How come when they do the intro to one of segments he always says, “…and uh the new puzzler.” Or maybe he says, “and Duh this week’s puzzler.” Or something to that effect. Anyway, I am wondering why he adds that syllable after the word “and”.
and uh, common in New England.
Oh. It seems like he is intentionally emphasizing that, “Uh,” as if there is some kind of meaning to it or perhaps an inside joke. And why does he always do it when introducing this segment, but no other intros?
Dunno, but I would not look to T+R for grammatical correctness. Back when the show was “live,” it always got me when they’d say, “welcome to the third half of the show.” Hello?
Just speculating, but maybe it’s to make sure Car Talk retains its folksy, informal entertainment essence and remains the most popular weekly radio show in the USA, with 4,000,000 listeners each week.
I’ve always interpreted it as “an-duh”, making “and” into a two syllable word, as a joke. Not “and, uh”, indicating hesitation.
Actually, if you read transcripts of the show, all the transcripts say, “and, uh, the new puzzler…”
So they are saying “and, uh” not “duh.”
I didn’t realize there are transcripts. Are they somewhere on the CarTalk website? Sometimes I can’t quite understand what one of the callers says. So being able to look at a transcript could come in handy sometimes. Anybody have a link?
Just Google “car talk and, uh the new puzzler” and you’ll get a whole bunch of links.
For example: http://www.cartalk.com/content/string-puzzler-number-b
Oops! I was thinking you mean there are transcripts for the whole show. Now I realize you mean the transcripts are for the puzzler segment. Thanks for clarifying.