September 4, 2025 • 21 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 next week!
Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: iconic writer and filmmaker, Aline Brosh Mckenna!
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.
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.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello puzzlers. This week, the week of Labor Day, the
Puzzler team will be busy in the Puzzler Laboratory. We
are coming up with new ways to amuse and amuse
our wonderful listeners, which gives us the chance to play
you some of our favorite episodes from the Puzzler vault,
(00:21):
so please enjoy today's selection. Hello puzzlers, Let's start with
a quick puzzle. As a very busy person, I am
always looking for ways to save time, so I am
in search of the most efficient way to write the
phrase ten extra kisses. Can you help me out? I
(00:41):
actually figured it out already, and the hint is it
only requires three letters and the same three letters at
that The answer and more puzzling puzzles after the break,
Hello puzzlers, Welcome back to the Puzzler podcast. The lead
(01:01):
mermaid in your Esther Williams Puzzle Water Ballet. I'm your
host ajj I'm your host AJ Jacobs, and I am here,
of course, with Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Klisco.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Greg.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Before the break, I asked for help writing the phrase
ten extra kisses in the most efficient way possible. To
have any suggestions for me.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Before I answer?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
That I reminded me of one of the least efficient
abbreviations in the English language, which is the world Wide
Web three syllables, which we abbreviate.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
As WWW, which is nine syllables.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah, totally, unless you say W like like the President Wright,
that's at least a little better. Good point.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Still not helpful anyway, Your answer you're looking for is
close to that.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
It's X x X right at her ten X for
extra and X.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
For kiss exactly, and X can also stand for crossword
or X marks the spot. It's just a very versatile,
little humble letter. I was inspired to do an ex
riddle by one of my all time favorite TV shows,
Crazy Ex Girlfriend, which happens to be co created by
our guest today, Aleen Brosh McKenna. She also wrote the
(02:17):
devilwaars Prada movie. She directed and wrote the Reese Witherspoon
Ashton Kutcher rom com Your Place or Mind, available on Netflix.
Welcome Aleene, Hi, thank you for having me. We are thrilled.
I also I wanted to bring up one of my
favorite scenes in movie Dumb and it is the scene
from The devilwaars Prada where Meryl Streep dresses down well
(02:42):
a little pun intended. She scolds Anne Hathaway's character for
not knowing the difference between two blue belts, because Anne
says that to her, the belts look exactly the same,
and they are not. And I actually we have a
very short clip of Meryl.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Oh okay, I see you think this has nothing to
do with you. You go to your closet and you select
I don't know that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because
you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself
too seriously to care about what you put on your back.
But what you don't know is that that sweater is
(03:20):
not just blue. It's not turquois, it's not lapis, it's
actually Cerulian. And you're also blithely unaware of the fact
that in two thousand and two, Ospital Lorna did a
collection of Cerulian gowns. And then I think it was
Eve Sin Laurent, wasn't it who showed Cirillian military jackets.
I think we need a jacket here, And then Cerulian
(03:41):
quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
I'm going to filter down.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Through the department stores, and then trickled on down into
some tragic casual corner where you no doubt fished it
out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions
of dollars in countless jobs.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
And it's sort of comical how you think that you've made.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
A choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when
in fact you're wearing a sweater that was selected for
you by the people in this room.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
So good? How did you come up with that scene?
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Elie?
Speaker 5 (04:16):
That scene? There was always a scene in the script,
because I was the fifth writer. There was always a
little bit of a mention of the fashion world has
an impact beyond what people understand. And in some ways,
what I've come to see over time is that that
speech particularly works for men. I think women have kind
of an instinctive I'm overgeneralizing obviously, but an instinctive understanding
(04:40):
of how clothing gets transmitted. And so it was just
a few lines, and then Merrill and the director David Frankel,
really felt like it was an opportunity to really expostulate
on that. So I made a bigger, bigger, bigger and
worked with Marylyn David over a weekend and and since
(05:01):
we were doing Blue, I actually said to Merril, would
you like to use lapis azure or cerulian? And she
picked cerulian, which is really, I think the funnest and
most musical of those words. So good, So it became,
and so I wrote what was a very long, overly
(05:22):
long speech, and then every every word of it is
in the movie because obviously everything she does is you know,
I thought it was going to be long, but once
you saw it, once you see it, it's you know,
she makes every word matter.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Oh it's so good. And you're right. Cerulean such a
beautiful word. And I love I love color words in general,
especially the colors named by Pantone. You know Pantone, So
that's the company used by artists and designers to figure
out the precise color they want. And we looked into it.
(05:57):
There are two three hundred and ten Pantone colors, always going.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
The name them all.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Well, I'll name a couple because they're so they can
be delicious, like tapioca and nutmeg, both colors. Isn't this one?
Speaker 5 (06:13):
Isn't it? This year something mushroomy?
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Right?
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (06:16):
Really, I didn't think this year is something kind of mushroomy.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I know, Shataki is one.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Okay, do you mean there are colors of the year pants?
Speaker 1 (06:24):
They announced colors of the year and they can be animal.
Kangaroo is a color, flying though natured fog, molten lava,
just gorgeous. And you brought up color of the air.
The Ulan was color of the air in two thousand
because it will bring a certain piece of mind because
(06:45):
it reminds you of time spent outdoors. So it's a
lovely color.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
I'm looking at colors of the year right now. This
is cool.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
So what is this? What is this this year?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
This year is mocha moose?
Speaker 5 (06:57):
Yes, yes, it's sort of color interesting.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yeah, which is both a color and a dessert. I
like that.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
So for this puzzle, Eleene, I'm going to give you
the pantone number and you have to tell me the color.
So I'm assuming you memorized, yes.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
It puzzle.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Six four.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Well, to make it a little more accessible, I am
going to give you some context clues. So that's a clue.
Might be this is a famous painting called the Girl
with the twenty one three oh four earring, So what.
Speaker 5 (07:34):
Is that would be the Well, I know this painting,
it's very famous. There's also a movie and a book
The Girl with the Pearl.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Earring exactly pearl, this sort of off white, lovely color. Uh.
And actually, since there are so many colors, to be efficient,
we're going to have at least two pantone colors in
every clue.
Speaker 5 (07:56):
So for instance, high degree of difficulty, we're still going.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
To have a thousand more clues. But it's gonna be good.
It's gonna go quick.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Uh for instan here's another for instance. Uh, this is
a common saying, an adage. Uh, you say that is
the thirty nine to two to two that broke the
seven to one twenty fours back. That is the thirty
nine twenty two that broke.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
But that is how I speak. So I'm glad that
you are letting people out on my two colors that
I cannot wear, which would be straw, right and camel.
I would love to be able to wear a camel,
but really it's for blondes. So that's the straw that
broke the camel's back.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
There a j all right, there there you go. And
I obviously that clue was not the straw that broke
your back, because you know, I'm still.
Speaker 5 (08:42):
I haven't I haven't pushed back my desk in rage
and flown out.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Well, let's hope that we h we keep that going.
All right, I'm going to start with if life gives
you thirty seven five twos make twenty seven to two one.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
Wow. So they're both colors. That's so interesting. I wonder
what the different is differences between lemons and lemonade. That's right,
it gives you lemons make lemonade. So I'm gonna guess
lemons is a more intense yellow and lemonade is perhaps
more of a water colory yellow.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
There you go exactly, yes, yeah, you know your you
know your colors, not just aerulian. All right, I've got
a TV Oh. By the way, this puzzle was written
that clue in particular, written by senior puzzler Andrea Schomberg.
So thank you Andrea for finding us. The difference terrific.
Uh here's a TV special, Holiday TV special. It's the
(09:34):
Great forty one one three nine Charlie eighty one three
two one.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
I'm gonna bot tune in the Great.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
It's the Grade forty one one three nine Charlie eighty
one three two Got it?
Speaker 5 (09:49):
Got it? God? I love those so much. When I
was growing up and I loved I had all the books,
all the Peanuts books, those original Peanuts books. I just
loved all those when they really looked like little kids,
before they started to look like little adults. It's the
great Pumpkin.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
That's it. Yes, Charlie Brown, that is correct. You got it.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Two more colors. You're not going to wear, right?
Speaker 5 (10:14):
No, I will wear so. I love pumpkin and brown.
I don't know if I'm wearing lemonade, but I'm gonna pumpkin.
Brown are flattering. Our flat can be flattering.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
All right, Well, just to be so we don't get
the letters that we mentioned earlier. It's actually that number
was brown knee because they're twenty nine. Browns are actually brown.
There's rustic brown, Carab brown, sud Anne Brown.
Speaker 5 (10:38):
I had a friend who was a TV writer, of
an old time TV writer named Jerry Belson, And when
he was a young comedy writer, he and his partner
made a list of things I only tried once, oh,
and one of them was Carab.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Have you tried it once? Or zero?
Speaker 5 (10:58):
But it's not a no and I we've all gone
away from it. But they used to tell it, they
used to market it to us as children is like
gen xers is like an alternative to chocolate, right, which
it's just not it's not.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Is it like healthier than chocolate or something?
Speaker 5 (11:13):
I guess, I don't know. I don't know, but it's
it's fallen by the wayside. But I love that joke
because it's quite true. Once it's enough.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
My mom is allergic to chocolate, and so we did
have carib like popsicles in the carib bars. But you're right,
you don't see carib It is definitely not the.
Speaker 5 (11:33):
How were those popsicles? Aj not good?
Speaker 1 (11:35):
They tasted nothing like chocolate. But don't tell my mom.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
No, it's a different flavor. Carab's a different flavor. It
could be good in certain contexts, like if you're dying
on a beach and that's all you have.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Right, exactly, all right. I have lyrics to a song,
another holiday one, and I might sing it if requested,
because all right, yes, first, I'm gonna say it first.
I'll say it. Well, all right, I'll sing it up front. Yeah,
(12:08):
two twenty five, two o twos and eighty one twenty
four in a one ten six fifteen tree.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Wait, there are three of them in there.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
There are three yes, I forgot to mention pack.
Speaker 5 (12:22):
Oh wait three okay, wait, so now say.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
It all right? Here it is again two twenty five
two o twos and then eighty one one two four
in a one ten sixteen tree.
Speaker 5 (12:35):
So is there four in there?
Speaker 2 (12:37):
No?
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Just three, just three. It's a two blank in a
blank blank and a blank in a blank tree.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
Two turtle doves.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Nailed it. And a partridge is a color, yeah, partrae yeah, brown, and.
Speaker 5 (12:54):
Pear is a color in a pear tree.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
That's a pear sorbet to be technical.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Okay, close, Well the original lyric it was actually a
parasoor base.
Speaker 5 (13:05):
Yes, our church, I wonder what color partridge is? Is
that a greeny blue?
Speaker 1 (13:09):
I'm pretty sure it's a brown, brownie, brown, browny.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
I'm thinking peacock, which it's not. Partridges are kind of
a hen brown.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Yeah, it's a brown. It's right rex to fryer round,
right to fryars. Wow, well done, all right, I got
a couple more and then we're out. Uh, let's let's
do a little food. This one is two words, just
the two words, though, nothing no context, okay. Eighty four
thirty sixty one three three one eighty four thirty sixty
(13:40):
one three three one.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
At all, I mean anything. The hint is bacon.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
Okay, what's our hint?
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Millennials love this food. According to the stereotype. It's an
open sandwich.
Speaker 5 (13:54):
I know what it is.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Okay, what do you got.
Speaker 5 (13:57):
Because I'll tell you my favorite Worry about this. My
friend Alano once went to a restaurant ordered this and
they gave her just the fruit, the relevant fruit, a knife,
and an uncut piece of bread. No out of that,
and some salt and out of that at a restaurant.
(14:18):
I have a picture of this. She put this on
her Instagram. It's one of my I reposted every once
in a while because it really makes me laugh. This
picture of her with all the ingredients that she sitting
in a restaurant is with which she is supposed to
make avocado toast exactly.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
That is hilarious. Yes, but just make it yourself. Here's
the chicken. Here's a tomato.
Speaker 5 (14:38):
I don't like it when they people do that. I
don't want a deconstructed salad. I don't want I certainly
don't want a deconstructed avocado toast. I'm here, you make it,
I'll eat it.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
You've got a job right exactly. And by the way,
I also included it because you wrote a lovely column
about your sort of an honorary millennial.
Speaker 5 (14:58):
I am. I do feel like I am.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
And why is that? For those who haven't read, you.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
Know, it's funny. I think our writer's room was almost
all millennials, and I just clicked right into their kind
of aesthetic, their worldview and their humor.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
You know.
Speaker 5 (15:12):
Gen X is a kind of a dark generation, you know,
thrown to the wolves. We wore dirty clothes that we
found at the you know, at the thrift, which people
do again and I love to thrift, but we were
wearing really some of the most homely, smelly flannels, which
was just not I never really did. It wasn't my thing.
So I always felt like slightly a bit of an
(15:34):
outlier in the gen X, you know, being someone who
was not really into grunge and not into grubby clothing.
And yeah, and there was always that concept of selling out,
with which I was quite eager to do as a writer.
And so I feel like millennials strike a good balance
between ambition and humanity. And then, of course I have
(15:55):
two gen z sons, and I embraced their spirit as well.
And what's funny is that gen zs find millennial humor corny.
Really oh yes, And so sometimes I'll hear a gen
Z person critique a piece of comedy as being too millennial.
I love it, no matter you can't. You can't escape
(16:15):
the generational snobbery, no matter what you do. But gen
X was not a very sunny group. We really truly
were turned outside to play and in just a shockingly
young age. I just recently reconnected with a childhood friend
and she and I roam the neighborhood four years old,
five years old and walk to school in kindergarten and
(16:36):
first grade. At the age of four five walked to
school and the person who was in charge of us,
who was leading us across this mile long walk, no sidewalk,
just scrabbling around at the side of the road, our guide,
our sherpa, was an eight year old, her older sister.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Yeah, but now that's considered good, free range kids. That's
considered we survived it.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
We don't do it.
Speaker 5 (16:59):
We don't do it's it's considered good. It's also land
you in prison.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
So you know, all right, well, well let me and
since you're in TV, let me end with a television show.
Another show I enjoyed, not quite as much, but I
liked it a lot. And the title is eighty three
eight three four eighty one six five five You got Craig's.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Got it all right?
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Here you go.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
It was on the c W acres No, it's.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
In the on the c W in the early two thousand.
It starred Kristen four four one two one as a
pri detective.
Speaker 5 (17:40):
Is it Kristin?
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Well, it is Kristin.
Speaker 5 (17:42):
Be is Veronica Mars?
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Going to say colors Veronica and both official Pantone colors.
Veronica is a blue violet kind of like your sweater.
Speaker 5 (17:54):
Nick ag has hit us with a twist.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
There you Well, they did a Pantone don't kill the messenger.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
What color is Mars red? Mars is red like yes,
you say so.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
Red, a brownish red.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Brownish large celestial red. Okay, that's it.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
And Veronica apparently is a flower. Ye may or may
not be related to the color of Veronica, but there's
a whole internet kerfuffle about it. But I would say, yeah,
they are both official colors, and and I did cheat
a little because Kristen that is bluebell. There is no
actual cheating Meca here middle.
Speaker 5 (18:34):
If bell was the color, though, what color would it be?
Speaker 1 (18:37):
I'm guess a liberty bell.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Yeah, pewter, Yeah, yeah, bronze, you know, dirty bronze with
a crack.
Speaker 5 (18:47):
In It looks good on everyone.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Everybody wants to wear the dirty bronze. I'm going to
change right now.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Did working on that movie change your fashion?
Speaker 5 (18:57):
Great question? No one's ever asked me that, you know.
I I think what it did was give me permission
to buy more of it. You know. I felt like
this is you know, and little did I know that
I was I would be doing research for to write
another movie twenty years later.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Right there you go, so you can expense it all.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
It's my excuse for my shopping problem.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Well done. Well, I can't wait. This is going to
be fun, I know, I know.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
So we got a little clue there. The next movie
is also going to be about fashion. There you go. Yeah,
it could be could be.
Speaker 5 (19:27):
You never know, they could go to Mars.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Yeah, oh I like that. And also yeah, I wonder
if it'll be the Devil wears like whatever, Devil wears
Gucci because then you can do a deal. I know,
Hollywood likes doing deals. All right, I do have an
extra credit before we leave. I'm looking for These are
three pantone colors, so fill in the blanks in this sentence.
(19:52):
Sharon Sylvester and Emma eighty six fifteen can all be
seen on the forty five two screen or the ninety
one sixty sixty three carpet. So there you go. Well,
thank you, Eleen and folks. In the meantime, if you
have some extra time, and who doesn't not Eleen, she's
(20:15):
very busy working on the sequel. Check out our Instagram
feed at Hello puzzlers, and we will see you here
tomorrow of course, for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle
you puzzlingly.
Speaker 6 (20:32):
Hey puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska up from the Puzzle Lab
once again with the extra credit answer from our previous show.
John Green joined us for a game we called Mental
to Dental, inspired by the Great Mental Floss where John
used to work. In this game, we replaced the M
in a common phrase with a D. So here's your
extra credit clue. Replace the M with a D and
(20:53):
a demented physicist becomes someone who studies fathers.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
We take mad scientists and turn it into dad scientists.
Welcome to all the scientists out there, mad dad, mom, daughter, son,
non binary, whoever you are, We're glad you're here doing
some science with us on the Puzzler
Hello puzzlers. This week, the week of Labor Day, the
Puzzler team will be busy in the Puzzler Laboratory. We
are coming up with new ways to amuse and amuse
our wonderful listeners, which gives us the chance to play
you some of our favorite episodes from the Puzzler vault,
(00:21):
so please enjoy today's selection. Hello puzzlers, Let's start with
a quick puzzle. As a very busy person, I am
always looking for ways to save time, so I am
in search of the most efficient way to write the
phrase ten extra kisses. Can you help me out? I
(00:41):
actually figured it out already, and the hint is it
only requires three letters and the same three letters at
that The answer and more puzzling puzzles after the break,
Hello puzzlers, Welcome back to the Puzzler podcast. The lead
(01:01):
mermaid in your Esther Williams Puzzle Water Ballet. I'm your
host ajj I'm your host AJ Jacobs, and I am here,
of course, with Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Klisco.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Greg.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Before the break, I asked for help writing the phrase
ten extra kisses in the most efficient way possible. To
have any suggestions for me.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Before I answer?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
That I reminded me of one of the least efficient
abbreviations in the English language, which is the world Wide
Web three syllables, which we abbreviate.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
As WWW, which is nine syllables.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah, totally, unless you say W like like the President Wright,
that's at least a little better. Good point.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Still not helpful anyway, Your answer you're looking for is
close to that.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
It's X x X right at her ten X for
extra and X.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
For kiss exactly, and X can also stand for crossword
or X marks the spot. It's just a very versatile,
little humble letter. I was inspired to do an ex
riddle by one of my all time favorite TV shows,
Crazy Ex Girlfriend, which happens to be co created by
our guest today, Aleen Brosh McKenna. She also wrote the
(02:17):
devilwaars Prada movie. She directed and wrote the Reese Witherspoon
Ashton Kutcher rom com Your Place or Mind, available on Netflix.
Welcome Aleene, Hi, thank you for having me. We are thrilled.
I also I wanted to bring up one of my
favorite scenes in movie Dumb and it is the scene
from The devilwaars Prada where Meryl Streep dresses down well
(02:42):
a little pun intended. She scolds Anne Hathaway's character for
not knowing the difference between two blue belts, because Anne
says that to her, the belts look exactly the same,
and they are not. And I actually we have a
very short clip of Meryl.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Oh okay, I see you think this has nothing to
do with you. You go to your closet and you select
I don't know that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because
you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself
too seriously to care about what you put on your back.
But what you don't know is that that sweater is
(03:20):
not just blue. It's not turquois, it's not lapis, it's
actually Cerulian. And you're also blithely unaware of the fact
that in two thousand and two, Ospital Lorna did a
collection of Cerulian gowns. And then I think it was
Eve Sin Laurent, wasn't it who showed Cirillian military jackets.
I think we need a jacket here, And then Cerulian
(03:41):
quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
I'm going to filter down.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Through the department stores, and then trickled on down into
some tragic casual corner where you no doubt fished it
out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions
of dollars in countless jobs.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
And it's sort of comical how you think that you've made.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
A choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when
in fact you're wearing a sweater that was selected for
you by the people in this room.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
So good? How did you come up with that scene?
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Elie?
Speaker 5 (04:16):
That scene? There was always a scene in the script,
because I was the fifth writer. There was always a
little bit of a mention of the fashion world has
an impact beyond what people understand. And in some ways,
what I've come to see over time is that that
speech particularly works for men. I think women have kind
of an instinctive I'm overgeneralizing obviously, but an instinctive understanding
(04:40):
of how clothing gets transmitted. And so it was just
a few lines, and then Merrill and the director David Frankel,
really felt like it was an opportunity to really expostulate
on that. So I made a bigger, bigger, bigger and
worked with Marylyn David over a weekend and and since
(05:01):
we were doing Blue, I actually said to Merril, would
you like to use lapis azure or cerulian? And she
picked cerulian, which is really, I think the funnest and
most musical of those words. So good, So it became,
and so I wrote what was a very long, overly
(05:22):
long speech, and then every every word of it is
in the movie because obviously everything she does is you know,
I thought it was going to be long, but once
you saw it, once you see it, it's you know,
she makes every word matter.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Oh it's so good. And you're right. Cerulean such a
beautiful word. And I love I love color words in general,
especially the colors named by Pantone. You know Pantone, So
that's the company used by artists and designers to figure
out the precise color they want. And we looked into it.
(05:57):
There are two three hundred and ten Pantone colors, always going.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
The name them all.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Well, I'll name a couple because they're so they can
be delicious, like tapioca and nutmeg, both colors. Isn't this one?
Speaker 5 (06:13):
Isn't it? This year something mushroomy?
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Right?
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (06:16):
Really, I didn't think this year is something kind of mushroomy.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I know, Shataki is one.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Okay, do you mean there are colors of the year pants?
Speaker 1 (06:24):
They announced colors of the year and they can be animal.
Kangaroo is a color, flying though natured fog, molten lava,
just gorgeous. And you brought up color of the air.
The Ulan was color of the air in two thousand
because it will bring a certain piece of mind because
(06:45):
it reminds you of time spent outdoors. So it's a
lovely color.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
I'm looking at colors of the year right now. This
is cool.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
So what is this? What is this this year?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
This year is mocha moose?
Speaker 5 (06:57):
Yes, yes, it's sort of color interesting.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yeah, which is both a color and a dessert. I
like that.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
So for this puzzle, Eleene, I'm going to give you
the pantone number and you have to tell me the color.
So I'm assuming you memorized, yes.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
It puzzle.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Six four.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Well, to make it a little more accessible, I am
going to give you some context clues. So that's a clue.
Might be this is a famous painting called the Girl
with the twenty one three oh four earring, So what.
Speaker 5 (07:34):
Is that would be the Well, I know this painting,
it's very famous. There's also a movie and a book
The Girl with the Pearl.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Earring exactly pearl, this sort of off white, lovely color. Uh.
And actually, since there are so many colors, to be efficient,
we're going to have at least two pantone colors in
every clue.
Speaker 5 (07:56):
So for instance, high degree of difficulty, we're still going.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
To have a thousand more clues. But it's gonna be good.
It's gonna go quick.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Uh for instan here's another for instance. Uh, this is
a common saying, an adage. Uh, you say that is
the thirty nine to two to two that broke the
seven to one twenty fours back. That is the thirty
nine twenty two that broke.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
But that is how I speak. So I'm glad that
you are letting people out on my two colors that
I cannot wear, which would be straw, right and camel.
I would love to be able to wear a camel,
but really it's for blondes. So that's the straw that
broke the camel's back.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
There a j all right, there there you go. And
I obviously that clue was not the straw that broke
your back, because you know, I'm still.
Speaker 5 (08:42):
I haven't I haven't pushed back my desk in rage
and flown out.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Well, let's hope that we h we keep that going.
All right, I'm going to start with if life gives
you thirty seven five twos make twenty seven to two one.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
Wow. So they're both colors. That's so interesting. I wonder
what the different is differences between lemons and lemonade. That's right,
it gives you lemons make lemonade. So I'm gonna guess
lemons is a more intense yellow and lemonade is perhaps
more of a water colory yellow.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
There you go exactly, yes, yeah, you know your you
know your colors, not just aerulian. All right, I've got
a TV Oh. By the way, this puzzle was written
that clue in particular, written by senior puzzler Andrea Schomberg.
So thank you Andrea for finding us. The difference terrific.
Uh here's a TV special, Holiday TV special. It's the
(09:34):
Great forty one one three nine Charlie eighty one three
two one.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
I'm gonna bot tune in the Great.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
It's the Grade forty one one three nine Charlie eighty
one three two Got it?
Speaker 5 (09:49):
Got it? God? I love those so much. When I
was growing up and I loved I had all the books,
all the Peanuts books, those original Peanuts books. I just
loved all those when they really looked like little kids,
before they started to look like little adults. It's the
great Pumpkin.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
That's it. Yes, Charlie Brown, that is correct. You got it.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Two more colors. You're not going to wear, right?
Speaker 5 (10:14):
No, I will wear so. I love pumpkin and brown.
I don't know if I'm wearing lemonade, but I'm gonna pumpkin.
Brown are flattering. Our flat can be flattering.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
All right, Well, just to be so we don't get
the letters that we mentioned earlier. It's actually that number
was brown knee because they're twenty nine. Browns are actually brown.
There's rustic brown, Carab brown, sud Anne Brown.
Speaker 5 (10:38):
I had a friend who was a TV writer, of
an old time TV writer named Jerry Belson, And when
he was a young comedy writer, he and his partner
made a list of things I only tried once, oh,
and one of them was Carab.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Have you tried it once? Or zero?
Speaker 5 (10:58):
But it's not a no and I we've all gone
away from it. But they used to tell it, they
used to market it to us as children is like
gen xers is like an alternative to chocolate, right, which
it's just not it's not.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Is it like healthier than chocolate or something?
Speaker 5 (11:13):
I guess, I don't know. I don't know, but it's
it's fallen by the wayside. But I love that joke
because it's quite true. Once it's enough.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
My mom is allergic to chocolate, and so we did
have carib like popsicles in the carib bars. But you're right,
you don't see carib It is definitely not the.
Speaker 5 (11:33):
How were those popsicles? Aj not good?
Speaker 1 (11:35):
They tasted nothing like chocolate. But don't tell my mom.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
No, it's a different flavor. Carab's a different flavor. It
could be good in certain contexts, like if you're dying
on a beach and that's all you have.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Right, exactly, all right. I have lyrics to a song,
another holiday one, and I might sing it if requested,
because all right, yes, first, I'm gonna say it first.
I'll say it. Well, all right, I'll sing it up front. Yeah,
(12:08):
two twenty five, two o twos and eighty one twenty
four in a one ten six fifteen tree.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Wait, there are three of them in there.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
There are three yes, I forgot to mention pack.
Speaker 5 (12:22):
Oh wait three okay, wait, so now say.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
It all right? Here it is again two twenty five
two o twos and then eighty one one two four
in a one ten sixteen tree.
Speaker 5 (12:35):
So is there four in there?
Speaker 2 (12:37):
No?
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Just three, just three. It's a two blank in a
blank blank and a blank in a blank tree.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
Two turtle doves.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Nailed it. And a partridge is a color, yeah, partrae yeah, brown, and.
Speaker 5 (12:54):
Pear is a color in a pear tree.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
That's a pear sorbet to be technical.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Okay, close, Well the original lyric it was actually a
parasoor base.
Speaker 5 (13:05):
Yes, our church, I wonder what color partridge is? Is
that a greeny blue?
Speaker 1 (13:09):
I'm pretty sure it's a brown, brownie, brown, browny.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
I'm thinking peacock, which it's not. Partridges are kind of
a hen brown.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Yeah, it's a brown. It's right rex to fryer round,
right to fryars. Wow, well done, all right, I got
a couple more and then we're out. Uh, let's let's
do a little food. This one is two words, just
the two words, though, nothing no context, okay. Eighty four
thirty sixty one three three one eighty four thirty sixty
(13:40):
one three three one.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
At all, I mean anything. The hint is bacon.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
Okay, what's our hint?
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Millennials love this food. According to the stereotype. It's an
open sandwich.
Speaker 5 (13:54):
I know what it is.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Okay, what do you got.
Speaker 5 (13:57):
Because I'll tell you my favorite Worry about this. My
friend Alano once went to a restaurant ordered this and
they gave her just the fruit, the relevant fruit, a knife,
and an uncut piece of bread. No out of that,
and some salt and out of that at a restaurant.
(14:18):
I have a picture of this. She put this on
her Instagram. It's one of my I reposted every once
in a while because it really makes me laugh. This
picture of her with all the ingredients that she sitting
in a restaurant is with which she is supposed to
make avocado toast exactly.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
That is hilarious. Yes, but just make it yourself. Here's
the chicken. Here's a tomato.
Speaker 5 (14:38):
I don't like it when they people do that. I
don't want a deconstructed salad. I don't want I certainly
don't want a deconstructed avocado toast. I'm here, you make it,
I'll eat it.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
You've got a job right exactly. And by the way,
I also included it because you wrote a lovely column
about your sort of an honorary millennial.
Speaker 5 (14:58):
I am. I do feel like I am.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
And why is that? For those who haven't read, you.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
Know, it's funny. I think our writer's room was almost
all millennials, and I just clicked right into their kind
of aesthetic, their worldview and their humor.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
You know.
Speaker 5 (15:12):
Gen X is a kind of a dark generation, you know,
thrown to the wolves. We wore dirty clothes that we
found at the you know, at the thrift, which people
do again and I love to thrift, but we were
wearing really some of the most homely, smelly flannels, which
was just not I never really did. It wasn't my thing.
So I always felt like slightly a bit of an
(15:34):
outlier in the gen X, you know, being someone who
was not really into grunge and not into grubby clothing.
And yeah, and there was always that concept of selling out,
with which I was quite eager to do as a writer.
And so I feel like millennials strike a good balance
between ambition and humanity. And then, of course I have
(15:55):
two gen z sons, and I embraced their spirit as well.
And what's funny is that gen zs find millennial humor corny.
Really oh yes, And so sometimes I'll hear a gen
Z person critique a piece of comedy as being too millennial.
I love it, no matter you can't. You can't escape
(16:15):
the generational snobbery, no matter what you do. But gen
X was not a very sunny group. We really truly
were turned outside to play and in just a shockingly
young age. I just recently reconnected with a childhood friend
and she and I roam the neighborhood four years old,
five years old and walk to school in kindergarten and
(16:36):
first grade. At the age of four five walked to
school and the person who was in charge of us,
who was leading us across this mile long walk, no sidewalk,
just scrabbling around at the side of the road, our guide,
our sherpa, was an eight year old, her older sister.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Yeah, but now that's considered good, free range kids. That's
considered we survived it.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
We don't do it.
Speaker 5 (16:59):
We don't do it's it's considered good. It's also land
you in prison.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
So you know, all right, well, well let me and
since you're in TV, let me end with a television show.
Another show I enjoyed, not quite as much, but I
liked it a lot. And the title is eighty three
eight three four eighty one six five five You got Craig's.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Got it all right?
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Here you go.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
It was on the c W acres No, it's.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
In the on the c W in the early two thousand.
It starred Kristen four four one two one as a
pri detective.
Speaker 5 (17:40):
Is it Kristin?
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Well, it is Kristin.
Speaker 5 (17:42):
Be is Veronica Mars?
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Going to say colors Veronica and both official Pantone colors.
Veronica is a blue violet kind of like your sweater.
Speaker 5 (17:54):
Nick ag has hit us with a twist.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
There you Well, they did a Pantone don't kill the messenger.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
What color is Mars red? Mars is red like yes,
you say so.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
Red, a brownish red.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Brownish large celestial red. Okay, that's it.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
And Veronica apparently is a flower. Ye may or may
not be related to the color of Veronica, but there's
a whole internet kerfuffle about it. But I would say, yeah,
they are both official colors, and and I did cheat
a little because Kristen that is bluebell. There is no
actual cheating Meca here middle.
Speaker 5 (18:34):
If bell was the color, though, what color would it be?
Speaker 1 (18:37):
I'm guess a liberty bell.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Yeah, pewter, Yeah, yeah, bronze, you know, dirty bronze with
a crack.
Speaker 5 (18:47):
In It looks good on everyone.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Everybody wants to wear the dirty bronze. I'm going to
change right now.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Did working on that movie change your fashion?
Speaker 5 (18:57):
Great question? No one's ever asked me that, you know.
I I think what it did was give me permission
to buy more of it. You know. I felt like
this is you know, and little did I know that
I was I would be doing research for to write
another movie twenty years later.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Right there you go, so you can expense it all.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
It's my excuse for my shopping problem.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Well done. Well, I can't wait. This is going to
be fun, I know, I know.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
So we got a little clue there. The next movie
is also going to be about fashion. There you go. Yeah,
it could be could be.
Speaker 5 (19:27):
You never know, they could go to Mars.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Yeah, oh I like that. And also yeah, I wonder
if it'll be the Devil wears like whatever, Devil wears
Gucci because then you can do a deal. I know,
Hollywood likes doing deals. All right, I do have an
extra credit before we leave. I'm looking for These are
three pantone colors, so fill in the blanks in this sentence.
(19:52):
Sharon Sylvester and Emma eighty six fifteen can all be
seen on the forty five two screen or the ninety
one sixty sixty three carpet. So there you go. Well,
thank you, Eleen and folks. In the meantime, if you
have some extra time, and who doesn't not Eleen, she's
(20:15):
very busy working on the sequel. Check out our Instagram
feed at Hello puzzlers, and we will see you here
tomorrow of course, for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle
you puzzlingly.
Speaker 6 (20:32):
Hey puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska up from the Puzzle Lab
once again with the extra credit answer from our previous show.
John Green joined us for a game we called Mental
to Dental, inspired by the Great Mental Floss where John
used to work. In this game, we replaced the M
in a common phrase with a D. So here's your
extra credit clue. Replace the M with a D and
(20:53):
a demented physicist becomes someone who studies fathers.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
We take mad scientists and turn it into dad scientists.
Welcome to all the scientists out there, mad dad, mom, daughter, son,
non binary, whoever you are, We're glad you're here doing
some science with us on the Puzzler
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.