"Rising Stars" April 26, 2024

[ELSavage]

Haha. I solved this one the hard way. I didn't see anything obvious in the across theme entries. Using the puzzle title I started playing S to N word-search in the grid. I immediately noticed DEPP-U and LETO-H and eventually got to ROUGH. I thought to myself "this isn't nearly as elegant as Mike usually is - the theme entries aren't symmetrical". Sometime later another muggle mentioned the movies/roles, which I somehow managed to stay completely oblivious to

Nebraska was the only movie I had seen, and while I vaguely recalled that Bruce DERN was in it I had no recollection of his character's name. Plus I had associated DERN with Laura.

I had a similar experience. I was so convinced I knew what the title meant that I just started doing the S-N word search, as you call it. On the Friday Zoom call, people started talking about years and movie roles, and I was suddenly worred that I was on a sandbar. But no, it turned out I had just short-circuited the process. I haven't seen any of the movies, so I actually saved myself a lot of Googling time by ignoring that step. Fortunately, I'm better at recognizing actors names than knowing anything about the movies they've been in.

[The XWord Rabbit]

Your Rabbit was convinced there would be nothing to talk about this week, but per usual, you Muggles proved him wrong.

Let’s start with the method to Mr. Shenk’s “Rising Stars” puzzle: Five movie roles appear in the across entries. Find the last names of the actors who played them, rising from bottom to top in the down entries – and each with an additional letter. Those additional letters spelled ROUGH. How rough? Well…

femullen has the dubious honor of being the sole nominee during the month of April with this merry trip down Mathematica Lane:

"Rising star" obviously has to do with when those stars were first "rising" in their careers. So, google the years of their first appearance in a film, subtract that year from the year given in each theme clue--hey, the years are given for a reason, right? Then what letter of the alphabet does that numerical difference give? Well, Bruce Dern, who's been in movies for 60 years, blew that rabbit hole into a crater. How about the logarithm of the difference? A lot of other arithmetic ensued, all fruitlessly, except that I got extra practice with Laplace transforms and was just starting on Lambert W-functions when time ran out.”

Just mentioning Laplace transforms in a post sealed the deal as far as your Rabbit is concerned. Well done!

Before signing off, a salute to you Muggles who identified Tonto but not the year of the movie, and wound up considering, albeit briefly, getting SLEEHREVLIS to work. Since your Rabbit has already shared Stan Freberg’s “Jeno’s Pizza Roll” commercial, he will close with this 1970’s “Lone Ranger” Aqua Velva commercial. (Where did the Masked Man get that double-sided makeup mirror in the Old West?) Until next week, then.

[Scooby]

Almost got stuck in the DARYL = LYRA+D rabbit hole (constellation of stars?). If Mike had left some more crumbs -- N+OEL -- I might have stuck in this rabbit hole forever.

[mheberlingx100]

My first thought before starting the grid was to look for celestial stars going up on the down answers. However, the long across clues pointed to the stars of the movie variety in the roles in the grid. It was a short walk from those stars to the meta clues.

[femullen]

femullen has the dubious honor of being the sole nominee during the month of April with this merry trip down Mathematica Lane...

Just mentioning Laplace transforms in a post sealed the deal as far as your Rabbit is concerned. Well done!

This is unfair to other Muggles with equally bad or even worse ideas. The Laplace transform is the first and best-oiled tool in my dilapidated shed, W-functions only a tiny bit rustier. You put a number in the puzzle, this alleged brain will put an operator in front of it.

But I wonder now, does this citation give me a negative mug? Doc says my liver could benefit from negative beer.

[Darth]

I spotted LYRA right off when entering DARYL = LYRA+D, but then saw nothing when completing the grid. It was a rabbit dimple... so does that count for anything, Mr. Xword Rabbit? I mean, I did scan the grid for a few seconds to see if I could spot other celestial bodies. I couldn't find ESUEGLETEB anywhere! :D

[Bonnibel]

After 3 weeks away - vacation in England & Ireland - I was happy to get back in the saddle with a solve on this one!

I've missed doing this and also forgot to post. Ah, well...

I wish I could say Guinness me, but I've never acquired the taste, The Irish are lovely people, all the same!

Cheers!

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is ROUGH. The five theme answers are roles played by actors (Bruce DERN, Idris ELBA, Johnny DEPP, Jared LETO, Jessica LANGE) whose last names can be found “rising” in Down answers to one additional letter (ON RED, GABLE, UPPED, HOTEL, REGNAL). Those extra letters, in grid order, spell the contest answer.

We agree with commenters who thought this construction was unimaginably clever! Also reasonably accessible to our solvers -- we had a strong turnout (1347 entries) and an exceptional rate of correct answers: 96%. Other answers included METEORIC (17), TOUGH (2), RAGS TO RICHES (2), ROLES, SCARY, and a handful of others.

Congrats to this week's winner: Stephen McCaughey of Providence, R.I.!

[hoover]

femullen has the dubious honor of being the sole nominee during the month of April with this merry trip down Mathematica Lane...

Just mentioning Laplace transforms in a post sealed the deal as far as your Rabbit is concerned. Well done!

This is unfair to other Muggles with equally bad or even worse ideas. The Laplace transform is the first and best-oiled tool in my dilapidated shed, W-functions only a tiny bit rustier. You put a number in the puzzle, this alleged brain will put an operator in front of it.

But I wonder now, does this citation give me a negative mug? Doc says my liver could benefit from negative beer.

Oh, hey, now, as a fellow person-with-an-engineering-degree, I feel I have to stand up for @femullen and their Laplace transforms.