July 10, 2025 • 17 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 AI” and audio rebuses.
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Our executive producers are Neely Lohmann and Adam Neuhaus of Neuhaus Ideas, and Lindsay Hoffman of iHeart Podcasts.
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Our Chief Puzzle Officer is Greg Pliska. Our associate producer is Andrea Schoenberg.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello puzzlers. Let's start with a quick puzzle. This mini
puzzle is about place names that can be split up
into two common English words, like the British city Liverpool.
Chop it up in the middle and you get liver
and pool two words. Now, I am looking for a
European capital city that has this same quality, a city
(00:24):
name that can be split up into two common English words.
But wait, there's not just one European capital city with
this quality. There are, as far as I can tell,
at least three capital cities that can be split up
into two common English words. Those and more puzzling goodness
after the break, Hello puzzlers, Welcome back to the Puzzler podcast,
(00:51):
the Anti Aging Retinol in your Puzzle Mortsterizer, I am
your host, AJ Jacobs. I'm here, of course, with chief
puzzle Officer Greg Kliska. So before the break, Greg, we
had a little mini puzzle. I'm looking for European capital
cities that can be split up into two common English words.
Do you have any thoughts?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I think I have the three that you have in mind,
and a few extras. All right, I love it, all right,
So Madrid, yes, sure, mad and Rid for sure.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
The capital of Spain Riga.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
The capital of Latvia is rig and the letter A.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
All right, I'll accept it. I was not thinking of
that because A is sort of like a. You know,
it's barely a word, but it is a word.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
It's an essential word, though you just used it like
twice in that sentence, so let's not.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
You know, all right, I would argue it's not essential.
You could have the exact same meaning without a.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Well, okay, are a good argument we can have we
can have argument about that.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Well, we've got puzzles, so let's keep going. Don't I
have for that?
Speaker 3 (01:54):
I have a puzzle? Okay, Paris of course, par and
is correct.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Then I so I also had Moscow as in No
Better Blues the Spike Lee movie, or short for momentum
and scow of course. And then well I also put
Belgrade because bell is a units and grade is just grade.
(02:22):
So that gets a little more obscure. And you're not
going to accept Amsterdam, which of course is dam and
the Cockney word for the small pet that people have amster.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Very good. I'll give you half credit. I'll give you
credit for those listeners who are in the cock.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Cocktee speaking listeners will accept that as.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
A that's right. Well there's also warsaw war.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Oh that's much better. Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Well, I bring all of this up because we have
two puzzles today and the first was inspired by the
name Liverpool, which was I mentioned as at the start.
Can be split into two words. This puzzle is not
about that part of Liverpool. It's about the name of
Liverpool residents. What Liverpool residents are something called Liverpudlians exactly,
(03:14):
which I always thought was strange because it's a bizarre
Subit is there a San francisc Gudleyan, No, there's just
liver Puddlian. So why whence Liverpudlian. We mentioned it on
the John Green episode.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Right, Liverpool pool liver pud Pudlian puddle.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
That's it, Okay. It started as a joke. It was
like a dad joke in the eighteen thirties, someone who
resides in Liverpool. They figured it's a small part of
the pool, and a small part of a pool is
a puddle, so they are a liver puddle or a
liver puddly in And I thought, well, this is a
lovely idea. Why don't other cities use funny little puns
(03:59):
to describe their residence. So this is my suggestion on
how other cities can follow Liverpool's example. You brought up Moscow.
Moscow could be moss calves because calves are little cowstle.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
The little muscalves from Moscow. Yeah, putin much more adorable
if he was a little muss calf.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
And he's already so adorable.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yeah, so I don't know how.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Uh yeah, So take the end of the city and
make it small, smaller and small, size, younger, whatever. All right,
I've got just a few examples. This is an American
city called boss Pound, boss.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Well, they would only have two thousand residents Boston boss Ton.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
That's right, it could be boss Ounce. Maybe it's more accurate.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Well, they have more and more people. Yeah, the smaller,
he gets right.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
How about new kayak new Kayak?
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Kayak is a small old boat, small.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Correct boat, is right. But another new boat, new yacht,
new biblical boat, perhaps Newark.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Newark, New Jersey, New war exactly all the new kayaks
across the river.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Okay, I would love to hang out with just a
couple more. We got a city in Alaska called fair ATMs.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Well of course that would be fair Banks Banks smaller
is fair ATMs.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Good.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
We got lun Underboss, lun under Boss. I'm glad you
like that.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
I got very mafia on this one.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
You know, you were talking about tapping people in their
yacht when my son was on and now we got
lun Underboss. There's something you're trying to tell us to
the little conspiracy theory about the mob influence on the
Puzzler podcast. London londn becomes lun Underboss.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Right, Don is a mafia Don, and I'm sorry to
expose your son to the criminal underworld.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
He loved it, all right, just go by.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Got yuh boys, yeah boys.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah boys, boys.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
I feel that's something like.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Well, I'm thinking of Yemen. Oh it's a country, not
a city. You're doing Oh you're right. I'm sorry people
Yemen are yeah boys.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Yeah boys, and you got oh boys Omen. Speaking of Omen,
let's go back to the cities. The capital of Omen
is Muskitten.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Yeah, of course, Muscat becomes Muskitten love exactly.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
We got to left. We've got Wiscon Peccadillo. Well, not
a city, but a state, Okay.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Wiscon Sin becomes wiscon peccadillo. Piccadillo is sort of a
small sin.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Right, Pecadillion, I guess would be more accurate. And finally
we've got this is at the start of the city
name Sea note Rapids, Sea note rapids.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
There again, only one hundred residents in uh Rapids Michigan.
Se note grappers.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Because a grand is a thousand C note is one
hundred grand se note Rapidians. I guess it will be
called Well, that's it. Send in your suggestions for starting
a movement at the puzzler dot com. Send him in,
we need him. We'll read them on the air. But
that's just part one. That was just sort of almost
a warm up puzzle. Well you have one from you, Greg, What.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Do you got?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Well, look, I always like to figure out what's important
about today July tenth, And today July tenth is Nikola
Tesla's birthday. Happy birthday, born on this day in eighteen
fifty six. Any markuple guy, Well, yes, as everyone, as
you certainly know, as most of our listeners probably now.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
He was an.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Inventor and a polymath, had all kinds of visionary ideas.
He was also famously compulsive. He would only stay in
hold tail rooms that were multiples of three. He would
only turn right when he exited a building, so I
think if he wanted to go left, he would have
to do several rights and then he would you know,
find his way to this.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
He got so much done despite having to walk around
the block.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Every time, made a very strict daily schedule, and you know,
he actually died in relative obscurity. He squandered all you spent,
all the money that he made on some of his inventions,
you know, working on new projects that never came to fruition,
and died, lived in a lot of New York hotel
rooms all multiples of three, died in debt, and was
(08:40):
sort of unknown until the SI unit, the standard unit
for magnetic flux density, was named for him.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
The Tesla.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Really that was his comeback, well when.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
That's yeah, that was his first comeback.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
And then in the eighties and nineties he started to
get you know, more into pop culture and has obviously
become a real uh, sort of iconic figure in a
lot of pop culture now.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Right exactly, And the name of a car.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Yes, that also, well, we you know the other thing
we notice, of course in the puzzle Lab about Tesla
is that the letters in his surname are super friendly
scrabble letters.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Oh yes, absolutely, I love it.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
You love having those letters in Iraq.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
So I'm gonna I'm gonna give you some sentences with
blanks in them, and yes, you fill them in with
words that you can make with the letters. T E.
S l A.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Just those five letters, just.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Those five letters, the first few, each of those letters
just once, so they're really just mixed those five letters around.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
And then I got a few long.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Term, then you get a little trickier. Okay, I'm psyched.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
All right, here you go.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
In high school, Tesla was voted the blank likely to
be an Olympic athlete.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Okay, well I went most but then obviously not where it's.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Likely, yes, and I don't know if that's true. I
think he was actually a very physically fit person. It
said he would do again compulsively do all kinds of exercises.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Ah, all right, so yes, well these are fictional statements fiction.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
The next one, next one is actually not fictional. Some
people think that Edison and Tesla tried to blank each
other's ideas.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Oh all right, blank each other. All right, I'm just
going through the letters to steal, steal each.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Other, each other's idea.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Yeah, very good. I always thought it was more. Edison
was accused of stealing Tesla.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Yeah, I think I think that's true. Actually, that's the accusation.
And but of course the Edison folks try to debunk that.
You should say Tesla tried to tried to steal credit
for things he didn't actually do.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Got it?
Speaker 1 (10:51):
All right? Yeah, I'm not taking sides people.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
All right.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Tesla's visionary ideas have led to his appearance in a
lot of science fiction, blank and fantastical stories.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Science fiction? All right, all right, I can do this.
I'm starting. Oh my god, why am I blanking fiction?
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Blanking and fantastical stories?
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Stories?
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Of course, is a clue of story.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Well, my my mind is a blank? Slate? Is it
a slate?
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Nope?
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Nope, nope, science fiction.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
It's a synonym for stories.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
All right, oh tale, Well you gave.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Away the next one.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Blank Magazine has published several articles about Tesla, including a.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Review of the Ethan Hawke biopic about him.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Oh I did not. All right, Well, I'm just going
to pretend I'm thinking thinking Slate magazine, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
You know, this has been a lot of questions about Tesla,
and I'm afraid maybe the topic is getting blank ah
stale sale, But it's not because now we're now we're
going to do longer.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Oh it's not stale at all. It's fresh.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
So no more five letter words.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
There are a couple other five letter anagrams of teals.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Would be a five letter anagram of tesla and.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Tails t a e ls A tail is a biblical
unit of weight or something else.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Using that.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
All right, so this is a seven letter word. It
has to use all of those letters at least once.
Among Thomas Edison, Philo Farnsworth, and Nikola Tesla, the last
was likely the blank at six foot two inches.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
All right, Well, I knew it's gonna be a superlative,
so I'm going with est, and that leaves tallst tallest.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Tallest exactly.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
And we actually don't know how how tall Filo Farnsworth was.
Edison I think was five ten Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Yeah, all right, Well sorry Philo Farnsworth's family. If we
have the smart.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
You undersized your progenitor.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Yeah, all right.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
There's a large mosaic colored sculpture known as Big Tesla
that can be found on North ninety seventh Street in Blank, Washington.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Oh, oh, okay, took me a second, but yes, Seattle, Washington.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Seattle, Washington love it And that is actually true. There's
a very cool sculpture, big head of Tesla.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
That's where do they know about this? We've got to alert?
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Does Seattle know about this about Yeah, it's actually on
one of the one of the plant, one of the
substations or plants for the Seattle City Light Power Company.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
No, I know they know about the sculpture. But do
they know about the wordplay?
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (13:47):
So Seattle know that their name can be made from Tesla.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
It's something that we should look into, Seattle.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
If you're listening, give us a call.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Yeah, all right.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Tesla was known for being obsessed about germs and you
sing three napkins at every meal. Perhaps he also insisted
on blank alongside fresh ground black pepper.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Oh all right, I am lost? All right?
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Well, what goes alongside pepper?
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Oh? Salt? But salter salt?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
It it's a two letter, two word phrase, seven letters long,
particular kind.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Well, let's say salt tea salt?
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Is that the thing close rhymes with that?
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Really?
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Sea?
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Salt sea salt. That is a thing I've heard of
sea salt.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Yeah, you've heard of that. That's you know.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Those are the best sentences I could come up with.
There's some longer things that anagram or use the letters
in Tesla.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
But I do have an extra credit.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
I found a family friendly joke book about Tesla. So
none of the material in it is particularly blank or inappropriate.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Okay, good, I'm glad because this one I don't know so,
but I don't have to so that it's also not true.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I didn't really find a joke book about Nikola Tesla.
There are having a joke books about Tesla the automobile.
Oh I bet some of those are blank and inappropriate.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Well, thank you, Greg, Happy birthday mister Tesla, and we
will be back if you have thirty seconds. In the meantime,
what really helps us is if you just rate the
puzzler on your favorite podcast platform. It helps people find us,
and we love to be found. And of course we'll
see you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will
(15:40):
puzzle you Puzzling League.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Hey puzzlers, it's Greg Flisko once more, up from the
Puzzle ab with the extra credit answer from our previous episode,
the lovely John Green joined us with a little puzzle
we called John Green Is Not Real. It was a
true false quiz about various copyright traps and other tricks
that dictionary writers and cartographers used to catch people who
(16:10):
are trying to steal their copyrighted material. And John was
very good at this game. He was able to spot
which dictionary traps were real and which were not real.
So here's your extra credit. True or false? Did this
actually happen or not? The towns Beetosu and Go Blue
spelled bat Osu and gob Lu are actually pronounced beat
(16:34):
Osu and go Blue. They were inserted into the nineteen
seventy eight official State of Michigan map by the chairman
of the State Highway Commission, a University of Michigan alum,
who was apparently just trying to needle his rivals at
Ohio State.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Tru or false.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Beat Osu and Go Blue were paper towns inserted into
a map. That's right, it is true. It actually happened.
Go look it up. Get a you're nineteen seventy eight
official state maps of Michigan and check it out. And
while you're at it, make sure you tune in tomorrow
for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly
Hello puzzlers. Let's start with a quick puzzle. This mini
puzzle is about place names that can be split up
into two common English words, like the British city Liverpool.
Chop it up in the middle and you get liver
and pool two words. Now, I am looking for a
European capital city that has this same quality, a city
(00:24):
name that can be split up into two common English words.
But wait, there's not just one European capital city with
this quality. There are, as far as I can tell,
at least three capital cities that can be split up
into two common English words. Those and more puzzling goodness
after the break, Hello puzzlers, Welcome back to the Puzzler podcast,
(00:51):
the Anti Aging Retinol in your Puzzle Mortsterizer, I am
your host, AJ Jacobs. I'm here, of course, with chief
puzzle Officer Greg Kliska. So before the break, Greg, we
had a little mini puzzle. I'm looking for European capital
cities that can be split up into two common English words.
Do you have any thoughts?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I think I have the three that you have in mind,
and a few extras. All right, I love it, all right,
So Madrid, yes, sure, mad and Rid for sure.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
The capital of Spain Riga.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
The capital of Latvia is rig and the letter A.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
All right, I'll accept it. I was not thinking of
that because A is sort of like a. You know,
it's barely a word, but it is a word.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
It's an essential word, though you just used it like
twice in that sentence, so let's not.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
You know, all right, I would argue it's not essential.
You could have the exact same meaning without a.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Well, okay, are a good argument we can have we
can have argument about that.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Well, we've got puzzles, so let's keep going. Don't I
have for that?
Speaker 3 (01:54):
I have a puzzle? Okay, Paris of course, par and
is correct.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Then I so I also had Moscow as in No
Better Blues the Spike Lee movie, or short for momentum
and scow of course. And then well I also put
Belgrade because bell is a units and grade is just grade.
(02:22):
So that gets a little more obscure. And you're not
going to accept Amsterdam, which of course is dam and
the Cockney word for the small pet that people have amster.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Very good. I'll give you half credit. I'll give you
credit for those listeners who are in the cock.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Cocktee speaking listeners will accept that as.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
A that's right. Well there's also warsaw war.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Oh that's much better. Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Well, I bring all of this up because we have
two puzzles today and the first was inspired by the
name Liverpool, which was I mentioned as at the start.
Can be split into two words. This puzzle is not
about that part of Liverpool. It's about the name of
Liverpool residents. What Liverpool residents are something called Liverpudlians exactly,
(03:14):
which I always thought was strange because it's a bizarre
Subit is there a San francisc Gudleyan, No, there's just
liver Puddlian. So why whence Liverpudlian. We mentioned it on
the John Green episode.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Right, Liverpool pool liver pud Pudlian puddle.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
That's it, Okay. It started as a joke. It was
like a dad joke in the eighteen thirties, someone who
resides in Liverpool. They figured it's a small part of
the pool, and a small part of a pool is
a puddle, so they are a liver puddle or a
liver puddly in And I thought, well, this is a
lovely idea. Why don't other cities use funny little puns
(03:59):
to describe their residence. So this is my suggestion on
how other cities can follow Liverpool's example. You brought up Moscow.
Moscow could be moss calves because calves are little cowstle.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
The little muscalves from Moscow. Yeah, putin much more adorable
if he was a little muss calf.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
And he's already so adorable.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yeah, so I don't know how.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Uh yeah, So take the end of the city and
make it small, smaller and small, size, younger, whatever. All right,
I've got just a few examples. This is an American
city called boss Pound, boss.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Well, they would only have two thousand residents Boston boss Ton.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
That's right, it could be boss Ounce. Maybe it's more accurate.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Well, they have more and more people. Yeah, the smaller,
he gets right.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
How about new kayak new Kayak?
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Kayak is a small old boat, small.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Correct boat, is right. But another new boat, new yacht,
new biblical boat, perhaps Newark.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Newark, New Jersey, New war exactly all the new kayaks
across the river.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Okay, I would love to hang out with just a
couple more. We got a city in Alaska called fair ATMs.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Well of course that would be fair Banks Banks smaller
is fair ATMs.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Good.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
We got lun Underboss, lun under Boss. I'm glad you
like that.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
I got very mafia on this one.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
You know, you were talking about tapping people in their
yacht when my son was on and now we got
lun Underboss. There's something you're trying to tell us to
the little conspiracy theory about the mob influence on the
Puzzler podcast. London londn becomes lun Underboss.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Right, Don is a mafia Don, and I'm sorry to
expose your son to the criminal underworld.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
He loved it, all right, just go by.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Got yuh boys, yeah boys.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah boys, boys.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
I feel that's something like.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Well, I'm thinking of Yemen. Oh it's a country, not
a city. You're doing Oh you're right. I'm sorry people
Yemen are yeah boys.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Yeah boys, and you got oh boys Omen. Speaking of Omen,
let's go back to the cities. The capital of Omen
is Muskitten.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Yeah, of course, Muscat becomes Muskitten love exactly.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
We got to left. We've got Wiscon Peccadillo. Well, not
a city, but a state, Okay.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Wiscon Sin becomes wiscon peccadillo. Piccadillo is sort of a
small sin.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Right, Pecadillion, I guess would be more accurate. And finally
we've got this is at the start of the city
name Sea note Rapids, Sea note rapids.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
There again, only one hundred residents in uh Rapids Michigan.
Se note grappers.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Because a grand is a thousand C note is one
hundred grand se note Rapidians. I guess it will be
called Well, that's it. Send in your suggestions for starting
a movement at the puzzler dot com. Send him in,
we need him. We'll read them on the air. But
that's just part one. That was just sort of almost
a warm up puzzle. Well you have one from you, Greg, What.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Do you got?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Well, look, I always like to figure out what's important
about today July tenth, And today July tenth is Nikola
Tesla's birthday. Happy birthday, born on this day in eighteen
fifty six. Any markuple guy, Well, yes, as everyone, as
you certainly know, as most of our listeners probably now.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
He was an.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Inventor and a polymath, had all kinds of visionary ideas.
He was also famously compulsive. He would only stay in
hold tail rooms that were multiples of three. He would
only turn right when he exited a building, so I
think if he wanted to go left, he would have
to do several rights and then he would you know,
find his way to this.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
He got so much done despite having to walk around
the block.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Every time, made a very strict daily schedule, and you know,
he actually died in relative obscurity. He squandered all you spent,
all the money that he made on some of his inventions,
you know, working on new projects that never came to fruition,
and died, lived in a lot of New York hotel
rooms all multiples of three, died in debt, and was
(08:40):
sort of unknown until the SI unit, the standard unit
for magnetic flux density, was named for him.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
The Tesla.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Really that was his comeback, well when.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
That's yeah, that was his first comeback.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
And then in the eighties and nineties he started to
get you know, more into pop culture and has obviously
become a real uh, sort of iconic figure in a
lot of pop culture now.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Right exactly, And the name of a car.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Yes, that also, well, we you know the other thing
we notice, of course in the puzzle Lab about Tesla
is that the letters in his surname are super friendly
scrabble letters.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Oh yes, absolutely, I love it.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
You love having those letters in Iraq.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
So I'm gonna I'm gonna give you some sentences with
blanks in them, and yes, you fill them in with
words that you can make with the letters. T E.
S l A.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Just those five letters, just.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Those five letters, the first few, each of those letters
just once, so they're really just mixed those five letters around.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
And then I got a few long.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Term, then you get a little trickier. Okay, I'm psyched.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
All right, here you go.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
In high school, Tesla was voted the blank likely to
be an Olympic athlete.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Okay, well I went most but then obviously not where it's.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Likely, yes, and I don't know if that's true. I
think he was actually a very physically fit person. It
said he would do again compulsively do all kinds of exercises.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Ah, all right, so yes, well these are fictional statements fiction.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
The next one, next one is actually not fictional. Some
people think that Edison and Tesla tried to blank each
other's ideas.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Oh all right, blank each other. All right, I'm just
going through the letters to steal, steal each.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Other, each other's idea.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Yeah, very good. I always thought it was more. Edison
was accused of stealing Tesla.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Yeah, I think I think that's true. Actually, that's the accusation.
And but of course the Edison folks try to debunk that.
You should say Tesla tried to tried to steal credit
for things he didn't actually do.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Got it?
Speaker 1 (10:51):
All right? Yeah, I'm not taking sides people.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
All right.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Tesla's visionary ideas have led to his appearance in a
lot of science fiction, blank and fantastical stories.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Science fiction? All right, all right, I can do this.
I'm starting. Oh my god, why am I blanking fiction?
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Blanking and fantastical stories?
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Stories?
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Of course, is a clue of story.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Well, my my mind is a blank? Slate? Is it
a slate?
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Nope?
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Nope, nope, science fiction.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
It's a synonym for stories.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
All right, oh tale, Well you gave.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Away the next one.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Blank Magazine has published several articles about Tesla, including a.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Review of the Ethan Hawke biopic about him.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Oh I did not. All right, Well, I'm just going
to pretend I'm thinking thinking Slate magazine, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
You know, this has been a lot of questions about Tesla,
and I'm afraid maybe the topic is getting blank ah
stale sale, But it's not because now we're now we're
going to do longer.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Oh it's not stale at all. It's fresh.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
So no more five letter words.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
There are a couple other five letter anagrams of teals.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Would be a five letter anagram of tesla and.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Tails t a e ls A tail is a biblical
unit of weight or something else.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Using that.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
All right, so this is a seven letter word. It
has to use all of those letters at least once.
Among Thomas Edison, Philo Farnsworth, and Nikola Tesla, the last
was likely the blank at six foot two inches.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
All right, Well, I knew it's gonna be a superlative,
so I'm going with est, and that leaves tallst tallest.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Tallest exactly.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
And we actually don't know how how tall Filo Farnsworth was.
Edison I think was five ten Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Yeah, all right, Well sorry Philo Farnsworth's family. If we
have the smart.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
You undersized your progenitor.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Yeah, all right.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
There's a large mosaic colored sculpture known as Big Tesla
that can be found on North ninety seventh Street in Blank, Washington.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Oh, oh, okay, took me a second, but yes, Seattle, Washington.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Seattle, Washington love it And that is actually true. There's
a very cool sculpture, big head of Tesla.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
That's where do they know about this? We've got to alert?
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Does Seattle know about this about Yeah, it's actually on
one of the one of the plant, one of the
substations or plants for the Seattle City Light Power Company.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
No, I know they know about the sculpture. But do
they know about the wordplay?
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (13:47):
So Seattle know that their name can be made from Tesla.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
It's something that we should look into, Seattle.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
If you're listening, give us a call.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Yeah, all right.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Tesla was known for being obsessed about germs and you
sing three napkins at every meal. Perhaps he also insisted
on blank alongside fresh ground black pepper.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Oh all right, I am lost? All right?
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Well, what goes alongside pepper?
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Oh? Salt? But salter salt?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
It it's a two letter, two word phrase, seven letters long,
particular kind.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Well, let's say salt tea salt?
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Is that the thing close rhymes with that?
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Really?
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Sea?
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Salt sea salt. That is a thing I've heard of
sea salt.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Yeah, you've heard of that. That's you know.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Those are the best sentences I could come up with.
There's some longer things that anagram or use the letters
in Tesla.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
But I do have an extra credit.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
I found a family friendly joke book about Tesla. So
none of the material in it is particularly blank or inappropriate.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Okay, good, I'm glad because this one I don't know so,
but I don't have to so that it's also not true.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I didn't really find a joke book about Nikola Tesla.
There are having a joke books about Tesla the automobile.
Oh I bet some of those are blank and inappropriate.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Well, thank you, Greg, Happy birthday mister Tesla, and we
will be back if you have thirty seconds. In the meantime,
what really helps us is if you just rate the
puzzler on your favorite podcast platform. It helps people find us,
and we love to be found. And of course we'll
see you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will
(15:40):
puzzle you Puzzling League.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Hey puzzlers, it's Greg Flisko once more, up from the
Puzzle ab with the extra credit answer from our previous episode,
the lovely John Green joined us with a little puzzle
we called John Green Is Not Real. It was a
true false quiz about various copyright traps and other tricks
that dictionary writers and cartographers used to catch people who
(16:10):
are trying to steal their copyrighted material. And John was
very good at this game. He was able to spot
which dictionary traps were real and which were not real.
So here's your extra credit. True or false? Did this
actually happen or not? The towns Beetosu and Go Blue
spelled bat Osu and gob Lu are actually pronounced beat
(16:34):
Osu and go Blue. They were inserted into the nineteen
seventy eight official State of Michigan map by the chairman
of the State Highway Commission, a University of Michigan alum,
who was apparently just trying to needle his rivals at
Ohio State.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Tru or false.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Beat Osu and Go Blue were paper towns inserted into
a map. That's right, it is true. It actually happened.
Go look it up. Get a you're nineteen seventy eight
official state maps of Michigan and check it out. And
while you're at it, make sure you tune in tomorrow
for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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