tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730391.post7374593405186276465..comments2024-03-27T18:57:50.424-07:00Comments on Blaine's Puzzle Blog: NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 10, 2014): What Does the Fox Say?Blainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06379274325110866036noreply@blogger.comBlogger107125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730391.post-54565250701068843182014-08-17T09:09:57.046-07:002014-08-17T09:09:57.046-07:00WW - I want to join others in thanking you for sha...WW - I want to join others in thanking you for sharing Peter Coyote's thoughtful words. Robin Williams' humor meant a lot to my wife and me, and we are saddened by the pain that he must have endured.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730391.post-28901046741064748092014-08-17T07:55:57.005-07:002014-08-17T07:55:57.005-07:00Also having a unique solution: Scoring exactly 93 ...Also having a unique solution: Scoring exactly 93 points.PlannedChaoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12366856086658014260noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730391.post-56661820572271189882014-08-17T07:18:58.037-07:002014-08-17T07:18:58.037-07:00MrScience, would like to know more about your book...MrScience, would like to know more about your book on science (I am penning one also). Perhaps we overlap. . .WWWord Womanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15491300694641304112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730391.post-62398627164161588472014-08-17T07:15:20.260-07:002014-08-17T07:15:20.260-07:00A friend in law enforcement once commented that th...A friend in law enforcement once commented that the difficulty in solving crimes is not that the absence of clues - but the fact there are too many. This puzzle proves his point.SuperZeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08024610786525654860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730391.post-88825522452042169772014-08-17T06:30:40.210-07:002014-08-17T06:30:40.210-07:00Ton out, mugs away mate :)Ton out, mugs away mate :)zeke creekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12559686966843380823noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730391.post-9900742531705297752014-08-17T06:22:35.985-07:002014-08-17T06:22:35.985-07:00Ho hum ~~ next puzzle, please.Ho hum ~~ next puzzle, please.Word Womanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15491300694641304112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730391.post-20019461859811607772014-08-17T06:03:22.336-07:002014-08-17T06:03:22.336-07:00In my submission to the NPR website, I started off...In my submission to the NPR website, I started off with a simple proof that there is <b><i>only ONE way it can be done!!</i></b>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730391.post-1378093010235973962014-08-17T06:01:16.494-07:002014-08-17T06:01:16.494-07:00I did it the old-fashioned way -- I decided to EAR...I did it the old-fashioned way -- I decided to EARN it. And before long, there it was. MrSciencehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11112686794893154281noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730391.post-57363617441753182332014-08-17T05:35:25.579-07:002014-08-17T05:35:25.579-07:00This puzzle represents a new low, as the answer ca...This puzzle represents a new low, as the answer can be Googled directly. No hinting needed.janhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05927176621372532733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730391.post-62663753862682681722014-08-17T05:12:49.580-07:002014-08-17T05:12:49.580-07:00Once again, Sam Loyd's name is misspelled. (Pe...Once again, Sam Loyd's name is misspelled. (Pedantry on my part again - it'll probably be fixed shortly.)PlannedChaoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12366856086658014260noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730391.post-69648885332346437232014-08-17T05:10:02.368-07:002014-08-17T05:10:02.368-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.janhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05927176621372532733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730391.post-14048568497825473652014-08-17T05:09:32.530-07:002014-08-17T05:09:32.530-07:00New puzzle:
Next week's challenge from Americ...New puzzle:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.npr.org/2014/08/17/340944712/is-there-an-echo-in-here" rel="nofollow">Next week's challenge from American puzzle maker Sam Lloyd: You have a target with six rings, bearing the numbers 16, 17, 23, 24, 39, and 40. How can you score exactly 100 points, by shooting at the target.</a>PlannedChaoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12366856086658014260noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730391.post-43243285860560821622014-08-17T04:33:27.083-07:002014-08-17T04:33:27.083-07:00WW,
Thanks for your beautiful essay. All words o...WW,<br />Thanks for your beautiful essay. All words of comfort are welcome; yours especially so. But then I would have expected no less from you.<br /><br />Lego;<br />You are most welcome to pray, for me, and for all others who share this debilitating disease. I am a man of faith too. I value your concern, and the ways you choose to express it.<br /><br />I am doing wonderfully well -- why else would a sane person hang out in this barn? I am blessed with a caring, supportive and loving family, whose core is my wife, for whom I thank God every day. I am completing work on a non-fiction book on (well, what else?) science. Mercifully, my brain seems to be working about as well as ever. (Now now, SDB, keep your voice down ...) I get good news every day.<br /><br />La Bamba??!! Yes, like most all of you I got it right away, and threw it back. Let's hope this week's effort is more fun. Maybe in the next few minutes one of us will post the new puzzle, and we can start our feeding frenzy. <br /><br />Thanks again to all.<br /><br />MrScienceMrSciencehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11112686794893154281noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730391.post-60897957651601804932014-08-16T23:20:14.298-07:002014-08-16T23:20:14.298-07:00It’s tough to follow (with my inevitably inane ram...It’s tough to follow (with my inevitably inane ramblings) the poignant and courageous sharing (by MrScience) and all the other wisdom (and poetry!) posted above.<br /><br />(Sorry, Blaine and Blainesvillians, about my two previous false starts with this post.) <br /><br />But I just wanted you all to know that I have finally posted this week’s <a href="http://puzzleria.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow">Puzzleria!</a> after a day’s tardiness.<br /><br />Bob K. and sdb (happy to hear neither of you is not leaving us or “getting a life”),<br />I have noticed also WS’s apparent aversion to “anagrams” and “homophones.” None of us, of course, wants to offend a gay telephone, sdb, or, worse yet, offend a “telesexual,” those who engage in long-distance relationships.<br /><br />But I want to cut Will some slack. He is not “talking down to us,” I believe, but just trying to make the wording of his puzzles as accessible as possible for as many solvers as possible. Words like “homophone” and even “anagram” might send some solvers running before giving the puzzle a try.<br /><br />PlannedChaos,<br />I agree with your “bit of pedantry,” for whatever that is worth… probably about two-cents’-worth.<br /><br />MrScience,<br />I can easily believe you were known for your quick wit. I do not presume to know what you believe about “human spirituality” and the supernatural, but I will keep you in my prayers, if that is okay with you. I believe that prayer can sometimes make a difference. I admire your willingness to share your Parkinson’s with us. That’s tough to do, I would imagine.<br /><br />I got to know the “Catholic” Minnesota novelist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Hassler" rel="nofollow">Jon Hassler</a> some when he was a writer in residence at Minnesota’s Saint John’s University and I was a School of Theology student there. We weren’t exactly friends but he was very generous with his time and he discussed the writing process with me. He was a wonderful, gentle man. Later, when I worked for a Catholic newspaper, I did as many stories about him as I could get away with. <br /><br />Jon was diagnosed in 1994 “with progressive supranuclear palsy, a disease similar to Parkinson's. It caused vision and speech problems, as well as difficulty walking, but he was able to continue writing. He was reported to have finished a novel just days before his death. Hassler died in 2008, at the age of 74.”<br /><br />He faced his Parkinson’s-like symptoms with courage and grace, as I am sure you are also. <br /><br />After he died, one of the last columns I wrote I headlined “Matthew, Mark, Luke and Jon,” arguing that, as an accessible and insightful novelist, he was probably more of an “evangelist,” a proclaimer of “good news,” than any of those that actually got published in the Good Book.<br /><br />My prayer for you, MrScience, is for good news.<br /><br />Lego…<br />legolambdahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18081014756741740081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730391.post-34848185167123880452014-08-16T23:15:23.102-07:002014-08-16T23:15:23.102-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.legolambdahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18081014756741740081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730391.post-42819060172640861082014-08-16T23:12:21.863-07:002014-08-16T23:12:21.863-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.legolambdahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18081014756741740081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730391.post-63722922033296694702014-08-16T06:23:38.496-07:002014-08-16T06:23:38.496-07:00MrScience, thank you for bravely sharing your jour... MrScience, thank you for bravely sharing your journey with us. My grandmother struggled with this disease in the last year of her 90 year life. Wishing you all the best, hoping for a cure.<br /><br /> These words about Robin from Peter Coyote resonated with me. They were written before Robin's Parkinson's Disease was revealed to us. I imagine not being able to use your incredible gifts the same way would be so challenging. . .<br /><br /> <i>Robin Williams' last gift</i><br /><br /><br /> "Robin and I were friends. Not intimate, because he was very shy when he was not performing. Still, I spent many birthdays and holidays at his home with Marsha and the children, and he showed up at my 70th birthday to say “Hello” and wound up mesmerizing my relatives with a fifteen minute set that pulverized the audience.<br /><br /> When I heard that he had died, I put my own sorrow aside for a later time. I’m a Zen Buddhist priest and my vows instruct me to try to help others. So this little letter is meant in that spirit.<br /><br /> Normally when you are gifted with a huge talent of some kind, it’s like having a magnificent bicep. People will say, “Wow, that’s fantastic” and they tell you, truthfully, that it can change your life, take you to unimaginable realms. It can and often does. The Zen perspective is a little different. We might say, “Well, that’s a great bicep, you don’t have to do anything to it. Let’s work at bringing the rest of your body up to that level.<br /><br /><br /> Robin’s gift could be likened to fastest thoroughbred race-horse on earth. It had unbeatable endurance, nimbleness, and a huge heart. However, it had never been fully trained. Sometimes Robin would ride it like a kayaker tearing down white-water, skimming on the edge of control. We would marvel at his courage, his daring, and his brilliance. But at other times, the horse went where he wanted, and Robin could only hang on for dear life.<br /><br /> In the final analysis, what failed Robin was his greatest gift---his imagination. Clutching the horse he could no longer think of a single thing to do to change his life or make himself feel better, and he stepped off the edge of the saddle. Had the horse been trained, it might have reminded him that there is always something we can do. We can take a walk until the feeling passes. We can find someone else suffering and help them, taking the attention off our own. Or, finally, we can learn to muster our courage and simply sit still with what we are thinking are insoluble problems, becoming as intimate with them as we can, facing them until we get over our fear. They may even be insoluble, but that does not mean that there is nothing we can do.<br /><br /><br /> Our great-hearted friend will be back as the rain, as the cry of a Raven as the wind. He, you and I have never for one moment not been a part of all it. But we would be doing his life and memory a dis-service if we did not extract some wisdom from his choice, which, if we ponder deeply enough, will turn out to be his last gift. He would beg us to pay attention if he could."<br /><br /> <br /><br />Word Womanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15491300694641304112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730391.post-85313576823748743802014-08-15T23:21:22.098-07:002014-08-15T23:21:22.098-07:00That very well may be. I suppose we'll never k...That very well may be. I suppose we'll never know for sure, especially since he apparently didn't even leave a note. I read something about him also having serious money problems. I am really surprised at that. I never heard anything about a gambling problem or womanizing. Something may be being covered up too by his family. I thought it was odd that he and his wife were apparently sleeping in separate bedrooms. Things are so often much different than they appear to be. Sorry to hear you have that affliction, it must be an enormous challenge. I wish you well.skydiveboyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17174073226290431753noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730391.post-1880060374600679162014-08-15T22:54:49.428-07:002014-08-15T22:54:49.428-07:00SDB:
I've had Parkinson's for eight years....SDB:<br />I've had Parkinson's for eight years. I was known, believe it or not, for quick wit. Now I can hardly say my name. If Robin knew this, I suspect it would have affected him more than all the other problems.MrSciencehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11112686794893154281noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730391.post-41418800848420540792014-08-15T13:35:12.358-07:002014-08-15T13:35:12.358-07:00I wonder...you seven letters. What are you? I do w...I wonder...you seven letters. What are you? I do wonder. Yes,sir. I do indeed.<br /><br />Twinkle, twinkle little star.<br />A, B, C, D, E, F, G<br />Baa, baa black sheep.<br /><br />The Song Remains The SameTommy Boyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03373838653732634600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730391.post-48953159111993121432014-08-14T22:47:55.818-07:002014-08-14T22:47:55.818-07:00I just listened to this one hour 2010 wonderful in...I just listened to this one hour 2010 wonderful interview with Robin Williams. I recommend you do too.<br /><br />http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/remembering_robin_williams<br /><br />Robin, you always left me laughing. Why did you have to finally leave me crying? I love you Robin. Thanks for the memories. We all loved you so much, my friend, and we still do. We always will.skydiveboyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17174073226290431753noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730391.post-12498383267133116662014-08-14T22:03:26.211-07:002014-08-14T22:03:26.211-07:00. . .Paul, and in case you were wondering what the.... . .Paul, and in case you were wondering what the <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/mbvd/geep-geep?s=mobile" rel="nofollow">GEEP</a> says (see embedded video). Word Womanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15491300694641304112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730391.post-56346127578463643372014-08-14T19:56:06.149-07:002014-08-14T19:56:06.149-07:00Aside from the official answer, here are other alt...Aside from the official answer, here are other alternates I found — all rather lame by comparison:<br /><br />• <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1737589/" rel="nofollow">Man Talk</a> (both a movie title & animal + sound);<br />• <a href="http://www.imdb.com/find?q=Cry%20Baby&s=tt&ttype=ft&exact=true" rel="nofollow">Cry Baby</a> (movie title) anagrams to Baby Cry;<br />• <a href="http://www.imdb.com/find?q=Cry%20Wolf&s=tt&ttype=ft&exact=true" rel="nofollow">Cry Wolf</a> (movie title) anagrams to Fowl Cry, Wolf Cry.<br /><br />And now for a bit of pedantry. Describing a movie as being in “the past” only eliminates titles still in production, since by definition every movie that has been released is in “the past”. I assume the intent was to communicate that the movie was released, say, more than ten years ago — but if that's the case, the puzzle should have been stated that way.PlannedChaoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12366856086658014260noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730391.post-57535299574939196542014-08-14T19:39:44.190-07:002014-08-14T19:39:44.190-07:00Jan, this was indeed the unintentional giveaway I ...Jan, this was indeed the unintentional giveaway I was referencing earlier. I assume Blaine's choice of image would have been different had he known the answer ahead of time.PlannedChaoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12366856086658014260noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730391.post-26796936777156205012014-08-14T18:56:56.099-07:002014-08-14T18:56:56.099-07:00Oops! I didn't Google, therefor I'm not.Oops! I didn't Google, therefor I'm not.Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11114786604125384958noreply@blogger.com