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Recently I completed a puzzle by Nelson Hardy, which originally ran, I believe, on August 23, 1998. The puzzle’s title was Warning! Congestion.

The theme of the puzzle was replacing the letter M with the letter B instead. So some of the cute answers were: “Put a ban on the boon” instead of “man on the moon” and “Go ahead bake by day” instead of “make my day.”

My dilemma is this: I simply cannot figure out how the title of the puzzle fits in with the M:B theme. My friends and I tried everything, but we can’t justify the title “Warning! Congestion."

What am I missing? thanks!

When one has a complete nasal blockage, the nasal consonants can't be pronounced properly, so n comes out more like d, ng more like g - and M as B...

Thanks, Spoffy. That was one of our initial guesses, but a few friends had never heard of M sounding like B when congested, so I didn't think that was it. Now I know, and I appreciate your answer!