Mixed-Up Anagram Word Challenge

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 entering the room with a smile on his face and a quiz in his hand, it’s our quiz guy, John Janeski. Hi, John.

Hi, Grant. Hi, Martha.

Hey, John.

I have a quiz for you today. It’s sort of a random mix, I call it. I’ll give you a sentence. One of the words in that sentence has been inexplicably anagrammed by someone into another word. And you just have to identify the word that was mixed and unmix it.

Okay?

Okay.

For example, if I said, A rose garden grows deep in the earth of Texas, the answer would be heart, since earth anagrams to heart.

Gotcha.

Got it?

Now, if I’ve done this right, the sentence should kind of make sense either way, and there may be other words that can be anagrammed in the sentence, but probably shouldn’t.

Okay?

Okay.

Okay.

Ready.

Let’s do it.

All right, here we go.

Now that we’ve seen Paris, I need to see more. Now that we’ve seen pears, I need to see more?

No, that’s a nice little anagram you got there. Paris and pears is good, but no. Paris and then you go to Italy.

Oh, Rome.

Yes, Martha, you’re right on it. Now that we’ve seen Paris, I need to see Rome.

I’m done in the garden. I just have to clean off my shoe.

Hose.

I just have to clean up my hose.

Oh, very good.

Yes.

I would have also accepted hose. I would also have to clean up my hose. H-O-E-S or H-O-S-E.

Gotcha.

Correct.

Correct.

The double. This farm has a barn and silo that’s just perfect for our use.

It has a barn and oils. A barn and soils.

Pretty good.

Oh, soil.

Yes.

Yes, even better. This farm has a barn and soil that’s just perfect for our use. I mean, if it’s a barn that holds tractor, oils make sense.

Right, right.

Or, you know, destination weddings, you know, like essential fragrances. Essential oils that are just perfect on this farm.

Essential oils, yes.

Very good.

My mate is quite good with ropes and also writes poetry.

So there’s prose in poetry.

Yes, it’s good.

She or he is good with ropes that is prose and also writes poetry.

Very good.

It’s not good with spore.

No, not spore.

Be sure to sweep the dusty living room and bedroom.

Be sure to sweep the dusty living room and bedroom.

Right. So we’re looking at sweep here or dusty, Martha?

I’m thinking dusty.

Study.

Oh, that’s good. Be sure to sweep the study, living room, and bedroom. It’s sort of a lack of punctuation in that sense, but that’s okay.

That’s my trick.

Finally, the job took much longer since I cut my fringe.

You cut your fringe?

The job took much longer since I cut my fringe.

How about your finger?

My finger, yes. It takes much longer to do any of these jobs when I cut my finger.

Yes, very good.

That’s how it happens.

Well, John, those bangs, that fringe suits you.

Thank you so much.

All right, so you guys did pretty well on that random mix of random mixed words.

Well done.

Thanks, John.

We’ll talk to you next week.

Talk to you then.

Bye, John.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

If you’re feeling mixed up about some aspect of language, this is the place to call and talk about it. 877-929-9673 is toll-free in the U.S. and Canada. And you can always email us, words@waywordradio.org.

Thank you.