Puzzling

It's been years since I have been in control of my weekends enough to make sure I'm near my radio for Will Shortz's Sunday Puzzle on Weekend Edition Sunday mornings. So I was delighted a few weeks ago to discover that I could subscribe to an RSS feed for the podcast (and to think, a year ago I couldn't have told you what that last sentence even meant!). I also subscribe to the feeds for NPR's podcasts of their food stories, book stories, "story of the day," and more. Then I can listen to them at my leisure (such as it is). You can check out all the available podcasts here—you can also just choose to listen to them right then and there rather than subscribe. Anyhow, back to the Puzzle: I kick butt on the Puzzle. I always get them all right and always faster than the contestant—and usually faster than Liane Hansen. I was brought back down to earth last week, though, when the contestant said, at the end, "Wow, it's much harder to solve the Puzzle on the air than it is in my own living room!" to which Liane responded, "That's what everyone tells us!" That's all I need, to finally get on the show and then freeze up and go home with my tail between my legs.

Comments

[Mark]

RSS and podcasts are great, but they won't be able to replace the pre-parenting era of quietly enjoying Sunday breakfast while listening to Will and Liane. Let me know if they come up with a technology that recreates that.

[Karen]

My neighbors have solved that problem with a pricey device called the "au pair."

[Joel]

Alison & I do the same thing! Oh - this puzzle is SO easy! Yeah, until you're on a tinny phone connection with Will and Liane, under pressure and cursing Will for some lousy pun that sank you on the Friday Times crossword puzzle.

"Take the name of a state, invert it from the middle letter, replace the second and penultimate letters with a 'schwa' sound and come up with a Azerbaijani slang term for a carburetor"

It's on tip of my tongue! Riiiiiight. But I'll keep coming back!

[Mquest]

I am jealous of all the tech stuff I can not afford. Some day I will be able to listen to the book reviews and all the other fun stuff while on lunch.