NPR puzzle synopsis for 2017-10-08

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Richard Renner

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Oct 8, 2017, 9:57:32 AM10/8/17
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Synopsis of
NPR Weekend Edition puzzle
with Lulu Garcia-Navarro and Will Shortz
2017-10-08

This week's challenge came from Steve Baggish of Arlington, Mass. Think of a 4-letter food. Move each letter one space later in the alphabet — so A would become B, B would become C, etc. Insert a U somewhere inside the result. You'll name a 5-letter food. What foods are these? The answers are FLAN and GUMBO. Lulu notes that flan is popular in her home and throughout Latin America.

Lulu reported over 900 correct entries.

The winner is Phil Jacknis of Dix Hills, New York. His accent (and that he listens to WNYC) reveals Dix Hills’ proximity to New York City (on Long Island). He solved the puzzle by looking for 5-letter words with U. Lulu said he got his “just desserts.”

Today’s on-air puzzle is called, “Capital Letters.” Each clue is a sentence. Each sentence contains two words that phonetically sound like a world capital. The words will be in left-to-right order, but not necessarily consecutive. For example, if the clue sentence is, “The Sigma Chi house can be found on Fraternity Row,” the answer would be CAIRO (made from Chi  and Row).

CLUES:
The opening bell rang for the grade school.
The Chinese kid trying to sell me a Buddha figure was such a pest.
Mom got a bag of golf balls for dad on his birthday.
The Russians watched a black car whisk past Lenin's Tomb.
The dress that sis wore is one I never saw before.
We got a good view of the triple play from our seats in Row E.
Baseball fans in the Bay area root for the Giants.
After a meal at a Thai restaurant, I rose to pay the bill.
If the kids bang your car, don't let them give you some cock and bull story.
  • Each of the last few sentences has three words that sound like a world capital.
It sounds like hell when you sing off-key.
If you see Bill Nye in the front row, be quiet.
After taking his cat to the vet, the man wondered, "What should I do now?"
Even in the poor light, I could see the dinosaur's toe prints.
"Am I the one who stirred the pot? I am!"

Answers are near the end of this synopsis.

The listener challenge for next week comes from listener Chris Stuart of Las Cruces, New Mexico. Take the name of a country. Insert an E somewhere inside it. You'll get a phrase that answers the question: What did Henry Ford do?

Answers must be received by 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time on WEDNESDAY (one day earlier).  One answer per person. NPR will no longer receive entries by email.  Be sure to include a telephone number where you can be reached if you are selected as the winner. 

Entries may be made at the web page:
Entries may be submitted at the NPR web page:
You can also get to this page by going to:
and clicking the "Submit Your Answer" link. You may also submit a suggestion for a new puzzle by selecting Puzzle Idea from the "I'd Like to" pulldown, and you may comment about NPR programming at the same site.

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Editor's notes:
 
Puzzles, and contents of Weekend Edition/Sunday puzzle segment are copyrighted 2017, by Will Shortz and NPR. Reprinted here with permission.

Here's our regular monthly puzzle transcription schedule:
1st Sunday Even-numbered months: Joe; odd-numbered months: Jerry
2nd Sunday Richard
3rd Sunday Joe
4th Sunday Jerry
5th Sunday Richard
Our e-mail addresses are:
Richard Renner <rrennerATigc.org>
Joe Wander <jdwandersrATgmail.com>
Jerry Miller <jmmillerATmiamioh.edu>

Will acknowledged the error first caught by our eagle-eyed editor Joe Wander last week. Joe reported Will’s example for the on-air puzzle this way:
Every answer today is a famous person whose first name is also the name of a well-known U.S. city. For the example given, "Co-anchor of The Today Show [South Carolina (see notes)]," the response is Savannah Guthrie.
Note: The last time I looked, Savannah was in Georgia. There was for a while a colonial Savannah Town in South Carolina, but it was abandoned in 1745.
Today, Will facetiously claimed that Savannah Town, South Carolina, was probably what he was thinking about.

Lulu announced she has a new little dog, Kiko who puzzles her every day.

No mail for this week, but here is mail from last week that I neglected to pass on to Joe:
From:         lawrence gilbert
Date sent: Sat, 30 Sep 2017 13:59:22 -0700
Subject:     NPR Sunday Puzzle for June 11, 1995
Hi, Mr. Renner,
Steven Reisman of Afton, MN played the NPR Puzzle recently (Sunday, Sept. 10, 2017). He said he had been playing the puzzle for 30 years, from its inaugural program, before being selected to play on air with Will Shortz. The closest he came - honorable mention - was for the June 11,1995 program when he was one of only four that had come up with the answer, the two words blacksmith and gunpowdery.
I found the story of your experience as the selected winner and on air player for June 11, 1995. Twenty-two years later, it still makes for fascinating reading.
excerpt:
" Will acknowledged a few 19-letter answers: playwrights and uncombed; blameworthy and duckpins; downshift and lumberjack; bylaws and a familiar 13-letter word starting with mother. Only one answer had 20 letters, gunpowdery and blacksmith. "
Question: did Will reveal off the air his phraseology  "familiar 13-letter word starting with mother" ?  To get 13 letters probably need the participial adjective form of the word.
Thanks for a fun read,
Larry Gilbert
P.S. Do you ever contribute to Blaine's Puzzle blog?

To answer your questions, Larry, no, Will did not add information off-air about the 13-letter word starting with mother. 
hemotherapeutics is a 16-letter word containing mother.
housemotherly is a 13-letter word containing mother.
motherliness has 12 letters.
motherlessness has 14 letters.
But my dictionary does not have any 13-letter word starting with mother. I am guessing Will did not say the word because it would have to be bleeped in broadcast.
Also, no, I have not contributed to Blaine’s Puzzle Blog, but thank you for the link.

Linda and Will gave these clues for the on-air puzzle:
The Russians watched a black car whisk past Lenin's Tomb: Northern Africa, start with “car”, do you know the capital of Sudan?
Even in the poor light, I could see the dinosaur's toe prints: the “poor” light is pronounced “pore” not “poo-er,” that that is important.


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Links of interest:

Audios of past NPR puzzle segments

World Scrabble Championship

American Crossword Puzzle Tournament

Merl Reagle’s article on constructing crossword puzzles, available at

World Puzzle Federation (including Sudoku tournaments):

The US Team page is at:

Register for the USA team at:

Ed Pegg Jr.'s puzzles are available at:

National Puzzlers’ League

Kristy Fowler suggests linguaphiles visit

You can join Kathie Schneider's email list for accessible word and logic puzzles. To subscribe, send a blank email to

Will noted that Matt Jones writes the Jonesin’ Crosswords which appears in over 50 alternative newspapers.

Richard Renner
rrennerATigc.org
Silver Spring, Maryland

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CLUES
ANSWERS
The opening bell rang for the grade school.
Belgrade (Serbia)
The Chinese kid trying to sell me a Buddha figure was such a pest.
Budapest (Hungary)
Mom got a bag of golf balls for dad on his birthday.
Baghdad (Iraq)
The Russians watched a black car whisk past Lenin's Tomb.
Khartoum (Sudan)
The dress that sis wore is one I never saw before.
Warsaw (Poland)
We got a good view of the triple play from our seats in Row E.
Tripoli (Libya)
Baseball fans in the Bay area root for the Giants.
Beirut (Lebanon)
After a meal at a Thai restaurant, I rose to pay the bill.
Taipei (Taiwan)
If the kids bang your car, don't let them give you some cock and bull story.
Bangkok (Thailand)
Each of the last few sentences has three words that sound like a world capital.
 
It sounds like hell when you sing off-key.
Helsinki (Finland)
If you see Bill Nye in the front row, be quiet.
Nairobi (Kenya)
After taking his cat to the vet, the man wondered, "What should I do now?"
Kathmandu (Nepal)
Even in the poor light, I could see the dinosaur's toe prints.
Port-au-Prince (Haiti)
"Am I the one who stirred the pot? I am!"
Amsterdam (Netherlands)

NPR did not air the clues for Budapest, Warsaw, Tripoli, Beirut, Nairobi and Amsterdam.

Taipei is officially known as Taipei City.

Bangkok is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon.

Amsterdam’s status as the capital of the Kingdom of Netherlands is mandated by the Constitution of the Netherlands, although it is not the seat of the government, which is The Hague.

End of NPR Puzzle Synopsis.
  
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