No clue grows here this week.Q: Name a popular movie of 2018. Add an R. You can rearrange the result to get three different titles for people. What are they?
A: A STAR IS BORN --> TSAR, SIR, BARON
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.
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.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteGee... You didn't have to be so explicit. Now I do have to delete a few things.
DeleteHoist on one’s own petard?
DeleteWhat can we say - Blaine has fallen. --Margaret G. (just kidding, oh high one!)
DeleteA Star is Born -> Tsar, Sir, Baron. My clue was related to how one can "catch a falling star", as well as how all the titles refer to someone being high born. --Margaret G.
DeleteBack to our political discussions...
ReplyDelete"Will Venezuela be Trump's election-year war?"
DeleteHe is already off and running with his second 10,000.
DeleteHow can we let that gang of fools get us into another war?
Another great cartoon page, BTW.
ARTS & CRAFTS is only the half of it...
ReplyDeleteAnagrams again?!?!?! Someone should form an organization to fight changing letters! Or maybe 2.
ReplyDeleteRearranging is a waste of a nice spring day.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteA numerical clue: 7885.
ReplyDeleteThis film's director and I were in the same psych class my senior year.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you both skipped the class reunion last year
Delete"Three different titles for people" leaves a lot of wiggle room. What if my yardman calls his Bishop a hero?
ReplyDeleteI'd call it a Bohemian Rhapsody...
DeleteCorrect! Unfortunately, this won't be Will's intended answer, so all I can offer is a Weaker Addition lapel pin and a red cap with the coveted "Make All Games Anagrams" acronym.
DeleteTwo of the 3 titles seems to have a relation to the "orange one"
ReplyDeleteWhy not all 3?
DeleteSBD,the shortest one is too respectful.
DeleteIt is not always used respectfully.
DeleteTMI Clark, Thanks
DeleteIf you switch the second to last and the last letters of the shortest word, it also is a title in some parts of the world.
DeleteArticle I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the Constitution prohibits granting titles of nobility. All titled are from some other part of the world. This is also known as the emoluments clause, which The Orange One has been violating since Day One.
DeleteYes, but sarcasm doesn't show up well in print.
ReplyDeleteIf someone’s clue leads one to the answer, does it then *have* to be deleted?
ReplyDeleteThere is but one judge, jury and executioner in this little fiefdom. Good luck with your revolution, it will take a lot of time.
DeleteWW I was so smug last week; this week just the opposite ...
ReplyDeleteI understand.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMy wife says I should go shopping, 'cause my jeans are falling apart.
DeleteAren't we supposed to blame our parents if our jeans are not holding up?
DeleteI think that Jan's 1:13 post is TMI. So much science. --Margaret G.
DeleteDitto.
DeleteI didn't find any spoilers on the first page of Google hits, but it's gone now.
DeleteI don't think you would, but there are other ways of solving puzzles besides Google searches.
DeleteThere are only 11,360 films released in 2018. Good luck hitting on the correct one.
DeleteI think you may be overlooking "popular" in the presentation though.
DeleteInteresting, because for me it was within the top 5. Maybe because I search for things like that more than you? --Margaret G.
Deleteand - thank you!
DeleteGustav Stickney again?
DeleteCartoon clue: Peanuts
ReplyDeleteHey, cranberry -- I googled the intersection of our clues, to make sure it didn't lead to the word we're hinting at, and found this, which is no clue at all.
DeleteWell played
DeleteWill reminds me that you may be hinting at two of the titles, cranberry.
DeleteThat's for me to know and for you to find out.
DeleteNot a TV clue: Bonanza
ReplyDelete1925-1955
ReplyDeleteThe best years to be born in the history of Earth & we got to experience it all. Thank God for all the times, the adventures, wars won, technology developed. Generations after future generations will never experience what we did. What a generations we turned out to be.
Interesting: born 1925-1955
NO MATTER WHAT OUR KIDS AND THE NEW GENERATION THINK ABOUT US WE ARE AWESOME !!!
Our Lives are LIVING PROOF !!!
To Those of Us Born 1925 - 1955:
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE 1930’s, 40’s, and 50’s !!
First, we survived being born to mothers who may have smoked and/or drank - While they were pregnant.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then, after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs Covered with bright colored
Lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets, And, when we rode our bikes,
We had baseball caps, Not helmets, on our heads. As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes..
Riding in the back of a pick- up truck on a warm day was always a special treat. We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this. We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter, and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar.And we weren't overweight.
WHY? Because we were always outside playing...that's why! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day .. .
And, we were OKAY.We would spend hours building
Our go-carts out of scraps and then ride them down the hill, Only to find out that we forgot about brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned To Solve the problem. We did not Have TV, Play Stations, Nintendo and X-boxes. There were No video games, No 150 channels on cable, No video movies Or DVDs,No surround-sound or CDs, No cell phones, No personal computers,No Internet and No chat rooms. WE HAD FRIENDS And we went Outside and found them! We fell out of trees, got cut,Broke bones and Lost teeth, And there were No lawsuits From those accidents. We would get Spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping-pong paddles, leather belts, or just a bare hand, And no one would call child services to report abuse. We ate worms, And mud pies Made from dirt, And The worms did Not live in us forever.
(part 1)
Part 2:
DeleteWe were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays,
22 rifles for our 12th, rode horses, made up games with sticks and tennis balls, and -although we were Told it would happen- we did not put out very many eyes. We rode bikes
Or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just Walked in and talked to them. Little League had tryouts
And not everyone Made the team. Those who didn't Had to learn there were no Trophys for showing up, and had To deal with Disappointment. Imagine that!! The idea of a parent Bailing us out If we broke the law was unheard of... They actually sided with the law!
These generations have Produced some of the best risk-takers, Problem solvers, and Inventors ever. The past 60 to 85 years
Have seen an explosion of innovation and new ideas.We had freedom,
Failure, success and responsibility,
and we learned How to deal with it all. If YOU are One of those born Between 1925-1955, CONGRATULATIONS! You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.
While you are at it, forward it to your kids,
so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house
with scissors, doesn't it ?
~~~~~~~
The quote of the month by Jay Leno:
"With hurricanes,tornadoes, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?"
For those who prefer to think that God is not
watching over us... go ahead and delete this.
For the rest of us..... please pass this on.
I was born between those years...1938 to be exact. Does anyone besides me recall Howdy Doody's face before his "plastic surgery"?
DeleteIt depends on when the face surgery took place. What year did the change happen? I do recall that Howdy Doody had a perennial woody. I suspect it may have had something to do with Princess Summersquall Wintersprint
DeleteThe "surgery" took place in 1948. If you google "Howdy Doody's face before plastic surgery" and then go to Wikipedia, you'll find a photo of the original Howdy puppet and an explanation of the lawsuit that lead to the need for a face change.
DeleteFor those born between 1925 - 1955, you are joined by:
DeleteBill Clinton
George W Bush
Donald Trump
Dick Cheney
Dan Quayle
Mitch McConnell
Newt Gingrich
Dennis Hastert
John Boehner
Rudy Guiliani
Jeff Sessions
Steve King
Mike Huckabee
Rush Limbaugh
Lou Dobbs
Bill O'Reilly
Karl Rove
Saddam Hussein
Idi Amin
Muammar Gaddafi
Charles Taylor
(the list of African dictators born during those years is quite extensive and impressive)
Pol Pot
Kim Jong-il
Jair Bolsonaro
Fidel Castro
Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier
Of the 42 people listed on the Biography.com list of serial killers, 5 were born before 1925, 11 were born after 1955, 25 were born between 1925 and 1955, and 1 unknown (Zodiac Killer, whose first murder was in 1968, making it likely he was born between 1925 and 1955), including such friendly faces as:
Charles Manson
Ted Bundy
John Wayne Gacy
And in Wikipedia's list of Rampage Killers, 5 of the top 10 in the US were born in those years, including the top 3:
Stephen Paddock (Las Vegas shooter)
Francisco Paula Gonzales (Pacific Air Lines Flight 773)
David A. Burke (Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771)
So aren't you proud?
I believe I first saw Howdy Doody in 1950, so I would have missed the change. I always thought he was an ugly puppet.
Deleteeco,
Yes, this makes me feel very proud. I get away with my serial killings by always disposing of the weapons I use inside crypts in the cemetery just a block away from my house. I can enter with special tools and then put them back in order again. I can usually enter with those star bits with the hole in the center. Now, I am trusting you not to tell anyone I do this. Promise?
SDB: you bring back memories of my favorite spring break job, a week working in Baltimore's Westminster Graveyard (I still have the baseball cap).
DeleteIn the 18th and early 19th Century most could not afford graveyard space, so it was common to make late deposits (get it?) in the vaults of the wealthy. Our work was in the pre-DNA days, and there was no way to know who owned the original parts. So it was my pleasure - at minimum wage - to wade hip deep in the crypts (50+ skulls!) to remove beer cans, flags, and other detritus from the agglomerated bones.
It was also my pleasure to learn that you never stand directly underneath a 90 year old ceiling as you pull it down.
We were digging in the graveyard when someone announced Ronald Reagan had just been shot. My reaction: "Okay, we'll dig faster!" Fortunately we were out of earshot and gunshot range of the Secret Service.
I also came within inches of digging up the bronze box containing Edgar Allan Poe's wife Virginia. Not only his first cousin, she was 13 and he was 26 when they married, and she died 11 years later. She is thought to be the inspiration for his last poem, Annabel Lee. One rarely comes into close contact with the decomposing events of history.
I thought only Republikans associated themselves with Skull and Bones.
DeleteI needed the money and had a good time, so I uttered no cryptic cross words.
DeleteOkay, but how did you bone up to get a job like that?
DeleteI showed my humerus side after they gave me a good ribbing.
DeleteSo did you become a true boner?
DeleteWhen Howdy Doody ran for President in 1948 he collected enough votes (in the form of cut-outs from the end of Wonder Bread bags) to finish third, behind Dewey and ahead of Wallace. https://historygarage.com/howdy-doody-time-secrets-behind-howdy-doody-show/8/. Someone needs to tell Oliver Stone.
DeleteIsn't this another example of String Theory?
DeletePerhaps it was Reagan's inspiration that any dummy with shellacked hair could run for President.
DeleteA story relayed to me from several years back:
DeleteIn my grade school we had a classmate who was running down the steps at his home, while holding a pair of scissors. He fell and the scissors became stuck in his, his... well, his...
rectum??
Wrecked him? Darn near killed him!!
Is Sam Donaldson related to Howdy Doody?
DeleteNo, if you look closely, Sam Donaldson looks more like Leonard Nemoy with round ears.
DeleteYeah, but the hair! the hair! Maybe he is their lovechild.
DeleteBack to SDB's comment about string theory: Harvey Kurtzman explained it all with his usual brilliance more than 60 years ago. https://jeffoverturf.blogspot.com/2012/09/howdy-dooit-will-elder-mad-mondays.html. (You can actually read those minuscule pages if you click on them one at a time.)
DeleteHowdy Doody was very short and skinny, but well hung for his age.
DeleteOr did you mean https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=19&v=fp-ABPTdZys?
DeleteWoody or wooden he?
DeleteMortal Engines + r → gentleman or sir
ReplyDeleteMy dad pulled us on a sled behind the car and a rope when it snowed. Great post Ron.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Unknown, ron. Great posting, as is per usual for you.
DeleteWhen I was age 6. I was a front seat passenger in my Aunt Mary's brand new 1955 Oldsmobile Rocket 88. Aunt Mary braked hard. My body lurched forward. My forehead banged into the metallic dashboard. It made a dent (in the dashboard, not my head).
My mom used to drive us to grade school in our two-tone salmon-and-white 1956 Ford station wagon (with cattle-brand pattern faux leather seats). If you sat in the front passenger's seat you could look downward and watch, though the one-foot-square hole in the floor, the road's pavement as it blurred by beneath your feet. (Fred Flintstone could and would have poked his foot through it if he wanted to brake!) When mom made a left turn, she grabbed the end of the twine rope tethered to the armrest on the passenger's side door (which didn't latch properly) so the door would not fly open centrifugally (and I would not fly out the door centrifugally, by golly!)
LittleLegoWhoCried"SeatBeltsWeDon'tNeedNoStinkin'SeatBelts!"
My folks bought a 1955 Ford when they first came out with that body style that year, but it was a 2 door, or perhaps a Tudor, I'm unsure. It was a stick shift and it is the car I learned to drive with. The official color was not Salmon, but Buckskin. Maybe where you live they called it Salmon, I doubt it though. Maybe in New Orleans they called it Shrimp.
DeleteWhen I first saw the Fairlane with this very odd color I asked why they chose such a horrible color and my mother said because it was sophisticated. I thought that explanation was all the proof I needed that my parents were not sophisticated.
DeleteYou're correct, skydiveboy, "salmon" was not the color's name. In my Midwest neck of the woods we would have likely called it "crappy", a word I am sure you'd concur with.
DeleteLegoAndskydiveboy'sMotherWereBeguiledByTheLuxuriousSophisticationOf...Buckskin!
I have heard of Crappy, but do they taste shitty?
DeleteYou left out Richard Speck somehow. "It was the worst of times, it was the best of times."
DeleteCharles Dickens.
Yes, and that is one of my favorite books to Spoonerize the title of.
DeleteDid I ask you about utube doc on homeless in Seattle- "Seattle is dying." " My brother sent it out to me. Kind of depressing as we have been gone from Seattle two years- It seems things are worse.
DeleteI may have posted a link to it here, but I am unsure. I posted other places. I do not know if it has really become worse here in the last two years, but it has not improved. Some of the encampments have been cleared, and the inhabitants move to another place. It may be becoming more evident to more people than it was. It is like squeezing the toothpaste tube with the cap still on. There is much frustration and the city council will change dramatically come November. I would be willing to trade some of them for some of those who are seeking asylum here from south of the border.
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ReplyDeleteTemporal Clue: 1868
ReplyDeleteMy clue related to the date May 18, 1868. Which was the last date on which (forgive me) A TSAR WAS BORN.
DeleteSpecifically Nicholas II.
The Detroit Red Wings did not have a good year, but now Stevie Y is coming home.
ReplyDeleteMike Pompeo just cancelled a planned trip to Berlin for "pressing issues". I wonder if Trump is planning to wag the dog in Iran?
ReplyDeleteThere are about a half dozen crazy men making US foreign policy.
DeleteYou mentioned two.
Iran, Venezuela, North Korea - so many opportunities.
DeleteHe also probably didn't want Merkel to call him out on his retching and wretched statement that melting Arctic ice presents a great economic opportunity.
Yeah, but he didn't send Carrier Strike Group 12 to Venezuela or Korea.
DeleteTrue, but it's not the first time we've sent a force to that part of the world. It all gets more complicated when one considers China is one of the largest importers of Iranian oil....
DeleteReally hard to imagine season 3 of The Appresidentice ending well, too bad we can't change channels.
I'm just thankful we have cool heads running things and FOX News to keep us well informed.
DeleteMatt Taibbi explains it all in his new book, HATE INC.
DeleteSee Chris Hedges' interview of Matt Taibbi HERE.
DeleteI haven't felt so confident in our national leadership since, say, Reagan and Brezhnev.
DeleteYes, but don't forget our first woman vice president, Margaret Thatcher.
DeleteThe winning sand sculpture of 2019’s Texas Sand Sculpture Festival.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they intended to have everything crack except Lincoln?
DeleteI think you may have cracked the code.
DeleteI was skeptical at first, but that's exactly what it is. Might as well give some credit to the artist, and the other winners.
DeleteIt just occurred to me that Carrier Strike Group 12 (see above) coincidentally is based on the USS Abraham Lincoln.
DeleteI'm guessing by the shapes achieved they allow additives to the sand - either synthetic or even simple sugar - that hold the forms better and prevent cracking.
DeleteYears ago I participated in sand sculpture contests in San Francisco, and all additives were prohibited by the purist organizers. Putting substances in your own body, perfectly okay; in a sand body, forbidden.
From Wikipedia:
Delete"Good sculpture sand is somewhat dirty, having silt and clay that helps lock the irregular-shaped sand grains together."
Also true for building construction made of earthen materials such as adobe, rammed earth, cob, and earthen plasters. Many of the oldest buildings in the world use these materials, and they are found on every continent (except Antarctica).
DeleteThe recipes are also similar around the world; some add straw for tensile strength and manure for additional binding and resistance to cracking. So there's no surprise that sand sculpting uses the same techniques, except they poo-poo using manure.
Adobe Abode.
DeleteThis is not very deep, if you ask me.
ReplyDeleteRIP Jim Fowler, you deserve it after all those years wrestling pythons.
ReplyDeleteBARON>>>TSAR>>>SIR (A STAR IS BORN)
ReplyDeleteA STAR IS BORN -> BARON, TSAR, SIR
ReplyDelete> Back to our political discussions...
Trump's youngest son is BARON. And his BFF is TSAR Vladimir.
> I'm a little nebulous on the concept, but if it's either massive for its temperature or cool for its mass, it happens. [Deleted, on the advice of Margaret G and skydiveboy]
> My wife says I should go shopping, 'cause my jeans are falling apart.
Jeans instability is how A STAR IS BORN. (And sometimes, a wardrobe malfunction can help a show biz career.)
> Will reminds me that you may be hinting at two of the titles, cranberry.
When cranberry posted, "Cartoon clue: Peanuts", I thought he was just hinting at Snoopy versus The Red BARON. But, then...
In Monday's New York Times crossword puzzle:
32A: What Marcie calls Peppermint Patty in "Peanuts"
Answer: SIR
Of course, Will says he never does this.
> Not a TV clue: Bonanza
The Beechcraft BARON was a development, indirectly, of their Twin Bonanza.
A Star Is Born > Sir & Tsar & Baron
ReplyDeleteA STAR IS BORN + R → BARON + TSAR + SIR
ReplyDeleteMy clue: Half of ARTS & CRAFTS: ARTS anagrams to STAR, RATS, TARS, and TSAR.
A Star is Born is number 17 on THIS LIST of 11,360 films released in 2018.
ReplyDeleteI wrote, “A numerical clue: 7885.” This is the sum of the years for the four Hollywood productions of this film: 2018+1976+1954 +1937 = 7885
My clue was a dead giveaway if you happened to have known that Brad Cooper and I were both enrolled in the same General Psychology section at Georgetown in the fall of 1995. I didn't know him. When he became famous, I recognized him as the quiet, intense-looking guy who always sat in the same seat by the wall.
ReplyDeleteScanning the list of 2018 movies with Clark's hint in mind, CZAR popped out at me. I supposed CHAIR could be considered a title, but that would leave SYRIANS, which doesn't work. I did think of TSAR at that point, but couldn't immediately get anywhere with it. I had also tried unsuccessfully to do something with BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY and PHAROAH, so I had some Queen songs swirling around in my head, and when I got to a certain lyric, it all clicked (also reminded me of a puzzle from last July).
ReplyDeleteI didn't find Blaine's original hint all that helpful; as I believe he mentioned, sequels and remakes are a dime a dozen, so I don't understand why Buck Bard went off the deep end.
My early, inelegant solution was FIRST MAN + R > FR., MR., SAINT.
Paul, agreed. Pointing more than once at a clue is, frankly, rather annoying and makes things worse. Let subtlety reign.
DeleteI was on the fence about Blaine's original clue. Knowing the answer taints one's view of giveaways, and you could spend a lot of time trying anagrams for The Avengers. On the other hand, knowing it was a sequel did eliminate a lot of other possibilities (though I hope "Vice II: Christian Values Rising" is in the works!).
DeleteBut the ensuing discussion certainly did take the joy out of it.
A STAR IS BORN, TSAR, SIR, BARON
DeleteThanks, Jan, for explaining my Peanuts clue for me. I actually meant both the Red BARON, and Marcie calling Peppermint Patty "SIR". I had no idea Will let the latter appear in the crossword. Does he do that kind of thing on purpose?
I asked him about these "Easter eggs" when I played on air, and he denied that he does so consciously. Of course, we're very good at perceiving patterns where none exist, but it seems to me that NPR Sunday Puzzle answers frequently show up in the Times crossword.
DeleteI have about as much confidence in that denial as I have in Sarah Huckabee Sanders' denials.
DeleteA Star is Born + R → Baron, Sir, Tsar
ReplyDeleteAnagrams again?!?!?! Someone should form an organization to fight changing letters! Or maybe 2. If, instead of adding an R, you move 2 letters back in the alphabet and add a P, you can anagram to "A STRAP is born". For those who've been in a coma, the Society To Repudiate Anagram Puzzles is the world's leading organization dedicated to that purpose.
There is but one judge, jury and executioner in this little fiefdom. Good luck with your revolution, it will take a lot of time. All 3 terms in the answer refer to times of feudalism. The stars also make revolutions around the center of the galaxy, but 1 full orbit takes about 230 million years.
WWI was so smug last week; this week just the opposite ... It's like she had a (Lady) Gag[a], who followed Janet Gaynor, Judy Garland, and Barbara Streisand as the lead of earlier versions of that movie.
WWI, did you really understand that?
eco, I read your clue as “WW, I was so smug last week.”
DeleteI’m going back to “Word.”
Ah, the meaning was Lost in Space - TV or movie version were both awful.
DeleteI ran "Spiderrman" through a rearranger and got close enough to quit.
ReplyDelete11 to 9 Rockies over Giants, 8th inning in the snow as I type.
Is Denver ready for an enclosed stadium, WW?
<— Naw, we just soldier on. See new thumbnail photo from today’s graduation at the U of Colorado in Boulder.
DeleteThe First Transcontinental Railroad was opened 149 years ago today. Or is it the First Trans-incontinental Railroad? I suppose it Depends.
ReplyDeleteNever did run on time.
DeleteJa. Wir sind keine Deutschen.
DeleteEs ist schlimm, wenn die Leute zur falschen Zeit gehen.
DeleteUnd es ist schwierig, diejenigen, die schlecht sind, dazu zu bringen, überhaupt zu gehen.
DeleteIs DJT trying to change the meaning of in Depend-ence Day?
DeleteA trip to Nuremberg may be appropriate.
Next week's challenge:
ReplyDeleteTake the name of a six letter wheeled conveyance, drop the first letter and add a new letter at the end to get the name of another wheeled conveyance.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of another famous conveyance.
ReplyDelete