Head-to-Tail Shift Puzzle

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

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

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

Hey, John.

Hi, Martha.

Hi, Grant.

Hey, bud.

What’s up?

Well, you know, I recently renewed my membership in the National Puzzlers League.

Good.

Okay, yeah.

I thought since we haven’t talked about them in a while, we could do a quiz based on some wordplay that is found in the NPL newsletter, The Enigma.

Okay, cool.

Great.

All right.

Let’s do it.

Now, as you know, the Enigma, they have these little puzzles, special puzzles called flats. They’re little verses, and each one has a particular different kind of wordplay inside it.

Now, this one is called a head-to-tail shift. A head-to-tail shift is when you take a word, you take the first letter of that word and place it at the end of the word, making a new word.

Okay.

Okay?

For example, take the word rove, move the first letter, R, to the end of the word, and you get over.

Over.

Now, that’s a pretty basic head-to-tail shift.

Okay.

All right.

Now, I’ll give you a sentence with two words missing, and you supply the missing words, and those will be a head-to-tail shift.

Oh, cool. Okay.

Here we go.

My dearest darling, there is no one on blank to whom I would rather give my blank.

Earth, heart.

Earth and heart, yes.

Very good.

Very good, Grant. Nicely done.

It is recommended that the duelists take ten blank so that there is enough blank between them.

Paces and space.

Paces and space, yes. Very good.

When her boyfriend presented her with the blank, she displayed a triumphant blank.

Ring and grin.

Ring and grin.

Very good.

You blank to know that it’s only the most insecure boys who talk so blank.

Talk so bold, loud.

Tough ought.

You ought to know.

Oh, there we go.

Perfect.

There we go.

Ought and tough.

The love god blank inspired me to give you this red blank.

Eros and Rose.

Eros and Rose.

Very good.

Martha, you’re killing it.

My guesses about this puzzle are running blank.

Maybe you can give me a blank?

Hint.

-huh.

Thin and hint.

Thin and hint.

Thin and hint.

Way to go, team.

I told my southern cousins, that will be one tough battle.

Blank will definitely need a blank in that fight.

Y’all will definitely need an ally.

You’re talking my language there.

There you go, Martha.

Y’all, an ally.

In the NPL, we usually ignore punctuation.

I figured.

It really blanked my heart to see Grandma greeted by a blank of loving relatives.

It’s not broke, is it?

No.

No.

It hurt.

Worms.

Swarm.

Oh, worms.

Worms and swarm.

Very good, Grant.

Nicely done.

If you’re going to just let your air rifle blank off your arm like that, make sure it’s blank away from me.

Glance, pointed, directed, dangle, angled.

Yes, dangle and angled.

Finally, now this one’s a little tough.

It’s kind of weird.

At the aquarium, a rank odor seems to blank from the tank holding the marine mammal, the blank.

Okay, how many can there be?

Manatee.

It’s funny.

Otter and…

Emanate and manatee.

Oh, there we go.

Yes, that’s it.

Emanate.

Otter and rotten are one letter off, unfortunately.

I was sitting here doodling with that.

Different flat type.

Missing that in.

That’s great.

You got emanate and manatee.

Now, let me say this.

My advice is if there’s a rank odor emanating from your manatee, have that checked.

Just a little public service announcement, please.

Is that it? Did we win?

Check your manatee. That’s it.

You guys did fantastic. Nice work.

John, thanks so much for the quiz. We’ll talk to you next week.

Thanks, guys. Talk to you next week.

Bye, John.

This is the show about words and language and how we use it.

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