June 6, 2025 • 20 mins
Hello, Puzzlers! Today, A.J. and Greg give you a little peek behind the curtain and take you on a tour of the Puzzle Lab.
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 (00:01):
Hello puzzlers. Let's start with a quick puzzle. This week
we had sports analyst Sarah Spain as our guest, and
we talked about how much we love her last name Spain,
partly because Spain is a country that lends itself beautifully
to wordplay. So, for instance, if you remove the A
from Spain, you get the word spin. If you remove
(00:22):
the letter I from Spain, you get Spain. If you
remove the letter S from Spain you get pain. So Spain.
Thank you, gracias for all of your gifts. Here's my
question for you puzzlers at home to ponder during the break.
Can you come up with other countries where if you
remove one letter from the country's name, you get a
common English language word. It can be the first letter,
(00:44):
middle letter, final letter. Here's a tip, focus on the
countries with short names, not long names. Kazakhstan does not
yield a lot of words no matter what letter you remove.
The answers and more puzzling puzzles after the break. Hello puzzlers,
(01:06):
Welcome back to the Puzzler Podcast, The Spring and your
puzzle bobblehead Doll. I'm your host, A J. Jacobs, and
I'm here of course with Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Puliska. Greg.
Before the break, we asked puzzlers at home to name
countries that if you remove a letter from the country's name,
they yield the common English language word. Did any come
to mind for you?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Yes, And then I want to talk about Sarah Spain's
name again in a minute. But I mean I just
wrote down Chad right away and got Tad. That was
felt like a really obvious one. Peru. You could blop
off the last letter and get per Yeah. But then
I started trying to think of longer ones. I didn't
come up with any in that short period of time.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
I had.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Yeah, the longest one I have is a seven letter.
It's Finland. It becomes Inland bad. It's not great, but
it's not banned. We got uh. I'll just read the
one I had, and puzzlers please tell us more at
You can reach us via the puzzler dot com website.
We've got Tonga is tom, Togo is tour, tog Malta, Maltehina, Chin, Cuba,
(02:13):
cub Iran Ron and Oman man man as we would
pronounce it. Sure. As I mentioned, this puzzle was inspired
by our guests. This week, and we are wrapping up
this week by going inside the puzzle Lamp. We've got news,
puzzle news, We've got the Puzzler workbench and letters. So
(02:35):
I'm gonna just turn it over to Chee Puzzle Officer
Greg Pliska, because I believe you have a puzzle news
item for us.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Well.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Kick off with the puzzle news, which has nothing to
do with Sarah Spain is. Somebody on the Puzzler team
found this article about Tom York, the Radiohead front man
who has released a new album called Tall Tales collaboration
with Mark Pritchard, an electronic musician. And along with this album,
which is kind of kind of moody electronic music, I
(03:03):
listened to some of it while working on this, the
two have revealed the existence of four hundred coins that
have been hidden in various places around the world.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Oh really, Oh so, it's sort of like the Secret
or the Mask Grade or those.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
A little bit like that. There's not an intricate puzzle
to help find them. There is an Instagram account that
appears to show locations of the coins, but they're very
you know, it's like a little stream with a coin
sitting in it, or a kind of blurry picture of
a building with a coin in the foreground. Tom York
(03:39):
posted a poem on his Instagram account that says, four
hundred coins scattered across the world, buried in earthstone shadow,
track the tally and keep searching. If you found a coin,
let the forger know. More info at the link in
bio and there's a link to a website forger dot
tall hyphen tails dot info where someone is people are
(04:02):
logging where they found all the coins.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Oh, so it is a puzzle. Though it is officially
a puzzle.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
I think so. I have yet to see if there
are actual clues for where the coins are. A bunch
of them are inside vinyl.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
LP copies of the album.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Some people have just bought the album, like I got
a coin.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
But Charlie and Chocolate Factory method.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
That's exactly yep, exactly like that. But people have found
them all over the world Iceland, Korea, Japan, Puerto Rico,
et cetera. So it's kind of interesting and I kind
of wish I was the intern who got to.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Flight held the job. I love it.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
The idea of hiding money led me to a puzzle
idea that I'm going to give you guys today, which
is words or phrases that have units of currency hidden
inside them.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Ah okay, can I can I call in Andrea Scholmberg,
I would hope. So, I mean I am not good
with my currencies. I was very excited by the Euro
because then I didn't have to remember Leira and the drama,
even though now in the crossroads they're like formernary unit.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
We don't want to give.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Yeah, give them up people, Euro. All right, but I'm
gonna try my best, right.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
So the example I've got is actually a tough one,
but that's why it's the example. There's a famously challenging
song in the Tales of Hoffman by Offenbach that's sung
by Olympia, a female toy, and it's known as the
doll Aria, which of course has dollar hidden inside.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Ah okay, I have heard of dollar, yes, but not
the doll aria.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
But that's how this is going to work. I will
clue these sort of like cryptic clues with incomplete wordplay.
It's basically a clue to the phrase, and then you
know some hint to what the currency is.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
All right, I'm excited and nervous at the same time.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
All right, So here's your first one. The first one
is French money invested in brain doctor.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Ah okay, well I think I do know that one.
That one is frunk and Stein Frankenstein.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
No, no, this is the current French money. Oh that's wrong,
invested in a word for brain doctor. Yeah, it was
totally wrong.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
And this is what you're complaining about because it's euro
yeah in euroscientistsologist.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, neurosurgeon yeah, brain doctor.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Very good, very good. Well, here's here's another one. John
Steinbeck novel features Mexican currency.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
I think I got it just because it's the first
and possibly only John Steinbeck novel that I know. Grapes
of Wrath is a.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Peso peso right inside Grapes of Wrath. All right, here's
what you're gonna hate because it's a former currency. You
can find former German money in your local grocery store.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
All right.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
I think I got it. I think I got it it.
I'll say it super market super.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yes, and mark in right in the middle of it.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
The mark is the former German currency.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
All right. How about this African animal might be laughing
because it's swallowed some Japanese coins.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Aha, Okay, I like it because you got lots of
clues in there. You got laughing animal, which is only
I know, I mean mockingbird maybe, but hyena is famous.
And then the Japanese currency is stuck right in the middle,
the yen, the yen.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Yes, very good?
Speaker 2 (07:36):
All right, all right, all right?
Speaker 3 (07:37):
How about an adjective that means going beyond what is usual?
Holds the monetary unit of Algeria, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Serbia,
and Tunisia.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Whoa, I mean, I'm guessing I know the monetary unit.
I believe it's the real or real.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
It's not that one.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
It's not the.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Is Brazilian, and the real ri I A L is
Why the ri e L is Cambodian? I think the
al right a L is something else. But anyway, it's
not that one.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
All right, well that's good. Then I'm not going to
guess that, Andrea, I need your.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Help why I don't definitely don't know the currency offted
off of my head.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Okay, so let's attack it the other ways.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Going beyond what is usual super blank measures, extreme measures. Right,
that's a more even longer word than that starts with
those letters thoughition, there's extraordinary, extraordinary, Yes, all.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Right, and that is ther there. It is all right,
nicely done, nicely all right.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
I'll give you one more, he wrote, Hamilton, which is
why he has this gold coin of South Africa.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Okay, that one I do, phew Lin Manuel Miranda and
the Randa is stuck right in the middle.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Of ring, right in the middle of that.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Yeah, very good, are very very.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Good kind of fun stuff. Yeah, thanks to Tom Yorke
and Mark Pritchard. And they're hidden coins around the world.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
So do I get one of each of those currencies
as my reward?
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Absolutely, you get one of each, all right. I've got some.
I've got some euro pesos. I think that's all I've got. Said,
I've got some Turkish lira hanging around, some yen. I
probably have several of those.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Coming right over next time I see you. I'll see
you soon. You also mentioned though that you have more
on Spain. We love Spain, so you had more on yea.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Yeah. We did a fun puzzle with Sarah where all
the answers were phrases that included country names like cold
Turkey and Fine China, and by the end of it
we got a little punny with between a rock and
a hard Place yes, so I save some of the
really punny answers for you.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Oh I guess, thank you, yep.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
I give you a straightforward clue to a word or
a phrase, plus a clue to the more fanciful reading
of it if it used the country name. So the
example with Sarah was facing two unpleasant options or in
the Middle East near a very difficult situation.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Uh oh rock and a heart right right, all right? Ready?
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Nineteen seventies African American phrase that means do you understand?
Or an instruction to make a hole in the ground
in Nairobi.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Oh I know Kenya? So ken ye oh Kenya? Oh,
very clever Kenya? Dig it because you've got Kenya, and
then dig it all right? Can you dig it yeap?
Or can you dig it all right?
Speaker 4 (10:57):
All right?
Speaker 3 (10:58):
A sharp tool for opening large shipments or to fight
with an Arabian country that hosted the twenty twenty two
World Cup.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Oh all right, it's.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Also the country that just gave us an old seven
forty seven?
Speaker 1 (11:14):
It's not bah Rain, is it crow bar rain? That's
actually not bad crow bar rain, because that that might work.
But no, it is wait who gave it? It's not
Kuwait it is who gave us.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Who gave us the seven forty seven and hosted the
twenty twenty two World Cup.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Yeah, I'm drawing a Qatar cutter cutter.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Right, and it's a sharp tool for opening large shipments.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Cutter. Oh, like a box cutar.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Box cutter, box cutter, box cutter. Or to fight with
an Arabian country.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Box cut Ah, very good, very good.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Okay. This is a phrase that means to try to
get recruited by Alpha Kappa Alpha, or it's a group
of women in Moscow.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Okay, Well, I know Russia and Russia, it comes to mind.
But Russia sorority, Russia, Russia.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
You said it, Russia, Russia.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Sorority, Russia sorority.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Okay, Russia sorority to try to get recruited, or you
are a group, you're a sorority in Russia.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
I got yes. I'm just throwing out words, name countries
and wordplay and hope one of them lands.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
All right, I got two more. What a kid says
when she desires additional food or the answer to who
are you rooting for in the Polynesian sports competition?
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Well, I think is it? Mauritania is not Polynesian? Oh?
Samoa nicely done?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Oh yeah, or I want samoa, I.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Want very nicely done, Andrea, I want.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Some last one A three word phrase that means get
drunk or the opposite of China off.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
The opposite of China, off, get drunk? So China the
opposite of China? Yeah, I mean, you know, the antipode.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Like the opposite the antipode, not the antipode. It's much closer.
But it's if it's not China, it's Russia country, different
country nearby. What's the opposite of off?
Speaker 1 (13:32):
On? Got that part? I'm with you.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
So to get drunk is to blank blank on Taiwan.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
On there you go, very nice Taiwan on as Taiwan.
All right, well done? Yeah, I barely made it through
thanks to Andrea. Speaking of Andrea, you've been monitoring the
emails and telegraph lines. Do we have any notes from
our listeners?
Speaker 4 (13:59):
You sure do. Today we have a letter from listener
Eric Guss. He writes, thanks for the great podcast. I
love the word stadia as the plural of stadium, which
I realize only the nerdiest of us use.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
True.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
I recently heard a smarty pants say conundrums. I wanted
to check if conundra is the true plural, and it
turns out that it is not, Conundra is actually called
a hypercorrection.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
That I did not know. So it is sometimes words
ending in um are pluralized, a like bacterium becomes bacteria. Ah.
That's if it's a Latin word, because Latin neutral words
ending in um become ah. So those are hangovers from Latin.
But words like conundrum are not Latin. They are from
(14:50):
unknown origin. So it is a conundrum itself. But conundra
is incorrect and conundrums is correct. Now challenged us to
come up with a little quiz on what are the
correct plurals to some of these? Ooh okay, which I
thought was a great idea. So I'm going to give
(15:11):
you just a couple and you tell me what you
think is correct. What about addendum? Addendum? Is it adenda
or addendums?
Speaker 3 (15:20):
I would think it was adenda. That sounds like a
word that does come from Latin.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
You are correct, Addenda is the according to the Merriam
Webster Dictionary. My favorite addenda is the only acceptable. However,
what I love checking the Google n gram viewer, which
charts the usage of words over time, like from one
hundred years ago to now, and there are quite a
(15:44):
few addendums, and it's gaining. It is on the road.
So my guess is, in like twenty years the dictionaries
are going to have to buckle and include addendums because
you know, they follow usage.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
They probably included already, some of them, some of them not.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
The Merriam Webster, all right, let me throw you an aquarium.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Aquarium, aquarium, aquaria.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
All right, Well, both are accepted, but aquariums are slightly
more popular than aquaria. How about I'm going to give
you Channing Tatum. You've got a lot of channing Tatum.
Is that Tatum's or Tata?
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Well, I think Tata actually Channing Tata, Channing Tata.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Yeah, that is the correct.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Like Tatum O'Neill and everybody else with her name.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Tati Tati Tata. And yes, when I emailed Eric back,
he wrote, he responded, rim shot on the snare draw
instead of snare draw. Well done, Eric, I was.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
We didn't get into other plurals like octopus.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Right, which is octopuses is the preferred.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Or, and the the other one is octopudes actopodies.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
That's also a plural of o c T O p.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
O d e s because it comes from Greek, and
in the Greek the plural of octopus would be octopodies.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Interesting. Are there others that you can cite?
Speaker 4 (17:18):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
I'm sure there are. Maybe antipodes is the plural of antipus,
very nice opposed to antipode. Most dictionaries also accept octopi
as the plural, even though that is not you know,
correct in the derivation of the word octopus, right, and.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Greg was using correct with air quotes because language is
a moving thing and it's always changing and you can't
really love about it. Yeah, all right, Well, thank you
plural to listeners, and thank you plural to Greg and Andrea.
And we will be back on Monday, but if you
(18:00):
have some time over the weekend, we would so appreciate
it if you would go to your favorite podcast platform
and give us a rating. I recommend five stars because
it makes a huge It really makes a difference in
people find yes, and we want people to puzzle, and
we will meet you here on Monday for more puzzling
puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Hey, puzzlers, it's your chief puzzle Officer, Greg Puliska here
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
We played a game that Aj called Bordello Woozy or
bordering words, and it's all about words that are adjacent
to people's names in the dictionary. So he gave us
an extra credit clue to a person and this was
the clue Irritate new Testament, who discovered the Lavish of Graveyard.
(18:55):
So Irritate new Testament, are the words adjacent to this
person's name, and it is Isaac Newton because he irritated
his right before Isaac and new Testament is right before Newton.
And he discovered the laws of gravity, which is what
got us Lavish of Graveyard. So thanks for playing with us.
This is Gregarious place the scene signing off.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Thanks for playing along with the team here at the
Puzzler with Aj Jacobs. I'm Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle Officer.
Our executive producers are Neelie Lohman and Adam Neuhouse of
New House Ideas and Lindsay Hoffman of iHeart Podcasts. The
show is produced by Jody Abrigan and Brittany Brown of
Roulette Productions, with production support from Claire Bidegar.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Curtis.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Our associate producer is Andrea Schoenberg. The Puzzler with AJ
Jacobs is a co production with New House Ideas and
is distributed by sad Strophic t HA Just Kidding Rearrange
the letters. It's distribute by iHeart Podcasts. If you want
to know more about puzzling puzzles, please check out the
(20:06):
book The Puzzler by AJ Jacobs, a history of puzzles
that The New York Times called 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.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
See you there,
Hello puzzlers. Let's start with a quick puzzle. This week
we had sports analyst Sarah Spain as our guest, and
we talked about how much we love her last name Spain,
partly because Spain is a country that lends itself beautifully
to wordplay. So, for instance, if you remove the A
from Spain, you get the word spin. If you remove
(00:22):
the letter I from Spain, you get Spain. If you
remove the letter S from Spain you get pain. So Spain.
Thank you, gracias for all of your gifts. Here's my
question for you puzzlers at home to ponder during the break.
Can you come up with other countries where if you
remove one letter from the country's name, you get a
common English language word. It can be the first letter,
(00:44):
middle letter, final letter. Here's a tip, focus on the
countries with short names, not long names. Kazakhstan does not
yield a lot of words no matter what letter you remove.
The answers and more puzzling puzzles after the break. Hello puzzlers,
(01:06):
Welcome back to the Puzzler Podcast, The Spring and your
puzzle bobblehead Doll. I'm your host, A J. Jacobs, and
I'm here of course with Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Puliska. Greg.
Before the break, we asked puzzlers at home to name
countries that if you remove a letter from the country's name,
they yield the common English language word. Did any come
to mind for you?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Yes, And then I want to talk about Sarah Spain's
name again in a minute. But I mean I just
wrote down Chad right away and got Tad. That was
felt like a really obvious one. Peru. You could blop
off the last letter and get per Yeah. But then
I started trying to think of longer ones. I didn't
come up with any in that short period of time.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
I had.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Yeah, the longest one I have is a seven letter.
It's Finland. It becomes Inland bad. It's not great, but
it's not banned. We got uh. I'll just read the
one I had, and puzzlers please tell us more at
You can reach us via the puzzler dot com website.
We've got Tonga is tom, Togo is tour, tog Malta, Maltehina, Chin, Cuba,
(02:13):
cub Iran Ron and Oman man man as we would
pronounce it. Sure. As I mentioned, this puzzle was inspired
by our guests. This week, and we are wrapping up
this week by going inside the puzzle Lamp. We've got news,
puzzle news, We've got the Puzzler workbench and letters. So
(02:35):
I'm gonna just turn it over to Chee Puzzle Officer
Greg Pliska, because I believe you have a puzzle news
item for us.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Well.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Kick off with the puzzle news, which has nothing to
do with Sarah Spain is. Somebody on the Puzzler team
found this article about Tom York, the Radiohead front man
who has released a new album called Tall Tales collaboration
with Mark Pritchard, an electronic musician. And along with this album,
which is kind of kind of moody electronic music, I
(03:03):
listened to some of it while working on this, the
two have revealed the existence of four hundred coins that
have been hidden in various places around the world.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Oh really, Oh so, it's sort of like the Secret
or the Mask Grade or those.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
A little bit like that. There's not an intricate puzzle
to help find them. There is an Instagram account that
appears to show locations of the coins, but they're very
you know, it's like a little stream with a coin
sitting in it, or a kind of blurry picture of
a building with a coin in the foreground. Tom York
(03:39):
posted a poem on his Instagram account that says, four
hundred coins scattered across the world, buried in earthstone shadow,
track the tally and keep searching. If you found a coin,
let the forger know. More info at the link in
bio and there's a link to a website forger dot
tall hyphen tails dot info where someone is people are
(04:02):
logging where they found all the coins.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Oh, so it is a puzzle. Though it is officially
a puzzle.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
I think so. I have yet to see if there
are actual clues for where the coins are. A bunch
of them are inside vinyl.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
LP copies of the album.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Some people have just bought the album, like I got
a coin.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
But Charlie and Chocolate Factory method.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
That's exactly yep, exactly like that. But people have found
them all over the world Iceland, Korea, Japan, Puerto Rico,
et cetera. So it's kind of interesting and I kind
of wish I was the intern who got to.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Flight held the job. I love it.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
The idea of hiding money led me to a puzzle
idea that I'm going to give you guys today, which
is words or phrases that have units of currency hidden
inside them.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Ah okay, can I can I call in Andrea Scholmberg,
I would hope. So, I mean I am not good
with my currencies. I was very excited by the Euro
because then I didn't have to remember Leira and the drama,
even though now in the crossroads they're like formernary unit.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
We don't want to give.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Yeah, give them up people, Euro. All right, but I'm
gonna try my best, right.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
So the example I've got is actually a tough one,
but that's why it's the example. There's a famously challenging
song in the Tales of Hoffman by Offenbach that's sung
by Olympia, a female toy, and it's known as the
doll Aria, which of course has dollar hidden inside.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Ah okay, I have heard of dollar, yes, but not
the doll aria.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
But that's how this is going to work. I will
clue these sort of like cryptic clues with incomplete wordplay.
It's basically a clue to the phrase, and then you
know some hint to what the currency is.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
All right, I'm excited and nervous at the same time.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
All right, So here's your first one. The first one
is French money invested in brain doctor.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Ah okay, well I think I do know that one.
That one is frunk and Stein Frankenstein.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
No, no, this is the current French money. Oh that's wrong,
invested in a word for brain doctor. Yeah, it was
totally wrong.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
And this is what you're complaining about because it's euro
yeah in euroscientistsologist.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, neurosurgeon yeah, brain doctor.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Very good, very good. Well, here's here's another one. John
Steinbeck novel features Mexican currency.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
I think I got it just because it's the first
and possibly only John Steinbeck novel that I know. Grapes
of Wrath is a.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Peso peso right inside Grapes of Wrath. All right, here's
what you're gonna hate because it's a former currency. You
can find former German money in your local grocery store.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
All right.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
I think I got it. I think I got it it.
I'll say it super market super.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yes, and mark in right in the middle of it.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
The mark is the former German currency.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
All right. How about this African animal might be laughing
because it's swallowed some Japanese coins.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Aha, Okay, I like it because you got lots of
clues in there. You got laughing animal, which is only
I know, I mean mockingbird maybe, but hyena is famous.
And then the Japanese currency is stuck right in the middle,
the yen, the yen.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Yes, very good?
Speaker 2 (07:36):
All right, all right, all right?
Speaker 3 (07:37):
How about an adjective that means going beyond what is usual?
Holds the monetary unit of Algeria, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Serbia,
and Tunisia.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Whoa, I mean, I'm guessing I know the monetary unit.
I believe it's the real or real.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
It's not that one.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
It's not the.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Is Brazilian, and the real ri I A L is
Why the ri e L is Cambodian? I think the
al right a L is something else. But anyway, it's
not that one.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
All right, well that's good. Then I'm not going to
guess that, Andrea, I need your.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Help why I don't definitely don't know the currency offted
off of my head.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Okay, so let's attack it the other ways.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Going beyond what is usual super blank measures, extreme measures. Right,
that's a more even longer word than that starts with
those letters thoughition, there's extraordinary, extraordinary, Yes, all.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Right, and that is ther there. It is all right,
nicely done, nicely all right.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
I'll give you one more, he wrote, Hamilton, which is
why he has this gold coin of South Africa.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Okay, that one I do, phew Lin Manuel Miranda and
the Randa is stuck right in the middle.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Of ring, right in the middle of that.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Yeah, very good, are very very.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Good kind of fun stuff. Yeah, thanks to Tom Yorke
and Mark Pritchard. And they're hidden coins around the world.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
So do I get one of each of those currencies
as my reward?
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Absolutely, you get one of each, all right. I've got some.
I've got some euro pesos. I think that's all I've got. Said,
I've got some Turkish lira hanging around, some yen. I
probably have several of those.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Coming right over next time I see you. I'll see
you soon. You also mentioned though that you have more
on Spain. We love Spain, so you had more on yea.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Yeah. We did a fun puzzle with Sarah where all
the answers were phrases that included country names like cold
Turkey and Fine China, and by the end of it
we got a little punny with between a rock and
a hard Place yes, so I save some of the
really punny answers for you.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Oh I guess, thank you, yep.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
I give you a straightforward clue to a word or
a phrase, plus a clue to the more fanciful reading
of it if it used the country name. So the
example with Sarah was facing two unpleasant options or in
the Middle East near a very difficult situation.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Uh oh rock and a heart right right, all right? Ready?
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Nineteen seventies African American phrase that means do you understand?
Or an instruction to make a hole in the ground
in Nairobi.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Oh I know Kenya? So ken ye oh Kenya? Oh,
very clever Kenya? Dig it because you've got Kenya, and
then dig it all right? Can you dig it yeap?
Or can you dig it all right?
Speaker 4 (10:57):
All right?
Speaker 3 (10:58):
A sharp tool for opening large shipments or to fight
with an Arabian country that hosted the twenty twenty two
World Cup.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Oh all right, it's.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Also the country that just gave us an old seven
forty seven?
Speaker 1 (11:14):
It's not bah Rain, is it crow bar rain? That's
actually not bad crow bar rain, because that that might work.
But no, it is wait who gave it? It's not
Kuwait it is who gave us.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Who gave us the seven forty seven and hosted the
twenty twenty two World Cup.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Yeah, I'm drawing a Qatar cutter cutter.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Right, and it's a sharp tool for opening large shipments.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Cutter. Oh, like a box cutar.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Box cutter, box cutter, box cutter. Or to fight with
an Arabian country.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Box cut Ah, very good, very good.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Okay. This is a phrase that means to try to
get recruited by Alpha Kappa Alpha, or it's a group
of women in Moscow.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Okay, Well, I know Russia and Russia, it comes to mind.
But Russia sorority, Russia, Russia.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
You said it, Russia, Russia.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Sorority, Russia sorority.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Okay, Russia sorority to try to get recruited, or you
are a group, you're a sorority in Russia.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
I got yes. I'm just throwing out words, name countries
and wordplay and hope one of them lands.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
All right, I got two more. What a kid says
when she desires additional food or the answer to who
are you rooting for in the Polynesian sports competition?
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Well, I think is it? Mauritania is not Polynesian? Oh?
Samoa nicely done?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Oh yeah, or I want samoa, I.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Want very nicely done, Andrea, I want.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Some last one A three word phrase that means get
drunk or the opposite of China off.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
The opposite of China, off, get drunk? So China the
opposite of China? Yeah, I mean, you know, the antipode.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Like the opposite the antipode, not the antipode. It's much closer.
But it's if it's not China, it's Russia country, different
country nearby. What's the opposite of off?
Speaker 1 (13:32):
On? Got that part? I'm with you.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
So to get drunk is to blank blank on Taiwan.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
On there you go, very nice Taiwan on as Taiwan.
All right, well done? Yeah, I barely made it through
thanks to Andrea. Speaking of Andrea, you've been monitoring the
emails and telegraph lines. Do we have any notes from
our listeners?
Speaker 4 (13:59):
You sure do. Today we have a letter from listener
Eric Guss. He writes, thanks for the great podcast. I
love the word stadia as the plural of stadium, which
I realize only the nerdiest of us use.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
True.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
I recently heard a smarty pants say conundrums. I wanted
to check if conundra is the true plural, and it
turns out that it is not, Conundra is actually called
a hypercorrection.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
That I did not know. So it is sometimes words
ending in um are pluralized, a like bacterium becomes bacteria. Ah.
That's if it's a Latin word, because Latin neutral words
ending in um become ah. So those are hangovers from Latin.
But words like conundrum are not Latin. They are from
(14:50):
unknown origin. So it is a conundrum itself. But conundra
is incorrect and conundrums is correct. Now challenged us to
come up with a little quiz on what are the
correct plurals to some of these? Ooh okay, which I
thought was a great idea. So I'm going to give
(15:11):
you just a couple and you tell me what you
think is correct. What about addendum? Addendum? Is it adenda
or addendums?
Speaker 3 (15:20):
I would think it was adenda. That sounds like a
word that does come from Latin.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
You are correct, Addenda is the according to the Merriam
Webster Dictionary. My favorite addenda is the only acceptable. However,
what I love checking the Google n gram viewer, which
charts the usage of words over time, like from one
hundred years ago to now, and there are quite a
(15:44):
few addendums, and it's gaining. It is on the road.
So my guess is, in like twenty years the dictionaries
are going to have to buckle and include addendums because
you know, they follow usage.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
They probably included already, some of them, some of them not.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
The Merriam Webster, all right, let me throw you an aquarium.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Aquarium, aquarium, aquaria.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
All right, Well, both are accepted, but aquariums are slightly
more popular than aquaria. How about I'm going to give
you Channing Tatum. You've got a lot of channing Tatum.
Is that Tatum's or Tata?
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Well, I think Tata actually Channing Tata, Channing Tata.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Yeah, that is the correct.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Like Tatum O'Neill and everybody else with her name.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Tati Tati Tata. And yes, when I emailed Eric back,
he wrote, he responded, rim shot on the snare draw
instead of snare draw. Well done, Eric, I was.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
We didn't get into other plurals like octopus.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Right, which is octopuses is the preferred.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Or, and the the other one is octopudes actopodies.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
That's also a plural of o c T O p.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
O d e s because it comes from Greek, and
in the Greek the plural of octopus would be octopodies.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Interesting. Are there others that you can cite?
Speaker 4 (17:18):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
I'm sure there are. Maybe antipodes is the plural of antipus,
very nice opposed to antipode. Most dictionaries also accept octopi
as the plural, even though that is not you know,
correct in the derivation of the word octopus, right, and.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Greg was using correct with air quotes because language is
a moving thing and it's always changing and you can't
really love about it. Yeah, all right, Well, thank you
plural to listeners, and thank you plural to Greg and Andrea.
And we will be back on Monday, but if you
(18:00):
have some time over the weekend, we would so appreciate
it if you would go to your favorite podcast platform
and give us a rating. I recommend five stars because
it makes a huge It really makes a difference in
people find yes, and we want people to puzzle, and
we will meet you here on Monday for more puzzling
puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Hey, puzzlers, it's your chief puzzle Officer, Greg Puliska here
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
We played a game that Aj called Bordello Woozy or
bordering words, and it's all about words that are adjacent
to people's names in the dictionary. So he gave us
an extra credit clue to a person and this was
the clue Irritate new Testament, who discovered the Lavish of Graveyard.
(18:55):
So Irritate new Testament, are the words adjacent to this
person's name, and it is Isaac Newton because he irritated
his right before Isaac and new Testament is right before Newton.
And he discovered the laws of gravity, which is what
got us Lavish of Graveyard. So thanks for playing with us.
This is Gregarious place the scene signing off.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Thanks for playing along with the team here at the
Puzzler with Aj Jacobs. I'm Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle Officer.
Our executive producers are Neelie Lohman and Adam Neuhouse of
New House Ideas and Lindsay Hoffman of iHeart Podcasts. The
show is produced by Jody Abrigan and Brittany Brown of
Roulette Productions, with production support from Claire Bidegar.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Curtis.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Our associate producer is Andrea Schoenberg. The Puzzler with AJ
Jacobs is a co production with New House Ideas and
is distributed by sad Strophic t HA Just Kidding Rearrange
the letters. It's distribute by iHeart Podcasts. If you want
to know more about puzzling puzzles, please check out the
(20:06):
book The Puzzler by AJ Jacobs, a history of puzzles
that The New York Times called 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.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
See you there,
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
Popular Podcasts
True Crime Tonight
If you eat, sleep, and breathe true crime, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT is serving up your nightly fix. Five nights a week, KT STUDIOS & iHEART RADIO invite listeners to pull up a seat for an unfiltered look at the biggest cases making headlines, celebrity scandals, and the trials everyone is watching. With a mix of expert analysis, hot takes, and listener call-ins, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT goes beyond the headlines to uncover the twists, turns, and unanswered questions that keep us all obsessed—because, at TRUE CRIME TONIGHT, there’s a seat for everyone. Whether breaking down crime scene forensics, scrutinizing serial killers, or debating the most binge-worthy true crime docs, True Crime Tonight is the fresh, fast-paced, and slightly addictive home for true crime lovers.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
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.