Got SO much done...so much. And the weather? AMAZING!
After mowing and edging and poisoning three beds of fire ants, I stuck my gloves onto holly bush branches to air out while I did dishes and laundry and some other indoor chores. HOURS later (after I forgot they were out there), I opened the door to head outside and stopped dead in my tracks. It looked like a disembodied set of hands was coming around the corner of the house at me! SPOOKY!
One of the MANY things accomplished this weekend was sending out the NPR puzzle from Weekend Edition Sunday with Will Shortz. Want it? See below...but I am NOT responsible for formatting errors. Typing it in email and posting it online makes it go wonky.
***
Synopsis of
NPR Weekend Edition puzzle
Rebecca Roberts (for Liane Hansen) & Will Shortz
2010-10-03
CURRENT CHALLENGE (given 20100926):
From Elizabeth Gorski: Take the phrase "patron saint," remove a letter,
then rearrange the letters to create a new, familiar two-word phrase
that names something important in life.
Hint: The first word has three letters, the second word has seven.
The answer was NPR STATION, an answer which Will noted could not be
solved by computers who didn't recognize NPR as a word. Will also
accepted RAP STATION.
Rebecca reported 597 entries, "which is low for us."
The randomly-selected, on-air player today was James Steffen of
Germantown, Tennessee. James works at a digital printing company where
he manages new product design and automation, and his fiancée is the one
who hooked him on NPR puzzles about a year and a half ago. He also
participates in what Rebecca described as "insanely competitive extreme
sports"; James confirmed that "I do a lot of running and triathlons,"
and he completed an Ironman Competition in August. He is a member and
listener of WKNO.
Today's on-air puzzle: Will gave Rebecca and James sentences, each with
two blanks. The word that went in the first blank ended in the letter D
as in DOG. When they dropped the D, they had (phonetically) the answer
that went in the second blank. Examples given were FIELD to FEEL and
BEARD to BEER.
CLUES (HINTS directly below clues; ANSWERS at the end of synopsis):
1. In Napa Valley, this road will BLANK fifteen miles through BLANK
Country.
2. Even though I have a phobia about yellow foods, I added BLANK to my
hot dog with all the strength I could BLANK.
3. That lazy bum is such a BLANK, he'll never practice batting skills
enough to become a BLANK.
4. In Colonial New Hampshire, before the European immigrants could
settle in BLANK, they first had to BLANK the Indians.
5. During Seniors Week on the TV game show, one old BLANK just couldn't
push his BLANK fast enough to get any answers.
6. To improve city hygiene, BLANK, Alaska has installed a new BLANK
system.
7. In return for her long-time service to the Food Network chef, Sarah
personally received an BLANK broach from BLANK himself.
8. With the increase of money into the English royal treasury, King
BLANK was considerably BLANK.
HINTS:
7. From Will: "Think of the U.S. Secretary of State who helped the U.S.
purchase Alaska."
8. From Rebecca: "Kick it up a notch there, James!" (At first, James
thought he was being reprimanded for taking so long to solve this one,
but then Rebecca exclaimed, "That was a hint!")
Author Ammon Shea, (described by Rebecca as a "Word Nerd") and author of
_The Phone Book: The Curious History of the Book That Everyone Uses But
No One Reads_ , read James the list of prizes he'd won for being
selected to play the puzzle on the air.
NEXT WEEK'S CHALLENGE:
The listener challenge for next week, copied from the NPR puzzle page:
"Name a famous person whose first name has six letters and last name has
eight. In this person's first name, the first two letters are the same
as the last two letters. And, these two letters also start the last
name. The first two letters of the last name are pronounced differently
from how they're pronounced in the first name. Who is this person?"
The listener challenge for next week, as Will gave it on the air: "Name
a famous person--6 letters in the first name, 8 letters in the last. In
this person's first name, the first 2 letters are the same as the last 2
letters, and these 2 letters also start the last name. And even more
oddly, the first 2 letters of the last name are pronounced differently
from how they're pronounced in the first name. Who is this person? So
again...a famous person--6/8. In this person's first name, the first 2
letters are the same as the last 2 letters, and these 2 letters also
start the last name--and the first 2 letters of the last name are
pronounced differently from how they're pronounced in the first name.
Who is this famous person?"
Answers must be received by 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time on THURSDAY. One
entry per person. 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 made at the web page:
http://www.npr.org/templates/contact/index.php?columnId=4473090
You can also get to this page by simply visiting:
npr.org/puzzle
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
Editor's notes:
Puzzles, and contents of the _Weekend Edition Sunday_ puzzle segment are
copyrighted 2010, by Will Shortz and NPR. Reprinted here with
permission.
Today's serendipitous links:
How appropriate that today's on-air player lives in Germantown,
Tennessee! Today, Germany celebrates the Day of German Unity (auf
Deutsch: "Tag der Deutschen Einheit") to mark the 20th anniversary of
East and West German reunification. The party is ON in Berlin, btw; the
live web cam at Brandenburg Gate can be seen (at least until dark) at
http://bit.ly/alMH4h .
The much-publicized Commonwealth Games open today!
http://bit.ly/bbSW45
Here's our regular monthly puzzle transcription schedule:
1st Kristy
2nd Richard
3rd Joe
4th Jerry
5th Richard
Email us at:
Kristy Fowler
Richard Renner
Jerry Miller
Joe Wander
So email for next week's synopsis goes to Richard:
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
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:
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 which posts the weekly challenge (and the
previous answer) on its World Wide Web page.
You can also pick up an audio recording of Weekend Edition Sunday
program after 12:00 p.m. Eastern time each Sunday. In the alternative,
for the text of the weekly listener challenge, you can go directly to:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4473090Podcasts are
available at:
http://www.npr.org/templates/rss/podlayer.php?id=4473090 or
http://www.npr.org/podcasts/
From:
r.org/rss/podcast.php?id=4473090&uid=3ba205bf25adca5af473ab1102e03b75
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
Links of interest:
American Crossword Puzzle Tournament:
http://www.crosswordtournament.com/
Merl Reagle's article on constructing crossword puzzles, available at:
http://www.crosswordtournament.com/articles/inq031697.htm
World Puzzle Federation:
http://www.worldpuzzle.org
For U.S. Puzzle Championship info:
http://wpc.puzzles.com/uspc11/
More of Ed Pegg Jr.'s puzzles are available at:
http://www.mathpuzzle.com
Next year's National Puzzlers' League convention will meet in
Providence, Rhode Island. For information, visit:
http://www.puzzlers.org
Joe Wander suggests linguaphiles check out:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad
You can join Kathie Schneider's email list for accessible word and logic
puzzles. To subscribe, send a blank email to:
blind-puzzlers-subscribe@googlegroups.com
For the results of April's 5th Annual World Sudoku Puzzle Championship,
see:
http://wpc.puzzles.com/wsc2010/
Kristy Fowler, guest editing today for Richard Renner:
<mad4cowbell@gmail.com>
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
CLUES & ANSWERS:
1. In Napa Valley, this road will BLANK fifteen miles through BLANK
Country.
(WIND to WINE)
2. Even though I have a phobia about yellow foods, I added BLANK to my
hot dog with all the strength I could BLANK.
(MUSTARD to MUSTER)
3. That lazy bum is such a BLANK, he'll never practice batting skills
enough to become a BLANK.
(SLUGGARD to SLUGGER)
4. In Colonial New Hampshire, before the European immigrants could
settle in BLANK, they first had to BLANK the Indians.
(CONCORD to CONQUER)
5. During Seniors Week on the TV game show, one old BLANK just couldn't
push his BLANK fast enough to get any answers.
(BUZZARD to BUZZER)
6. To improve city hygiene, BLANK, Alaska has installed a new BLANK
system.
(SEWARD to SEWER)
7. In return for her long-time service to the Food Network chef, Sarah
personally received an BLANK broach from BLANK himself.
(EMERALD to EMERIL)
8. With the increase of money into the English royal treasury, King
BLANK was considerably BLANK.
(RICHARD to RICHER)
End of NPR Puzzle Synopsis.
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