2020-08-16 NPR Puzzle Synopsis
Joe Wander
NPR Weekend Edition Puzzle
Lourdes Garcia-Navarro and Will Shortz
2020-08-16
Last week's challenge from listener Barbara Weinstein, of Lincoln, Massachusetts: Think of a famous living person in the entertainment field whose first name is a bird. The person's last name is a quality of this bird — something its feathers have. Who's the famous person, and what's the bird?
Will's answer is Martin Sheen.
Lulu reported over 2200 correct responses. This week's on-air player was Jeffrey Bateman, Mesa, Arizona, who listens to KJZZ and fell into the answer as they were stuck in traffic and his wife was spieling off properties of feathers. When she said "sheen," he said "Martin Sheen," and she asked "Is there somebody named Martin Sheen?"
The theme of today's puzzle posted to the NPR site is "City Shuffle." Every answer today is the name of a major foreign city that is not the capital of its country. I'll give you anagrams and the country. You name the cities.
For the example given, "EDSEL, England," the answer would be Leeds.
Prompts (*A hint was given)
1. ROCK, Ireland
2. AVENGE, Switzerland
3. GOALS, Nigeria
4.* REDDENS, Germany
5. PLANES, Italy
6. DRAMAS, India
7. ONLY, France
8.* NEW PART, Belgium
9. VALIANCE, Spain
10. APROPOS, Japan
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Editor's notes:
No news items or upcoming events announced. Will's alternate answer from last week didn't stand up very well to scrutiny.
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:
Hi, Richard.
I noticed that you mentioned in your e-mail message of 8/9/2020 that ELON MUSK was the answer to a previous puzzle question about travel to the planet Mars. He was also the answer to a previous puzzle challenge in which adding a letter to his first name and then switching his first and last names resulted in the name of a fruit (MUSK MELON).
Yours, Phil Goodman
Binghamton, NY
Phil,
That does sound familiar, but I could not find it when I searched for it.
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Richard Renner
On Aug 9, 2020, at 11:38, Ben Rosenthal wrote:
Hi, Richard -
Will’s alternative answer of Jim Kelly to last week’s challenge does not fit the criterion that all eight letters must be different [from each other]. It has two Ls.
- Ben
Good point, Ben. Also, the remaining letters spell a man’s name, not a woman’s.
--
Richard Renner
Joe Wander
Sun, Aug 9, 9:52 AM (7 days ago)
Ely is the three-letter remnant from Jim Kelly's name. joe
Richard Renner <rre...@igc.org>
Sun, Aug 9, 11:02 AM (7 days ago)
to me, Kristy, Justin
Thank you, Joe. You should run a correction for me next week.
--
Richard Renner
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This week's challenge: Think of a major city in France whose name is an anagram of a major city in Italy. Each city has more than 100,000 people.
Here is our current monthly puzzle transcription schedule :
1st Sunday Joe
Hints:
4. starts with D
8. Starts with A; diamond center; second letter is N
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1. ROCK, Ireland -- Cork
2. AVENGE, Switzerland -- Geneva
3. GOALS, Nigeria -- Lagos
4. REDDENS, Germany -- Dresden
5. PLANES, Italy -- Naples
6. DRAMAS, India -- Madras
7. ONLY, France -- Lyon
8. NEW PART, Belgium -- Antwerp
9. VALIANCE, Spain -- Valencia
10. APROPOS, Japan -- Sapporo
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Panama City, Florida