Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: former tennis player and host of "The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast," Rennae Stubbs!
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 Top Spin in Your Puzzle Cross Court Winner. I am your host, Adre Jacobs, and I'm joined as always by Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Pliska, and our guest today is Renee Stubbs, legendary tennis champion, ESPN commentator, host of the Renee Stubbs Tennis podcast on iHeart.
Welcome, Renee, Thank you, thanks for having me.
This is a first, This is a first. Well, you have fifty two doubles titles? Is that correct? Did I get that right?
Actually? Sixty, but it's okay, I'll take I'll add a few more on there. Yes, sixty.
Hey, you have more doubles titles than any guest we've ever had on this show.
Absolutely true, Absolutely true. And I know you had mentioned to our producer that you're not a huge puzzler, but we want to convince you today otherwise because we think you will be great. And also I think tennis tennis is a puzzle, right, I don't am I wrong?
Definitely trying to work out you know x's and o's angles, stummody, strengths and weaknesses, you know how to improve, how to learn from it. All the things, and you do learn every time you play a match, whether you win a loose. So yeah, absolutely.
Right, and especially doubles where you excelled. I feel there's there may be there's more strategy in doubles. I don't know. I don't want to annoy the singles fans, but I think there's.
A strategy in both. They're very different. But having four people on a court, you certainly have to work out various different things, a little bit more than on a singles court, for sure, But you also have a friend out there to help you, help you figure out the puzzle.
But you also have enemies trying to stop you from figuring out the buzz. Well, in honor of your tennis career, this today is a tennis themed puzzle. It's actually, or at least themed to the way tennis is scored, which, as you know, is love fifteen thirty forty. So all of the answers are phrases that will contain one of those words fifteen thirty forty or love. So if I said this is a movie with Steve Carell as a middle aged guy who has never had sex, the answer would.
Be forty year old virgin God exactly.
And before we start, can we just pause for a moment and just say, what is up with tennis score? It's crazy, am I? It's fifteen thirty and then it doesn't even go to forty five. It goes to forty, it goes to deuce and then to deuce and.
We start talking about orange juice. You know, it's an interesting conversation. Actually, somebody should get to the bottom of why. But I guess you know, World Team Tennis did ones, twos, threes, so there are definitely different ways to count on a tennis court. But certainly it is an interesting conundrum that we probably should get to the bottom off.
Well, I did look into it, and no one knows quite for sure, but something it has to do with the hours that it was supposed to be forty five and something went seriously awry. But anyway, I will say I like the love. I mean, that's nice. In sports, we need more love, so I'm happy.
That we do. Unless you're on the side of being the love, which is not good in tennis. So another conundrum that we should figure out why the love is bad unless you win.
That's a good point. That's a good point. Yes, love should be when you win. The only things weirder than tennis scoring is pickleball scoring.
I can't don't even get me on that One's that is not my jam. I'm not a pit pickaball lover. So there you go.
I had heard on your podcast you are not a fan. I'm sorry. I brought it up all right. Back to the puzzle. That back to the puzzle. So everything, as you know, is either fifteen, thirty, forty, or love. This is how long it rained in the Bible on Noah's during Noah's time? How long could it rain?
How long did it rain during Noah's Bible? I should have listened to my my religious teacher more.
Coming webite.
I actually haven't seen these ages. This is when he was on the arc, right, they are on the ar Okay arc.
And then and it was a certain number of days and a certain number of nights. So you only have three choices.
I will say forty.
You will say correctly, I'm with you. Your your religious instructor would be happy.
I had to think about it for a second there, and I was like, wait, it's forty yeah, I'm sure it is.
Yeah, forty days and forty nine, that's right.
Forty nines.
What about if this is the name of the singer and actress and former wife of Kurt Cobain.
Is.
Love Courtney Love?
Courtney Love.
See I'm getting the hang of it now.
No.
Well it's good because you could just tick through. Is it forty thirty fifteen?
Exactly? Now, it's like it's love Courney.
Probably gotta be love.
It wasn't Courtney thirty, wasn't Courtney fifteen? Yeah? Uh, all right, Well then this one, this is famous in America, but maybe not in Australia your home, so it could be a curveball. The first line of a poem about months, then the length of months. This is how I was.
This is poem.
It is a new moder poem, and I'm looking at maybe it is not thing the Australians do.
I would probably throw maybe thirty out there.
I think you are correct, right, because most month the poem is have you ever heard it? Thirty days half September.
Thirty days has September, April, June, and November, all the rest of twenty eight, all the rest of thirty one except February, which is twenty eight.
That's it, you got it always drove me crazy because it doesn't rhyme. In the end, it's a nice little poem. And then you get to twenty eight.
Well, but we all remember it, so we clearly rhymed it at some point in our lives, and we handled it really quite well.
I actually don't remember. I remember the September, but then I'm like, what are the other three months?
Yeah, that's one thing that is embedded in my mind, and I don't know why.
All right, well, it works for you, So I'll tell you that one I learned, which is because your knuckles, you start with the knuckle that's January, then February, March, April, May, June, July, and then you stay there and go back August.
September, October, November, December. So all the knuckles are thirty one, and all the spaces between the knuckles are thirty except for February, which is weird.
I think thirty days says September, April, Juna, November, all the rest of thirty one.
It's you like that easier, you know, we take what you got.
Because I don't want to sit there and count my knuckles.
I am Greg, I am on board. I'm going to try that. We'll see all right, what about this is the the amount. This is what Andy Warhol predicted everyone will get in the future. They will get there.
Andy Wallhole predicted everyone gets this amount of.
They get an amount of time to be in the limelight.
Oh that's fifteen fifteen fifteen minutes in the limelight.
Fifteen minutes of fame exactly, which has turned out to be pretty uh pressed true. Yeah, it's weird.
Here we are, this is our fifteen minutes right here. As far as this is it.
I mean, what about and again, you grew up in Australia, but I feel that this must have migrated to Australia. A classic TV show where the main character had a lot of spleining to do. She had to splain to her husband about her wacky antics.
Well it sounds like splain. I think it's Lucy. It is. That is it?
And the name of the show is I Love Lucy exactly, God, very good, love Lucy.
I did love that show. I grew up with that show. I know it's pretty hard to imagine, but I actually grew up with that show. And everyone always asks me, how do you know that? And I'm like, we got American shows.
Yeah, of course.
I grew up watching my two I probably I would say the three shows, well, there was probably four. There was Happy Days, yeah, Mash, Yeah, my dad loved Mash. I love Lucy and well, I mean so many like so I got, we got all of those Love Boat all all the great American shows, we got always in Australia.
All right, a couple of more. Okay, but you are are you feeling better about your puzzling ability?
I'm feeling better, all right.
That's what we're here for. We're there. We're here for positive mental health. Make you feel better? All right? How about this is something that is celebrated with a kin sinnia by some Latin cultures kin signia.
Hmmm, let's see.
It's when a girl in Latin and Latin cultures turns a certain age, she has thrown this.
Well, I would hope it would be when she was fifteen.
Yes, one would hope your hope has been Yes it is.
I hope she's not getting thrown at Kensigniere at thirty. That would be sad. Exactly.
I shouldn't be a party for when you turn forty yeah something.
Yeah, listen, I have no I think all all ages should be uh, should be celebrated, all right, what about ali Baba? How many associates did he have?
Let me think, ali Baba? Oh it was the Thebes, Yes they were. They were forty thieves.
Forty Yet it exactly. Last one, last one is when you give a married couple gifts made of crystal? What might they be celebrating? And now you're gonna have to use some detective logic.
Who knows this well? I know it's not love, which is sad, right, you would think you sho crystals? Aniversary is crystal.
I'm looking now at all of the anniversaries.
Crystal's not really that great, right exactly? So I mean it's okay, it's nice. I would think gold would be like up high. So I'll take a guess, and I'll say fifteen.
You'll guessed correctly. The fifteenth is the crystal anniversary. Twentieth is porcelain first versus is uh paper paper paper?
Ye, paper, Crystal seems better than porcelain. But anyway, I know, see, if you told me that clue, I would not have got it right. I would have gone higher. I would have gone thirty for sure. I would have been like, there's no.
Way thirty is pearl, thirty is pearl? What do you think of What do you think thirty five is? I'm going to ask because there's no way I would have ever guessed this. It's a weird one, and it's one that's environmentally unfriendly. People just to be doing it. Well, now that's early, that's early. That's like thirty five. It's coral controlling products.
Yeh, caral coral.
I should share something I for so, my wife and I met at the Crossroad Puzzle tournament. So every year on our anniversary, I make her a Crossward puzzle themed to whatever the gift for that year is.
Oh, I wish I was.
I been through you know, seventeen or eighteen of.
These interesting, so you do know that's a good one.
Well, I don't remember them. I have to look them up every time. I don't remember what the eighteenth gift is. It's like iron or something.
Well, now that I've heard all of the rest, I think fifty I think crystal is actually pretty good. So I mean gorl Porcelain, I take all of that back. I wish I mean, I got I got it right, but I thought it would be better.
Yeah. Anyway, by the way, I know that. I'm sorry I brought up pickleball earlier, but I am interested in your thoughts on paddel or paddle or however it's pronounced, and so seems like an what's your thoughts on that though one where it's sort of a marriage between squash and tennis.
I think it's great. I actually think it's I think it's a great spot because I think it's very athletic. You do have to play or you have to be quite efficient as a tennis player. You know, most tennis players that play at a very very good people that maybe learn get better at it. But with pickleball, anybody can play, like I can play pickleball with my frying pan, whereas padel is very athletic, and the skills that it takes to be really good at padel are you have to be very very good.
Yeah, I love it just because you know, I love bouncing things that bounce like a kid's.
That's actually a sport that I really I think people that are very good at padel are quite athletic.
Got it.
Well, I'm not very good at it, but I do enjoy it, and I think it's the pickleball of twenty twenty.
Five and they don't take up tennis courts. That's what I like about it. Oh, you have to build a Padele court. Padell court. You have to build you know, with the pick with pickleball, they just put the lines down on the tennis court and then they go on there and play, you know, pickaball.
It's annoying, right, it is annoying. And also I mean, what are the other problem the NOI to me, the noise of pickleball.
Yeah, the noise is annoying as well. Everything about it is annoying. But anyway, everyone's like it's social. I'm like, gon'd like golf.
Or padel Padel is a social too?
Well, go for a walk.
I have a tennis question. I'm curious about knowing that it is a strategic sport, right, it's not just a physical sport. There's that sort of you talked about the put like what percentage is mental and physical?
Sort of?
My question like, if as a as I get older and my physical skills are less good, how much can I make up for that with my mental skills? Do you know what I mean? Does that question makes sense?
Look, it's a combination. There's absolutely no doubt you have to have the skills, you know, to be a great tennis player. You've got to you've got to have the skills to be a great tennis player. But you know, there's a lot of great tennis players that have been mentally very very weak or you know, haven't been able to handle the pressure or or handle the grind or the day to day or the travel or being away from family and loved ones. You know, that starts to get to you. And then also there's being on the court and being out of handle the stress or being able to handle the moment. So and the negative thoughts, and some people have you know, some people, whether it be in life or sports, want to dig a hole and not deal with a problem right, and some people get you know, want to build a mound. So it's like being able to manage all of that mentally, I think once you get to a certain stage, it's how hard you work, but also and your weaknesses and strengths as a with your talent, but also it's mental to be able to hang in there and not get upset at yourself and all that sort of stuff. So it's a combination of both. As somebody who's coached as well, now I deal a lot with the mental side, absolutely.
And I will say, Greg, my father in law was playing, you know until his late seventies early eighties, and he could barely move, but he used these angles that were just evil, Like I don't know whether they're obtuse or acute, but they were like you know, one hundred and seventy. They were like ill, You're like, wait, how can that come out of your tennis rackets? So that other thing is is is a possible?
Yeah?
I found that with squash play. I used to play against a man much older than me, but his ability to place the ball where I was never going to be just you know, blew away any physical advantage I might have had because he could just put the ball in a place, you know, two moves. He was thinking moves ahead too. That's what fascinates me about some of these sports. The ability to to think, you know, several several volleys ahead is amazing.
I think to be really great, you have to be curious. And I think that's with life as well. You have to want to you want to be better. You know, how can I get better?
That's like the that's like the motto of the puzzler right here, exact curiosity.
Curiosity. We love it. By the way, we have one. This is an unrelated tennis puzzle or tennis word play, but I'm just gonna throw it out to you. Which athlete or tennis player has three errs in his name er er er, making up a full fifty percent of the letters in his name.
Well, let's say Roger Federer.
It is Roger Federer. I just love that he's got like that is half his name is er er.
I didn't think about it.
Well, next time you see him, bring it up. I'm sure he'll be fascinated. Have you met him. I'm sure you've met him.
On the oh, yeah, many many times. He's a I would call him a friend. I don't know if he's number to call him, but when I see him, we talk and yeah, he's lovely man, lovely.
He seems lovely. I mean that's his brand and he is just a lovely man. All right, Well, we got an extra credit before we go for the folks at home. This is another name for getting some sleep, another name for getting some sleep. So come back tomorrow to check that out. And in the meantime, we have the puzzler Instagram feed at Hello Puzzlers, where we post original puzzles and we will see you here tomorrow with Renee for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Hey puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle officer once again here with the extra credit answer from our previous show. David Kwang joined us and we played a game called Kwang one, where each answer is a word and another word that's hidden inside of it. In fact, each answer is a famous person's last name and then the word hidden inside of it. And your extra credit clue was this. If the author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings used hair product, it might have been this, and that would be Angelou's gel the Great Maya Angelou. That's a terrific book. If you haven't read it, go out and read it now, and then come back and enjoy the Puzzler tomorrow morning.