October 31, 2024 • 21 mins
Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: our very own Chief Puzzle Officer, Greg Pliska.
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 Chat GPT” and audio rebuses.
Subscribe to The Puzzler podcast wherever you get your podcasts!
"The Puzzler with A.J. Jacobs" is distributed by iHeartPodcasts and is a co-production with Neuhaus Ideas.
Our executive producers are Neely Lohmann and Adam Neuhaus of Neuhaus Ideas, and Lindsay Hoffman of iHeart Podcasts.
The show is produced by Jody Avirgan and Brittani Brown of Roulette Productions.
Our Chief Puzzle Officer is Greg Pliska. Our associate producer is Andrea Schoenberg.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello, puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, the form fitting
lab coat in your sexy doctor Frankenstein costume. I'm your host,
Aja Jacobson. I'm here, of course, with Chief Puzzle Officer
Greg Plea's go welcome Greg.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Thank you. Aj. I am not wearing a form fitting
lab coat because I am not in the puzzle lab.
I've come up from the puzzle lab to do this
with you.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Well, thank you. We are grateful that you have emerged.
And it is an exciting day because it's a as
you know, hallo yeno, and yeah, it's a spooky day
and we are leaning into it. We have a special
Halloween episode of the Puzzler filled with jump scares for
(00:52):
your brain metaphorical jump scares, not actual, And we have
two puzzles. We love it so much. I wrote one
for you, you wrote one for me, and I thought
maybe we could start with puzzle number one.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Well if by definition it will be puzzle number one
when we go. When it goes first, do you spell
Halloween with a little apostrophe in it?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
I don't, but I'm going to start because why not
make life more complicated?
Speaker 2 (01:22):
More complicated? That sounds again the new Yorker would do right.
The worker likes to put the little diacritical marks diarysses
over like cooperation. Yeah, maybe they would do Halloween as
you pronounced it.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
It sounds appropriately pretentious for them.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yes, Miriam Webster does allow the less common hollow e
apostrophe een as I'm excellent.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
All right, Well, from now on, people watch out for that.
But that has very little to do with my puzzle,
which I'm tentatively calling OPO sweets I composites, but with
sweets with treats and the bad got it opposite. It's
a little stretch, but.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I imagined, like the political rooms where they prepare, you know,
the content against their opponents, right, oppositions are in the
oppos suite.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
That is an alternative puzzle that I may give on
election day.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Who knows. I Like, Now, when you say you're tentatively
calling it this, does that mean after we record you're
going to secretly go back and change the whole thing?
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Or yeah, I just don't like to. I don't want
to commit until I have to, which I guess I did.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I guess I just did. Yeah, that's that's the point
right there.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
All right, Well, regardless the backstory of this puzzle is
that this year Halloween falls on the same day as
opposite Day, So this year all the candy names are
the opposite of what they usually are called. So for instance, okay,
one candy is called and scarce. That would be in
(03:03):
reality good and plenty. Normally it would be good and plenty.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I thought there really was a thing called opposite day,
and I was like, that's also, wait, Halloween is always
October thirty. First, there's an opposite day. That's that's like
a movable feast, you know, it's like it is.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yes, it's on the lunar calendar. That's why opposite Well,
in my in my apartment, we had opposite Day. Whenever
my kids would say they hate me, I would say, oh,
it's opposite day, thank you. All right, So I'm gonna
give you the opposite day name of the candy, and
you tell me the real candy. So the first candy
is called salt mommy.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Oh, very good, very good. I like that. Certainly, the
opposite of mommy is daddy. And you're saying the opposite
of salt is sugar. Sugar Daddy sugar day.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Yeah, it's opposite ish enough, I thought this one I
think is unassailable. The candy is called idiots.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Idiots. There's the first thing I thought of, which is
not what you want, is lemonheads, which is not really
I think that would probably be a synonym for idiot.
You call someone a lemonhead, right. Also being in now
you're talking about those little rolls of candy called Smarties, exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Well, it's funny you brought up lemonheads because I was
considering airheads, which is sort of you already have a
built in opposite with Smarties and airheads.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Yeah, oh, very good. I should have thought of that too.
Do you know when I was a kid, we took
swimming lessons at a pool where they gave you Smarties
as a reward at the end of the lasting, and so.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
You like that.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Well, in my mind, smarties are forever chlorine soaked, right,
because there was no way to eat them by the
pool and not get them wet. And so I eat Smarties,
I feel like there's something wrong when they're dry. They
need to like soaked in a little chlorinated water for
me to.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yeah, you need the chlorine flavor, lemon strawberry chlorine.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
And the feeling of achievement. Yes, go ahead and give
me the next one.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
All right, I got a few more. This one is
called jocks, just like that jocks.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Jocks. So jocks are are you know? Oh?
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Got it was just jocks are the athletes in school?
You know? The breakfast club icons, the jock and the
other characters in that include the nerd these nerds.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Exactly. I was thinking sort of the eighties iconic jocks
versus merd.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Club jocks and nerds. Yes, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
By the way, I looked all these candies up, just
to make sure they still exist in My favorite description
ever of how a candy is made is a quote
from a maker of nerds who said, we start off
with a sugar crystal, and we just keep coating it
with more sugar. There that's the secrets nerds secret. Yeah,
don't tell.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
It's It's like the Puzzler podcast. We start out with
puzzles and we just keep coating them with more.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Puzzles, more delicious puzzles. All right, few more. We got
death squanderers, little dark ones, death squanderers.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
I want that candy. Death squanderers. High kids, welcome to
maya my trigger treat. Here's your death squanderers. Sounds terrifying. That,
of course, is going to be life savers.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Exactly exactly, all right, how about sad farmers. Sad farmers
another candy I want?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
They're the sad farmers like these little gummy things in
the shape of a you know, it's like a man
or a woman with a pitchfork, and they're they kind
of tilt over slowly.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
They're not Yeah, that don't makes sense.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Sad farmers.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
They're sad. It's not an easy business. And here's a hint.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Oh, here's it's happy I want.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
It's not that, but it is a.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Synonym about those happy Well, here.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Here I have a hint of what I was doing yesterday.
Watch it maybe a couple days ago, watching Oklahoma and
the farmer and the contman to be friends. So it's
not cowman.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
But cowboy rustler going was right, a rodeo wrangler rider.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
You got them almost all. Well, how about this I
wasn't a good hint then, farmer, jolly hint.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
I just had to work my way through it. Jolly ranchers.
I was sad farmers. I really want my kids coming
home this year with some sad farmers and some some
of those other ones some death squanderers.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yeah, well, I don't know if you do. You remember
wacky packs.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Our entire pantry was covered. Those were the wackybacks, were
the ones that came with like parody food stickers, right right,
This is.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Sort of a wacky packs feel to it.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Yeah, our entire pantry was covered with those stickers. My
mother was the most patient woman in the world. Clearly,
she just let us stick them on the inside doors
of the pantry. They were everywhere. We loved those.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
That is great. A couple more we got skid Row.
This is a candy bar called skid Row.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yes, so the opposite skid Row is kind of where
the down and out folks end up. It's the opposite
of easy Street. No, well it is, but that's not
the that's not a candy what is it? Easy street?
Easy money?
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Well, no, you're in the right area. But I'm thinking
I tried to think, what's the opposite of the fanciest street?
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Park Avenue even fancier. Nothing's fancier than Park Avenue.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
It is that it's just a little than Avenue.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Fifth Avenue, Right, Fifth Avenue is the actual candy bar.
Park Avenue is not a candy bar. That's the problem
with that answer.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
All right, I got let's say two more one dashes, dashes.
It's a little trick.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, you got it. We actually have we have We
have pages and pages of these in our cupboard right now.
The giant we have, the giant ones. They usually the
tiny or tiny little dots.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Dots exactly, although I'm thinking of two different things.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Candy dots are like on a piece of paper, they're
little drops of colored sugar. But there's another candy that's
like gum drops or something.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Right, well, it's just called dots. Yeah right, yeah, I
know what you mean. Well, the dots are sort of
the ones that you get at the movie theater, and
then yours are paper dots or candy. I know what
you mean.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
But there sugar on sugar, dropped onto paper and covered
with sugar.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Is that deligious?
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Giving away the recipe?
Speaker 1 (10:07):
All right, I've got one last one, which is so
obscure and absurd that I could not resist it. So
here with that disclaimer, Hakeem and ad Lie. Hakeem and
ad Lie. So break it down.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
I don't need to break it down.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
You got it already.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
I'm pretty sure I know what you're going for, Well,
here's why you said, Hakeem and Adlai, And I thought, well,
it's another candy. That's two names, right, So I immediately
thought of what I think is the right answer, and
then I and then I thought, well ad Lie Stevenson
probably ran against Dwight Eisenhower exactly Ike and hakem Elijah
(10:51):
was a rival of Michael Jordan's.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
So I was thinking that is interesting. I was say,
thinking Hockeyen Jeffries, who is the House the leader of
the Democrats in the House. And Mike Johnson. So I
stuck with the politics.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
But you've got back the Constitution book, so you would
naturally go there instead of the sports reference. But either way,
it's Mike and Ike.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
It works. Mike and Ike and uh and I also,
this one is so hard. I don't I'm not even
gonna but later and now, later and.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Now now and later there it is there exactly. So well,
you have an extra credit.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
I do. I do have an extra credit. We I
had one of them was gonna be uh, lemonheads like
lime feet or some lime tails. But I think I'll
try this. It's a little trough, it's a little tough,
but what about this truths truths. So there you have it.
(11:55):
That is. It's a tough one. But I'm I think, yeah,
so that's my puzzle.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
That's a good one. I am in our family. I'm
not the sweets lover. I'm the savory lover. I'm the
salty guy. So that puzzle did not make me crave anything.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Well, I'm impressed with your knowledge, if not for someone
who doesn't love sweets, very impressed.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Well, we have them in the house. I just you know,
I'm except for one, the peanut butter cup whatever brand
I am Daddy's. That's like gold to me. I can't stop.
I can't. It's like crack. I gotta have it.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
There are other I only know of Reese's, though they
I guess they're Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
There's you know, every the Whole Foods brand or whatever.
I don't want. I didn't want to give the plug
to Reese's without them buying ads. You know, So good point.
But Reese's, if you're listening, I'd be happy to do
a long ad about how much smarter they make us.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
And by the way, I love Trader Joe's skirting around
as a copy right like Scandinavia and swimmers instead.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Of swimming fish. There's yeah, that's a puzzle right there,
the trader Joe's name for things.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
All right, So I am now ready to do the
opposite of the puzzle. I am ready to try to
solve your puzzle. Well, they have not seen I don't
know anything.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Nothing about it. Well, it's a trick or treat puzzle, appropriate, yesh. Yeah,
every answer is a made up phrase that rhymes with
trick or treat.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Oh okay, made up?
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Okay, right, and just like the original, the first sound
of the word pairs will be the same, right, Trick
and treat both start with the t r sound.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Oh okay, oh okay.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
All right.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Here, I'll give you the example, which is, do you
tell the kids at your door you're not feeling well
or invite them to take a chair? Okay, that would
be sick or sat right exactly. So it's all like that.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
So these are alternative holidays where you actually do something
besides trick or treat.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
I've included these as choices you might face when a
when a bunch of kids show up at your door,
just like with you know, a trick or treat, right,
although it could be it could be what they say
when they come to the door too. But I've cleared
what You have a choice? Which do you do for
the kids? Love it?
Speaker 1 (14:24):
All right, I'm all right.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Do you do you give the kids at your door
a TV remote or a football shoe? Oh?
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Oh, okay, well I think I got it. But uh,
well I think the football shoe is a cleat yep,
and so that would be click or cleat.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Exactly, exactly, well done. Yeah, yeah, you know it's not
an exact synonym. A TV remote is not a click,
but that's the Well, if.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
You're in a hurry, if you're in a hurry and
don't have time to say clicker, then you're going to
say click. And we are busy people.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Yeah, doing puzzles. Do you show them a movie? Or
enlist them in the navy? Oh?
Speaker 1 (15:09):
I like that?
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Yeah, I like that to the kids, right, you got it?
Speaker 1 (15:14):
That would be an ultimate trick to enlist them in
the navy.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Flick or fleet? Right or fleet? You let it. Your
kids show up at someone's door to you know, to
get some candy, and suddenly there shanghaied and sent off
to work in the in the navy exactly.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
It's like the children's crusade.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Yeah, yes, exactly, exactly, all right. Do you send them
down to the little stream behind your farm or send
them to a Greek island?
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Okay, good? I was thinking little streams and that was
because I know you've used real recently. Yes, it was like,
it's not real.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
It is crick or crete crete exactly, crik or creak?
Speaker 1 (15:54):
So wait, is crick just a mispronunciation of creek, but
it is.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
A Yeah, it's a it's a kind of countryfiede creek.
I think the I think the definition in Merriam Webster
is literally a you know, a creek in the country
or something like that as a god.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
So there's not a creek and a creek, it's just
there's I think.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
There's just two different ways of saying this, but they are.
It is spelled differently. It is spelled crick, all right.
It could also been a crick in your neck, but
that was harder clue. All right, So the kids are
at your door. Do you play them satisfaction or paradise
by the dashboard lights?
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Man, no, this one, I'm all right. That is well
satisfaction rolling stone mac yes, mac make or meat or
meat or meat meat loaf exactly.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
All right, do you give them a Jonas brother or
some whiskey without ice?
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Okay, yeah, I was going through. I only know one
Jonas brother, but thankful I know that whiskey is neat
when it has no way, So Nick or neat?
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Nick Jonas or neat. Yes, and I hope you're not
giving the kids the whiskey. That's all I got to say.
I hope you have Nick Jonas just behind the door.
You bring them out and say hey, Happy Halloween, and
then you go on. My first Halloween that I can remember,
we lived in an apartment in California, and we went
down the hall to like very few people we knew.
I must have been three or four years old, and
(17:26):
I went down the hall and this woman. I said,
trick or treat And the woman put an apple in
my bag and she closed the door. And I turned
to my mom. I said that was a trick.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
That was a trick.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
I was like, that's not a treat.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
And did it have a razor blade in it?
Speaker 2 (17:42):
No, this is back in. That would be more innocent.
You know, that's all urban legends.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Right There has never I think, no.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Evidence ever happening. It's all kids.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
If you get fruits in your bag, then feel free
to just chow down. Chowdown.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah right, but don't don't sue us if something bad happened.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Exactly I was saying, and I'm like, oh, oh wait,
what if? Uh well, anyway I got I would love it.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah, yeah, a few more. Do you snap a quick
photo or introduce them to the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana?
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Oh, pick or Pete pick or Pete exactly?
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Yes, exactly. You got a whole bunch of celebrities right
behind the door. You're just pulling them out. You got
Nick Jonas, you got Mick Jagger, you got Pete boota judge.
Do you light a candle or harvest some grain?
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Oh wait, now that I thought I had it, hold
on harvest or wick? Or oh it is wick or wheat?
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Wick or wheat? Exactly the candle, second, the wheat. All right,
I'll give you one more of these. Do you give
them a spotted British dessert or an insect repellent?
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Okay, I think I got it, And you could have
gone many directions with that first clue. I could have,
but I appreciate you keeping it family friendly for the
puzzlers at home.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
That would be Dick or deet dick or deep exactly?
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Do you have an extra credit?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
I do have an extra credit. It does not involve
be fat. Do you give them a baby farm animal
or a Konami code?
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Mm?
Speaker 1 (19:35):
I'm glad you saved that for them, because I actually
don't think I know.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Save some tricky ones for the people.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Yeah, well, lovely, lovely puzzle. It was a treat and
a trick at the same time. So thank you. Have
a great Halloween, a razor blade free Halloween, and.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
It's a dark enjoy your death, squanderers.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
And if you like the show, please check out our
instagram feet, which is that Hello Puzzlers, and we post
original puzzles and other stumps and we'll meet you here
tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Hey puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska here. We had Jordan Carlos
on to play do you all speak Texan? And I'm
here to give you the extra credit answer from that episode.
In this episode, we gave you a bunch of Texan
idioms and you had to fill in the blank to
finish them, or rather Jordan, did we gave you the
extra credit? And it was this, It's so hot? The
(20:46):
hens are blank? What are those hens doing? Yes, they
are laying hard boiled eggs.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Well, I hope you're keeping cool and eating hard boiled
eggs or whatever else you like while you listen to
the puzzler
Hello, puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, the form fitting
lab coat in your sexy doctor Frankenstein costume. I'm your host,
Aja Jacobson. I'm here, of course, with Chief Puzzle Officer
Greg Plea's go welcome Greg.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Thank you. Aj. I am not wearing a form fitting
lab coat because I am not in the puzzle lab.
I've come up from the puzzle lab to do this
with you.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Well, thank you. We are grateful that you have emerged.
And it is an exciting day because it's a as
you know, hallo yeno, and yeah, it's a spooky day
and we are leaning into it. We have a special
Halloween episode of the Puzzler filled with jump scares for
(00:52):
your brain metaphorical jump scares, not actual, And we have
two puzzles. We love it so much. I wrote one
for you, you wrote one for me, and I thought
maybe we could start with puzzle number one.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Well if by definition it will be puzzle number one
when we go. When it goes first, do you spell
Halloween with a little apostrophe in it?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
I don't, but I'm going to start because why not
make life more complicated?
Speaker 2 (01:22):
More complicated? That sounds again the new Yorker would do right.
The worker likes to put the little diacritical marks diarysses
over like cooperation. Yeah, maybe they would do Halloween as
you pronounced it.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
It sounds appropriately pretentious for them.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yes, Miriam Webster does allow the less common hollow e
apostrophe een as I'm excellent.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
All right, Well, from now on, people watch out for that.
But that has very little to do with my puzzle,
which I'm tentatively calling OPO sweets I composites, but with
sweets with treats and the bad got it opposite. It's
a little stretch, but.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I imagined, like the political rooms where they prepare, you know,
the content against their opponents, right, oppositions are in the
oppos suite.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
That is an alternative puzzle that I may give on
election day.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Who knows. I Like, Now, when you say you're tentatively
calling it this, does that mean after we record you're
going to secretly go back and change the whole thing?
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Or yeah, I just don't like to. I don't want
to commit until I have to, which I guess I did.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I guess I just did. Yeah, that's that's the point
right there.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
All right, Well, regardless the backstory of this puzzle is
that this year Halloween falls on the same day as
opposite Day, So this year all the candy names are
the opposite of what they usually are called. So for instance, okay,
one candy is called and scarce. That would be in
(03:03):
reality good and plenty. Normally it would be good and plenty.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I thought there really was a thing called opposite day,
and I was like, that's also, wait, Halloween is always
October thirty. First, there's an opposite day. That's that's like
a movable feast, you know, it's like it is.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yes, it's on the lunar calendar. That's why opposite Well,
in my in my apartment, we had opposite Day. Whenever
my kids would say they hate me, I would say, oh,
it's opposite day, thank you. All right, So I'm gonna
give you the opposite day name of the candy, and
you tell me the real candy. So the first candy
is called salt mommy.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Oh, very good, very good. I like that. Certainly, the
opposite of mommy is daddy. And you're saying the opposite
of salt is sugar. Sugar Daddy sugar day.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Yeah, it's opposite ish enough, I thought this one I
think is unassailable. The candy is called idiots.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Idiots. There's the first thing I thought of, which is
not what you want, is lemonheads, which is not really
I think that would probably be a synonym for idiot.
You call someone a lemonhead, right. Also being in now
you're talking about those little rolls of candy called Smarties, exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Well, it's funny you brought up lemonheads because I was
considering airheads, which is sort of you already have a
built in opposite with Smarties and airheads.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Yeah, oh, very good. I should have thought of that too.
Do you know when I was a kid, we took
swimming lessons at a pool where they gave you Smarties
as a reward at the end of the lasting, and so.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
You like that.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Well, in my mind, smarties are forever chlorine soaked, right,
because there was no way to eat them by the
pool and not get them wet. And so I eat Smarties,
I feel like there's something wrong when they're dry. They
need to like soaked in a little chlorinated water for
me to.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yeah, you need the chlorine flavor, lemon strawberry chlorine.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
And the feeling of achievement. Yes, go ahead and give
me the next one.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
All right, I got a few more. This one is
called jocks, just like that jocks.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Jocks. So jocks are are you know? Oh?
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Got it was just jocks are the athletes in school?
You know? The breakfast club icons, the jock and the
other characters in that include the nerd these nerds.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Exactly. I was thinking sort of the eighties iconic jocks
versus merd.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Club jocks and nerds. Yes, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
By the way, I looked all these candies up, just
to make sure they still exist in My favorite description
ever of how a candy is made is a quote
from a maker of nerds who said, we start off
with a sugar crystal, and we just keep coating it
with more sugar. There that's the secrets nerds secret. Yeah,
don't tell.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
It's It's like the Puzzler podcast. We start out with
puzzles and we just keep coating them with more.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Puzzles, more delicious puzzles. All right, few more. We got
death squanderers, little dark ones, death squanderers.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
I want that candy. Death squanderers. High kids, welcome to
maya my trigger treat. Here's your death squanderers. Sounds terrifying. That,
of course, is going to be life savers.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Exactly exactly, all right, how about sad farmers. Sad farmers
another candy I want?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
They're the sad farmers like these little gummy things in
the shape of a you know, it's like a man
or a woman with a pitchfork, and they're they kind
of tilt over slowly.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
They're not Yeah, that don't makes sense.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Sad farmers.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
They're sad. It's not an easy business. And here's a hint.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Oh, here's it's happy I want.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
It's not that, but it is a.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Synonym about those happy Well, here.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Here I have a hint of what I was doing yesterday.
Watch it maybe a couple days ago, watching Oklahoma and
the farmer and the contman to be friends. So it's
not cowman.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
But cowboy rustler going was right, a rodeo wrangler rider.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
You got them almost all. Well, how about this I
wasn't a good hint then, farmer, jolly hint.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
I just had to work my way through it. Jolly ranchers.
I was sad farmers. I really want my kids coming
home this year with some sad farmers and some some
of those other ones some death squanderers.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yeah, well, I don't know if you do. You remember
wacky packs.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Our entire pantry was covered. Those were the wackybacks, were
the ones that came with like parody food stickers, right right,
This is.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Sort of a wacky packs feel to it.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Yeah, our entire pantry was covered with those stickers. My
mother was the most patient woman in the world. Clearly,
she just let us stick them on the inside doors
of the pantry. They were everywhere. We loved those.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
That is great. A couple more we got skid Row.
This is a candy bar called skid Row.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yes, so the opposite skid Row is kind of where
the down and out folks end up. It's the opposite
of easy Street. No, well it is, but that's not
the that's not a candy what is it? Easy street?
Easy money?
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Well, no, you're in the right area. But I'm thinking
I tried to think, what's the opposite of the fanciest street?
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Park Avenue even fancier. Nothing's fancier than Park Avenue.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
It is that it's just a little than Avenue.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Fifth Avenue, Right, Fifth Avenue is the actual candy bar.
Park Avenue is not a candy bar. That's the problem
with that answer.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
All right, I got let's say two more one dashes, dashes.
It's a little trick.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, you got it. We actually have we have We
have pages and pages of these in our cupboard right now.
The giant we have, the giant ones. They usually the
tiny or tiny little dots.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Dots exactly, although I'm thinking of two different things.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Candy dots are like on a piece of paper, they're
little drops of colored sugar. But there's another candy that's
like gum drops or something.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Right, well, it's just called dots. Yeah right, yeah, I
know what you mean. Well, the dots are sort of
the ones that you get at the movie theater, and
then yours are paper dots or candy. I know what
you mean.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
But there sugar on sugar, dropped onto paper and covered
with sugar.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Is that deligious?
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Giving away the recipe?
Speaker 1 (10:07):
All right, I've got one last one, which is so
obscure and absurd that I could not resist it. So
here with that disclaimer, Hakeem and ad Lie. Hakeem and
ad Lie. So break it down.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
I don't need to break it down.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
You got it already.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
I'm pretty sure I know what you're going for, Well,
here's why you said, Hakeem and Adlai, And I thought, well,
it's another candy. That's two names, right, So I immediately
thought of what I think is the right answer, and
then I and then I thought, well ad Lie Stevenson
probably ran against Dwight Eisenhower exactly Ike and hakem Elijah
(10:51):
was a rival of Michael Jordan's.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
So I was thinking that is interesting. I was say,
thinking Hockeyen Jeffries, who is the House the leader of
the Democrats in the House. And Mike Johnson. So I
stuck with the politics.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
But you've got back the Constitution book, so you would
naturally go there instead of the sports reference. But either way,
it's Mike and Ike.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
It works. Mike and Ike and uh and I also,
this one is so hard. I don't I'm not even
gonna but later and now, later and.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Now now and later there it is there exactly. So well,
you have an extra credit.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
I do. I do have an extra credit. We I
had one of them was gonna be uh, lemonheads like
lime feet or some lime tails. But I think I'll
try this. It's a little trough, it's a little tough,
but what about this truths truths. So there you have it.
(11:55):
That is. It's a tough one. But I'm I think, yeah,
so that's my puzzle.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
That's a good one. I am in our family. I'm
not the sweets lover. I'm the savory lover. I'm the
salty guy. So that puzzle did not make me crave anything.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Well, I'm impressed with your knowledge, if not for someone
who doesn't love sweets, very impressed.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Well, we have them in the house. I just you know,
I'm except for one, the peanut butter cup whatever brand
I am Daddy's. That's like gold to me. I can't stop.
I can't. It's like crack. I gotta have it.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
There are other I only know of Reese's, though they
I guess they're Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
There's you know, every the Whole Foods brand or whatever.
I don't want. I didn't want to give the plug
to Reese's without them buying ads. You know, So good point.
But Reese's, if you're listening, I'd be happy to do
a long ad about how much smarter they make us.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
And by the way, I love Trader Joe's skirting around
as a copy right like Scandinavia and swimmers instead.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Of swimming fish. There's yeah, that's a puzzle right there,
the trader Joe's name for things.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
All right, So I am now ready to do the
opposite of the puzzle. I am ready to try to
solve your puzzle. Well, they have not seen I don't
know anything.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Nothing about it. Well, it's a trick or treat puzzle, appropriate, yesh. Yeah,
every answer is a made up phrase that rhymes with
trick or treat.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Oh okay, made up?
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Okay, right, and just like the original, the first sound
of the word pairs will be the same, right, Trick
and treat both start with the t r sound.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Oh okay, oh okay.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
All right.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Here, I'll give you the example, which is, do you
tell the kids at your door you're not feeling well
or invite them to take a chair? Okay, that would
be sick or sat right exactly. So it's all like that.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
So these are alternative holidays where you actually do something
besides trick or treat.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
I've included these as choices you might face when a
when a bunch of kids show up at your door,
just like with you know, a trick or treat, right,
although it could be it could be what they say
when they come to the door too. But I've cleared
what You have a choice? Which do you do for
the kids? Love it?
Speaker 1 (14:24):
All right, I'm all right.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Do you do you give the kids at your door
a TV remote or a football shoe? Oh?
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Oh, okay, well I think I got it. But uh,
well I think the football shoe is a cleat yep,
and so that would be click or cleat.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Exactly, exactly, well done. Yeah, yeah, you know it's not
an exact synonym. A TV remote is not a click,
but that's the Well, if.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
You're in a hurry, if you're in a hurry and
don't have time to say clicker, then you're going to
say click. And we are busy people.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Yeah, doing puzzles. Do you show them a movie? Or
enlist them in the navy? Oh?
Speaker 1 (15:09):
I like that?
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Yeah, I like that to the kids, right, you got it?
Speaker 1 (15:14):
That would be an ultimate trick to enlist them in
the navy.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Flick or fleet? Right or fleet? You let it. Your
kids show up at someone's door to you know, to
get some candy, and suddenly there shanghaied and sent off
to work in the in the navy exactly.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
It's like the children's crusade.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Yeah, yes, exactly, exactly, all right. Do you send them
down to the little stream behind your farm or send
them to a Greek island?
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Okay, good? I was thinking little streams and that was
because I know you've used real recently. Yes, it was like,
it's not real.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
It is crick or crete crete exactly, crik or creak?
Speaker 1 (15:54):
So wait, is crick just a mispronunciation of creek, but
it is.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
A Yeah, it's a it's a kind of countryfiede creek.
I think the I think the definition in Merriam Webster
is literally a you know, a creek in the country
or something like that as a god.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
So there's not a creek and a creek, it's just
there's I think.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
There's just two different ways of saying this, but they are.
It is spelled differently. It is spelled crick, all right.
It could also been a crick in your neck, but
that was harder clue. All right, So the kids are
at your door. Do you play them satisfaction or paradise
by the dashboard lights?
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Man, no, this one, I'm all right. That is well
satisfaction rolling stone mac yes, mac make or meat or
meat or meat meat loaf exactly.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
All right, do you give them a Jonas brother or
some whiskey without ice?
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Okay, yeah, I was going through. I only know one
Jonas brother, but thankful I know that whiskey is neat
when it has no way, So Nick or neat?
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Nick Jonas or neat. Yes, and I hope you're not
giving the kids the whiskey. That's all I got to say.
I hope you have Nick Jonas just behind the door.
You bring them out and say hey, Happy Halloween, and
then you go on. My first Halloween that I can remember,
we lived in an apartment in California, and we went
down the hall to like very few people we knew.
I must have been three or four years old, and
(17:26):
I went down the hall and this woman. I said,
trick or treat And the woman put an apple in
my bag and she closed the door. And I turned
to my mom. I said that was a trick.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
That was a trick.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
I was like, that's not a treat.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
And did it have a razor blade in it?
Speaker 2 (17:42):
No, this is back in. That would be more innocent.
You know, that's all urban legends.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Right There has never I think, no.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Evidence ever happening. It's all kids.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
If you get fruits in your bag, then feel free
to just chow down. Chowdown.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah right, but don't don't sue us if something bad happened.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Exactly I was saying, and I'm like, oh, oh wait,
what if? Uh well, anyway I got I would love it.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah, yeah, a few more. Do you snap a quick
photo or introduce them to the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana?
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Oh, pick or Pete pick or Pete exactly?
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Yes, exactly. You got a whole bunch of celebrities right
behind the door. You're just pulling them out. You got
Nick Jonas, you got Mick Jagger, you got Pete boota judge.
Do you light a candle or harvest some grain?
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Oh wait, now that I thought I had it, hold
on harvest or wick? Or oh it is wick or wheat?
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Wick or wheat? Exactly the candle, second, the wheat. All right,
I'll give you one more of these. Do you give
them a spotted British dessert or an insect repellent?
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Okay, I think I got it, And you could have
gone many directions with that first clue. I could have,
but I appreciate you keeping it family friendly for the
puzzlers at home.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
That would be Dick or deet dick or deep exactly?
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Do you have an extra credit?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
I do have an extra credit. It does not involve
be fat. Do you give them a baby farm animal
or a Konami code?
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Mm?
Speaker 1 (19:35):
I'm glad you saved that for them, because I actually
don't think I know.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Save some tricky ones for the people.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Yeah, well, lovely, lovely puzzle. It was a treat and
a trick at the same time. So thank you. Have
a great Halloween, a razor blade free Halloween, and.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
It's a dark enjoy your death, squanderers.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
And if you like the show, please check out our
instagram feet, which is that Hello Puzzlers, and we post
original puzzles and other stumps and we'll meet you here
tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Hey puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska here. We had Jordan Carlos
on to play do you all speak Texan? And I'm
here to give you the extra credit answer from that episode.
In this episode, we gave you a bunch of Texan
idioms and you had to fill in the blank to
finish them, or rather Jordan, did we gave you the
extra credit? And it was this, It's so hot? The
(20:46):
hens are blank? What are those hens doing? Yes, they
are laying hard boiled eggs.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Well, I hope you're keeping cool and eating hard boiled
eggs or whatever else you like while you listen to
the puzzler
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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