Blanko!

[Gumtree]

Welcome to our newest brain teaser: BLANKO

The rules are simple:

The Challenger posts  either a title or the name of an author, but not both.

Ex:

Title of Book: three words, a prize winning novel:

   ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ T    __ ___   ___ ___ ___ ___


What is it?


The Contestants guess the title or author (if it's a challenge on an author's name)  and post their answer.  If they can, the solve the entire answer. If not, they  can also suggest one of the title words or  a letter to fill in one of the blanks. One guess per "day" (between appearances of the Challenger) for each contestant.

At  the end of the day if the puzzle is not solved, the Challenger will then add only  one of the suggested letters the Contestants have suggested, everywhere it appears.

The winner becomes the new Challenger.  

Good Luck !!

List of Winners and Book Titles or Authors:

1. Pat H for Rabbit Run  Post #27
2. Ginny for Hound of the Baskervilles Post #45
3. Joan P for The Winter of our Discontent # 51
4. Ginny for Aesop's Fables # 54
5. Frybabe for The Caine Mutiny # 68
6. Ginny for Seven Pillars of Wisdom #75
7. Gumtree for Lost in America #100
8. Frybabe for King Solomon's Mines #138
9. Gumgree for  Thus Spake Zarathustra # 174
10. Frybabe for  All Quiet on the Western Front # 193
11. Joan K for Seven Years in Tibet  # 205
12. Gumtree for all Quiet on the Western Front  # 210
13. Frybabe for The Scarlet Pimpernel #221
14. PatH for Two years Before the Mast #225
15. Gumtree for The Rime of the Ancient Mariner #229
16. PatH for HMS Surprise #232
17. JoanP for Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea #241
18. Frybabe for The Life of Pi #249
19. pedlin for Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass #264
20. Frybabe for Undaunted Courage #281
21. pedln for Ice Station Zebra #292
22. Gumtree for The African Queen #304
23. pedln for Alias Grace #319
24. Frybabe for Stephen Crane #333
25. JoanP for Is Paris Burning? #343
26. Ginny for Zeituon #350
27. Frybabe for S*** My Dad Says #371
28. JoanP for Ghosts of Vesuvius #384
29. pedln for The 39 Steps #407
30. Frybabe for The Namesake #430
31. JoanP for Awakenings #447
32. pedln for The Left Hand of Darkness #471
33. JoanK for The Elegance of the Hedgehog #481
34. Gumtree for Gone With the Wind #491
35. PatH for That Old Cape Magic #511
36. JoanP for The Woman in White # 523
37. deems 2 for Faceless Killers #554
38. JoanP for The Known World #587
39. deems 2 for Don Quixote #601
40. Gumtree for The Shipping News #616
41. deems 2 for The Count of Monte Cristo #628
42. JoanP for Bel Canto #651
43. pedln for USA #656
44. Fran for A Redbird Christmas #678
45. Nobody got Faith and Betrayal #696
46. Gumtree for Kristin Lavransdatter #705
47. JoanP for A Room with a View #716
48. Gumtree for Metamorphosis # 731
49. JoanP for Mansfield Park #741
50. Frybabe for Empire if the Summer Moon #756
51. PatH for The Sketch Book #772
52. JoanP for The Last of the Mohicans #783
53. deems2 for Anne of Avonlea #792
54. PatH for Wuthering Heights #803
55. deems2 for Snow Falling on Cedars #810
56. JoanP for Let the Great World Spin #821
57. deems2 for A Novel Bookstore #839
58. pedln for Juliet, Naked #858
59. deems2 for The Devil in White City #878
60. JoanP for The Invisible Bridge #901
61. pedln for The Lacuna #909
62. deems2 for To the End of the Land #917
63. JoanP for Wolf Hall #933
64. pedln for Any Human Heart #944
65. JoanP for Ordinary People #955
66. deems2 for The Weird Sisters #963
67. JoanP for Cry the Beloved Country #973
68. deems 2 for Cymbeline #984
69. JoanP for Blood Meridian #1004
70. deems 2 for Awakening the Buddha Within, #1022
71. Pedln (plus gumtree) for A Prayer for Owen Meany #1032
72. JoanP for A Covert Affair # 1049
73. Frybabe for The House at Riverton #1071
74. deems 2 for Ten Days That Shook the World #1074
75. pedln for The Brief Wondrous life of Oscar Wao # 1090
76. JoanP for The Paris Wife # 1110
77. Gumtree for Old Filth #1113
78. Pedln for David Copperfield #1134
79. JoanP for Tabloid City #1150
80. PatH for Caleb's Crossing #1157
81. Frybabe for Unbroken #1169
82. PatH for The Android's Dream #1178
83. JoanP for Treasure Island #1186

 




Thanks for the I - May I have an O this time round.

[JoanP]

OK, Gum - I found an "O" the third time I checked!  Did you all see that "A" I missed earlier?
This title - a classic - still read in schools.  I checked with kids in my neighborhood yesterday.


A  _  _  _  _  _ _  _  E  S       O  _      _  _  _  _  _  _  _  _  _  _ _        _  I _  _

[Frybabe]

Wow! This title is really sparce with the vowels. Are there any more Es.

[JoanP]

Ah, Fry!  I'm a mess! Too many letters in this title for me! 
 I'm going to give you TWO "E"s right away - before I miss miss them!  I'll bet you see it now?

A  _  _  _  _  _ _  _  E  S       O  _      _  _  _  _  _  E  _   E _  _ _        _  I _  _

[pedln]

Is it Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?

[deems 2]

Wow, pedln!  That looks like it must be true!  Great job figuring it out even with trick clues like "no T's and A's!"  Tricky, tricky, JoanP!

[pedln]

After I saw "classic in the schools" the Adventures just popped out and the rest just filled in.

A good choice, JoanP.

One thing to consider --  the blank letters and words appear differently on different computers. For a long time, the first letter of word4 was on one line, and the next three letters on the next line, so it appeared that there were really FIVE words.  Perhaps we need to say how many words or else put each word on a separate line.

[Frybabe]

Sounds like a winner to me Pedln
.
I knew I was going to kick myself. I much preferred Huck Finn to Tom Sawyer when I read them.

[JoanP]

Winner!  Winner!  Winner!

Pedln, I never considered that different monitors show differently.  Much better to put each word of a title on a different line!  Will try to  remember that>

Huck Finn has been on my mind for the last two weeks as I foolishly thought I could easily stain the new fence  around our back yard.  It's taking FOREVER!  

One day last week the temp reached 102 degrees!  The other days were in the nineties.  All the neighbors walking by had a wisecrack (though there were some words of encouragement - and positive comments.)  No one could tell me how Tom persuaded Huck that it was fun to paint the fence.  I can't get anyone to help me - even if I offer to pay THEM!  Didn't Huck pay Tom to paint the fence?

I asked a group of middle school boys walking by if kids read Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn anymore.  They said yes, they read it for school.  And they knew the story.  I didn't ask them if their editions were altered to replace non PC words.  They were so helpful trying to remember why Huck thought it was fun.  One even took my brush, but after a few seconds, handed it back and said it was NOT fun.

Here's the fence if you care to take a look at how insane I am to have volunteered to do this -

finished fence
unfinished fence

So it's your turn, Pedln -
I've got to go clean some brushes...

Oh, by the way - does anyone remember how Tom convinced Huck he was having so much fun?

[PatH]

I don't remember, but Tom could have had a promising career in sales.

The fence occurs in Tom Sawyer, and most of the non-PC words occur in Huckleberry Finn.  I reread Huckleberry Finn a few years ago, during one of the perennial controversies about whether it should be in the schools.  My conclusion was mixed.  Yes, it absolutely should be taught.  It's a great, if flawed, novel, and hidden under the conventions of the times Twain uses humor to scathingly show up and condemn the attitudes of the time.  But, no, the non-PC language is so bad that if I were a black student reading it, I would find it very painful.  The black slave Jim is the real hero of the book, and the most honorable character in it, but Twain is stuck in the conventions of his time, and has to make his message seem less threatening to his audience by low humor.  I don't think the answer is to change the language.  That just makes it seem stupid.

By the way, I read recently that Huckleberry Finn was closely based on a real person, who eventually ended up as a judge in Montana.  Ah, the good old days, when you could just light out for farther west and make good.

[Frybabe]

 Another that showed the prejudices of the times are the Charlie Chan books. While looking him up again I ran across a new book out about the detective that inspired Biggers to write Charlie Chan. I will have to get it. Unfortunately, I no longer have my Charlie Chan books, but I well remember the slings and slights visited upon Mr. Chan and Chinese immigrants in general.

http://books.wwnorton.com/books/Charlie-Chan/

[pedln]

It looks like lots of folks want to know what Tom did.  What a little scamp he was.

That looks like a new fence, JoanP, very pretty, very BIG.  If you'd tried Tom's technique, you probably could have conned those boys yourself.

“Say - I’m going in a -swimming, I am. Don’t you wish you could? But of course you’d druther work - wouldn’t you? Course you would!”

Tom contemplated the boy a bit, and said:

“What do you call work?”

“Why, ain’t that work?”

Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly:

“Well, maybe it is, and maybe it ain’t. All I know it suits Tom Sawyer.”

“Oh, come now, you don’t mean to let on that you like it?”

The brush continued to move.

“Like it? Well, I don’t see why I oughtn’t to like it. does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?”

That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom swept his brush daintily back and forth - stepped back to note the effect - added a touch here and there - criticized the effect again - Ben watching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more absorbed. Presently he said:

“Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little.”

Tom Considered, was about to consent; but he altered his mind:

“No-no-I reckon it wouldn’t hardly do, Ben. You see, Aunt Polly’s awful particular about this fence - right here on the street, you know - but if it was the back fence, I wouldn’t mind, and she wouldn’t. Yes, she’s awful particular about this fence; it’s got to be done very careful; I recon there ain’t one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that can do it the way it’s got to be done.”

“No-is that so? Oh, come now - lemme try. Only just a little - I’d let you, if you was me, Tom.”

“Ben, I’d like to, honest injun; but Aunt Polly - well, Jim wanted to do it, but she wouldn’t let him; Sid wanted to do it, and she wouldn’t let Sid. Now, don’t you see how I’ fixed? If you was to tackle this fence and anything was to happen to it --”

“Oh, shucks, I’ll be just as careful. Now lemme try. Say - I’ll give you the core of my apple.”

“Well, here - No, Ben, no you don’t. I’m afeared --”

“I’ll give you all of it!”

Tom gave up the brush with reluctance in his face, but alacrity in his heart. And while the late steamer Big Missouri worked and sweated in the sun, the retired artist sat on a barrel in the shade close by, dangled his legs munched his apple, and planned the slaughter of more innocents. There was no lack of material; boys happened along every little while; they came to jeer, but remained to whitewash. By the time Ben was fagged out, Tom had traded the next chance to Billy fisher for a kite in good repair; and when he played out, Johnny Miller bought in for a dead rat and a string to sing it with - and so on, hour after hour. And when the middle of the afternoon came, from being a poor poverty-stricken boy in the morning, Tom was literally rolling wealth. He had, besides the things before mentioned, twelve marbles, part of a jew’s-harp, a piece of blue bottle-glass to look through, a spoon cannon, a key that wouldn’t unlock anything, a fragment of chalk, a glass stopper of a decanter, a tin soldier, a couple of tadpoles, a kitten with only one eye, a brass door-knob, a dog-collar-but no dog - the handle of a knife, four pieces of orange-peel, and a dilapidated window-sash.

He had had a nice, good, idle time all the while - plenty of company - and the fence had three coats of whitewash on it! If he hadn’t run out of whitewash, he would have bankrupted every boy in the village.

Back tomorrow with a new Blanko.

[deems 2]

Thanks, pedln.  I love the next paragraph.

"Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world, after all. He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it – namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain. If he had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do. And this would help him to understand why constructing artificial flowers or performing on a tread-mill is work, while rolling ten-pins or climbing Mont Blanc is only amusement. There are wealthy gentlemen in England who drive four-horse passenger-coaches twenty or thirty miles on a daily line, in the summer, because the privilege costs them considerable money; but if they were offered wages for the service, that would turn it into work and then they would resign."

"If he had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do."  Isn't that the truth.

That's a lovely fence JoanP.  Let me know if you would like me to pay you to help you finish it!

[pedln]

Thanks deems2, I need to read more Twain.  I like his perspective.



        ___  ___  ___  ___  E  ___  ___


        
        ___  ___  ___  ___


Two words.  One of them has an apostrophe, NOT included with the letters.  (Do I need to put it in?)

I’m reading this now, the first I have read by this author.

I forgot to tell your -- this is fiction

[pedln]

Are  you waiting for something?     

Letters, perhaps?

[JoanP]

I'm waiting for the fence to be finished! Loved the exerpt.  Tom Sawyer - a better salesman than I.  But it's almost finished - three coats of whitewash!  I only managed two coats of stain.  I'm going to miss my little morning/afternoon friends I made out there on the sidewalk  on my little rolling bench.


Pedln - are there any more "S" es - besides the one after the apostrophe?

[pedln]

        ___  ___  ___  ___  E  ___  ' S
        
      
         ___  ___  ___  ___


That's the only S JoanP

I won't say Mark Twain could have written this, but it's a country story, not far from his territory.

[JoanP]

Geeeeee, I know I wrote a post lost night - thanking you for the exerpt from Tom Sawyer....he was a more persuasive person than I.  Couldn't get anyone to think I was having a good time out there in the heat - sweat, mosquito bites, etc...
But it's done - almost done.  A second coat on the gate and the last panel should do it.  If only the rain would let me finish...

Fiction - recent fiction with an apostrophe "S"  - Deems2 will snap this up right away.  But I'll ask for the "R" that seems to be needed here...

[Frybabe]

Is there an R?

[pedln]

    ___  ___  ___  ___  E  R  ' S
       
       
         ___  ___  ___  ___



I won't say Mark Twain could have written this, but it's a country story, not far from his territory.

[JoanP]

I feel we should get this - but ...

How about a "T"?

[Frybabe]

or an L.

[pedln]

No L's, I'm afraid.

        ___  ___  ___  T  E  R  ' S
       
       
         ___  ___  ___  ___



I won't say Mark Twain could have written this, but it's a country story, not far from his territory.
Not far from my territory, either.

[JoanP]

Then it's not Winter's Tale, is it.  Not new either...

Let's try for another vowel - an "O"?

[pedln]

Getting close.  I'll bet she knows it.


    ___  ___  ___  T  E  R  ' S
        
      
         ___ O  ___  ___


Did I mention that it's also a film?

[JoanP]

Are we going to kick ourselves for not getting this one?  Still can't see it...

How about an "M"?

[pedln]

         ___  ___  ___  T  E  R  ' S
       
       
         ___ O  ___  ___


There is no M,  there is no L

I suppose you'll be wanting to know who was an Academy Award nominee for his/her part in this film with the same title as the book.

The author of the book is male, if that helps.     

[Frybabe]

Winter's Bone?

[pedln]

WINNER!!   WINNER!!  WINNER!!

You got it Frybabe.  By Daniel Woodrell (from West Plains, MO).  Set in the Ozarks, in the Mark Twain National Forest.  (West Plains is very near the Arkansas border, about 150 miles from the Mississippi River.)  I liked the movie very much, and have mixed feelings about the book, which I have not yet finished.  The people who found the movie depressing, (I did not) will find the book even more so.  Such poverty and cruelty.  Some rural areas of SE Missouri are methanphetamine strongholds (you can't buy Sudafed without a Dr's prescription in my town). While reading, you wonder, what's going to happen to this very strong 17-year old protagonist.

[Frybabe]

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ ' S

__ __ __ __ __

__ __

__ __ __

__ __ __ __ __ __

[JoanP]

That was fast - Frybabe!  A win, and a new puzzle, just like that!  Overnight!

 A 17 year old protagonist.  Hmm, don't know about Winter's Bone, Pedln.  Has David Woodrell written anything else?


Is the new title fiction, Frybabe?  Are there any more "S" es?

[Frybabe]

 No more S's, JoanP. It is Fiction. Been around since the 70's.

[JoanP]

hmmm, well I think there are some "T"'s...how many is my question...

[Frybabe]

There be T's:

__ __ T __ __ __ __ __ __ __ ' S

__ __ __ __ __

T __

T __ __

__ __ __ __ __ __

[JoanP]

oh, yeah - the "T" s did it -

Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy - right?

[Frybabe]

You got it, JoanP.

[JoanP]

The 70's was the give-away - all four of my sons loved the Hitchhiker's Guide growing up.  I never read it myself.  

OK - here's one for you -- fiction, foreign
 
_
_ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ E

[pedln]

Good grief, we're in warp speed here.

Foreign fiction?  Is the title in English?  And if it is, how about an A?

(That better not be A Novel Bookstore because I think you did that before      )

[JoanP]

I did?  You're right - an "A" - the answer is "A Novel Bookstore."  Forgot I already mentioned it - I see from the chart on top of the page that I did - quite a while ago.  This time it's on my mind because we will begin discussing it on July 1 -  I have such high hopes for this book - which tells of a bookstore that makes a point of selling ONLY good literature.  It turns into a mystery, and a love story too.  But the plot centers on GOOD LITERATURE and who decides what fits this category.  I'm hoping that we get ideas for future book discussions - so many good/great titles are mentioned.  Including the man that the book store owners believe is the world's greatest living author.  Aren't you curious?  This will be a really good discussion, I hope.

Since you won, but since I made the mistake - I'll try again -

The author of this book is AMERICAN - it is fiction -

_  _  _  _  _  _  _  

_  _

_  _  E

_  _  _  _  _  _  

_  _  _  _

[pedln]

How about an N?

It's a good thing we have the chart, but that speaks well for the book, JoanP -- wanting to put it up there again.