Chappy Cholidays

Transcript

OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:

Welcome back to ASK ME ANOTHER, NPR and WNYC's hour of trivia puzzles and word games. I'm Ophira Eisenberg and with me is our one-man house band Jonathan Coulton and our puzzle guru Art Chung. For a game titled Happy Holidays...

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: ...We have Alanna Durkin and Philip Halin.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Alanna, you are visiting us from Philadelphia?

ALANNA DURKIN: Yes.

EISENBERG: What is your favorite thing about Hanukkah?

DURKIN: My favorite thing is being wished a happy Hanukkah because I am not actually Jewish. I always play in a concert band usually and, you know, every holiday concert they make sure there's one Hanukkah song to represent.

EISENBERG: So sad. Yup.

DURKIN: And it's usually the best one musically. We're playing the "Three Moods Of Hanukkah This Year."

EISENBERG: The three - what are the "Three Moods Of Hanukkah?"

DURKIN: There's the fast one, the slower one and the fast one again.

EISENBERG: Philip, what is your favorite part of Hanukkah?

PHILIP HALIN: Growing up, my favorite part was that I got eight nights of presents, and I could lord it over my Christian friends. But then as I aged, my parents stopped giving me gifts every night. And now it's only, like, there's, like, one Hanukkah gift and it tends to be something that they get me, like, a week, a month in advance. And they're like yeah, we got you your Hanukkah present.

EISENBERG: Right. This is their way of saying, like, you're grown-ups, leave us alone.

That's what this is.

(LAUGHTER)

(LAUGHTER)

HALIN: You're a grown-up, stop getting so intense about dreidel. My brother and I go hard.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Well, this is a game kind of about Hanukkah. It's really just about the first consonants in Hanukkah pronounced with that back of the throat (imitates back of the throat sound) sound. So to honor the Hanukkah season, we thought it might be fun to pronounce a lot of other words that way. So I'm going to give you a clue to a word or a name that starts with H and you give me the word or name but pronounce it with the (imitates back of throat sound) sound. So we've handed out safety goggles and yarmulkes to our audience members in the first few rows.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: And the winner will move on to our Ask Me One More final round at the end of the show. Here we go. This enormous, semi-aquatic mammal from sub-Saharan Africa would have trouble using its hooves to spin a dreidel.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Alanna.

DURKIN: A hippo.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Of course, from the popular Hanukkah game Hungry, Hungry Hippos.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Instead of filling your Hanukkah donuts with the traditional jelly, try using Nutella, a spread made from these.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Philip.

HALIN: Hazelnuts.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Hazelnuts. You could call a large deli sandwich by a different name for every night of Hanukkah. Sub, hero, grinder, po'boy, Italian sandwich, wedge, Blimpie and this, which is what they call it in Philadelphia.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Alanna.

DURKIN: A hoagie.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Before the president lights the White House menorah, they probably play this song because they always play this song for the president.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Philip.

HALIN: "Hail To The Chief."

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Yes. OK, this is your last clue. If you don't want your loose lox getting in your matzo ball soup, put one of these lunch lady staples on your head.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Alanna.

DURKIN: A hairnet.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: I feel like you have a particularly Eastern European...

(LAUGHTER)

JONATHAN COULTON, BYLINE: She sounds like a Meryl Streep character. Awesome.

EISENBERG: Art Chung, how did our contestants do?

ART CHUNG, BYLINE: I think I need a lozenge right now. Hooray for Alanna. She's moving on to our final round.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: That was a very tight game and you guys did brilliant performances.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HOW DO YOU SPELL CHANNUKKAHH")

THE LEEVEES: (Singing) What about those N's and K's. Do you use one or two? How do you spell Hanukkah? Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.