Zoo Planes and Zipper Clippers

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

And I’m Martha Barnette.

It’s time for another round of Slang This, our weekly slang challenge.

Grant, today’s contestant from the National Puzzlers League, is Amanda Yesnowitz from New York City.

Hello, Amanda.

Hi.

I love the fact that your name has both yes and no in it.

It would be even funnier if it was yes, no, maybe, right?

I’ve been called that, but see, I’m a Libra, so yes and no, it makes perfect sense.

Oh, fantastic.

Oh, very good.

Well, Amanda, I also understand that when you’re not solving puzzles, you’re also playing with words.

You’re writing, what, lyrics for Broadway musicals?

For Broadway musicals?

From your mouth to Cameron McIntosh’s ear.

Not quite on Broadway yet, but yes, I’m a lyricist and book writer for the musical theater, yes.

Ooh, fancy. Sounds cool.

Off, off, off, off Broadway?

Just a couple of books.

So far off, it’s in, you know, Vermont.

Very nice people in Vermont.

Nothing wrong with that.

Well, do you have an all-time favorite slang word you’d like to share with us?

Well, I’ll give you a slang phrase that’s sort of on my mind now.

I haven’t used this in a lyric, and it’s really tied to Seinfeld, I guess, is where it came from.

But it has come to mean something a little different to me.

I don’t know if you remember, if you’re a Seinfeld fan, but the phrase Summer of George.

Oh, yes. I don’t know what that is.

George Costanza decides, I think it’s at the end of one of the seasons, that the following summer is going to be the Summer of George,

Where he gets to do things like read books and sleep till 11 and play froth.

And, of course, this doesn’t happen. He ends up slipping on something and he breaks his leg and he can’t actually have his Summer of George.

But for me, any time I do something sort of self-indulgent or some kind of guilty pleasure,

I call it a summer of George.

So it could be a moment.

It could be a whole day.

It could be a week.

And in the case of the summer of 2008, it was a whole summer.

So it’s just sort of my playful way of self-indulgence, I guess.

I like that.

Well, hey, Amanda, speaking of playful, are you ready to play our game?

I am very competitive, so yes, I think I’m ready.

All right, here we go.

In our quiz today, we have two different things that I’m going to quiz you about,

And each one has two choices.

And here’s the first part.

Every time I blank him at bowling on Nintendo’s Wii, I clean his clock.

So is it every time I brindle him at bowling,

Or is it every time I verse him at bowling?

And I’m spelling Brindle, B-R-I-N-D-L-E, and verse, V-E-R-S-E.

Well, Brindle definitely, something about the two syllables is very seductive to me.

But as a lyricist, the word verse kind of speaks to me.

So, I think I will go with verse.

All right, so you’re saying every time I verse him at bowling on Nintendo’s Wii, I clean his clock.

Yes?

Yes, that’s what I’m going with.

That is exactly right.

It is verse.

Yay.

And it’s interesting where it comes from.

What happens in online world is that when you take somebody on, it’s you versus them, V-E-R-S-U-S, right?

Well, what they’ve done is they’ve verbed the word.

They turned it into the verb verse, which means to challenge, to fight, to take on, to play against.

And it comes out of online gaming for the most part.

And now you’ll find it in an offline world as well.

All right.

So, great.

You got one there.

Let’s see how you do in this next one, all right?

Okay.

Here we go.

There will be no smoking on the blank.

The press are invited guests here.

They can either obey the campaign’s rules or find their own transportation.

Is it A, zipper clipper, or B, zooplane?

There will be no smoking on the what?

Well, I think I’m just going to have to be consistent.

Since I’m a lyricist and, of course, very attracted to rhymes,

I’ll just go with zipper clipper because, you know, it rhymes.

Zipper clipper.

You know, Amanda, I’m thinking about the White House Press Corps

And how there’s some derogatory term for the place where they gather to do the press conferences

Or the room where the reporters stay.

I’m kind of attracted to Zoo Plane because of that,

Sort of a derogatory term for the media and the plane that would carry the members of the press.

Well, at least that way one of us will be right.

That’s right. We’ll gang up on Grant.

You all have to agree. I’m not having that.

Well, Amanda, what would you say the zipper clipper is then?

Yeah, I wish I could answer that.

Amanda, just relax.

I’ll give you the answer and no hard feelings, all right?

The answer is Zooplane.

And the whole idea is kind of what Martha was getting at.

Martha, you were so close.

The Zooplane is the plane that accompanies the presidential candidates as they fly around the country campaigning.

And it’s the one that holds the press.

Now, the press do pay their own way for that, but it’s a place of chaos.

If you’ve ever read The Boys on the Bus, this famous 1970s book about the political campaigns of, I believe it was 74,

They talk about drugs and fights and whatever, all kinds of nonsense on the zooplane.

Wow. Okay, that makes sense.

You did great. You got one out of two, which is, that’s a passing grade as far as I’m concerned.

Amanda, thank you so much for playing with us today.

My pleasure.

Thanks, Amanda.

All right, take care.

Bye-bye.

You can find out more about the National Puzzlers League at puzzlers.org.

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Call 1-877-929-9673 or email us at words@waywordradio.org.

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That’s at waywordradio.org/discussion.