A listener from Bethel, Maine, calls with a riddle she heard at summer camp: The maker doesn’t want it, the buyer doesn’t use it, and the user never sees it. What is it? She also stumps the hosts with a puzzle: What adjective requires five letters to form the superlative? This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Listener Riddle and Puzzle”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, this is Abby.
Hi, Abby.
Where are you calling us from?
I’m calling from Bethel, Maine.
Bethel, Maine.
Very nice.
What can we do for you today?
Well, I have a riddle and a puzzle for you.
Aha.
We love those.
All right, let’s have them.
Okay, so the first is kind of the riddle.
The maker doesn’t want it, the buyer doesn’t use it, and the user never sees it.
The maker doesn’t want it.
The buyer never uses it?
The buyer doesn’t use it, yeah.
Okay, and what was the third part?
The user never sees it.
It’s not one of my books.
The maker doesn’t want it, the buyer doesn’t use it, and the user never sees it.
What else could that be?
Where did you find this riddle?
I don’t know. I guess I must have heard it at camp last summer or something.
At camp. Okay, that’s not a hint, though.
No.
That’s not going to give us any clues.
No.
Okay.
All right. Well, what is it?
The answer is a coffin.
Oh, of course.
Oh, sure.
The maker doesn’t want it.
The buyer doesn’t use it, and the user never sees it.
Very good.
That’s great.
And you had something else for us, too. Another riddle? A puzzle?
Yeah, this is kind of like a word puzzle, sort of.
Okay.
So in the English language, if you take an adjective
And you want to get to the superlative form, like pretty to prettiest,
You usually add three or four letters.
But there’s one word where you have to add five letters.
So what is that word?
Five letters for the…
Five letters to get to the superlative.
And it’s in English because in Italian, you know, you can add Isima or Isima and the like, right?
Right.
I don’t speak Italian.
I don’t know.
You didn’t call us with any Italian riddles?
Let’s see.
Nope.
It’s in English.
And, Abby, where did you get this one?
I’m stalling for time here.
Where did you get this riddle?
I had this from my cousin.
Okay.
Yeah.
You know what?
I don’t really know.
Can you tell me?
Can you tell us?
Tell me and Martha.
Martha can figure it out on her own.
It’s hard. It took me a good amount of time to figure out.
Okay, it’s an adjective, and you need to add five letters to make it a supermative?
Yeah.
I have no idea. What is it?
Okay, the answer is farthest.
So you add T-H-E-S-T.
Oh, far to farthest.
Yeah.
Far, farther, farthest. Oh, man.
Very good, very good.
Oh, man.
You stumped the chumps.
That doesn’t happen often.
Oh, every day.
No, it doesn’t.
Just ask my wife.
Abby, thank you so much for sharing this stuff with us today.
Yeah, my brain’s tired now.
Thanks for having me.
Take care, Abby.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Farthest.
Farthest.
So far, farther, farthest.
Yeah, there we go.
Such a simple little word.
I’m ready to be riddled and quizzed and puzzled.
I’m puzzled all the time.
Or send your
Checks and email to words@waywordradio.org
