One Letter at a Time

OK, the ominously-lit guy with the cigar is General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) from the classic movie "Dr. Strangelove". If you haven't seen it, you definitely should. But you might want to watch "Failsafe" first.

Anyway, in the movie, Gen. Ripper sends the Air Force out for an unprovoked bombing of Russia. His logic for doing so is sound, but I won't go into that here. The connection to our little picture puzzle is that the security code that becomes the movie's maguffin is "OPE". Turns out it's an anagram of the initials in the phrase "Purity of Essence", which is an important key to understanding the general's reasoning for sending Slim Pickens and James Earl Jones into the forbidding northern skies.

And speaking of James Earl Jones, today's puzzle has a connection to this fine actor as well. But we'll get to that in a minute. First: Yesterday's solution.

It's "Ox".

The first gentleman is the excellent actor Anthony Caruso, playing the role of Bela Oxmyx in the Star Trek episode "A Piece of the Action", which happens to be one of the top 10 hours of television ever produced. The second fellow is Mr. John Candy in the role of Dewey Oxberger in the movie "Stripes", which is also a classic work of the video arts. The person on ice skates is Oksana Baiul, who is probably the commie version of Lindsey Lohan, and never would've been born if General Ripper's plan had come to fruition. And finally, we have the superlative informercial pitchman, the late great Billy Mays, who is probably most famous for singing the praises of a product called "Oxi-Clean".

Congratulations to everyone who found the connection. Today's puzzle has a slightly different type of solution. Yes, it's true that they're all dangerous monsters, but that's not what we're going for here. The answer to this puzzle is not so much a similarity as it is a progression. That's the only hint you'll get, so good luck.


Oh, and by the way, the James Earl Jones connection is this: He once did a vocal performance in a movie that also featured the dude on the left in the picture above. And no, I'm not talking about "The Sandlot". Anyway, I hope you're enjoying these little challenges, because there are several more coming over the next couple of weeks. We'll probably break the pattern with an essay or two about Christmas, but that'll probably depend on how many hours I'm spending at the office over the coming days. In any case, I hope you're completely prepared for the holidays...if not, you should probably get out to the mall to absorb some of the spirit of love and kindness that pervades the shopping queues at this time of year. Enjoy your fudge and holiday cookies, and have a great day!