Quiz Guy John Chaneski delivers a take-off quiz in which each clue references a word which, when the first letter is removed, leaves another word also suggested by the clue. In this case, the initial letters of the first clues will be either K or L. For example, what two words are suggested by the sentence Sir Pellinore hopped on his horse and rode off into the darkness? This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “It’s A Lop Op Word Quiz”
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 look who is darkening our doorway. No, wait, he’s lightening it up.
Hi, John.
John Chaneski, our quiz guy.
Hi, Martha.
Hi, Grant.
I’m so glad to be here in Brighton. I hope I brighten your day, and I hope this quiz will brighten it even more.
Let’s take a look at it. This week, it’s one of our staples. I call it the takeoff. It’s a variation on a National Puzzlers League puzzle type, but it’s very simple. Take a word, take its first letter off, and a new word is left behind.
Now, I’ll read a sentence that contains clues to both the original word and the word that results when you take off its first letter. You tell me both of them.
This week, we’re taking off the letter K from the beginning of a word, or the letter L. We’re doing K or L from the beginning of all these words.
For example, Sir Pellenor hopped on his horse and rode off into the darkness. The answers would be, you want to take a guess?
Knight, K-N-I-G-H-T, and Knight, N-I-G-H-T.
Exactly. Knight, Sir Pelennor is a Knight, K-N-I-G-H-T, and then you remove the K and you get N-I-G-H-T, which is clued by the word darkness.
Good. Here we go. Again. All right. Each of these sentences has a clue to each of the words. You’re going to remove the K from the beginning or the L.
The atmosphere in the villain’s hidden headquarters smelled of evil. The Lair Air.
Lair and Air, yes. Lair as in hidden headquarters and air as in atmosphere.
Good work. I invented a device to spray pigment on my document, but the hose had a twist in it somewhere.
The, no, it’s not. Pink, or the kink ink.
Kink and ink, yes. Nice. I like how you guys are giving the listeners just a couple of seconds to get their answer in.
Yeah, that’s what it is. And Martha.
Yeah, it’s not that we’re slow. Here’s one. This one’s a little interesting, this clue.
Earth, wind, also fire. Earth, wind, also fire. There’s only four words in this clue.
I know. Two of them have to be clues to the words we’re looking for.
Right. Earth, moon, fire.
Oh, land and.
Land and and. Land for earth and and for also are also for and.
Nice work. I like that scene in Star Trek where Scotty and McCoy try to annoy the captain.
Oh, they irk Kirk.
They irk Kirk, yeah. I forgot to mention some of these. They might be proper nouns.
Yeah, Kirk and Erk. My paramour lent me his car. I wrecked it, and that was the last straw.
Lover and it’s over.
Lover and it’s over, unfortunately, yes. Lover, remove the L and you get over.
Finally, I attempted a difficult skating jump, but I guess I’m just a clumsy oaf.
Lutz and utz.
Is Lutz and Utz? Go the other way.
Klutz, Martha.
Lutz and Klutz. Yeah, you were almost there. Yes. It’s Lutz and Klutz.
Klutz. Ice skating to know the Lutz. You have to Utz the Klutz to get them to do a Lutz.
Right. That was fantastic. You guys are great. Nice job on these takeoffs.
Thank you, John. It’ll be dark in here when you go. We appreciate your time.
We love doing Christmas with John, and we love to do the puzzles you throw our way, too. Send him an email to words@waywordradio.org, or spill him out on the telephone, 877-929-9673.
