NPR Sunday Puzzle (Dec 23, 2012): Actor, Artist, God: A: Take the last name of a famous actor. Drop the first letter, and you'll get the last name of a famous artist. Drop the first letter again, and you'll get the name of a god in classical mythology. What names are these?I thought the puzzle deadline would be a day earlier this week, but it isn't so this comment can be mostly ignored.
Edit: The first hint is Wednesday (day earlier) which is named after the Norse god Woden/Odin. Additionally, if you ignore one letter in "ignored" it anagrams to the name of the actor.
A: GRODIN --> RODIN --> ODIN
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.
Your clue cinched it for me Blaine!
ReplyDeleteAnagram the name of the god twice to get two cartoon characters used in advertising (one used by companies in two different industries).
ReplyDeleteThe cartoon's protagonist and the artist have much in common.
DeleteThe California Raisins?
DeleteAs I mentioned a few weeks back, we're coming up on Will Shortz's annual year-end news quiz, in which you are asked to identify new names in the news — people you probably never heard of before 2012, but who became famous during the past 12 months. Let's see who can read Will's mind (or his intern's), and predict the names he'll choose.
ReplyDeleteHere is my list of the 9 top contenders, Vigenere-ciphered using my 10th name as the key (OK, one is a 2-for-1 cheat. So sue me.)
Rewii Byigyawsnmd
Pluwa Zfisdbdlt ar Uiwl Isfded
Alcq Igy Naphyj
Sfmdzm Fwuve
Aoldy Wze Rqpdey
Tposnos Lazfiy
Pdy
Pozslhz
Fzmnnedcm Gwzeysiva
What, no ....
Delete(Oops, excuse me)
Ihlt, yo Fchwy Gnojao?
(Using your same key)
... and the rest of your list?
DeleteWere it not for E&WAf's divulgence, I'd still be trying to work my way back from #7.
DeleteNo offense, Jan, but I wouldn't bet on #8.
That's what makes a horse race.
DeleteAnd who knows when, or if, 'the fix is in'.
DeleteA bit disappointed in the lack of response. Here's my list, in the clear:
DeleteFelix Baumgartner
Paula Broadwell or Jill Kelley
Blue Ivy Carter
Sandra Fluke
Carly Rae Jepsen
Trayvon Martin
Psy
Rafalca
Francesco Schettino
Malala Yousafzai
Enya_and_Weird_Al_fan, Honey Boo Boo is not a bad guess. Interestingly, all of these except Broadwell/Kelly made Ben Schott's end-of-year quiz in today's New York Times (www.nytimes.com/2012/12/27/opinion/Schott-the-year-in-questions.html).
Cuddled beneath our synthetic down comforter with my wives this morning, we listened to this week's challenge. I thought to myself, "Finally, a puzzle that does not appear to have been "growed in the deep, dark hollers of some hillbilly's mind." We were able to solve it, owed in large part to Paul's fabulous giveaway clue at the end of last week's blog. After showering, we had some good laughs over breakfast, and then Wife #3 and I saddled up and went for a brisk ride down on the Philosopher's Creek trail. Becky Sue rode Molly, our chestnut mare. My horse, Diablo, gets a charley horse on cold mornings, -- or should I say, a "charley person??", so, I rode Dan, my son's Appaloosa, which proved to be slightly more challenging than this puzzle. Holly Happidaze everyone!
ReplyDeleteI assume then you are headin' on up to Montana to throw the hoolihan?
DeleteMaybe I shudda rode the Old Paint?
DeleteNah. Save old paint for touch up on yur velvet wall hangings.
DeleteLOL -- Appaloosa!
DeleteMy sister, Rosey, and I went out for lunch. Being a vegetarian I didn' t really care for the menu. It was only burgers. How about some fruit, nuts or vegetables over this dead meat? I did get a sisterly kiss and pay the bill.
ReplyDeleteNo gold medals for those clues, Zeke. Worthy of the bronze, however, old buddy. (Don't feel too badly, after all, Japan silvered in World War II). Leave it to a guy named Zeke Creek to leave these poor clue seekers "up the proverbial tributary without the proper means of locomotion." ;-)
DeleteAh, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. At least her son didn't show. Y'all related?
DeleteYou talkin' 'bout, Rosey Palmer, Zeke? Didn't know she had a son. She stops over on Friday nights with her five daughters on a pretty regular basis. Known them since my early teens.
DeleteAnd still keeping' in touch?
DeleteIs that why they call you handsome?
DeleteTake my advice and get a grip on yourself.
DeleteLet's just call it, "life in the digital age." But hey, that Rosey is sumpin. Talk about yer statuesque brunettes...
DeleteI'll take that for a "oui oui."
DeleteOnly if you see me swimmin' on a very cold morning, Zeke.
DeleteWe can rule out Goddesses?
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't advise it, Uncle John. Goddesses can get pretty touchy. Look what happened to the guy in Blaine's picture, just for trying to cop a feel!
DeleteBut Jan, he was only trying to find out if she was well marbled.
DeleteAnd, please, don't come back and take her side, saying he was taking her for granite.
DeleteLet's frieze this line of banter right now.
DeleteBut I'm already chilled out from last week.
DeleteNot sure I would call that actor "famous", but maybe he's undergoing a "Resurrection". (Only if you saw him on Broadway.)
ReplyDeleteGrodin had a long run with Ellen Burstyn on Broadway in the 70s, in the Neil Simon play: "Same Time Next Year". And EB was the star of "Resurrection".
DeleteHere is what I posted very early this morning at the end of our last puzzle blog:
ReplyDelete"And if you remove the first letter of the name of the god, you might be left with what this puzzle may elicit."
And if you were to then remove the first letter of that word you will end up with where you should send your answer to the puzzle when you figure it out.
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ReplyDeleteBravo!
Delete@jutchnbev- I'd remove that clue.
DeleteMight I only add, "touché," or as they type in Rockaway on their Gateway, @-a-boy, Jutch.
DeleteYou might as well just write down the name. I agree with John Brown.
DeleteLook's like Blaine has heeded the calls for jutchnbev's head on a pike. Another bard buried in obscurity.
Delete(To the tune of Battle Hymn of the Republic)
John Brown's buddy lies a-mouldering in the grave,
He's gone to be a poet in the army of the Lord,
But, his censored foul is remembered on.
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DeleteThere is no hint here – just a comment. The standard list of actors I use to solve puzzles with has 1,036 entries – not the biggest, but not the smallest either. The person this puzzle requires isn’t in it. So I had to solve the puzzle backwards: god --> artist --> actor. To tell you the truth I had never even heard of this person before this puzzle came along. Perhaps I should get out more :)
ReplyDeleteChuck
To be honest, Chuck, all three of the names in this puzzle are less than A-List names to most 'mericans. But, I appreciate all of them. I'd be willing to be that most folks are familiar with one of the the god's progeny, one of the artist's works, and one of the actor's films.
DeleteChuck,
DeleteWere you familiar with the actor's first name?
I have one thing to say about this puzzle: Oz & Henson.
ReplyDeleteWednesday Addams, but not Tuesday Weld.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely Tuesday if we're referring to the same cast.
DeleteI think I'm going in a different direction with my hint...
DeleteJust another friendly twist down the old gravel road. Have a marblous new year.
DeleteWhere's Wolfgang? I think there's a hint here involving a classical music composer.
ReplyDeleteHere I am, Leo, here I am!
DeleteSorry I was AWOL for so long; must've been a little tone-deaf about my blogging netiquette.
So now I'm reporting back, first thing after coming back from a solemn mass.
To whom it may concern: Merry Christmas!
Most Excellent, Wolfgang. I knew you weren't just going to roll over and disappear. Glad to hear you went to a solemn mass. We've been attending the Latin Mass for years! Merry Christmas!
DeleteAll right…
DeleteThe "classical composer" was Beethoven, of course, since Charles Grodin was the (human) star in the movie Beethoven.
My clues: "tone-deaf" and "solemn mass" (an allusion to Beethoven's Missa Solemnis).
One thing about that artist feller, when he died under suspicious circumstances, investigators had nothin' to go on. Not quite so true for the village pigeons, however.
ReplyDeleteA bucket of warm water and a little Dove would take care of that.
DeleteI hereby nominate you for the job, SDB. And when you finish with that, Blaine could use a hand cleaning up this week's blog.
DeleteThis puzzle is even more timely than last week, but only if you are watching the sequels.
ReplyDeleteOn a foggy night at Smith College, I almost ran head first into a work of the artist. Was it the fog or the sangria?
ReplyDeleteGee whiz, RoRo. That's crazee! What college would even think of hanging paintings outdoors?? Especially on a foggy night. Or was it the "fog of the sangria" to which you refer?
DeleteAy, there's the bump, I mean rub! I remember distinctly it was a Wednesday night. My Parents in Pennsylvania Thought I was in the dorm studying.
DeleteI have always been a woman who likes to walk although certain critics might think that both the artwork and I were about to fall that night
DeleteLucky you didn't run into the lost horse he was chasing.
Deleteyou are so right this being New England and all
DeleteLucky indeed, RoRo. After all, it is well known all over New England that Paul revered that horse...
DeleteThen why did he use Revere Ware to cook said horse?
DeleteWhy not? Do you expect a patriot of his magnitude would use china?
DeleteSpeaking of Revere Ware, I have a handsome set hanging above the Wolf Range. If you don't have Xmas dinner plans, allow me to cook your goose.
DeleteEven the Japanese used China.
DeleteGoose your own cook.
DeleteAnd while you're at it, don't forget to Hosanna!
DeleteI'll leave that to the butler, Ben Dover.
DeleteSpeaking of MYTHOLOGY, SkyDiveBoy: At the risk of melting your heart, I'd like to take the high road on this special day and wish my very favorite NEMESIS a Merry Christmas. Here's to another year of lousy puzzles, benign insults, cruel redactions from Herr Blogmeister and, of course, sophomoric puns! You're the best. One of the reasons I feel so close to you is that unlike my pastor, my shrink and my wives, you're ALWAYS there! ;-)
GuerrillaBoy
Provo, Utah
No wonder! A pastor, a shrink and 3 wives! When do you have a moment to be yourself?
DeleteMerry Christmas to you too! We can try and hope for better puzzles, but I did that a year ago with no luck, so I guess we can go on making lemonade from lemons, and anyway, what we do here on this blog is much more fun than solving them, don't you think?
Now, enough of this mushy stuff and take out the garbage!
Certain props on "The Middle", to put it mildly?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNah,
DeleteI'd still be a schmuck.
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ReplyDelete2 revealing!
DeleteYeah you could have couched it by telling SDB that was the lamest remark you had heard him host on any weekend, or something, but he would not have believed you :)
Deleteyup, all you have to do is google it.
ReplyDeleteFor some this puzzle was easy to mythunderstand for others it was mythery. In either case, don't make a mythstake. May the mytheltoe be with you all.
ReplyDeletefor some could also be a mythtery. Enjoy the myrrh and the myrth!
ReplyDeleteThyth puhthyll yth myrrhdyrrh lil' myth roro.
DeleteHalf a quiller gnu yeer ephrybawdy.
ReplyDeleteThilly puthle people!
ReplyDeleteCharles GRODIN > Auguste RODIN > ODIN
ReplyDeleteMy hints:
"And if you remove the first letter of the name of the god, you might be left with what this puzzle may elicit."
DIN
"And if you were to then remove the first letter of that word you will end up with where you should send your answer to the puzzle when you figure it out.
Send your answer IN.
I awoke, as I sometimes do, a little after 5 AM and got up to see if the puzzle had posted yet. I read it and went back to bed and got the answer right away by thinking it would be easier to work it from the middle as there are lots of gods and lots of god-awful actors, but far fewer well known artists. Rodin was one of the first I thought of and Grodin came to me immediately and I am surprised it did as I have never seen him or have any idea what he was in. Odin came just as quickly, so I then got up again and posted the hint I also came up with right away. I was happy to not have to refer to lists.
(Charles) Grodin, Rodin, Odin
ReplyDeleteLast Sunday I said, “I had to solve the puzzle backwards: god --> artist --> actor. To tell you the truth I had never even heard of this actor before this puzzle came along.” Marilyn Monroe is famous. John Wayne is famous. Robert De Niro is famous. Denzel Washington is famous. Charles Grodin is not famous IMHO. BTW, Gerald Brodin and Peter Frodin would also work as the actor and neither one of them is famous either.
Chuck
"Certain props on "The Middle", to put it mildly?"
ReplyDeleteThere is an American TV sitcom (I know, nobody here owns a television) called "The Middle" wherein the family name is "Heck." Hence, certain props might be "gates of Heck," which is a "mild" way of saying Gates of Hell, leading to Rodin, etc.
Anagram ODIN to get DINO (used by Flintstones vitamins and Sinclair Oil) and NOID (used by Domino's Pizza, in their Avoid the Noid campaign).
ReplyDeleteDino's buddy, Fred, and Rodin earned livings moving rock.
Deletejutchnbev posted a poem that was removed. I have been wondering what was objectionable that got it deleted. I did not see what was obvious, but I also did not get all the references.
ReplyDeleteRome was established on April 21, 763, 1260 years ago.. Charles GRODIN was born in Pittsburgh, PA on April 21, 1935. Rodin was born about 5 score years later and did pieces called the Golden Age of Bronze and the Guards at Calais and shaped our thinking about how to contemplate with "The Thinker." Good Inns contained Odin, and he is responsible for us having to enter our solution on Thursday, as Odin is the father of Thor for whom Thursday is named.
DeleteThanks for appreciating the poem. I thought it was subtle and clever, but then I wrote it. I also tried it out on several others before I posted it and they had to look up five facts or so before they could guess. Not to in any way to disparage RoRo's clue, but all you have to do is look up Smith's College art and you find Rodin. But, alas! Life is too short for sour grapes. I will go away and write clever poems to myself.
Pardon me, Rodin was born five score years earlier.
DeleteYou think? -:)
DeleteThanks, I still think it was obscure. You can publish it here now the deadline is over, and I would like to read it again. It is good.
Jutchnbev, please publish your poem again.
DeleteYou are correct, I suppose about the Smith College "Walking man" and I suppose ABQ was trying to help me out by the outdoor painting quip. But then I thought the college had such a huge collection in general that it would not have been as obvious. I really did bump into it on a foggy night but the sangria (maybe it was ripple) happened on another occasion when my dorm mate brought home a formaldehyde (sp?) frog propped up against a tiny microphone and I did give up the juice for about a week after laughing too hard at that work of art.
Okay, thanks for asking. Here it goes again:
DeleteRome was founded on this day
Twelve-sixty years ago, they say.
In '35, Pittsburgh, PA
An actor's born to charm his way.
A golden age, as some would say.
Some five score years before that day
A man whose art shapes us today
To contemplate and pause and say:
Let's take a trip to old Calais,
Stay in good inns and, then, that way
We'll marvel at this god's great sway.
Because of him, you now may
Visit NPR Thursday.
It was a good poem, but even with a mistake about the founding of Rome (which you had as 753 A.D. instead of 753 B.C.) it was easy enough to get to the answer.
DeleteA quick search for "Date Rome was founded" comes back with April 21, 753 B.C. And a search for "Actor born April 21, 1935 in Pittsburgh" returns a list of Charles Grodin hits.
So much for my math! Or maybe I was trying not to give the answer away.
DeleteYeah, that's the ticket! What's 1500 hundred yeats between friends? :-)
DeleteI hadn't been able to solve this puzzle until the above poem was posted. The give-away for me was simply the word "Calais". Calais is in France, so it wouldn't have been a clue about the actor or the god. If you google "calais art", Rodin pops right up.
DeleteI have an alternative answer:
ReplyDeleteGeorge Tobias
Bias Obias
Bias
Yeah, I'd say Bias Obias is a "vocal artist".
DeleteAnd it was fun getting reacquainted with Abner Kravitz.
And those Greeks had all kinds of obscure deities, didn't they?
And some people still worship their own prejudices.
benmar12001, you are a gentleperson and a scholar!
Touche!
DeleteRosey/ Rosemary's Baby with GRODIN as the ob.
ReplyDeleteBurgers/ RODIN'S Burghers.
kiss/ RODIN'S Kiss.
Rosey's son/ old yellow eyes.
Oui oui/ RODIN'S language.
Tuesday Weld, cast/ RODIN'S bronzes.
Trade some artist starpower for some actor starpower and throw in a touch of deity leniency to get:
ReplyDeleteMichael KEATON
Charles Warren EATON
ATON
Nsut ecwwgv is tji ciw ryodlg qpc dkjuir hvdq mkrt. Tetlpts asj jowrs wooi vim qyi mn vlt ainhtvngwh. Pev'w cst fmhtuvi ile oeixet.
ReplyDeleteNice one, Ben!
ReplyDeleteThe new puzzle is up:
ReplyDeleteFirst, name a U.S. state capital. Rearrange its letters to spell the name of another American city. Remove one letter and read the result backward to spell a third American city. Finally, move the first letter of that to the end to spell a fourth American city. The cities are in four different states. What are they?
I find it easier to think while playing solitaire, so I got out the blue deck and laid the cards on the table. Jack of clubs, jack of hearts, king of diamonds. Then I quit.
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ReplyDeleteArt always comes to mind when I think of this place, which is ridiculous when you think of it.
ReplyDelete