2020-09-06 NPR Puzzle Synopsis

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Joe Wander

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Sep 6, 2020, 9:23:33 AM9/6/20
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NPR Weekend Edition Puzzle

Lourdes Garcia-Navarro and Will Shortz

2020-09-06

 

Last week's challenge  from listener Joe Young, of St. Cloud, Minnesota: Name a famous person in history. The letters of the last name can be rearranged to name a popular game. And the letters in the first name can be rearranged to name an action in this game. Who is this famous person?


Will's answers are Marco Polo, pool and carom. 

 

Lulu reported over 1500 correct responses.  This week's on-air player was  Tom Zmozynski of Aurora, Ohio, who listens to WCPN and fell into the answer as he was spieling offf names of board games and his wife mentioned "pool." 

 

The theme of today's puzzle posted to the NPR site is "Next-to-Last." Each prompt is the next-to-last item in its category alphabetically. You name the only other thing in the category that comes after it alphabetically.


For the example given, "taste," the answer would be "touch" (sense).


Prompts (*A hint was given)

 

1. West Virginia

2.* Two

3.* Sleepy

4. Sotomayor

5.* Queens

5. Zambia

6.* Swans a-swimming

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Editor's notes:

No news items or upcoming events announced. Will blew off  Tom's response "rook" to follow "Queens," apparently just because he had intended a different category. For the category "pinochle or euchre deck," "tens" should also have been a good response.


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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Mail:
NB, please: We editors are always eager to receive e-mail comments (even when you are pointing out one or more of our slips), and we will generally add them to this section of the following week's synopsis. Please let us know in the first line of your message that you would like your comment included (or withheld) from the synopsis. Also, if you DO want your comment included, let us know if it is okay to share your name and email address! If no constraints are mentioned, we will assume it is okay to publish it as it arrived---with comment, name, and e-mail address intact.

Correspondence this week:


Joe,
This week's puzzle is a repeat of one given on 2002-06-16 (from listener Sudipta Das of Calcutta, India) and 2005-04-03 (from Don Limpke). Perhaps you can mention this next weekend.

--
Richard Renner

 

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 This week's challenge from listener Jeremy Crane of Madison, Wisconsin: Name a deity in ancient mythology. The first half of the name, phonetically, names a common object. The second half of the name, by spelling, names another object that is often put inside the first one. What is it?

Here is our current monthly puzzle transcription schedule :  

1st Sunday  Joe

2nd Sunday Richard
3rd Sunday Joe
4th Sunday Richard
5th Sunday Kristy

Our e-mail addresses are
Richard Renner <rrennerATigc.org>
Joe Wander <jdwandersrATgmail.com>
Kristy Compton <bisonbooksATgmail.com>
Justin Bassett <justin.t.bassettATgmail.com

Still on schedule. Mail this week should be sent to Richard  with a "carbon copy" (cc:) to Justin,  Kristy, and me  please.  

 Hints:

2. Single digit, think low

3. This dwarf would be problematic during a pandemic

5. Borough of New York

7. It's a bird, starts with T


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 possible interest:

Blaine's Puzzle Blog (snarky takes on the listener challenges)


Merl Reagle's article on constructing crossword puzzles

North American Scrabble Championship  World Sudoku Puzzle Championships

 

Our group of volunteer co-editors has distributed these free weekly synopses of the NPR puzzle segment. Read more about this free distribution here.
You can subscribe from this page, too.

 

Follow this link to unsubscribe from this group or this link for more options.
To change the email address of your subscription, unsubscribe the old email address and subscribe the new email account.

NPR posts the weekly challenge (and the previous week's answer) on its World Wide Web page.  You can also listen to a recording of Weekend Edition Sunday programs after noon ET each Sunday by going to this page and clicking on the blurb about the puzzle sequence.

Submit answers as well as comments about any NPR programming here.

Podcasts of NPR shows are available here.

U.S. Puzzle Championship info   Audios of past NPR puzzle segments


Kristy Compton suggests linguaphiles visit A.Word.A.Day

To join Kathie Schneider's email list for accessible word and logic puzzles, send a blank email to blind-puzzle...@googlegroups.com

Matt Jones' Jonesin’ Crosswords

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Prompts and answers

1. West Virginia  --  Wyoming

2.* Two  --  Zero

3.* Sleepy  --  Sneezy

4. Sotomayor  --  Thomas

5.* Queens  --  Staten Island

5. Zambia  --  Zimbabwe

6.* Swans a-swimming  --  turtledoves

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Joe Wander

Panama City, Florida

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