2021-01-31 NPR puzzle synopsis

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Justin Bassett

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Jan 31, 2021, 11:08:13 AM1/31/21
to NPR puzzle synopsis
The listener challenge last week was: Last week's challenge was a spinoff of my on-air puzzle, and it was a little tricky. Think of a hyphenated word you might use to describe a young child that sounds like three letters spoken one after the other.

The answers was CUTIE PIE (Q T π)

Lulu reported only 350 correct entries!

The on-air player is Gary St. Germain of Highland, Calif. He and his girlfriend play the puzzle together and while they got the answer early, they thought that it couldn't be answer, and playfully accused Will of "cheating" for using the Greek letter.

For the on-air puzzle, every answer today is a pair of phrases in the form of "___ of ___," where the phrases can end in two ways. I'll give you the two ways those phrases can end. You give me the starting word. Every starting word is five letters long.

Ex. Bread / Life --> SLICE (slice of bread, slice of life)

Clues:
1. Way / First refusal
2. Mind / The Union
3. Purchase / The pudding
4. Wheat / The crop
5. Cards / Representatives
6. Paper / Cake
7. View / No return
8. May / All
9. Golf / Applause
10. Sheba / Hearts
11. Mind / Music

Answers are near the end of this synopsis.

This week's challenge comes from listener Derrick Niederman, of Charleston, S.C. Starting in Montana, you can drive into South Dakota and then into Iowa. Those three states have the postal abbreviations MT, SD, and IA — whose letters can be rearranged to spell AMIDST. The challenge is to do this with four connected states to make an eight-letter word. That is, start in a certain state, drive to another, then another, and then another. Take the postal abbreviations of the four states you visit, mix the letters up, and use them to spell a common eight-letter word. Derrick and I know of only one answer. Can you do this?

Answers must be received by 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time on THURSDAY.  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 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 2021, by Will Shortz and NPR. Reprinted here with permission.

Here's our regular monthly puzzle transcription schedule:
1st Sunday Joe
2nd Sunday Richard
3rd Sunday Joe
4th Sunday Richard
5th Sunday Kristy, or as in next week, Justin
Our e-mail addresses are:
Richard Renner <rrennerATigc.org>
Joe Wander <jdwandersrATgmail.com>
Kristy Compton <bisonbooksATgmail.com>

Justin is subbing for Kristy next week, so mail this week should go to justin.t.bassettATgmail.com.

Apologies for the slightly delayed email this week, we here in Chicago got several feet of snow and some power outages!

On-air puzzle answers:
1. RIGHT OF (Way / First refusal)
2. STATE OF (Mind / The Union)
3. PROOF OF (Purchase / The pudding)
4. CREAM OF (Wheat / The crop)
5. HOUSE OF (Cards / Representatives)
6. PIECE OF (Paper / Cake)
7. POINT OF (View / No return)
8. FIRST OF (May / All)
9. ROUND OF (Golf / Applause)
10. QUEEN OF (Sheba / Hearts)
11. SOUND OF (Mind / Music) (Gary offered "peace/piece" at first, but WIll said that homophones weren't allowed. This allowed us to hear Lulu's rendition of the Sound of Music, though, so all is not lost.)

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Our group of volunteer co-editors distributes these free weekly synopses of the NPR puzzle segment. You can read more about this free distribution at:
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To unsubscribe from this group, send email to:
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NPR posts the weekly challenge (and the previous week's answer) on its World Wide Web page:
Option 2: You can also listen to a recording of Weekend Edition Sunday program after 12:00 noon ET each Sunday by going to the first link at the top of this e-mail.

Podcasts are available at:

Podcasts of the Sunday puzzle are available at:

How do I subscribe to this podcast?
Copy the URL [above this paragraph] into your preferred podcasting tool software (e.g. Odeo, iTunes, iPodder). You will automatically receive this podcast each time it is published.
 
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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.

Joseph Young’s Puzzleria is at:
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