September 18, 2025 • 20 mins
Want to see The Puzzler LIVE in NYC on Oct 7? Limited tickets available now! https://bit.ly/cheerfulpuzzler
Hello, Puzzlers! It's back-to-school week! 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 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.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello puzzlers. A quick announcement. The Puzzler is doing a
live show in New York City and we'd love for
you to come. It's October seventh at six thirty pm
and an awesome venue called Caveat. There will be stories, puzzles, prizes.
It's part of the Cheerful Earful Podcast Festival. We love
(00:23):
a good rhyming title here at the Puzzler. Please check
the show notes for a link to tickets. Now on
with the show, Hello Puzzlers. Let's start with a quick
puzzle today. I am looking for words. Let's start with
the letter A and end with the letter Z. Start
(00:44):
right at the beginning with the A, and then go
all way to the end with the letter Z. One
example is Big Bird's favorite word from Sesame Street avoca
jeffgh Jeckleman up. Of course, stuve Wix's. But I don't
think that's in the mirriam That's dictionary. I could be wrong.
But there are some others, not a lot. I actually
(01:05):
can only find three. If you guys find more, please
send it in. But I'll give you a hint to
those that I did find. There's a five letter word
that means filled with a continuous humming sound, lots of
noise and activity. There's a f another five letter word
that is Spanish for rice, which, as I said, is
(01:26):
a Spanish word, but it still makes its way into
some English dictionaries. And finally, there's a three letter word
that appears in crosswords a lot. I don't love it.
It's very crossworthy, but it's a woodworking tool. Three letter
woodworking tool. The answer and more puzzling goodness after the break.
(01:52):
Hello puddlers, welcome back to the Puddler the delicate cucumber
sandwich in your afternoon puzzle tea. First of all, thanks
to Becky Raninger for that delicious and true suggestion. Before
the break, I challenged puzzlers at home to come up
with words that start with A and end with Z,
not counting big birds. Advocate JFK. Jackol binnockwer stu Wick says, Greg,
(02:14):
were there any that occurred to you?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Well? I know the ones you clued.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
One of them is a buzz that's right, filled with
continuous humming is a buzz, great word, ZZ love it.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
I didn't think of that until you hinted at it.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
I had as a as a arose see and that's
a R R O Z A t Z and your
crossroad puzzle one is ads the right ez the classic.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
The other one I thought of was Alcatraz.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Alcatraz right, which I don't think it's a like it's
a proper noun.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
But yeah, it's a proper now, it's definitely a proper noun,
and it's timely.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
It's certainly timely because sadly timely.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Don't even want to mention why. Right. But but another
one I came up with was ala, the French term alas,
which means to go ala, Yeah, to go la, let's
go la la azz as in azase I'm sorry nice, yes, yeah,
one the dude, the famous dude. Yeah, that's what I got.
(03:20):
So I got some proper nouns. Oh, and acid jazz
two words, but it's a category of music, acid jazz,
that is.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
True, yes, And maybe someday it'll be one word. You
know how sometimes two words become one so.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Well, especially if we turned it into a verb, like
we need to acid jazz that, let's acid jazz it up,
acid jazz it and then it kind of squished together.
In fifty years from now, everyone's going to be saying
it exactly, and it started right here.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
On the price of here. Well, I brought this up
because we do have an alphabetical puzzle, but that's actually
going to be later in the show. I've got one
for you, but I thought we could start with yours,
whatever it is, because I actually don't that's good. Maybe
alphabetical too.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
It's not alphabetical at all. It's it's actually an honor yesterday,
September seventeenth, which was National Pawpaw Day.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Paw Paw. I think that's a fruit. I feel it's yellow.
Is it a yellow fruit?
Speaker 2 (04:19):
I believe it is. The paupa is the largest edible
fruit that's indigenous to the United States. Oh, who know, pawpaw.
It resembles the papaya, big yellow fruit, and its name
derives from that, and sometimes people interchange the two names.
But really the papas is a unique fruit.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Papa, I love, Papa.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
You may have you may have come across this in
your research for the Constitution book. But it was a
favorite dessert of George Washington. Chilled pawpaw.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
I did.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Thomas Jefferson planeted it at his home in Virginia. Lewis
and Clark subsisted on Papa's during part of their expedition.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Wow, what an American fruit?
Speaker 2 (05:00):
All right, it's a very American fruit. It's sometimes also
called prairie banana.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Prairie banana, not prairie oyster. You switch are a whole
other thing.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
No, that's a whole different thing, gotcha?
Speaker 1 (05:12):
All right? Well that's so what about I mean? I
noticed that it's a repeating right.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
It's a reduplicative word. It's the same syllable used twice,
or the same set of letters used twice in a
single word.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Can I just say one quick thing? I feel reduplicative
is a bit reduplicative because duplicative?
Speaker 2 (05:31):
All right, right, why do we have to reduplicate? That
would be four times that before?
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Thank you for agreeing with me. I am I right
with you.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I'm with you. But that's the term we use. I'm
sure there's a reason why, right, Sure, Okay, there there
are a handful of words in English that are strictly reduplicative,
like pawpaw, where there's no space or hyphen in the
middle of them. Okay, so we're going to start with those.
I'm just going to give you a hint to the word.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
You tell me the word, okay, and I may call
in Andrea Scholmberg.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Absolutely, Andrea, we can reduplicate your efforts.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Excellent, he I could. I could say the first part
of the word, and then she could say the second
right right, or the other way around.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
All right. I think you'll know some of these for sure.
The first one is the African fly that causes sleeping sickness.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Oh, yes, I know this. From the New York Times
crossword puzzle often appears the seats sea fly t s
E T.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
S E T S or setsi or seat c fly. Yep.
How about the North African wheat dish?
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Oh, well, I know the grain dish. Yeah, it's couscous
Is that that's the one. Thank god? Okay, I didn't
know it was North African, but there there you go.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Well, how about the A frilly detail on clothing?
Speaker 1 (06:54):
A frilly detail on clothing could.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Also be used to refer to kind of frilly, silly,
silly decorativeness in language or other things.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
But you know, I only got it because he said freely,
and that somehow triggered free through ye are. Yeah, So
somehow my brain latched on to the night.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Enough of that froufrow, none of that silly fru frou
like the opening of our episodes. It's just silly frufrou.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Oh no, that is I think it's serious. Fruit fruit.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
It's weiry couscouse. We start with the couscous, not with
the fruit frow. How about the kind of sound a
crowd might make in a courtroom?
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Oh, interesting, crowd light.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Low, low sound low as in quiet.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Oh, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I'm drawing a continual sound.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Buzz boom, yeah, buzz buzz.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
You know I think of a crowd there exactly?
Speaker 1 (08:01):
All right? Interesting, good, yes, murmur.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Sometimes this word is hyphenated, but Merriam Webster has it without.
It's a Hawaiian food fish.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Oh, that one I do know. Even though I don't
eat fish, I used to eat mahi mahi.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Mahi mahi and uh in. You might put this sauce
on your mahi mahi.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Oh a sauce or other fish. All right, what's to stur?
What's to sure?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
No, it's more common you're gonna get your fried clams
and that they're gonna come with cocktail sauce which is red,
or this sauce which is white.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Oh I think I did even again, I don't eat,
but tartar is tartar sauce.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Yeah, tartar tartar. So you can like order the mahi
mahi with tartar sauce on a bed of couscous and
with papa.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Don't forget about papa.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Exactly. Oh this wee we're gonna open a restaurant, the
reduplicative restaurant. Were only get it all right, So here
are some other terms. These are all hyphenated. Some of
them are proper nouns. We're getting a little looser with
the strictness of this, but they're all good reduplicative terms.
How about a sports one getting ten points and ten
rebounds in one basketball game or more than.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
That's not a double double, is it?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
It is a double double? Exactly?
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Oh, okay, double.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Double, very good, perfect vision.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Twenty twenty vision.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Yeah, a very proper person, Oh proper person is a
don't be such a.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Huh stick in the mud, stick in the mud, such
a good good good? Yes, second, yeah like it.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
How about an African antelope?
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Oh, dick dick dick d I.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
K d I k very good. All right, that's the
bad the good hyphenated ones. I got a couple more.
These have spaces in them and their proper nouns.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
So throw that.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
This is an indigenous people of Washington State, for whom
a city in that state is named.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Oh, I think I do know it, because I do
love to say.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Exactly. How about a Nabokov character, one of the characters
in Lolita.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Oh right, huh Humfrey, Humphrey, Humphrey, is it Humper humber humber, Humbert,
Humbird Humbert. Yes, yeah, right, I.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Do have an extra credit. Yeah, this is a Hawaiian
term for quickly, and it's where we get the name
of a commonly used reference source.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
All right, I think with the hint, I might have
a hint my.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
In term for quickly, and it's where we get the
name of a common commonly used reference source. Got it? Now?
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Remember the intro puzzle was all about alphabetical order. So
I have a puzzle for you about alphabetical order. And
the answers in this puzzle are all words whose first
two letters are in alphabetical orders.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Oh, very good.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
So like, yeah, if it's a B, well we could
have a phrase like abysmal, abdomen or if it were DEE,
you could have a phrase like deluxe demon. So I'm
going to give you clues to phrases in that style.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
So if they're sequential letters.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Right, that's right, right, like AB or de E or
e F. There's not a lot of like FG starting words.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
So for God's sake, forget about it. Forget about it,
all right.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
So if it's a deserted mollusk, the answer might be
abandoned abalony.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
So oh, I got it? Okay, God, all.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Right, So I'm going to start with ab and then
we'll work our way through.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
So you're ridiculous, you're reduplicating a pair of letters. That's right,
I see how you did that?
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Yes, exactly. Going with the theme, a ridiculous ancient calculating device,
A ridiculous ancient calculation.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
The calculating device is an abacus. It's an absurd abicus.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
It is indeed an absurd abicus. All right, moving on
to D. We're going to skip over BC and seek
a profound private eye.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Oh, profound, profound. You probably want deep, deep, deep detective.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Exactly like Matthew McConaughey and true detective, very deep.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
We if you don't give me which letters it is?
Speaker 1 (12:58):
All right, I'm well to try that you want, I'm
I'm gonna skip all over then. Okay, okay, I mean
because you're Greg, Because you're Greg.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
We can offer the hint after we go for it.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Let's try, all right, A phantom of a small pickle.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
That's good. That's a really good one. I know what
it is. Uh it's a g h pair of words,
and it's gonna be ghost girkin.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Ghost girkin exactly. They they have a soul gird yeah,
ghoulish girkins. I would accept as well. What about Dad's
bizarre new wife, Dad's bizarre new wife.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Oh right, they have to be. I'm like, father doesn't work,
Dad's bizarre new wife?
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Do you want?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Uh? Is it? Uh? Wait wait wait, let me just
new bizarre new wife? Is this a word for Is
there a word for new wife?
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Kind of? If she also takes the role.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Of strange strange step mother, that's a.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Strange step mother. Nicely done, all right. What about a
clumsy compulsive thief? A clumsy compulsive thief.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Okay, that's really good. That's good. You're so good at
cluing these, because one of them is a gave me
a clear line to the to the word. It's a
kl word, right, it's a kleptomaniac klutz or a klutzy kleptomaniac.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Beautiful. Thank you and thank you for the kind words.
That means a lot coming from you, the chief puzzle officer.
All right, how about if you conceal a neck kissing mark,
a little blemish from a neck kissing section.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
What do you mean if you do? I mean you do?
Speaker 1 (15:01):
You're right, you're right there.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
In high school, I I I came into my living
room with a scarf on in the middle of summer
and made some ridiculous thing out of it. Was because
I'm you know, I was pretending to be some flamboyant
film character or something. It was ridiculous because I needed
to hide a hickey.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
That's correct. It was a hidden hickey, all right.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Now in high school, it was a hidden high school hickey.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Oh nice, very nice? All right, Well, thank you for
being vulnerable and opening up. That was very nice. I
left it two more. How about a someone who teaches
men how to dress in black tie?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Okay, oh that's good. See again, your clues are really
really good, because black tie immediately gets me to this
tu word. Uh, it is the tuxedo tutor.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Tuxedo tutor, that is correct.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
And now which which, by the way, do you own
a tuxedo?
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Have you?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
How often are you dressed in a tuxedo?
Speaker 1 (16:12):
I don't think I do own a tuxedo. I'm a renter.
Do you own one?
Speaker 2 (16:16):
I own one? I own one, but I every time
I put it on. It's not that often. I wish
I had a tutor to remind me of how to
which way does the cummerbund go?
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Oh? Yeah, oh to catch the crumbs? That's how exactly.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Yep, I remember that too.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
But what about the tide the bow ties?
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Well, I have a f I don't tie my own
bow tie.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
You have a pre tide one.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
I have a pre tide Yeah, you just clip it on.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Thank you for being vulnerable again, I'm happy to admit that.
All right, Well that's great, I do have one. Well
I'll do an extra credit. But first I'll tell you
there were challenging ones like uv basically uvula, that's the
one word that's real. Then there's like and there's like
(17:01):
grape jam is called ovate. There's a type of ovate.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
So yeah, but that's a real word. It's just an
obscure one.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
You're right, Okay, I I misused the word real. There's
also Yeah, there's the wooden musical instrument, the marimba, cousin
or glackenschmig xylophone.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Right, what are you gonna what's the other x y
word you're gonna use?
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Well, there's the sugar used in chewing gum manufactured. There's
it's close enought xylophone. So so yeah, those are not
they're not ideal. But let me give you an extra credit.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Might be.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Viewpoints about Labo mbo M and the magic flute. Viewpoints
M and the magic flute. So there you go.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
At the moment you said that and email arrived in
my inbox, I got a little notification from the former
classical music critic of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Now I've had a lot of.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
These viewpoints about Yeah, okay, Joshua Cosman, author one of
the co creators of the out of left field cryptic crosswords.
Oh I love it a good friend. Yeah, so just
as a tangent. But speaking of viewpoints about Lobo M right.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Email email this guy and he might give you the
answer or just random thoughts about Lobo m And in
the meantime, if you have one minute, LUs I say less.
We would love it if you would go rate the
puzzler on your favorite podcast platform, because it actually makes
(18:50):
a huge difference to people finding us. We're all ruled
by algorithms these days, like it or not, so the
huge favor to us. And of course, so we'll meet
here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles than will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Hey, puzzlers, it's Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Pliska here one
more time. With the extra credit from our previous episode,
AJ and I did a game called Schools Out, Andrea
quiz us on words or phrases rather that have break
as their second word, but she include them as if
they were school breaks like spring break. Extra credit was
(19:32):
this one. This is the time taken off from school
for Ramadan or Lent. That of course is your fast
break bu because they're both fasting holidays and their respective religions.
Fast break, of course, is also a term in basketball.
Glad you're playing with us basketball puzzles or anything else.
(19:53):
And we look forward to more puzzling puzzles that will
puzzle you puzzlingly and
Hello puzzlers. A quick announcement. The Puzzler is doing a
live show in New York City and we'd love for
you to come. It's October seventh at six thirty pm
and an awesome venue called Caveat. There will be stories, puzzles, prizes.
It's part of the Cheerful Earful Podcast Festival. We love
(00:23):
a good rhyming title here at the Puzzler. Please check
the show notes for a link to tickets. Now on
with the show, Hello Puzzlers. Let's start with a quick
puzzle today. I am looking for words. Let's start with
the letter A and end with the letter Z. Start
(00:44):
right at the beginning with the A, and then go
all way to the end with the letter Z. One
example is Big Bird's favorite word from Sesame Street avoca
jeffgh Jeckleman up. Of course, stuve Wix's. But I don't
think that's in the mirriam That's dictionary. I could be wrong.
But there are some others, not a lot. I actually
(01:05):
can only find three. If you guys find more, please
send it in. But I'll give you a hint to
those that I did find. There's a five letter word
that means filled with a continuous humming sound, lots of
noise and activity. There's a f another five letter word
that is Spanish for rice, which, as I said, is
(01:26):
a Spanish word, but it still makes its way into
some English dictionaries. And finally, there's a three letter word
that appears in crosswords a lot. I don't love it.
It's very crossworthy, but it's a woodworking tool. Three letter
woodworking tool. The answer and more puzzling goodness after the break.
(01:52):
Hello puddlers, welcome back to the Puddler the delicate cucumber
sandwich in your afternoon puzzle tea. First of all, thanks
to Becky Raninger for that delicious and true suggestion. Before
the break, I challenged puzzlers at home to come up
with words that start with A and end with Z,
not counting big birds. Advocate JFK. Jackol binnockwer stu Wick says, Greg,
(02:14):
were there any that occurred to you?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Well? I know the ones you clued.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
One of them is a buzz that's right, filled with
continuous humming is a buzz, great word, ZZ love it.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
I didn't think of that until you hinted at it.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
I had as a as a arose see and that's
a R R O Z A t Z and your
crossroad puzzle one is ads the right ez the classic.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
The other one I thought of was Alcatraz.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Alcatraz right, which I don't think it's a like it's
a proper noun.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
But yeah, it's a proper now, it's definitely a proper noun,
and it's timely.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
It's certainly timely because sadly timely.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Don't even want to mention why. Right. But but another
one I came up with was ala, the French term alas,
which means to go ala, Yeah, to go la, let's
go la la azz as in azase I'm sorry nice, yes, yeah,
one the dude, the famous dude. Yeah, that's what I got.
(03:20):
So I got some proper nouns. Oh, and acid jazz
two words, but it's a category of music, acid jazz,
that is.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
True, yes, And maybe someday it'll be one word. You
know how sometimes two words become one so.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Well, especially if we turned it into a verb, like
we need to acid jazz that, let's acid jazz it up,
acid jazz it and then it kind of squished together.
In fifty years from now, everyone's going to be saying
it exactly, and it started right here.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
On the price of here. Well, I brought this up
because we do have an alphabetical puzzle, but that's actually
going to be later in the show. I've got one
for you, but I thought we could start with yours,
whatever it is, because I actually don't that's good. Maybe
alphabetical too.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
It's not alphabetical at all. It's it's actually an honor yesterday,
September seventeenth, which was National Pawpaw Day.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Paw Paw. I think that's a fruit. I feel it's yellow.
Is it a yellow fruit?
Speaker 2 (04:19):
I believe it is. The paupa is the largest edible
fruit that's indigenous to the United States. Oh, who know, pawpaw.
It resembles the papaya, big yellow fruit, and its name
derives from that, and sometimes people interchange the two names.
But really the papas is a unique fruit.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Papa, I love, Papa.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
You may have you may have come across this in
your research for the Constitution book. But it was a
favorite dessert of George Washington. Chilled pawpaw.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
I did.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Thomas Jefferson planeted it at his home in Virginia. Lewis
and Clark subsisted on Papa's during part of their expedition.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Wow, what an American fruit?
Speaker 2 (05:00):
All right, it's a very American fruit. It's sometimes also
called prairie banana.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Prairie banana, not prairie oyster. You switch are a whole
other thing.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
No, that's a whole different thing, gotcha?
Speaker 1 (05:12):
All right? Well that's so what about I mean? I
noticed that it's a repeating right.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
It's a reduplicative word. It's the same syllable used twice,
or the same set of letters used twice in a
single word.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Can I just say one quick thing? I feel reduplicative
is a bit reduplicative because duplicative?
Speaker 2 (05:31):
All right, right, why do we have to reduplicate? That
would be four times that before?
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Thank you for agreeing with me. I am I right
with you.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I'm with you. But that's the term we use. I'm
sure there's a reason why, right, Sure, Okay, there there
are a handful of words in English that are strictly reduplicative,
like pawpaw, where there's no space or hyphen in the
middle of them. Okay, so we're going to start with those.
I'm just going to give you a hint to the word.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
You tell me the word, okay, and I may call
in Andrea Scholmberg.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Absolutely, Andrea, we can reduplicate your efforts.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Excellent, he I could. I could say the first part
of the word, and then she could say the second
right right, or the other way around.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
All right. I think you'll know some of these for sure.
The first one is the African fly that causes sleeping sickness.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Oh, yes, I know this. From the New York Times
crossword puzzle often appears the seats sea fly t s
E T.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
S E T S or setsi or seat c fly. Yep.
How about the North African wheat dish?
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Oh, well, I know the grain dish. Yeah, it's couscous
Is that that's the one. Thank god? Okay, I didn't
know it was North African, but there there you go.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Well, how about the A frilly detail on clothing?
Speaker 1 (06:54):
A frilly detail on clothing could.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Also be used to refer to kind of frilly, silly,
silly decorativeness in language or other things.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
But you know, I only got it because he said freely,
and that somehow triggered free through ye are. Yeah, So
somehow my brain latched on to the night.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Enough of that froufrow, none of that silly fru frou
like the opening of our episodes. It's just silly frufrou.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Oh no, that is I think it's serious. Fruit fruit.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
It's weiry couscouse. We start with the couscous, not with
the fruit frow. How about the kind of sound a
crowd might make in a courtroom?
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Oh, interesting, crowd light.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Low, low sound low as in quiet.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Oh, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I'm drawing a continual sound.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Buzz boom, yeah, buzz buzz.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
You know I think of a crowd there exactly?
Speaker 1 (08:01):
All right? Interesting, good, yes, murmur.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Sometimes this word is hyphenated, but Merriam Webster has it without.
It's a Hawaiian food fish.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Oh, that one I do know. Even though I don't
eat fish, I used to eat mahi mahi.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Mahi mahi and uh in. You might put this sauce
on your mahi mahi.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Oh a sauce or other fish. All right, what's to stur?
What's to sure?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
No, it's more common you're gonna get your fried clams
and that they're gonna come with cocktail sauce which is red,
or this sauce which is white.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Oh I think I did even again, I don't eat,
but tartar is tartar sauce.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Yeah, tartar tartar. So you can like order the mahi
mahi with tartar sauce on a bed of couscous and
with papa.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Don't forget about papa.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Exactly. Oh this wee we're gonna open a restaurant, the
reduplicative restaurant. Were only get it all right, So here
are some other terms. These are all hyphenated. Some of
them are proper nouns. We're getting a little looser with
the strictness of this, but they're all good reduplicative terms.
How about a sports one getting ten points and ten
rebounds in one basketball game or more than.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
That's not a double double, is it?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
It is a double double? Exactly?
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Oh, okay, double.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Double, very good, perfect vision.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Twenty twenty vision.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Yeah, a very proper person, Oh proper person is a
don't be such a.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Huh stick in the mud, stick in the mud, such
a good good good? Yes, second, yeah like it.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
How about an African antelope?
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Oh, dick dick dick d I.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
K d I k very good. All right, that's the
bad the good hyphenated ones. I got a couple more.
These have spaces in them and their proper nouns.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
So throw that.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
This is an indigenous people of Washington State, for whom
a city in that state is named.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Oh, I think I do know it, because I do
love to say.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Exactly. How about a Nabokov character, one of the characters
in Lolita.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Oh right, huh Humfrey, Humphrey, Humphrey, is it Humper humber humber, Humbert,
Humbird Humbert. Yes, yeah, right, I.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Do have an extra credit. Yeah, this is a Hawaiian
term for quickly, and it's where we get the name
of a commonly used reference source.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
All right, I think with the hint, I might have
a hint my.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
In term for quickly, and it's where we get the
name of a common commonly used reference source. Got it? Now?
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Remember the intro puzzle was all about alphabetical order. So
I have a puzzle for you about alphabetical order. And
the answers in this puzzle are all words whose first
two letters are in alphabetical orders.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Oh, very good.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
So like, yeah, if it's a B, well we could
have a phrase like abysmal, abdomen or if it were DEE,
you could have a phrase like deluxe demon. So I'm
going to give you clues to phrases in that style.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
So if they're sequential letters.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Right, that's right, right, like AB or de E or
e F. There's not a lot of like FG starting words.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
So for God's sake, forget about it. Forget about it,
all right.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
So if it's a deserted mollusk, the answer might be
abandoned abalony.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
So oh, I got it? Okay, God, all.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Right, So I'm going to start with ab and then
we'll work our way through.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
So you're ridiculous, you're reduplicating a pair of letters. That's right,
I see how you did that?
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Yes, exactly. Going with the theme, a ridiculous ancient calculating device,
A ridiculous ancient calculation.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
The calculating device is an abacus. It's an absurd abicus.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
It is indeed an absurd abicus. All right, moving on
to D. We're going to skip over BC and seek
a profound private eye.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Oh, profound, profound. You probably want deep, deep, deep detective.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Exactly like Matthew McConaughey and true detective, very deep.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
We if you don't give me which letters it is?
Speaker 1 (12:58):
All right, I'm well to try that you want, I'm
I'm gonna skip all over then. Okay, okay, I mean
because you're Greg, Because you're Greg.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
We can offer the hint after we go for it.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Let's try, all right, A phantom of a small pickle.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
That's good. That's a really good one. I know what
it is. Uh it's a g h pair of words,
and it's gonna be ghost girkin.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Ghost girkin exactly. They they have a soul gird yeah,
ghoulish girkins. I would accept as well. What about Dad's
bizarre new wife, Dad's bizarre new wife.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Oh right, they have to be. I'm like, father doesn't work,
Dad's bizarre new wife?
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Do you want?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Uh? Is it? Uh? Wait wait wait, let me just
new bizarre new wife? Is this a word for Is
there a word for new wife?
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Kind of? If she also takes the role.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Of strange strange step mother, that's a.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Strange step mother. Nicely done, all right. What about a
clumsy compulsive thief? A clumsy compulsive thief.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Okay, that's really good. That's good. You're so good at
cluing these, because one of them is a gave me
a clear line to the to the word. It's a
kl word, right, it's a kleptomaniac klutz or a klutzy kleptomaniac.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Beautiful. Thank you and thank you for the kind words.
That means a lot coming from you, the chief puzzle officer.
All right, how about if you conceal a neck kissing mark,
a little blemish from a neck kissing section.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
What do you mean if you do? I mean you do?
Speaker 1 (15:01):
You're right, you're right there.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
In high school, I I I came into my living
room with a scarf on in the middle of summer
and made some ridiculous thing out of it. Was because
I'm you know, I was pretending to be some flamboyant
film character or something. It was ridiculous because I needed
to hide a hickey.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
That's correct. It was a hidden hickey, all right.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Now in high school, it was a hidden high school hickey.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Oh nice, very nice? All right, Well, thank you for
being vulnerable and opening up. That was very nice. I
left it two more. How about a someone who teaches
men how to dress in black tie?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Okay, oh that's good. See again, your clues are really
really good, because black tie immediately gets me to this
tu word. Uh, it is the tuxedo tutor.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Tuxedo tutor, that is correct.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
And now which which, by the way, do you own
a tuxedo?
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Have you?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
How often are you dressed in a tuxedo?
Speaker 1 (16:12):
I don't think I do own a tuxedo. I'm a renter.
Do you own one?
Speaker 2 (16:16):
I own one? I own one, but I every time
I put it on. It's not that often. I wish
I had a tutor to remind me of how to
which way does the cummerbund go?
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Oh? Yeah, oh to catch the crumbs? That's how exactly.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Yep, I remember that too.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
But what about the tide the bow ties?
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Well, I have a f I don't tie my own
bow tie.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
You have a pre tide one.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
I have a pre tide Yeah, you just clip it on.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Thank you for being vulnerable again, I'm happy to admit that.
All right, Well that's great, I do have one. Well
I'll do an extra credit. But first I'll tell you
there were challenging ones like uv basically uvula, that's the
one word that's real. Then there's like and there's like
(17:01):
grape jam is called ovate. There's a type of ovate.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
So yeah, but that's a real word. It's just an
obscure one.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
You're right, Okay, I I misused the word real. There's
also Yeah, there's the wooden musical instrument, the marimba, cousin
or glackenschmig xylophone.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Right, what are you gonna what's the other x y
word you're gonna use?
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Well, there's the sugar used in chewing gum manufactured. There's
it's close enought xylophone. So so yeah, those are not
they're not ideal. But let me give you an extra credit.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Might be.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Viewpoints about Labo mbo M and the magic flute. Viewpoints
M and the magic flute. So there you go.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
At the moment you said that and email arrived in
my inbox, I got a little notification from the former
classical music critic of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Now I've had a lot of.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
These viewpoints about Yeah, okay, Joshua Cosman, author one of
the co creators of the out of left field cryptic crosswords.
Oh I love it a good friend. Yeah, so just
as a tangent. But speaking of viewpoints about Lobo M right.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Email email this guy and he might give you the
answer or just random thoughts about Lobo m And in
the meantime, if you have one minute, LUs I say less.
We would love it if you would go rate the
puzzler on your favorite podcast platform, because it actually makes
(18:50):
a huge difference to people finding us. We're all ruled
by algorithms these days, like it or not, so the
huge favor to us. And of course, so we'll meet
here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles than will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Hey, puzzlers, it's Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Pliska here one
more time. With the extra credit from our previous episode,
AJ and I did a game called Schools Out, Andrea
quiz us on words or phrases rather that have break
as their second word, but she include them as if
they were school breaks like spring break. Extra credit was
(19:32):
this one. This is the time taken off from school
for Ramadan or Lent. That of course is your fast
break bu because they're both fasting holidays and their respective religions.
Fast break, of course, is also a term in basketball.
Glad you're playing with us basketball puzzles or anything else.
(19:53):
And we look forward to more puzzling puzzles that will
puzzle you puzzlingly and
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
What Are We Even Doing? with Kyle MacLachlan
Join award-winning actor and social media madman Kyle MacLachlan on “What Are We Even Doing,” where he sits down with Millennial and Gen Z actors, musicians, artists, and content creators to share stories about the entertainment industry past, present, and future. Kyle and his guests will talk shop, compare notes on life, and generally be weird together. In a good way. Their conversations will resonate with listeners of any age whose interests lie in television & film, music, art, or pop culture.