August 15, 2025 • 22 mins
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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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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello puzzlers. Before we start puzzling today, I wanted to
let you know we are cooking up some big plans
for the puzzler community, and in order to ensure that
it's what you want, we need your input. So we've
put together a short survey, which you can find in
the show notes. It's really quick, just three minutes, but
(00:22):
it will be a huge help in letting us know
what you want so that we can deliver just that.
Thank you, Hello puzzlers. I thought we might start with
a quick puzzle. This one is inspired by the word butterfly.
Where does that word come from? Until last week, I
(00:43):
thought butterfly was a distortion of the phrase flutter by.
I thought it was one of those spoonerisms where you
switch the starts because butterflies do flutter by. But no,
my son Jasper is reading a book on etymology, so
proud of them, and the word butterfly does not derive
(01:03):
from flutterby. It's actually from the word butter as in
the stuff you put on toast. And there are a
couple of theories why a butterfly is named for butter
Some say it's because yellow butterflies were the color of butter.
Others say there's an old wives tale the butterflies steel butter.
I never heard of that one. Who Now there's even
(01:24):
a theory the butterfly droppings where butter like whatever that
means and I don't want to know, but regardless, it
made me think. Are there other animals or creatures whose
names start with a food, either intentionally or unintentionally? So
during the break, please see if you can come up
with any animals that start with a type of food.
I'll give you a hint to two. There's a sea
(01:46):
creature that sounds like it could be eaten in a
sandwich with peanut butter. And there's an insect that sounds
like the start of it could be an ingredient in borsh.
We will get into this and other puzzling goodness after
the break. Hello puzzlers, Welcome back to the Puzzler Podcast
(02:11):
the Strawberry Phosphate at your Puzzle Malt shop.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Thank you, thank you for wow deep cut good.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
It's from our town. I watched it aver that's beautiful.
I'm your host, AJ Jacobs, and I'm here, of course
with Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Pliska Craig. Before the break,
we talked about how the word butterfly is a creature
that starts with the name of a food, and we
challenge folks to come up with other creatures that have
foods at the start of their name, either intentionally or fortuitously.
(02:40):
Did you come up with anything?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Well, your examples were Your examples are more fortuitous. Well,
now we're both right. Jelly fish, right, jelly fish is
name probably because it resembles a jelly it's gelatinous.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
And beetle is the other one that was good. Right.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
The clue was that could be an ingredient in borshed
and beatle start with beets. What else you got?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I suppose we're not including the corpse flower.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
I'll throw it. I'll give you a bone.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I mean, you know, it might be that's that one
that flowers. I forget what it's actually called, but it
flowers like once every fifteen years, and it smells like
a corpse when it does. Oh I didn't.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Oh that's interesting, but.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah, yeah, it's I think I was in Malaysia when
the zoo was announcing that once in a lifetime chance
to smell the corpse fly.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Did you smell it?
Speaker 2 (03:26):
I was like, well, it didn't flower when I was there. Oh,
and I was like, I was like, I know, is
this a positive or a negative? Like do I really
want to smell the corpse?
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Yes? I suppose it is a food for some. I'm
no moral judge, a little moral judgment, but yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
I've got three others a little more straightforward. You got
the fruit fly.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Of course, nice, very nice.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
The banana slug oh good, well, and this is this one.
I like, the hammerhead shark.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Nice well. I actually a hamster as another one, and
I'll just throw a couple more. The peacock or pnd pea,
and the heron starts with hero hero sandwich. So there
you go. So today we are not going to talk
about etymology or entomology or food or but we are
(04:22):
going to talk about the puzzle Lab, because that's today
is Friday, and we go inside the puzzle Lab where
we come up with the puzzles. Also, as you might know,
it's the place where we have the news ticker devoted
to all breaking puzzle news, and it has been an
exciting week in puzzle news. I have an item, and
(04:42):
Greg has an item, and my item I'll start with mine.
I am actually quite psyched about it because it's puzzle
news that we are involved in. Ooh, that's right. It
is about the very first puzzle to appear in the
New York Times newspaper. And it was not Connections Strands,
(05:03):
not even the spelling Bee. It was a puzzle from
eighteen fifty one that not even the legendary Will Shortz
knew about until I told him last week. Yes, thank you.
I know it is a highlight. Like I could tell
Will something about Jo.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Will doesn't know about puzzles that your life is competing.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
I'm done. I stumbled on it randomly because I love
rating the archives of the New York Times, which are
available online so much wonderful stuff. A couple of weeks ago,
I decided to read the very first issue of the
New York Times from September eighteenth, eighteen fifty one, because
I wanted to write about what I learned from it
(05:41):
on my substack, which is actually called Very Experimental Living
with ad Jacobs in case you're interested. And before I
get to the puzzle, let me just start with a
little quiz about the New York Times first issue. What
was considered fit to print? First of all, there was
a front page article about a commotion, a near riot
(06:03):
on Sixth Avenue. What was the cause of that riot?
Do you have any theories?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
This is eighteen fifty one we're talking about correct. Oh,
I'm guessing it was a woman. It was a woman
either showing her ankles or going to a job or
wearing pants. Wearing pants maybe what you got it?
Speaker 1 (06:29):
She was wearing Bloomers, which were I'm shocked. Yes, they
were shocking. They were sort of early pants for women
by a dress reformer named Amelia Bloomer.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
I would just like to say I am very glad
we live in a world where it's not shocking. Oh yeah,
a woman can wear pants, or a man could wear
a dress, or somebody can. Like people can just wear
whatever the hell they want to wear and think.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
God, absolutely, although it is interesting, you still get like
when Harry Styles wore a skirt that was still big news.
So it we're still doing a little But yes.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Thankfully it didn't cause a commotion on Sixth Avenue and
get make the New York rep So it's okay, all right.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Also, there was a front page article in the New
York Times about an American team's surprise victory over a
British team in a sport. What was that sport front page?
Like literally like twenty percent of the front page.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
You know. The I think the obvious kind of guess
would be something like cricket. Do write a clearly British
sport that an American he might surprise? But I'm gonna go,
I'm gonna say it's like darts or something like that.
Good guess.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
It was actually yachting regatta in England and Americas had
a smaller, more nimble yacht and it was very exciting
for the Americans, like we can. That was a big moment.
So in addition to the articles, I read the advertisements,
which were fascinating insight into the Times a lot about
(07:58):
phrenology and and yeah, a lot of nozi.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Phrenology is the study of the shape of your skull, right,
that's right exactly, so, yeah, skull, and it tells you
something about your health or future psych.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Pseudo science, quackery from the eighteen fifties. But among their
ads there was a big advertisement for a safe, like
a safe you can keep your valuables in. And the
owner of the safe company was a man named Silas Herring. Now,
what's interesting to puzzle fans is that the advertisement starts
(08:34):
with some text about how safe the safe is, but
underneath that there is a puzzle, a charade that is
related to the safe. And we've talked about charades on
the show before. It was a popular form of puzzle
in the eighteen hundreds, and it was not the charades
you act out. It was the literary charades used by
(08:55):
Jane Austen and others. And it's a poem that clues
a word and clues breakdown the words syllable by syllable.
So let me, can I read you the first puzzle.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Kylas Herring cutting edge.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
He was cutting edge.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
His his nickname wasn't read by.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Anyhole good one. Yeah, you should have been. They should
have hired you to write this. So this is a
snippet of the charade, the first ever puzzle in the
New York Times. All right, So, as I mentioned, it
breaks it down syllable by syllable. The first syllable is
applies to womankind. Here I'll read it my first meaning.
(09:34):
My first syllable to womankind applied may mean a virgin
or a bride, So a word that could mean anything
to any woman you want to take a guess.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Okay, well it's going to be a virgin or a
bride is going to be a maid.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Oh that's a good one. No, it's more.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Come on, let's see. I was already going this was
going to be made.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Well or oh that would be good. No, it's her
h g r her because.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
That's silas herring, not a great puzzle.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Well that's what Will said. Will said, He's very glad
they provided the answer. So it stumped all of the
great puzzlers. Will and you.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
All right.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
The last part that I'm going to read is it
says she who cannot boast my second meaning the second
syllable can rarely, as a wife, be reckoned. So the
second syllable is something almost all wives have.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
I just I you know, I gotta remember it's eighteen
fifty one. All wives don't have bloomers, no scandalous gown
or dress. Ring there it is this ring.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
So first syllable, her second second. What do you guys,
syrus plugging himself, listen that.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
We would have been so much better at this where
we are round fifty way.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
So uh so, yeah, I love that discovery. Second part
of my item is I put it on Facebook and
the great writer Ben Zimmer, friend of the show. He
added an insight, which was that the first crossword puzzle
to appear in The New York Times was also in
an advertisement. So, as you know, the first official New
(11:19):
York Times crossword nineteen forty two. But ben Zimmer found
a crossword puzzle in an ad in nineteen twenty four.
It was an ad for another newspaper, altogether crazy so
and it was showing, hey, come on over and we've
got fun. I believe it was called the News of
the World in Pictures and I did I had they
(11:43):
printed it? I did it. Let me give you just
a couple of clues before we get to Europe.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Item. All right.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
First of all, I love that the clues were not
one down to one across. They were one horizontal and
one vertical. So very fancy, got it?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Thank you? Yes, very helpful. Yeah yeah, all right.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Here there's a clue answers four letters where you put
your nickel in the subway.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Slots. That's correct, Okay.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
I just love that nickel, that nickel, and now there
are nos. Well, I guess there's slots for the mess No.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
I mean, I was really sad when they phased out
the token. I have to admit somewhere I have some
old subway tokens. They were so cool and they Oh
I love Little Center. Oh yeah, all right?
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Sixty eight horizontal is the man who made ravens unpopular.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I might argue that he made them popular.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
I agree, right, but that's right.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Uh. There is, of course the great Edgar Allan.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Poe three letters, right Poe?
Speaker 2 (12:40):
All right?
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Last one because it's so crazy. Forty two vertical. A
city in Florida famous for for Jackie Ot. A city
in Florida famous for Jackie ot Ott. Five letters. It
starts with m mmm.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
So that's a tough one. Name a city in Florida.
It's five letters that starts with m.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
He stumped to you again, and is in Georgia.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
I don't know more. I could that be Miami?
Speaker 1 (13:10):
It is Miami, now, what's it? The interesting part of
this clue is I was like, who is jackieat? So
I googled him? And what a strange corner of history
I turned up. Turns out Jackieot was known as Jackieot
the Aqua Tot, and he performed in his father's show,
(13:31):
Alexander Ott's Water follies in Miami. Now, according to a
historian of this, Jackie learned to swim before he could
walk and started performing for his show, his father's show,
when he was eighteen months old. So he's swimming around
as a tot umman and listen to this last one.
By the age of five, he was performing who DEENI
(13:53):
like escape routines, diving from a ten foot board with
his hands and feet tied together at age five. I mean,
this is not helicopter parenting. I would give him that.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
This is some other kind of parenting for sure. Come on,
Jackie OT the aqua Tat. That might be my favorite
thing I've heard all month. I mean, folks, you're not
Your other podcasts are not talking about Jackie OT the Aquatat.
I'm just pointing out.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
See what you can learn from crosswords and the puzzler.
So thank you to Ben Zimmer for posting that. All right, well,
that is my item, but I'm excited to hear what
other breaking puzzle news there is.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
An important milestone was passed back in July. On July
twenty fourth, twenty twenty five, we celebrated Pythagorean theorem Day.
Oh okay, and we missed it. We should have done
a show about it then, but we didn't. It's coming
at whenever. This is airing in August. I belie, this
is you know, we missed it. Here it is July
(15:03):
twenty fourth, twenty twenty five. Why is that called Pythagorean theorem? Day?
Speaker 1 (15:08):
I was just trying to figure that out. I mean,
I think the pythagoraing of them. I can't even say
the word. It's it's A squared plus equals squared equals
c squared right right.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
About the triangles. The sides of a right triangle ar
A and B, and the hypotenuse the diagonally is C
right A. The measurement of A squared plus b squared
equals c squared seven squared. Yeah, plus twenty four squared
equals twenty five squared. All right, all right, So the
numbers plug into the Pythagorean theorem perfectly. And this is important.
(15:42):
There are only twelve of these days every century. Oh
that's good, only twelve days of that form, and we've
already passed eleven of them. No, yes, that was the eleventh.
The twelfth is coming up next year. October twenty fourth,
twenty twenty six ten squared plus twenty four squared equals
twenty sixth squared And.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
That's it in our lifetimes, seventy five years of no pythagory.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Days until March fourth, you know, twenty one oh five.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
I'm going to try to survive until that's my goal
now as a human.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Leave another one hundred something years. It'd be great. So anyway,
I was reading about this, and I thought there are
other fun math dates in the calendar. But I thought
i'd do a little quiz about the other great math dates.
Love it?
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Oh, can I bring in associate pozzler Andrea.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Shoonberg Andrea Schoenberg, because to.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Do my best all right?
Speaker 2 (16:38):
As always, that's all we ask of anybody here, Do
your best, all right. So these are fun math dates.
This one is October ninth, nineteen eighty seven, at six
fifty four am and thirty two seconds.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Six fifty four am and thirty two seconds.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Yes, oh my goodness, that's October ninth, nineteen eighty seven,
which would be written as right ten.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Well it depends if you're European, but ten.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Yeah, we'll get to that later in this in this
the squiz. But right now we're going to go with
the non European month day order.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
So one oh nine one nine eight seven six five
four three two yes, by fourth three what do you got?
I got no idea?
Speaker 2 (17:25):
I got what do you say that again? It's ten?
Speaker 3 (17:28):
What?
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (17:29):
All right? Now I do have an idea. I do
have an idea. Yeah, you gotta say it out loud.
Ten nine eight seven six five four three two yeah.
Countdown day, countdown day. Very fun, very fun.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Moment you can't down. How about February twenty second, twenty
twenty two.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Hmmm, I'm what are you?
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Deeps? All twues?
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Yeah, A lot of Tues, A lot of Tuesday. Oh,
all tues.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
It's Tuesday, Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
OK.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
And even better it was a Tuesday. February twenty second,
twenty twenty two was a Tuesday and it was all
TUESA love it.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
So they spelled A two say I would.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Yeah, I would hope? All right? Does a classic March fourteenth?
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Okay, PI Day?
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Yeah? PI Day. I could be March fourteenth, nineteen fifteen
at nine twenty six fifty three am would be three
point one four one five nine two six five three
the first ten digits of pie.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
I hope they've celebrated it in nineteen fifteen, and ye
missed the unlike us, they we missed it.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
This is a little trickier. November twenty third, All right, November,
and specifically November twenty third, nineteen fifty eight.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Well, I yeah, I believe that is a Fibonacci sequence
right there.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yes, Fibonacci day.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
So because he is the Italian mathematician who's has had
that sequence where you am the two previous numbers to
get the new numbers one one is two, two plus
one is three, three plus two is five, five plus
three is eight.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
So one one, two, three, five, eight, et cetera. All right,
I got two more for you. What about May fifth,
twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Five, twenty twenty five? Yeah, I don't know, andre ya,
you got anything.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
There's a lot of five's in there, but then also
a two. The previous example of this was April fourth,
twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
April.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Oh, well, five times five is twenty five.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
It's squares of the previous number. Ah. Good one.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
They call it square root Day because the day in
the month of the square root of the year. I
love it, but you can do. The next one won't
be till June sixth, twenty thirty sixth, So mark your calendars. Okay,
if we're still doing this podcast eleven years from now,
square root day, right, then.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
We will bake a square cake.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
I would also I also want to point out that
twenty twenty five is itself a square number. Oh interesting,
We're in a square number year forty five times forty.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Five, twenty five times. Now. Look at that. I can't
believe how many of these I missed. I feel like
getting a time machine and going back so I can
celebrate these important milestones in human mystory. Well, thank you Greg,
thank you Andrea, and thank you Ben Zimmer for alerting
us to the first New York Times crossword puzzle, which
(20:37):
appeared as an ad. And now puzzles are their big
money maker as well, So there you go. All right, Well,
we don't have an extra credit because it's Friday, but
over the weekend, if you do have a hankering for
more puzzles, check out the puzzler Instagram feed at Hello Puzzlers,
where we post original puzzles and visual puzzles, all sorts
(20:59):
of fun. And we'll be here tomorrow for more puzzling
puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Thanks for playing along with the team here at The
Puzzler with Aj Jacobs. I'm Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle Officer.
Our executive producers are Neelie Lohman and Adam Neuhouse of
New House Ideas and Jonathan Strickland of iHeart Podcasts. The
show is produced by Jody Abergan and Britney Brown of
Roulette Productions, with production support from Claire Bitegar Curtis. Our
(21:32):
senior puzzler is Andrea Schoenberg. The Puzzler with Aj Jacobs
is a co production with New House Ideas and is
distributed by Shape Dictators. There is only one shape, no
rearrange it. It's distributed by iHeart podcast If you want
to know more about puzzling puzzles, please check out the
(21:54):
book The Puzzler by Aj Jacobs, a history of puzzles.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
That The New York Times called fun and funny. It
features an original puzzle hunt by yours truly, and is
available wherever you get your books and puzzlers. For all
your puzzling needs, go visit the Puzzler dot com.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
See you there,
Hello puzzlers. Before we start puzzling today, I wanted to
let you know we are cooking up some big plans
for the puzzler community, and in order to ensure that
it's what you want, we need your input. So we've
put together a short survey, which you can find in
the show notes. It's really quick, just three minutes, but
(00:22):
it will be a huge help in letting us know
what you want so that we can deliver just that.
Thank you, Hello puzzlers. I thought we might start with
a quick puzzle. This one is inspired by the word butterfly.
Where does that word come from? Until last week, I
(00:43):
thought butterfly was a distortion of the phrase flutter by.
I thought it was one of those spoonerisms where you
switch the starts because butterflies do flutter by. But no,
my son Jasper is reading a book on etymology, so
proud of them, and the word butterfly does not derive
(01:03):
from flutterby. It's actually from the word butter as in
the stuff you put on toast. And there are a
couple of theories why a butterfly is named for butter
Some say it's because yellow butterflies were the color of butter.
Others say there's an old wives tale the butterflies steel butter.
I never heard of that one. Who Now there's even
(01:24):
a theory the butterfly droppings where butter like whatever that
means and I don't want to know, but regardless, it
made me think. Are there other animals or creatures whose
names start with a food, either intentionally or unintentionally? So
during the break, please see if you can come up
with any animals that start with a type of food.
I'll give you a hint to two. There's a sea
(01:46):
creature that sounds like it could be eaten in a
sandwich with peanut butter. And there's an insect that sounds
like the start of it could be an ingredient in borsh.
We will get into this and other puzzling goodness after
the break. Hello puzzlers, Welcome back to the Puzzler Podcast
(02:11):
the Strawberry Phosphate at your Puzzle Malt shop.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Thank you, thank you for wow deep cut good.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
It's from our town. I watched it aver that's beautiful.
I'm your host, AJ Jacobs, and I'm here, of course
with Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Pliska Craig. Before the break,
we talked about how the word butterfly is a creature
that starts with the name of a food, and we
challenge folks to come up with other creatures that have
foods at the start of their name, either intentionally or fortuitously.
(02:40):
Did you come up with anything?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Well, your examples were Your examples are more fortuitous. Well,
now we're both right. Jelly fish, right, jelly fish is
name probably because it resembles a jelly it's gelatinous.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
And beetle is the other one that was good. Right.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
The clue was that could be an ingredient in borshed
and beatle start with beets. What else you got?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I suppose we're not including the corpse flower.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
I'll throw it. I'll give you a bone.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I mean, you know, it might be that's that one
that flowers. I forget what it's actually called, but it
flowers like once every fifteen years, and it smells like
a corpse when it does. Oh I didn't.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Oh that's interesting, but.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah, yeah, it's I think I was in Malaysia when
the zoo was announcing that once in a lifetime chance
to smell the corpse fly.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Did you smell it?
Speaker 2 (03:26):
I was like, well, it didn't flower when I was there. Oh,
and I was like, I was like, I know, is
this a positive or a negative? Like do I really
want to smell the corpse?
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Yes? I suppose it is a food for some. I'm
no moral judge, a little moral judgment, but yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
I've got three others a little more straightforward. You got
the fruit fly.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Of course, nice, very nice.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
The banana slug oh good, well, and this is this one.
I like, the hammerhead shark.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Nice well. I actually a hamster as another one, and
I'll just throw a couple more. The peacock or pnd pea,
and the heron starts with hero hero sandwich. So there
you go. So today we are not going to talk
about etymology or entomology or food or but we are
(04:22):
going to talk about the puzzle Lab, because that's today
is Friday, and we go inside the puzzle Lab where
we come up with the puzzles. Also, as you might know,
it's the place where we have the news ticker devoted
to all breaking puzzle news, and it has been an
exciting week in puzzle news. I have an item, and
(04:42):
Greg has an item, and my item I'll start with mine.
I am actually quite psyched about it because it's puzzle
news that we are involved in. Ooh, that's right. It
is about the very first puzzle to appear in the
New York Times newspaper. And it was not Connections Strands,
(05:03):
not even the spelling Bee. It was a puzzle from
eighteen fifty one that not even the legendary Will Shortz
knew about until I told him last week. Yes, thank you.
I know it is a highlight. Like I could tell
Will something about Jo.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Will doesn't know about puzzles that your life is competing.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
I'm done. I stumbled on it randomly because I love
rating the archives of the New York Times, which are
available online so much wonderful stuff. A couple of weeks ago,
I decided to read the very first issue of the
New York Times from September eighteenth, eighteen fifty one, because
I wanted to write about what I learned from it
(05:41):
on my substack, which is actually called Very Experimental Living
with ad Jacobs in case you're interested. And before I
get to the puzzle, let me just start with a
little quiz about the New York Times first issue. What
was considered fit to print? First of all, there was
a front page article about a commotion, a near riot
(06:03):
on Sixth Avenue. What was the cause of that riot?
Do you have any theories?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
This is eighteen fifty one we're talking about correct. Oh,
I'm guessing it was a woman. It was a woman
either showing her ankles or going to a job or
wearing pants. Wearing pants maybe what you got it?
Speaker 1 (06:29):
She was wearing Bloomers, which were I'm shocked. Yes, they
were shocking. They were sort of early pants for women
by a dress reformer named Amelia Bloomer.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
I would just like to say I am very glad
we live in a world where it's not shocking. Oh yeah,
a woman can wear pants, or a man could wear
a dress, or somebody can. Like people can just wear
whatever the hell they want to wear and think.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
God, absolutely, although it is interesting, you still get like
when Harry Styles wore a skirt that was still big news.
So it we're still doing a little But yes.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Thankfully it didn't cause a commotion on Sixth Avenue and
get make the New York rep So it's okay, all right.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Also, there was a front page article in the New
York Times about an American team's surprise victory over a
British team in a sport. What was that sport front page?
Like literally like twenty percent of the front page.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
You know. The I think the obvious kind of guess
would be something like cricket. Do write a clearly British
sport that an American he might surprise? But I'm gonna go,
I'm gonna say it's like darts or something like that.
Good guess.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
It was actually yachting regatta in England and Americas had
a smaller, more nimble yacht and it was very exciting
for the Americans, like we can. That was a big moment.
So in addition to the articles, I read the advertisements,
which were fascinating insight into the Times a lot about
(07:58):
phrenology and and yeah, a lot of nozi.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Phrenology is the study of the shape of your skull, right,
that's right exactly, so, yeah, skull, and it tells you
something about your health or future psych.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Pseudo science, quackery from the eighteen fifties. But among their
ads there was a big advertisement for a safe, like
a safe you can keep your valuables in. And the
owner of the safe company was a man named Silas Herring. Now,
what's interesting to puzzle fans is that the advertisement starts
(08:34):
with some text about how safe the safe is, but
underneath that there is a puzzle, a charade that is
related to the safe. And we've talked about charades on
the show before. It was a popular form of puzzle
in the eighteen hundreds, and it was not the charades
you act out. It was the literary charades used by
(08:55):
Jane Austen and others. And it's a poem that clues
a word and clues breakdown the words syllable by syllable.
So let me, can I read you the first puzzle.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Kylas Herring cutting edge.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
He was cutting edge.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
His his nickname wasn't read by.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Anyhole good one. Yeah, you should have been. They should
have hired you to write this. So this is a
snippet of the charade, the first ever puzzle in the
New York Times. All right, So, as I mentioned, it
breaks it down syllable by syllable. The first syllable is
applies to womankind. Here I'll read it my first meaning.
(09:34):
My first syllable to womankind applied may mean a virgin
or a bride, So a word that could mean anything
to any woman you want to take a guess.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Okay, well it's going to be a virgin or a
bride is going to be a maid.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Oh that's a good one. No, it's more.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Come on, let's see. I was already going this was
going to be made.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Well or oh that would be good. No, it's her
h g r her because.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
That's silas herring, not a great puzzle.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Well that's what Will said. Will said, He's very glad
they provided the answer. So it stumped all of the
great puzzlers. Will and you.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
All right.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
The last part that I'm going to read is it
says she who cannot boast my second meaning the second
syllable can rarely, as a wife, be reckoned. So the
second syllable is something almost all wives have.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
I just I you know, I gotta remember it's eighteen
fifty one. All wives don't have bloomers, no scandalous gown
or dress. Ring there it is this ring.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
So first syllable, her second second. What do you guys,
syrus plugging himself, listen that.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
We would have been so much better at this where
we are round fifty way.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
So uh so, yeah, I love that discovery. Second part
of my item is I put it on Facebook and
the great writer Ben Zimmer, friend of the show. He
added an insight, which was that the first crossword puzzle
to appear in The New York Times was also in
an advertisement. So, as you know, the first official New
(11:19):
York Times crossword nineteen forty two. But ben Zimmer found
a crossword puzzle in an ad in nineteen twenty four.
It was an ad for another newspaper, altogether crazy so
and it was showing, hey, come on over and we've
got fun. I believe it was called the News of
the World in Pictures and I did I had they
(11:43):
printed it? I did it. Let me give you just
a couple of clues before we get to Europe.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Item. All right.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
First of all, I love that the clues were not
one down to one across. They were one horizontal and
one vertical. So very fancy, got it?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Thank you? Yes, very helpful. Yeah yeah, all right.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Here there's a clue answers four letters where you put
your nickel in the subway.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Slots. That's correct, Okay.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
I just love that nickel, that nickel, and now there
are nos. Well, I guess there's slots for the mess No.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
I mean, I was really sad when they phased out
the token. I have to admit somewhere I have some
old subway tokens. They were so cool and they Oh
I love Little Center. Oh yeah, all right?
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Sixty eight horizontal is the man who made ravens unpopular.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I might argue that he made them popular.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
I agree, right, but that's right.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Uh. There is, of course the great Edgar Allan.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Poe three letters, right Poe?
Speaker 2 (12:40):
All right?
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Last one because it's so crazy. Forty two vertical. A
city in Florida famous for for Jackie Ot. A city
in Florida famous for Jackie ot Ott. Five letters. It
starts with m mmm.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
So that's a tough one. Name a city in Florida.
It's five letters that starts with m.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
He stumped to you again, and is in Georgia.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
I don't know more. I could that be Miami?
Speaker 1 (13:10):
It is Miami, now, what's it? The interesting part of
this clue is I was like, who is jackieat? So
I googled him? And what a strange corner of history
I turned up. Turns out Jackieot was known as Jackieot
the Aqua Tot, and he performed in his father's show,
(13:31):
Alexander Ott's Water follies in Miami. Now, according to a
historian of this, Jackie learned to swim before he could
walk and started performing for his show, his father's show,
when he was eighteen months old. So he's swimming around
as a tot umman and listen to this last one.
By the age of five, he was performing who DEENI
(13:53):
like escape routines, diving from a ten foot board with
his hands and feet tied together at age five. I mean,
this is not helicopter parenting. I would give him that.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
This is some other kind of parenting for sure. Come on,
Jackie OT the aqua Tat. That might be my favorite
thing I've heard all month. I mean, folks, you're not
Your other podcasts are not talking about Jackie OT the Aquatat.
I'm just pointing out.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
See what you can learn from crosswords and the puzzler.
So thank you to Ben Zimmer for posting that. All right, well,
that is my item, but I'm excited to hear what
other breaking puzzle news there is.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
An important milestone was passed back in July. On July
twenty fourth, twenty twenty five, we celebrated Pythagorean theorem Day.
Oh okay, and we missed it. We should have done
a show about it then, but we didn't. It's coming
at whenever. This is airing in August. I belie, this
is you know, we missed it. Here it is July
(15:03):
twenty fourth, twenty twenty five. Why is that called Pythagorean theorem? Day?
Speaker 1 (15:08):
I was just trying to figure that out. I mean,
I think the pythagoraing of them. I can't even say
the word. It's it's A squared plus equals squared equals
c squared right right.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
About the triangles. The sides of a right triangle ar
A and B, and the hypotenuse the diagonally is C
right A. The measurement of A squared plus b squared
equals c squared seven squared. Yeah, plus twenty four squared
equals twenty five squared. All right, all right, So the
numbers plug into the Pythagorean theorem perfectly. And this is important.
(15:42):
There are only twelve of these days every century. Oh
that's good, only twelve days of that form, and we've
already passed eleven of them. No, yes, that was the eleventh.
The twelfth is coming up next year. October twenty fourth,
twenty twenty six ten squared plus twenty four squared equals
twenty sixth squared And.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
That's it in our lifetimes, seventy five years of no pythagory.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Days until March fourth, you know, twenty one oh five.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
I'm going to try to survive until that's my goal
now as a human.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Leave another one hundred something years. It'd be great. So anyway,
I was reading about this, and I thought there are
other fun math dates in the calendar. But I thought
i'd do a little quiz about the other great math dates.
Love it?
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Oh, can I bring in associate pozzler Andrea.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Shoonberg Andrea Schoenberg, because to.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Do my best all right?
Speaker 2 (16:38):
As always, that's all we ask of anybody here, Do
your best, all right. So these are fun math dates.
This one is October ninth, nineteen eighty seven, at six
fifty four am and thirty two seconds.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Six fifty four am and thirty two seconds.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Yes, oh my goodness, that's October ninth, nineteen eighty seven,
which would be written as right ten.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Well it depends if you're European, but ten.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Yeah, we'll get to that later in this in this
the squiz. But right now we're going to go with
the non European month day order.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
So one oh nine one nine eight seven six five
four three two yes, by fourth three what do you got?
I got no idea?
Speaker 2 (17:25):
I got what do you say that again? It's ten?
Speaker 3 (17:28):
What?
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (17:29):
All right? Now I do have an idea. I do
have an idea. Yeah, you gotta say it out loud.
Ten nine eight seven six five four three two yeah.
Countdown day, countdown day. Very fun, very fun.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Moment you can't down. How about February twenty second, twenty
twenty two.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Hmmm, I'm what are you?
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Deeps? All twues?
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Yeah, A lot of Tues, A lot of Tuesday. Oh,
all tues.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
It's Tuesday, Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
OK.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
And even better it was a Tuesday. February twenty second,
twenty twenty two was a Tuesday and it was all
TUESA love it.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
So they spelled A two say I would.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Yeah, I would hope? All right? Does a classic March fourteenth?
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Okay, PI Day?
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Yeah? PI Day. I could be March fourteenth, nineteen fifteen
at nine twenty six fifty three am would be three
point one four one five nine two six five three
the first ten digits of pie.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
I hope they've celebrated it in nineteen fifteen, and ye
missed the unlike us, they we missed it.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
This is a little trickier. November twenty third, All right, November,
and specifically November twenty third, nineteen fifty eight.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Well, I yeah, I believe that is a Fibonacci sequence
right there.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yes, Fibonacci day.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
So because he is the Italian mathematician who's has had
that sequence where you am the two previous numbers to
get the new numbers one one is two, two plus
one is three, three plus two is five, five plus
three is eight.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
So one one, two, three, five, eight, et cetera. All right,
I got two more for you. What about May fifth,
twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Five, twenty twenty five? Yeah, I don't know, andre ya,
you got anything.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
There's a lot of five's in there, but then also
a two. The previous example of this was April fourth,
twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
April.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Oh, well, five times five is twenty five.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
It's squares of the previous number. Ah. Good one.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
They call it square root Day because the day in
the month of the square root of the year. I
love it, but you can do. The next one won't
be till June sixth, twenty thirty sixth, So mark your calendars. Okay,
if we're still doing this podcast eleven years from now,
square root day, right, then.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
We will bake a square cake.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
I would also I also want to point out that
twenty twenty five is itself a square number. Oh interesting,
We're in a square number year forty five times forty.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Five, twenty five times. Now. Look at that. I can't
believe how many of these I missed. I feel like
getting a time machine and going back so I can
celebrate these important milestones in human mystory. Well, thank you Greg,
thank you Andrea, and thank you Ben Zimmer for alerting
us to the first New York Times crossword puzzle, which
(20:37):
appeared as an ad. And now puzzles are their big
money maker as well, So there you go. All right, Well,
we don't have an extra credit because it's Friday, but
over the weekend, if you do have a hankering for
more puzzles, check out the puzzler Instagram feed at Hello Puzzlers,
where we post original puzzles and visual puzzles, all sorts
(20:59):
of fun. And we'll be here tomorrow for more puzzling
puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Thanks for playing along with the team here at The
Puzzler with Aj Jacobs. I'm Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle Officer.
Our executive producers are Neelie Lohman and Adam Neuhouse of
New House Ideas and Jonathan Strickland of iHeart Podcasts. The
show is produced by Jody Abergan and Britney Brown of
Roulette Productions, with production support from Claire Bitegar Curtis. Our
(21:32):
senior puzzler is Andrea Schoenberg. The Puzzler with Aj Jacobs
is a co production with New House Ideas and is
distributed by Shape Dictators. There is only one shape, no
rearrange it. It's distributed by iHeart podcast If you want
to know more about puzzling puzzles, please check out the
(21:54):
book The Puzzler by Aj Jacobs, a history of puzzles.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
That The New York Times called fun and funny. It
features an original puzzle hunt by yours truly, and is
available wherever you get your books and puzzlers. For all
your puzzling needs, go visit the Puzzler dot com.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
See you there,
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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