Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski shows off his acting skills with a word puzzle based on sounds. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Sound Puzzle” You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett. And...
Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a game of Curtailments, in which the last letter of one word is removed to make another. For example: When the family gathers around the ________, it’s clear that home is where the _______ is. This is part of a...
Eddie from Petoskey, Michigan, learned double-talk from his mother, who picked it up from girlfriends in the 1950s or early 1960s. In his family’s version, ib is inserted around each syllable: for a word like cat, it follows the initial consonant...
Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski revives a classic game of word reversals called Get Back. What palindromic advice would you give to someone who ought to stay away from baked goods? How about snub buns? If, on the other hand, you’ve highlighted the...
What do pigs have to do with piggyback rides? We get a lesson from a listener in the fine art of speaking gibberish. What’s the correct way to pronounce pecan? The French have the Academie Française, but what authority do we have for the...
Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a new word game titled “The Secrets of Nym.” In Alcoholics Anonymous, denial is said to stand for “Don’t Even Notice I Am Lying,” which is a backronym. An acoustic guitar could be...