Company name or company logo?Q: The commercial name “iPhone” starts with a lowercase “i” and has a capital P inside it. Think of two well-known companies whose logos also start with lowercase letters, and each contains a capital “B” somewhere inside.
Edit: Looking at the names, the companies are eBay and JetBlue, but the logos are ebay and jetBlue. But I still think it's Will's intended answer.
A: eBay and jetBlue
I have one answer that works, and four that are not so well known in the US. Blaine's correctly identified the problem with the other intended answer.
ReplyDeleteNot a "problem" is it? If it is the one I'm thinking of, by the rules of the puzzle, it simply doesn't work, right? Anyway, I give up. I think that a better puzzle might have been: Think of two online brand names where in one, "B" is the only uppercase letter, and in the other, "b" is the only lowercase letter. What are they?
DeleteObviously, if you answer it here, only name the lowercase "b" brand name.
DeleteEveryone knows one of the two. The second answer is less obvious, but if it is the one I got, you can take four consecutive letters from it, rearrange them, and get an article of clothing.
ReplyDeleteRob I like your clue and we have the same answer.
DeleteThank you; that's reassuring.
DeleteLetters to get a very personal product
Delete*Rearrange the last four...
DeleteI was able to find a second company, but it doesn't seem to match Rob's hint. It has two internal caps. Four consecutive letters anagram to something you don't want, and four consecutive others to a bird.
DeleteMy first 2 match Rob's clue, and my 3rd, when anagrammed with the easier one, name a country and microscopic living organisms.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI believe I have them - both the easy one and the harder one. Now to think of a Blaine-legal clue...
ReplyDeleteThe second company... Their website shows the capital B, so it does extend beyond their logo to the name.
ReplyDeleteThe initial letter does bounce a bit
DeleteOne of my answers matches Rob’s. The other brings to mind a classic tune from my youth.
ReplyDeleteRearrange the two company names, and get a bird and a vegetable.
ReplyDeleteNice!
DeleteMore than 1500 correct entries last week.
ReplyDeleteSending in my entry made me long for the post card days. The on-line editor kept wanting to capitalize initial letters, which kinda spoiled things. (Not a clue).
ReplyDeleteAs of 10:20 ET, the new puzzle isn't posted yet on the NPR site.
ReplyDeleteHmm... I wonder if maybe it is being re-worded?
DeleteI have an answer, and it appears to match other clues posted here. As soon as I heard this puzzle during the on air broadcast, I thought something had gone wrong, and the second part of the puzzle was cut off. I was really expecting a second part, where you manipulate letters or syllables, and get something else, that makes the puzzle more interesting, and easier to confirm when you have it.
ReplyDeleteFor example, Dr. K's clue could have been the second part of the puzzle.
DeleteAmen to that. I'll admit that I had never noticed the upper case Bs in the two company logos before. At least Dr. K's enhancement would have given us something to solve. As it is, the puzzle just tests the powers of observation. (For the record, I did a search and then confirmed it with Dr. K's comment.)
DeleteMe too JAWS! Also can’t believe the winner was a first time listener and submitter, and used google to solve it!
ReplyDeleteAs for this week, I’m hoping the second/harder company isn’t applicable to me later today.
So now Shortz is allowing help from the internet???
DeleteHe always has. Years ago he said, on-air, I believe, any way we got the answer was okay.
DeleteOh well - my hopes were dashed.
DeleteI've been saying for YEARS that there is something WRONG w/ their "random" selection process. Whatever software they use spots a NEW name and gloms onto it. I've been listening and playing since the '90s, and have heard people say "1st time I entered" TOO many times for it to just be statistically normal.
DeleteThe puzzle is now posted on the Weekend Edition Sunday website.
ReplyDeleteHm? When I just google up the actual logo of the "obvious" company, it is all lower case ...?!
ReplyDeleteMy bet is still that the answer whose company name, but not company logo, has a capital 'B' in it is the intended answer. But if so, it's a pretty bad mistake.
ReplyDeleteMy second answer is Rob's answer, although at first I didn't think so because I kinda forgot what the actual name of the company was.
It is not moBil.
ReplyDeleteMobile and eBay were used in the Mobile Bay puzzle on September 9, 2018.
DeleteOhhhhh.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I think I was wrong about the 'logo' part being a mistake. I now have a very well known brand, and a somewhat well known brand, and both of them fit Rob's clue! So I assume Rob had only one of these two in mind.
I think if I'd tried to picture the logo of the company I know better, I would not have realized that the first letter was lowercase and the 'B' uppercase.
I'll try to think of a good clue to my pair of answers.
I have 3 logos that work perfectly, although I had not heard of one of them before.
ReplyDeleteWhen you get right down to it, this really isn't too hard a puzzle.
ReplyDeleteA lot of people don't know that these logos have a B in them. (Unfortunately that includes me.)
ReplyDeleteToday I learned that it was Oliver Wendell Holmes who called Boston the Hub of the Universe. (He actually called it the Hub of the Solar System, but we ran with it.)
ReplyDeleteDecades ago there was a satirical claim that in case WWIII began, the Boston newspaper headline would be "Hub Man Dies in Nuclear Holocaust".
DeleteHere's an image of that issue of Not The Boston Globe, from 1981. The story was about a nuclear explosion in New York, of course.
DeleteUnreal ... somebody in 1981 found a use for that old meme! ... (Can't believe I am now longing for Raygun ...)
DeleteI've given up hope of finding a satisfying answer to this puzzle. I don't know whether that makes me sour or bitter.
ReplyDeleteCombine the first three letters of one of the companies and the last three letters of the other company to get another company name. I probably could not afford to use their services, although it does sound like fun!
ReplyDeleteNice one. I did not even know such a company existed. Live and learn.
DeleteNeither did I. I was playing with the words and thought....hmmm...I wonder if there's such a name?! And sure enough, there is.
DeleteI just noticed you can flip it to get yet another company.
DeleteYou're right! How 'bout that?
DeleteI didn't use the internet to come up with my answers, but I did use it to confirm the one that I was a bit unsure about. I confirmed my understandable feeling of doubt.
ReplyDeleteTime flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
RIP Pavel Chekov.
ReplyDeleteSad indeed. My favorite memory is a video made at Disney that superimposed my wife and me into a Star Trek scene and she touches the enterprise control panel and Checkov says (with his accent) - don’t do that, it could be “werry”dangerous.
DeleteHorace & Wordsworth
ReplyDeleteHi, Dr. Awkward: I wanted to tell you that I am reading _Troilus and Chriseyde_ by Chaucer. I am reading it in the original, and having to use the dear old _OED_ in every verse. What a lot of Courtney [sic] Love!.
DeleteLife 'o' Riley
ReplyDeleteSo I'm pretty sure I have the same answers as many above. Both are legit US companies and I've done business with each this month. But I share Jan's and Rob's concerns with one of the two, which really doesn't fit. I'm pretty certain it's what Will intended though.
ReplyDeleteUnder Bari Weiss, is it now seeBS?
ReplyDeleteI am ready to be mad
ReplyDeleteEveryone who is saying eBay (including Will, if he is) is categorically wrong. The question unambiguously says the logo contains a capital B somewhere inside, and eBay's logo, at least currently, does not
DeleteeBay & jetBlue & airBaltic
ReplyDeleteeBay, jetBlue
ReplyDelete“Rearrange the two company names, and get a bird and a vegetable.”
—> blue jay, beet
That was a great clue, Dr. K. It really should have been part of the puzzle!
DeleteThank you, Lancek.
DeletejetBlue
ReplyDeleteAlso, airBaltic, eBooks.com, iBaby, and mBank..
eBay's name fits, but its logo is all lower-case.
> Today I learned that it was Oliver Wendell Holmes who called Boston the Hub of the Universe. (He actually called it the Hub of the Solar System, but we ran with it.)
Boston is a major hub for jetBlue Airways.
jetBlue and eBay
ReplyDeleteRob’s clue about four consecutive letters forming an article of clothing confirmed my initial answer jetBlue (belt).
eBay brings to mind the Otis Redding classic, “(Sitting on) The Dock of the Bay”.
I wrote of the less obvious answer, “You can take four consecutive letters from it, rearrange them, and get an article of clothing.” That’s BELT from jetBlue.
ReplyDeleteThere's also SOCK from eBooks.com.
DeleteMy clue: "Combine the first three letters of one of the companies and the last three letters of the other company to get another company name. I probably could not afford to use their services, although it does sound like fun!" Jetbay provides private jet charters. I later learned that Bayjet, Inc. is an aerospace and defense supplier in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
ReplyDeleteI think jetBlue is right. I think the other is, or should be, New Balance.
ReplyDeleteThe New Balance logo consists of an upper-case "NB" and, on another line, a lower-case "new balance", so it doesn't fit the pattern.
DeleteThe left-most letter in the logo is lowercase. It's better than eBay which contains no capital B in the logo
DeleteeBay and jetBlue
ReplyDeleteI agree with all assessments, that eBay ONCE had the capital B in its logo but now has a logo of "ebay," but I still believe that's Will's intended answer.
eBay's logo contained an upper-case B only from 1997 - 1999.
DeleteBut the letters are still capital letters, so you can say the 'e' is small cap but hardly lowercase. I await Will's explanation, if he gives one.
DeleteTrue story. It's 1998. I've moved back home from San Francisco to New York for the (fifth and?) final time. There is finally a NYC Internet Business sector and I was running marketing for an Internet software company, that eventually collapsed. Five of us debut our product at the Jupiter Communications show in February of 1998. We are in a 10x10' booth and directly across the aisle from us is eBay, in a 10x10' booth staffed by new CEO Meg Whitman and Founder Pierre Omidyar. I don't remember if they had a capital B or not.
DeleteMy 'official' answer is eBooks.com and jetBlue. But my prediction is that the intended answer is jetBlue and eBay.
ReplyDeletejetBlue and eBay
ReplyDelete"Life 'o' Riley" evokes Riley B King, better known as B.B. King.
I submitted jetBlue and eBay but also noted that the running shoe company logo shows new balance with an italic NB in the middle over the words, the B clearly a capital B, the N more a styled series of stripes to run with the B. And, airBaltic could be another.
ReplyDeleteeBay (but the logo has a small b), eBooks.com (or iBanFirst, dBTechnologies, or eBags). According to Google, they’re all well-known, but the last one is defunct now.
ReplyDeleteRIP Patrick Stewart.
ReplyDeleteTied for second best all time Scrooge portrayal.
DeleteOur friend skydiveboy drops in on us in this week's edition of Puzzleria! with a Quintuply Skydiversionary Appetizer consisting of five puzzling gems titled:
ReplyDelete~ Bumps in the night;
~“IgNobel” Poster?
~Low-class clods & high-class creatures;
~Tycoons and typhoons; and
~“Hi Ho Silverheels!”
We shall upload P! as very soon, perhaps this very afternoon, as we can.
Also on our menus:
*a Schpuzzle of The Week titled "Leap Year, Living Lyricist, Dead Poet,"
*a Model-A Model-T Model-O... Hors d’Oeuvre titled "Words on a table, solve if you’re able,"
* a Sandbars & Candy Bars Slice titled "Deserts deserted, delicious desserts!"
* a Sweetly Sorrowful Dessert titled “Departure splits the pleasantry,” and
* a mess 'o riffs of this week's NPR puzzle Challenge, titled "Riffing Off Shortz Entrees: Blue Bay Backers?" (including six composed by Nodd).
So, drop by... Get "skydiverted" via skydiveboy's "skydiversions!"
Lego...
eBay, jetBlue
ReplyDeleteMy clue - “ As for this week, I’m hoping the second/harder company isn’t applicable to me later today.” - this was a reference to Sunday’s NY Jets game, where they lost to the previously winless Dolphins, thus leaving me feeling “jet blue”.
ReplyDeletejetBlue, five BELoW
ReplyDeleteLast Sunday I said, “I believe I have them - both the easy one and the harder one. Now to think of a Blaine-legal clue...” Unfortunately, I never got around to posting it. Anyway, the answer I’ve posted above is the only one I know of that works. ebay just doesn’t fit the puzzle requirements.
Hey!
ReplyDeleteChuck has the best answer! Will had better mention five BELoW. (Actually it's kind of unclear whether the 'o' is upper or lowercase, but obviously that isn't relevant to its being a good answer.)
Ah, jetBlue, the most enthusiastic contributor to George W. Bush's no fly list. We used to fly it until we noticed that we were regularly pulled aside for closer inspection of our bags when we flew that airline, for reasons I still can't say. I look forward to its bankruptcy.
ReplyDeleteIn my failed attempt to find the answers to this one, I did accidentally find eBay printed right there. Alas, I never got any further than that. Lately it seems like whenever I type in the basic elements of whatever puzzle it is, be it Sunday Puzzle or Puzzleria!, I rarely ever get a plausible answer. Often times I've even specified the exact letter number in some answers, and after it "thinks about it" for a few seconds, it invariably comes up with answers that have the WRONG number of letters. I don't know why it gets that wrong half the time. If AI is truly going to destroy all human life eventually on the planet, it still has to learn to count, IMHO. It can't really get all of us if it can't keep track of all of us at one time. Just sayin'.
ReplyDeletepjbLooksForwardTo(Maybe)SolvingNextWeek'sChallengeThisComingSundayMorning(November1st,OddlyEnough,JustAfterHalloweenSaturday!)
That is one of the most striking things about ordinary interactions with LLMs, I agree.
DeleteThe main reason they have so much trouble is that they do not store words as strings of individual letters, but rather as 'tokens', which are bigger chunks. The second reason is that they aren't "thinking about it" at all (as you recognize). What they're doing is guessing. And what they're guessing is what is the most likely thing to say next. In effect, they're predicting what a human would say.
The newest versions (the ones you pay [rather a lot] to use now) can get around these problems, and they do better with letter-counting.
Some of the comments here pointed me to eBay, but when I realized that it didn’t work—but that many here seemed to think it was intended anyway—I gave up on my hunting. There seem to be some good options in the answers here, though, so let’s hope that the winner selected among those, regardless of the intent.
ReplyDeleteI submitted eBay, jetBlue, eBooks.com, and eBuddy.com. As usual, I have not received the call. We will find out Sunday what was considered acceptable.
ReplyDeleteOn monday I emailed him airBaltic and he replied that he did not know of it, but liked it, and that he found eBank in Poland. He did not indicate if he would mention them come sunday.
DeleteI think Blaineville will find “Sesame Street: Patrick Stewart Soliloquy on B” entertaining:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA7lv1SDzno
Dr. K, most enjoyable. Thanks!
DeleteVery entertaining! Thank you for posting.
DeleteI’m glad you enjoyed it. Given the prominence of the letter “B” in this week's puzzle and Stewart’s recent passing, it seemed especially apropos. With characteristically understated British irony, Stewart said of his appearance on Sesame Street and The Simpsons that they were “"perhaps the two most distinguished bits of work that I've done in the United States."
DeleteR.I.P. Elke Sommer
ReplyDeleteI had dinner with her in Germany in spring 1964.
Did you fall for Sommer that Spring?
DeleteIt's a rather long story.
DeleteGood thing we have an extra hour tonight, then.
DeleteGood point, but with so many clocks here, it takes me almost an hour to change them.
DeleteThis week's online challenge comes from NPR Puzzlemaker Will Shortz. Think of a three-letter part of the human body. Insert it into a four-letter part of the body to get a brand name you might see at the supermarket. What names are these?
ReplyDeletePete and Repeat were sitting on a fence. Pete fell off. Who was left?
DeleteYup. So disappointing!
DeleteThe last time Will used this puzzle, he credited a listener as the author. This time, he claims it as his own!
DeleteI must say I continue to be astounded by your powers of recollection. I have very little memory of past puzzles, even of recent ones. At times, I am disturbingly reminded of a certain comedian’s routine about the end of the universe being a Houston Starbucks.
DeleteThat said, I have solved it, so the neurons still seem to be firing, and I await Blaine.
Splainit, do post it ;-)
Delete