2021-02-14 NPR puzzle synopsis

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Richard Renner

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Feb 14, 2021, 9:07:13 AM2/14/21
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Synopsis of
NPR Weekend Edition puzzle
with Lulu Garcia-Navarro and Will Shortz
2021-02-14

The listener challenge last week was from listener Ed Pegg Jr., who runs mathpuzzle.com. Think of someone who has been in the news this year in a positive way. Say this person's first initial and last name out loud. It will sound like an important person in U.S. history. Who is it? The answer is Antony Blinken, making "A. Blinken" which sounds like "Abe Lincoln." Blinken is our newly confirmed Secretary of State.

Lulu reported over 1,400 correct entries.

The on-air player is Shawn Fritz of Berkeley, California. He is an architect who thought NPR might be calling him about one of his projects. He has played the NPR puzzle for 20 years. He actually noticed that Mr. Blinken, when using his first initial, could be “Abe Lincoln” phonetically. Will said that Shawn is the first player to ever report having the answer before Will announced the puzzle.

Today’s on-air puzzle is called, “Of The Anagrams.” Every answer is a familiar phrase in the form "___ of the ___." The clues are anagrams of the first and last words. For example, if the clues are SING and ITEMS then the answer would be SIGN OF THE TIMES.

Clues:
1. TASTE of the RAT
2. LAST of the HEART
3. LILTS of the THING
4. AMEN of the MAGE
5. STOOL of the TREAD
6. SHAPES of the MONO
7. HIPS of the RESTED
8. TABLET of the BUGLE
9. LICENSE of the BALMS
10. DEN of the NILE

Answers are near the end of this synopsis.

This week's challenge comes from listener Samuel Mace of Smyrna, Delaware. Name a famous actor whose first name is a book of the Bible and whose last name is an anagram of another book of the Bible. Who is it?

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

After the on-air puzzle finished, Lulu announced that she hates anagrams.

One longtime subscriber noticed that we did not issue a synopsis last week. I noticed too. My heart goes out to Joe Wander and I wish he can return to us healthly and active soon.

This missed synopsis raises an important question: should we continue with this endeavor of weekly sysnopses of the NPR puzzle?  When I started posting summaries of the NPR puzzle on alt.puzzles in 1994, I never imagined that we would be continuing for 26 years. It would not have been possible to continue this long without the generous contributions of our substitute and co-editors. However, the NPR puzzle is outliving our small group. If this project is going to continue indefintely, we will need to turn it over to new volunteers who could carry on for the next generation. Despite periodic invitations, we have not had such volunteers step forward.

I prefer to make my decisions after consulting with those who would be affected. I am open to your suggestions.

Hints:
2. LAST of the HEART: People who are really good are this. The first word is a condiment, often seen on the table.
3. LILTS of the THING: Lulu sang “in the ___ of the ...”
7. HIPS of the RESTED: a camel
8. TABLET of the BUGLE: a famous event in history, a big fight, in World War II

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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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NPR posts the weekly challenge (and the previous week's answer) on its World Wide Web page:
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Podcasts of the Sunday puzzle are available 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. TASTE of the RAT
state of the art
2. LAST of the HEART
salt of the Earth
3. LILTS of the THING
still of the night
4. AMEN of the MAGE
name of the game
5. STOOL of the TREAD
tools of the trade
6. SHAPES of the MONO
phases of the Moon
7. HIPS of the RESTED
ship of the desert
8. TABLET of the BUGLE
Battle of the Bulge
9. LICENSE of the BALMS
silence of the lambs
10. DEN of the NILE
end of the line

End of NPR Puzzle Synopsis.
  
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