August 1, 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.
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 (00:01):
Hello, puzzlers, I think we should start with a quick puzzle.
This week we have game show legend Ken Jennings as
our guests.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
I'm smarter than as we know.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Greg is smarter. It's been proven objectively. Listen to last
episode if you don't believe it. One of the many
things I love about Ken, aside from being dumber than Greg,
is that if you take this, we love Greg.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Don't you made more money at it?
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Quick question? Quick? Why have you not been on Jeopardy?
You aren't? Really, I just never have.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
I don't know, I've never even tried.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
All right, Well, think about it, all right. One of
the many things I love about Ken is that if
you take his first name Ken and double it, you
get ken ken, which is a popular type of puzzle.
So he was made for puzzles. There is a name
for words like ken ken where it's one sound repeated,
and that word is reduplicative reduplication. So my challenge for
(00:58):
listeners is what are some other words it's in the
English language like ken ken where it's three letters repeated, so.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Very specific is the one I just wrote down? Go
for it?
Speaker 1 (01:08):
What is that you?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
No? No, I'm not gonna you give the example.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
All right, there's the chocolate candy bond. Bond that is reduplicative?
Is that yours?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
That was the next one I was writing down.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Okay, thank god. I will give a hint to a couple.
One is an object used by cheerleaders. Another is something
cheerleaders might say more of a phrase than a word,
and another is what a cheerleader might get if they
fall off the human pyramid. So that is we're looking
for three letters repeated to form six letter words. The
(01:40):
answers and more puzzling goodness after the break, Hello, puzzlers,
Welcome back to the Puzzler Podcast the Emerald encrusted fob
for your puzzle pocket watch. I am your host, AJ Jacobson.
I'm here, of course, she puzzle offs her Greg. Before
(02:01):
the break, we challenged puzzlers at home to come up
with reduplicative words words that repeat syllables like bonbond six
letters in particular, we gave some hints. One is something
used by cheerleaders.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Oh am, I going to answer each clue why not?
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Why not? Well, technically this is spelled. The original spelling
of this word is p o M p o N
pompon pom pom is.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
The uh is an accepted I believe alternate spelling pompon
and it's yeah, that's that's what I got, pompomp.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
That is, you are correct. And that's funny because there's
there's varieties of reduplicative words that are rhyming but not
technically the exact same. It's the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Do you know what? I just looked this up. Pom
pom with the M is.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
The first definition in the unabridged Merriam Webster. Here that's
right here in front of me is a fully automatic
carriage mounted thirty seven millimeter gun firing explosive shells and
used by both sides during the Boer War.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Wow, well that is not very fun.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
No, that is some cheerleaders do use pom pom guns.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Fascinating good to know. Another is something that cheerleaders with
their pom ponds might say.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
They would say raw raw, They would say rah rah
rah rah exactly. You could also that's a good adjective
for someone who's a cheerleader.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
You're so raw rah right exactly. And another is what
cheerleaders might get if they if one of them falls
off the human pyramids. You might get or might get it.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Boo boo.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
All right, you have one more.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
I have one more.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
What a cheerleader kind of dress you might buy for
a cheerleader, especially in.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Hawaiian.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yes, I believe that's a moo moo moo moo. M
you you m you, you exactly well done? Anything else?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Those are the ones I got. I had Barry Barry
the disease. But that's.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
There's Tom Tom the drums.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Woo woo.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
I love that, sort of like Gwyneth Paltrow is woo
woo with her, with her.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Beliefs, right for Gwyneth. Okay, so she's not coming on
the show now.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Well, we have so many episo I feel she's she
might not hear this one. She probably listens half the episodes.
All right, Well, there you go. We do political words,
but we've got more than just that. That was just
the teaser. Let's go to the main course, which is
it's game show week here on the Puzzler. So we
(04:37):
have a news item, very loosely considered news. But the
game show The Price is Right recently aired it's ten
thousandth episode. Yeah, and it's the longest running game show
in history. So in honor of the price is right,
and in honor of history, we have what we're calling
(04:59):
the hiss historic prices. Right, So I'm going to give
you an object from history and you have to tell
me what. And you are going to be competing against
senior puzzler Andrea Schomberg.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
I'm older than Andrea, so I'm more likely to have
been alive when these things came about.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
That is true, Andrea, You're working at a disadvantage, as
is often the case. Oh yeah, this as lot as
we all acknowledge it. Well, let me give you an example,
like the how much was the price of the first
hamburger at the first McDonald's opened by Ray Kroc in
nineteen fifty five? The answer is fifteen cents? It was
(05:37):
fifteen cent, all right.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
So I was not alive for that, I will say,
not a live for that.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
But I do remember before, you know, when they used
to tell you how many had been sold at McDonald's,
which they don't put up on the sunde.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
That's just billions or trillions.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
You have over one million sold or whatever.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
They lost count. All right, Well, let's start, and I
do have to start by saying Greg Pliskat and hey ya, Schoenberg.
Come on down. You're the next two contestants on the
historic prices. Right there you go. And by the way,
we're going to use prices right rule. So the closest
guess wins, but if you get higher, go over you're disqualified.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Okay, all right?
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Ready? How much were the tickets to the first Super
Bowl held in nineteen sixty seven? If she wanted to
go there in person, it will alternate. Who's going first?
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Was this the Jets Super Bowl with the Jets player? No?
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I think that was the second or third. This is
the Packers and the Chiefs. Okay, the Chiefs and Green
Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs. It was in Memorial
Coliseum in Los Angeles nineteen sixty seven. Should I spoil
who won?
Speaker 2 (06:42):
I believe it was uh, believe it was the Packers.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Yeah, it was the Packers. So how much was the ticket? Greg,
you go first on this one, and then Andrea will
go first on next.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Twenty five dollars.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Twenty five dollars for Greg and Andrea twenty six dollars.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Oh, I see how you.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Are twenty six dollars. No, oh, you should have gone
with one dollar. They were twelve dollars. Oh, oh, twelve dollars. Well,
I have no way to purpose.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
But if I had gone first, I would have said
ten dollars.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Oh, well, okay, by the way, one hundred. That's one
hundred and fifteen dollars or so in twenty twenty five dollars.
And nowadays super Bowl tickets range thousands.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Yeah, so the guest wasn't crazy because the tickets not
only has inflation changed the price, but just the cost
of the ticket has gone relatively gone up astronomical.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Exactly. It had two things. I mean, this was people
didn't know the super Bowl was going to be a
big It was not even sold out. They sold sixty
two thousand of seventy seven thousand.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
It wasn't really the super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Then it was the sort of kind of good bawl.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Yeah, exactly, it was. I remember that the super Bowl.
I read a History of Football or something to wear.
The guy who named it it was after the Super Ball,
the really uncy ball that these kids had, and he
was like, this is a bad idea, but here's an exist.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
I remember that. They were like, what a terrible name,
And it's.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Okay. The first ride on the New York City subway.
What was the fair in nineteen oh four? Okay, wait Andrea,
now you get to go improve Yeah, just first instincts. Okay,
five cents, Greg, all right, I'm gonna spare you.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
She got it.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Yeah. I was gonna say five cents too.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
I was like, I don't know where to go with that,
but she went first, and so she got it. Yeah,
five cents, which is about a dollar seventy in today's dollars,
so a little lower than the two ninety fair. I
will say. I looked up the coverage of that first
subway ride, and the New York Times article highly recommend it.
I just loved the way they wrote back then, Can
(08:53):
I read you the lead for the first time in
his life? Father Knickerbocker went und yesterday, that's the opening line.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
How great is that? Nobody writes like that anymore?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Come on, I know it's so crazy. And then this
I loved he did. The writer described the it's he
said it was a good natured crowd, not disposed to
snarl or say, awe, who you're shoving? So it is
a good natured crowd. It did not snarl or say awe,
who are yes shoving? And that was what year was that,
(09:28):
nineteen nineteen oh four, nineteen oh four.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
So I happened to be fascinated with the subway system
and with metros in general. I've got several books of
world metro maps. I'm really into this subject. There's a
great book called I forget the titles like seven hundred
and twenty eight miles or something like that, about which
is the length of all the track in the subway
when the book was written, talks about the history, and
(09:51):
there are some great articles from not much later than that,
not much later than the story you told, where the
writer of the news story complaining about the subway. It's dirty,
it's crowded, people don't move out of the way when
you want to get on and off, and it's like
and back then it was a much smaller system, but
(10:11):
very quickly it became overcrowded and busy, and the same
as it is today, the same complaints we have today.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Well, this guy was like gleaming white stations. It was
an olive green subway. By the way, all right, I've
got another couple for you. How much was the first
commercially available calculator not made out of vacuum tube? So
the first calculator with transistors in nineteen fifty seven. It
(10:41):
was an IBM machine IBM six eight. How much did
that cost?
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Oh, this is so hard because you want to make
the price low, because everything you know goes up in price.
But the other truth is that technology, right, has gotten
cheaper and cheaper to make more and more faster, better
complicated tatology.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
So what did they? Let I say, eighteen dollars?
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Eighteen dollars, okay, Andrea, I swear I'm not being tricky.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
This is the number that I had in my head.
Twenty dollars.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
All right, Well, you did win, you did win. It
is higher than eighteen, and it is higher than twenty.
It's eighty three thousand dollars. Eighty three two hundred ten dollars.
Isn't that not fit higher than it is?
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Crazy?
Speaker 1 (11:26):
I mean it was marketed to corporations, no, no person.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Right, right, fairpoint. And it was the size of a
small car probably right.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
That was the whole thing in mad Man about how
they got there. And yeah, but it was a calculator.
I'm sure that like my iPhone, Like I'm sure that
my calculator does so much.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
More than the bit.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
I'm wearing probably does matter exactly.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Yep, all right, you got two more. We got the
first first issue of the New York Times in eighteen
fifty one. So this is Andrea. You get to go
one cent.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
She got it again.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
She nailed it.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
I feel like that.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
I feel like i've because I've dug into archives. I
feel like you always see the one cent in the
left corner of old newspt.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
I'm gonna call this is rigged.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Andrea gets the ones whose answers are single points available
in the United States. She gets the penny, she gets
the nickel. Next one she's gonna get is the dime.
And then I get the ones that are like ridiculous amounts,
like eighty three thousand and six.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Well, we told her, We told you that. You know
she's younger, so we gotta go right, it's my handicap, Yeah,
the hand caps. You must allow me my handicap. Now,
I will say that is about thirty seven cents in
today's money as opposed to I just looked. Julie hilariously
still gets the paper paper, and it's four dollars on
(13:00):
the newsstand, four dollars.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
But Julie doesn't go down to the newsstand and get
the paper. She has delivery. That's right, she pays for
a subscription.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
And we also did not have wordle back. Then there
you go. I did not have wordle or even connections.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
I did. Uh.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
I did read the first one. First of all, It's
only four pages, so maybe that's why. Yeah, we gotta
look at the.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Per word right page cost? Yeah, okay, all.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Right, Well, before we end Game show week, I had
mentioned in one of the episodes with Ken that I
had the opportunity to interview Alex Trebek for Esquire magazine,
and I went through the transcripts and I'm going to
give you just three pieces of wisdom from Alex because
he I thought he really was wise.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Will you will you give it to us in the
form of a question?
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Yeah, there you go. No, I can't too much too.
I will say he would not be happy with our
theme this week because he said that Jeopardy is a
quiz show, not a game show. He did not consider it.
So apologies to Alex this quote. I have actually quoted
this in speeches since he said, I'm curious about everything,
(14:17):
even subjects that don't interest me. Love that, Alex. I
think that's great.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
That sounds like the story of your career.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
AJ, Well, exactly right.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
I'm curious about everything, even if you got to dig
in and find out something and get into it whatever
it is.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
I know he is. I mean, it's curiosity is my favorite,
one of my favorites. Uh, all right, this one I
think is wise both in terms of Jeopardy and life.
He said, do not minimize the importance of luck in
determining life's course, and I feel that's very true in Jeopardy,
Like you can get a category like what if you
(14:52):
you know, you can get one you definitely know, or nothing.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Right, not right, or you hit the luck of the buzzer.
I mean that's skill too, getting the buzzer right. But
there's a little bit of luck involved there, I suppose.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Oh absolutely. And by the way, sidebar, I don't know
if this is even interesting, but I watched a couple
of movies that featured Jeopardy, including White Men Can't Jump
Classic and Rosy Perez plays it. But they let her
buzz in before the answer, before the whatever, before Alex
(15:24):
finish talking, and that I believe is illegal, correct, But
it was a movie, So there you go, all right,
last one from Alex which I thought was interesting given
what he does. He says, I do not gamble because
winning one hundred dollars does not give me great pleasure,
but losing one hundred dollars pisses me off.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
I love that, right, It's a wive gamble because you're
gonna you're gonna lose, first of all.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Right, I feel the same way. I'm not a huge gambler,
but I mean, there is an element of gambling with
the Double Jeopardy and Final Jeopardy, but I I.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Don't know that strategy though. It's a little more strategy
than gambling, right. I guess you're betting on your ability
to answer a question and strategizing how much you can
afford to lose or how much you need to win
to make gain ground on people.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
But I guess he would be the kind of guy
who would on Final Jeopardy win by one dollar. Like,
he would not gamble the whole right, right, right, he
would just be in there.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
My feeling about casino gambling is I go in to
have fun playing blackjack, and I decide before I go in, Okay,
I'm going to spend tonight, you know, one hundred and
fifty dollars playing blackjack, and when the.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Money's gone, I'm done.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
And if I'm lucky, if I do well and I
can stretch it longer the more I get to play.
But you know, you don't everyone the odds are, that's
why they're you know, built the way they are.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
You're gonna lose when you go to gamble. So if
you don't like losing, don't do it.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah, I think that is the way to go. Like
like a Broadway show or something, I'm not pay money
for entertainment. We'll have some fun and maybe something weird'll
happen and I will not lose money. All right, Well, listeners,
you don't have to lose any money by listening to
the Puzzler. You're not gonna gain money. You're gonna gain
(17:17):
lots of entertainment, and I hope you enjoy it. This
week Game show week slash quiz show week. And if
over the weekends you want more puzzling, then check out
our Instagram feed which is at Hello Puzzlers, and please
subscribe and review if you have a chance. It really helps,
and we will see you here next week for more
(17:39):
puzzling puzzles. They will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Hello, Puzzlers, it's your chief puzzle Officer, Gregon Pliska here
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode. We
did a game show grab bag where I gave Aj
a bunch of different clues to titles of game shows.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
One of these I gave you was the Earbus, and
this was the Earbus I've got That, of course.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Is I've got a secret classic old game show. The
other one I did was a charade in four parts,
you and me Adore three plus one summer month. It
almost makes a sentence, you and me Adore three plus
one summer month. You and me is we Adore is love?
(18:30):
Three plus one is four. Summer month is June. That's
we love for June or wheel of Fortune. Thanks for
playing with us today. We're gonna send you home with
a year supply of turtle wax.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Catch you here next time.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Thanks for playing along with the team Here at the
Puzzler with Aj Jacobs.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
I'm Greg Pliska, your chief Puzzle Officer.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Our executive producers are Neelie Lohman and Adam Neuhouse of
New House Ideas and Jonathan Strickland of iHeart Podcasts. The
show is produced by Jody Afrigan and Britney Brown of
Roulette Productions, with production support from Claire Bidegar Curtis. Our
senior puzzler is Andrea Schoenberg. The Puzzler with Aj Jacobs
(19:15):
is a co production with New House Ideas and is
distributed by Coated Harpists.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Hard to play with a coat on, but they do no.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Never mind rearrange it distributed by 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
(19:47):
all your puzzling needs, go visit the puzzler dot com.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
See you there,
Hello, puzzlers, I think we should start with a quick puzzle.
This week we have game show legend Ken Jennings as
our guests.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
I'm smarter than as we know.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Greg is smarter. It's been proven objectively. Listen to last
episode if you don't believe it. One of the many
things I love about Ken, aside from being dumber than Greg,
is that if you take this, we love Greg.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Don't you made more money at it?
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Quick question? Quick? Why have you not been on Jeopardy?
You aren't? Really, I just never have.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
I don't know, I've never even tried.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
All right, Well, think about it, all right. One of
the many things I love about Ken is that if
you take his first name Ken and double it, you
get ken ken, which is a popular type of puzzle.
So he was made for puzzles. There is a name
for words like ken ken where it's one sound repeated,
and that word is reduplicative reduplication. So my challenge for
(00:58):
listeners is what are some other words it's in the
English language like ken ken where it's three letters repeated, so.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Very specific is the one I just wrote down? Go
for it?
Speaker 1 (01:08):
What is that you?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
No? No, I'm not gonna you give the example.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
All right, there's the chocolate candy bond. Bond that is reduplicative?
Is that yours?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
That was the next one I was writing down.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Okay, thank god. I will give a hint to a couple.
One is an object used by cheerleaders. Another is something
cheerleaders might say more of a phrase than a word,
and another is what a cheerleader might get if they
fall off the human pyramid. So that is we're looking
for three letters repeated to form six letter words. The
(01:40):
answers and more puzzling goodness after the break, Hello, puzzlers,
Welcome back to the Puzzler Podcast the Emerald encrusted fob
for your puzzle pocket watch. I am your host, AJ Jacobson.
I'm here, of course, she puzzle offs her Greg. Before
(02:01):
the break, we challenged puzzlers at home to come up
with reduplicative words words that repeat syllables like bonbond six
letters in particular, we gave some hints. One is something
used by cheerleaders.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Oh am, I going to answer each clue why not?
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Why not? Well, technically this is spelled. The original spelling
of this word is p o M p o N
pompon pom pom is.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
The uh is an accepted I believe alternate spelling pompon
and it's yeah, that's that's what I got, pompomp.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
That is, you are correct. And that's funny because there's
there's varieties of reduplicative words that are rhyming but not
technically the exact same. It's the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Do you know what? I just looked this up. Pom
pom with the M is.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
The first definition in the unabridged Merriam Webster. Here that's
right here in front of me is a fully automatic
carriage mounted thirty seven millimeter gun firing explosive shells and
used by both sides during the Boer War.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Wow, well that is not very fun.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
No, that is some cheerleaders do use pom pom guns.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Fascinating good to know. Another is something that cheerleaders with
their pom ponds might say.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
They would say raw raw, They would say rah rah
rah rah exactly. You could also that's a good adjective
for someone who's a cheerleader.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
You're so raw rah right exactly. And another is what
cheerleaders might get if they if one of them falls
off the human pyramids. You might get or might get it.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Boo boo.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
All right, you have one more.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
I have one more.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
What a cheerleader kind of dress you might buy for
a cheerleader, especially in.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Hawaiian.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yes, I believe that's a moo moo moo moo. M
you you m you, you exactly well done? Anything else?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Those are the ones I got. I had Barry Barry
the disease. But that's.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
There's Tom Tom the drums.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Woo woo.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
I love that, sort of like Gwyneth Paltrow is woo
woo with her, with her.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Beliefs, right for Gwyneth. Okay, so she's not coming on
the show now.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Well, we have so many episo I feel she's she
might not hear this one. She probably listens half the episodes.
All right, Well, there you go. We do political words,
but we've got more than just that. That was just
the teaser. Let's go to the main course, which is
it's game show week here on the Puzzler. So we
(04:37):
have a news item, very loosely considered news. But the
game show The Price is Right recently aired it's ten
thousandth episode. Yeah, and it's the longest running game show
in history. So in honor of the price is right,
and in honor of history, we have what we're calling
(04:59):
the hiss historic prices. Right, So I'm going to give
you an object from history and you have to tell
me what. And you are going to be competing against
senior puzzler Andrea Schomberg.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
I'm older than Andrea, so I'm more likely to have
been alive when these things came about.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
That is true, Andrea, You're working at a disadvantage, as
is often the case. Oh yeah, this as lot as
we all acknowledge it. Well, let me give you an example,
like the how much was the price of the first
hamburger at the first McDonald's opened by Ray Kroc in
nineteen fifty five? The answer is fifteen cents? It was
(05:37):
fifteen cent, all right.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
So I was not alive for that, I will say,
not a live for that.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
But I do remember before, you know, when they used
to tell you how many had been sold at McDonald's,
which they don't put up on the sunde.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
That's just billions or trillions.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
You have over one million sold or whatever.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
They lost count. All right, Well, let's start, and I
do have to start by saying Greg Pliskat and hey ya, Schoenberg.
Come on down. You're the next two contestants on the
historic prices. Right there you go. And by the way,
we're going to use prices right rule. So the closest
guess wins, but if you get higher, go over you're disqualified.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Okay, all right?
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Ready? How much were the tickets to the first Super
Bowl held in nineteen sixty seven? If she wanted to
go there in person, it will alternate. Who's going first?
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Was this the Jets Super Bowl with the Jets player? No?
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I think that was the second or third. This is
the Packers and the Chiefs. Okay, the Chiefs and Green
Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs. It was in Memorial
Coliseum in Los Angeles nineteen sixty seven. Should I spoil
who won?
Speaker 2 (06:42):
I believe it was uh, believe it was the Packers.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Yeah, it was the Packers. So how much was the ticket? Greg,
you go first on this one, and then Andrea will
go first on next.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Twenty five dollars.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Twenty five dollars for Greg and Andrea twenty six dollars.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Oh, I see how you.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Are twenty six dollars. No, oh, you should have gone
with one dollar. They were twelve dollars. Oh, oh, twelve dollars. Well,
I have no way to purpose.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
But if I had gone first, I would have said
ten dollars.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Oh, well, okay, by the way, one hundred. That's one
hundred and fifteen dollars or so in twenty twenty five dollars.
And nowadays super Bowl tickets range thousands.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Yeah, so the guest wasn't crazy because the tickets not
only has inflation changed the price, but just the cost
of the ticket has gone relatively gone up astronomical.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Exactly. It had two things. I mean, this was people
didn't know the super Bowl was going to be a
big It was not even sold out. They sold sixty
two thousand of seventy seven thousand.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
It wasn't really the super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Then it was the sort of kind of good bawl.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Yeah, exactly, it was. I remember that the super Bowl.
I read a History of Football or something to wear.
The guy who named it it was after the Super Ball,
the really uncy ball that these kids had, and he
was like, this is a bad idea, but here's an exist.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
I remember that. They were like, what a terrible name,
And it's.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Okay. The first ride on the New York City subway.
What was the fair in nineteen oh four? Okay, wait Andrea,
now you get to go improve Yeah, just first instincts. Okay,
five cents, Greg, all right, I'm gonna spare you.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
She got it.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Yeah. I was gonna say five cents too.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
I was like, I don't know where to go with that,
but she went first, and so she got it. Yeah,
five cents, which is about a dollar seventy in today's dollars,
so a little lower than the two ninety fair. I
will say. I looked up the coverage of that first
subway ride, and the New York Times article highly recommend it.
I just loved the way they wrote back then, Can
(08:53):
I read you the lead for the first time in
his life? Father Knickerbocker went und yesterday, that's the opening line.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
How great is that? Nobody writes like that anymore?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Come on, I know it's so crazy. And then this
I loved he did. The writer described the it's he
said it was a good natured crowd, not disposed to
snarl or say, awe, who you're shoving? So it is
a good natured crowd. It did not snarl or say awe,
who are yes shoving? And that was what year was that,
(09:28):
nineteen nineteen oh four, nineteen oh four.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
So I happened to be fascinated with the subway system
and with metros in general. I've got several books of
world metro maps. I'm really into this subject. There's a
great book called I forget the titles like seven hundred
and twenty eight miles or something like that, about which
is the length of all the track in the subway
when the book was written, talks about the history, and
(09:51):
there are some great articles from not much later than that,
not much later than the story you told, where the
writer of the news story complaining about the subway. It's dirty,
it's crowded, people don't move out of the way when
you want to get on and off, and it's like
and back then it was a much smaller system, but
(10:11):
very quickly it became overcrowded and busy, and the same
as it is today, the same complaints we have today.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Well, this guy was like gleaming white stations. It was
an olive green subway. By the way, all right, I've
got another couple for you. How much was the first
commercially available calculator not made out of vacuum tube? So
the first calculator with transistors in nineteen fifty seven. It
(10:41):
was an IBM machine IBM six eight. How much did
that cost?
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Oh, this is so hard because you want to make
the price low, because everything you know goes up in price.
But the other truth is that technology, right, has gotten
cheaper and cheaper to make more and more faster, better
complicated tatology.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
So what did they? Let I say, eighteen dollars?
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Eighteen dollars, okay, Andrea, I swear I'm not being tricky.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
This is the number that I had in my head.
Twenty dollars.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
All right, Well, you did win, you did win. It
is higher than eighteen, and it is higher than twenty.
It's eighty three thousand dollars. Eighty three two hundred ten dollars.
Isn't that not fit higher than it is?
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Crazy?
Speaker 1 (11:26):
I mean it was marketed to corporations, no, no person.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Right, right, fairpoint. And it was the size of a
small car probably right.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
That was the whole thing in mad Man about how
they got there. And yeah, but it was a calculator.
I'm sure that like my iPhone, Like I'm sure that
my calculator does so much.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
More than the bit.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
I'm wearing probably does matter exactly.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Yep, all right, you got two more. We got the
first first issue of the New York Times in eighteen
fifty one. So this is Andrea. You get to go
one cent.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
She got it again.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
She nailed it.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
I feel like that.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
I feel like i've because I've dug into archives. I
feel like you always see the one cent in the
left corner of old newspt.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
I'm gonna call this is rigged.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Andrea gets the ones whose answers are single points available
in the United States. She gets the penny, she gets
the nickel. Next one she's gonna get is the dime.
And then I get the ones that are like ridiculous amounts,
like eighty three thousand and six.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Well, we told her, We told you that. You know
she's younger, so we gotta go right, it's my handicap, Yeah,
the hand caps. You must allow me my handicap. Now,
I will say that is about thirty seven cents in
today's money as opposed to I just looked. Julie hilariously
still gets the paper paper, and it's four dollars on
(13:00):
the newsstand, four dollars.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
But Julie doesn't go down to the newsstand and get
the paper. She has delivery. That's right, she pays for
a subscription.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
And we also did not have wordle back. Then there
you go. I did not have wordle or even connections.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
I did. Uh.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
I did read the first one. First of all, It's
only four pages, so maybe that's why. Yeah, we gotta
look at the.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Per word right page cost? Yeah, okay, all.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Right, Well, before we end Game show week, I had
mentioned in one of the episodes with Ken that I
had the opportunity to interview Alex Trebek for Esquire magazine,
and I went through the transcripts and I'm going to
give you just three pieces of wisdom from Alex because
he I thought he really was wise.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Will you will you give it to us in the
form of a question?
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Yeah, there you go. No, I can't too much too.
I will say he would not be happy with our
theme this week because he said that Jeopardy is a
quiz show, not a game show. He did not consider it.
So apologies to Alex this quote. I have actually quoted
this in speeches since he said, I'm curious about everything,
(14:17):
even subjects that don't interest me. Love that, Alex. I
think that's great.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
That sounds like the story of your career.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
AJ, Well, exactly right.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
I'm curious about everything, even if you got to dig
in and find out something and get into it whatever
it is.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
I know he is. I mean, it's curiosity is my favorite,
one of my favorites. Uh, all right, this one I
think is wise both in terms of Jeopardy and life.
He said, do not minimize the importance of luck in
determining life's course, and I feel that's very true in Jeopardy,
Like you can get a category like what if you
(14:52):
you know, you can get one you definitely know, or nothing.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Right, not right, or you hit the luck of the buzzer.
I mean that's skill too, getting the buzzer right. But
there's a little bit of luck involved there, I suppose.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Oh absolutely. And by the way, sidebar, I don't know
if this is even interesting, but I watched a couple
of movies that featured Jeopardy, including White Men Can't Jump
Classic and Rosy Perez plays it. But they let her
buzz in before the answer, before the whatever, before Alex
(15:24):
finish talking, and that I believe is illegal, correct, But
it was a movie, So there you go, all right,
last one from Alex which I thought was interesting given
what he does. He says, I do not gamble because
winning one hundred dollars does not give me great pleasure,
but losing one hundred dollars pisses me off.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
I love that, right, It's a wive gamble because you're
gonna you're gonna lose, first of all.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Right, I feel the same way. I'm not a huge gambler,
but I mean, there is an element of gambling with
the Double Jeopardy and Final Jeopardy, but I I.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Don't know that strategy though. It's a little more strategy
than gambling, right. I guess you're betting on your ability
to answer a question and strategizing how much you can
afford to lose or how much you need to win
to make gain ground on people.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
But I guess he would be the kind of guy
who would on Final Jeopardy win by one dollar. Like,
he would not gamble the whole right, right, right, he
would just be in there.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
My feeling about casino gambling is I go in to
have fun playing blackjack, and I decide before I go in, Okay,
I'm going to spend tonight, you know, one hundred and
fifty dollars playing blackjack, and when the.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Money's gone, I'm done.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
And if I'm lucky, if I do well and I
can stretch it longer the more I get to play.
But you know, you don't everyone the odds are, that's
why they're you know, built the way they are.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
You're gonna lose when you go to gamble. So if
you don't like losing, don't do it.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah, I think that is the way to go. Like
like a Broadway show or something, I'm not pay money
for entertainment. We'll have some fun and maybe something weird'll
happen and I will not lose money. All right, Well, listeners,
you don't have to lose any money by listening to
the Puzzler. You're not gonna gain money. You're gonna gain
(17:17):
lots of entertainment, and I hope you enjoy it. This
week Game show week slash quiz show week. And if
over the weekends you want more puzzling, then check out
our Instagram feed which is at Hello Puzzlers, and please
subscribe and review if you have a chance. It really helps,
and we will see you here next week for more
(17:39):
puzzling puzzles. They will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Hello, Puzzlers, it's your chief puzzle Officer, Gregon Pliska here
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode. We
did a game show grab bag where I gave Aj
a bunch of different clues to titles of game shows.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
One of these I gave you was the Earbus, and
this was the Earbus I've got That, of course.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Is I've got a secret classic old game show. The
other one I did was a charade in four parts,
you and me Adore three plus one summer month. It
almost makes a sentence, you and me Adore three plus
one summer month. You and me is we Adore is love?
(18:30):
Three plus one is four. Summer month is June. That's
we love for June or wheel of Fortune. Thanks for
playing with us today. We're gonna send you home with
a year supply of turtle wax.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Catch you here next time.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Thanks for playing along with the team Here at the
Puzzler with Aj Jacobs.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
I'm Greg Pliska, your chief Puzzle Officer.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Our executive producers are Neelie Lohman and Adam Neuhouse of
New House Ideas and Jonathan Strickland of iHeart Podcasts. The
show is produced by Jody Afrigan and Britney Brown of
Roulette Productions, with production support from Claire Bidegar Curtis. Our
senior puzzler is Andrea Schoenberg. The Puzzler with Aj Jacobs
(19:15):
is a co production with New House Ideas and is
distributed by Coated Harpists.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Hard to play with a coat on, but they do no.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Never mind rearrange it distributed by 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
(19:47):
all your puzzling needs, go visit the puzzler dot com.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
See you there,
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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