Quiz Guy Johnny C—a.k.a. John Chaneski—works his magic with a new puzzle called “Three’s a Charm.” The object of the game is to figure out the one word that can be placed in front of each of three other words to form three new, understandable terms. Like this: What one word fits before the words “surgery,” “history,” and “exam”? We thought “rectal” might work, but turns out it didn’t. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Three’s a Charm Word Puzzle”
You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Martha Barnette.
And I’m Grant Barrett, and we’re joined now by quiz guide John Chaneski.
Hi, Grant. Hi, Martha. How are you?
John Chaneski!
Could you do it like Oprah? I’d prefer it to be John Chaneski!
That’s pretty good.
Gotta do it like the popcorn guys at Yankee Stadium.
Chaneski! Get your Chaneski here! Chaneski!
I used to sell popcorn at Giant Stadium. It’s my favorite thing of the job.
To do the shout?
Yeah, sure.
Did you do the ice cream popcorn?
Let’s hear it.
I sold hot dogs.
Hot dogs, yeah.
Hot dogs.
And I say hot dogs.
And, of course, it’s New Jersey, so I have hot dogs.
And I sold popcorn, and I sold Italian ices.
On the day of the big soccer games, I sold Italian ices.
That was fun.
How about quiz?
Do you have any quizzes?
I got a quiz for you.
I got a quiz here.
I got your quiz here.
This is a simple quiz.
It’s called Three is a Charm.
Okay?
For the three of us.
For the three of us, right.
I’ll give you three words.
You tell me what one word can go in front of them to create a common phrase.
For example, if I say these three words, standard, bed, and boiler,
You could put the word, any guesses?
Standard.
In front of the words.
In front of each of those words.
The same word can go in front of each of those words.
Oh, like water, but that’s not it.
Standard, bed, boiler.
Double.
Double is the word.
Oh, double, standard, double bed.
Double standard, double bed, double boiler.
Okay.
All right.
Sometimes the words will be part of a compound word or a hyphenate, like blacksmith, say, or black sheep.
But sometimes they’re just two-word phrases.
Okay.
Here we go.
The first one, the words are weight, wheel, and fishing.
Which weight are we talking about?
W-E-I-G-H-T.
Weight, wheel, and fishing.
How about fly?
Fly is a perfect answer.
Very good.
How about that?
Fly weight.
Fly wheel.
And fly fishing.
And fly fishing.
Very good.
Right.
Okay, off to a rolling start.
Here’s the second.
Ball, pin, trigger.
P-I-N, right?
Hair.
Hair is correct, right?
Very good.
Hair ball, hair pin, and hair trigger.
Nice.
Is my hair ball contribution.
Okay.
Surgery, history, exam.
I was going to say plastic, but that’s not going to work.
Plastic exam, not plastic history.
Some history can be quite plastic.
Surgery, history and exam.
That’s right.
And not final.
Final surgery would be bad.
Not intent.
Exam, I think, is the tough one here.
Rectal?
No.
No, but I think you’re on to something.
Am I?
Let’s just say it’s the opposite of rectal.
Brain?
No.
No.
My?
Boy, this is harder than it looks.
This is a hard one.
Yeah, this is a very difficult one.
Let’s make it surgery, history, thermometer.
And we’re not back to rectal?
No, we’re not back to rectal.
Oh, oral, oral, oral surgery.
Oh, there we go.
Oral surgery, oral history, oral exam.
Oral exam.
That’s definitely the other end.
Definitely, yeah.
Pick that one.
No, no, yeah, okay.
Okay, here’s the next.
Note, stone, ring.
Note, stone, ring.
Key.
Key, very good.
So key note, key stone, and key ring.
Key ring, right.
Stone was the clue there for me.
Good, that’s your toehold, your way in.
That’s good.
All right, here’s the next.
Wind, string, coming.
C-O-M-I-N-G.
That’s right.
Wind, string, humming.
Again, on the string word, you might want to think sports, sort of a sports phrase.
String music? Wind music?
A racket has strings? What else has strings?
Gee, sports? Shoe?
No, as far as a coming is concerned, it would probably be capitalized as an event.
Homecoming?
No.
No?
Home string, home winter?
No.
No.
Coming out?
No.
It’s got to be before coming.
Yeah.
Oh.
Second coming.
Yes!
There we go.
Second wind, second string, and second coming.
That kind of string.
There we go.
This is a dashboard pounder for sure.
That’s a good word.
I like that.
Dashboard pounder.
Okay, here’s the next.
Beef zero floor.
Beef.
Beef, zero, floor.
Ground?
Yes.
Oh, nice.
Very nice, Martha.
Very quick.
Ground beef, ground zero, ground floor.
Okay, here’s the last.
Job, ball, man.
Odd.
No?
Odd man, maybe.
Odd man doesn’t really work.
Yeah, it’s almost there.
I’ll give you a half credit on that.
That’s pretty good.
But you can see if you can think of the one that I was thinking of.
It’s not base.
So many things that can be in front of man.
It’s almost useless to start with that one.
Ball is a little…
Let me help you out then.
I’ll give you another one.
Job, ball, leopard.
Leopard?
Yeah, leopard.
That helps a lot, John.
Thanks.
Job, ball, leopard.
Snow.
That’s it.
Snow.
No.
Snow jobs, snow ball, snow man, and snow leopard.
Snow leopard.
Very good.
I saw snow leopard this morning on the Flickr slideshow I was showing my son.
You just go to animals category in Flickr and put it on the computer and the boy is entranced.
Sweet.
Good work, guys.
And that’s my three’s a charm quiz for today.
I hope you enjoyed it.
Super duper, John Janansky.
Thank you so much.
It was charming.
Thank you.
And so are you, John.
Thank you.
Thank you, Martha.
Thank you, Grant.
Bye-bye.
I feel thrice blessed.
Terrific.
Well, if you have a question about wordplay, language, slang, grammar, regional dialects,
Give us a call.
The number’s 1-877-929-9673.
That’s 1-877-WAYWORD.
Or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.
