November 17, 2023 • 11 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.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello puzzlers, and welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, your daily
tincture to cure your puzzle mania. I'm your host, AJ Jacobs,
and I am here with our chief puzzle Officer, Greg Plisko.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome Greg, Thank you Aj. It's great to be here
with you.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Delighted to have you up from your puzzle laboratory where
I hear you concocted something especially for me I have
I have very flattered.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
It starts with a question, do you know what my
favorite subway sign of all time.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Is the one? Mind the gap? Mind the gap.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
That's a good guest. That's not, of course, on the
New York subway. That's more of a London underground. I'm
very sophisticated a sign, Yes, you are very fancy. No,
my favorite New York subway sign is do not hold doors?
And why do you think I like that one?
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Do not hold doors? Do? I don't know? You got
me stumped.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Well, For one, it's univocalic. It has only one vowel, right, oh,
do not hold doors. But even better, it's a roe palic.
That's an old form of writing in which each word
is one syllable or letter longer than the one before it.
So do two letters not three letters? Hold four letters
(01:36):
doors five letters?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Oh interesting?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
And that that's very cool?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Is ropalik? Can you do a sentence with roepalik as
a ropellic and get.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
I'm sure you could. In fact, I have one that
I'll close this episode with. I don't want to give
it away. I do you have ropelic in a sentence
at the end. The word comes from the Greek word ropalan,
which means club, something that it's thicker at one end,
So like a club. The sentences get thicker and thicker
as you go along, the words get longer.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
I like it, little violent, but I like it.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah. Well you know it was ancient Greece. Things weren't easy.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Good call. All right, Well this is exciting. So you've
got a ropalate. This will be my first ropellic themed puzzle.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
It might be the first ropellic theme puzzle in history
except ancient Greece.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Well, it's very exciting, very exciting.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
To another example, just to make sure you've got what
these things look like, is I am the boss today? Jacobs?
Speaker 1 (02:36):
All right?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
That works?
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Speaking of aggressive geez.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Exactly, all right, got to establish how it works when
when you let me out of the basement, I claim
my territory. So what I'll do is, I'm going to
give you a list of items that are in a
particular set, and I'm going to give them to you
in rhopallic order, each one letter longer than the previous,
(03:02):
and you tell me what could come with.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
I like it. Okay, this will be fun, all right, all.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Right, And in most of these cases, there are there
are several possible answers. All right, here's your first one. Mars, Earth, Saturn.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Does Jupiter have enough letters?
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yes, it's very good. Jupiter does seven letters. There are
a couple others. You could have said Mercury or Neptune.
All planets in our solar system, of.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Course, excellent, all right, and so yeah, and Pluto would
not be in that anymore as we know.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Well, Pluto's say, I'm not the right length, nor is
it in our solar system as a planet. It's in
our solar system. It's still there, it's just no longer called.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
That was nice of you to acknowledge it still is there.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, all right, here's another one. May June, March, August, January, February.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Oh my god, well I mean, I should be writing
these down, but I'm guessing October.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
October is also eight letters, like February our seven letters.
Rather October is more.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Like James, wit, did you say February was one?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I went to February, which has eight.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Let's got that R that people forget about. They just
say that exactly February. Well, what about did I? Did
I say September?
Speaker 2 (04:25):
You did not? But that would be the correct answer.
All right, nine letters long. I guess it's also the
ninth month of the year, which is kind of a
double double whammy.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
September, although December is of course the twelfth month when
it should be the tenth month, and.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
The same with October. Very confusing. Okay, all right, here's
here's one Utah, Texas, Alaska, Florida, Oklahoma.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Okay, so Oklahoma. Sorry people at home. I'm just writing
it down because I don't that's eight letters. I need
a nine letter state. Am I allowed to do two?
Like New York? No, that's a You could.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Be a two word state, but New York would not
be one.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
I was doing that as an example of what not
to do. That was all right, I'm writing down California
and it is no, too long. All right, give me
a second. Alabama feels in the right. Nope, very sure,
Mississippi feels too long. Massachusetts feels there are two there
(05:40):
are two new states that could be used here to
new states. New at the states with ny wir, I
thought you were talking the Alaska, Hawaii.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Okay, so new.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Well, the New Jersey. I feel it's New Jersey.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
There you go, New Jersey books my wife's.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Home state, and I totally overlooked it.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Just it's right next door. You could have found it there. Ye,
New Mexico would have worked. Louisiana, Minnesota, Tennessee, Wisconsin. I
think those are the ones.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Now you're just embarrassing me with all of those could
have done. All right, all right, I'll give you.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
I'll give you one more. Ox rat, goat, tiger, dragon.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Got it. I was already trying to think of animal.
Oh but these are not just your everyday animals, right,
These are zodiac.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Animals exactly animals in the Chinese.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
That's a good little twist. Now I've got to remember
what are in the Chinese, and I'm not gonna google,
even though my computer is right here.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Ox rat, goat, tiger.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Dragons, monkey, long enough.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
No, monkey's too short.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
What is I am a monkey? I think? What are
the other I feel?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
It's a it's a it's a foul, it's a barnyard fowl.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Rooster's not long enough.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
A rooster is perfect. Actually, that's the correct answer. That's
your seven letter rooster. Once again, you're just trying to
give us the wrong answer. No, it's the right answer.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
All right. I love it. That's very exciting. I like
this game. I like this And I learned a new.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Word exactly, and you asked me to use it in
a sentence. So here's a roepallic sentence using roepalic. I
do not make these puzzle podcasts ropallic sentences painlessly.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
That is gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
That was That's as far as it gets hard in English.
To get past, you know, a certain point. We need
some short words in there to make sense.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Let's get If anyone can add like three more words
to that sentence, please let us know and we will.
We will give you some sort of recognition, possibly a
T shirt.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Oh yeah, I'd love to hear people's suggestions for long
rope paw sentences.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
So send those in. And in the meantime, Greg, do
you have an extra credit ropallick puzzle.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I do have an extra credit and this is I
think this is a tough one, but I feel like
our listeners are gonna are going to get this. Scandal
the catch off the map.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Scandal, scandal, catch the cat off the map, off the map,
and I am at a loss that I'm going to
think about it. Scandal the catch off the map. Okay,
you're going to have to tell me after we've will
I will.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
People are going to get this. There's folks already who
already know the answer.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
I'm not even going to guess because I don't want
to to cloud the waters. But that is. That's a
good one. Well, thank you, Greg, and thank you puzzlers.
Please don't forget to subscribe to the Puzzler podcast and
we will meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles
that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Hi, puzzlers. Greg Kliska here with the extra credit answer
from our previous show. I played Letters, which with Michael
ian Black where we switch a letter from one word
in a phrase to the other. And this was the
extra credit clue that we gave you a phrase describing
a game you are certain to lose turns into a
(09:32):
soup container that is identical to another soup container, and
the answer is can't win becomes can twin. Can't win game,
You're certain to lose turns into can twin identical soup can.
Thanks for playing along and we look forward to seeing
you next time on the Puzzler podcast. Thanks for playing
(10:00):
along with the team. Here at the Puzzler, I'm Greg Pliska,
your chief puzzle Officer. Our executive producers are Neelie Lowman
and Adam Neuhouse of New House Ideas and Lindsay Hoffman
of iHeart Podcasts. The show is produced by Jody Abergan
and Brittany Brown of Roulette Productions. Our associate producer is
Andrea Schoenberg. The Puzzler with AJ Jacobs is a co
(10:25):
production with New House Ideas and is distributed by Patchiest
Roads Room Room Now Rearrange the Letters. It's distributed by
iHeart Podcasts. If you want to know more about puzzling puzzles,
please check out the book The Puzzler by AJ Jacobs,
a history of puzzles that The New York Times called
(10:46):
fun and funny. It features an original puzzle hunt by
yours truly and is available wherever you get your books
and puzzlers. For all your puzzling needs, go visit the
puzzler dot com on see you there,
Hello puzzlers, and welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, your daily
tincture to cure your puzzle mania. I'm your host, AJ Jacobs,
and I am here with our chief puzzle Officer, Greg Plisko.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome Greg, Thank you Aj. It's great to be here
with you.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Delighted to have you up from your puzzle laboratory where
I hear you concocted something especially for me I have
I have very flattered.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
It starts with a question, do you know what my
favorite subway sign of all time.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Is the one? Mind the gap? Mind the gap.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
That's a good guest. That's not, of course, on the
New York subway. That's more of a London underground. I'm
very sophisticated a sign, Yes, you are very fancy. No,
my favorite New York subway sign is do not hold doors?
And why do you think I like that one?
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Do not hold doors? Do? I don't know? You got
me stumped.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Well, For one, it's univocalic. It has only one vowel, right, oh,
do not hold doors. But even better, it's a roe palic.
That's an old form of writing in which each word
is one syllable or letter longer than the one before it.
So do two letters not three letters? Hold four letters
(01:36):
doors five letters?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Oh interesting?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
And that that's very cool?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Is ropalik? Can you do a sentence with roepalik as
a ropellic and get.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
I'm sure you could. In fact, I have one that
I'll close this episode with. I don't want to give
it away. I do you have ropelic in a sentence
at the end. The word comes from the Greek word ropalan,
which means club, something that it's thicker at one end,
So like a club. The sentences get thicker and thicker
as you go along, the words get longer.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
I like it, little violent, but I like it.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah. Well you know it was ancient Greece. Things weren't easy.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Good call. All right, Well this is exciting. So you've
got a ropalate. This will be my first ropellic themed puzzle.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
It might be the first ropellic theme puzzle in history
except ancient Greece.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Well, it's very exciting, very exciting.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
To another example, just to make sure you've got what
these things look like, is I am the boss today? Jacobs?
Speaker 1 (02:36):
All right?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
That works?
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Speaking of aggressive geez.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Exactly, all right, got to establish how it works when
when you let me out of the basement, I claim
my territory. So what I'll do is, I'm going to
give you a list of items that are in a
particular set, and I'm going to give them to you
in rhopallic order, each one letter longer than the previous,
(03:02):
and you tell me what could come with.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
I like it. Okay, this will be fun, all right, all.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Right, And in most of these cases, there are there
are several possible answers. All right, here's your first one. Mars, Earth, Saturn.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Does Jupiter have enough letters?
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yes, it's very good. Jupiter does seven letters. There are
a couple others. You could have said Mercury or Neptune.
All planets in our solar system, of.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Course, excellent, all right, and so yeah, and Pluto would
not be in that anymore as we know.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Well, Pluto's say, I'm not the right length, nor is
it in our solar system as a planet. It's in
our solar system. It's still there, it's just no longer called.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
That was nice of you to acknowledge it still is there.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, all right, here's another one. May June, March, August, January, February.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Oh my god, well I mean, I should be writing
these down, but I'm guessing October.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
October is also eight letters, like February our seven letters.
Rather October is more.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Like James, wit, did you say February was one?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I went to February, which has eight.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Let's got that R that people forget about. They just
say that exactly February. Well, what about did I? Did
I say September?
Speaker 2 (04:25):
You did not? But that would be the correct answer.
All right, nine letters long. I guess it's also the
ninth month of the year, which is kind of a
double double whammy.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
September, although December is of course the twelfth month when
it should be the tenth month, and.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
The same with October. Very confusing. Okay, all right, here's
here's one Utah, Texas, Alaska, Florida, Oklahoma.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Okay, so Oklahoma. Sorry people at home. I'm just writing
it down because I don't that's eight letters. I need
a nine letter state. Am I allowed to do two?
Like New York? No, that's a You could.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Be a two word state, but New York would not
be one.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
I was doing that as an example of what not
to do. That was all right, I'm writing down California
and it is no, too long. All right, give me
a second. Alabama feels in the right. Nope, very sure,
Mississippi feels too long. Massachusetts feels there are two there
(05:40):
are two new states that could be used here to
new states. New at the states with ny wir, I
thought you were talking the Alaska, Hawaii.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Okay, so new.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Well, the New Jersey. I feel it's New Jersey.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
There you go, New Jersey books my wife's.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Home state, and I totally overlooked it.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Just it's right next door. You could have found it there. Ye,
New Mexico would have worked. Louisiana, Minnesota, Tennessee, Wisconsin. I
think those are the ones.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Now you're just embarrassing me with all of those could
have done. All right, all right, I'll give you.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
I'll give you one more. Ox rat, goat, tiger, dragon.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Got it. I was already trying to think of animal.
Oh but these are not just your everyday animals, right,
These are zodiac.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Animals exactly animals in the Chinese.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
That's a good little twist. Now I've got to remember
what are in the Chinese, and I'm not gonna google,
even though my computer is right here.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Ox rat, goat, tiger.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Dragons, monkey, long enough.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
No, monkey's too short.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
What is I am a monkey? I think? What are
the other I feel?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
It's a it's a it's a foul, it's a barnyard fowl.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Rooster's not long enough.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
A rooster is perfect. Actually, that's the correct answer. That's
your seven letter rooster. Once again, you're just trying to
give us the wrong answer. No, it's the right answer.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
All right. I love it. That's very exciting. I like
this game. I like this And I learned a new.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Word exactly, and you asked me to use it in
a sentence. So here's a roepallic sentence using roepalic. I
do not make these puzzle podcasts ropallic sentences painlessly.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
That is gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
That was That's as far as it gets hard in English.
To get past, you know, a certain point. We need
some short words in there to make sense.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Let's get If anyone can add like three more words
to that sentence, please let us know and we will.
We will give you some sort of recognition, possibly a
T shirt.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Oh yeah, I'd love to hear people's suggestions for long
rope paw sentences.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
So send those in. And in the meantime, Greg, do
you have an extra credit ropallick puzzle.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I do have an extra credit and this is I
think this is a tough one, but I feel like
our listeners are gonna are going to get this. Scandal
the catch off the map.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Scandal, scandal, catch the cat off the map, off the map,
and I am at a loss that I'm going to
think about it. Scandal the catch off the map. Okay,
you're going to have to tell me after we've will
I will.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
People are going to get this. There's folks already who
already know the answer.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
I'm not even going to guess because I don't want
to to cloud the waters. But that is. That's a
good one. Well, thank you, Greg, and thank you puzzlers.
Please don't forget to subscribe to the Puzzler podcast and
we will meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles
that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Hi, puzzlers. Greg Kliska here with the extra credit answer
from our previous show. I played Letters, which with Michael
ian Black where we switch a letter from one word
in a phrase to the other. And this was the
extra credit clue that we gave you a phrase describing
a game you are certain to lose turns into a
(09:32):
soup container that is identical to another soup container, and
the answer is can't win becomes can twin. Can't win game,
You're certain to lose turns into can twin identical soup can.
Thanks for playing along and we look forward to seeing
you next time on the Puzzler podcast. Thanks for playing
(10:00):
along with the team. Here at the Puzzler, I'm Greg Pliska,
your chief puzzle Officer. Our executive producers are Neelie Lowman
and Adam Neuhouse of New House Ideas and Lindsay Hoffman
of iHeart Podcasts. The show is produced by Jody Abergan
and Brittany Brown of Roulette Productions. Our associate producer is
Andrea Schoenberg. The Puzzler with AJ Jacobs is a co
(10:25):
production with New House Ideas and is distributed by Patchiest
Roads Room Room Now Rearrange the Letters. It's distributed by
iHeart Podcasts. If you want to know more about puzzling puzzles,
please check out the book The Puzzler by AJ Jacobs,
a history of puzzles that The New York Times called
(10:46):
fun and funny. It features an original puzzle hunt by
yours truly and is available wherever you get your books
and puzzlers. For all your puzzling needs, go visit the
puzzler dot com on see you there,
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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