Lost and Found Quiz

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

And I’m Grant Barrett. And joining us now is our quiz guy, John Chaneski.

John, what is up?

I have a great quiz for you guys.

Here comes a quiz.

Are you ready?

Oh, really?

Yeah.

I think so.

I’ve been spending some time in the Lost and Found Department here at A Way with Words.

And I came across a bunch of items, and I hope you can help me return them to their rightful owners.

What do you think?

Sure.

Yeah, definitely.

Sure, and if my dangling participles in there, would you let me know?

I’ll keep an eye out for it.

Okay.

Some of these things belong to a specific person.

For example, I found this strange cube.

Can you guess whose it is?

It’s Rubik’s.

Right, it’s Rubik’s cube.

Right.

Gotcha.

Now, here are a few more items that belong to specific people.

Keep in mind that some of these are actual items and some are metaphorical.

Okay, here’s the first one.

I found this piece of fruit.

It’s an apple.

To whom does it belong?

It’s Adam’s.

Adam’s apple, right.

Here’s the next one.

I found this huge.

Man, it’s huge.

It’s an ark.

To whom does it belong?

It must be Noah.

Noah’s ark.

That’s Noah’s ark, yes.

The ship built according to God’s command in the Bible.

That’s what the tag says.

Now, I feel like, John, that you’re making these too easy for us.

Got some hard ones on there?

I think they’re, yeah, let’s move on to one I think is a little tougher.

Oh, be careful.

I found this razor.

To whom does it belong?

What’s that?

Occam’s.

Occam, right?

This is Occam’s razor.

Can you explain Occam’s razor to me very quickly?

It’s basically the simplest answer is always most likely to be the correct one.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, great.

Good job.

Now, this one’s a bit unwieldy, too.

It’s a ladder.

To whom does it belong?

Jacob.

I believe that’s Jacob’s, isn’t it?

It’s Jacob’s Ladder, right.

Jacob’s Ladder can be either a ladder to heaven in the Bible or a rope ladder with rigid rungs or a kind of plant with blue flowers.

That’s right.

But to me, it’s this giant metaphorical ladder.

Okay, here’s another one that’s kind of painful.

I found some fire.

To whom does it belong?

St. Elmo’s.

St. Elmo’s.

Yes, it’s St. Elmo’s fire.

That’s a static discharge around the mast of a ship that’s due to the friction of the mast against the surrounding air, I believe, right?

Very good, Captain Grant.

Good work.

Now, some of these items don’t belong to a specific person, but can be claimed by anyone with a particular occupation.

For example, here is a pie.

To whom does it belong?

A pie?

A pie.

I was going to say Pythagoras, but no.

Apostrophe S pie, a specific occupation.

Shepherd.

Yes.

Shepherd’s pie.

Okay, there we go.

Here are some more occupational lost and founds.

This is some sort of, I just can’t find the words.

It’s a block.

To whom does it belong?

A writer.

It’s a writer’s block.

It’s a writer’s block.

This is a piece of paper with one, two, three.

Well, it’s a list.

To whom does it belong?

A list?

A list.

Does it belong to Angie?

Or Craig?

Craig, no.

Not this one.

This is a list of students in high school or college who have achieved high academic rank.

Honor, well.

The dean.

That’s right.

There we go.

It belongs to the dean or a dean.

Very good.

Hey, this is, yuck, it’s a foot.

To whom does it belong?

It’s just a foot?

It’s just a foot.

Just a big old foot.

Like a rabbit’s foot?

No, it doesn’t belong to a rabbit.

It’s another occupation, right?

Right.

Oh.

Another occupation?

I don’t know.

Is this something like tennis elbow?

Is it one of those afflictions?

You’re close.

The tag says a contagious fungal skin infection.

Oh, athlete’s foot.

Oh, athlete’s foot.

It’s an athlete.

It belongs to an athlete.

I don’t know anything about that.

All my fungi are cleared up.

That’s good.

Go.

God bless you.

I’m glad.

Mine too.

I wish the athlete would come pick this foot up, okay?

And here’s the last one.

Here’s just some dinner.

To whom does it belong?

Just some dinner?

Dog.

Dog’s dinner.

Yes.

Dog’s dinner.

Oh.

Very similar to dog’s breakfast, right?

I was going to say dog’s breakfast.

I knew.

Meaning a mix of things.

A mess of things, right, to make a mess.

Okay, now, actually, I’ve only got two things left, and I hope we can finally clean up this place.

Okay.

The last two things are a tomb, T-O-M-B, and a vineyard.

And do either of you have any idea to whom these belong?

Martha’s tomb and Grant’s vineyard.

Grant’s vineyard and Grant’s tomb.

John, thank you.

It got cleverer and cleverer as we went along.

Thank you.

I’m starting to feel like a horse’s ass, so I’m going to get on Shank’s mare and get out of here.

Right.

Put your key in your chevro legs and shuffle off.

Nice.

I like that.

Right?

I like that.

Thanks, guys.

Thank you, John.

Thank you.

And if you want to talk to us about words and how we use them, grammar, slang, any aspect of language, give us a call, 1-877-929-9673.

Or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.