Award Show Brain Teaser

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

I’m Martha Barnette.

And I’m Grant Barrett, and we’re joined by our quiz guy, John Chaneski.

Hi, John.

Hey, Grant.

Hi, Martha.

Hi, John.

Hey, guess what?

You know what? Awards season is here. Or it’s just around the corner. Or we just passed it, or whatever. I don’t know. People are always giving away awards. It’s always awards season. Right and left. It’s awards.

You know, I’m fascinated by the names people give awards. You know, there’s the Webbies for excellence on the internet. That’s named for the World Wide Web. The Grammys, of course, were named for the gramophone. In music. The Emmys were actually named for the Image Orthicon tube, which was once a key piece of TV technology. Originally, they were the Emmys, and they changed it to the Emmys.

Now, let’s give out a few awards of our own. Why not? Here we go. For example, if the nominees were Double Bubble, Juicy Fruit, Dentine, Orbit, and Trident, they would be up for what award? The gummies?

The gummies, yes, the gummies. I was sure if it was more complicated than that, but okay.

It’s pretty simple.

The chewies.

Well, see, that’s the thing. Gummies themselves are not actually gum. They’re a different kind of chewable, but we’ve never let that stop us from a decent puzzle.

That’s right. I’ll give you the nominees, and you tell me what award they’re up for. There might be a small clue in the intro now. For example, I’ll wager you can tell me this answer. War and Peace, Sense and Sensibility, To Kill a Mockingbird, A Tale of Two Cities, Infinite Jest are the nominees. For what award?

The biggies, the longies.

Saga-ese.

The more simple than that.

Tony’s.

Bookies?

The bookies, right.

Oh, the bookies. I’ll wager you can give me that answer. Very good. Put on your sexiest lingerie and tell me. The nominees are Danson, Nugent, Koppel, Turner, and Kennedy.

The Teddies.

The Teddies.

Very nice. You’ll get a charge out of this one. The nominees are Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Ty Cobb, and Rod Carew.

The baddies?

Let’s stretch it out a little bit.

The batteries.

The batteries. It’s the batteries. I think that’s my longest one there, yeah.

That’s good.

Okay, now, hop to it. Here we go. The nominees are ice cream, traffic, pine, nose, and retinal.

Conies.

The conies, yes. Whoa, good one, Grant. Hop to it is because a conie is a rabbit.

Of course.

Yeah. Now, with every precinct heard from, the nominees are Dracula, Fleet, Dooku, Chocula, and Von Zeppelin.

The Counties.

The Counties, yes. Oh, let me tell you, it’s a magical night. The nominees are Scarborough, Lilith, Vanity, Fantasia, and Renaissance.

The Fairies.

The Fairies, yes. Well, we’ve reached that age. The nominees are Knox, Benning, Wayne, Sumter, and Bragg.

The 40s?

The 40s, yes. What’s this all about, eh? Fuji, Shasta, Everest, Etna, and Pinatubo.

The Mounties.

The Mounties, yes. Finally, this is just making me thirsty, the nominees are Silk, Ice, Riverstones, Marble, Baby’s bottom.

Baby’s bum.

The smoothies.

The smoothies, yes. Well done. Well done to you guys too.

Thanks, John. Really appreciate it. We’ll do another quiz next week.

Yeah?

Talk to you then.

All right, bye.

And we want to talk to you, so call us with your language questions and stories. 877-929-9673. Or send them to us in email. That address is words@waywordradio.org or hit us up on Twitter at Wayword.