May 27, 2025 • 17 mins
The Puzzler team is taking a short break, and in the meantime we're bringing you some of our favorite episodes from the archives. We'll be back with brand new episodes soon!
Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: actor, filmmaker, and entrepreneur, Joseph Gordon-Levitt!
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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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello puzzlers. The Puzzling crew is taking a quick break
this week to huddle in the puzzle lab and come
up with lots of new brain teasers and brain ticklers
and brain taunters and other synonyms for puzzles. We will
be back on Monday, but in the meantime, please enjoy
some of our favorite episodes from this past year.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hello puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast. The twist ending
at the end of your Ryan Johnson puzzle movie, I
am your post. That is our guest laughing who is
a collaborator with said Ryan Johnson. And he is, as
(00:49):
you might know, the amazing Joseph Gordon Levitt actor.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Hello, there he is.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I had more to.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Say, but well, sorry, please let me not interrupt.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well, I wanted to plug your wonderful creative community hit record.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
So oh thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
The founder I think he had once told me we
met briefly, that you are a fan of crosswords.
Speaker 5 (01:10):
Is that right? Well, I have a fondness, but I'm
not good at them. My mom's quite good at them.
And in fact, you know who's really an emphatic crossword
puzzler is the man you just mentioned, Ryan Johnson. He's
a big crossword guy, and he and my mom bond
over that. I for some reason, though, I enjoy it,
(01:34):
especially if you're doing it on paper. I find it
very satisfying, probably just because of the nostalgia.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
I used to see my mom doing it all the time.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Do you do it in Penn like some people are like,
I'm so, I'm so studeley I do it in Pen.
Speaker 5 (01:50):
I don't know if I'm not intentional about it, to
be really honest, like, I'm not good at it. I
don't think I've ever finished one. I'm not good at
that kind of thing, the language.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
If you keep doing it, you have other things going on.
But if you can. But I will say Ryan Johnson,
I love his movies, and he is, yes, a puzzle
pan and his movies are very puzzling. And this I
did not know until yesterday that you were the voice
of Detective hard Rock on Knives Out, which was a
(02:21):
television show the mom was watching. And this one I
don't know how to unpack, but you can help us.
You were the hourly Dong on Miles, Bronze Island and
Glass Onion.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Yes, well he actually said Dong.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I don't remember that.
Speaker 5 (02:38):
Yeah, if you watch glass Onion every hour there's a
like a the clock chimes and it matters for the mystery.
And instead of just hearing a traditional clock chime, for
some reason, Ryan had it in his mind that there
should be a voice that says dong, So he asked
me to do that part. I have a bit of
(03:00):
a street going because I starred in his first movie, Brick,
which is another usly detective mystery.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (03:09):
And if you're a fan of those kinds of movies,
I would I would recommend it. It's an odd one,
very low budget movie, but one of the most extraordinary
and weird pieces of writing that you've ever seen in
screenplay form.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
I heard.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yeah, it's got so much inventive language.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
It really does.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
Yeah, it's one of my favorite things I've ever gotten
to be. And anyway, so we've been we've been good
friends since then, and uh, and i've been I also
was in his movie Looper, and but all of his
movies he's he's sort of seems to have this commitment
to himself and and an unspoken one to me that
I'm going to be in all of his movies. And
(03:52):
so when when we were when he was shooting glass Onion.
I was shooting my TV shows, Corman and so he
you know, but.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
He wanted me in it anyway, so.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
He offered me the part of the hourly Dong and uh.
It's one of my most popular tweets ever. I just
wrote Dong the weekend that that movie came out nice and.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
How many takes? How many takes of dong did you do?
Speaker 4 (04:20):
A good question? It was more than one. It was
a good couple of minutes that I said dong in
different ways?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Did you get paid per dong like that? How do
you parse that? Wait? There you go.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
One last thing on Ryan Johnson and you and puzzle
that in that great movie Brick, you are an expert cuber.
You do a Rubik's cube.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Yeah, you're right, you're no wait, no, no, no, it's
not me that does it. It's the brain.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
The the brain is doing it. And then he gives
it to you and then you solve it throw it
back to him.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Oh is that how it goes? I had it reverse
in my mind.
Speaker 5 (05:03):
I thought I thought I took it out of his
hand and messed it up to him, and then I
give it to him and then he does it really
quick no, you.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Were the stud who comes in and saves the day.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
I have to go back and watch it again. I
thought it was the brain that's able to solve it.
All right, we're going.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
To fact check it, but I watched it well. Anyway,
with that, I am going to introduce our chief, our
own sort of version of the brain, our true muscle officer,
Greg Kliska, who has a puzzle for you today.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Welcome Greg, thank you, and thank you Joe for being here. Again.
I'm terrible. I'm really bad at Rubik's cube. Though. Let's
not equate me with the brain, fair or with your character,
because I'm that is not my puzzle strength. But this
puzzle we call levet or leave it, and in it
(05:54):
we're going to change the short e sound to a
long e sound, and all the answers will combine those
two words in a two word phrase. Okay, okay. So
for example, if the clue was cereal grain that got
caught in the rain, that would be wet wheat.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
Oh okay, So you say a clue for a what
do you call this.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
The puzzle? I was called leave it or leave it,
But that's okay, that's helpful.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
A pair of do you say a clue for a
pair of words.
Speaker 5 (06:28):
Yes, and in each pair of words, it has a
shorty sound and a long e sound.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Right, exactly, nothing else should change, just the short e
becomes a long e.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
Okay, okay, all right, all right, let's give.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
It a try.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
You'll get it. You'll get it.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
For example, this is an I P A for grizzlies and.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
I P A.
Speaker 5 (06:50):
That's a kind of a beer, right, yep, and it's
for grizzly grizzlies.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
You got the first part.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Oh, bear beer beer, bear beer.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
This is a mountain named for the classic film actor Gregory.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
A mountain, now you can remember, so he can go
for Gregory, the classic film star or the.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Okay, so there's a I can think of Gregory Peck. Yeah,
mountain usually has a peak, so it's Peck peak.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Is that peak? Yes? Exactly right?
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Okay, okay, all right.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
So when a groom at a wedding picks an animal
to be at his side, this creature is called this.
Speaker 5 (07:46):
When a groom at a wedding picks an animal to
be at his side. Uh, okay, a room a best man, best, oh,
a best beast? Yet very good?
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Yeah, all right, this is the title to your house
when it's no longer valid.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
Uh huh, okay, well, the title to your house is
called a deed, So a dead.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Deed, dead deed.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
Alright, Yes, I'm getting the hang of these.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yeah, once you get the idea. It's like crosswords. The
more you do them, the better you get at them.
All Right. What the singer of Believe uses to trim
her sheep? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (08:32):
That sound.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
That shares shears?
Speaker 6 (08:37):
I guess, yes, exactly, exactly, very good, all right, this
is something that a small fish audiologist might assess.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
Small fish audiologist. Let me see, what's a small fish?
Speaker 4 (08:55):
A minnow that doesn't have a guppy.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
What does an audiology just test?
Speaker 4 (09:01):
What does an audiologist test? I mean, I guess how
you're hearing? Yeah, a herring hearing hearing? Yes, exactly, small fish.
My Jewish grandmother would be ashamed of me that it
took me so long.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Exactly. Come on, all right. These are the rowing crews
on London's River.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
The rowing crew the well, London's River. Isn't that the Thames?
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Yeah? The Thames?
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Yeah, it's pronounced weird.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
If we pronounce it the Thames.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
The Thames. Okay, the Thames teams. Yeah, very good teams
on the Thames. Okay, yeah, yeah, Wait do I have
that wrong? Is it not pronounced the river Thames? Do
you say, are you supposed to say the River Thames?
Speaker 3 (09:47):
I think you're supposed to say the River Thames.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Well that's what they say. But we're Americans, so we
can we.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Can call it whatever we want. But if we don't
call it the Thames, the whole puzzle doesn't work.
Speaker 5 (09:56):
But what did they call it in the constitutional era
of the United States of America.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
That's what I want to know.
Speaker 6 (10:02):
Aj.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
I'm plugging your book now.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Thank you Johnson. You are very kind. I said you're
a mention and I hold to it.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
My favorite part of that book is when you go
who do you You go to see Congressman Row Coanna
or something, and you're like, wait, what is it? You're
like asking for permission from Congress to go take your
boat and be like a vigilante coastguardsman or something like that,
because it's the.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
I want to be a pirate. That's my constitutional right,
is that I can be a pirate and take my
fishing boat and capture enemy and ships and keep the booty. Well,
First of all, Joe, I am so honored and flattered
that you read the book.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
And Rocanna really took it, because in the book you
say like that he said, Okay, we'll take this into consideration.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Oh I could see that.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
Actually, I've gotten to talk to Rocanna once or twice,
and he's a really smart and like I could see
him be being intellectually tickled and amused at the exercise
you were doing, and I could see him actually taking
your request seriously.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
But did he ever, Well, he did say that he
brought it to his colleagues in Congress, whatever that means,
and that he took it under consideration, which is a
euphemism for they dismissed.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
He drew it in the trash.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Okay, but his age still emails me as Captain Jacobs.
So I feel I have a complied.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
That's so good.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
So it's still under consideration someday someday. Well, thank you again.
That's very kind.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Sure, all right, let's go back to a couple more puzzles.
This is Affleck's favorite Boston baked dish.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
Okay, that's ben ben beans. Baked beans are baked beans.
To do it, I didn't know that Ben's beans.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Beans are like a classic.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
I think of beans as a New Orleans thing, like
as rice. I didn't know that is a Boston thing,
all right.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
I also just don't like to get Boston credit for
anything because I'm a Los Angeles Lakers fan.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Oh, I see how it is getting there's a rivalry.
You're gonna get rough in here now all right? Uh,
this is a phobia about going to a county agricultural show.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
A phobia. So that sounds like a fear, a fair fear.
Speaker 6 (12:30):
Yes, exactly, all right, exactly, okay, okay.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
This is a really uncommon backside.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
An uncommon backside. Uh what I'm thinking of? But Fanny
ass Bottom, what what are we saying?
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Might as well list all the words you can.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
I can't think of one that starts with or hasn't.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Go for something that means uncommon.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
Okay, rare, oh a rare rear.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
There you go. I'll do I'll do two more. This
is the steak, the steak that served at New York's
largest art museum.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
The steak that served let's see the met met and meat, the.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Meat exactly all right. And the last one the slow
increase in the number of thin French pancakes.
Speaker 5 (13:29):
A thin French pancake is a crep. Uh, yes, right,
so crep creep exactly creep.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Gotta be careful. They just start appearing. And you got
crep creep.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Well done. I will say this puzzle is called leve
it or leave it right, leave it to follow my
follow my thoughts here. It's a little bit of a path.
I was thinking about Levitt and Levi and that's the
name it's named after. Leave the tribe of Israel, correct,
And I thought that I was thinking somehow. I had
(14:07):
just heard you were an Leonard Nimoy's movie Yes Only Matrimony, right,
and he used the Levi hand signal as an inspiration
for the Spock hands signal.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Wait wait, wait, wait, you're blowing my mind here.
Speaker 5 (14:22):
This is not something I knew because I I did
work for Leonard Nimoy, and I care about the livelong
and prosper vulcan hand signal. And in fact, a bunch
of really cool people in the plurality movement. If you
look into the Plurality movement and look up Audrey Tang.
I won't go into it now, but she often uses
that symbols as sort of a global plurality sign of greeting.
(14:47):
But I did not know that that had anything to
do with the tribe of Levi. Did it because that
is my name Levitt? Is you know, a some kind
of derivative europeanization of that ancient he Brew name Levi.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Well, I'm looking at an article on sports right now
that quotes Nimoy also in an article in the Baltimore
Sun saying this came from the Cooneme, that this was
actually a priestly gesture right during high holiday services. Got it?
Speaker 5 (15:18):
So in the Cooneme, the Coonem and the Levine, the
Cohens and the Levites did they were the two sort of,
I guess tribes of men that ran the temple way
back in the ancient days. But the Cohens were the
senior once, and I think the Levites were, if I'm
not mistaken, the musicians.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
But I've I could be wrong about this. You never know,
you know.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Oh, well, that's good, But I.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
Didn't know the belong and prosper thing had anything to
do with any of that.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
He says he borrowed it from uh you know, he
saw it at high holiday services and borrowed it. That's cool.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
So I did I hope I blew your mind just
a little, not as much because it's not Levites. It
is still Jewish.
Speaker 5 (16:05):
So and if I ever get to meet the Cohen brothers,
I will tell them this story.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
That is a great idea and that they should definitely
have you. But you were great. You are a great puzzler,
and we have you for one more puzzle. So, uh, Greg,
you have a extra credit.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
I do have an extra credit for everyone. This is uh,
this is the sassiness of a person from Prague.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Took me a second. I got it.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
I think I get it. I think I get it.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Good, I'm not supposed to say this one.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Don't say it. No, we're gonna let everybody think about it.
We'll tell them tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
But you're a great actor, so you could be pretending
to know it.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
That's true.
Speaker 5 (16:49):
You can't.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
You can't trust me.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
You can't trust actors. Well, thank you, Joe, and thank
you listeners. And if you like the show, check out
our Instagram feed at pillow Puzzlers at Hello Post original
puzzles and we'll meet here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles
that will puzzle you.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Hey, puzzlers, it's your chief puzzle officer Greg Pliska here
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode. Katie
Nolan joined us and we played in the form of
a question where every answer sounds like it's a question.
So your extra credit clue was this phrase means that
you do not hyd your emotions, you put them right
(17:34):
out there, and that is you wear your heart on
your sleeve. Where w e A R not w h
E R. That's a little Jeopardy reference, of course. So
I hope you are enjoying the puzzler and we'll catch
you here next time.
Hello puzzlers. The Puzzling crew is taking a quick break
this week to huddle in the puzzle lab and come
up with lots of new brain teasers and brain ticklers
and brain taunters and other synonyms for puzzles. We will
be back on Monday, but in the meantime, please enjoy
some of our favorite episodes from this past year.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hello puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast. The twist ending
at the end of your Ryan Johnson puzzle movie, I
am your post. That is our guest laughing who is
a collaborator with said Ryan Johnson. And he is, as
(00:49):
you might know, the amazing Joseph Gordon Levitt actor.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Hello, there he is.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I had more to.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Say, but well, sorry, please let me not interrupt.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well, I wanted to plug your wonderful creative community hit record.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
So oh thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
The founder I think he had once told me we
met briefly, that you are a fan of crosswords.
Speaker 5 (01:10):
Is that right? Well, I have a fondness, but I'm
not good at them. My mom's quite good at them.
And in fact, you know who's really an emphatic crossword
puzzler is the man you just mentioned, Ryan Johnson. He's
a big crossword guy, and he and my mom bond
over that. I for some reason, though, I enjoy it,
(01:34):
especially if you're doing it on paper. I find it
very satisfying, probably just because of the nostalgia.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
I used to see my mom doing it all the time.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Do you do it in Penn like some people are like,
I'm so, I'm so studeley I do it in Pen.
Speaker 5 (01:50):
I don't know if I'm not intentional about it, to
be really honest, like, I'm not good at it. I
don't think I've ever finished one. I'm not good at
that kind of thing, the language.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
If you keep doing it, you have other things going on.
But if you can. But I will say Ryan Johnson,
I love his movies, and he is, yes, a puzzle
pan and his movies are very puzzling. And this I
did not know until yesterday that you were the voice
of Detective hard Rock on Knives Out, which was a
(02:21):
television show the mom was watching. And this one I
don't know how to unpack, but you can help us.
You were the hourly Dong on Miles, Bronze Island and
Glass Onion.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Yes, well he actually said Dong.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I don't remember that.
Speaker 5 (02:38):
Yeah, if you watch glass Onion every hour there's a
like a the clock chimes and it matters for the mystery.
And instead of just hearing a traditional clock chime, for
some reason, Ryan had it in his mind that there
should be a voice that says dong, So he asked
me to do that part. I have a bit of
(03:00):
a street going because I starred in his first movie, Brick,
which is another usly detective mystery.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (03:09):
And if you're a fan of those kinds of movies,
I would I would recommend it. It's an odd one,
very low budget movie, but one of the most extraordinary
and weird pieces of writing that you've ever seen in
screenplay form.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
I heard.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yeah, it's got so much inventive language.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
It really does.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
Yeah, it's one of my favorite things I've ever gotten
to be. And anyway, so we've been we've been good
friends since then, and uh, and i've been I also
was in his movie Looper, and but all of his
movies he's he's sort of seems to have this commitment
to himself and and an unspoken one to me that
I'm going to be in all of his movies. And
(03:52):
so when when we were when he was shooting glass Onion.
I was shooting my TV shows, Corman and so he
you know, but.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
He wanted me in it anyway, so.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
He offered me the part of the hourly Dong and uh.
It's one of my most popular tweets ever. I just
wrote Dong the weekend that that movie came out nice and.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
How many takes? How many takes of dong did you do?
Speaker 4 (04:20):
A good question? It was more than one. It was
a good couple of minutes that I said dong in
different ways?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Did you get paid per dong like that? How do
you parse that? Wait? There you go.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
One last thing on Ryan Johnson and you and puzzle
that in that great movie Brick, you are an expert cuber.
You do a Rubik's cube.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Yeah, you're right, you're no wait, no, no, no, it's
not me that does it. It's the brain.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
The the brain is doing it. And then he gives
it to you and then you solve it throw it
back to him.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Oh is that how it goes? I had it reverse
in my mind.
Speaker 5 (05:03):
I thought I thought I took it out of his
hand and messed it up to him, and then I
give it to him and then he does it really
quick no, you.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Were the stud who comes in and saves the day.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
I have to go back and watch it again. I
thought it was the brain that's able to solve it.
All right, we're going.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
To fact check it, but I watched it well. Anyway,
with that, I am going to introduce our chief, our
own sort of version of the brain, our true muscle officer,
Greg Kliska, who has a puzzle for you today.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Welcome Greg, thank you, and thank you Joe for being here. Again.
I'm terrible. I'm really bad at Rubik's cube. Though. Let's
not equate me with the brain, fair or with your character,
because I'm that is not my puzzle strength. But this
puzzle we call levet or leave it, and in it
(05:54):
we're going to change the short e sound to a
long e sound, and all the answers will combine those
two words in a two word phrase. Okay, okay. So
for example, if the clue was cereal grain that got
caught in the rain, that would be wet wheat.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
Oh okay, So you say a clue for a what
do you call this.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
The puzzle? I was called leave it or leave it,
But that's okay, that's helpful.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
A pair of do you say a clue for a
pair of words.
Speaker 5 (06:28):
Yes, and in each pair of words, it has a
shorty sound and a long e sound.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Right, exactly, nothing else should change, just the short e
becomes a long e.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
Okay, okay, all right, all right, let's give.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
It a try.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
You'll get it. You'll get it.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
For example, this is an I P A for grizzlies and.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
I P A.
Speaker 5 (06:50):
That's a kind of a beer, right, yep, and it's
for grizzly grizzlies.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
You got the first part.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Oh, bear beer beer, bear beer.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
This is a mountain named for the classic film actor Gregory.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
A mountain, now you can remember, so he can go
for Gregory, the classic film star or the.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Okay, so there's a I can think of Gregory Peck. Yeah,
mountain usually has a peak, so it's Peck peak.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Is that peak? Yes? Exactly right?
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Okay, okay, all right.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
So when a groom at a wedding picks an animal
to be at his side, this creature is called this.
Speaker 5 (07:46):
When a groom at a wedding picks an animal to
be at his side. Uh, okay, a room a best man, best, oh,
a best beast? Yet very good?
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Yeah, all right, this is the title to your house
when it's no longer valid.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
Uh huh, okay, well, the title to your house is
called a deed, So a dead.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Deed, dead deed.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
Alright, Yes, I'm getting the hang of these.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yeah, once you get the idea. It's like crosswords. The
more you do them, the better you get at them.
All Right. What the singer of Believe uses to trim
her sheep? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (08:32):
That sound.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
That shares shears?
Speaker 6 (08:37):
I guess, yes, exactly, exactly, very good, all right, this
is something that a small fish audiologist might assess.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
Small fish audiologist. Let me see, what's a small fish?
Speaker 4 (08:55):
A minnow that doesn't have a guppy.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
What does an audiology just test?
Speaker 4 (09:01):
What does an audiologist test? I mean, I guess how
you're hearing? Yeah, a herring hearing hearing? Yes, exactly, small fish.
My Jewish grandmother would be ashamed of me that it
took me so long.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Exactly. Come on, all right. These are the rowing crews
on London's River.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
The rowing crew the well, London's River. Isn't that the Thames?
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Yeah? The Thames?
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Yeah, it's pronounced weird.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
If we pronounce it the Thames.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
The Thames. Okay, the Thames teams. Yeah, very good teams
on the Thames. Okay, yeah, yeah, Wait do I have
that wrong? Is it not pronounced the river Thames? Do
you say, are you supposed to say the River Thames?
Speaker 3 (09:47):
I think you're supposed to say the River Thames.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Well that's what they say. But we're Americans, so we
can we.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Can call it whatever we want. But if we don't
call it the Thames, the whole puzzle doesn't work.
Speaker 5 (09:56):
But what did they call it in the constitutional era
of the United States of America.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
That's what I want to know.
Speaker 6 (10:02):
Aj.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
I'm plugging your book now.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Thank you Johnson. You are very kind. I said you're
a mention and I hold to it.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
My favorite part of that book is when you go
who do you You go to see Congressman Row Coanna
or something, and you're like, wait, what is it? You're
like asking for permission from Congress to go take your
boat and be like a vigilante coastguardsman or something like that,
because it's the.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
I want to be a pirate. That's my constitutional right,
is that I can be a pirate and take my
fishing boat and capture enemy and ships and keep the booty. Well,
First of all, Joe, I am so honored and flattered
that you read the book.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
And Rocanna really took it, because in the book you
say like that he said, Okay, we'll take this into consideration.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Oh I could see that.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
Actually, I've gotten to talk to Rocanna once or twice,
and he's a really smart and like I could see
him be being intellectually tickled and amused at the exercise
you were doing, and I could see him actually taking
your request seriously.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
But did he ever, Well, he did say that he
brought it to his colleagues in Congress, whatever that means,
and that he took it under consideration, which is a
euphemism for they dismissed.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
He drew it in the trash.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Okay, but his age still emails me as Captain Jacobs.
So I feel I have a complied.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
That's so good.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
So it's still under consideration someday someday. Well, thank you again.
That's very kind.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Sure, all right, let's go back to a couple more puzzles.
This is Affleck's favorite Boston baked dish.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
Okay, that's ben ben beans. Baked beans are baked beans.
To do it, I didn't know that Ben's beans.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Beans are like a classic.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
I think of beans as a New Orleans thing, like
as rice. I didn't know that is a Boston thing,
all right.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
I also just don't like to get Boston credit for
anything because I'm a Los Angeles Lakers fan.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Oh, I see how it is getting there's a rivalry.
You're gonna get rough in here now all right? Uh,
this is a phobia about going to a county agricultural show.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
A phobia. So that sounds like a fear, a fair fear.
Speaker 6 (12:30):
Yes, exactly, all right, exactly, okay, okay.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
This is a really uncommon backside.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
An uncommon backside. Uh what I'm thinking of? But Fanny
ass Bottom, what what are we saying?
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Might as well list all the words you can.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
I can't think of one that starts with or hasn't.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Go for something that means uncommon.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
Okay, rare, oh a rare rear.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
There you go. I'll do I'll do two more. This
is the steak, the steak that served at New York's
largest art museum.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
The steak that served let's see the met met and meat, the.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Meat exactly all right. And the last one the slow
increase in the number of thin French pancakes.
Speaker 5 (13:29):
A thin French pancake is a crep. Uh, yes, right,
so crep creep exactly creep.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Gotta be careful. They just start appearing. And you got
crep creep.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Well done. I will say this puzzle is called leve
it or leave it right, leave it to follow my
follow my thoughts here. It's a little bit of a path.
I was thinking about Levitt and Levi and that's the
name it's named after. Leave the tribe of Israel, correct,
And I thought that I was thinking somehow. I had
(14:07):
just heard you were an Leonard Nimoy's movie Yes Only Matrimony, right,
and he used the Levi hand signal as an inspiration
for the Spock hands signal.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Wait wait, wait, wait, you're blowing my mind here.
Speaker 5 (14:22):
This is not something I knew because I I did
work for Leonard Nimoy, and I care about the livelong
and prosper vulcan hand signal. And in fact, a bunch
of really cool people in the plurality movement. If you
look into the Plurality movement and look up Audrey Tang.
I won't go into it now, but she often uses
that symbols as sort of a global plurality sign of greeting.
(14:47):
But I did not know that that had anything to
do with the tribe of Levi. Did it because that
is my name Levitt? Is you know, a some kind
of derivative europeanization of that ancient he Brew name Levi.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Well, I'm looking at an article on sports right now
that quotes Nimoy also in an article in the Baltimore
Sun saying this came from the Cooneme, that this was
actually a priestly gesture right during high holiday services. Got it?
Speaker 5 (15:18):
So in the Cooneme, the Coonem and the Levine, the
Cohens and the Levites did they were the two sort of,
I guess tribes of men that ran the temple way
back in the ancient days. But the Cohens were the
senior once, and I think the Levites were, if I'm
not mistaken, the musicians.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
But I've I could be wrong about this. You never know,
you know.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Oh, well, that's good, But I.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
Didn't know the belong and prosper thing had anything to
do with any of that.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
He says he borrowed it from uh you know, he
saw it at high holiday services and borrowed it. That's cool.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
So I did I hope I blew your mind just
a little, not as much because it's not Levites. It
is still Jewish.
Speaker 5 (16:05):
So and if I ever get to meet the Cohen brothers,
I will tell them this story.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
That is a great idea and that they should definitely
have you. But you were great. You are a great puzzler,
and we have you for one more puzzle. So, uh, Greg,
you have a extra credit.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
I do have an extra credit for everyone. This is uh,
this is the sassiness of a person from Prague.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Took me a second. I got it.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
I think I get it. I think I get it.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Good, I'm not supposed to say this one.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Don't say it. No, we're gonna let everybody think about it.
We'll tell them tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
But you're a great actor, so you could be pretending
to know it.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
That's true.
Speaker 5 (16:49):
You can't.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
You can't trust me.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
You can't trust actors. Well, thank you, Joe, and thank
you listeners. And if you like the show, check out
our Instagram feed at pillow Puzzlers at Hello Post original
puzzles and we'll meet here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles
that will puzzle you.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Hey, puzzlers, it's your chief puzzle officer Greg Pliska here
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode. Katie
Nolan joined us and we played in the form of
a question where every answer sounds like it's a question.
So your extra credit clue was this phrase means that
you do not hyd your emotions, you put them right
(17:34):
out there, and that is you wear your heart on
your sleeve. Where w e A R not w h
E R. That's a little Jeopardy reference, of course. So
I hope you are enjoying the puzzler and we'll catch
you here next time.
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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