July 25, 2025 • 19 mins
Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: director of games at the Atlantic, Caleb Madison!
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 puzzlers. Let's start with a quick puzzle. What do
these three things have in common? One Catherine Hepburn's accent.
Two Bermuda, the island Bermuda. Three, an article halfway through
a certain prestigious monthly magazine. Again, what do these three
(00:22):
things have in common? The actress Catherine Hepburn's accent, the
island Bermuda, or the Canary Islands for that matter. And
an article halfway through a certain prestigious monthly magazine edited
by Jeffrey Goldberg. In case that helps, the answer and
more puzzling goodness after the break, Hello puzzlers, Welcome back
(00:48):
to the Puzzler Podcast. The straw boater atop your puzzle.
Barbershop quartet baritone.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
And how many people actually know what a barbershop.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
I'm trying to revive. It's one of the good I'm
your host, A J. Jacobs, and I'm here, of course,
with Chief puzzle Officer Greg Pliska and Greg. Before the break,
we asked this little riddle courtesy of senior puzzler Andrea Schomberg.
She wrote it, Thank you, Andrea. The riddle is, what
do these three things have in common? One Catherine Hepburn's
(01:18):
accent to the island of Bermuda, and three an article
halfway through a certain prestigious monthly magazine, do you have
any ideas?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
And then you gave like twenty that really made it
clear to you you're looking I'm just fair, fair, you're
looking for mid Atlantic. Though I'm I'm not sure Bermuda
is really in the middle.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Well, you know what, I know you so well. I
know you so well. I knew you would be quibbling
about that the geography. I could not find anything closer.
And anyway, Andrea wrote it, so.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
You can't go through Andrea underneath the no.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
I'm telling you.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I would also want to say mid Atlantic is a
great cryptic crossword indicator for the letters A, N, because
they're right in the middle.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Oh, very nice, very nice.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
In case you need that at any point.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
And just to go over it really quickly. Catherine Hepburn,
she had that kind of half British, half Boston accent
that actors had in the forties Canary Islands or Bermuda,
middle Ish of the Atlantic.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yea.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
And of course if an article is halfway through the
Atlantic magazine, it's mid Atlantic. I thought this was an
appropriate puzzle because our guest today happens to work at
the very magazine The Atlantic. He is director of Games,
a new title for The Atlantic, for the website and
also the magazine, and it's new. You got to check
(02:49):
it out. They have a selection of puzzles. They have crosswords,
some really interesting new word games that we were going
to talk about and even try out.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Welcome Caleb, Thank you for having me, A and Greg
and everyone.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
We are delighted. You don't have a mid Atlantic accent, but.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
We could all adopt them for this one. I don't
know if I can, but I don't. Well, you're a
great at accent. Come on, thank you.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
But yes, we are excited and we tried out your games,
and first of all, they're so creative and new. I'm
delighted you were able to find new ways to puzzle people.
It's exciting that there are still new formats to be had.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
I think the possibilities are pretty limitless. There's a lot
of information out there and the phone can do just
about anything with it.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
So we want to talk about the origin story of
the game section at the Atlantic. But first I thought
we could do a quick puzzle.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Sounds great.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
This puzzle happens to be about the illustrious, fascinating and
weird history of the Atlantic magazine, and it is a
fascinating history. In fact, one of the weirdest incidents in
the history of the Atlantic just happened a few months ago.
I think you know what I'm talking about. The signal gait,
as it's called. It was editor Jeffrey Goldberg was mistakenly
(04:18):
included in a top secret text chain with the Vice
President and Secretary of Defense of the United States. Just crazy.
One puzzle is how did he get added?
Speaker 4 (04:30):
That was?
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I think they solved that puzzle. But this one is
about other fascinating parts of Atlantic's history. And the way
it works is I'm going to give you two facts
about the Atlantic. One is real and one is false,
and you have to tell me which is which. Okay,
are you ready?
Speaker 4 (04:47):
I think I'm ready.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Yeah, all right, here's the first one. The first one
is about the Lord Byron scandal. So here's the background
before the question. In eighteen sixty nine, Harriet beecher Stowe,
the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, wrote an a scandalous
article in the Atlantic about the British poet Lord Byron.
(05:09):
It was super juicy, a lot of tea. She revealed
that Byron was having an alleged affair with his half sister.
So that's all true. Now, which of these two things
occurred after the article came out? There were fifteen thousand
new subscriptions or there were fifteen thousand canceled subscriptions.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Well, if it had happened in the past ten years,
it would be very easy to.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Answer.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Given our current media economy, it would have been fifteen
thousand new subscriptions. But I feel like there was a
more surtanical vibe to culture back then.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
So I'm going to go with canceled.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Oh that's some good logic and it paid off. That
is correct. Yes, fifteen thousand canceled subscriptions. All right, Ready
for your second one?
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yeah, yeah, get me Wait but I did it? Get
did Lord? Did Lord Byron get more Twitter follows as
a result or not?
Speaker 4 (06:11):
His half sister definitely dead?
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Yeah right, yeah, she's on.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
They got a reality TV out of it, exactly Byron
and Byron.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
It was great.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
It was a great show.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
All right, For your second one, we have Mark Twain.
This was a famous piece by Mark Twain in eighteen
seventy six, and it was the first piece in media
history about a spam. Mark Twain wrote about a man
who kept getting letter after letter of useless information or
(06:45):
b earworms. Twain wrote about a tune that a man
could not get out of his head?
Speaker 4 (06:53):
What year was this? Did you say?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
What year?
Speaker 1 (06:56):
This was eighteen seventy six, and it was It was
not email, of course, it was actual letters that he
was receiving.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
He probably didn't use the word space, is.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Right, but it's okay, But nor did he use the
word earworms, if that happens to be the one. But
the concepts were.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
This is This is a tough one because, ah, I
imagine he was a notable figure by then, so I
could see him getting a ton of letters. But also
I feel like the early music culture was kind of
starting up, so I could see that be So I'm
(07:37):
going to go with spam. I'm gonna go with spam.
I think that's more.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Before you give the answer a j I just want
to say I grew up in a house where my
father had a copy of the collected works of Mark Twain,
and I remember reading a short story that I think
is about this very thing.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
I think I.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Think it is the other one. It's the earworm ones.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
You are correct, Sorry, Caleb, no shame, but yes.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
I haven't read every issue of The Atlantic Monthly.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
That wasn't a requirement. Oh they are so easy over there.
All right, I'm only going to do one more, even
though we've got a couple more that are good. But
I'm going to do a boxing one, which is Ernest
Hemingway's first short story for The Atlantic magazine was about
a two boxers who kept hitting each other in the groin,
(08:34):
or b two boxers who pantsed each other. Again, they
didn't use he didn't use that word, but they pulled
down their boxing shorts each other's boxing shorts. So is
it a groin punching or b pantsing?
Speaker 4 (08:50):
I think panting feels a little bit less directly.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Masculine confrontational. So I'm going to go with punching in
the groin, knowing Hemingway.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
It's a very Hemingway. I'm with you too, Caleb. I
did not grow up with the collective works of Hemingway,
but I would.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Pantsing might feel a little silly, although I now now
I got to read this story.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Either way, it's good. That's a good hook.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Well, there you go, and you are correct. It was.
It was punching in the groin. It was called fifty
grand and they both wanted to throw the fight spoiler alert,
they both wanted to lose because of a bet. So
the way the lose was to punch each other below
the belt and get disqualified. So it was sort of
(09:38):
a race to the bottom, so to speak. Uh literally,
Andyeah exactly. All right, Well, I'm going to pause there
because let's get to the Atlantic Games. There are several
great games that you've come up with. I thought we
(10:00):
would try to play one live. I say, we move
on to Caleb's Inferno. So Caleb describe how this one works.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Caleb's Inferno.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
My Inferno is yes, really, I don't want to do
the royal we I am the I'm the Satan. In
this context of the Inferno, I make a puzzle every
month that's in the back page of The Atlantic Monthly
magazine and also on the site that is a variety
(10:35):
of the crossword that is tall and thin and gets
more difficult.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
As you descend.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
About midway through you start sweating towards the bottom. You
will be you know, encased in eternal health fire.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
And I brought some in the Yeah, in the nicest
way possiles.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
No, no, no, I mean it's a pleasure. No, no, no,
it is. It is truly torturous.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
We're we're banking on the sato masochism market here for
for this this puzzle.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
And if you're not, you can just stay at the top,
exactly the top, opt in.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
And then you've You've got the people I'm sure who
start at the bottom and say, well kill but I solve.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
I've never I've never had someone say that to me.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
And if I did, If I did, I think I
would just walk away.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
I don't know. There's you can solve cab anyway. There's
no wrong way to solve the puzzle.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
It's supposed to be welcoming to any level of solvership
and collaborative right.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
I love it because you know the idea of getting harder.
In the New York Times they do it over a week.
But you're doing it.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
All right.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
So do you have some infernal clues that I could try?
What do you got?
Speaker 4 (11:56):
Okay, I'll start. I'll tell you the amount of letters
in each we would love.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
That's fair.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
I'll start with an easy one, or relatively easy one.
Because there are only three letters. Okay, a reaction to
a lit match.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Perhaps, uh huh reaction lit man? Well yeah, interesting, So
I have a theory, all right, I want to hear
your theory.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I think we are not talking about it could be
we're not talking about a physically ignited stick right on
which fire appears. Not that kind of lit man, but
but a match like a joining up of two people
that's lit. Are we are we in the right ballpark?
Speaker 4 (12:40):
Caleb here, It's funny that you use the word ballpark.
That's all I say.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Oh oh, it's that kind of match of sports match
could be.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
That's what I was thinking. All right, there, there we go.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
That's so good match though, it is so very nice.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
Love it?
Speaker 5 (13:02):
All right?
Speaker 1 (13:03):
You got you got two more?
Speaker 4 (13:04):
We got, I got two more.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
I'm going to do a very I'll give you the
hint that this is relevant to other parts of the podcast.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
Bye bye. Not by design. I didn't look in the
future and see what you guys were going to talk about.
Strain on one's mind, strain on one.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
And how many how many letters?
Speaker 4 (13:27):
This is seven letters.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
So it's not going to be the strain of like I.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Know what it is. He gave us the clue. All right,
you know no, No, that's okay. It's even without the clue,
we would have go ahead. AJ, What were you thinking,
strain on one's mind.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Oh, strain on one's mind. Well, I was thinking other
meanings of strain, like calendar, uh, strain on one's mind.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
But there's a noun meaning of strain that we're looking for.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Strain so oh, like a strain of uh, like a
strain of virus, that kind of strain.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
No, But although virus is you know, it spreads virally,
this thing earworm?
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Is it?
Speaker 6 (14:14):
There?
Speaker 2 (14:14):
You go? Yes, that's a weird of music. Strain of
music that is weird.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
I look at that. All right, well done, you got.
Let's do one more.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
I think we got okay, Yes, this one is letters.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
You said that you're not sure.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
And the clue is twisty as a story.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Twisty as a story. Well, I do know that. Will Schwartz.
I asked him what his favorite was, and I think
it's it turns into another story and the answer is
spiral staircase. So is this in the same ballpark as
we say?
Speaker 2 (14:58):
A twisty story, twisty a story of a building. I'm
thinking of Frank Gary's architecture right the way. It doesn't.
It is not about parallel lines. It always twists and look,
but I don't think Gary. Esk is the word you're
looking for here.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
So I'm going to give you the first letter.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Sure, D.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
D D. So is that.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
I'm hung up on? Esk is the end?
Speaker 4 (15:25):
This is? This is the one interesting.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
I feel like there's a layer of you know, double meaning.
We're not getting twist. Oh, I got it, I got it, Dickenzie,
here's the key. It's when I said there's a layer
of double meaning we're missing and I thought, well, we've
played with story all we could. We haven't really thought
about twist. The oh oh, Oliver twist.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Nice love it, well done, good job, well, thank you, Caleb.
If people can go to the what's the easiest way
google Atlantic games, that's.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
How Atlantic dot com slash games. It's also a tab
on the Atlantic app, which is a really fun way
to play.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Well, thank you for joining us, Caleb. Of course, it's delight.
Thanks for having me on, and I do have an
extra credit for the puzzlers at home. This is about
the esteemed history of the Atlantic magazine. The Atlantic Got
Egg on its face. In the late nineteen twenties, the
magazine ran what it thought were newly discovered love letters
(16:33):
from Abraham Lincoln to his first love and Rutledge. How
did the forgery get exposed? They turned out to be fake?
Was it A the Lincoln impostor spelled Abe Lincoln's mother's
name incorrectly, or b The Lincoln impostor said he was
(16:54):
planning to move to Kansas at a time when Kansas
did not yet exist. So that is the question. How
was the How did the fake Abraham Lincoln letters get exposed?
Did Lincoln's imposter spell his mom's name wrong? Or say
he was moving to Kansas when there is no Kansas?
(17:16):
Come back tomorrow to find out the answer. And in
the meantime, if you want more puzzling content, we do
it at Instagram at Hello Puzzlers. That's Hello Puzzlers, all
sorts of fun visual puzzles and highlights from the show.
And we will see you next time for more puzzling
puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 6 (17:41):
Hey Puzzlers, it's Greg Plisko, You're chief Puzzle Officer up
from the Puzzle ab with the extra credit answer from
our previous episode. Ryan Patch and John Seal of the
Great Gotham Challenge joined us, and I gave them the
Great Godtham Challenge, where every answer is a famous New
York location changed so that it has the names of
different meats in it. Your extra credit clue was this.
(18:05):
For many years, this was the longest single span suspension
bridge in the world, connecting Brooklyn, home to deer meat lovers,
with Staten Island, where they prefer the tissue found inside bones.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
That.
Speaker 6 (18:17):
Of course, the real bridge is the Verizano Narrows Bridge,
but our meaty version is the venison O Marrows Bridge.
Venicson is deer meat, marrow is the delicious stuff inside
meat bones.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
I hope you enjoyed that.
Speaker 6 (18:33):
Hope you enjoy a little meat or non meat or
meat substitute or impossible meat or whatever you like. We'll
catch you here next time.
Speaker 5 (18:45):
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 of iHeart Podcasts. The
show is produced by JODYE. Abrigan and Britney Brown of
Roulette Productions, with production support from Claire Bidegair Curtis. Our
(19:06):
senior puzzler is Andrea Schoenberg. The Puzzler with Aj Jacobs
is a co production with New House Ideas and is
distributed by Sir Acted Pathos No, not him at all,
just rearrange the letters. Distributed by iHeart Podcasts. If you
want to know more about puzzling puzzles, please check out
(19:28):
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. For
all your puzzling needs, go visit the puzzler dot com.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
See you there,
Hello puzzlers. Let's start with a quick puzzle. What do
these three things have in common? One Catherine Hepburn's accent.
Two Bermuda, the island Bermuda. Three, an article halfway through
a certain prestigious monthly magazine. Again, what do these three
(00:22):
things have in common? The actress Catherine Hepburn's accent, the
island Bermuda, or the Canary Islands for that matter. And
an article halfway through a certain prestigious monthly magazine edited
by Jeffrey Goldberg. In case that helps, the answer and
more puzzling goodness after the break, Hello puzzlers, Welcome back
(00:48):
to the Puzzler Podcast. The straw boater atop your puzzle.
Barbershop quartet baritone.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
And how many people actually know what a barbershop.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
I'm trying to revive. It's one of the good I'm
your host, A J. Jacobs, and I'm here, of course,
with Chief puzzle Officer Greg Pliska and Greg. Before the break,
we asked this little riddle courtesy of senior puzzler Andrea Schomberg.
She wrote it, Thank you, Andrea. The riddle is, what
do these three things have in common? One Catherine Hepburn's
(01:18):
accent to the island of Bermuda, and three an article
halfway through a certain prestigious monthly magazine, do you have
any ideas?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
And then you gave like twenty that really made it
clear to you you're looking I'm just fair, fair, you're
looking for mid Atlantic. Though I'm I'm not sure Bermuda
is really in the middle.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Well, you know what, I know you so well. I
know you so well. I knew you would be quibbling
about that the geography. I could not find anything closer.
And anyway, Andrea wrote it, so.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
You can't go through Andrea underneath the no.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
I'm telling you.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I would also want to say mid Atlantic is a
great cryptic crossword indicator for the letters A, N, because
they're right in the middle.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Oh, very nice, very nice.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
In case you need that at any point.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
And just to go over it really quickly. Catherine Hepburn,
she had that kind of half British, half Boston accent
that actors had in the forties Canary Islands or Bermuda,
middle Ish of the Atlantic.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yea.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
And of course if an article is halfway through the
Atlantic magazine, it's mid Atlantic. I thought this was an
appropriate puzzle because our guest today happens to work at
the very magazine The Atlantic. He is director of Games,
a new title for The Atlantic, for the website and
also the magazine, and it's new. You got to check
(02:49):
it out. They have a selection of puzzles. They have crosswords,
some really interesting new word games that we were going
to talk about and even try out.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Welcome Caleb, Thank you for having me, A and Greg
and everyone.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
We are delighted. You don't have a mid Atlantic accent, but.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
We could all adopt them for this one. I don't
know if I can, but I don't. Well, you're a
great at accent. Come on, thank you.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
But yes, we are excited and we tried out your games,
and first of all, they're so creative and new. I'm
delighted you were able to find new ways to puzzle people.
It's exciting that there are still new formats to be had.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
I think the possibilities are pretty limitless. There's a lot
of information out there and the phone can do just
about anything with it.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
So we want to talk about the origin story of
the game section at the Atlantic. But first I thought
we could do a quick puzzle.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Sounds great.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
This puzzle happens to be about the illustrious, fascinating and
weird history of the Atlantic magazine, and it is a
fascinating history. In fact, one of the weirdest incidents in
the history of the Atlantic just happened a few months ago.
I think you know what I'm talking about. The signal gait,
as it's called. It was editor Jeffrey Goldberg was mistakenly
(04:18):
included in a top secret text chain with the Vice
President and Secretary of Defense of the United States. Just crazy.
One puzzle is how did he get added?
Speaker 4 (04:30):
That was?
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I think they solved that puzzle. But this one is
about other fascinating parts of Atlantic's history. And the way
it works is I'm going to give you two facts
about the Atlantic. One is real and one is false,
and you have to tell me which is which. Okay,
are you ready?
Speaker 4 (04:47):
I think I'm ready.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Yeah, all right, here's the first one. The first one
is about the Lord Byron scandal. So here's the background
before the question. In eighteen sixty nine, Harriet beecher Stowe,
the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, wrote an a scandalous
article in the Atlantic about the British poet Lord Byron.
(05:09):
It was super juicy, a lot of tea. She revealed
that Byron was having an alleged affair with his half sister.
So that's all true. Now, which of these two things
occurred after the article came out? There were fifteen thousand
new subscriptions or there were fifteen thousand canceled subscriptions.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Well, if it had happened in the past ten years,
it would be very easy to.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Answer.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Given our current media economy, it would have been fifteen
thousand new subscriptions. But I feel like there was a
more surtanical vibe to culture back then.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
So I'm going to go with canceled.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Oh that's some good logic and it paid off. That
is correct. Yes, fifteen thousand canceled subscriptions. All right, Ready
for your second one?
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yeah, yeah, get me Wait but I did it? Get
did Lord? Did Lord Byron get more Twitter follows as
a result or not?
Speaker 4 (06:11):
His half sister definitely dead?
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Yeah right, yeah, she's on.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
They got a reality TV out of it, exactly Byron
and Byron.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
It was great.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
It was a great show.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
All right, For your second one, we have Mark Twain.
This was a famous piece by Mark Twain in eighteen
seventy six, and it was the first piece in media
history about a spam. Mark Twain wrote about a man
who kept getting letter after letter of useless information or
(06:45):
b earworms. Twain wrote about a tune that a man
could not get out of his head?
Speaker 4 (06:53):
What year was this? Did you say?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
What year?
Speaker 1 (06:56):
This was eighteen seventy six, and it was It was
not email, of course, it was actual letters that he
was receiving.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
He probably didn't use the word space, is.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Right, but it's okay, But nor did he use the
word earworms, if that happens to be the one. But
the concepts were.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
This is This is a tough one because, ah, I
imagine he was a notable figure by then, so I
could see him getting a ton of letters. But also
I feel like the early music culture was kind of
starting up, so I could see that be So I'm
(07:37):
going to go with spam. I'm gonna go with spam.
I think that's more.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Before you give the answer a j I just want
to say I grew up in a house where my
father had a copy of the collected works of Mark Twain,
and I remember reading a short story that I think
is about this very thing.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
I think I.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Think it is the other one. It's the earworm ones.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
You are correct, Sorry, Caleb, no shame, but yes.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
I haven't read every issue of The Atlantic Monthly.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
That wasn't a requirement. Oh they are so easy over there.
All right, I'm only going to do one more, even
though we've got a couple more that are good. But
I'm going to do a boxing one, which is Ernest
Hemingway's first short story for The Atlantic magazine was about
a two boxers who kept hitting each other in the groin,
(08:34):
or b two boxers who pantsed each other. Again, they
didn't use he didn't use that word, but they pulled
down their boxing shorts each other's boxing shorts. So is
it a groin punching or b pantsing?
Speaker 4 (08:50):
I think panting feels a little bit less directly.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Masculine confrontational. So I'm going to go with punching in
the groin, knowing Hemingway.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
It's a very Hemingway. I'm with you too, Caleb. I
did not grow up with the collective works of Hemingway,
but I would.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Pantsing might feel a little silly, although I now now
I got to read this story.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Either way, it's good. That's a good hook.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Well, there you go, and you are correct. It was.
It was punching in the groin. It was called fifty
grand and they both wanted to throw the fight spoiler alert,
they both wanted to lose because of a bet. So
the way the lose was to punch each other below
the belt and get disqualified. So it was sort of
(09:38):
a race to the bottom, so to speak. Uh literally,
Andyeah exactly. All right, Well, I'm going to pause there
because let's get to the Atlantic Games. There are several
great games that you've come up with. I thought we
(10:00):
would try to play one live. I say, we move
on to Caleb's Inferno. So Caleb describe how this one works.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Caleb's Inferno.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
My Inferno is yes, really, I don't want to do
the royal we I am the I'm the Satan. In
this context of the Inferno, I make a puzzle every
month that's in the back page of The Atlantic Monthly
magazine and also on the site that is a variety
(10:35):
of the crossword that is tall and thin and gets
more difficult.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
As you descend.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
About midway through you start sweating towards the bottom. You
will be you know, encased in eternal health fire.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
And I brought some in the Yeah, in the nicest
way possiles.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
No, no, no, I mean it's a pleasure. No, no, no,
it is. It is truly torturous.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
We're we're banking on the sato masochism market here for
for this this puzzle.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
And if you're not, you can just stay at the top,
exactly the top, opt in.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
And then you've You've got the people I'm sure who
start at the bottom and say, well kill but I solve.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
I've never I've never had someone say that to me.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
And if I did, If I did, I think I
would just walk away.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
I don't know. There's you can solve cab anyway. There's
no wrong way to solve the puzzle.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
It's supposed to be welcoming to any level of solvership
and collaborative right.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
I love it because you know the idea of getting harder.
In the New York Times they do it over a week.
But you're doing it.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
All right.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
So do you have some infernal clues that I could try?
What do you got?
Speaker 4 (11:56):
Okay, I'll start. I'll tell you the amount of letters
in each we would love.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
That's fair.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
I'll start with an easy one, or relatively easy one.
Because there are only three letters. Okay, a reaction to
a lit match.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Perhaps, uh huh reaction lit man? Well yeah, interesting, So
I have a theory, all right, I want to hear
your theory.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I think we are not talking about it could be
we're not talking about a physically ignited stick right on
which fire appears. Not that kind of lit man, but
but a match like a joining up of two people
that's lit. Are we are we in the right ballpark?
Speaker 4 (12:40):
Caleb here, It's funny that you use the word ballpark.
That's all I say.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Oh oh, it's that kind of match of sports match
could be.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
That's what I was thinking. All right, there, there we go.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
That's so good match though, it is so very nice.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
Love it?
Speaker 5 (13:02):
All right?
Speaker 1 (13:03):
You got you got two more?
Speaker 4 (13:04):
We got, I got two more.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
I'm going to do a very I'll give you the
hint that this is relevant to other parts of the podcast.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
Bye bye. Not by design. I didn't look in the
future and see what you guys were going to talk about.
Strain on one's mind, strain on one.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
And how many how many letters?
Speaker 4 (13:27):
This is seven letters.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
So it's not going to be the strain of like I.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Know what it is. He gave us the clue. All right,
you know no, No, that's okay. It's even without the clue,
we would have go ahead. AJ, What were you thinking,
strain on one's mind.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Oh, strain on one's mind. Well, I was thinking other
meanings of strain, like calendar, uh, strain on one's mind.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
But there's a noun meaning of strain that we're looking for.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Strain so oh, like a strain of uh, like a
strain of virus, that kind of strain.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
No, But although virus is you know, it spreads virally,
this thing earworm?
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Is it?
Speaker 6 (14:14):
There?
Speaker 2 (14:14):
You go? Yes, that's a weird of music. Strain of
music that is weird.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
I look at that. All right, well done, you got.
Let's do one more.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
I think we got okay, Yes, this one is letters.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
You said that you're not sure.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
And the clue is twisty as a story.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Twisty as a story. Well, I do know that. Will Schwartz.
I asked him what his favorite was, and I think
it's it turns into another story and the answer is
spiral staircase. So is this in the same ballpark as
we say?
Speaker 2 (14:58):
A twisty story, twisty a story of a building. I'm
thinking of Frank Gary's architecture right the way. It doesn't.
It is not about parallel lines. It always twists and look,
but I don't think Gary. Esk is the word you're
looking for here.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
So I'm going to give you the first letter.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Sure, D.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
D D. So is that.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
I'm hung up on? Esk is the end?
Speaker 4 (15:25):
This is? This is the one interesting.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
I feel like there's a layer of you know, double meaning.
We're not getting twist. Oh, I got it, I got it, Dickenzie,
here's the key. It's when I said there's a layer
of double meaning we're missing and I thought, well, we've
played with story all we could. We haven't really thought
about twist. The oh oh, Oliver twist.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Nice love it, well done, good job, well, thank you, Caleb.
If people can go to the what's the easiest way
google Atlantic games, that's.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
How Atlantic dot com slash games. It's also a tab
on the Atlantic app, which is a really fun way
to play.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Well, thank you for joining us, Caleb. Of course, it's delight.
Thanks for having me on, and I do have an
extra credit for the puzzlers at home. This is about
the esteemed history of the Atlantic magazine. The Atlantic Got
Egg on its face. In the late nineteen twenties, the
magazine ran what it thought were newly discovered love letters
(16:33):
from Abraham Lincoln to his first love and Rutledge. How
did the forgery get exposed? They turned out to be fake?
Was it A the Lincoln impostor spelled Abe Lincoln's mother's
name incorrectly, or b The Lincoln impostor said he was
(16:54):
planning to move to Kansas at a time when Kansas
did not yet exist. So that is the question. How
was the How did the fake Abraham Lincoln letters get exposed?
Did Lincoln's imposter spell his mom's name wrong? Or say
he was moving to Kansas when there is no Kansas?
(17:16):
Come back tomorrow to find out the answer. And in
the meantime, if you want more puzzling content, we do
it at Instagram at Hello Puzzlers. That's Hello Puzzlers, all
sorts of fun visual puzzles and highlights from the show.
And we will see you next time for more puzzling
puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 6 (17:41):
Hey Puzzlers, it's Greg Plisko, You're chief Puzzle Officer up
from the Puzzle ab with the extra credit answer from
our previous episode. Ryan Patch and John Seal of the
Great Gotham Challenge joined us, and I gave them the
Great Godtham Challenge, where every answer is a famous New
York location changed so that it has the names of
different meats in it. Your extra credit clue was this.
(18:05):
For many years, this was the longest single span suspension
bridge in the world, connecting Brooklyn, home to deer meat lovers,
with Staten Island, where they prefer the tissue found inside bones.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
That.
Speaker 6 (18:17):
Of course, the real bridge is the Verizano Narrows Bridge,
but our meaty version is the venison O Marrows Bridge.
Venicson is deer meat, marrow is the delicious stuff inside
meat bones.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
I hope you enjoyed that.
Speaker 6 (18:33):
Hope you enjoy a little meat or non meat or
meat substitute or impossible meat or whatever you like. We'll
catch you here next time.
Speaker 5 (18:45):
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 of iHeart Podcasts. The
show is produced by JODYE. Abrigan and Britney Brown of
Roulette Productions, with production support from Claire Bidegair Curtis. Our
(19:06):
senior puzzler is Andrea Schoenberg. The Puzzler with Aj Jacobs
is a co production with New House Ideas and is
distributed by Sir Acted Pathos No, not him at all,
just rearrange the letters. Distributed by iHeart Podcasts. If you
want to know more about puzzling puzzles, please check out
(19:28):
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. For
all your puzzling needs, go visit the puzzler dot com.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
See you there,
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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