From time to time on the weekends, we’ll be bringing you some of our recent favorite episodes. Enjoy your weekend, and we’ll be back with a brand new puzzle on Monday!
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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Hello Puzzlers, and welcome to the Puzzler Weekend, where we bring you some of our favorite episodes from the vaults for your weekend listening. Today, one of my favorite guests of all time, her Ripe Begonias aka oh Fira Eisenberg. If you arrange the letters properly. Oira is a longtime friend of the show and host of her own wonderful podcast, Parenting is a Joke, where she talks to comedians and others about the joys and challenges of raising kids. Oh Fira is just one of the best banters I know, so her podcast is a delight to listen to, and we are glad she came to banter with us. Please enjoy. Hello Puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, the Fabric Softener and your daily puzzle detergent. I am your host, AJ Jacobs, and I am here with today's guest, the awesome Ofira Eisenberg, comedian, author, moth storyteller, host of her own amazing podcast on iHeart Parenting is a Joke. Welcome o Fira.
Hello, j how's it going?
It is good because you're here and you are a friend of Puzzles. I happen to know that for minute, that is true.
I've befriended the puzzle. Has the puzzle befriended me?
We will find out. But you're also a friend of puzzle Lurse. I mean you hosted Ask Me Another on NPR for many years, which we consider an inspiration, a cousin of the puzzler. So we are delighted to have you here. And before that, my favorite fact, before you were a superstar, you were briefly a host for Watson Adventures Scavenger Hunts, my wife's wonderful company.
So true.
I'm so grateful for that job on so many levels. And one of those things is.
That I ended up.
I ended up because I was writing the puzzles and at times or writing the clues at times, but mostly running hunts. Is that I got to learn about New York and I got to go to all the museums and art galleries with people and look at it from a different point of view.
Like it gave me so much access edutainment.
It was pure edutainment, right, yeah, because the Scavenger Hunts are in museums often or historic neighborhoods, right.
That's right.
Yeah, And so that's why I say to people all the time, they're like, what kind of job do you recommend getting out of college?
I go, what do you want to know about? Because get a job and that because you'll get to learn everything.
I love it wise advice.
All right.
See look look at what you give the listeners added value. All right, Well today's puzzle. Today's puzzle is called Galahad's Bahamas Caravan.
Uh whoa?
Okay, I'm accept sure that in this puzzle every answer is going to be a word with a lot of a's, a lot of the letter A. In fact, these words, these answers have no other vowel besides A, and there is an a every other letter of the word. So for instance, whoa. Yeah, thank you for that, for that reaction. I love that. So if I said country where Ofira Eisenberg was born, you would say Canada. You would even sing it that you don't have to say that is not the tune of the national anthem, just so everyone else.
That was completely independent.
That was just a burst of Canadian joy.
Is that? Yeah? Exactly?
Love it?
All right, So you got you got the idea we're going to I'm ready, Jess, you know I'm going to have several clues for each one, and I'm going to start with the harder clues, so I don't want you to get it on the first one. If you do, you know, I'm impressed ten not to. But you can do it. Okay, are you ready?
I'm ready.
You might come from this place with a banjo on your knee.
Oh that is a wait a second, Okay, that's from a song lyric.
It is a song lyric.
And it's an American state now as a Canadian, wait a second, it's an American state or American city. This is excellent place to start, AJ because I feel like this is probably part of your life growing up.
But we sang songs about maple syrups and beavers and bear attacks. Okay, there was not a lot.
Of banjo's where I grew up, so it's going to be a little bit more interesting for me to figure this out.
So let's go for a hint.
All right, Well that yes, we totally we screwed you because we went American and uh and ignored.
It always gets it always gets me.
Well, you're right, it is a state. It's the home state of Channing Tatum and Mia Hamm and our producer Neelie Neelie Lowman.
Oh so I'm just thinking just because you said every other letter.
So let's see al Alabama works Alabama? That is it? Okay?
The tide is Crimson. That was the next one. Uh, excellent, all right, you're one for one.
Tight is Crimson. That also would have been not a great one, not for at all.
Okay, are you ready for your next day? Words?
Sure? Anne?
Uh, okay, you can have a party in these. You can have a party in these. Uh. I'm just going to keep going and you just stopped me and these.
I love this Okay.
Uh?
What would I have a party in? Martini glass? Not enough as keep going?
The name comes from Urdu and mean garment for the legs.
Ooh uh garment for that you would have a party? It a garment for the legs? Okay, I take about all the tights.
It's almost the opposite of tights. Interestingly, it is it has appeared in the title of Adoris Day movie.
Oh oh part It's like, oh my goodness, now I just want to go like underwear, Am I in the am I in the right world of underwear?
Pajamas? Yes?
Exactly. I don't know is pajamas is considered underwear.
I don't know that's a good So this is a good question because I took my son for ice cream late the other day because I was trying to bribe him to do homework anyways, awesome parent of the Year. And he was wearing his pajamas and I said, just put a hoodie over it and we'll pretend it's clothes.
And he said, but it's like underwear.
So if you ask him, okay, that is good. Well, we've got one data point that says it is underwear, right in with your own opinion. All right, are you ready?
Yep?
This is where Dirty Dancing Too took place. I don't know if you saw that Dirty Dancing too.
Dirty Dance So the first one took place in the Catskills. And everyone can get mad at me right now because guess what movie I've never seen from beginning to end, Dirty Dancing.
And again what I've almost seen every like scene from it, but I've never seen it all the way through.
Well, I feel if you've seen they don't put baby in the corner. Yes exactly, that's really all you need, I think, And the main day and the yeah, exactly, Fiedel Castro went to university.
Right, Havanah, Havanna.
Havanna, Havanah, Havanna exactly, Nervana Havannah. There it is dirty dancing too, Havana nights. That's right, seen it.
Wait a second, doesn't someone we know have a writing credit on that?
Are you serious?
Yes?
Andrea? Can you look up who is the writer?
Or Peter? Say that is correct? Out? I knew that a little bit of trivia.
That is, how did that happen?
I don't know.
Well, we did record some episodes with him. I'm going to get him back on and ask him. Uh all right, one more, maybe two, because I want it. I want to hear you sing. But one more is it's about three point six million square miles, which is more than the total area of Australia. It gets about three inches of rain a year.
Three That doesn't sound like enough.
That's not enough. Well, I mean it is for this place and it is located in such countries as Egypt, Chad, Sudan and Libya.
Uh So you want a name of are you thinking like the name of a desert? Is this where we're going? I do desert name and it's a big desert. It's a huge desert.
I think the biggest.
Uh.
Okay, the Sahara desert.
There it is, I know it was in there.
All right.
One quick piece of trivia that I can't resist. Andrea found that the word desert translates to Sahara, So Sahara desert is actually desert desert.
Read dundant.
All right, well this you did. Great, that's it. I'm ending there so lovely. You're off to a flying star. Where can people find more? Oh fira Eisenberg content?
If you would like to follow me? How about you follow me?
I actually post things people. I am at all of the things at oh sira. That's O p h, I r A lots of different letters E as someone else had O fira.
Okay, so you got to add on the eat.
Oh okay, we will add on the E.
Except for at Venmo and Venmo I got at, which I feel very proud.
So send her money. Just start sending me now you know where to send it.
Let's socialize the doll credit time.
That is great, all right, So before we wrap up, is always a clue for you puzzlers at home. This is another audio clue. What is making this sound? An instrument is making this sound. Puzzlers, please don't forget to subscribe to the Puzzler Podcast and I'll meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.