August 28, 2025 • 19 mins
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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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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello puzzlers. Before we start puzzling today, I wanted to
let you know we are cooking up some big plans
for the puzzler community, and in order to ensure that
it's what you want, we need your input. So we've
put together a short survey, which you can find in
the show notes. It's really quick, just three minutes, but
(00:22):
it will be a huge help in letting us know
what you want so that we can deliver just that.
Thank you, Hello puzzlers. I thought maybe we should start
with a quick puzzle. This puzzle is based on the
blockbuster movie Jaws, which celebrated its fiftieth anniversary this summer.
(00:44):
Happy anniversary, Jaws. Jaws, as you might have noticed, has
four letters in its title. Just for now, there are
a bunch of other movies that also have four letters
in their title. So here's a puzzle. Can your name
a four letter movie starting with J, and another four
letter movie starting with A, another with W, and another
(01:06):
with S to spell out Jaws. So I'll give you
a sample four letter movie to start out with, and
hope that it's not the one Greg just thought of,
which is Jobs, Jobs, the biofic of Steve Jobs starring
Ashton Kutcher. But that is just one of the four
letter J movies? Can you name any others? Also? I
(01:26):
have a special crazy, difficult Category five challenge for the
hardest of hardcore puzzlers, which is, can you name four
four letter movies each starting with jawns? And all those
movies are the names of animals, the answers and more
puzzling goodness after the break, Hello, buzzlers, Welcome back to
(01:54):
the Buzzler Podcast, the Salivating Dog in your Pavlovian Puzzle Experiment.
I'm your host, A J. Jacobs. I'm here, of course
the chief puzzle Officer, Greg Pliska. And Greg before the break,
we have a puzzle in honor of the fiftieth anniversary
of Jaws. We challenge puzzlers at home to come up
with other movies with four letters in the title, specifically
(02:18):
a four letter movie starting with jay, another with A,
another with W, and another with S. And then they're
a little tricky. But what do you got?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
This is a great challenge. I love this, I love
the Jaws anniversary. It's all very good.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
I've got for j I immediately thought of Juno, check mark
and then also ending with o Argo, yes, which I
was sure you were going to Ruin as an example,
so I'm ah, very good.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
No, I saved that for you. So yes, I say,
you've got Jay and A.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Is there an S? Is there? Is there a film
called Scar that's a Lion King spinoff? Did I make it? Oh?
Speaker 1 (02:57):
That's where you're spy, Andre? Can you research? Just google
a Scar?
Speaker 3 (03:03):
I thought of the TV show Silo. Okay, also doesn't
count in this context.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
There's a slasher film called Scar. There we go. That's
what I meant. I said, lion slasher film called Scar.
That's a deep cut. You know.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
I bet you could name almost any word and there's
some direct to video movie out there with that title.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
That's right, But.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
There are a lot of movies. Well, so you got
j S. That's a challenge.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
I have some words that start with W that might
be films, but that wouldn't be fair, so.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
All right, well, yes, the W interestingly is one of
the most famous.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Is Wolf.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Jack Nicholson directed by who was it directed by someone
very famous? Whose name? Mike Nichols? Mike Nichols.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Right, Airwolf movie. Now that plays into our double extra
peple because that is an animal, and there are three
other animals that I can tell you. And as I say,
not easy, the J I.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Ants exactly at Z right, but I think it counts.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah, all right, The J is a tough one. Jack
Jack is a Francis port Copola.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
And Robin Williams movie.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
It's also a type of.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Fish or type of rabbit, the jack rabbit.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Well, why is that? Look it up? Look it up,
Google it right now there.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Because in this case, je fine, fine, fine, but the
Jack in the movie is not an animal. But that's okay,
that's okay.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
We do some wordplay here on the Puzzler.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Oh my god. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
And this one, this one is tough. It's a bit
obscure movie, but it exists. It is called Stag as
in a Male Deer and that's a thriller starring Mario
van Peebles, Kevin Dillon, and Andrew McCarthy. So Stag. So
there you have it here, you're Jack, ants, Wolf and Stag.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Is there a better s film than Stag or Scar?
Speaker 1 (05:17):
I would love to know, Please send this those ideas, yes,
at the puzzler dot com. That's what I came up with.
But anyway, this was all because I thought it was
an appropriate opening puzzle because today we have two puzzles,
but the first is animal themed. I'm gonna give you
that one and you will do what whatever mischievous.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Want to give me that one and I'll ignore it. No,
I suit you. I have a little puzzle for today too,
but you go first. Our animal.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
So Greg, no doubt you have heard of gene splicing
and crisper. So in the not too distant future, scientists
are going to be able to combine DNA from different
animals to create combo animals like Franken animals. So you
take a little giraffe DNA, you mix it with a
little chihuahua DNA, and you get a dog with a
(06:12):
really long neck. So this is this is our future.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
So so this puzzle is sort of a peek at
the future. Uh. And what are some combination animals that
we might be seeing soon, especially if the scientists doing
the combos love wordplay Because these animals share letters in
the middle, they're sort of portmanteau animals. So, for instance,
(06:39):
a hopping marsupial that wakes you at the crack of dawn,
A hopping.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Marsupiale I see you get well, go ahead, it's a kangarooster.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
It is a kangarooster. They share our overlap.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
I get it.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Okay, good, So the overlaps will be two, three or
four letters.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Are you ready? So I'm not ready for the future,
but I'm ready for the probe exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
This is scary but possible, but all right. This is
a bright pink creature that stands on one leg when
sleeping and also beats its chest when feeling threatened. Uh.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
This is a two letter overlap, if I'm correct. Correct,
this is the flamingarella.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
The flaming gorilla. That's right, very pretty, very very scary.
How about a creature that makes pearls and eats wood.
It makes pearls and eats wood. It's a three letter overlap,
so perl.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Oh oh eats wood.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
I started thinking of like beavers or badgers or things
like that, But this is an insect.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
It's the uh oyster mite.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
The oystere suremte yes, that's right.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Watch out for the oyster. How about a black and
orange striped creature that also makes a cute little pet rodent?
A black and orange striped creature.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Oh, got it, got it, got yes, and again not
the not the bumblebee, which is really black and yellow.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Anyway, that was wrong.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
This is a high guh that also does what what
was the other behalf of it?
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Oh? Ti gerbil.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
I'll accept tie gerbel or ti gerbil. But yes, that's
exactly right. All right, We've got a couple more. We've
got a what about let's go stick with the color combination.
This is a black and white creature. It's black and white.
It eats bamboos, and it's also a common pet at firehouses.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Oh oh, got it.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Black and white creature that eats bamboo is a panda,
and the other one is a dalmati.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
It's a pan dalmatian exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
I thought that was nice. You get those are black
and white.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah, it's good. It's sort of spotted and not spotted
at the same time.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
All right.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
How about this one is from senior puzzler Andrea Schomberg.
So it's a little trickier with a pronunciation. A black
and white Antarctic bird that resembles a rodent used in
science experiments.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Very good, four letter over four letter overlap exactly.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Penguinipig, gwinnie pig exactly, nicely done.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
A nice to penguinei pig, penguinea pig.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
How about a pink Atlantic fish that likes eating bananas
and jumping on the bed?
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Oh, I think, well, there's also it's also a Pacific.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Fish, right, I mean that's huge north in the Northwest,
it's very common.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
This is the salmonkey, salmon salmonkey exactly.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
I'm a I guess I'm like Atlantic. I have a
bias since I live on the Atlantic. Apologies to my
Pacific Ocean friends are how about two more. We've got
a large mammal that roams the western plains on its
bright red claws.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Didn't see that turn coming on its bright red claws.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
It also goes well with melted butter.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
It goes what So it's either a buffalo or a bison.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
The first the first.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Bufff lorax buffalo buffalo brightlors, buffalo bright red, bright red claws.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
It also has antenna and buffalo lobster buff a lobster delicious.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
I'm singing of birds. I'm singing of birds. I was
trying to get falcon in thereff count.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
There you go. Yeah, well, there's lots of options for
these scientists coming up. It's exciting. Yeah, all right, I'm
going to end with how about a a colorful, talkative
bird that growls and barks loudly?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Oh, like a dog? You get them to one kind
of dog? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a but you
know it could actually fly around your house and protect.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Right, Yeah, it's a it's like a right, it's a guard.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
It's a guard bird. It's the parrot wiler.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
It's the parrot wiler. Nicely, you are ready, you are
ready for the future, Greg, Well, ready for.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
The animal mashups.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
You know, we had a book when when my kids
were young that was each page was broken into like
three sections. It was a big cardboard book, and and
you would have an animal like a moose on one
page and then a bore on the next page. But
if you turned different parts of the page, you would
combine the head or the body.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Or the feet.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Oh very good. Yeah right, well there you go.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
And my father in law actually miss misunderstood the book
and thought there was actually an animal called a more
that was a moose mixed with a boar and sort
of family legend. The more he was like, he thought
that was a real thing, and he just didn't know
about it's very funny.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Well, those middle I mean, the medieval people were ahead
of the curve. They were combining you know, the.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Griffin and the time and all those.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Yeah, exactly, all right. I'll do a quick extra credit
for the folks at home. This is a common flatfish,
often found on restaurant menus. So the flesh of this
fish is white, but it has brightly colored wings and antenna.
So there you go. What is that? All right? So
(13:00):
that was our animal segment. You have one for me
that may or may not be related to animals.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
No animals, No animals were harmed in the making of
this puzzle or referenced this, or even referenced or even mentioned.
This is while August twenty seventh in the state of
Texas is Lyndon Baines Johnson Day.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Oh is it his birthday?
Speaker 2 (13:28):
It's his birthday?
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yes, happy birthday.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
And as you know, LBJ succeeded JFK and came several
decades after FDR Pin. You might guess where the wordplay
is going. Those are all TLAs, three letter three letter acronyms.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Yes, that's a great self descriptive term, three letter acronym,
which is itself TLA is A is also a three
letter acronym.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Right there you go.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
There are a bunch of famous people with well known
TLA And what I'm gonna do is just clue the
person using their initials for the clues. Oh, I like that,
I like very and then you just have to give
me the name of the person.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
So I might say, I might even do an example
because I only have a few of these ardently outspoken congresswoman.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Okay, well that is the letters are aoc ye, which
which luckily I know there are not a lot of aocs.
It's Alexandra A Casio Quartet exactly exactly.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
And then I have this one minister lamentably killed.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Oh yeah, MLK Martin Martin King.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
I was trying to find one that that referenced all
of his activism, activism and civil rights.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Work, but the K is a tough word to get,
so that's where I ended up.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Well, it was lamentable.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
So yeah, how about how about revered bench guardian.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Revered r B very good, very good. I was thinking
bench like baseball, but no, it's courts and that would
be RBG Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Yes, exactly. There aren't a lot of people known by
their initialisms. But you could play this game with any.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Three named person.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Oh fairy good, right, even if they aren't known by
their initials. So I'll give you a few more. How
about little Missus author.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Okay, little missus author Louisa may.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Alcott, Yes, exactly, all right?
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Oh, I see, because the little women are little. I
thought you were saying Louisa may Alcott was diminutive, but no,
you're referring.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
To her character characters. Ok. Yeah, she might have been diminuative.
I don't know, I don't know matter. How about Famous
living Room Waterfall?
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Oh god right, f wait, famous f l w F
L well waterfall. I know, is that's the that's like
a famous Is that the name of it? It's a
famous house?
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
The architect was Frank Lloyd Wright.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Exactly. Well, that falling water.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Is okay, very good?
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Yes, And one more genius with crops. G w C.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Oh, that g w C genius with crops. I'm trying
to think of agricultural superstars and I'm having uh, Andre,
I'm gonna call in Andrea, you clues.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
On the g w C feeling. I know what clues
you'd give, but I have the answer if you want
me to just all right, you're do you want all right?
Speaker 1 (16:45):
George Washington Carver, George Carver.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
He's a peanuts was that he was looking for ways
to uh refresh the cotton. Cotton old cotton that we
grew in the South was damaging the soil and he
was like, we need to find other crops to grow here.
And that was one of his many initiatives.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Right, he definitely all right.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Well, anyway, I thought this was a fun thing.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
I thought it's something our listeners could send in examples
of where you clue and a three named individual with
three words that have their initials.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
I love it. Yeah, please send them. Remember you can
go to the puzzler dot com and there's just a
click you click on it and send it straight to us.
We would love We've had a couple of three names.
We've had Joseph Gordon Lovitt. Yeah, even though I think
that's a hyphen but we've had a couple. Well, love it,
great puzzle. Happy birthday, LVJ, Happy anniversary Jaws, and thank
(17:41):
you listeners. Please come back tomorrow for the extra credit answer.
In the meantime from even more puzzling goodness, check out
our Instagram feed at Hello Puzzlers, where we post original
puzzles and other fun stuff, and we'll meet you here
tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Hey puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska.
Speaker 5 (18:09):
You're chief puzzle officer. Here one more time with the
extra credit answer from our previous episode, Gary Gallman joined
us for a game we called Kickin' Dicken and Limericken.
Every clue is a word which is either a form
of poetry, a sports.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Term, or a Dickens character. And we gave you three.
Speaker 5 (18:29):
We gave you pantoom, Quinella and turvy Drop, and they
are Pantoom is a form of poetry. A pantoom is
an interesting four line a series of four line stanzas
where lines two and four of one stanza become lines
one to three of the next.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
It actually originated in Malaysia and has became very popular
in Europe.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
That's pantom. Your next order was quinella. Quinella is a
kind of sports bet in horse racing where you pick
the top two finishing horses in either order. That's called
the quinela. And therefore, turvy Drop is a Dickens character
the owner of a dance school in the book Bleak House. Well,
this is not a bleak house as long as you're
(19:18):
here with us playing puzzles, and we look forward to
doing some more with you next time.
Hello puzzlers. Before we start puzzling today, I wanted to
let you know we are cooking up some big plans
for the puzzler community, and in order to ensure that
it's what you want, we need your input. So we've
put together a short survey, which you can find in
the show notes. It's really quick, just three minutes, but
(00:22):
it will be a huge help in letting us know
what you want so that we can deliver just that.
Thank you, Hello puzzlers. I thought maybe we should start
with a quick puzzle. This puzzle is based on the
blockbuster movie Jaws, which celebrated its fiftieth anniversary this summer.
(00:44):
Happy anniversary, Jaws. Jaws, as you might have noticed, has
four letters in its title. Just for now, there are
a bunch of other movies that also have four letters
in their title. So here's a puzzle. Can your name
a four letter movie starting with J, and another four
letter movie starting with A, another with W, and another
(01:06):
with S to spell out Jaws. So I'll give you
a sample four letter movie to start out with, and
hope that it's not the one Greg just thought of,
which is Jobs, Jobs, the biofic of Steve Jobs starring
Ashton Kutcher. But that is just one of the four
letter J movies? Can you name any others? Also? I
(01:26):
have a special crazy, difficult Category five challenge for the
hardest of hardcore puzzlers, which is, can you name four
four letter movies each starting with jawns? And all those
movies are the names of animals, the answers and more
puzzling goodness after the break, Hello, buzzlers, Welcome back to
(01:54):
the Buzzler Podcast, the Salivating Dog in your Pavlovian Puzzle Experiment.
I'm your host, A J. Jacobs. I'm here, of course
the chief puzzle Officer, Greg Pliska. And Greg before the break,
we have a puzzle in honor of the fiftieth anniversary
of Jaws. We challenge puzzlers at home to come up
with other movies with four letters in the title, specifically
(02:18):
a four letter movie starting with jay, another with A,
another with W, and another with S. And then they're
a little tricky. But what do you got?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
This is a great challenge. I love this, I love
the Jaws anniversary. It's all very good.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
I've got for j I immediately thought of Juno, check mark
and then also ending with o Argo, yes, which I
was sure you were going to Ruin as an example,
so I'm ah, very good.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
No, I saved that for you. So yes, I say,
you've got Jay and A.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Is there an S? Is there? Is there a film
called Scar that's a Lion King spinoff? Did I make it? Oh?
Speaker 1 (02:57):
That's where you're spy, Andre? Can you research? Just google
a Scar?
Speaker 3 (03:03):
I thought of the TV show Silo. Okay, also doesn't
count in this context.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
There's a slasher film called Scar. There we go. That's
what I meant. I said, lion slasher film called Scar.
That's a deep cut. You know.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
I bet you could name almost any word and there's
some direct to video movie out there with that title.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
That's right, But.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
There are a lot of movies. Well, so you got
j S. That's a challenge.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
I have some words that start with W that might
be films, but that wouldn't be fair, so.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
All right, well, yes, the W interestingly is one of
the most famous.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Is Wolf.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Jack Nicholson directed by who was it directed by someone
very famous? Whose name? Mike Nichols? Mike Nichols.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Right, Airwolf movie. Now that plays into our double extra
peple because that is an animal, and there are three
other animals that I can tell you. And as I say,
not easy, the J I.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Ants exactly at Z right, but I think it counts.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah, all right, The J is a tough one. Jack
Jack is a Francis port Copola.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
And Robin Williams movie.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
It's also a type of.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Fish or type of rabbit, the jack rabbit.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Well, why is that? Look it up? Look it up,
Google it right now there.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Because in this case, je fine, fine, fine, but the
Jack in the movie is not an animal. But that's okay,
that's okay.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
We do some wordplay here on the Puzzler.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Oh my god. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
And this one, this one is tough. It's a bit
obscure movie, but it exists. It is called Stag as
in a Male Deer and that's a thriller starring Mario
van Peebles, Kevin Dillon, and Andrew McCarthy. So Stag. So
there you have it here, you're Jack, ants, Wolf and Stag.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Is there a better s film than Stag or Scar?
Speaker 1 (05:17):
I would love to know, Please send this those ideas, yes,
at the puzzler dot com. That's what I came up with.
But anyway, this was all because I thought it was
an appropriate opening puzzle because today we have two puzzles,
but the first is animal themed. I'm gonna give you
that one and you will do what whatever mischievous.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Want to give me that one and I'll ignore it. No,
I suit you. I have a little puzzle for today too,
but you go first. Our animal.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
So Greg, no doubt you have heard of gene splicing
and crisper. So in the not too distant future, scientists
are going to be able to combine DNA from different
animals to create combo animals like Franken animals. So you
take a little giraffe DNA, you mix it with a
little chihuahua DNA, and you get a dog with a
(06:12):
really long neck. So this is this is our future.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
So so this puzzle is sort of a peek at
the future. Uh. And what are some combination animals that
we might be seeing soon, especially if the scientists doing
the combos love wordplay Because these animals share letters in
the middle, they're sort of portmanteau animals. So, for instance,
(06:39):
a hopping marsupial that wakes you at the crack of dawn,
A hopping.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Marsupiale I see you get well, go ahead, it's a kangarooster.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
It is a kangarooster. They share our overlap.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
I get it.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Okay, good, So the overlaps will be two, three or
four letters.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Are you ready? So I'm not ready for the future,
but I'm ready for the probe exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
This is scary but possible, but all right. This is
a bright pink creature that stands on one leg when
sleeping and also beats its chest when feeling threatened. Uh.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
This is a two letter overlap, if I'm correct. Correct,
this is the flamingarella.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
The flaming gorilla. That's right, very pretty, very very scary.
How about a creature that makes pearls and eats wood.
It makes pearls and eats wood. It's a three letter overlap,
so perl.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Oh oh eats wood.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
I started thinking of like beavers or badgers or things
like that, But this is an insect.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
It's the uh oyster mite.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
The oystere suremte yes, that's right.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Watch out for the oyster. How about a black and
orange striped creature that also makes a cute little pet rodent?
A black and orange striped creature.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Oh, got it, got it, got yes, and again not
the not the bumblebee, which is really black and yellow.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Anyway, that was wrong.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
This is a high guh that also does what what
was the other behalf of it?
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Oh? Ti gerbil.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
I'll accept tie gerbel or ti gerbil. But yes, that's
exactly right. All right, We've got a couple more. We've
got a what about let's go stick with the color combination.
This is a black and white creature. It's black and white.
It eats bamboos, and it's also a common pet at firehouses.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Oh oh, got it.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Black and white creature that eats bamboo is a panda,
and the other one is a dalmati.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
It's a pan dalmatian exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
I thought that was nice. You get those are black
and white.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah, it's good. It's sort of spotted and not spotted
at the same time.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
All right.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
How about this one is from senior puzzler Andrea Schomberg.
So it's a little trickier with a pronunciation. A black
and white Antarctic bird that resembles a rodent used in
science experiments.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Very good, four letter over four letter overlap exactly.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Penguinipig, gwinnie pig exactly, nicely done.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
A nice to penguinei pig, penguinea pig.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
How about a pink Atlantic fish that likes eating bananas
and jumping on the bed?
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Oh, I think, well, there's also it's also a Pacific.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Fish, right, I mean that's huge north in the Northwest,
it's very common.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
This is the salmonkey, salmon salmonkey exactly.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
I'm a I guess I'm like Atlantic. I have a
bias since I live on the Atlantic. Apologies to my
Pacific Ocean friends are how about two more. We've got
a large mammal that roams the western plains on its
bright red claws.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Didn't see that turn coming on its bright red claws.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
It also goes well with melted butter.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
It goes what So it's either a buffalo or a bison.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
The first the first.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Bufff lorax buffalo buffalo brightlors, buffalo bright red, bright red claws.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
It also has antenna and buffalo lobster buff a lobster delicious.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
I'm singing of birds. I'm singing of birds. I was
trying to get falcon in thereff count.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
There you go. Yeah, well, there's lots of options for
these scientists coming up. It's exciting. Yeah, all right, I'm
going to end with how about a a colorful, talkative
bird that growls and barks loudly?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Oh, like a dog? You get them to one kind
of dog? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a but you
know it could actually fly around your house and protect.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Right, Yeah, it's a it's like a right, it's a guard.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
It's a guard bird. It's the parrot wiler.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
It's the parrot wiler. Nicely, you are ready, you are
ready for the future, Greg, Well, ready for.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
The animal mashups.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
You know, we had a book when when my kids
were young that was each page was broken into like
three sections. It was a big cardboard book, and and
you would have an animal like a moose on one
page and then a bore on the next page. But
if you turned different parts of the page, you would
combine the head or the body.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Or the feet.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Oh very good. Yeah right, well there you go.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
And my father in law actually miss misunderstood the book
and thought there was actually an animal called a more
that was a moose mixed with a boar and sort
of family legend. The more he was like, he thought
that was a real thing, and he just didn't know
about it's very funny.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Well, those middle I mean, the medieval people were ahead
of the curve. They were combining you know, the.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Griffin and the time and all those.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Yeah, exactly, all right. I'll do a quick extra credit
for the folks at home. This is a common flatfish,
often found on restaurant menus. So the flesh of this
fish is white, but it has brightly colored wings and antenna.
So there you go. What is that? All right? So
(13:00):
that was our animal segment. You have one for me
that may or may not be related to animals.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
No animals, No animals were harmed in the making of
this puzzle or referenced this, or even referenced or even mentioned.
This is while August twenty seventh in the state of
Texas is Lyndon Baines Johnson Day.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Oh is it his birthday?
Speaker 2 (13:28):
It's his birthday?
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yes, happy birthday.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
And as you know, LBJ succeeded JFK and came several
decades after FDR Pin. You might guess where the wordplay
is going. Those are all TLAs, three letter three letter acronyms.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Yes, that's a great self descriptive term, three letter acronym,
which is itself TLA is A is also a three
letter acronym.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Right there you go.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
There are a bunch of famous people with well known
TLA And what I'm gonna do is just clue the
person using their initials for the clues. Oh, I like that,
I like very and then you just have to give
me the name of the person.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
So I might say, I might even do an example
because I only have a few of these ardently outspoken congresswoman.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Okay, well that is the letters are aoc ye, which
which luckily I know there are not a lot of aocs.
It's Alexandra A Casio Quartet exactly exactly.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
And then I have this one minister lamentably killed.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Oh yeah, MLK Martin Martin King.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
I was trying to find one that that referenced all
of his activism, activism and civil rights.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Work, but the K is a tough word to get,
so that's where I ended up.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Well, it was lamentable.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
So yeah, how about how about revered bench guardian.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Revered r B very good, very good. I was thinking
bench like baseball, but no, it's courts and that would
be RBG Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Yes, exactly. There aren't a lot of people known by
their initialisms. But you could play this game with any.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Three named person.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Oh fairy good, right, even if they aren't known by
their initials. So I'll give you a few more. How
about little Missus author.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Okay, little missus author Louisa may.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Alcott, Yes, exactly, all right?
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Oh, I see, because the little women are little. I
thought you were saying Louisa may Alcott was diminutive, but no,
you're referring.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
To her character characters. Ok. Yeah, she might have been diminuative.
I don't know, I don't know matter. How about Famous
living Room Waterfall?
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Oh god right, f wait, famous f l w F
L well waterfall. I know, is that's the that's like
a famous Is that the name of it? It's a
famous house?
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
The architect was Frank Lloyd Wright.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Exactly. Well, that falling water.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Is okay, very good?
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Yes, And one more genius with crops. G w C.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Oh, that g w C genius with crops. I'm trying
to think of agricultural superstars and I'm having uh, Andre,
I'm gonna call in Andrea, you clues.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
On the g w C feeling. I know what clues
you'd give, but I have the answer if you want
me to just all right, you're do you want all right?
Speaker 1 (16:45):
George Washington Carver, George Carver.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
He's a peanuts was that he was looking for ways
to uh refresh the cotton. Cotton old cotton that we
grew in the South was damaging the soil and he
was like, we need to find other crops to grow here.
And that was one of his many initiatives.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Right, he definitely all right.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Well, anyway, I thought this was a fun thing.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
I thought it's something our listeners could send in examples
of where you clue and a three named individual with
three words that have their initials.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
I love it. Yeah, please send them. Remember you can
go to the puzzler dot com and there's just a
click you click on it and send it straight to us.
We would love We've had a couple of three names.
We've had Joseph Gordon Lovitt. Yeah, even though I think
that's a hyphen but we've had a couple. Well, love it,
great puzzle. Happy birthday, LVJ, Happy anniversary Jaws, and thank
(17:41):
you listeners. Please come back tomorrow for the extra credit answer.
In the meantime from even more puzzling goodness, check out
our Instagram feed at Hello Puzzlers, where we post original
puzzles and other fun stuff, and we'll meet you here
tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Hey puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska.
Speaker 5 (18:09):
You're chief puzzle officer. Here one more time with the
extra credit answer from our previous episode, Gary Gallman joined
us for a game we called Kickin' Dicken and Limericken.
Every clue is a word which is either a form
of poetry, a sports.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Term, or a Dickens character. And we gave you three.
Speaker 5 (18:29):
We gave you pantoom, Quinella and turvy Drop, and they
are Pantoom is a form of poetry. A pantoom is
an interesting four line a series of four line stanzas
where lines two and four of one stanza become lines
one to three of the next.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
It actually originated in Malaysia and has became very popular
in Europe.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
That's pantom. Your next order was quinella. Quinella is a
kind of sports bet in horse racing where you pick
the top two finishing horses in either order. That's called
the quinela. And therefore, turvy Drop is a Dickens character
the owner of a dance school in the book Bleak House. Well,
this is not a bleak house as long as you're
(19:18):
here with us playing puzzles, and we look forward to
doing some more with you next time.
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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