mad4books: March 2010

...May Bee prefers elk bones to Milk Bones. (And yes, I know it's gross to let that nasty thing in the house, but we live in the city so there's RATS in our backyard at night. The only thing ickier than a giant carcass on the living room carpet is a giant carcass feeding the neighborhood vermin!) BIG THANKS to Felipe for saving a bone from the last hunt!

She's a little obsessed, btw. Her new full-time job is guarding her dinosaur leg (which Karen considers a big improvement after her old occupation as Private Areas Sniffer).

***Finally, from Melanie****

To all my blog friends: Copy and paste this to your blog and add your own answers after the comma. Have fun!

If I were a gemstone, I would be a sapphire (like Melanie).

If I were a scent, I would be dust (says my brother, Russ).

If I were a pair of shoes, I would be funky Birkenstocks (says my sister, Karen).

If I were the weather, I would be "West Texas changeability."

If I were a facial expression, I would be worry.

If I were a car, I would be 1972 yellow Ford Pinto with faux-wood paneling on the sides.

If I were a time of day, I would be early morning. (Really early. Insanely early.)

If were a month, I would be December.

If I were a place, I would be THE LIBRARY.

If I were a liquid, I would be (UNSWEET) iced tea. Extra lemon.

If I were a taste, I would be purple SweetTarts.

If I were a sea animal, I would be a seahorse.

If I were a food, I would be biscotti.

If I were a color, I would be silver.

If I were a musical instrument, I would be a triangle.

If I were a flower, I would be lilacs.

If I were a song, I would be something old and sentimental and schmaltzy.

If I were a planet, I would be Earth.

If I were an object, I would be a book.

If I were a fruit, I would be a Macintosh.

If I were a sound, I would be NPR blasting from the next room.

If I were a day of the week, I would be Sunday.

If I were a pattern, I would be a tacky Christmas tree skirt.

Miss the puzzle this morning on Weekend Edition Sunday? Not to fear, my chickadees! I was up here at work at 7:00 in the a.m., recording it on TWO tape recorders in order to transcribe it and email it to the NPR Puzzle Google Group. (Yes, I *do* belong to a Google Group dedicated to Will Shortz's puzzle...and yes, I AM aware that I'm a nerd. No need to point out the obvious!)

Information on how to join the NPR Puzzle group is below, after this week's mailbag letters.

Dust off your mental neurons & synapses! Get your puzzle on.

***

NPR puzzle synopsis for 2010-03-07

Synopsis of

NPR Weekend Edition puzzle

with Liane Hansen & Will Shortz

2010-03-07

Liane asked Will if he plans to watch the Oscars tonight, but he replied that he'll be playing table tennis instead. (When she asked how his table tennis was going, Will remarked that "I'm playing my best ever, really--someday I'm gonna’ be really, really good!" Liane laughed and wondered which year Will could represent us in the Summer Olympics.) Liane mourned the fact that the Academy Awards are always broadcast on Sundays, the same day she wakes early to host Weekend Edition Sunday; she rarely makes it to the end of the show. This year, Will hopes Avatar takes the Oscar for Best Picture, but Liane's rooting for The Hurt Locker, which she calls “a phenomenal film.”

The Current Challenge, given 20100228), from:

http://bit.ly/9yeLbl

"From listener Al Gorey of Cozy Lake, N.J.: Name an animal in two syllables. Add an S at the end of the first syllable, and you'll get the name of an old TV show. The second syllable, phonetically, is the name of a current TV show. What animal is this?"

The animal was the chipmunk; the shows were CHiPs and Monk.

Liane reported more than 1,500 entries. She & Will defended Monk’s status as a “current TV show” because it can still be seen on TV in syndication.

The on-air player, randomly drawn from among the correct submissions, was Timothy Dennan from Mount Laurel, New Jersey, who says he’s been playing the puzzle “longer than I care to admit.” Liane burst into laughter at that and replied that she’s been hosting the show longer than she cares to admit. When asked what he did in Mount Laurel, Mr. Dennen replied that he “sells mortgages and settles insurance.” He listens to Will & Liane on Philadelphia’s WHYY, home of Fresh Air and several other original NPR programs.

THIS WEEK’S ON-AIR PUZZLE: This game involves two words. Given a word, you give a word that can follow to make a familiar two word phrase. The 3rd and 4th letters of the first word must be the first two letters of the second word. For example, if the clue were FASHION, the answer would be FASHION SHOW because the 3rd and 4th letters of “FASHION" are “SH" which are the first 2 letters of "SHOW," and “FASHION SHOW” is a familiar phrase.

CLUES (answers at the end of this synopsis):

(starting with 3-letter answers)

1.ESTATE

2. PRINTERS

(4-letter answers)

3. LIBERTY

4, GEFILTE

5. INTELLIGENCE

6. CITRUS

(5-letter answers)

7. SHORT

8. STRAIGHT (hint: an implement)

9. POSTAGE

(6-letter answers)

10. VICIOUS

11. SECOND

(7-letter answers)

12. PYTHAGOREAN

13. FEDERAL

14. EMPEROR

In honor of tonight’s Oscars, film music specialist Andy Trudeau joined Liane & Will to read Tim the list of prizes he'd won for playing the puzzle on the air today.

NEXT WEEK’S CHALLENGE: Take the phrase RECEIVING LINE and rearrange the 13 letters to name a common profession.

Answers must be received a little earlier than usual this week--by 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday. One entry per person. NPR no longer accepts entries by e-mail. 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:

http://bit.ly/9XgB2a

(Puzzle enthusiasts can navigate there easily from:

http://www.npr.org/puzzle )

Next week’s winner will be playing on the air with Will and Audie Cornish because Liane is flying to Austin, TEXAS for the South by Southwest Festival! She will make an appearance on the show, but it will be phoned in from Austin. Liane says she “can’t wait,” and on behalf of all Texans, we can’t wait to welcome her to our friendly, wonderful state! Woo hoo! Here’s hoping she has a blast and enjoys some legendary barbecue to accompany the films and music of SXSW. (She must return home, however, because Texans often joke that the only difference between a Yankee and a “damn Yankee” is that the latter buys a house and stays.)

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

Editorial notes:

Puzzles & contents of Weekend Edition/Sunday puzzle segment

are copyrighted by Will Shortz and NPR. Reprinted here with

permission.

Puzzle transcribers use the following schedule, with the occasional switch-up to accommodate travel schedules:

1st week of each month--Kristy

2nd week--Richard

3rd week--Joe

4th week--Jerry

5th week (when there is one)--Richard

So please send email for next week's synopsis to Richard Renner.

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

Guest editor’s notes from Kristy:

Photographer Caroline Shepard worked her camera magic on Will Shortz back in 2006. See her handiwork at:

http://bit.ly/9W3uI2

Catch Oscar Fever (or not) at the official site of the Academy Awards:

http://oscar.go.com/

Can’t get enough CHiPs?

http://bit.ly/afTUij (Oh, the grooviness.)

http://bit.ly/9xcJRZ

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

From this week's mailbag:

From me to the other puzzle transcribers:

Okay, my three fellow Puzzle Nuts...

Did any of you chuckle when Will announced that next week's puzzle is from "Al Gorey?" I laughed out loud, probably because we'd just spent several minutes adding a "long E" sound to so many words ("chair & cherry," "untied & untidy," etc.)!

Great job today, Jerry! Y'all be sure to check out the YouTube videos of the crossword tournament, if you have some time on your hands. FUN!
http://crosswordtournament.com/2010/youtube.htm

Reporting for next Sunday's puzzle duty,
Kristy

***

From Richard Renner:

Kristi [sic],

If Will's intended answer this week is chipmonk, making CHIPs and Monk, then it deserves note that Monk has ended. It is no longer a "current" television program.

According to Wikipedia:

Its eighth and final season concluded on December 4, 2009. The series currently holds the record for the most-watched scripted drama episode in cable television history, a record previously held by The Closer. Monk set the record with "Mr. Monk and the End (Part Two)", its series finale, with 9.4 million viewers; 3.2 million of them in the 18–49 demographic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monk_%28TV_series%29

Richard Renner

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

Editor’s notes from Richard Renner

I distribute these free weekly synopses of the NPR puzzle segment, with the help of a crack team of substitutes. You can read more about this free distribution at:

http://groups.google.com/group/nprpuzzle/topics

You can subscribe from this page, too.

To unsubscribe from this group, send email to:

nprpuzzle-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com

For more options, visit this group at:

http://groups.google.com/group/nprpuzzle?hl=en

If you want to remove your address from the former Topica list, send a blank email from your account to:

nprpuzzle-unsubscribe@igc.topica.com

To change the email address of your subscription, remove the old one (from the old email account), and add the new Google subscription (from the new email account). For more information about this list, and an archive of those distributed by Topica.com, visit:

http://igc.topica.com/lists/nprpuzzle@igc.topica.com/read

or, for more information about the Topica mailing service, visit:

http://lists.topica.com/

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 "Programs" pull-down menu. You can also pick up a recording of Weekend Edition Sunday program in

the Real Audio format, after 1:00 p.m. Eastern time each Sunday.

In the alternative, for the text of the weekly listener challenge, you can go directly to:

http://bit.ly/NyGkQ

Podcasts are available at: http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_directory.php

From:

http://bit.ly/3Ys9XT

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's published.

Follow Liane on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/nprLiane