April 3, 2025 • 18 mins
Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: our very own Chief Puzzle Officer, Greg Pliska.
Join host A.J. Jacobs and his guests as they puzzle–and laugh–their way through new spins on old favorites, like anagrams and palindromes, as well as quirky originals such as “Ask AI” and audio rebuses.
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 (00:02):
Hello puzzlers. Let's start with a quick puzzle. This mini
puzzle was inspired by the first car I ever owned,
which was a Toyota ter Cell. Until last week, I
had no idea what a ur cell was. Turns out
it's a bird. Ter Cell is a male falcon. Greg
(00:22):
is nodding his head. He knew, of course. So my
question to you is, can you come up with another
car named after a bird? How about two such cars?
How about twenty? And I will accept real birds, but
I'll also accept mythical birds such as the thunderbird. But
maybe not the thunderbird itself, because I just gave that
as an example. The answers, at least some of them.
(00:45):
After the break, Hello puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast.
The Body Sized Indentations in your Puzzle Memory Foam Mattress.
I'm your host, AJ Jacobson. I'm here, of course with
chief puzzle offs are Greg Puliska.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Welcome body sized indentation.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I feel sure. I mean, maybe it's because I I
weigh enough that the whole body makes an indentation.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Well, I think most humans weigh enough for their whole
body to make an indentation in the memory phone, Mattress,
I guess I don't know.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
I don't have a memory.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I don't either. I was just assuming. So if anyone
who owns a memory phone, Mattress can write in and
at the puzzler dot com.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Yeah, I think the puzzler is like the mint sized
indentation in your hotel memory phone, Mattress.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Okay, all right, people go back and in your mind
put that as the intro instead Greg. Before the break,
we asked listeners to come up with a car or
cars named after birds, any thoughts.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
The only subject worse for me than like TV sitcoms
is cars. I've never I've never owned a car.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
That's a lie. That's a lie. I had a car.
I had a car, and right out of college, I
bought a Chevy.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Nova, not a bird, not a bird.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
And it was winter in Massachusetts, and so I parked
it and it stayed parked for the whole winter. I
took it to be inspected in the spring. It didn't
pass inspection, and I sold it for one hundred dollars.
So I've never really owned a car.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
All right, And yet you call yourself an.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
American exactly an American dream. But I do have some answers.
I do have some answers.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yes, there was a firebird. There's a Pontiac firebird.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Correct, that is one.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
And there's gotta be somebody's got a like a hawk
or something.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
He's got to be there is. There is a Baker
hawk Studa Baker okay, good?
Speaker 1 (02:45):
And another hawk out there, humber hawk. There's a humbrun okay,
whatever that is.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
I like the Stutz bear cat.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
That's not a bird though, that's a bear cat.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
There was a road runner somebody made.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yes, Plymouth road runner done.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
That's all right.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Well, they're having to be at least twenty because on
the Internet, I will say the Internet has its problems.
It may have destroyed democracy, but I do love that
it has multiple articles about cars with bird names.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
At least we can get all the cards with bird
names that we want democracy democracy.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
We got renamed cars.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
So a couple more. The Buick Skylark, the AMC Eagle,
the Ford Falcon, the Reliant Robin which is a three
wheel car, and several others. You can write in with
your car bird car combos. I bring up cars and
birds because we have a puzzle today that is bird related.
(03:45):
It is an ornithological puzzle, and I'm going to give
it to you, Greg, if you are ready.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
I am ready.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
This puzzle is called name that bird call. But the
twist is these are not traditional bird calls, the ones
that birds are wish right. I don't know. I looked
it up. I think this is a canary or somewhat like.
That's something in the ballpark of Canary.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Wow, you're good. No, with some calls, I would tell
can I tell a bird call? Story?
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Of course?
Speaker 2 (04:16):
So when I was a kid, we lived in California,
but my cousins lived in Connecticut, and we were visiting
them when my cousin was a teenager and we're driving
and she we see this park with all these ducks.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
And she's like, uncle ed, uncle ed, that's my father.
You drive the car.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Stop, stop the car, I can do a duck call.
We pull the car over, we stop, roll down the windows,
and she leans over and she says, here, duck here,
duck here, duck.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
That is remarkable, and they must have come.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
They came flogging up for to My father had a
good sense of humor that day and laughed instead of
screaming at her for making him pull the car over.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
So that's the extent of my bird call knowledge.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Well, see, I assume she could do pretty much any
bird in the world based on that format.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Extraordinary, right, yeah, amazing.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Well, these bird calls are not that either. These bird
calls are audio clips from people or characters that have
bird like names. So, for instance, if I played the
audio clip that went something like good morning Vietnam, the
answer to that bird call might.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Be Robin Williams, Robin.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Williams exactly from the movie. And also Robin is a
type of bird. So these bird calls are by people.
Their first or last could be their first or last,
could be a real person, could be a character. Are
you ready for the first clip? Yes, all right, please
play it?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Dam up at Brooklyn noundown in trap that right next
to oh yeah, I mean, come on, this is a
great song. Alicia Keyes appears on this song Empire state
of Mind, right exactly, And that is the great jay
z jay z right.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
And that is a jay. A jay is a type
of birth. There many types of jay's blue and otherwise,
all right, how about the second clip? Okay, he's not
in his head, not as enthusiastically, but.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
No, no, that's a great song. And you know, I
just saw that one coming. If you're going to I
had to do it. I had singers with bird names.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
You gotta also do the great Taylor Swift exactly.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
And a swift is a type of bird, presumably a swift.
It's an afternym.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
If we were a sort of froofy you know, literary podcast,
that would have been Jonathan Swift.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Sober reading of Gulliver's travels. No, we're gonna go Ocean Street.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
You are a podcast of the there. Well, it's interesting
because this one, actually, next one is a literary Okay,
good play. Play a clip number three kicking Bird.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Well, yes, now that oh.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
So that just to clarify, that clip includes the word mockingbird.
But it set by someone who has a character.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
It's so great.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
I mean it's it's said by a guy whose last
name is what birds do?
Speaker 3 (07:25):
It's Gregory Peck.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Oh no, I wants the name of the character he
plays and to kill a mocking bird, which is Atticus Finch.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Well done, well done on the pe good one. All right,
we got another. We know a couple more. We got
plain clip number whatever, clip number it is.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Number four. Here we go.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Maybe you're Frank a census taken once tried to test me.
I ate his liver with some father beans and a
nice kendi. Now, now this is the woman. There are
two people in this clip. It is the woman who
is a little a little soft because she is she
is trying to get inside the mind of the other.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
The crazy man. That's right, sare he is crazy?
Speaker 1 (08:15):
All right? All right, I guess you could say that.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
So that's Hannibal Lecter at the end of that. And
it's from the silence of the lambs, right, They're not birds.
The lambs are not the birds. Anthony Hopkins not a bird.
Hannibal Lecter and is not a bird. But Jodie Foster
plays the character Clarice Starling.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Collar Reice Starling exactly, nicely done shed which is a and,
by the way, a fascinating story of starlings in America.
You should look at it. I remember the basics. Some
guy brought it over because he wanted to have Shakespeare
all of Shakespeare's birds. And then it turned out to
be the biggest pest in the world and it ruins
(08:55):
millions of dollars worth of crops.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Pretty sure I wanted to have for him elf in
his own little private thing, all of the birds that
are in Shakespeare.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Well, I think he had like an exhibition in Central
Park and he released the stars.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Them all there, you know, and that was your first mistake.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yes, all right, next.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Welcome to the Caribbean, talking Fish.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
It is my intention to come into one of these ships,
pick up a crew, and toal to the great pitage
Bunder and otherwise pill from all weasley black guys out.
All right, he's nodding his head.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Yeah, well it's good.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
It's great.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
It's a great clip because it starts with the sounds
of birds.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Oh interesting, I can't even hear it. It's in your ear.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
There are little bird sounds in it. And then you
get the guy with the funny accent.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
And at first I thought it was James Bond because
it's in the Caribbean, and I thought of the James
Bond films, which as a tangent, the name James Bond
comes from a book on ornithology that Ian Fleming had
on his coffee table by a guy named James Bond,
famous ornithologist.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
That is a great one. I happen to have known
that Dane Fleming was an ordentology fan. So it all
comes together. But it is not James.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
That wasn't James Bond. It was Johnny Depp as Captain
Jack Sparrow. That is correct.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
He was a Sparrow. All right, A couple more. What
about the next one? All right?
Speaker 2 (10:33):
He's rocking out, Yeah, rock out to that one all day.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Such a great song.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
That is a great song.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
And it's a it's a passage from a novel.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
That song.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Really, I had no idea.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, yeah, it's the lyric is taken from a book
or something, because if you look at the lyric, it's
not it's not in meter, it doesn't rhyme. It's just
a terrific sort of narrative about you know, this guy
in the bar and whatever. But that is Sheryl Crow
singing All I want to do is have some.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Fun exactly a Crow. And I was gonna do Russell
Crowe and Gladiator, but that's a homonym. I'm going with
that as c R. O E.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Very strict about the spelling I was.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
I was trying to be strong. I didn't do dan Quayle.
There were a couple others I skip.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Okay, should I do number number seven?
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Yes? Please?
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (11:31):
So We're at mass and somebody's chanting some hymney hymn
like thing.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Right, this is a little tricky. I don't expect you
to come up with the actual name of this person,
but his occupation or his title.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Yeah, oh, okay, okay, is this you know this is?
Is this a clip from the movie Conclave?
Speaker 1 (11:53):
It is not good? Have done that. I would have
bet that's a good one.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
No, this is Those are all cardinals in the movie Conclave, right.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
And this is an actual cardinal.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
We went actual one.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Yeah, I don't have.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
To it's cardinal you know, Cardinal Fang fetch the soft pillows. No,
that's money Python. I don't know which cardinal this is.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
This one happens to be Cardinal Burke and he is
saying prayer in Latin. But he is a cardinal. Uh,
all right, we got two more.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
You okay?
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (12:33):
I think I love you?
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Correct?
Speaker 2 (12:36):
And because I love you, you're gonna tell me the answer? No,
And you said this is my weakness.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Yeah, it's tea.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Oh that means it's a TV show. I was going.
I was trying to think of the artist, which also
is this is going to be?
Speaker 2 (12:50):
This is? You know, we were we were kids once
and we watched The Partridge Family.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
There it is. That was I will I won't make
you say as Keith Party, it's but Partridge Family. I'll
give it to you.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
But it's the whole family.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Yeah, that's the Susan Day playing the other Partridge and
Keith Partridge. And who is the mom who played the mom.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Florence Jones, Shirley Jones Jones in the same as Brady.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
But my wife would be ury.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
No, I would be furious. I have a big Brady
b fan.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
To all right, we'll play. This one's a little This
one's a little harder.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Number nine, Number nine.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Will come on people.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
This is the foundation of rap right there with the
great Gil Scott Herron.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
That's it, Harron.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
That is revolution will not be televised, It won't The
Revolution will be on a podcast.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Oh yeah, exactly, or it'll be on on TikTok it
will not be yeah right.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
I don't think that's what he meant, but that's you.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Know, well, you did fantastic. Actually, you know what, let
me do this one last one because it's a little tricky,
but I feel like you will be fine. God's plan.
I hope. Sometimes I won't, but.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
I feel good sometimes I don't like I find so.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
So here's the thing, you know, I am not.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
I do not have an exhausted knowledge of rap and
hip hop, but I'm You know that when you don't
know the thing, you can kind of get into the
space of the thing and think, well, is it Kendrick
Lamar No, I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
His name doesn't have a bird in it, and that
song might have been in a minor. That's got to
be Drake.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
It is Drake, exactly. It is drake because drake is
a male duck. A word is not used to not like,
why is Donald duck not Donald Drake, It's it's that's
a baffler.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
That's a that's a baffler, right there.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Yeah, no one uses drake. They all used Well, you
do know you are even like your cousin. You might
be even better than your cousin at ornithological knowledge and
rival Ian Fleming.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Even Ian Fleming. Do you know speaking of bird calls?
Speaker 2 (15:25):
You know the island the Spanish islands that are named
sound like they're name for birds, right right? The Canary
Islands actually named for dogs. But do you know the
language Sealbo Gomero.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
I'm not fluent, I can order a beer, of course.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah. Well you whistled at the beginning of this episode.
It is the famous whistling language of this town called
Lagomera in the Canary Islands, and it's they I think
it was developed from I think it's related to bird
calls in some way, but it was designed to communicate
over distance between the original inhabitants of the island.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
And it's a whistled language.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
So interesting. It wasn't yodling also a distance a communication.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Oh I don't know, maybe maybe could be. But anyway,
Lago Mara is really cool. Gomera, Silbo Gomero, Lagomera. Sorry
I said it was a town. It's actually an island
in the Canary Islands and they communicate by whistling.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Love it all right, I expect next time you to
give me a puzzle in that language.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
I'm gonna do a silva gomera puzzle.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Right. So well done, well done, And we do, as
always have an extra credit for the folks at home,
and here it is. I usually don't have them serve
on a skateboard, but I get it. I notice the
word skateboarding. That's a little hint. Notice the word skateboarding
(16:55):
in that little sound give it away if you say that,
I am, but otherwise it's too obscure, I feel. So
it's a dance to.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Well, that's the that's like the Drake one. It's like, well,
I don't necessarily know exactly who that is. But if
you're gonna mention skateboarding, yeah, Nike, exactly.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Well, great job, Greg, and uh plays folks. If you
have thirty seconds, We would love it if you would
rate the Puzzler on your favorite podcast platform because it
makes a huge difference in helping people and of course
birds find us and we will meet you here tomorrow
(17:36):
for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
Hello, puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle Officer, up
from the Puzzle Lab.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
With the extra credit answer.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
From our previous episode, we had Adam sank On to
play a couple puzzles with aj, one of which involve
adding a letter an A to the end of a
word to get a new word. And your extra credit
clue for.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
That one was if you add an A to the
end of the beer ingredient that Samuel Adams used to
make you get a Mediterranean nation, and that is malt
and Malta.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Now the other one is answers that have only the
vowel A in them, just like Adam Sank's name. And
this clue was this is a movie franchise about a
future where the gangs took over the highways, ready to
wage war for a tank of juice that of course
is mad Max juice, in that case being slang for gasoline.
(18:37):
So thanks for living in a dystopia with us, and
thanks for playing the puzzler, and we'll catch you next time.
Hello puzzlers. Let's start with a quick puzzle. This mini
puzzle was inspired by the first car I ever owned,
which was a Toyota ter Cell. Until last week, I
had no idea what a ur cell was. Turns out
it's a bird. Ter Cell is a male falcon. Greg
(00:22):
is nodding his head. He knew, of course. So my
question to you is, can you come up with another
car named after a bird? How about two such cars?
How about twenty? And I will accept real birds, but
I'll also accept mythical birds such as the thunderbird. But
maybe not the thunderbird itself, because I just gave that
as an example. The answers, at least some of them.
(00:45):
After the break, Hello puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast.
The Body Sized Indentations in your Puzzle Memory Foam Mattress.
I'm your host, AJ Jacobson. I'm here, of course with
chief puzzle offs are Greg Puliska.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Welcome body sized indentation.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I feel sure. I mean, maybe it's because I I
weigh enough that the whole body makes an indentation.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Well, I think most humans weigh enough for their whole
body to make an indentation in the memory phone, Mattress,
I guess I don't know.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
I don't have a memory.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I don't either. I was just assuming. So if anyone
who owns a memory phone, Mattress can write in and
at the puzzler dot com.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Yeah, I think the puzzler is like the mint sized
indentation in your hotel memory phone, Mattress.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Okay, all right, people go back and in your mind
put that as the intro instead Greg. Before the break,
we asked listeners to come up with a car or
cars named after birds, any thoughts.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
The only subject worse for me than like TV sitcoms
is cars. I've never I've never owned a car.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
That's a lie. That's a lie. I had a car.
I had a car, and right out of college, I
bought a Chevy.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Nova, not a bird, not a bird.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
And it was winter in Massachusetts, and so I parked
it and it stayed parked for the whole winter. I
took it to be inspected in the spring. It didn't
pass inspection, and I sold it for one hundred dollars.
So I've never really owned a car.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
All right, And yet you call yourself an.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
American exactly an American dream. But I do have some answers.
I do have some answers.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yes, there was a firebird. There's a Pontiac firebird.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Correct, that is one.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
And there's gotta be somebody's got a like a hawk
or something.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
He's got to be there is. There is a Baker
hawk Studa Baker okay, good?
Speaker 1 (02:45):
And another hawk out there, humber hawk. There's a humbrun okay,
whatever that is.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
I like the Stutz bear cat.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
That's not a bird though, that's a bear cat.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
There was a road runner somebody made.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yes, Plymouth road runner done.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
That's all right.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Well, they're having to be at least twenty because on
the Internet, I will say the Internet has its problems.
It may have destroyed democracy, but I do love that
it has multiple articles about cars with bird names.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
At least we can get all the cards with bird
names that we want democracy democracy.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
We got renamed cars.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
So a couple more. The Buick Skylark, the AMC Eagle,
the Ford Falcon, the Reliant Robin which is a three
wheel car, and several others. You can write in with
your car bird car combos. I bring up cars and
birds because we have a puzzle today that is bird related.
(03:45):
It is an ornithological puzzle, and I'm going to give
it to you, Greg, if you are ready.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
I am ready.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
This puzzle is called name that bird call. But the
twist is these are not traditional bird calls, the ones
that birds are wish right. I don't know. I looked
it up. I think this is a canary or somewhat like.
That's something in the ballpark of Canary.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Wow, you're good. No, with some calls, I would tell
can I tell a bird call? Story?
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Of course?
Speaker 2 (04:16):
So when I was a kid, we lived in California,
but my cousins lived in Connecticut, and we were visiting
them when my cousin was a teenager and we're driving
and she we see this park with all these ducks.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
And she's like, uncle ed, uncle ed, that's my father.
You drive the car.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Stop, stop the car, I can do a duck call.
We pull the car over, we stop, roll down the windows,
and she leans over and she says, here, duck here,
duck here, duck.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
That is remarkable, and they must have come.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
They came flogging up for to My father had a
good sense of humor that day and laughed instead of
screaming at her for making him pull the car over.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
So that's the extent of my bird call knowledge.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Well, see, I assume she could do pretty much any
bird in the world based on that format.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Extraordinary, right, yeah, amazing.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Well, these bird calls are not that either. These bird
calls are audio clips from people or characters that have
bird like names. So, for instance, if I played the
audio clip that went something like good morning Vietnam, the
answer to that bird call might.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Be Robin Williams, Robin.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Williams exactly from the movie. And also Robin is a
type of bird. So these bird calls are by people.
Their first or last could be their first or last,
could be a real person, could be a character. Are
you ready for the first clip? Yes, all right, please
play it?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Dam up at Brooklyn noundown in trap that right next
to oh yeah, I mean, come on, this is a
great song. Alicia Keyes appears on this song Empire state
of Mind, right exactly, And that is the great jay
z jay z right.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
And that is a jay. A jay is a type
of birth. There many types of jay's blue and otherwise,
all right, how about the second clip? Okay, he's not
in his head, not as enthusiastically, but.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
No, no, that's a great song. And you know, I
just saw that one coming. If you're going to I
had to do it. I had singers with bird names.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
You gotta also do the great Taylor Swift exactly.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
And a swift is a type of bird, presumably a swift.
It's an afternym.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
If we were a sort of froofy you know, literary podcast,
that would have been Jonathan Swift.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Sober reading of Gulliver's travels. No, we're gonna go Ocean Street.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
You are a podcast of the there. Well, it's interesting
because this one, actually, next one is a literary Okay,
good play. Play a clip number three kicking Bird.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Well, yes, now that oh.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
So that just to clarify, that clip includes the word mockingbird.
But it set by someone who has a character.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
It's so great.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
I mean it's it's said by a guy whose last
name is what birds do?
Speaker 3 (07:25):
It's Gregory Peck.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Oh no, I wants the name of the character he
plays and to kill a mocking bird, which is Atticus Finch.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Well done, well done on the pe good one. All right,
we got another. We know a couple more. We got
plain clip number whatever, clip number it is.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Number four. Here we go.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Maybe you're Frank a census taken once tried to test me.
I ate his liver with some father beans and a
nice kendi. Now, now this is the woman. There are
two people in this clip. It is the woman who
is a little a little soft because she is she
is trying to get inside the mind of the other.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
The crazy man. That's right, sare he is crazy?
Speaker 1 (08:15):
All right? All right, I guess you could say that.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
So that's Hannibal Lecter at the end of that. And
it's from the silence of the lambs, right, They're not birds.
The lambs are not the birds. Anthony Hopkins not a bird.
Hannibal Lecter and is not a bird. But Jodie Foster
plays the character Clarice Starling.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Collar Reice Starling exactly, nicely done shed which is a and,
by the way, a fascinating story of starlings in America.
You should look at it. I remember the basics. Some
guy brought it over because he wanted to have Shakespeare
all of Shakespeare's birds. And then it turned out to
be the biggest pest in the world and it ruins
(08:55):
millions of dollars worth of crops.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Pretty sure I wanted to have for him elf in
his own little private thing, all of the birds that
are in Shakespeare.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Well, I think he had like an exhibition in Central
Park and he released the stars.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Them all there, you know, and that was your first mistake.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yes, all right, next.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Welcome to the Caribbean, talking Fish.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
It is my intention to come into one of these ships,
pick up a crew, and toal to the great pitage
Bunder and otherwise pill from all weasley black guys out.
All right, he's nodding his head.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Yeah, well it's good.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
It's great.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
It's a great clip because it starts with the sounds
of birds.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Oh interesting, I can't even hear it. It's in your ear.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
There are little bird sounds in it. And then you
get the guy with the funny accent.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
And at first I thought it was James Bond because
it's in the Caribbean, and I thought of the James
Bond films, which as a tangent, the name James Bond
comes from a book on ornithology that Ian Fleming had
on his coffee table by a guy named James Bond,
famous ornithologist.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
That is a great one. I happen to have known
that Dane Fleming was an ordentology fan. So it all
comes together. But it is not James.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
That wasn't James Bond. It was Johnny Depp as Captain
Jack Sparrow. That is correct.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
He was a Sparrow. All right, A couple more. What
about the next one? All right?
Speaker 2 (10:33):
He's rocking out, Yeah, rock out to that one all day.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Such a great song.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
That is a great song.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
And it's a it's a passage from a novel.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
That song.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Really, I had no idea.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, yeah, it's the lyric is taken from a book
or something, because if you look at the lyric, it's
not it's not in meter, it doesn't rhyme. It's just
a terrific sort of narrative about you know, this guy
in the bar and whatever. But that is Sheryl Crow
singing All I want to do is have some.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Fun exactly a Crow. And I was gonna do Russell
Crowe and Gladiator, but that's a homonym. I'm going with
that as c R. O E.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Very strict about the spelling I was.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
I was trying to be strong. I didn't do dan Quayle.
There were a couple others I skip.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Okay, should I do number number seven?
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Yes? Please?
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (11:31):
So We're at mass and somebody's chanting some hymney hymn
like thing.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Right, this is a little tricky. I don't expect you
to come up with the actual name of this person,
but his occupation or his title.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Yeah, oh, okay, okay, is this you know this is?
Is this a clip from the movie Conclave?
Speaker 1 (11:53):
It is not good? Have done that. I would have
bet that's a good one.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
No, this is Those are all cardinals in the movie Conclave, right.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
And this is an actual cardinal.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
We went actual one.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Yeah, I don't have.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
To it's cardinal you know, Cardinal Fang fetch the soft pillows. No,
that's money Python. I don't know which cardinal this is.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
This one happens to be Cardinal Burke and he is
saying prayer in Latin. But he is a cardinal. Uh,
all right, we got two more.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
You okay?
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (12:33):
I think I love you?
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Correct?
Speaker 2 (12:36):
And because I love you, you're gonna tell me the answer? No,
And you said this is my weakness.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Yeah, it's tea.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Oh that means it's a TV show. I was going.
I was trying to think of the artist, which also
is this is going to be?
Speaker 2 (12:50):
This is? You know, we were we were kids once
and we watched The Partridge Family.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
There it is. That was I will I won't make
you say as Keith Party, it's but Partridge Family. I'll
give it to you.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
But it's the whole family.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Yeah, that's the Susan Day playing the other Partridge and
Keith Partridge. And who is the mom who played the mom.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Florence Jones, Shirley Jones Jones in the same as Brady.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
But my wife would be ury.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
No, I would be furious. I have a big Brady
b fan.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
To all right, we'll play. This one's a little This
one's a little harder.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Number nine, Number nine.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Will come on people.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
This is the foundation of rap right there with the
great Gil Scott Herron.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
That's it, Harron.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
That is revolution will not be televised, It won't The
Revolution will be on a podcast.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Oh yeah, exactly, or it'll be on on TikTok it
will not be yeah right.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
I don't think that's what he meant, but that's you.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Know, well, you did fantastic. Actually, you know what, let
me do this one last one because it's a little tricky,
but I feel like you will be fine. God's plan.
I hope. Sometimes I won't, but.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
I feel good sometimes I don't like I find so.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
So here's the thing, you know, I am not.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
I do not have an exhausted knowledge of rap and
hip hop, but I'm You know that when you don't
know the thing, you can kind of get into the
space of the thing and think, well, is it Kendrick
Lamar No, I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
His name doesn't have a bird in it, and that
song might have been in a minor. That's got to
be Drake.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
It is Drake, exactly. It is drake because drake is
a male duck. A word is not used to not like,
why is Donald duck not Donald Drake, It's it's that's
a baffler.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
That's a that's a baffler, right there.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Yeah, no one uses drake. They all used Well, you
do know you are even like your cousin. You might
be even better than your cousin at ornithological knowledge and
rival Ian Fleming.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Even Ian Fleming. Do you know speaking of bird calls?
Speaker 2 (15:25):
You know the island the Spanish islands that are named
sound like they're name for birds, right right? The Canary
Islands actually named for dogs. But do you know the
language Sealbo Gomero.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
I'm not fluent, I can order a beer, of course.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah. Well you whistled at the beginning of this episode.
It is the famous whistling language of this town called
Lagomera in the Canary Islands, and it's they I think
it was developed from I think it's related to bird
calls in some way, but it was designed to communicate
over distance between the original inhabitants of the island.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
And it's a whistled language.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
So interesting. It wasn't yodling also a distance a communication.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Oh I don't know, maybe maybe could be. But anyway,
Lago Mara is really cool. Gomera, Silbo Gomero, Lagomera. Sorry
I said it was a town. It's actually an island
in the Canary Islands and they communicate by whistling.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Love it all right, I expect next time you to
give me a puzzle in that language.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
I'm gonna do a silva gomera puzzle.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Right. So well done, well done, And we do, as
always have an extra credit for the folks at home,
and here it is. I usually don't have them serve
on a skateboard, but I get it. I notice the
word skateboarding. That's a little hint. Notice the word skateboarding
(16:55):
in that little sound give it away if you say that,
I am, but otherwise it's too obscure, I feel. So
it's a dance to.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Well, that's the that's like the Drake one. It's like, well,
I don't necessarily know exactly who that is. But if
you're gonna mention skateboarding, yeah, Nike, exactly.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Well, great job, Greg, and uh plays folks. If you
have thirty seconds, We would love it if you would
rate the Puzzler on your favorite podcast platform because it
makes a huge difference in helping people and of course
birds find us and we will meet you here tomorrow
(17:36):
for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
Hello, puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle Officer, up
from the Puzzle Lab.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
With the extra credit answer.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
From our previous episode, we had Adam sank On to
play a couple puzzles with aj, one of which involve
adding a letter an A to the end of a
word to get a new word. And your extra credit
clue for.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
That one was if you add an A to the
end of the beer ingredient that Samuel Adams used to
make you get a Mediterranean nation, and that is malt
and Malta.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Now the other one is answers that have only the
vowel A in them, just like Adam Sank's name. And
this clue was this is a movie franchise about a
future where the gangs took over the highways, ready to
wage war for a tank of juice that of course
is mad Max juice, in that case being slang for gasoline.
(18:37):
So thanks for living in a dystopia with us, and
thanks for playing the puzzler, and we'll catch you next time.
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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