Q: Think of a famous person whose first and last names both have seven letters. Only two different consonants appear in this full name, each used more than once. Out of the 14 letters in the name, 13 of them appear in the first half of the alphabet, A-M. Who is this person?I'm so sorry guys... I dropped the ball on getting the puzzle posted on Sunday. For anyone that wants some hints, look to the comments in the prior puzzle post. I must admit that my initial attempts to figure this puzzle out were hampered by my method. I had a list of common first names pulled from census data and I filtered them by the rules above (no more than 2 consonants, vowels "aei" with possibly one extra from the set "ou"). It came up with mostly female names like Cecilia and Lucille. I now see why my method was doomed to fail.
Edit: I said I "dropped the ball" which was a reference to the story of Galileo dropping two objects of different mass from the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa as an experiment to disprove Aristotle's theory that objects fall at a speed relative to their mass. The story is probably apocryphal, but should have been a clue to Galileo. The other hint implied that the name was not one you would find in a list of common names...
A: GALILEO GALILEI
Hi everyone. I've been following this community for a while, and reckon that it's time to start delurking.
ReplyDeleteHere are a few names which satisfy the first requirement but not the second. Maybe they'll put you in the correct reference frame:
Auraria Georgia
Cennino Cennini
Eduardo Iradier
Ferrari Ferrara
Massimo Massimi
I wish people would start debugging me with words like "delurking." ;)
ReplyDeleteI had trouble scoping out this puzzle,, but now I realize this person should be known universally ...
ReplyDeleteWolftone, welcome to the community and thanks for introducing yourself. Great clue! I got the answer as soon as I read it. Gracie, amico.
ReplyDeleteI was ready for a swim in our large fresh water lake, but the weather turned cooler with rain showers. At least it was warm and sunny over Memorial Day weekend.
ReplyDeleteAt first I found this puzzle very very frightening to me. But afterwards, I'd figure it's magnifico!
ReplyDeleteIt's raining again here in
ReplyDeleteMissouri. Thunderbolts and lightning!
Now that many of you have the answer, maybe you'll be able to make sense of my television show reference from the other day...
ReplyDeleteEspecially since said television show is getting mentioned more lately than it has for a while, with the recent release of a related film.
The title of the episode in question is reminiscent of an early John Sayles film.
It was so clear here in Chicago last night, I was able to see Jupiter's moons.
ReplyDeleteHey Ben, Jupiter revolves around the Earth. All stellar structures do. Yes, that's the truth. Do you understand that, Benjamino?
ReplyDeleteDavejtaylor, your clue worked for me...I won't be entering as we're on vacation for a few days starting Thursday.
ReplyDeleteCarl, your clue was way to warped for me...
ReplyDeleteI believe Bertolt Brecht knew this person intimately.
ReplyDeleteKip, let's hope Brecht used his writing acumen to make the person a round character, not a flat one.
ReplyDeleteWelcome, wolftone. I lurked for awhile before ringing in, also. I find it ironic that the person in this week's answer has a sign of the zodiac embedded in his first name.
ReplyDeleteGood Heavens! All these fancy clues.....
ReplyDelete"shall i say-o" that i finally got this one?
ReplyDeletea "pal o me" figured this one out.
It's my sign too!!!! LOL
ReplyDeleteGreat clues everyone, THANK YOU!
ReplyDeleteAnswer submitted.
Kasey Kasem says "Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars."
ReplyDeleteThese comments pretty much give it away.
ReplyDeleteAren't these comments moderated for that?
I thought the clues this week were a little too revealing. I've noticed this time and a few times in the recent past that people unthinkingly revealed the gender of an individual when it's not stated in the clues provided by W. S. I think (for what my opinion is worth) people should be a little more cryptic; the idea, it seems to me, should be to offer little nudges toward the answers... not to hire a plane to drag a banner across the sky with a message of THE ANSWER IS.....
ReplyDeleteI could turn on comment moderation and check every post prior to it going up on the blog, but I don't have the energy/time to do that and it would slow down the conversation that I enjoy seeing here. Instead I rely on self-moderation and it usually works.
ReplyDeleteI also felt that many comments this week were too revealing, but it was too late to do anything. Partly that was my fault because I was busy over the 3 day weekend and didn't put up the puzzle right away. I also didn't put up my standard reminder to not give the puzzle away.
It's a little late this week, but everyone, please try to keep that in mind for future weeks' comments.
Carl and Blaine, I agree with you. The first few clues were pretty vague, but the clues at the end pretty much give it away, especially if you're a music buff.
ReplyDeleteBlaine, I really appreciate the work you do to maintain this blog. I feel fortunate to have discovered it a few months ago and certainly don't expect you to be a 24/7 monitor. Keep up the great work!
I was on the trail of a trampy actor so the clues here didn't give it away for me. Took me a while because I'm not accustomed to using this person's surname.
ReplyDeleteThanks ever, too, Blaine.
ReplyDeleteI echo others' kudos.
Blue
Blue, I'm not sure I'd so readily admit to echoing others' kudos; I'll get back to you after I consult a dictionary...
ReplyDeleteBlaine, much thanks for what you do and for a place to meet folks as divergent as myself.
MyLittleFamily- My post regarding our large fresh water lake was a clue for large(st) fresh water lake especially a sea in the middle east. The name fits right in with this persons 1st and last name...And since it's after the deadline...
ReplyDeleteThe answer is posted above. If anyone got stuck, it was probably from thinking too much about famous people of the present.
ReplyDeleteI was stuck on Charlie Chaplin and have no recollection how I got to Galileo. Oh wait! It was the reference to a zodiac sign :)
ReplyDeleteThe mother of all and the father of all monkeys, in italicized scientific nomenclature, are each a Gorilla gorilla, fitting W S's seven - letter rule with giggly sound alike to seven - letter Galileo Galilei. 'n', well, fitting ... not much else.
ReplyDeleteMartin Luther, of one generation afore GG and northern European neighbor, more or less, to Europe's south, Italy, is the blatherer.
witchy, inquisitive, scientific = all clues of the Burning Times (a most terrible period wherein women for 300+ years, generations and generations and generations, in "civilized" (read that: NOT in barbaric other areas such as the so - called Dark Continent) woke up every day in fear of being named a witch from someone else suffering herself ... "the third degree" of torture = death ... after "the second degree" was administered against her) and what happened to folks such as G G ... IF ... the magical thinking of the men in long dresses did not prevail! See paragraph 3 of the Life section re G G in wikipedia.
Blue
wow! That's a mouthful...too way out for my thinking
ReplyDeleteCookieface, I'm glad that I'm not the only one who doesn't understand.
ReplyDeleteWhat's not to understand? I get Blue's thinking, at least once it is explained. It tells me that Blue has an abundance of clues in what she writes so we should pay attention.
ReplyDeleteEvidently Galileo Galilei was not
ReplyDeleteeasy because "We only received about
300 correct entries."
The phone rang during today's so all I heard was "Indian" something and make three words of it. Only 300 entries? Wow, I thought there would be more. It was not difficult. Perhaps because it came out on a holiday weekend and people missed it.
ReplyDeleteRearrange the 13 letters in Indian
ReplyDeleteWrestle to make three related words
of five, four, and four letters.
r