Six Of Some, Half-Dozen Of The Other

Transcript

OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:

Let's play Six Of Some, Half-A-Dozen Of The Other with our next two contestants, Zak Shusterman and Paul Flaherty.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: All right. Zak, you told us that your hobbies are raising back yard chickens and 3D printing.

ZAK SHUSTERMAN: All true.

EISENBERG: I can't believe you are the person that I've been looking for.

(LAUGHTER)

SHUSTERMAN: I feel the same way.

EISENBERG: Paul, you're a high school math teacher and an ice hockey coach, or, as we say in Canada, a hockey coach.

PAUL FLAHERTY: Yes, that's correct.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Now, when you hear word game on public radio, what is the first thing that pops into your head, Zak?

SHUSTERMAN: I think word.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Word? OK. Are you scared? Not scared? How does it feel in the comfort level?

SHUSTERMAN: I'm really excited actually.

EISENBERG: Excited?

SHUSTERMAN: I used to be a science geek so now I like words.

EISENBERG: OK, great. Paul, what's the first thing that pops into your head?

FLAHERTY: I really hope it's about etymologies 'cause I'm really a big etymology fan.

EISENBERG: Oh, yeah. This game is about isograms. Yes.

FLAHERTY: OK.

EISENBERG: Let's go to our puzzle guru Mary Tobler to explain. What is an isogram?

MARY TOBLER, BYLINE: Sure. An isogram is a word that contains no repeated letters. So the word isogram is itself isogramatic. Now, we're interested, for this game, in really long isograms, like the word uncopyrightable, which is 15 letters long and probably one of the longest isograms you can imagine using in a sentence.

JONATHAN COULTON, BYLINE: And as confusing as this is...

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: It's actually quite straightforward. We will give you a sentence with a blank in it. You will fill in the blank with an isogram that is exactly 12 letters long. And if you need a hint, we'll give you the word's definition. Use your context clues. Be confident. You ready?

SHUSTERMAN: As I'll ever be.

COULTON: OK. If you can write with either your left or your right hand then you are considered...

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Paul.

FLAHERTY: Ambidextrous.

COULTON: That's right.

(APPLAUSE)

COULTON: See? Easy.

EISENBERG: Yeah. Despite the revelation that Twitter lost $79 million in 2012 and was thus blank, investors still continued to buy the stock.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Paul.

FLAHERTY: Unprofitable.

EISENBERG: Unprofitable is correct.

(APPLAUSE)

COULTON: I don't mind the flashes of lightning. It's the blanks that follow that send me scurrying under the covers.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Zak.

SHUSTERMAN: Thunderbolts.

COULTON: B, O, L, T - thunderbolts - two Ts. Yeah, no. No, two Ts - judges say two Ts. Sorry Zak, that is incorrect. Paul, do you have a guess?

FLAHERTY: I had a guess.

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: Was it thunderbolts?

FLAHERTY: It was.

COULTON: Because that has two Ts in it.

FLAHERTY: So I've heard.

COULTON: Yeah. So yeah, I - does anybody know the answer?

(APPLAUSE)

COULTON: Oh, thunderclaps, yeah.

EISENBERG: Thunderclaps, yes. I can't believe the audience was obnoxious enough to clap back.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: That was truly amazing.

COULTON: They're not even going to take the time to say that out loud. They're just going to sarcastically slow-clap at you. There's no excuse for missing an easy question like this one. That would be...

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Zak.

SHUSTERMAN: Unforgivable?

COULTON: Yeah.

SHUSTERMAN: Finally.

(APPLAUSE)

SHUSTERMAN: Finally.

COULTON: Thank goodness, right?

EISENBERG: My friends are a bunch of blanks.

COULTON: The end.

EISENBERG: That's it. No...

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: My friends are a bunch of blanks eating croissants, reading Camus and dressing like Napoleon.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Paul.

FLAHERTY: Francophiles.

EISENBERG: Francophiles, that's right.

(APPLAUSE)

SHUSTERMAN: Oh, well done.

EISENBERG: Yeah.

COULTON: During a full moon, the people who grow hair all over their bodies and start howling and craving raw meat are probably...

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Paul.

FLAHERTY: I'm worried it's too short, but werewolves?

COULTON: That is incorrect. Zak, do you know what it is?

SHUSTERMAN: Lycanthropes.

COULTON: Lycanthropes is correct.

(APPLAUSE)

SHUSTERMAN: Redemption.

COULTON: I like that the clue says people who start howling and craving raw meat are probably...

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Right. I know...

COULTON: Because we shouldn't judge. We don't know.

EISENBERG: They could just be on the Paleo diet and kind of hairy.

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: Could be a lot of explanations.

EISENBERG: All right, this is your last question. By gathering data about our age, sex and income, advertisers are able to tailor specific ads for specific...

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Paul.

FLAHERTY: Demographics?

EISENBERG: Demographics is correct.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: How'd do they do, Mary?

TOBLER: Paul, you're the winner. And we'll see you in our final round at the end of the show.

(APPLAUSE) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.