November 14, 2024 • 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 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.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello, puzzlers, Welcome to the puzzler the Tommy John Surgery
for your baseball pitcher's elbow puzzle. I'm your host, A J. Jacobs,
and I am here with chief puzzle Officer Greg. Let's
go welcome Greg.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Well, thanks, Aj. I like you took a kind of
a negative Tommy John surgery and turned it into a positive.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
I thought it was positive. I thought you'd pitch faster.
When you get Tommy John surgery, it's like.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Well, you know your doctor will tell you, no, surgery
is surgery you want to do, You do it because
you have to do it.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
I see, got you all right, right?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I mean surgery is always a risk, and you're getting
Tommy John because something's gone wrong, right, and pictures don't
always come back better after Tommy John.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
All right, So since we are not licensed doctors, please
don't get Tommy John surgery just because I said you
throw faster. Yes, talk to your doctor disclaimer about that.
But regardless of our medical pedigree, we do have puzzle pedigree,
and you have got something that's in the puzzle ballpark.
(01:16):
Going back to pable, Oh well done. It wasn't on purpose,
and that's scrabble there's a lot of overlap between scrabble
lovers and puzzle lovers.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
No question for sure. And this is not going back
to August. I think we might have discussed this when
it happened. But Collins added two thousand or so new
words to the Official Scrabble Dictionary, which, as you know,
is the dictionary that you should use when you're playing scrabble.
It tells you all the words that are legal in
(01:49):
the game of Scrabble. You can use any dictionary you
want right at home. You got what you got, you know,
whatever dictionary you have, you can use. It's nice to
have a reference that says these are the legal words.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
It is.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yeah, in two thousand is a lot of new words,
and that will just annoy my family more because usually
any combination of consonant vowel consonant is a three letter
word that is legal in scrabble. Like there are just
so many words right that are kind of dubious to
the rest regular person, but Scrabble Dictionary all for it.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Well, And if you're a professional scrabble player, you are
learning all the two letter words and the three letter
words right, because it's not so much that you care
about what they mean you just think you know what
combinations are legal in the game.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Right, And actually that was when I was a nerdy
high school student as opposed to a nerd adult. I
did memorize all the two letter words in Scrabble dictionary,
and I think I wrote a short story incorporating them
all that, thankfully for the world, never got published, but
it was about to see it now, Well, I do remember.
(02:55):
It was about a Scottish girlfriend of mine, which is
a your Joe, right, and how she was betting some
Vietnam Vietnamese money.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Which is shoe x u exactly right.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, on a karate tournament where people were wearing their
g exactly, that's all. I remember that she was hitting
some zaw later on exactly. This might have been before
ZA was legal, because.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Oh, interesting there are am I right? There are two
letters that you can't make two letter words with.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Oh what are they?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
V V is one of them, and C is the
other one. Interesting rest there's at least one option for
two letter words, which are useful when you play. You know,
one word directly a parallel to the other, and then
you get a lot of two letter words, so you
can hook onto a word with a two letter words,
a lot of good you know usages of two letter words.
(03:48):
They drive your you know, family crazy when you're crazy,
Yeah exactly, they're like, that's not a word. What are
all those words? It turns out they're legit and they
score you lots of points. Well, anyway, Collins added all
these words, and they included gen z slang, internet terms,
international food vocabulary, uh, and even some new usages of
(04:10):
words like adult as a verb. Oh, I now play
adulting or adulted? Right?
Speaker 1 (04:17):
And within we have wasn't the Jordan Carlos had the
adulting podcast?
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yes exactly, there you go.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
He made it in.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
So there's a bunch of these new words. And what
I did put together for you is a little multiple
choice quiz. Great. So basically, I'll give you one of
the words that's now in the Scrabble dictionary, okay, and
three possible definitions, and you just tell me which one
is the right definition.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
I like it. I like it would I would be
okay with two possible definitions, but a three is fine
as well.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
I mean I could troubly switch this to two, but no, no,
I like a challenge. I like it. All right, Yeah,
all right, So your first one is ooh wu you
wu is the word.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
That is so helpful because I hate us, I hate
having right.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
It's a useful word. It gets a couple of us out,
you can, you know, attach them to a W. It's good.
So is this a word used in Tibetan meditation? Is
it internet slang for a good looking escort at a
party or is it an expression of admiration for something
considered cute? Oh meditation word slang for a good looking
(05:28):
escort or expression of admiration for something cute.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Man, I don't know, I am, I am stumped. I'm
just gonna guess one out of the three. I'm gonna
go the uh, I guess I'm gonna go with the
cute Internet cute.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Wow, you are smart? Yes, it is oo oo. I
learned it from my son. He's one of those you know, gen.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Z people who he says, I think it's because a
W with two ukase W with two u's on either
side looks like a sort of cute little.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Cat thing or something. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
It comes from that.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Kind of iconography of the letters.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
And it's interesting because yeah, it's you double you you,
So it's for us, you could just say four US.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
If I played four US in a row, I'd be allowed.
I'd be happy to get rid of all the US,
no question. All right, here's another one. Zonky z o
n k e y okay zonkey zunky? Is that a
word that means slightly confused or out of whack? A
hybrid between a zebra and a donkey, or the employee
(06:42):
on a film responsible for keeping the actors entertained.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
That is a nice job if it doesn't exist.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Zonkey in here? You know Sean Penn is getting grumpy?
Where's the zonkey?
Speaker 1 (06:55):
And he does seem like someone to get grumpy? I
this one, I think, I know. I think it is
the hybrid. It's like the ligron or tygron or whatever.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Yeah. Direct, it is a zebra donkey hybrid. Nice, so
very well done. But now you can play it in scrabble.
It's got high scoring letters in it. You might want
to use it sometimes.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Absolutely, this is news you can use people.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, all right, here's your next one. Yeat y ee
tm okay. Does that mean to throw something a hat,
to throw something, especially without concern for breaking it? Is
it a yam beat hybrid or is it a young
farm animal, especially the runt of the litter. M.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
I feel we just did a hybrid, so I'm gonna
steer away from that. I do have a vague memory
that this is gen Z maybe jen alpha whatever for
throwing something.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
You are correct again to read that out the window. Yeah,
now I feel good. All my scrabble words I know
because of my son. That's true, all right. How about
nibbling n I B L I n G nibbling? Is
it a very small pencil, a gender neutral term for
(08:16):
a niece or nephew or a harmless but scary looking creature.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
M those are all very good. I haven't since I
wrote a book about families. I do remember this from
my very good and it is it's a gender neutral
niece or nephew. It's a nibbling.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Nibbling sort of like sibling. It's like a portmanteau of
sibling and niece or nephew nibbling. Right.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
And then there's dibbling, which I think are donor siblings.
So if you have the same sperm donor but have
like one hundred sisters or brothers, those are dibblings.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Oh, that's it. That's different from like a half brother.
Or sister, because technically a half brother could also have
the same sperm donor. It is think a biological way.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
All dibblings are half siblings, but not all half siblings
are dibblings.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Right. Well, you're saying, if you donated your sperm and
hundreds of offspring were created from that, they would all
be dibblings exactly, even if they never met you.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
I have not done that, but I have no moral
qualms from people who do. I don't judge.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
That's good. I got a couple more of these for you.
Love it. I have N graham, N g R a M,
which is a nice word to have because it starts
to's got those three consonants right up front. You can
imagine a lot of places you might find that useful.
N Graham Is it a unit of N words, letters,
or symbols? Is it a Japanese bovine similar to a
(09:47):
muskox ingraham? Or is it any member of your grandparents
generation who is not your grandparents, well like your grandparent's friends. Yeah,
you have the n Grahams in your life. Who are
you know?
Speaker 1 (10:03):
People you know? But they are yes, the grandparents from
another grand grandmother from another grandmother something like that.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
I think like my mother in law's best friend is
practically a member of our family. Got it? Yes, right,
she's my kids, but she's not a grandparent to my friends.
She's just you know anyway that may or may not
be what this word means.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Well, yeah, I mean if it did, you're trying to
sell me on it. I can tell that.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
I'm not buying. I'm not buying B salent. Okay, I am.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Since this is the puzzler, I'm going to guess that
it's an end, like it's an N graham is an
end puzzle or and what was it again?
Speaker 2 (10:46):
And learned of n words, letters or symbols and texts,
and you would be correct.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Like a by graham is two letters, and then try.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Graham would be three and is just the generic track
something a unit of in something.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
And twenty six gram is the pangram, which is uses
all of the letters. Yes, gotcha?
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I like that? Okay, I buy that? All right, We'll
do two more? Great? Uh comees q A m.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
E z q A m e e z Wow.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
No idea, there's a word you're gonna want if you've
got those letters on your board, want to use them.
There is it a long tunic worn in South Asia
the gaming community in general? From a typographical error or
is it ever? Meaning to amaze or astound? Yeah, this is.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Helpful because I know Qat caught the drug and q
A I d is leave a Muslim. We can look
at that.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
It's a unit, I believe.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Oh, but yes, this one, I don't know. I don't
think it's a man. I mean, you know what for
the story I'm going to go with the story of
the typographical.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Error gaming community in general. Yeah, the same way like
tad became a word meaning the because somehow it's a
common typo t e h instead of exactly right. However,
you would be completely wrong. It's actually a long tunic
worn in South Asia.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Fair enough, fair enough, all right. I am glad to learn.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Sometimes the anomology makes you think, oh I could.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Be that, but hm, well you got me, you got me.
Let me see if I can redeem myself.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
All right, I'll give you one more.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
I n t okay, And that is healthful though. That's
a good one.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Yeah. Is a gamer slang for intentionally dying, a shortened
form of isn't it? Or a Persian spirit similar to
a gin.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Huh. All right, well I got uh, I got burned
on the gaming lingo before, so I'm gonna say that
is wait, what was the middle.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
One shortened form of isn't it?
Speaker 1 (13:19):
That's what I'm gonna go with interesting?
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Interesting? You should have gone with the gamer slang is
actually to is to intentionally die?
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Interesting? But I think in it is in it a word?
I an an it because I've.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yeah seen definitely yeah, in it. I'm not sure if
it's scrabble legal, but yeah, that would be kind of
I think that as kind of a British slang. I
don't know if it's cockney or some other British slang
for isn't it in it? Right way of spelling it? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Well that I feel I learned a lot and one
of did you mention up front or did I read
this somewhere that that verbing is a new word that's
scrabble legal verb to turn something into a verb.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
That's a great question. I'm not even sure. I know
there are new usages like adulting, but I don't know
if verbing actually got in there. It seems like it should.
If we're going to use adulting, we should be allowed
the more generic verbing.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Well, yes, I think verbing. My memory is that it
was like a meta, a meta new word, And I
do love it because verb and verbing or turning that
back into a noun, the verbification I.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Like, yes, exactly just and then the verb verbification in
things just circles around and endless.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
I liked it also because when I was researching my
book on the Constitution, I read a lot of Ben
Franklin and one of his grouchiest letters ever was to
Noah Webster, where he complained about now in a fication.
He was very upset that several verbs had become nouns,
including nob, yes, advocate, and progress.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
So to notice meaning to notice, So it was a
noun meaning like a notice.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Yes, you send them notice, right, And he was not
happy that people people were saying yes. So if you
said yeah, don't don't say that Ben Franklin is an
advocate of progress or advocating progressing something like that. Just
be careful when you're talking to Ben. That's all I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
I guess he would say, so to progress, to move
forward is the verb you're gonna, We're gonna progress, And
he didn't like the people were now saying the state
of progressing exactly.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Don't say Ben Franklin is a fan of progress or an.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Advocate an advocate for progress, but.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
He comes very stodgy in that, and he's not.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
I always thought he's your favorite.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
He also wanted all nouns to be capitalized, and I'm
I like that.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
That's Germany. That's what German.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Doeses there you go. I mean, what's great about it
scrabble or terrible is you don't need to know the definition.
And even in that book word freak, I think I
remember that there were people who don't speak English but
just memorized the entire dictionary. Yes, yeah, they have no idea.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Some of the greatest scrabble players are African from I
want to say Nigeria, but I might be wrong, but
that but right, not necessarily native English speakers, just people
who dove into the list and memorized all the words.
That's a word freak by Stephen FATSUSRT book. Great guy.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
And I think our friend, our friend John is a
d Williams. John.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
What's John D Williams. Yes, former head of the National
Scrabble Association, good friend of the pod. Hello, regular attendee
at Mohunk Mountain House, the wonderful world of Words, which
you know, let's not forget that's happening or when this airs,
that will have happened, and.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
I am still I'm optimistic it will.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Well, what happened again? It either just happened in early
November or it is happening in the upcoming November, whatever
that is. But anyway, John D. Williams, who happens to
also be a.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Screenwriter right and multi talented.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Has these great stories of his agent getting a call saying, hey,
Steven Spielberg wants to talk to you about a project.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
And then turned him down.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Well no, and then he says, oh, oh no, no, sorry,
not that John Williams. That hurts.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
That's why he puts the d in there. But I
think it was him who said to me once that
scrabble is a game where the dictionary is the rule book.
Like you just have to memorize the dictionary. You know
all the rules. All right, Well, do you have an
extra credit for the puddlers?
Speaker 3 (17:50):
All?
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Oh, yes, I do for the puzzlers at home. This
is your extra credit. Wakitava aqui ta theakita? Is that
a a small porpoise b a Mexican appetizer made with
cow's milk, cheese and tortillas, or a slang term for
(18:15):
a Spanish dancer.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Mm hmm. Okay, that's good. That's good. I have my theories,
but I'm not gonna say I And while you're thinking
about that, please check out the puzzler Instagram feed at
Hello puzzlers. We've got new puzzles going up. We got
all sorts of goodies and of course we will see
you here tomorrow from We're Puzzling Puzzles and will puzzle
(18:38):
you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Ky puzzlers. It's Greg Plisko, your chief puzzle Officer, here
once again with the extra credit answer from our previous show.
Tom Papa played Breaking Bread with us, based on the
title of his Terrific podcast. We took the word bread
and split it into two pieces and stuff some other
stuff inside to make a new word. So each answer
(19:08):
is a word that starts and ends with the letters
in bread distributed in some way. Your extra credit clue
was made. Someone blow into something to test for alcohol. That,
of course is breathalyzed. If you breathalyzed someone, you tested
them for their alcohol content and their breast and interestingly enough,
(19:31):
the term breathalize is a portmanteau made up of breath
and analyze. So I hope you haven't been breathalyzed recently,
and I hope you're enjoying the puzzler. We'll see you
here tomorrow
Hello, puzzlers, Welcome to the puzzler the Tommy John Surgery
for your baseball pitcher's elbow puzzle. I'm your host, A J. Jacobs,
and I am here with chief puzzle Officer Greg. Let's
go welcome Greg.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Well, thanks, Aj. I like you took a kind of
a negative Tommy John surgery and turned it into a positive.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
I thought it was positive. I thought you'd pitch faster.
When you get Tommy John surgery, it's like.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Well, you know your doctor will tell you, no, surgery
is surgery you want to do, You do it because
you have to do it.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
I see, got you all right, right?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I mean surgery is always a risk, and you're getting
Tommy John because something's gone wrong, right, and pictures don't
always come back better after Tommy John.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
All right, So since we are not licensed doctors, please
don't get Tommy John surgery just because I said you
throw faster. Yes, talk to your doctor disclaimer about that.
But regardless of our medical pedigree, we do have puzzle pedigree,
and you have got something that's in the puzzle ballpark.
(01:16):
Going back to pable, Oh well done. It wasn't on purpose,
and that's scrabble there's a lot of overlap between scrabble
lovers and puzzle lovers.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
No question for sure. And this is not going back
to August. I think we might have discussed this when
it happened. But Collins added two thousand or so new
words to the Official Scrabble Dictionary, which, as you know,
is the dictionary that you should use when you're playing scrabble.
It tells you all the words that are legal in
(01:49):
the game of Scrabble. You can use any dictionary you
want right at home. You got what you got, you know,
whatever dictionary you have, you can use. It's nice to
have a reference that says these are the legal words.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
It is.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yeah, in two thousand is a lot of new words,
and that will just annoy my family more because usually
any combination of consonant vowel consonant is a three letter
word that is legal in scrabble. Like there are just
so many words right that are kind of dubious to
the rest regular person, but Scrabble Dictionary all for it.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Well, And if you're a professional scrabble player, you are
learning all the two letter words and the three letter
words right, because it's not so much that you care
about what they mean you just think you know what
combinations are legal in the game.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Right, And actually that was when I was a nerdy
high school student as opposed to a nerd adult. I
did memorize all the two letter words in Scrabble dictionary,
and I think I wrote a short story incorporating them
all that, thankfully for the world, never got published, but
it was about to see it now, Well, I do remember.
(02:55):
It was about a Scottish girlfriend of mine, which is
a your Joe, right, and how she was betting some
Vietnam Vietnamese money.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Which is shoe x u exactly right.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, on a karate tournament where people were wearing their
g exactly, that's all. I remember that she was hitting
some zaw later on exactly. This might have been before
ZA was legal, because.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Oh, interesting there are am I right? There are two
letters that you can't make two letter words with.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Oh what are they?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
V V is one of them, and C is the
other one. Interesting rest there's at least one option for
two letter words, which are useful when you play. You know,
one word directly a parallel to the other, and then
you get a lot of two letter words, so you
can hook onto a word with a two letter words,
a lot of good you know usages of two letter words.
(03:48):
They drive your you know, family crazy when you're crazy,
Yeah exactly, they're like, that's not a word. What are
all those words? It turns out they're legit and they
score you lots of points. Well, anyway, Collins added all
these words, and they included gen z slang, internet terms,
international food vocabulary, uh, and even some new usages of
(04:10):
words like adult as a verb. Oh, I now play
adulting or adulted? Right?
Speaker 1 (04:17):
And within we have wasn't the Jordan Carlos had the
adulting podcast?
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yes exactly, there you go.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
He made it in.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
So there's a bunch of these new words. And what
I did put together for you is a little multiple
choice quiz. Great. So basically, I'll give you one of
the words that's now in the Scrabble dictionary, okay, and
three possible definitions, and you just tell me which one
is the right definition.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
I like it. I like it would I would be
okay with two possible definitions, but a three is fine
as well.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
I mean I could troubly switch this to two, but no, no,
I like a challenge. I like it. All right, Yeah,
all right, So your first one is ooh wu you
wu is the word.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
That is so helpful because I hate us, I hate
having right.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
It's a useful word. It gets a couple of us out,
you can, you know, attach them to a W. It's good.
So is this a word used in Tibetan meditation? Is
it internet slang for a good looking escort at a
party or is it an expression of admiration for something
considered cute? Oh meditation word slang for a good looking
(05:28):
escort or expression of admiration for something cute.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Man, I don't know, I am, I am stumped. I'm
just gonna guess one out of the three. I'm gonna
go the uh, I guess I'm gonna go with the
cute Internet cute.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Wow, you are smart? Yes, it is oo oo. I
learned it from my son. He's one of those you know, gen.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Z people who he says, I think it's because a
W with two ukase W with two u's on either
side looks like a sort of cute little.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Cat thing or something. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
It comes from that.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Kind of iconography of the letters.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
And it's interesting because yeah, it's you double you you,
So it's for us, you could just say four US.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
If I played four US in a row, I'd be allowed.
I'd be happy to get rid of all the US,
no question. All right, here's another one. Zonky z o
n k e y okay zonkey zunky? Is that a
word that means slightly confused or out of whack? A
hybrid between a zebra and a donkey, or the employee
(06:42):
on a film responsible for keeping the actors entertained.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
That is a nice job if it doesn't exist.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Zonkey in here? You know Sean Penn is getting grumpy?
Where's the zonkey?
Speaker 1 (06:55):
And he does seem like someone to get grumpy? I
this one, I think, I know. I think it is
the hybrid. It's like the ligron or tygron or whatever.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Yeah. Direct, it is a zebra donkey hybrid. Nice, so
very well done. But now you can play it in scrabble.
It's got high scoring letters in it. You might want
to use it sometimes.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Absolutely, this is news you can use people.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, all right, here's your next one. Yeat y ee
tm okay. Does that mean to throw something a hat,
to throw something, especially without concern for breaking it? Is
it a yam beat hybrid or is it a young
farm animal, especially the runt of the litter. M.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
I feel we just did a hybrid, so I'm gonna
steer away from that. I do have a vague memory
that this is gen Z maybe jen alpha whatever for
throwing something.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
You are correct again to read that out the window. Yeah,
now I feel good. All my scrabble words I know
because of my son. That's true, all right. How about
nibbling n I B L I n G nibbling? Is
it a very small pencil, a gender neutral term for
(08:16):
a niece or nephew or a harmless but scary looking creature.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
M those are all very good. I haven't since I
wrote a book about families. I do remember this from
my very good and it is it's a gender neutral
niece or nephew. It's a nibbling.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Nibbling sort of like sibling. It's like a portmanteau of
sibling and niece or nephew nibbling. Right.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
And then there's dibbling, which I think are donor siblings.
So if you have the same sperm donor but have
like one hundred sisters or brothers, those are dibblings.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Oh, that's it. That's different from like a half brother.
Or sister, because technically a half brother could also have
the same sperm donor. It is think a biological way.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
All dibblings are half siblings, but not all half siblings
are dibblings.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Right. Well, you're saying, if you donated your sperm and
hundreds of offspring were created from that, they would all
be dibblings exactly, even if they never met you.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
I have not done that, but I have no moral
qualms from people who do. I don't judge.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
That's good. I got a couple more of these for you.
Love it. I have N graham, N g R a M,
which is a nice word to have because it starts
to's got those three consonants right up front. You can
imagine a lot of places you might find that useful.
N Graham Is it a unit of N words, letters,
or symbols? Is it a Japanese bovine similar to a
(09:47):
muskox ingraham? Or is it any member of your grandparents
generation who is not your grandparents, well like your grandparent's friends. Yeah,
you have the n Grahams in your life. Who are
you know?
Speaker 1 (10:03):
People you know? But they are yes, the grandparents from
another grand grandmother from another grandmother something like that.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
I think like my mother in law's best friend is
practically a member of our family. Got it? Yes, right,
she's my kids, but she's not a grandparent to my friends.
She's just you know anyway that may or may not
be what this word means.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Well, yeah, I mean if it did, you're trying to
sell me on it. I can tell that.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
I'm not buying. I'm not buying B salent. Okay, I am.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Since this is the puzzler, I'm going to guess that
it's an end, like it's an N graham is an
end puzzle or and what was it again?
Speaker 2 (10:46):
And learned of n words, letters or symbols and texts,
and you would be correct.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Like a by graham is two letters, and then try.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Graham would be three and is just the generic track
something a unit of in something.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
And twenty six gram is the pangram, which is uses
all of the letters. Yes, gotcha?
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I like that? Okay, I buy that? All right, We'll
do two more? Great? Uh comees q A m.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
E z q A m e e z Wow.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
No idea, there's a word you're gonna want if you've
got those letters on your board, want to use them.
There is it a long tunic worn in South Asia
the gaming community in general? From a typographical error or
is it ever? Meaning to amaze or astound? Yeah, this is.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Helpful because I know Qat caught the drug and q
A I d is leave a Muslim. We can look
at that.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
It's a unit, I believe.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Oh, but yes, this one, I don't know. I don't
think it's a man. I mean, you know what for
the story I'm going to go with the story of
the typographical.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Error gaming community in general. Yeah, the same way like
tad became a word meaning the because somehow it's a
common typo t e h instead of exactly right. However,
you would be completely wrong. It's actually a long tunic
worn in South Asia.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Fair enough, fair enough, all right. I am glad to learn.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Sometimes the anomology makes you think, oh I could.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Be that, but hm, well you got me, you got me.
Let me see if I can redeem myself.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
All right, I'll give you one more.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
I n t okay, And that is healthful though. That's
a good one.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Yeah. Is a gamer slang for intentionally dying, a shortened
form of isn't it? Or a Persian spirit similar to
a gin.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Huh. All right, well I got uh, I got burned
on the gaming lingo before, so I'm gonna say that
is wait, what was the middle.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
One shortened form of isn't it?
Speaker 1 (13:19):
That's what I'm gonna go with interesting?
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Interesting? You should have gone with the gamer slang is
actually to is to intentionally die?
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Interesting? But I think in it is in it a word?
I an an it because I've.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yeah seen definitely yeah, in it. I'm not sure if
it's scrabble legal, but yeah, that would be kind of
I think that as kind of a British slang. I
don't know if it's cockney or some other British slang
for isn't it in it? Right way of spelling it? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Well that I feel I learned a lot and one
of did you mention up front or did I read
this somewhere that that verbing is a new word that's
scrabble legal verb to turn something into a verb.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
That's a great question. I'm not even sure. I know
there are new usages like adulting, but I don't know
if verbing actually got in there. It seems like it should.
If we're going to use adulting, we should be allowed
the more generic verbing.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Well, yes, I think verbing. My memory is that it
was like a meta, a meta new word, And I
do love it because verb and verbing or turning that
back into a noun, the verbification I.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Like, yes, exactly just and then the verb verbification in
things just circles around and endless.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
I liked it also because when I was researching my
book on the Constitution, I read a lot of Ben
Franklin and one of his grouchiest letters ever was to
Noah Webster, where he complained about now in a fication.
He was very upset that several verbs had become nouns,
including nob, yes, advocate, and progress.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
So to notice meaning to notice, So it was a
noun meaning like a notice.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Yes, you send them notice, right, And he was not
happy that people people were saying yes. So if you
said yeah, don't don't say that Ben Franklin is an
advocate of progress or advocating progressing something like that. Just
be careful when you're talking to Ben. That's all I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
I guess he would say, so to progress, to move
forward is the verb you're gonna, We're gonna progress, And
he didn't like the people were now saying the state
of progressing exactly.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Don't say Ben Franklin is a fan of progress or an.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Advocate an advocate for progress, but.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
He comes very stodgy in that, and he's not.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
I always thought he's your favorite.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
He also wanted all nouns to be capitalized, and I'm
I like that.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
That's Germany. That's what German.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Doeses there you go. I mean, what's great about it
scrabble or terrible is you don't need to know the definition.
And even in that book word freak, I think I
remember that there were people who don't speak English but
just memorized the entire dictionary. Yes, yeah, they have no idea.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Some of the greatest scrabble players are African from I
want to say Nigeria, but I might be wrong, but
that but right, not necessarily native English speakers, just people
who dove into the list and memorized all the words.
That's a word freak by Stephen FATSUSRT book. Great guy.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
And I think our friend, our friend John is a
d Williams. John.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
What's John D Williams. Yes, former head of the National
Scrabble Association, good friend of the pod. Hello, regular attendee
at Mohunk Mountain House, the wonderful world of Words, which
you know, let's not forget that's happening or when this airs,
that will have happened, and.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
I am still I'm optimistic it will.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Well, what happened again? It either just happened in early
November or it is happening in the upcoming November, whatever
that is. But anyway, John D. Williams, who happens to
also be a.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Screenwriter right and multi talented.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Has these great stories of his agent getting a call saying, hey,
Steven Spielberg wants to talk to you about a project.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
And then turned him down.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Well no, and then he says, oh, oh no, no, sorry,
not that John Williams. That hurts.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
That's why he puts the d in there. But I
think it was him who said to me once that
scrabble is a game where the dictionary is the rule book.
Like you just have to memorize the dictionary. You know
all the rules. All right, Well, do you have an
extra credit for the puddlers?
Speaker 3 (17:50):
All?
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Oh, yes, I do for the puzzlers at home. This
is your extra credit. Wakitava aqui ta theakita? Is that
a a small porpoise b a Mexican appetizer made with
cow's milk, cheese and tortillas, or a slang term for
(18:15):
a Spanish dancer.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Mm hmm. Okay, that's good. That's good. I have my theories,
but I'm not gonna say I And while you're thinking
about that, please check out the puzzler Instagram feed at
Hello puzzlers. We've got new puzzles going up. We got
all sorts of goodies and of course we will see
you here tomorrow from We're Puzzling Puzzles and will puzzle
(18:38):
you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Ky puzzlers. It's Greg Plisko, your chief puzzle Officer, here
once again with the extra credit answer from our previous show.
Tom Papa played Breaking Bread with us, based on the
title of his Terrific podcast. We took the word bread
and split it into two pieces and stuff some other
stuff inside to make a new word. So each answer
(19:08):
is a word that starts and ends with the letters
in bread distributed in some way. Your extra credit clue
was made. Someone blow into something to test for alcohol. That,
of course is breathalyzed. If you breathalyzed someone, you tested
them for their alcohol content and their breast and interestingly enough,
(19:31):
the term breathalize is a portmanteau made up of breath
and analyze. So I hope you haven't been breathalyzed recently,
and I hope you're enjoying the puzzler. We'll see you
here tomorrow
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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