Alliterative Word Puzzle

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

And I’m Grant Barrett. And joining us once again is our very own Mr. Quizzard, Greg Pliska.

Hello, Greg.

Hello, Grant. Hello, Martha.

Hiya, Greg. You worked any crossword puzzles lately?

I haven’t worked any particular crossword puzzles, but I did have a chance to spend a weekend up at Mohunk Mountain House with Will Shorts’ Wonderful World of Words weekend.

How was it?

It was A Wonderful World of Words.

What is that? What do you do?

It’s a great weekend with a bunch of speakers and games.

I was there to host a treasure hunt puzzle that sent people all over the mountain house looking for various bits and pieces of things and solving some puzzles.

And in fact, today’s puzzle is an expansion of one of the puzzles I used in the treasure hunt at Mohunk Mountain House.

Oh, great.

Recycling your work.

Well, you may have noticed that both words in the name Mohunk Mountain start with the same two letters, M-O.

So every answer in today’s challenge shares that property.

They are all two words, both starting with the same pair of letters.

Whoa.

And in this case, the letters will be the first two letters of your first names, either G-R or M-A.

-huh.

Oh, wow.

So here’s an example.

If I gave you the clue, the opposite of trade in the book business, you would say…

Fiction.

No.

What?

The opposite of trade.

You’ve got your trade paperbacks.

Right.

And then you’ve got your two-word phrase.

Both words start with M-A.

Mass market.

Mass market.

Mass market.

Exactly.

Exactly.

See, I worked in reference publishing, and we just don’t really have a lot of mass market stuff.

All right.

Well, here’s your first clue.

What you’d have to study to understand the syntax of the Iliad.

I know, I know, I know.

Oh, Greek grammar.

Oh, is that what you were going to say, Martha?

That was teamwork.

Did you have a better answer?

BSP is working.

That’s correct.

The answer is Greek grammar.

Greek grammar.

And now from the classics to classic pop culture, I guess.

A publication that parodies Playboy’s fold-out centerfolds with its own fold-in back cover.

Oh, of course.

I was actually just thinking about that today.

Why?

Mad Magazine.

Why were you thinking about Mad Magazine?

Because somebody sent us at the radio show.

They sent us to a link of Cracked, actually, which is the Mad Magazine competitor on the Cracked website.

Oh, right.

A link for some difficult words.

I’ll post it online and people can see it.

Excellent.

It also has some pictures of some completely unrelated lovely ladies reading books, but that’s something else.

Oh, yeah, I remember those little fold-in.

That’s right.

I loved those, and I would spend a great many hours making my own.

Yes, who didn’t?

They were almost always like a tree, though, when you got them together because they were easy to do.

And when they were unfolded, they didn’t look like anything because you had to make it.

That’s why they hired the professionals at Mad Magazine.

Okay, going on.

An annual college basketball tournament.

Oh, of course I know that.

That’s the state religion in Kentucky.

The Fano Four?

No, never mind.

I was just trying to do that with a weird accent and make it work.

It didn’t work.

How can we…

I don’t know what.

It either starts with M-A or with G-R.

March Madness.

March Madness, absolutely.

The big dance.

And here’s one.

Martha got March Madness quickly.

We’ll see how she does with this one.

Your clue is an orgy.

An orgy.

An orgy.

You know what an orgy is, right?

Great big grope.

Close.

Groping Grant.

This is a dictionary phrase, actually.

This one.

What?

It’s a two-word phrase.

Great big orgy.

I mean, orgy, what?

Synonym for orgy, yes.

Orgy.

You’ve got the right second word.

Grope?

Grant?

Oh, group, grope.

Group grope.

Oh, group grope.

Oh.

Absolutely.

Here’s another one.

She met with Pat Nixon in 1972.

She did?

She did.

And it’s either GR or MAMA?

Or MAMA, yes.

Met with Pat Nixon.

Would that be somebody from China?

Yes.

It would?

Yes, their husbands were meeting.

What is her first name?

I don’t know what her first name is.

Mrs.

Last name.

Her actual name was Jane King or Ching.

I’m not sure how you pronounce the Q-I-N-G.

But her title, as she was named.

This isn’t a panda, right?

This is a person.

Oh, this is a person, exactly.

Was it Madame Mao?

It was, in fact, Madame Mao, yes.

Oh, good.

Good one.

All right, you’re just flying through these.

Yeah, but you gave us enough.

Plenty of clues there.

Here’s another.

The Sex Pistols manager, who’s also known for his 1984 single based upon Madame Butterfly.

Malcolm McLaren.

Malcolm McLaren.

I was going to say that.

Yeah, what did I say?

Oh, I thought you said Malcolm McLare.

No, McLaren.

Okay.

I said McLaren.

That is cool.

I was a Sex Pistols fan from early, as early as I could possibly be and still actually be conscious.

Really?

Yeah, there was a skater at one of the schools I went to who turned me and my brother on to the Pistols.

It was kind of cool.

Oh, man, I wasn’t allowed to listen to them.

Well, you are of a different age.

That’s right.

A lot younger than Grant.

That’s right.

I wasn’t old enough.

Malcolm McLaren is arguably the father of punk rock, in fact.

Some people credit him with that.

I’ve got two bonus questions for you that both involve more than two words that start with the same pair of letters.

All right, let’s hear it.

One is the name of the army officer played by Bob Newhart in the film Catch-22.

Gracious sakes, I have no idea.

It’s actually the same word four times.

Really?

Major, Major, Major, Major?

Major, Major, Major, Major is absolutely correct.

Mostly referred to as Major, Major.

Right.

But his last name was Major, and he was given the first and middle name, Major and Major, and then he attained the rank of Major.

So he was Major, Major, Major, Major.

Wow.

And it was decreed that he could be neither promoted nor demoted, because he had to remain as Major, Major, Major, Major.

And here’s one with the other pair of letters today.

Joseph Kennedy to Patrick Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Great, great.

Grandfather.

Absolutely correct.

How about that?

Wait a minute.

Don’t they have to be the same word?

Great, great.

No, G-R-G-R-G-R.

Yeah.

I mean, it’s a hyphenated word.

I’ll give you that.

All right.

It’s not three separate words.

Well, it is.

Yes.

Hyphenated.

It’s one long hyphenated word.

Hey, Greg.

Yes?

Great.

Gracias.

Magnificent, Martha.

Well, hey, if you’re puzzling over a language question, call us.

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