January 28, 2025 • 19 mins
Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: comedian, rapper, and host of The Crossword Show, Zach Sherwin!
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 Chat GPT” 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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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, the elusive USBC
to USB B cable in your puzzle drawer of wires.
I'm your host, AJ Jacobs. I'm here, of course, with
chief puzzle Officer Greg Kliska. Greg. I thought we'd start
with a quick puzzle.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Why not? Why not?
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Here's the puzzle. What fast and furious movie star has
a name that contains, within its letters the opposite of
the kind of movie that he is famous for. So
noodle on that and we'll have the answer after the break.
(00:42):
Welcome back. Before the break, we gave the puzzle, what
fast and furious movie star has a name that contains,
within its letters the opposite of the kind of movie
that he is famous for? And the answer is, of course, Greg.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Of course. Well it's easy because I can only think
of one star of the asked for your perious franchise.
That would be Vin Diesel, whose name contains the word
indies crossing between the two parts of his name.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Right, Yes, I thought, I mean, it's a hard one,
so I thought, let's give the name of the movie.
I could have said action star, but uh, it's good
if you take off the V at the start and
the l at the end. Then you've got the word indies,
which is not a genre and Diesel is known for
even though he was in a couple. But we love
(01:30):
this kind of wordplay, as does our guest Zach Sherwin,
who first alerted me to that particular one.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Welcome Zach, Hi, guys, thanks episode two.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Episode two. We've done a few more, but were you
in this episode two?
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Right?
Speaker 1 (01:46):
And Zach, as we mentioned yesterday, a brilliant comedian. He
does a lot of writing and performing on epic rap
Battles of History, and he also has the Wonderful Crossword Show,
which is a live show where he uh and the
audience solve a crossword puzzle with his hilarious commentary and
(02:09):
h and music.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Great fun.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Thanks guys.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
So, Zach, you have a word for or a phrase
for this kind of wordplay? Is that? Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
So my uncle got me into cryptic crossword puzzles, which
I'm sure people listening to this do know. But they're
like two regular crossword puzzles as to American style crossword puzzles,
as like three D chess is to chess. I actually
don't even know what three D chess is. But I
know that it's a thing talked about in phrases. Anyways,
(02:45):
Cryptic crosswords have an extra layer of wordplay twistiness to them,
and one of the wordplay games that they play is
words like vin diesel containing the word indies inside of it,
and I think they're often called containers this type of
type of wordplay, which to me doesn't exactly like put
(03:05):
the pin through the butterfly or whatever. So I call
them dino soaps. And the reason for that is because, well,
I actually have this expressed in lyrical form, so I'll
just reproduce that, since writing it as Ryan's forces you
to express it succinctly. So in the song that pertains
to this, I say dino soaps. Why call these dino
(03:27):
soaps because when I was a kid, I had the
kind of soap that had a little rubber dinoh sore
at the core inside the soap buried down deep like
a treasure. Now you can put all the pieces together,
I call them dino soaps. They're normal seeming names with
a secret treat at the center. So yeah, I don't
know if you had those Dino egg f fantastic soaps
(03:47):
back there, I do, I mean I think I'm older
than you because I got them for my kids, so
I think they're still available.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
What I would I just want to say, I when
I heard you call them dino soaps, I spend a
lot of time staring at the word dino soap, trying
to figure out how it contained another word or was
contained in a longer phrase like you know, gudino soap,
opa list or something that I cannot see it. I'm
(04:15):
I'm glad you've explained it in a way I can understand.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Yeah, they don't it is. It is a little bit
of a drawback to the name that it doesn't contain
a dino soap itself. I think OsO means bear in Spanish,
so you get bear too.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
So there's a little bear inside the dinosaur ate the bear, Yes,
something like that.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
That must have happened in sure.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Well it's uh. The dino soap is a semi inspiration
I believe for Greg's puzzle. So I'm just going to
turn it over to Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Plisco.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Exactly that inspiration and it's specifically the vin Diesel indies idea.
It's kind of the inverse of that. What I've discovered
here in the puzzle lab is that a lot of
notable people have names that can be found inside various
food related items. Whoa and so some of these are
real foods and others are things I made up in
the puzzle lab for the purpose of, you know, making
(05:10):
a puzzle, but they're all kind of food related. And
what I'll do is clue the person and give you
the food. Here is the example. The crossword show creator
enjoys kosher wine.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Oh, I got it, I got it.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Kosher I hope you got it right? Sure, win is
hidden inside kosher wine.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Okay, got it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Now I don't know if you actually enjoy kosher wine,
but your name is their last surname is hidden inside it.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
I got it. I would say my experience of kosher wine.
I don't keep kosher myself, and it's probably fine if
you don't know, but sometimes finding out that it is
kosher can diminish the enjoyment a little bit. Right.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
There's like like like vegetarians who talk about how great
you know tofu bacon is, yeah, and how do you
know it's great if you've never had the actual bacon.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Right, well, as a multi decade vegan who has had
both regular. No, just kidding, I mean I have it's
all right, take those vegetarian shots. Greg. I feel like
it's like you're like to me. The analog is like
these brownies are delicious and people are like, oh thanks,
and they're gluten free, and you're like, oh god, why
do you have to ruin it?
Speaker 2 (06:20):
I thought they were good. If you don't know, you know,
I don't want it to be good for me.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Right, Well, this is great, and Greg, these are mostly
last name surnames that are heading in there.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
These are almost always surnames. I'll let you know. There's
one that's going to not be a surname. It's someone
who has a single name, as we as we know,
as we know in fact, let's start with that one.
This is a single named person. It's the star of
Precious the film, and she is named Spumoni Queen.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
She just loves like she was in a beauty Ploni.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yeah, there's a pageant. She is Spumoni Queen Monique Monique
exactly is hidden the insidemony queen.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Off and you get me. Wait, I should know that
the Spumone I feel I know it's Italian.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Italian ice cream. Yeah, ice cream ice cream.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
I feel like in the Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels, there's
like people getting like like they talk about like cutting
off some spumoni.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
I understand what's in a big block, okay, and it's
got like chocolate in vanilla and cherries in it or something.
I see it that way, right, and you slice off
a big kunk and you enjoy the spumoni.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Let's go get ice cream. I'll slice you off. Someone
that's not what are we talking about.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Here's another one. This is the Deal or No Deal
host who eats at a German delicatessen.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Oh yeah, sure, uh Mandel.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yes, Howie Mandel right there inside German Dela Contessen. And
look I like that one like kosher wine, because those
are real things. You can imagine a real German deli
or a kosher wine spumony queen is a little more
made up, but you.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Know, hey, there's one out there.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Some queen got she's she's feeling seen right now, all right.
Former late night host loves Genoa Ham.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Oh interesting, Okay, it's as in Trevor Noah exactly.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
I'm impressed.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Another Italian delicacy.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
And by the way, former late night host, but current
podcasts are produced by one of our producers, Jody Everget
so you.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Shout out to the podcast fam, I like that. Trevor
Noah's own dino soap is the phrase or no as
in like or no, no never mind. John Oliver is oh.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
No, oh interesting.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
John Oliver is oh no, oh, you're right. Yes, I
see that very.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Good, even though I say, oh, yes, are you too
to both of them.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Maybe it's a requirement of being a late night host
that your name meets have a dino soap in It
must be all right. I've got a few more of these.
Supreme Court Justice once imported me and Mar shallots a
very rare vegetable.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
From me and Mar shallon Mar again, I would be
zero percent surprised to hear that they grow shallots and
me and Mar.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
You're right.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
This is third good, Marshall, very.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Very good.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
By the way, while you were talking, I was saying,
does that theory work out that there are dino soaps
an all late night hosts? My first was my favorite
growing up, and he does have one. He is not
this because he continues working. He continues having shows even
(10:12):
though he retired from CBS Late Night. Many years ago, and.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
That is David Letterman is.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Not idle, He's not idea is but idol is in
there from Ida.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Oh that's so good. I was thinking that nowadays you
might very well have like a digital short aired as
part of your late night hosting universe. And vid lit
v I d L E T is in David Letterman
as well.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
That's so true. Those are very popular on vine when
its yeah, that's right, little service. Yes, all right, here's
here's another one. A top ranked tennis player who enjoys
a Tuscaloosa kebob.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Okay, hold on, hold on, oh okay, I got it
a Tusca loosabob okay. And that's many confirmed that kebab
here is being spelled ka bob.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
That's very good to confirm that, yes, because kebob has
many spellings when it's transliterated into English. So yes, kebob
with a ka b o b okay.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Great.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
This is Osaka, yes Naomio Osaka, Osaka tennis player, and
who knows she might be on tour in Alabama. There's
a little kebab shop she stops in.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Now are we all checking? If I like this game?
That then each celebrity would have then an ensuing dino
soap of their own. Naomi Osaka is very close to Miso.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
But she has iOS.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Oh that's good, that's good. That's good.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah, decent. Okay, okay, good. I love the layers of
dino soap. We're gonna be yes so clean by the
time we get up of this bath. Well, speaking of sportswomen,
this is a gymnast who orders the gerbil escarole.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Oh wow, that is wild. I actually have my brain
has not engaged with the whatever the puzzle piece is
yet because I'm just wrapping it around.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Gurbil escarole not something I think either of you would order,
And frankly, I eat meat and I wouldn't order.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
The gerbil escarole either, though I do think guinea pig
is pretty widely eaten in certain parts of the world.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Yep, yep. The squirrel is sometimes eaten in the American South.
There's burgu is a dish made with squirrel.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Oh man, that's wild.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Gerbil escarole. Oka's so crazy.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
What is the first?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Now gymnasts a gymnast.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Jur bill escarole. Oh okay, okay, okay, I got it.
I didn't understand how famous a gymnast. We are talking
about Biles Simone bileisles.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Yes, I love it. Who has one bee hidden in it?
Speaker 3 (13:03):
One bee?
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Oh good?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
One?
Speaker 3 (13:06):
And she does have one be? This is like it
so true. This is like if the Dino soap did
have a little bear tucked inside. It's like, you know,
a little tiny toy bear tucked inside its stomach to
go down.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
But I feel that's the marketing to go along with
the crossword show. You could sell right, I know, Dino whatever.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
So we just have to prototype different kinds, like this
is a tyrannosaur with a saber toothed tiger and its belly.
It's like predator and prey.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yeah, you gotta wash first, and then you gotta wash again,
and finally you get a little bear in sid you
have to open the Yeah, okay, all right, I've got
two more for you.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Dead pan comedian bakes a Regano Tarot castle role.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
A Regano Tarot castrole. Oh my god, wow, so the
castle role piece. Don't this extra?
Speaker 2 (14:01):
I couldn't. I couldn't be what to do with a
Regano taro. You might just call it you're a Regano
taro because it's taro made with a regano, so you
could call it.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
That, right, Okay, cool, this is not Tarro as an tig.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Well notaro.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Have you worked with her? I feel that you as
a comedian.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
We've we've been on. Yeah, I think we've been on
the same lineup of comedians before. I don't actually, I
think it's the comedian. I think it's the comedian Eric Dodoran.
But long long ago, back when Twitter was in its heyday,
there was a game people were playing that was like
(14:41):
make a comedian's name into a rap like a play
on a rappers name. And for me, the mic drop
game ending moment was when somebody said, I think it
was my friend Eric the no taro U S T
I G. And that's it. Nobody needs to do anything else.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
This has been awesome, peaked perfect notarios T I G.
I love it all right. Well that that leads me
to the last one. There's no there's no good segue.
I'm just gonna give you the last one.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
I like this puzzle. It's fun. It's making my brain.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Around basketball player mixes, rioha mess coal cocktail.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Oh my god. Okay, all right, I've got it. Rioha
mes cows mess Mess right, rights.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Not mes cow. It's really the plant that from which
mez cow has made. But we're gonna sometimes you spell
the drink the booze that way.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Sure sure I would never call the manager over and
point out that typo on a cocktail menu, though not
out of my realm of behaviors. This is James as Ron,
James mess Cal. I want to thank you, Greg. I
feel like this puzzle skewed athletically, which could not be
(16:04):
less of my strong suit. But you chose absolutely world
famous athletes. You would have to be hiding under a
rock not to know who these people are, so thank
you for not happy happiness.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Serve them up then, yeah, as we said, well I
and I also I feel that this is a good
challenge for any of our puzzle listeners who want to
actually create a meal based on Greg's clues. Maybe serve
some mean mar shallats and the regano taro casserole. So
(16:37):
take photos and send them to us when you do that,
because who wouldn't want to Please.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Please find your impossible meat substitute for that gerbil escarole.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Please, yes, we will definitely have tofu gerbil or whatever. Well,
that was fantastic. Congratulations because that's not an easy one
to do in your mind, but you lived up to
the challenge. And Greg, do you have an extra credit?
Speaker 2 (17:08):
I do have an extra credit. I'm still within the
world of athletics. Not sure why so many of these
came up, but there you are. Olympic swimmer has a
refrigerator reservation. Okay, so it's sort of food related. It's
a person who you know, it's so into food. She
(17:29):
has a refrigerator reservation.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Oh so it's okay, all right. I was hoping it
was Michael Phelps because he's the only one who comes
to mind. Me too, but that is good to know.
It is not well well done, Zach, We get you
one more time. Thank you, Greg and folks. Come back
tomorrow for the answer to Greg's Dino soap puzzle.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
And in the meantime, if you do.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Have thirty seconds, love it if you would go and
rate us on one of your favorite podcast platforms, because
that actually makes a huge difference. And of course we'll
meet here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle
you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Hello, puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle Officer here
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode. We
played some earbusses with Zach Sherwin of The Crossword Show,
and AJ gave you the following two clues, both the
same in the same vein for the extra credit playing
(18:42):
field blood alcohol, and those are both level level playing
field and blood alcohol level. So we hear at the
puzzler like having a level playing field, and we hope
you keep your blood alcohol all level low enough to
play along with us. Catch you next time.
Hello puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, the elusive USBC
to USB B cable in your puzzle drawer of wires.
I'm your host, AJ Jacobs. I'm here, of course, with
chief puzzle Officer Greg Kliska. Greg. I thought we'd start
with a quick puzzle.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Why not? Why not?
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Here's the puzzle. What fast and furious movie star has
a name that contains, within its letters the opposite of
the kind of movie that he is famous for. So
noodle on that and we'll have the answer after the break.
(00:42):
Welcome back. Before the break, we gave the puzzle, what
fast and furious movie star has a name that contains,
within its letters the opposite of the kind of movie
that he is famous for? And the answer is, of course, Greg.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Of course. Well it's easy because I can only think
of one star of the asked for your perious franchise.
That would be Vin Diesel, whose name contains the word
indies crossing between the two parts of his name.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Right, Yes, I thought, I mean, it's a hard one,
so I thought, let's give the name of the movie.
I could have said action star, but uh, it's good
if you take off the V at the start and
the l at the end. Then you've got the word indies,
which is not a genre and Diesel is known for
even though he was in a couple. But we love
(01:30):
this kind of wordplay, as does our guest Zach Sherwin,
who first alerted me to that particular one.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Welcome Zach, Hi, guys, thanks episode two.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Episode two. We've done a few more, but were you
in this episode two?
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Right?
Speaker 1 (01:46):
And Zach, as we mentioned yesterday, a brilliant comedian. He
does a lot of writing and performing on epic rap
Battles of History, and he also has the Wonderful Crossword Show,
which is a live show where he uh and the
audience solve a crossword puzzle with his hilarious commentary and
(02:09):
h and music.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Great fun.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Thanks guys.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
So, Zach, you have a word for or a phrase
for this kind of wordplay? Is that? Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
So my uncle got me into cryptic crossword puzzles, which
I'm sure people listening to this do know. But they're
like two regular crossword puzzles as to American style crossword puzzles,
as like three D chess is to chess. I actually
don't even know what three D chess is. But I
know that it's a thing talked about in phrases. Anyways,
(02:45):
Cryptic crosswords have an extra layer of wordplay twistiness to them,
and one of the wordplay games that they play is
words like vin diesel containing the word indies inside of it,
and I think they're often called containers this type of
type of wordplay, which to me doesn't exactly like put
(03:05):
the pin through the butterfly or whatever. So I call
them dino soaps. And the reason for that is because, well,
I actually have this expressed in lyrical form, so I'll
just reproduce that, since writing it as Ryan's forces you
to express it succinctly. So in the song that pertains
to this, I say dino soaps. Why call these dino
(03:27):
soaps because when I was a kid, I had the
kind of soap that had a little rubber dinoh sore
at the core inside the soap buried down deep like
a treasure. Now you can put all the pieces together,
I call them dino soaps. They're normal seeming names with
a secret treat at the center. So yeah, I don't
know if you had those Dino egg f fantastic soaps
(03:47):
back there, I do, I mean I think I'm older
than you because I got them for my kids, so
I think they're still available.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
What I would I just want to say, I when
I heard you call them dino soaps, I spend a
lot of time staring at the word dino soap, trying
to figure out how it contained another word or was
contained in a longer phrase like you know, gudino soap,
opa list or something that I cannot see it. I'm
(04:15):
I'm glad you've explained it in a way I can understand.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Yeah, they don't it is. It is a little bit
of a drawback to the name that it doesn't contain
a dino soap itself. I think OsO means bear in Spanish,
so you get bear too.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
So there's a little bear inside the dinosaur ate the bear, Yes,
something like that.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
That must have happened in sure.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Well it's uh. The dino soap is a semi inspiration
I believe for Greg's puzzle. So I'm just going to
turn it over to Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Plisco.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Exactly that inspiration and it's specifically the vin Diesel indies idea.
It's kind of the inverse of that. What I've discovered
here in the puzzle lab is that a lot of
notable people have names that can be found inside various
food related items. Whoa and so some of these are
real foods and others are things I made up in
the puzzle lab for the purpose of, you know, making
(05:10):
a puzzle, but they're all kind of food related. And
what I'll do is clue the person and give you
the food. Here is the example. The crossword show creator
enjoys kosher wine.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Oh, I got it, I got it.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Kosher I hope you got it right? Sure, win is
hidden inside kosher wine.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Okay, got it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Now I don't know if you actually enjoy kosher wine,
but your name is their last surname is hidden inside it.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
I got it. I would say my experience of kosher wine.
I don't keep kosher myself, and it's probably fine if
you don't know, but sometimes finding out that it is
kosher can diminish the enjoyment a little bit. Right.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
There's like like like vegetarians who talk about how great
you know tofu bacon is, yeah, and how do you
know it's great if you've never had the actual bacon.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Right, well, as a multi decade vegan who has had
both regular. No, just kidding, I mean I have it's
all right, take those vegetarian shots. Greg. I feel like
it's like you're like to me. The analog is like
these brownies are delicious and people are like, oh thanks,
and they're gluten free, and you're like, oh god, why
do you have to ruin it?
Speaker 2 (06:20):
I thought they were good. If you don't know, you know,
I don't want it to be good for me.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Right, Well, this is great, and Greg, these are mostly
last name surnames that are heading in there.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
These are almost always surnames. I'll let you know. There's
one that's going to not be a surname. It's someone
who has a single name, as we as we know,
as we know in fact, let's start with that one.
This is a single named person. It's the star of
Precious the film, and she is named Spumoni Queen.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
She just loves like she was in a beauty Ploni.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yeah, there's a pageant. She is Spumoni Queen Monique Monique
exactly is hidden the insidemony queen.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Off and you get me. Wait, I should know that
the Spumone I feel I know it's Italian.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Italian ice cream. Yeah, ice cream ice cream.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
I feel like in the Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels, there's
like people getting like like they talk about like cutting
off some spumoni.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
I understand what's in a big block, okay, and it's
got like chocolate in vanilla and cherries in it or something.
I see it that way, right, and you slice off
a big kunk and you enjoy the spumoni.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Let's go get ice cream. I'll slice you off. Someone
that's not what are we talking about.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Here's another one. This is the Deal or No Deal
host who eats at a German delicatessen.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Oh yeah, sure, uh Mandel.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yes, Howie Mandel right there inside German Dela Contessen. And
look I like that one like kosher wine, because those
are real things. You can imagine a real German deli
or a kosher wine spumony queen is a little more
made up, but you.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Know, hey, there's one out there.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Some queen got she's she's feeling seen right now, all right.
Former late night host loves Genoa Ham.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Oh interesting, Okay, it's as in Trevor Noah exactly.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
I'm impressed.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Another Italian delicacy.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
And by the way, former late night host, but current
podcasts are produced by one of our producers, Jody Everget
so you.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Shout out to the podcast fam, I like that. Trevor
Noah's own dino soap is the phrase or no as
in like or no, no never mind. John Oliver is oh.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
No, oh interesting.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
John Oliver is oh no, oh, you're right. Yes, I
see that very.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Good, even though I say, oh, yes, are you too
to both of them.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Maybe it's a requirement of being a late night host
that your name meets have a dino soap in It
must be all right. I've got a few more of these.
Supreme Court Justice once imported me and Mar shallots a
very rare vegetable.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
From me and Mar shallon Mar again, I would be
zero percent surprised to hear that they grow shallots and
me and Mar.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
You're right.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
This is third good, Marshall, very.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Very good.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
By the way, while you were talking, I was saying,
does that theory work out that there are dino soaps
an all late night hosts? My first was my favorite
growing up, and he does have one. He is not
this because he continues working. He continues having shows even
(10:12):
though he retired from CBS Late Night. Many years ago, and.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
That is David Letterman is.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Not idle, He's not idea is but idol is in
there from Ida.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Oh that's so good. I was thinking that nowadays you
might very well have like a digital short aired as
part of your late night hosting universe. And vid lit
v I d L E T is in David Letterman
as well.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
That's so true. Those are very popular on vine when
its yeah, that's right, little service. Yes, all right, here's
here's another one. A top ranked tennis player who enjoys
a Tuscaloosa kebob.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Okay, hold on, hold on, oh okay, I got it
a Tusca loosabob okay. And that's many confirmed that kebab
here is being spelled ka bob.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
That's very good to confirm that, yes, because kebob has
many spellings when it's transliterated into English. So yes, kebob
with a ka b o b okay.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Great.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
This is Osaka, yes Naomio Osaka, Osaka tennis player, and
who knows she might be on tour in Alabama. There's
a little kebab shop she stops in.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Now are we all checking? If I like this game?
That then each celebrity would have then an ensuing dino
soap of their own. Naomi Osaka is very close to Miso.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
But she has iOS.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Oh that's good, that's good. That's good.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah, decent. Okay, okay, good. I love the layers of
dino soap. We're gonna be yes so clean by the
time we get up of this bath. Well, speaking of sportswomen,
this is a gymnast who orders the gerbil escarole.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Oh wow, that is wild. I actually have my brain
has not engaged with the whatever the puzzle piece is
yet because I'm just wrapping it around.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Gurbil escarole not something I think either of you would order,
And frankly, I eat meat and I wouldn't order.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
The gerbil escarole either, though I do think guinea pig
is pretty widely eaten in certain parts of the world.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Yep, yep. The squirrel is sometimes eaten in the American South.
There's burgu is a dish made with squirrel.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Oh man, that's wild.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Gerbil escarole. Oka's so crazy.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
What is the first?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Now gymnasts a gymnast.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Jur bill escarole. Oh okay, okay, okay, I got it.
I didn't understand how famous a gymnast. We are talking
about Biles Simone bileisles.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Yes, I love it. Who has one bee hidden in it?
Speaker 3 (13:03):
One bee?
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Oh good?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
One?
Speaker 3 (13:06):
And she does have one be? This is like it
so true. This is like if the Dino soap did
have a little bear tucked inside. It's like, you know,
a little tiny toy bear tucked inside its stomach to
go down.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
But I feel that's the marketing to go along with
the crossword show. You could sell right, I know, Dino whatever.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
So we just have to prototype different kinds, like this
is a tyrannosaur with a saber toothed tiger and its belly.
It's like predator and prey.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yeah, you gotta wash first, and then you gotta wash again,
and finally you get a little bear in sid you
have to open the Yeah, okay, all right, I've got
two more for you.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Dead pan comedian bakes a Regano Tarot castle role.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
A Regano Tarot castrole. Oh my god, wow, so the
castle role piece. Don't this extra?
Speaker 2 (14:01):
I couldn't. I couldn't be what to do with a
Regano taro. You might just call it you're a Regano
taro because it's taro made with a regano, so you
could call it.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
That, right, Okay, cool, this is not Tarro as an tig.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Well notaro.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Have you worked with her? I feel that you as
a comedian.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
We've we've been on. Yeah, I think we've been on
the same lineup of comedians before. I don't actually, I
think it's the comedian. I think it's the comedian Eric Dodoran.
But long long ago, back when Twitter was in its heyday,
there was a game people were playing that was like
(14:41):
make a comedian's name into a rap like a play
on a rappers name. And for me, the mic drop
game ending moment was when somebody said, I think it
was my friend Eric the no taro U S T
I G. And that's it. Nobody needs to do anything else.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
This has been awesome, peaked perfect notarios T I G.
I love it all right. Well that that leads me
to the last one. There's no there's no good segue.
I'm just gonna give you the last one.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
I like this puzzle. It's fun. It's making my brain.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Around basketball player mixes, rioha mess coal cocktail.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Oh my god. Okay, all right, I've got it. Rioha
mes cows mess Mess right, rights.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Not mes cow. It's really the plant that from which
mez cow has made. But we're gonna sometimes you spell
the drink the booze that way.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Sure sure I would never call the manager over and
point out that typo on a cocktail menu, though not
out of my realm of behaviors. This is James as Ron,
James mess Cal. I want to thank you, Greg. I
feel like this puzzle skewed athletically, which could not be
(16:04):
less of my strong suit. But you chose absolutely world
famous athletes. You would have to be hiding under a
rock not to know who these people are, so thank
you for not happy happiness.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Serve them up then, yeah, as we said, well I
and I also I feel that this is a good
challenge for any of our puzzle listeners who want to
actually create a meal based on Greg's clues. Maybe serve
some mean mar shallats and the regano taro casserole. So
(16:37):
take photos and send them to us when you do that,
because who wouldn't want to Please.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Please find your impossible meat substitute for that gerbil escarole.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Please, yes, we will definitely have tofu gerbil or whatever. Well,
that was fantastic. Congratulations because that's not an easy one
to do in your mind, but you lived up to
the challenge. And Greg, do you have an extra credit?
Speaker 2 (17:08):
I do have an extra credit. I'm still within the
world of athletics. Not sure why so many of these
came up, but there you are. Olympic swimmer has a
refrigerator reservation. Okay, so it's sort of food related. It's
a person who you know, it's so into food. She
(17:29):
has a refrigerator reservation.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Oh so it's okay, all right. I was hoping it
was Michael Phelps because he's the only one who comes
to mind. Me too, but that is good to know.
It is not well well done, Zach, We get you
one more time. Thank you, Greg and folks. Come back
tomorrow for the answer to Greg's Dino soap puzzle.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
And in the meantime, if you do.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Have thirty seconds, love it if you would go and
rate us on one of your favorite podcast platforms, because
that actually makes a huge difference. And of course we'll
meet here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle
you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Hello, puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle Officer here
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode. We
played some earbusses with Zach Sherwin of The Crossword Show,
and AJ gave you the following two clues, both the
same in the same vein for the extra credit playing
(18:42):
field blood alcohol, and those are both level level playing
field and blood alcohol level. So we hear at the
puzzler like having a level playing field, and we hope
you keep your blood alcohol all level low enough to
play along with us. Catch you next time.
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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