Thursday, October 23, 2008

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 19): Now That's A Capital Idea

Sunday Puzzle (Oct 19): Now That's A Capital Idea:
Q: Name a famous actress with four letters in her first name and five letters in her last name. Drop the last letter of her first name and the last two letters of her last name. The remaining letters, in order, will name well-known a world capital. Who is the actress and what is the capital?
Seems like we have a pattern going on. A few weeks ago the puzzle answer was "Giant Anteater" and I gave the clue to "B.C. Comics" which has a giant anteater as a recurring character. Then I used the same clue to hint at Bill Cosby for the puzzle on "Jello". Perhaps I can reuse an old clue in a similar fashion for this week?

Edit: The hint was a reference to the Cosby show. The actress in question played Denise Huxtable
A: LISA BONET --> LISBON
Posted by Blaine at 5:27 PM
Labels: , , ,

30 comments:

  1. Good clue Blaine. Like Jello with a French flair?
    ReplyDelete
  2. She is notable for being an Emmy Award-nominated American actress.
    ReplyDelete
  3. She's also famous for having gone directly from a very family-oriented television show to an extremely racy scene in a fairly dark movie.
    ReplyDelete
  4. Similar clue? Why not just repeat one of them!
    ReplyDelete
  5. I figured out the city and the actress' first name, but I had to look up her last name. I had never heard of her until now. She currently stars in a popular TV show. The "famous" in the clue is a little misleading. Unless you've watched her former comedy or her current show, I'm not sure you can figure out this actress without looking her up. She has a page on Wikipedia.
    ReplyDelete
  6. Look at world capitals and work backwards
    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks for the clues. I found the answer on TV.com
    ReplyDelete
  8. I used the same method as phredp.
    It's easy that way. But I too have
    never "heard" of her.
    ReplyDelete
  9. This one was frustrating. I figured out the answer and could not confirm the actress' name until the tv.com comments was made! Thank you, Natasha!
    ReplyDelete
  10. I confirmed on Wikipedia.
    ReplyDelete
  11. So far the most helpful clues seem to be about the person and not the city. So, let me interject that the city figures in the title of one of my favorite films from a very artistic director who once one an Oscar for best foreign film (NOT the same movie). Same director also did a wonderful movie about musicians from a Caribbean country.
    ReplyDelete
  12. And, said director is from a country where "nine" sounds like a non-positive. And "w" sounds like a different letter entirely...
    ReplyDelete
  13. As I said before, she IS NOTABLE.
    ReplyDelete
  14. Oh, Carl, why not just discuss "goalies" for an hour? I'm not going your way.

    Forget the focus on the city. The heart of the matter is this actress. Not the port into which we can morph her name.

    Hugh, by the way -- do you mean NOTABLE or NOT ABLE?
    ReplyDelete
  15. Ben,

    Perhaps he is hinting at zzzTABLE?
    ReplyDelete
  16. You can tell I was not running on all three cylinders; WON an Oscar, not ONE an Oscar.

    And one of his most highly acclaimed films was made into an "Americanized" (read: "commercialized and drained of artistic merit) version a few years ago.
    ReplyDelete
  17. I'm wondering if anyone recognized what those two words actually are.
    ReplyDelete
  18. Carl, I'm glad you mentioned the "Americanized/commercialized and drained of artistic merit" version of his film. I had an epiphany about the sorry and nepotistic state of our arts community while watching a *music video* made to tie into that sorry film. Please allow me to explain.

    Here is Jacob Dylan (who seems an unremarkable singer owing his career to his brilliant father and inherited name) performing Heroes.

    And they couldn't even get Jacob Dylan to make a go of it with his own song -- he's using one made famous by David Bowie.

    Because his video is tied to the movie, they keep showing scenes of Nicolas Cage, who is of course a nephew of Coppola (though he did change his name and attempted to build his career aside from being a Coppola).

    So you have ALL of this AMAZING and ORIGINAL art made once upon a time by Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Francis Ford Coppola, and the director whose name will be revealed today at 3pm, having used the city upon which we dwell this week.

    All iconoclasts.

    And then you have all of these sons and daughters and sycophantic Hollywood types making and remaking instead of doing something unique. It is sad.

    Can we propose a single day which might be free from sequels, remakes, Hiltons, Charlie Sheen, Wilson Phillips, Natalie Cole, Kate Hudson, Joey Travolta, Jacob Dylan, Nancy Sinatra, Julian Lennon, Miley Cyrus, etc.? Do we need these people?

    OK, my rant is over.
    ReplyDelete
  19. Thanks Ben, sincerely.

    Some of us can see how insulting it is to be expected to appreciate something that's a cheaper and less accomplished imitation of something original and beautiful. Big stars and high production values don't begin to compensate for taking something brilliant and repackaging it so some beer-swilling football fan can brag about having taken his wife to see an arty movie. Sorry if that makes me sound hopelessly elitist.

    And I was referring to Angel Heart in my first clue, where Lisa Bonet had a steamy "love" scene with Mickey Rourke. Made Mr. Cosby kinda sad and angry, I understand...
    ReplyDelete
  20. And, of course, the director to which Ben and I refer is Germany's own Wim Wenders. Wings of Desire. Buena Vista Social Club. Lisbon Story (great soundtrack featuring amazing music by Madredeus, a Portuguese band). Until the End of the World.

    Who else could come up with the idea of having Peter Falk play himself (in Germany filming a Columbo episode), as an angel who had willed himself to become human.

    Once, when I was studying graphic design, I had a class in a room where the college's theater group would do makeup before a performance. On the blackboard someone(s) had written a list of important directors in the world of film. It was a long list and a lot of very accomplished people were represented. It was fun to find myself in a group of five or more students who noticed the absence of some important names and promptly added them. Wim Wenders was one, and Akiro Kurosawa and Jean-Pierre Jeunet and maybe three or four others...
    ReplyDelete
  21. And I just realized that lack of sleep in the last week or so has me giving Wim Wenders credit for Dersu Uzala, which took the 1975 Oscar for best foreign film. It was directed by Kurosawa. I guess I got them confused because they share the same elevation in my appreciation for filmmakers.

    NOW I'm finished.
    ReplyDelete
  22. Being naughty and getting an early start on this week's puzzle. Here's a good place to start looking: http://www.teamnames.us/index.htm
    ReplyDelete
  23. This weeks puzzle,(Oct 26,is like the question "Who is buried in Grant's tomb." It really doesn't deserve a clue.
    ReplyDelete
  24. Answer submitted. Not exactly
    super easy. POOF helps.
    ReplyDelete
  25. This latest puzzle has this in common with the upcoming election: it's not exactly a horserace.

    And while we're on the subject of teams, I think it's past time for a little more sensitivity on the issue of names for athletic teams, or their mascots, that offend indigenous peoples.

    And Geri, what the heck is POOF?
    ReplyDelete
  26. I'mp dying to guess the right team name, but for some reason I just keep thinking about cigars!
    ReplyDelete
  27. Guess I came in last with this group. Thanks for the clues!
    ReplyDelete
  28. Carl, I got POOF from Ben who on
    Tues. Oct. 07.08:50:00AM PDT said,"At
    first I could't get this one. Then
    I took a quick break and POOF I got
    it." He was referring to the 10-5-08
    ouzzle "interaction--tar and nicotine."

    For this week I should have spelled
    it "PHOOF."
    ReplyDelete
  29. Geri, got it. Ben was trying to make people think of having a cigarette, so symbolic of break time in our culture for so long. And I remember I referred to a Wiley Miller cartoon that I wished I could offer as a clue...

    In this cartoon there are people sitting at a counter in a restaurant. There's a sign that says "no smoking." The patrons to the left of the sign are smoking and their smoke drifts toward the right and goes straight up when it encounters the sign, then hugs the ceiling and continues sideways, completely missing the patrons in the non-smoking area. The caption said something very much like: "The laws of physics as understood by restaurateurs."
    ReplyDelete
  30. I just wanted to point out Hugh's great hidden clue where he said, "She is notable..."

    If you anagram the letters in "is notable" you get "Lisa Bonet".
    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)