So it would seem that nicknames like "Buddy" are okay if that is what the person was most known by. I have the answer but not before trying to make Annette Funicello and Isabella Rossellini work. Did you know her full name was Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini? That was interesting to find out.Q: Name a famous person whose first and last names together contain four doubled letters — all four of these being different letters of the alphabet. Who is it? For example, Buddy Holly's name has two doubled letters, D and L.
Edit: The last sentence starts "That was..." which has the initials T.W. from my answer.
A: TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
Here's my standard reminder... don't post the answer or any hints that could lead directly to the answer (e.g. via a chain of thought, or an internet search) 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.
My answer uses the person's real first name rather than their better-known nickname.
ReplyDeleteI have found another answer where the first name is the persons well-known nickname.
DeleteI think Blainesville has a real winner in Marie/Christine. My congrats!
ReplyDeleteChuck
Marie did not sound nervous at all. In fact she sounded like her heart was really into it.
DeleteKudos, Marie. You were cool as a cucumber.
DeleteI especially liked the sequence when you got the answer with only two of the three clues, and then only one of the three! (Following that feat, I thought Will ad-libbed well, saying something like "Ok, now give the answer without any clues."
You can wear the lapel pin proudly.
Lego...
Thanks guys! I finally got up the nerve to listen to the broadcast myself and it was better than I expected. Apparently puzzling brings out the best in us. Now, on to the next weeks challenge!
DeleteChristine
Hey, congrats Marie! And could you post a pic of the mysterious "lapel pin"? A lot of us are dying to see what it looks like!
DeleteUJ, I'd be happy too, watching for it every day!
DeleteI so wanted Jimmy Buffett to work but it proved to be more difficult than squeezing a brick into a round hole, even when I included his middle name.
ReplyDeleteYou can always squeeze another M into Camille Pissarro.
DeleteThe intended answer person shares something with Jimmy Buffett.
DeleteNot to make a mountain out of a molehill but I really wanted Mississippi Queen to fit.. you know what I mean?
ReplyDeleteI do, ZC. Imagine the harmony (or lack thereof).
ReplyDeleteThanks, guys, got it. But then I have always [CENSORED].
ReplyDeleteIf "famous" means having a Wikipedia page, and if there can be a blank space between a "doubled letter", I have a few names that work. However, it seems that some have you have found an actual "famous" person. I'll keep trying.
ReplyDeleteI have SIX answers which I will post Thursday.
ReplyDeleteron, show-off ;-).
DeleteAt least the puzzle is fairly well defined, with little wiggle room for what Will is looking for...except perhaps "famous."
When I ask Will a question (if that ever happens) it will be: What the heck do you define as "famous," "familiar," and "well-known?"
Contiguously,
Word
I am now up to NINE answers and I am sure I have the intended answer. Two of them are extremely well-known.
DeleteYea, now we're sorry we pointed you to you those bolding lessons ;-).
DeleteBoldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Thanks, Goethe (wishing you were Gooeetthhe).
So, WW, does this mean you now back in the Americas?
DeleteYes, skydiveboy, I am. Certainly hope our two cities survive the hype until Groundhog Day.
DeleteI hate football and don't care who won, but are you saying Seattle is now going to be against Denver?
DeleteDid you catch my dig at Hawaii NOT being part of America? It has always seemed odd to me, but I have never heard anyone else comment on this anomaly.
C'est vrai. It was actually great to miss the hype this week while in Kaua'i. You would never know NFL football existed there.
DeleteI did note that. Amazing as it may seem, you can't put a lot past me ;-). It was interesting to learn about most of Hawai'i being antipodal to Botswana, Ni'ihau being antipodal to Namibia, and Kaua'i straddling the two countries in its antipodes.
And I meant to mention that I went hiking yesterday in the foothills of the Cascades and it was just like a nice summer day.
DeleteW and sdb,
DeleteI’m frankly a little worried about you two.
W, the end of your 7:41 PM post with all its talk of “antipodes” and “straddling” smacks of a passage from Anais Nin (good crosswordese!) or “The Fifty Shades of Gray.”
sdb, your 7:50 PM post reads like a lost stanza of William Wordsworth’s “The Thorn” or Robert Browning’s “Pippa‘s Song:” “...God’s in his heaven, All’s right with the world.” (BTW, sdb, look for my upcoming volume of collected poetry, “Caterwaul and Other Doggerel,” inspired by Allen Ginsberg and… you!)
I don’t know, though, what is more disconcerting: Prurience or Pollyanna.
LegoQualmda
Gotta be Pollyanna. Funny you mentioned Anais Nin, as I played around with adding an L to Anais to make Lanais vs. shooting off the W from Wanini to make Anini...It's been a long time since I read her diaries. I have not read 50 Shades of Gray but did see some racy 4,000 year old clay tablets in "The Times of Israel"~~50 Shades of Clay.
DeleteWell Lego, we are frankly a little worried about you too.
DeleteBut I suppose I should be pleased someone is looking out for me. Please send me an autographed copy of your tome. Reminds me of my neighbor's clever dog. He insisted his pooch could compose poems and such at the computer keyboard. I told him I was skeptical and he showed me a couple of samples. Pure doggerel in my opinion. I was still somewhat impressed though. That caused me to experiment with my cat, and I began sitting him at my desktop computer to see what might transpire. He would stay there for fairly long periods of time, but would only stare at the screen catatonic. I finally gave up in despair.
My cat would wag his tail so hard on my homework paper (from which he would not move willingly) that I often considered placing ink on his tail and see what art masterpiece he would come up with (more Pollack than Dali which only has one L)
DeleteOOps unlike Pollock which has 2 l's and 2 o's
DeleteYes, but have you ever heard of a musical called, "Hello Pollack"?
DeletePublic transportation is my hint.
ReplyDeleteAnother hint:
ReplyDeleteBoth first and last names are common.
I would say this person is quite famous. And yes, the answer assumes a nickname but I’ll bet you not one person in a thousand knows this person’s real name. And I really got a kick out of SDB’s first clue :) When you’re hot you’re hot.
ReplyDeleteChuck
I am reminded that I had been wondering if a name rendered in crossword answer fashion along the lines of WOODROWWILSON would count as having a double O and a double W.
DeleteI haven't posted in some time, but will have to wait patiently until Thursday to state my answer.
DeleteBobK, Not only did I assume that this was permitted, but, in fact, might be the key to solving the puzzle. All my previous answers a double letter of this type.
DeleteI didn't let your clever hint slip by either, Chuck.
DeleteActually, although I had considered the type of answer I posted at 03:30:00, I was really just answering Chuck's challenge (yes, I did know), but I was trying not to be too transparent about it.
DeleteBobK and Lorenzo, et al.,
DeleteYes it is ambiguous about the wOOdroW Wilson consonant count. Had Will provided an example like deNNiS ScoTT (famous, alas, only to hoops fanatics) instead of buDDy hoLLy, we would know what is acceptable.
A politician I googled qualifies under those rules, but is familiar only to political wonks. That’s probably one of the two answers Lorenzo refers to in his 12:55 PM post.
(Of course, if one hearkens back to Will’s infamous, yet admittedly challenging, “Q: What French word adds an ‘e’ at its end and doubles its first letter to form an English synonym? A: {vin > wine}(!)” then maybe anything goes, caterwauls and doggerels are sleeping together, and a W counts as a pair of adjacent V’s!)
I have the presumed intended answer, also alluded to in posts by jan, sdb, chuck, in Charles’ second post and by me in my 7:40 PM post. It is no doubt one of the nine answers unearthed by ron, who is way out of my league.
Speaking of “out of my league,” my dream car when I got my first job, flipping burgers, was a 1991 Saturn VI, but I didn’t even earn enough to afford refurbished brake drums for my ’66 VW Beetle, which I nicknamed Ringo. So I quit my flipping job and got a gig within walking distance as a volunteer in charge of set design and prop procurement in a community theater production of Disney’s “Beauty and The Beast.” It was a blast seeing ol’ Walt’s Fantasian vision fully realized in my tap-dancing plates and singing teakettles! (5 hints)
Not so successful was our avant-garde production of “Who’s Afraid of he Headless Norseman,” a dramatic adaptation of the Warren Zevon song “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner.” In the climactic scene in a Mombasa bar, Roland downs a stein o’ kefir (he’s on a diet) but the barkeep slips a Mickey Finn cocktail of animal fats and gum Arabic into the drink, triggering a chemical imbalance in the mercenary’s brain which results in wild hacking and general corporal mayhem. (5 hints)
LegoLambdrama
Re: "A: {vin > wine}(!)” then maybe anything goes, caterwauls and doggerels are sleeping together, and a W counts as a pair of adjacent V’s!"
DeleteOf course it works. "Vin" is French. For "W", French does not have double-u; it has double-v. It's only screwy if he didn't also use a French pronunciation for "e."
VVARREN BUFFETT.
DeleteClever VV, ron.
DeleteLittle Miss Muffet, of arachnid-sitting-by fame.
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DeleteEric,
DeleteI defer to your French language expertise. Thanks.
ron,
Now make that TEN ansvvers for this vveek‘s puzzle!
LMM (aka VVVV),
Had E.B. VVhite vvritten you, rather than Fern, into Charlotte’s VVeb he vvouldn’t have had much of a story, vvould he?
L’agneauJambe-da
We had a dog named Wilbur, a cat named Charlotte, and an eternal love for orb-spiders in our house.
DeleteLittle Miss Muffett (how it ought to be spelled!)
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DeleteIt's "gigot d'agneau da."
DeleteJa, ja, danke, ron. But gigot sounds a bit too much like gigolos, and their wanton association with antipodes, straddlings, buffetts, muffetts, tuffets, curds, whey, whips, chains, polluted streams of consciousness…
DeleteGigoloD’agneau-lala
I finally have an answer that fits perfectly, 2 double letters in the first name and two in the second. It's my 16-year old grandson! Only problem is that not all will agree that he is famous.
ReplyDeleteW and sdb,
ReplyDeleteOne of the players in the NFL championship games -- both played in the afternoon ;-) ;-) -- has an indirect connection with the intended answer.. (If the seahawk or broco sees it shadow, we get six more weeks ice-cold beer cold cuts and confetti blizzards.)
LegoLambowl
Yuk! I drink my beer (bier, in my case) at room temperature.
Deletelego, I like the game just not the hype. Our town goes completely nuts with countdown clocks, etc. Not an especially pretty game today but it'll do.
DeleteI am missing avocados the size of cantaloupes from the Hanalei Bay Farmer's Market. (If that were written by football folks they would be the size of footballs, of course).
Will need lots of distraction before PP!
All this is reminding me of my high school romance with Tess Tossterronne, but the S's repeat. Another disappointment.
ReplyDeleteJust came a cropper in the summer heat.
ReplyDeleteTV clue: Get Smart
ReplyDeleteWasn’t Nebuchadnezzar’s last name Bookkeeper?
ReplyDeleteChuck
"The Secret Sisters" (musical clue)
ReplyDeleteThanks.
DeleteThere is an obscure, if famous (has a Wikipedia page), person that won a Tony (twice) and also won an Oscar. This person dropped his first name in billings early in his career.
ReplyDeleteBut the intended person (also has a Wikipedia page) shared a tragic fact with each of JFK, RFK, and Teddy Kennedy.
Saukriver, re: second clue: good one.
DeleteAnd I thought the commonality with the Kennedys was having a psychologically disturbed sister!
DeleteFive dollars.
ReplyDeleteThis one had me in a state of confusion for a while. I'm better now.
ReplyDeleteFinally came up with a genuinely "famous" person, who, (I think appropriately) does not appear on most lists of "famous influential people."
ReplyDeleteहरे कृष्ण
ReplyDeleteWith a bit of help from Mr. K, I managed to think of one simple, basic answer to this ?*##@% mystery.
DeleteI enjoyed jan's TV clue, of course.
Paul, did your characters have meaning? (Only half ;-))
DeleteLet's just say they weren't random.
DeleteSometimes, Paul, you are quite the mr undonuc.
DeleteLK
All this pondering of double-lettered names sent me thumbing through (OK, googling to) Charles Dickens, one of the best moniker makers in the (wo)man-of-letters business. He had scads of such twinnings in the numinously delightful names with which he dubbed his characters.
ReplyDeleteAn ample sampling: Scrooge, Chuzzlewit, Bazzard, Biddy, Sally Brass, Noddy Boffin, Copperfield, Crummies, Cuttle, Little Dorrit, Drood, Drummie, Fezziwig, William Guppy, Krook, Nubbles, Merry and Cherry Pecksniff, Peerybingle, Peggotty, Pott, Pumblechook, Radfoot, Riderhood, Rouncewell, Smallweed, Snodgrass, Sowerberry, Spottletoe, Fanny Squeers, Poll Sweedlepipe, Tappertit, Trabb and Polly Toodle. Along with some who sprout bonus double-letters if you scrunch their first and last names together: NewmaN Noggs, (the very palindromesque) PhiliP Pirrip (Pip), and UriaH Heep.
A related challenge: Let’s see who can find a real person’s name with the highest ratio of double-letters to total letters. For instance, in Will’s example, buDDy hoLLy, the ratio is 4/10 or 40 percent. In Will’s presumed intended answer the ratio is 47%. For our purposes let’s declare that scrunched names like AAroN NeviLLe (6/12, 50%) and cY Young (2/7, 29%) are acceptable, and that names that repeat double letters like flaNNery o’coNNor (4/17, 24%) and lEE grEEnwOOd (6/12, 50%) are also kosher.
The best I can do is 67% with the politician I referred to in my Sunday 11:36 PM post, and with a person who was a “salt-of-the-earth Shaker.” I can also achieve 57%, with a TV announcer and 57% with a “Spaceman.” I’m guessing the ceiling might be around 75%.
A final challenge: Most folks, like me, LegoLambda, have no adjacent double letters in their names (nor do I have any in my real name). We are “singles hitters,” justifiably envious of the likes of our “doubles-hitting” brethern (and sistern): zeke crEEk, bob kerfuFFle, libertarian mathprofeSSor, plaNNedchaos, etc. (Perhaps some of you have been blessed with doubles in your real life names, like Buddy Holly, Flannery O’Connor, Will Shortz and others we have been unearthing this week -- or in your fake names like me, Roseanne Roseannadanna, or my aunt, Pollyanna Roseannadanna.)
More rare are “triples hitters” -- those with three consecutive identical letters in their real names. But they do exist. (Obviously “scrunching” comes into play at this point of the challenge.) I can think of a groundbreaking pro golfer (and I don’t mean he had to replace lots of divots!). There are also a regular musician on late-night TV and late actor/comedian who share the same name, as well as a current political journalist, a Best New Artist Grammy nominee, the “Spaceman” mentioned above, and a “redneck comedian.”
“Home run hitters?” I can think of only one, a country/pop singer/musician who is not real well-known but is pretty talented, IMO. Another guy who had a shot for a four-bagger was Judge Joseph Wapner’s sidekick whose parents, alas, dropped the ball and named him Doug. I would be very inpressed if one of you unearths a real person’s name that “hits for the cycle -- that is, it includes a home run (four consecutive identical letters), triple, double(s) and, of course, singles.” It would almost have to be some kind of multiple-name or hyphenated affair. I would even be impressed if someone makes like Charles Dickens and makes up one such “cycle-hitting” name.
Lego Lambda (aka Endicott Tyndall-Llewellyn)
LLego, I have a 73% scrunched singer.
DeleteBill Lloyd.
DeleteLorenzo and ron,
DeleteThanks for participating.
Lorenzo,
A little math reveals you likely discovered a singer with an 8/11 ratio -- four twinned letters plus only three singles. That’s a very impressive ratio. My congratulations. Indeed, your singer may qualify for Will’s puzzle depending on whether all four letters are different and whether Will allows “scrunched.” I haven’t a clue who your singer is. Others might though.
ron,
Right you are. Nice work, “Oh-Mr.-Conjuror-of-Ten-Acceptable-Names!” I was familiar with Lloyd from his “Set to Pop” album, which has some good tunes.
What about other letters, besides L, that might be candidates for four-in-a-row? I can’t envision other consonants working, but maybe vowels? (Say Hank Aaron and his wife have a baby daughter. Hank wants to name her Penny but because his wife is from the Maldive Islands, where the monetary unit is the rufiyaa, they name her Rufiyaa Aaron. Bob and Helen Eelpout name their daughter Bree. A myopic boy is fitted with coke-bottle glasses, is taunted by classmates, embraces it, and legally changes his name to Iiii. Dutch astronomer Jan Oort, hoping his newborn daughter will become an Olympic skier, names her Peekaboo. Four consecutive U’s? Hmmm, we‘ve got a name like that on this web log: Word Woman, or WW for short. Dubba-dubyas = Quadrupyas. You and Eric Armstrong would concur.)
LegoLegoLambdaLambda
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DeleteLLLL - My 8/11 singer barely satisfies the Wikipedia-test for fame!
DeleteI've found a pair of actors that are twins of each other whose names both fit the requirements of this week's puzzle - an additional dimension of doubling, if you will. Certainly not household names, but they featured in a well-known soap opera and in two well-known movies.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAndrevv VVyeth
ReplyDeleteGood one, ron. Or, as BobK noted earlier, VVoodrovv VVilson. By the way, are there words with double W's, double X's or double Q's in them? There are: AArdvark, hoBBy, flaCCid, eDDy, EEl, oFF, eGG, witHHold, skIIng, haJJ, knicKKnack, guLLet, haMMer,baNNer, OOdles, aPPear, fuRR, paSS, uTTer, vacUUM, fliVVer, saYYid, guZZle.
DeleteGlowworm.
DeleteBowwow
DeleteI am wowwed.
DeleteIt's too bad WW will always mean World War to the world. Maybe I could change my initials to VVVV. ;-)
DeleteAnd www takes three times as long to say as world wide web. Unless you are from Texas, where the syllables take only twice as long but they are said more slowly... so it's probably a wash.
Redd Foxx asks, "Would you accept poWWow?"
ReplyDeleteBobK (and David, WW et. al.)
DeleteMy face is redd after being served up this cornucopiousness of double-doubleyous. Yes, Mr. Foxx, I would accept powwow (and bowwowwing glowworms), as does Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary Tenth Edition. MWCD would also accept Redd Foxx into its Biographical Names section were he an opera singer or nuclear physicist instead of “The King of the Party Records.”
Pondering this week’s puzzle has blurred my bright line between proper and common nouns (and words generally -- there are no “proper” prepositions, verbs or adjectives). But I believe the default for most word puzzles/games ought to be the lowercase Scrabble standard. So I’m still seeking lowercase double-q and double-x words.
legolambda
Huqqa or hooqqa, variant of hookah pipe.
DeleteNaxxar-skinned, but it's a bit of a stretch to the lowercase.
Saqqara, a town in northern Egypt.
DeleteI happen to believe I have you all trumped with my Resistol cowboy hat that is XXXXXXXXXX BEAVER. (That's ten X, by the way.)
DeleteW,
DeleteI’m quite familiar with huqqa/hooqqa pipe, I just didn’t want to admit it. That kind of activity is still frowned upon in these non-mile-high parts, and I fear (for some reason I get so paranoid!) that the local Sgt. Friday and Dep. Fife might be monitoring this blog.
ron,
Thanks for the double-q, and for the link tohe ancient history lesson.
sdb,
At first reading, I thought, “Yeah, that makes sense, Mr. Trump’s gargantuan ego would necessitate a 10X-size hat.” Then I googled Resistol and discovered the X’es refer not to size but to percentage of beaver fur in the hat’s fabric. But that made no sense whatsoever… Mr. Trump already wears a big dead beaver pelt atop his noggin.
LeqoLooqqa
Donald Trump deserves to be pelted with beavers (not that kind!) or whatever might be handy.
DeleteNow, for a real puzzle. How many beavers do you suppose ended up in British top hats back in the 1800's? Jim Bridger would have a pretty good idea were he still with us.
sdb,
DeleteBeavers, Bridgers, badgers, bunnies, it’s all the same to me. The answer to your puzzle is “one,” according to Mr. Bridger who came to me in a dream last night and related this tale:
“Once I caught this magician conjurin’ in Kansas City, name o’ Imro Fox. Funny Feller. Sashays out onto stage sporting one o’ them fancy top hats, claims he picked it up in London town. Makes him look taller, he says. Imro doffs the lid and makes a grand bow. Dad-blame if a bunny rabbit don’t hop out o’ the topper. He sets his bean pod down on a bench, snaps his fingers, and the varmint hops back in. Then Ol’ Imro waves his wand over the hat, reaches inside and snatches out… a big ol’ beaver!”
There you have it, sdb, one beaver in a limey top hat. Thanks for introducing me to Mr. Bridger; sounds like he and Paul Bunyan might have crossed paths ones or twice.
LegoCadabra
Dam!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorites from Hall and Oates"
ReplyDelete"A rose is a rose by any name
but a thorn will still cut you just the same...
I meant to type a colon after Oates (damn small keyboard).
DeleteLiz,
ReplyDeleteI’m just relieved and grateful you are not my surgeon. “I’m sorry Mr. LegoLambda, Dr. Liz removed polyps from your inverted commas instead of your colon.”
Lego:
ReplyDeleteSince you did such a dam fine job researching beaver, perhaps you may shed some light on the problem I awoke to this morning.
I got to wondering about the shortest and tallest races of humans that are extant. Obviously Pygmies came to mind for the shortest (a rather down to earth people) and then Watusi for the tallest, with it not being uncommon for some to reach heights of 7 and 8 feet. But then I got to wondering why the Ten Foot Poles and never mentioned in this regard. Perhaps it is a touchy subject—or not.
sdb,
DeleteI spent all day at my local library thumbing through the Huey, Dewey and Louie Decimal System card catalogue file drawers (this is no Mickey Mouse operation!) researching your race problem.
In short, I discovered that Pygmies are indeed candidates for the crown and sash of Shortest Humans. But then I found an entry under the L’s about some even shorter folks documented by a fellow (musta been some kinda anthropologist) named Swift. But when I tom-thumbed though the S’s I discovered an oxymoronic long-distance runner who is frankly Shorter. A short racer who runs long races! Finally, I stumbled onto a card imprinted with this cryptic entry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RecJmzsRXig
In long, I checked out your Watusi conjecture. This is not a race, sdb, it’s a dance! I checked under “Dances, Other Ones” and concluded that Pygmies, Lilliputians, and this Shorter guy would all excel at a dance called the limbo, but that this guy named Limbaugh, ironically, would not.
I opened the “Gli-Gub” file drawer, and went to the Google card. There, I found that “10-foot pole” is just an idiom that has nothing whatsoever to do with the height of Polish people. (sdb, were you pulling my lego, there? If you were, Touche! And, who knows, continual lego-pulling might eventually make me a member of the tallest race and my research would be over! But I digress.)
I did find an interesting candidate while searching in the T-section under “Tallest, Humans.” Seems there’s these folks from Trinidad and Tobago. The “Trinidadian” entry came up short, but the “Tobagan” card proved to be the high point of my research. On it was typed: http://www.amtraders.com/ss-toboggans.asp I tapped on that with my Bic and discovered that Tobagans can be as tall as 10 feet, and even longer it you straighten out the curls at the top of their heads!
LegoPulla
Lego,
DeleteOutstanding!
Your Dreary Dismal work is lavatory, (Sorry! I mean laudatory). And I think you may be onto something impotent (Sorry again, I mean important) here re: Rush Limpbrow. I think we should encourage him to take up the limbo and then he might become stuck in the mud (as if he isn't already) like Big Bertha is here in Seattle. Talk about big bores! I wouldn't want to touch him with a ten foot Watusi. I do have to say I was somewhat surprised that you felt it necessary to play the "Tobagan" card, but all in all my request was a rather tall order on short notice and you came out standing tall.
Lego,
DeleteI forgot to mention that I enjoyed the YouTube video. You have to admire anyone who puts himself through such a rigorous training regimen. I think you are on a slippery slope with your Tobagan link though.
sdb,
DeleteThanks. Such undeserved high praise for such lowbrow humor.
Regarding your “slippery slope” comment, I feel like a volleyball setter who has just forearm-passed the ball to the best spiker on our team for a game-winning ace.
Lego…
Well thanks legotennesseewaltzlambda, I guess that's the long and the short of it for this week. Spiker, piker. You take the high road and I'll take the low road and a rose by any other name could become a prick. Now how did I get back to Rush? I guess I'm still excited about getting no fault earthquake insurance today.
DeleteTennessee Williams
ReplyDeleteMy Hints:
“Public transportation is my hint.”
Hints at “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
“Both first and last names are common.”
This is a somewhat devious hint in that while Tennessee is a common name, it is not exactly common for names of persons. I can think of one: Tennessee Ernie Ford.
Tennessee Williams
ReplyDeleteLast Sunday I said, “I think Blainesville has a real winner in Marie/Christine.” That was not intended as a clue, just a heartfelt compliment.
I also said, ”I would say this person is quite famous. And yes, the answer assumes a nickname but I’ll bet you not one person in a thousand knows this person’s real name. And I really got a kick out of SDB’s first clue :) When you’re hot you’re hot.” As in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Chuck
Will's intended answer:
ReplyDeleteThomas Lanier,"Tennessee," Williams, playwright. “A Streetcar (Public Transportation) Named Desire (When you're hot, you're hot even on a “tin roof”).”
Addison (Mitch) McConnell, another well-known person who fits the description.
Less well-known:
Bennett T. McCallum, Professor of economics.
Russell Bennett, American composer and arranger.
Russell Barrett, author.
Emmett Chappelle, 20th Century Scientist.
Russell Bobbitt, artist, actor.
Russell Winnicott, WWI flying ace.
Russell Doolittle, biochemist.
Nine in all! Most have wikipedia pages. Click on the names of each to see their bios.
Tennessee Williams
ReplyDeleteMy musical clue "Secret Sisters," song "see see Tennessee me, etc."
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
ReplyDelete"Five dollars" referred to the reward for his 3rd place essay on "Can a Good Wife Be A Good Sport?" Interesting topic choice for a 16-year-old.
The "good one" reply to Saukriver's clue referred to Dr. "Feelgood" who injected the Kennedys and Tennessee Williams with feel good drugs.
skydiveboy, our beaver hats are off to your "A Streetcar Named Desire"/public transportation clue. Inspired. But, don't let it go to your XXXXXXXXXX head.
I think the connection to the Kennedys had to do with having a sister, Rose, who was lobotomized.
DeleteThat, too. ;-)
DeleteWhen my son was 3 months old, on a pediatric neurosurgery unit, I thought it would be very funny and in incredibly bad taste to make him a bib that said, "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy." Fortunately, I didn't.
DeleteGood call, jan. Glad you Rose to the occasion, and, most importantly, that your son was, and is, ok.
DeleteMy markers for the week:
ReplyDeleteBut then I have always [CENSORED]. "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."
". . . a name along the lines of WOODROWWILSON." Responding to Chuck's challenge, to show that Woodrow Wilson and Tennessee Williams both originally had the given name Thomas.
". . . trying not to be too transparent about it." Reference to The Glass Menagerie.
@Paul - If I am the one who gave you the needed clue, which one was it?
Bob:
DeleteI was able to guess what you [CENSORED].
> The intended answer person shares something with Jimmy Buffett.
ReplyDeleteBoth born in Mississippi (3 doubled letters, but not unique) Not Tennessee. Where did he get that nickname?
> TV clue: Get Smart
Get Smart -> Don Adams -> Tennessee Tuxedo -> Tennessee Williams
jan, and I thought your "Get Smart" clue referred to Smart Set, the publication from which Tennessee Williams received the five dollars for his essay.
DeleteLots of good clue interweaving this week.
Addison ("Mitch") McConnell (U.S. senator)
ReplyDeleteBrianna and Brittany McConnell (twin actors)
Colleen Barrett (LUV exec)
William Moffett (Admiral)
William Moffitt (medical technologist)
William Moffitt (quantum chemist)
Lloyd Doggett (Texas pol)
Isaac Carree (gospel singer)
and
Garrett Hoffmann (grandson!!)
Lorenzo,
DeleteI am so relieved now that I have read your clue explanation. I could not understand your seemingly negative comment in your earlier post, and I hoped it referred to someone other than Tennessee Williams. Of course I fully agree with that comment referring to the piece of excrement topping your hint list above. Before I solved the puzzle I thought of him, but did not know of his actual first name. I am grateful for that.
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DeleteLorenzo,
DeleteI take it your 8/11-ratio singer was Isaac Carree. I hadn’t heard of him, but you sure get rafts of results when googling him. And, as you hinted, he is a part of a Wikipedia page, so, “semi-familiar,” I’d say.
You (and ron, PlannedChaos and others) did yeoman’s work this week in leaving no double-lettered stone unturned. I’ll be interested to see if Will mentions/accepts names such as Addison McConnell (who is familiar, just not by that name) and Isaac Caree, Lloyd Doggett and William Moffitt, whose acceptably relies on “scrunching” (as well as “familiarity” according to Will’s definition).
Congrats on Garrett, a great name for a boy who I’ll bet is a great grandson! (And who may some day bless you with a great great-grandson.)
LegarrettLamb-baa
Another not-so-well-known name:
ReplyDeleteMerrilee McCommas (an actress who was part of the cast of the TV series "Friday Night Lights") C, E, M, & R
Marie did not sound nervous... nervous as a Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
ReplyDeleteHer heart was in it...where your desires are there will be also your heart...A Streetcar Named Desire.
Mississippi Queen.
ReplyDeleteA state with 3 doubles as in Tennessee.
Queen as in Mr. Williams choice of orientation.
Aside from the official answer, a few others:
ReplyDeleteMajel Barrett-Roddenberry
Matt Bissonnette
Brianna McConnell (twin sister of Brittany McConnell)
Brittany McConnell (twin sister of Brianna McConnell)
There are literally hundreds more people with either an IMDB or Wikipedia page (or both) whose names have at least four doubled letters; of those, the above are my favorites.
My stuff explained:
ReplyDeleteIn my challenge where I asked you to find a real person’s name with the highest ratio of double-letters to total letters:
The best ratio I could do was 67% with the name of the politician I also referred to in my Sunday 11:36 PM post (Texas congressman LLoyD DoGGeTT) and with a person who was a “salt-of-the-earth Shaker” (aNN lEE, Shakers founder). I also achieved 57%, with a TV announcer (eDD haLL) and 57% with a “Spaceman” (Red Sox pitcher biLL lEE, who was nicknamed “Spaceman”).
In my other challenge of finding real people with three consecutive identical letters in their names:
I offered the groundbreaking pro golfer (lEE Elder), a regular musician on late-night TV and late actor/comedian who share the same name (wiLL Lee), a current political journalist (maTT Taibbi), a Best New Artist Grammy nominee (joSS Stone), the “Spaceman” mentioned above (biLL Lee), and a “redneck comedian” (jeFF Foxworthy).
In my challenge to find real people with four consecutive identical letters in their names:
I suggested the country/pop singer/musician (biLL Lloyd), whom ron astutely revealed in a subsequent post. As for Judge Joseph Wapner’s sidekick whose parents, alas, dropped the ball and named him Doug, I was hinting at Doug Llewelyn, whose parents should have gone with Bill).
My clues for Will’s presumed intended answer (teNNeSSEE wiLLiams):
“One of the players in the NFL championship games [both played in the afternoon ;-) ;-) ] has an indirect connection with the intended answer.” (Broncos QB Peyton Manning played college football at the University of TENNESSEE {Williams}. The “wink, wink” hinting emoticon immediately follows and refers to the word “afternoon” which in Latin is “post meridiem” which is abbreviated P.M. which is Peyton Manning’s monogram.)
The 5 hints in the following paragraph all allude to Tennessee:
1. My dream car, a 1991 SATURN VI…
(Saturn VI, a.k.a. Titan, is the planet Saturn’s largest moon. The TENNESSEE Titans are an NFL team.)
2. …but I didn’t even EARN Enough to afFORD refurbished brake drums…
( Those nine uppercase letters (three syllables) sound like “Ernie Ford.” TENNESSEE Ernie Ford was a popular country western/gospel singer. His big hit was “Sixteen Tons.” He used to sing Ford car TV commercial jingles.)
3. …got a gig … as a VOLUNTEER in charge of set design…
(University of Tennessee sports teams are called the TENNESSEE Volunteers.)
4. … production of Disney’s “Beauty and The Beast.” It was a blast seeing ol’ WALT’S Fantasian vision…
(Walt’s is a homophone of waltz. “The TENNESSEE Waltz” is a popular waltz.)
5. …fully realized in my tap-dancing PLATES and singing teakettles!
(“TENNESSEE Plates” is a nifty story tune written/sung by John Hiatt.)
The 5 hints in the following paragraph are allusions to people who, like Tennessee Williams, have first names/nicknames that are also state names:
1. & 2. …our avant-garde production of “Who’s Afraid of he Headless Norseman?” a dramatic adaptation…
(The first half of title echoes Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of VIRGINIA Woolf?” The second half echoes “the Headless Horseman,” an “Icha-bad” character in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by WASHINGTON Irving.)
3. …Roland downs a stein o’ kefir…
(“stein o’kefir” echoes artist GEORGIA O’Keeffe.)
4. …a Mickey Finn cocktail of animal fats…
(“fats” alludes to professional pool hustler/promoter MINNESOTA Fats)
5. …which results in wild hacking…
(“wild hacking” echoes MONTANA Wildhack, a character in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five)
LouisianoLambda
Well stated, Lego.
DeleteW,
DeleteThanks, means a lot. Your comments this week were, as usual, state-of-the-art.
There is an obscure, if famous (has a Wikipedia page), person that won a Tony (twice) and also won an Oscar. This person dropped his first name in billings early in his career.
ReplyDeleteThis is Robert Russell Bennett http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Russell_Bennett
But the intended person (also has a Wikipedia page) shared a tragic fact with each of JFK, RFK, and Teddy Kennedy.
Like the Kennedy brothers, Tennessee Williams also had a sister that was institutionalized and had a lobotomy.
Most interesting; also disconcerting. I had a neighbor, next door, who had a lobotomy. I have yet to achieve the associated wealth notwithstanding the fame accompanying my professional achievements. So much for obscure sports.
DeleteWord Woman, I think Will Shortz may be stalking you: today's NY Times crossword has WAHINE right next to HOWAREYA.
ReplyDeleteDoubtful, jan. But, "Miss out on a board" as a clue for WAHINE made me smile. HOWAREYA?
Delete"Just came a cropper in the summer heat."
ReplyDeleteNeither of the tennisy Williams sisters was victorious in the Australian Open.
That was huge, Hugh.
DeleteNice!
DeleteNice one - should get an honorable mention on the air!
ReplyDeleteNext week's challenge: What word, containing two consecutive S's, becomes its own synonym if you drop those S's?
ReplyDeleteMy first guess would be A-HOLE!
DeleteBut I doubt Will would allow that!
Nothing springs to mind for me...
ReplyDeleteObvious? No, obvi you...
DeleteTry the urban dictionary.
ReplyDeleteThe answer to this week's challenge reminds me of one of these puzzles from over a year ago, but only because I had submitted an answer other than what Will had intended.
ReplyDeleteAnyone remember my having encrypted a post with my submission, Paul replying that he had found it by deciphering my post, and saying that my solution "exceeds what Will intended"?