The Puzzler with A.J. JacobsHello, 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.
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, Welcome to the Puzzler podcast the lemon Kurds in your afternoon puzzle high Tea service. I am your host, AJ Jacobs, and I am here with Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Pliska, who has emerged from the Puzzle Lab with another one of his delightful and possibly sadistic creations.
Well, hi, Aj, thanks for having me out here for the puzzle high Tea.
Oh absolutely looking forward to this.
You know, I've been in the lab rereading your book The Know It All.
Well, thank you for that. I'm glad they have electricity down there.
They have one small light bulb, but i'm the lab. Do you still have the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. I do.
I still have it?
Like to borrow it when you need to look something up? Is that? Where do you go there? Or do you use something else?
Oh? I feel like a trader because I never look at it. I look at Wikipedia or the evil Wikipedia.
But that's what everybody does. And one of the things Wikipedia pages have that, of course the Britannica doesn't have are links between those.
Pages right, yes, exactly, which.
Ends up being a feature you probably could never read all of Wikipedia because it keeps growing.
Oh no, it is literally impossible, because the amount that every second is ated is far more than you can read in a second.
Right, It's like your impossible puzzle that you could never finish in the span of the universe.
It's the same, exactly.
Well, this puzzle was inspired by Wikipedia. I call it links to links. It's all words and phrases. The answers are all words and phrases that have link in them. But instead of giving you a normal definition, I'm going to give you the names of some of the Wikipedia pages that link to this thing's page.
Oh, I like it all right, So I like it a lot.
For example, if I said Caddie Scotland and Arnold Palmer, each of those pages contains a link to what page to golf and specifically golf link links or actually, on Wikipedia, it's links parentheses golf. But every page has got to have the word link in the name of the page.
Okay, I'm with you.
Sausage would not be an answer, but sausage links could be an answer.
I'm annoyed you said that because I was trying to. I was trying to.
I'm annoyed that there's no sausage links page on Wikipedia. There's just sausage, so I couldn't use all.
Right, Well this is good. It'll be more chance to waste my life thinking about Wikipedia. Exactly.
It feels like your your career as an author is chances to waste your life exactly.
All right, I'm ready.
Okay, here's your first one. Bigfoot, pilt down man, Homo erectus.
Interesting. Well, these are all oh, I got I got it, I got I got it. Okay, you're gonna say they're all well, two of them are hoaxes, I think right. At least one.
Built down man was found to be a hoax. Bigfoot is real.
Of course, exactly. I'm sorry. Yes, these are all missing links missing.
Link, Yes, the missing link between you know, apes and humans. And these were all positive to be that or related to that, so they those pages linked to missing link. Very well done. All right, here's another one. Fashion jewelry black tie.
Uh oh oh, I'm in trouble. All right, fashion jewelry black tie.
When was the last time you put on a tuxedo?
Well that's the problem. I am not a tuxedo wearer on a normal basis.
And you wouldn't wear this piece of jewelry unless you wore that tuxedo shirt.
Oh very good, Okay, I got it. Thank you, Thank you for the nice hint. That would be I would need a would need French cuffs. Is that what is called French cuffs for my cuff links?
Yes, exactly. Cuff links is the thing you're looking for. My dad used to have cuff links as daily like he wore shirts stress shirts that needed cuff links.
Oh fancy. Can I tell you? I used to work at Esquire and there was one guy who had the French shirt with the cuff links, but he would if you're really fancy, you have three buttons along the shirt, and he would leave one of them unbuttoned to show that his word bespoke. So anyway, if you're really fancy, that is a strategy to show.
When I leave things unbuttoned, my wife just says, I'm too slop.
Nothing to do with me.
All right, here's another one for you. Barbed wire, dugout parentheses baseball and Godspell parentheses film.
Oh well that's a curve ball because I was thinking chain link.
But but that's that's actually correct.
Oh that's what the Where is hair come in with that?
No Godspell. So there are scenes in Godspell of Jesus on a chain link fence.
Oh, so it's just.
Mentioned in Godspell and then links to, of course, the page for chain link fence. All right, I've got a couple more for you. Tanya Harding, Kato kaelin list of programs broadcast by the Game Show Network, Jane Lynch.
Wow, that is a good grouping, all right, Tanya Harding, Kato Klein.
What was the list of programs broadcast by the Game Show Network and Jane Lynch.
Well, it does sound like it's related to a crazy game show with like I'm thinking celebrity boxing.
I know it's not a remember link has to be in the in the answer, I know, I know. It's not a crazy game show. It's very popular originally a British show. Ah, weakest link, weakest link exactly.
So they were all guests on the Week.
And Kato'calen both appeared on a special you know, shameful celebrity edition.
Yeah. I wrote a long article about Kato'kalen for Esquire magazine like twenty years ago.
Wow. See it all comes full circle.
There you go.
All right? One more?
Oh, by the way, last one Cato factoid. He we became somewhat friendly. I wouldn't say friends, but I hung out with him for the article, and not once, but not twice, but about three times he called me oj instead of AJ. So whatever, I'm not sure that's.
I'm not sure what you do with that. But there you go. Yeah, I'm gonna just leave that one. Just don't don't mention it.
I mentioned it, all right, all right, I'm ready.
All right. Last one, Church of Scientology online service provider mind spring.
Hmmm, oh interesting? All right?
That is.
Like you are link but where is?
And I think AOL might be a page that links here as well.
All right, this is good. This is good linked LinkedIn No, I would link, I know it. I'm just pretending so that I see related.
It's a less it's I think it might. It's not totally defunct because I think one of my family members still hot Nope, not that one.
What was that one?
Wait?
Oh, I'm thinking of hot spring? Where mind spring? What was hot What was the one with hot?
Uh? Hot mail?
Hot mail?
No, this is a different one. Darts with the name of one of the planets.
All right, I'm going through the planet Mars. Link Venus Link, Saturn Link.
The earth Link.
There you call that planet planet? Oh, yes, good one.
Right, because they merged with MindSpring, which I thought would be helpful because they're also a defunct you know thing. I don't think earth Link's totally defunct, but it basically just runs a couple of you know, legacy email addresses, and it was founded by two members of the Church of Scientology.
Which is interesting. Okay, excellent, Well that was good. I did okay, not great, but okay, okay, not oj but okay, thank you for creating that in your puzzle lap. Do you have an extra credit one for our puzzlers and them?
I do. I have one for our listeners. Here are your clues to a page. All these link to a page that has the word link in its title. They are Ukraine, Time, a Person of the Year, and Satellite.
Okay, so think about that, puzzlers, And while you're doing that, please don't forget to subscribe to the Puzzler podcast and we'll meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Hello puzzlers. Greg Pliska here up from the Puzzle Lab with the extra credit answer from last episode we played name that Title Drop with Chuck Bryant, where we gave him a movie quote that has a moment where the title of the film is spoken in the movie. Here's the clue we gave him.
Well, that's a great idea.
That's a great idea. You think we'll do it Tony in the.
Family title Drop?
The answer to that is, of course, my cousin Vinnie. Great film. Hope you enjoyed the film, Hope you enjoyed the puzzle, and we look forward to puzzling with you next time. Thanks for playing along with the team here at the Puzzler, I'm Greg Kliska, 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 Abergan and Brittany Brown of Roulette Productions. Our associate producer is Andrea Schoenberg. The Puzzler with aj Jacobs is a co production with New House Ideas and is distributed by Posted Charades, No Sorry, Rearrange the Letters 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 his available wherever you get your books and puzzlers. For all your puzzling needs, go visit the puzzler dot com.
See you there,
