2020-20-04 NPR Puzzle Synopsis
Joe Wander
NPR Weekend Edition Puzzle
Lourdes Garcia-Navarro and Will Shortz
2020-10-04
Last week's challenge from listener Ben Austin, of Dobbs Ferry, New York: Name a major world city with a population in the millions. Take one letter in its name and move it two spots earlier in the alphabet. Reading backward, you now have the name of a major restaurant chain. What is it?
Will's answers are Sydney and Wendy's.
Lulu reported nearly 1300 correct responses. This week's on-air player was Bruce McEldowney of Newington, New Hampshire, who has been "playing for centuries" (since 1999). Bruce is a sustaining member of WEVO and spotted the answer in a newspaper ad and related the story that he misinterpreted a weekly challenge to rearrange the letters of "potential" to name a common household item as a household appliance, and sent in "toilet pan." When Will read the answer (Lipton Tea) , he mentioned getting a few strange answers and read Bruce's. Bruce said he was so embarrassed that he hit his radio.
The theme of today's puzzle posted to the NPR site is "Game of Words." Each prompt is a pair of incomplete phrases. Put the same word in each blank to complete them. Every answer is a four-letter word.
For the example given, "___ of wolves / ___ of cigarettes," the answer would be "pack."
Prompts (*A hint was given)
1. ___ of sale / ___ of rights
2. ___ of arms / ___ of paint
3. ___ of thought / ___ of scrimmage
4.* ___ of fire / ___ of wax
5. ___ of thumb / ___ of law
6. ___ of mouth / ___ of God
7.* ___ of hands / ___ of force
8. ___ of Africa / ___ of plenty
9. ___ of paper / ___ of the tongue
10.* ___ of luck / ___ of both worlds
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Editor's notes:
No news items or upcoming events announced.
Puzzles, and contents of Weekend Edition/Sunday puzzle segment are copyrighted 2020, by Will Shortz and NPR. Reprinted here with permission.
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This week's challenge from from listener Micah Margolies of Lenexa, Kan. Think of an 8-letter word with three syllables that contains the letter "I" in each syllable — but, strangely, doesn't contain a single "I" sound, either long or short. The answer is not a plural. What word is it?
Here is our current monthly puzzle transcription schedule :
1st Sunday Joe
Hints:
4. Goodness gracious _____
7. When there's a vote there might be a ___;There's no business like ____
10. When everything is wonderful you might say you have ___
How do I subscribe to this podcast?
1. ___ of sale / ___ of rights -- bill
2. ___ of arms / ___ of paint -- coat
3. ___ of thought / ___ of scrimmage -- line
4. ___ of fire / ___ of wax -- ball
5. ___ of thumb / ___ of law -- rule
6. ___ of mouth / ___ of God -- word
7.* ___ of hands / ___ of force -- show
8. ___ of Africa / ___ of plenty -- horn
9. ___ of paper / ___ of the tongue -- slip
10.* ___ of luck / ___ of both worlds -- best
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