November 6, 2024 • 19 mins
Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: comedian and radio personality John Fugelsang!
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.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello, Puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast the Paprika in
Your Puzzle Beef Stroganoff. I'm your host, AJ Jacobs, and
I am here with our guest, the awesome John fugel Sang,
who is a great stand up. He's a great writer.
(00:26):
He hosts several shows, including Tell Me Everything on Serious XM.
We are just delighted to have you John.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Thank you. Aj. I'm thinking of all the great Beef
strogan Off jokes I learned in junior high school.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
You might be you might try to weave him in because.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
It is a family show here, but I'll do my best.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
All right, Well, there's so many questions. Do you say Paprika, Paprika, Paprika?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Oh? I don't know. I should have looked that up.
I should have What do you say? Paprika Paprika? Okay,
so that's what I'm kind of meant. Well anyway, now, John,
a few years ago you had an awesome one man
show that everyone should see called All the Wrong Reasons,
and it is fascinating because it is funny, but it's
(01:11):
also thought provoking, profound. You talk about many things, including
your aforementioned debate with David Duke, the former head of KKK,
and you talk about your religious upbringing, which is quite unusual.
To put it mildly, You're your father was a former
priest and your mom was a former nun. So, as
you say, I don't want to take your line, but you.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Say, well, my father was a Franciscan brother. A Franciscan brother, gotcha.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Oh that's different from a priest. I should have known that.
But what is it that you say. I'm my part
My father was a brother.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
My father was a brother, and my mother was a sister. Yeah. Right,
And I do stand up because I can never afford
the therapy I actually require. Yes, I'm the whitest guy
in the world, and my father's a brother, my mother's
a sister. It just happens that way sometimes.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
So well, we want to talk about that at the end,
but first we will get some puzzling done. And this
puzzle was inspired by your one man Show All the
Wrong Reasons. It was written by Chief puzzle Officer Greg Pliska.
So I'm going to bring in Greg to do the honors,
and I'm just gonna chime in occasionally.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Yeah, you can jump in occasionally occasionally.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Welcome Greg.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Thank you, thank you, and John, thank you for doing this.
I meant to say earlier, but I didn't get a
chance to jump in. You one of the beacons of
sanity on Twitter for the last you know, eight or
so years, you know, nine years. I've just funny, smart, incisive,
always giving me saying there's a lot of craziness on Twitter.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Thank you. Honestly, I steal all my tweets from an
old blue collar comedy tour cassettes I have, so that's
why there's so many references the truck sparked on my
lawn in case you were wondering about that part. But
thank you. Yeah, it's all stolen from that stuff.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
That's great, it's great.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Well, this has nothing to do with your Twitter feed.
This puzzle, it's called all the Wrong Seasons. Okay, we've
changed the plot of a book or a movie, or
in one case, I've got a video game in here
to make it about spices and seasonings.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Oh okay, great, Right, So.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
The example we've got is that this is the fifth
movie in the Star Trek series, with the title taken
from the opening narration space the territory filled with a
licorice flavored herb.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
This is an example, so you don't need to guess.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
You don't even have to answer this one, so thank god. Yeah,
instead of space the.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Final Final Year Frontier.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yeah, yes, it's the Fenel frontier.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Ooh man. I never would have gotten that one. I
would have said vinyl first. Very good.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Okay, right here, that's a different puzzle. We're gonna use
that one in a different puzzle.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
I don't always think of fennel as a spice, so
thank you for setting me straight on this one.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Well, stuck that one up front, you can get it
out of the way.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
It is.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Yeah, it is a spice. It is a flowering herb
of some kind.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Are spice is an herbs? The same thing, gentlemen, I'm
asking for a.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Great question this rabbit hole.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
They are not the same thing. Okay, well we use
those terms interchangeably. Right. If you're in the kitchen, you're
going to talk about a spice or an herb or
a seasoning, and you're not going to worry whether there
you know, the fennel you're grabbing grabbing is an herb
or a seasoning or a spice. But of course, if
you're a botanist, you're going to know.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
When it comes to things like I don't know word puzzles. Maybe,
so you must be more accurate. Best.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
I've tried to be accurate. Look, these are all things
you use as flavorings in your.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Kitchen or or times of the year. As I understand
the directions, right, it's seasons or seasoning.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Those are the wrong seasons. Gotcha, the wrong seasons?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Gotcha? All right, all right, here's.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Your first one. Daniel Elsberg released this trove of documents
from the US government revealing the pickled green buds used
in US military headquarters.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
The Pentagon paprikas. I don't know the pickled green budds.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
It rhymes with your no, the original of course, the
Pentagon papers.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Right, the Pentagon papers, the papers papers. Okay, there we go,
thank you exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Do you remember the the remake of Invasion of the
Body Snatchers?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I remember three remakes of the Invasion, but yeah, the
Phil Kaufman one is the best one of all of them.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
The one that's the one with Donald Sutherland.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Letter, Nie moy Broughnica Cartwright.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Yes, exactly. And in the first scene he's a food inspector,
isn't he. And he goes into them and he says,
this is a caper. The chef says yes, and Donald
Sutherland says, do you remember he says, no.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
It's a rat herd exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Yeah, just a blast from our childhoods.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
That wasn't a question though, right, that was just pop
culture minutia. That was just I wandered off bit that
I knew the rat tird line from that movie.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Okay, get a bonus cravit for knowing the rat turd line.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
All right, thank you all. Take that?
Speaker 3 (06:06):
All right?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
In this let the record show you're on or I
got the adjacent question right, go on, please, Pentagon capers people,
you get it, Pentagon capers, go on.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Pentagon rat tirds. Different, different answer, All right, here we go.
In this film, Eddie Murphy plays the Prince of Zamunda
who travels to the United States to bring a spice
often used to flavor lamb.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Human to America. Could it be yes, all right, to America?
Okay America?
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Nice John, you know your spices and or herbs.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Thank you very much, thank you, thanks, thank the pandemic
and learning to cook exactly.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
It was a wonderful opportunity.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Well. In this film, which is episode two, of the
Star Wars saga, Obi Wan Kenobi and Yoda discovered that
the evil Count Dooku has assembled this secret arm of
spices used in some hot drinks and sometimes in cigarettes.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Well, uh, I'm gonna have to say attack of the
could it be attack of the clothes?
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Attack of the clothes? Well done, exactly, And I have
to ask, did you know that was episode two?
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Or okay?
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Because I live with a twelve year old boy, Yes,
I knew. What questions about the plot do you have?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
A producer said, you got to include some of the plot, and.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
I have seen episode two enough times to end a
marriage my friend. Yes, I know that film very well.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Wait, which episode does your does your twelve year old
like the best? Oh?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Of all of them? I think he likes episode three
the best. Actually, I think that's that's aged pretty well.
But he like he loves the original trilogy and and
and the sequels and a lot of the Disney shows too.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
That's so interesting. My daughter had was in love with
the Uh, I guess it's episode two when Anakin and
Podme get married. Is that episode?
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (08:03):
The end of episode two. Yeah, that movie's great. When
it starts about about two hours in the movie begins
and it's exactly. It's a very strong final twenty five
minutes of that film.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
And then my daughter would love episode one. In episode two,
which I was so painful to sit through, as I
agree with you, and then episode three would happen. It's
you like, I can't watch the end of that.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Episode three is really intense. But it's a pretty fine film.
It's just George Lucas with everything turned up to eleven
and I'm stalling because Star Wars is easier than these
spice games.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
It's all right, it's all right. I'll give you this one.
I think you'll get this one. This is a Natasha
Leone TV series about a woman caught in a time
loop reliving her days with an herb used to make pickles.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Oh well, let me see. I want to say. I
want to say lot By and Dill, or Estonian Dill,
or Georgie and Dill. But let me go with Russian dill.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
I am at Russian dill. Yes, this is post Soviet Union.
It's just Russian dill.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Yeah. Well you were supporting the Ukraine, so so thank
you for that.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Yeah, very good, But yes, that was Russian deal, which
of course is based upon Russian Doll very good, terrific
TV series. All right, couple more. This is a movie
about Diane Fosse and a group of primates in a
field of herbs used to make julips, grasshoppers and mohitos.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Oh my, well, I'd have to say, let me see,
it's not gorillas in the cream dement. Could it be
gorillas in the mints and.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
In the mints? Yes, instead of missed gorillas in the mints.
That was very good. See we moved from food to copdate.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
They could be. They could be, you know, apes that
are very good at at dicing food into very small
arts too for gorilla. And then and you have the
same exact sound without having to change anyone.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
The listener wouldn't even know.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Listen, if this is educational, I get a grant, so
I'm just here to help.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
I like that one. I like the I like the
Vinyl Frontier even better. I'm gonna it's a whole puzzle about.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Thank you, Scoop I belong to But I should talk
about that here, all right.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
One more. This is an educational video game in which
you play a pioneer exploring the American West in search
of Italian pizza.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Spice one more time on that clue please.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
It's an educational video game in which you play a
pioneer exploring the American West in search of Italian pizza spice.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
This one, John, I think you and I are similar ages,
and I think we we just missed this video.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah like video games, I know eight video game or something.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
But it's I think it's later than that. But go
through the iPad. I played it on the iPad and
it was really fun. It's about the The video game
is about the route that the pioneers took heading into
the American West.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
With their with their horse drawn.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Yeah, and your Regano trail.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
There you go? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Really did I just read? Wow? Got it very easy
for a normal person. For me, it was very hard.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
But thank you, well done.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
You know your spices and.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
The Oregon Trail is the name of a video game.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
It's a video game.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yeah wow, Yeah, I had no idea.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
I was.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
A nonconformist. I was reading Shakespeare when the other kids
had atari's. So you know, trail, there we go.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
That's how you got your your first stand up routine
about Shakespeare.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
So there, Hey, you know what after my first stand
up routine. I went and I bought a twenty dollars
bag of a Regan trail in Washington store Park. So
it all comes together.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
That is, yes, well deserved. I'm sure, well that was fantastic.
But first of all, I just want to say I
feel I didn't know there was a difference between spices
and herbs. I do feel herbs get the short end
of the stick because it's like, no one says, like,
you know, the herb girls. They don't say, like, that's
so herby, like spices, spice is fun. Herbs are like
(12:15):
sounds like the name of an accountant, herb herb.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yes, I agree.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Do we know, Greg, is there like a two sentence
way to tell the difference between spices? People look at them,
google it.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
No, I you know, I think I'm now I'm spitballing
because I don't actually know. But I would say that
an herb is a plant specifically, whereas I guess you
could imagine spices being used more generally to refer to
all kinds of flavorings.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
But which come from plants.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Which come from plants.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
So clearly spice is a drug in the Star Wars
universe and herb is a euphemism for weed in our universe.
So either way, I mean the Dune get high on
the topic, Yeah, the Dune universe. Well, Star Wars ripped
off Dooing with that, but yes.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Fair Dune just ripped off sort of all of Middle
Eastern culture, I think, right a culture.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
So, John, I just wanted to ask a couple of
quick questions about your show because I have seen it,
but I'm going to pretend I haven't tell me. How
would a priest, and I'm sorry, a father, a Franciscan father,
and a nun tell me about that romantic comedy? How
did that happen?
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Well, my mother went into the convent right out of
high school. She grew up in the segregated South, and
the convent put her through nursing school and then sent
her from the segregated South to Malawi, Africa to work
with lepers and in a jungle hospital. But before they
sent her to Africa, they briefly stationed her in Brooklyn,
(13:51):
New York, at Holy Family Hospital. My dad was a
Franciscan brother, and he taught history to Catholic boys at St.
Francis Prep, and he wore the brown robes and the
rope belt, like the Lost Jedi of Flatbush, walking amongst
the people. My father, the brother met my mother the sister,
fell madly in love. I couldn't tell her. They became penpals,
(14:12):
and eventually, when she came back from Africa, he, after
waiting ten years, mustered up the courage to ask her
on a date. And she had to quit the convent
to do that. But for her sixteen years of poverty,
chastity and servitude, the Holy Roman Empire gave my mother
one gray cotton dress and two hundred dollars, and my
(14:33):
parents were married two months later in a southern army base.
It was a first love and a second marriage for
them both. So growing up I admired Jesus the way
anybody admires mom's first husband, and he got heavy, heavy
visitation rights in our house as well.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
It's an amazing story.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
It is amazing, and I doubt my dad's goal was
to make sure that we would be too liberal for
the Christians and too Christian for the liberals, and every
therapist I've ever seen has agreed. He achieved his goals
very well.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
You are a man without a country, without a that
is interesting.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
I just. I also just have to add that in
the course of telling that story, you said, mustard up
the courage, and you know I'm just tracking this.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
I'm here to write tomorrow's clues.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
There you go. That and that. Yes, a mustard, of course,
a spice or an herb.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
I can tell you the different condiment. I think, aj okay,
but it is.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
From a from a spy. I think mustard would be
a spice. And here's the distinction. I've got it for you. Now.
Herbs generally refer to the leafy part of the plant
or the flowering part of the plant, whereas spices are
the other part, the seeds, the bark, the roots, and
sometimes the fruits.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
All right, all right, right, all right, I feel better.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Mustard would be a spice because it comes from the seed.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Carry on now, all right, Well, one one more, maybe two.
But well, one of the things I love about your show,
and you're thinking I, as you might remember, I wrote
a book about religion and taking the Bible letter book.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
You wrote, yes, oh, thank you.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Well, I think we had a similar thesis, which is,
religion can be a force for good or it can
be a force for bad. And often when you are
too literal with the words, it turns into a force
for ill. And I love your phrase, separate church from hate.
That's one of your goals.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
That's the name of my book. My book is called
Separation of Church and Hate, coming out next year from
Simon and Schuster, and it's all about how to use
the Bible when debating a far right wing Christian, nationalist
or fundamentalist.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Wow, okay, well that is fascinating. I didn't even know
that people, and yet look at that you.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Set them up. I can't wait to see the book
and read the book, not just see it, actually read it.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
You only have to see it, I'll s I'll pull
you a picture of the cover. That's as far as
we can go with this one. It's not for you.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
We'll still have you on.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Thank you, Greg. Before we wrap up, do you have
an extra credit for the Puddler at Home?
Speaker 3 (17:06):
I do this. This film is set in a small
Sicilian town. It's a nineteen eighties Oscar winning film that
centers on the friendship between a young boy and an
aging projectionist who loves a spice often used with apples
or on toast.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Okay, okay, this happens to me. My wife Julie's favorite
movie of all time, even though she hasn't seen it
in like twenty years. But that's a hint for the
three friends who know that and come back. John. First
of all, thank you for joining us on the Puzzler.
I hope, well, I don't know whether you want to
feel better or you want to remain terrified. You say
(17:45):
you love being terrified.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Oh I did great, chastened and cleansed. I'm ready to
do more of this now. You've all those years of
therapy and drugs couldn't do it, but your show helped
me face my fears and I feel ready to join
the Church of Scientology. Now, thank you AJ forgetting you
are to display.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
We are here to clear you and everyone. Come back
tomorrow for the answer, and in the meantime, check out
the Puzzler Instagram feed at Hello puzzlers, and we'll see
you here from more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Hey puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska here up from the Puzzle
Lab with the extra credit answer from our previous episode.
John fugel Sang was our guest and.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
We did kid Riddle Peril where we played a game
where we gave you the answer and you had to
tell us the question of the kiddy joke that had
that punchline. So the punchline is I'm the wiener, and
the question, of course is what did the hot dog
say after he finished the race? All Right, well you're
(18:52):
not the wiener, you're the winner. Come back tomorrow for
more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly
Speaker 3 (19:00):
And
Hello, Puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast the Paprika in
Your Puzzle Beef Stroganoff. I'm your host, AJ Jacobs, and
I am here with our guest, the awesome John fugel Sang,
who is a great stand up. He's a great writer.
(00:26):
He hosts several shows, including Tell Me Everything on Serious XM.
We are just delighted to have you John.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Thank you. Aj. I'm thinking of all the great Beef
strogan Off jokes I learned in junior high school.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
You might be you might try to weave him in because.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
It is a family show here, but I'll do my best.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
All right, Well, there's so many questions. Do you say Paprika, Paprika, Paprika?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Oh? I don't know. I should have looked that up.
I should have What do you say? Paprika Paprika? Okay,
so that's what I'm kind of meant. Well anyway, now, John,
a few years ago you had an awesome one man
show that everyone should see called All the Wrong Reasons,
and it is fascinating because it is funny, but it's
(01:11):
also thought provoking, profound. You talk about many things, including
your aforementioned debate with David Duke, the former head of KKK,
and you talk about your religious upbringing, which is quite unusual.
To put it mildly, You're your father was a former
priest and your mom was a former nun. So, as
you say, I don't want to take your line, but you.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Say, well, my father was a Franciscan brother. A Franciscan brother, gotcha.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Oh that's different from a priest. I should have known that.
But what is it that you say. I'm my part
My father was a brother.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
My father was a brother, and my mother was a sister. Yeah. Right,
And I do stand up because I can never afford
the therapy I actually require. Yes, I'm the whitest guy
in the world, and my father's a brother, my mother's
a sister. It just happens that way sometimes.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
So well, we want to talk about that at the end,
but first we will get some puzzling done. And this
puzzle was inspired by your one man Show All the
Wrong Reasons. It was written by Chief puzzle Officer Greg Pliska.
So I'm going to bring in Greg to do the honors,
and I'm just gonna chime in occasionally.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Yeah, you can jump in occasionally occasionally.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Welcome Greg.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Thank you, thank you, and John, thank you for doing this.
I meant to say earlier, but I didn't get a
chance to jump in. You one of the beacons of
sanity on Twitter for the last you know, eight or
so years, you know, nine years. I've just funny, smart, incisive,
always giving me saying there's a lot of craziness on Twitter.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Thank you. Honestly, I steal all my tweets from an
old blue collar comedy tour cassettes I have, so that's
why there's so many references the truck sparked on my
lawn in case you were wondering about that part. But
thank you. Yeah, it's all stolen from that stuff.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
That's great, it's great.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Well, this has nothing to do with your Twitter feed.
This puzzle, it's called all the Wrong Seasons. Okay, we've
changed the plot of a book or a movie, or
in one case, I've got a video game in here
to make it about spices and seasonings.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Oh okay, great, Right, So.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
The example we've got is that this is the fifth
movie in the Star Trek series, with the title taken
from the opening narration space the territory filled with a
licorice flavored herb.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
This is an example, so you don't need to guess.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
You don't even have to answer this one, so thank god. Yeah,
instead of space the.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Final Final Year Frontier.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yeah, yes, it's the Fenel frontier.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Ooh man. I never would have gotten that one. I
would have said vinyl first. Very good.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Okay, right here, that's a different puzzle. We're gonna use
that one in a different puzzle.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
I don't always think of fennel as a spice, so
thank you for setting me straight on this one.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Well, stuck that one up front, you can get it
out of the way.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
It is.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Yeah, it is a spice. It is a flowering herb
of some kind.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Are spice is an herbs? The same thing, gentlemen, I'm
asking for a.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Great question this rabbit hole.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
They are not the same thing. Okay, well we use
those terms interchangeably. Right. If you're in the kitchen, you're
going to talk about a spice or an herb or
a seasoning, and you're not going to worry whether there
you know, the fennel you're grabbing grabbing is an herb
or a seasoning or a spice. But of course, if
you're a botanist, you're going to know.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
When it comes to things like I don't know word puzzles. Maybe,
so you must be more accurate. Best.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
I've tried to be accurate. Look, these are all things
you use as flavorings in your.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Kitchen or or times of the year. As I understand
the directions, right, it's seasons or seasoning.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Those are the wrong seasons. Gotcha, the wrong seasons?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Gotcha? All right, all right, here's.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Your first one. Daniel Elsberg released this trove of documents
from the US government revealing the pickled green buds used
in US military headquarters.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
The Pentagon paprikas. I don't know the pickled green budds.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
It rhymes with your no, the original of course, the
Pentagon papers.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Right, the Pentagon papers, the papers papers. Okay, there we go,
thank you exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Do you remember the the remake of Invasion of the
Body Snatchers?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I remember three remakes of the Invasion, but yeah, the
Phil Kaufman one is the best one of all of them.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
The one that's the one with Donald Sutherland.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Letter, Nie moy Broughnica Cartwright.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Yes, exactly. And in the first scene he's a food inspector,
isn't he. And he goes into them and he says,
this is a caper. The chef says yes, and Donald
Sutherland says, do you remember he says, no.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
It's a rat herd exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Yeah, just a blast from our childhoods.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
That wasn't a question though, right, that was just pop
culture minutia. That was just I wandered off bit that
I knew the rat tird line from that movie.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Okay, get a bonus cravit for knowing the rat turd line.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
All right, thank you all. Take that?
Speaker 3 (06:06):
All right?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
In this let the record show you're on or I
got the adjacent question right, go on, please, Pentagon capers people,
you get it, Pentagon capers, go on.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Pentagon rat tirds. Different, different answer, All right, here we go.
In this film, Eddie Murphy plays the Prince of Zamunda
who travels to the United States to bring a spice
often used to flavor lamb.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Human to America. Could it be yes, all right, to America?
Okay America?
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Nice John, you know your spices and or herbs.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Thank you very much, thank you, thanks, thank the pandemic
and learning to cook exactly.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
It was a wonderful opportunity.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Well. In this film, which is episode two, of the
Star Wars saga, Obi Wan Kenobi and Yoda discovered that
the evil Count Dooku has assembled this secret arm of
spices used in some hot drinks and sometimes in cigarettes.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Well, uh, I'm gonna have to say attack of the
could it be attack of the clothes?
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Attack of the clothes? Well done, exactly, And I have
to ask, did you know that was episode two?
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Or okay?
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Because I live with a twelve year old boy, Yes,
I knew. What questions about the plot do you have?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
A producer said, you got to include some of the plot, and.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
I have seen episode two enough times to end a
marriage my friend. Yes, I know that film very well.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Wait, which episode does your does your twelve year old
like the best? Oh?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Of all of them? I think he likes episode three
the best. Actually, I think that's that's aged pretty well.
But he like he loves the original trilogy and and
and the sequels and a lot of the Disney shows too.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
That's so interesting. My daughter had was in love with
the Uh, I guess it's episode two when Anakin and
Podme get married. Is that episode?
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (08:03):
The end of episode two. Yeah, that movie's great. When
it starts about about two hours in the movie begins
and it's exactly. It's a very strong final twenty five
minutes of that film.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
And then my daughter would love episode one. In episode two,
which I was so painful to sit through, as I
agree with you, and then episode three would happen. It's
you like, I can't watch the end of that.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Episode three is really intense. But it's a pretty fine film.
It's just George Lucas with everything turned up to eleven
and I'm stalling because Star Wars is easier than these
spice games.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
It's all right, it's all right. I'll give you this one.
I think you'll get this one. This is a Natasha
Leone TV series about a woman caught in a time
loop reliving her days with an herb used to make pickles.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Oh well, let me see. I want to say. I
want to say lot By and Dill, or Estonian Dill,
or Georgie and Dill. But let me go with Russian dill.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
I am at Russian dill. Yes, this is post Soviet Union.
It's just Russian dill.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Yeah. Well you were supporting the Ukraine, so so thank
you for that.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Yeah, very good, But yes, that was Russian deal, which
of course is based upon Russian Doll very good, terrific
TV series. All right, couple more. This is a movie
about Diane Fosse and a group of primates in a
field of herbs used to make julips, grasshoppers and mohitos.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Oh my, well, I'd have to say, let me see,
it's not gorillas in the cream dement. Could it be
gorillas in the mints and.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
In the mints? Yes, instead of missed gorillas in the mints.
That was very good. See we moved from food to copdate.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
They could be. They could be, you know, apes that
are very good at at dicing food into very small
arts too for gorilla. And then and you have the
same exact sound without having to change anyone.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
The listener wouldn't even know.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Listen, if this is educational, I get a grant, so
I'm just here to help.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
I like that one. I like the I like the
Vinyl Frontier even better. I'm gonna it's a whole puzzle about.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Thank you, Scoop I belong to But I should talk
about that here, all right.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
One more. This is an educational video game in which
you play a pioneer exploring the American West in search
of Italian pizza.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Spice one more time on that clue please.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
It's an educational video game in which you play a
pioneer exploring the American West in search of Italian pizza spice.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
This one, John, I think you and I are similar ages,
and I think we we just missed this video.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah like video games, I know eight video game or something.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
But it's I think it's later than that. But go
through the iPad. I played it on the iPad and
it was really fun. It's about the The video game
is about the route that the pioneers took heading into
the American West.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
With their with their horse drawn.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Yeah, and your Regano trail.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
There you go? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Really did I just read? Wow? Got it very easy
for a normal person. For me, it was very hard.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
But thank you, well done.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
You know your spices and.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
The Oregon Trail is the name of a video game.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
It's a video game.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yeah wow, Yeah, I had no idea.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
I was.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
A nonconformist. I was reading Shakespeare when the other kids
had atari's. So you know, trail, there we go.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
That's how you got your your first stand up routine
about Shakespeare.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
So there, Hey, you know what after my first stand
up routine. I went and I bought a twenty dollars
bag of a Regan trail in Washington store Park. So
it all comes together.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
That is, yes, well deserved. I'm sure, well that was fantastic.
But first of all, I just want to say I
feel I didn't know there was a difference between spices
and herbs. I do feel herbs get the short end
of the stick because it's like, no one says, like,
you know, the herb girls. They don't say, like, that's
so herby, like spices, spice is fun. Herbs are like
(12:15):
sounds like the name of an accountant, herb herb.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yes, I agree.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Do we know, Greg, is there like a two sentence
way to tell the difference between spices? People look at them,
google it.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
No, I you know, I think I'm now I'm spitballing
because I don't actually know. But I would say that
an herb is a plant specifically, whereas I guess you
could imagine spices being used more generally to refer to
all kinds of flavorings.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
But which come from plants.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Which come from plants.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
So clearly spice is a drug in the Star Wars
universe and herb is a euphemism for weed in our universe.
So either way, I mean the Dune get high on
the topic, Yeah, the Dune universe. Well, Star Wars ripped
off Dooing with that, but yes.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Fair Dune just ripped off sort of all of Middle
Eastern culture, I think, right a culture.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
So, John, I just wanted to ask a couple of
quick questions about your show because I have seen it,
but I'm going to pretend I haven't tell me. How
would a priest, and I'm sorry, a father, a Franciscan father,
and a nun tell me about that romantic comedy? How
did that happen?
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Well, my mother went into the convent right out of
high school. She grew up in the segregated South, and
the convent put her through nursing school and then sent
her from the segregated South to Malawi, Africa to work
with lepers and in a jungle hospital. But before they
sent her to Africa, they briefly stationed her in Brooklyn,
(13:51):
New York, at Holy Family Hospital. My dad was a
Franciscan brother, and he taught history to Catholic boys at St.
Francis Prep, and he wore the brown robes and the
rope belt, like the Lost Jedi of Flatbush, walking amongst
the people. My father, the brother met my mother the sister,
fell madly in love. I couldn't tell her. They became penpals,
(14:12):
and eventually, when she came back from Africa, he, after
waiting ten years, mustered up the courage to ask her
on a date. And she had to quit the convent
to do that. But for her sixteen years of poverty,
chastity and servitude, the Holy Roman Empire gave my mother
one gray cotton dress and two hundred dollars, and my
(14:33):
parents were married two months later in a southern army base.
It was a first love and a second marriage for
them both. So growing up I admired Jesus the way
anybody admires mom's first husband, and he got heavy, heavy
visitation rights in our house as well.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
It's an amazing story.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
It is amazing, and I doubt my dad's goal was
to make sure that we would be too liberal for
the Christians and too Christian for the liberals, and every
therapist I've ever seen has agreed. He achieved his goals
very well.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
You are a man without a country, without a that
is interesting.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
I just. I also just have to add that in
the course of telling that story, you said, mustard up
the courage, and you know I'm just tracking this.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
I'm here to write tomorrow's clues.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
There you go. That and that. Yes, a mustard, of course,
a spice or an herb.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
I can tell you the different condiment. I think, aj okay,
but it is.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
From a from a spy. I think mustard would be
a spice. And here's the distinction. I've got it for you. Now.
Herbs generally refer to the leafy part of the plant
or the flowering part of the plant, whereas spices are
the other part, the seeds, the bark, the roots, and
sometimes the fruits.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
All right, all right, right, all right, I feel better.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Mustard would be a spice because it comes from the seed.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Carry on now, all right, Well, one one more, maybe two.
But well, one of the things I love about your show,
and you're thinking I, as you might remember, I wrote
a book about religion and taking the Bible letter book.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
You wrote, yes, oh, thank you.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Well, I think we had a similar thesis, which is,
religion can be a force for good or it can
be a force for bad. And often when you are
too literal with the words, it turns into a force
for ill. And I love your phrase, separate church from hate.
That's one of your goals.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
That's the name of my book. My book is called
Separation of Church and Hate, coming out next year from
Simon and Schuster, and it's all about how to use
the Bible when debating a far right wing Christian, nationalist
or fundamentalist.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Wow, okay, well that is fascinating. I didn't even know
that people, and yet look at that you.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Set them up. I can't wait to see the book
and read the book, not just see it, actually read it.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
You only have to see it, I'll s I'll pull
you a picture of the cover. That's as far as
we can go with this one. It's not for you.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
We'll still have you on.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Thank you, Greg. Before we wrap up, do you have
an extra credit for the Puddler at Home?
Speaker 3 (17:06):
I do this. This film is set in a small
Sicilian town. It's a nineteen eighties Oscar winning film that
centers on the friendship between a young boy and an
aging projectionist who loves a spice often used with apples
or on toast.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Okay, okay, this happens to me. My wife Julie's favorite
movie of all time, even though she hasn't seen it
in like twenty years. But that's a hint for the
three friends who know that and come back. John. First
of all, thank you for joining us on the Puzzler.
I hope, well, I don't know whether you want to
feel better or you want to remain terrified. You say
(17:45):
you love being terrified.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Oh I did great, chastened and cleansed. I'm ready to
do more of this now. You've all those years of
therapy and drugs couldn't do it, but your show helped
me face my fears and I feel ready to join
the Church of Scientology. Now, thank you AJ forgetting you
are to display.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
We are here to clear you and everyone. Come back
tomorrow for the answer, and in the meantime, check out
the Puzzler Instagram feed at Hello puzzlers, and we'll see
you here from more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Hey puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska here up from the Puzzle
Lab with the extra credit answer from our previous episode.
John fugel Sang was our guest and.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
We did kid Riddle Peril where we played a game
where we gave you the answer and you had to
tell us the question of the kiddy joke that had
that punchline. So the punchline is I'm the wiener, and
the question, of course is what did the hot dog
say after he finished the race? All Right, well you're
(18:52):
not the wiener, you're the winner. Come back tomorrow for
more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly
Speaker 3 (19:00):
And
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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