Police Sound Word Puzzle

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 on the line is our quiz guide, John Chaneski from New York City.

Hi, John.

Hi, Grant. Hi, Martha.

Hi.

What’s up, bud?

I thought we’d start with a really interesting quiz. That’s my code word for something that’s really weird, of course.

I grew up in New Jersey and in New York where police cars sound like this. Like that, you know?

I have a dog. They used to have a dog who sounds like…

They sound like hounds?

Sort of, yeah.

Now, the first time I ever heard a UK police siren, I was like, what? It goes like…

Right?

At least they used to. They’re sort of changing.

Now, before the old UK police sirens have completely dropped from memory, I thought we’d do a quiz where I made you guys sound like UK police sirens.

We’re looking for answers that contain both the sounds ee and aw. For example, if I said, this is the sound a donkey makes, you would say, hee-haw, hee-haw.

Now, you have to say at least three times to get the traffic out of your way. Okay?

Let’s give it a shot.

All right. This is a typical piece of playground equipment.

Seesaw, seesaw, seesaw.

I don’t think any cars are going to move out of their way from that.

I’ll bellow if you want me to. Just put some heart in it.

Here we go.

Now, speaking of playgrounds, this is a game where children jump over one another.

Leapfrog, leapfrog, leapfrog.

Oh, boy. That’s just as a…

Is that it?

Don’t you take improv classes, aren’t you?

Yeah.

Don’t you get up on stage? Come on, do it. Put some heart in it. Come on.

Yeah.

All right? I’ll commit to that leapfrog.

Say yes. Say yes and.

Okay. Here we go.

In the UK, they typically use this container to brew a hot beverage around 4 p.m.

Mm— Teapot, teapot, teapot.

That’s good. Very good. Much better.

If you come from the southern U.S., you might refer to your grandmother this way.

Me, ma, me, ma, me, ma.

I actually did.

All right, yeah. You did?

Oh, that’s very sweet. The cars are definitely getting out of the way for that.

Now, bechamel or velouté are examples of this kind of cooking ingredient, usually made with milk.

Cheese sauce, cheese sauce, cheese sauce.

I’ll accept that cream sauce will also work.

Cream sauce.

How about the NFL franchise based in Seattle, Washington?

Seahawks, Seahawks, Seahawks.

Seahawks, yeah, that’s probably what the sirens sound like in Seattle.

You know, the late Tom Petty could have told you that this is the motion of a body where gravity is the only force acting upon it.

Free fall, free fall, free fall.

Very good. This is the range or distance over which someone can hear.

Oh, earshot, earshot, earshot.

Very good. This is insincere praise used to persuade someone to do something.

Sweet talk, sweet talk, sweet talk.

Very good. And that was some very sweet talk from you guys.

You guys did great. Congratulations.

This quiz was our sweet spot, sweet spot, sweet spot.

Very good. Nice.

John, thank you so much.

Thanks, buddy. Really appreciate it.

Talk to you next week.

Talk to you then.

Cheers.

This show is not just goofing around.

Oh, there’s a lot of that, too. There’s a lot of that.

We talk about words and language and slang and things that happened at work where somebody was arguing over the right way to put something in a PowerPoint slide.

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