July 4, 2025 • 19 mins
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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"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, Puzzler is happy July fourth. Let's start with a
quick puzzle. I'm going to read you a quote from
the great writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the puzzle is
to whom was Ralph Waldo Emerson referring to? In this quote?
Emerson called this man a quote thief and a pickle
(00:23):
dealer from Seville who managed to get half the world
baptized in his dishonest name. Harsh words from Ralph, a
thief and a pickle dealer from Seville who managed to
get half the world baptized with his dishonest name. We'll
have the answer and more puzzling goodness after the break.
(00:51):
Hello puzzlers, Welcome back to the Puzzler Podcast. The grill
marks on your puzzler, hot Dog. I'm aj Jacobs, and
I'm here, of course with chiefs Lostter Greg Fliska Greg.
Before the break, we asked hom Ralph Waldo Emerson was
referring to when he said, this man is a thief
and pickle dealer from Seville who managed to get half
(01:12):
the world baptized in his dishonest name. And remember it
is July fourth, and half the world has this name.
We're not quite half.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Oh oh, oh, okay. I was thinking, I mean, I
know if that helps me in that, but I was
thinking this was some sort of religious leader who proselytized
for the Christians.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Baptized.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
And I was like, I was like Torque Mata or something,
you know, the leader of the Spanish Inquisition, pickle dealer
from Seville who got half the words. So, uh, who's
it's one of the founding fathers. It's going to be
Ben Franklin or George Washington or somebody like that.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
No, no, it's a little more of the world as
called by this that today is the anniversary of the
founding of the States America.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
We're talking Amerigo Vespucci.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
We are talking about Americo. Vis Beauccy, a pickle dealer
from Seville, as Emerson calls him. And yeah, he's a
very controversial figure even today because people don't know actually
how many times, if at all, he came to America.
He probably came to America, but he or others exaggerated
(02:28):
his successes here. So yes, he kind of reached his
low point in reputation in the eighteen hundreds with Ralph
Trash talking him.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
That was nasty.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Yeah, I know, I do have. This is a let
me give a second mini puzzle, this one written by
senior puzzler Andrea Schomberg. What does Independence Day and the
letter why have in common? Aside from the fact that
why is in Independence Day, they are both the fourth
(03:01):
of July exactly. This, as you can tell from our
mini puzzles, is our special July fourth episode. Today we
have two puzzles to celebrate our country's independence, and the
first will come from me and then Greg takes over.
The first one is called name that Patriotic Tune. So
you know the game show Name That Tune, where you
(03:23):
play a tune you have to identify it. Well, here
at the Puzzler, we like that game, but we are
also very busy people. We don't have a lot of
time to listen to a whole tune. So we have
come up with a twist called name that Very Fast Tune.
So I'm gonna I'm gonna play a tune at faster
than normal speed, and Greg and Andrea are gonna have
(03:44):
to try to identify it. So I'm gonna start out
playing these patriotic songs at eight times the regular speed.
If you can't do it, then I'll slow it down
to six and then four times. For instance, if I
played you this song at eight speed, you might be
able to identify it.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
I got it, You got it? Andrea, Yeah, happy.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Birthday, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday. There is. That's
in regular speed. All right. So we're gonna do three songs.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
In super speed.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
All right.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
I'm gonna set up the first one. Here we go, anything.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
This is This is a patriotic song.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
One of the It's an old classic.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Do dot dot is?
Speaker 1 (04:53):
It kind of sounds like that, but it's not quite.
This was a parody, but it was a different one.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Even the form of it is wacky. It's like this
thing and then it's an instrument and then this thing,
and it's totally different.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
That is true. It is more of a difficult all right,
have on now.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Now we got it. Yankee doodle.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
That's it, Yankee crazy. And here it is at normal speed.
All right. Here we go with the second one. Now
this is a uh not from the revolutionary era, but
(05:58):
it is a few years old. Okay, are you ready
for your second patriotic song? There you go? Anything.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
That's the whole song.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
No, No, I couldn't play the whole song. That was
minute and fifteen seconds. Okay, this song, all right, let
me try it at a at five.
Speaker 5 (06:27):
Xy almost got it?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Got it, got it, got it? You know what? I
got it from the sound of the person's voice, which
is weird because it's all sped up and crazy. Right,
but that is I mean, it's not technically a patriotic
song at all. It just has a patriotic name.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
All right, fair enough, I think of it as a patriotic.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
It's a Don McLean song. It's American pie exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
And here it is at normal speed.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
Did you write the do you have God?
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Well done?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
All right?
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Last one? This is uh, this one is more July
fourth themed. Here we go. You can seen.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Anything, but I have it partly from your clue and
then the kind of vocal range of the song it
goes up and sits up a bunch later on there,
I was like, oh, yes, that is that singer doing
that chorus of that song.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Well, go ahead and say do you want me.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
To say it? I think we should play a slightly
slower version for everybody.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Great point, all right, I'm going to play it at
three and a half speed. All right, are you ready? People?
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Got it?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:17):
All right there.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
So it's the it's the way her voice gets higher
and high and hire and more extended, right like a firework,
Katie Perry.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
There it is and just at normal speed. Well there
you go. That was name that very fast toned. So, Greg,
you have a an American July fourth theme puzzle for
(08:48):
us as well?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yes, yes, although it's it's about cryptic clues, which of
course come to us from Britain.
Speaker 5 (08:56):
Ah.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Well, America came to us from Britain to.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Fair fair Point, and we created our own version of
cryptic crosswords slightly different from the British. Do you want
to explain what a cryptic crossword is?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
I want you to explain?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Okay, well, well, crypt The key element of cryptic crosswords
is that every clue has two parts. It's got a normal,
straight kind of crossword, you know, American crossword style definition,
and then it's got some wordplay that described the answer
word in some other way, using you know, various word
play gimmicks. We've played with these on the show a
(09:29):
little bit. And the reason I thought this was appropriate
today goes back to Andrea's original question earlier in the episode,
what Independence Day and the letter why have in common
because why is the fourth letter of July? And that
kind of phrasing fourth of July is used in cryptics.
(09:49):
It's you know what cryptic construction says. I got to
use that because that's a way to get the letter why. Great, yes, right,
but it sounds like a common phrase, but it's also
indicating the letter why. So for for example, here's a
clue formal role on the fourth of July.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Okay, formal role and how is roles felled r O
l E r O l E. All right, so we
know that there's a word play in it and also
a regular old definition.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Right, and you know that fourth of July is part
of the word play at the end of the clue.
So the other half the beginning would be the definition.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
All right, one more time with the clue.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Formal role on the fourth of July.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
I got it.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
I got it, and will the other thing I want
to say, The key thing about cryptic clues is that
the surface kind of sounds like it makes sense, like
that sounds like it could be a clue. What is
a formal role someone has on the fourth of July.
But you have to ignore all that and just break
it apart into the pieces. So Andrea, you guts.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Well, it helps. It helps to know that fourth of
July was part of the wordplay, which yeah, so that
means that the pretty much the only thing that could
be the definition is the first word, so I know.
So we know we're looking for a word that means
formal role on the fourth of July, so it ends,
and why it's a formal that ends, and why a
(11:15):
word forarole is part which gives you party a formal
form a, right.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
And it's formal as a noun. You know, we're going
to have our formal, our dance, our party. And cluing
the answer word party. Well done, Andrea, well done.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
So that was the example which I did not get.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Well there, you know we yeah, they're all examples, but
you had to figure it out anyway. So here we
go the next one. So each of these has a
common phrase, like fourth of July. That's cluing part of
the answer.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Okay, great, And are they all related to the fourth
of July?
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Somehow, they are not at all related to the fourth
of July. They're just using the similar kind of gimmick,
you know, common phrase that also clues a letter in
some way. Got it okay, So here's your next one
brass instrument in Beethoven's fifth or Wagner's fourth.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Aha. So using that setup, Beethoven's fifth is the fifth
letter of Beethoven, which is B E E T H,
so it's going to have an H in it. And
Wagner's fourth letter is N. So H and N are
going to be.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
In the four letter word brass instrument in Beethoven's fifth
or Wagner's fourth.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Oh, okay, so I think I see it is the ore.
The ore is a big part of it, so H
or N, which spells.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Out exactly very good, very good. And we would call
these charade clues because you're you're giving clues to each
part of the word.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
It's a clue for H.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
The ore is actually just given to you, and then
the N is also clued.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Got it? All right? I love it? What else?
Speaker 2 (12:59):
How about the one Italian citizen in third world country?
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Okay, Andrea, you want to take this.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
One Italian citizen in third world country. So so we're
using the third.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Now, yep, third world is the phrase third world? A
third world country?
Speaker 1 (13:24):
So would be the r from world would be the
third world. Okay, all right, but then I'm lost after that.
So it's okay Roman Roman Nice.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
Roman is an Italian citizen. The third World is r
and Oman is a country.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
So you.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
And get Roman.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Well done?
Speaker 5 (13:47):
All right?
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Good one good clue? All right, give us more?
Speaker 2 (13:51):
All right, We'll do two more of these summer months
for one in France comes after January.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
First comes after January first is jay?
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (14:03):
And a summer in France?
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Is it? And what was thet me? Give it you again?
Speaker 4 (14:10):
Summer months summer months one in France, one okay, one
in Frances Jay in front of UoN is June, which.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Is she is very good?
Speaker 2 (14:21):
All right, let's do another one West End musical running
in Jersey City, West seven musical.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
So is it like the west end of musical? Is
the letter is where you get the letter?
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Or is it the end of west is T?
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Yeah? Okay the musical West End musical running in Jersey City.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
So a Jersey City, Well, I know Jersey City that
starts with T trenton THEA. If that is true, have
rent the musical and is on like Americani Arizona. Yeah,
there you go, love it love Now do you do cryptics?
(15:08):
Andrea on your in your spare time.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
Yeah, I do the well, only the New York Time.
I don't do the British. The British cryptics are are
crazy for me, so I do have my limits. But
I do enjoy the New York Times cryptics that they
run sometimes in the variety.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
There are a lot of great cryptics made by American constructors.
I'm a big fan of Out of Left Field by
Joshua Cosmon and Henry Picciotto. I happen to be a test.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Solver for them, so okay, check it out.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
They have a Patreon you can go subscribe to Andrea.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
By the way, when I was writing The Puzzler, we
had a chapter on cryptics and she was my co
solver on this torturous, really complicated one from one of
the British papers you can't remember.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Yeah, yeah, those get they just get tougher, you know,
they use more obscure words and some of those and
sometimes the wordplay is even trickier, partly because it's you know, British,
so we don't know all the references exact.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Happy July fourth, everybody, Joe, do some British puzzles to
celebrate and have a great time. If you celebrate of course,
and if by you need more puzzle stimulation over the weekend,
check out at Hello Puzzlers, where we post the original puzzles,
(16:28):
fun visual puzzles, and we will meet you here on
Monday for more puzzling puzzles. They will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Hello Puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle officer, here
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Actually we had two extra credits. AJ and I did
some July third themed puzzles and his was triple homographs.
These are all words that are spelled the same but
with different meetings, and you'd need three of them. So
his clue for you was an improvisational musical performance about
a traffic snarl caused by fruit spread that, of course
(17:12):
is a jam Jam Jam, and mine was a dog
Day's puzzle. This is a clue to a idiom that
has dog in it. And your clue was very happy
and excited. And this is actually not an idiom I
was familiar with, but it's a fun one. It's like
(17:33):
a dog with two tails, So you are so happy
and excited. You're like a dog wagging two tails, which
is kind of how we feel knowing that you're here
listening to the Puzzler, So go enjoy some jam Jam Jam,
and we'll catch you here next time. Thanks for playing
along with the team here at The Puzzler with Aj Jacobs.
(17:56):
I'm Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle officer, our executive. The
producers are Neelie Lohman and Adam Newhouse of New House
Ideas and Jonathan Strickland of iHeart Podcasts. The show is
produced by Jody Afrigan and Britney Brown of Roulette Productions,
with production support from Claire Bidegar Curtis. Our senior puzzler
is Andrea Schoenberg. The Puzzler with Aj Jacobs is a
(18:19):
co production with New House Ideas and is distributed by
Tarot Dispatches. No No, Not That Rearrange. It distributed by
iHeart Podcasts. If you want to know more about puzzling puzzles,
please check out the book The Puzzler by AJ Jacobs,
a history of puzzles that The New York Times called
fun and funny. It features an original puzzle hunt by
(18:42):
Yours Truly and is available wherever you get your books
and puzzlers. For all your puzzling needs. Go visit the
puzzler dot com. See you there,
Hello, Puzzler is happy July fourth. Let's start with a
quick puzzle. I'm going to read you a quote from
the great writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the puzzle is
to whom was Ralph Waldo Emerson referring to? In this quote?
Emerson called this man a quote thief and a pickle
(00:23):
dealer from Seville who managed to get half the world
baptized in his dishonest name. Harsh words from Ralph, a
thief and a pickle dealer from Seville who managed to
get half the world baptized with his dishonest name. We'll
have the answer and more puzzling goodness after the break.
(00:51):
Hello puzzlers, Welcome back to the Puzzler Podcast. The grill
marks on your puzzler, hot Dog. I'm aj Jacobs, and
I'm here, of course with chiefs Lostter Greg Fliska Greg.
Before the break, we asked hom Ralph Waldo Emerson was
referring to when he said, this man is a thief
and pickle dealer from Seville who managed to get half
(01:12):
the world baptized in his dishonest name. And remember it
is July fourth, and half the world has this name.
We're not quite half.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Oh oh, oh, okay. I was thinking, I mean, I
know if that helps me in that, but I was
thinking this was some sort of religious leader who proselytized
for the Christians.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Baptized.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
And I was like, I was like Torque Mata or something,
you know, the leader of the Spanish Inquisition, pickle dealer
from Seville who got half the words. So, uh, who's
it's one of the founding fathers. It's going to be
Ben Franklin or George Washington or somebody like that.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
No, no, it's a little more of the world as
called by this that today is the anniversary of the
founding of the States America.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
We're talking Amerigo Vespucci.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
We are talking about Americo. Vis Beauccy, a pickle dealer
from Seville, as Emerson calls him. And yeah, he's a
very controversial figure even today because people don't know actually
how many times, if at all, he came to America.
He probably came to America, but he or others exaggerated
(02:28):
his successes here. So yes, he kind of reached his
low point in reputation in the eighteen hundreds with Ralph
Trash talking him.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
That was nasty.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Yeah, I know, I do have. This is a let
me give a second mini puzzle, this one written by
senior puzzler Andrea Schomberg. What does Independence Day and the
letter why have in common? Aside from the fact that
why is in Independence Day, they are both the fourth
(03:01):
of July exactly. This, as you can tell from our
mini puzzles, is our special July fourth episode. Today we
have two puzzles to celebrate our country's independence, and the
first will come from me and then Greg takes over.
The first one is called name that Patriotic Tune. So
you know the game show Name That Tune, where you
(03:23):
play a tune you have to identify it. Well, here
at the Puzzler, we like that game, but we are
also very busy people. We don't have a lot of
time to listen to a whole tune. So we have
come up with a twist called name that Very Fast Tune.
So I'm gonna I'm gonna play a tune at faster
than normal speed, and Greg and Andrea are gonna have
(03:44):
to try to identify it. So I'm gonna start out
playing these patriotic songs at eight times the regular speed.
If you can't do it, then I'll slow it down
to six and then four times. For instance, if I
played you this song at eight speed, you might be
able to identify it.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
I got it, You got it? Andrea, Yeah, happy.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Birthday, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday. There is. That's
in regular speed. All right. So we're gonna do three songs.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
In super speed.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
All right.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
I'm gonna set up the first one. Here we go, anything.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
This is This is a patriotic song.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
One of the It's an old classic.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Do dot dot is?
Speaker 1 (04:53):
It kind of sounds like that, but it's not quite.
This was a parody, but it was a different one.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Even the form of it is wacky. It's like this
thing and then it's an instrument and then this thing,
and it's totally different.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
That is true. It is more of a difficult all right,
have on now.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Now we got it. Yankee doodle.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
That's it, Yankee crazy. And here it is at normal speed.
All right. Here we go with the second one. Now
this is a uh not from the revolutionary era, but
(05:58):
it is a few years old. Okay, are you ready
for your second patriotic song? There you go? Anything.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
That's the whole song.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
No, No, I couldn't play the whole song. That was
minute and fifteen seconds. Okay, this song, all right, let
me try it at a at five.
Speaker 5 (06:27):
Xy almost got it?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Got it, got it, got it? You know what? I
got it from the sound of the person's voice, which
is weird because it's all sped up and crazy. Right,
but that is I mean, it's not technically a patriotic
song at all. It just has a patriotic name.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
All right, fair enough, I think of it as a patriotic.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
It's a Don McLean song. It's American pie exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
And here it is at normal speed.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
Did you write the do you have God?
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Well done?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
All right?
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Last one? This is uh, this one is more July
fourth themed. Here we go. You can seen.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Anything, but I have it partly from your clue and
then the kind of vocal range of the song it
goes up and sits up a bunch later on there,
I was like, oh, yes, that is that singer doing
that chorus of that song.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Well, go ahead and say do you want me.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
To say it? I think we should play a slightly
slower version for everybody.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Great point, all right, I'm going to play it at
three and a half speed. All right, are you ready? People?
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Got it?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:17):
All right there.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
So it's the it's the way her voice gets higher
and high and hire and more extended, right like a firework,
Katie Perry.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
There it is and just at normal speed. Well there
you go. That was name that very fast toned. So, Greg,
you have a an American July fourth theme puzzle for
(08:48):
us as well?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yes, yes, although it's it's about cryptic clues, which of
course come to us from Britain.
Speaker 5 (08:56):
Ah.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Well, America came to us from Britain to.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Fair fair Point, and we created our own version of
cryptic crosswords slightly different from the British. Do you want
to explain what a cryptic crossword is?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
I want you to explain?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Okay, well, well, crypt The key element of cryptic crosswords
is that every clue has two parts. It's got a normal,
straight kind of crossword, you know, American crossword style definition,
and then it's got some wordplay that described the answer
word in some other way, using you know, various word
play gimmicks. We've played with these on the show a
(09:29):
little bit. And the reason I thought this was appropriate
today goes back to Andrea's original question earlier in the episode,
what Independence Day and the letter why have in common
because why is the fourth letter of July? And that
kind of phrasing fourth of July is used in cryptics.
(09:49):
It's you know what cryptic construction says. I got to
use that because that's a way to get the letter why. Great, yes, right,
but it sounds like a common phrase, but it's also
indicating the letter why. So for for example, here's a
clue formal role on the fourth of July.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Okay, formal role and how is roles felled r O
l E r O l E. All right, so we
know that there's a word play in it and also
a regular old definition.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Right, and you know that fourth of July is part
of the word play at the end of the clue.
So the other half the beginning would be the definition.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
All right, one more time with the clue.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Formal role on the fourth of July.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
I got it.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
I got it, and will the other thing I want
to say, The key thing about cryptic clues is that
the surface kind of sounds like it makes sense, like
that sounds like it could be a clue. What is
a formal role someone has on the fourth of July.
But you have to ignore all that and just break
it apart into the pieces. So Andrea, you guts.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Well, it helps. It helps to know that fourth of
July was part of the wordplay, which yeah, so that
means that the pretty much the only thing that could
be the definition is the first word, so I know.
So we know we're looking for a word that means
formal role on the fourth of July, so it ends,
and why it's a formal that ends, and why a
(11:15):
word forarole is part which gives you party a formal
form a, right.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
And it's formal as a noun. You know, we're going
to have our formal, our dance, our party. And cluing
the answer word party. Well done, Andrea, well done.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
So that was the example which I did not get.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Well there, you know we yeah, they're all examples, but
you had to figure it out anyway. So here we
go the next one. So each of these has a
common phrase, like fourth of July. That's cluing part of
the answer.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Okay, great, And are they all related to the fourth
of July?
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Somehow, they are not at all related to the fourth
of July. They're just using the similar kind of gimmick,
you know, common phrase that also clues a letter in
some way. Got it okay, So here's your next one
brass instrument in Beethoven's fifth or Wagner's fourth.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Aha. So using that setup, Beethoven's fifth is the fifth
letter of Beethoven, which is B E E T H,
so it's going to have an H in it. And
Wagner's fourth letter is N. So H and N are
going to be.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
In the four letter word brass instrument in Beethoven's fifth
or Wagner's fourth.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Oh, okay, so I think I see it is the ore.
The ore is a big part of it, so H
or N, which spells.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Out exactly very good, very good. And we would call
these charade clues because you're you're giving clues to each
part of the word.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
It's a clue for H.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
The ore is actually just given to you, and then
the N is also clued.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Got it? All right? I love it? What else?
Speaker 2 (12:59):
How about the one Italian citizen in third world country?
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Okay, Andrea, you want to take this.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
One Italian citizen in third world country. So so we're
using the third.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Now, yep, third world is the phrase third world? A
third world country?
Speaker 1 (13:24):
So would be the r from world would be the
third world. Okay, all right, but then I'm lost after that.
So it's okay Roman Roman Nice.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
Roman is an Italian citizen. The third World is r
and Oman is a country.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
So you.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
And get Roman.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Well done?
Speaker 5 (13:47):
All right?
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Good one good clue? All right, give us more?
Speaker 2 (13:51):
All right, We'll do two more of these summer months
for one in France comes after January.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
First comes after January first is jay?
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (14:03):
And a summer in France?
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Is it? And what was thet me? Give it you again?
Speaker 4 (14:10):
Summer months summer months one in France, one okay, one
in Frances Jay in front of UoN is June, which.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Is she is very good?
Speaker 2 (14:21):
All right, let's do another one West End musical running
in Jersey City, West seven musical.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
So is it like the west end of musical? Is
the letter is where you get the letter?
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Or is it the end of west is T?
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Yeah? Okay the musical West End musical running in Jersey City.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
So a Jersey City, Well, I know Jersey City that
starts with T trenton THEA. If that is true, have
rent the musical and is on like Americani Arizona. Yeah,
there you go, love it love Now do you do cryptics?
(15:08):
Andrea on your in your spare time.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
Yeah, I do the well, only the New York Time.
I don't do the British. The British cryptics are are
crazy for me, so I do have my limits. But
I do enjoy the New York Times cryptics that they
run sometimes in the variety.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
There are a lot of great cryptics made by American constructors.
I'm a big fan of Out of Left Field by
Joshua Cosmon and Henry Picciotto. I happen to be a test.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Solver for them, so okay, check it out.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
They have a Patreon you can go subscribe to Andrea.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
By the way, when I was writing The Puzzler, we
had a chapter on cryptics and she was my co
solver on this torturous, really complicated one from one of
the British papers you can't remember.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Yeah, yeah, those get they just get tougher, you know,
they use more obscure words and some of those and
sometimes the wordplay is even trickier, partly because it's you know, British,
so we don't know all the references exact.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Happy July fourth, everybody, Joe, do some British puzzles to
celebrate and have a great time. If you celebrate of course,
and if by you need more puzzle stimulation over the weekend,
check out at Hello Puzzlers, where we post the original puzzles,
(16:28):
fun visual puzzles, and we will meet you here on
Monday for more puzzling puzzles. They will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Hello Puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle officer, here
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Actually we had two extra credits. AJ and I did
some July third themed puzzles and his was triple homographs.
These are all words that are spelled the same but
with different meetings, and you'd need three of them. So
his clue for you was an improvisational musical performance about
a traffic snarl caused by fruit spread that, of course
(17:12):
is a jam Jam Jam, and mine was a dog
Day's puzzle. This is a clue to a idiom that
has dog in it. And your clue was very happy
and excited. And this is actually not an idiom I
was familiar with, but it's a fun one. It's like
(17:33):
a dog with two tails, So you are so happy
and excited. You're like a dog wagging two tails, which
is kind of how we feel knowing that you're here
listening to the Puzzler, So go enjoy some jam Jam Jam,
and we'll catch you here next time. Thanks for playing
along with the team here at The Puzzler with Aj Jacobs.
(17:56):
I'm Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle officer, our executive. The
producers are Neelie Lohman and Adam Newhouse of New House
Ideas and Jonathan Strickland of iHeart Podcasts. The show is
produced by Jody Afrigan and Britney Brown of Roulette Productions,
with production support from Claire Bidegar Curtis. Our senior puzzler
is Andrea Schoenberg. The Puzzler with Aj Jacobs is a
(18:19):
co production with New House Ideas and is distributed by
Tarot Dispatches. No No, Not That Rearrange. It distributed by
iHeart Podcasts. If you want to know more about puzzling puzzles,
please check out the book The Puzzler by AJ Jacobs,
a history of puzzles that The New York Times called
fun and funny. It features an original puzzle hunt by
(18:42):
Yours Truly and is available wherever you get your books
and puzzlers. For all your puzzling needs. Go visit the
puzzler dot com. See you there,
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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