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March is Women's History Month!

Sublime Rhymes

(APPLAUSE)

OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:

You're listening to ASK ME ANOTHER, connecting people to puzzles since 2012. I'm your host, Ophira Eisenberg, and joining me right now is puzzle extraordinaire, Greg Pliska.

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EISENBERG: And let's welcome our contestants. We have Marty Ambos and James Bronzan.

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EISENBERG: Hi guys, welcome to ASK ME ANOTHER.

MARTY AMBOS: Hi.

EISENBERG: Hi.

JAMES BRONZAN: Thank you.

EISENBERG: So James, you work making, or you used to work making data visualizations, is that right?

BRONZAN: I still do, for some consulting clients.

EISENBERG: OK. What are data visualizations exactly?

BRONZAN: So I take big piles of numbers and make pictures out of them that you can use to make judgments about the data you've got.

EISENBERG: Like Picassos?

BRONZAN: There's the artistic side and there's the nerdy side. I'm on the nerdy side.

EISENBERG: Ok. So... oh, like...

BRONZAN: So...

EISENBERG: ...so more like superheroes?

BRONZAN: Well, no. More like, you know, how your third graders did on math last year. That kind of thing.

EISENBERG: OK. Still totally confused. Very good.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Marty, you're a cyclist extraordinaire?

AMBOS: Extraordinaire, sure yeah.

EISENBERG: Do you have a bike problem?

AMBOS: I do. I actually saw this bike, which I shall affectionately call Cowbike. So Cowbike has - it weighs about 125 pounds. It has real bull horns as handlebars. It has - it actually has a nose ring, like a steer, but I chased it for three years and what do I do first as I get it?

EISENBERG: Yeah?

AMBOS: I take a video of me on my iPhone riding away, which I realized was not very safe. And I have had to replace car bumpers.

EISENBERG: From your bike?

AMBOS: It's 125 pounds and I'm not a small guy.

(LAUGHTER)

AMBOS: That's a lot of weight coming down the road.

EISENBERG: It's called a Cowbike officially?

AMBOS: Yeah.

EISENBERG: OK.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: I'm excited to have you guys as contestants because, between the data visualization has two things in his head and the guy with the Cowbike problem... what I'm saying is that we finally managed to get my people up onstage, so thank you.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: All right, Greg, what is this game we're subjecting them to? Something called Sublime Rhymes?

GREG PLISKA: Exactly. Sublime and rhyme, because they rhyme.

EISENBERG: Sublime and rhyme. Whoa.

PLISKA: Mm-hmm.

EISENBERG: Excellent.

PLISKA: Now, we've put together some fun rhyming phrases and our contestants, Dan and Mike and Cowbike... no. James, sorry, James and Marty will have to guess what they are from the clues. For example, if I said name a classic cartoon penguin dressed up as the disgraced lip synchers (ph) of "Girl You Know It's True," you would say...

EISENBERG: Milli Vanilli Chilly Willy.

PLISKA: Exactly right.

EISENBERG: That's right.

PLISKA: Milli Vanilli Chilly Willy.

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EISENBERG: Oh, thanks.

PLISKA: So James and Marty, if you know the sublime rhyme in time, ring your chime.

(LAUGHTER)

AMBOS: We're in trouble.

PLISKA: We'll see the winner of this game in our Ask Me One More final round at the end of the show. If everyone's ready, here we go. It's a Hostess chocolate cake shaped like a giant ape from Skull Island.

Marty.

AMBOS: King, Dong Kong?

(LAUGHTER)

PLISKA: Would you say that again for our family audience?

(LAUGHTER)

AMBOS: I'm sorry, I misspoke. The Ding Dong Kong.

EISENBERG: Ah, I see the problem.

JONATHAN COULTON: Oh, it's the classic King Dong Ding Dong discrepancy.

AMBOS: Yeah.

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: No, this is a regional thing. In other parts of the country, Ding Dongs are called King Dongs.

(LAUGHTER)

AMBOS: In the great state of Ohio they are.

PLISKA: I think he's right.

EISENBERG: Wow.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Wow, really?

EISENBERG: Yeah, 'cause I was going to say (French spoken) King Kong.

(LAUGHTER)

PLISKA: In France, that's what they're called.

AMBOS: Which even sounds (unintelligible).

PLISKA: So we'll give it to you, Marty. It's the...

EISENBERG: Yes.

PLISKA: King.

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PLISKA: This regional answer was King Kong Ding Dong. We'll take it. All right, here's your next one. It's a soiled foot stocking decorated with pictures of Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin and Tracy Morgan.

(LAUGHTER)

PLISKA: Yes, James?

BRONZAN: 8.30 rock sweat sock?

UNIDENTIFIED AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Oh!

PLISKA: Oooh!

BRONZAN: Oh!

PLISKA: So close. I don't know, can we accept that one?

AMBOS: Is it dirty sock 30 Rock?

AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Yeah!

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PLISKA: Marty's got that one. Give it to Marty.

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PLISKA: And actually, your prize today is going to be a whole box of those.

(LAUGHTER)

PLISKA: It's the 2011 Tony award-winning play about a boy and his equine on the battlefields of France, served with an appetizer, salad, entree and desert.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

BRONZAN: A four course...

PLISKA: James.

BRONZAN: ...war horse?

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PLISKA: Yay! Very good.

EISENBERG: James.

Four courses, exactly. But you do also get coffee and a "Seabiscuit."

BRONZAN: Mmm.

(LAUGHTER)

BRONZAN: Mmm.

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BRONZAN: That was a good one. That was a good one.

(LAUGHTER)

PLISKA: It's a Japanese martial art developed by Supreme Court Justice Samuel.

Oh, hands close to buzzers but...

EISENBERG: But not going on.

PLISKA: It's not, can... oh, yeah, James

BRONZAN: I'll go for it. Alito Akido?

PLISKA: Exactly right.

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PLISKA: All right. Next one. It's a jumping skateboarding maneuver performed in a Pixar cartoon about a loveable robot. We're going to - we... oh, James?

BRONZAN: It's a Wall-E ollie?

PLISKA: It's a Wall-E ollie.

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EISENBERG: Wall-E ollie.

PLISKA: Very good.

EISENBERG: James, you are our winner of this round. You'll be moving on to...

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EISENBERG: ...our Ask Me One More final round at the end of the show. That was so much fun. Marty. How about a huge hand for Marty?

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EISENBERG: Great competitor. And James, we will see you for our final round. Thank you for playing. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.