September 1, 2025 • 15 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: director Michael Showalter!
Join host A.J. Jacobs and his guests as they puzzle–and laugh–their way through new spins on old favorites, like anagrams and palindromes, as well as quirky originals such as “Ask AI” and audio rebuses.
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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 Puddlers. Let's start with
a quick puzzle. One of the following is a true
statement and one is a false statement. Can you identify
the true one? Statement A and Hathaway has portrayed Judy
Dench on screen or statement B Judy Dench has portrayed
(00:46):
and Hathaway on screen. One of those is true? The
answer and more puzzling goodness after the break, Welcome back
to the Puzzler Podcast. The hand drawn smiley face on
your puzzle restaurant check. I'm your host, AJ Jacobson. I'm here,
(01:08):
of course, the Chief Puzzle Officer, Greg Kliska Greg. Before
the break, we asked, which is a true statement and
Hathaway has portrayed Judy Dench on screen or Judy Dench
has portrayed and Hathaway on screen. Oh, we've got our guest.
We haven't even introduced I got it, he got it,
he got it. We gotta let him do it, all right, Michael,
(01:29):
what's the answer?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Well, on the face of it, neither makes any sense
at all.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Right on the surface of it, it's impossible to imagine
that either one of them would have played the other, right.
But if I think about it a little further, I
do recall that William Shakespeare's wife is named Anne.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Hathaway ha.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yes, which which makes me think maybe Judy Dench one
day would have played William Shakespeare's wife. So my answer
is going to be Judy Dench played the historical figure
that is Anne Hathaway in some movie, maybe in Shakespeare
in Love.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Well done.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Now wait before you tell us the answer, a jake,
because I'm with Michael on that. But there is also
the possibility that, twenty years in the future, in a
biopick about Judy Jinch, Anne Hathaway will So.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
This might come true in two ways, all right, But
for now, Michael is right, and that was the movie
was called All Is True. It's a Shakespeare biopick which
I haven't seen. William Shakespeare played by Kenneth Browna and
his wife Anne Hathaway, played by Judy Dench. So well done, Michael.
(02:41):
And so that man who answered who could not be
constrained is Michael Showalter, and he is incredibly prolific. But
one of the many things he's done recently was an
Anne Hathaway movie, a delightful not the Shakespeare Wife, This
(03:02):
was the the the current day and current currently the
delightful film of the idea of you.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Welcome Michael, hi aj and Craig. It's wonderful to be here.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Thank you, Michael, thanks for being here on the puzzle.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Or thank you for saying the exactly that's right the
title drop. You just did a title drop, Michael. Did
you ever discussed the other Anne Hathaway with your colleague
the new hand Hathaway?
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Well, do you go see Broadway shows? You live in
New York every night, and you go see Broadway shows
every night, but not Monday night.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Oh yeah, every night, but.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Monday night, and probably not Sunday night.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
True Lord's Day.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Correct, right, Also Sunday is a matinee.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Dad Sunday the Matinees, although a couple of shows do
a Sunday night show too, But anyway, and Juliet do
we know the music.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Juliet, I did not. My wife loved it. I have
not seen it. Very clever premise.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
So you asked me, do I talk to the real
Anne Hathaway about William Shakespeare's wife Ann Hathaway. Well, there's
a lot of Anne Hathaway jokes in and Juliet.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Oh interesting, there's.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
A lot of like, are you the modern Ann Hathaway
or you William Shakespeare's wife Ann Hathaway. So when I
saw it, I texted Anne Hathaway, Oh my god, have
you seen and Juliet, because you're an inside joke that
whole show.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
And did the real modern Anne Hathaway have any response?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Oh? Yeah, she loves it. She loves all must she's
she's a great sport about all those kinds of things.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Well, Michael is directing another Anne Hathaway movie coming out
next year. Verity.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yes, Verity is Colleen Hoover, the best selling author Colleen
Hoover's uh thriller It's a It's a it's a dirty
twisted thing.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Which is kind of a puzzle by the way thrillers are.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Indeed, it is, oh very much so.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
But you've also we know you from Wet Hot American Summer,
The Big Sick, The Dropout, The Eyes of Tammy fay On,
and on Stella. You're one third of Stella.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
So so impressed.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
So one of my also one of my favorite movies
that never got the attention it deserved Kissing Jessica Stein.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Oh yes, I have one. I have one scene acting
in that movie. That's one of my one of my
very uh short list of.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Values and interesting. I'm gonna go rewatch that.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Fun movie, don't. You don't need to. It's a great movie.
But don't watch it for me, but you could watch
it for the movie.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Okay, for my promise, I'll fast forward through you.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yes, thank you.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
So anyway, we are very excited. You are the third
member of Stella, So the third and final member we
have David, Wayne and Michael im So. I want to
talk to you about puzzling and your work. But first,
since it is the puzzler, I thought we could do
a quick puzzle.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
I can't wait, all right.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
This puzzle is called show Walter's Show. So it's about
where all the answers are objects that you might find
in the first few letters of a famous person's last name.
So if the clue were a TV series by the
director of the idea of you. That might be show
(06:31):
Walter Show or Michael Showalter's show. I know you actually
had Michael show Walter Showalter. Yes, I love that, but
we're just going with that. So I'll give you.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Do you have one about Anne Hathaway's hat coming.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
I thought of doing Anne Hathaway's hat and also her yoga,
which would be Anne Hathaway Hathaway's half of Hatha exactly.
But no, so is.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Every answer going to be Michael Showalter's blank.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
No, unless you want. That would be a short a
short puzzle. This different different celebrities.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
I will give you.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
I'll give you another example. The star of Baby Girls,
baby Goat, the star of Baby Girdles.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
I got it, I got you.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Could say it.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
I don't mind Nicole Kidman's baby goat. No no, no, no,
no no, Nicole Kidman's.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Kid, Nicole's kid exactly.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
I bet she has a baby goat.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Well she might. Yeah. I'm not saying these are factual.
You do have a show, but these are a lot
of requires. One last thing, for some reason, I decided
to go all animals. It just seemed the way to go.
So aside from you. They're all going to be animals
like the kid. All right, you're ready, I'm ready. This
(07:53):
is where an America's got talent, Judge gets his fresh milk.
America's got, I went, Judge got he got it. He's
raising his hand. I'm calling on him.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yes, okay, I'm gonna go. I'm gonna say Simon Cowell's cow.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
That's it. That is exactly right. A large pig owned
by a blonde professional wrestler, a WWE famous pro wrestler.
This is a large pig he owns.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Does it have to be large?
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Apparently, according to the dictionary, over one hundred and twenty pounds.
I did not know that. I didn't know that either,
So this is the most problem. He also got h
Gawker shut down.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
If you remember, well, I was okay, So it's it's
something to do with oh Hulk, Hogan's hog. Yes, Ogan's hog, Hogan.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Ogan Hog, which we saw in that video that got
Gawker shut down.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Oh hello, hey, now wow, that wasn't the meaning of
that word I thought you were going for. But there
we are.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
And remember it's the last name, Michael, It's the last name.
This is a long necked bird owned by the Oscar
winner for a million dollar.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Baby Hillary Swanks Swan nailed it? Is it? Swanks Swan? Like,
what's what is the most preferred answer?
Speaker 1 (09:27):
I prefer justice too.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Okay, Swanks swank Swan.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
All right, a couple more. You're doing great. This is
the actor who played Morpheus his red snapper or his
blue fin tuna. I was trying to get a little
of the red and blue for the red blill blue pill.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Do we say fishburns fish?
Speaker 1 (09:55):
We do? You do? And you would be correct?
Speaker 2 (09:58):
All right?
Speaker 1 (09:58):
How about this one? This composer wanted something sweet for
a lease, so he got some honey from his favorite insect.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Oh yeah, well is it is? It? Is it? Beethoven's bees.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
It is Beethoven's be just one.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Beethoven's beat. Beethoven's beat BeO.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
But I thought Beethoven's beat was a.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Good Beethoven's Beethoven's beat. Now now now, okay, So now
I'm realizing the full answer is contained fully within the
last name.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Correct, Yes, got it?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Got it.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
You're one of those rare, rare people, Michael, who gets
like six of the answers without even knowing how the
game is.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Because I felt like Fishburn's fish was sort of unimaginative.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yes, I agree, I did it mostly for.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Then I realized that, no, but that's it isn't a
cop out. Fishburns fish isn't a cop out Kidman's kid
is all. They're all the same, swan because I'm thinking
it's not like Swank's Ostrich.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Right, that's true. Yes, well, I mean fishburn probably that
word does come from the actual fish.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
In the sense of a body of water or something.
Fishburn is where you would go to get your fish.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Which is also why I did not do Sandra Bullock's
bull because Bullock means bull. So but wait, I.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Want we do have some standards here, Michael.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
I want to take this opportunity because we brought up B.
So let me let me do the B stuff right now. First,
I have two B related things. First, I love this
made me laugh out loud lol. As the kids said,
when I was reading your book, you had an about
the author section and you also had an about be
(11:55):
of Arthur section. So good, so puzzledly Yes, yes, and
it was just facts about be Arthur.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Yes, exactly, because I loved, I loved and I know
you do too. Those old books that were sort of
like that, those books that were little riddles and funny
jokes and stories and plays on words and did. And
so my book was a lame attempt at that. But yes,
about about be Arthur wonderful.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
It makes me laugh every time, mister funny pants. I
believe it's called, right, mister funny pant. Yes, all right,
and let's go back to the spelling bee or the
bee as you say. I did want to just I
loved when you told someone about your daily ritual with
Jonathan Sherman, the great playwright.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
You must be friendly with john I am friendly. I
must have him. You must have him on your show.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Such a good idea, Why you must?
Speaker 2 (12:51):
He would he would be an incredible guest.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
You're right, done? All right, Well maybe he won't agree,
but then.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Done on this side, definitely agree.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
But you text him, you do it, and you remind
me how it goes.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Well. Okay, So we play the spelling bee regularly, the bee.
And the idea is that you obviously you have to
get to genius. And once you get to genius. I
know a lot of people show their friends, hey, look
I got to genius today, right, and with with us
it's it's it's was. If you get to genius without
(13:29):
a hint, then that's clean. If you needed a hint
to get to genius, that's dirty.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Got it.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
So it's like I got to genius clean. This is
a clean genius. But I even go further to say,
like I got to genius without even looking at how
many points I needed to get to genius? How I
call that genius blind? Like genius blind.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
I love it. I have an extra credit for folks
at home. If you have pointy ears and a bushy tail,
you might be this carnivorous mammal. I'm doing a little
southern accent. This is a part of a hint.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
If you have how was an accent?
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Let me do it again?
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Why? Thanks for clarifying. Sorry, listen to.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Michael's a director. You can direct me. If you have
pointy ears and a bushy tail, you might be this
carnivorous mammal. All right, that's the hint, So think about
it and Michael, you are fantastic and listeners. If you
have a moment, check out our Instagram feed at Hello Puzzlers,
(14:39):
where we post original puzzles and lots of other fun
stuff and we will meet you here tomorrow for more
puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
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 Puddlers. Let's start with
a quick puzzle. One of the following is a true
statement and one is a false statement. Can you identify
the true one? Statement A and Hathaway has portrayed Judy
Dench on screen or statement B Judy Dench has portrayed
(00:46):
and Hathaway on screen. One of those is true? The
answer and more puzzling goodness after the break, Welcome back
to the Puzzler Podcast. The hand drawn smiley face on
your puzzle restaurant check. I'm your host, AJ Jacobson. I'm here,
(01:08):
of course, the Chief Puzzle Officer, Greg Kliska Greg. Before
the break, we asked, which is a true statement and
Hathaway has portrayed Judy Dench on screen or Judy Dench
has portrayed and Hathaway on screen. Oh, we've got our guest.
We haven't even introduced I got it, he got it,
he got it. We gotta let him do it, all right, Michael,
(01:29):
what's the answer?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Well, on the face of it, neither makes any sense
at all.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Right on the surface of it, it's impossible to imagine
that either one of them would have played the other, right.
But if I think about it a little further, I
do recall that William Shakespeare's wife is named Anne.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Hathaway ha.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yes, which which makes me think maybe Judy Dench one
day would have played William Shakespeare's wife. So my answer
is going to be Judy Dench played the historical figure
that is Anne Hathaway in some movie, maybe in Shakespeare
in Love.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Well done.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Now wait before you tell us the answer, a jake,
because I'm with Michael on that. But there is also
the possibility that, twenty years in the future, in a
biopick about Judy Jinch, Anne Hathaway will So.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
This might come true in two ways, all right, But
for now, Michael is right, and that was the movie
was called All Is True. It's a Shakespeare biopick which
I haven't seen. William Shakespeare played by Kenneth Browna and
his wife Anne Hathaway, played by Judy Dench. So well done, Michael.
(02:41):
And so that man who answered who could not be
constrained is Michael Showalter, and he is incredibly prolific. But
one of the many things he's done recently was an
Anne Hathaway movie, a delightful not the Shakespeare Wife, This
(03:02):
was the the the current day and current currently the
delightful film of the idea of you.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Welcome Michael, hi aj and Craig. It's wonderful to be here.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Thank you, Michael, thanks for being here on the puzzle.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Or thank you for saying the exactly that's right the
title drop. You just did a title drop, Michael. Did
you ever discussed the other Anne Hathaway with your colleague
the new hand Hathaway?
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Well, do you go see Broadway shows? You live in
New York every night, and you go see Broadway shows
every night, but not Monday night.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Oh yeah, every night, but.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Monday night, and probably not Sunday night.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
True Lord's Day.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Correct, right, Also Sunday is a matinee.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Dad Sunday the Matinees, although a couple of shows do
a Sunday night show too, But anyway, and Juliet do
we know the music.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Juliet, I did not. My wife loved it. I have
not seen it. Very clever premise.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
So you asked me, do I talk to the real
Anne Hathaway about William Shakespeare's wife Ann Hathaway. Well, there's
a lot of Anne Hathaway jokes in and Juliet.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Oh interesting, there's.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
A lot of like, are you the modern Ann Hathaway
or you William Shakespeare's wife Ann Hathaway. So when I
saw it, I texted Anne Hathaway, Oh my god, have
you seen and Juliet, because you're an inside joke that
whole show.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
And did the real modern Anne Hathaway have any response?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Oh? Yeah, she loves it. She loves all must she's
she's a great sport about all those kinds of things.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Well, Michael is directing another Anne Hathaway movie coming out
next year. Verity.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yes, Verity is Colleen Hoover, the best selling author Colleen
Hoover's uh thriller It's a It's a it's a dirty
twisted thing.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Which is kind of a puzzle by the way thrillers are.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Indeed, it is, oh very much so.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
But you've also we know you from Wet Hot American Summer,
The Big Sick, The Dropout, The Eyes of Tammy fay On,
and on Stella. You're one third of Stella.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
So so impressed.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
So one of my also one of my favorite movies
that never got the attention it deserved Kissing Jessica Stein.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Oh yes, I have one. I have one scene acting
in that movie. That's one of my one of my
very uh short list of.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Values and interesting. I'm gonna go rewatch that.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Fun movie, don't. You don't need to. It's a great movie.
But don't watch it for me, but you could watch
it for the movie.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Okay, for my promise, I'll fast forward through you.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yes, thank you.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
So anyway, we are very excited. You are the third
member of Stella, So the third and final member we
have David, Wayne and Michael im So. I want to
talk to you about puzzling and your work. But first,
since it is the puzzler, I thought we could do
a quick puzzle.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
I can't wait, all right.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
This puzzle is called show Walter's Show. So it's about
where all the answers are objects that you might find
in the first few letters of a famous person's last name.
So if the clue were a TV series by the
director of the idea of you. That might be show
(06:31):
Walter Show or Michael Showalter's show. I know you actually
had Michael show Walter Showalter. Yes, I love that, but
we're just going with that. So I'll give you.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Do you have one about Anne Hathaway's hat coming.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
I thought of doing Anne Hathaway's hat and also her yoga,
which would be Anne Hathaway Hathaway's half of Hatha exactly.
But no, so is.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Every answer going to be Michael Showalter's blank.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
No, unless you want. That would be a short a
short puzzle. This different different celebrities.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
I will give you.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
I'll give you another example. The star of Baby Girls,
baby Goat, the star of Baby Girdles.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
I got it, I got you.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Could say it.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
I don't mind Nicole Kidman's baby goat. No no, no, no,
no no, Nicole Kidman's.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Kid, Nicole's kid exactly.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
I bet she has a baby goat.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Well she might. Yeah. I'm not saying these are factual.
You do have a show, but these are a lot
of requires. One last thing, for some reason, I decided
to go all animals. It just seemed the way to go.
So aside from you. They're all going to be animals
like the kid. All right, you're ready, I'm ready. This
(07:53):
is where an America's got talent, Judge gets his fresh milk.
America's got, I went, Judge got he got it. He's
raising his hand. I'm calling on him.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yes, okay, I'm gonna go. I'm gonna say Simon Cowell's cow.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
That's it. That is exactly right. A large pig owned
by a blonde professional wrestler, a WWE famous pro wrestler.
This is a large pig he owns.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Does it have to be large?
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Apparently, according to the dictionary, over one hundred and twenty pounds.
I did not know that. I didn't know that either,
So this is the most problem. He also got h
Gawker shut down.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
If you remember, well, I was okay, So it's it's
something to do with oh Hulk, Hogan's hog. Yes, Ogan's hog, Hogan.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Ogan Hog, which we saw in that video that got
Gawker shut down.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Oh hello, hey, now wow, that wasn't the meaning of
that word I thought you were going for. But there
we are.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
And remember it's the last name, Michael, It's the last name.
This is a long necked bird owned by the Oscar
winner for a million dollar.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Baby Hillary Swanks Swan nailed it? Is it? Swanks Swan? Like,
what's what is the most preferred answer?
Speaker 1 (09:27):
I prefer justice too.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Okay, Swanks swank Swan.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
All right, a couple more. You're doing great. This is
the actor who played Morpheus his red snapper or his
blue fin tuna. I was trying to get a little
of the red and blue for the red blill blue pill.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Do we say fishburns fish?
Speaker 1 (09:55):
We do? You do? And you would be correct?
Speaker 2 (09:58):
All right?
Speaker 1 (09:58):
How about this one? This composer wanted something sweet for
a lease, so he got some honey from his favorite insect.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Oh yeah, well is it is? It? Is it? Beethoven's bees.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
It is Beethoven's be just one.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Beethoven's beat. Beethoven's beat BeO.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
But I thought Beethoven's beat was a.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Good Beethoven's Beethoven's beat. Now now now, okay, So now
I'm realizing the full answer is contained fully within the
last name.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Correct, Yes, got it?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Got it.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
You're one of those rare, rare people, Michael, who gets
like six of the answers without even knowing how the
game is.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Because I felt like Fishburn's fish was sort of unimaginative.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yes, I agree, I did it mostly for.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Then I realized that, no, but that's it isn't a
cop out. Fishburns fish isn't a cop out Kidman's kid
is all. They're all the same, swan because I'm thinking
it's not like Swank's Ostrich.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Right, that's true. Yes, well, I mean fishburn probably that
word does come from the actual fish.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
In the sense of a body of water or something.
Fishburn is where you would go to get your fish.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Which is also why I did not do Sandra Bullock's
bull because Bullock means bull. So but wait, I.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Want we do have some standards here, Michael.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
I want to take this opportunity because we brought up B.
So let me let me do the B stuff right now. First,
I have two B related things. First, I love this
made me laugh out loud lol. As the kids said,
when I was reading your book, you had an about
the author section and you also had an about be
(11:55):
of Arthur section. So good, so puzzledly Yes, yes, and
it was just facts about be Arthur.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Yes, exactly, because I loved, I loved and I know
you do too. Those old books that were sort of
like that, those books that were little riddles and funny
jokes and stories and plays on words and did. And
so my book was a lame attempt at that. But yes,
about about be Arthur wonderful.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
It makes me laugh every time, mister funny pants. I
believe it's called, right, mister funny pant. Yes, all right,
and let's go back to the spelling bee or the
bee as you say. I did want to just I
loved when you told someone about your daily ritual with
Jonathan Sherman, the great playwright.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
You must be friendly with john I am friendly. I
must have him. You must have him on your show.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Such a good idea, Why you must?
Speaker 2 (12:51):
He would he would be an incredible guest.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
You're right, done? All right, Well maybe he won't agree,
but then.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Done on this side, definitely agree.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
But you text him, you do it, and you remind
me how it goes.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Well. Okay, So we play the spelling bee regularly, the bee.
And the idea is that you obviously you have to
get to genius. And once you get to genius. I
know a lot of people show their friends, hey, look
I got to genius today, right, and with with us
it's it's it's was. If you get to genius without
(13:29):
a hint, then that's clean. If you needed a hint
to get to genius, that's dirty.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Got it.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
So it's like I got to genius clean. This is
a clean genius. But I even go further to say,
like I got to genius without even looking at how
many points I needed to get to genius? How I
call that genius blind? Like genius blind.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
I love it. I have an extra credit for folks
at home. If you have pointy ears and a bushy tail,
you might be this carnivorous mammal. I'm doing a little
southern accent. This is a part of a hint.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
If you have how was an accent?
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Let me do it again?
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Why? Thanks for clarifying. Sorry, listen to.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Michael's a director. You can direct me. If you have
pointy ears and a bushy tail, you might be this
carnivorous mammal. All right, that's the hint, So think about
it and Michael, you are fantastic and listeners. If you
have a moment, check out our Instagram feed at Hello Puzzlers,
(14:39):
where we post original puzzles and lots of other fun
stuff and we will meet you here tomorrow for more
puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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