Turn the Worm Puzzle

You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette, and we’re joined now by our quiz guy, John Chaneski. Hi, John.

Hi, Martha. Hi, Grant. How’s it going?

Fine. How you doing, kid?

I’m doing just great.

What’s happening?

Well, it’s a simple quiz this week. Any child can tell you that a W is just an upside-down M and vice versa.

Oh, wow!

Right?

I mean, Mom!

Oh, you just figured that out.

I’ll read you a sentence with two blanks.

The words that belong in those blanks will be the same, except that one has an M and the other has a W in the same place.

For example, here’s the first example.

All those commercials on the History Channel sure do blank my enjoyment of their documentaries about blank.

Oh, man.

Raw war?

Ram?

You have one of the words.

So war documentaries.

Oh, mar my enjoyment.

Mar.

Oh, I see.

You turn the W and you make it an M.

I see.

I actually wasn’t listening to the instructions.

Sorry.

Yes, the letter.

The M or the W can be anywhere in the word.

And I call this puzzle, turn the worm.

W or M.

Thank you.

Okay, here are a few more.

Every blank on the beach was bronze and beautiful, except for Chaneski, who sure looked blank.

Every man on the beach.

Yeah.

Who looked Juan.

Yeah.

Except for Janeski who sure looked Juan.

Takes Juan to know Juan.

That’s true.

I go to the beach.

People think I’m a mime when I go to the beach.

So, anyway.

That was very good.

Here’s the next.

Golly gosh and gee whiz, Becky. That perfume you’re wearing sure is a blank blank.

Swell smell.

Yes.

Smell, smell.

Very good.

There we go.

All right.

I can’t seem to blank the tide of spam in my account, so I’ll just sit here and blank about it.

Stem and stew.

Stem and stew.

Very good.

I can help you with that.

Okay.

We’ll talk after.

That’s good.

I usually just sit there and blog about it.

The addition of Buzz Lightyear to Andy’s toy box left blank feeling rather blank.

Woody feeling rather moody.

Yes, very good.

Oh, yeah!

Of course.

Toy Story represent!

Yeah, the daddy’s in the house.

I knew there was a reason I watched that a hundred times.

And when the DVD for number three comes out, the doom will begin again.

This next one, by the way, is based on a true story.

My brother uses several cans of hairspray every day, so he really doesn’t blank the Chicago blank.

Chicago?

Yeah.

This one’s kind of tough.

What in Chicago might…

Oh, it’s wind. Mind the wind.

Yes. Very good.

You should get this one pretty easy.

As her date held her on the blank of the mighty ship, Becky thought, what a dramatic ending to my junior blank.

The blank of the giant ship.

The prow.

The prow.

Oh, and the prow.

I see.

On the prow of the mighty ship, I think he thought, what a dramatic ending to my junior prom.

Here’s the next one.

If you’re lost in the woods, you won’t need that expensive blank, but you’ll be lucky if you have a single blank.

Watch and match.

Yes, very good.

Priorities there.

Don’t need that expensive watch.

I have my phone.

That might come in handy too.

Where’s the lighter mode on this?

Here’s the next one.

If your workplace is hot and you really blank, then you work with iron as a blank.

Oh, swelter and smelter.

Yes.

Swelter and smelter.

Awesome.

That’s the name of my next album, Swelter, Smelter.

Swelter, smelter.

I don’t know many smelters, but I assume they swelter.

And here’s the last one.

Thurber was known for being blank and for creating Walter blank.

Witty and middy.

Witty and Mitty, very good.

Nice work, Martha.

Nice work, Grant, too.

You guys did fantastic.

That’s my quiz.

I hate to say that.

It doesn’t mean very much.

Yeah.

I’m trying to think of another M and W, but it’s just not coming true.

They’re hard, aren’t they?

They’re very difficult.

So I appreciate the difficulty it takes to put these together, John.

Thanks for having us along for the fun.

Thank you for having me.

I’ll see you again next time.

All right.

Bye-bye.

And if you’d like to talk about grammar, slang, punctuation, or words in how we use them, the number to call is 1-877-929-9673.