Sunday, April 25, 2021

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 25, 2021): Consonants and Vowels

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Apr 25, 2021): Consonants and Vowels
Q: Think of a person in the news (5,4). The first name and last name each have at least two consonants and two vowels. All the consonants in each name come at the start, and all the vowels come at the end. The letter "y" is not used. Who is this famous person?
I usually have an answer Sunday morning, but this took me until later on to solve. Ironically, the first name was a variant of the first one I thought of.

Edit: The first name I thought of was Khloé Kardashian which I quickly dismissed. It wasn't until after the Academy Awards coverage that I figured out the answer.
A: Chloé Zhao, winner of Best Director for Nomadland

212 comments:

  1. Here's my standard reminder... don't post the answer or any hints that could lead directly to the answer (e.g. via 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.

    You may provide indirect hints to the answer to show you know it, but make sure they don't give the answer away. You can openly discuss your hints and the answer after the Thursday deadline. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. On our morning walk, my DH pointed out the flowering almond and pear trees to me - they're very pretty in bloom. --Margaret G.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mmmm, nice. Along the same lines but more obscure, here's a musical clue: Fog.

      I think some other commenters are giving TMI though.

      Delete
    2. Margaret, they usually are at this time of the year. You have a Designated Hitter?

      Delete
  3. In any other year, we probably would’ve gotten this puzzler a couple months ago.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great puzzle, Peter Gordon! Musical clue: Peter and Gordon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Exactly, Lancek!
      This week's NPR puzzle courtesy of Peter Gordon...
      Next week's NPR puzzle courtesy of Chad Jeremy.

      LegoWhoIsNowWonderingWhenWillShortzWillFeatureAPuzzleByJanDean

      Delete
  5. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  6. “Person in the news” doesn’t necessarily imply “famous.” I found an answer involving someone in the entertainment field but I’d hardly call them famous.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Same. Oddly, I wandered into this answer through the Armenian genocide declaration.

      Delete
  7. If you don't know who this person is, I refer you to Mr. Twain's quote about New England weather: "just wait a few minutes."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I always thought that quote was about the weather in Missouri.

      Delete
    2. I've lived in Cincinnati. Same thing.

      Delete
  8. Take the accomplishment for which this person is most famous. Remove all repeated letters. Rearrange. You get a scientific abbreviation.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Replies
    1. Gee, I thought it might be National Pile-On Day.

      Delete
    2. Apparently, April 25 was chosen because it coincides with the annual northern migration of Adélie penguins. I guess standing around on an ice floe all day, a penguin could develop a cold. That's Adélie's lament.

      Delete
    3. Jan, that adorable post should be acknowledged. "It says here" that I'm the one to do that! Thanks for the smile.

      Delete
  10. I wandered around quite a bit before I happened to light on the answer. A closely-related 5-letter first name doesn't meet the puzzle requirements.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I actually have a name that qualifies perfectly. If it's not the intended answer, it should be!
    Or else I'm hittin' the road!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I definitely got the same answer as you. Good clue!

      Delete
    2. Thanks, DSB77. You betcha, yah!

      Delete
  12. This puzzle has a relationship to several other puzzles this year. If you take something that this person is in the news for, and reverse the first five letters, you get the name of someone else that’s been in the news for similar reasons.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
  13. I have a question unrelated to this week's puzzle, so please don't infer any clues. How can I add italics, underlines, etc. to my comments and replies?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. <b> to begin bold. </b> to end bold.
      <i> to begin italics. </i> to end italics.
      <u> to begin underline. </u> to end underline.

      Delete
    2. Use the < I > without spaces to start italics and < / I > to end them. Replace the I with U or B for underline and bold

      Delete
    3. ...And also for those wondering...

      &lt; for <.
      &gt; for >.
      and &amp; for &.

      Delete
    4. Thank you so much! But for some reason I get an argument over the underline tag: "Your HTML cannot be accepted: Tag is not allowed: U"

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

      Delete
    6. You're right! I've used bold and italics many times before, but I've never attempted underlining here until just now.

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

      Delete
  14. Can’t say I was familiar with the person, but the first name is shared by my niece’s eldest.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Might this person have an accent?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Musical Clue: Susan Janet Ballion

    ReplyDelete
  17. Here's a convoluted clue: If you anagram this person's name, you can come up two words, one of which is a "thing" that can cause either of two possible, anagrammed "consequences." (One "consequence" is a noun; the other, a verb. The two "consequences" are thus anagrams of each other, and either--take your pick--remains after removing the letters of the intial "thing" from the name.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One good turner deserves another: that's a fish of a different color!

      Delete
    2. Having just reviewed my "clue" above, I realize two things: I left out the word "with" after "come up," and it now seems to me less a clue than an interesting anagrammatic offshoot. I'd be surprised if anyone could actually derive the answer from it. (Then again, I have a TMI dread of "This comment has been removed....") But, should you already have the answer, this "clue" could serve as confirmation).

      Delete
  18. I'm thinking of an assassin, a world leader, and a foreign country.

    ReplyDelete
  19. The first name I thought of was one letter off, hence my clue is LARK.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The first name I thought of was CHAO, as in Elaine Chao, whose husband resembles a TURTLE. Puzzleria! followers know that Lisa Marie TURTLE was portrayed by LARK Voorhies.
      The early giveaway hints made it seem pretty likely that the correct answer could be found in a list of this year's Oscar nominees.
      I wonder if those statuettes contain any ZinC.

      Delete
  20. 2600 last week. Predicting less than a thousand this week.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I'd agree with you, but the deadline is Thursday.

    ReplyDelete
  22. The letters that are shared between this person's first name and last name yield a certain sweet treat.

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

      Delete
    2. If we are thinking of the same person, the treat could be part of a holiday salutation too ...

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

      Delete
    4. And, 43 grams of sugar. That's about 1½ ounces per treat

      Delete
  23. Blaine, there is an earlier post up there that contains TMI, IMHO.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. DSB77 mentioned "someone in the entertainment field." That led me to browse entertainment news, which pretty soon gave me the answer. Apparently Blaine didn't think that was TMI.

      Delete
  24. There is something about this puzzle that is reminding me of my neighborhood prior to the pandemic.

    I thought it was going to be difficult to solve, but it turned out to be very easy.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Think of another person who has been in the news for the same reason. The first and last names have the same number of letters. All of the consonants in the first name come at the end. All of the vowels in the last name come at the end.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You meant Ang Lee, of course. Ang Lee won twice ("double") for best director.

      Delete
  26. I am happy to have solved this puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am not mad, which sounds like "nomad". Chloe Zhao directed the movie Nomadland.

      Delete
  27. I'm thinking of a # that does not apply to this person.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Think I got it pretty quickly. Waiting for everyone here to post hints so I can confirm. Good to have it out of the way early this week (and last week).

    ReplyDelete
  29. I don't know if the puzzle is tough or my brain is just old! No clue just a fact.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Try a different approach and I think you will get there.

      BTW did you happen to see my Friday morning post in answer to jan? I am curious as to what a shrink (no pun intended this time) might think of it.

      Delete
    2. I'll check it out and get back to you

      Delete
  30. Are you talking about the spam penis size ad. If not, which one do you mean?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Freudian response: I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole!

      Delete
    2. A shorter pole would be easier to handle. Get a Shrink to Fit one.

      Delete
    3. Is that why the original post we're talking about was made at 3 AM?

      Delete
    4. Am I wrong about the time of day. Because I was referring to what you might have been doing with a shorter pole at that time.

      Delete
    5. I do grasp your meaning and will keep things within reach. And that is the long and the short of it.

      Delete
    6. Thanks. I won't push this string anymore...and I still haven't gotten this puzzle.

      Delete
  31. A literary clue: Paradise.

    A musical clue: The Man with Two Birthdays.

    ReplyDelete
  32. John Buchan. Or the Hitchcock adaptation, if you prefer.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Interesting that "a person in the news" becomes a "famous person" at the end of the Sunday Puzzle!

    ReplyDelete
  34. So many clues that I want to post, but I don't want to drift into the deletion zone

    ReplyDelete
  35. Early on this morning I came up with a solution scheme that I expected to do the job in short order.
    Eventually instead, I found a list of presumable movers and shakers of the immediately current type.
    Mixed in with a big bunch of folks I've mostly never heard of either, I found Will's famous person.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Does Scott Baio have a sibling?

    ReplyDelete
  37. Fun story regarding my post from last week, which can also serve as a clue this week...

    Back in the summer of 2004 when I was living in Los Angeles, a fellow Bostonian friend and I attempted to go to Sonny McLean's, a Boston bar in Santa Monica, to watch a Red Sox-Yankees game. We arrived to find a line out the door and around the block. We headed down the street and found a Philadelphia-themed bar with some available seating. This bar was showing the same Sox-Yankees game, a de facto overflow of the would-be Sonny McLean's crowd.

    We found a table with an empty seat. After an inning or so, a man approached, asked if he could join us, and we said sure. We chatted. He was cool, another Boston transplant in LA. He excused himself to take a call and my friend immediately turned to me.

    "I know his face. I can't remember from where." She thought and thought and then remembered--he played Sarah Jessica Parker's boyfriend on a couple episodes of Sex and the City.

    The guy returned to the table after a minute and could immediately sense we were talking about him. He said, "Yeah, yeah, you may have seen me in a few things." Anyway, we had a good time chatting, the Sox won (and would go on to win the World Series that year), and that was that.

    Jump ahead nearly a decade and I'm back living in the Boston area. Filmmaking is flourishing here and I decide to try some background acting (aka being an extra). I do That's My Boy, a really bad Adam Sandler movie that earns a Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Worst Ensemble. My first "performance"--I was part of a pack of marathon runners--and it's considered, collectively, among the worst of the year. (A Twilight movie won.) My subsequent choices would get better.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Continued...

      Fall of 2014, I'm hired for a crowd scene for Spotlight, which would go on to win Best Picture. The scene is a conversation between Mark Ruffalo's Mike Rezendes and John Slattery's Ben Bradlee, Jr., during a Red Sox game at Fenway Park. It's a cool set. We background folks gather in holding across the street at the old Fenway High School. Once the actual Red Sox-Rays game ends, we wait about a half hour for the ballpark to empty out and then we head in. The crew gives us all partially filled cups of "beer" and soda, half boxes of popcorn, and pieces of pretzels and then arranges us in a diagonal over Mark Ruffalo's shoulder and up into the grandstand. They shoot his lines and then shift us all over a section or two to form a diagonal over John Slattery's shoulder and shoot his lines. The ballpark is otherwise empty. I can't hear the principals from where I'm sitting, but they must work pretty efficiently because the whole thing is done in about 90 minutes. (The That's My Boy scene took six hours. A scene I worked on for Black Mass took 13 hours.)

      We're all dismissed and I'm walking out and find myself close enough to John Slattery that I decide to approach him.

      "Hey, John, great work tonight. Um, you're not going to remember, but about ten years ago I met you at this bar in Santa Monica. We shared a table while watching a Sox game--"

      "Oh, right, that Boston bar was full, so everyone ended up at that Eagles bar down the street, sure, yeah."

      I'm dumbstruck. Literally. In the ten years that had passed, he'd worked on Mad Men, Marvel movies, won Emmy nominations and here he is in the middle of the night stepping out of Fenway Park, remembering those random three hours.

      Mark Ruffalo approaches and says something to Slattery. I'm standing next to both of them, agape, thinking, 'Wow, Ruffalo is shorter than I would've expected. I'm bigger than the Hulk!' (Celebrities in person never quite look like what you expect; they're either much taller or much shorter.) So as they depart, Slattery says something like "Good to see you again" and I say something like "Yeah, see you guys later" as if we're all buddies and I'm EVER going to see them again. Who knows? Maybe I'll somehow cross paths with Slattery in 2024 and it'll become a thing that we encounter each other every ten years.

      The following year, my wife and I see Spotlight opening night. My scene is greatly enhanced by editing and effects. The ballpark appears filled. Crowds of people all around "me," except I can't find "me" anywhere. I get the DVD a few months later. Still can't find myself. I scan frame by frame and conclude that a computer-generated crowd was superimposed over where I was seated. Whatever. Still got paid and can still say I worked on not only an Oscar winner for Best Picture, but on a story very important to me and my city.

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
    3. Very entertaining posts, jsulbyrne, and well-written. I await the next installment in 2004!

      LegoWhoBelievesjsulbyrneOughtToWriteAnAutobiographyAndTitleIt"BiggerThanTheHulk!"

      Delete
    4. I enjoyed reading your story. I wish we were to meet in person to discuss coincidences in depth. My life has been filled with many and while most believe them to simply be random occurrences, I do not.

      Delete
    5. My father, born in 1913 and moved to Los Angeles in 1915, claimed that his feet were in a movie shot sometime around 1920. He was sitting in a tree and the actors being filmed were right below him.

      Sad to say I've never seen a movie from that or any other era in which feet dangle mysteriously into the shot from above. (Other than "The Bad and the Beautiful," but my father was not Lana Turner.) If anyone ever spots his feet, please leave a note here.

      Delete
    6. In case you wondered, no clue here.

      Delete
    7. If seeing that movie is your life's mission, and you succeed, that will be quite a feat.

      Delete
    8. Great story Jsulbyrne. Glen Close was robbed again, but Rudy won a Razzie for the crowd favorite- " Absolute Proof." Yea- Rudy won a Razzie.
      I am sure CSI can find your picture.

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

    ReplyDelete
  39. This puzzle changed my focus today. it had a positive impact on me. Thankful.

    ReplyDelete
  40. The answer I just(finally)found has nothing whatsoever to do with any of the crap posted here today so far.
    pjbKnowsTheDifferenceBetweenTMIAndBS

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cranberry:There may be more than one correct answer. I just used logic in finding the best resource to help me solve this puzzle quickly . Hope you have a good answer.

      Delete
    2. On Sunday, clues are replenished. :)

      Delete
  41. You know that emoji with the palm to the forehead. Insert that image here. Took me long enough!

    ReplyDelete
  42. If my answer is correct, then take all nine letters, re-arrange them, and you get the last name of a famous author of the 1800's, and, a past participle (which we have all seen) in a certain foreign language on items made in this country.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I take that to be a reference to Sartre. This author lived before Sartre.

      Delete
    2. I got the same author as you. I'll explain on Thursday. Done.

      Delete
    3. Like Sartre, however, the author delved into deep subjects.

      Delete
    4. ZOLA + HECHO.

      Yes, Les jeux sont faits was a reference to Sartre. That would have been TMI, of course. I chose the Sartre reference because (1) like Zola, he was French; and (2) because the French faits is the rough equivalent of the Spanish hecho.

      On Tuesday, I posted "I'll explain on Thursday. Done."
      'Done' translates to hecho.

      Delete
    5. One of Zola's best-known novels, Germinal, is about coal mining, a deep subject.

      Delete
  43. Because of Brexit, Scotland is now again seriously considering another referendum to break away from the United Kingdom. President of France, Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron, believes it will happen and is already preparing for this by hiring Joel Coen to design and oversee construction of what will become their embassy building in Edinburgh. He says it will be France's McFloorplan.

    ReplyDelete
  44. A Soothsayer lives in Great Neck.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Take all nine letters of this person's name, and rearrange them to get two words signifying, respectively:
    1. Something to imbibe on (perhaps in particular during prohibition)
    2. Fervor

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. See my Sunday 8:12 a.m. "clue."

      Delete
    2. The closest I came was three words, not two.

      Delete
    3. Wolfgang, I think we came up with the same anagrams, except that I was pointing out in my "clue" above that the word for "fervor" (a noun)--which could be the result of imbibing--could also be anagrammed into another word (a verb) that means a way you might spend your time if you imbibed.

      Delete
    4. Ha! You are correct, Dr. K. The anagrammer I used (wordplays.com) didn't even offer that. (Although, the back formation (verb to noun) did work.)

      Delete
  46. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Replies
    1. No Man Is An Island → Nomadland. If John Donne had a bad cold it might have sounded something like that.

      Delete
  48. Another literary clue: Something by Allen Ginsberg, which Blaine probably wouldn't let me get away with naming.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Charismatic Cult Clue: NXIVM

    ReplyDelete
  50. Well, this week's puzzle has defeated me. I sent a possible puzzle for Will to use on air to make me feel better.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cap: This is too easy to give up on. I don't think it is TMI to suggest taking the PM's first sentence seriously.

      Delete
  51. Thanks for the attempt,MJ, but I've gotten as concrete as I can and I'm still butting my head against a wall made of the stuff.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's a name in the news, dammit, C a p! Pick up a newspaper!

      Delete
    2. Hey, I'm kicking myself for this. Haven't you ever felt stupid when you finally heard the answer? Easy big fella!

      Delete
    3. What's a newspaper?

      And, go C a p!

      Delete
    4. No offense intended; just trying to point in a helpful direction.

      Delete
    5. Hey C a p, I understand your frustration. All investment, no return—that's no equilibrium! (More like the opposite…!)

      Delete
    6. C a p, I think jan was heading you on a particular vector.

      Delete
  52. Observation: Today it wasn't until 2:14 PM EDT that anyone (other than myself) posted anything.

    That was the LONGEST stretch so far without a new comment or reply in this discussion.

    ReplyDelete
  53. Cap:Suggestion: Use logic about where to search.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'd thought about replying: "Yes, use logic. And action."

      And action! is something a film director typically says. I ultimately decided not to post, for fear of TMI.

      Delete
  54. I think we can all agree that we are going through some difficult times with civil unrest in reaction to police shootings becoming the new normal. People are rising up to protest in our streets and more violence and destruction seems to feed off itself. I also think we can agree that something must be done. The problem is that we are unable to legislate our way out of this mess and blaming the police and expecting them to change seems unlikely. Well, I think I have come up with the solution. We must dispense with body cameras and outlaw cell phones with cameras. It is that simple. Out of sight; out of mind. Peace prevails.

    ReplyDelete
  55. True,but it then becomes underground just waiting for another Trump to allow and encourage folks to erupt. But SDB I've learned how you think from previous posts,and its necessary to remind you that the printed word without facial expressions and tones of voice, sarcasm is hard to communicate.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cap, I could not agree with you more. I therefore expect some genius, such as Plantsmith, to post a clueless reply. Of course that also causes me much amusement as you might expect. But, please tell me what is the difference between my posting such a dry piece of humor here in print vs. telling it verbally to a neighbor through my face mask?

      Delete
    2. A catcher's mask might be safer....

      Delete
    3. Sounds like more linguni to me.

      Delete
    4. SDB, at least there's the tone of your voice and (I'm sure) the gleam in your eye. Barring that, you could do something visual like what you did during that foot hang from the plane wing.

      Delete
    5. Do you put nail polish on one finger?

      Delete
    6. I had to Google to discover what that represented. I have neither seen nor heard of it before. That being said, I did use some red nail polish last week as thread sealer on a couple of Coleman stoves I am rebuilding. It was not my idea, but it seems to be commonly done according to YouTube videos.

      And, No! I will not be painting my fingernail. I also do not have any tattoos or bumper stickers. Oh, I almost forgot. I don't fly the flag either.

      Delete
    7. Neither do I since it was appropriated by republicans

      Delete
  56. The thing to do about the police is to de-legislate. Namely the crime bill of 1994. The violent crime control and law enforcement act of 1994. This allowed for 100,000 new police and 12 billion in federal funds to build new prisons while taking Pell grants away from prisoners making it impossible for them to earn college credit while in prison to improve their lives.
    Also three-strikes laws have to go.
    Read Four Hundred Souls by Ibram X. Kendi.

    ReplyDelete
  57. I can't believe what I just heard, S. Caronina Senator Tim Scott, a.k.a. Uncle Tom go on about. That really was shocking.

    ReplyDelete
  58. Replies
    1. I am not one who suffers fools gladly, but I am taking you on as a charity case.

      Delete
  59. so what is the answer, please?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The answer will be revealed after the deadline, which is Thursday (today) at 3pm ET.

      Delete
  60. Good luck everybody! Hope you get the call.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I did not!! 😩 Did you?? 🙂

      Delete
    2. WG: No I did not get the call! Have submitted since the postcard days. Really do not want to get the call anyway. I was trying to hint about getting the call as referring to being nominated for an Oscar and getting the call for that.

      Delete
  61. CHLOÉ ZHAO

    Sacred >>> Holy >>> Mt Holyoke College. Chloé Zhao attended MHC, majoring in political science.

    "C a p, Oh My Word!" >>> Oscar Mayer Weiner. Zhao won an OSCAR Sunday for directing Nomadland..

    "Sunday, not bloody Sunday" referred to the Oscars last Sunday.

    "C a p, I think jan was heading you on a particular vector." A vector has both magnitude and DIRECTION.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. WW Thanks for the attempt, but this was my week to be dense. I even saw the movie!

      Delete
    2. And someone here has a daughter who went to MHC so we talked about that previously on the blog.

      Was that you, Dr. K?

      Delete
    3. Yes, WW, it was. My daughter's first two years at MHC were Zhao's last two.

      Delete
    4. I see. Did their paths cross while there?

      And thankfully, neither had to cross paths with Elaine Chao.

      Delete
  62. CHLOE ZHAO--winner of the 2021 Best Director Academy Award, for Nomadland, a “road movie”

    My literary and musical clues were “road” clues:

    Literary clue: “Paradise” —> Sal Paradise, narrator-protagonist of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road.

    Musical clue: “The Man with Two Birthdays” —> Willie Nelson, one of whose signature songs is “On the Road Again.” Nelson was born on April 29, 1933, but his birthday was recorded by the doctor the next day, April 30. As a result, in true Willie fashion, he'll be celebrating his birthday twice, turning 88 today…and once again—officially—tomorrow. Happy Birthday, Willie, and many happy returns!

    As for my “convoluted clue,” each item of which could lead to the other: “Chloé Zhao” anagrams to either 1) “hooch” and “laze” or 2) “hooch” and “zeal.”

    C a P, I so very much wanted to help, but everything I could think of, beyond the above clues, seemed like TMI.

    ReplyDelete
  63. Chloé Zhao

    My Hint:

    "There is something about this puzzle that is reminding me of my neighborhood prior to the pandemic."

    Prior to the pandemic we had homeless persons living in dilapidated motor homes in our neighborhood. Most, if not all, of these persons were dealing, using and selling drugs and running prostitution services out in the open. They were also steeling from our properties during the nights. There were used condoms, needles and human waste and junk impacting our neighborhood too. It was a nightmare. I am sure these were not the people depicted in the movie, Nomadland, that I have yet to see.

    ReplyDelete
  64. CHLOE ZHAO

    > Literary clue: The Old Man And The Sea.

    "Old Man And" anagrams to "Nomadland".

    >> 2600 last week. Predicting less than a thousand this week.
    > I'll say over 2000 now.

    Posted right after she won the Best Director Oscar.

    > Another literary clue: Something by Allen Ginsberg, which Blaine probably wouldn't let me get away with naming.

    Howl

    >>> Thanks for the attempt,MJ, but I've gotten as concrete as I can and I'm still butting my head against a wall made of the stuff.
    >> It's a name in the news, dammit, C a p! Pick up a newspaper!
    > What's a newspaper?

    Here's one, front and center. (Though below the fold.) ("What's 'below the fold'?")

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And her name was on the front page of nytimes.com Sunday morning. And more, no doubt.

      Delete
  65. In the news” today (April 25) (timely), CHLOÉ ZHAO has just “become famous” for winning the 2021 Academy Award for Best Director and her film, NOMADLAND, has won Best Picture!


    ReplyDelete
  66. I wrote, “Take the accomplishment for which this person is most famous. Remove all repeated letters. Rearrange. You get a scientific abbreviation.” _Nomadland_ reduces to MOL.

    ReplyDelete
  67. Chloe Zhao (Filmmaker)

    Not being a movie buff, I was unfamiliar with the name.

    I started looking for 5 letter names with 2 or 3 consonants at the beginning. As I scanned lists of names, I had an, “Aha moment,” when I saw my great-niece’s name, Chloe. From there, it was a matter of searching the news for someone named Chloe.

    Then, I realized the puzzle was posed on the morning of Oscar Day.

    Nice timing!

    ReplyDelete
  68. I submitted CHLOE ZHAO

    My clue was NXIVM, because the fascist cult leader Keith Raniere called himself VANGUARD, which was also the name of Frances McDormand's Van in NOMADLAND, or so I'm told. (Haven't seen it yet.)

    ReplyDelete
  69. This week's Puzzleria! features a trio of "singularly" excellent puzzles created by our friend Mathew Huffman. They appear in his "Mathew Huffman's Conundrum Set" package. Puzzleria! uploads every early Friday at Midnight PDT.
    Also on this week's menus:
    * a Schpuzzle of the Week that may be kinda scary,
    * a puzzle that involves a reef, a neigh, nets and an event,
    * a Dessert about one of the Spocks, and
    * a handful-and-a-halfful of Riff-off puzzles of this week's "Oh I'd love to be an Oscar (Why her!) winner" NPR puzzle (sung by a chorus consisting of David Fincher, Emerald Fennell, Lee Isaac Chung and Thomas Vinterberg).
    Sing along with us, why don'tcha!

    LegoWhoIsNotExactlyMitch(SoYouNeedNotBeMuchOfASingerEither)

    ReplyDelete
  70. I posted my hint ``In the news is right!'' at about 9:30 AM PDT Sunday. This was because her name was on the front page of nytimes.com Sunday morning (at least at about 9:15 AM PDT). Specifically, on the front page was a headline, ``In China, a Backlash Against ‘Nomadland’ Director Chloe Zhao.'' Clicking this led to a long article titled, ``In China, a Backlash Against the Chinese-Born Director of ‘Nomadland’.''

    Presumably, by Sunday night she was even more in the news. But, given the historically low audience for the Oscars, maybe not as much as she might have been.

    ReplyDelete
  71. Peter Gordon’s puzzles have been chosen before, and I have been eager to post “Musical clue: Peter and Gordon,” but I had to wait until it was relevant. The answer this week was a WOMAN who directed a film about another WOMAN escaping A WORLD WITHOUT LOVE; but before making this movie, she was NOBODY I KNOW.

    ReplyDelete
  72. Chloé Zhao

    My clues:

    Sunday: John Buchan. Or the Hitchcock adaptation, if you prefer.
    An oblique reference to The 39 Steps, a movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock, (loosely) based on a novel by John Buchan. Chloé Zhao's age is 39.

    Monday: Take all nine letters of this person's name, and rearrange them to get two words signifying, respectively:
    1. Something to imbibe on (perhaps in particular during prohibition)
      HOOCH
    2. Fervor  ZEAL
    (Okay, maybe that wasn't really a "clue.")

    Tuesday: That was the LONGEST stretch so far without a new comment or reply in this discussion.
    "Longest" is phonetically similar to Longos (or Longus), the ancient Greek author of the novel Daphnis and Chloé.

    Also Tuesday: All investment, no return—that's no equilibrium! (More like the opposite…!)
    "Equilibrium" was an allusion to the zodiac sign of Libra. On the calendar, "the opposite" of Libra is Aries—which is Chloé Zhao's zodiac sign.

    ReplyDelete
  73. Seems like no one used the quick method I used. Only requires thinking of best resource with lists. I will not reveal my resource though.

    ReplyDelete
  74. Wordsmythe here. Chloè Zhao= Hecho (made, as in Hecho en Mexico) and
    Zola, as in Émile Zola.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. See my post (12:23 PM EDT) under your puzzle.

      Delete
    2. PS: You said "made in this country."
      I can't say I see labels saying "Hecho en EE.UU." too often. Are you in Mexico right now?

      Delete
  75. Chloé Zhao, the director of Nomadland

    Last Sunday I said, “Woody Guthrie.” He wrote the words to the American favorite, “This Land is Your Land.”

    ReplyDelete
  76. I knew it had to be an Oriental name, but I couldn't get beyond it

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cap, It is not an Oriental name. :-)

      Delete
    2. I was about to post a reference to the Greek island of Paxos (with its village of Loggos, which easily transforms to Longos, the author of the novel Daphnis and Chloé). I decided against posting, out of concern that any reference to something Greek (which is, of course, the origin of Chloé) might be TMI.

      Delete
    3. Asia is in the Orient, or East, from Europe's point of view, which is the source of our cultural reference. Before Christian Europe knew much about East Asia, their maps had Jerusalem, in the (relative) East, at the top. Just as today we Northern hemisphere-biased people turn our maps so that North is at the top, they turned theirs so that the East was at the top. That's how they got oriented.

      Delete
  77. My clue: "I'm thinking of an assassin, a world leader, and a foreign country."

    The assassin is Leon Czolgosz, the world leader is a czar, and the foreign country is Czechia. All names/words that start with our answer's initials, CZ.

    ReplyDelete
  78. Replies
    1. I suppose I could have hinted: An angry person living on the outskirts of Nome, Alaska.

      Delete
  79. We're at the 200 comment limit. Scroll down and click on "Load more" for later comments.

    ReplyDelete
  80. CHLOE ZHAO, director of "Nomadland", who as of this past Sunday evening, is now the second female director to win an Oscar, and the first woman of color to do so.
    pjbAdmitsIfHe'dHaveThoughtOfItSooner,He'dProbablyHaveMentionedSpikeJonesAsAPossibleMusicalClue,BecauseHeRecordedAVersionOfASongCalled"Chloe"Around1945(Spike,Notpjb)

    ReplyDelete
  81. I liked Margaret's clue, which had a sentence that unobtrusively included "flowering almond and pear trees", anagramming to 'Nomadland'. I replied, "Along the same lines but more obscure, here's a musical clue: Fog."
    The band Fog has an album called "Ditherer", which anagrams to "The Rider", the movie Zhao made before "Nomadland".

    ReplyDelete

For NPR puzzle posts, don't post the answer or any hints that could lead to the answer before the deadline (usually Thursday at 3pm ET). If you know the answer, submit it to NPR, but don't give it away here.

You may provide indirect hints to the answer to show you know it, but make sure they don't assist with solving. You can openly discuss your hints and the answer after the deadline. Thank you.