Sorry if this sounds as if I'm getting personal but I was mildly miffed that:

1.) Shufitz picked up on that "Stu Sutcliffe" clue elsewhere,

2.) Haberdasher has solved roughly half the other challenges in that thread, and

3.) We're never going to catch up with Arnie's score on the word bluffing game without the use of psychotropic drugs and/or a two-by-four.


So! I have come up with a quiz which I believe (as in "I hope") will best the grey matter of these fine individuals. In fact, I'm almost tempted to slip the correct answer to Kalleh or J.T. or, best of all, the non-quiz-joining-in R.E. just to get Arnie's, Hab's, and Shu's collective goat but, proper sportsman that I am, I promise I will refrain from doing so.

Here's the deal. I think I've mentioned before that it is a habit of mine to drift off to sleep thinking of word puzzles - questions like "How many things you can wear are spelled with more vowels than consonants?" such as muu-muu, tiara, and the ever-popular an air of authority or "How many famous people contain the name of a bird?" such as Robin Leech or Christopher Thomas Nicodemus or "How many types of liquor contain the name of an animal?" such as asti spumanti. (That last one was a toughie. No other answers came to mind before I dozed off.) My daughter fears that this habit will make me go peculiar but let's be realistic - one can't fantasize about Britney Spears every night.

One day last week around midnight I was in bed thinking random word- and non-word-related thoughts when it occurred to me that "Bobby" contains a majority of a single letter, 3 B's and 2 non-B's. OK, I thought, how many other proper names can I come up with that share this trait. The list included:

Ann, Ana, Bob, Eve, Nan, and a few other easy 3-letter ones,

Idi (as in Amin), a not-so-easy 3-letter one,

Mommy, Daddy, Sissy, Poppy, and other familial names,

Lilly, if you use the lesser-used spelling of "Lily,"

Pippi (as in Longstocking),

Fluffy, Nope! That's 50/50...


And there I was once again drifting off to a pleasant night's sleep when suddenly a seven-letter proper name came to mind which fit this category! I was so pleased with myself that I roused myself up to jot it down on a pad of paper I keep by my bed for just this purpose.


So! The challenge is simple. Can you think of a proper name seven letters long (or longer for that matter - as always I wouldn't mind being bested in this thing) which contains one letter four times? (BWAAAA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HAAAA!!!) Answer next week if (Curses!!) Arnie, Hab, or Shufitz don't get it first.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Chris J. Strolin,

First thoughts

Well, I've thought of an eight-letter name with four the same, but that's only 50-50 so it won't suffice. I'll have to think some more...

edit. Nope, it's NINE letters. Not even half. Oh well, I'll keep trying.

more first thoughts

It's characterized as a "proper name." Not necessarily a person's name. An appropriate geographic name would satisfy the definition too.

Dare I suggest that Mississippi fits? Four s's, four i's

Well, an eight-letter name, Ananaias, is only 50-50; is that the name you thought of, hab?

Ananaias is good. My thought was Llewellyn, but that's only four out of nine. "Tennessee" has four Es out of eight letters - again, close but no cigar. (Edit: wrong again. 4/9. Can't seen to count above seven these days!) I also thought of non-proper-noun words - "stresses" is four out of eight, and "senselessness" is six of thirteen, but neither of them makes the grade of more-than-half. Five-letter words are more plentiful - Pfaff, or Estee, and even eerie. Webster Lake (Lake Chargoggagogg-etc) doesn't even come close to the 50-50 ratio.

But I did come up with a four-of-seven reply that I PMed to Chris last night. It isn't quite fair, being (like Tennessee) USocentric, but it works.

Afterthoughts:
tut-tut
sasses
sassiness
assassins
assesses

[spelling errors corrected 4/29/04 0935 EDT]

This message has been edited. Last edited by: haberdasher,

hab: "_____ doesn't even come close to the 50-50 ratio"

But hab, CJ has fooled you! He talks about that ratio, but read his challenge carefully. He says, "The challenge is simple. Can you think of a proper name seven letters long (or longer for that matter - as always I wouldn't mind being bested in this thing) which contains one letter four times?" He doesn't ask for 50/50 -- very clever to trick them, CJ.

So Ananaias, Llewellyn, Tennessee and Mississippi are each "seven letters long or longer" and each "contains one letter four times," just as CJ's challenged you to do!

<grinning here>

Nope, nope, nope, nope!!!

Sorry for being imprecise there but you knew what I was talking about. If the name in question is nine letters long then five of them must be the same, eleven letters long then six etc etc.


The name Haberdasher PM'ed me was "Alabama" which, yes, I suppose does meet the criteria. Well done, Hab. (grumble, grumble...) BUT I will consider the challenge still open and not, in the strictest sense, solved because the whole thing revolved around people's names.

Over this weekend I will be working 12-14+ hour days and so do not expect to be putting in any time on this (or any other) site so allow me to leave you with a hint. Yogi Bear had a sidekick named "Boo-Boo" which, all things considered, isn't much of a name. Still, 2/3 of it is the letter "O" and it's six letters long, the longest personal name with more than 50% one letter so far.

In fact, come to think of it, that's two hints in one. Once again, I'm making it wa-a-a-a-ay too easy.


See you Monday.

Well, EVELENE is a name, but somehow I don't think that's the one you had in mind.

And speaking of people's names, John D Macdonald wrote a series of books in which the main character was Travis Magee and a recurring minor character was the Alabama Tiger...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: haberdasher,

quote:

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Originally posted by Chris J. Strolin:
So! The challenge is simple. Can you think of a proper name seven letters long ... which contains one letter four times?

---

Sorry, you're right. This whole thing would have been much clearer had I instead said "Can you think of a person's name seven letters long in which four of them are the same letter. I could tack on a mini-rant here along the lines of "Jeeze, you've got to watch every little word" but yes, you do. This is, after all, a language site.


Regarding regular words fitting this same criteria, I posed that challenge quite some time ago and the winning entry ended up being "asslessness" as in "I was going to earn money this summer giving donkey rides to children but couldn't procure the appropriate animal. My asslessness is always holding me back."

The word was mine but the definition came from someone on another board that we don't talk about here.


And by the way, I thoroughly expected several of you smart-asses (and I mean that in an affection and respectful way) to have come up with further answers to the challenge I didn't make - the liquor-words-containing-animals thing. I thought that Asti Spumanti was fairly clever, especially considering I was drifting off to sleep when it came to me.


One last hint: Kalleh has complained about my challenges and quizzes in the past in part, I have to believe, due to her less than stellar success in solving them. She strenuously objected to "an air of authority" and she may not like the answer to this one either.

Do we allow PeeWee Reese, the Brooklyn Dodger shortstop? He scores seven out of eleven.

Still isn't the one CJ has in mind, though.

Doesn't have to be a real person, I gather from his clues, just a real name.

Interesting bit of baseball trivia: "Did you know ... that on May 21, 1952, Pee Wee Reese became the only National League player in the 20th century to safely reach base three times in one inning? "

This message has been edited. Last edited by: haberdasher,

Damn!Damn!Damn!Damn!Damn!Damn!Damn!Damn!Damn!Damn!Damn!Damn!Damn!Damn!Damn!Damn!Damn!Damn!Oh, Shucky-Dern it all to Heck!!!

Once again Hab, you have bested me. The trick (as Kalleh is bound to call it) was that the name was that of an actual person and not just something you'd haul out of a Let's-Name-the-Baby-Something-Weird book. The one that came to my mind was Yoko Ono but at a measly seven letters, it makes for a most pathetic second place finish.

"PeeWee Reese"!! A Homer-esque "D'Oh!!" doesn't come close to describing my feelings right now. This is what I get for challenging an obvious master. You should declare yourself some sort of royalty contest-wise...

Actually, I like "Yoko Ono". Should have thought of her after the Beatles linking thread. She's also part of the one-vowel-names set, like Anwar Sadat and U Nu. (Who knew?)

I specifically didn't come to this thread because of its name. And, what do I find when I finally come to see if the quiz has been answered? CJ maligning me!

I have to say, Pee Wee Reese is exceptional, Hab. Of course, I would have gotten it right away had I come to this thread in the first place.

Jeryy, I like your new outfit!

Kalleh wrote: Jeryy, I like your new outfit!

Thanks!

With Springtime coming on, the headwaiter's garb seemed a bit stuffy.

~~~~ jerry

I wasn't maligning you, Kalleh. I was only anticipating your complaint that you didn't rise to the challenge due to it being trickily worded.

(And yes, "trickily" is a word. I just checked.)

"Ellen DeGeneres," with 6 E's out of 14 letters, would have been a strong second place finisher if the challenge was to come up with names containing large quantities of just one letter though not necessarily a majority overall.

Is it too late to change the rules?