The Puzzler with A.J. JacobsHello, 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.
Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast the Dink shot in your Pickleball Rally. I apologize Renee for the pickle ball reference. Well it was there. I'm your host, A J. Jacobs, and I'm joined as always by Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Pliska and our guest. As you might have heard, the legendary Renee Stubbs, analyst, ESPN commentator, host of the Renee Stubbs Tennis podcast on iHeart, and winner of sixty doubles champions. Welcome back, Renee.
Thank you, thanks for having me again.
Guys, oh we love it well. I gave you a puzzle yesterday, but today we have Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Pliska in the driver's seats, So Greg take it away.
All right, Thank you, AJ and and Renee and AJ. I know AJ hasn't seen this puzzle. So this one is you can play together if you want. It is a game we call this that or the other. Okay, I'm going to name an item and you have to decide which of three categories it belongs to. And today's categories are places in Australia, yoga, poses, and foods. So each of these things is either a place in Australia, a yoga pose, or a food. So for example, if I said Kuber p D, you would know immediately. I'm sure that that is a Australian is the famous Opal mining town in Australia. Of course, all these won't be quite as obvious as that, but I'm gonna.
Damn FYI that was not obvious to me, so see, you.
Know I'm slanting it towards Renee.
Fair enough?
All right, So it's either yoga, yoga pose, food, or a place in Australia.
And I don't do yoga, but I do eat food, so do I I know?
Down dog?
All right, yeah, Renee, we're gonna have to puzzle this one out together.
This is yoga. You know. I'll tell you right up front. These are all gonna sound ridiculous. That's the whole point. No offense to you know, people who like food, yoga or places in Australia. But these all sound pretty silly, all right. Number one? Cowface? Cowface?
What do you think, Renee?
I think that's probably I mean, I hope it's not a yoga post, but I have a feeling it might be a yoga post.
Yeah, I hope it's not a food. I mean even I'm a vegetarian, but yeah, my kids I think.
Might eat that. All right, so tongue no, Renee's got it. It is a yoga post, nicely done. It's where you have your arms sort of crossed in front of your face. I'm not sure why that looks like a cow, but that's what they call it. Face got Yeah, here's another one. Bubble and squeak, bubble and squeak, bubble and squeak.
Fairly certain it's not in Australia. I fairly certain I have not heard that in a yoga position. So I'm gonna have to say food.
That's a good. It's well deduced. Yes, it is a food. It's common in the UK. It's it's cooked potatoes and cabbage. And it's called that because of the sound it makes while it's in the pan.
Oh interesting, Okay, bubble and squeak. Okay, an amanopia food we need more of?
All right, you're doing well. Your next one dolphin plank.
Hmm, Well, I mean I would have to think that that's a yoga post, surely.
Yeah, you're You're absolutely right. It's like a normal plank, but with your elbows bent.
Oh.
Elbows bend.
Okay, but I like that. I thought you could have guessed it was a food, Like I'll have the dolphin plank. Can you get this big slab.
Of absolutely not to eat dolphin plank?
We do not eat dolphins.
No, there are friends. Fish are our friends.
As they said, absolutely, all right, here's another one. Mossy nipple bend.
Mmm, mossy nipple bent.
You do bend things in yoga, and nipple is a body part, so that's sort of.
A It's definitely not food, let's hope not. So I should know this, But I'm taking your guess here. I think it might be somewhere in.
That's a very good guess. Yes, it is a town in Tasmania.
No, no, wonder, I haven't heard of it exactly.
Well, you know I will be surprise after kober Pet. These are all towns you may not have heard of unless they happened to be near where you.
Well, that was just I was a deduction of hoping it's not We'd had a couple of yogas. I felt like food was not on the table for that one. So that was one a guess in that respect.
Well, in Australia, do we know why did you look at the etymology of mind?
Now? I don't know why it's called that.
I'm sure it's somewhere on the coast. Probably a lot of moss.
Involved, right, And it's a bend bend is it? Comment? You can be in town.
Names and Australia, we do name some things kind of randomly, sure, especially in Tasmania. Beautiful, beautiful place, but random.
Random, you know it is? You're You're not wrong because I found a bunch of cool lists of funny Australian place names and a lot of them are in Tasmania. Yeah, you're not wrong, all right. Here's one one leg pigeon. Is that a food, a town or a yoga?
I guess it could be a food, but be a bit of a skinny it'd be a bit of a skinny pigeon. That has to be a yoga pose, yes, very good.
It is a yoga pose, sort of sitting with a one leg. I guess one leg bent under and behind you something like that. But it is it could be a food, it would not be a very filling dish. I'm gonna have the one leg pigeon, definitely.
I don't think I would choose that on the menu either.
No, I'm not gonna have the one leg pigeon today. All right, how about Dutch baby?
I like that you laugh every single time.
I like it too. It makes me happy.
I think that that's probably food because I'm thinking that it's like a it's like, I don't know, like a pastry or a like a Dutch oven type of thing.
You are good, we deduce these. It's so good. It is a food. Oh it's a kind of baked pancake.
What Okay, that was a good guess. But I mean Dutch baby. I can't imagine someone saying to me in a yoga room, okay, dutch baby. Although then again the cow thing, so yeah.
Anything's possible. No, it is. It's a food. It actually looks really delicious. I was looking at pictures of this kind of You put the batter in a in a pan and you put it in the oven and it comes out and it's big and fluffy. It looks delicious.
It sounds like a sausage roll.
Yeah, yeah, similar to a sausage roll.
Oh there we go. See. Yeah, well if you said that, I would have said a food in Australia, because that's a very common thing in Australia a sausage roll.
Well, I will say this. I wrote a book about politics and one of the greatest things that we need to import from Australia is this a meat pie?
I mean, well, I political problems pie.
Just related to that. The democracy sausage. You don't know it? Did I make it up? I thought, according to my Australian sources, on election day, you you make sausages and then eat them. It's like one big barbecue.
Well that's why I haven't been in Australia for an election in a long time, so that's probably why.
Yeah, there you go.
Well, now you have incentive.
To go back. Yeah, I just I live in the US and now certain things are happening on election day that I care not to talk about.
No sausages being served. Yeah, sure, the whole process is a bit of a sausage.
Making press exactly.
All right, all right? How about this one monkey.
Mia, Monkey Miya?
I love watching you. Imagine if I'm in a yoga class that somebody saying, is.
It somebody named Miya that had a pose named Arphens?
Yeah? Only interested that could be.
Definitely not food. What do you think?
I think? Yeah?
I am.
I'm leaning towards Australia monkey Mia. Do you have monkeys in Australia.
No?
No, I think we import them, don't we. I don't know. I mean we have monkeys, but they're in the zoo. But all right, I'll go with you. We'll guess and say Australia.
All right, you are correct.
Oh my god, that's a that was a guess.
It's a tourist destination north of Perth where there's a World Heritage Site. There are a lot of dolphins. They feed the dolphins there. I don't know what it has to do with monkey. We're wed from that.
We're very weird. We're very wed. We don't make a lot of sense, so that doesn't surprise me. But wow, that sounds actually amazing. I'm my friends just went on a on a big trek up from Perth, up northern part of West Australia, and apparently it's absolutely breathtakingly beautiful because it's an untouched area really of Australia, and you know, it's hard to live up there because the weather is so hard, and you know, a country is so big, so people tend to obviously not live in those parts but makes for a great destination for tourism. Monkey mea, we'll look it up after this. It sounds fun.
Pet the dolphins. Yeah, it looks amazing. All right, let's do a few more of these. Embryo in womb.
Wow, that is well, that sounds gross.
Does sound gross?
It's just a fact of life embryo.
Yeah, yeah, maybe I hoped to god it's not food, so we'll take that out. And you just can't imagine somewhere in Australia is called that because we're not that weird. So I'm just going to guess and say, Yoga, you're correct.
It is a post.
Thank god you said no, it's in Australia. I said, that's.
Its crazy crazy, all right, I'll do three more of these.
I've got boobs flat.
Okay, I'm gonna guess here that would be something that would probably be called in Australia.
Correct. And I'm sure you can guess which part.
Of Australia the nullible planes tas Maasmania.
Yes it's tas Madia again.
Boobs flat, Well that makes no sense, but anyway, there you go. That was a good guess. I could just imagine, like the nullible planes which is very flat. It's the desert thinking, well, here's boobs flat.
Yeah, exactly, it's all flat. This is boobs flat. It's you know, thighs flat.
You have nipple, you have boobs. They're very focused.
Yes, we are tremendous people, all right.
The emom fainted.
Interesting, the imm like I am.
A I am am like the them fainted. The yoga pose? Is that a town or is it a food?
Well, surely it can't be a food. What do you think? I mean, maybe you are baffled.
I am baffled. I mean that is a weird name for all three of them. I guess I'm gonna go with I'm gonna gonna go with the yoga. But I think I'm wrong.
I'm gonna grew I think yoga.
I like the way A j played that he says, I'm gonna pick yoga. I think I'm wrong.
From that, I should have deduced that he was wrong.
But that's right. It is a pose that I told you.
It is a food a food. It is a Turkish dish. It's a stuffed plant and it's called this. That's exactly sure. Why it's called this. There's a story around this dish. That when it was served to the e mom, he fainted. The question is did he faint because it was so delicious? Oh right? Did he faint because he ate too much of it? Or possibly he fainted because the cost of the olive oil used to cook it was so high and he.
Just or it was so bad that he died.
It made him sick and he died.
The fourth thought, and the imam got food poisoning.
Yeah, no, it actually sounds really delicious. It's like a stuffed eggplant with onions and tomatoes. I think I'm like that, I want that. I'm going to order that.
Okay, well that was definitely not something that I could have even guessed. So thank you very well done, Educational.
Your last one to finish off the day, toad in the Hole.
Wait, i'ny this.
I feel I've heard this too.
I know this.
I think that's food. I think that's something again because they're weird because they name shit weird. I don't know if I can swear, but that's something that I could feel is on a British menu. Toad in the hole, good one, that's.
Yes, it is. It is a food toad in the hole and it's sausages in a Yorkshire putting batter.
So it's like a you know, that's called what we call everywhere universally a heart attack waiting to happen.
I love that it's called toad in the hole. There's no toad in there.
It's sausage, right, yeah, but yeah, it's kind of like it's like pigs in a blanket.
Well, these pigs in a blanket is the meat of a pig. Usually it's a little.
I know, but that's sort of that what I thought of toad in the hole.
Pigs in a blanket embryo and that's yea.
That definitely I was definitely not a food.
I guess they are trying to market it by making it sound as unappealing as possible, sort of like a reverse like what is that water now they sell Devil's water or poison?
No, it's uh yeah, it's it's in a can death death. It's death something juice. No, very clever, it's something death and everyone's like what is that.
I'm like, it's water.
Yeah, uh, well, excellent, well done.
And there's one I did, sorry, Arian, there's one I didn't use. But it's it's town and it's a cave in Australia actually called Well it wasn't there last year? No, really, Yes, it's such a wonderful name. Well it wasn't there last year.
Not interestic, I would have guessed that was Australia, because what wouldn't be food, surely wouldn't be well, it could be yoga, pos I guess, but not really, so I would have been like Australia and that makes no sense.
Yeah, well that is when did you I know, you started playing tennis early, so you were probably traveling around a whole bunch. So when did you live in Australia proper?
Well, I lived there obviously till I was about twenty and then well, I mean theoretically I lived there till I was twenty five. I bought my first house in the US when I was twenty five. It was just too difficult to fly back and forth to Australia, you know, and on the tennis circuit, we would only get a week or two off in between tournaments that start in January and finishing essentially in late October November, so you know, to fly back takes two days essentially, and then you have to adjust. Then you've got to get on a flight and go back. So it was just too much travel for me to go back and forth. I mean, there are tennis buyers from Australia that do live full time in Australia, but boy, oh boy, if you can afford to fly business class, maybe, but it's still you know, I mean, I was making enough money to be a bit fly business class from time to time, but it was just too much travel. So I ended up buying a house in the US and I sort of didn't leave after being but twenty five. But I've been here.
I mean, you are you're you're younger than me, but I think you're still of the age when Crocodile Dundee was so when that when those commercials started coming out, were you delighted or not so delighted.
There's certain things about Australia and the tourism aspect of the way that they portray Australia that is kind of annoying and dumbs it down a lot. But of course, you know, Paul was so huge in Australia and then also worldwide because of Crocodile Dundee that they used him to sort of all the catchphrases. But we don't say those things. But it's kind of like the Outback Steakhouse, and everyone thinks it's so Australian and I'm like, we don't have bloom and onions in Australia, just so everybody knows that is a very much an American thing. So it's basically a steakhouse. And they just name everything after Australia, like the Melbourne or the Victorious Steak or whatever. So it's kind of funny.
Yeah, all right, well that is listen. I'm glad you gave us a dose of reality.
Yeah. Well know, if an outback steakhouse needs me to do a voice over, I'm here for the.
Sure absolutely understood.
Uh well, thank you for coming on and lending your voice to the Puzzler Podcast. You were terrific and I hope now you are convinced that you are a puzzler at heart. And Greg, do you have an extra credit for the folks at home?
You know I do, and I decided I'm going to do three extra credits. So you've got feathered peacock, You've got angels on horseback, and you've got mamunkukum Purana.
All right, I know all three of those no way.
I'm impressed. I know zero three. Well, thank you, Renee. We look forward to hearing more about tennis and paddle. I love that you're a padel fan, and we won't say the other tennis racket sport.
No more peace, no.
More mentioning mentioning it on this show ever.
And everyone, please go to your favorite podcast platform and rate us or like us and subscribe because it makes a huge difference. And we will meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzling me.
Hey, puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska here up from the Puzzle Lab with the extra credit from our previous episode. Renee Stubbs joined us for a little tennis puzzle puzzle where every answer has one of the words from tennis scoring love, fifteen, thirty, or forty. And you know we left out deuce. I feel bad about deuce. We need to do a deuce puzzle sometime. But in the meantime, here was your extra credit. Clue. If this is another name for getting some sleep, that's not love, that's not fifteen, that's not thirty, that's forty winks. Enjoy your forty winks tonight. And wake up refreshed for some more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly
