2010 Oxcar Quiz

You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Martha Barnette.

And I’m Grant Barrett, and we’re joined once more by our quiz guy, Greg Pliska. Hello, Greg.

Good afternoon, evening, and morning, Martha and Grant.

Wow, 24-7, Greg.

Well, you know, we are an international program, so…

That’s right. We’ve got people in Kiribati listening intently right now.

You got something puzzling there for us?

I do, actually. Do you remember our old friend William Snakespear?

Oh, yes.

Yeah, he’s the guy who wrote a whole bunch of plays with titles that are just one letter different from the titles of plays by William Shakespeare.

Right.

Well, it’s time for us to look at some of the ten films that were nominated for this year’s Snakespeare Oxcar Awards.

These are awards that are just like the more familiar Oscars, but with one letter different.

All right, well, let’s try it.

What I’ll do is I’ll give you the description of a film that’s been nominated.

And to find the answer, you take the name of one of the 2010 Best Picture Oscar-nominated films,

And you change one letter to a different letter to get the Snakespear Oxcar nominee.

All right, here’s your first description.

A Marine suffering from partial paralysis uses advanced technology to enter the body of Mickey Rooney

And ends up fighting a battle with Artie Shaw and Frank Sinatra for the love of an actress they all married.

Oh, no.

Do I have to put on my 3D glasses for this one?

Mm—

That would be, yeah.

All right.

So Avatar?

So Avatar, you’re going to change one letter to get the answer.

There’s an actress who married three times, in fact.

That’s why there’s 3D glasses.

And she married these three men.

Ava War.

Ava War is what we’re looking for.

That’s terrible.

I think I broke a rib on that one.

That’s a compliment, Greg.

Ava War.

Oh, no.

Ouch, ouch, ouch.

Avatar to Ava War.

Okay.

There you go.

I’m feeling it now.

You just needed to get rolling so you forget how it works.

Oh, okay.

Here’s another one.

George Clooney plays a corporate downsizer who avoids close personal relationships by

Spending his time climbing evergreen trees.

Up in the fur?

Up in the fur, exactly.

Change one letter and up in the air, you get up in the fur.

You sure do.

Another one of my favorites from this year’s Oxcar Contenders.

Sandra Bullock stars as an interior designer who adopts a homeless young man and supports him in his aspiration to be a great hair colorist.

The blonde side.

The blonde side.

Correct.

Change the I and blind of the blind side.

You get the blonde side.

Okay.

All right, you’re on a roll now.

Yeah.

An alien spaceship stalls over Johannesburg,

And the local baseball team is no longer able to pay attention to their game.

Oh.

Distract nine?

Distract nine, exactly.

Instead of district nine.

Okay.

Instead of district nine.

Oh, very nice.

But if they could all see very clearly, they would be the distinct nine.

Oh, very good.

It doesn’t work.

It doesn’t actually work.

It doesn’t quite work, but it’s good.

It’s good.

I’ll do that next time.

We’ll just mix the letters around a little more.

This is actually Gabourey Sidibe’s second film, in which we learn about everything she did in the first one.

Previous.

Previous.

Based on the novel by Sapphire.

Right.

You have to say the whole title, right?

You have to say the whole title based on the novel, Push by Sapphire.

You know, it gave me too many letters to change.

I’m just going to go with previous.

Previous.

That’s great.

Nice.

I like it because I got it.

Yeah, that’s good.

They’re always better when you get them.

Right.

In this movie, a young schoolgirl begins a romantic relationship with a man twice her age,

Seduced by his worldliness as well as his expertise with wood chopping tools.

What?

I did not see that one.

Whatever it was.

So what would it be for, Grant, what would it be for education?

Well, what’s the whole title of the movie?

I thought it was an education.

It is.

Oh.

An education.

Oh, Axe Education?

Axe Education.

Oh, very good. Axe Education.

It’s a sequel to the Saw franchise, actually.

All right.

It’s awful.

And this war thriller follows the exploits of an American bomb squad sent to Iraq to remove explosive devices from large Mongolian tents.

The yurt locker.

The yurt locker.

Oh, no. That’s terrible.

It’s pretty bad.

Awful.

Not the hurt locker, but the yurt locker.

Of course.

Man, I never would have thought you could get all these things out of the woods.

I need a doctor.

Are we done?

Can you put us out of our misery?

Thanks, Greg.

If you’d like to talk about weird words or grammar or slang, or you just want to try to stump us,

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Or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.