Page 27 - Pierce County Lawyer Novemer December 2024

Toucan Sam and Me
By John Weaver
Those of our readers who were up early on
October 6 and who faithfully listen to public radio
heard a familiar name—mine. I was happy to appear
on the NPR Puzzle with Ayesha Rascoe and Will Shortz. For
those of you who didn’t listen, let me explain the title of the
article in the form of a question.
Name a certain breakfast cereal character. Remove
the third, fifth, and sixth letters and read the result
backward. You’ll get a word that describes this breakfast
cereal character. What is it?
The answer: Toucan Sam is a mascot.
That answer got me on to the show. Then there was an on-air
contest which was a phonetic puzzle. If I asked you to say a
letter of the alphabet before one of the gifts of the Three Wise
Men to get a boy’s name, you’d put L before MYRRH to get
ELMER. Now try these.
Say a letter of the alphabet before ... to get ...
... a decoration on a gift ... a thin musical instrument
... a carpenter’s tool ... a biblical patriarch
... a boundary of a field ... a word meaning
“prevention of a team from scoring”
... the opposite of war ... a monocle, for example
... the sound a cat makes ... part of a car that
clears a windshield
... where a judge presides ... a person who
accompanies someone on a date
... a son of Adam and Eve ... a word meaning
“difficult to understand”
... a mean, mixed-breed dog ... a card game
... a word meaning “having a raspy voice” ... a fish that
swims upright
... a seabird with a harsh call ... a dog with floppy ears
Between Ayesha and me we got all of these. I’m not going to
give the answer so our readers can have some fun. You can also
hear the entire episode by Googling “NPR Puzzle October 6,
2024.”
I had a good time and if you did well on this puzzle you might
consider entering it yourself. Good Luck! I’m going to keep
entering.
John Weaver is a retired Professor of Law from
Seattle University School of Law. He began
teaching at UPS School of Law in 1972. He is
a resident of Tacoma and serves as the Law
School Liaison to the Tacoma-Pierce County Bar
Association. He is an honorary life-time member
of the TPCBA.
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