"Vogue, Vowels, and Hugh Jackman" w/ A.J. & Greg

Published Mar 21, 2025, 8:00 AM

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.

Hello puzzlers. Let's start with a quick puzzle. It's about vowels and also consonants. Our guest this week was film producer Joe Savia, and Joe is not only a great puzzler, but he has a great puzzy name. Joe Savia has a ton of vowels, five in total, OEA, I, and A again just three consonants, JS and B. As you know, vowels are hugely helpful when making puzzles, especially crosswords. So my question is what other notable people have names that are majority vowels mostly vowels a minority consonants. I'm talking both first and last name. You can throw in first names if you want. But who are the most vowel heavy people in the world. We'll talk about it after the break. Hello puzzlers, Welcome back to the Puzzler podcast, the Double Takeout Stone in your Puzzle Curling Tournament. I'm aj Jacobs and I'm here with chief puzzle Officer Greg Kliska. Greg. Before the break, we asked who are those people with the most vowel heavy names in the world, more vowels than consonants any guests, has anyone come to mind?

Sure? Well, you know, I started thinking about last names with vowels and an e. The first thing that came to mind was Daniel Boone, who has six vowels and five consonants, so he just squeaks over the line.

Of impressive, very impressive. All right. Here are the ones I came up with, but I would love to hear from listeners who they send us at the puzzler dot com. The most puzzly vowelly names. We've got Dua Lipa, whose name is actually Dua Lipa, Like that's not a stage name. Four valus, three consonants. A.

No, it's no bigger than Daniel Boone. It's the same one more than the other. I don't know. I you know, I'm just saying.

I'm not listen I as long as it crosses the finish line. Okay, I'm okay with it. Amy Man because she spells it A, I, M, E E. So thank you, Amy. That's the great singer Amy Man. Five vowels, four consonants. All right, This one, this one does dominate. This is Layla al Yeah, good one boxer and daughter of Muhammad Ali. Six vowels, three consonants.

And only three letters in her name.

Al and I oh a good one.

Yeah, very cool.

Lea Delaria six vowels, three consonants. I mean, if you are counting one named people, there's Adele, there's Beyonce. If the longest one I could come up with was Malala Yusavzai, who is eight vowels and seven continents, the great Pakistani activist. Uh well, there you go. I feel we've nerded out on vowels and consonants.

I do want to thank you for starting this vowel movement on our show.

We are going to talk about puns a little later.

So okay, see, all right.

That is just the start. That's just the start. Today is a very special episode because it's a Friday inside the Puzzle Lab and we are going to peak behind the curtain. We're going to visit the Puzzle News Corner and the Puzzle listener feedback area, so it's going to be an exciting tour. Let's start with the news, though, because this is actually a momentous time. It has been five years since the start of the COVID pandemic, or coronavirus as it was called, and one of the ways the world coped with this horrible situation was jigsaw puzzles. We were all inside, a lot of us had some spare time, and then sales tripled, quadrupled. The New York Times quoted a jigsaw maker saying that they were on wartime footing. So it was always thought that was, well, you.

Know, during World War Two, we also increased production of jigsaw puzzles. That's similar, that is it?

Well, weirdly I think we did. The depression was a huge.

Well sure that was between the wars.

That was you know, right, all right, So Greg, let's start with the biggest Jakesaw puzzle ever. Now, the biggest commercial puzzle is sixty thousand pieces. It's a it's called what a Wonderful World?

But there's one it's a puzzle the size of the globe.

That's its actual size.

Is this a movie I'm thinking of? Or is a Borges story about a jigsaw puzzle the size of the thing. It's a puzzle of.

Well, there's the one, the movie by Charlie Kaufman that was so crazy, that was awesome. I loved this movie.

But it was.

About a map of Manhattan that was the size of Manhattan, or a recreation of men that was the size of Manhattan. Okay, great movie. I forget the name. It's the word for Metamo.

Senectity, Senectony, senectic Key.

Senectic Key, not Senectogy in New York.

But Schenectady, not senectic Key.

That is a wild I loved it anyway. This one is not that. But there is a Jakesaw puzzle with the most pieces that is not commercially available as a special project by the University of Economics in Vietnam. How many pieces did this Jakesaw puzzle have?

That's it. I'm just supposed to come up with a number.

Yeah, that's it. And if you don't get the exact number, then you don't get credit.

Got it, Well it's more than sixty thousand, that's my guess.

I just give it a shot.

It had five hundred and twenty three thousand, four hundred and seven.

Wow, not bad. Five hundred and fifty one thousand, two hundred thirty two. Of course you were off by more than one, so you don't.

Get any credits.

Okay, But it was completed by sixteen hundred students and it took them. It took them a few days. So there you go. That is the biggest does it.

When you make a puzzle that big, do you make the pieces really tiny or does the puzzle itself just become vast in scope?

Well, it took up the gymnasium at their school, So that answers that question. Yeah, all right, next question. In the nineteen sixties, the Jakesaw Company Springbok came out with a series of monochromatic puzzles. So these were evil, evil puzzles that were all the same color, no picture, just one color. One of them was called Little Red riding Hood's Hood. So they all had fairy tale names. Can you guess?

Oh, they all had fairytale names.

If you guess another, there were about four or five. What else might you have?

Right? Well, I remember doing one as a kid that was called the Green Fog or something. But that's not fairytale.

No, this was a.

Difference the jolly Green giants loincloth. What color is that green? I'm sure?

Oh?

All right, snow white in the snow you got it.

You got snow white without the seven dwarfs. So it's snow white without the seven doors.

O white. Okay.

There was another that was a little Boy Blue coming Home whatever that means? Yea, and a close up of the Three Bears, which was on All Brown Puzzle. Oh okay, all right, two more questions. Jakesaw fan Hugh Jackman talked about his love of Jakesaws during the pandemic, and he compared the satisfying feeling of snapping two Jakesaw pieces together two a crack your knuckles or be popping a ZiT? Which one? Who don't kill the mesnger, this is a Hugh Jackman America.

Well, I'm gonna have to I'm gonna go with one. No, I take it back, I'm gonna go with two. It's the popping the ZiT because you know you're blaming Hugh Jackman. And so he did that.

Good point, you picked it up, gig nailed it. He said. It was like popping a really satisfying ZiT. So there you go. So don't vote for him in future. If if you're offended, then.

Don't vote for Hugh Jackman as your favorite jigsaw puzzle constructor.

Exactly in those bowls that we all get, all right, last one the uh the proper term for those little round tabs on the end of a puzzle piece. You could have one, two, three, or four? What is according to the Internet, which is never wrong. All of these are terms people use ex except for which one. I made one up. Okay, but the others are real. Knobs, inter Jams, Narp, Nubbin, Bloops, and Audies. Again, that's Knobs, inter Jams, Narp, Nubbins, Bloops, and.

Audies attorneys at law. They are very good, very good firm. Knobs, inter Jams, Bloops, Oudies and Nubbins attorneys at law.

I feel like.

We talked about this on another episode because I remember researching jigsaw puzzle terms and the problem is every one of those sounds legitimate. They all sound like they could be real. I don't love bloops. I'm gonna gam at bloops as the outlier is the fake one.

You got it, Oh you got it. You got well, at least I got you on one, which was the numbers.

Exactly get somewhere between five and twenty.

Got you nailed it. But you got the others well done? All right, Well, we are ready for stop number two, which is the puzzle lab workbench where we create the puzzles. Now, Joe Sabia, we had some fun puzzles, but I did want to bring up a mini puzzle that I was sad I didn't get to give him, but I found it interesting. It's about the magazine Vogue because as you know, yeah, Greg, oh, that's you, as you know Joe, as you know Joe did the seventy three questions for Vogue YouTube channel, and Vogue for a long time meant something fashionable. It was an adjective, it was a noun. But in the eighties it also became a verb. To Vogue meant to I compose like a model on a catwalk. And it was probably invented by the drag queen community.

Yes all great things are Yes, all great terms come out of that community.

And Madonna popularized it, which she got some criticism for she didn't give enough credit to the originators. But and in case, Vogue was a verb and it remains a verb. So my questions as a former magazine writer, I love the names of magazines, so I may be a little more interested in this than others. But what other magazine titles are verbs? What other ones are verbs? And I have four? There are more than four, But I have four clues for you unless you want to Unless you want to just start by listing a couple.

Well, time is a verb.

There it is. That was the first one.

Yep, the old magazine look, yes.

Nicely done right. That was like in the sixties there was a rival to Life.

Yep. Yeah. Jet.

Oh well that was another one that I wanted to give you. But yes, Jet magazine. When you fly around the world, you jet. This is what you do to clay Plato and a narrative. Something you might do to Clay Plato or a narrative.

Model model.

That's not a magazine. That's probably a magazine.

Someway clay, you you spin clay, you mold clay, and a narrative. Things you do to clay and a narrative. I like this to eat clay and you eat narrative.

You what else? There's something you did more more specific to the magazine. It's something you do to your body. You get it in gold shape shape, you shape Clay Plato, narrative.

Shape, a narrative. Okay, yeah, okay.

Fine, you've never taken a writing class.

That's clearly not you know.

Yes, well, actually it's funny you mentioned another one in your list of synonyms. What you do to a top or a windmill, spin spin.

Or a record, right, it's about it's a music industry magazine.

Right, it's the music industry well done. There are a few others.

I bet there are more. Yeah, this is one that people could send in.

Yes, the puzzler dot com. Please send us your thoughts.

Can you can you arp something? Can you AARP something that's like the most that's the magazine with the far and away the highest subscription.

Oh yeah, I know. I've written for them a couple of times. I never got any feedback, but maybe that's everyone gets a Panolan reads.

Soon we'll be subscribing, all right.

But now I think it's called modern maturity or something. Maybe not, maybe not, I don't know. I will say Julie, when I gave this to her, she said highlights, which is good. So it is a part out out has It turns out out has been a verb for a long time, but it took on a new meaning.

Right, good housekeeping quite a verb. Housekeeping is a verb housekeeping.

Yeah, well I'll accept it. Yeah, so send us in your other thoughts.

Uh.

But we have one more stop, one more stop on the on the tour, and that is the listener Feedback Corner, where Associate Puzzler Andrea Schoenberg has been monitoring the emails, the social media, the puzzler lab, door bell. Andrea, what do we got today?

We have a letter about the episode with ton Twisters. Greg, you gave me an aj some ton Twisters and.

We I was very impressed with Andrea's unique New York.

I don't I don't know if it can be replicated, so I will not. I'll just retire. I'll retire on a high note.

Good idea. Uh Well.

Listener Mason Turner from Virginia said we should check out this TikToker named elk Cordova.

Right, el Cordova and I checked her out and she's delightful. I was. I'm a big fan. She has one about tongue twisters and how she created a new one and critiqued some of the old ones. And it's only a minute long, so I thought, let's play it. Let's listen.

I think we might need some new tongue twisters because Sally's been selling Seashells down by the seashore since like nineteen oh eight. I'm sure she's getting tired of it. A question of how many pickled peppers are in a peck, I think Peter peper Coul probably just Google that at this point, and Betty Boughter's issue with her bitter batter, as I understand it was resolved when she chose the better less bitter butter for her better.

So where does that leave us?

I would like to submit a new tongue twister for consideration.

Now.

I think there are three central laws to a good tongue twister. One it's born of whimsy, so it can't be rooted in the serious affairs of our world. Two it's decidedly difficult to say, especially quickly. And three it has to be easy to remember, so not very long. All that in mind, I wrote the following tongue twister. It's about a duck named Quincy who's really talented at hacking. Quincy, the quirky Quacker was a quantum cracking hacker. He quaintly quacking cubits while he cashed a cue of crackers. Critics quickly quibbled over Quincy's quantum dribble. Was he a quack, a quantum hacker, a crafty quacking hacker?

Uh?

So there it is. Isn't that delightful?

L L You've got to come on our podcast. We need to discuss this and your many other fun word play ish clever, uh tiktoks.

Absolutely and I loved her point that Peter Piper could google how many pickles are in a peck. I think we have had puzzles involving pecks. You gave me a peck related puzzle at one point.

Peck is a great word. It's a great you know, it's one of those measurements and nobody knows what it is anymore, but we still make use of.

It, and you've brought it up just recently with well, I brought.

Are other pack Gregory pack the thing yeah, verb form of peck right.

Well, anyway, we leave you at that. See the quantum Oh yeah, you try it, try it.

No, I couldn't even remember it, but it was Quincy the quantum cracker. Quacker was a quantum cracking hacker. Terrible, I'm terrible.

That's closer closer than me, I am. I'll leave it to you and Elle. Well, thank you, Elle, and thank you to the Mason Turner for directing us to that. And uh, with that, I will say we also are on social media. It's not just l So check out our Instagram feed at Hello Puzzlers, where we post original puzzles and other fun stuff, and we will meet you here Monday for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.

Hey puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska up for the puzzle Lab with the extra credit answer. From our previous episode, we had Peter Gordon on to play some games using the names of celebrities where you take the first letter of their first name and their last name and put them together to get a new word. So Tom Hanks becomes t Hanks or thanks. This was your extra credit clue. What the founder of Chipotle does with food? What the founder of Chipotle does with food? It's a good apt answer. While the founder of Chipotle.

Is Steve Els, so the answer is SL's or sells pretty good right. Thanks for playing with us, and we'll see you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly. 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 Neuhause of New House Ideas and Lindsay Hoffman of iHeart Podcasts. The show is produced by Jody Averrigan and Brittany Brown of Roulette Productions, with production support from Claire Biddegar Curtis. Our associate producer is Andrea Schoenberg. The Puzzler with AJ Jacobs is a co production with New House Ideas and is distributed by Taco Had Stripes.

Now you know the drill, I've rearranged the letters. It's distributed by iHeart Podcasts. If you want to know more about puzzling puzzles, please check out the book The Puzzler by AJ Jacobs, a history of puzzles that The New York Times called 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. See you there,

The Puzzler with A.J. Jacobs

Finally, your daily puzzle fix—in audio form! Every day, New York Times bestselling author A.J. Jaco 
Social links
Follow podcast
Recent clips
Browse 417 clip(s)