May 13, 2025 • 18 mins
Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: director Michael Showalter!
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.
Subscribe to The Puzzler podcast wherever you get your podcasts!
"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.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello buzzlers. Let's start with a quick puzzle. What famous
chain founded in nineteen seventy one was almost named Pea Quad.
It's a chain with more than forty thousand outlets, and
it was almost named Pea Quad. The answer and more
puzzling goodness after the break, Hello puzzlers, Welcome back to
(00:30):
the Puzzler Podcast, The Last Cube of Monterey Jack on
your grocery store sample puzzle Tray. I'm your host, AJ Jacobs,
and I'm here with chief puzzle Officer Greg Pliska. Greg.
Before the break, we asked, what famous chain founded in
nineteen seventy one was almost named Pea Quad. It's a
chain with more than forty thousand outlets.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah, yeah, you know. I know this because when I
was in high school, one of our friends was a
aspiring film maker. We made a lot of short movies together,
one of which was after we had read Moby Dick.
There you go, and we called it. He called it,
We called it Muddy Duck. And there was a ship
in that called the peapod Aha at the peaquad right,
(01:15):
And of course so they and thus everything in the
Moby Dick universes has etched in my brain, I remember
all this stuff. I guess the first mate of the
Peaquad was Starbuck. Right there, you go, Chaane has got
to be Starbucks.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
It is indeed Starbucks. One of the co founders of
Starbucks wanted to call it pea Quad Peakquad, but the
other founder thought it sounded too much like p so
And this is all on the Starbucks website.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
So this why didn't they call it ishmail or oh,
call it ismail queg creek Wegg the harpoonist on the boat.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
I don't know, maybe spelling with the challenge with creek Weg,
but fair they did end up with Starbuck the first mate,
as you mentioned. And uh and I bring this up
because our first puzzle today does have a connection to
not Peak Wad, but two Starbucks. Before I get to that,
let's introduce our guest, the multi talented, multi hyphenated writer,
(02:14):
director actor Michael Showalter. Welcome, Michael.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
It's great to be here still.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Again again again again.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
We are delighted to have you back. As we mentioned
last time, Michael is a prolific entertainer. Second wet hot
American Summer Stella search Party, which I love. I'm in
the middle of it the Big Six upcoming movies with
Anne Hathaway and Michelle Pfeiffer. Oh what fun. Check that
out in the Yes, yes, yes, this a holiday movie,
(02:49):
this holiday.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
A Christmas holiday themed.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Film, holiday themed.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
We won't say what holiday, but.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
The holiday season.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
The holiday season excellent.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Includes Christmas, which.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Okay, we know, uh so Michael. In addition to being
a prolific uh entertainer, he also finds time to do puzzles.
And because of that, Michael, I'm gonna warn you this
is fair warning. That's a little trickier. But we have
(03:28):
faith in you. That's how much faith we have. All right,
I like that you're putting your hands on your foreheads.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
I need visualization here, you might.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
You might? All right, Well, today's puzzle is called Ariana Tall,
not Ariana g Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's already.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
There are all right, Well I'll continue. For those who
don't get it, this puzzle is about a universe where
everything is one step behind, everything is moved back one
not on various scales. So in this universe, aria gr
Ariana Grande has actually been demoted to Ariana Tall because,
(04:08):
as you know, Starbucks goes tall than Grande so Aria
Grande ariana tall. I'll give you one more example, just
so you get it. In this universe there is a
great tennis player named Mercury Williams. Mercury Williams because yes.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Now, I would never have gotten that because I didn't
know that Mercury comes before Venus.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I'm serious, closer, closer to the Sun.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
What's the order that he's referring.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
To, yes, from basically from the big lower to higher Mercury.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
I see. So, uh, what's the smallest planet? Is it? Mercury.
Mercury is the smallest that could have.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
It's also closest.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
That's the problem.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Well, that's not not for Murcury.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
That's the last of the astronomical lines. Okay, all right, okay,
so I think you're safe. So yes, that of course
is Venus Williams because it goes Mercury Venus Earth. So
are you ready, Michael, Yes, and feel free to object.
I know you you have. That is your right as
a puzzle.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
Lee.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
All right, well, I'm actually going to keep with the Williamses.
There's a playwright named South Dakota Williams in this universe. Okay,
he's got it. He nods his head.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Go ahead, Can we say Tennessee Williams?
Speaker 1 (05:33):
We can? And do you know the scale that I'm
referring to? It comes right.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Before square mileage.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Oh, that's a good one.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
I think it's alphabet.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
It is alphabetic, just playing alphabetic South.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
You could have done the order in which they joined
the union.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Well I had that later. All right, we've got this
is a sports team in Dallas, a sports team named
the Dallas Mountain Lions, the Dallas Mountain Lions. It's I'll
give you a hint if you want, or I'll just
let it sit.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
But it's a basketball he knows, Michael knows sports.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
If it's a I mean, there's the Dallas Mavericks.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Yep, that's it.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Yeah, but that's the one.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
The trick is what is the scale? What goes? It goes?
Speaker 4 (06:28):
What?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah? Where does Mavericks come before mountain?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
This is now, this is intriguing.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
This is one of the trickier ones. Let me give
you a little more. Mountain Lion, Leopard Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Ah, Sonoma, No, not yet, mojave Sonoma, I forget.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Yeah, those ring a bell is Maverick the name of
a national park.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Oh no, this is interesting because if you own a
certain type of computer, you would probably ring a bell
if you don't own this type of computer, if.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
You've never upgraded computer operating systems, that's a.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
System.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Very good, that's very good.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Jay.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Oh, thank you. I love the positive feedback. All right,
I got a couple more for you. In this universe,
high school history students study the Great bargaining, the Great bargaining.
This was a terrible time in the nineteen twenties or thirties,
late twenties.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
The Great bargain. Oh, the great bargaining? Is the real thing?
Speaker 2 (07:42):
No, No, that's the fake thing that's in this four.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
But aren't the fake things all also a real thing?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Well no, there's no Dallas Mountain lions, but there is bargaining.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Is a real thing in a sequence that includes this next.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Oh, I see, I see.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
So is it?
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Is it? The depression?
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yes, Now what comes before? In what scale? Does it go? Denial, bargaining, depression,
angerf exactly, grief.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
The grief scale, stag stages of grief.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
That's it, the Koobler Ross stages of grief, which have
no scientific basis. By the way, just so you know,
by the way, can I go back to Tennessee Williams
for one second?
Speaker 3 (08:29):
I wish I would. I've been waiting for you to
do that.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
You uh.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
He wrote Streetcar named Desire, of course, with the famous
line Stella, Marlon Brando screaming Stella. Now, is that related
to the name of your awesome comedy troupe Stella? Or
was that some other origin? What's the origin story of Stella?
Speaker 3 (08:54):
The origin story of Stella is simply that we went
to Time Cafe. We were talking to the woman who
Boo booked that venue about can we we would like
to do a show here, a comedy show here, the
three of us will host it. And she had just
had a newborn. This woman that I couldn't remember her
(09:16):
now if I saw her named Stella hm. And I
don't know how we thought of it, but we said, well,
we're going to name our show Stella.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
That's so nice.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
And we knew that Stella was a word that had
a lot of connotations, the main one being what you
just said. But the actual origin of it was just
that the woman in Time Cafe who booked the show's
kid was Stella. Isn't it always like that where something
that has a lot you have a lot of associations with,
and then you find out what it's really about, and
(09:48):
it's always way less interesting than what you imagined, like
never want to know, Like all the Beatles songs are like, oh, yeah,
I was picking my nose and I wrote yesterday because yesterday,
like yesterday I picked. I wrote a song about picking
your nose and that's hey, Jude or something, And you're like,
I wish I didn't know that. I would rather just
think that it was what I thought it was.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
You know, he originally called the working title of Yesterday
was scrambled Eggs. He wrote, scrambled eggs, scrambled eggs. You've
got the melody, and that's right, the melody.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Interesting. I always thought it was interesting that the Beatles
is sort of a dad joke, like I think they
are hilarious, but like the title itself is a pun.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
It's a pun. And I realized that literally only like
two years ago. It's like it's a it's a pun
on keeping the beat, keep the beat exactly. We're the
band that keeps the beat. We're the Beatles.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
But isn't it also a response to Buddy Holly and
the crickets. Right, they were like, they're the crickets. We're
going to be is it?
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Yeah? And I is it also not like beatnick oh,
because there was the beat, the Beat, the beat generation
right generation? Yes?
Speaker 1 (11:07):
I love it? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:09):
All right?
Speaker 1 (11:10):
But have we kept in touch with the real Stella
the child?
Speaker 3 (11:13):
I want to know? No, no, not at all.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Not. I'd be interested to know.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Not in the least.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
All right, couple more because we have all right.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
We're doing puzzles. I remember, now, we'll have more.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
We'll end with two.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
In this universe there is a mascot, a cartoon mascot
called Tony the Ox. Tony the Ox.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
This is but tiger. But the hard part is what's
the connection exactly?
Speaker 1 (11:45):
What's the tiger ox?
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Tiger Tiger ox.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
So ox comes before in this sequence tiger and it
is rooster monkey.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
That's true. I think dragon comes right out.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Oh year of yeah, year of Chinese Chinese zodiac?
Speaker 1 (12:06):
That is it? Do you want to end on a
crazy hard one or a medium one?
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Let's go. You tell me what, guys, what do the
listeners want? What do you think the listeners want?
Speaker 2 (12:17):
All right, I'm gonna do they want to hear crazy Heart.
They want to They want to say.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
All right, I'll do crazy Heart and then the medium
one for the extra credit. All right, this is Neil Crundom.
There is a singer named Neil Crundom that is Greg
liked it.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
I just I just like hearing you say crundom. Isn't
it corundum?
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Apparently, according to various online dictionaries, he's It's spelled c
O r u n d u M, but it's pronounced
crundomd Now, okay, the way to think about it is, uh, yeah, Neil. Well,
who are some Neil singers?
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Just we Neil Diamond.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
That's it. That's it.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
So now I have I don't know what am don
I don't I don't know what a trunk done is.
I think corundum must be some kind of Is it
some kind of a mineral?
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Yes, and a very hard mineral at that. So this
is the Mose hardness scale from one to ten goes talc.
It starts at talc and then ends with corundum and diamond.
So there you go the most hard.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
And is a corundum like a rock? Is it a gemstock?
Speaker 2 (13:30):
It's a it's a yeah, it's a Uh, No, it's
a yeah, it's I guess so it's like ruby ish.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Yeah, I think ruby is a type of corundum.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
There you go, So ruby. They could have just said.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Ruby and sapphire are all versions of corundum, which is
the raw Wow.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
You know, so you know I'm looking at the dictionary, Michael,
I'm looking like wow.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
No, I had to, but I wanted to look up
how to pronounce it, which Merriam Webster does say corundum
three syllables.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Interesting? Can I ask a quick question? I have a
sort of an ethical bee question which I want to
know if you got So, let's say you know a word.
I'm going to pick a word that we all know
how to spell, but let's just pretend for the sake
of conversation that we didn't know how to spell this word.
You'll see it often on the bee. Would be a
(14:19):
word like concoction. Right, Okay, that's a word that comes
up often. Would you agree, concoct concoction?
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Oh, sure, cocoon.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
But let's just say, off the top of my head,
I didn't know exactly how to spell concoction. I personally
will go, I know that the word concoction is there,
I'm going to look up the spelling and then I'm
going to put in concoction. Someone might say that's cheating.
I would say it's not cheating because eventually I'll get
(14:53):
it right. Eventually I will spell it right. I'm just
saving some time.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Agree, I give you full I do the same with piranha.
I just did it with kan Parana. I was like,
I know there's an rule, there's an h.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Rather you'd rather look it up than just keep typing
in all and yes.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
And the question is is it cheating to look up
the spelling of prana? And I say, no, it's not cheating.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
I agree, And I think Will Schwartz would agree. You
ask him. He always says, just do whatever you want.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
He's what would Sam Zirsky say? Though?
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Right question?
Speaker 2 (15:32):
But here's the here's the opposite or the related B question.
Do you just start poking at letters?
Speaker 4 (15:39):
You know?
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Do you do you just put in p R R
I A N just in case it might be a
word that.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
You don't have every once in a while. Every once
in a while, that's but but I've done enough of
the B to know that it's very rare that A
that a word that a word that gets you to genius.
It's very rare that I just have no clue what
the word is. Fair.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Yeah, Sam, probably you have voids putting in the words
that are super.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Obscure, so it's likely it's very rare that I'm just like,
I have no idea what that is, although it does happen.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Well, there are some that like Box, like was just
recently and I'm like Box, like.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Oh interesting.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
I mean I know, I like, But you.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Know real one that always I always see that I don't.
I always forget is tom Tit?
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Oh? Sure, tom Tit?
Speaker 2 (16:26):
What is that doing in there?
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Right?
Speaker 2 (16:28):
You're gonna not accept raffia, but you're gonna put tom Tit.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
He's dirty, Maybe he's maybe.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
I always I always forget tom Tit.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Never forget tim Tit. Michael. That's what takeaway for our audience. U, Well,
you did fantastic. You know your except for the most
hard in the scale, you knew everything. I do have
one for the folks at home that you can guess
as well in your mind. The actress the actress name
(17:00):
micro Bobby Brown, micro Bobby Brown, what is uh uh?
Who is that? And what is the scale? And come
back tomorrow because we'll tell you. And in the meantime
you might want to check out our Instagram teed at
Hello Puzzlers, where we have fun, original puzzles, all sorts
(17:21):
of updates from the breaking puzzle news, and we will
of course meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles
that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
Hello puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle officer, here
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode, the wonderful, brilliant, funny,
personable Puzzling.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Michael Showalter joined us and we played a little game
of what we called show Walter Show, where every answer
is the surname of a person and then a animal
hidden in the side that surname actually at the beginning
of that surname. So AJ did a little extra credit
like this, if you have pointy ears and a bushy tail,
(18:09):
you might be this carnivorous animal. That's a Southern accent,
of course, which is meant to clue the author Jeff Foxworthy,
and that's the Foxworthy fox. So you enjoyed the puzzles,
and if you're enjoying the puzzler, you'll come back next time.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
You hear
Hello buzzlers. Let's start with a quick puzzle. What famous
chain founded in nineteen seventy one was almost named Pea Quad.
It's a chain with more than forty thousand outlets, and
it was almost named Pea Quad. The answer and more
puzzling goodness after the break, Hello puzzlers, Welcome back to
(00:30):
the Puzzler Podcast, The Last Cube of Monterey Jack on
your grocery store sample puzzle Tray. I'm your host, AJ Jacobs,
and I'm here with chief puzzle Officer Greg Pliska. Greg.
Before the break, we asked, what famous chain founded in
nineteen seventy one was almost named Pea Quad. It's a
chain with more than forty thousand outlets.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah, yeah, you know. I know this because when I
was in high school, one of our friends was a
aspiring film maker. We made a lot of short movies together,
one of which was after we had read Moby Dick.
There you go, and we called it. He called it,
We called it Muddy Duck. And there was a ship
in that called the peapod Aha at the peaquad right,
(01:15):
And of course so they and thus everything in the
Moby Dick universes has etched in my brain, I remember
all this stuff. I guess the first mate of the
Peaquad was Starbuck. Right there, you go, Chaane has got
to be Starbucks.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
It is indeed Starbucks. One of the co founders of
Starbucks wanted to call it pea Quad Peakquad, but the
other founder thought it sounded too much like p so
And this is all on the Starbucks website.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
So this why didn't they call it ishmail or oh,
call it ismail queg creek Wegg the harpoonist on the boat.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
I don't know, maybe spelling with the challenge with creek Weg,
but fair they did end up with Starbuck the first mate,
as you mentioned. And uh and I bring this up
because our first puzzle today does have a connection to
not Peak Wad, but two Starbucks. Before I get to that,
let's introduce our guest, the multi talented, multi hyphenated writer,
(02:14):
director actor Michael Showalter. Welcome, Michael.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
It's great to be here still.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Again again again again.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
We are delighted to have you back. As we mentioned
last time, Michael is a prolific entertainer. Second wet hot
American Summer Stella search Party, which I love. I'm in
the middle of it the Big Six upcoming movies with
Anne Hathaway and Michelle Pfeiffer. Oh what fun. Check that
out in the Yes, yes, yes, this a holiday movie,
(02:49):
this holiday.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
A Christmas holiday themed.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Film, holiday themed.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
We won't say what holiday, but.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
The holiday season.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
The holiday season excellent.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Includes Christmas, which.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Okay, we know, uh so Michael. In addition to being
a prolific uh entertainer, he also finds time to do puzzles.
And because of that, Michael, I'm gonna warn you this
is fair warning. That's a little trickier. But we have
(03:28):
faith in you. That's how much faith we have. All right,
I like that you're putting your hands on your foreheads.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
I need visualization here, you might.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
You might? All right, Well, today's puzzle is called Ariana Tall,
not Ariana g Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's already.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
There are all right, Well I'll continue. For those who
don't get it, this puzzle is about a universe where
everything is one step behind, everything is moved back one
not on various scales. So in this universe, aria gr
Ariana Grande has actually been demoted to Ariana Tall because,
(04:08):
as you know, Starbucks goes tall than Grande so Aria
Grande ariana tall. I'll give you one more example, just
so you get it. In this universe there is a
great tennis player named Mercury Williams. Mercury Williams because yes.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Now, I would never have gotten that because I didn't
know that Mercury comes before Venus.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I'm serious, closer, closer to the Sun.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
What's the order that he's referring.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
To, yes, from basically from the big lower to higher Mercury.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
I see. So, uh, what's the smallest planet? Is it? Mercury.
Mercury is the smallest that could have.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
It's also closest.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
That's the problem.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Well, that's not not for Murcury.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
That's the last of the astronomical lines. Okay, all right, okay,
so I think you're safe. So yes, that of course
is Venus Williams because it goes Mercury Venus Earth. So
are you ready, Michael, Yes, and feel free to object.
I know you you have. That is your right as
a puzzle.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
Lee.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
All right, well, I'm actually going to keep with the Williamses.
There's a playwright named South Dakota Williams in this universe. Okay,
he's got it. He nods his head.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Go ahead, Can we say Tennessee Williams?
Speaker 1 (05:33):
We can? And do you know the scale that I'm
referring to? It comes right.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Before square mileage.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Oh, that's a good one.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
I think it's alphabet.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
It is alphabetic, just playing alphabetic South.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
You could have done the order in which they joined
the union.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Well I had that later. All right, we've got this
is a sports team in Dallas, a sports team named
the Dallas Mountain Lions, the Dallas Mountain Lions. It's I'll
give you a hint if you want, or I'll just
let it sit.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
But it's a basketball he knows, Michael knows sports.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
If it's a I mean, there's the Dallas Mavericks.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Yep, that's it.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Yeah, but that's the one.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
The trick is what is the scale? What goes? It goes?
Speaker 4 (06:28):
What?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah? Where does Mavericks come before mountain?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
This is now, this is intriguing.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
This is one of the trickier ones. Let me give
you a little more. Mountain Lion, Leopard Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Ah, Sonoma, No, not yet, mojave Sonoma, I forget.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Yeah, those ring a bell is Maverick the name of
a national park.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Oh no, this is interesting because if you own a
certain type of computer, you would probably ring a bell
if you don't own this type of computer, if.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
You've never upgraded computer operating systems, that's a.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
System.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Very good, that's very good.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Jay.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Oh, thank you. I love the positive feedback. All right,
I got a couple more for you. In this universe,
high school history students study the Great bargaining, the Great bargaining.
This was a terrible time in the nineteen twenties or thirties,
late twenties.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
The Great bargain. Oh, the great bargaining? Is the real thing?
Speaker 2 (07:42):
No, No, that's the fake thing that's in this four.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
But aren't the fake things all also a real thing?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Well no, there's no Dallas Mountain lions, but there is bargaining.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Is a real thing in a sequence that includes this next.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Oh, I see, I see.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
So is it?
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Is it? The depression?
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yes, Now what comes before? In what scale? Does it go? Denial, bargaining, depression,
angerf exactly, grief.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
The grief scale, stag stages of grief.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
That's it, the Koobler Ross stages of grief, which have
no scientific basis. By the way, just so you know,
by the way, can I go back to Tennessee Williams
for one second?
Speaker 3 (08:29):
I wish I would. I've been waiting for you to
do that.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
You uh.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
He wrote Streetcar named Desire, of course, with the famous
line Stella, Marlon Brando screaming Stella. Now, is that related
to the name of your awesome comedy troupe Stella? Or
was that some other origin? What's the origin story of Stella?
Speaker 3 (08:54):
The origin story of Stella is simply that we went
to Time Cafe. We were talking to the woman who
Boo booked that venue about can we we would like
to do a show here, a comedy show here, the
three of us will host it. And she had just
had a newborn. This woman that I couldn't remember her
(09:16):
now if I saw her named Stella hm. And I
don't know how we thought of it, but we said, well,
we're going to name our show Stella.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
That's so nice.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
And we knew that Stella was a word that had
a lot of connotations, the main one being what you
just said. But the actual origin of it was just
that the woman in Time Cafe who booked the show's
kid was Stella. Isn't it always like that where something
that has a lot you have a lot of associations with,
and then you find out what it's really about, and
(09:48):
it's always way less interesting than what you imagined, like
never want to know, Like all the Beatles songs are like, oh, yeah,
I was picking my nose and I wrote yesterday because yesterday,
like yesterday I picked. I wrote a song about picking
your nose and that's hey, Jude or something, And you're like,
I wish I didn't know that. I would rather just
think that it was what I thought it was.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
You know, he originally called the working title of Yesterday
was scrambled Eggs. He wrote, scrambled eggs, scrambled eggs. You've
got the melody, and that's right, the melody.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Interesting. I always thought it was interesting that the Beatles
is sort of a dad joke, like I think they
are hilarious, but like the title itself is a pun.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
It's a pun. And I realized that literally only like
two years ago. It's like it's a it's a pun
on keeping the beat, keep the beat exactly. We're the
band that keeps the beat. We're the Beatles.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
But isn't it also a response to Buddy Holly and
the crickets. Right, they were like, they're the crickets. We're
going to be is it?
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Yeah? And I is it also not like beatnick oh,
because there was the beat, the Beat, the beat generation
right generation? Yes?
Speaker 1 (11:07):
I love it? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:09):
All right?
Speaker 1 (11:10):
But have we kept in touch with the real Stella
the child?
Speaker 3 (11:13):
I want to know? No, no, not at all.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Not. I'd be interested to know.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Not in the least.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
All right, couple more because we have all right.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
We're doing puzzles. I remember, now, we'll have more.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
We'll end with two.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
In this universe there is a mascot, a cartoon mascot
called Tony the Ox. Tony the Ox.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
This is but tiger. But the hard part is what's
the connection exactly?
Speaker 1 (11:45):
What's the tiger ox?
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Tiger Tiger ox.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
So ox comes before in this sequence tiger and it
is rooster monkey.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
That's true. I think dragon comes right out.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Oh year of yeah, year of Chinese Chinese zodiac?
Speaker 1 (12:06):
That is it? Do you want to end on a
crazy hard one or a medium one?
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Let's go. You tell me what, guys, what do the
listeners want? What do you think the listeners want?
Speaker 2 (12:17):
All right, I'm gonna do they want to hear crazy Heart.
They want to They want to say.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
All right, I'll do crazy Heart and then the medium
one for the extra credit. All right, this is Neil Crundom.
There is a singer named Neil Crundom that is Greg
liked it.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
I just I just like hearing you say crundom. Isn't
it corundum?
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Apparently, according to various online dictionaries, he's It's spelled c
O r u n d u M, but it's pronounced
crundomd Now, okay, the way to think about it is, uh, yeah, Neil. Well,
who are some Neil singers?
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Just we Neil Diamond.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
That's it. That's it.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
So now I have I don't know what am don
I don't I don't know what a trunk done is.
I think corundum must be some kind of Is it
some kind of a mineral?
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Yes, and a very hard mineral at that. So this
is the Mose hardness scale from one to ten goes talc.
It starts at talc and then ends with corundum and diamond.
So there you go the most hard.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
And is a corundum like a rock? Is it a gemstock?
Speaker 2 (13:30):
It's a it's a yeah, it's a Uh, No, it's
a yeah, it's I guess so it's like ruby ish.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Yeah, I think ruby is a type of corundum.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
There you go, So ruby. They could have just said.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Ruby and sapphire are all versions of corundum, which is
the raw Wow.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
You know, so you know I'm looking at the dictionary, Michael,
I'm looking like wow.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
No, I had to, but I wanted to look up
how to pronounce it, which Merriam Webster does say corundum
three syllables.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Interesting? Can I ask a quick question? I have a
sort of an ethical bee question which I want to
know if you got So, let's say you know a word.
I'm going to pick a word that we all know
how to spell, but let's just pretend for the sake
of conversation that we didn't know how to spell this word.
You'll see it often on the bee. Would be a
(14:19):
word like concoction. Right, Okay, that's a word that comes
up often. Would you agree, concoct concoction?
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Oh, sure, cocoon.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
But let's just say, off the top of my head,
I didn't know exactly how to spell concoction. I personally
will go, I know that the word concoction is there,
I'm going to look up the spelling and then I'm
going to put in concoction. Someone might say that's cheating.
I would say it's not cheating because eventually I'll get
(14:53):
it right. Eventually I will spell it right. I'm just
saving some time.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Agree, I give you full I do the same with piranha.
I just did it with kan Parana. I was like,
I know there's an rule, there's an h.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Rather you'd rather look it up than just keep typing
in all and yes.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
And the question is is it cheating to look up
the spelling of prana? And I say, no, it's not cheating.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
I agree, And I think Will Schwartz would agree. You
ask him. He always says, just do whatever you want.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
He's what would Sam Zirsky say? Though?
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Right question?
Speaker 2 (15:32):
But here's the here's the opposite or the related B question.
Do you just start poking at letters?
Speaker 4 (15:39):
You know?
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Do you do you just put in p R R
I A N just in case it might be a
word that.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
You don't have every once in a while. Every once
in a while, that's but but I've done enough of
the B to know that it's very rare that A
that a word that a word that gets you to genius.
It's very rare that I just have no clue what
the word is. Fair.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Yeah, Sam, probably you have voids putting in the words
that are super.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Obscure, so it's likely it's very rare that I'm just like,
I have no idea what that is, although it does happen.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Well, there are some that like Box, like was just
recently and I'm like Box, like.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Oh interesting.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
I mean I know, I like, But you.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Know real one that always I always see that I don't.
I always forget is tom Tit?
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Oh? Sure, tom Tit?
Speaker 2 (16:26):
What is that doing in there?
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Right?
Speaker 2 (16:28):
You're gonna not accept raffia, but you're gonna put tom Tit.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
He's dirty, Maybe he's maybe.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
I always I always forget tom Tit.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Never forget tim Tit. Michael. That's what takeaway for our audience. U, Well,
you did fantastic. You know your except for the most
hard in the scale, you knew everything. I do have
one for the folks at home that you can guess
as well in your mind. The actress the actress name
(17:00):
micro Bobby Brown, micro Bobby Brown, what is uh uh?
Who is that? And what is the scale? And come
back tomorrow because we'll tell you. And in the meantime
you might want to check out our Instagram teed at
Hello Puzzlers, where we have fun, original puzzles, all sorts
(17:21):
of updates from the breaking puzzle news, and we will
of course meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles
that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
Hello puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle officer, here
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode, the wonderful, brilliant, funny,
personable Puzzling.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Michael Showalter joined us and we played a little game
of what we called show Walter Show, where every answer
is the surname of a person and then a animal
hidden in the side that surname actually at the beginning
of that surname. So AJ did a little extra credit
like this, if you have pointy ears and a bushy tail,
(18:09):
you might be this carnivorous animal. That's a Southern accent,
of course, which is meant to clue the author Jeff Foxworthy,
and that's the Foxworthy fox. So you enjoyed the puzzles,
and if you're enjoying the puzzler, you'll come back next time.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
You hear
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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