2020-09-20 NPR Sunday Puzzle Synopsis

[Joe Wander]

NPR Weekend Edition Puzzle

Lourdes Garcia-Navarro and Will Shortz

2020-09-20

 

Last week's challenge  from listener Judy Horn, of Reading, Massachusetts: Name a famous person with the initials M.C. The first initial and last name anagram to the person's field of renown. What is it?

Will's answers are Michael Caine and cinema. 

 

Lulu reported over 1500 correct responses.  This week's on-air player was Danette Pachtner of Durham, North Carolina, who listens to WUNC and spotted the answer during the family's weekly puzzle session around the breakfast table, working through a list of famous M.C. names her daughter had pulled off the internet. Her "best job on the planet" is film librarian for Duke University.

 

The theme of today's puzzle posted to the NPR site is "Accept Some Substitutes." Each prompt is a six-letter word. For each one, change one of the consonants to a vowel to make another familiar six-letter word.

For the example given, "defeCt," the answer would be "defeAt." 

Prompts (*A hint was given)

 

1.* AVENGE
2. DIPPER
3.* MIGHTY
4.* PREPPY
5.* GROUSE
6. MADDEN
7. BIKING
8.* CARTER
9. GRANGE
10.* DECENT
11.* STANCH
12. STANCE

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Editor's notes:

No news items or upcoming events announced. Danette took a while to come up to speed on the challenge

Puzzles, and contents of Weekend Edition/Sunday puzzle segment are copyrighted 2020, by Will Shortz and NPR. Reprinted here with permission.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~* ~ * ~ * ~ *

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:  None

 

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

 This week's challenge from listener Greg VanMechelen of Berkeley, California: Take the name of a famous actor — 4 letters in the first name, 5 letters in the last. Spoonerize it. That is, interchange the initial consonant sounds of the first and last names. The result will be two new familiar first names — one male, one female — that start with the same letter ... but that letter is pronounced differently in the two names. Who's the actor?

Here is our current 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>

Justin Bassett <justin.t.bassettATgmail.com> 

Still on schedule. Mail this week should be sent to Richard  with a "carbon copy" (cc:) to Justin,  Kristy, and me  please.  

 Hints:

 1. Change the G; another word for "street"

 3. Change the first letter.

 4. something you usually have to do at a self-serve gas station

 5. Change the G

 8. My Brillant ______

10. Change the N.

11. Change the H.

How do I subscribe to this podcast?

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.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Links of possible interest:

Blaine's Puzzle Blog (snarky takes on the listener challenges)

American Crossword Puzzle Tournament  World Puzzle Federation

Merl Reagle's article on constructing crossword puzzles

North American Scrabble Championship  World Sudoku Puzzle Championships

 

Our group of volunteer co-editors has distributed these free weekly synopses of the NPR puzzle segment. Read more about this free distribution here.

You can subscribe from this page, too.

 

Follow this link to unsubscribe from this group or this link for more options.

To change the email address of your subscription, unsubscribe the old email address and subscribe the new email account.

NPR posts the weekly challenge (and the previous week's answer) on its World Wide Web page.  You can also listen to a recording of Weekend Edition Sunday programs after noon ET each Sunday by going to this page and clicking on the blurb about the puzzle sequence.

Submit answers as well as comments about any NPR programming here.

Podcasts of NPR shows are available here.

U.S. Puzzle Championship info   Audios of past NPR puzzle segments

Ed Pegg Jr.'s puzzles  National Puzzlers' League

Kristy Compton suggests linguaphiles visit A.Word.A.Day

To join Kathie Schneider's email list for accessible word and logic puzzles, send a blank email to blind-puzzle...@googlegroups.com

Matt Jones' Jonesin’ Crosswords

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Prompts and answers

1.* AVENgE  --  avenue
2. DIpPER  --  diaper
3.* mIGHTY  --  eighty
4.* PREPPY  --  prepay
5.* gROUSE – arouse
6. MAdDEN  --  maiden
7. BIKINg  --  bikini
8.* CARtER  --  career
9. gRANGE  --  orange
10.* DECEnT --   deceit
11.* STANCh  --  stance
12. StANCE  --  seance

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Joe Wander

Panama City, Florida