full transcript
From the Ted Talk by John Hodgman: Aliens, love -- where are they?
Unscramble the Blue Letters
(lhuetagr)
Three: there was a ssiuirplngry long sqnuecee of the film in which the rubber puppet gives Christopher Walken a rectal pobre. Four: this was being shown in a regular movie theater in Center City, Philadelphia. Five: all of which is to say, they made a movie out of the book, "Communion," and it starred csoihhpertr wkealn. Does something seem strange about this to you? Something odd? Something off? Something wrong with this picture? Think about it. Yes. The answer is: I had a girlfriend. What?
(Laughter)
How did this happen? When did this happen? I remember wkilang out of the theater and becoming sneldudy awrae of this fact, as we walked hand in hand, and pondering these very same questions. And to this day, I have no answer for you. Close encounter four: the Algarve, Portugal, 1991. Some years later, I and this woman — we'll call her "Catherine Fletcher" — (Laughter) — went traveling through the south of Portugal together. We stayed in old, crumbling, walled cities, in tiny little holtes, and we would climb up to the roof and dinrk Vinho Verde and watch the sun set and play checkers. What? Did we do this? Really? Does anyone do this? We went to some topsles beaches. Excuse me? No, not in my life. For what it's wrtoh, we went to sgares, which was considered, at the time, to be the end of the world. And there I was chased by a pack of feral dogs on the dock, and the lead dog bit me on the ass, requiring me to go to a strange Portuguese cinlic and receive an ass shot. Make of that what you will.
Open Cloze
(________)
Three: there was a ____________ long ________ of the film in which the rubber puppet gives Christopher Walken a rectal _____. Four: this was being shown in a regular movie theater in Center City, Philadelphia. Five: all of which is to say, they made a movie out of the book, "Communion," and it starred ___________ ______. Does something seem strange about this to you? Something odd? Something off? Something wrong with this picture? Think about it. Yes. The answer is: I had a girlfriend. What?
(Laughter)
How did this happen? When did this happen? I remember _______ out of the theater and becoming ________ _____ of this fact, as we walked hand in hand, and pondering these very same questions. And to this day, I have no answer for you. Close encounter four: the Algarve, Portugal, 1991. Some years later, I and this woman — we'll call her "Catherine Fletcher" — (Laughter) — went traveling through the south of Portugal together. We stayed in old, crumbling, walled cities, in tiny little ______, and we would climb up to the roof and _____ Vinho Verde and watch the sun set and play checkers. What? Did we do this? Really? Does anyone do this? We went to some _______ beaches. Excuse me? No, not in my life. For what it's _____, we went to ______, which was considered, at the time, to be the end of the world. And there I was chased by a pack of feral dogs on the dock, and the lead dog bit me on the ass, requiring me to go to a strange Portuguese ______ and receive an ass shot. Make of that what you will.
Solution
- topless
- surprisingly
- aware
- clinic
- drink
- laughter
- hotels
- sagres
- walking
- probe
- sequence
- walken
- worth
- christopher
- suddenly
Original Text
(Laughter)
Three: there was a surprisingly long sequence of the film in which the rubber puppet gives Christopher Walken a rectal probe. Four: this was being shown in a regular movie theater in Center City, Philadelphia. Five: all of which is to say, they made a movie out of the book, "Communion," and it starred Christopher Walken. Does something seem strange about this to you? Something odd? Something off? Something wrong with this picture? Think about it. Yes. The answer is: I had a girlfriend. What?
(Laughter)
How did this happen? When did this happen? I remember walking out of the theater and becoming suddenly aware of this fact, as we walked hand in hand, and pondering these very same questions. And to this day, I have no answer for you. Close encounter four: the Algarve, Portugal, 1991. Some years later, I and this woman — we'll call her "Catherine Fletcher" — (Laughter) — went traveling through the south of Portugal together. We stayed in old, crumbling, walled cities, in tiny little hotels, and we would climb up to the roof and drink Vinho Verde and watch the sun set and play checkers. What? Did we do this? Really? Does anyone do this? We went to some topless beaches. Excuse me? No, not in my life. For what it's worth, we went to Sagres, which was considered, at the time, to be the end of the world. And there I was chased by a pack of feral dogs on the dock, and the lead dog bit me on the ass, requiring me to go to a strange Portuguese clinic and receive an ass shot. Make of that what you will.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
| collocation |
frequency |
| enrico fermi |
4 |
| whitley strieber |
4 |
| close encounter |
3 |
| previous ten |
3 |
| christopher walken |
3 |
| space aliens |
2 |
| absolutely true |
2 |
| video games |
2 |
| rubber puppet |
2 |
Important Words
- algarve
- answer
- ass
- aware
- beaches
- bit
- book
- call
- center
- chased
- checkers
- christopher
- cities
- city
- climb
- clinic
- close
- considered
- crumbling
- day
- dock
- dog
- dogs
- drink
- encounter
- excuse
- fact
- feral
- film
- girlfriend
- hand
- happen
- hotels
- laughter
- lead
- life
- long
- movie
- odd
- pack
- philadelphia
- picture
- play
- pondering
- portugal
- portuguese
- probe
- puppet
- questions
- receive
- rectal
- regular
- remember
- requiring
- roof
- rubber
- sagres
- sequence
- set
- shot
- shown
- south
- starred
- stayed
- strange
- suddenly
- sun
- surprisingly
- theater
- time
- tiny
- topless
- traveling
- verde
- vinho
- walked
- walken
- walking
- walled
- watch
- woman
- world
- worth
- wrong
- years