Sharp Nine Setlist

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Barbara listens to Says You! on KUOW from Tacoma, WA and is looking to add a few new songs to her playlist. Sharp Nine bandleader Enrique Rios-Ellis couldn’t remember what songs were played in which show, so he sent us the whole setlist! 

Is there a name to the piece of music sharp nine was playing Apr 7?

Tema “Says You” by Enrique Rios-Ellis (Huapango from Mexico)

So Danço Samba by Antonio Carlos Jobim (Samba from Brazil)

La Bikina by Rubén Fuentes (Huapango from Mexico)

Frenesí by Alberto Dominguez Borrás (Cha cha chá from Cuba)

Como Fué by Ernesto Duarte Brito (Cha cha chá from Cuba)

Wave by Antonio Carlos Jobim (Bossa Nova from Brazil)

Listen to Sharp Nine play our theme

Plus or Minus an Ear

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Leon, a listener from KUNR in Truckee, CA, strumbled upon a word he had to share:

The Google Earth measurement tool contained a most unusual term for a unit of measurement, “smoots.” This led me immediately to Wikipedia for a definition. This word is the first I have encountered with the second thought (after what does it mean) this is a great word for Says You!

Richard used “smoot” in two rounds on measurement, once in season eight and again in season twelve. In 1958, Oliver R. Smoot, the shortest of that year’s Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity pledges, was used to measure the Harvard Bridge between Boston and Cambridge. Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity members remember the prank by marking the bridge in smoots every year. It’s become such a staple that when the bridge was renovated in 2014 concrete slabs were scored in smoots and the light posts were spread 30 smoots apart.

Rules To Live By – Or Not

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Krish, a KQED listener from San Francisco, wrote to us about one of his favorite rounds:

One of my favorite segments on the program included opposite aphorisms like “the pen is mightier than the sword” and “actions speak louder than words” among others.

Would you know how I could find this show segment? I’d love to hear it on the radio or the podcast in the near future!

This particular pair of opposing aphorisms was used in a round we called “Mixed Messages” of SY-1004. In this week’s episode of Says You! you can hear a new round of contradictory proverbs in a round we call “Pro-verbs and Anti-verbs.”

If you missed us on the radio subscribe to the Says You! podcast on iTunes, Google Music, or Spotify. This week’s episode will be delivered Friday afternoon!

 

Alternative Answers

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Lisa, armchair panelist from Champaign, IL and listener on WILL-AM, is shouting answers into the radio:

I enjoyed this morning’s ‘new words’ game created by combining/altering two existing words to make a new word.

I appreciate the answer ‘hamazon.’ My guess, though, was Amazoink. It rightly puts the referenced words in the order to in which they were presented — as one of your panelists suggested they should have been — although being strictly proper would, perhaps, make things not quite as enjoyable!

Love the show!! Please know that it doesn’t really matter to me what the answers are. ツ

We’d go whole hog for Amazoink! Did any of our Dictitious definitions inspire a new word? Let us know in the comments!

 

 

There’s a Word For It

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Lara, who listens on KAZU from Escondido, CA, discovered that there really is a word for everything. Now, when she asks someone to pass the “aberuncator,” they respond, “the what?” and after a moment of doubt, how did I marry such a loser? she sighs, “the long-handled picker.” 

Thank you Says You for telling me what my dad and I for years was calling a long-handled picker was really called aberuncators. Did not know we had one until we heard your definition. Can you repeat that round in your look back. Thanks, Lara

We’re sorry for the wasted years calling aberuncators “long-handled pickers.” You’re welcome, for a word nearly as long as its description. Keep an ear out for “aberuncator” in an upcoming spotlight round.

There’s long, then there’s llllooooonnnnngggg

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Jeff, a listener on Asheville’s WCQS, weighed in on a conversation about the longest words featured in Says You! bluffing rounds:

Regarding the question about the longest words ever used for a bluffing round, I’m sure there are many that are longer than those in your list, but my favorites are:

antidisestablishmentarianism
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

If you have a long, short, obscure, funny, or interesting word send them our way!

The Day The Earth Stood Woo-Woo

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This week Tony’s team was tasked with defining “woo-woo.” Dana, who listens on KQED from San Francisco, provided a possible etymology:

The term is a stylized imitation of the old science fiction movie sound track use of the Theremin, one of the oldest electronic music instruments. It is played by moving a hand in front of a little antenna on the instrument which controls pitch. Theremins make a simple nearly sinusoidal tone, and the free space movement of hands as the controller makes all sounds into strong vibrato and glissandos. They were popular in 1950’s cheesy sci-fi movies. People imitate their sounds by going “Wooo-Woooo.” Google Theremin to learn about León Theremin, the Russian scientist who invented this instrument in the early 1930’s.

Listen to a theremin in action:

Syzygy doesn’t count! Says You!

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Rucina, a podcast listener from Bali asks

Where does the title of your show come from?

The title can be credited to Richard Sher’s swagger.  He really wanted it to be sassy, in the same style he played Scrabble. Richard loved nothing more than reaching for the dictionary to fend off challenges from his opponents. He used to say he played Scrabble “just to hear them fall.” The name he submitted for the show back in 1996 was “Sez You!” but the powers that be at NPR and WGBH at the time thought misspelling wasn’t appropriate for public radio. We’ve been Says You! ever since!

Definition of “blank”

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Rowan from Asheville, North Carolina is listening closely on WCQS:

Every so often in rounds two and four, the host will explain the rounds by stating that each person will receive a card with a definition on it. Only one of them has the real definition. The other two will receive blank cards. Those poor souls will have a few seconds to make up a definition good enough to fool the other team. A card cannot be blank, but also have a definition on it. I think you must have been making a mistake with your words.

As a matter of fact, Richard mentions this at the start of round 2 in SY-714: “You know, somebody called me from Seattle, Washington, to tell me that if everyone receives a card defining a word, then how can two of them be blank? Now, I’ve been saying this for nine years, and somebody finally writes in?!”

Then he laughed and went right on doing it his way.

How do you like THEM apples?

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Richard from Northampton listens to Says You! on NEPR. He writes:

In the “odd one out” category at the second Amherst College quiz, the answer given was “apple cider” as the only item that could have been served at the first Thanksgiving. “Mashed potatoes” was ruled out because potatoes had not yet been introduced to North America. The same was true, of course, of apples: they were not native to North America, the quirky phrase “as American as apple pie” notwithstanding. Perhaps cider could have been brought on the Mayflower, but then, too, the Pilgrims could have brought potatoes, since they appear in an English herbal published in 1597. I was disappointed that no one in the Amherst audience pointed out the contradiction.