Play the Subtle Double Word Game

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 we’re joined by that handsome, dashing man, John Chaneski, who happens to be our quiz guy. Hi, John.

Hi, Grant. Hi, Martha. I just happened, what a coincidence, I just happened to be a quiz guy, and it’s time for a quiz right now.

You know, guys, I hate to repeat myself. Who am I kidding? I love to repeat myself. I often do it.

I’ve gone on repeatedly here about how cryptics are the gold standard of puzzles, and some of these answers are orthographic and some are phonetic. I never get tired of that one.

Anyway, today I’m going to give you two a chance to repeat yourselves. All of the following clues can be reiterated in a way that the last syllable is repeated.

Now, what does that mean? Well, if I said, Mr. Shakespeare, I really admire the textile pattern with diagonal stripes you’re wearing, you could say that as, I like that twill, Will. I like that twill, Will.

Okay. Got it? Got it. All right.

So you’re going to rephrase my clues so as to repeat the last syllable. Let’s just say word and avoid all that syllable-ble. You don’t have to say the whole thing, just the relevant part at the end, okay? Okay.

All right. Here in Cambodia, we’re gearing up for a windy rainstorm any day now.

A windy rainstorm any day now? In Cambodia. In Cambodia.

Right. I’m trying to think of all the… Anywhere in Southeast Asia.

Oh, no. We’re going to have a, starts with an M, a monsoon soon.

Yes, we’re going to have a monsoon soon. Right, very good.

I proposed every day for a week, but my Russian girlfriend has not turned me down so far. She hasn’t said nyet, yet.

That’s right. Good luck to you, person proposing to the Russian girl.

You look pretty rough after your bender last night. Are your unpleasant symptoms finished? Is your…

Oh. What is it? Yeah. Your hangover over?

Yeah. Is your hangover over?

Hey, you have a nice pet shop here. I’ll take the beagle, the Abyssinian, a few guinea pigs, and what the heck, toss in that beautifully crested bird as well.

The beautifully crested bird. What are beautifully crested?

Oh. Martha’s on the ball here, I think. A cockatoo, too.

Yeah, give me the cockatoo, too. Why not?

I’ve been sewing this skirt for an hour, and so far I have just a single fold finished. One pleat complete.

Right, or the other way around, one complete pleat. Very nice. Nicely done.

Finally, I’m very particular about my house decor. I painted my front door a light green, and the digits a reddish-brown.

Umber number. Oh! I’ve made the number umber.

Yes, very good. I think it looks very pretty. I’m not sure about the green on the brown.

But anyway, you guys did just great. Congratulations on that puzzle. Nice job.

Thanks, John. For a moment there, we had a puzzle muzzle. Couldn’t think of what to say.

We’ll talk to you next week. Appreciate it. Talk to you then. Take care. Bye-bye.

If you want to talk about any aspect of language, whether it’s wordplay, word origins, words you use at work, or words you inherited from your family, let us know, 877-929-9673, or send it to us in email. The address is words@waywordradio.org.