March 6, 2025 • 21 mins
Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: our very own Chief Puzzle Officer, Greg Pliska.
Join host A.J. Jacobs and his guests as they puzzle–and laugh–their way through new spins on old favorites, like anagrams and palindromes, as well as quirky originals such as “Ask AI” and audio rebuses.
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"The Puzzler with A.J. Jacobs" is distributed by iHeartPodcasts and is a co-production with Neuhaus Ideas.
Our executive producers are Neely Lohmann and Adam Neuhaus of Neuhaus Ideas, and Lindsay Hoffman of iHeart Podcasts.
The show is produced by Jody Avirgan and Brittani Brown of Roulette Productions.
Our Chief Puzzle Officer is Greg Pliska. Our associate producer is Andrea Schoenberg.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello puzzlers. Let's start with a question for listeners. What
do you think are the least common letters in the
English language? The most common letter, as you probably know,
the letter E. That's the letter that shows up the
most often in typical written language. I'm looking for the
top three least use least common letters in the English language.
(00:24):
The answer and more puzzling goodness after the break. Hello puzzlers,
Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast. Let tartar control in your
puzzle toothpaste. I'm your host, Aja Jacobson. I'm here, of course,
(00:46):
with Chief puzzle Officer Greg Leisko.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Welcome, Greg, thank you.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
I'm surprised we're not the fluoride in our toothpaste, but
I see where you you know a little lot of
favor fluoride these days.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
We don't want to incur the wrath above. And so
what do you think, Greg, do you have a guess
on the least used.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Least common, least comming JQ and oh, I don't know.
It's hard. I don't know what the third one is?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Two out of three? You got two out of three.
Not bad.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Now, there is some controversy, but I'm going with a
Cornell University study, since they seem legit and according to them, number.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
One least used is Z.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
The zed Z seven out of every ten thousand letters.
Then you are right, it's J ten times out of
every ten thousand letters, except for in my name, when
it's very common, very co and the Q, which is
eleven times out of ten thousand letters. But I'm merely
surprised you got JAY because I I mean, first of all,
if that's true, what is scrabble doing with the eight
(01:53):
points for J and ten points for Z? And right, right,
that is why I lose at scrabble. I feel well,
that is like what.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
X is worth eight points too? And X is harder
to use in scrabble but super common in words. Right, Actually,
it's X is actually overvalued in scrabble because you can
use it in so many two letter words, right that
it becomes very playable and very very usable. But in fact,
(02:23):
you know, J or C or V you can't use
jay you can use in one two letter word see,
and V you can't use in any Those are the
word letters that are the most problematic.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
That's right, Are you listening Hasbro or what Parker brothers?
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Who is it?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I think has Bro owns it now.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Well, we do love all the games, but we're just
saying maybe look at the Cornell study and see if
you want to adjust. But I bring it up Greg
because we've got two puzzles today, and the first one
that I'm going to give to you is a letter
based I mean, all our puzzles are letter based, but
this one is particularly letter based about the letters of
(03:01):
the alphabet.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Okay, I know those, so you know all twenty six,
I know all twenty six. I'm read all right.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Well, then this puzzle, I'm going to give you a word,
and then I'm going to add a letter to the
end of that word to create a new word. Okay,
and we're talking mostly homophones, it's not the act. So
for instance, if we have the word pat and we
add the letter A, we get pat ta as chicken liver.
Or another quick example, the word phil. You add the
(03:30):
sand A and we get phi let the boneless fish.
But of course it's not spell it's spelled rafie l
l E.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Right. So if we're adding B, we're adding the sound B,
not the sound but exactly okay, like A B, C, D.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
And we are going to go in order, not the
whole alphabet. We're gonna get midway and then do a
part two some other time.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Okay, so I'm going.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
To be cluing, and I think I'm just going to
give it to you because it's kind of self explanatory.
Add the first letter of the alphabet to the end
of a housekeeper and it becomes a distress signal.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Oh, I see, so we got made and may day.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Okay, all right, now I'm not gonna say B. I'm
gonna say the second letter. Add the second letter of
the alphabet to the end of a place you might
buy a drink, and it becomes a famous doll.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Oh, well, that would be a bar and B barbie exactly.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Add the next.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Guess which letter is next. I'm ready for that, ready.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
To mix them up, just to disagree with you. Add
the next letter to a long distance away and it
becomes a language.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Ooh, that's a good one. I like that. That's far
in Farsi, the uh language of Iran.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Iran.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yes, I believe that's right.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
A metal container becomes a suite. If you add the
next letter, a metal container.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Becomes can, can and candy. I forgot what letter was next,
it took.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Me a minute.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
I'm paying attention.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Now, that's the twist.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
That's why I'm making it, all right. The next letter,
a symptom of the flu becomes a hot beverage.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Oh not the hot beverage you would drink if you
had the flu. No, probably not, which is all by
itself a letter. Now this is cough and coffee.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
That's correct, cough and coffee. And by the way, I'm
going to give a bonus e just because it's a
weird segue or an appropriate segue into the next one.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Bonus e.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Cartoonist Gary from Farside becomes the crime.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Cartoon Larsen and larceny exactly. That's good, all right.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
So that leads into this one, which I think is
the hardest. All right, the word before fishing in a
store sign. If you add this letter, it becomes a
Yiddish word for thief.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
So that's gonna be gone and gone.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
If exactly exactly.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
You're really adding the if sound, not the f sound,
aren't you listen?
Speaker 1 (06:11):
I challenge you and listeners if you can come up
with a better one. I'm all ears because I had trouble,
all right. Next we got g a Greek god becomes
a statement of regret.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
A Greek god becomes a statement of regret. Oh, Apollo
and apology. Nice, that's a good one.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
All right, we're almost halfway. A cycle in your clothes
dryer becomes a green vegetable. A cycle in your clothes
dryer becomes a green vegetable.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
This is h that's correct. Oh well if you pronounce
it that way. Sure, spinach, that's the way. And some spinach.
I have some spinach.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
I want some su cream spring, some creamid spinach.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yes, a spinach salade with some baycone on it. Okay.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Prohibition era gangster's first name becomes a friend. It's a
nice turn.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Al capone becomes ally exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Okay, so we're up to We're up to Jay. Another
another challenging one to write a Japanese honorific that mister
Miyagi attaches to the end of Daniel's name that becomes
a doctor on CNN or the first name of doctor.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Right. So that's a tough one because it's good because
you didn't go for like blue and blue Jay, which
would feel not really. So that's Son, yes, as in
aj son and uh Sanjay is in doctor Sanjay Gupta.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
That's it. That's it.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
If you can come up with others, please at the
puzzler dot com. I would love to hear alternatives to these.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Poppin' poppin isn't really a word.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
I thought about.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
That was my other, that was my backup.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
That's a great old school word. I feel like Joe
Biden probably uses that word.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
Oh you're such a poppin j With all that malarkey.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Exactly, we could have brought it back. Well, we just did.
All right, three more and you're out. What a ghost
says becomes a bunch of flowers.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Oh that you know this is a good one because
it's spelled totally different. It is, yes, boo and bouquet.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Bouquet, that's right, Yes, Thank god for French which gave
us all of those. This yellow vegetable becomes an Ivy
League school.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Uh, squash and squash l No, corn and Cornell.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
That's at corn and Cornell. And finally, a reduced price
becomes a Massachusetts city price becomes a mass of spooky
Massachusetts city.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Yeah, a lot of There was a sale on witches
in Salem, sale and sale.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
All right, look at that. You made it. You made it.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Through.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Yeah, that's the kind of thing. I want to hear
some suggestions for the F and for the J those
are the trickiest ones.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
They were hard.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Yeah, I h h h h needed some help to Yeah.
All right, well that was that was part one. But
we'll save part two for some other episode. But I
am dieing to get my puzzle.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
This is a puzzle about March sixth Oh a notable day.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Interesting.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Several notable things happened in March six and in eighteen
sixty nine, Dmitri Mendeleev presented the first periodic table of
the elements go to Maitri puzzle staple, you know, all
of of the place. Although symbols are really fun things
to play with, but Dimitri started that in eighteen sixty nine.
Nineteen forty seven saw the birth of Rob Reiner.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
On this day, Oh, I love Rob Reiner.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Right in nineteen seventy two was the birth of shaquilll O'Neal.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Love Shaquil O'Neill. This is the greatest day in history.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Wow, it's even greater. It's the day in eighteen ninety
nine when Bear registered a worldwide trademark for the product aspirin.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Interesting, okay. They also, by the way, Beyer also trademarked heroin. Yes,
that was their name, that was Beyer, you know.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Yeah. These are one of many words that began life
as tradesmarks but which have since become genericized.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Oh I see where this is going.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
This is going.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
I like it.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
A lot of the common words that we have genericized
are still trademarked, meaning you can't use them to make money,
like the word frisbee. Apparently on SpongeBob they wanted to
play frisbee, but they didn't want to say frisbee because
they would have had to license the name. So they said,
let's play the game of small plastic disc that.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
You throw brilliant. I love that.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
I think they even made some comment like, if only
there were a shorter way to refer.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
To that, But that is great.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
That word is owned. So a lot of these words
made it into the lexicon. They're in the dictionary now,
but they are still trademarked, or they started as trademarked.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Gotcha, and frisbee I think was originally like the frisbee
pie plates, right.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
It was named for the pie company, the Frisbee spelled
slightly different pie company.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Oh, spelled different.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Oh yeah, Rsbie was the Pie company.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Love it.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
So the puzzle here is, I'm going to give you
clues to the origins of some trademarked words that have
become genericized. Then you just tell me what the word is.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Great, Am I going to get letters from kitty litter
or whatever? I actually once got a letter from the
kidder Litter company because I wrote in an article kitty
litter as a generic. So don't make me say kitty litter.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
I don't want to.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
You just said it three times, all right.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
I blame myself.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Ten cents for each time you said it. All right,
here's your first one. This was trademarked by the Otis Company,
and it's a portmanteau of their more familiar product, along
with the Latin word scala that means stares.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Oh okay, well I was. I was like, wait, so
elevator is a trademark name. No, but I guess escalator is.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Escalator is trademarked, Yes, Scott, fascinating portmanteaud inside elevator. Very good.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
That's so high brow for an escalator. I never thought that.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Yeah, it has that Latin word in the middle of it.
All right, This was created by Dow Chemical. It's a
thermoplastic copolymer of vinylidene chloride UH and was named for
the employee, John Riley's daughter and White.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Well, I've got some vague notions that I think are
probably incorrect. Was one of them named Tupper?
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Were they like, that's a good that's a good, guest.
This is a plastic film. It was actually discovered by
accident and a guy was cleaning up the lab and
found this film on the inside of some file or
something and realized it was actually a really nice film
that you could use to seal up, you know, food containers.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
And probably give people all sorts of diseases later in life.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
I don't know, twice once.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Yeah, that was a joke.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
I'm sure it's perfectly saved, you know, I don't know. Oh, Saran, Saran,
thank you for the wrap I wouldn't have gotten.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
For his wife, his daughter Sarah, and his wife Anne.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Oh that's Sarah, all right.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
This is a classic backyard toy or device that was
named for the Spanish word for diving board, but it
has nothing to do with swimming pools.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Pogo, Is that a poo?
Speaker 3 (14:11):
No, it's it's a it's a toy, is a kind
of as misleading. It's really a larger thing that you
put in your backyard.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Oh, trampoline, yes, interest to wait what was that name.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
For Spanish word for diving board?
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Oh okay, trampoline.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Without the e is the Spanish word for diving board.
And so you bounce on it like a diving board.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
All right, love it. That one is dangerous, by the way, so.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
You safely up to you.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
We're not gonna you know, tell you absolutely.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
My kids loved it, and they broke my nephew's arm
while using it, so they never got hurt, but they
did break my nephew.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
Yeah, somebody's arm always gets broken. Not that it's bad,
it's fun, just fun, all right. This ground cover is
named for the baseball team in whose stadium it was
first u.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Oh okay, phew.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
I was thinking, I only know one groundcover, so I'm
going with Astro Turf. Act with the Houston Astros. Yes,
that's good because it sounds so like Space eight Astro Turf.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Well, the whole team was named because Houston was a
mission control for the space program, right right. And what
I find interesting is that Astro Turf in addition to
being a genericized term for fake, grass, has also become
a verb meaning a fake grassroots campaign. Yes, fake campaign
(15:38):
with fake you know people supporting your product.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
You've astroturfed your product, which is super clever. I love that.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
That's how the language evolves. All right. This was introduced
in nineteen twenty four as a cold cream remover, and
its name combines a word meaning sanitary with the company's
existing feminine height product.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Oh oh, oh no, I'm stopped. All right, wait say it.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
So it's a It was originally a cold cream remover,
cold cream remover, and it combines a word meaning sanitary
with the companies with another product from the same company
that was a feminine hygiene product.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
All right, I'm going to stall by saying one of
my favorite objects I ever found was at a resort
in Latin America where they had it was supposed to
say sanitary bag. It was like a little plastic bag,
but it said sanity bag. And I was like, we
all need a sanity bag.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
But I'll stall further. While we're telling a story about
on a bike trip I took many years ago, I stopped.
I think it was somewhere in Canada, to use a
little toilet at the side of the road, you know,
in a little like roadside service station or something. And
it was called the Destroy It. And it was a
little outhouse sort of toilet, but after you closed the
(16:58):
lid instead of flush, it incinerated what was inside.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Yeah, you're like you mad to make sure you closed it,
because the whole thing flamed up and it was the destroy.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
It all right. Well that they obviously feel very strongly.
I give up.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
I give up. This is their.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Kleenex oh from clean and Cotex.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Oh wow, okay, that is great which itself.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Cotex is a portmanteau of cotton and texture.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Holy moly. So it's like a double portmanteau.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
It's a portmanteau. It's like a Turducan portmanteau. All right,
I will give you two more. Uh. This game's trademark
name comes from the sound of the ball being hit
back and forth.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Well, I believe it's ping pong.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Ping pong, are correct? Yes, ping pong? And apparently the
you know, the official name table tennis actually post dates
oh thedemarked name. It was originally called ping pong, and
then the official people decided to call it table tennis,
um one or two more. Let's say I'll give you
this one. These cleaning tools were originally called baby.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Gaze, as in ga y s y.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
S baby gaze. The word quality was important in their
renaming quality.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Okay, oh wait, it's a cleaning o Q tips Q tips, Yes,
that's right. Don't stick them in your ears?
Speaker 3 (18:32):
People, Well, which is for cleaning your ears? That's what
they were originally for.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
It's my favorite product where you're not supposed to use
it for the me what everyone.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
Uses it for?
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Yeah, all right. Eleven year old Frank Epperson invented this
frozen treat by accidentally leaving his soda outside overnight where
it froze to the stirring stick. At first, he named
it after himself, but later his kids would urge him
to change the name.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
I am gonna say, that's like I never thought about it,
but pop as a soda pop and sickle as an
icicle popsicle.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Popsicle is exactly right. Although originally he called it the
epsicle since his name was Frank Epperson EPs icicle, and
his kid said, no, Pop, you should call it the popsicle,
So the pop actually came from his name not from
the soda pop.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Oh interesting. Okay, well I'm gonna go with my fake
etymology anyway, so.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
It's look it was fake but close.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Do you have an extra credit for the folks?
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Do you have an extra credit? Invented by Swiss engineer
George Demestrel or George de Mestrel. This common fastener is
a portmanteau from French words for hooked velvet.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Okay, I feel I've got it. I feel I have
to say that because I blew a couple.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
So for my own even if you have no idea,
you can just say, oh I think.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Oh yeah, I have no idea. Yeah, just between us,
no idea. All right, Well, thank you Greg. That was
excellent and thank you all for listening. If you have
thirty seconds between now and tomorrow's episode, please feel free
to go on your favorite podcast platform and give us
(20:25):
a review because it really helps people find us. And
of course we'll meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling
puzzles that will puzzle you Puzzling.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
With, Hey, Puzzlers, it's Greg Bliska up from the Puzzle
ab one more time with the extra credit answer from
our previous show, Alexander Petri played a game with the
sounds of musical instruments and clues to word play based
upon those names of the instruments.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
This was your extra credit sound, and here is the question.
Change one letter in that instrument's name and you get
a fish that, of course was a tuba oom popeyeing
along there, and the name of the fish is a tuna.
(21:16):
You could also change a letter in Tuba to get
the name of a country Cuba. You can change a
different letter to get the.
Speaker 5 (21:21):
Name of a thing that toothpaste is in. And can
you change the second letter? Nothing comes to mind immediately,
a toba tiba.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Who knows. If you've got another fun wordplay game like that,
send it to us.
Speaker 5 (21:37):
Go to the puzzler dot com and you'll find out
how to get us all your fun comments, feedback, ideas,
and more. Thanks for playing.
Hello puzzlers. Let's start with a question for listeners. What
do you think are the least common letters in the
English language? The most common letter, as you probably know,
the letter E. That's the letter that shows up the
most often in typical written language. I'm looking for the
top three least use least common letters in the English language.
(00:24):
The answer and more puzzling goodness after the break. Hello puzzlers,
Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast. Let tartar control in your
puzzle toothpaste. I'm your host, Aja Jacobson. I'm here, of course,
(00:46):
with Chief puzzle Officer Greg Leisko.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Welcome, Greg, thank you.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
I'm surprised we're not the fluoride in our toothpaste, but
I see where you you know a little lot of
favor fluoride these days.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
We don't want to incur the wrath above. And so
what do you think, Greg, do you have a guess
on the least used.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Least common, least comming JQ and oh, I don't know.
It's hard. I don't know what the third one is?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Two out of three? You got two out of three.
Not bad.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Now, there is some controversy, but I'm going with a
Cornell University study, since they seem legit and according to them, number.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
One least used is Z.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
The zed Z seven out of every ten thousand letters.
Then you are right, it's J ten times out of
every ten thousand letters, except for in my name, when
it's very common, very co and the Q, which is
eleven times out of ten thousand letters. But I'm merely
surprised you got JAY because I I mean, first of all,
if that's true, what is scrabble doing with the eight
(01:53):
points for J and ten points for Z? And right, right,
that is why I lose at scrabble. I feel well,
that is like what.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
X is worth eight points too? And X is harder
to use in scrabble but super common in words. Right, Actually,
it's X is actually overvalued in scrabble because you can
use it in so many two letter words, right that
it becomes very playable and very very usable. But in fact,
(02:23):
you know, J or C or V you can't use
jay you can use in one two letter word see,
and V you can't use in any Those are the
word letters that are the most problematic.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
That's right, Are you listening Hasbro or what Parker brothers?
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Who is it?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I think has Bro owns it now.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Well, we do love all the games, but we're just
saying maybe look at the Cornell study and see if
you want to adjust. But I bring it up Greg
because we've got two puzzles today, and the first one
that I'm going to give to you is a letter
based I mean, all our puzzles are letter based, but
this one is particularly letter based about the letters of
(03:01):
the alphabet.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Okay, I know those, so you know all twenty six,
I know all twenty six. I'm read all right.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Well, then this puzzle, I'm going to give you a word,
and then I'm going to add a letter to the
end of that word to create a new word. Okay,
and we're talking mostly homophones, it's not the act. So
for instance, if we have the word pat and we
add the letter A, we get pat ta as chicken liver.
Or another quick example, the word phil. You add the
(03:30):
sand A and we get phi let the boneless fish.
But of course it's not spell it's spelled rafie l
l E.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Right. So if we're adding B, we're adding the sound B,
not the sound but exactly okay, like A B, C, D.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
And we are going to go in order, not the
whole alphabet. We're gonna get midway and then do a
part two some other time.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Okay, so I'm going.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
To be cluing, and I think I'm just going to
give it to you because it's kind of self explanatory.
Add the first letter of the alphabet to the end
of a housekeeper and it becomes a distress signal.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Oh, I see, so we got made and may day.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Okay, all right, now I'm not gonna say B. I'm
gonna say the second letter. Add the second letter of
the alphabet to the end of a place you might
buy a drink, and it becomes a famous doll.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Oh, well, that would be a bar and B barbie exactly.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Add the next.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Guess which letter is next. I'm ready for that, ready.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
To mix them up, just to disagree with you. Add
the next letter to a long distance away and it
becomes a language.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Ooh, that's a good one. I like that. That's far
in Farsi, the uh language of Iran.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Iran.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yes, I believe that's right.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
A metal container becomes a suite. If you add the
next letter, a metal container.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Becomes can, can and candy. I forgot what letter was next,
it took.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Me a minute.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
I'm paying attention.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Now, that's the twist.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
That's why I'm making it, all right. The next letter,
a symptom of the flu becomes a hot beverage.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Oh not the hot beverage you would drink if you
had the flu. No, probably not, which is all by
itself a letter. Now this is cough and coffee.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
That's correct, cough and coffee. And by the way, I'm
going to give a bonus e just because it's a
weird segue or an appropriate segue into the next one.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Bonus e.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Cartoonist Gary from Farside becomes the crime.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Cartoon Larsen and larceny exactly. That's good, all right.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
So that leads into this one, which I think is
the hardest. All right, the word before fishing in a
store sign. If you add this letter, it becomes a
Yiddish word for thief.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
So that's gonna be gone and gone.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
If exactly exactly.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
You're really adding the if sound, not the f sound,
aren't you listen?
Speaker 1 (06:11):
I challenge you and listeners if you can come up
with a better one. I'm all ears because I had trouble,
all right. Next we got g a Greek god becomes
a statement of regret.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
A Greek god becomes a statement of regret. Oh, Apollo
and apology. Nice, that's a good one.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
All right, we're almost halfway. A cycle in your clothes
dryer becomes a green vegetable. A cycle in your clothes
dryer becomes a green vegetable.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
This is h that's correct. Oh well if you pronounce
it that way. Sure, spinach, that's the way. And some spinach.
I have some spinach.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
I want some su cream spring, some creamid spinach.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yes, a spinach salade with some baycone on it. Okay.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Prohibition era gangster's first name becomes a friend. It's a
nice turn.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Al capone becomes ally exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Okay, so we're up to We're up to Jay. Another
another challenging one to write a Japanese honorific that mister
Miyagi attaches to the end of Daniel's name that becomes
a doctor on CNN or the first name of doctor.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Right. So that's a tough one because it's good because
you didn't go for like blue and blue Jay, which
would feel not really. So that's Son, yes, as in
aj son and uh Sanjay is in doctor Sanjay Gupta.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
That's it. That's it.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
If you can come up with others, please at the
puzzler dot com. I would love to hear alternatives to these.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Poppin' poppin isn't really a word.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
I thought about.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
That was my other, that was my backup.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
That's a great old school word. I feel like Joe
Biden probably uses that word.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
Oh you're such a poppin j With all that malarkey.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Exactly, we could have brought it back. Well, we just did.
All right, three more and you're out. What a ghost
says becomes a bunch of flowers.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Oh that you know this is a good one because
it's spelled totally different. It is, yes, boo and bouquet.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Bouquet, that's right, Yes, Thank god for French which gave
us all of those. This yellow vegetable becomes an Ivy
League school.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Uh, squash and squash l No, corn and Cornell.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
That's at corn and Cornell. And finally, a reduced price
becomes a Massachusetts city price becomes a mass of spooky
Massachusetts city.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Yeah, a lot of There was a sale on witches
in Salem, sale and sale.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
All right, look at that. You made it. You made it.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Through.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Yeah, that's the kind of thing. I want to hear
some suggestions for the F and for the J those
are the trickiest ones.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
They were hard.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Yeah, I h h h h needed some help to Yeah.
All right, well that was that was part one. But
we'll save part two for some other episode. But I
am dieing to get my puzzle.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
This is a puzzle about March sixth Oh a notable day.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Interesting.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Several notable things happened in March six and in eighteen
sixty nine, Dmitri Mendeleev presented the first periodic table of
the elements go to Maitri puzzle staple, you know, all
of of the place. Although symbols are really fun things
to play with, but Dimitri started that in eighteen sixty nine.
Nineteen forty seven saw the birth of Rob Reiner.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
On this day, Oh, I love Rob Reiner.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Right in nineteen seventy two was the birth of shaquilll O'Neal.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Love Shaquil O'Neill. This is the greatest day in history.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Wow, it's even greater. It's the day in eighteen ninety
nine when Bear registered a worldwide trademark for the product aspirin.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Interesting, okay. They also, by the way, Beyer also trademarked heroin. Yes,
that was their name, that was Beyer, you know.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Yeah. These are one of many words that began life
as tradesmarks but which have since become genericized.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Oh I see where this is going.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
This is going.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
I like it.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
A lot of the common words that we have genericized
are still trademarked, meaning you can't use them to make money,
like the word frisbee. Apparently on SpongeBob they wanted to
play frisbee, but they didn't want to say frisbee because
they would have had to license the name. So they said,
let's play the game of small plastic disc that.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
You throw brilliant. I love that.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
I think they even made some comment like, if only
there were a shorter way to refer.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
To that, But that is great.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
That word is owned. So a lot of these words
made it into the lexicon. They're in the dictionary now,
but they are still trademarked, or they started as trademarked.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Gotcha, and frisbee I think was originally like the frisbee
pie plates, right.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
It was named for the pie company, the Frisbee spelled
slightly different pie company.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Oh, spelled different.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Oh yeah, Rsbie was the Pie company.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Love it.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
So the puzzle here is, I'm going to give you
clues to the origins of some trademarked words that have
become genericized. Then you just tell me what the word is.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Great, Am I going to get letters from kitty litter
or whatever? I actually once got a letter from the
kidder Litter company because I wrote in an article kitty
litter as a generic. So don't make me say kitty litter.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
I don't want to.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
You just said it three times, all right.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
I blame myself.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Ten cents for each time you said it. All right,
here's your first one. This was trademarked by the Otis Company,
and it's a portmanteau of their more familiar product, along
with the Latin word scala that means stares.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Oh okay, well I was. I was like, wait, so
elevator is a trademark name. No, but I guess escalator is.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Escalator is trademarked, Yes, Scott, fascinating portmanteaud inside elevator. Very good.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
That's so high brow for an escalator. I never thought that.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Yeah, it has that Latin word in the middle of it.
All right, This was created by Dow Chemical. It's a
thermoplastic copolymer of vinylidene chloride UH and was named for
the employee, John Riley's daughter and White.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Well, I've got some vague notions that I think are
probably incorrect. Was one of them named Tupper?
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Were they like, that's a good that's a good, guest.
This is a plastic film. It was actually discovered by
accident and a guy was cleaning up the lab and
found this film on the inside of some file or
something and realized it was actually a really nice film
that you could use to seal up, you know, food containers.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
And probably give people all sorts of diseases later in life.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
I don't know, twice once.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Yeah, that was a joke.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
I'm sure it's perfectly saved, you know, I don't know. Oh, Saran, Saran,
thank you for the wrap I wouldn't have gotten.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
For his wife, his daughter Sarah, and his wife Anne.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Oh that's Sarah, all right.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
This is a classic backyard toy or device that was
named for the Spanish word for diving board, but it
has nothing to do with swimming pools.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Pogo, Is that a poo?
Speaker 3 (14:11):
No, it's it's a it's a toy, is a kind
of as misleading. It's really a larger thing that you
put in your backyard.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Oh, trampoline, yes, interest to wait what was that name.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
For Spanish word for diving board?
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Oh okay, trampoline.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Without the e is the Spanish word for diving board.
And so you bounce on it like a diving board.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
All right, love it. That one is dangerous, by the way, so.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
You safely up to you.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
We're not gonna you know, tell you absolutely.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
My kids loved it, and they broke my nephew's arm
while using it, so they never got hurt, but they
did break my nephew.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
Yeah, somebody's arm always gets broken. Not that it's bad,
it's fun, just fun, all right. This ground cover is
named for the baseball team in whose stadium it was
first u.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Oh okay, phew.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
I was thinking, I only know one groundcover, so I'm
going with Astro Turf. Act with the Houston Astros. Yes,
that's good because it sounds so like Space eight Astro Turf.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Well, the whole team was named because Houston was a
mission control for the space program, right right. And what
I find interesting is that Astro Turf in addition to
being a genericized term for fake, grass, has also become
a verb meaning a fake grassroots campaign. Yes, fake campaign
(15:38):
with fake you know people supporting your product.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
You've astroturfed your product, which is super clever. I love that.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
That's how the language evolves. All right. This was introduced
in nineteen twenty four as a cold cream remover, and
its name combines a word meaning sanitary with the company's
existing feminine height product.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Oh oh, oh no, I'm stopped. All right, wait say it.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
So it's a It was originally a cold cream remover,
cold cream remover, and it combines a word meaning sanitary
with the companies with another product from the same company
that was a feminine hygiene product.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
All right, I'm going to stall by saying one of
my favorite objects I ever found was at a resort
in Latin America where they had it was supposed to
say sanitary bag. It was like a little plastic bag,
but it said sanity bag. And I was like, we
all need a sanity bag.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
But I'll stall further. While we're telling a story about
on a bike trip I took many years ago, I stopped.
I think it was somewhere in Canada, to use a
little toilet at the side of the road, you know,
in a little like roadside service station or something. And
it was called the Destroy It. And it was a
little outhouse sort of toilet, but after you closed the
(16:58):
lid instead of flush, it incinerated what was inside.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Yeah, you're like you mad to make sure you closed it,
because the whole thing flamed up and it was the destroy.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
It all right. Well that they obviously feel very strongly.
I give up.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
I give up. This is their.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Kleenex oh from clean and Cotex.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Oh wow, okay, that is great which itself.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Cotex is a portmanteau of cotton and texture.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Holy moly. So it's like a double portmanteau.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
It's a portmanteau. It's like a Turducan portmanteau. All right,
I will give you two more. Uh. This game's trademark
name comes from the sound of the ball being hit
back and forth.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Well, I believe it's ping pong.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Ping pong, are correct? Yes, ping pong? And apparently the
you know, the official name table tennis actually post dates
oh thedemarked name. It was originally called ping pong, and
then the official people decided to call it table tennis,
um one or two more. Let's say I'll give you
this one. These cleaning tools were originally called baby.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Gaze, as in ga y s y.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
S baby gaze. The word quality was important in their
renaming quality.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Okay, oh wait, it's a cleaning o Q tips Q tips, Yes,
that's right. Don't stick them in your ears?
Speaker 3 (18:32):
People, Well, which is for cleaning your ears? That's what
they were originally for.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
It's my favorite product where you're not supposed to use
it for the me what everyone.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
Uses it for?
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Yeah, all right. Eleven year old Frank Epperson invented this
frozen treat by accidentally leaving his soda outside overnight where
it froze to the stirring stick. At first, he named
it after himself, but later his kids would urge him
to change the name.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
I am gonna say, that's like I never thought about it,
but pop as a soda pop and sickle as an
icicle popsicle.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Popsicle is exactly right. Although originally he called it the
epsicle since his name was Frank Epperson EPs icicle, and
his kid said, no, Pop, you should call it the popsicle,
So the pop actually came from his name not from
the soda pop.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Oh interesting. Okay, well I'm gonna go with my fake
etymology anyway, so.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
It's look it was fake but close.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Do you have an extra credit for the folks?
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Do you have an extra credit? Invented by Swiss engineer
George Demestrel or George de Mestrel. This common fastener is
a portmanteau from French words for hooked velvet.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Okay, I feel I've got it. I feel I have
to say that because I blew a couple.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
So for my own even if you have no idea,
you can just say, oh I think.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Oh yeah, I have no idea. Yeah, just between us,
no idea. All right, Well, thank you Greg. That was
excellent and thank you all for listening. If you have
thirty seconds between now and tomorrow's episode, please feel free
to go on your favorite podcast platform and give us
(20:25):
a review because it really helps people find us. And
of course we'll meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling
puzzles that will puzzle you Puzzling.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
With, Hey, Puzzlers, it's Greg Bliska up from the Puzzle
ab one more time with the extra credit answer from
our previous show, Alexander Petri played a game with the
sounds of musical instruments and clues to word play based
upon those names of the instruments.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
This was your extra credit sound, and here is the question.
Change one letter in that instrument's name and you get
a fish that, of course was a tuba oom popeyeing
along there, and the name of the fish is a tuna.
(21:16):
You could also change a letter in Tuba to get
the name of a country Cuba. You can change a
different letter to get the.
Speaker 5 (21:21):
Name of a thing that toothpaste is in. And can
you change the second letter? Nothing comes to mind immediately,
a toba tiba.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Who knows. If you've got another fun wordplay game like that,
send it to us.
Speaker 5 (21:37):
Go to the puzzler dot com and you'll find out
how to get us all your fun comments, feedback, ideas,
and more. Thanks for playing.
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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