Turning Swords Into Words

Transcript

OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:

For a game titled Turning Swords Into Words, let's welcome our next two contestants, Jessica Callahan (ph) and Michael Bergen (ph).

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Jessica, you make jewelry for fun for...

JESSICA CALLAHAN: For fun, yeah...

EISENBERG: ...Friends and family. What's your - what are you making it out of?

CALLAHAN: Just glass beads, little beads that my husband doesn't like to vacuum off the floor when I spill them.

EISENBERG: Oh yeah, OK. Any - any weird things you've ever made jewelry out of?

CALLAHAN: Used keyboard keys from laptops and computers.

EISENBERG: Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, how did that go over with friends and family? Were they like, I'm psyched?

CALLAHAN: As long as they spell out things nicely, then they're OK.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Now, Michael plays poker for fun. But during college, you made a little extra spending money playing poker online.

MICHAEL BERGEN: Yeah, I - obviously, like most students - didn't have much money and would play little tournaments to, you know, have a nice meal out somewhere - not a lot of money, but a little bit of money.

EISENBERG: Still, you won.

BERGEN: Over the long haul, yes.

EISENBERG: Have you ever thought maybe I'll go to Vegas and try - do a real tournament out there?

BERGEN: You know, in fact, I just had a very humbling weekend in Atlantic City...

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Yeah.

BERGEN: ...So I don't think so.

EISENBERG: OK, very good. So how do you turn a sword into a word? You cut off its head, right...

ART CHUNG, BYLINE: There you go.

EISENBERG: ...Puzzle guru Art Chung?

CHUNG: (Laughter).

EISENBERG: What kind of wordplay is this?

CHUNG: So when you take a word and you remove its first letter, leaving you with another word, puzzlers call that a beheadment (ph) - taking its head off. So in this game, we'll give you a clue to a two-word phrase featuring a word and its beheadment, and you have to tell us that phrase. So if we said it's a very smart rod or handle used to operate a machine, that's a clever lever.

(BOOING)

JONATHAN COULTON, BYLINE: Remember that the first word in the phrase will be the longer word, and then when you take off the first letter, you get the second word. And the two words will not always rhyme.

BERGEN: Perfect.

COULTON: I'm just telling you all the...

EISENBERG: (Laughter) All the parameters.

COULTON: ...All the facts.

EISENBERG: Yeah.

COULTON: You ready? OK. It's a special edition of Time magazine made entirely of Kleenex.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Jessica.

CALLAHAN: The tissue issue.

COULTON: That's right.

(APPLAUSE)

COULTON: It's the physical discomfort you get when visiting the country next to Portugal.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Michael.

BERGEN: Spain pain.

COULTON: Ouch, that is correct.

(APPLAUSE)

BERGEN: Worst kind of pain.

COULTON: To levitate above, like a drone or a helicopter.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Jessica.

CALLAHAN: Hover over.

COULTON: Yeah, right there with that.

(APPLAUSE)

COULTON: People are dazzled. It's the wood used by the guy who fixes your leaky faucet.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Michael.

BERGEN: Plumber lumber.

COULTON: Yes, that's right.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: I think it's very nice that everyone took that question at face value.

COULTON: You had some - you had some issues.

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: You had some issues with that. It's the wood...

EISENBERG: Used by the guy who fixes your leaky faucet.

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: I think I know what you mean.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: It's called a premise.

COULTON: That's right.

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: It's when you feel sad or remorseful about buying that white bird with long legs that lives near water.

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: You know that feeling.

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: I don't blame you for not knowing the answer. No - no - no ideas? Any hints, Art Chung?

CHUNG: I don't know, I try not be remorseful about anything.

COULTON: That's true, he does. That's not a hint...

EISENBERG: Yeah, what was that?

COULTON: ...That's just a true fact...

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: ...True fact about Art Chung.

CHUNG: I'm just trying to give them the longer word (laughter).

COULTON: Yeah, remorse - nope? No? All right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Oh, oh, Michael.

BERGEN: Regret egret.

COULTON: Yeah.

(APPLAUSE)

COULTON: As they say in poker, nice pull.

(LAUGHTER)

BERGEN: Hit it on the river.

COULTON: On the river, that's right. It's a shorter way of saying which one of you owns these stockings?

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Jessica.

CALLAHAN: Whose hose?

COULTON: Whose hose is correct.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Also an improv show on the gardening network.

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: As (laughter) as the kids might say, it's really excellent headwear.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Jessica.

CALLAHAN: That's a phat hat.

COULTON: It sure is. Well done.

(APPLAUSE)

COULTON: I've got to say, these are hard. You guys are doing a fantastic job. This is your last clue. There are two playful water mammals from the weasel family, and this is the sexier one.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Michael.

BERGEN: The hotter otter.

COULTON: Oh, yeah.

(APPLAUSE)

COULTON: Art Chung, how did our contestants do?

CHUNG: It's a tie.

COULTON: Oh, boy.

(APPLAUSE)

CHUNG: Here we go. Why did the flat cooking surface cross the road is an example of this type of brainteaser.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

CHUNG: Jessica.

CALLAHAN: A griddle riddle.

CHUNG: Congratulations, Jessica, you're moving on to the final round.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Coming up, we'll pit Sonia Manzano against her long-time "Sesame Street" partner in a game about the residents in their neighborhood, so don't go anywhere. I'm Ophira Eisenberg, and this is ASK ME ANOTHER, brought to you by the letters N-P-R.

(APPLAUSE) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.