"Aptronyms" w/ A.J. & Greg

Published Sep 10, 2024, 8:00 AM

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.

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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.

Hello, puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler podcast, The Belly Rub and Your Dog's Puzzling Summer Afternoon. I'm your host, AJ Jacobs, and I'm here with a great Greg Kuliska, Chief puzzle Officer. Welcome Greg, greatful.

Well, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Aj.

It's always nice to be let out of the puzzle lab.

We try, we try that you need fresh air. It's important for your health.

I mean, you send food down, which is nice, but at least let me come out and see the people.

Occasionally we are very past compassionate and.

Passionate, and passionate, all of the above.

Do you have a puzzle.

I do have a puzzle. I have a puzzle about aptronyms.

I do think I know what an aptronym is, an apt them or with an aptronym.

Okay, that's a coinage. I don't know if that is a dictionary word these days, but it is a I guess it's I guess it's in some of the dictionaries. We can take that. The Oxford Dictionary looks like it has it. Merriam Webster looks like it has it.

Yeah, okay, it's a real word. Well as our linguistics people would tell us real words don't have to be in.

Dictionaries exactly exactly, but this one is. This one is an afternym is a name that is apt for the person who has.

It right, like ussin bolt famous runner who is fast, and bolts are fast. So Hussein I mean maybe Ussein also means something fast in another language, but I was thinking bolt.

Yep, you are absolutely right. That is the first example I would have given. The other famous one that we all learn in middle school or younger is Thomas Crapper.

Ah. Yes, Thomas M.

Gramfer, Victorian plumber and toilet innovator. Just to be clear, he didn't actually invent the toilet.

Oh interesting.

He was a plumber, and he holds patents for the floating ballcock, which is okay to say on the radio. It's the boy, it's the thing that floats in your toilet.

Uh show, I know it? Yeah right.

And the U bend, which is the way that thing bends that aboves it to drain more efficiently.

And also it doesn't smell as much. That's a big one.

That's what it is, right right. It keeps the gases from coming back from the ass.

That's rank. Thank you, mister Crapper. No wait, I had a question about Thomas Crapper because is crap named for Thomas Crapper or crap was around and he just happens to be named crapper, And.

A good question, I am. I am fairly certain that crap was a round, yet usage goes back to the fifteenth century.

Interesting, Okay, so he.

Just happened to be named crapper and just happened to be interested in plumbing. He was also an advocate for more sinanitarry plumbing. So it's not just that a guy who did stuff around toilets, but he really made a public case for we should all have toilets in our homes, keep them clean, you know, don't throw the waist in a bucket out the window or anything like that.

He is a hero, and we all I mean, he's a punchline because of his name, but he's a hero. Yeah. That's pretty that's big stuff.

That's mister aptronym aptronym right there. And I found another great one. Too hard to do to use it in the quiz, But guess what the name of the associate judge in Washington who performed that state's first same sex marriages.

Oh interesting, John LGBTQ.

Plus gnuice guess completely wrong. Now, this is a woman and her name is Mary.

You oh that's a good one?

Or why why you?

I love? It?

Isn't that great? I mean it's like she was born ready for that.

Well, I do believe there is I remember reading in the Encyclopedia a theory called nominative to tournamentism, which says that your name slightly can influence what you do, so people named Dennis are more likely to become dentists. To me, it sounds like it's craps, like a stretch, but it is. It is an actual theory out there with studies.

So you were born aj podcaster and yeah, that's what happened.

Exactly, a proof proof right there.

All right, So the way this buzzle works is I'll give you an activity or profession to describe the name of a famous person in that field. Okay, Well, this is another sports one one of the greatest golfers of all time. He uses all the clubs in his bag, including the irons and the putters.

Ah, very good. Okay, I do know enough about golf that it is tiger Woods exactly. And even though woods are no longer really made of wood. They're like grapha. Is that right?

They're made of yeah there may. I don't know exactly material, but yeah, there's some kind.

Of So that is an opposite of an apteronym. It's when something is.

Not Oh, but still call them woods. We call them woods. You're just saying the name Woods is no.

Longer the name woods itself for that club. Right, So there you go. That's good. Just a little bonus bonus.

It's like two puzzles in one here on the puzzler, twice what you paid for. Okay, this poet known for I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud and tintern Abbey definitely got top value, not for letters or sentences, but something in between.

Okay, oh oh okay. It took me a second. Yeah, yeah, but I puzzled it out because in between letters and sentences is words, and you had mentioned value, so words worth words?

Yes, William Wordsworth is the answer. Good.

Yeah, I love that.

I love your name. Also, like the novelist who who wrote she wrote Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris, nineteen thirty two, Mister Monkey and the Glorious Ones. She's a novelist short story writer and essayist, but not appropriately a writer of poetry.

Okay, all right, I think I got it. Took me a while, but the opposite of poetry is prose. That I know so and I fran Scene. I've never read her embarrassingly enough, which I should. But fran sceine prose, people.

Seine prose another good one, exactly, exactly, very all right, leaving literature behind us. This is a South Dakota senator and the nineteen seventy two Democratic nominee for president. He was born to lead.

Okay, wait, I think I got it, but maybe I'm wrong. I mean there was McGovern is okay, good, right?

What was the other one?

Then? I don't know. I was just worried. Mick means son of so he was born to lead because he was sort of.

Yeah, I mean, like I said, he was born to lead in the style of a famous fast food franchise.

But I think yours is a better click.

Without fact that he's got govern in his name, that.

Is weird, very weird. Cool.

Yeah, all right, we got a couple more. This is a disgraced financier who ran a years long Ponzi scheme. He as his name suggests absconded with his client's money.

Oh, very good. Well, this is weird. I am having an I don't like to use the word brain fart, but whatever, flatulence related neurological problem.

I'm I'm glad we're not in the same room. Oh that's all I gotta say.

But yeah, no, this is all right. Hold on, wait, So he absconded with the money.

Sconded with his client's money. What's another what's a two word synonym for absconded with steal?

Breakaway? I mean I know that, Bernie. Yeah, see look at this.

What did you do with the money? He blanked?

Ran off? Made off? Yes, made off with the money. All right.

Once again, there's always two ways into the answer, either exactly or you work it out from the clue.

Yes, thank you for the clue. You led me there, all right.

A number one tennis player in the nineteen seventies. This woman was born to walk onto the playing surface.

Hmmmm. Well, the playing service for tennis could be a few things. It could be court, could be grass, could be play could be hard. What's that called hard surface? Hard?

Clay?

Hard? Well, the beginning, I'm going to say court, So and you know, and the.

Some some places you just have to get the last name, right, you don't need the first name.

I'll take it. Then I can't remember Court.

Who is Margaret Court? Oh okay, all right, here's one more and then we'll do the extra credit. This couple were the plaintiffs in a case that challenge the anti miscegenation laws in this country. That was, and the female member is quoted as saying, my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the commitment, the fairness and the family that so many people black or white, young or old, gay or strait seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all.

Ah, Yes, this. I just did a book on the Constitution and this was one of the most inspiring cases. So I've I think it's I forget the exact word for him, but I think it's loving versus.

Loving, loving versus Virginia. Yep, Mildred and Richard loving.

There you go, Yes, how perfect? Love it? Loving it? That was great? All right? I feel I learned a lot. I did point out to my kids because some of them, not all of them, like Taylor Swift, uh that she she comes out with albums like quite quickly. She is swift. She's an ape, yes, Taylor Swift. And maybe she designs clothes so maybe she's a tailor's oh, but she's certainly quite quick. Do you have a an aftromnym for the listeners at home?

An extra credit? I do. I'm gonna actually flip this around. Okay, I'm going to give them the name. It's a guy named Chuck Long and he did not have a long professional career, but fans in Detroit in Los Angeles may remember what position he played.

Okay, God, I mean I have two guesses then, yeah.

But you're not a listener, You're you just see it quietly.

I am a listener, though, I do. I come back and listen to him and enjoy its very show, and I hope that you all do too. So please come back tomorrow and find out about Chuck Along. And also, if you have thirty eight seconds, please rate us on your favorite podcast platform because it helps people find us and we love when people find us. And of course we will meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.

Hey, puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska here with the extra credit. Answer from our previous episode, AJ and I did a show about isograms. Words with no repeated letters, words where all the letters are unique, and your extra credit clue was this. This term for an educated intellectual woman comes from an eighteenth century literary club and the colored footwear worn by its members. It's not a particularly common word, but hopefully the colored footwear clue helped you to get to blue Stocking. That is the name of somebody from that intellectual group. Blue Stocking. That is a twelve letter isogram. So remember, the only podcast where you get to talk about isograms on a regular basis is right here at the Puzzler. See you next time.

The Puzzler with A.J. Jacobs

Finally, your daily puzzle fix—in audio form! Every day, New York Times bestselling author A.J. Jaco 
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