July 24, 2025 • 19 mins
Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: creators of The Great Gotham Challenge who run NYC's yearly Midnight Madness puzzle hunt, Ryan Patch and Jon Seale!
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 (00:01):
Hello puzzlers. Let's start with a quick puzzle. This puzzle
is about facial hair removal. I feel we do not
do enough men's grooming puzzles here, so I'm trying to
address that oversight. The question is what popular line of
shaving razors could be renamed two three hundred and one
(00:22):
miles per hour? So a popular line of shaving razors
that could be renamed twenty three hundred one miles per hour?
The answer and more puzzling goodness after the break, Hello puzzlers,
(00:43):
Welcome back to the Puzzler podcast The Surprise on pussel
in your Puzzle Chess Game. I am your host, A Jacobs.
I'm here for chie puzzle officer Greg Kliska.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Greg.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Before the break, we posed a warm up puzzle related
to men's grooming, an area I felt we had overlooked.
The puzzle is what popular line of shaving razors could
be renamed twenty three hundred and one miles per hour?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Any thoughts well, I feel like if I say the name,
we should get a sponsorship. I admit that I use
this razor, like we should get ads every week or something.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
That's true. I don't think you have to admit it's
not something to be.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
If I reveal, reveal do you actually made to this too?
But my only problem is I don't know the right
number to say. I'm gonna say it's a Gillette Mock three,
but they make like a mock one and a mock two,
and a Mark four and a Mock seven. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Well they don't. Well it's interesting. I'll get into that
in one second. But yes, mock three is the because
it's mock is the speed of sound, which is seven
hundred and sixty seven miles per hour or so, and
mock three three times that's twenty three hundred miles per hour.
But yes, the Mock three was the first that broke
(01:55):
the two. It broke the two blade. It was like
the spot nick. It was like a big deal. And
that started the wars, and as you've noted then they
have just been escalating like the Cold War arms race.
And now the highest that I could find is the
Dorko Pace seven, the world's first and only seven blade raserades.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
So there you go.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Well, we have some guests today. They look like I'm
not you know, they're a little uh, they've got a
little scruffy social Yeah, so I'm not sure they used
the mock thie, but maybe they do. Regardless of that,
we are delighted to have them. They are John Seal
and Bryan Patch, owners of Gotham Imbersive Labs, which puts on,
(02:41):
among other things, the Midnight Madness Puzzle Hunt, which is
an annual overnight puzzle hunt to benefit Good Shepherd Services,
a great organization. Please welcome John and Ryan.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Thank you, Thank you good to be here. I do
want to clarify that we are the founders, but there
are other owners as well who are our partners with
us as well, so we're not the only owners, but
we are the only founders there. We have a whole
We have a team of people involved in this insanity.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Got it?
Speaker 1 (03:09):
But I know that you and Greg have known each
other for quite some time. So I'm going to just
turn it over to Greg for today's puzzling and I'll
be enjoying from the sidelines.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
So Greg, well, you're going to jump in all you want.
I mean, full disclosure. I am not a founder nor
an owner, but I am creating puzzles and have created
puzzles with these guys. We met when I did one
of your challenges, I think, but now I get to
help create them.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Greg is a puzzle mercenary for.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Us, happy to do it. My first question is how
did this all start?
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Yeah, it's like all good ideas. It came out of
unemployed boredom. We Gothammers of Labs. We started by creating
a thing called the Great Gotham Challenge, which was a linear,
sequential puzzle hunt that combined New York City history, you know,
hidden locations in New York and all of that stuff.
(04:06):
And we did it. It actually went horribly, you know,
I think people got around a third of the way through.
They basically asked to be put out of their misery.
And John was one of those people who participated in it,
and I said, okay, guys, thank you for coming. Don't worry,
We're never going to make you do that again. And
(04:26):
lo and behold. Like four or five years later, John
called me up and said, well, John, I mean, do
you want to do you want to take over?
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Yeah? Ryan announced that he was moving out of New
York City about four or five years later, And during
that time it had been percolating that I really loved
the idea of the experience and felt like I had
some ideas to improve it and maybe make it a
little more doable, and so I approached Ryan about rebooting
(04:54):
the Great Gotham Challenge, and we put together a new
of the game, kind of reimagined it, and and it
actually went.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Well this time, and then we people finished.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
We people finished, people completed it, they had a good time,
and that started us off on a journey where every
year after that we were like, oh, we'll make well.
Our thought was like, we'll just make one or two
of these games for our friends every year. And then
at some point we got contacted by a business that
(05:25):
wanted to hire us to do one and we said yes,
and then we turned that first sale into another sale,
and then it became a whole enterprise, and now it's
a team. We have a team of you know, somewhere
around a dozen people, and we make puzzle hunts all
the time.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
The ideal of a Great Gotham Challenge puzzle is something
like the beginning of in Mission Impossible, or you know
rather better that's seen from Apollo thirteen, where they say,
you know, we've got this square filter and this circular duct,
and we've you know, and here's all these different pieces
and you have to we have to make this fit
into this and those are the type of the puzzles
(06:04):
that we love, and so we backed into kind of
more traditional puzzling world that kind of is is inhabited
by by you gentlemen through just kind of like needing
these gateways and locks on doors and stuff.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
And you'll hear you know, in Ryan's suscription, he referenced
a lot of movies. And the reason is because you know,
we are training, we have training and experience working in
the film world, and part of our idea was like,
can we make an experience that that in which each
individual who's playing gets to feel like they're the protagons
in a movie. So that was kind of our original
guiding light, and puzzles have become a part of that.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Well, and I will say, having participated in one of
the Great Gotham Challenges, there actually is was a movie.
We actually ended up at one point in a movie
theater watching a movie that Right had made that that
was a really cool thing to see and also had
more traditional word puzzle content related to it. Well, okay, well,
let's let's jump into a puzzle which is inspired by
(07:02):
the Great Gotham Challenge. And specifically the fact that you
guys are you know, deeply steeped in New York City
landmarks and culture in the world of Gotham. And here's
the thing that you may have also noticed that the
word Gotham splits into got Ham. So what we've done
is reimagine a bunch of famous New York locations so
that they have also got ham or other meat products
(07:26):
in them. So we've altered the name slightly. And as
a is, AJ reveals he hasn't seen this puzzle yet.
So AJ is a vegetarian. I don't know if you
guys feel about meat, but you know he might not
be able to help with the puzzle because he's.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
That's true, I'm uniquely unqualified.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
But if you need help, AJ is always there. I'll
give you an example. The example is this was once
the tallest structure in Gotham or in Gotham, and it
was built to promote beef.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
So it's a famous tall building. In fact, King Kong
climbed it in order to get more beef.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Well, I know which building you're talking about, right, So
say which is just the exact kay?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Well, King Kong famously climbed the Empire State Building, I.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Write, but you've got to change it slightly to include
a meat product. Ah, it would be the Empire Steak Building.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
Oh okay, now I understand the forida.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Yeah, exactly, that's why. That's the example. That's what's going on.
So these are all known New York locations that have
been altered slightly so that they have a meat product
in them.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
God, okay, understood, all right, And.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
The clue will give you both a clue to the
actual location and then a clue to what the meat
is that you've got to stick in. Okay, all right,
all right, here we go. This is a beacon for
immigrants from all over the world, especially those who like
organ meat.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Okay, well, let's see. It does sound like it's going
to be the Statue of Liberty, but we need some
meat to go in there.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Uh an organ in particular.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Right, Statue of Liberty.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Yes, I was trying to work with awful O F
F A L like the Awful.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Times Square.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
I was working a way too advanced sausage and this
is sweetbreads.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yeah, all right, here's another one. This is the home
of a famous Black Renaissance also known for the consumption
of baby sheep. It's a neighborhood.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
Mm hmm, okay, yeah, we are looking for Harlem Harlamb.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
That's it, Harlamb. There you go, look at that. I
don't know. John Ryan's got the puns going today. He's
on it.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
You're on fire, bro.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
This next one is a cut of meat from the
leg of one of those same baby sheep, and it
gives its name to a baseball mecca in the Bronx.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Yankee Stadium.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Yeah, Yankee Stadium. But it's the leg of a lamb.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
Is what's a lamb?
Speaker 2 (10:21):
What do you call that? A lamb?
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Blaamb chop?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
No?
Speaker 4 (10:24):
Is a lamb chop?
Speaker 3 (10:25):
No? No, lamb chop is from the side leg of lamb?
What is a lake of lamb?
Speaker 2 (10:31):
It rhymes with the first part of the name of
the stadium sort of, yeah, with the first Shanky stadium
Shanky Stadium, Yes, exactly, Lamb Shanky Stadium. How about in
the middle of Manhattan. This is the site of many
famous concerts and it's known for a pig product.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Middle of Manhattan. Would that be Radio City Music Hall?
I'm thinking right in the middle of Manhattan.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Yeah, guessing Madison Square Garden.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
No, it's further north. It's a big grassy area.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Oh, the great, the Great Lawn. There's the Delacorte Theater.
There's so many places, You're so many places that have been.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
The Yeah, I mean the great We'll go with the
other part of the club.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
What's the meet again?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
It's a pig product, could be boneless or.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Bone end, so central Pork.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Central pork, or you could have said the Great Lawn.
I like it, the great point of Central Pork. Yeah,
two answers on that one.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
All right.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
This is a short street along the East River. It's
known for some of the city's fanciest townhouses and for
the resident's fondness for adult sheep meet. It's a little
stretch it actually. Historically, the dead End Kids, those movies
from the whatever era that was, those that Cereal took
(11:55):
place on the little dead End streets that go up
to the East River in the fifties. Because it neighborhood's
changed from the dead End Kids to become very fancy.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
We're talking about Sutton Place, which I imagine would be
actually Mutton Place and the meat cinematic universe that we're
in right now.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Right, all right, This is the Lower Manhattan neighborhood known
for old industrial buildings that's that have been converted to
lofts and also a home of a famous film festival,
and also all of the shops that sell cattle stomach tripe,
Becca tripe, Becca tripe beca. Yes, all right, we'll do
one more. I think it's appropriate. After all this meat,
(12:40):
everyone needs to take a trip on this boat which
features cholesterol reducing medication. So this doesn't have a meat
in it. It has a cholesterol reducing medication that sounds
just like the name of probably the most famous boat
in New York. People take it every day.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Statnan and Fairy.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Yes, exactly.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
I didn't know. Get quite there, what's the cholesterol medication?
Speaker 2 (13:08):
I Stattatin, Stanton.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
Ryan and I aren't quite at their stage of life
where we're.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Monitoring our Yeah, it's more like we go to the
doctor and the doctor like gets gives us the side
eye and is like if you don't, if you don't, yeah,
it's gonna it's gonna be there in five years.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
If you don't, Yeah, yep, I see, I'm I've started
taking Stanton's my father in law who never did. He
was like, I wish I'd known about these when I
was younger. He doesn't even need him. His cholesterol is great.
But he's like, but, but it would be such an advantage.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Could eat all the liver worst you.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Want, Yeah, all the bents and worst you can. Well,
before we wrap this up, would you guys talk a
little bit about Midnight Madness formerly known as Compass, which
you are running this October.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
Sure. Yeah. So Midnight Madness is long running New York
City tradition. It's it's a puzzle hunt originally created and
run for many years by Matt Labowitz and Alicia Weizel.
They built up this legendary game. It was inspired by
a movie that came out in the nineteen eighties of
(14:16):
the same name, Midnight Madness, And in that movie, a
wacky guy leads his friends on a puzzle hunt that
takes place over the course of all night. It's like
kind of a Sunset to Sunrise game where they solve
puzzles in which each each solution of a puzzle is
the name of a location and you have to you
(14:38):
solve for the location, then you go there and you
kind of repeat that until you get to the end.
And so those guys thought, wouldn't it be cool if
this game existed in real life and they created it,
and the part of the goal was to create this
experience that gave kind of a unique level of access
(14:59):
and speriential delight to New York City's landmark locations, and
and was a bit bombastic in terms of the production value.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
And we've already gotten probably about a dozen teams signed up.
There's room for about a dozen more. And again, these
are teams, some of them some of them stake themselves,
and some of them are are financed by uh, wealthy
patrons who are staking a team full of their favorite
or most accomplished puzzle solvers as they compete for glory.
(15:34):
It feels a little like you know, ancient Rome. It's
like you gather your you know, there's like a patron
who like gathers his best you know, fighters and they
stake them in the arena or something like that, and
I I kind of embrace that. It's it feels very fun,
so you know, and then a lot of times, you know,
the person that that that paid for the entry is
there at the finish line to receive their you know,
(15:55):
their champions right right with laurels. And yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
But it's a big it's a big price entry, but
a ton of that money goes for oh, most.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Of it goes to charity. Yeah, and I mean it's
it's kind of the same as you know, a fundraising
galap but instead of you know, buying a table and
having to listen to like boring speeches, you buy a
team and then stake it full of your favorite puzzlers
and run around all night and and then you know,
drink a bunch of cocktails at three am, and yeah,
go home right as the sun peaks over right over
(16:28):
Long Island.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
And that's in October.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
It's in October. There you can go to Midnight Madness
Dot NYC to see some of the teaser. We haven't
officially announced the theme yet, but there is a teaser
puzzle created by Greg Pliska. Uh like that that that,
if you solve, reveals some hints about the theme of
(16:54):
this year's events. I think it's a great it's a
great puzzle. It's it's a puzzly puzzle for sure.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
And speaking of puzzles, Greg, do you have an extra
credit for the folks at home?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
I do have an extra credit for our Gotham Challenge
For many years, this was the longest single span suspension
bridge in the world, connecting Brooklyn, home to deer meat lovers,
with Staten Island, where they prefer the tissue found inside bones.
So there's actually there's two meats in this answer. Interesting.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Well, thank you Greg, and thank you John and Ryan.
Good luck with the Midnight Madness. We can't wait to
hear about it.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
And I was gonna say, if people want to learn
more about other Gotham events, there's the Summer series and
other things happening. Where should they look.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Yeah, exactly, just google Great Gotham Challenge or go to
the address info dot GGC, dot NYC. That's everything Great
Gotham Challenge branded. And then our larger company produces any
sort of a or puzzle related or that type of
(18:04):
event you can imagine.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Awesome.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
All right, well, thank you all, And in the meantime,
if you have an inch to do more puzzles, check
out the puzzler Instagram feed, which is that Hello Puzzlers,
and we've got all sorts of visual puzzles and stuff,
and of course we will meet you here tomorrow for
more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Hello puzzlers. Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Pliska here with the
extra credit answer from our previous show. Mike Pesco played
with us once again and I gave him the gif
Jiff puzzle. Every answer is a pair of words that
differ only from the first sound, the hard G versus
the soft G or J sound. Your extra credit clue
was this, Jack went to fetch a pail of water,
(18:55):
and his companion fortunately could breathe underwater thanks to these
Those are, of course Jill's gills. Thanks for playing and
we'll catch you here next time.
Hello puzzlers. Let's start with a quick puzzle. This puzzle
is about facial hair removal. I feel we do not
do enough men's grooming puzzles here, so I'm trying to
address that oversight. The question is what popular line of
shaving razors could be renamed two three hundred and one
(00:22):
miles per hour? So a popular line of shaving razors
that could be renamed twenty three hundred one miles per hour?
The answer and more puzzling goodness after the break, Hello puzzlers,
(00:43):
Welcome back to the Puzzler podcast The Surprise on pussel
in your Puzzle Chess Game. I am your host, A Jacobs.
I'm here for chie puzzle officer Greg Kliska.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Greg.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Before the break, we posed a warm up puzzle related
to men's grooming, an area I felt we had overlooked.
The puzzle is what popular line of shaving razors could
be renamed twenty three hundred and one miles per hour?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Any thoughts well, I feel like if I say the name,
we should get a sponsorship. I admit that I use
this razor, like we should get ads every week or something.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
That's true. I don't think you have to admit it's
not something to be.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
If I reveal, reveal do you actually made to this too?
But my only problem is I don't know the right
number to say. I'm gonna say it's a Gillette Mock three,
but they make like a mock one and a mock two,
and a Mark four and a Mock seven. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Well they don't. Well it's interesting. I'll get into that
in one second. But yes, mock three is the because
it's mock is the speed of sound, which is seven
hundred and sixty seven miles per hour or so, and
mock three three times that's twenty three hundred miles per hour.
But yes, the Mock three was the first that broke
(01:55):
the two. It broke the two blade. It was like
the spot nick. It was like a big deal. And
that started the wars, and as you've noted then they
have just been escalating like the Cold War arms race.
And now the highest that I could find is the
Dorko Pace seven, the world's first and only seven blade raserades.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
So there you go.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Well, we have some guests today. They look like I'm
not you know, they're a little uh, they've got a
little scruffy social Yeah, so I'm not sure they used
the mock thie, but maybe they do. Regardless of that,
we are delighted to have them. They are John Seal
and Bryan Patch, owners of Gotham Imbersive Labs, which puts on,
(02:41):
among other things, the Midnight Madness Puzzle Hunt, which is
an annual overnight puzzle hunt to benefit Good Shepherd Services,
a great organization. Please welcome John and Ryan.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Thank you, Thank you good to be here. I do
want to clarify that we are the founders, but there
are other owners as well who are our partners with
us as well, so we're not the only owners, but
we are the only founders there. We have a whole
We have a team of people involved in this insanity.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Got it?
Speaker 1 (03:09):
But I know that you and Greg have known each
other for quite some time. So I'm going to just
turn it over to Greg for today's puzzling and I'll
be enjoying from the sidelines.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
So Greg, well, you're going to jump in all you want.
I mean, full disclosure. I am not a founder nor
an owner, but I am creating puzzles and have created
puzzles with these guys. We met when I did one
of your challenges, I think, but now I get to
help create them.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Greg is a puzzle mercenary for.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Us, happy to do it. My first question is how
did this all start?
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Yeah, it's like all good ideas. It came out of
unemployed boredom. We Gothammers of Labs. We started by creating
a thing called the Great Gotham Challenge, which was a linear,
sequential puzzle hunt that combined New York City history, you know,
hidden locations in New York and all of that stuff.
(04:06):
And we did it. It actually went horribly, you know,
I think people got around a third of the way through.
They basically asked to be put out of their misery.
And John was one of those people who participated in it,
and I said, okay, guys, thank you for coming. Don't worry,
We're never going to make you do that again. And
(04:26):
lo and behold. Like four or five years later, John
called me up and said, well, John, I mean, do
you want to do you want to take over?
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Yeah? Ryan announced that he was moving out of New
York City about four or five years later, And during
that time it had been percolating that I really loved
the idea of the experience and felt like I had
some ideas to improve it and maybe make it a
little more doable, and so I approached Ryan about rebooting
(04:54):
the Great Gotham Challenge, and we put together a new
of the game, kind of reimagined it, and and it
actually went.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Well this time, and then we people finished.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
We people finished, people completed it, they had a good time,
and that started us off on a journey where every
year after that we were like, oh, we'll make well.
Our thought was like, we'll just make one or two
of these games for our friends every year. And then
at some point we got contacted by a business that
(05:25):
wanted to hire us to do one and we said yes,
and then we turned that first sale into another sale,
and then it became a whole enterprise, and now it's
a team. We have a team of you know, somewhere
around a dozen people, and we make puzzle hunts all
the time.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
The ideal of a Great Gotham Challenge puzzle is something
like the beginning of in Mission Impossible, or you know
rather better that's seen from Apollo thirteen, where they say,
you know, we've got this square filter and this circular duct,
and we've you know, and here's all these different pieces
and you have to we have to make this fit
into this and those are the type of the puzzles
(06:04):
that we love, and so we backed into kind of
more traditional puzzling world that kind of is is inhabited
by by you gentlemen through just kind of like needing
these gateways and locks on doors and stuff.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
And you'll hear you know, in Ryan's suscription, he referenced
a lot of movies. And the reason is because you know,
we are training, we have training and experience working in
the film world, and part of our idea was like,
can we make an experience that that in which each
individual who's playing gets to feel like they're the protagons
in a movie. So that was kind of our original
guiding light, and puzzles have become a part of that.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Well, and I will say, having participated in one of
the Great Gotham Challenges, there actually is was a movie.
We actually ended up at one point in a movie
theater watching a movie that Right had made that that
was a really cool thing to see and also had
more traditional word puzzle content related to it. Well, okay, well,
let's let's jump into a puzzle which is inspired by
(07:02):
the Great Gotham Challenge. And specifically the fact that you
guys are you know, deeply steeped in New York City
landmarks and culture in the world of Gotham. And here's
the thing that you may have also noticed that the
word Gotham splits into got Ham. So what we've done
is reimagine a bunch of famous New York locations so
that they have also got ham or other meat products
(07:26):
in them. So we've altered the name slightly. And as
a is, AJ reveals he hasn't seen this puzzle yet.
So AJ is a vegetarian. I don't know if you
guys feel about meat, but you know he might not
be able to help with the puzzle because he's.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
That's true, I'm uniquely unqualified.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
But if you need help, AJ is always there. I'll
give you an example. The example is this was once
the tallest structure in Gotham or in Gotham, and it
was built to promote beef.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
So it's a famous tall building. In fact, King Kong
climbed it in order to get more beef.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Well, I know which building you're talking about, right, So
say which is just the exact kay?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Well, King Kong famously climbed the Empire State Building, I.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Write, but you've got to change it slightly to include
a meat product. Ah, it would be the Empire Steak Building.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
Oh okay, now I understand the forida.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Yeah, exactly, that's why. That's the example. That's what's going on.
So these are all known New York locations that have
been altered slightly so that they have a meat product
in them.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
God, okay, understood, all right, And.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
The clue will give you both a clue to the
actual location and then a clue to what the meat
is that you've got to stick in. Okay, all right,
all right, here we go. This is a beacon for
immigrants from all over the world, especially those who like
organ meat.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Okay, well, let's see. It does sound like it's going
to be the Statue of Liberty, but we need some
meat to go in there.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Uh an organ in particular.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Right, Statue of Liberty.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Yes, I was trying to work with awful O F
F A L like the Awful.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Times Square.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
I was working a way too advanced sausage and this
is sweetbreads.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yeah, all right, here's another one. This is the home
of a famous Black Renaissance also known for the consumption
of baby sheep. It's a neighborhood.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
Mm hmm, okay, yeah, we are looking for Harlem Harlamb.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
That's it, Harlamb. There you go, look at that. I
don't know. John Ryan's got the puns going today. He's
on it.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
You're on fire, bro.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
This next one is a cut of meat from the
leg of one of those same baby sheep, and it
gives its name to a baseball mecca in the Bronx.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Yankee Stadium.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Yeah, Yankee Stadium. But it's the leg of a lamb.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
Is what's a lamb?
Speaker 2 (10:21):
What do you call that? A lamb?
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Blaamb chop?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
No?
Speaker 4 (10:24):
Is a lamb chop?
Speaker 3 (10:25):
No? No, lamb chop is from the side leg of lamb?
What is a lake of lamb?
Speaker 2 (10:31):
It rhymes with the first part of the name of
the stadium sort of, yeah, with the first Shanky stadium
Shanky Stadium, Yes, exactly, Lamb Shanky Stadium. How about in
the middle of Manhattan. This is the site of many
famous concerts and it's known for a pig product.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Middle of Manhattan. Would that be Radio City Music Hall?
I'm thinking right in the middle of Manhattan.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Yeah, guessing Madison Square Garden.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
No, it's further north. It's a big grassy area.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Oh, the great, the Great Lawn. There's the Delacorte Theater.
There's so many places, You're so many places that have been.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
The Yeah, I mean the great We'll go with the
other part of the club.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
What's the meet again?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
It's a pig product, could be boneless or.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Bone end, so central Pork.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Central pork, or you could have said the Great Lawn.
I like it, the great point of Central Pork. Yeah,
two answers on that one.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
All right.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
This is a short street along the East River. It's
known for some of the city's fanciest townhouses and for
the resident's fondness for adult sheep meet. It's a little
stretch it actually. Historically, the dead End Kids, those movies
from the whatever era that was, those that Cereal took
(11:55):
place on the little dead End streets that go up
to the East River in the fifties. Because it neighborhood's
changed from the dead End Kids to become very fancy.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
We're talking about Sutton Place, which I imagine would be
actually Mutton Place and the meat cinematic universe that we're
in right now.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Right, all right, This is the Lower Manhattan neighborhood known
for old industrial buildings that's that have been converted to
lofts and also a home of a famous film festival,
and also all of the shops that sell cattle stomach tripe,
Becca tripe, Becca tripe beca. Yes, all right, we'll do
one more. I think it's appropriate. After all this meat,
(12:40):
everyone needs to take a trip on this boat which
features cholesterol reducing medication. So this doesn't have a meat
in it. It has a cholesterol reducing medication that sounds
just like the name of probably the most famous boat
in New York. People take it every day.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Statnan and Fairy.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Yes, exactly.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
I didn't know. Get quite there, what's the cholesterol medication?
Speaker 2 (13:08):
I Stattatin, Stanton.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
Ryan and I aren't quite at their stage of life
where we're.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Monitoring our Yeah, it's more like we go to the
doctor and the doctor like gets gives us the side
eye and is like if you don't, if you don't, yeah,
it's gonna it's gonna be there in five years.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
If you don't, Yeah, yep, I see, I'm I've started
taking Stanton's my father in law who never did. He
was like, I wish I'd known about these when I
was younger. He doesn't even need him. His cholesterol is great.
But he's like, but, but it would be such an advantage.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Could eat all the liver worst you.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Want, Yeah, all the bents and worst you can. Well,
before we wrap this up, would you guys talk a
little bit about Midnight Madness formerly known as Compass, which
you are running this October.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
Sure. Yeah. So Midnight Madness is long running New York
City tradition. It's it's a puzzle hunt originally created and
run for many years by Matt Labowitz and Alicia Weizel.
They built up this legendary game. It was inspired by
a movie that came out in the nineteen eighties of
(14:16):
the same name, Midnight Madness, And in that movie, a
wacky guy leads his friends on a puzzle hunt that
takes place over the course of all night. It's like
kind of a Sunset to Sunrise game where they solve
puzzles in which each each solution of a puzzle is
the name of a location and you have to you
(14:38):
solve for the location, then you go there and you
kind of repeat that until you get to the end.
And so those guys thought, wouldn't it be cool if
this game existed in real life and they created it,
and the part of the goal was to create this
experience that gave kind of a unique level of access
(14:59):
and speriential delight to New York City's landmark locations, and
and was a bit bombastic in terms of the production value.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
And we've already gotten probably about a dozen teams signed up.
There's room for about a dozen more. And again, these
are teams, some of them some of them stake themselves,
and some of them are are financed by uh, wealthy
patrons who are staking a team full of their favorite
or most accomplished puzzle solvers as they compete for glory.
(15:34):
It feels a little like you know, ancient Rome. It's
like you gather your you know, there's like a patron
who like gathers his best you know, fighters and they
stake them in the arena or something like that, and
I I kind of embrace that. It's it feels very fun,
so you know, and then a lot of times, you know,
the person that that that paid for the entry is
there at the finish line to receive their you know,
(15:55):
their champions right right with laurels. And yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
But it's a big it's a big price entry, but
a ton of that money goes for oh, most.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Of it goes to charity. Yeah, and I mean it's
it's kind of the same as you know, a fundraising
galap but instead of you know, buying a table and
having to listen to like boring speeches, you buy a
team and then stake it full of your favorite puzzlers
and run around all night and and then you know,
drink a bunch of cocktails at three am, and yeah,
go home right as the sun peaks over right over
(16:28):
Long Island.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
And that's in October.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
It's in October. There you can go to Midnight Madness
Dot NYC to see some of the teaser. We haven't
officially announced the theme yet, but there is a teaser
puzzle created by Greg Pliska. Uh like that that that,
if you solve, reveals some hints about the theme of
(16:54):
this year's events. I think it's a great it's a
great puzzle. It's it's a puzzly puzzle for sure.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
And speaking of puzzles, Greg, do you have an extra
credit for the folks at home?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
I do have an extra credit for our Gotham Challenge
For many years, this was the longest single span suspension
bridge in the world, connecting Brooklyn, home to deer meat lovers,
with Staten Island, where they prefer the tissue found inside bones.
So there's actually there's two meats in this answer. Interesting.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Well, thank you Greg, and thank you John and Ryan.
Good luck with the Midnight Madness. We can't wait to
hear about it.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
And I was gonna say, if people want to learn
more about other Gotham events, there's the Summer series and
other things happening. Where should they look.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Yeah, exactly, just google Great Gotham Challenge or go to
the address info dot GGC, dot NYC. That's everything Great
Gotham Challenge branded. And then our larger company produces any
sort of a or puzzle related or that type of
(18:04):
event you can imagine.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Awesome.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
All right, well, thank you all, And in the meantime,
if you have an inch to do more puzzles, check
out the puzzler Instagram feed, which is that Hello Puzzlers,
and we've got all sorts of visual puzzles and stuff,
and of course we will meet you here tomorrow for
more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Hello puzzlers. Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Pliska here with the
extra credit answer from our previous show. Mike Pesco played
with us once again and I gave him the gif
Jiff puzzle. Every answer is a pair of words that
differ only from the first sound, the hard G versus
the soft G or J sound. Your extra credit clue
was this, Jack went to fetch a pail of water,
(18:55):
and his companion fortunately could breathe underwater thanks to these
Those are, of course Jill's gills. Thanks for playing and
we'll catch you here next time.
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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