'sPremiereOf"Nation'sDumbest"On[FOX],ThisEveningThePresidentHasChosenToAddressTheNation(YourPunchlineGoesHere)
I'd heard of The Love Boat, and Fantasy Island, but Love Island was new to me. Congratulations to those who solved. See you all on Sunday!
ReplyDeleteIn a rerun of Jeopardy from back in 2020 the answer was "The New York Times described this show as a cross between 'The Bachelor' and the Stanford Prison Experiment." I don't think I need to tell you the question.
DeleteMy hint: "Shift a letter in the show name backwards one and rearrange to get a word that could describe the cast." Change the V to a U and anagram to get "delusional"
ReplyDeleteStill in bed and solved.
ReplyDeleteThis week's online challenge comes from The New York Times Spelling Bee editor Sam Ezersky. Take the name of a popular 21st-century film with animals, in eight letters. Remove the first and last letters, then change one of the remaining six letters to a C, to spell a plural word for certain animals. What words are these?
It's not the preferred plural.
DeleteI never saw the movie, but I saw a movie featuring one of the resulting animals, whichever plural one uses.
DeleteUgh, another anagram -- that's two in a row.
ReplyDeleteI have a book recommendation for Iris Corona. I guess that's my hint for the week.
No anagramming involved.
DeleteOh yeah.
Delete:)
Okay, I withdraw my objection.
Where is my brain today?
The answer to that question might be TMI.
DeleteThe animals do not appear in the movie.
ReplyDeletePerhaps a halloween movie.
ReplyDeleteA long running TV show comes to mind.
ReplyDeleteI originally jumped to the wrong conclusion but then recovered my senses and came to the right one. As the old saying goes: look after you leap.
ReplyDeleteOops, forgot to post...was gonna mention Wes Anderson for Isle of Dogs!
ReplyDelete