The Puzzler with A.J. JacobsHello, Puzzlers! Today, join A.J. and Greg at Mohonk Mountain House where we recorded this holiday-themed 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 vintage taffeta ribbon on your puzzle Holiday Gift. I am your host, AJ Jacobs, and I am here with Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Pliska, and we are once again at the Bucolic Mohunk Mountain House, where Greg is hosting the Wonderful World of Words Weekend. I'm honored to be here, Greg, and even more honored that you have a puzzle for me today.
This puzzle is airing during the holiday season. I thought I would do a holiday themed puzzle for you, Okay, And really, the holidays, whichever one you celebrate this time of year, is about They're about presents.
They're about giving presents to people, right.
Yeah, that is the only thing. Nothing nothing are allegis I feel well, it's material.
The real lovely spirit of the holiday is sharing the family you're giving, right, I'm with you.
So these are.
Gonna be a little wordplay presence. I'll give you a word and you unwrap it by removing the first and the last letters and end up with a new word. Love it okay, right, So, and the clue will kind of hint it both parts. So, for example, if I said, I give you the name of our podcast company, and you listen to the podcast that would be I Heart, which is our company, and remove the I and the T and you get here.
Oh I hear iHeart. So is the answer the whole thing.
No answer is just two words. They aren't necessarily okay, you can't. You couldn't make a sentence art here just iHeart and then remove the first and last letters and you get here.
And this is actually we're going dulee. We should do this for the kids as their present and save some money. Here's a word game where you take off app it right.
And in fact, what we have a podcast episode you can listen to for your present.
We don't even need we don't have to talk about. Can I use the audience as my lifelie?
Every king? Absolutely absolutely good?
Yes, so yeah, audience, if you have the answer, reggiand so I say this when I hit you with my fencing saber, and you say this if it hurts.
Oh boy, I actually don't know, but I saw wait, who hasn't answered over here?
I don't think.
Tooch out to shay out, yeah, off the letter.
Here's how foggy my brain is. I was just thinking pay, because that's in every crossword puzzle, and I was like fencing pay, pay pay.
That would be like I I have my fencing sword and you use it during gym class.
Pay and pe very good, say nicely done?
Right?
The puzzle lab is just all right, all right? I like sour fruit, You like.
Heartfelt confessional music like Fallout Boy and my Chemical Romance.
Well, I love having.
Lemon and Emo is absolutely right.
I agree with you, Greg, This is the best. I'm not even trying. I'm just relaxing thinking about what I'm gonna have for lunch.
This is great, all right.
Next, I wail and bemoan my loss. You say the last word of a prayer.
Yes, lament and amen exactly.
That's so good.
We don't even have to cut out the dead air while you think it, just because you don't have to think at all.
Yeah, no, I don't have to think. That's right. It comes to me like that somehow.
Our producer Neelie said these.
She selected some of these, said, oh, these you should definitely not you is they're too hard. Well, guess what, nearly We're gonna get to those quickly enough. We're gonna go to the two hard ones not yet. I got a couple more that are not in the two hard category.
It doesn't matter to me. Do whatever.
I say.
The conclusion was inevitable, as you once again perish on this.
Old West trail.
We're gone and or again. Yeah.
Wow, appreciate the little narrative I set up there. I say, the conclusion is inevitable as you perish on this old West trail.
That feels like a novel. Yeah, thank you.
Foregone in Oregon though, really good job. I'm complimenting you and your work. And you're a dried.
Grape and I'm a dry Oh wait, we have one from Will Schwartz, the legend themselves, praising raisin.
Yes you will.
All right, these are going quickly.
I'm playing a stick and ball sport invented by indigenous Americans.
You're doing only half the crossword puzzle. Wait, who has in the back?
Yeah you do it, Greg, lacrosse, lacrosse and across across.
Very good, very good.
They also rhross.
And we got some history in there that we're here at the puzzler for history.
I like a thin rolled pancake filled with cream cheese. You like a pocket filled with fuzz.
Who else you call it.
The gentleman right there, the you know, the guy who's on the alp scalps. Yes you, sir, blints and lint.
Oh, very good trick, all right, love it.
All right, let's see some of the bonus hard ones. I ask you which decade had the most gravitas? And you say it was the decade Reagan was president.
Okay, who do we got get?
Someone who hasn't spoken yet? Yeah, right here. You've got to be the most.
You got to do the subrelety of the weightiest, weightiest eighties.
Weightiest eighties. So like yes, because I actually think the eighteen eighties were probably weightier than the nineteen eighties. But that's just a judgment. Call just a judgment call.
I am curious about an agoras sperm. I just don't know why I am curious about. Curious has nothing to do. I'm curious about an eggorosperm. You just want to fill in a spreadsheet program.
It feels more.
I'm still stuck on you being curious. I know nothing with curiosity.
An agorasperm or a spreadsheet program. Sex sell and excel. Wow, so the egg and the sperm se ex cels spoiler alert. You know if you didn't know, and Excel is a spreadsheet program.
I love it.
Should I do two more? Okay, two more? These are the ones Neely said definitely don't use these. We're using them. I get punched and end up with a shiner. You blame it on some flunky.
Wow, I saw your hand go up first, so I feel Yeah.
Black eye, good lackey, really well done.
Yeah, and I love those the black eye lackey, because they're so they're pronounced so differently that you would not have it wouldn't have occurred to you.
Yeah, our last, our last one.
I ask you what people are the most feminine, and you say it's the folks from Muscot.
No hands went up, but then, oh wait, we have our surprise guests, so I'm not going to call on you, But what about you?
Yes, close the.
First word, just as she said, womanliest and oman.
Yes, it's womanish feminine, and Omani's.
Oh, the most womanish, and yeah, most the Middle Eastern.
Which people are feminine, And you say it's the folks.
It's the best clue I've ever heard that that includes womanish and Omani say.
That we strive for excellence here at THEL. I do have an extra credit for everyone at home. I tell you talk too fast, you fly to a European capital.
Okay, these are like little narratives. I feel like the little stories.
All right. Well, thank you everyone for coming. That was a delight. And by the way, if you like the show, please check out our Instagram feed at Hello Puzzlers, where we post original puzzles and other fun stuff. And we will meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
