NPR Puzzle 2/24/13 -- Who Let The Dogs Out?

Here's this week's NPR puzzle:

Name two parts of the human body, 10 letters in all. Place their names one after the other. Take a block of three consecutive letters out of the second word and insert them somewhere inside the first word without otherwise changing the order of any of the letters. The result will name a kind of doctor. What kind of doctor is it?

This is a close one. The parts of the human body are VEIN and ARTERY. VE(TER)INARY.

Here's what Merriam-Webster has to say about the adjective "veterinary":

of, relating to, practicing, or being the science and art of prevention, cure, or alleviation of disease and injury in animals and especially domestic animals

I dunno--does an adjective satisfy the precise wording of the puzzle? I'm not sure it does. I suppose it can be added to the phrase "kind of doctor" so the answer implied is "a veterinary kind of doctor." But I can't say I like the answer being adjectival.

Oh, well, moving on.

To the extent that we at Crossword Man Blog have a policy about tolerance and free speech in the comments, it's roughly this: We tolerate differences in opinion, but we reserve the right to yank a comment that offends us personally or that we believe will offend others. No one has violated this common sense standard recently (or ever, that I can think of). We just thought we'd mention it.

Photos: Of course what I wanted was a photo of the circulatory system that had been made into a kaleidoscope. In that quest I was disappointed. My second hope, namely for an overhead shot of some spaghetti junction, was also dashed.

Still, I'm a sucker for a bare tree...

Time for

Here are this week's picks:

Fewer than 50  51 - 100 101 - 150 -- Paul 151 - 200 -- Curtis 201 - 250 -- skydiveboy 251 - 300 -- Dave 301 - 350 -- EKW 351 - 400 -- KDW 401 - 450 -- Zeke Creek 451 - 500 -- Laura   501 - 550 -- Word Woman 551 - 600 -- Ross 601 - 650 -- Magdalen 651 - 700 701 - 750 751 - 800  801 - 850 851 - 900 901 - 950 951 - 1,000

1,001 - 1,050 -- David 1,051 - 1,100 1,101 - 1,150 1,151 - 1,200 1,201 - 1,250 1,251 - 1,300 1,301 - 1,350 1,351 - 1,400 1,401 - 1,450 1,451 - 1,500 1,501 - 1,550 1,551 - 1,600 1,601 - 1,650 1,651 - 1,700 1,701 - 1,750 1,751 - 1,800 1,801 - 1,850 1,851 - 1,900 1,901 - 1,950 1,951 - 2,000

2,001 - 2,050 2,051 - 2,100 2,101 - 2,150 2,151 - 2,200 2,201 - 2,250 2,251 - 2,300 2,301 - 2,350 2,351 - 2,400 2,401 - 2,450 2,451 - 2,500 2,501 - 2,750 2,751 - 3,000 3,001 - 3,250 3,251 - 3,500 3,501 - 4,000 4,001 - 4,500 4,501 - 5,000  > 5,000  > 5,000 + new record

Our tie-break rule:   In the event that a single round number is announced with a qualifier such as "about" or "around" (e.g., "We received around 1,200 entries."), AND two separate people picked the ranges of numbers just before and just after that round number, the prize will be awarded to whichever entrant had not already won a prize, or in the event that both entrants had won a prize already or neither had, then to the earlier of the two entries on the famous judicial principle of "First Come First Serve," (or in technical legal jargon, "You Snooze, You Lose").  As of July 2012, this rule is officially no longer obsolete (and also I still just like having fine print).