July 18, 2025 • 21 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.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello puzzlers. I thought we could start with a quick puzzle,
and here it is. What does the number one thousand
and nine have in common with the word mix? The
number one thousand and nine and the word mix mix,
as in now mix or pancake mix, they have something
in common. What is it? The answer and more puzzling
(00:22):
goodness after the break, Hello puzzlers, Welcome back to the
Puzzler podcast, The winning Red Dragon in your puzzle Manjong Brack,
I am your host, AJ Jacobs, and I'm here, of
course with tea puzzle Officer Greg Pliska.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Greg.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Before the break, we asked listeners a little riddle, what
does the number one thousand and nine have in common
with the word mix?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
You know, my mind has been Roman all over the place.
I got it and figure it out? The horse, uh
mix is I ex is one thousand and nine in
Roman numerals.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Right, M is a thousand and I is one in
xes ten. So you got you got it pretty quickly.
I will say I had several more complicated versions of
this riddle, involving romulus and remis mistakenly buying a thousand
and nine boxes of check serial text mix and those
like too much.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, yeah, it is fun to look at the words
you can make with Roman numerals, like not.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
As many as I had hoped, well hope to do
a real big puzzle, right, I can not much.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
There's only you can make a lot of words with
those specific letters, like livid and things like that, but
only a few of the words are actually also legit Roman.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Numbers exactly right, there you go. Uh, well, I am
going on a family vacation to Italy, so re numerals
were on my mind, but also mixes were on my mind,
because today is a mix of elements.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Oh oh, I see that there.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Well, thank you. We are going inside the puzzle lab.
We're gonna have listener feedback, the puzzler work bench, the
puzzle news ticker, which Greg has been monitoring. But let's
start with some feedback from the puzzlers at home. Yes,
we got we got a letter from Superstar correspondent Sammy Casanova.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Hey Sammy, Hey Sammy, whose first name contains two Roman numerals.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Oh good one you're always thinking.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Uh old s one thousand and one. We call.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Sammy. Was inspired by one of our recent introductory puzzles.
This was a challenge we gave to think of notable
people whose last names are homophones, by which we meant
people whose last names are pronounced the same but spelled differently,
like John Lennon and Vladmir Lenin. So John Lennon lli
nn on who sang back in the USSR, and Vlad
(02:53):
Lenin lli n i n who founded the USSR. So same,
same pronunciation, spelled differently. Now, Sammy ran with this. She
gave us several examples we didn't think of, So I
am going to give them to you in a puzzle form.
And Andrea, you are welcome to that senior puzzler. Andrea Schoenberg,
(03:15):
please chime in if you hear it first. She had
an addition to our Tom Cruise Penelope Cruise, a third
cruise spelled differently. This is a third notable cruise with
a different spelling. This cruise did not star with Tom
and Penelope in Vanilla Sky, but he did start in
(03:35):
the comedy White Chicks, So I don't know Vanilla White.
Maybe there's something there. He's also in the TV show
Brooklyn nine to nine. Any thoughts. I know Andrea knows
this because she is a Brooklyn nine nine fan, as am.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
I Um, it's somebody whose last name is cr Ews.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Tis there a Terry, Yes, Terry Crews. I thought of
another one, Kevin Cruz k r U s E. He's
a historian and professor at Princeton, but I know of
him because he was has been very active on social media,
you know, post a lot of intelligence, smart comment, very
politically sharp. So less famous than those other folks. But
(04:20):
another spelling k r U s E.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Wow, that is a lot of cruise. All right, We've
got some more of Sammy's discoveries. Are you ready?
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah? All right.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
This is a pair of famous people. The first in
this pair was a member of the boy band One Direction.
The second is an actress who starred in Ten Things
I Hate About You. So a little numerical link there, boy.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Yeah this you're now you're aiming at my generation.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yea.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
So the One Direction member for former One Direction member
is Harry Styles.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Oh of course I should know. I should guess, Harry.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Can you do you know the star.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Of Julia Julia Styles?
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (05:09):
There it is, all right, look at that team work. Next,
we've got an actress who starred as Captain Marvel from
the Avengers and another person who wrote best selling novels
about an avenging detective with a dragon Taptain.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Oh very nice.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Well, I know Bree Larson is Captain Marvile for sure,
and I think I know the name of the author,
but I'm not so you You you take that.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
One, Stego, that's it with s s.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, he has a spell a lot of other there's
Gary Larson, of course, the great far Side cartoonist, but
he spells it the same way as Bree does exactly.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
And we should have mentioned Julia Styles is with an
I and Harry is with a Y. All right, this one.
I didn't know this pair, but Sammy did, and I
like the clue, so I had to go with it.
The one is a British pioneer in electronic music whose
most famous song is Cars. The other there you go.
(06:09):
The other is a salad dressing pioneer who had a
starring role in the Pixar.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Movie Cars Mind Blown.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Oh my god, it is.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
I love I love that. The second one. For all
his decades of extraordinary one just comes down to the
salad dressing.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Pioneer and the animated movie.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Yeah, I know, but you wanted to make the car
I got it so Andrea, you know one of them, Yeah,
and the other the great he did some movies. You
should see some of the movies, you know what. The
other one is Gary Newman and U m a n
who did cars. I have to say I once was
(06:52):
it a Chinese restaurant up in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where I
went to school, where the Williams Sound Theater Festival was
where I was working. Uh, and Paul Newman was also,
I believe working there, or his wife was the great
Joanne Woodwork John Woodworth. Ye. Right, And I was sitting
at a table at a Chinese restaurant and chatting over
(07:14):
my shoulder with a woman sitting opposite me, right, And
and what I didn't realize till I got up was
the guy sitting right behind me was Paul Newman. Ah.
And so I did get to say hello, and he
was so freaking gorgeous. I mean, he was just one
of those people with charismas handsome blue eyes. You're like,
oh my god. Anyway, truly, and I love him as
(07:36):
an actor, a great actor.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
All right, Just two more. We've got. One is an
actor who starred in the Outsiders and Something about Mary.
The other is a legendary outsider musicians whose songs include
Mary lou I Love You Too, more famously Blowing in
the Wind, Blowing in the Wind. Do you know these two?
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Well, you're gonna give me Bob Jyllen like that, right.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
That's true, Bob Dylan d y l A N. And
there's another Dylan Matt Dylan Matt Dilan there it is
all right, last one, we've got this. It is a
woman who starred as Blanche du Bois in a streetcar
named Desire. The other is a martial artist who starred
in the video game Super street Fighter and more famously
(08:25):
Enter the Dragon the movie. Do you know these gone
with the Wind and street Car? And then we've got
Enter the Dragon martial artist.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
It is Vi l e I g H and Bruce
Lee l l e E. Not to be confused with the
other great martial artist actor Jet Lee, who's l I.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
That's it. And Sammy Actually that was going to be
a bonus, So Sammy was on on your waveling, all right,
Well that's that, Thank you, Sammy. Awesome listener mail as
always send us more. Let's move on to the puzzle lab.
This week we had Rachel Bloom Blom, creator of Crazy
Ex Girlfriend. Side note, she is a homophone of the
(09:10):
legendary children's book writer name Judy Bloom Judy Bloom at
b l U Emmy and also Jason Bloom Academy or
nominated producer.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Ye but.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Greg, you have some you have some insight into the
puzzles that we gave something from the puzzler work.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Yes, I do. We did. We did a puzzle with
Rachel that was called I think we called it Extensions
because we were adding ex to lots of common phrases
or titles as a tribute to Crazy Ex Girlfriend her
terrific show. So we decided to insert ex into a
bunch of different phrases. And there were some, you know,
(09:54):
that I came up with that were a little felt
like a little too weird or complicated or strained, and
I thought, let's you know, it's I use these, but
I want to give them to you because I think
they're fun.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
And where we're complicated in strange people, that's great.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
So this first one is it's the broad expanse of
flatland in the United States that includes most of Kansas, Nebraska,
and North and South Dakota. And it's where everyone constantly
clarifies and interprets things for you.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
All Right, I think I got it. The plane explain
or explain?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
We just take the original, the original.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Term the great explain.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah, that's great. It's the great explains instead of the
it becomes the great explaints because all.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Right, great, I will accept full credit.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Except full credit, very good. All right. This is this
is saying it's a metaphor for finding relief in adverse circumstances,
but it literally suggests that when the weather is bad,
you can ship whatever you want to another country.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Oh man, I don't know, Andrea, I need your help.
Express is often used in shipping Federal express.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
I would work from what's a phrase that means you
can find relief in adverse circumstances? Relief and does have
something to do with bad weather?
Speaker 4 (11:15):
Oh the storm storm?
Speaker 2 (11:29):
How about this Austrian pastry made with powdered nuts, red
jam filling and a threatening note demanding money.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Well that's interesting because I was thinking strude and extrude,
but now I'm thinking ransom.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
It's not no, it's not that either, So it's.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Neither extrude or ransom.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Specifically, the Lindser extort.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
I say, gotcha love it?
Speaker 2 (12:01):
That's ingredients. Yes, good one lindsor x stort comes to
a little note. Please give us all your money or
we'll tell people you're eating this fattening, sugary pastry.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
You won't want that.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
This is a theater one, uh, not a Broadway show.
It's an off Broadway show. In fact, it was one
of the longest off longest running off Broadway musicals ever.
Show by Jimmy Roberts and Joe d. Piedro. That's about
people who meet, idolize each other, and then swap partners
with another couple.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Oh interesting, now that you need to know. Not really
about that.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
It's not really about that. It's about all of that
except the end.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Got it. Well, let's say swapping exchange. So change? What
is a music? I've been watching musicals NonStop with my
mom for what years? Change? Andrea? What do you got
off Broadway.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Or off Broadway? Off Broadway? The first it's one, two, three, four,
five sixty seven words. First three words are something you
say to your spouse often or other, your children, or.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Oh I remember now, something like I love you, don't
ever change, please change something like that.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
I love you. You're perfect now exchange. Okay, I love
you change. It was very also a very funny title,
and we just added the X. All right, two more.
This is a movie about four women who stay in
touch thanks to a pair of genes that get bigger
and bigger and bigger.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
A pair of genes that's in J E A.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
S J E A N S. Yes, not not the genetic.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Material, but the sisterhood of the Traveling expanse.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Oh oh there it is exactly all right, last one,
last one. Felicity Jones and Armie Hammer star in this
movie about Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the belief that all
human reproduction is inspired by one big petroleum company.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
All right, well, I'm guessing X on Yeah, good X
on the I did see it and I loved it.
Some of the basis of women, on the basis.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Of bass X on the basis well done.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Fantastic. So Greg, we're almost out of time, but but
I think you have an exciting news item, So maybe
just give us a little taste and we will continue
it on an show.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Yeah this is I mean, it's it's not exactly news.
I've just been lately getting into the Miriam Webster social
media feed. Whoever does. It is absolutely terrific. Everyone who's
listening to us should be following Miriam Webster because it's
you know, it's our people. You want to learn about
words and what they mean. But they they also post
(14:56):
a lot of fun content. Some of what they do
is just word histories and explanation. So on June tenth,
they posted a thing that said internet trolling most likely
comes well, you know where the word that term internet
trolling comes from.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Now the trolls under the bridge.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
As what most of us think. In fact, it comes
from fishing rather than from the bridge guarding.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Oh I thought that was trolling, Now I'm.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Trolling refers to fishing by trailing a lure or a
baited hook from a moving boat.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
So a trolling is with the net, yes, and trolling
is with the l to do better English language. Stop
it with the things that are so similar but similar
but slightly different.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Okay, anyway, so they say when people are trolling someone,
they're fishing for responses. Ah, that's so great. You know,
little pops up between the doom scrolling and all the
other horror that's on X where I follow them or
other media. It's nice to have a little fun. Word content.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
That's right, I get another one.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Actually, this was from June night, the day before, also
fish related. This is the full post. A herring is
a fish. When a herring is preserved by salting and smoking,
it turns red and smells it is. You see where
this is going.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
I see where it's going. Unless you are doing a
a I think I know where it's going.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
As they said, it's so pungent that it's a great
diversion to distract hunting dogs from their trail. So a
red herring now refers to anything that diverts attention from
the issue at hand.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Got it. But I will say, I mean for the dogs,
that's great. They get the red herring and they get
to eat it. They don't have to kill a fox
nor right, that's nice.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
We don't need more telling, And I'll give you one
more and then we can wrap up. We'll come back
to some more of these are some other fun stuff
to talk about with their with their X feed, But
this one is I thought was fun. Do you know
the origin of the word socker s occe er?
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Weirdly, I was thinking about soccer and it sounded like
like a sounds violent like soccer, So but I'm hoping
that's not it. So the answer is no.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Andrea, do you have any idea?
Speaker 3 (17:08):
No?
Speaker 2 (17:09):
None. So it turns out soccer the word was originally
British slang for association football, which is one of the
you know, brands of football that they play. Association football
is a particular, you know, kind of organized sport, and
so the word association got got shortened to soccer because
(17:33):
you take the yeah and then you put.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Oh interesting. I like that.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
I was like, oh, thank you, Merriam Webster.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
There you go. And then America took that and none
of the Prits use it anymore.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Right, right, But it did spin off of a term
for football. It's just like football is a broader thing
than just association football, and we've grabbed that word, that
slang term and made it ours. Right.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
I love that phrase association football. And what is American
football called is just called what's the Those are fighting words.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Someone's gonna sock you well, as my British friend says,
it should be called hand. Egg.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Ah wait, I know, hand.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
And it's shaped like an egg and American oh, I
say like a ball. It's shaped more like an egg.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Or an oblate spheroids. Yes, who's that that Heisman? John
Heisman called it that? All right, enough murdery in sports.
That was awesome. Thank you, and folks. That's it for
this week. Over the weekend, you can fill your puzzling
needs with our Instagram feed app. Hello puzzlers, and of
(18:44):
course we'll see you on Monday for more puzzling puzzles
that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Hey, puzzlers, it's Greg Plisko. You're chief puzzle officer here
with the extra credit answer. From our previous episode, we
played a game for World Emoji Day where AJ and
Andrea guessed different names of emojis starting with E, M, O,
J and I for different categories. The extra credit category
(19:14):
was this, places and buildings, and I specifically said not countries,
because every country and many territories have flags that are emojis,
and we're not talking about that set of things, not
the flags, but there are emojis for other places, locations,
and buildings. And these are the ones I've got. You
(19:37):
might have found some other ones, and remember these are
the most of These are the short names for the emoji.
Every emoji also has a bunch of tags that associate
with it that could mean other things. So for the
letter E, I've got Earth, there's a little Earth emoji.
And Europe there's a little Europe emoji. M is map
of Japan. That's the official name of that bit mosque
(19:59):
also masjed I think is an alternate for mosque, Mount
Fuji and Mountain. Oh of course is office building and
Jay is either Japanese castle or Japanese post office. Very specific.
And lastly, I, of course is island. Technically that one
is called desert island, but one of the many useful
(20:22):
tags for it is island. So send us your favorite
emojis and will emoji you here next time. Thanks for
playing along with the team. Here at the Puzzler with
AJ Jacobs, I'm Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle Officer. Our
executive producers are Neelie Lohman and Adam Neuhouse of New
(20:43):
House Ideas and Jonathan Strickland of iHeart Podcasts. The show
is produced by Jody Abergan and Britney Brown of Roulette Productions,
with production support from Claire Bidegar Curtis. Our senior puzzler
is Andrea Schoenberg. It's The Puzzler with Aj Jacobs is
a co production with New House Ideas and is distributed
(21:03):
by Practiced Shot. It's a great show. No, it's not
a showed at all. Sorry, rearrange the letters. It's 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
(21:25):
hunt by yours Truly and is available wherever you get
your books and puzzlers. For all your puzzling needs, go
visit the puzzler dot com. See you there,
Hello puzzlers. I thought we could start with a quick puzzle,
and here it is. What does the number one thousand
and nine have in common with the word mix? The
number one thousand and nine and the word mix mix,
as in now mix or pancake mix, they have something
in common. What is it? The answer and more puzzling
(00:22):
goodness after the break, Hello puzzlers, Welcome back to the
Puzzler podcast, The winning Red Dragon in your puzzle Manjong Brack,
I am your host, AJ Jacobs, and I'm here, of
course with tea puzzle Officer Greg Pliska.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Greg.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Before the break, we asked listeners a little riddle, what
does the number one thousand and nine have in common
with the word mix?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
You know, my mind has been Roman all over the place.
I got it and figure it out? The horse, uh
mix is I ex is one thousand and nine in
Roman numerals.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Right, M is a thousand and I is one in
xes ten. So you got you got it pretty quickly.
I will say I had several more complicated versions of
this riddle, involving romulus and remis mistakenly buying a thousand
and nine boxes of check serial text mix and those
like too much.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, yeah, it is fun to look at the words
you can make with Roman numerals, like not.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
As many as I had hoped, well hope to do
a real big puzzle, right, I can not much.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
There's only you can make a lot of words with
those specific letters, like livid and things like that, but
only a few of the words are actually also legit Roman.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Numbers exactly right, there you go. Uh, well, I am
going on a family vacation to Italy, so re numerals
were on my mind, but also mixes were on my mind,
because today is a mix of elements.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Oh oh, I see that there.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Well, thank you. We are going inside the puzzle lab.
We're gonna have listener feedback, the puzzler work bench, the
puzzle news ticker, which Greg has been monitoring. But let's
start with some feedback from the puzzlers at home. Yes,
we got we got a letter from Superstar correspondent Sammy Casanova.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Hey Sammy, Hey Sammy, whose first name contains two Roman numerals.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Oh good one you're always thinking.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Uh old s one thousand and one. We call.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Sammy. Was inspired by one of our recent introductory puzzles.
This was a challenge we gave to think of notable
people whose last names are homophones, by which we meant
people whose last names are pronounced the same but spelled differently,
like John Lennon and Vladmir Lenin. So John Lennon lli
nn on who sang back in the USSR, and Vlad
(02:53):
Lenin lli n i n who founded the USSR. So same,
same pronunciation, spelled differently. Now, Sammy ran with this. She
gave us several examples we didn't think of, So I
am going to give them to you in a puzzle form.
And Andrea, you are welcome to that senior puzzler. Andrea Schoenberg,
(03:15):
please chime in if you hear it first. She had
an addition to our Tom Cruise Penelope Cruise, a third
cruise spelled differently. This is a third notable cruise with
a different spelling. This cruise did not star with Tom
and Penelope in Vanilla Sky, but he did start in
(03:35):
the comedy White Chicks, So I don't know Vanilla White.
Maybe there's something there. He's also in the TV show
Brooklyn nine to nine. Any thoughts. I know Andrea knows
this because she is a Brooklyn nine nine fan, as am.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
I Um, it's somebody whose last name is cr Ews.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Tis there a Terry, Yes, Terry Crews. I thought of
another one, Kevin Cruz k r U s E. He's
a historian and professor at Princeton, but I know of
him because he was has been very active on social media,
you know, post a lot of intelligence, smart comment, very
politically sharp. So less famous than those other folks. But
(04:20):
another spelling k r U s E.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Wow, that is a lot of cruise. All right, We've
got some more of Sammy's discoveries. Are you ready?
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah? All right.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
This is a pair of famous people. The first in
this pair was a member of the boy band One Direction.
The second is an actress who starred in Ten Things
I Hate About You. So a little numerical link there, boy.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Yeah this you're now you're aiming at my generation.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yea.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
So the One Direction member for former One Direction member
is Harry Styles.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Oh of course I should know. I should guess, Harry.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Can you do you know the star.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Of Julia Julia Styles?
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (05:09):
There it is, all right, look at that team work. Next,
we've got an actress who starred as Captain Marvel from
the Avengers and another person who wrote best selling novels
about an avenging detective with a dragon Taptain.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Oh very nice.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Well, I know Bree Larson is Captain Marvile for sure,
and I think I know the name of the author,
but I'm not so you You you take that.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
One, Stego, that's it with s s.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, he has a spell a lot of other there's
Gary Larson, of course, the great far Side cartoonist, but
he spells it the same way as Bree does exactly.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
And we should have mentioned Julia Styles is with an
I and Harry is with a Y. All right, this one.
I didn't know this pair, but Sammy did, and I
like the clue, so I had to go with it.
The one is a British pioneer in electronic music whose
most famous song is Cars. The other there you go.
(06:09):
The other is a salad dressing pioneer who had a
starring role in the Pixar.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Movie Cars Mind Blown.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Oh my god, it is.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
I love I love that. The second one. For all
his decades of extraordinary one just comes down to the
salad dressing.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Pioneer and the animated movie.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Yeah, I know, but you wanted to make the car
I got it so Andrea, you know one of them, Yeah,
and the other the great he did some movies. You
should see some of the movies, you know what. The
other one is Gary Newman and U m a n
who did cars. I have to say I once was
(06:52):
it a Chinese restaurant up in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where I
went to school, where the Williams Sound Theater Festival was
where I was working. Uh, and Paul Newman was also,
I believe working there, or his wife was the great
Joanne Woodwork John Woodworth. Ye. Right, And I was sitting
at a table at a Chinese restaurant and chatting over
(07:14):
my shoulder with a woman sitting opposite me, right, And
and what I didn't realize till I got up was
the guy sitting right behind me was Paul Newman. Ah.
And so I did get to say hello, and he
was so freaking gorgeous. I mean, he was just one
of those people with charismas handsome blue eyes. You're like,
oh my god. Anyway, truly, and I love him as
(07:36):
an actor, a great actor.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
All right, Just two more. We've got. One is an
actor who starred in the Outsiders and Something about Mary.
The other is a legendary outsider musicians whose songs include
Mary lou I Love You Too, more famously Blowing in
the Wind, Blowing in the Wind. Do you know these two?
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Well, you're gonna give me Bob Jyllen like that, right.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
That's true, Bob Dylan d y l A N. And
there's another Dylan Matt Dylan Matt Dilan there it is
all right, last one, we've got this. It is a
woman who starred as Blanche du Bois in a streetcar
named Desire. The other is a martial artist who starred
in the video game Super street Fighter and more famously
(08:25):
Enter the Dragon the movie. Do you know these gone
with the Wind and street Car? And then we've got
Enter the Dragon martial artist.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
It is Vi l e I g H and Bruce
Lee l l e E. Not to be confused with the
other great martial artist actor Jet Lee, who's l I.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
That's it. And Sammy Actually that was going to be
a bonus, So Sammy was on on your waveling, all right,
Well that's that, Thank you, Sammy. Awesome listener mail as
always send us more. Let's move on to the puzzle lab.
This week we had Rachel Bloom Blom, creator of Crazy
Ex Girlfriend. Side note, she is a homophone of the
(09:10):
legendary children's book writer name Judy Bloom Judy Bloom at
b l U Emmy and also Jason Bloom Academy or
nominated producer.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Ye but.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Greg, you have some you have some insight into the
puzzles that we gave something from the puzzler work.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Yes, I do. We did. We did a puzzle with
Rachel that was called I think we called it Extensions
because we were adding ex to lots of common phrases
or titles as a tribute to Crazy Ex Girlfriend her
terrific show. So we decided to insert ex into a
bunch of different phrases. And there were some, you know,
(09:54):
that I came up with that were a little felt
like a little too weird or complicated or strained, and
I thought, let's you know, it's I use these, but
I want to give them to you because I think
they're fun.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
And where we're complicated in strange people, that's great.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
So this first one is it's the broad expanse of
flatland in the United States that includes most of Kansas, Nebraska,
and North and South Dakota. And it's where everyone constantly
clarifies and interprets things for you.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
All Right, I think I got it. The plane explain
or explain?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
We just take the original, the original.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Term the great explain.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah, that's great. It's the great explains instead of the
it becomes the great explaints because all.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Right, great, I will accept full credit.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Except full credit, very good. All right. This is this
is saying it's a metaphor for finding relief in adverse circumstances,
but it literally suggests that when the weather is bad,
you can ship whatever you want to another country.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Oh man, I don't know, Andrea, I need your help.
Express is often used in shipping Federal express.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
I would work from what's a phrase that means you
can find relief in adverse circumstances? Relief and does have
something to do with bad weather?
Speaker 4 (11:15):
Oh the storm storm?
Speaker 2 (11:29):
How about this Austrian pastry made with powdered nuts, red
jam filling and a threatening note demanding money.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Well that's interesting because I was thinking strude and extrude,
but now I'm thinking ransom.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
It's not no, it's not that either, So it's.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Neither extrude or ransom.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Specifically, the Lindser extort.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
I say, gotcha love it?
Speaker 2 (12:01):
That's ingredients. Yes, good one lindsor x stort comes to
a little note. Please give us all your money or
we'll tell people you're eating this fattening, sugary pastry.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
You won't want that.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
This is a theater one, uh, not a Broadway show.
It's an off Broadway show. In fact, it was one
of the longest off longest running off Broadway musicals ever.
Show by Jimmy Roberts and Joe d. Piedro. That's about
people who meet, idolize each other, and then swap partners
with another couple.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Oh interesting, now that you need to know. Not really
about that.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
It's not really about that. It's about all of that
except the end.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Got it. Well, let's say swapping exchange. So change? What
is a music? I've been watching musicals NonStop with my
mom for what years? Change? Andrea? What do you got
off Broadway.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Or off Broadway? Off Broadway? The first it's one, two, three, four,
five sixty seven words. First three words are something you
say to your spouse often or other, your children, or.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Oh I remember now, something like I love you, don't
ever change, please change something like that.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
I love you. You're perfect now exchange. Okay, I love
you change. It was very also a very funny title,
and we just added the X. All right, two more.
This is a movie about four women who stay in
touch thanks to a pair of genes that get bigger
and bigger and bigger.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
A pair of genes that's in J E A.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
S J E A N S. Yes, not not the genetic.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Material, but the sisterhood of the Traveling expanse.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Oh oh there it is exactly all right, last one,
last one. Felicity Jones and Armie Hammer star in this
movie about Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the belief that all
human reproduction is inspired by one big petroleum company.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
All right, well, I'm guessing X on Yeah, good X
on the I did see it and I loved it.
Some of the basis of women, on the basis.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Of bass X on the basis well done.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Fantastic. So Greg, we're almost out of time, but but
I think you have an exciting news item, So maybe
just give us a little taste and we will continue
it on an show.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Yeah this is I mean, it's it's not exactly news.
I've just been lately getting into the Miriam Webster social
media feed. Whoever does. It is absolutely terrific. Everyone who's
listening to us should be following Miriam Webster because it's
you know, it's our people. You want to learn about
words and what they mean. But they they also post
(14:56):
a lot of fun content. Some of what they do
is just word histories and explanation. So on June tenth,
they posted a thing that said internet trolling most likely
comes well, you know where the word that term internet
trolling comes from.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Now the trolls under the bridge.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
As what most of us think. In fact, it comes
from fishing rather than from the bridge guarding.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Oh I thought that was trolling, Now I'm.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Trolling refers to fishing by trailing a lure or a
baited hook from a moving boat.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
So a trolling is with the net, yes, and trolling
is with the l to do better English language. Stop
it with the things that are so similar but similar
but slightly different.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Okay, anyway, so they say when people are trolling someone,
they're fishing for responses. Ah, that's so great. You know,
little pops up between the doom scrolling and all the
other horror that's on X where I follow them or
other media. It's nice to have a little fun. Word content.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
That's right, I get another one.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Actually, this was from June night, the day before, also
fish related. This is the full post. A herring is
a fish. When a herring is preserved by salting and smoking,
it turns red and smells it is. You see where
this is going.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
I see where it's going. Unless you are doing a
a I think I know where it's going.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
As they said, it's so pungent that it's a great
diversion to distract hunting dogs from their trail. So a
red herring now refers to anything that diverts attention from
the issue at hand.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Got it. But I will say, I mean for the dogs,
that's great. They get the red herring and they get
to eat it. They don't have to kill a fox
nor right, that's nice.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
We don't need more telling, And I'll give you one
more and then we can wrap up. We'll come back
to some more of these are some other fun stuff
to talk about with their with their X feed, But
this one is I thought was fun. Do you know
the origin of the word socker s occe er?
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Weirdly, I was thinking about soccer and it sounded like
like a sounds violent like soccer, So but I'm hoping
that's not it. So the answer is no.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Andrea, do you have any idea?
Speaker 3 (17:08):
No?
Speaker 2 (17:09):
None. So it turns out soccer the word was originally
British slang for association football, which is one of the
you know, brands of football that they play. Association football
is a particular, you know, kind of organized sport, and
so the word association got got shortened to soccer because
(17:33):
you take the yeah and then you put.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Oh interesting. I like that.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
I was like, oh, thank you, Merriam Webster.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
There you go. And then America took that and none
of the Prits use it anymore.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Right, right, But it did spin off of a term
for football. It's just like football is a broader thing
than just association football, and we've grabbed that word, that
slang term and made it ours. Right.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
I love that phrase association football. And what is American
football called is just called what's the Those are fighting words.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Someone's gonna sock you well, as my British friend says,
it should be called hand. Egg.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Ah wait, I know, hand.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
And it's shaped like an egg and American oh, I
say like a ball. It's shaped more like an egg.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Or an oblate spheroids. Yes, who's that that Heisman? John
Heisman called it that? All right, enough murdery in sports.
That was awesome. Thank you, and folks. That's it for
this week. Over the weekend, you can fill your puzzling
needs with our Instagram feed app. Hello puzzlers, and of
(18:44):
course we'll see you on Monday for more puzzling puzzles
that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Hey, puzzlers, it's Greg Plisko. You're chief puzzle officer here
with the extra credit answer. From our previous episode, we
played a game for World Emoji Day where AJ and
Andrea guessed different names of emojis starting with E, M, O,
J and I for different categories. The extra credit category
(19:14):
was this, places and buildings, and I specifically said not countries,
because every country and many territories have flags that are emojis,
and we're not talking about that set of things, not
the flags, but there are emojis for other places, locations,
and buildings. And these are the ones I've got. You
(19:37):
might have found some other ones, and remember these are
the most of These are the short names for the emoji.
Every emoji also has a bunch of tags that associate
with it that could mean other things. So for the
letter E, I've got Earth, there's a little Earth emoji.
And Europe there's a little Europe emoji. M is map
of Japan. That's the official name of that bit mosque
(19:59):
also masjed I think is an alternate for mosque, Mount
Fuji and Mountain. Oh of course is office building and
Jay is either Japanese castle or Japanese post office. Very specific.
And lastly, I, of course is island. Technically that one
is called desert island, but one of the many useful
(20:22):
tags for it is island. So send us your favorite
emojis and will emoji you here next time. Thanks for
playing along with the team. Here at the Puzzler with
AJ Jacobs, I'm Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle Officer. Our
executive producers are Neelie Lohman and Adam Neuhouse of New
(20:43):
House Ideas and Jonathan Strickland of iHeart Podcasts. The show
is produced by Jody Abergan and Britney Brown of Roulette Productions,
with production support from Claire Bidegar Curtis. Our senior puzzler
is Andrea Schoenberg. It's The Puzzler with Aj Jacobs is
a co production with New House Ideas and is distributed
(21:03):
by Practiced Shot. It's a great show. No, it's not
a showed at all. Sorry, rearrange the letters. It's 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
(21:25):
hunt by yours Truly and is available wherever you get
your books and puzzlers. For all your puzzling needs, go
visit the puzzler dot com. See you there,
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.