Wordplay Wednesday (Ken's blog, May 9th)

[skullturfq]

Link: http://ken-jennings.com/blog/archives/3753

I'll give one answer to start things off.

The words that get grouped with the first word in the first column are: OVERBITE, PRONOUNCEMENT, PARTICLE.

The three mutually related words that they're hiding are VERB, NOUN (or PRONOUN), ARTICLE.

[Antproof]

Pause for whiteness:




Starting with Absolute Absolute, Chancellor, Sharpener



Yields: lute, cello, harp

[stledge]

Here's a few more. Still two outstanding. One of the two, I believe, is birds

Pear, Date, Lime (Fruits)
Iron, Tin, Argon (Elements)
Austin, Concord, Dover (Capitals)
Rose, Iris, Aster (Flowers)
Rays, Reds , Astros (Baseball Teams)

[Antproof]

Starting with Environment:




envIRONment, excTINg jARGONize

[Antproof]

Edit: Nevermind.

[skullturfq]

I worked on it on my own, and I think I have all of them now.

The last one I got took me a while.

I am curious as to whether other people had the same "last" one. I suspect many of us will.

[gwynn1984]

I think the one that hasn't been mentioned yet is:







BOYSenberry wHELPed and migRAINe

Which are all Beatles songs

[errhode]

@Antproof,

No, @Stledge has it categorized correctly.


The bird you're missing is oveRHEArd. In answer to skullturfq's question, that was my "last" one.

My favorite is probably the one that most people would get "last"... BOYSenberry, wHELPed, and, migRAINe (all are Beatles songs). It seemed obvious to me what the word hiding in whelped had to be and that was the only category I could reliably place it in.

[Antproof]

Gwynn had my last one. I kept getting caught up on the middle one as being an album title, and didn't recognize the other two.

Errhode, yep I kept it around and came back to it when I realized I needed the other. I edited it out so I didn't lead others astray.

[waningestrogen]

Noob here, but there are multiple options, or am I wrong yet again?

Category Bird
martin
raven
tern/dove/rhea

?

Greetings from southwestern Washington, by way of introduction.

[Ken Jennings]

Good catch. I tried to avoid ambiguities (I was going to do "Paul Newman movies" with VICARSHIP, SHUDDER, and SHARPER until I realized SHARPER would mean I couldn't do "musical instruments" too) but it looks like I missed two extra birds.

But yes, there's only one set of solutions that allows you to make ten categories.

[GasparLewis]

Excluding the sets that it seems everyone has in common, I came up with:

martin / raven / tern (birds)
Eros / Iris / Rhea (goddesses)

instead of

martin / raven / rhea (birds)
rose / iris / aster (goddesses)

E: Apparently I allowed myself to get a little scrambled up.

[PhygLeGuy]

I just thought that resolving ambiguities was part of the puzzle.




These three: SMARTing, chanCELLor, and overhEARd
are all types of phones
but they block the path to completing ten sets.

[Ponch]

Good catch. I tried to avoid ambiguities (I was going to do "Paul Newman movies" with VICARSHIP, SHUDDER, and SHARPER until I realized SHARPER would mean I couldn't do "musical instruments" too) but it looks like I missed two extra birds.

But yes, there's only one set of solutions that allows you to make ten categories.

I think it was a good puzzle that, despite your best efforts, had a lot of ambiguity (I too assumed that juggling the ambiguities was half the puzzle)

I sadly gave up and came here looking for where I went astray... I don't know how many iterations I went through, but the closest I came/last match-up that made me give up was:

VERB / PRONOUN / ARTICLE
CHINA / CUBA / GABON
LUTE / CELLO / HARP
AUSTIN / CONCORD / DOVER
BERRY / DATE / LIME
ROSE / IRIS / GRAIN (should have realized this wasn't a valid triplet)
RAYS / REDS / ASTROS
IRON / TIN / ARGON
MARTIN / RAVEN / TERN

leaving
Disappear / Whelped / Overheard leftover

[andreaborn]

I know gwynn1984's answer is the correct one, but I explained





the set BOYSenberry wHELPed and migRAINe

with the phrase "blame it on the _________." Surely "Blame it on the Boys" is a movie or song or something, right?