Transcript of “Reblacing P with B to Solve a Barticular Buzzle”
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 floating into view in his hover car and removing his flashing headgear, it’s an Android… Oh, no, wait. It’s our quiz guy, John Chalosky. Hey, John.
Hi, John.
Hello, Grant. Hello, Martha. Let me get down off this. There we go. All right, today’s quiz is pretty interesting. I think you’ll like it. There is a letter of the alphabet. This letter can be very bothersome for audio engineers because when it’s said, it causes a small blast of air to hit the microphone, making an annoying sound.
Now, I won’t say the letter, but it comes between O and Q in the alphabet. See if you can figure that out. We’re going to make this quiz nicer to the ear of our audio engineer. I’ll give you a clue to a two-word phrase. Both words in this phrase begin with the annoying letter between O and Q.
What we’ll do is substitute the slightly less offensive letter B in the place of letter between O and Q, like this. This is a skill that some drivers have trouble with when it comes to inserting their car between two others. The answer would be…
I still have trouble with parallel barking.
Barking, sorry.
Barrel barking.
Barrel barking.
Very good. You seem to have it. This sounds perfect. Let’s begin. It’s like we’re gang members. We just don’t say the letter from the other gang’s name. Otherwise, a war could break out.
Grant and Martha in the gang. Sign me up. This item is small and green and contains three or four tiny little vegetables. It’s found on a bean plant.
A bee bod.
A bee bod, yes, a bee bod. If you don’t like to do the dishes, you can buy a stack of these, eat off them, and then just dispose of them.
Baper Blates.
Baper Blates for potato salad.
Potato.
Baper Blates is correct. This artist created the works Guernica, the old guitarist, and the weebing woman.
Pablo Picasso, the painter.
That’s the painter, Pablo Picasso, yes. You don’t yet have all the rights to your invention secured, but you want to get it out to the public.
Batten bending.
Batten bending is correct. Very good. This describes movies like The Patriot, Shakespeare in Love, or Bride and Brejudice, which are set in The Best.
A period piece?
A period piece, yes. A lovely, lovely period piece. This term was in wide use before J. Jacques and Son Limited trademarked it for their brand of table tennis.
Oh, Bing Bong.
Bing Bong.
Yes, Bing Bong. Also a character in the movies.
That’s right, yeah. Pixar movies. Bing Bong is just about a proprietary ebony. This is ridiculous. I don’t know why it’s so funny.
Yeah, it’s a little ridiculous. Now, you knew he was coming. Here he is. He famously bicked a beck of bickled peppers.
Oh, no.
Peter Viper.
Peter Viper.
Peter Viper.
Peter Viper.
That’s the quiz, guys. It has been my pleasure.
Thanks, John.
We’ll talk to you next week. We do more than goof around with the alphabet in our quizzes here. We talk to you, the listener. We’d like to hear what you have to say about language. What are your thoughts, stories, ideas?
Email words@waywordradio.org. And if you’re not in the United States, you can talk to us through our website where you’ll find a contact form and a WhatsApp address.
That’s at waywordradio.org.
