Two-to-One Cryptic Word Puzzle

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I’m Martha Barnette.

I’m Grant Barrett, and joining us is our quiz guy, John Chaneski,

As he descends from a flying saucer.

John, where were you?

You don’t want to know.

It was uncomfortable, and I don’t want to talk about it,

But at least they had good food.

So that’s it.

We’re just going to leave it a mystery.

And speaking of mysteries, today’s quiz takes the form of a mystery.

We’ve gathered the whole family and the entire staff of the mansion in the

Accusing room.

And they’re waiting for you.

The sooner you can deduce who the culprit is in this mystery,

The cleverer they will tell everyone you are.

Are you ready?

Yeah.

So my payoff is being known as clever.

That’s all you get.

Yeah.

I don’t have a lot of,

You know,

Resources,

Even though the family seems to be wealthy.

Each of the following clues suggests a single word.

And when taken together,

All of those words will clue the answer to the question, whodunit.

Got it?

Oh, boy.

All right.

These are sort of cryptic-style clues.

I’ll describe the word to you, and you’ll have to suss it out.

Here we go.

A word meaning distant and the end of him is where you’ll find things growing.

A word meaning distance and the end of him is where you’ll find things growing.

So far.

And the end of the word him.

Farm.

Farma.

Yes, there you go.

F-A-R-M, farm.

Far.

The end of him is M.

And where you’ll find things growing is a farm.

The start of mother-in-law’s kindness is the basis of cheese and yogurt.

The start of mother-in-law’s kindness is the basis of cheese and yogurt.

So.

Of course, you can back-solve.

We call that back-solving if you get the answer first.

Yeah, so milk or dairy.

So M-I-L is mother-in-law.

Right.

The start of mother-in-law’s kindness.

Yeah, is M-I-L-K.

M-I-L-K, very good.

That’s milk.

That’s your next answer.

You’re doing just great.

A pair of chopsticks and a caution color is a place to hear classical music performed.

So red would be the stop color.

I said caution, not stop.

Oh, caution.

So yellow or amber.

Oh, probably amber.

A chamber.

Yes.

What’s a pair of chopsticks?

I don’t know, actually.

A chop?

C-H.

That’s a pair of chopsticks?

Yeah, it’s a pair of letters.

A pair of letters.

Oh, gotcha.

Yeah, classic cryptic wording.

Classic cryptic.

A pair of chopsticks and a caution color, C-H, and amber.

Got it.

Is a place to hear classical music performed.

Your answer is chamber.

Got it.

Chamber, okay.

Now, are you ready to figure out whodunit?

Okay, so.

You’ve got the following answers.

You’ve got farm, milk, chamber.

What do they have in common?

No clue.

Oh, no.

I was going to say chambermaid, milkmaid.

We don’t have maid in there, though.

No, I’m saying the maid.

Right, well, that’s the part you’re supposed to get.

Did the maid do it?

Did the maid do it?

Yes, the maid did it.

Oh.

Yeah.

The butler had the day off.

He wasn’t.

Oh, I see they all pair up with maid.

Gotcha.

Makes sense.

Well done, detectives.

Gum shoes.

Well done, gum shoes.

I feel like the family of this victim would be very angry with us right now, though.

I think by the time you finish, you have to go looking for them.

They’d be in the drawing room out there smoking and look at your magazines.

Wow.

It looks like your alien friends are here to pick you up, John.

Oh.

There he goes.

Bye, John.

Thank you so much.

We’ll talk to you next week.

Bye, guys.

And if you have a linguistic mystery that you’d like to have us solve,

You’ve got a couple of gumshoes right here who are eager and willing.

So give us a call, 877-929-9673, or text us to that same number,

Or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.