Bi-Coastal Quiz

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

And I’m Grant Barrett, and we’re joined once again by the fabulous quiz guy.

Wait, it says Greg Pliska. Is he the fabulous one?

He is one of the fabulous ones.

Hello, Greg. Are you there?

Hi.

I’m feeling so fabulous today.

Especially now.

It’s the gown. It matches your eyes.

Exactly. It’s the rhinestones.

Yeah, James Franco doesn’t have anything on you.

So, Puzzle Man, what do you got for us in your back pocket?

Today’s puzzle is all about connecting the abbreviations for New York and California.

N-Y-C-A.

Oh, nice.

So every word or phrase in this puzzle has those four letters in a row.

Okay.

Here’s your first clue.

All right.

The man in black.

Johnny Cash.

Oh, good.

Johnny Cash.

There you go.

There’s N-Y-C-A right in the middle of that.

I keep my eyes wide open.

That’s how I do that one.

All the time.

How about a small two-seater carriage?

Pony something?

Yep.

Pony.

Pony cart?

Cart.

Pony cart, yes.

So let’s jump from the 19th century into the 21st.

A security device that allows you to check up on the babysitter.

Something.

Nanny cam?

Nanny cam.

Nice.

Ooh.

Exactly.

That’s what you install in your house to make sure she’s doing her job.

How about, oh, here’s an easy one.

A pair of proverbial Irish felines.

Something cats.

Bonnie cats? Kilkenny cats?

Kilkenny cats, that’s right.

What are they? I don’t even know.

It’s a proverb, fighting like Kilkenny cats.

They fought until their tails came off.

Oh, right. That’s what happened.

And I believe in the, Kilkenny is a town or a county,

But their local football team is the Kilkenny cats as well.

Gotcha, okay.

A specialized dragster that has a one-piece molded body resembling the body of a mass-produced car.

Oh, funny car.

A funny car.

Funny car, really?

And why is it called a funny car?

I have no idea.

If only there were a radio show we could call in and ask.

If only.

If only.

I don’t know.

I have any idea.

I think it has something to do with the fakeness of it.

Funny.

Right.

Like funny money.

It looks like a mass-produced car, but it isn’t really.

I think you’re right.

How about this one?

A brand name videotaping device.

Sony camera?

Sony camcorder.

A Sony camcorder.

Sony camcorder.

Okay, very good.

Bread made from cornmeal.

Johnny cake.

Johnny cake.

Nice.

Yep.

Now, here are a couple more.

Instead of N-Y-C-A, these words have C-A-N-Y in them.

Oh, okay.

Going back in the other direction.

It might be Grand in Arizona.

Canyon.

Canyon, yep.

A popular Italian tourist region.

Tuscany.

Tuscany.

Wow, Marth, you’re doing it.

Winning.

No.

Martha’s just dreaming of good wine and tasty olive oil.

Aside from the word cany, meaning like cane,

Those are pretty much the only words in our language with C-A-N-Y in them.

Who knew?

Well, very good, Greg.

Well, thank you very much.

You two did very well on that one.

And if you’d like to talk with us about grammar, slang, punctuation, words, and how we use them,

Call us 877-929-9673 or send those emails to words@waywordradio.org.