NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 8, 2012): And the Oscar Goes To...: Q: Think of a well-known actor, three letters in the first name, seven letters in the last. One of the letters is an "S." Change the "S" to a "K" and rearrange the result, and you'll name a well-known fictional character. Who is it?Add an "F" to the fictional character, rearrange to get part of a car.
Edit: TINKER BELL + F rearranges to LEFT BLINKER.
A: BEN STILLER - S + K --> TINKER BELL
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.
ReplyDeleteYou 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.
Will came up with a real ringer this time.
ReplyDeleteAs usual for Will. What a crock.
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ReplyDeleteHad I not already figured it out, this clue would've given it away for me. (In fact, I'm surprised Blaine's letting it slide.) Reminds me of a hilarious spoof of a Robert DeNiro movie.
DeleteOkay, I'll call it "irrational exuberance" that caused me to over-clue. I'll delete my clue and just ask this -- has anyone heard that the guy who played Eddie Munster checked into rehab? So sad.
DeleteWill really left me in the dust with this one.
ReplyDeleteOh boy, I am lost on this one!
ReplyDeleteIn last week's blog there were posts re: Antarctica. There is a strange relationship between this week's answer and the Antarctic that is not a play on words, nor has it anything to do with ice, which has a further connection to last week's puzzle answer. And along the same line there is a more obvious connection to Blaine's Geek Dad puzzle.
ReplyDeleteHaving now posted this, maybe my mind will let me go back to sleep.
There's something about this puzzle that reminds me of a 1970's TV Series.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention a 1950s TV series and a 1960s TV series.
DeleteReminds me of riding on the bike path in high summer weekends and all the 18 month olds suddenly appearing out of no where.
ReplyDeleteStill looking at all the "lists of fictional characters" through Google but all the sites I've picked just take me back to where I've already been.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteIf Clark Gable were alive today, frankly I don't think he would .....
ReplyDeleteIf Clark Gable were alive today, he'd be rolling over in his grave.
DeleteI believe I have the answer.
ReplyDeleteThat was really, really, ridiculously easy.
ReplyDeleteBlaine –
ReplyDeleteSorry about that. I thought what I said went right up to – but didn’t cross – the line. Guess I was wrong...
Chuck
It was close but had some words that might direct someone toward the answer, so I opted for deletion.
DeleteOne current actor and one dusty old character...
ReplyDeleteHot Dog I think I solved it!
ReplyDeleteOnce again, not sure what to make of Blaine's picture this week. Interestingly, there's an film honor that hasn't been awarded to the actor, but has been awarded to the fictional character.
ReplyDeleteI almost added a picture and clue that the fictional character had a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame but since the list is relatively short, I thought it might give it away. I kept your clue though, since it was indirect.
DeleteBen Stiller's dad, Jerry, *DOES* have a star, though.
DeleteHis parents (Jerry Stiller, Anne Meara) share a star. So how are you supposed to feel when your parents and Tinker Bell have stars but you don't? :)
DeleteYou mean you didn't figure out my picture clue? Isn't it obvious? The picture is of "Oscar". Another fictional Oscar is "Oscar the Grouch" who was voiced by the same person that voiced "Big Bird". "Big Bird" may wish to fly but he can't. On the other hand, perhaps if he could fly, he would "never land". And from there you get Peter Pan and then Tinker Bell.
DeleteThe title of the work that features the fictional character also happens to be the name of a camera movement used in porn films.
ReplyDeleteThis is a giveaway, please delete your post and wait until after the puzzle closes.
DeleteWeird -- I hadn't thought about Ernest Borgnine, who died today, in years. But before I heard of his death, I was watching him on the web, following a connection with the fictional character in this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteOuch! Are you that knowledgeable about porn SDB? I had to solve the puzzle first to get the joke!
ReplyDeleteProbably not, but I do have an imagination. And just so you know; none of my girlfriends are filled with hot air.
DeleteI did not know there was a hot/cold option with those blow-up girlfriends!
DeleteJim:
DeleteMaybe you need to bone up a bit on these things.
I found it surprising how few well-known actors there seem to be who go by a 3 letter first name, 7 letter last name, and have an "s."
ReplyDeleteBob Hoskins was great in Mona Lisa, wasn't he?
DeleteI found nine actors that met the 3/7 and S tests. I discarded two of them because they each had two S’s and I thought Will would have worded the puzzle differently if that were to be allowed. I discarded one of the remaining actors because he was not well enough known and Will doesn’t usually have puzzles that have answers which many people wouldn’t know. So that left me with six real candidates – not a large number.
DeleteChuck
Sure: no one who told you to put a V in front of and an E behind a French word to turn VIN into WINE would *EVER* say that an actor had an S in his name, when he really had 2.
DeleteAnd all this time I was thinking Will was being politically correct by using the word "actor," meaning either female or male, but now I see it's a male with 2 S's. Good clue, Jan!
DeleteThe actor I chose has only one S.
DeleteThis puzzle somehow reminds me of my photography club, which meets at the local Nature & Science museum.
ReplyDeleteFunny, it reminded me about the Hadley Farm Museum in Hadley, Mass, which features farming equipment from the late 1700s onward. It even has a tool used by one of our Founding Fathers.
DeleteThat museum might be a real spectacle.
DeleteBen's tiller must be quite the item, considering he was a printer and author ;-)
DeleteThere once was a girl named Mary
ReplyDeleteWho traveled along on a ferry...
You must be from the Left Coast. We have a running joke with our nieces from the SF area, that they pronounce "Mary", "merry", and "marry" alike.
DeleteI'm actually from a large island on the other side of the world, but you wouldn't know it if you heard my voice.
DeleteNever thought I'd get this one. BTW Blaine, your observation isn't right.
ReplyDeleteNow that the deadline is over, can you explain my oversight?
DeleteBlaine:
DeleteIt was not right because it is left.
Also it can be argued that it is not actually in fact a car part. Just try to order a blinker from your dealer. Now that is splitting hares.(sic)
Got it. :)
DeleteMaybe Raj K. Axentius would provide a hint.
ReplyDeleteMusical Clue: Cat Stevens.
ReplyDeleteBEN STILLER becomes TINKERBELL
ReplyDeleteMy Clues:
"Will came up with a real ringer this time."
"As usual for Will. What a crock."
These point to Peter Pan, by J. M. Barrie. A bell rings and the crocodile swallowed an alarm clock.
"In last week's blog there were posts re: Antarctica. There is a strange relationship between this week's answer and the Antarctic that is not a play on words, nor has it anything to do with ice, which has a further connection to last week's puzzle answer. And along the same line there is a more obvious connection to Blaine's Geek Dad puzzle."
J. M. Barrie had an improbable friendship with Capt. Robert Falcon Scott, the feckless fool who died of scurvy and starvation on attempting a return from reaching the South Pole after Amundsen’s well planned and successful expedition. This was due to his complete stupidity, bordering on suicide, which was kept from the public for decades by the British until Roland Huntford, also a Brit, exposed the truth in his masterpiece, The Last Place On Earth. Of course ICE also was part of last week's puzzle and Blaine's GeekDad puzzle was about berries, but perhaps not Barries.
"If Clark Gable were alive today, frankly I don't think he would ....."
In Gone With The Wind Gable said that frankly he did not give a damn. Perhaps a tinkers damn.
My hint about the 18 month old's along the bike path: like Tinkerbell fluttering in front of you.
ReplyDeleteBorgnine starred in McHale's Navy. One character on that show was Motor Machinist Mate Harrison "Tinker" Bell.
ReplyDeleteHugh! Raj is one of those on-line characters by some guy named Grohl??? Please enlighten us.
ReplyDeleteYes. I needed a reference for the first anagram I came up with, BENT KILLER. "Honest scribe, and highly DISHONEST ASSASSIN, Raj K. Axentius." turned up on a Google search. Putting his name in quotes and searching with that produced only one reference at the time.
DeleteBen Stiller --> benktiller --> Tinker Bell (or Tinkerbell)
ReplyDeleteWhat I said last Sunday (which Blaine deleted), was “What a childish puzzle. Puzzle writers should grow up.” What I should have said was Bank Teller :)
Chuck
My clue was a double reference. The bit about the museum referred to the "Night at the Museum" films. And, the specific museum I visit is adjacent to the Denver Zoo, an obscured reference to "Zoolander." I know; most visitors in this blog wouldn't know which city I call home, or that the museum here is close to the zoo.
ReplyDeleteNew puzzle is now posted and I'm sorry to say it is a bit of a downer again.
ReplyDelete