Art Wordplay

You’re listening to A Way with Words, a show about language and how we use it.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

And joining us now from an undisclosed location in New York City is our quiz guy, John Chaneski.

Hi, John.

Hi, Martha.

Hi, Grant.

You know, this location is undisclosed, but nevertheless, there’s still a Pokemon here.

So hang on one second.

Get it.

Oh, good.

I caught them all.

There we go.

My first was a Charmander, and I felt great.

I had a Bulbasaur.

It was just so good.

It was on my bed.

It was right on my lap.

It was terrific.

Well, let’s put the Pokemon Go aside for just a second.

You know, we’ve done a lot of quizzes on famous books and plays and poems.

This is about famous paintings.

I know.

How can we do that?

Well, I’m going to change a word in the title of a famous painting and then describe what the new painting looks like.

For example, if I said, I’ve removed two letters from the end of this painting’s title, and now it looks like the couple has been replaced by a pale young man outside a farmhouse wearing a black T-shirt and eye shadow and several piercings and a crucifix.

American goth.

It would be the painting of American goth, yes.

Very good.

Yeah.

Now, I’ll let you know the wordplay that we’re working with before I give you the title.

All right.

Here we go.

I’ve taken this two-word painting title and changed the first letter of the second word.

Now it depicts a pretty, smiling woman holding a credit card.

Mona Visa.

Mona Visa, yes.

That’s right.

That was the Mona Lisa by Da Vinci.

I’ve taken this two-word painting title and changed the second word into a homophone of itself.

Now it depicts a pretty young woman in a field who’s spinning and really, really dizzy.

Christina’s world.

Right.

Christina’s world as opposed to Christina’s world, W-O-R-L-D, by Wyeth.

I’ve taken this two-word painting title and deleted the last two letters of the second word.

Now it depicts an insect of the order Lepidoptera.

Whistler’s moth.

Whistler’s moth, yeah.

Right, Whistler’s Mother by James McNeil Whistler.

I’ve taken this two-word painting title and removed the last letter of the first word.

Now it depicts one of the Beatles enjoying a nice, pleasant evening on his porch.

Star Night?

Star Night, yes.

It’s Star Night.

I got it.

Starry Night, of course, by Van Gogh.

I’ve taken this three-word painting.

The first word is the.

I changed the first letter of the second word.

Now it depicts all the actors in a Broadway play having a nice meal together.

All the actors.

Oh, the cast.

The cast supper.

Yes, the cast supper.

Very good.

Which probably happens all the time.

Right?

Yeah.

Thanks, John, for the quiz.

Really appreciate it.

Super fun stuff.

Well, thank you, guys.

This was great.

And if you want to talk about any aspect of language whatsoever, give us a call.

877-929-9673 or send your questions in email to words@waywordradio.org.