Egalitarian Nerds Maps

Transcript

OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:

Our next game is called Egalitarian Nerds Maps. Say hello to our next contestants, Sam Draisin and Rebecca Lindner.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Jonathan, what is this game about?

JONATHAN COULTON, BYLINE: Egalitarian Nerds Maps, aside from being an awkward phrase, is also an anagram of the phrase presidential anagrams.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Yeah, see? How much fun is this already?

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: As we all know. In this game, we'll give you a phrase that is an anagram of one of the 43 U.S. presidents, and you have to identify which one. Let's go to our puzzle guru, John Chaneski, for an example.

JOHN CHANESKI, BYLINE: If we said ran trashy rum, that would be an anagram of Harry S. Truman.

REBECCA LINDNER: Obviously.

COULTON: Wow. And the answers will consist of only the president's first and last name unless we tell you otherwise. It's all going to be great. Don't be nervous. This is going to be totally fun. Anagrams are easy. Right, everybody? Here we go.

COULTON: Adman Josh.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Rebecca?

LINDNER: John Adams.

COULTON: Yeah, that's correct.

(APPLAUSE)

COULTON: See?

LINDNER: Apparently I did.

COULTON: All right. Rancid horn mix.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Sam?

SAM DRAISIN: Richard Nixon.

AUDIENCE: Oh.

COULTON: Yes, except we need the middle initial here. Can you give me the middle initial?

DRAISIN: M.

COULTON: That's it. Yes.

(APPLAUSE)

COULTON: I like this one very much, hair ball con man.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Mhm.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Sam?

DRAISIN: I just realized what I was thinking is completely wrong.

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: Say it anyway because it'll be funny.

DRAISIN: I don't know. Abraham Lincoln.

COULTON: Yeah.

EISENBERG: Yeah.

COULTON: Last-minute redemption. There we go. (Laughter). He's a towering gong.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: That's one heck of an anagram.

COULTON: Not all these are descriptive of the presidents, by the way.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Sam?

DRAISIN: Warren G. Harding.

COULTON: That's a good guess but that's incorrect. Rebecca, do you know who it is? He's a towering gong. Just rearrange the letters so that it spells the name of a U.S...

LINDNER: Sure, yeah, obviously.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: It's like the answer's right in there.

COULTON: Yeah.

LINDNER: Sherman? No.

COULTON: Sherman is incorrect in a couple of different ways.

LINDNER: That's not - I don't know.

COULTON: No. The answer - the answer we were looking for was George Washington.

LINDNER: That makes a lot more sense.

COULTON: That makes more sense. A granola nerd. How about a hint from John Chaneski?

CHANESKI: Yeah, sure. He was hardly a granola nerd, though he had been an actor and the governor of California.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Sam?

DRAISIN: Richard - no, wait.

(LAUGHTER)

DRAISIN: Crap. I'm from California, wait, I'm told - Ronald Reagan. There we go.

EISENBERG: Yeah.

COULTON: Ronald Reagan is the right answer.

DRAISIN: Not proud that he was our governor, but something I should know.

EISENBERG: (Laughter).

COULTON: This is your last clue, dang clever lover.

EISENBERG: Oh, yeah.

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: All right. How about a hint from Mr. Chaneski?

CHANESKI: He was a dang clever lover and admitted to possibly fathering a child out of wedlock, but that didn't stop him from winning two nonconsecutive terms.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Sam?

DRAISIN: Grover Cleveland.

COULTON: You are correct.

EISENBERG: Dang clever lover.

COULTON: Dang clever lover.

EISENBERG: Because he could last for two terms.

COULTON: Grover...

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: But he needed a break, but he needed a break.

COULTON: John Chaneski, how did our contestants do?

CHANESKI: Well, the popular vote says that Sam won that one. He's going to our Ask Me One More final round. Way to go, Sam.

(APPLAUSE) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.