2021-01-03 NPR Puzzle Synopsis

[Joe Wander]

NPR Weekend Edition Puzzle

Lourdes Garcia-Novarro and Will Shortz

2021-01-03

 

Happy New Year! Last week's challenge from listener David Curren of Arlington, Massachusetts: Think of a familiar two-word phrase (5, 2). Replace the last letter with the next letter of the alphabet. The result will be a palindrome (the seven letters will read backward and forward the same). What phrase is it?

Will's answer is queue up.

 

Lulu reported nearly 1300 correct responses.  This week's on-air player was KQED supporter Tyler Elliott of Mountain View, California, who usually lets his subconscious work the puzzle while he sleeps but had to resort to a word list for this one.

 

The theme of today's puzzle posted to the NPR site is "New Names in 2020." Each prompt is an entity that made the news this year. The response is what each is or did.

No example was given. 

 

Prompts (*A hint was given)

 

1. Amy Coney Barrett

2.* Deborah Birx
3.* Doug Emhoff
4. Li Wenliang
5. Sarah Fuller
6.* Isaias

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Editor's notes:

No news items or upcoming events announced. Synopsis transcribed from the broadcast.

 

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: None.

 

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This week's challenge from listener Robert Flood of Allen, Texas: Think of a seven-letter hyphenated word for a kind of cooking. Change the middle letter to get a new word describing a kind of music. What words are these?

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:

2. think coronavirus

3. whose husband?

6. not a person

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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

 

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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

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Answers

1. Amy Coney Barrett  --Replaced Ruth Bader Ginsberg on the Supreme Court
2. Debra Birx  --coordinator of the White House coronavirus response
3. Li Wenliang  Chinese physician who issued a warning about coronavirus, was suppressed and died from the disease
4. Doug Emhoff  --  Husband of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris
5. Sarah Fuller—first woman to play and to score in a Power Five football game
6. Isaias— August hurricane that caused extensive damage across the Caribbean and the East Coast of the United States

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Joe Wander

Panama City, Florida