NPR puzzle synopsis for 2010-10-10
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Richard Renner
Oct 10, 2010, 9:08:04 AM10/10/10
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Synopsis of
NPR Weekend Edition puzzle
Rebecca Roberts (subbing for Liane Hansen) and Will Shortz
2010-10-10
The Current Challenge (given 20101003):
As copied from the NPR puzzle page: "Name a famous person
whose first name has six letters and last name has eight. In this
person's first name, the first two letters are the same as the last
two letters. And, these two letters also start the last name. The
first two letters of the last name are pronounced differently from
how they're pronounced in the first name. Who is this person?"
As Will gave it on the air: "Name a famous person--6 letters in the
first name, 8 letters in the last. In this person's first name, the first
2 letters are the same as the last 2 letters, and these 2 letters
also start the last name. And even more oddly, the first 2 letters of
the last name are pronounced differently from how they're
pronounced in the first name. Who is this person? So again...a
famous person--6/8. In this person's first name, the first 2 letters
are the same as the last 2 letters, and these 2 letters also start
the last name--and the first 2 letters of the last name are
pronounced differently from how they're pronounced in the first
name. Who is this famous person?" The answer is George
Gershwin.
Rebecca reported over 2,000 entries.
The on-air player today is Eileen Buxton of Sacramento,
California. Eileen is retired. She used to the the California
Legislative Attorney. She is now recovering from shoulder
surgery. She is "an avid news and sports junkie" who is rooting for
the San Francisco Giants to win the World Series. She is not a
musician, but she did serve on the symphony board. She says
she was a good listener.
Today's on-air puzzle is called, "Connect The Unconnected
Categories." Each clue consists of two categories. Each answer
consists of two elements that belong to both categories. For
example, if the clue categories are "male singers who have No. 1
hits" and "state capitals," the answers could be Denver (Denver is
the capital of Colorado, and John Denver sang "Sunshine on My
Shoulders" and other No. 1 hits) and Jackson (Jackson is the
capital of Mississippi and Michael Jackson sang "Ben" in 1972
and a dozen other No. 1 hits). Will acknowledged that Springfield
(Springfield is the capital of Illinois and Rick Springfield sang
"Jessie's Girl" in 1981) would also work.
Clues (answers at the end of this synopsis)
1. kings of Great Britain; first names of Beetles members
2. animals in the zodiac; NFL team animals (teams in the
Midwest; Rebecca notes one used to be in California)
3. holidays; island (one has large stone statues in the
South Pacific)
4. countries; things seen on a Thanksgiving dinner table
The listener challenge for next week:
What are the two longest rhyming words that have no letters in
common? For example, "pie" and "guy" rhyme and do not share
any letters. The answer words cannot start with an unaccented
syllable, such as "today." The source for acceptable words is
Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary.
Answers must be received by 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time on
THURSDAY. One entry per person. 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 made at the web page:
You might also get to this page by going to:
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
Editor's notes:
Puzzles, and contents of Weekend Edition/Sunday puzzle
segment are copyrighted 2010, by Will Shortz and NPR.
Reprinted here with permission.
Today's guest host is Rebecca Roberts. Her bio is at:
Rebecca said that Liane would be back next week.
Jon Denver's first No. 1 hit was as a writer, not a singer. Mitchell
Trio manager Milt Okun brought "Leaving on A Jet Plane" and
used it with the high-profile folk group Peter, Paul and Mary.
Denver's first hit, "Take Me Home, Country Roads," reached only
the number two spot in 1971. His string of number one hits
started in 1974 with "Sunshine on My Shoulders", "Annie's Song",
"Thank God I'm a Country Boy", and "I'm Sorry." In an
appearance on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Denver
made the phrase "far out" an icon in popular culture.
Myself, I don't remember "Ben" -- Michael Jackson's first No. 1
hit. Michael Jackson holds the record for the most No. 1 hits by a
male soloist in the Hot 100 era (13).
Rick Springfield:
We will have a slight change in our editor schedule:
2010-10-17 Joe (as normal)
2010-10-24 Jerry (as normal)
2010-10-31 Richard (as normal)
2010-11-07 Richard (abnormal)
2010-11-14 Kristy (abnormal)
Here's our regular monthly puzzle transcription schedule:
1st Kristy
2nd Richard
3rd Joe
4th Jerry
5th Richard
Email us at:
Kristy Fowler <mad4c...@gmail.com>
Richard Renner <rre...@igc.org>
Jerry Miller <mill...@muohio.edu>
Joe Wander <jdwan...@gmail.com>
So email for next week's synopsis goes to last week's on-air
player:
Joe Wander <jdwan...@gmail.com>
And get your pens out because I have a rant:
At the top of the hour, Rebecca Roberts said that today's date is
"ten ten ten." It is not. Today is "twenty-ten, ten ten." "Ten ten
ten" was a date two thousand years ago, before humans even
started using the current enumeration of the years. Rebecca also
said that "ten ten ten" is a binary number (meaning 42). It is not.
The last one in "ten ten ten" means ten, not two. Therefore, the
number is not binary. Also, the actual date starts with the digit
two, not one.
The prizes were read by Kyle Ruddick, the founder of
"OneDayOnEarth.org".
From: Jerry Miller <Jerry....@muohio.edu>
To: "mad4c...@gmail.com" <mad4c...@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [NPR puzzle] NPR puzzle synopsis for 2010-10-03
Date sent: Sun, 3 Oct 2010 11:44:13 -0400
Kristy,
Thanks, as always.
I think your hint labeled "7" should have been "6." Otherwise, a
superb job! (Hmmm...This is the same "problem" you had last
month. I wondering if there is a pattern developing.) ;)
Jerry
CLUES (HINTS directly below clues; ANSWERS at the end of
synopsis):
6. To improve city hygiene, BLANK, Alaska has installed a new
BLANK system.
7. In return for her long-time service to the Food Network chef,
Sarah personally received an BLANK broach from BLANK
himself.
8. With the increase of money into the English royal treasury,
King BLANK was considerably BLANK.
HINTS:
7. From Will: "Think of the U.S. Secretary of State who helped
the U.S. purchase Alaska."
8. From Rebecca: "Kick it up a notch there, James!" (At first,
James thought he was being reprimanded for taking so long to
solve this one, but then Rebecca exclaimed, "That was a hint!")
From: Jerry Miller <Jerry....@muohio.edu>
To: "mad4c...@gmail.com Cowbell" <mad4c...@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [NPR puzzle] NPR puzzle synopsis for 2010-10-03
Date sent: Sun, 3 Oct 2010 11:45:30 -0400
Ooops...and "8" should have been "7."
I am glad you are not an accountant. ;)
J
From: "David Sobelsohn" <dsob...@capaccess.org>
To: "Kristy" <mad4c...@gmail.com>, "Richard Renner" <rre...@igc.org>
Subject: NPR puzzle listener challenger 2010-9-26
Date sent: Sun, 03 Oct 2010 14:22:29 -0400
Kristy <mad4c...@gmail.com> writes:
>CURRENT CHALLENGE (given 20100926):
>From Elizabeth Gorski: Take the phrase "patron saint," remove a
>letter, then rearrange the letters to create a new, familiar two-word
>phrase that names something important in life.
>
>Rebecca reported 597 entries, "which is low for us."
Pretty quickly I got the listener challenge last week (the answer
was "NPR station"--a "familiar two-word phrase that names
something important in life"). I even sent it in. But I understand
why so comparatively few listeners sent in the correct answer.
First, "NPR" is not a "word," it's an acronym. Second, the phrase
"something important in life" suggests something universally
important in (at least) every human life. But even if every human
American resident listened to NPR as avidly as do we subscribers
to these synopses, that would still leave nearly 6 billion humans
on earth who never heard of "NPR," let alone heard an NPR
station. "NPR station" is hardly something "important" in their
lives. I don't think one can fairly call something of which less
than 5% of the humans on earth have even heard, & which has
virtually no effect on their lives, "something important in life."
Sure, misleading clues will cut down on listener response. I hope
Will Shortz finds a better way to do that.
From: "phil...@juno.com"
Sent: Oct 4, 2010 3:19 PM
To: rre...@igc.org
Subject: 9/26/10 puzzle challenge
Hi, Richard. I have a question about the 9/26/10 puzzle challenge.
It asked for a familiar two-word phrase for "something important in
life." The solution was "NPR station." But is "NPR" considered a
word?
Yours, Phil Goodman
Binghamton, NY
Phil,
NPR is not a word. That is why Will said that he appreciated that
this puzzle would not be suitable for solution by computer. Will
also said that he accepted "RAP STATION."
Richard
From: Joe Wander <jdwan...@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [NPR puzzle] NPR puzzle synopsis for 2010-10-03
Date sent: Mon, 4 Oct 2010 08:38:57 -0500
Hey, Kristy. I second Jerry's plaudits but have to comment on
the topic of Author Ammon Shea, (described by Rebecca as a
"Word Nerd") and author of The Phone Book: The Curious History
of the Book That Everyone Uses but No One Reads, read James
the list of prizes he'd won for being selected to play the puzzle on
the air: Brother Shea is arriving too late. I picked up a phone book
while the second of my thirtysomething kids was within eyeshot a
few months back and he described it as "quaint" that I would use
something so primitive when an iPhone was available. joe
From: jdwan...@gmail.com
Subject: Re: [NPR puzzle] NPR puzzle synopsis for 2010-10-03
Date sent: Wed, 6 Oct 2010 01:26:05 +0000
And, as if on cue, Tuesday's Morning Edition included a story
about the imminent disappearance of the White Pages ... and
people listing their phones under false names to avoid paying for
an unlisted number. Ah, progress. Joe
From: Kristy <mad4c...@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [NPR puzzle] NPR puzzle synopsis for 2010-10-03
Date sent: Fri, 8 Oct 2010 11:51:04 -0500
Y'all are so forgiving. Numbers and I have never been
friends...the Dewey Decimal Classification system is about all I
can handle. (Just take a look at my wretched checkbook register
for confirmation!)
And I remember my two uncles, both AT&T engineers, talking
about "disposable phones" back around 1991, and I thought
they'd lost their minds...they might as well have been discussing
jet pack travel and air conditioned sidewalks!
Happy synopsizing, y'all!
Kristy
P.S. I have to admit that I miss the reliability and sturdiness of my
parents' wall phone with its super-long curly cord--reception clear
as a bell, NO dropped calls, never lost or misplaced, you couldn't
accidentally jump in the pool with it, and our dog never greeted
us at the back door with it in her mouth!
and
Richard here:
I didn't even know Kristy had her own blog.
Last week, I was at the One Nation Working Together rally here in
Washington, DC. You can see my photos, and a few of my
snarky remarks, at:
Now we are getting ready for our house guests coming for the
Jon Stewart / Stephen Colbert rallies on 2010-10-30.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
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NPR posts the weekly challenge (and the previous answer) on its
World Wide Web page. Go to www.npr.org, and "select"
Weekend Edition Sunday from the drop-down combo box to the
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Links of interest:
World Scrabble Championship
American Crossword Puzzle Tournament
Merl Reagle's article on constructing crossword puzzles, available
at
World Puzzle Federation:
Register for the 2010 USA team at:
More of Ed Pegg Jr.'s puzzles are available at:
This year's National Puzzlers' League convention met in July,
2009 in Baltimore; for more details, or to learn more about next
year's convention in Seattle, visit
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
For the results of April's World Sudoku Puzzle Championship,
see
Richard Renner
Silver Spring, Maryland
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
CATEGORIES ANSWERS
kings of Great Britain; first names of John, George
Beetles members
animals in the zodiac; NFL team animals Lions, Rams
(teams in the Midwest; Rebecca notes one used
to be in California)
holidays; island (one has large stone statues Christmas, Easter
in the South Pacific)
countries; things seen on a Thanksgiving Turkey, China
dinner table
Holidays and islands (Christmas and Easter) is another indicator
of the claim that Will has a Christian-centric bias.
End of NPR Puzzle Synopsis.
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