Thursday, June 13, 2013

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 9, 2013): Name that Movie Title

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jun 9, 2013): Name that Movie Title
Movie ReelQ: Name a movie in two words — five letters in each word. Both words start with vowels. Take one letter in the first word, move it two spaces later in the alphabet, and rearrange the result. You'll get the second word in the movie's title. What movie is it?
If you take the initials in the name of the main character and change them to one earlier and one later in the alphabet, you get the initials of the actor that played that character. And I'm sure you can find another similarity between the character name, actor name and the movie title.

Edit: The character is Kaita Raige (KR) played by Jaden Smith (JS). The names and the movie title are all 5 letters.
A: AFTER EARTH (2013)

175 comments:

  1. Here's my standard reminder... don't post the answer or any hints that could lead directly to the answer (e.g. via a chain of thought, or an internet search) before the deadline of Thursday at 3pm ET. If you know the answer, click the link and submit it to NPR, but don't give it away here.

    You may provide indirect hints to the answer to show you know it, but make sure they don't give the answer away. You can openly discuss your hints and the answer after the Thursday deadline. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. For a change of pace, how about we play a little game with movie titles? Create a mashed up title where the last word of one movie is the first word of another. Then provide a short synopsis of that movie.

    For example, if I said "In this sequel, George Clooney's heist crew has one additional member that refuses to return a guilty verdict," you would say...

    When you give an answer, you must then provide a synopsis for another mashed movie title for the next person to guess.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. OCEANS TWELVE. Oceans Eleven + Twelve Angry Men.

      In this sequel, an additional Asian warrior joins a band which attempts to bring justice to a killer and rapist.

      Delete
    3. Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria board a plane headed for New York. The plane crashes inside a maximum security prison. They meet Clint Eastwood who helps them by digging through the walls of their cells with spoons. Eventually they are reunited with their families.

      Delete
    4. John Brown, are they reunited or perhaps redeltaed or refrontiered? ;-)

      Delete
    5. Madagascar Escape from Alcatraz.

      "Newman and Redford classic meets Elvis not-so-classic."

      Delete
    6. WW,
      Good one. I don’t think it has been answered yet.
      “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Galahad,” a marriage of gun fighting and prize fighting!
      Movie trivia: In the Newman/Redford/Katherine Ross film, the Sundance Kid’s Gal had a thing for Butch too (recall the “raindrops keep fallin’ ” bicycle scene).
      More movie trivia: each of these “kid” movies had in its cast a different cast member from a classic 1970s-era sitcom set in Minnesota -- the one that had its star flinging her hat skywayward during the opening credits. (Answer: C.L. was in BC&TSK; E.A. was in Kid Galahad, his film debut.)
      Kudos to Blaine for introducing his mashed movie challenge. We needed something to occupy our right brains in light of (in dark of?) Will’s relatively lackluster puzzle this week.
      My attempt at a mashed movie:
      Old John, a hermit who lives in the woods, casts a spell on a naïve, slow-witted boy, allowing him to grow up to become a football star, war hero, ping pong champ, shrimp entrepreneur and cult-hero cross country runner.

      Lego…

      Delete
    7. Hi, Lego. I didn't know about Cloris or Ed. Interesting...

      Once Upon For(r)est Gump?

      Delete
    8. Make that "Once Upon A For(r)est Gump."

      Delete
    9. WW,
      Thanks for biting. The one I had in mind, though, was "The Enchanted For(r)est Gump." I knew this would be a problematic solve because "The Enchanted Forest" is an ultra-obscure 1945 movie (TCM brief synopsis: "An elderly hermit befriends a young boy lost in the forest" ... http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/74062/The-Enchanted-Forest/
      Forrest Gump, of course, not so obscure.
      Lego...

      Delete
  3. But ANGEL ALIEN, moving the G to an I, is not a movie!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes. It is a POSTER: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jepeinsdesaliens/8543051170/

      Delete
    2. Also a movie but with a longer title!

      Delete
    3. http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=angel+alien+movie&qpvt=angel+alien+movie&FORM=VDRE

      Delete
  4. Ocean's Twelve Angry Men

    "Grand Lakes University will never be the same after non-traditional student Rodney Dangerfield uses his wit and wealth to take on campus bigots Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, making their big-screen debut together, in this poignant - and hilarious! - look at the rampant anti-Semitism plaguing the world of collegiate diving."

    ReplyDelete
  5. Will's answer raises the classic cinematic/philosophical question "If a movie plays in a theater but no one's there to watch it, does it make a sound?"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Do you think Will is getting a kickback for giving this movie the "NPR bump"?

      Delete
    2. For what it's worth, these are the clues that gave it away for me. explaining why the answer wasn't in the lists I was scanning.

      This movie is not like the first 20 Mickey Mouse films.

      Delete
  6. The director’s last name anagrams into two words one of which is the name of a bird.

    Chuck

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And the other expresses regrets?

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    2. Based on box office performance, one might think a layman has taken over for the director

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    3. Yeah, DaveJ, and he probably worked nights.

      Delete
  7. Jsulbyrne: Back to School Ties

    After killing his brother and renouncing violence, a former slave trader joins forces with a Jesuit priest and an overly enthusiastic Scientologist to defend the native people in a South American jungle against Portugese invaders.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Mission Impossible

      "Phoebe Cates loses her top and loses her mind when she's admitted to the Psycho-Neurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous in this Hitchcockian tale of teen life in the '80s."

      Delete
    2. Fast Times at Ridgemont High Anxiety

      In a similar vein: Hitch double-dips at the Albert Hall where he meets both Kenneth Branagh and Joss Whedon, in color and black and white.

      Delete
    3. The Man Who Knew Too Much Ado About Nothing?

      Wow, man! How about:

      Two stoners help three sisters cope with the impending death of their father.

      Delete
    4. Hanging Up in Smoke?

      Two greedy brothers launch an experiment testing human nature, but against all odds, a band of mismatched underdogs rally to save the farm

      Delete
    5. Rocky Road to Perdition

      Mike Sullivan and Rocky Balboa both act as hit men, albeit in different venues. They test the bonds of loyalty. Yo, Adrian!!!

      Delete
    6. Trading Places in the Heart

      "An alien baby crash lands behind a Louisiana beauty parlor and is discovered by a group of women who adopt him and nurture his superpowers so that he may fulfill his destiny as the..."

      Delete
    7. Forgot to leave a clue above:

      "Matty Walker, but in India."

      Delete
    8. Man of Steel Magnolias

      (Is Word Woman on shrooms? What game is she playing? And can I have some?)

      But, as you wish: a loving servant struggles to find a mate for himself and another less comely sort.

      Delete
    9. Sorry, Mr Big Lebowski, I didn't completely cotton on to the rules until now.

      And, I fear I don't know your movie mash either.

      But, I did hear that the mushroom's boyfriend was a really fun guy. You may have a few, absolutely.

      Delete
    10. The Princess Bride of Frankenstein

      "Everybody's Talkin' when Jesse and Celine ramble for two hours about a Texas dishwasher who heads to NYC for a hustle here and a hustle there."

      Delete
    11. Before Midnight Cowboy

      "Jimmy Stewart's character imagines life as a shipwreck survivor with a big cat."

      Delete
    12. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    13. Bob: It's a Wonderful Life of Pi

      Two Brits bond in their quest to rule a foreign land. Monkey business results.

      Delete
    14. Jeffrey, not sure of your movie mash but I do like this Churchill monkey quote: "Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ-grinder is in the room."

      Delete
    15. The Man Who Would Be King Kong

      "The sh!t hits the fan - and the palate - when rich boy asks poor girl to prom leading to all-out war between their families to determine who's the filthiest of all."

      Delete
    16. Brilliant.

      Pretty in Pink Flamingos

      Buddy movie: Cop takes no prisoners and no crap, except for what's left in the litterbox.

      Delete
    17. Dirty Harry and Tonto

      "Mickey Rourke gradually and gruesomely metamorphoses after a kinky affair with an alien in this erotic Apartheid allegory."

      Delete
  8. Never heard of this movie before.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I submitted the answer and already have forgotten the name of the film.

      Delete
    2. Lorenzo, I remember it only because it rhymes with something planted in my front yard.

      Otherwise, forgettable...that's what you are...

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    3. Is the front yard with or without the stripes?

      Delete
  9. I never heard of this film until just now and same thing for the actors in it. I usually despise Hollywood movies and will never watch this one. I would like to change the second word in the title to a different 5 letter word that would make this movie sound like what I am sure I would describe it as were I to see it. For me the real puzzle here is why Will would even consider using this lousy excuse for a puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Did you change one letter and rearrange? There actually was a movie with that title about 25 years ago.

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    2. No, I changed the first two letters and the result rhymes with the original title.

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    3. I think I got it. There actually is a recent movie with that title too. ugh.

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    4. Charles, I am very sorry to find you are correct about that little fact.

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    5. Awww SDB I understand if you have disdain for most tv sitcoms and Hollywoodism but many many people know at least one of the actors. Admittedly I have not seen this movie so I can't vouch for it but the actor has had some decent/entertaining and suspenseful flicks (not "films") in the past, usually released around the fourth of July.

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    6. I am sure that Will has at least 4 reasons to keep one of the people in the movie in on his radar

      Delete
    7. RoRo, I count 3, but one is repeated.

      Delete
  10. SDB - Neither the movie nor the puzzle is on my short(z) list either, although the list I found it on was relatively short.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Same here. And with puzzles like this, the NPR Puzzle may soon be on my short list too.

      Delete
    2. I thought being on the short list was a good thing, SDB.

      Things on my short list? elves, dwarves, butter, jockeys, angry people, fuses, sheets.

      So long for now.

      Delete
    3. It is never funny to short-sheet a midget.

      Delete
  11. Name the stars of the film in four words, add one letter, and you name a different film.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, and name this film and then add all the remaining characters of the alphabet that are not in the title to name lots more movies! Please finish by supper time.

      Delete
    2. Two different films, in fact.

      Delete
    3. Only for the last fifty years or so.

      Delete
  12. ───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───
    ═══╪═══╪═══╪═══╪═══╪════
    ───┼───┼───┼───┴───┼────
    ───┴───┼───┼───────┼────
    ───────┼───┼───────┴────
    ───────┼───┴────────────
    ───────┴────────────────<──Change───to──

    Once again, my post on Thursday won't look quite as nice as what's above, but it shouldn't look too bad.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Enya et al, I don't like or understand your weekly graph, or whatever it is.

      Delete
    2. I don't post a graph like this every week, just when the puzzle involves an anagram, or near anagram.

      Some years ago I realized a way to show the rearrangements of letters from one word, name or phrase into another by simply using the two dimensions we see on the screen. Unfortunately, they didn't show up well in forums such as this due to our inability to make our posts in a fixed-width font such as Courier. I recently realized that box-characters help to solve that problem.

      When the puzzle is a pure anagram, one can visualize a vertical bar moving left-to-right, intersecting one of the letters at each point, reading off the initial word, name, or phrase; then visualize a horizontal bar moving top-to-bottom through THE SAME SPARSE MATRIX, intersecting one of the letters at each point, reading off the result word, name, or phrase. The letter rearrangement is visualized simply using the two dimensions we have to work with.

      Anyone who has SOLVED this week's puzzle, can select and copy the graph I posted above, open up their text editor, create a new document, (and as I've posted before, if their text editor is EditPad or EditPad Lite, they must then select "Convert", "Text Encoding", then select "Unicode, UTF-8") and then paste and save. Then they can PREDICT what my post will be this coming Thursday by replacing the "┬", corresponding "┴", and the ending "─" of the line on which the "┴" was, with letters so that the "┬" characters spell out the first word of the movie title, then the ending "─" characters, reading down, will spell out the second word of the movie title, the only exception being the one letter for which the "┴" does NOT MATCH the ending "─" character.

      I WAS HOPING to see some replies to my thread along the lines of "I believe I have made the SAME TEXT DOCUMENT that you'll be posting this Thursday."

      Delete
    3. It seems like a lot of work for a pretty easy puzzle.

      "Working in an office job until you join a motorcycle group and make a complicated toast order."

      Delete
    4. Nine to Five Easy Pieces.

      "George Burns reprises his role as both The Almighty AND also one of the city's biggest magazine editors, the ruthless and cynical Miranda Priestly."

      Delete
    5. Oh God! You/The Devil Wears Prada.

      Tough fire day here in Colorado. Hoping for rain, less wind, and temps under 99°. At least 100 homes, numerous buildings at Royal Gorge, and thousands of acres burned.

      Delete
  13. I told my wife the answer before she could figure it out, and she came at me like Ares on the warpath!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sounds like you and your wife should work on improving communication, to get what you want in your relationship.

      Delete
    2. ...as in, "...Men are from Mars"...nice clue!

      Delete
  14. You can take the 4 letters in common and the 2 other letters from the title and come up with a common 6 letter, which may explain Will's reason for the puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That would be a common 6 letter word.

      Delete
    2. Common...and yet amazing for this title/role. Yes, I think you are on to something.

      Delete
  15. Did anyone notice that the following appears in today's post of the Sunday challenge on the NPR website:

    Last week's challenge: Name a geographical location in two words — nine letters altogether — that, when spoken aloud, sounds roughly like four letters of the alphabet. What is it?

    ReplyDelete
  16. I noticed the error too...figured someone would change it, but no one did,
    This puzzle is yucky!

    ReplyDelete
  17. They should tar and feather whoever made this film. Or, at least send it to a theater far, far away.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Or perhaps ash and feather them & send them to the Lagerstatte (umlaut over second a) in Lianoning, China.

      Delete
  18. All I can say is this film goes to Eleven.

    ReplyDelete
  19. A severed ear in a field unveils a turbulent past in the glam-rock world?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Blue Velvet Goldmine.

      Dramatic entrance eighdreeuhn...

      Haven't seen either... film? movie?

      Delete
    2. "Colonial farmer Gibson and CIA dude Ford collide."

      Hint: Tim Tebow has just signed with the NFL team noted in the two titles.

      Delete
    3. The Patriot Games

      "Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando are a deeply disturbed couple on an Army base whose biggest threat may be the valet assigned to them, until Gary Busey returns from Vietnam to rid his hometown of a violent motorcycle gang."

      Delete
    4. Reflections in the Eye of the Eagle.

      "Hawkeye and the Korean War meet sweet, animated one word film!"

      99° here. Too hot to think alot.

      Delete
    5. Close - "Reflections in a Golden Eye of the Tiger"

      M*A*S*H Up

      Delete
    6. I told you it was hot! ;-)

      Close "M*A*S*H Up!" ;-)

      Delete
    7. Thanks, WW. I've been lurking for ages and couldn't keep that one to myself.

      Delete
    8. Mr.(or should I say Sgt.?) Cronauer. Good Morning!

      Delete
    9. Now that you're out in the open here, Adrian, will you be broadcasting on the radio? And welcome!

      Delete
    10. Will indeed. And thanks!

      Meanwhile... the King of England is the key to Earth's salvation.

      Delete
    11. Henry the Fifth Element

      "Tom Cruise bets he can circumnavigate the world in his race car in approximately eleven and one-half weeks...but how will he cross the oceans?"

      Delete
  20. One word - repeated four times - sets the tone as Spencer Tracy and a cast of America's top zanies (directed by Stanley Kramer) search for a fortune while trying to keep their brains intact through a global upset.

    ReplyDelete
  21. It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World War Z.

    The overlap on this is a little off but it's cheery:

    "Clementine and her wild hair colors travel in, out, and through time as she chases after a dilapidated VW van that will eventually double as her grandfather's hearse."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Little Miss Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

      (more to follow).

      Delete
    2. My daughter and I are fans of both Sunshine films. She was quite taken with Paul Dano's silent teenager in Little Miss... Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet in Eternal are on our eternally awesome lists.

      Delete
    3. Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon get down under and party one last time in post-WWIII Australia.

      Delete
    4. On the Beach Blanket Bingo

      "Genevieve Bujold cult classic from '60's and '70's college campuses meets physical and ethereal human parts."...(singular/plural difference though.)

      Delete
    5. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    6. Night of the Living Dead Ringers?

      Eli Wallach, Clint Eastwood & Marlon Brando in a race to win gold, hearts and minds.

      Delete
    7. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly American

      John Sayles directs a cautionary tale of young love, passion and the unfortunate consequences.

      Delete
    8. Not my intended answer. Jan, think royal. Think cards.

      Delete
    9. She's Having a Baby It's You

      "From the visionary minds at Pixar, an Italian-Jewish ant uses humor and imagination to shield his son from the horrors of a concentration colony ruled by Hopper, the evil Nazi grasshopper."

      Delete
  22. A Welsh family finds a discolored epidermis follows an overdose of drugs.

    (This one needs work, but why am I doing this anyway?)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How Green Was My Valley of Dolls? (My answer may need work.)

      The Beatles make a movie, (pornographic according to Mississippi, but not according to the Supreme Court) about their travels to Sweden.

      Delete
    2. I was referring to the 1966 Swedish movie "Night Games" (Swedish, "Nattlek"), not the 1980 Roger Vadim "Night Games."

      Delete
    3. Oh! You meant

      I Am Curious (Yellow) Submarine!

      Can't do the same with the companion film, because the obvious partner is The Blue Lagoon.

      Delete
    4. BTW, I see according to Wikipedia, the Swedish film was found to be pornographic is flamingly liberal Massachusetts, not ole Bible Belt Mississippi. Guess that's why they say "Banned in Boston" instead of "Banned in Biloxi"!

      Delete
    5. Or, remixed...Band on the Run.

      Delete
    6. Elvis Presley sets out to learn all he can about Swedish sex in the fiftieth state?

      Delete
    7. I Am Curious Blue Hawaii

      Bogart is absent, but his director of note is not when a cynical WWII vet teams up with a gang of thrill-seeking criminal dudes.

      Delete
  23. Desert dwelling wackos meet with high society wackos in this tale of sex and murder only to find they have more in common than they thought.

    A psychiatrist and his (too?) young partner help two sisters deal with the death of their father. Or do they?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Hills Have Eyes Wide Shut


      In a tale of intrigue and revenge, a mogul with horses on steroids meet an over-the-hill Lothario, an angel whose acting is awful and an androgynous femme fatale. A bloodbath ensues.

      Delete
    2. The Sixth Sense and Sensibility??

      A fair haired boy's dreams of greatness are derailed, wait, delayed by a violent killing spree in this supposed satire/critique of our media culture.

      Delete
    3. The Natural Born Killers

      Delete
    4. Extreme underwater exercise.

      Delete
  24. Super secret agents hot on the heels of an alien disguised as a homicidal bad haircut.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Replies
    1. Going more for No Country For Old Men in Black, but I like that one too.

      Delete
  26. The age of the movie was anachronistic to my experience thus far.

    ReplyDelete
  27. There Will Be Blood Diamond (apologies if someone already posted this - I'm in a hurry and didn't check).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just as I was going to do "There Will Be Blood Simple"...

      Delete
  28. ...and for the mashup: a devilishly dark yet funny tale involving two very different pregnancies, Moms, and babies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll guess "Rosemary's Baby Mama".

      Delete
    2. That works, but I was thinking Rosemary's Baby Boom.

      Delete
  29. Replies
    1. A Big Hand for the Little Lady and the Tramp.

      Delete
  30. Almost, Paul. King of Heart(s) and Souls. The former (and Harold and Maude) were 5- college Pioneer Valley, MA, cult classics. Never saw the latter.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Johnny Knoxville plots to kill Charles DeGaulle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Day of the Jackal(ass):
      The Movie?

      Johnny Knoxville, John Denver, Chevy Chase~~others?

      Delete
  32. George Washington, Grover Cleveland, Abraham Lincoln.

    ReplyDelete
  33. A rolling head begins to unravel a tangeled plot.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Thank You Masked Man Of La Mancha.

    Some Came Running With Scissors.

    Conversations with God Damn Yankees.

    Don't Go Near The Waterworld.

    Grey Gardens Of Stone.

    Paper Moon Over Parador.

    What's Eating Gilbert Grapes Of Wrath.



    ReplyDelete
  35. You've seen "Thank You Masked Man", with all the voices by Lenny Bruce? Great late night Art House animated short!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AFTER EARTH

      "Never heard of this before." versus AFTER.

      "He probably worked nights." referred to Director M. Night Shyamalan.

      After birth rhymes with After Earth.

      "Feeling jaded" was a nod toward Jaden Smith, one of the film's stars.

      The 6 letter word rearranged is father. The movie stars father and son, Will and Jaden Smith. Happy Father's Day on Sunday!

      Delete
  36. AFTER EARTH

    I felt this "puzzle" did not merit a hint.

    ReplyDelete
  37. The anecdote was fictional, but "Ares on the warpath" was intended as a hint: Ares = Mars = the planet "after Earth."

    ReplyDelete
  38. My post last Sunday:

    Is this challenge one of the great works of art? Or is it more like a bawdy joke? Can Will worm his way out of this one?

    Where works and worm come After Earth to form common words, and bawdy is a synonym for earthy. The Will cited is Will Smith, since this not-very-popular movie is said to be a vanity project for him.

    But, golly, those movie mash-ups were fun!

    ReplyDelete
  39. > This movie is not like the first 20 Mickey Mouse films.

    Those were Before Pluto.

    > Name the stars of the film in four words, add one letter, and you name a different film.

    Mr. and Mr. Smith

    > They should tar and feather whoever made this film.

    Anagram for AFTER EARTH.

    > Or, at least send it to a theater far, far away.

    Another anagram.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thought the Pluto clue and the Mr. and Mr(s). Smith clues were very clever, Jan. Did you planet that way?

      Delete
    2. No comet. Well, maybe just a little. But your wordplay dwarfs mine.

      Delete
    3. No, no, Jan. Yours is the meteor riposte.

      Delete
    4. (Must... resist... "running rings around Uranus" comment, or Blaine will be writing my orbituary.)

      Delete
    5. But the puzzle this week was nothing more than a Black Hole, so another one should not Matter too much.

      Delete
    6. Can't top orbituary, Jan. Did you put the fun in funeral for poor Pluto?

      SDB, hope tomorrow's puzzle will Matter more. Will's a bit quarky now and then.

      Delete
  40. ───A───F───T───E───R───
    ═══╪═══╪═══╪═══╪═══╪════
    ───┼───┼───┼───E───┼───E
    ───A───┼───┼───────┼───A
    ───────┼───┼───────R───R
    ───────┼───T───────────T
    ───────F───────────────H<──Change─F─to─H

    Not in this week's, but in last week's thread I said on Sun Jun 09, 03:44:00 AM PDT:

    ARRRRGGGHHH!!!! - The new puzzle is SO EASY it actually makes me mad!!!

    If I were to explain why A LOT of people will solve this one, of course Blaine would nuke it; - but believe me, A LOT of people will solve this one; AND they'll be saying to themselves "Why couldn't Will have...." -- and OF COURSE, if I completed that question - which EVERYONE will ask themselves, then of course again Blaine would nuke this post!!

    The question I figured a lot of people solving this one would be asking themselves was "Why couldn't Will have waited until the movie that's the answer WAS AT LEAST OUT OF FIRST RUN!!!????"

    I'm SURE a LOT of people SAW ADS FOR THIS MOVIE THIS WEEK!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In fact, the "short list" that gave me the answer was the list of the 5 flicks playing at my local theater.

      Delete
  41. After Earth

    Last Sunday I said, “The director’s last name anagrams to two words one of which is the name of a bird.” The director is M. Night Shyamalan. Shyamalan anagrams into alas and mynah. Sorry I couldn’t post on Thursday – busy :(

    Chuck

    ReplyDelete
  42. Did anyone else notice that AFTER and EARTH can be anagrammed to TAR and FEATHER?

    ReplyDelete
  43. Ward - When in doubt, hit "Command F", enter "feather", click Next, then Next, etc., see that jan posted this hint Monday morning and explained it Thursday afternoon.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Just throwing this out there but I think the "lame" puzzles are part of a larger puzzle. You have, for instance, behemoth (bee & moth), vex irk BUG, giANT/titan & titan ae (after earth) that are connected in some way. Maybe? Or maybe I'm in need of rest.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Loop, are you intimating that Will is involved in sects?

      I'd take rest, or maybe gardening, now that the sun is finally shining in Minnesota!

      Delete
  45. WW et al (et alii or et aliae):

    I just finished submitting my answer to today's Car Talk Puzzler. As I finished my lengthy reply I suddenly came up with a very funny joke I would like to share, but it would give away the answer, so if interested, ask me next week.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Teas can be rather fun, don't you think?

      I sat by the Duchess at tea,
      And she asked, "Do you fart when you pee?"
      I said with some wit,
      "Do you belch when you shit?"
      And felt it was one up for me.


      I sat next to the Duchess at tea.
      It was just as I feared it would be:
      Her rumblings abdominal
      Were simply phenomenal,
      And everyone thought it was me!

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    2. That reminds me:
      Tea for Two Mules for Sister Sara

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    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    4. Hold on there, Donkey Ho Tea, while I ass 'S' that. I am aware that assets are small donkeys, but I want to mule it over and cheque with the burro of land management.

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  46. I seem to have gotten lucky the last few weeks. Once again, it is *I* who am announcing that the new puzzle is up:

    Next week's challenge from listener Eric Timar of Falls Church, Va.: Write down these five words: "mate," "peck," "miss," "pot" and "blunder." There is something very unusual they have in common. What is it? And, can you name one other word with the same property?

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  47. I must remember the old adage, drawn from carpentry: Measure twice, cut once. Or in the case of puzzles, read twice, answer once.

    I spent a great deal of mental energy trying to fashion an answer to what I thought the challenge was, and it was really starting to bother me. Then I read the exact statement of it, saw all the whys and wherefores, and had the answer almost immediately!

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    Replies
    1. Right. Solving the puzzle is easy, but finding another qualifying word is difficult.

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    2. I discovered the common factor pretty quickly, described it to my wife, and she got another word right away.

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    3. I got another word, but it took a bit. Now it will take even long to come up with a clever clue.

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  48. Once again there is an answer to this new one in the recent past.

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    1. Yeah, I've found a few solutions now, but for some reason that was the first one I found.

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