Take the full name of the director. Remove the third from the last and the last letter of each name. You can rearrange the letters to get an apt anagram. Or rearrange them again to get a different apt anagram.Q: Take the first name of a famous movie director. Write it in upper- and lowercase letters. Rotate the third letter of this name 180° and you'll get the name of the main character in one of this director's most popular movies. Who is it?
Edit: RID(l)E(y) SC(o)T(t) --> DIRECTS, CREDITS
A: Ridley (Scott) --> (Ellen) Ripley
Rearrange the first name of the actor who played this character, and get a phrase that could describe CAP.
ReplyDeleteDr. K, talk about serendipity!
DeleteCAP, without, I hope, giving too much away, it could apply to me as well.
DeleteDr. K, Fortunately for me, in my head, where I live, I'm the same as I've always been.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteTMI, IMO
DeleteGolly. I am sorry.
DeleteNoting the passing of Peter Nero:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4ZqsA7D7IU
No clue here.
Always thought he should have been a fiddler rather than a pianist.
DeleteIf I had written RIP, I think that would have been TMI. Also note that Rhapsody In Blue could be abbreviated RIB, or, in lower case, rib, alluding to the rotation controversy.
DeleteNearly 1300 correct answers this week.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteEasy. Came to me quickly...
ReplyDeleteIt's not Woody Allen who often plays Woody Allen...
Delete'Woody Allen who often plays Woody Allen'...I got a good chuckle out of that, Ron. Thanks! : - )
DeleteNice hint, Blaine. À propos.
ReplyDeleteGreat puzzle! Kudos to Peter Gwinn, who also writes for a great NPR show.
ReplyDeleteClever!
DeleteThe first half of the character's name also applies to Pete Seeger.
ReplyDeleteThe name of the movie is relevant to a location indirectly evoked by one part of the name of the director.
ReplyDeleteThe name "Scott" evokes the Antarctic—which is, to many, an alien landscape.
DeleteImagine my surprise when I realized there was no movie called "St. Schwaven." I was sure that was one.
ReplyDeleteYet another solve while walking with my sweet pup.
ReplyDeleteFor a moment, I was thinking that I would not be able to comment, but it turns out that James Cameron did not direct JAWS, and the puzzle did not call for a phonetic version of the name. I do have the correct answer now.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of not commenting, I will be away next weekend, and will get a late start on the next puzzle.
Party pooper in the news.
ReplyDeleteA long-lasting character name to be sure.
ReplyDeleteThe star of this movie arguably became more well known than the director
ReplyDeleteFood clue: Gruyère
ReplyDeleteThe most iconic scene in the movie reminds me of a Roseanne Barr line.
ReplyDeleteYes. Explanation on Thursday.
DeleteDo you have a certain bag strategy while checking out at the grocery store?
ReplyDeleteFor me, letter and clock rotation rank down with anagrams as lousy puzzle themes.
ReplyDeleteSomehow there has become an agreement as to which of the three different axes of rotation Shortz likes, but I can't remember it and can't find Blaine's past posts about it.
Perhaps asking for TMI, but before I start on this I hope someone will post the possible letter pairs for the puzzle.
uʍop ǝpısdn
DeleteThe wording is confusing me. Pretend the name is Cam. We write it as CAMcam, then turn the 3rd letter to CAWcam? Is this right?
DeleteNo, If the name is "Cam", then after rotation you have "Caw". That bit about "Write it in upper- and lowercase letters" just means write it as you normally would, with the first letter capitalized, and the rest lower-case.
DeleteAh, this makes much more sense! Thank you for clarifying.
DeleteNo help, Blaine.
DeleteI should have written this off when I heard it.
Musical hint: "But Not For Me."
If you are told "rotate 180 degrees" would you turn left to right, back to front or stand on your head?
DeleteI am not a letter on a page.
DeleteGreat answer!
DeleteIt would be easier if, as I asked above, you would just list the letter pairs that exist under the clue.
Or is that part of the puzzle and TMI?
Mendo Jim, here's a tool you may use for those letter pairs:
Deletehttps://www.upsidedowntext.com/
ƃuᴉzɐɯɐ
DeleteJust list 'em.
DeleteThis is for all of you (and it may be all of you) who subscribe to the idea that Will's 180 degree instruction means "up-side-down."
DeleteWhen you cook hamburgers or pancakes, do you turn them up-side-down or simply turn them in a half-circle in the pan or on the grill?
The two processes produce different letters and different food.
This was an over-easy puzzle (so to speak), flawed by our puzzlemaster's willingness to ignore ambiguity.
That ambiguity has been a part of several challenges, so I guess one could say it has occurred over and over.
The puzzle description says, ROTATE. Where's the ambiguity?
DeleteTo be fair, "rotate" is ambiguous. There are three axes about which one can rotate. Strictly speaking, a p can become a d, a b, or a q when rotated 180 degrees, depending on which axis you choose. Most of us choose to leave the letter in the plane defined by the page, so d wins.
DeleteFirst, when considering 3-D space, there are arbitrarily many axes of rotation, not just 3. But we are talking about a 2-D letter written in a page and the only axis that makes sense is the surface normal. In every puzzle I can remember where there's a 180° rotation, Will has always meant upside down as you would read it without any mirror/flipping off of the page. I'm tired of this pedantic discussion each time Will mentions a rotated letter. b rotates upside down to become q. Okay?
DeleteI have to agree with SDB: I don't see any ambiguity.
DeleteThere are various ways to rotate something 180 degrees in three dimensions. That is not ambiguity. There are different ways to cook hamburgers, but "I cooked a hamburger" is not ambiguous (at least not for that reason!). "I walked across the Boston Common yesterday" is not ambiguous, despite the many different ways to walk across the Common.
Of course, Jan's main point is clearly right: when we think about rotating letters on a page (or presumably other two dimensional objects residing in their two dimensional spaces), we're going to assume unless otherwise prompted that we leave them in their space. 'p' and 'd' are rotations in their own space, whereas 'p' and 'b' are incongruent counterparts (as a left and right glove are in three dimensions).
Wow, this is taking me back to a book that blew my mind when I first read it, as an adolescent: Flatland: a romance of many dimensions.
Oops, sorry, I hope I didn't continue the pedantry! Blaine hadn't added his comment when I started writing mine. Maybe the idea of incongruent counterparts and the Flatland reference add independently interesting, non-pedantic content.
Delete¡ʎɐʞO
DeleteNah, I like talking about mathematical concepts so you're fine. But in the context of Will's puzzles and letter rotations, he's historically not cared about whether his description is mathematically unambiguous opting for the simplest interpretation. I think he's actually trying to avoid saying "turn the letter upside down" because someone will mistakenly think of flipping a letter vertically (b to p). He's trying to be more precise rather than less precise.
DeleteI am glad Blaine is weighing in on this conversation because I don't really believe it is about the stated topic, but an ongoing series of rants from one poster that are aimed at Will Shortz regardless of merit.
DeleteThat being said. Week before last I was camping in Eastern Oregon and one morning I cooked a large pancake on my very old Coleman 413F camp stove. When it was time to turn it, I decided against rotating it and just flipped it. Worked for me.
I just noticed that if you look at my photo, where I am hanging from my feet off the leading edge of the right side wing of a Cessna 170, I both flipped and rotated in order to achieve this feet (pun intended).
Delete"Most of us choose."
Delete"Will always meant..."
"We're going to assume."
"Rotate is ambiguous.
"Rotate is not ambiguous."
How is a first time player to choose?
Has Shortz ever said: "Rotate the letter 180 degrees, so that b becomes q and p becomes d, for examples?" He would need to do that every time, of course.
And all I asked for from the group was a list of acceptable pairs. I have a hunch few such would match.
Blaine: I am sorry if this repeated discussion seems pedantic.
Maybe you should ban that in the rules and kick out those of us who are sometimes (or often) guilty of it.
Please look at prior NPR puzzles involving rotation and key me know if you see a different interpretation.
Delete*let me
DeleteI will do so tomorrow.
DeletePerhaps you can answer a few of the questions I asked above, too.
Before my retirement, a friend of mine who was a movie reviewer invited me to go see this movie at a preview. All I knew about it was it's title and nothing more, so I walked in without any preparation...Gasp!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
Delete@CAP what would Michael Scott observe about your story?
DeletePA Puzzler, I assume your riddle refers to the character from "The Office"?
DeleteYes.
DeleteI think the easy puzzles are to show how many listeners this NPR segment has. Sometimes I think my donations could be better spent.
ReplyDeleteI'm fine with an easy puzzle when it leads to such a satisfying answer. I love unexpected bits of wordplay that seem to live in plain sight until someone is clever enough to point them out. For example, one of my favorite NPR puzzles of all time led me to realize that Britney Spears is an anagram of Presbyterians.
DeleteAn Elton John song comes to mind, but for me that's nothing new.
ReplyDeleteToday is an appropriate date for this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteThe puzzle was on 7-9. Alien came out in 1979.
DeleteInterestingly, the day of this puzzle, I watched the movie Elemental. There was a character named Wade Ripple, which sounds like Ripley. In a scene where the Ripples were trying to make each other cry, one of them mentioned the year 1979.
DeleteAs a fan of foreign films, I got this pretty quickly. The movie in question takes a certain inspiration from a famous author -- as does another popular movie released the same year.
ReplyDeleteMy car and the actor had cameos in the same film.
ReplyDeleteMotors on!
ReplyDeleteAccording to IMDB, in the script for the movie, the character's name was different, but the final name was reportedly chosen before the director was picked.
ReplyDeleteAnybody else notice in the on-air puzzle, every word pair switched one letter from one word to the other EXCEPT "SURE and DIMPLE"? If it was "PURE and SIMPLE", how come it couldn't be PIMPLE instead? First time I read that I thought for sure it was a misprint compared to the others.
ReplyDeletepjbJustLookingForANitToPick,EvenThoughHeDidSolveTheChallenge
I noticed that, too. I wonder if it wasn't SURE and PIMPLE originally, but someone thought PIMPLE was too gross for a Sunday morning audience. I know there were some words that weren't allowed in the New York Times crossword years ago, for the same reason.
DeleteIt didn’t help that Will’s example, “Shot” and “Well,” exchanged the letters.
Delete…without making the “rule” explicit.
DeleteYeah, I had to go back and read the rules of the contest as I had assumed that the two letters had to be swapped one for one. It did say to switch a letter in each word.
ReplyDeleteJamie Sommers... without the winters.
ReplyDeleteLego(AMinnesotan)WhoNotesThatIfYouPlaceALetterAtTheBeginningOfTheDirector'sFirstNameYou'llNameAPlaceInMinnesotaAndIfYouPlaceThatSameLetterSomeplaceBeforeTheDirector'sSurnameYouWillGetTheBeginningOfTheNameOfAPersonAssociatedWithMinnesota
Coincidental mayor?
DeleteLego, I never knew the person's full name!
DeleteYes, it seems his namesake was a distant relative of whom he was proud.
DeleteLegoWhoSuggestsThatWeAllSingInTheKeyOfFlappers
Keister, Mn. has been the butt of many jokes.
DeleteNot to pile on but, I vaguely remember a story about a newspaper headline stating "Fertile Woman Dies at Climax" with Fertile and Climax being small MN towns.
DeleteNo suspense (under two minutes) once I got done with today's doings. Now I can start hoping that this week's Thursday-at-two (CDT) phone call comes from NPR and not, as happened this past week, from my pharmacy.
ReplyDeleteThanks Clotheslover and Jan for clarifying the capital letter business. The directions are shades of gray rather than black and white. Didn't some say yellow?
ReplyDeleteThis is bringing a recent news story to mind.
ReplyDeleteI never saw the movie so I was sidetracked by another character with the same name. OK now.
ReplyDeleteIf you put a space between the first two letters of the movie, you get something you don't want.
ReplyDeleteTake the fourth letter of the movie title and add it twice over again to the end, though, and it's a lot better!
DeleteJyqm, don't you mean the third letter?
DeleteTaking the fourth letter and adding it twice over again to the end; - that makes no sense to me; but taking the third letter and adding it twice over again to the end; now, that to me makes much more sense!
The new word Jyqm suggests is unusual but it is a word.
DeleteIndeed, it's a word I'm pretty sure I have only ever encountered in puzzles edited by Mr. Shortz.
DeleteI'm pretty sure I've signed documents containing the word when buying a house.
DeleteThe answer is neither Kubrick nor Spielberg.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of movies, I went to an early showing of Mission Impossible #29 last night. It wasn't bad, much better than the latest Indiana Jones movie, though.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with many movies over the years is that they are long on action but short on a meaningful plot.
Both of those movies could have easily been a half hour shorter.
I am looking forward to "Oppenheimer", though!
Barbenheimer should be great too.
DeleteHah hah! They both might be good!!
DeleteThere is actually a movie theatre group selling the two together as a double feature with the above moniker.
DeleteI saw that some theaters were going to do that!
DeleteI'm going to read the reviews first on the Barbie movie. It could be pretty funny.
Too bad there's already some political controversy over it...
It should be a refreshing break from all the "chatter." I just hope Ryan does not end up being typecast as some kind of doll.
DeleteAnd i still have not watched " Everything -all at once---" all the way through. I just don't get it, found it especially banal and sophomoric.
DeleteI don't know anyone who has the same first name as that director.
ReplyDeleteI should have said personally. :)
DeleteRidley Pearson
DeleteRIDLEY SCOTT, RIPLEY
ReplyDelete"Yet another solve while walking with my sweet pup." Sigourney Weaver, who played RIPLEY, attended the Ethel Walker School.
"Do you have a certain bag strategy while checking out at the grocery store?" "Bag strategy" anagrams to Great Gatsby. Sigourney Weaver took her first name from a character in The Great Gatsby.
Also, there is that novel by Russell Hoban, Riddley Walker. (The fact that there is an extra d is negligible, it's still a viable clue.)
DeleteGreat book! The recent coronation made me think of the Ardship of Cambry.
DeleteIf you are a "Mystery Buff," this week's Puzzleria! will be right up (or down) your dark alley. A mysterious "Puzzleria! habitue" has created an amazingly mazey "word puzzle in story form, cloaked in misty mystery, in which clues and hints can be found at every twist or turn." It is titled "The Unusual Suspects" Appetizer: Strangers Bound North by Northwest on a South by Southeast Train."
ReplyDeletePuzzleria! is uploaded every late-Thursday/early-Friday around Midnight Pacific Daylight Time, or thereabouts, perhaps even earlier.
Also on this week's menus:
* a Schpuzzle of the Week titled "Ere Happy Chandler was Commissioner,"
* an Intimidating Hors d’Oeuvre titled "An idiom becomes antonymical,"
* a Piano Man Slice of Puzzle titled "Carbon-based black viscous coffee?"
* a Candy-Minty-“Brandy” Dessert titled "Candy-brand transformation," and
* eleven riff-offs of this week's NPR puzzle, titled "Wait! Wait! Great Scott!"
Come join us for "The Mystery," and for the puzzle-making mastery!
LegoPurveyerOfCrypticRiddlesWrappedInMistyMysteriesEnsconcedInHiddenEnigmas
Ridley Scott → In the ALIEN film series Sigourney Weaver plays (Ellen) Ripley. d rotated 180° is p.
ReplyDeleteRidley Scott - Ripley Actually the songs "I've Seen the Saucers" and "Chameleon" both came to mind. Bet you thought I was referring to something else.
ReplyDeleteRIDLEY SCOTT -> (ELLEN) RIPLEY
ReplyDelete> I believe I've got the answer.
As in "RIPLEY's Believe It Or Not".
> At 85, Clark a pseudonym is younger than the director.
True, and "is younger" anagrams to "Sigourney".
> The most iconic scene in the movie reminds me of a Roseanne Barr line.
She said the quickest way to a man's heart is ... through his chest.
>> @CAP what would Michael Scott observe about your story?
> PA Puzzler, I assume your riddle refers to the character from "The Office"?
A riddle-y Scott reference, not a RIDLEY SCOTT reference.
> The answer is neither Kubrick nor Spielberg.
Stanley Kubrick planned to make an epic movie about Napoleon. He drafted a screenplay that included 40,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry, and intended to hire the armed forces of an entire country to make the film. Jack Nicholson was cast in the title role, and filming was about to begin in 1969, when MGM pulled the plug. In 2013, Steven Spielberg announced that he was developing an HBO miniseries based on Kubrick's screenplay. RIDLEY SCOTT's Napoleon will be in theaters this Thanksgiving.
CAP when I read your clue that you "walked in without preparation and -- gasp" The line repeated by Michael in The Office popped into my head: "That's what she said." Imagine Ridley wasn't prepared for that particular birth experience! ;>
DeleteRidley Scott >>> Ripley character in Alien
ReplyDeleteRIDLEY SCOTT —> RIPLEY
ReplyDeleteHint: “Rearrange the first name of the actor who played this character, and get a phrase that could describe CAP” (and myself).
SIGOURNEY (WEAVER) —> SENIOR GUY
Interesting that "Sigourney" anagrams both to "senior guy" and "is younger". Might be a puzzle in there, if we hadn't just mentioned it.
DeleteRipley (from Alien, directed by Ridley Scott)
ReplyDeleteLast Sunday I said, “A long-lasting character name to be sure.” Witness the veritable franchise Alien has become.
My clue was "Motors on!"
ReplyDeleteThe ship in Alien was the "Nostromo".
RIDLEY SCOTT; RIPLEY. My hint: The first half of the character's name also applies to Pete Seeger. R.I.P., Pete, who performed with THE WEAVERS.
ReplyDeleteNodd , I have to admit I thought Blaine might remove it. Also, one of Seeger's songs was "Barbara Allen," aka "Barb'ry Ellen." As a literary scholar once put it elegantly in another context, the hint embodied, consciously or otherwise, that desirable characteristic, “converging patterns of significance.”
DeleteInteresting, Dr. K. I didn't think it would be TMI or even borderline with just a reference to a singer who performed so many songs with so many artists over his long career. I myself was unaware of the "Barbara Allen" connection. Or was it the R.I.P. reference that you thought might be too much?
DeleteNo, not the R. I. P. reference, but the link between Seeger and the Weavers.
DeleteMy Hints Explained:
ReplyDeleteJamie Sommers... without the winters.
(the character Jamie Sommers portrayed "The Bionic Woman."
B I O N I C (after you remove the "IC" (icy) winters, are the initial letters in "Believe It Or Not," as in Ripley's...)
LegoAMinnesotanWhoNotesThatIfYouPlaceALetterAtTheBeginningOfTheDirector'sFirstNameYou'llNameAPlaceInMinnesotaAndIfYouPlaceThatSameLetterSomeplaceBeforeTheDirector'sSurnameYouWillGetTheBeginningOfTheNameOfAPersonAssociatedWithMinnesota
(If you place an F before Ridley, you get "Fridley," a Minneapolis-St. Paul suburb. If you place an F before Scott, you get "F. Scott (Fitzgerald), a St. Paul native.)
LeGatsbo
Ridley Scott. Directs, credits. Ripley. Anyway, never having seen the movie Alien, and absolutely detesting science fiction, the only clue I could think of was from years ago when Whitley Strieber wrote his thing and everybody was claiming to be abducted by "gray" aliens and sometimes "yellow" aliens.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteRidley Scott/Ripley. I've never seen the movie Alien, however alleged Aliens made headline news in Las Vegas recently.
DeleteRidley Scott, Ripley
ReplyDeleteRidley Scott directed Alien with Ellen Ripley.
Ridley Scott>>Ripley
ReplyDeleteRidley Scott, directed Alien in which Sigourney Weaver played Ripley.
The connection to a recent puzzle:
Della Street (June 25th puzzle) worked for Perry Mason.
Perry White is the editor of the Daily Planet where Superman worked (as Clark Kent).
When excited White would say, “Great Caesar’s Ghost.”
Similarly, Superman (at least in the 1940’s comics) would exclaim, “Great Scott.”
And on a more personal note, my Sister-in-Law has the license plate GR8SCOTT.
I meant my praise of Peter Gwinn in my Sunday post, but I also managed to slip the word "great" in there twice. Dr. Awkward apparently noticed.
DeleteYes—I'd had a similar instinct!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteRidley Scott — Ripley
ReplyDeleteFor a clue, I wanted to post something like "I am no stranger (i.e., no alien) to that movie," but that would have been TMI.
What I did post was that I didn't know (personally) anyone by the same first name as that director (i.e., Ridley), which is true. It is also true that Ridley is decidedly among the least frequently chosen baby names.
Not the worst puzzle. Alas, again, I didn't get "the call."
Hasn't it been a while since anyone here got the call?
DeleteRob, I got it in January 2020. Anyone since?
DeleteRob, what was your clue that got nixed?
DeleteOh, dear. I wasn't going to mention it because I was embarrassed about the TMI. It said take the title of the movie, rearrange the letters, and you get a name familiar to listeners of Weekend Edition Sunday. The name is that of Liane Hansen, who was host from 1981 to 2011. I could have said "a blast from the past," or something. Note to self: Obscure, always more obscure.
DeleteApologies again.
Thanks, Rob! Ever curious here. We'll call you Atlas Obscura from here on out ;-).
DeleteThanks, Ron. I have fond memories of Liane Hansen. :)
DeleteSorry, I meant *Rob.*
DeleteMy clue was Party pooper in the news. Netherlands governing party recently was dissolved over deep disagreements re immigration policy. In the US, mean people like to refer to immigrants as aliens.
ReplyDeleteMy clue was Gruyère. Gruyères, Switzerland is home to a museum for the artist H.R. Giger, best known for his creation of the Alien character, which earned him an Oscar in 1980.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I tried that clue but it led me to some food dish. I wish I had known to make the information leap from the town to this H.R. Giger museum. How do you pronounce Giger? I would say GUY-ger, but...
DeleteNo sooner had the answer been revealed on this blog that I saw this tweet about Ridley Scott's upcoming new movie, Napoleon, "exclusively in theaters this Thanksgiving."
ReplyDeleteRIDLEY SCOTT and RIPLEY(Sigourney Weaver's character in "Alien", released in 1979)
ReplyDeleteBTW A possible cryptic clue for SIGOURNEY WEAVER might go something like this:
Actress with lead in "Alien" embraced by younger viewers, surprisingly(9,6)
A inside YOUNGERVIEWERS anagram
pjbRemindsAllCrypticLoversHereToCheckOutPuzzleria!ToSeeMoreOfHisCrosswordCompilingProwess(Puzzle#32ComingSoon!)
"My car and the actor had cameos in the same film."
ReplyDeleteI was hired as a background performer for Paul Feig's Ghostbusters in 2015. I was offered extra pay if I brought my car for use in a scene. I ended up in holding all night and didn't get used, but you can catch a glimpse of my Prius in one shot. Sigourney Weaver appears in the film as a scientist.
This week's challenge: This week's challenge comes from listener Henri Picciotto of the National Puzzlers' League. Name a famous singer (first and last names, 12 letters in all). Add a Y at the end, and the result, with respacing but not rearranging any letters, will spell a possible contribution to a picnic and how it might be served. What singer is it?
ReplyDeleteHenri Picciotto is also a math educator, and, with Joshua Kosman, the producer of the weekly Out Of Left Field cryptic crosswords.
DeleteWell, it's not Elvis....
ReplyDeleteGot it. Nice...
ReplyDeleteFive second solve. Another puzzle related to a recent one.
ReplyDeleteSame here. It is amazing what people manage to notice, and turn into a puzzle.
ReplyDeleteFirst name I thought of. Back to bed.
ReplyDelete