Quiz Guy Greg Pliska has a puzzle called “Wordrows,” a.k.a. “Welded Palindromes.” They’re two-word palindromes, in other words. For example, what two-word palindrome means “beige bug”? This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Wordrows Quiz”
You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Martha Barnette.
And I’m Grant Barrett, and you’re joined now by the one and only Greg Pliska.
Hello, Grant. Hello, Martha.
Hi, Greg.
Hi, Greg. You’re still a quiz guy, right?
I think so, or a puzzle quiz, or a puzzlist, or a quiz assist.
A puzzle quiz.
I like that.
That’s nice. Yeah, a puzzle quiz.
A quizifer.
Quizifer.
Quizzle.
I’m a quizle.
I like to be a quizle.
Yeah, you’re quizzing.
Quizinator.
A little bit.
Yeah.
Quizzinart.
Quizzinart as well.
Oh, quizinart.
What’s your puzzle today?
What do you got there? I’m ready to go.
Go ahead. I’m ready.
Well, this week we’re going to play with welded palindromes, which are two-word phrases, which are spelled the same forwards and backwards.
I like to call a phrase like this a word row for obvious reasons.
So here’s an example of how this works.
I’ll give you a clue to the phrase.
You tell me the phrase.
Like what palindromic two-word phrase can be clued by beige bug?
Tan-nat.
Tan-nat is exactly right.
Yes.
T-A-N-G-N-A-T.
That’s it.
You got it.
Okay, number one.
A place where Andean pack animals shop.
Llama mall?
A llama mall, of course.
That’s funny.
Very good.
Nice.
How about the length of time you can rest in the afternoon?
Nap.
Pan.
And nap.
And nap pan.
And.
The length of time you can rest in an afternoon.
Yep.
Siesta.
You need a little.
You were very close, Martha.
You needed a pivot letter in the middle there.
You needed to stick something between nap and pan.
-huh.
Length of time you can rest in the afternoon.
Oh, how about napspan?
Your napspan.
Oh, napspan.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
What’s your boy’s napspan, Grant?
About an hour and a half.
There you go.
See?
Satan on SNL.
Satan.
So that would be SNL, like Saturday Night Live, like Devil Live, something.
Devil.
Yeah.
Devil.
Just put them the other way around.
Live devil.
He would be a live devil.
That’s right.
Live from New York, it’s Satan.
Satan is almost, you could do a palindrome with Satan, too.
That’s where they saw Adam and Gomorrah here all the time anyway.
So I’m surprised if anyone.
Here’s one for all the drinkers in the group.
Really bad addition to a martini.
Evil olive?
Yes, exactly.
Satan live had an evil olive.
Right.
I was starting with vermouth, but that just didn’t.
That’s where those TH were.
I’m just working on gin, and I’m like, oh, that doesn’t go anyplace happy.
Yeah, that’s not good.
That’s going to be an evil olive.
It’ll give you a gut tug if you have too many evil olives.
It will.
Here’s one for the 21st century.
Unwanted atlases in your inbox.
Spam maps.
Yes.
Spam maps.
Spam maps or map spam, either one.
Stop sending me that map spam.
I know where I’m going.
The reason why he was called the menace.
Dennis Sind.
Yeah, Dennis Sind.
That’s an old chestnut.
All right, how about one more, Greg?
One more.
Apparently I’m not cut out for palindrome.
That’s all I want to say.
A thin layer of fauna.
A thin layer of fauna?
So fauna is some kind of animal?
You actually said it.
You actually said one of the words.
Animals?
Yeah.
Animals?
A thin layer of fauna.
Lamina.
It would be.
An animal lamina.
Oh, my heavens.
Well, Greg, these were real brain busters.
She got them all right.
I got nothing here.
Losing is just as much fun as winning.
Thanks for coming today, Greg.
Go, dog.
Thanks, Greg.
Well, if you have a question about wordplay, language, grammar, slang, regional expressions, strange old sayings, or palindromes, call us. The number’s 1-877-929-9673.
That’s 1-877-WAYWORD or send an email to
