Thursday, July 07, 2011

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 3, 2011): Famous Film Director Puzzle

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 3, 2011): Famous Film Director Puzzle:
Q: Think of a common four-letter adjective. Then take its opposite in French. (It's a French word that everyone knows.) Say the two words out loud, one after the other, and you'll name a famous film director. Who is it?
It's déjà vu, all over again.

Edit: I used the comment "déjà vu" recently on the post entitled Same Puzzle: True or False?. In addition, a very similar form of this puzzle appeared back in January 2007.
A: TRUE + FAUX --> François TRUFFAUT

47 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 Google or Bing) 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.

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  2. You lamented the loss of your new beau

    While I tried to bid you adieu, so

    I’ll say to you now in lieu, though

    I do hate to say, I told you so.

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  3. Well, *ALMOST* everyone knows it. That's just a small change.

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  4. If the answer is the name of a famous film director, would I be able to find the soundtracks to some of his films in my rapidly - going - out - of - date CD collection?

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  5. Did anyone notice they spelled the answer to the puzzle incorrectly? "L'il Abner."

    As to the new puzzle, is anyone reminded of Robert Morse? Is that in code?

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  6. C'est une comparaison intéressante de Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. et Jonathan Mortimer Smith à Li'l Abner pour le jeune public.

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  7. St. Louis is under a severe thunderstorm watch just now and it is blowing quite hard and quite often. I think I’ll turn off my PC. I confess I looked through several hundred 4-letter adjectives before coming up with the right one. May I wish a soupçon of luck to those who’ve not hit upon it yet.

    Chuck

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  8. Question. Are they looking for the first and last name or just the last name of the director?

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  9. phredp:
    Yes, I think you narrowed it down properly, but trod carefully.

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  10. I pored over lists of adjectives, lists of French words and lists of directors, and finally decided that enough is enough. I'm done with this puzzle.

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  11. My hints (from the previous blog post):

    1. It comes as a real blow that after almost eight straight years of entering every single Sunday puzzle I've yet to be picked. It's enough to make my blood boil. (Okay, I made that last part up.)

    2. Next thing you know, Bill Richardson will announce his candidacy for president again.

    3. YIUR HOCP MIOJ KAOQ

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  12. My English-French dictionary is missing. I know exactly where I saw it last - perhaps the cat absconded with it, the little burglar.

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  13. Doctechnical -- your cat is quite the mischief maker! I have a recipe for cat here: Preheat your oven to 233 C...

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  14. Musical Clue: "William Stromberg"

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  15. Cineme' Sin I Might
    Tell me if it's Day or Night

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  16. You'll find my musical clue somewhere between a Chateau and the Yellow Brick Road.

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  17. My musical clue would have to be Philip Glass.

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  18. Another musical clue: G, A, F, (octave lower) F, C.

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  19. I thought about this puzzle until I was blue in the face. Then Hermione and Ginevra inspired me to discover the right answer...

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  20. Polonius' advice and Sidd Finch, juste ou non?

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  21. It was a struggle, but I finally got it. Ever notice that after a while, one puzzle begins to sound like another?

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  22. This post have nothing to do with week's puzzle but rather one a couple of weeks ago with the 4 x 4 crossword puzzle. Anyway, I just saw a Tide commercial where they used the word "ecru" one of the puzzle answers that was a "common" word.

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  23. Remember, Tide anagrammed becomes diet. Eating a Tide diet can be very effective.

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  24. The answer:
    Francois Truffaut.

    My clues:
    Robert Morse was the actor in the one man play, "Tru." This was an award winning play about Truman Capote.

    phredp:
    Yes, I think you narrowed it down properly, but trod carefully. (This allowed me to make reference to "faux pas," which means "false step."

    My musical clue would have to be Philip Glass. (I consider his cultural contributions to be faux music.)

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  25. This week was my first time posting at this blog. I hope that my reference to my (actually non-existent) CD collection would serve to introduce the Roman numerals for 400, as a reference to The 400 Blows, which if not exactly a clue at least established that I knew the answer. I note that Unknown made the same point with reference to "almost eight years of Sundays", or 400 weeks.

    As a cat lover, I had mixed feelings about jan's suggestion of heating an oven to Fahrenheit 451 !

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  26. My clue referred to movie Day for Night.

    Yeah Jan , that was so cleverly uncatly but I wondered about your musical clue?

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  27. My clue last Sunday was:

    St. Louis is under a severe thunderstorm watch just now and it is blowing quite hard and quite often. I think I’ll turn off my PC. I confess I looked through several hundred 4-letter adjectives before coming up with the right one. May I wish a soupçon of luck to those who’ve not hit upon it yet.

    - - - - - - - - - -

    “Blowing...quite often” and “several hundred” were attempts to invoke an early movie Truffaut wrote and directed, The 400 Blows (1959). BTW, it’s rated as #193 of the top-rated 250 films of all-time on IMDb. I was hoping to use “400” as a clue by itself, but a Google search on 400 takes you right to the film and its director in about four pages so I figured Blaine would kill it anyway :)

    In any event, I lied – I looked at no lists of 4-letter adjectives. I just needed a plausible sentence in which I could include the phrase “several hundred.” In fact, Truffaut simply came to me as a bolt from the blue while I was cleaning up the dishes. It always amazes me that the human mind can come up with stuff like that.

    “Right” was an attempt to invoke “true.”

    And finally, my use of the cedilla in soupçon was an attempt to suggest the French nature of the answer and also to invoke Truffaut’s actual first name in French, François. Most places will allow soupcon and Francois without a cedilla but neither is technically correct.

    Hope everyone had a great Independence Day weekend!

    Chuck

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  28. RoRo, my musical clue was the 5-note motif from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", starring Truffaut as the international UFO scientist. (If you're tone deaf, just google "G, A, F, (octave lower) F, C").

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  29. 1. It comes as a real blow that after almost eight straight years of entering every single Sunday puzzle I've yet to be picked. It's enough to make my blood boil. (Okay, I made that last part up.)

    2. Next thing you know, Bill Richardson will announce his candidacy for president again.

    3. YIUR HOCP MIOJ KAOQ

    Solutions to my hints:

    1. actually contains three hints: I took a real "blow" after entering the Sunday puzzle 400 times; that's a reference to the Truffaut film "The 400 Blows"; "It's enough to make my blood boil" was an indirect reference to Fahrenheit 451; "Okay, I made that last part up" was a reference to the true/false nature of the adjectives.

    2. Bill Richardson announced his candidacy for president on January 21, 2007, the same day that this puzzle first appeared in a slightly altered form.

    3. YIUR HOCP MIOJ KAOQ is a Vigenère cipher, using the key TRUE FAUX to encode the plaintext FRANCOIS TRUFFAUT.

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  30. Straightforward = Frank, True, pas Faux
    François Truffaut
    Pas faux pas!

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  31. La Totale!? Je pense non.

    La Totale! wikipedia:

    Everyone thinks that François Voisin is a model executive with a calm and orderly life, but it is only a front. In reality, François is a secret agent, one of the best: in the game he is nicknamed l'Épée, "the Sword". But even as he infiltrates arms-smuggling rings and prevents terrorist attacks, he fails to realize that his wife is bored. One day he discovers she is having an affair...

    In 1994, an American remake was made starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis. The name -

    True Lies

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  32. Thanks Jan. I did leave your blog humming that tune but forgot about Truffaut's role in that movie and did not make the connection.

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  33. Your clues were MUCH more clever than mine. I just refered to two of his films (Breathless and Two English Girls).

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  34. The new puzzle is up. I can never remember the words to that theme song...

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  35. Yes, it is now out and it might be a long journey for me since I do not watch TV.

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  36. Can't argue the well known part this week - was he really a Justice of the Peace though ?

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  37. Has Martin Penwald a new job at Volvo?

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  38. The Truffaut puzzle was easy this last week because it was a true/false question.

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  39. The EU has already named a vessel after the writer.

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  40. What do patients awaiting experimental back surgery confront?

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  41. Last week I was thinking of Walt Kelly's most famous quote.
    My attitude improved during the week.
    This week I'll be investigating James I of Scotland.
    Owwer kxrg yx ivg ngdf?

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  42. Paul: While I have decoded your last question, I do not know how to answer it. But the key you used is most fascinating.

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For NPR puzzle posts, don't post the answer or any hints that could lead to the answer before the deadline (usually Thursday at 3pm ET). If you know the answer, 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 assist with solving. You can openly discuss your hints and the answer after the deadline. Thank you.