SALON is proud to introduce our virtual Verbivore, Richard Lederer --one of America's foremost and most popular experts on language.

Test your word savvy against Richard -- and win a prize. The first person to e-mail SALON with the correct answer (or, if no correct answer is received, the closest answer) will receive a $25 gift certificate from Borders Books and Music.

Richard Lederer here -- your user-friendly language guy in each issue of SALON. As International Punster of the Year, I don my Attila the Pun hat for this maiden heaven column.

These days we hear a lot about geographical illiteracy -- the inability of students and grownups to name the capital of their particular state or to locate Vietnam on a world map. Here's a chance for you to increase your knowledge of geographical labels as well as skill in fabricating outrageous puns.

In each sentence below, fill in the blanks with names of countries to complete each statement.

Examples: Iran is a country between (Iraq) and a hard place. I wonder what's gotten (India)? Alco (Holland) cigarettes are bad habits.

1. Little Miss Muffet liked neither curds .

2. My school bag is dark brown, but your back .

3. A strong antibody will win out over a time.

4. I'm a gal and .

5. I see your daughter is taking piano lessons.
do it?

6. I've never like you.

7. I love coffee, but I .

8. Give me a sugar to my coffee.

9. That rotten . me.

10. On Thankgiving I get for , if it doesn't have too much .

---

Please enter your e-mail address

We will let you know by e-mail if you are a winner. The correct answers will appear in next issue's VERBIVORE.

Richard Lederer's latest book is The Write Way. He is also the author of such best-selling books as Anguished English, Crazy English, The Miracle of Language and Literary Trivia. Richard comments on language for National Public Radio and other radio stations, is the Grammar Grappler for Writer's Digest and serves as associate editor of The Farmer's Almanac. In his spare time, Richard makes approximately 200 speaking appearances a year, addressing fundraisers, corporations, academic groups and library associations.