June 20, 2025 • 19 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.
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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. Today's challenge
is to think of notable people whose last names are
homophones of each other, such as John Lennon and Vladimir Lenin.
So the last name Lenin is pronounced the same but
spelled differently. The Lenin who founded the USSR is spelled
(00:22):
l e n. The Lenin who's sung back in the
USSR is l e nn, So they sound the same,
spelled differently. That's part one of the challenges, think of
pairs of people like John and Vladimir Lenin. But I
do have a part two, which is, can you come
up with two people whose last names sound alike and
(00:44):
who co starred in a movie? Two people with last
names that sound alike but are spelled different and they
were in a movie together, and allegedly at least they dated.
So here's a little hint. The movie came out in
two thousand and one and was written by Cameron Crowe,
whose last name is a homophone of Cheryl Crowe. FYI.
(01:05):
So it all comes together. The answer and more puzzling
goodness after the break, Hello puzzlers, Welcome back to the
Buzzler Podcast. The Pleasing strings squeak in your acoustic blues
guitar solo. I am your host, AJ Jacobs. I am here,
(01:27):
of course, the chief puzzle Officer, Greg Kleska. Before the break,
we asked folks if they could come up with two
people whose last names sound like but are spelled differently,
and who co starred in a two thousand and one movie.
Any thoughts come to mind?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
You know, the first people I thought of were Samuel
Johnson and Ben Johnson.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Oh, good one, because.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Samuel has an h in Ben doesn't, and they're very
old and dead.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
They're old and dead, right. One is an old, dead
white writer and the other is an old dead white playwright.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Yeah, basically, basically basically.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
And then but then your clue was helpful because I
thought of the movie Vanilla Sky.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Yeah, correctly, that movie.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
This is much more interesting than Johnson and Johnson, which
are both people named for their father. You know, the
name just just derived from the son of John and
you can spell John a bunch of different ways, and
that's not so interesting. But Tom Cruise c r U
I S E. And Penelope Cruise cru Z. That's interesting.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
You got it, You got it.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
The Cruise Cruise movie and alleged relationship. I'm not gonna
I wasn't there, so I don't know, but I know
that's what I read. Yeah, well, well done. I just
love that, and I was. I spent way too long
looking for another pair of co stars whose names are
homophones of each other. I couldn't find it, but I
would love it if a reader proves me wrong.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Yeah, did you?
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Are there others that are more interesting than Johnson and
Johnson or Crow and Crow? I mean that those are
just one letter off.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
All right.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Some of them are just like different spellings of the same. Well,
I would say Genghis Khan and James Kahn.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Sure, I like that, and they've they've never been in
a movie together.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Now this one. These are not all that different spelling.
But there were three of them, so I thought that
was fun. Virginia wolf the writer, Tom Wolfe, the writer
and actor Scott Wolfe, who has no E one Wolfe
is the Virginia is w O O L F. Then
the others are mostly just one letter off, like you say,
(03:43):
Megan Fox and Jamie Fox. Jamie Fox has two exes,
Jane Adams, the Social Reformer and John Adams. Jane has
two d's John Houston director and Whitney Houston.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Uh Sam Houston, Yeah, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
But yeah, I would love some more creator of once.
So folks go to the puzzler dot com and send
us your suggestions because we would love to read them
on the air.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Well.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Regardless, today we are going inside the Puzzle Lab where
the puzzle and magic happens. We're going to be stopping
at the listener feedback corner to hear some compliments and
complaints or complications. I should say.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Those two words are very similar, compliment and complaint. You
get just a few letters different at the end there,
and that's right.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
We changes it.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I know, just one a couple letters and it's a
whole new meaning. So crazy the English language. We also
have the news Desk section of the Puzzle Lab where
we cover breaking puzzle and word related news. So let's
start there, Greg, I believe you have a puzzle news.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Yes, well as as many folks know, I think listen
to us. Thursday, May twenty.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Ninth, which is just a few days before we recorded
this episode, was the one hundredth scripts National Spelling.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Bee hundred anniversary.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
And a bunch of our podcast pals are involved. In
that Ben Zimmer who's been on the show, and Zach Sherwin,
who I just saw this week, does sort of warm
up stuff for the local, you know, for the folks
that are there in between live broadcast things.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Oh I didn't know. He's like the warm up comics.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Hilarious, cool, very fun. So this year the winner was
Faison Zaki.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Okay, and the drama this year is exciting. He actually
made a mistake in an earlier round, and I'm going
to quote the AP here.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
They said.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
They said, with the be down to three spellers, uh,
Sarvadnya Cadum and Sarv Darvain along with Faison. Uh, those two,
Sad and Sarv missed their words back to back.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Oh so if the other guy misses, it's okay, right.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Is ready to go. And he was over confident.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
He got the word coamalina and instead of asking the
usual questions definition language, he just dove into spell it.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Uh. He let his as the AP said, he let
his showman's instinct take over. He started saying kam and
then he stopped himself because it starts com Oh. And
he knew it was wrong, but he survived because they'd
all gotten their words wrong and they continued playing.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Ah, that is that is exciting. That's like a rocky
moment there the movie. Well that congratulations to is it?
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Fais Faison?
Speaker 2 (06:38):
So I've got a puzzle for you today, and and Andrea,
our our senior puzzler, can join in and do this
with you as well.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
I'm not going to ask you to spell these.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Words, okay, good.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Instead, I've got a bunch of the words that were
in the final rounds actually some of the words that
they got wrong when Faison won, as well as his
winning word, and you have to tell me what they mean.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
All right, I like it, but do what? Yeah, that
is not going to be easy because like in the
early I looked up the history and the early ones
like those are actual words, like actual.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Words you might use in everyday conversation.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Right, Like therapy was nineteen forty I could win on therapy.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Yeah, exactly right, I am on therapy.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
I'm winning with therapy initials nineteen forty one.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
I mean, come on, seriously, Yeah, people just couldn't spell
back then.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
I guess yeah, then they ran out of easy words.
So now it's like, you know, it's insane.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
I would say, I have a whole list of words here.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
None of these are words I have ever used in
written or spoken, you know, expression in any way.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yes, I agree, yes.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
So here we'll start with the winning word.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
But now you are going to use them.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
I'm going to lose them. I'm going to use them
this today. Yes, and so are you. This is the
winning word. It's uh a claire c sman A clar
c sman. I can spell it if you'd like. E
C l A I R c I s s E
M e n t.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Okay, never heard of it? Never heard of it? Is there?
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Now?
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Is there an accent on the e? Because that makes
a big difference.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
There is an accent somewhere on it that I didn't
copy into my notes, But there is an accent.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
On the e.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Thank you for the clarification.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
And then has pronounced mont. So that's a little clue
to the language of origin.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Fair enough enough.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
So I'm gonna give you two choices for what this
word means. Is it a the clearing up of something obscure,
like enlightenment, or is it a seasonal ritual in southern
France involving the slicing of a large pastry well exactly.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
I was figuring it's got a one of them has
to be pastry, and I'm guessing that the pastry is
the red herring. So I am going to say the
other one the clarification of.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
The enlightenment, or the clearing up of something obscure.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
I wish I were the pastry. I'm hoping for the pastry.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
All right, well done, you are correct. It is clearing
up of something obscure.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
It is enlightenment, like what you have all just experienced,
learning the meeting of a clear seismal?
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Got it a Claire seesmon? I guess clear? Maybe is
that where it comes from?
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Yeah, Claire, I think is clear? Claire. A Claire is
to clear up. I guess.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
So the word that Faison got wrong early on but
survived through was kamalina. That's co mme l I n A. So, Andrea,
this is your word Kamalina. Is kamalina a large herb
with flowers that have one petal smaller than the other two?
(10:00):
Or is it a twilled camel's hair fabric?
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Well, I know exactly what this is. No, I have
no idea, So I'll just say I'll say a the herb.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Hey, the larger herb.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
You are.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Done.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
There actually is a camel's hair fabric that is commeline
c A M E N E. So I'm making them.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Very tricky, very tricky.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
All right, A J. Your word is rock.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
What does it mean?
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Well, that's what you've got to find out. Oh right,
I'm for you.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Myself to the script spelling me for a second. Okay, Yes,
how do you spell it?
Speaker 3 (10:49):
T I r A K.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
T I R A K okay?
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Is it a physiological disease of Indian cotton, probably due
to nutrient deficiency and characterized by which you're yellowing and
shedding of the leaves and cracking of the boils before maturity.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Or is it a large Mediterranean merchant ship sometimes used
for fighting.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
I'm going with B. I have no logical reason, but
it was shorter, and I'm like, okay, I can't.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Even remember what the first one was. I'm sorry, you
are wrong. Oh you got me. It is a physiological
disease of Indian cotton.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Oh I had zero et Clara smant yeah clar oh cla.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
No, the merchant ship is a carrick actually so close
close and sodding word, very different origins. All right, Andrea,
here's your word techie, and again not the one you
think it is.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
It's t e kk e techy.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
And is it British slang meaning look or peep as
into have a techie at something?
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Or is it a Dervish monastery?
Speaker 4 (12:02):
Yeah, the monastery.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Very good, You are correct, it is a Dervish monastery.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
She's pulling away, all right, I got a few more
for you, aj Essereneesserene.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Okay, spelled E s e r I n E.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Is it another name for fisostigmine, which is the chief
alkaloid of the calibar bean.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Or is it related to or of sparrows? Ohesserene.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
I am hoping. I'm going to go with sparrows purely
because I hope it's right and I can use it
today because we do have sparrows that come perch on
my ledge.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Those sparrows that perch on your ledge are passerine birds.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
All right, I actually have heard that.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
I've heard that.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Word, right, Esserene, is another name for fisostigmine, the chief.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Alkaloid of the bean.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
You didn't even know we needed a word for that,
but we have it just in case.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Now, just in case. All right, I have it now
in the back of my pockets. I can bring it
out when needed.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
All right, Andrea, your word is uh.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Your word is warpays spelled.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
H u A r p e s.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
Definitely not expecting that spelling.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
See this is why it's in the spelling. Be warpe
is the people of western.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Argentina, including the uh al Antiac of the San Juan province,
or the offspring of a male lama and a female alpaca.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
I feel like offspring that would be a lama paca,
would it not?
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Maybe maybe if they do liger and tigron. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
let's but mule mule.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Let's say a the West Argentine, the people of Western Argentina, you.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Are correct, is on fire? Who's up? Aj The word
is Kaldy. It's c h A l d ee.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Now is that an Irish or Scottish monk or is
it the Aramaic vernacular that was the original language of
some parts of the Bible.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Interesting. Interesting, I'm going to go with the monk again
for no particular reason.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Well, the monk is actually cauldy c u l d oh.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
That's got why I got confused.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
I thought you might have because I remember reading about
the Chaldeans in the Bible.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Yeah right, that does sound familiar, And I was like, okay,
I bet you're going to get this, all right.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Last one for Andrea. For the wind your word is
kia or kiya kiya the accidents on the second, so.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
K y a h I have a kia sorrento.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
By the way, Oh, very nice, very nice. It's not
that kiyat, it's k y a h.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Is it an Indian partridge or the monetary unit of
mean mar?
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Oh well, I.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Think you're actually ahead and you're gonna win anyway, which
I say, but you know.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Let's go indian partridge bingo.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Correct again? Now the monetary of me mar is the kiyat,
of course, so you can buy kyr with a kiyat.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yeah yeah, all right. Well Andre, congratulations, you correctly guessed
obscure words better than I did.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
I use logic, I use logic, ah.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Sure, sure sure.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
And all of those words were in the spelling Bee.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Some of them knocked some of the champions out, Like
the top spellers got knocked out by some of those words.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
I don't know whether it's a good use of human
mental energy or not, but it's fun to watch. So
thank you Greg for the update from the puzzle news front.
But we also before we go, we've got some listener feed.
Oh great, So senior puzzler Andrea has been monitoring our
(16:16):
lines of communication. Andrea, what have you got today?
Speaker 4 (16:19):
Well, how about this letter from listener Sammy Casanova. She
commented on the puzzle we talked about during the Michael
Showalter episode. Michael who directed the movie The Eyes of
Tammy Fay. So we asked listeners to come up with
movies whose names included a body part.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Right right, we had lots. We had cool hand Luke
Adam's rib Palm Springs with Andy Samberg. So and what
did what did she say?
Speaker 4 (16:50):
Sammy wrote, after you said back to the future, I
was so sure you would mentioned rear window. That's a little.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Good one, Sammy, that is true, not to mention you
could go further in that direction. You've got Matthew McConaughey's
Beach Bum.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
That was a movie, very nice, good.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
I'm sure there's plenty more, but I will end there
if to keep our family friendly reputation. Well, thank you
to all of our letter and email writers. Congrats to
the scripts National Spelling Bee champions and that's it for
this week. So over the weekend, if you are craving
(17:29):
more puzzle content, check out our Instagram feed at Hello Puzzlers,
where we post very fun visual puzzles, all sorts of
puzzle news, and of course we'll be here next week
for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 5 (17:50):
Hey puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska up from the Puzzle ab
one more time with the extra credit answer from our
previous episode. The Great puzzle maker Brendan Emmi Quigley joined
us for a fun round of beck words.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
B eq is his nickname.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
All the clues are for words that are phrases that
have b e q in them. Of course, there aren't
very many of those in the English language, so we
had to make some up. Your extra credit was one
of those made up ones. These are coins for really
tiny organisms, so you're looking for b eq stuck in
the middle of this phrase. And yes, the coins are
(18:27):
quarters and really tiny organisms are microbes. We're looking for
microbe quarters, really tiny currency. Anyway, thanks for playing along
with us. We hope you enjoyed this week, and we'll
catch you here next time. Thanks for playing along with
the team here at The Puzzler with Aj Jacobs. I'm
(18:48):
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.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
The show is.
Speaker 5 (18:59):
Produced by Jody and Britney Brown of Roulette Productions, with
production support from Claire Bidegar Curtis. Our senior puzzler is
Andrea Schoenberg. The Puzzler with Aj Jacobs is a co
production with New House Ideas and is distributed by Ethics Adapters.
No sorry, I'm inter arrange those letters. It's distributed by
(19:19):
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 puzzle hunt by
yours truly, and is available wherever you get your books
and puzzlers. For all your puzzling needs, go visit the
(19:43):
Puzzler dot com.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
See you there,
Hello puzzlers. Let's start with a quick puzzle. Today's challenge
is to think of notable people whose last names are
homophones of each other, such as John Lennon and Vladimir Lenin.
So the last name Lenin is pronounced the same but
spelled differently. The Lenin who founded the USSR is spelled
(00:22):
l e n. The Lenin who's sung back in the
USSR is l e nn, So they sound the same,
spelled differently. That's part one of the challenges, think of
pairs of people like John and Vladimir Lenin. But I
do have a part two, which is, can you come
up with two people whose last names sound alike and
(00:44):
who co starred in a movie? Two people with last
names that sound alike but are spelled different and they
were in a movie together, and allegedly at least they dated.
So here's a little hint. The movie came out in
two thousand and one and was written by Cameron Crowe,
whose last name is a homophone of Cheryl Crowe. FYI.
(01:05):
So it all comes together. The answer and more puzzling
goodness after the break, Hello puzzlers, Welcome back to the
Buzzler Podcast. The Pleasing strings squeak in your acoustic blues
guitar solo. I am your host, AJ Jacobs. I am here,
(01:27):
of course, the chief puzzle Officer, Greg Kleska. Before the break,
we asked folks if they could come up with two
people whose last names sound like but are spelled differently,
and who co starred in a two thousand and one movie.
Any thoughts come to mind?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
You know, the first people I thought of were Samuel
Johnson and Ben Johnson.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Oh, good one, because.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Samuel has an h in Ben doesn't, and they're very
old and dead.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
They're old and dead, right. One is an old, dead
white writer and the other is an old dead white playwright.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Yeah, basically, basically basically.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
And then but then your clue was helpful because I
thought of the movie Vanilla Sky.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Yeah, correctly, that movie.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
This is much more interesting than Johnson and Johnson, which
are both people named for their father. You know, the
name just just derived from the son of John and
you can spell John a bunch of different ways, and
that's not so interesting. But Tom Cruise c r U
I S E. And Penelope Cruise cru Z. That's interesting.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
You got it, You got it.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
The Cruise Cruise movie and alleged relationship. I'm not gonna
I wasn't there, so I don't know, but I know
that's what I read. Yeah, well, well done. I just
love that, and I was. I spent way too long
looking for another pair of co stars whose names are
homophones of each other. I couldn't find it, but I
would love it if a reader proves me wrong.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Yeah, did you?
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Are there others that are more interesting than Johnson and
Johnson or Crow and Crow? I mean that those are
just one letter off.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
All right.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Some of them are just like different spellings of the same. Well,
I would say Genghis Khan and James Kahn.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Sure, I like that, and they've they've never been in
a movie together.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Now this one. These are not all that different spelling.
But there were three of them, so I thought that
was fun. Virginia wolf the writer, Tom Wolfe, the writer
and actor Scott Wolfe, who has no E one Wolfe
is the Virginia is w O O L F. Then
the others are mostly just one letter off, like you say,
(03:43):
Megan Fox and Jamie Fox. Jamie Fox has two exes,
Jane Adams, the Social Reformer and John Adams. Jane has
two d's John Houston director and Whitney Houston.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Uh Sam Houston, Yeah, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
But yeah, I would love some more creator of once.
So folks go to the puzzler dot com and send
us your suggestions because we would love to read them
on the air.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Well.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Regardless, today we are going inside the Puzzle Lab where
the puzzle and magic happens. We're going to be stopping
at the listener feedback corner to hear some compliments and
complaints or complications. I should say.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Those two words are very similar, compliment and complaint. You
get just a few letters different at the end there,
and that's right.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
We changes it.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I know, just one a couple letters and it's a
whole new meaning. So crazy the English language. We also
have the news Desk section of the Puzzle Lab where
we cover breaking puzzle and word related news. So let's
start there, Greg, I believe you have a puzzle news.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Yes, well as as many folks know, I think listen
to us. Thursday, May twenty.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Ninth, which is just a few days before we recorded
this episode, was the one hundredth scripts National Spelling.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Bee hundred anniversary.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
And a bunch of our podcast pals are involved. In
that Ben Zimmer who's been on the show, and Zach Sherwin,
who I just saw this week, does sort of warm
up stuff for the local, you know, for the folks
that are there in between live broadcast things.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Oh I didn't know. He's like the warm up comics.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Hilarious, cool, very fun. So this year the winner was
Faison Zaki.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Okay, and the drama this year is exciting. He actually
made a mistake in an earlier round, and I'm going
to quote the AP here.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
They said.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
They said, with the be down to three spellers, uh,
Sarvadnya Cadum and Sarv Darvain along with Faison. Uh, those two,
Sad and Sarv missed their words back to back.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Oh so if the other guy misses, it's okay, right.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Is ready to go. And he was over confident.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
He got the word coamalina and instead of asking the
usual questions definition language, he just dove into spell it.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Uh. He let his as the AP said, he let
his showman's instinct take over. He started saying kam and
then he stopped himself because it starts com Oh. And
he knew it was wrong, but he survived because they'd
all gotten their words wrong and they continued playing.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Ah, that is that is exciting. That's like a rocky
moment there the movie. Well that congratulations to is it?
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Fais Faison?
Speaker 2 (06:38):
So I've got a puzzle for you today, and and Andrea,
our our senior puzzler, can join in and do this
with you as well.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
I'm not going to ask you to spell these.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Words, okay, good.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Instead, I've got a bunch of the words that were
in the final rounds actually some of the words that
they got wrong when Faison won, as well as his
winning word, and you have to tell me what they mean.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
All right, I like it, but do what? Yeah, that
is not going to be easy because like in the
early I looked up the history and the early ones
like those are actual words, like actual.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Words you might use in everyday conversation.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Right, Like therapy was nineteen forty I could win on therapy.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Yeah, exactly right, I am on therapy.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
I'm winning with therapy initials nineteen forty one.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
I mean, come on, seriously, Yeah, people just couldn't spell
back then.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
I guess yeah, then they ran out of easy words.
So now it's like, you know, it's insane.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
I would say, I have a whole list of words here.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
None of these are words I have ever used in
written or spoken, you know, expression in any way.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yes, I agree, yes.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
So here we'll start with the winning word.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
But now you are going to use them.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
I'm going to lose them. I'm going to use them
this today. Yes, and so are you. This is the
winning word. It's uh a claire c sman A clar
c sman. I can spell it if you'd like. E
C l A I R c I s s E
M e n t.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Okay, never heard of it? Never heard of it? Is there?
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Now?
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Is there an accent on the e? Because that makes
a big difference.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
There is an accent somewhere on it that I didn't
copy into my notes, But there is an accent.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
On the e.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Thank you for the clarification.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
And then has pronounced mont. So that's a little clue
to the language of origin.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Fair enough enough.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
So I'm gonna give you two choices for what this
word means. Is it a the clearing up of something obscure,
like enlightenment, or is it a seasonal ritual in southern
France involving the slicing of a large pastry well exactly.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
I was figuring it's got a one of them has
to be pastry, and I'm guessing that the pastry is
the red herring. So I am going to say the
other one the clarification of.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
The enlightenment, or the clearing up of something obscure.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
I wish I were the pastry. I'm hoping for the pastry.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
All right, well done, you are correct. It is clearing
up of something obscure.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
It is enlightenment, like what you have all just experienced,
learning the meeting of a clear seismal?
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Got it a Claire seesmon? I guess clear? Maybe is
that where it comes from?
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Yeah, Claire, I think is clear? Claire. A Claire is
to clear up. I guess.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
So the word that Faison got wrong early on but
survived through was kamalina. That's co mme l I n A. So, Andrea,
this is your word Kamalina. Is kamalina a large herb
with flowers that have one petal smaller than the other two?
(10:00):
Or is it a twilled camel's hair fabric?
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Well, I know exactly what this is. No, I have
no idea, So I'll just say I'll say a the herb.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Hey, the larger herb.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
You are.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Done.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
There actually is a camel's hair fabric that is commeline
c A M E N E. So I'm making them.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Very tricky, very tricky.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
All right, A J. Your word is rock.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
What does it mean?
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Well, that's what you've got to find out. Oh right,
I'm for you.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Myself to the script spelling me for a second. Okay, Yes,
how do you spell it?
Speaker 3 (10:49):
T I r A K.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
T I R A K okay?
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Is it a physiological disease of Indian cotton, probably due
to nutrient deficiency and characterized by which you're yellowing and
shedding of the leaves and cracking of the boils before maturity.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Or is it a large Mediterranean merchant ship sometimes used
for fighting.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
I'm going with B. I have no logical reason, but
it was shorter, and I'm like, okay, I can't.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Even remember what the first one was. I'm sorry, you
are wrong. Oh you got me. It is a physiological
disease of Indian cotton.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Oh I had zero et Clara smant yeah clar oh cla.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
No, the merchant ship is a carrick actually so close
close and sodding word, very different origins. All right, Andrea,
here's your word techie, and again not the one you
think it is.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
It's t e kk e techy.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
And is it British slang meaning look or peep as
into have a techie at something?
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Or is it a Dervish monastery?
Speaker 4 (12:02):
Yeah, the monastery.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Very good, You are correct, it is a Dervish monastery.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
She's pulling away, all right, I got a few more
for you, aj Essereneesserene.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Okay, spelled E s e r I n E.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Is it another name for fisostigmine, which is the chief
alkaloid of the calibar bean.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Or is it related to or of sparrows? Ohesserene.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
I am hoping. I'm going to go with sparrows purely
because I hope it's right and I can use it
today because we do have sparrows that come perch on
my ledge.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Those sparrows that perch on your ledge are passerine birds.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
All right, I actually have heard that.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
I've heard that.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Word, right, Esserene, is another name for fisostigmine, the chief.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Alkaloid of the bean.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
You didn't even know we needed a word for that,
but we have it just in case.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Now, just in case. All right, I have it now
in the back of my pockets. I can bring it
out when needed.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
All right, Andrea, your word is uh.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Your word is warpays spelled.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
H u A r p e s.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
Definitely not expecting that spelling.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
See this is why it's in the spelling. Be warpe
is the people of western.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Argentina, including the uh al Antiac of the San Juan province,
or the offspring of a male lama and a female alpaca.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
I feel like offspring that would be a lama paca,
would it not?
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Maybe maybe if they do liger and tigron. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
let's but mule mule.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Let's say a the West Argentine, the people of Western Argentina, you.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Are correct, is on fire? Who's up? Aj The word
is Kaldy. It's c h A l d ee.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Now is that an Irish or Scottish monk or is
it the Aramaic vernacular that was the original language of
some parts of the Bible.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Interesting. Interesting, I'm going to go with the monk again
for no particular reason.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Well, the monk is actually cauldy c u l d oh.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
That's got why I got confused.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
I thought you might have because I remember reading about
the Chaldeans in the Bible.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Yeah right, that does sound familiar, And I was like, okay,
I bet you're going to get this, all right.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Last one for Andrea. For the wind your word is
kia or kiya kiya the accidents on the second, so.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
K y a h I have a kia sorrento.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
By the way, Oh, very nice, very nice. It's not
that kiyat, it's k y a h.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Is it an Indian partridge or the monetary unit of
mean mar?
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Oh well, I.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Think you're actually ahead and you're gonna win anyway, which
I say, but you know.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Let's go indian partridge bingo.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Correct again? Now the monetary of me mar is the kiyat,
of course, so you can buy kyr with a kiyat.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yeah yeah, all right. Well Andre, congratulations, you correctly guessed
obscure words better than I did.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
I use logic, I use logic, ah.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Sure, sure sure.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
And all of those words were in the spelling Bee.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Some of them knocked some of the champions out, Like
the top spellers got knocked out by some of those words.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
I don't know whether it's a good use of human
mental energy or not, but it's fun to watch. So
thank you Greg for the update from the puzzle news front.
But we also before we go, we've got some listener feed.
Oh great, So senior puzzler Andrea has been monitoring our
(16:16):
lines of communication. Andrea, what have you got today?
Speaker 4 (16:19):
Well, how about this letter from listener Sammy Casanova. She
commented on the puzzle we talked about during the Michael
Showalter episode. Michael who directed the movie The Eyes of
Tammy Fay. So we asked listeners to come up with
movies whose names included a body part.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Right right, we had lots. We had cool hand Luke
Adam's rib Palm Springs with Andy Samberg. So and what
did what did she say?
Speaker 4 (16:50):
Sammy wrote, after you said back to the future, I
was so sure you would mentioned rear window. That's a little.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Good one, Sammy, that is true, not to mention you
could go further in that direction. You've got Matthew McConaughey's
Beach Bum.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
That was a movie, very nice, good.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
I'm sure there's plenty more, but I will end there
if to keep our family friendly reputation. Well, thank you
to all of our letter and email writers. Congrats to
the scripts National Spelling Bee champions and that's it for
this week. So over the weekend, if you are craving
(17:29):
more puzzle content, check out our Instagram feed at Hello Puzzlers,
where we post very fun visual puzzles, all sorts of
puzzle news, and of course we'll be here next week
for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 5 (17:50):
Hey puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska up from the Puzzle ab
one more time with the extra credit answer from our
previous episode. The Great puzzle maker Brendan Emmi Quigley joined
us for a fun round of beck words.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
B eq is his nickname.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
All the clues are for words that are phrases that
have b e q in them. Of course, there aren't
very many of those in the English language, so we
had to make some up. Your extra credit was one
of those made up ones. These are coins for really
tiny organisms, so you're looking for b eq stuck in
the middle of this phrase. And yes, the coins are
(18:27):
quarters and really tiny organisms are microbes. We're looking for
microbe quarters, really tiny currency. Anyway, thanks for playing along
with us. We hope you enjoyed this week, and we'll
catch you here next time. Thanks for playing along with
the team here at The Puzzler with Aj Jacobs. I'm
(18:48):
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.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
The show is.
Speaker 5 (18:59):
Produced by Jody and Britney Brown of Roulette Productions, with
production support from Claire Bidegar Curtis. Our senior puzzler is
Andrea Schoenberg. The Puzzler with Aj Jacobs is a co
production with New House Ideas and is distributed by Ethics Adapters.
No sorry, I'm inter arrange those letters. It's distributed by
(19:19):
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 puzzle hunt by
yours truly, and is available wherever you get your books
and puzzlers. For all your puzzling needs, go visit the
(19:43):
Puzzler dot com.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
See you there,
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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