April 4, 2025 • 21 mins
Hello, Puzzlers! Today, A.J. and Greg give you a little peek behind the curtain and take you on a tour of the Puzzle Lab.
Join host A.J. Jacobs and his guests as they puzzle–and laugh–their way through new spins on old favorites, like anagrams and palindromes, as well as quirky originals such as “Ask AI” and audio rebuses.
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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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 is
the maximum amount a hypothetical contestant could win in a
single episode of Jeopardy if they are the perfect contestant
and get everything correct, correct wage of the maximum mount
at the right time. What is the maximum possible haul
for a single Jeopardy episode? Is it A two hundred
(00:24):
fifty six two hundred B four hundred forty eight hundred
dollars or C five hundred and sixty six four hundred dollars.
The answer and more puzzling goodness after the break. Hello puzzlers,
(00:45):
Welcome back to the Puzzler Podcast. The voice alveolar lateral
approximant in your puzzle phone knowlogy. I am your host,
AJ Jacobs. I'm here, of course, with Chief Puzzle Officer
Dreg Puliska. First, thanks thank you to listener Ken Miller
for that opening phrase, which was a jawbreaker. I had
(01:07):
to practice and I don't even know if I got
it right. But we asked, what is the maximum you
amount you can win on one episode of Jeopardy assuming
everything went perfectly two hundred and fifty six thousand, changed
four hundred and forty thousand dollars in change or five
hundred sixty six thousand and change. What what do you think?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
I don't do math puzzles on Fridays.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Oh good, get outd But.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
I'm gonna let's go with b. Let's go with the
middle one.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
The middle one is incorrect. The maximum is five hundred
sixty six thousand, four hundred dollars. But you have to
get everything right that Everything on Daily Double has to
be that the lowest amount because you don't want to
waste your money on so it has to be a
two hundred dollars clue.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
It's very interesting, very and then you have to do
the really stupid thing, which is you've won every question,
You've got every question right, you have, you know, hundreds
of thousands of dollars, your opponents have zero, and yet
on Final Jeopardy you're going to bet it all again.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
That is correct, exactly. You have to be very dumb
but very smart. I've brought it up because well, I
brought up because Mina Times, the wonderful sports analyst, was
our guest this week, and she is a celebrity Jeopardy.
I don't know champion yet, but she is a certainly
(02:28):
in the mix or was in the mix, and we
loved having her, So thank you for joining us Mina.
And we have reached the end of the Mina Chimes week,
which means that it is a very special date is
inside the Puzzle Lab where we give a peek behind
the puzzler curtain. Today, we're going to stop by the
(02:51):
Puzzle Lab newsticker to see what are the exciting breaking
news in the land of puzzles. And we've also got
some interesting feedback from our delightful listeners. So let's start
with the news item. The news, the news.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I got news for y'all. Oh, literally and literally, I've
got news for y'all.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
All right, I didn't know you were from text. I
know your wife likes country music.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
But yeah, but no, I got news actually about y'all. Actually,
our our producer, Neelie Lohman, who is from the South, Yes,
found this news item. Dictionary dot Com had a their
equivalent of March Madness. They call the Spring Slang Showdown
where they start with thirty two words that are kind
of regional slang words and they have people vote head
(03:46):
to head between pairs of words and they eventually come
down to a final face off between two words to
be which one ever is the most sort of most
iconic regionalism or the most what do they call it?
They call it the the best regional word. So you
start in your regions which word is most iconic to
your region? And then you end up with a showdown
(04:09):
at the end. Stoked went up against y'all for the
best regional word, and y'all one with fifty three percent
of the votes.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Well, Stoked is from what area? Northeast California?
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Soaked is a westward Yeah, right west? And there are
four regions. There's West, South, Northeast, and midwest. Great, how
they split it up. So here's what I thought i'd do.
It's kind of a multiple choice puzzle, a different, little
different depending upon the region. But you pick a region
you want to start with, and I'm going to give
you a little quiz upon about some of the words
(04:47):
that were in the competition.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
All right, I'm excited, And by the way, quickly on y'all.
I am a big fan of y'all when it's used
as you plural, because English is weird that we don't
have a plural in person like we should have you
and y'all. But nearly. Our producer once told me that
y'all can be singular, yeah, which makes no sense to me,
(05:10):
no offense to my Southerners.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
How do you feel about the word use use?
Speaker 1 (05:14):
I think is great. I mean you've got to do something.
We got to do something, all right? So anyway, there
I go.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
So which region would you like to start with?
Speaker 1 (05:23):
West Coast? Please?
Speaker 2 (05:24):
West? So the West region. We're going to look at
two matchups. The first one is scuok Them, which went
up against Tiphi.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
I do not know either of those. Oh, and Andrea.
I'm going to have to bring in our associate plus
Andrea to help me with these regionalisms.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
All right, all right, well spoiler alert, scuok Them won
sixty seven percent versus hiphis as one of the more
iconic regionalisms in their face off schuok Them. You get
three choices. Does skookum mean impressive or first rate? Or
does it mean be used with the word to stay
(06:01):
out of sight as in to play scuokum or see
a kind of marshmallow fluff, especially as an ice cream topping,
which is.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
I I can't remember a but I'm gonna go with
it anyway.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
The first there too, ridiculous. Yes, you are correct. Skukum
means impressive or first rate. It actually comes from a
Chinook word meaning ghost or monster. Cool, so impressive, large thing. Great.
So here's another matchup from the from the West. Chimmy
Changa versus Cutty see U t t y Chimmy Changa
(06:39):
versus Cutty. I'm gonna give you start with chimmy changa.
Does it mean a similar to a friend with benefits
someone you have a casual sexual relationship with. Is your
chimmy changa? Or is it a dance originating in the
San Diego rave scene? Or is it a crispy deep
(06:59):
fried tortilla? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Andrea, what do you got?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Well?
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yeah, Jimmy chunga is our food. I mean, I don't
know if there's a slang to that. I always yes,
I had heard of jimmy chungas just because I love
the word.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
All right, pick another region.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
How about the Northeast?
Speaker 2 (07:20):
The Northeast, because you are all three of us are
here from the Northeast. This is just gonna be a
quick round. I'm going to give you the word. You
tell me what it is, just call it out. Great,
no multiple choice? All right? These are the eight words
entered in the northeast. Number one was bubbler.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
I don't know bubbler is a boba t what is it?
I know what a bubbler is.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
It's a water fountain.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Correct, very good? Okay, all right?
Speaker 2 (07:47):
What about the grinder?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Grinder? Is a HOGI or a subway or right?
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Those two faced off? Grinder won that matchup.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
What about Jimmy's I do know this one. Yeah, sprinkles.
Sprinkles correct name, So anyway, it's if you call them Jimmy's.
I don't know what is wrong with you?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Oh? Got it? You you prefer sprinkles over Jimmy's.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
It's correct. It is just I'm just saying, you know,
there's an objectively correct word. Of course I don't believe that.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
But how about rotary?
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Rotary? You mean those things in the road, like the turnarounds, turnabouts?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Ye, roundabouts, yeah, round about exactly, a little circular traffic
thing in the road. Jimmy's beat rotary in the in
that round, But then Jimmy's beat grinder in the next round.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Oh okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
What about nor'easter snow storm?
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Yeah, massive snowstorm.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Massive violent storm. Sometimes you know, big winds usually snow
and frap trap.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Okay, I think I know it. It's andrea, it's a
it's a cabinet. Some people call it, I believe a
molted or like a milk shake.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Milkshake would be yes, very unique word to the Northeast frat.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
By the way, Northeastern is so on the nose, like, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
It did it did beat frap. I'm afraid to say
it's too on the nose.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
What about clicker, remote control?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Remote control? And carriage as a slang term, so not
like a baby carriage. There's a a way in which
Northeasterners use this.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Uh well, I don't that. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
I don't know. You know, it's when you're shopping. It's
the shopping cart carriage. So yeah, like it, like it? Well,
you know, neither did the voters Clicker beat carriage, nor
easter beat clicker, nor easter beat Jimmy's nor Eastern went
up again, stoked in the semis and stoked one as
(09:55):
you know, and beat y'all all right, should I do?
Let me do extra credit? All right? Your extra credit
are one of the words from the South. The word
is toboggan, which lost to y'all in the in the
in their matchup toboggan is it a a large sandwich
(10:16):
similar to a hole? Year grinder? B a verb meaning
to slide behind a pickup truck, often on a piece
of cardboard, like let's all go to boggin in down
the street or see the hat you wear while sledding?
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Mmmm? All right, you got to come back next time
to get the answer. But we also are not done
with our tour of the Puzzle Lab, so we have
(10:53):
arrived at the listener feedback corner where people have been
sending us all of their notions and kudos and corrections.
And one that got a lot of feedback. Who knew
was that we talked about which celebrities, which famous people
(11:16):
had the most vowel heavy names, because, as you know,
in puzzling and crosswords especially, a lot of vowels in
a name is very highly coveted. It makes it better
for creating puzzles. Layla Ali, we had the example the
boxer and daughter of Muhammad Ali with six vowels, just
(11:38):
three consonants. Friend of the show, Peter Gordon, great crossword constructor,
sent in like twenty five of these vowel heavy names
one of my favorites was and you'll see why, Julia
Louis Dreyfus, the actress. She has nine vowels and eight consonants.
(11:59):
But here's the twist. She played Elaine Bennis on Seinfeld,
also mostly vowels. Here's the double twist. She played Selena
Meyer on Veep, also mostly vowels, so she is like
the most vowel heavy person in the history of the
human race. As for the I think we could say
(12:22):
that who's gonna challenge us? Well, I will challenge myself
because the highest percentage. Peter tried to figure out who
had the highest percentage. Some of the contenders are isau
A Yoki, who is a Japanese golfer, and he had
six vowels to only two. That's up there, and I'll
(12:46):
give you one more. How about anuk A ma A Nuke, Yeah,
the actress, French actress, she has seven out of ten,
seventy percent. Miller, who who had been pronouncing those crazy He.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Has way more consonants and vowels, Ken Miller.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
It's true he does not, but he suggested no. Naomi
Osaka and Amelia Badilia, the fictional character that he pointed
out was an inspiration for at least one puzzle on
the puzzler. We also had a letter from listener Andrew
Gill from Rochester, New York. This letter was about the
above mentioned Peter Gordon, the brilliant puzzle constructor. Peter was
(13:28):
a guest and he gave me a clue because he
sort of gave me his own puzzle. And the clue
was that it's a four letter name who was a
Jesus during part of Paul the Fifth's papacy Jesus. And
the answer was a Lou a l o U who
was a baseball player haeses Alou.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
So it was a tricky clue. Now Andrew knows his pope,
so he actually said, the pope in question is Paul
the sixth, not Paul the If Paul the Fifth was
in the sixteen hundreds, Paul the sixth was from the
nineteen sixties and seventies. Now this was surprising to me
because Peter Gordon rarely, if ever, makes mistakes, and I
(14:11):
emailed Peter. Turns out he did get the clue correct
when he put it in the New York Times crossword
puzzle or a printed puzzle, but he did misread it
during the show. He's not in errant, no no one is.
But he did get a correct for when it counted.
He just misspoke a little, but he couldn't get it
by Andrew Gill, who knows his popes. And you know
(14:31):
who else knows his popes is Greg Pliska. Gres loves
his pope, so he mostly the reason why you have
brought this all up was so that Greg could give
me a pope quiz. So Greg, what do you got?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
You need it? Everybody needs a pope quiz once in
a while. I can't claim to have an exhaustive knowledge
of the two hundred and sixty six or so popes
there that there have been, but you know, popes are
in the news. The current pope as of this recording,
has just gotten out of the hospital. Conclave is all
about picking a new pope, so popes are on the
(15:06):
on the mind. I thought I'd write a puzzle where
every answer is the name of a pope, but clued
in an unexpected way. And I'm not asking you for
the number. You don't need to know the number. We'll
let our listener, you know, tell us the correct numbers.
But you just need the name and it's a it's
a name that you probably recognize as a pope's name,
and I'm cluing it in some other way, so you
(15:27):
should be able to get it that way as well.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Can I call in Andrea Schoenberg?
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Associated you always can call in Andrea Schoenberg. Great, so, okay, good.
So we've got the two Jews working on the pope puzzle.
I'm very excited about this. It's gonna be perfect, all right.
Number one, The Pope who likes his eggs on an
English muffin with bacon, ham and hollandaise sauce.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Oh okay, it took me a second.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
But Andrea Benedict, Yes, Pope Benedict, any one of the
sixteen Benedicts be correct? Sixteen y The Pope who is
not George Ringo.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Okay, I like that. I like that because George Ringo,
you're missing John Paul or Paul John John John Paul.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
There were two John Paul's. That was it, very recent,
John Paul's. The Pope who is zealously devoted to religion,
hiesis pious? Very good. I know. You could say, well,
that's all the popes except for those few in like
the sixteenth century who were really the Borgias who became popes.
But no pious is the one we're looking for. How
(16:36):
many piouses were there? There were twelve Piases I believe
twelve twelve PII Pope DiCaprio or Tolstoy.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
All right, I think I got Pope Leo Hope Leo.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Yeah, one of the thirteen. Pope who does a podcast
with Pope Arnold Arnold.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Oh, I think I got it, got it. Yeah, I
have a little advantage because I happen to know my
full name is Arnold, and so I think greg is
going for Gregory his full name.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
My full name exactly, exactly. One of the sixteen Pope
Gregory's pope who was found not guilty of any crimes. Ah, innocent,
Pope innocent one through thirteen, Pope who lives in the city.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Yeah, that is interesting. There were a couple of Pope Urbans.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Yes, there were eight of them, actually Pope Urbans, Pope
who had a bird named Tweety.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Okay, I think a guy is a Pope Sylvester.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Ope Sylvester for of those pope who likes candy hearts.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Oh, interesting, I don't know. I mean, is there a
Pope Valentine.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
There is exactly one O there is?
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Oh interesting, did not know?
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Here's one you. I think you'll get it, though you
will have never heard of this Pope. A pope who
needs a friend.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Oh, Pope lonely. That's what I was thinking too, Pope
podcast Oh Conan, Pope Conan.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
There was a Conan co n O n who was
Pope for three hundred and thirty five days back in
the seventh century.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
That is fun. I didn't know.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
And your last one, animated Pope who explains the true
meaning of Christmas?
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Oh all right, not Pope Grinch, no.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
No different Christmas special. Frosty Linus Linus exactly a second
and Lucy from Peanuts Linus does the speech about the
meaning of Christmas. That's a kind of iconic Christmas classic. Well,
there you go. That's well done on your Pope's I
have another Pope puzzle that will do another day. We'll
(18:53):
save it for a different Friday. We'll do fun with
Pope's part two.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
There's always room for more Pope quizzes. But in the meantime,
you might want to check out the puzzler Instagram feed,
which is super fun. It's at Hello puzzlers, We post
original puzzles, puzzle news, all sorts of fun stuff, and
of course we will meet you here next time for
more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you hopingly.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Hello, puzzlers, it's your chief puzzle Officer, Greg Pliska here
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode. AJ
did some bird calls. These were all sounds of people
with the bird names, and this was your extra credit clip.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
I usually don't have them serve on the skateboard, but
I get it.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
That, of course is the great skateboarder Tony Hawk. And
pretty much you could guess that if you had heard
him say skateboard, who else could it be? Tony Hawk?
Thanks for playing along and we'll catch you here next time.
Thanks for playing along with the team here at the
Puzzler with AJ Jacobs. I'm Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle Officer.
(20:09):
Our executive producers are Neelie Lohman and Adam Newhouse of
New House Ideas and Lindsay Hoffman of iHeart Podcasts. The
show is produced by Jody Averragan and Brittany Brown of
Roulette Productions, with production support from Claire Biddegar, Curtis. Our
associate producer is Andrea Schoenberg. The Puzzler with AJ Jacobs
(20:29):
is a co production with New House Ideas and is
distributed by Chap's Diet Roast Yum Now I'm kidding. It's
distributed by iHeart Podcasts. If you want to know more
about puzzling puzzles, please check out the book The Puzzler
by AJ Jacobs, a history of puzzles that The New
York Times called fun and funny. It features an original
(20:52):
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. See you there,
Hello puzzlers. Let's start with a quick puzzle. What is
the maximum amount a hypothetical contestant could win in a
single episode of Jeopardy if they are the perfect contestant
and get everything correct, correct wage of the maximum mount
at the right time. What is the maximum possible haul
for a single Jeopardy episode? Is it A two hundred
(00:24):
fifty six two hundred B four hundred forty eight hundred
dollars or C five hundred and sixty six four hundred dollars.
The answer and more puzzling goodness after the break. Hello puzzlers,
(00:45):
Welcome back to the Puzzler Podcast. The voice alveolar lateral
approximant in your puzzle phone knowlogy. I am your host,
AJ Jacobs. I'm here, of course, with Chief Puzzle Officer
Dreg Puliska. First, thanks thank you to listener Ken Miller
for that opening phrase, which was a jawbreaker. I had
(01:07):
to practice and I don't even know if I got
it right. But we asked, what is the maximum you
amount you can win on one episode of Jeopardy assuming
everything went perfectly two hundred and fifty six thousand, changed
four hundred and forty thousand dollars in change or five
hundred sixty six thousand and change. What what do you think?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
I don't do math puzzles on Fridays.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Oh good, get outd But.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
I'm gonna let's go with b. Let's go with the
middle one.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
The middle one is incorrect. The maximum is five hundred
sixty six thousand, four hundred dollars. But you have to
get everything right that Everything on Daily Double has to
be that the lowest amount because you don't want to
waste your money on so it has to be a
two hundred dollars clue.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
It's very interesting, very and then you have to do
the really stupid thing, which is you've won every question,
You've got every question right, you have, you know, hundreds
of thousands of dollars, your opponents have zero, and yet
on Final Jeopardy you're going to bet it all again.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
That is correct, exactly. You have to be very dumb
but very smart. I've brought it up because well, I
brought up because Mina Times, the wonderful sports analyst, was
our guest this week, and she is a celebrity Jeopardy.
I don't know champion yet, but she is a certainly
(02:28):
in the mix or was in the mix, and we
loved having her, So thank you for joining us Mina.
And we have reached the end of the Mina Chimes week,
which means that it is a very special date is
inside the Puzzle Lab where we give a peek behind
the puzzler curtain. Today, we're going to stop by the
(02:51):
Puzzle Lab newsticker to see what are the exciting breaking
news in the land of puzzles. And we've also got
some interesting feedback from our delightful listeners. So let's start
with the news item. The news, the news.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I got news for y'all. Oh, literally and literally, I've
got news for y'all.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
All right, I didn't know you were from text. I
know your wife likes country music.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
But yeah, but no, I got news actually about y'all. Actually,
our our producer, Neelie Lohman, who is from the South, Yes,
found this news item. Dictionary dot Com had a their
equivalent of March Madness. They call the Spring Slang Showdown
where they start with thirty two words that are kind
of regional slang words and they have people vote head
(03:46):
to head between pairs of words and they eventually come
down to a final face off between two words to
be which one ever is the most sort of most
iconic regionalism or the most what do they call it?
They call it the the best regional word. So you
start in your regions which word is most iconic to
your region? And then you end up with a showdown
(04:09):
at the end. Stoked went up against y'all for the
best regional word, and y'all one with fifty three percent
of the votes.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Well, Stoked is from what area? Northeast California?
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Soaked is a westward Yeah, right west? And there are
four regions. There's West, South, Northeast, and midwest. Great, how
they split it up. So here's what I thought i'd do.
It's kind of a multiple choice puzzle, a different, little
different depending upon the region. But you pick a region
you want to start with, and I'm going to give
you a little quiz upon about some of the words
(04:47):
that were in the competition.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
All right, I'm excited, And by the way, quickly on y'all.
I am a big fan of y'all when it's used
as you plural, because English is weird that we don't
have a plural in person like we should have you
and y'all. But nearly. Our producer once told me that
y'all can be singular, yeah, which makes no sense to me,
(05:10):
no offense to my Southerners.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
How do you feel about the word use use?
Speaker 1 (05:14):
I think is great. I mean you've got to do something.
We got to do something, all right? So anyway, there
I go.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
So which region would you like to start with?
Speaker 1 (05:23):
West Coast? Please?
Speaker 2 (05:24):
West? So the West region. We're going to look at
two matchups. The first one is scuok Them, which went
up against Tiphi.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
I do not know either of those. Oh, and Andrea.
I'm going to have to bring in our associate plus
Andrea to help me with these regionalisms.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
All right, all right, well spoiler alert, scuok Them won
sixty seven percent versus hiphis as one of the more
iconic regionalisms in their face off schuok Them. You get
three choices. Does skookum mean impressive or first rate? Or
does it mean be used with the word to stay
(06:01):
out of sight as in to play scuokum or see
a kind of marshmallow fluff, especially as an ice cream topping,
which is.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
I I can't remember a but I'm gonna go with
it anyway.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
The first there too, ridiculous. Yes, you are correct. Skukum
means impressive or first rate. It actually comes from a
Chinook word meaning ghost or monster. Cool, so impressive, large thing. Great.
So here's another matchup from the from the West. Chimmy
Changa versus Cutty see U t t y Chimmy Changa
(06:39):
versus Cutty. I'm gonna give you start with chimmy changa.
Does it mean a similar to a friend with benefits
someone you have a casual sexual relationship with. Is your
chimmy changa? Or is it a dance originating in the
San Diego rave scene? Or is it a crispy deep
(06:59):
fried tortilla? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Andrea, what do you got?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Well?
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yeah, Jimmy chunga is our food. I mean, I don't
know if there's a slang to that. I always yes,
I had heard of jimmy chungas just because I love
the word.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
All right, pick another region.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
How about the Northeast?
Speaker 2 (07:20):
The Northeast, because you are all three of us are
here from the Northeast. This is just gonna be a
quick round. I'm going to give you the word. You
tell me what it is, just call it out. Great,
no multiple choice? All right? These are the eight words
entered in the northeast. Number one was bubbler.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
I don't know bubbler is a boba t what is it?
I know what a bubbler is.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
It's a water fountain.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Correct, very good? Okay, all right?
Speaker 2 (07:47):
What about the grinder?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Grinder? Is a HOGI or a subway or right?
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Those two faced off? Grinder won that matchup.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
What about Jimmy's I do know this one. Yeah, sprinkles.
Sprinkles correct name, So anyway, it's if you call them Jimmy's.
I don't know what is wrong with you?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Oh? Got it? You you prefer sprinkles over Jimmy's.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
It's correct. It is just I'm just saying, you know,
there's an objectively correct word. Of course I don't believe that.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
But how about rotary?
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Rotary? You mean those things in the road, like the turnarounds, turnabouts?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Ye, roundabouts, yeah, round about exactly, a little circular traffic
thing in the road. Jimmy's beat rotary in the in
that round, But then Jimmy's beat grinder in the next round.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Oh okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
What about nor'easter snow storm?
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Yeah, massive snowstorm.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Massive violent storm. Sometimes you know, big winds usually snow
and frap trap.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Okay, I think I know it. It's andrea, it's a
it's a cabinet. Some people call it, I believe a
molted or like a milk shake.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Milkshake would be yes, very unique word to the Northeast frat.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
By the way, Northeastern is so on the nose, like, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
It did it did beat frap. I'm afraid to say
it's too on the nose.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
What about clicker, remote control?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Remote control? And carriage as a slang term, so not
like a baby carriage. There's a a way in which
Northeasterners use this.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Uh well, I don't that. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
I don't know. You know, it's when you're shopping. It's
the shopping cart carriage. So yeah, like it, like it? Well,
you know, neither did the voters Clicker beat carriage, nor
easter beat clicker, nor easter beat Jimmy's nor Eastern went
up again, stoked in the semis and stoked one as
(09:55):
you know, and beat y'all all right, should I do?
Let me do extra credit? All right? Your extra credit
are one of the words from the South. The word
is toboggan, which lost to y'all in the in the
in their matchup toboggan is it a a large sandwich
(10:16):
similar to a hole? Year grinder? B a verb meaning
to slide behind a pickup truck, often on a piece
of cardboard, like let's all go to boggin in down
the street or see the hat you wear while sledding?
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Mmmm? All right, you got to come back next time
to get the answer. But we also are not done
with our tour of the Puzzle Lab, so we have
(10:53):
arrived at the listener feedback corner where people have been
sending us all of their notions and kudos and corrections.
And one that got a lot of feedback. Who knew
was that we talked about which celebrities, which famous people
(11:16):
had the most vowel heavy names, because, as you know,
in puzzling and crosswords especially, a lot of vowels in
a name is very highly coveted. It makes it better
for creating puzzles. Layla Ali, we had the example the
boxer and daughter of Muhammad Ali with six vowels, just
(11:38):
three consonants. Friend of the show, Peter Gordon, great crossword constructor,
sent in like twenty five of these vowel heavy names
one of my favorites was and you'll see why, Julia
Louis Dreyfus, the actress. She has nine vowels and eight consonants.
(11:59):
But here's the twist. She played Elaine Bennis on Seinfeld,
also mostly vowels. Here's the double twist. She played Selena
Meyer on Veep, also mostly vowels, so she is like
the most vowel heavy person in the history of the
human race. As for the I think we could say
(12:22):
that who's gonna challenge us? Well, I will challenge myself
because the highest percentage. Peter tried to figure out who
had the highest percentage. Some of the contenders are isau
A Yoki, who is a Japanese golfer, and he had
six vowels to only two. That's up there, and I'll
(12:46):
give you one more. How about anuk A ma A Nuke, Yeah,
the actress, French actress, she has seven out of ten,
seventy percent. Miller, who who had been pronouncing those crazy He.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Has way more consonants and vowels, Ken Miller.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
It's true he does not, but he suggested no. Naomi
Osaka and Amelia Badilia, the fictional character that he pointed
out was an inspiration for at least one puzzle on
the puzzler. We also had a letter from listener Andrew
Gill from Rochester, New York. This letter was about the
above mentioned Peter Gordon, the brilliant puzzle constructor. Peter was
(13:28):
a guest and he gave me a clue because he
sort of gave me his own puzzle. And the clue
was that it's a four letter name who was a
Jesus during part of Paul the Fifth's papacy Jesus. And
the answer was a Lou a l o U who
was a baseball player haeses Alou.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
So it was a tricky clue. Now Andrew knows his pope,
so he actually said, the pope in question is Paul
the sixth, not Paul the If Paul the Fifth was
in the sixteen hundreds, Paul the sixth was from the
nineteen sixties and seventies. Now this was surprising to me
because Peter Gordon rarely, if ever, makes mistakes, and I
(14:11):
emailed Peter. Turns out he did get the clue correct
when he put it in the New York Times crossword
puzzle or a printed puzzle, but he did misread it
during the show. He's not in errant, no no one is.
But he did get a correct for when it counted.
He just misspoke a little, but he couldn't get it
by Andrew Gill, who knows his popes. And you know
(14:31):
who else knows his popes is Greg Pliska. Gres loves
his pope, so he mostly the reason why you have
brought this all up was so that Greg could give
me a pope quiz. So Greg, what do you got?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
You need it? Everybody needs a pope quiz once in
a while. I can't claim to have an exhaustive knowledge
of the two hundred and sixty six or so popes
there that there have been, but you know, popes are
in the news. The current pope as of this recording,
has just gotten out of the hospital. Conclave is all
about picking a new pope, so popes are on the
(15:06):
on the mind. I thought I'd write a puzzle where
every answer is the name of a pope, but clued
in an unexpected way. And I'm not asking you for
the number. You don't need to know the number. We'll
let our listener, you know, tell us the correct numbers.
But you just need the name and it's a it's
a name that you probably recognize as a pope's name,
and I'm cluing it in some other way, so you
(15:27):
should be able to get it that way as well.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Can I call in Andrea Schoenberg?
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Associated you always can call in Andrea Schoenberg. Great, so, okay, good.
So we've got the two Jews working on the pope puzzle.
I'm very excited about this. It's gonna be perfect, all right.
Number one, The Pope who likes his eggs on an
English muffin with bacon, ham and hollandaise sauce.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Oh okay, it took me a second.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
But Andrea Benedict, Yes, Pope Benedict, any one of the
sixteen Benedicts be correct? Sixteen y The Pope who is
not George Ringo.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Okay, I like that. I like that because George Ringo,
you're missing John Paul or Paul John John John Paul.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
There were two John Paul's. That was it, very recent,
John Paul's. The Pope who is zealously devoted to religion,
hiesis pious? Very good. I know. You could say, well,
that's all the popes except for those few in like
the sixteenth century who were really the Borgias who became popes.
But no pious is the one we're looking for. How
(16:36):
many piouses were there? There were twelve Piases I believe
twelve twelve PII Pope DiCaprio or Tolstoy.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
All right, I think I got Pope Leo Hope Leo.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Yeah, one of the thirteen. Pope who does a podcast
with Pope Arnold Arnold.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Oh, I think I got it, got it. Yeah, I
have a little advantage because I happen to know my
full name is Arnold, and so I think greg is
going for Gregory his full name.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
My full name exactly, exactly. One of the sixteen Pope
Gregory's pope who was found not guilty of any crimes. Ah, innocent,
Pope innocent one through thirteen, Pope who lives in the city.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Yeah, that is interesting. There were a couple of Pope Urbans.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Yes, there were eight of them, actually Pope Urbans, Pope
who had a bird named Tweety.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Okay, I think a guy is a Pope Sylvester.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Ope Sylvester for of those pope who likes candy hearts.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Oh, interesting, I don't know. I mean, is there a
Pope Valentine.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
There is exactly one O there is?
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Oh interesting, did not know?
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Here's one you. I think you'll get it, though you
will have never heard of this Pope. A pope who
needs a friend.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Oh, Pope lonely. That's what I was thinking too, Pope
podcast Oh Conan, Pope Conan.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
There was a Conan co n O n who was
Pope for three hundred and thirty five days back in
the seventh century.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
That is fun. I didn't know.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
And your last one, animated Pope who explains the true
meaning of Christmas?
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Oh all right, not Pope Grinch, no.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
No different Christmas special. Frosty Linus Linus exactly a second
and Lucy from Peanuts Linus does the speech about the
meaning of Christmas. That's a kind of iconic Christmas classic. Well,
there you go. That's well done on your Pope's I
have another Pope puzzle that will do another day. We'll
(18:53):
save it for a different Friday. We'll do fun with
Pope's part two.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
There's always room for more Pope quizzes. But in the meantime,
you might want to check out the puzzler Instagram feed,
which is super fun. It's at Hello puzzlers, We post
original puzzles, puzzle news, all sorts of fun stuff, and
of course we will meet you here next time for
more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you hopingly.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Hello, puzzlers, it's your chief puzzle Officer, Greg Pliska here
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode. AJ
did some bird calls. These were all sounds of people
with the bird names, and this was your extra credit clip.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
I usually don't have them serve on the skateboard, but
I get it.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
That, of course is the great skateboarder Tony Hawk. And
pretty much you could guess that if you had heard
him say skateboard, who else could it be? Tony Hawk?
Thanks for playing along and we'll catch you here next time.
Thanks for playing along with the team here at the
Puzzler with AJ Jacobs. I'm Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle Officer.
(20:09):
Our executive producers are Neelie Lohman and Adam Newhouse of
New House Ideas and Lindsay Hoffman of iHeart Podcasts. The
show is produced by Jody Averragan and Brittany Brown of
Roulette Productions, with production support from Claire Biddegar, Curtis. Our
associate producer is Andrea Schoenberg. The Puzzler with AJ Jacobs
(20:29):
is a co production with New House Ideas and is
distributed by Chap's Diet Roast Yum Now I'm kidding. It's
distributed by iHeart Podcasts. If you want to know more
about puzzling puzzles, please check out the book The Puzzler
by AJ Jacobs, a history of puzzles that The New
York Times called fun and funny. It features an original
(20:52):
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. See you there,
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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