Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello puzzlers. The Puzzling Crew is taking a quick break
this week to huddle in the puzzle lamb and come
up with lots of new brain teasers and brain ticklers
and brain taunters and other synonyms for puzzles. We will
be back on Monday, but in the meantime, please enjoy
some of our favorite episodes from this past year. Hello puzzlers,
(00:25):
Let's start with a quick puzzle. Please fill in the blanks.
The blank is up, and I came, I blank, I conquered.
So fill in those blanks and put them together, and
you've got the solution to the mini puzzle and to
a puzzle itself. So the answer and more puzzling goodness
(00:45):
after the break, Hello puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast,
the exclusive Elton John Party after puzzle Oscars. Before the break,
I gave you a little puzzle, I said, fill in
the blanks. The blank is up, I came, I blank,
(01:07):
I conquered. Put those blanks together, and you've got the
solution to the puzzle and a puzzle itself. The answer,
of course, is jig saw. So yes, the jig is up.
I came, I saw, I conquered Caesar's boast and the
answer is Jigsaw, which brings me to our guest today,
and I am so excited. It's a man who knows
(01:28):
from Jigsaw Puzzles. He is a brilliant writer and comedian
who's one man show Just for Us won both a
Tony and an Emmy. I'm talking about Alex Edelin.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Welcome Alex, Hey Bud, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Oh, we are thrilled. And by the way, as I
mentioned before the show, my ninety three year old mother
in law is very jealous right now, Wow, a little
crush on you.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Well, she's got poor taste. What can I say?
Speaker 1 (01:56):
I disagree. So I loved Just for Us, which is
streaming on HBO Max. It's it's funny and thought provoking
and as you as you know, it's about you, a
Jewish comedian attending a meeting of white supremacists and queens.
But what one of the many things we love is
(02:17):
that it has a little riff on Jagsaw puzzles.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
That's right, there's a there's a light motif of puzzle
in there. So it occurs. It occurs. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
So yeah, there's a woman who is a white supremacist,
who is working on a Jagsaw puzzle, but that should
not reflect on Jakesaw puzzles.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
But now, although I do say maybe maybe white supremacists,
Jakesaw puzzles are harder because all the faces look the same.
And there you go.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Have you been contacted by Jakesaw puzzle companies for a sponsorship?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
No, but some people have sent me Jagsaw puzzles and
and or told me their love of puzzling, and it's
actually really gratify and we usually talk puzzles. And also, yeah,
they're lovely gifts from lovely people.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Excellent. I mean, I do think, and you mentioned this
in the show, that there is a metaphorical element to Jigsaws,
and I mean it's kind of an obvious metaphor, but
it's actually true and profound.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
It is. No, it's completely I think I say that
it's a thorough I can remember exactly what it is,
but there's something very thorough and curious about it. And
how if you're missing in the metaphor is if you're
missing even one piece of a puzzle, you're not getting
a complete picture. And so yeah, that is that's a
(03:41):
very present metaphor in the show.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Love It well, we have a puzzle today that is
not a jigsaw puzzle because those are difficult to do
over audio, but it is about putting two pieces together.
So that's the closest we could come. So in this puzzle,
we're going to give you a clue, and the answer
is always going to be two words that sound exactly
alike but are spelled differently. So, for instance, if the
(04:07):
clue were a cold text mex dish of beans, tomato
and beef, so a cold text mex dish, the answer
is chili chili, so chili, as they are homonyms.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Yes, you're using the technical words, yes, exactly, so chili chili,
chili with a y and chili with an eye. I
actually I tried to come up with one that was
Alex Edelman related. The best I could do is not
a perfect one. But a high class Theater award would.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Be a Tony Tony like a high class theater.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
But there's that's the problem. That's why I say it's
not perfect. Side note, one of my favorite jokes of
yours was when you got the Tony and you said
in your speech that you do not feel humbled, that
in fact, this will make you a monster, because I'll
(05:10):
whenever I hear that in a speech, I think to myself,
that word may not mean what you think it means.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Of course, however, it means like I'm humbled by this word.
Although sometimes you can be humbled by a company that
you have been the august company that you have been
shoved into. That I buy a little more.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
All right, Well, yeah, I think you're more open minded
than i'm because if I were shoved into that company,
I would be like a maniac, like you said. All right,
so here we go. First, one neck where from Bangkok?
Neckwere from Bangkok?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Um?
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Generally it's it's men's neckwear. But I don't want to
be t ti ty ti exactly. All right, you're off,
uh the aroma of a penny, the aroma of a penny. Wow,
you are fast a fight over caviar, little little tricky
or a fight over caviar. So this is another word
(06:10):
for fish eggs, A rawrau.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
A row row.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, I say row row, but maybe it's rau rau.
And I did look up whether kaviar is kosher, and
apparently there is some kosher.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
There is kosher caviar, but most of it is not.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Did you grow. So did you have caviar growing up
or is that only once?
Speaker 2 (06:34):
There was, Like kosher cava, they're not only once, but
it's rare. It's not a delicacy in the Orthodox community
in the same way, I think, but I generally regard
it as a kosher food to my own. Yeah, yeah,
but I don't need a ton of it.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Did you Were you old enough to know to see
when oreos went kosher?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
I know that was of course. The shift from hydrocks
to was a teutonic shift in the in the Orthodox community.
It sent waves. It was it was crazy. It was
crazy because first we only had hydros cookies. Oh and
they sucked, they were chalky. Then one day we had oreos.
I remember the rejoicing the first time my father brought
(07:17):
home oreos, and right, we can't have these any point
of the ou and the label. We were like the
Jewish conspiracy wins again.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
You know, well, I have to feel bad for hydros
because they were first. They were there first and.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Order, they were first. You know what I think about
all the time. You know when they say drink the
kool aid, Yeah, it wasn't kool aid that they drank
at jonestown. It was flavor Aid. And don't you think
that's sort of like an existential crisis for flavor Aid
because on one side they don't want to be known
for the murder of the largest loss of life, you know,
(07:54):
with that decade. But on the other hand, they can't
even catch a mass suicide break Like that's how ubiquitous
the product of kool Aid was.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
That really is a parent like, what are you gonna do?
It's a dilemma because, yeah, I wonder if kool Aid
actually paid money, like how Reese's pieces paid money to
be an et All right, got a few more. A
housekeeper who is high up in the mafia.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
A housekeeper who is high up in the mafia.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Coppo thinking, I like it, but that's the wrong avenue now.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Of course, of course that high up in the mafia.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
They've been they've been kissed. I think you got kissed
on the mouth I made.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Made okay, Oh God, nicely done. You had to give
me the hint that it is shame that I had
to take the hint.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
No shame and hints, no, absolutely not. I will not
let you feel shame. What about a hip hop song
about saran or Reynolds, a rap rap rap rap rap
thing you made up for it. What about a long
hair on someone in bangor or bar harbor.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
The main main, a main Maine.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
That's it, I feel. Are you a crossword guy or
a spelling bee guy or any of it?
Speaker 2 (09:24):
I do like the occasional crossroad, and I do occasionally
wheel out thee. You know. I think if someone pressed
me to spell like sphigma monometer or something like that,
I could probably do it, you know, like it's one
of those one of those things like I like, I
like spelling bees, I like the crossword.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Nice I could tell. And first of all, I feel
shame now because I don't know sigma monitor, that.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Stigma monomen it's a blood pressure monitor.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Oh nice? All right, Well your father is a doctor,
so I.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Right, dad's a cardiologist, so that.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
They feel better. Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna go with that.
What about grieving before noon? Grieving before noon morning morning?
Look at that so fast, man, I'm going to run out.
I should have prepared more. How about a horse who
is elected to the top city office. A horse elected
to the top.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
A mayor, mayor female, A female horse is elected to it.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Thank you say that's why, Yes, thank you for the
fact check. Exactly, it could not be a male. A
male mayor does not exist. I don't know. I don't
want it nowadays, with the fluidity, I don't want to
say that, but that's the tradition anyway.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
How about someone who serves at King Arthur's table but
only in the evenings.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Oh, this is great, Look at this we got he
is coming to I think I know it. It's a
connect night connected straight. Yes.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
How about someone who how about someone who offers uh,
someone who offers you money but only by yourself?
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Oh no, okay, well I'm thinking solo or lender lending
offers you money? Do you ever donor donor? You stumped me?
Hold on, don't tell me. Do I get a hint?
What about me getting a hint?
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I mean you have to do it all by yourself,
all by yourself, and uh, and the money does come
with conditions?
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Oh, a lone loan. I'm embarrassed.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
I'm now stop stop.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Are you more?
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Yeah? A bucket, but a very white one.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
A pale, pale These are good?
Speaker 2 (11:48):
I mean just like, how about how about a king's
chair that's tossed very far?
Speaker 1 (11:57):
I think I got a thrown thrown?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I mean like these are it is really Oh, I've
got one.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
How about a crucial component of an egg which is
almost too great to bear?
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Okay, hold on, I'm thinking of the components of eggs.
There's a shell yok white.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
You did say it?
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Oh? I did a shell shell yoke yoke?
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Yeah, that's it. That's a a yolk. That's a yolk?
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Is I see right? I see yolking? Like on the
auction Listen, can I offer you a job as a
please writer on the puddler?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
I've got one, last, last one, as mony as you want.
How About there's a lot of money to be made
in being a type of oracle.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Oh, I did it. It took me a second, but
I got it.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
This was my father in law. He liked the He
liked a pun on profit office. You as a as
a Yeshiva graduate, I think your teachers would be proud.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
I hope. So. I do love a homonym.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
You are very good with the homonyms. I love that.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
All right.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Let me let me ratchet it up a tiny bit.
How about an up to date tart berry, An up
to date tart berry.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Up to date modern oh current current.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Wow, that's impressive. That is not that's not an easy one. Well,
this one I'm going to do in honor of your father.
I'm not saying he's narcissistic. You'll see the you'll see
what a narcissistic blood vessel. So the blood vessel is
the part I'm talking about with your dad.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Mmm mmm, a narcissistic blood vessel. Let's see a vein vein.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
That's it. A vein vein. By the way, do you
know because I was on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
And I lost thirty two thousand dollars or thirty one thousand.
I got the thousand because I didn't know the meaning
of a rithro site as the son of a doctor
of hard doctor. Oh good, this makes me feel better.
(14:15):
It's either I'll give you the clues. It's either a
white blood cell, a red blood cell, serum, or platelets.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
It's a red blood cell.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
It is a red blood cell, so you would have
gotten the third.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
But it brings it brings air from I think the
lungs to muscles or tissue.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Yeah, that's exactly what it is.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
But it's a red blood cell.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Well, you would have been much wealthier than I was.
I lost the money.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Oh it's pleased. I was on Who Wants to Be
a Millionaire? This year?
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Oh? You were? What was that like?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
It was really fun. It was our last year. I
was on with my close friend Sophia. We were we
were raising money for a game kids are Reading. That's
not the name of the charity, but it was like
a library for LGBTQ youth. And we walked away it
was two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. I really wanted
(15:12):
to go for the half million, but the question was
should I tie the question that we walked away on?
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Yeah, And I also want the final that you got,
so give them both.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
The real life chef Boyard was cooked for which US
President on his second honeymoon? And it was Herbert Hoover. Yeah,
Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, or Woodrow Wilson.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Oh shoot, I was going to say Cleveland because I
thought he got married. Wait say it again real quickly.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Hoover, Roosevelt, Wilson or Coolidge.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
All right, well you paused on Coolidge, so I'm going
to rule him out, just even though that mans Yeah, yeah,
not Roosevelt. I'm going to say one of the two,
now that I've forgotten.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
It was Hoover and Wilson.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
I guess Wilson. I'm gonna go with Wilson.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
It was Wilson, and I wanted to guess Wilson, but
I knew that both he and Roosevelt had second wives,
both named Edith, so I wasn't sure. I wasn't two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars sure. And my phone, a
friend was getting a massage while I called him. He
had given up because the gate it was so late,
so he was fairly useless help. But it was. It
(16:34):
was really, it was really fun and we were and
the thing we got was I think the last question
was don't tell Scotty is a song from which teen
comedy from the like early two thousands, or Scotty doesn't
know it was euro Trip, which I did know, so.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Oh that's good. Yeah. I I was once like a
celebrity Lifeline on a few episodes, and that is the
worst because it's like other people's money. And they kept
telling me. I kept saying, like, I think it's this,
but I don't know for sure, and they, the producers
kept yelling at me, make it say it's this, it's like,
(17:18):
it's not my money. So that was very stressful, but
I did I did love the experience. All right, Well
that was fantastic. You did great, and you took over
and made me the puzzle e and you the puzzler.
For the extra credit for the folks at home is
(17:41):
the twitching of a blood sucking insect. The twitching of
a blood sucking insect. So come back tomorrow find out
what it is. In the meantime, if you have thirty seconds,
please go rate the puzzler on your favorite podcast platform.
It makes a huge difference in people finding us, and
we want them to find us. And we'll see you
(18:03):
here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Hey, puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle Officer. With
the extra credit answer from our previous episode, Joseph Gordon
Levitt played a game with us we called levet or
leave it, where a word with a short e sound
becomes a word with a long E sound. Your clue
to these two words for the extra credit was the
sassiness of a person from Prague, and that of course
(18:36):
is check cheek. Right, Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic,
and someone with sassiness from there has check cheek. So
thanks for checking with us, and we will check with
you tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you
puzzlingly