“If you’re writing out the names of numbers, what three numbers require six e’s and no other vowels?” Quiz Guy John Chaneski has the answer in his latest word puzzle. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Words of Numbers Quiz”
You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Martha Barnette.
And I’m Grant Barrett, and across from me is the handsome, the one and the only, John Chaneski, our quiz guy.
Hooray, it’s me. Hi, guys.
Hi, John.
Hi, Martha.
How are you?
Are you guys familiar with the book The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster?
Vaguely. Milo is the character in there?
That’s right. Milo is the character.
It’s an excellent, excellent classic book with a lot of wordplay in it.
One of the elements of the book is a feud between the kingdom of letters and the kingdom of numbers.
Okay.
Now, I decided we should always keep the two as close as possible, so I’ve constructed a puzzle about the words of numbers.
What do you think?
Okay, let’s try it.
Words of numbers, okay?
Almost all of the answers to this are a number or a word that has something to do with numbers.
For example, the clubhouse on a golf course is commonly referred to as what hole?
Nineteenth.
That’s right, 19th.
The ordinal number, 19th.
Very good.
Okay.
So let’s try a few more of these, okay?
All right.
Now, in the 1970s, this phrase, which has come to symbolize an untold number, was first associated with a prominent astronomer who never actually said the phrase in his popular PBS series.
Billions and billions.
All right.
Billions and billions.
Billions and billions.
Billions and billions.
Billions and billions.
Carl Sagan.
Carl Sagan.
On Cosmos.
He never actually said it.
He never said that.
Well, the closest he actually came to saying it was in chapter one of his book, Cosmos, where he referred to billions upon billions of stars.
Here’s another one.
What mathematical operation sounds like what your car gets on a somewhat slippery road?
Not a skid.
No.
Subtraction.
Subtraction.
Last attraction.
A little bit of wordplay there.
Sorry.
It’s a groaner.
Here’s the next one.
Now, if I’m writing out the numbers, starting from zero,
What three numbers in a row require six Es and no other vowels?
If you’re writing the numbers out?
Yeah.
10, 11, 12.
10, 11, 12 is correct.
Nice work, Grant.
Nicely done.
All right, good.
This is one for the game players out there.
What is the lowest number whose name forms a valid Scrabble entry when reversed?
The lowest number?
Yeah.
Okay, so that wouldn’t be two.
Is it Eno?
Eno is not, doesn’t work.
And two wouldn’t work.
Out?
No.
It’s an alternate spelling of ought.
Ruth.
Five is, if it knows.
Wow, it’s.
Six?
Net.
Ten?
Oh, six.
It’s six because it’s chi plural.
That’s right.
Chi.
X-I-X-I-S.
Very good.
Six.
I like it.
Slowly had to work our way through the numbers.
Very good.
It was fun watching you smelling the smoke as your brain was working.
I went right past six.
That’s right.
Okay.
Here’s another one.
Century, decade, these are common.
How long is a lustrum?
Ooh.
Oh.
That’s the length between when the sun goes down and it’s too dark to read.
Right?
From now on, I will use that.
Is it a thousand years?
No, it’s not a thousand years.
A lustrum.
A lustrum.
Lustrum is how long it takes for somebody’s good deeds to be forgotten.
No.
No.
I’ll give you this.
This hint may or may not work.
It’s Latin for purification.
The Romans would hold a purification ceremony after every census, which they held every…
Seven years.
No, it was a little longer than that, wasn’t it?
It was a little shorter than that.
Oh, was it?
Yeah.
Six years?
Four.
Even shorter.
Five?
Five is correct.
A lustrum is five years.
I have another made-up definition for lustrum.
What’s that?
What do you got?
That’s the period in American history during which a man could wear brill cream in his hair and nobody would laugh.
That’s perfectly good.
Does Vaseline…
I used to wear my hair.
Oh, that stuff.
I can’t remember.
Grecian formula?
Oh, there’s something about an aqua velvet man.
My grandfather used high karate products exclusively.
High karate.
Here’s another one.
What movie might be called The Magnificent Heptad?
Oh, that’s what I was thinking when I was thinking of Seven.
The Magnificent Seven.
Based on the Seven Samurai.
Very good, yeah.
I’m saying if you really want to annoy your friends,
Just keep going, oh, you mean the magnificent hepatad?
And they’ll say, that guy that we never invite to parties anymore.
Here’s another one.
I’m sorry, John.
I meant to invite you.
It’s okay.
I know.
It gets lost in the mail.
The symbol known as a hexagram is more commonly referred to as what?
So hex is six, right?
Right.
So what’s the symbol?
Star of David.
Star of David is right, Grant.
Very good.
It’s got a hexagon in the middle of it, and it’s a stellated hexagon.
Oh, nice.
Now, this is hot chat.
Come on.
Between that and lustrum, I’m just, yeah.
If you thought that was hot, I think you’ll like this one.
Okay.
In Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare writes,
The death of Antony is not a single doom in the name lay a moiety of the world.
A moiety means divided by what number?
Well, a moitié in French is a half.
Yeah, two.
So it’s two parts.
Two is correct.
Very good.
That’s good.
So one half.
A moitié is one half.
Very good.
Moitié, moitié.
John, this was good fun as always.
I love how these are portable, that we can take these games away and do them somewhere else.
Yeah, and I hope you will.
Take them.
Take them.
Go.
Get them out of my house.
Take her away, please.
Anyway, thanks for coming, John.
It’s good fun.
Thanks, Grant.
Thanks, Martha.
Take care.
Thanks, John.
Bye-bye.
Bye.
If you want to talk to us about words, language, grammar, pronunciation,
A dispute you had over the right way to say something or to put something in print,
Give us a call, 1-877-929-9673.
Send us an email to words@waywordradio.org
Or find out more about the program at waywordradio.org/discussion.
