April 9, 2025 • 18 mins
Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: comedian Adam Sank!
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.
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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.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler podcast the Oxford Comma.
In your puzzling list of three items, I am your host,
A J. Jacobs emphasis on the A. Today's show is
all about the letter A. In fact, here's a little
puzzle to start you off. Name a word in the
English language that contains an abundance of a's. Ardvark has
(00:26):
three a's, which is pretty good. Amalgamate has four a's,
as do sasperrilla, and there are lots of there are
not lots. There are some other quadruple words. There are
even a couple five A words, and at least one
sex tuple, a word which you may know if you
happen to be an expert in Greek cuisine. Regardless of
(00:49):
whether you are the answers after the break, welcome back
to the Muzzler. Before the break, we ask listeners to
come up with words containing as many a's as possible.
There are plenty of words with four a's. Maybe you
got one of them. There's ayahuasca, maharaja, extravaganza, maladaptation, jambalaya,
(01:17):
among others. I know of two words with five a's,
abracadabra and anna. Grammatical and the one with six a's
is Tara Masalata. I think I got that all the a's.
It's a Greek fish paste. I'm talking about a's because
our guest is a grade A stand up comic star
(01:40):
of the brilliant one man show Bad Dates, which has
two a's, and a man whose name has no other
vowels except for A the awesome Adam sank welcome.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Adam, thank you aj And also, my middle name has
only one vowel, which is an A.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
My middle name is Jacob. Oh wait a second, there's
an O two. Never mind, it.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Does add another A to your total A count, so
it's it's still a positive. I think, Uh, well we have.
I feel it's like Sesame Street, like sponsored by the letter.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
A, and my intelligence level is clearly that of a
Sesame Street viewer, since I failed to recognize another vowel
in my middle mind so.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Far in the back of that name. Uh but yes,
I remember your Adam Jacob, and then I'm Arnold Jacob,
so we got a lot in common.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Well, today I have two quick puzzles for you based
on the letter A. The first is called sank to Senka,
and the idea is you take a word, add the
letter A at the end, and thereby transform it into
a new word. Oh boy, if the clue were add
an A to the end of the last name of
(02:54):
a New York based stand up and you get a
brand of instant decaf coffee, then you'd say sank to Senka.
And by the way, your mom, who I have the
pleasure of knowing, seems like she might have been a
Senka drinker. Is that right?
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Or no?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
No, my mother does not drink sanca. She is a
caffeinated coffee drinker.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Okay, fair enough, but interestingly enough, aj my mother's maiden
name was lipt In, so she went from a te
to a decaffeinated coffee almost got married.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
I like that. See now your brain is kicking into
high gear.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
I love her.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
If you add an A to part of your face,
you get the most populous country on Earth. So add
an A to the end of a facial feature and
you get the most populous country on Earth. Well, think
of backwards. What's the most populated country on Earth?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
I mean, I'm thinking India.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Well, it is coming up fast?
Speaker 5 (04:01):
Is it?
Speaker 3 (04:01):
China? It is?
Speaker 1 (04:03):
That's what I was thinking of.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Oh, so your chin it's Chin to China.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Chin to China, exactly. All right. Now, I'm embarrassed that
because I know India is coming up fast and they're
gonna overtake China. But I thought China was still in
the league.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
It might still be China.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
I'm going to fact check that.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
All right.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Add an a to the end of a short sleep
to get a wine region in California.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
That would be Nap to Napa.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Nap to Napa, exactly. You're on a roll. What about
if you add an a to a young lady, you
get a big, fancy party. And this is a kind
of party that I don't know if you I've never
been to the most famous one as at the Metropolitan
(04:56):
Museum of Art, hosted by Anna Wintour.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Got it?
Speaker 5 (05:01):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (05:01):
So that would be when you go from gal to Gala.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
That's correct, Gal to Gala.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Or gala as some people pronounce you interesting and the
met Gala is what you are referring to.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Right, have you been?
Speaker 2 (05:16):
I haven't been, unfortunately not.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
I would love to go to that party.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
You would look terrific.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
How about if you add an a to a prison knife,
you get a Jewish ritual of mourning that's m O.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
You aren yes.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
And thankfully, while I've never been to prison, I have
been to several of these ceremonies when when a loved
one has passed. So I would go from a shive
to a.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Shiver, exactly, shive to a shiva.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
How about if you add an a to times gone by?
Then you get spaghetti or zd or rigatoni or various
other noodle dishes.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Now this one's tricky because the vowel changes quite a bit.
But I would go from the past to pasta.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
That's right, past to pasta. And someone was just telling
me that the British people do say pasta.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
They do say pasta. They do that a lot. With
the valves with the A vowel. It's always different than
you think it should be.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Right.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Usually they go the other way and go ahuh, all right,
just two more and then we've got part two. What
about if you add an A to the end of underarm,
you get a flatbread.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
That's kind of disgusting to think about it.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
It is very gross, but I apologize.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Then you would go from a pit to a pita.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Nicely done. How about if you add an a to
the last name of the eleventh President. You get a
type of music with a lot of accordions.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Well, I wouldn't have been able to come up with
the eleventh President on my own, but luckily your second
clue jolted my awareness. So that would be I believe
it would be James K. Polk to polka music.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
That's it to poka. That is well done.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Verry, and my mind immediately goes to weird Al Yankovic,
who I believe is a polka officionado.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
He did you ever see that movie Weirder?
Speaker 2 (07:37):
I think it was called his sort of mockumentary autobiography.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
I did not. I heard it. I heard it was great, it.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Was very funny. I really enjoyed it. All right, well done?
A plus? All right. I have one other quick a
based for you, and this is also based on your name,
(08:05):
Adam sank which, forgetting about your middle name for a moment,
will pretend that doesn't exist. Your name only has the
vowel A. It has consonants, but in terms of vowels,
it's allays. So the answers in this puzzle are also
(08:25):
names or phrases that only have the vowel A as a.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Vowel, So fast track, So not Jacob is what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Jacob will not be making an appear. It's less. It's
spelled jaca b. Maybe someone spells it that way, so yes,
afraid there are always two words. So it could be
a name, or it could be jazz band, fast track,
things like that. So I'll give you a clue and
then so if the clue is this was a famous
showbiz group with Frank and Sammy and Dan. He got it,
(09:01):
He's not in his head.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Yes, it would not be the mouse Trap.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
It would be the rat.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Pack exactly, well, although trap does have an A in it,
and this one a little more contemporary, not much, but
a little, the group with Emelia, Rob, Andrew, Demi and Molly.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Oh yes, I just watched a documentary about them. This
would be the Brett Pack.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, all right, this man oversaw the sale of many vowels,
including a the sale.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Oh I know who that is. Yes, he recently retired.
That would be Pat Sajack.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Exactly, Pat say jack.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
And interestingly, yes, since we did palindromes earlier, say jack
is backwards? Is jackass spelled spelled in correctly?
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Which is appropriate?
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (10:02):
I like the way your mind thinks. Now that is
good puzzling. It's more of an anagram than backwards, but
it's definitely uh, it's definitely in the area.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
All right.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
This is one of the founding fathers who was not
a successful beer maker, despite legend.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Now I know this even though I am not a
beer drinker myself. This would be Sam Adams.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
That is correct, Sam Adams. And originally the clue was
he was also a beer maker, but according to my
in depth research, he was a maltster, not a brewer.
He like made the he's.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
So surred it, but then he passed along to somebody
else to brew it.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Now, let me ask you about this one, Aj, because
it wasn't his name actually Samuel Adams.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Great catch, great catch, I think, yes, I think you
get a bonus point for that. I mean, I say,
since his name is Sam, the name of the beer
company is not Samuel Adams, it's Sam Adams. That's why
I thought it might be safe. So actually I suppose
the clues should have been to the beer company, not
(11:15):
to Samuel. Apologies to the whole Adams family.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Them I had.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Well, I probably shouldn't add this since I'm already on
their badside. But according to my research, he was not
a good moltster. He like it went bankrupt under his direction,
so he wasn't you know. He was a founding father,
but not a moltster. To emulate, just a couple more.
(11:46):
These can be glad.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
These can be glad.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Or they can be hefty. They can be glad or
they can be hefty.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Oh, I got it.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
And I've often been called this insult trash bags.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
I disagree. You are glad not a trash bag.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
They are, all right?
Speaker 1 (12:08):
What about this is a punk rock band or a
cockroach spray. You can go at it either way.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Hmm, Oh, I got it.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
That took me a minute because I first went to
Raid and I was like, I don't think there's a
punk rock band called Raid. But then I remembered black Flag.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Black Flag exactly. Apparently they make the roach motel or hotel.
I'm not sure which one.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Yeah, I don't know which product they make, but I
do know I do remember the punk band, and I
seem to remember seeing them on the on the side
of a of a product that kills something.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
It kills it's a yeah, it's a deadly product of
some sort. Well in that genre. I just thought i'd
throw out he played a record store employee in high fidelity.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
That was very good, very talented comedian, singer actor.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
This would be Jack Black Jack Black.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
I do like him a lot. He produced the unaired
pilot of based on a book I wrote. That's book,
the one where it was like a series of experiments.
My life is an experiment.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Oh yeah, he.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Is lovely but very nice. Well, Adam, you are a delight.
You are triple A. I guess triple A is not
great because that's like less than the my majors. So
I take it back.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
I wouldn't know anything about anything related to sports, but aj,
I just want to point out that I think I
got one hundred percent except for the first question, which
may have not been factual anyway, because we don't know
whether India or China is the most populous country or
populist country in the world.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
You know what, I Am going to solve this mystery
right now.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Let's google it live on the air.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
I know people are this once and for all, but yes,
you did. You got one hundred percent A plus.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
That's the as I'm stroking my chine as we try
to figure out.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Oh shoot, India did overtake it on July twenty first,
twenty twenty four. Wow, all right.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
I mean, listen, there's no way I would have known
that to claim any mental superiority, especially because I didn't
know about the vowels in my own meddle name.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Yes, well, I thank you more than made up for
it by correcting me on the most part. I mean,
it is, it is close in my defense. But the
congratulations India and Maneopoldo.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Yeah, honestly, here's what I find interest. And having just
listened to a mentalist. O's Pearlman was just on the
Howard Stern Show, and he was describing a little bit
about how mentalism works, I wonder if you had given
me this same puzzle with a different vowel, with a
vow that wasn't in my names, would I have done
(15:18):
as well?
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Oh? Interesting, because he said people usually go to the
whatever their name is, they're sort of prime for that.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Maybe, I mean he didn't specifically say that, but I'm
just wondering if I'm that's the vowel that I am
the most familiar with, it's the one that I type
the most, It's the one I say the most. It's
the one that's the first vale I ever learned, you know,
because it is my name. Maybe I wouldn't have done
as well if the vowel were E or I.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Who knows. You gotta try this again with me sometime.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yes, that is an excellent experiment. We're going to do
an E show, an I show, a U show, maybe
a Y show.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Oh my good.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
I can't care to you, but yeah, I wanted to
make you feel comfortable, so we went with a. I
do feel an affinity to J. I do feel because
I have two.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
J's, and you married a Jay, and I married a Jay,
and your son is a J.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
I got a son who's a Jay. That's right, well, Adam,
as we loved having you before you go. I do
have an extra credit, all right for the first one
we've got, where you add an a the sank to
(16:38):
senka one. This is now this is kind of a
listener comprehension thing because it refers back to a fact
we mentioned. If you add an a to the end
of the beer ingredient that Samuel Adams used to make
you get a Mediterranean nation, and then we've got a
(17:01):
phrase or name with no vowels except for a. This
is a movie franchise about a future where the gangs
took over the highways ready to wage war for a
tank of juice. That was a line in the movie.
So think about that and go check out Adam's brilliant
(17:24):
work at adamsank dot com. Is that the best place?
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (17:28):
And on social media, I'm always just Adam Sank.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Adam Sank, the one and only, not Adam Sanka. But
that's a good way to remember it. Sure, uh sure,
why not? And everyone, if you need more puzzles in
your life, then check out our Instagram feed at Hello Puzzler,
and we will see you here tomorrow for more puzzling
puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Hello Puzzler.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
It's Greg Pliska here once again with the extra credit
answer from our previous episode. I played a game with
Mina chimes we called the Big Foul Sports Teams. Each
of these teams has one letter changed from a more
commonly known American sports team, American or Canadian sports team.
Your extra credit clue was this. Once upon a time,
(18:21):
every baseball team had a colored female pig that ran
around the field. Only two franchises remain that are named
for theirs that of course clues the red sow and
the white sow just one letter different from the more
common red sox and white sox.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Thanks for playing.
Speaker 5 (18:38):
We'll see here in to borrow for more puzzling puzzles
that will puzzle you puzzlingly
Hello, puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler podcast the Oxford Comma.
In your puzzling list of three items, I am your host,
A J. Jacobs emphasis on the A. Today's show is
all about the letter A. In fact, here's a little
puzzle to start you off. Name a word in the
English language that contains an abundance of a's. Ardvark has
(00:26):
three a's, which is pretty good. Amalgamate has four a's,
as do sasperrilla, and there are lots of there are
not lots. There are some other quadruple words. There are
even a couple five A words, and at least one
sex tuple, a word which you may know if you
happen to be an expert in Greek cuisine. Regardless of
(00:49):
whether you are the answers after the break, welcome back
to the Muzzler. Before the break, we ask listeners to
come up with words containing as many a's as possible.
There are plenty of words with four a's. Maybe you
got one of them. There's ayahuasca, maharaja, extravaganza, maladaptation, jambalaya,
(01:17):
among others. I know of two words with five a's,
abracadabra and anna. Grammatical and the one with six a's
is Tara Masalata. I think I got that all the a's.
It's a Greek fish paste. I'm talking about a's because
our guest is a grade A stand up comic star
(01:40):
of the brilliant one man show Bad Dates, which has
two a's, and a man whose name has no other
vowels except for A the awesome Adam sank welcome.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Adam, thank you aj And also, my middle name has
only one vowel, which is an A.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
My middle name is Jacob. Oh wait a second, there's
an O two. Never mind, it.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Does add another A to your total A count, so
it's it's still a positive. I think, Uh, well we have.
I feel it's like Sesame Street, like sponsored by the letter.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
A, and my intelligence level is clearly that of a
Sesame Street viewer, since I failed to recognize another vowel
in my middle mind so.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Far in the back of that name. Uh but yes,
I remember your Adam Jacob, and then I'm Arnold Jacob,
so we got a lot in common.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Well, today I have two quick puzzles for you based
on the letter A. The first is called sank to Senka,
and the idea is you take a word, add the
letter A at the end, and thereby transform it into
a new word. Oh boy, if the clue were add
an A to the end of the last name of
(02:54):
a New York based stand up and you get a
brand of instant decaf coffee, then you'd say sank to Senka.
And by the way, your mom, who I have the
pleasure of knowing, seems like she might have been a
Senka drinker. Is that right?
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Or no?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
No, my mother does not drink sanca. She is a
caffeinated coffee drinker.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Okay, fair enough, but interestingly enough, aj my mother's maiden
name was lipt In, so she went from a te
to a decaffeinated coffee almost got married.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
I like that. See now your brain is kicking into
high gear.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
I love her.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
If you add an A to part of your face,
you get the most populous country on Earth. So add
an A to the end of a facial feature and
you get the most populous country on Earth. Well, think
of backwards. What's the most populated country on Earth?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
I mean, I'm thinking India.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Well, it is coming up fast?
Speaker 5 (04:01):
Is it?
Speaker 3 (04:01):
China? It is?
Speaker 1 (04:03):
That's what I was thinking of.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Oh, so your chin it's Chin to China.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Chin to China, exactly. All right. Now, I'm embarrassed that
because I know India is coming up fast and they're
gonna overtake China. But I thought China was still in
the league.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
It might still be China.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
I'm going to fact check that.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
All right.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Add an a to the end of a short sleep
to get a wine region in California.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
That would be Nap to Napa.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Nap to Napa, exactly. You're on a roll. What about
if you add an a to a young lady, you
get a big, fancy party. And this is a kind
of party that I don't know if you I've never
been to the most famous one as at the Metropolitan
(04:56):
Museum of Art, hosted by Anna Wintour.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Got it?
Speaker 5 (05:01):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (05:01):
So that would be when you go from gal to Gala.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
That's correct, Gal to Gala.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Or gala as some people pronounce you interesting and the
met Gala is what you are referring to.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Right, have you been?
Speaker 2 (05:16):
I haven't been, unfortunately not.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
I would love to go to that party.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
You would look terrific.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
How about if you add an a to a prison knife,
you get a Jewish ritual of mourning that's m O.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
You aren yes.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
And thankfully, while I've never been to prison, I have
been to several of these ceremonies when when a loved
one has passed. So I would go from a shive
to a.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Shiver, exactly, shive to a shiva.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
How about if you add an a to times gone by?
Then you get spaghetti or zd or rigatoni or various
other noodle dishes.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Now this one's tricky because the vowel changes quite a bit.
But I would go from the past to pasta.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
That's right, past to pasta. And someone was just telling
me that the British people do say pasta.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
They do say pasta. They do that a lot. With
the valves with the A vowel. It's always different than
you think it should be.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Right.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Usually they go the other way and go ahuh, all right,
just two more and then we've got part two. What
about if you add an A to the end of underarm,
you get a flatbread.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
That's kind of disgusting to think about it.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
It is very gross, but I apologize.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Then you would go from a pit to a pita.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Nicely done. How about if you add an a to
the last name of the eleventh President. You get a
type of music with a lot of accordions.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Well, I wouldn't have been able to come up with
the eleventh President on my own, but luckily your second
clue jolted my awareness. So that would be I believe
it would be James K. Polk to polka music.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
That's it to poka. That is well done.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Verry, and my mind immediately goes to weird Al Yankovic,
who I believe is a polka officionado.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
He did you ever see that movie Weirder?
Speaker 2 (07:37):
I think it was called his sort of mockumentary autobiography.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
I did not. I heard it. I heard it was great, it.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Was very funny. I really enjoyed it. All right, well done?
A plus? All right. I have one other quick a
based for you, and this is also based on your name,
(08:05):
Adam sank which, forgetting about your middle name for a moment,
will pretend that doesn't exist. Your name only has the
vowel A. It has consonants, but in terms of vowels,
it's allays. So the answers in this puzzle are also
(08:25):
names or phrases that only have the vowel A as a.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Vowel, So fast track, So not Jacob is what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Jacob will not be making an appear. It's less. It's
spelled jaca b. Maybe someone spells it that way, so yes,
afraid there are always two words. So it could be
a name, or it could be jazz band, fast track,
things like that. So I'll give you a clue and
then so if the clue is this was a famous
showbiz group with Frank and Sammy and Dan. He got it,
(09:01):
He's not in his head.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Yes, it would not be the mouse Trap.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
It would be the rat.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Pack exactly, well, although trap does have an A in it,
and this one a little more contemporary, not much, but
a little, the group with Emelia, Rob, Andrew, Demi and Molly.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Oh yes, I just watched a documentary about them. This
would be the Brett Pack.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, all right, this man oversaw the sale of many vowels,
including a the sale.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Oh I know who that is. Yes, he recently retired.
That would be Pat Sajack.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Exactly, Pat say jack.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
And interestingly, yes, since we did palindromes earlier, say jack
is backwards? Is jackass spelled spelled in correctly?
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Which is appropriate?
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (10:02):
I like the way your mind thinks. Now that is
good puzzling. It's more of an anagram than backwards, but
it's definitely uh, it's definitely in the area.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
All right.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
This is one of the founding fathers who was not
a successful beer maker, despite legend.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Now I know this even though I am not a
beer drinker myself. This would be Sam Adams.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
That is correct, Sam Adams. And originally the clue was
he was also a beer maker, but according to my
in depth research, he was a maltster, not a brewer.
He like made the he's.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
So surred it, but then he passed along to somebody
else to brew it.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Now, let me ask you about this one, Aj, because
it wasn't his name actually Samuel Adams.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Great catch, great catch, I think, yes, I think you
get a bonus point for that. I mean, I say,
since his name is Sam, the name of the beer
company is not Samuel Adams, it's Sam Adams. That's why
I thought it might be safe. So actually I suppose
the clues should have been to the beer company, not
(11:15):
to Samuel. Apologies to the whole Adams family.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Them I had.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Well, I probably shouldn't add this since I'm already on
their badside. But according to my research, he was not
a good moltster. He like it went bankrupt under his direction,
so he wasn't you know. He was a founding father,
but not a moltster. To emulate, just a couple more.
(11:46):
These can be glad.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
These can be glad.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Or they can be hefty. They can be glad or
they can be hefty.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Oh, I got it.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
And I've often been called this insult trash bags.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
I disagree. You are glad not a trash bag.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
They are, all right?
Speaker 1 (12:08):
What about this is a punk rock band or a
cockroach spray. You can go at it either way.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Hmm, Oh, I got it.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
That took me a minute because I first went to
Raid and I was like, I don't think there's a
punk rock band called Raid. But then I remembered black Flag.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Black Flag exactly. Apparently they make the roach motel or hotel.
I'm not sure which one.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Yeah, I don't know which product they make, but I
do know I do remember the punk band, and I
seem to remember seeing them on the on the side
of a of a product that kills something.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
It kills it's a yeah, it's a deadly product of
some sort. Well in that genre. I just thought i'd
throw out he played a record store employee in high fidelity.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
That was very good, very talented comedian, singer actor.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
This would be Jack Black Jack Black.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
I do like him a lot. He produced the unaired
pilot of based on a book I wrote. That's book,
the one where it was like a series of experiments.
My life is an experiment.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Oh yeah, he.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Is lovely but very nice. Well, Adam, you are a delight.
You are triple A. I guess triple A is not
great because that's like less than the my majors. So
I take it back.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
I wouldn't know anything about anything related to sports, but aj,
I just want to point out that I think I
got one hundred percent except for the first question, which
may have not been factual anyway, because we don't know
whether India or China is the most populous country or
populist country in the world.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
You know what, I Am going to solve this mystery
right now.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Let's google it live on the air.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
I know people are this once and for all, but yes,
you did. You got one hundred percent A plus.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
That's the as I'm stroking my chine as we try
to figure out.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Oh shoot, India did overtake it on July twenty first,
twenty twenty four. Wow, all right.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
I mean, listen, there's no way I would have known
that to claim any mental superiority, especially because I didn't
know about the vowels in my own meddle name.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Yes, well, I thank you more than made up for
it by correcting me on the most part. I mean,
it is, it is close in my defense. But the
congratulations India and Maneopoldo.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Yeah, honestly, here's what I find interest. And having just
listened to a mentalist. O's Pearlman was just on the
Howard Stern Show, and he was describing a little bit
about how mentalism works, I wonder if you had given
me this same puzzle with a different vowel, with a
vow that wasn't in my names, would I have done
(15:18):
as well?
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Oh? Interesting, because he said people usually go to the
whatever their name is, they're sort of prime for that.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Maybe, I mean he didn't specifically say that, but I'm
just wondering if I'm that's the vowel that I am
the most familiar with, it's the one that I type
the most, It's the one I say the most. It's
the one that's the first vale I ever learned, you know,
because it is my name. Maybe I wouldn't have done
as well if the vowel were E or I.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Who knows. You gotta try this again with me sometime.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yes, that is an excellent experiment. We're going to do
an E show, an I show, a U show, maybe
a Y show.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Oh my good.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
I can't care to you, but yeah, I wanted to
make you feel comfortable, so we went with a. I
do feel an affinity to J. I do feel because
I have two.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
J's, and you married a Jay, and I married a Jay,
and your son is a J.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
I got a son who's a Jay. That's right, well, Adam,
as we loved having you before you go. I do
have an extra credit, all right for the first one
we've got, where you add an a the sank to
(16:38):
senka one. This is now this is kind of a
listener comprehension thing because it refers back to a fact
we mentioned. If you add an a to the end
of the beer ingredient that Samuel Adams used to make
you get a Mediterranean nation, and then we've got a
(17:01):
phrase or name with no vowels except for a. This
is a movie franchise about a future where the gangs
took over the highways ready to wage war for a
tank of juice. That was a line in the movie.
So think about that and go check out Adam's brilliant
(17:24):
work at adamsank dot com. Is that the best place?
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (17:28):
And on social media, I'm always just Adam Sank.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Adam Sank, the one and only, not Adam Sanka. But
that's a good way to remember it. Sure, uh sure,
why not? And everyone, if you need more puzzles in
your life, then check out our Instagram feed at Hello Puzzler,
and we will see you here tomorrow for more puzzling
puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Hello Puzzler.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
It's Greg Pliska here once again with the extra credit
answer from our previous episode. I played a game with
Mina chimes we called the Big Foul Sports Teams. Each
of these teams has one letter changed from a more
commonly known American sports team, American or Canadian sports team.
Your extra credit clue was this. Once upon a time,
(18:21):
every baseball team had a colored female pig that ran
around the field. Only two franchises remain that are named
for theirs that of course clues the red sow and
the white sow just one letter different from the more
common red sox and white sox.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Thanks for playing.
Speaker 5 (18:38):
We'll see here in to borrow for more puzzling puzzles
that will puzzle you puzzlingly
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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