Constrained Writing Word Puzzle

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 on the line from New York City is our quiz guy, John Chaneski.

Hi, John.

Hi, guys.

Great to be back.

I have something very interesting this week.

This quiz is about ease, the letter E.

Now, you may have heard about the novel Gadsby by Ernest Vincent Wright or The Void by Georges Pérec, both of which are examples of what they call constrained writing.

Supposedly, neither of those books uses the letter E even once.

Have you heard of those?

Yes, absolutely. I checked the Parekh novel, and it’s true.

They’re lipograms, are they not? Is that the word? Lipogram?

They’re lipogrammatic, yes.

Lipogrammatic.

Now, this puzzle is the opposite of that.

The only vowel in each of the answers to the following clues is E.

For example, it’s where you place items when you don’t need them for a long time, especially if you want them to be very, very cold.

The answer would be…

Freezer.

Icebox.

Freezer is good. That’s three E’s.

I’ve got a two-word phrase that has five E’s.

Deep freeze, yes, deep freeze.

We’re going to try to go no fewer than five E’s for fun.

Wow.

Okay, so maximum E’s.

Yes.

Very good, yeah.

Now, the first is just one word, and it’s the bubbly quality of drinks like seltzer and champagne.

Oh, effervescence.

Effervescence itself, one word, five E’s, very well done, yes.

This 1968 John Wayne movie was about the United States Army’s Special Forces.

The same group that was the subject of a 1966 number one hit by Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler.

The Green Berets?

The Green Berets.

Yes, five E’s there.

Very good.

If you have a Twitter account, you likely see this phrase often.

It’s at the top of the page every time there’s been a recent post to your feed.

Three words.

Something tweet.

Mm—

These new tweets?

I don’t know what it is.

Oh, you got the second two words is correct.

See new tweets.

See new tweets.

See new tweets, yes.

Very good.

As a film actress, she starred in Ed TV, which only has one E.

She has her own record company, 1111, which has six E’s, just like her name.

Who is this former stand-up and talk show host?

Ellen DeGeneres.

Ellen DeGeneres.

Not just Ellen DeGeneres, but Ellen Lee DeGeneres.

Oh.

Nice.

From five to seven.

Here’s another one.

During World War II, these two words described an area stretching from the Ionian Sea to the Aegean that had been liberated by the resistance of a certain Mediterranean country.

Peloponnes.

Greece something.

Yeah, well, it’s something Greece.

They were liberated.

Free Greece?

What’s that?

Free Greece?

Free Greece, yes.

Free Greece.

Five E’s right there.

Okay.

Yeah.

She completed Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire.

She was a B in Bee Movie, and she was Bridget Jones twice.

Who is this actress with six Es in her name?

And one of them has an accent.

Renee Zellweger.

Yes, Renee Zellweger.

2017 saw the second sequel to a horror movie franchise that shares its name with a 1938 song that has the lyric, where’d you get those eyes?

Jeepers, creepers.

Where’d you get those creepers?

Jeepers Creepers has six Es, but the sequel?

Jeepers Creepers 3.

Jeepers Creepers 3 has eight Es.

Depending if you’re at the Roman numerals, it’s got three I’s, but we’re not going to go into that.

Anyway.

Okay, you guys have been excellent.

Excellent.

That’s got all Es in it, but that’s what we’ve got.

So I’ll see you next time.

Thanks, John.

Really appreciate it.

Take care.

Bye, John.

As you can see, we do a lot of goofing around about language here, and we’d love to talk with you about it.

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