Blanko!

[JoanK]

                                       

Welcome to our newest brain teaser: BLANKO

The rules are simple:

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


The Contestants guess the title or author and post their answer; if they can, the solve the entire title.   They can also suggest another letter to fill in one of the blanks.

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

The winner becomes the new challenger.  


Ex:

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

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


What is it?

Good Luck !!

Wild guess C?

[Frybabe]

I think I see a G waiting in line.

[bluebird24]

R

[marjifay]

Three C's!
Two G's!
One R!

Looks like you've just about got it!

T   ___   E

___   I   C   N   I   C   

A   T

___   A   N   G   I   N  G

R   O   C   ___

USED:  A, C, E, G, I, N, O, R, S, T

[PatH]

The Picnic at Hanging Rock

[marjifay]

WINNER!!!              WINNER!!                 WINNER!!

Yes, PatH, THE PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK by Joan Lindsay (Australian writer)

A short book, very good.  Think I'll re-read it.  Have you read it or seen the movie?

Marj

[PatH]

No, Marj, I haven't done either.  Maybe I will, with your recommendation.

Here's a science fiction fiction book.  But like lots of the recent quizzes, it's guessable even if you haven't heard of it.

___  ___  ___

___  ___  ___  ___

___  ___

A

___  ___  ___  ___  ___

___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___

[marjifay]

E's?

Off Topic:  I found another book from the old Blanco puzzles I want to read:  EMPIRE OF THE SUMMER MOON; QUANAH PARKER AND THE RISE AND FALL OF THE COMANCHES, THE MOST POWERFUL INDIAN TRIBE IN AMERICAN HISTORY by S C. Gwynne.  The war with the Comanches lasted 4 years.  The book also includes the compelling drama of Cynthia Ann Parker, a lovely nine-year-old girl with cornflower-blue eyes who was kidnapped by Comanches from the far Texas frontier in 1836. She grew to love her captors and became infamous as the "White Squaw" who refused to return until her tragic capture by Texas Rangers in 1860. More famous still was her son Quanah, a warrior who was never defeated and whose guerrilla wars in the Texas Panhandle made him a legend. That sounds really interesting to me.

Marj  

[PatH]

Two Es.

___  ___  E

___  ___  ___  ___

___  ___

A

___  ___  ___  ___  ___

___  ___  ___  ___  ___  E  ___  ___

[PatH]

Marj, we discussed Empire of the Summer Moon here in 2010.  I didn't join in because, although the subject interested me, I thought the violence in the book would be too much for me.  You could check in the archives to see what people thought of it.  There are all sorts of interesting trains of thought.  What about the many women who were captured by Indians and came to have lives they preferred?  I'd really like to know what it was like for them.  Their life wasn't necessarily any harder than that of pioneers, so it boils down to whether they ended up married to someone they liked and who treated them well, and whether they were able to to adapt to a different culture and not miss the old framework too much.

And Quanah sounds like someone worth reading about too--a really heroic type.

[Frybabe]

I thought Empire of the Summer Moon was very interesting. The discussion is well worth reading through. With several of our participants living in the areas covered, we got lots of old maps and photos.

How about a T or two?

[marjifay]

Thanks, Pat.  I'll check the archives for the discussion of Empire of the Summer Moon.  Evidently Parker yearned so much for her adopted Comanche people that, as I read somewhere, after she was "rescued" she committed suicide.

I keep adding books to my TBR list as though I were going to live to age 150 or more (LOL)

Marj

[Frybabe]

Well, Marj, one of my favorite minor characters is Tuesday Next's grandmother who is absolutely ancient. She refuses to die until she has read the world's most boring book. It seems she just hasn't found it yet.

[marjifay]

Yep, LOL, talk about being obsessed.  But I think I just read one of the world's most boring books - J.G. Farrell's TROUBLES, the first of  a trilogy.  Was trying to read with a group that reads Booker Prize books, but gave it up after about 50 pp. Now that might make a discussion group--name the most boring books you tried to read. It would save me a lot of time --I've run across a bunch of them lately.  Finally found a good one that's keeping my interest, HONOR, by Elif Shafak.

By the way, what is Tuesday Next?  I've heard of a Thursday Next series.

Marj

[Frybabe]

You're right - Thursday Next.

I guess I ought to restate my letter guess - T before it gets lost.

[PatH]

Here you are, Frybabe.

T  ___  E

___  ___  ___  ___

___  ___

A

___  ___  ___  ___  ___

___  ___  ___  T  ___  E  ___  ___

Letters guessed: E, T.

[marjifay]

H's?

[bluebird24]

O

[PatH]

One H, and the Os should be a big help.

T  H  E

___  O  O  ___

___  ___

A

H  ___  ___  ___  ___

___  ___  ___  T  ___  E  ___  ___

Letters guessed: E, H, O, T.

[marjifay]

Are you sure there isn't another H?

[PatH]

Ooops, you're right, and that means you've got it.

T  H  E

___  O  O  ___

___  ___

A

H  ___  ___  ___  H

___  ___  ___  T  ___  E  ___  ___

Letters guessed: E, H, O, T.

[marjifay]

I think so --

THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS by Robert Heinlein

[PatH]

     WINNER  WINNER  WINNER

Yes, you got it all right, Marj.  Good for you.

[marjifay]

I was sure Frybabe would get that one, as I think she reads a lot of Sci-Fi.  I haven't read that one, but I did read his STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND back in the 1960s.  I remember in that book the guy from Mars preaching free love which was one of the big things back then what with the pill just having been developed, LOL.

So today starts the Memorial Day weekend.  I remember when it was called Decoration Day, a day to decorate the graves of all your deceased relatives and friends.

Marj

[marjifay]

I'll start a new one:

Fiction.  The only one I was able to finish and really liked by this difficult (for me, anyway), author.   Made into a good movie in the late 1940s.

___   ___   ___   ___   ___   ___  E  ___

___   ___

___   ___   E

___   ___   ___   ___

[Frybabe]

Wasn't up early enough today.

I've read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress but not Stranger in a Strange Land. In fact, unless I read some of his short stories and forgot, "Moon..." is the only Heinlein I've read.

Okay, so now on to the next quiz: Any R's?

[marjifay]

One R


___   ___   ___   ___   ___   ___  E  R

___   ___

___   ___   E

___   ___   ___   ___

[JoanK]

T?

[marjifay]

Three T's!  Whoops! -- I added another R that I'd missed.

___   ___   T   R   ___   ___  E  R

___   ___

T   ___   E

___   ___   ___   T


Used:  E, R, T

[bluebird24]

I

[marjifay]

Yes!  2 I's!  You're getting very close.

I   ___   T   R   ___   ___  E  R

I   ___

T   ___   E

___   ___   ___   T


Used:  E, I, R, T

[PatH]

Intruder in the Dust

bluebird's Is gave it to me.

[marjifay]

YES, YES   YOU ARE THE WINNER, PAT!!!

INTRUDER IN THE DUST by William Faulkner

[PatH]

Faulkner is an author that I think I don't like, but the two times I've picked up a book of his, I've read it non-stop.  One was As I Lay Dying; I picked it up in a vacation rental property, and stayed up all night reading it.  It did a magnificent job of putting me inside the heads of a number of people I didn't like and couldn't stand being in the heads of, but I couldn't put it down.  I've forgotten the name of the other; it was one of my daughters' high school reading assignments that I picked up.

[marjifay]

I suppose I should really give Faulkner another try.  Guess I'm just getting lazy in my doddering old age. 

Off topic:  For anyone who lives near the Los Angeles area, there is to be spectacular shower of shooting stars around midnight as the earth moves through the tail of some comet.  There may be other areas of the U.S. involved; I don't know.

Marj

[PatH]

We're all in range.  It will happen here too, but the peak is at 3 am.  It's a comet which has shifted position, so they don't know what to expect, but best case scenario is spectacular.  With my luck, it will be worst case fizzle.  To look in the right spot, look north, about half way up from horizon to straight overhead.

[PatH]

More detailed meteor information:

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/sky-at-a-glance/weeks-sky-glance-may-23-31/

[marjifay]

Thanks for the link, Pat.  I'll also look for Venus and the other two planets.  That's an interesting newsletter.  I sent it to my son who is interested in astronomy and has a nice telescope.

Marj

[PatH]

Well, it wasn't a big spectacle here.  There were some clear patches of sky, and I saw a few meteors, but not very showy.  I managed to scare my neighbor, though as he walked back from watching at a nearby soccer field.  I was leaning against his fence, and he didn't see me until I said hi.

[marjifay]

Boo! LOL.  Same here -- too cloudy.   Big disappointment.

Marj