September 26, 2025 • 21 mins
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Hello, Puzzlers! Today, A.J. and Greg give you a little peek behind the curtain and take you on a tour of the Puzzle Lab.
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 (00:00):
Hello puzzlers. A quick announcement, The Puzzler is doing a
live show in New York City and we'd love for
you to come. It's October seventh at six thirty pm
and an awesome venue called Caveat. There will be stories, puzzles, prizes.
It's part of the Cheerful Earful Podcast Festival. We love
(00:23):
a good rhyming title here at the Puzzler. Please check
the show notes for a link to tickets. Now on
with the show, Hello puzzlers, Let's start with a quick puzzle.
We are now officially in fall, or if you are
a wee bit pretentious, autumn. Now autumn has an unusual
letter sequence. You m N, so Andrea schomberg'sen. Your puzzler
(00:49):
asks what other words have this same letter combination? You
mn either at the end of the word or in
the middle. Just to give you a couple of hents.
One is a word for something you might find at
a Greek or Roman temple. Another is something Magellan did
I think he was the first? The answers and more
(01:10):
puzzling goodness after the break, Hello puzzlers, Welcome back to
The Puzzler podcast. The Regrown Tale of Your puzzle Gecko,
I am your host, AJ Jacobs. I'm here, of course,
the chief puzzle officer, Greg Kliska Greg. Before the break,
(01:32):
we pointed out autumn has an unusual letter sequence. You
m N, and Andrea asks what other words have the
same letter combination. One is a Greek something you behind
a Greek a Roman temple.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
That one is column column right, And of course there's
all the forms of these words columnar and co, columnist
and autumnal But what about alumni alumni form that? Uh it?
The Magellan one is circumnavigate nice. Nice. I don't suppose
(02:09):
we're gonna include numb nuts allow it.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
I'll allow it.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
You know, I think it's probably n u m B nuts.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Oh at your point, unless you're a numb nut and
don't know how to spell numb.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Nuts or numbness also would not work with it.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Yeah, I know, we've got calumny, colorny, calumny. Yeah, it's
like that alumnus. Now I do I love it because
autumn is such a weird word with that silent N.
But then you turn it into an adjective and the
N is suddenly there out of hiding. Hey, I was
here all along autumnal and you said the same thing
(02:48):
about oh column columnar alumnar. Uh so, yes, so very
weird and interesting and as I say, semi pretentious word autumn.
And it's not just autumn though, it's not just fall.
We are actually fall is the time of several very
important holidays we had. Yesterday we talked about World Pharmacist
(03:12):
to Day, and we're actually going to come back to
that in a bit, but before that, we want to
talk about another September holiday, World ampersand Day, World ampersand Day. Now,
I will say we have already celebrated World ampersand Day
here at the Puzzler. It was earlier in the month
(03:33):
September eighth. To be specific. You may have taken down
your Ampersan Day decoration, all the.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Lights that say and and and and all of that.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Exactly, we celebrate the whole month. It's September is all amber.
And as Greg mentioned, ampersand is that little symbol that
means and and we think that it's from the two
letters combined eat combined, not the Steven Spielberg movie. The
(04:04):
Latin word for and and the word and for sand.
According to my research, is the etymology is a per say,
and seems a little sketchy to me, but that's what
the that's what they say and per say, and you
sort of pronounce it quickly, and it's like ampersan. Now,
(04:27):
in honor of Ampersan day, I have a few phrases
and companies and products that contain an ampersand in the middle. Okay,
and I'm going to of course clue them using an
ampersand in the phrase the clue phrase.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
So when I say, and you have to think in
your brain ampersan not the word and.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Got it, I will always well, it's this month, during
Ampersan month. I always think that way.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Exactly, okay, baking soda and and toothpaste.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Oh, and this is a company that makes those products.
That's correct, That would be arm and Hammer exactly.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Arm and Hammer. Now we're actually gonna go alphabetical, which isn't.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Named for the industrialists arm and Hammer, is it. No,
it's weird, so weird that very freaks me out every
time I see his name.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
All Right, we're going alphabetical. We're not going to get
to Z. We're going to get to like G okay F.
But we've got we're going to be we got what
does this make you think of Vermont and cows? Vermont
and cows.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Vermont and cows. We were just there actually this summer,
and though we didn't eat any Ben and Jerry's ice cream.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Oh there it is Ben Ampers and Jerry's. He didn't eat,
but you've eaten it before.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, absolutely does. Barnes and Noble also work.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Indeed, and it's not Barnes and Nobles as that I
used to say, but it is just one. You only
got one Noble, but multiple Barns.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Unless you're using it in the possessive like Barnes and
Nobles logo has an ampersand in it.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Well done. All right, moving on to letter see how
swears and furniture chain house swears and furniture chain.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
That would be the houseware is the crate and the
furniture is the barrel.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Yeah, you sit on a barrel or you sit on
a crate. Now, I will say when I was researching
Creighton Barrel. Fun fact, there was a movie star who
worked at the original Crate and barrel way back in
the early sixties. He was outside of Chicago. Any thoughts
on who that might be?
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Harvey kitel.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
You got the right you got the right first letter
of the first name. Here, I'll give you a hint.
This is a man who he probably knew how to
make crates and barrels because he was a self taught carpenter.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
F Harrison Ford Harrison.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Create and Varrel fired for being late coming back to lunch.
So if he had kept going, he might be like
a marketing exec at Create and Barrel. We would never
have hanste.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
In all your research into this, did you come across
why some companies use the ampersent or not? Or? I mean,
I also imagine some of these companies started as Create
and Barrel the word, and then they had a logo
with the ampersand and changed the name of the company.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
I don't think anyone's written like a PhD thesis on this,
but I would say the ampersand was used. It was
It's a very like seventeenth eighteenth century symbol. And you
would always say and sons. There would be a lot
of an sons Pliska and sons businesses. So I feel
(07:49):
it gives it a little like retro cachet, a little
like you know, oh, we're a classy, old timey store
and we use an am persent. That's my theory.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Okay, that's my theory.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Or you could save. It's like, you know, if you're
saving on ink cost, you're saving all sorts of things. Yep,
it's very economical. All right, I got two more We've got.
This is a place for food and video games? Food
and video games?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Are we going alphabetical? Orre we up to D? We
are up to D food and video games.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Oh I like that. You don't know this.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Dolce and gabbanas the company I thought of for D,
which is clearly wrong.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
You could play vilta.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Oh well, I know, I know exactly what this is.
I go, I actually go there with my son. There
you go for the video games. Dave and Busters.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Dave and Busters. That is it.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Now.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
I will take this moment to do a sidebar on
Dave and Busters and the ampersand I listened to a
very interesting episode of the podcast Search Engine where they
had a whole episode of voted to this ampersand because
it turns out if you try to send a voice
memo on the iPhone using the phrase Dave and Busters,
(09:10):
it won't go through. You'll just get three dots and
it just disappears into the ether. It is so crazy.
It turns out that the ampersand in some computing languages
has a different meaning. So somehow the iPhone got confused
and won't send Dave and Busters. It also won't send
(09:31):
M and m's. It won't send any ampersans at all.
Wild and they said they contacted Apple, and Apple said, okay,
we'll fix it. I we just did it with Andrea
this morning. Still, still you cannot send a Dave and Buster.
You have to say, if here's a hack, if you
have to send a voice memo to a friend about
(09:52):
Dave and Busters, you gotta pause. You gotta say Dave
and Busters. Can't say David Buss.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Because Adam automatically ampersands it and then it goes disappears.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
That is correct.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
I've been reading about this online as we've been talking.
According to Wikipedia, in film credits, an ampersand indicates a
closer collaboration than an and Wow in screenplay credits.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
That's a great ampersand tribune right now.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
So if you say this script was written by A. J.
Jacobs and Greg Pliska, and we worked together on the script,
we're an ampersand couple. But then if it was later taken.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
By Andrea Schoenbergen and rewritten, she would be an and
the word that is hilarious. The team gets an ampersand
then the extra you know, the next step person gets
the word end.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Now what does it mean If it's Greg Pliska AJ Jacobs.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
That means we're a hip hop duo.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (11:02):
What if there's one one kid kidden Play I think
was the one that and kidden Play was a.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Kitten play, oh guns and roses Roses.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Kidden Play also is a and then we're going to
get into how do you apostrophize the abbreviation? And because
kidden play has just one apostrophe, see I should have
one on either side because you do it anyway, we
don't have to go into that kidden Play important no offense.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Well, speaking of bands, let's end with uh. This band
sang songs including Let's Groove and Boogie Wonderland. Let's Groove
and Boogie Wonderland.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Okay, and we're in the letter email that's right, earth
Wind and.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Fire, earth Wind and very well done. Greg. You know
your ampersands and and I love the new ampersand factor's
very exciting. All right, But as we mentioned, it's not
just ampersand month, it is also one day after world, Yes,
(12:13):
exactly like Boxing Day with Christmas.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Yes, it is the day you you know, you put
away all the vials of pills and stuff you know,
you know and speak and speaking of symbols that are
joining of words, right, yeah, in the ampersand and RX
come from similar things. So when I thought I'd do
an RX puzzle, the first thing I thought of was,
how about words and phrases that have r X in them?
(12:40):
I love it, right, And I specifically wanted them to
be right next to each other, not just anywhere in
the word like exercise or something like that.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
They need to be adjacent or followed by X. Of course,
it's a crazy idea. There aren't that many English there.
There is maybe one Dictionary word word that has that property.
It's kind of an old one. But there are lots
of words and phrases, not lots, but a few words
and phrases that we would use that have r X
(13:11):
in them, but not enough for a whole puzzle. But
I thought, on the puzzle lab, we can revisit this
and play around.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
That's right, this is Friday. We can do whatever we wants. Chaos.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
So this is a legitimate word that could be a
capitalized word that would be in most dictionaries. Actually, so
this is not the unusual one. This is a socialist
and communist philosophy often derided by American political figures.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Yes, that one, I do know.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
You know that one? That would be Marx marks exactly exactly,
that is one of them. How about the telepathic Marvel
character who runs a school for mutants? Oh, I will say,
there's a space in this. Uh right, I didn't go straight.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
All right, I think I know my kids are going
to kill me if I get it, because I'm choosing
between doctor X professor X. I think it's professor X.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Correct professor thank god.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Thank god, I won't get hate mail from Marvel.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Fancy Okay, And you know there are lots of blank
X terms, mister X.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Doctor X is a thing.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Mister X.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
I don't remember. I didn't research all it. But there
there are several ways you can just do an R
word with X. So I just picked that one, got it?
Speaker 1 (14:23):
How about this a solid one?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
How about this? This is a short form of another
name for Santa Claus.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Oh, okay, I'm going through my my. Well, now I'm
confused because there's x mes.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Yep, that would be part of it.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Oh h oh right, right, father x mes. Father there,
I exactly got it. And I do know some some
when I was researching my book on the Bible, some
uh Christians, I think, mostly very religious Christians, do not
like the shortening of Christmas to x Mes. So if
(15:00):
they are listening, send for your emails to the crag,
not me, then I had nothing to do with that.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Well, you know, they probably hate that we've commercialized Xmas
to the point that we have.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
That's true, we have.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
How about this a group of comedic siblings whose real
names were Julius, Leonard, and Arthur, as well as Milton
and Herbert.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Well, that I'm thinking is the namesake the similar name
to Karl, the Marx.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Brothers, exactly, the Marx brothers, so right, not a dictionary term,
but they are.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
They do have an RX right there. How about the
Persian ruler who invaded Greece, as depicted in the movie
three hundred.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Oh okay, I do happen to know this. One of
the few things I remember from my encyclopedia reading is Xerxes.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Xerxes I just liked it.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
It was late in the alphabet, and so you kind
of remember the later stuff.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Actually, Xerxes will be probably be in most dictionary. He
s in a proper nouned context.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
I love it, I was. I love that every one
of these you relate back to one of the books
you've done.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
I'm here to plug my books. That's really the only reason.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
When I wrote that book about Persia, I remember researching Xerxes.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
All right, this one, this one I thought was good
to use. But there are a lot of possible answers.
It's an iconic sports car from a company named for
a wildcat.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Oh okay, well I'm only thinking of one wildcat. The
Cougar X is a cougar.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Nope, this is that's I think a cougar is a
car made by Mercury, the Mercury Cougar. But this is
the company that Jaguar X. Jaguar as is the XJ
and the X K E and the X type. There
are a lot of I thought I got to find
the most iconic one, but it's too you know, too
(16:58):
many possibilities.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Well I didn't know any of them. So Jaguar X
is fine.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
By B all right, and your last one. This is
the tenth iteration of the classic Simpson's Halloween episode.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Oh yeah, what do they call that?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Tree house? Wait something, treehouse horror? Tree house X, treehouse
horror X.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
So close you need a little preposition in between tree
house of horror A tree house of horror X. Yes, exactly,
exactly fantastic. Can I give you one multiple choice?
Speaker 1 (17:36):
I would be honored because there.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Is a word pro catarsis p r O C A
t A r x I s oh c catarsis.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
All right and not ringing a bell?
Speaker 2 (17:51):
And you get three choices? What does it mean? Is
it A a violent cough right? B the move the moment
the main character of a drama undergoes irreversible change. Okay,
the pro catarxist or a medical term for an existing
condition that caused or predisposed a present condition.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
All right, I'm going to try to get inside the
head of Greg Plaska. Dangerous thing to do, but I
feel qatar the word qatar is like has to do
with coughing. Yes, and it's not that weird r r h. Yeah,
it's got the weird. So I think he threw that
in as a red herring. And I also think catarkis
(18:35):
makes me think of catharsis, which is plays, so I'm
also thinking that's a red herring. So I'm going with number.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Three, the medical term for an existing condition, caused or
that caused or predisposed a present condition. You are correct.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Wow, I feel like forge.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
That's good.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
I making progress into that brain.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Don't be fooled by those red herrings. All right, I'm
gonna have to change up the red herrings now.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
I see.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
You excellent x words, well excellent, So happy post pharmacists today,
Happy happy month. However you celebrate. If you celebrate, I
don't know. Don't want to force it on you, but
have a great weekend if you have time, check out
the puzzlers Instagram feed. We got new puzzles, visual puzzles,
(19:26):
all sorts of fun stuff. It's at Hello Puzzlers, And
of course we'll see you on Monday for more puzzling puzzles.
Then we'll puzzle you puzzling with.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Hey Puzzlers. It's Greg Pliska up from the Puzzle Lab
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode. It
was World Pharmacist Day and I gave aj a puzzle
themed around the letters R and X, where the first
word in the blank in this clue has an R
in it, and if you change that to an X,
you get the the second word in this clue. Here's
(20:02):
your extra credit clue. Here are a couple things that
are so twentieth century. One using tokens to pay subway
blank or two sending messages to someone using blank that
of course is fares subway fares fais and sending messages
using faxes fax ex well, send us a fact, send
(20:26):
us some emails, call us, use a carrier, pigeon whatever
we'd love to hear from you. And thanks for playing
here at the Puzzler. Thanks for playing along with the
team Here at the Puzzler with Aj Jacobs. I'm Greg Pliska,
your chief puzzle Officer. Our executive producers are Neelie Lohman
and Adam Neuhouse of New House Ideas and Jonathan Strickland
(20:50):
of iHeart Podcasts. The show is produced by Jody Averrigan
and Britney Brown of Roulette Productions, with production support from
Claire Bitegar Curtis. Our senior puzzler is Andrea Schoenberg. The
Puzzler with Ajjacobs is a co production with New House
Ideas and is distributed by a Scottish drape No and
(21:12):
might have a terrible Scottish accent. It's distributed by iHeart Podcasts.
If you want to know more about puzzling puzzles, please
check out the book The Puzzler by AJ Jacobs, a
history of puzzles that The New York Times called fun
and funny. It features an original puzzle hunt by Yours
Truly and is available wherever you get your books and puzzlers.
(21:35):
For all your puzzling needs, go visit the puzzler dot com.
See you there,
Hello puzzlers. A quick announcement, The Puzzler is doing a
live show in New York City and we'd love for
you to come. It's October seventh at six thirty pm
and an awesome venue called Caveat. There will be stories, puzzles, prizes.
It's part of the Cheerful Earful Podcast Festival. We love
(00:23):
a good rhyming title here at the Puzzler. Please check
the show notes for a link to tickets. Now on
with the show, Hello puzzlers, Let's start with a quick puzzle.
We are now officially in fall, or if you are
a wee bit pretentious, autumn. Now autumn has an unusual
letter sequence. You m N, so Andrea schomberg'sen. Your puzzler
(00:49):
asks what other words have this same letter combination? You
mn either at the end of the word or in
the middle. Just to give you a couple of hents.
One is a word for something you might find at
a Greek or Roman temple. Another is something Magellan did
I think he was the first? The answers and more
(01:10):
puzzling goodness after the break, Hello puzzlers, Welcome back to
The Puzzler podcast. The Regrown Tale of Your puzzle Gecko,
I am your host, AJ Jacobs. I'm here, of course,
the chief puzzle officer, Greg Kliska Greg. Before the break,
(01:32):
we pointed out autumn has an unusual letter sequence. You
m N, and Andrea asks what other words have the
same letter combination. One is a Greek something you behind
a Greek a Roman temple.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
That one is column column right, And of course there's
all the forms of these words columnar and co, columnist
and autumnal But what about alumni alumni form that? Uh it?
The Magellan one is circumnavigate nice. Nice. I don't suppose
(02:09):
we're gonna include numb nuts allow it.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
I'll allow it.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
You know, I think it's probably n u m B nuts.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Oh at your point, unless you're a numb nut and
don't know how to spell numb.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Nuts or numbness also would not work with it.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Yeah, I know, we've got calumny, colorny, calumny. Yeah, it's
like that alumnus. Now I do I love it because
autumn is such a weird word with that silent N.
But then you turn it into an adjective and the
N is suddenly there out of hiding. Hey, I was
here all along autumnal and you said the same thing
(02:48):
about oh column columnar alumnar. Uh so, yes, so very
weird and interesting and as I say, semi pretentious word autumn.
And it's not just autumn though, it's not just fall.
We are actually fall is the time of several very
important holidays we had. Yesterday we talked about World Pharmacist
(03:12):
to Day, and we're actually going to come back to
that in a bit, but before that, we want to
talk about another September holiday, World ampersand Day, World ampersand Day. Now,
I will say we have already celebrated World ampersand Day
here at the Puzzler. It was earlier in the month
(03:33):
September eighth. To be specific. You may have taken down
your Ampersan Day decoration, all the.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Lights that say and and and and all of that.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Exactly, we celebrate the whole month. It's September is all amber.
And as Greg mentioned, ampersand is that little symbol that
means and and we think that it's from the two
letters combined eat combined, not the Steven Spielberg movie. The
(04:04):
Latin word for and and the word and for sand.
According to my research, is the etymology is a per say,
and seems a little sketchy to me, but that's what
the that's what they say and per say, and you
sort of pronounce it quickly, and it's like ampersan. Now,
(04:27):
in honor of Ampersan day, I have a few phrases
and companies and products that contain an ampersand in the middle. Okay,
and I'm going to of course clue them using an
ampersand in the phrase the clue phrase.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
So when I say, and you have to think in
your brain ampersan not the word and.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Got it, I will always well, it's this month, during
Ampersan month. I always think that way.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Exactly, okay, baking soda and and toothpaste.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Oh, and this is a company that makes those products.
That's correct, That would be arm and Hammer exactly.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Arm and Hammer. Now we're actually gonna go alphabetical, which isn't.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Named for the industrialists arm and Hammer, is it. No,
it's weird, so weird that very freaks me out every
time I see his name.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
All Right, we're going alphabetical. We're not going to get
to Z. We're going to get to like G okay F.
But we've got we're going to be we got what
does this make you think of Vermont and cows? Vermont
and cows.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Vermont and cows. We were just there actually this summer,
and though we didn't eat any Ben and Jerry's ice cream.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Oh there it is Ben Ampers and Jerry's. He didn't eat,
but you've eaten it before.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, absolutely does. Barnes and Noble also work.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Indeed, and it's not Barnes and Nobles as that I
used to say, but it is just one. You only
got one Noble, but multiple Barns.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Unless you're using it in the possessive like Barnes and
Nobles logo has an ampersand in it.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Well done. All right, moving on to letter see how
swears and furniture chain house swears and furniture chain.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
That would be the houseware is the crate and the
furniture is the barrel.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Yeah, you sit on a barrel or you sit on
a crate. Now, I will say when I was researching
Creighton Barrel. Fun fact, there was a movie star who
worked at the original Crate and barrel way back in
the early sixties. He was outside of Chicago. Any thoughts
on who that might be?
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Harvey kitel.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
You got the right you got the right first letter
of the first name. Here, I'll give you a hint.
This is a man who he probably knew how to
make crates and barrels because he was a self taught carpenter.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
F Harrison Ford Harrison.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Create and Varrel fired for being late coming back to lunch.
So if he had kept going, he might be like
a marketing exec at Create and Barrel. We would never
have hanste.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
In all your research into this, did you come across
why some companies use the ampersent or not? Or? I mean,
I also imagine some of these companies started as Create
and Barrel the word, and then they had a logo
with the ampersand and changed the name of the company.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
I don't think anyone's written like a PhD thesis on this,
but I would say the ampersand was used. It was
It's a very like seventeenth eighteenth century symbol. And you
would always say and sons. There would be a lot
of an sons Pliska and sons businesses. So I feel
(07:49):
it gives it a little like retro cachet, a little
like you know, oh, we're a classy, old timey store
and we use an am persent. That's my theory.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Okay, that's my theory.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Or you could save. It's like, you know, if you're
saving on ink cost, you're saving all sorts of things. Yep,
it's very economical. All right, I got two more We've got.
This is a place for food and video games? Food
and video games?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Are we going alphabetical? Orre we up to D? We
are up to D food and video games.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Oh I like that. You don't know this.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Dolce and gabbanas the company I thought of for D,
which is clearly wrong.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
You could play vilta.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Oh well, I know, I know exactly what this is.
I go, I actually go there with my son. There
you go for the video games. Dave and Busters.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Dave and Busters. That is it.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Now.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
I will take this moment to do a sidebar on
Dave and Busters and the ampersand I listened to a
very interesting episode of the podcast Search Engine where they
had a whole episode of voted to this ampersand because
it turns out if you try to send a voice
memo on the iPhone using the phrase Dave and Busters,
(09:10):
it won't go through. You'll just get three dots and
it just disappears into the ether. It is so crazy.
It turns out that the ampersand in some computing languages
has a different meaning. So somehow the iPhone got confused
and won't send Dave and Busters. It also won't send
(09:31):
M and m's. It won't send any ampersans at all.
Wild and they said they contacted Apple, and Apple said, okay,
we'll fix it. I we just did it with Andrea
this morning. Still, still you cannot send a Dave and Buster.
You have to say, if here's a hack, if you
have to send a voice memo to a friend about
(09:52):
Dave and Busters, you gotta pause. You gotta say Dave
and Busters. Can't say David Buss.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Because Adam automatically ampersands it and then it goes disappears.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
That is correct.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
I've been reading about this online as we've been talking.
According to Wikipedia, in film credits, an ampersand indicates a
closer collaboration than an and Wow in screenplay credits.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
That's a great ampersand tribune right now.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
So if you say this script was written by A. J.
Jacobs and Greg Pliska, and we worked together on the script,
we're an ampersand couple. But then if it was later taken.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
By Andrea Schoenbergen and rewritten, she would be an and
the word that is hilarious. The team gets an ampersand
then the extra you know, the next step person gets
the word end.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Now what does it mean If it's Greg Pliska AJ Jacobs.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
That means we're a hip hop duo.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (11:02):
What if there's one one kid kidden Play I think
was the one that and kidden Play was a.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Kitten play, oh guns and roses Roses.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Kidden Play also is a and then we're going to
get into how do you apostrophize the abbreviation? And because
kidden play has just one apostrophe, see I should have
one on either side because you do it anyway, we
don't have to go into that kidden Play important no offense.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Well, speaking of bands, let's end with uh. This band
sang songs including Let's Groove and Boogie Wonderland. Let's Groove
and Boogie Wonderland.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Okay, and we're in the letter email that's right, earth
Wind and.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Fire, earth Wind and very well done. Greg. You know
your ampersands and and I love the new ampersand factor's
very exciting. All right, But as we mentioned, it's not
just ampersand month, it is also one day after world, Yes,
(12:13):
exactly like Boxing Day with Christmas.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Yes, it is the day you you know, you put
away all the vials of pills and stuff you know,
you know and speak and speaking of symbols that are
joining of words, right, yeah, in the ampersand and RX
come from similar things. So when I thought I'd do
an RX puzzle, the first thing I thought of was,
how about words and phrases that have r X in them?
(12:40):
I love it, right, And I specifically wanted them to
be right next to each other, not just anywhere in
the word like exercise or something like that.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
They need to be adjacent or followed by X. Of course,
it's a crazy idea. There aren't that many English there.
There is maybe one Dictionary word word that has that property.
It's kind of an old one. But there are lots
of words and phrases, not lots, but a few words
and phrases that we would use that have r X
(13:11):
in them, but not enough for a whole puzzle. But
I thought, on the puzzle lab, we can revisit this
and play around.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
That's right, this is Friday. We can do whatever we wants. Chaos.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
So this is a legitimate word that could be a
capitalized word that would be in most dictionaries. Actually, so
this is not the unusual one. This is a socialist
and communist philosophy often derided by American political figures.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Yes, that one, I do know.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
You know that one? That would be Marx marks exactly exactly,
that is one of them. How about the telepathic Marvel
character who runs a school for mutants? Oh, I will say,
there's a space in this. Uh right, I didn't go straight.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
All right, I think I know my kids are going
to kill me if I get it, because I'm choosing
between doctor X professor X. I think it's professor X.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Correct professor thank god.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Thank god, I won't get hate mail from Marvel.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Fancy Okay, And you know there are lots of blank
X terms, mister X.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Doctor X is a thing.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Mister X.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
I don't remember. I didn't research all it. But there
there are several ways you can just do an R
word with X. So I just picked that one, got it?
Speaker 1 (14:23):
How about this a solid one?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
How about this? This is a short form of another
name for Santa Claus.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Oh, okay, I'm going through my my. Well, now I'm
confused because there's x mes.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Yep, that would be part of it.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Oh h oh right, right, father x mes. Father there,
I exactly got it. And I do know some some
when I was researching my book on the Bible, some
uh Christians, I think, mostly very religious Christians, do not
like the shortening of Christmas to x Mes. So if
(15:00):
they are listening, send for your emails to the crag,
not me, then I had nothing to do with that.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Well, you know, they probably hate that we've commercialized Xmas
to the point that we have.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
That's true, we have.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
How about this a group of comedic siblings whose real
names were Julius, Leonard, and Arthur, as well as Milton
and Herbert.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Well, that I'm thinking is the namesake the similar name
to Karl, the Marx.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Brothers, exactly, the Marx brothers, so right, not a dictionary term,
but they are.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
They do have an RX right there. How about the
Persian ruler who invaded Greece, as depicted in the movie
three hundred.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Oh okay, I do happen to know this. One of
the few things I remember from my encyclopedia reading is Xerxes.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Xerxes I just liked it.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
It was late in the alphabet, and so you kind
of remember the later stuff.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Actually, Xerxes will be probably be in most dictionary. He
s in a proper nouned context.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
I love it, I was. I love that every one
of these you relate back to one of the books
you've done.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
I'm here to plug my books. That's really the only reason.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
When I wrote that book about Persia, I remember researching Xerxes.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
All right, this one, this one I thought was good
to use. But there are a lot of possible answers.
It's an iconic sports car from a company named for
a wildcat.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Oh okay, well I'm only thinking of one wildcat. The
Cougar X is a cougar.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Nope, this is that's I think a cougar is a
car made by Mercury, the Mercury Cougar. But this is
the company that Jaguar X. Jaguar as is the XJ
and the X K E and the X type. There
are a lot of I thought I got to find
the most iconic one, but it's too you know, too
(16:58):
many possibilities.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Well I didn't know any of them. So Jaguar X
is fine.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
By B all right, and your last one. This is
the tenth iteration of the classic Simpson's Halloween episode.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Oh yeah, what do they call that?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Tree house? Wait something, treehouse horror? Tree house X, treehouse
horror X.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
So close you need a little preposition in between tree
house of horror A tree house of horror X. Yes, exactly,
exactly fantastic. Can I give you one multiple choice?
Speaker 1 (17:36):
I would be honored because there.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Is a word pro catarsis p r O C A
t A r x I s oh c catarsis.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
All right and not ringing a bell?
Speaker 2 (17:51):
And you get three choices? What does it mean? Is
it A a violent cough right? B the move the moment
the main character of a drama undergoes irreversible change. Okay,
the pro catarxist or a medical term for an existing
condition that caused or predisposed a present condition.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
All right, I'm going to try to get inside the
head of Greg Plaska. Dangerous thing to do, but I
feel qatar the word qatar is like has to do
with coughing. Yes, and it's not that weird r r h. Yeah,
it's got the weird. So I think he threw that
in as a red herring. And I also think catarkis
(18:35):
makes me think of catharsis, which is plays, so I'm
also thinking that's a red herring. So I'm going with number.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Three, the medical term for an existing condition, caused or
that caused or predisposed a present condition. You are correct.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Wow, I feel like forge.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
That's good.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
I making progress into that brain.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Don't be fooled by those red herrings. All right, I'm
gonna have to change up the red herrings now.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
I see.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
You excellent x words, well excellent, So happy post pharmacists today,
Happy happy month. However you celebrate. If you celebrate, I
don't know. Don't want to force it on you, but
have a great weekend if you have time, check out
the puzzlers Instagram feed. We got new puzzles, visual puzzles,
(19:26):
all sorts of fun stuff. It's at Hello Puzzlers, And
of course we'll see you on Monday for more puzzling puzzles.
Then we'll puzzle you puzzling with.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Hey Puzzlers. It's Greg Pliska up from the Puzzle Lab
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode. It
was World Pharmacist Day and I gave aj a puzzle
themed around the letters R and X, where the first
word in the blank in this clue has an R
in it, and if you change that to an X,
you get the the second word in this clue. Here's
(20:02):
your extra credit clue. Here are a couple things that
are so twentieth century. One using tokens to pay subway
blank or two sending messages to someone using blank that
of course is fares subway fares fais and sending messages
using faxes fax ex well, send us a fact, send
(20:26):
us some emails, call us, use a carrier, pigeon whatever
we'd love to hear from you. And thanks for playing
here at the Puzzler. Thanks for playing along with the
team Here at the Puzzler with Aj Jacobs. I'm Greg Pliska,
your chief puzzle Officer. Our executive producers are Neelie Lohman
and Adam Neuhouse of New House Ideas and Jonathan Strickland
(20:50):
of iHeart Podcasts. The show is produced by Jody Averrigan
and Britney Brown of Roulette Productions, with production support from
Claire Bitegar Curtis. Our senior puzzler is Andrea Schoenberg. The
Puzzler with Ajjacobs is a co production with New House
Ideas and is distributed by a Scottish drape No and
(21:12):
might have a terrible Scottish accent. It's distributed by iHeart Podcasts.
If you want to know more about puzzling puzzles, please
check out the book The Puzzler by AJ Jacobs, a
history of puzzles that The New York Times called fun
and funny. It features an original puzzle hunt by Yours
Truly and is available wherever you get your books and puzzlers.
(21:35):
For all your puzzling needs, go visit the puzzler dot com.
See you there,
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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