Odd Man Out Word Puzzle

You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette, and we’re joined by our puzzle man, Greg Pliska.

Hiya, Greg.

Hiya, Martha. Hiya, Grant.

Hello, Greg. What’s cooking?

What’s cooking? I haven’t cooked in a long time.

I have a new pair of glasses, which has nothing to do with cooking at all.

I have a new pair of glasses.

Yeah? I know.

I can see that. You can’t see me.

That’s why you don’t know.

Man, they’re not that good. I’ve got bad lenses.

Are these bi-focals?

I have progressive lenses. They’re progressive lenses.

That’s what they call them these days.

Oh, they’re green-tinted.

That’s right. I look at you and you look like Dennis Kucinich.

Really? He’s a handsome man.

He’s a stunning example of manhood, just like Grant. It’s perfect.

Is your quiz about Dennis Kucinich?

Not exactly, but a little bit.

Now, this week’s puzzle is a variation on the odd man out puzzle type,

Where you’re given a set of items, one of which is not like the others,

And the trick is to figure out which item doesn’t belong and why.

I should warn you that some of these get tricky,

So you might want to have a pencil handy to write them down.

And no Googling allowed.

Can I use a pen?

Let me give you an example.

Happy, sleepy, gregarious, and grumpy.

The answer, of course, is gregarious, which is not one of the dwarves,

And is actually the opposite of Bashful, who is one of the dwarves.

Oh.

So the odd man out is going to be the opposite of one who’s listed.

The odd man out should have the opposite property of the ones that are listed.

Now, this is an election year variant on the game that we’re going to call Odd Candidate Out.

Oh, no.

Because each set of items will include the name of one of our current crop of presidential candidates.

And as an extra help, actually, the candidate is never the odd one out.

This isn’t a quiz.

It’s a Rube Goldberg contraption.

Exactly.

Right.

If you set the monkey on fire, he leaps into the bucket, causing the answer to fall on Grant’s head.

All right.

Well, here we go.

Let’s try Odd Candidate out.

Here’s your first set.

Ron Paul, Harrison Ford, Elton John, and Phyllis George.

Ron Paul, Harrison Ford, Elton John, and Phyllis George.

Oh.

Okay.

Does this have to do with the Beatles?

Oh, no.

There’s no Ringo.

No, I think Harrison Ford’s the odd man out because it’s John Paul George, and so Ford is the odd man out.

And specifically Harrison Ford has a Beatles last name as the first name, while all the others have Beatles first names as their last name.

Gotcha. Very nice, Martha.

I was headed for something to do with presidents because we had George and Ford, but that wouldn’t have worked very well because it was first and last name.

Here’s another one for you.

Biden.

Twisted.

Individual.

Dinosaur.

Again, these are not comments on the actual candidate.

Biden.

Twisted.

Individual.

Dinosaur.

And it’s not haiku, so.

With these words, I don’t think we fix on what seems to be a prefix.

So maybe we put a suffix on if we’re not putting a prefix.

Are you saying to put a prefix on there?

I’m just trying to clue prefix.

I’m getting to think about prefix as a concept.

I could have just done a clue.

I could have just said, here’s your clue, prefix.

But it wouldn’t have sounded as clever as a little rhyming couplet.

I mean, I’ve got to get paid for doing something.

Biden twisted individual dinosaur.

I would say that individual is the odd one out.

Oh, you’re good.

Why is that?

Well, I’m thinking of B-I and T-W-I and D-I all having to do with two.

That is correct.

Beautiful.

And individual, I-N-D-I.

Individual has the dual suffix at the end of it.

Oh, now I understand why it’s right.

But you got it right.

That’s all that matters.

It’s like the SATs.

If you just check the right box, it doesn’t matter if you actually need the answer.

All right.

Here’s another one for you.

Clinton, Stewart, Lucas, Clooney.

Clinton.

Sounds like taking the SATs.

All these pencils.

So I have posters of all four of these guys on my office wall.

What?

Yeah.

George Clinton, Patrick Stewart, George Lucas, and George Clooney.

Is that the clue?

Yes.

It’s all people who are posters and grants office.

No, George.

Three of them.

Three of them.

I’m a George.

And one of them isn’t.

Yeah.

Well, actually, what would be the opposite of being a George?

It would be…

Georgina.

Martha.

Martha.

Martha Stewart.

You got it.

I actually was going to use George Plimpton, and then I realized, of course, Martha Plimpton

Is also a fairly well-known actor.

You kind of cheated on the presidential thing, right?

Because just George is…

Right?

No.

George Clinton was never president.

That’s not the point of the puzzle.

He wasn’t?

Well…

He was president of Parliament Funkadelic.

He was the emperor of the universe.

Okay.

Wow.

Have you had enough?

I think we’re good.

My brain hurts.

I’ve been humbled, as usual.

I feel very small.

I’m glad I could do that.

I can cancel therapy for another week.

Greg, thank you so much.

I think I know how this game works now.

Thanks for having me.

I’ll do it again next year and you’ll finally understand it.

Awesome.

I’m going to need a year to recuperate.

Well, if you’d like to puzzle us with a question about language, the number is 1-877-929-9673.

Or send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.