The Puzzler with A.J. JacobsHello, Puzzlers! Today, join A.J. and Greg at Mohonk Mountain House where we recorded this episode during the Wonderful World of Words weekend.
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 propeller in your puzzle Beanie, I am aj Jacobs and that intro was written by Shri Kumar, who happens to be right here in the audience in front of me. Thank you shre whoo and yes by that of that applause you can hear we actually have an audience because we are doing the Puzzler live and on the road. Chief Puzzle Officer, Greg Plisko, would you please tell the folks at home where we are, of.
Course I will.
We are here at the wonderful World of Words Weekend at Mohunk Mountain House. Welcome everybody.
That is right. It is my favorite weekends of the year. I'm always delighted to be a part of it. It is a weekend of wit and whimsy. I'm trying to get in on the alliteration.
Alliteration is automatically funnier.
And it's it's hosted by our own Gregapliska. We have a great group of puzzlers here, wonderful friends from many years. We've got the legendary Will Shortz Yeah well, and the audience. Thank you Will who ran it for many many years. And by the way, we're here at the historic Mohunk Mountain House, a one hundred and fifty year old hotel that has been visited by Presidents John D. Rockefeller and according to Wikipedia, D. Snyder of Twisted Sister fame, who often enjoys vacations at Mohunk with his family.
They have to reconstruct the place after they leave it.
They just trash everything. It's crazy. He trashed the entire facility.
Well, if I can just say, the is obviously a beautiful, gorgeous mountain resort. And and this weekend in particular is filled not just with puzzles, but with brilliant speakers talking about language and words and how we communicate. Obviously, everyone here in the room knows that they're here, But just for the folks who are listening to this, it's a place. It's on the It's on the list of like one hundred, you know, a thousand places not to miss in the United States. Mohunk Mountain House and Words Weekend is like in the things not to miss at Mohunk Words Weekend is right up there at the top. So come come join us next time.
Thousand I would, yeah, I would go at least one hundred. Man, I didn't write the book.
It's called A Thousand Places to Visit, right, you know, well, I'd put.
It in a twenty five all right. So we have special puzzles in this episode for Greg, and it is inspired by our location here at Mohunk Mountain House. And it is all about mountains and mountain ranges. And it's a rhyming game. So all the answers are going to be rhyming two word phrases, and the first word in each phrase will be a mountain or a mountain range. The second word will rhyme with it. So, for instance, if I gave the clue these are paintings on the walls of a Russian mountain range, that answer might be the ural murals, the urals murals exactly. The Caucasus. Maucasus caucus is a tough Raucus caucus. I had trouble with caucus. Yeah, Caucasus. One note for the folks here, I'm giving this puzzle ostensibly to Greg, but we want you to play along. So if you get the clue, raise your hand and I'll some of the clues. I'll be calling on people before Greg is able to answer. I'll cut him off. I see what it is, Yes, exactly, Now I have some clues. But before we start officially, I do have one more example that I wanted to give, but I'm classifying it as an example because it is a stretch. And you will see in a moment why the word stretch is appropriate. But I also you'll see why I had to do it. All right, are you ready? This is the yoga expertise you gain while at Mohunk Mountain House. Yoga expertise you gain at Mohunk Mountain House. So what is the mountain chain?
Well, I think I know what the answer is. I'm going to say it's not a stretch because of the rhyme. The rhyme is a solid rhyme.
Solid rhyme.
It's just a stretch because the other half the yoga skills.
Is this right, It's not a half of it. But so what's the mountain You're here in the cat skills. We're in the cat skills and if you're learning to get expert, yes, we have that's it. Cat skills. Mattis mat skills. So, as I said, a stretch in more ways than one, Yoga stretching.
Also, but also there are yoga classes you can take in there you go.
I'll hear it, monk, it's so appropriate. I could not resist. All right, Here are some that are less stretchy. These are the sweets that you eat when climbing South America's longest mountain range. Oh we have I saw then the.
Hand went up before he finished the clue. He's like, these are the sweets that you eat, hands up.
I'm like, okay, it's the candies, very directly, so that's right, all right, well, all right, see if you can finish get the answer before I finished, like maybe in the first three words.
Just don't say it out loud because the people at home that's not the same ability.
These are the anyone have a guess you guys are slow, all right? These are the racehorse riders who gallop Colorado's mountain I did see people who gallop of Colorado's mountain range. I saw a hand over here. Yeah, yes, yes, jockeys, the rockies. John from Wordplay, Miriam, thank you.
This is the easiest episode I've ever done with you because I have like two hundred people helping me.
You have a lifeline of lifeline. How about what you might call a group of bald headed people who are climbing up a famous European mountain range. Yes, Alps scalps, all right, we.
Got you actually call people who are bald scalps.
Not to their face, not to their bald head, you.
Can see their scalps.
Well, this is what they would like if they had a name. We like, we're the alp Scalps. Okay, I get it. Okay, yeah exactly, yeah, uh nice after dome, dome, dome. That's good. It's like wrong for three reasons, David.
It's not in Europe, right, it's not a mountain range, and it isn't really a rhyme either, But it's brilliant.
Well other than that, it's fantastic. I I love rhymes that are the same word. That's like, you can't get rhymemier than the same word, So I give you full credit. How about a streetcar that goes up Alaska's biggest mountain. A street car over here was the first one I saw. Then a trolley exactly, all right, A couple more. How about the day after Tomorrow on Africa's tallest mountain. The day after oh, way back in there, Killem and Jarrow Tomorrow wait a minute.
You said the day after tomorrow, didn't you did? I?
Oh boy, what we'll erase that. We'll do it again. Yeah, now you're gonna see the day after today on Africa's tallest mountain range. Does anyone have the answer? I don't know. That's a tough one. Okay, kiliman Jarro tomorrow. All right, we'll see if I can actually give this one correctly. This is uh. These are the autocratic governments set up in the mountain range between France and Spain, the Auto yes, and the the Pyrenees Tyrannies. Exactly.
Well, that's a downer.
Thanks for doing that puzzle. Maybe timely? Maybe timely? Uh? I all right, I'm gonna give uh. I've got two more. One is uh the folks who drive the trains up the biggest mountain in Washington State. The folks, Yes, that's right. The Rainier engineer, the near engineer's engineer. By the way, I looked it up, And first of all, she is an engineer, so it all comes together. The train kind, not.
The train kid's.
Another kind uh. Engine. But by the way, speaking of Rainier, to become a Rainier engineer, you probably have to go to school and earn a degree which might come on a piece of paper which is called this. It's the indigenous name for Rainier, if anyone knows that. If not, I know what it rhymes with. Wait, we got one back there, Tahoma diploma.
Very good, Your Tahoma diploma for your near engineer's all right?
I lied. I have just one more. I want to share it just because, uh, it's for my son. This is a a financial share of the tallest mountain in the Alps. But you have to use the lingo of an online tech bro. Oh we got a tech bro right here. Yes, a mount blanc stonk and stonk stunk s t o n k. It's what they call a stock. Oh yeah, a matter horn unicorn different.
Nice, that's good too. But so that's a very online thing. Did you add you added we're trading some stonks today, yo, bro?
Exactly. Okay, it makes it witty when you add an extra letter H. And he he loves studying stocks, and he was he was. He told me about the Game Stop. He's like, Dad, something weird is going on with Game Stop. And then like five days later the New York Times they all was And because he loved game stuff. When I had him buy a stock as like a five year old. We bought one game stock share. So for a while we were flush yeah.
And then it was all flush space exactly.
Okay. An extra credit for the puzzlers at home. These are the most ingenious folks to ever climb the world's tallest mountain, the most ingenious folks to climb the world's tallest mountain, and folks at home. If you have thirty seconds, please rate and subscribe to the Puzzler on your favorite podcast platform. I suggest five stars just the thought because it makes a huge difference in people finding us. And we will meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles. They will puzzle you puzzling ly.
Hey, puzzlers, it's great. Pliska up from the Puzzle Lab with the extra credit answer from our previous episode. AJ and I played a couple of games. One he quizzed me on a glad gladiator game where each answer was a first the first syllable of a word followed by the word in an adjective noun form, and his extra credit was angry bordello owner, that of course is a mad madam. And then the one I did.
Was a little trickier based on Wicked. This is the Gladiator, Wicked, the Glicked portmanteau puzzles, each answer used as a word that ends with the word Wick, and your extra credit clue was the Brooklyn neighborhood where.
Two presidents named George lived.
That, of course, is.
Not Washington Wick. That is Bushwick. While I hope you enjoyed this, I hope all our listeners in Bushwick write us and send us more ideas for puzzles based upon the neighborhood where they live. In fact, everyone should do that. Write us in tell us what you're puzzling, and puzzle us. Thank you for playing.
