I'm reminded of a puzzle with something left out.Q: Using only the letters in the words FACES NORTH, repeating them as often as you wish, you can spell a familiar expression in seven words (4,3,3,6,3,3,5). What expression is it?
Edit: I was thinking of a puzzle involving trees that got rearranged to be 4 other trees, but with a letter left out.
A: CAN'T SEE THE FOREST FOR THE TREES
I haven't cracked Blaine's clue. I was thinking along similar lines (I believe) to Dr. K's clue in the previous thread, but I'll say this instead: lift a finger, anyone?
ReplyDeleteSomething is missing.
ReplyDeleteHey, would you look at that?!
DeleteTurtle eggs. Goddess winking.;-)
ReplyDeleteRearrange the longest word in the expression to get a word that is a desirable quality in clothing.
ReplyDeleteAs a clotheslover, this sent me on the right trail.
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ReplyDeleteA Monkee said it.
ReplyDeleteI agree, uh, 100%.
DeleteNice call, Nodd! And a Ponee said it better.
DeleteA very thorough analysis, Lancek.
DeleteMichael Nesmith's "Different Drum" includes the lyric "can't see the forest for the trees."
DeleteAnd Lancek's analysis was "thorough" because Thoreau wrote of the virtue of stepping to a "different drummer."
DeleteIt was famously recorded by the Stone Poneys, allowing the world to discover the fabulous Linda Ronstadt. I didn't want to tip Nodd's nice hint into TMI territory, but Ponee fit well with Monkee and would not have added anything useful for someone who missed the original reference.
DeleteI simply could not bring myself to write "thorough".
DeleteWell, the Liquid Paper heir said it first.
ReplyDeleteWell done, Musinglink.
DeleteAgreed. I hadn't known that about Nesmith.
DeleteThe expression is certainly familiar to many a puzzle solver from time to time.
ReplyDeleteThe on-air player should have no trouble with this.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that clue. It may help me solve this one but I'm not there yet. Speaking of the on-air player, did anyone else notice that she was *not* asked how she came up with last week's answer? I wonder if this was a chance omission or perhaps a change in the script that they follow from week to week. I kind of feel that this weekly question was what led to "Bobby Gate" earlier this year.
DeleteI just submitted a similar puzzle to NPR. Doubt it will get used though.
Delete@JayB, when I got the call and was asked that question, I carefully explained that I had looked up related lists online and then written a script to cross-check anagrams of those entries with the titles of Wikipedia entries. They reasonably chose not to include that in what aired.
DeleteLol! Thank you for that perspective, JG! I've solved a couple of puzzles programmatically over the years. Never thought about how I'd explain it if asked. Still waiting for that call...
DeleteWith all due respect to Steve Baggish – who has written many fine puzzles – he could have, but did not, deal the with the obvious problem in the clue. I am surprised that Will let this go as is, except that it was written by Steve Baggish.
ReplyDeleteI can't understand it either.
DeleteSteve doesn't have as much Baggish as the rest of us, I suppose. Or maybe more.
DeleteI'm not seeing the problem.
Delete:(
I guess you guys will explain it to me on Thursday.
I guess Will didn’t realize there may be some sensitivity to this phrase based on some recent news. And I’m guessing all the fuss about the puzzle relates to a “missing letter”?
ReplyDeleteWhat do you call two nuns in a drum circle?
ReplyDeleteConundrum
DeleteCorrect Word Woman! You get an extra lapel pin. 😉
DeleteAlong the same lines: "In my first my second sat; my third and fourth I ate."
DeleteThanks, Scarlett. I definitely need another Blainesville lapel pin.
DeleteBtw, if anyone still wants a lapel pin, I have just one left. Please be in touch.
This is not a puzzle that has been recycled.
ReplyDeleteIn graph theory, a forest is a graph with no cycles. A tree is a connected graph with no cycles.
DeleteI made a guess on 3 of the 3-letter words and all of a sudden the rest became clear. --Margaret G.
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI have the phrase, and I think I get the problem that some people alluded to, but IMO it's not a big deal and doesn't really affect the sense of the puzzle...
ReplyDeleteI'll bet I have the right answer....
ReplyDeleteI agree that adding a permitted letter makes it read better, so I probably have the consensus solution.
ReplyDeleteTo which I’ll add, adding a permitted 3-letter word, improves it further.
This is fascinating. For the life of me I can't see what added letter you guys mean, but I'm quite sure (from other clues) that I have the same answer as others. I had a kind of half-guess as to what added letter it might be, but SuperZee you're saying it's one of the FACES NORTH letters, right?
DeleteI’ve since found out (thanks to dial-a-friend) that my earlier answer was wrong, But it, and its variants, to be shared on Thursday, only used the letters in FACES NORTH.
DeleteOh!
DeleteOkay, so now I'm wondering whether the people who are complaining about a missing letter have the same answer I have after all. Although, Blaine's clue, which I do not understand, also mentions a missing letter...
Maybe. Maybe not.
DeleteLeave it to Steve to come up with this one.
ReplyDeleteelementary?
ReplyDeleteIf I may, I would like to re-post a variant of *last week's* puzzle that I found too late, but it's a companion to TRAM PO LINE: Think of a word in three syllables. Remove the two middle letters and you'll have a two-word phrase with roughly the same meaning as the original word.
ReplyDeleteThe smoke compounds the problem.
ReplyDeleteI am definitely going to need a shower tonight.
ReplyDeleteA meteor shower that is.
Who will preside over the shower, should it disperse?
DeleteShowering with a friend had a very different connotation back when.
ReplyDeleteCAN'T SEE THE FOREST FOR THE TREES
ReplyDelete"Hey, would look at that?!" >>> The phrase "can't see the forest for the trees" was noted in John Heywood's glossary, dating to 1546.
CAN’T SEE THE FOREST FOR THE TREES
ReplyDeleteI posted this both at the end of last week’s blog and on this week’s:
“Something is missing.”
—> I was simply referring to the missing apostrophe on “can’t,” without which it’s a word with a different meaning.
I especially liked the Monkee—Ponee—Liquid-paper-heir thread, alluding to Michael Nesmith and “Different Drum.” I also did see Nodd’s initiating comment, “Linda Ronstadt,” before he removed it (tmi?).
CAN'T SEE THE FOREST FOR THE TREES
ReplyDelete> The expression applies to a trip I'm taking in a couple of weeks.
Visiting family in the Bay Area, then driving NORTH to see redwoods.
> The on-air player should have no trouble with this.
Someone from "Redwood City" must know something about forests and trees.
Correct answer (thanks to dial-a-friend, and thus not sent in):
ReplyDeleteCan’t see the forest for the trees.
Wrong, but fun, answers:
Race for the fences, not the honor. (Meets all criteria; it means going for the home run, not hitting for average.)
Variants, using only the letters in NORTH FACES
Reach for the fences, not the honor. (adds a letter)
Reach for the fences, not for the honor. (adds a letter and a word)
Additional variants:
Race for the stars, not the honor.
Reach for the stars, not the honor.
Reach for the stars, not for the honor.
All of which reminded me of JFK, at Rice University, when he announced the goal of putting a man on the moon. “We choose to go to the moon, and the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are difficult.”
You can’t have big successes without big goals.
Can't see the forest for the trees.
ReplyDeleteCan't see the forest for the trees.
ReplyDeleteI wrote, “Rearrange the longest word in the expression to get a word that is a desirable quality in clothing.” That’s SOFTER.
ReplyDeleteOur friend Greg VanMechelen takes centerstage on this week's edition of Puzzleria! with an eight-pack of Econfusions titled:
ReplyDelete“All Around the World; All the World’s a Stage; Some Really Bad Players in the House.”
We shall try to upload Puzzleria! very soon... perhaps as soon as this very afternoon... but certainly ere midnight falls.
Also on our menus this week:
* a Schpuzzle of the Week titled “Pairs of non-littoral Pisces... alliterative and not,”
* a “Grease That Squeaky Wheel!” Hors d’Oeuvre titled “House” rhymes with “Mouse,” Right?
* a “‘Hole-o-caust’ Slice” titled “Compound Combustibility!”
* a “Sip Swish Gargle Rinse Spit” Dessert titled “Saltwater taffy? Likely bad for the teeth!” and
* eight riffs of this week's Riffing Off Shortz And Baggish Entrees, titled “You can’t see the florist for the peonies! (nor the beekeeper for the bees!)” (including six riffs from Nodd and one from Plantsmith.
We invite you all to take a global tour with us around the world with Ecoarchitect and all our talented puzzlemakers.
LegoWhoThinksTheWorldOfAllOurPuzzlerianContributors(ButWhoLivesInTheCityAndSoCan'tSeeTheForestForTheTreesNorCanHeSeeTheTreesNorCanHeEvenSeeTheForest!)
My post:
ReplyDelete- I guess Will didn’t realize there may be some sensitivity to this phrase based on some recent news - this referred to the various forest fires in the news in Ontario, Spokane, etc
- And I’m guessing all the fuss about the puzzle relates to a “missing letter”? - this was a reference to missing the word “you” (which sounds like the letter u) at the beginning of the phrase , which some think belongs there.
My clue was: "Lift a finger, anyone?"
ReplyDeleteThe phrase "see the forest for the trees" is pretty strongly negative polarity, in that people don't really say "Oh, she can see the forest for the trees." (It sounds weird, although maybe not quite ungrammatical.)
The same is true for "lift a finger"; complaining that someone would not lift a finger to help is natural and common, whereas pointing out that someone did lift a finger to help is rare and... odd.
CAN'T SEE THE FOREST FOR THE TREES
ReplyDeleteWhen I wrote I'll bet I have the right answer....
Betting involves GREEN, which is also the color of forests and trees.
I also liked the "Different Drum" hints. I think having both the Monkees and Linda Ronstadt (and the Stone Poneys!) was tmi, so it was right to remove Linda once Mike Naismith appeared.
ReplyDeleteCAN'T SEE THE FOREST FOR THE TREES
ReplyDeleteLast Sunday I said: “With all due respect to Steve Baggish – who has written many fine puzzles – he could have, but did not, deal the with the obvious problem in the clue. I am surprised that Will let this go as is, except that it was written by Steve Baggish.”
It is an error to say use “only the letters.” You have to use letters plus an apostrophe. Other minor modifications would have to be made, too.