Half-Baked Half-Dozen

Last weekend, I invited readers to guess actor's names with only six letters, three from one, three from another, but otherwise in order. There were six groups of six, and while the individuals in each group were connected somehow, so too did an element link the groups. Here are the names of everyone who ventured a guess:

...

Okay, clearly this isn't the newest Nexus game, but I'm going to keep trying until I find one that works. I refuse to believe my best ideas are behind me. Meanwhile, here are the answers to last week's puzzle:

Group 1: from The Matrix Reloaded
1) ncefis=Laurence Fishburne
2) anuree=Keanu Reeves
3) nnemos=Carrie-Anne Moss
4) icabel=Monica Bellucci
5) oldper=Harold Perrineau
6) ugowea=Hugo Weaving

Group 2: from Saving Private Ryan
1) tomhan=Tom Hanks
2) attdam=Matt Damon
3) vindie=Vin Diesel
4) emydav=Jeremy Davies
5) nnirib=Giovanni Ribisi
6) ardbur=Edward Burns

Group 3: from Smokin' Aces
1) yanrey=Ryan Reynolds
2) raylio=Ray Liotta
3) hewfox=Matthew Fox
4) emypiv=Jeremy Piven
5) sonbat=Jason Bateman
6) ndygar=Andy Garcia

Group 4: from Planet Terror
1) osemcg=Rose McGowan
2) ddyrod=Freddy Rodriguez
3) eenand=Naveen Andrews
4) efffah=Jeff Fahey
5) oshbro=Josh Brolin
6) ucewil=Bruce Willis

Group 5: from Hulk
1) ricban=Eric Bana
2) fercon=Jennifer Connelly
3) oshluc=Josh Lucas
4) icknol=Nick Nolte
5) daekim=Daniel Dae Kim
6) samell=Sam Elliott

Group 6: from The Rules of Attraction
1) mesvan=James Van Der Beek
2) nynsos=Shannyn Sossamon
3) iansom=Ian Somerhalder
4) icabie=Jessica Biel
5) jaybar=Jay Baruchel
6) atebos=Kate Bosworth

Finally, why did I choose groups of actors from these six films? The common link is that each list contains at least one cast member of Lost. And now that the answers are found, I'll cook up some more ideas for the future...

Six Is Good

And so, I've survived another trip to the dentist, cavity-free and dentist free for another six months. They had a new digital x-ray machine which was pretty cool. Instead of biting down on film when they zapped me, I bit down on some kind of device likely connected with a USB cable to a nearby monitor, and I saw the shots instantly. The whole process took less than six seconds per shot. One large white spot on a tooth concerned me, but after the hygienist finished with her cleaning and the dentist came in to check, he told me that was my filling. I keep forgetting that on an x-ray, it's the dark spots you have to watch. There was one small dark area that might be nothing or might be a future cavity, but didn't require immediate action and hopefully will be nothing.

After the dentist, I headed to a bank to renew a CD for six months, because that had the best interest rates. I didn't have anything to eat until church was over at six o'clock. And for some reason, while thinking about how new characters on Lost really did parallel the Fantastic Four and their first visit to Monster Isle, thanks to an article Rey had sent me, I also started thinking about how I could identify most famous people with only six letters of their names. Don't ask me why.

Did I have six on my brain from the other day? Perhaps I'd spent too much spare time watching movies or answering movie trivia questions. But I had to know if others could see what I saw.

Below I'm going to list six groups of six letters. The first three letters will be the last three letters of an actor's first or middle name, and the last three letters will be the first three letters of an actor's last name. To clarify by example:

tomcru=Tom Cruise
bobtho=Billy Bob Thornton
atewin=Kate Winslet

....and so on. I'll try to pick more people whose names are longer than three letters to begin with, as “tomcru” isn't that challenging to crack. For the most part though, as I experimented with this concept, I ran into very few instances where there were more than one correct answer. Each group of six names will be chosen for a very specific reason, and there will be something that connects the groups as well. Find that connection, and I just might have a prize.

Group 1:
1) ncefis
2) anuree
3) nnemos
4) icabel
5) oldper
6) ugowea

Group 2:
1) tomhan
2) attdam
3) vindie
4) emydav
5) nnirib
6) ardbur

Group 3:
1) yanrey
2) raylio
3) hewfox
4) emypiv
5) sonbat
6) ndygar

Group 4:
1) osemcg
2) ddyrod
3) eenand
4) efffah
5) oshbro
6) ucewil

Group 5:
1) ricban
2) fercon
3) oshluc
4) icknol
5) daekim
6) samell

Group 6:
1) mesvan
2) nynsos
3) iansom
4) icabie
5) jaybar
6) atebos

And no, the connection between the groups isn't the obvious Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Tune in next week for the answers, and good luck!