NPR Puzzle Synopsis: 2017-03-05

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Jerry Miller

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Mar 5, 2017, 9:20:07 AM3/5/17
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NPR Weekend Edition Puzzle 
Mary Louise Kelly and Will Shortz
2017-03-05

Last week’s Listener Challenge was from Mark Maravetz of Albuquerque, N.M.: Take five consecutive letters of the alphabet. Write them in left-to-right order. Insert five letters at certain spots. These will all go between the first and last given letters. The result will be a famous actor — first and last names. Who is it? The letters were “j k l m n,” and the actor was "Jack Lemmon."

The winner, chosen from more than 1100 correct entries, was Jack Martin form Medford, Mass. He listens to and is a member of WBUR, Boston. (There was no chat among the three.)

The on-air challenge was entitled on the Web as “Here Is A Challenge to Hear and Write the Right Answer." [http://www.npr.org/2017/03/05/518606016/here-is-a-challenge-to-hear-and-write-the-right-answer] “I'm going to read you some sentences. Each sentence ends in two blanks. Put two 4-letter homophones in them to complete the sentence. Homophones, of course, are words that sound alike but are spelled differently.“ For example, given "The nautical supplies company that was going out of business had a big ____ ____, “ the answers would be “sail” and “sale.”

Prompts (*Clues below.):
1. Business was strong for most of this month, but then for the last seven days we had a ____ ____.

2. Taxi drivers don't want to gouge passengers with their rates; all they ask for is a ____ ____.

3. To measure the opinion of the residents of Antarctica, you'd have to conduct a South ____ ____.

4. A vegetarians' convention is a place where people who shun ____ ____.

5. A survey of the top-selling laundry detergents found that Brand X outperformed Gain, did less well than Wisk, and ____ ____.

6. The music is so loud! Let’s move to a quieter place because I can’t ____ ____. 

*7. The young singing sensation who lost his recording contract is now an ____ ____.


“Bonus” prompts (those not given on the air):
a. Santa Claus started his thank you letter to Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, etc.: "____ ____.”

b. The hotel manager in charge of the housekeeping staff examined all 47 beds the ____ ____.

c. A circus grizzly not wearing his costume could be described as a ____ ____. 

d. The farm that is raising chickens, geese and peacocks stinks from all the ____ ____. 

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Next week’s challenge: An easy-ish one this week. Write the name of a game in small letters. Reverse the second and third letters. Turn the fourth letter upside-down. The result will name something else to play. What is it?

Answers must be received by 3:00 p.m. ET on Thursday. One entry per person. Be sure to include a telephone number where you can be reached at that time if you are selected as the winner.

Entries may be submitted at http://help.npr.org/customer/portal/emails/new?i=7 and clicking the “Answer the Sunday Puzzle" link. Or you can go to the first link above and click on the link "Submit Your Answer” near the bottom of the page.

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*Clues:
7. Jack gave the answer “soul sole.” That doesn’t work, as the clue contained the article “an.” Think of a synonym of “unemployed."

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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.

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Mail:
NB, please: We editors are always eager to receive e-mail comments (even when you are pointing out one 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 if 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.

Mail this week:
From Joe Wander:

Joe pointed out that my answer to the Listener Challenge from two weeks ago had an error: “short” should have been “skort,” a word that my mail program did not recognize and changed.

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Here is 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>
Jerry Miller <jmmillerATmiamioh.edu>

Comments for next week’s synopsis should be sent to Richard, with a "carbon copy" (cc) to Joe and me, please.

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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 at the link at the top of this page. You can also listen to a recording of Weekend Edition Sunday program after 12:00 noon ET each Sunday by going to the same link. 

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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.:

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Prompts [answers]:
1. Business was strong for most of this month, but then for the last seven days we had a ____ ____. [weak week]

2. Taxi drivers don't want to gouge passengers with their rates; all they ask for is a ____ ____. [fair fare]

3. To measure the opinion of the residents of Antarctica, you'd have to conduct a South ____ ____. [Pole poll]

4. A vegetarians' convention is a place where people who shun ____ ____. [meat meet]

5. A survey of the top-selling laundry detergents found that Brand X outperformed Gain, did less well than Wisk, and ____ ____. [tied Tide]

6. The music is so loud! Let’s move to a quieter place because I can’t ____ ____. [hear here]

*7. The young singing sensation who lost his recording contract is now an ____ ____. [idle idol]

“Bonus” prompts [answers]:
a. Santa Claus started his thank you letter to Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, etc.: "____ ____.” [Dear deer]

b. The hotel manager in charge of the housekeeping staff examined all 47 beds the ____ ____. [maid made]

c. A circus grizzly not wearing his costume could be described as a ____ ____. [bare bear]

d. The farm that is raising chickens, geese and peacocks stinks from all the ____ ____. 

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Jerry Miller 
Oxford, OH
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