Thursday, May 31, 2012

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 27, 2012): Types of Wool - Actor Puzzle

Types of woolNPR Sunday Puzzle (May 27, 2012): Types of Wool - Actor Puzzle:
Q: Name two different kinds of wool. Take the first five letters of one, followed by the last three letters of the other. The result will spell the first and last name of a famous actor. Who is it?
Take the actor's first name and add a type of idol. Anagram the letters to get the actor's first movie.

Edit: Al + Matinee = Me, Natalie
A: Alpac(a) + (Mer)ino = Al Pacino

62 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.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I beg you, sir, might you please pick your clues a bit more carefully?

    -- Other Ben

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you're referring to Blaine's clue, I wouldn't have had a prayer of figuring his clue out if I didn't know the NPR puzzle answer already. But knowing the answer, I was able to look up the actor in the IMDb, find his first movie role, (The IMDb lists the filmographies in reverse chronological order - most recent at the top, first role ever at the bottom; and indeed the movie title in question is the 2nd to last thing listed, the bottom listing being a guest appearance on a TV series). Then I removed the letters of his first name from that title, and looked up the sorted string of the remaining letters in my "Sorted Anagram List". There are 3 words in my wordlist which are anagrams and I correctly determined that the "type of idol" is the alphabetically last of them.

      So in other words, I worked out Blaine's clue in EXACTLY reverse order!

      Delete
    2. How about let's celebrate 6/6 early ???

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

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Slight correction:

      I posted the following this evening at the end of last week's blog:

      skydiveboy Sat May 26, 07:32:00 PM PDT

      The new puzzle is up and just when you think the puzzles can't get any worse along comes still an even more shameful example. Will should feel more than a little sheepish. Perhaps it is time for him to pack it in and we get another puzzle master along with all the new hosts. It may be redundant for me to add that I solved this one in no time at all.

      Delete
  4. Is it fair to include moth-eaten as a kind of wool?

    ReplyDelete
  5. The actor is president of a group. Anagram the name of the group to name a costume the actor might have worn in a 2007 movie.

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

      Delete
  6. One of the wools reminds me of a football player who, in an old NPR Sunday puzzle, changes into a country when you change one letter.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Take a type of idol and a food brand. Anagram to get two kinds of wool.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Given the clues above, you could solve practically any Sunday puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
  9. No time for wool gathering on this one! Alert the media!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Now that I solved the puzzle, I think that I might head over to a certain national Donuts chain to pick up a bit of breakfast.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Is it me or does anyone else think it’s hot in here?

    Chuck

    ReplyDelete
  12. Musical Clue: Broadway Is Not Just For Gays Anymore!

    ReplyDelete
  13. If you can't figure this out... No soup for you!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Here is my hint: There are a total of 8 letters in the answer. The actors first name, however is shortened for something longer.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Every time I think of this actor, a word from a well-known Queen song reverberates.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Nothing to do with the challenge for next week, but I just listened to the on-air puzzle again. In one of the answers, Will rhymes "log" with "dog." In my part of New Jersey, that is a "sight rhyme" at best. I hate when those regional pronunciations come up in looking for an answer, which has happened in the past! (Dachshund, anyone?)

    ReplyDelete
  17. This actor has to one of the hardest working individuals in the film industry, with credits including Shakespearean adaptations, dramas, comedies, biopics, and voice work. I'd bet two bits that, on any given Sunday, this actor is on a set somewhere rather than listening to the NPR puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree. I wonder why Blaine let this one stand, considering the deleting spree he went on a few weeks ago (To Be or Not to Be).

      Delete
    2. One of Curtis's favorite football movies…is it? ;-)

      Delete
    3. Actually, I've never seen that movie, as I'm not a football fan or a big Pacino fan. I can't speak for Blaine or his sense of what's obvious. "Any Given Sunday" was far from a blockbuster, so I don't personally believe the hint was blatant. But, I'd guess that most readers missed the secondary clue in that post, "Two Bits," which was the name of a lesser-known Pacino movie.

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

    ReplyDelete
  19. The last name (actually, its latter half) came to me quickly. But I had never heard of the other kind of wool, the one I needed for the first name. Fortunately, thanks to Wikipedia, I did find it pretty soon. I guess I don't know my way around the Americas at times.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Clue for two of the actor's movies: Bloodhound

    ReplyDelete
  21. Whatever floats your boat!
    Musical clue: Paul Simon

    ReplyDelete
  22. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  23. So what is everybody doing for the holiday? I'm about to head out to see my brother and his family. It's a surprise visit. Ha! With my "vibrant" stories, I'll be the life and soul of the family reunion. Hoo-ah!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm traveling from Alabama to Pennsylvania. See, I know how to have a good time.

      Delete
  24. So Blaine, is that a picture of the Dolly LLama or Dolly the cloned lamb?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually it's Salvatore Dali Parton about to perform a rendition of Hello Dolly with Ken and Barbie. So don't lambaste Blaine or even try to pull the wool over his eyes.

      Delete
    2. Of course it could be one of the extras from Brokeback Mountain about to sing, I Only Have Eyes For Ewe.

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

    ReplyDelete
  26. Early to bed, early to rise...here's the new puzzle before your very eyes.

    Peekaboo

    ReplyDelete
  27. There are other kinds of wool besides the wool you get from animals. The word for one of them figures into an item featured in one of the answer's early films.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. the kind of wool that doesn't come from an animal: STEEL WOOL

      STEEl is used to make NEEDLES, which is part of the film title PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK, which featured the actor who is the answer to this week's puzzle

      Delete
  28. Obscure TV show clue: Walter from the Cosby Show

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm having flashbacks to living in LA and hearing the taco truck pull up in the alley behind my apartment building.

      Delete
  29. La cucharacha la cucuracha yo no puede caminar porque lo tiene porque la falta..(censored)........que fumar. Came from a children's book I had, no lie.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Some bloke by the name of Willie MacLeod Junior stole one of the actor's lines.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Alpaca, Merino --> Al Pacino. On Sunday I asked, “Is it me or does anyone else think it’s hot in here?” Al Pacino’s 1995 megahit movie was titled “Heat.”

    Chuck

    ReplyDelete
  32. AL PACINO from ALPACA & MERINO

    My clues are in my post where Al Pacino is now bracketed:

    The new puzzle is up and just when you think the puzzles can't get any worse along comes still an even more shameful example. Will should feel more than [A l]ittle sheepish. Perhaps it is time for him to [Pac]k it in and we get another puzzle master along with all the new hosts. It may be redundant for me to add that I solved this one [in] n[o] time at all.

    ReplyDelete
  33. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Al Pac[a Mer]ino.

    My hints were:

    "I guess I don't know my way around the Americas at times."
    The alpaca's habitat is Peru.

    "So what is everybody doing for the holiday? (…) Hoo-ah!"
    I was afraid this one might be deleted—an ever so subtle reference to the part of Scent of a Woman where Al Pacino (aka LT COL Frank Slade) descends on his brother's house for Thanksgiving.

    "Some bloke by the name of Willie MacLeod Junior stole one of the actor's lines."
    Google the name, and you'll find a blog posting of some obscure press conference where a man by that name, the manager (?) of a British soccer club, uttered:
    "Are you sharp-shooting me, punk? (…) You'll give me 40 push-ups, and then you'll give me 40 more!"
    It's not quite verbatim, but essentially it is an Al Pacino line from Scent of a Woman.

    ReplyDelete
  35. In response to Wolfgang - Monday May 28, 8:33:00 PM PDT

    I'm traveling from Alabama(AL) to Pennsylvania(PA). See(c), I(i) know(no) how to have a good time.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Actors Studio -> a doctor's suit

    Merino -> Dan Marino -> San Marino

    ReplyDelete
  37. I didn't want to wait for Blaine to set up this week's blog, so I posted my clue near the end of last week's:

    "Sat May 26, 07:47:00 PM PDT
    Yeah, pretty easy. But it's late here. I think I'll wait and submit my answer in the AM."

    Why AM? Initial letters of Alpaca and Merino!

    ReplyDelete
  38. Type of idol: AMERICAN
    Food brand: ALPO
    Kinds of wool: ALPACA and MERINO

    ReplyDelete
  39. float your boat - playing with word marina
    Paul Simon's song "you can call me Al"
    The cockroach line from "scarface? I think is heady stuff thus my childhood song "....to the edge he started skippin, pretty soon he started slippin in the pie so hot and blazin Now he's just another raisin. La cucaracha.....

    I have a toy llama i got in Peru and we (grandkids) call her Dolly Llama

    ReplyDelete
  40. Now that I solved the puzzle, I think that I might head over to a certain national Donuts chain to pick up a bit of breakfast.

    My clue is a reference to the Dunkin' Donuts scene from the movie Jack and Jill, with Adam Sandler, while Al Pacino stars in a commercial:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXP20hCHK3Y

    ReplyDelete
  41. Musical Clue: Broadway Is Not For Gays Anymore!

    Is the opening number from the 2011 Tony Awards, Al Pacino can be seen in the audience when Neil Patrick Harris states that Al is to famous to participate in the bit.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BHyfYiBt5o

    ReplyDelete
  42. SIR, would you please PICK your clues....

    Pacino's breakout film was SERPICO (1973).

    -- Other Ben

    ReplyDelete
  43. My clue re- "D Day," - "Dog Day Afternoon" movie.

    ReplyDelete
  44. "Alert the media!" -- I'm old, so to me the media are represented by the Associated Press, initials A.P., as in Al Pacino.

    ReplyDelete
  45. For the new puzzle, the postal codes of the two states provide a clue.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I usually enjoy your clues, Lorenze, but this one is just a bit shallow in my opinion.

      Delete
  46. I had to bang my head before I aced this one.

    ReplyDelete

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.