2020-10-25 NPR puzzle synopsis

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Oct 25, 2020, 9:15:05 AM10/25/20
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Synopsis of
NPR Weekend Edition puzzle
with Lulu Garcia-Navarro and Will Shortz
2020-10-25

The listener challenge for this week comes from listener Michael Schwartz of Florence, Oregon: Name a world capital. Change one letter in it to D-Y. The result will be two words, one  after the other. The first word names somebody you like to be around. The second word names somebody you don't like to be around. What city is it? The answer is Budapest (Hungary) making buddy and pest.

Budapest was the answer to an on-air puzzle on 2008-03-09:
Will gives clues for three words at a time. Insert the letter A between the answers to the first two clues to get the answer to the third. Another word for friend; a bothersome  person; capital of Hungary: bud, pest, Budapest.

Budapest was also the site of the World Puzzle Championship fromOctober 5-10, 1999.

Lulu reported over 2,000 correct entries.

The on-air player is Matthew Trill of Clearwater, Florida. Playing the NPR puzzle began as a family tradition decades ago as they would listen on the short drive to chuch. His question for Will is whether he ever tried pickleball. Will has not. December 20 will be Will’s 3,000th consecutive day of playing table tennis.

Today’s on-air puzzle is called, “Spanish To English.” Each clue is a 5-letter Spanish word, pronounced by Lulu. Anagram the clue to get an English word. For example, if the clue is, “cesta,” the Spanish word for basket, then the answer could be CASTE.

CLUES:
1. TODOS (all or every)
2. TRUCO (trick)
3. BANCO (bank)
4. ARROZ (rice)
5. CINCO (five)
6. JABON (soap)
7. TORRE (tower)
8. PECHO (chest)
9. HUESO (bone)
10. ODIAR (to hate)

Answers are near the end of this synopsis.

This week's challenge comes from Neville Fogarty, of Newport News, Virginia. What common seven-letter verb is made up of three consecutive musical notes in order?

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 2020, 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
Our e-mail addresses are:
Richard Renner <rrennerATigc.org>
Joe Wander <jdwandersrATgmail.com>
Kristy Compton <bisonbooksATgmail.com>

Mail this week:
NEVER HEARD OF "PILL BUG" ---Typo, should have read "pillbug," also known as a sowbug; garden pest that rolls up in a ball under stress
NEVER HEARD OF "PERP WALK"---gotta watch TV crime shows for that one
NEVER HEARD OF "JUMP BALL"---regular feature of basketball games, aerial equivalent of hockey's faceoff
NEVER HEARD OF "JELLO SHOT"---mostly for young adults, a potion of Jell-O and an alcohol to get smashed on

Joe answered:
I can't keep up either, just learned about geocaching this morning.  joe
 
Hints:
1. TODOS (all or every): starts with s
3. BANCO (bank): something to eat at breakfast; also means something to bring home, if you are making money
5. CINCO (five): starts with c, second letter is o
6. JABON (soap): a musical instrument
7. TORRE (tower): starts with r, a kind of style, 1950’s or 1960’s
8. PECHO (chest): starts with an e
9. HUESO (bone): what do you live in?

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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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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:

Richard Renner
in Silver Spring, Maryland, for the foreseeable future
rrennerATigc.org
Twitter: @rennerr3

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Clues
Answers
1. TODOS (all or every)
stood
2. TRUCO (trick)
court
3. BANCO (bank)
bacon
4. ARROZ (rice)
razor
5. CINCO (five)
conic
6. JABON (soap)
banjo
7. TORRE (tower)
retro
8. PECHO (chest)
epoch
9. HUESO (bone)
house
10. ODIAR (to hate)
radio

Lulu hopes we have all learned some Spanish now.

End of NPR Puzzle Synopsis.
  
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