Q: Name two words that are opposites. They share a single letter. Remove that shared letter from each word, put a hyphen between the two resulting words and you'll get a term you sometimes see in food ads. What words are these?Take the hyphenated term and add the letters M and R. Rearrange to get something you don't want to see in your food.
Sunday, July 05, 2026
NPR Sunday Puzzle (July 5, 2026): Marketing Buzzwords
NPR Sunday Puzzle (July 5, 2026): Marketing Buzzwords
35 comments:
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Change the last two letters of the first word to an internet term, and remove the space between the words. You’ll name a food product described by the ad term.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised how easy this turned out to be.
ReplyDeleteEasy, but it’s the sort of puzzle that makes me say, “Why didn’t I notice that before?” Remove the last letter from each of the two words of the food term. Rearrange what’s left. You get a food that in ordinary versions meets the description.
ReplyDeleteInsert a letter into one of the original words to get another pair of food related opposites.
ReplyDeleteAnd a musical clue: Simon and Garfunkel.
ReplyDeleteGood one!
DeleteI concur! The great thing about using that duo as a musical clue is that their catalog is so huge. The same is true about the Beatles (who also could provide the same clue).
DeleteThe songs were released only two years apart.
DeleteYou were probably waiting for me to add Billy Joel to this list (for one of the words).
DeleteI gave the answer to chat gpt.
ReplyDeletethis is a cute bit of wordplay, and I'm happy that many, many people will get the satisfaction of discovering it. The correct answer count might even exceed last week's "more than two thousand."
ReplyDeleteEasy puzzle, but https://www.npr.org/2026/07/05/g-s1-131765/sunday-puzzle-five-plus-two-two-plus-five currently significantly misstates it. Annoying.
ReplyDeleteWhoa! good catch. Will and Blaine got it right, but some intern messed up again.
DeleteWill got it right on the air, but the way it's phased on the Web page is "The two starting words." It supposed to be the two remaining words. I know we're not supposed to criticize Will, but being a rebel and iconoclast, he uses the word "start" too much. As in "the start of the second word" "the start of the first word," etc.He should say beginning. It just sounds better.
DeleteHuh.
DeleteIt does to me, too.
I wonder if that's a difference in dialect, though -- Will's a Hoosier, of course.
Lots of style advice tells us to prefer Germanic to Latinate words when they're semantically equivalent, so that would speak in favor of 'start'.
Actually, the first time Will stated the puzzle he said "between the two starting words." In the second summarized version he said "between the two parts. So don't blame the intern this week.
DeleteDid you know baseball is mentioned in the Bible? Yup, right away. In the big inning. ;-)
DeleteThe bible also says men should make the coffee. It’s in He brews.
DeleteLOL!
DeleteAnd I didn't use to think they knew beans about making coffee back then.
Apparently the cars were bigger back then. The Bible says they were all in one Accord.
DeleteTrue enough, but apparently God is a Chrysler guy. I believe it says somewhere that He drove them (whoever them were) out of the valley in his [Plymouth] Fury.
DeleteNot to mention the Ram that Abraham found in the thicket.
DeleteGood observation, Scarlett. This got me to thinking about a suspicion I've entertained for some time now, and that is the ability of some people to foresee the future. I am referring to where Jesus points out that there are none so blind as those who will not see. What I suspect is that he was warning us of the Not Sees who would emerge almost two thousand years later.
DeleteThinking...
ReplyDeleteAn old adage comes to mind.
ReplyDeleteA fable comes to mind.
ReplyDeleteThink of two opposite food tastes. Remove one occurrence of the same letter from each. Rearrange the remainder to find two opposite actions which may be performed on fabric.
ReplyDeleteWhen you have the answer, shout it out. Don't wait.
By working backwards, I was able to figure this one out almost immediately. Fun puzzle!
ReplyDeleteI'm reminded of a riddle about a horse.
ReplyDeleteI am surprised it took me this long to figure it out. Why didn't I think of this pair of words earlier? No clue in this, just venting.
ReplyDeleteStart with two different opposite words, remove their only shared letter, and rearrange the remaining two words to make a single familiar word.
ReplyDeleteEAT CARDBOARD!
ReplyDeleteThere are 2 words described by the opposites that can be rearranged into the name of a famous puzzlist.
ReplyDeleteHad to use my little grey cells for this one
ReplyDeleteI'd rather go hungry.
ReplyDelete