April 29, 2025 • 16 mins
Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: actor and musician Josh Radnor! Be sure to check out his new How I Met Your Mother rewatch podcast, "How We Made Your Mother"!
Join host A.J. Jacobs and his guests as they puzzle–and laugh–their way through new spins on old favorites, like anagrams and palindromes, as well as quirky originals such as “Ask AI” and audio rebuses.
Subscribe to The Puzzler podcast wherever you get your podcasts!
"The Puzzler with A.J. Jacobs" is distributed by iHeartPodcasts and is a co-production with Neuhaus Ideas.
Our executive producers are Neely Lohmann and Adam Neuhaus of Neuhaus Ideas, and Lindsay Hoffman of iHeart Podcasts.
The show is produced by Jody Avirgan and Brittani Brown of Roulette Productions.
Our Chief Puzzle Officer is Greg Pliska. Our associate producer is Andrea Schoenberg.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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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 puzzle
is about canned laughter or audience laughter, which appears in
many of our favorite sitcoms, including How I Met Your Mother. Now,
it turns out canned laughter has a long history. In
the seventeen hundreds French theater. There were people who were
(00:24):
paid to clap. They were called clacks. That's the name
of the folks who were sort of the canned laughter,
the live canned laughter from the seventeen hundreds. Now, it
turns out, when I read the encyclopedia, I found out
that it was a very specialized industry. You had the
(00:44):
people who clapped, but you had different people doing different
ways of supporting the play by pretending to have different reactions.
So I'm going to give you three words, and you
are going to try to guess what those people meant.
Might help if you speak French, but you can always
(01:05):
give it a shot.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
All right.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
There is the bisseurs, the commissaires, and the pleurists. I'm
not sure I got this right.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
French is brilliant, I'll take it.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
So who were the bisseurs, who were the commissaires, and
who were the pluristes I'll accept even if you get
one reaction. I can't even match it up to the word.
But just what would people be paid to do when
they go to the theater in France in the eighteenth century?
The answers and more puzzling goodness after the break, Hello, puzzlers,
(01:49):
welcome back to the Buzzler. The gelatinous yeast in your
kombucha Scobie, Oh god.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
I never want to be gelatinous east.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Well, listen, it's delicious. I am your host, A J. Jacobs.
I'm here, of course, with Chief puzzle Officer Greg Kliska.
Before the break, Greg, we asked about the the specialty
paid reactors in seventeen hundred's French theater. You had the clack,
Which were the clappers, the reeers who laughed? What were
(02:22):
the bissous, the commissaires and the pleurists.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
So the clack is kind of is that just the
clappers or is that the general term?
Speaker 1 (02:30):
I think that group general, that's the big term, like bird.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
I know that word from the opera world, where you
also have clacks, people who cheer for different singers. I
didn't know these specialized group you said bassers or bissers. Okay, Okay,
So because if you said bassers, I would have thought
they'd blow kisses right to best.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Say is the kiss?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
But bass bias in the opera world means again, on core,
do it again. The this sers must be the people
that cheer.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Encore, Wow, encore to you? Nice?
Speaker 3 (03:08):
One? Are the other two?
Speaker 1 (03:09):
All right?
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Were come they? It sounds like they arrest to the
people who don't cheer.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yeah, this one is a tough one. I would not
have thought that this was an entire job. But they
are the folks who elbow their neighbors and say, watch this,
watch this, this is great.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
That is very specific.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
I'd like that.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
I like, I think just going to random movie theaters
and elbow the people next to me. Hey, there's a
good scene, isn't it right?
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Well maybe Josh, he's a filmmaker. He could hire you.
The last one is pleurissues. Uh you might know this
if you know a little friends.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Well wait wait wait you are p l e U
are is it to to cry?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
People?
Speaker 1 (03:52):
These are the weepers, the paid weepers and tragedies. So
which is funny. We have canned laughter, but we don't
have can and weeping. So maybe that's a ye.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Imagine if you got it wrong and you hired some
for your comedy, it would just be a mess.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Exactly. You had to be very careful.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Now.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
I bring all this up because one of our favorite
shows has I Guess Reers, and that is How I
Met Your Mother, And we are lucky enough to have
as our guest Josh Radner, who played the main character
Ted Moseby, and he is host of a new podcast
(04:33):
with series co creators Craig Thomas called How We Made
Your Mother. Welcome Josh, Hi. We love the name of
your podcast, which is of course a play on How
I Met your Mother. It's called How We Made your Mother?
How We Made Your Mother? Was that an immediate like
as soon as you had the idea, like this is
(04:55):
how we're going to do it? Or did you go through?
Speaker 4 (04:57):
But it just came to me and I texted Craig
and our producer Alec lev and I said, what about
How We Made Your Mother? And they liked it, and
we kicked around maybe a couple other different titles, but
I think we liked something that was is it homophonically?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Is that the right word?
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Something that kind of evoked the original title of the show.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, I think that's the Well, we went even further,
We went even harder on that. We like to come
up with ideas for spinoffs. And these are, by the way,
you are welcome to option any of these from the Puzzler,
and they are all spin off where we took out
the word met from How I Met your Mother and
(05:41):
replaced it with a word that rhymes with met. So,
for instance, if I said this is a show about
the time I wagered one hundred dollars on the Super
Bowl with your mom, it would be how I bet
your mother instead of How I Met your mother. So, well,
that is the premise, and I'm just going to go
(06:02):
right into my pitches and you can you can buy
them as we go. We're going to start with a
single syllable. So it's like met, this is a show
about doing an extensive background check on your mom.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Oh yes, okay, So that would be how I vet your.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Mother exactly, How I vet your mother, how I totally
understand your mom's sense.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Of humor, how I get your mother.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Exactly, how I stroked your mom's hair in a very platonic,
g rated way. Just I want to keep that clear
for the Puzzler audience.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
How I pet your mother exactly.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
This one is actually a little tricky. How your mom
tries to correct the spelling on my book manuscript, but
I overrule her.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Yes, very good. How I stat your mother?
Speaker 1 (07:03):
How I stat your mother exactly? I'm impressed.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
That's a good that's a good crossword that that appears
in the crossword.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
Now and then, like every crossword puzzler knows a priest's robe,
you know, right exactly?
Speaker 1 (07:16):
We all have a closet right here, that's right, and
we know and what is the one that there's? The
sumo belt is similar to that, but I forget what
is that one?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
You know? Or Josh, wait, Josh looks like you know Obi?
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Yeah, right, thank you, Japanese belt.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Obi is the belt and the boa is another belt
like thing around your neck. All right, moving on from
that nerdery, I'm going to go with Now we're bumping
it up to two syllables. Two syllables. This is a
show about being the getaway driver for your mom when
she robs a bank.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
How I bet your mother exactly?
Speaker 3 (07:59):
How another word that appears in crosswords.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Yeah, A show about the time I beat your mom
at a bunch of sports. Even though she was heavily
favored to win.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Mmm, how I upset your mother exactly?
Speaker 1 (08:16):
There's no fooling you, there's no fooling. How about, well,
maybe this one? How I donated to an environmental cause
to balance out all the carbon dioxide that your mom produces.
That one maybe is a trickier one, but he's got it.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I like this one. How I offset your mother?
Speaker 1 (08:37):
That's it. How I offset your mother?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
The idea offset some person's carbon emissions.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
We all created. Oh, last of the two syllables, how
I gave birth to your mother in uh? Maybe uh
in the biblical.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
In the biblical?
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Yes, how I beget your mother exactly?
Speaker 1 (09:01):
How i'd beget your mother? All right, just a couple more,
but we're gonna bump it up to even more syllables.
How I draw your mom as a dark shape against
a white background, maybe in profile, often in profile, and
it's black, a black figure on a white background.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
It's a long word too, It's like what nine.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Yeah, that's what's tricky. That's what's tricky. It's a long word.
And it doesn't actually end with E T. It ends
with E T T E. That's another cur.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
It ise. I'm the lifeline. It's how I silhouette your
oh silhouette of course, of course.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Get off the podcast of silhouette.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Dammits Well, Josh, you blew through these. I'm going to
ignore the silhouette uh and pretend that you got one
hundred percent brilliantly before we let you go. I just
wanted to talk quickly because I see puzzles as a
(10:13):
metaphor for everything. I'm a little over zealous. I see
him as a metaphor for writing. But I wonder, as
a musician is do you ever see writing a song
as a puzzle?
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Without question? I mean, in some ways as a creative act.
Songwriting feels the most puzzly to me. But you know,
you kind of create the grid with the rhyme, scheme
and the meter, and you can feel when something doesn't fit,
and you can feel when you get it exactly right.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
It was also I.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Realized, you know, I've written and directed a few films,
and being in the editing room is very puzzly. There's
certain things that in the original script you think are
incredibly important, and then you lift them out of the
movie and then your movie works better. You can It's
a very intuitive feeling you can feel when things fall into.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
The right place.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
And I've described editing movies and even songwriting as the
same satisfaction.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Of a crossword puzzle.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
They're a little bit more like the diagram list, right,
so you don't actually have the darkened squares. You have
to figure out where those are, so it's a little
more daunting than all that. But I love the diagram
less crossword puzzle. I would take more of those will
if you're listening, But uh yeah, the I always feel
(11:36):
like my love for crosswords is a bit of a
It makes complete sense given my other interests. I also
think of writing, you know, even an essay you know
that you it feels like a puzzle to work out,
like to how to marshal the right argument in some ways,
and your thing like what is what needs to be
(11:57):
trimmed away, what needs to be bolstered. It all feels
like you're turning the knobs of a big puzzle. But songwriting,
especially is really it carries a lot of the same satisfactions.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Interesting. Two things that just popped into my mind. One,
I am impressed I don't do the diagram list. I
know Greg probably does, but that is hardcore love them.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
I learned how to do it years ago, and when
I see it, I really love it. Sometimes you're just stumped,
but you know, they give you like the first they say,
block out the first seven, right, and if you can
get that first word going, you can kind of go
from there. But it's really it's really fun, but it's
quite a challenge.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
I always have graph paper and do the grandmos on
that so I don't have to worry about where I'm
starting in the square they give you.
Speaker 4 (12:46):
Well, yeah, I'll sometimes doodle in the margins. I'll get
a little block and I'll see, Okay, I just need
to figure out where this goes.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
And then the other thing is you mentioned Will Schwartz.
So what was it like working with him? Did you
get to talk? Did you get the nerd out?
Speaker 2 (13:01):
He was a delight.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
I mean at that party it was also Arianna Huffington
and Peter Bogdanovich and Michael Yorke. I mean, it was
this really great collection of characters. But uh, I stayed
in touch with with Peter, and Arianna became a dear
friend and Will. I had a movie coming out, My
first movie, Happy Thank You More Please, came out not
long after that and Will showed up at the first
(13:25):
weekend at the Angelica to see it, and it was
so sweet of him to come.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
You know, he's used my name in a.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Few puzzles, and I actually created a puzzle with Jeff
Chen a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
That's right, Yes, I forgot about that. That was great fun.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
What was the theme?
Speaker 4 (13:43):
He because I've been a longtime meditator, he added the
word ome into different phrases, so it was like, you had.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
I remember that now? Yeah, it was very Yeah, now
have you been doing the puzzle when it all of
a sudden, has you as a clue or are you
told I have?
Speaker 2 (14:00):
And yeah, yeah, it's it's quite.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
What's that feeling like?
Speaker 4 (14:03):
I think, out of all the things that can happen
in showbiz, somehow, landing in the New York Times crossword
puzzle feels the most like I've arrived. It's like, yeah,
it's somehow, it's somehow the most satisfying, at least to.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Me, aside from being a guest on the puzzler.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Yes, oh, yes, this is They're all puzzled related. Anything
puzzle adjacent feel Yeah, that makes.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Sense, all right. I have an extra credit for the
folks at home, this is another How I Met Your
Mother spin off, and this one is about how I
rue the day your Mother was created. Well, that's not
very sad.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
That's a sad way to end.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
It is fiction. It is fiction. Well, thank you, Josh,
We get you for one more episode, and folks, if
you like the show, check out our Instagram feed at
Hello Puzzlers. We got new fun puzzles there all the time,
originals you haven't heard or seen. And of course we'll
(15:09):
meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will
puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Hello puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska up from the Puzzle Lab
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode. We
had the wonderful Josh Radner on with us and we
did some fake Yelp reviews, reviews of bars or hotels
or restaurants that appear in literature or film or music
(15:41):
or TV. And Aj wrote some funny Yelp reviews as
if someone was reviewing this fictional establishment. So here was
your extra credit clue. Two stars. I went to this
bar to drink alone, but everyone would not stop talking
to me. I had to listen to a guy who
writes novels about real estate, whatever that means. And another
(16:03):
guy who was excited to point out that his name
Davy rhymes with Navy, which is where he works. Fascinating.
If you go, do not engage with other customers. The
live music's not bad though, well, that of course is
Piano Man, the Billy Joel song. It's the Bar and
Piano Man, which turns out is the now defunct Executive
(16:26):
Room bar in the Wheelshire district of Los Angeles, where
Billy Joel played as a piano lounge stinger for six
months in the seventies. So I hope you got that one.
It's great to have you with us, and we'll catch
you here next time.
Hello, puzzlers. Let's start with a quick puzzle. This puzzle
is about canned laughter or audience laughter, which appears in
many of our favorite sitcoms, including How I Met Your Mother. Now,
it turns out canned laughter has a long history. In
the seventeen hundreds French theater. There were people who were
(00:24):
paid to clap. They were called clacks. That's the name
of the folks who were sort of the canned laughter,
the live canned laughter from the seventeen hundreds. Now, it
turns out, when I read the encyclopedia, I found out
that it was a very specialized industry. You had the
(00:44):
people who clapped, but you had different people doing different
ways of supporting the play by pretending to have different reactions.
So I'm going to give you three words, and you
are going to try to guess what those people meant.
Might help if you speak French, but you can always
(01:05):
give it a shot.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
All right.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
There is the bisseurs, the commissaires, and the pleurists. I'm
not sure I got this right.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
French is brilliant, I'll take it.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
So who were the bisseurs, who were the commissaires, and
who were the pluristes I'll accept even if you get
one reaction. I can't even match it up to the word.
But just what would people be paid to do when
they go to the theater in France in the eighteenth century?
The answers and more puzzling goodness after the break, Hello, puzzlers,
(01:49):
welcome back to the Buzzler. The gelatinous yeast in your
kombucha Scobie, Oh god.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
I never want to be gelatinous east.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Well, listen, it's delicious. I am your host, A J. Jacobs.
I'm here, of course, with Chief puzzle Officer Greg Kliska.
Before the break, Greg, we asked about the the specialty
paid reactors in seventeen hundred's French theater. You had the clack,
Which were the clappers, the reeers who laughed? What were
(02:22):
the bissous, the commissaires and the pleurists.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
So the clack is kind of is that just the
clappers or is that the general term?
Speaker 1 (02:30):
I think that group general, that's the big term, like bird.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
I know that word from the opera world, where you
also have clacks, people who cheer for different singers. I
didn't know these specialized group you said bassers or bissers. Okay, Okay,
So because if you said bassers, I would have thought
they'd blow kisses right to best.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Say is the kiss?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
But bass bias in the opera world means again, on core,
do it again. The this sers must be the people
that cheer.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Encore, Wow, encore to you? Nice?
Speaker 3 (03:08):
One? Are the other two?
Speaker 1 (03:09):
All right?
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Were come they? It sounds like they arrest to the
people who don't cheer.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yeah, this one is a tough one. I would not
have thought that this was an entire job. But they
are the folks who elbow their neighbors and say, watch this,
watch this, this is great.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
That is very specific.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
I'd like that.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
I like, I think just going to random movie theaters
and elbow the people next to me. Hey, there's a
good scene, isn't it right?
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Well maybe Josh, he's a filmmaker. He could hire you.
The last one is pleurissues. Uh you might know this
if you know a little friends.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Well wait wait wait you are p l e U
are is it to to cry?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
People?
Speaker 1 (03:52):
These are the weepers, the paid weepers and tragedies. So
which is funny. We have canned laughter, but we don't
have can and weeping. So maybe that's a ye.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Imagine if you got it wrong and you hired some
for your comedy, it would just be a mess.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Exactly. You had to be very careful.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Now.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
I bring all this up because one of our favorite
shows has I Guess Reers, and that is How I
Met Your Mother, And we are lucky enough to have
as our guest Josh Radner, who played the main character
Ted Moseby, and he is host of a new podcast
(04:33):
with series co creators Craig Thomas called How We Made
Your Mother. Welcome Josh, Hi. We love the name of
your podcast, which is of course a play on How
I Met your Mother. It's called How We Made your Mother?
How We Made Your Mother? Was that an immediate like
as soon as you had the idea, like this is
(04:55):
how we're going to do it? Or did you go through?
Speaker 4 (04:57):
But it just came to me and I texted Craig
and our producer Alec lev and I said, what about
How We Made Your Mother? And they liked it, and
we kicked around maybe a couple other different titles, but
I think we liked something that was is it homophonically?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Is that the right word?
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Something that kind of evoked the original title of the show.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, I think that's the Well, we went even further,
We went even harder on that. We like to come
up with ideas for spinoffs. And these are, by the way,
you are welcome to option any of these from the Puzzler,
and they are all spin off where we took out
the word met from How I Met your Mother and
(05:41):
replaced it with a word that rhymes with met. So,
for instance, if I said this is a show about
the time I wagered one hundred dollars on the Super
Bowl with your mom, it would be how I bet
your mother instead of How I Met your mother. So, well,
that is the premise, and I'm just going to go
(06:02):
right into my pitches and you can you can buy
them as we go. We're going to start with a
single syllable. So it's like met, this is a show
about doing an extensive background check on your mom.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Oh yes, okay, So that would be how I vet your.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Mother exactly, How I vet your mother, how I totally
understand your mom's sense.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Of humor, how I get your mother.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Exactly, how I stroked your mom's hair in a very platonic,
g rated way. Just I want to keep that clear
for the Puzzler audience.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
How I pet your mother exactly.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
This one is actually a little tricky. How your mom
tries to correct the spelling on my book manuscript, but
I overrule her.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Yes, very good. How I stat your mother?
Speaker 1 (07:03):
How I stat your mother exactly? I'm impressed.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
That's a good that's a good crossword that that appears
in the crossword.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
Now and then, like every crossword puzzler knows a priest's robe,
you know, right exactly?
Speaker 1 (07:16):
We all have a closet right here, that's right, and
we know and what is the one that there's? The
sumo belt is similar to that, but I forget what
is that one?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
You know? Or Josh, wait, Josh looks like you know Obi?
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Yeah, right, thank you, Japanese belt.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Obi is the belt and the boa is another belt
like thing around your neck. All right, moving on from
that nerdery, I'm going to go with Now we're bumping
it up to two syllables. Two syllables. This is a
show about being the getaway driver for your mom when
she robs a bank.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
How I bet your mother exactly?
Speaker 3 (07:59):
How another word that appears in crosswords.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Yeah, A show about the time I beat your mom
at a bunch of sports. Even though she was heavily
favored to win.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Mmm, how I upset your mother exactly?
Speaker 1 (08:16):
There's no fooling you, there's no fooling. How about, well,
maybe this one? How I donated to an environmental cause
to balance out all the carbon dioxide that your mom produces.
That one maybe is a trickier one, but he's got it.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I like this one. How I offset your mother?
Speaker 1 (08:37):
That's it. How I offset your mother?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
The idea offset some person's carbon emissions.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
We all created. Oh, last of the two syllables, how
I gave birth to your mother in uh? Maybe uh
in the biblical.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
In the biblical?
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Yes, how I beget your mother exactly?
Speaker 1 (09:01):
How i'd beget your mother? All right, just a couple more,
but we're gonna bump it up to even more syllables.
How I draw your mom as a dark shape against
a white background, maybe in profile, often in profile, and
it's black, a black figure on a white background.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
It's a long word too, It's like what nine.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Yeah, that's what's tricky. That's what's tricky. It's a long word.
And it doesn't actually end with E T. It ends
with E T T E. That's another cur.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
It ise. I'm the lifeline. It's how I silhouette your
oh silhouette of course, of course.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Get off the podcast of silhouette.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Dammits Well, Josh, you blew through these. I'm going to
ignore the silhouette uh and pretend that you got one
hundred percent brilliantly before we let you go. I just
wanted to talk quickly because I see puzzles as a
(10:13):
metaphor for everything. I'm a little over zealous. I see
him as a metaphor for writing. But I wonder, as
a musician is do you ever see writing a song
as a puzzle?
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Without question? I mean, in some ways as a creative act.
Songwriting feels the most puzzly to me. But you know,
you kind of create the grid with the rhyme, scheme
and the meter, and you can feel when something doesn't fit,
and you can feel when you get it exactly right.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
It was also I.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Realized, you know, I've written and directed a few films,
and being in the editing room is very puzzly. There's
certain things that in the original script you think are
incredibly important, and then you lift them out of the
movie and then your movie works better. You can It's
a very intuitive feeling you can feel when things fall into.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
The right place.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
And I've described editing movies and even songwriting as the
same satisfaction.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Of a crossword puzzle.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
They're a little bit more like the diagram list, right,
so you don't actually have the darkened squares. You have
to figure out where those are, so it's a little
more daunting than all that. But I love the diagram
less crossword puzzle. I would take more of those will
if you're listening, But uh yeah, the I always feel
(11:36):
like my love for crosswords is a bit of a
It makes complete sense given my other interests. I also
think of writing, you know, even an essay you know
that you it feels like a puzzle to work out,
like to how to marshal the right argument in some ways,
and your thing like what is what needs to be
(11:57):
trimmed away, what needs to be bolstered. It all feels
like you're turning the knobs of a big puzzle. But songwriting,
especially is really it carries a lot of the same satisfactions.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Interesting. Two things that just popped into my mind. One,
I am impressed I don't do the diagram list. I
know Greg probably does, but that is hardcore love them.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
I learned how to do it years ago, and when
I see it, I really love it. Sometimes you're just stumped,
but you know, they give you like the first they say,
block out the first seven, right, and if you can
get that first word going, you can kind of go
from there. But it's really it's really fun, but it's
quite a challenge.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
I always have graph paper and do the grandmos on
that so I don't have to worry about where I'm
starting in the square they give you.
Speaker 4 (12:46):
Well, yeah, I'll sometimes doodle in the margins. I'll get
a little block and I'll see, Okay, I just need
to figure out where this goes.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
And then the other thing is you mentioned Will Schwartz.
So what was it like working with him? Did you
get to talk? Did you get the nerd out?
Speaker 2 (13:01):
He was a delight.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
I mean at that party it was also Arianna Huffington
and Peter Bogdanovich and Michael Yorke. I mean, it was
this really great collection of characters. But uh, I stayed
in touch with with Peter, and Arianna became a dear
friend and Will. I had a movie coming out, My
first movie, Happy Thank You More Please, came out not
long after that and Will showed up at the first
(13:25):
weekend at the Angelica to see it, and it was
so sweet of him to come.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
You know, he's used my name in a.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Few puzzles, and I actually created a puzzle with Jeff
Chen a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
That's right, Yes, I forgot about that. That was great fun.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
What was the theme?
Speaker 4 (13:43):
He because I've been a longtime meditator, he added the
word ome into different phrases, so it was like, you had.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
I remember that now? Yeah, it was very Yeah, now
have you been doing the puzzle when it all of
a sudden, has you as a clue or are you
told I have?
Speaker 2 (14:00):
And yeah, yeah, it's it's quite.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
What's that feeling like?
Speaker 4 (14:03):
I think, out of all the things that can happen
in showbiz, somehow, landing in the New York Times crossword
puzzle feels the most like I've arrived. It's like, yeah,
it's somehow, it's somehow the most satisfying, at least to.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Me, aside from being a guest on the puzzler.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Yes, oh, yes, this is They're all puzzled related. Anything
puzzle adjacent feel Yeah, that makes.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Sense, all right. I have an extra credit for the
folks at home, this is another How I Met Your
Mother spin off, and this one is about how I
rue the day your Mother was created. Well, that's not
very sad.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
That's a sad way to end.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
It is fiction. It is fiction. Well, thank you, Josh,
We get you for one more episode, and folks, if
you like the show, check out our Instagram feed at
Hello Puzzlers. We got new fun puzzles there all the time,
originals you haven't heard or seen. And of course we'll
(15:09):
meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will
puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Hello puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska up from the Puzzle Lab
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode. We
had the wonderful Josh Radner on with us and we
did some fake Yelp reviews, reviews of bars or hotels
or restaurants that appear in literature or film or music
(15:41):
or TV. And Aj wrote some funny Yelp reviews as
if someone was reviewing this fictional establishment. So here was
your extra credit clue. Two stars. I went to this
bar to drink alone, but everyone would not stop talking
to me. I had to listen to a guy who
writes novels about real estate, whatever that means. And another
(16:03):
guy who was excited to point out that his name
Davy rhymes with Navy, which is where he works. Fascinating.
If you go, do not engage with other customers. The
live music's not bad though, well, that of course is
Piano Man, the Billy Joel song. It's the Bar and
Piano Man, which turns out is the now defunct Executive
(16:26):
Room bar in the Wheelshire district of Los Angeles, where
Billy Joel played as a piano lounge stinger for six
months in the seventies. So I hope you got that one.
It's great to have you with us, and we'll catch
you here next time.
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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