April 17, 2025 • 20 mins
Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: creator of the BBC detective dramedy series Ludwig, Mark Brotherhood! Ludwig is now streaming on BritBox, with a new episode out every Thursday through April 17.
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 AI” and audio rebuses.
Subscribe to The Puzzler podcast wherever you get your podcasts!
"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.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello puzzlers. Let's start with a quick puzzle. Greg, would
you mind asking me what I am working on?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hey? J, what are you working on?
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Greg? Thank you for asking. I am writing a detective
novel where it turns out there are three killers and
those killers are Clark Gable's character from Gone with the Wind,
the star of the movie three hundred, and the Irish
poet who wrote the Second Coming? What this is the puzzle?
(00:30):
What might be the final line of my novel? Again,
the killers are Clark gables character Gone with the Wind,
star of the movie three hundred, and the Irish poet
who wrote the Second Coming, The answer and more puzzling
goodness after the break, Hello puzzlers, Welcome back to the
(00:52):
Puzzler podcast. Ercule Poirose big reveal in your Agatha Christie
puzzle novel. I am your host, A J. Jacobs, and
I'm here, of course, the chief buzzle officer, Greg Pliska.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Greg, your your Belgian pronunciation is fantastic.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yeah, I studied made sure it was not just friends
but Belgian.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yeah, Belgian. Yeah, it's very good.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
So yes.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Before the break, I told the listeners about a detective
novel I'm writing, not really writing, just so you know.
But in this novel there are three killers. Clark Gables
character from Gone with a Wind, the star of the
movie three hundred and Irish poet who wrote the second
Coming Greg, I saw you nodding.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I did, I did nod, I did nod.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
You know what might be the final line of my novel?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Well, I'm guessing your cluing rehtt Butler is a Gerard
Butler started film And then I think you're you're cheating
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
But William Butler Yeats is the third He's.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Still a Butler. He's still a Butler.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
You couldn't come up with it. Here's his middle name.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Well, there's Samuel Butler, who's a novelist. But that's like,
you know, that's a little that's that's a deep cut, you.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Right, Arawan Erawan dystopian novel? Is that Samuel Butler?
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Maybe I read something else by him in high school
that I'm now forgetting English.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
But anyway, English major.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Anyway, the last line of the novel is the Butler's
did it.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
The Butlers did it exactly, And I looked it up.
The Butler did it. Trope and detective fiction often attributed
to Mary Roberts Reinhardt's novel in nineteen thirty, The Door,
and where the Butler was indeed the doer, although it
never said the butler did it in that novel. I
thought this was an appropriate puzzle because today's guest is
(02:34):
the creator of a new hit detective show on BBC.
It's a show that puzzle fans might want to know
about because the premise is that a crossword puzzle maker
becomes a detective and solves crimes. And the show is
called Ludweek and our guest is Mark Brotherhood.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Welcome Mark, No, thank you very much, so that that
was a fascinating star as well.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
What's the first ever butler did it novel? Who was it?
Speaker 1 (03:03):
It was called The Door by Mary Roberts Reinhardt in
case you want to cast it up, but now you
know the spot.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
We check that out afterwards. This is right up my alley.
I love the birth of tropes. And why I've never
looked into myself, I don't know, but thank you, I'm
going to be straight on them.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Well great, I didn't look into it until about two
hours ago, so we are loving your show. Congratulations, it's
a hit. Rave reviews, and I would say good for
the puzzling community because it backs up our thesis that
puzzles benefit society in many ways. And in the show,
as you know, he creates crossword puzzles, but he uses
(03:43):
different types of puzzles to solve the murders, like spot
the difference logic puzzle, chess puzzle so quickly before we
start the puzzle. How much did you dive into the
puzzle world for this And have you always been a
puzzle fan?
Speaker 4 (03:56):
I think it's hard not to be a puzzle fan.
I don't, I would say, I mean maybe you perhaps
you've You've heard differently, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (04:02):
I think.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
Yes, I mean you know it's puzzles make up the
entire world in any form at all, quite frankly, rather
than the lovely ones I can see you have behind
you in your room with your board goings and such.
Speaker 5 (04:15):
Everything is a puzzle.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I really.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
A character that sees.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
The world that way is absolutely fascinating. Whether I myself
am particularly into them or good at them, I am
I like I am, but less of the less of
the more technical ones. I am a great fan of
riddles and anything like that, any kind of word based language,
any sort of narrative puzzle.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
Big up merdle fantastic that.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
You know what. This happens to be a word puzzle
based podcast. So well that's a very good place. Well,
Greg and I have a bunch of questions for you,
but we are going to weave them in to an
actual word puzzle. So we'll give you some puzzle. We'll
talk some Ludwig, we'll give you no. Okay, this puzzle,
we made it just for you. Every answer is the
(05:03):
name of a fictional detective plus a word that rhymes
with that detective's name. So, for instance, one answer might
be Columbo's gumbo, and the clue would be something like
Peter Fox creole stew, so Peter fowx New Orleans vegetable
stew and meat uh would be Columbo's gumbo. All the
(05:28):
answers are two word phrases, rhyming the first or last
name of detective with something else. You got it, I
got it?
Speaker 4 (05:35):
And how and how easy would you say? The one
you just gave that I couldn't do was.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Ah, well, I'm guessing is it the gumbo? It is
the British the nut?
Speaker 5 (05:45):
Maybe something Brits don't know.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Right, there's no you're right. That's why I did it
as an example. It is very it's a very American,
uh dish, so yeah, New Orleans, New Orleans, right, all
of the but Columbo would have.
Speaker 5 (06:02):
First love, so there you go.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Yes, Now all the rest are British food like Yorkshire
pudding and all of that. All right, here's your first couple.
Another great TV detective Tony shalubs swim shorts. Tony shaloubs
swim shorts.
Speaker 5 (06:20):
Okay, well that would be Monk.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yeah, there you go see, thank you.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
How about did he ever appear in Monks? Did a
monk ever appear in swim shorts on the show?
Speaker 4 (06:33):
It was very very how about how about I'm such
a super fan, I can't tell you as he did
in a I believe it was in a flashback where
he thought he was playing is it Marco Polo?
Speaker 5 (06:45):
Again? This feels very American?
Speaker 4 (06:46):
And everybody else got out and he remained by himself,
saying Marco was a very sad.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
Fan of Monk.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
I do such a great show. Excellent, excellent, you call
bonus points for that. How about the pink panther inspector's
bridal wardrobe, his hope chest if he had one. It's
a little you know, the first one.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
I think rights something, but I'm not sure.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
I know what.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
What did you say?
Speaker 1 (07:19):
A Bridles bridal wardrobe. It's something you get on your wedding.
The bride usually gets on her wedding day. It's a chest,
a little box with linens and clothes. Uh maybe maybe
they don't.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
It's a French.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Word, it is. But you got the first one, won't.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
You said it?
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yeah, you got a Clusos trousseau. Now we're going to
take a quick break from the puzzles to let you regroup.
But Greg wanted to ask you a couple of questions
about Ludwig.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Well, I have I have so many questions, but you know,
I've only watched the first three episodes. That's all that's
out on brit Box as of our taping, although we
did get screeners.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
But I've been watching it with.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
Every Thursday as far as I know. I think that's right.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
And I love that so far.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
There's a puzzle sort of centered in each of the
you know, each episode is a different mystery that he solves,
and there's a puzzle in each one.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Did you write those around the puzzles. Did you write
the mystery and figure out how did that come about?
How did you go about answering?
Speaker 5 (08:29):
Yes, I did.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
We go with a very basic one that you'll have seen,
which is a spot the difference thing it really is,
create a murder that can only be solved by somebody
who sees it throughout puzzle, who recognizes that something has
changed that nobody else can and access it via that.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, it's a it's a brilliant setup. And David Mitchell
is so wonderful in the I mean he goes from
being terrified of having to take this on to being
so intrigued by the puzzles that he can't can't.
Speaker 5 (08:59):
Help them uses finish. It's just perfect thing.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
It's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Well, let me ask a couple more clues and then
we'll get back, all right, rhyming phrases with the names
of detectives. How about a great TV show from a
few years ago. Kristen Bell was in it. Do you
know that show? First Net? It was Veronica something Veronica.
(09:27):
So this is Kristen Bell's glass containers from that show.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
Okay, so mars vases.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Oh, well, because it.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Has to do with the British pronunciation of that name
versus the American really right, because you don't pronounce the
r the way we do.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
We say Mars. Where'd you say Mars?
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Yes, we will as we would say Mars jars.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
Ah.
Speaker 5 (09:59):
Okay, all right, I love it. Did I brit myself
into into a correct answer anyway?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
You did? Yeah? Absolutely? We got to give credit.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
We give you full credit.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
All right.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
This is in a book series with over six hundred books. Uh,
and this was Now, this is another interesting British one.
We would say here in America, this is the rubber
cement used by a teen girl detective in this book series. Apparently,
according to the Internet, you would say cowgum used by
(10:31):
this teen girl detective. Adhesive. We're talking about an adhesive,
a sticky adhesive.
Speaker 5 (10:38):
It's a teen girl detective, is it?
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Hundreds of books here in the United States.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Well, yeah, that's it. You got it?
Speaker 4 (10:48):
Is that?
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (10:49):
That's okay.
Speaker 5 (10:49):
I didn't understand anything.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
But then Nancy Drew's glue.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
So you know, cowgum is not a phrase that British
people actually say.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
It's this is the first time I've heard of it.
I'm going to try using it daily. You've got any
cowgum for my Yeah, I'm not sure. I think someone
might have been pulling your leg.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Maybe the internet. The Internet loves we call it rubber cement.
Have you heard that phrase? Rubber?
Speaker 5 (11:15):
What don't you just call it glue?
Speaker 3 (11:18):
It's a particular kind of glue, right, it's the it's
the I don't know how to describe it.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
It's kind of like cowgum. Now excellent.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
By the way, we are a word nerd podcast, So
I have to point out that your name is Brotherhood
and you wrote a show about twin brothers, so you
were aware of that.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
I love the name brotherhood. I mean, it's got a
very positive vibe, the brotherhood of man.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
You feel very lucky to have such a weird name.
So nobody's ever heard of ever, even here, I can
assure you, and nobody knows where it's from either.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
So there you go.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
It's good for.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
It does make me stand out a bit, fortunately, Greg.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Did you have another question for Mark?
Speaker 3 (12:06):
It sort of brings up one of my other questions
about how you you're waying into doing the show in
the first place. Was it sort of here's David Mitchell
write something for him? Was it, let's do a show
about puzzles. What was the kind of or was it
about was the twin concept part of the original it.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
Was it was the first thing you said. It was,
here's David Mitchell, give him the show please. It really was.
I mean you talk about lucky. It was being right place,
right time. Honestly did a britis show called cold Feet
that I was. I was part of a writing team
on and made by the same production company, and David
Mitchell is friends with the head of the production company,
and he genuinely just said to this guy, do you
(12:43):
know what I'd like I'd like to be a detective.
And then this guy said to me, do you not
David Mitchell would like it, likes me, I'll do that.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
I'll do that.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
People like David Mitchell, Let's do it. And the puzzle
stuff and all of that was just me that weekend.
It was really, really so, I'd better come up with
something quick for this, and I did and that was
that and then we just we ran with it. It
was most of it's just it's it's it's David Mitch.
I say this to everybody as if it's that. I'm like,
that's just what I came up with this is just
it all fits. It's almost like he wrote it without
(13:16):
knowing he did. It was quite a simple one for that.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Now, just to clarify, because British crosswords are sometimes quite
different than American crosswords. They're called cryptics over here. So
is he a cryptic setter or is he a crosswords.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
He would do both.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
I mean the idea is that, yeah he I mean,
we cover all bases here and just say he's a
puzzle setter, so he should be capable of doing birds
saying you don't have cryptics there.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
We have them, but but they are they certainly are
not as big here as they.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Are in I think that I think every newspaper would
carry one, one standard and one cryptic.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
I think, yeah we have a yeah we have. They're
getting bigger.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Many newspapers, many new papers in the UK carry several.
I mean you can you know, I subscribe to the
I get the London Times.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Yeah, puzzles here.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
When I'm in the UK, I'm grabbing you know, I
grabbed the Guardian whatever I can, just to get it
shot at all these puzzles you get so many in
every paper?
Speaker 4 (14:10):
Yeah, yeah, I mean naively, I think I thought that
was a universal thing in newspapers.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
But if it's not, we have them, they're just not
as big. And just to clarify the difference, cryptics are
much more about word play. There's not a lot of trivia,
and it's like a whole language. So I'll give you
one example that we used in the book the puzzler,
which was the clue is only about five do the puzzle,
(14:38):
and so then you got to deconstruct it. Five is
the Roman numeral five, which is V only is a
synonym for soul, so l E and then about means
put the V in the middle, so so O l
V E solve. So it's crazy. It is like a
multi level type of puzzle.
Speaker 5 (15:00):
Yeah, totally. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
But the American, the American crossword is much more straightforward.
The New York Times puzzle is just here's a clue,
you know, a synonym for the answer and utility, and
it doesn't have that same level of wordplay.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
That's somebody who also mentioned to me recently that that
that that pseudonyms aren't used that much either, because.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
We've we've quite a few cross puzzles here who are
just like a Ludwig where apparently that's not something you
do there either. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Now people who publish in the New York Times just
have their their their name right there. There's a society
called the National Puzzlers League here in the United States,
where every one of the members has what we call
a nom a non to plume. We're similar to what
you know setters would use a a in a British place.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
And my non to plume, my nom to puzzle is
one down Saturday, because I was the answer to one
down in a Saturday New York Crime Times puzzle. So
very and Will Schwartz has a famous one, which is
a rebus. It is I think a lowercase Z right short.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
It's Will Will Wills Will and a lower and a
short will short or a small Z.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
That one Will short said, all right, a couple more.
Let's switch to authors of mysteries. Uh so this one
is uh, the the writer of the Raven this is
his main man, his best dude.
Speaker 5 (16:26):
Mm hmm oh, I mean pose.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Yes, pose bros. That's it, you got it. How about
the writer of Gone Girl. This is her family relative,
Jillian's Gillian. I think it's actually Gillian because I worked
with her at Entertainment Weekly, Gillian, Well, it's the same
name as uh, swashbuckling at Arrol right Errol?
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Uh what yep?
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Flynt Yes, Flynn's flynt Kins, Flynn's.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Ken, Flynn's kN Yes, very we.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Do the apostrophe and we are allowed to rhyme with
the Flynn and Kit. All right, Well last one. You
may not remember this author either, but I'm going to
do it anyway. Uh. Do you remember the name of
the author of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo? Uh?
I think it's Steg Right, isn't that the first name?
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Greg?
Speaker 1 (17:30):
This is his incendiary crime and we are saying this
is fictional. I don't want to be sued by us.
That's exactly right, because you got the other part, which
is which is right? So it is. Uh. Well, let's
(17:52):
just assume that the Brits pronounce l as p because
it is Larsen's Arsenal in America. Uh.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
Yeah, that's I've totally forgotten that.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Well, this is great. We're very excited to keep watching
the second season as we call it in America, or
the second series as you call it in Britain. Before
we go, Mark, we have an extra credit for the
folks at home, the author of a study in scarlet.
It's his aluminum rap, or as you would say in Britain,
(18:27):
aluminium rap.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
And that is.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
How do you say it?
Speaker 5 (18:35):
What we say aluminium, you say aluminum.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
I thought I did a pretty good aluminium aluminum all Rightum,
I'll go working on that in the meantime. Thank you listeners,
Thank you puzzlers. Thank you Mark for stopping by and
puzzling with us and talking about Ludwig and folks. If
you like the show, then please check out our instagram
feet it's at Hello Puzzler, and we post original puzzles,
(19:02):
visual puzzles, other fun stuff, and of course we'll meet
you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle
you puzzlingly.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Hey puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle officer, here
with the extra.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Credit answer from our previous episode. Karen Bergreen and Cindy
Kaplan enjoyed us one more time and we played a
game of charades, which AJ called pooh dolls poodles poo
dolls because every answer is the name of a dog.
Your charade clues were this what and downhill sport and
(19:40):
that of course is huh and ski which you put together.
Huh Ski gets you husky.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
I hope you all have a nice night with your dogs,
or with your cats or whatever pet you have, or
with yourself.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Whoever you cuddle with, you enjoy the night. Thanks for
playing
Hello puzzlers. Let's start with a quick puzzle. Greg, would
you mind asking me what I am working on?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hey? J, what are you working on?
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Greg? Thank you for asking. I am writing a detective
novel where it turns out there are three killers and
those killers are Clark Gable's character from Gone with the Wind,
the star of the movie three hundred, and the Irish
poet who wrote the Second Coming? What this is the puzzle?
(00:30):
What might be the final line of my novel? Again,
the killers are Clark gables character Gone with the Wind,
star of the movie three hundred, and the Irish poet
who wrote the Second Coming, The answer and more puzzling
goodness after the break, Hello puzzlers, Welcome back to the
(00:52):
Puzzler podcast. Ercule Poirose big reveal in your Agatha Christie
puzzle novel. I am your host, A J. Jacobs, and
I'm here, of course, the chief buzzle officer, Greg Pliska.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Greg, your your Belgian pronunciation is fantastic.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yeah, I studied made sure it was not just friends
but Belgian.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yeah, Belgian. Yeah, it's very good.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
So yes.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Before the break, I told the listeners about a detective
novel I'm writing, not really writing, just so you know.
But in this novel there are three killers. Clark Gables
character from Gone with a Wind, the star of the
movie three hundred and Irish poet who wrote the second
Coming Greg, I saw you nodding.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I did, I did nod, I did nod.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
You know what might be the final line of my novel?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Well, I'm guessing your cluing rehtt Butler is a Gerard
Butler started film And then I think you're you're cheating
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
But William Butler Yeats is the third He's.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Still a Butler. He's still a Butler.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
You couldn't come up with it. Here's his middle name.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Well, there's Samuel Butler, who's a novelist. But that's like,
you know, that's a little that's that's a deep cut, you.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Right, Arawan Erawan dystopian novel? Is that Samuel Butler?
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Maybe I read something else by him in high school
that I'm now forgetting English.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
But anyway, English major.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Anyway, the last line of the novel is the Butler's
did it.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
The Butlers did it exactly, And I looked it up.
The Butler did it. Trope and detective fiction often attributed
to Mary Roberts Reinhardt's novel in nineteen thirty, The Door,
and where the Butler was indeed the doer, although it
never said the butler did it in that novel. I
thought this was an appropriate puzzle because today's guest is
(02:34):
the creator of a new hit detective show on BBC.
It's a show that puzzle fans might want to know
about because the premise is that a crossword puzzle maker
becomes a detective and solves crimes. And the show is
called Ludweek and our guest is Mark Brotherhood.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Welcome Mark, No, thank you very much, so that that
was a fascinating star as well.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
What's the first ever butler did it novel? Who was it?
Speaker 1 (03:03):
It was called The Door by Mary Roberts Reinhardt in
case you want to cast it up, but now you
know the spot.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
We check that out afterwards. This is right up my alley.
I love the birth of tropes. And why I've never
looked into myself, I don't know, but thank you, I'm
going to be straight on them.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Well great, I didn't look into it until about two
hours ago, so we are loving your show. Congratulations, it's
a hit. Rave reviews, and I would say good for
the puzzling community because it backs up our thesis that
puzzles benefit society in many ways. And in the show,
as you know, he creates crossword puzzles, but he uses
(03:43):
different types of puzzles to solve the murders, like spot
the difference logic puzzle, chess puzzle so quickly before we
start the puzzle. How much did you dive into the
puzzle world for this And have you always been a
puzzle fan?
Speaker 4 (03:56):
I think it's hard not to be a puzzle fan.
I don't, I would say, I mean maybe you perhaps
you've You've heard differently, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (04:02):
I think.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
Yes, I mean you know it's puzzles make up the
entire world in any form at all, quite frankly, rather
than the lovely ones I can see you have behind
you in your room with your board goings and such.
Speaker 5 (04:15):
Everything is a puzzle.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I really.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
A character that sees.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
The world that way is absolutely fascinating. Whether I myself
am particularly into them or good at them, I am
I like I am, but less of the less of
the more technical ones. I am a great fan of
riddles and anything like that, any kind of word based language,
any sort of narrative puzzle.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
Big up merdle fantastic that.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
You know what. This happens to be a word puzzle
based podcast. So well that's a very good place. Well,
Greg and I have a bunch of questions for you,
but we are going to weave them in to an
actual word puzzle. So we'll give you some puzzle. We'll
talk some Ludwig, we'll give you no. Okay, this puzzle,
we made it just for you. Every answer is the
(05:03):
name of a fictional detective plus a word that rhymes
with that detective's name. So, for instance, one answer might
be Columbo's gumbo, and the clue would be something like
Peter Fox creole stew, so Peter fowx New Orleans vegetable
stew and meat uh would be Columbo's gumbo. All the
(05:28):
answers are two word phrases, rhyming the first or last
name of detective with something else. You got it, I
got it?
Speaker 4 (05:35):
And how and how easy would you say? The one
you just gave that I couldn't do was.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Ah, well, I'm guessing is it the gumbo? It is
the British the nut?
Speaker 5 (05:45):
Maybe something Brits don't know.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Right, there's no you're right. That's why I did it
as an example. It is very it's a very American,
uh dish, so yeah, New Orleans, New Orleans, right, all
of the but Columbo would have.
Speaker 5 (06:02):
First love, so there you go.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Yes, Now all the rest are British food like Yorkshire
pudding and all of that. All right, here's your first couple.
Another great TV detective Tony shalubs swim shorts. Tony shaloubs
swim shorts.
Speaker 5 (06:20):
Okay, well that would be Monk.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yeah, there you go see, thank you.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
How about did he ever appear in Monks? Did a
monk ever appear in swim shorts on the show?
Speaker 4 (06:33):
It was very very how about how about I'm such
a super fan, I can't tell you as he did
in a I believe it was in a flashback where
he thought he was playing is it Marco Polo?
Speaker 5 (06:45):
Again? This feels very American?
Speaker 4 (06:46):
And everybody else got out and he remained by himself,
saying Marco was a very sad.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
Fan of Monk.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
I do such a great show. Excellent, excellent, you call
bonus points for that. How about the pink panther inspector's
bridal wardrobe, his hope chest if he had one. It's
a little you know, the first one.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
I think rights something, but I'm not sure.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
I know what.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
What did you say?
Speaker 1 (07:19):
A Bridles bridal wardrobe. It's something you get on your wedding.
The bride usually gets on her wedding day. It's a chest,
a little box with linens and clothes. Uh maybe maybe
they don't.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
It's a French.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Word, it is. But you got the first one, won't.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
You said it?
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yeah, you got a Clusos trousseau. Now we're going to
take a quick break from the puzzles to let you regroup.
But Greg wanted to ask you a couple of questions
about Ludwig.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Well, I have I have so many questions, but you know,
I've only watched the first three episodes. That's all that's
out on brit Box as of our taping, although we
did get screeners.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
But I've been watching it with.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
Every Thursday as far as I know. I think that's right.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
And I love that so far.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
There's a puzzle sort of centered in each of the
you know, each episode is a different mystery that he solves,
and there's a puzzle in each one.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Did you write those around the puzzles. Did you write
the mystery and figure out how did that come about?
How did you go about answering?
Speaker 5 (08:29):
Yes, I did.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
We go with a very basic one that you'll have seen,
which is a spot the difference thing it really is,
create a murder that can only be solved by somebody
who sees it throughout puzzle, who recognizes that something has
changed that nobody else can and access it via that.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, it's a it's a brilliant setup. And David Mitchell
is so wonderful in the I mean he goes from
being terrified of having to take this on to being
so intrigued by the puzzles that he can't can't.
Speaker 5 (08:59):
Help them uses finish. It's just perfect thing.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
It's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Well, let me ask a couple more clues and then
we'll get back, all right, rhyming phrases with the names
of detectives. How about a great TV show from a
few years ago. Kristen Bell was in it. Do you
know that show? First Net? It was Veronica something Veronica.
(09:27):
So this is Kristen Bell's glass containers from that show.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
Okay, so mars vases.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Oh, well, because it.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Has to do with the British pronunciation of that name
versus the American really right, because you don't pronounce the
r the way we do.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
We say Mars. Where'd you say Mars?
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Yes, we will as we would say Mars jars.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
Ah.
Speaker 5 (09:59):
Okay, all right, I love it. Did I brit myself
into into a correct answer anyway?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
You did? Yeah? Absolutely? We got to give credit.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
We give you full credit.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
All right.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
This is in a book series with over six hundred books. Uh,
and this was Now, this is another interesting British one.
We would say here in America, this is the rubber
cement used by a teen girl detective in this book series. Apparently,
according to the Internet, you would say cowgum used by
(10:31):
this teen girl detective. Adhesive. We're talking about an adhesive,
a sticky adhesive.
Speaker 5 (10:38):
It's a teen girl detective, is it?
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Hundreds of books here in the United States.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Well, yeah, that's it. You got it?
Speaker 4 (10:48):
Is that?
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (10:49):
That's okay.
Speaker 5 (10:49):
I didn't understand anything.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
But then Nancy Drew's glue.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
So you know, cowgum is not a phrase that British
people actually say.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
It's this is the first time I've heard of it.
I'm going to try using it daily. You've got any
cowgum for my Yeah, I'm not sure. I think someone
might have been pulling your leg.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Maybe the internet. The Internet loves we call it rubber cement.
Have you heard that phrase? Rubber?
Speaker 5 (11:15):
What don't you just call it glue?
Speaker 3 (11:18):
It's a particular kind of glue, right, it's the it's
the I don't know how to describe it.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
It's kind of like cowgum. Now excellent.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
By the way, we are a word nerd podcast, So
I have to point out that your name is Brotherhood
and you wrote a show about twin brothers, so you
were aware of that.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
I love the name brotherhood. I mean, it's got a
very positive vibe, the brotherhood of man.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
You feel very lucky to have such a weird name.
So nobody's ever heard of ever, even here, I can
assure you, and nobody knows where it's from either.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
So there you go.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
It's good for.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
It does make me stand out a bit, fortunately, Greg.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Did you have another question for Mark?
Speaker 3 (12:06):
It sort of brings up one of my other questions
about how you you're waying into doing the show in
the first place. Was it sort of here's David Mitchell
write something for him? Was it, let's do a show
about puzzles. What was the kind of or was it
about was the twin concept part of the original it.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
Was it was the first thing you said. It was,
here's David Mitchell, give him the show please. It really was.
I mean you talk about lucky. It was being right place,
right time. Honestly did a britis show called cold Feet
that I was. I was part of a writing team
on and made by the same production company, and David
Mitchell is friends with the head of the production company,
and he genuinely just said to this guy, do you
(12:43):
know what I'd like I'd like to be a detective.
And then this guy said to me, do you not
David Mitchell would like it, likes me, I'll do that.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
I'll do that.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
People like David Mitchell, Let's do it. And the puzzle
stuff and all of that was just me that weekend.
It was really, really so, I'd better come up with
something quick for this, and I did and that was
that and then we just we ran with it. It
was most of it's just it's it's it's David Mitch.
I say this to everybody as if it's that. I'm like,
that's just what I came up with this is just
it all fits. It's almost like he wrote it without
(13:16):
knowing he did. It was quite a simple one for that.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Now, just to clarify, because British crosswords are sometimes quite
different than American crosswords. They're called cryptics over here. So
is he a cryptic setter or is he a crosswords.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
He would do both.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
I mean the idea is that, yeah he I mean,
we cover all bases here and just say he's a
puzzle setter, so he should be capable of doing birds
saying you don't have cryptics there.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
We have them, but but they are they certainly are
not as big here as they.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Are in I think that I think every newspaper would
carry one, one standard and one cryptic.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
I think, yeah we have a yeah we have. They're
getting bigger.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Many newspapers, many new papers in the UK carry several.
I mean you can you know, I subscribe to the
I get the London Times.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Yeah, puzzles here.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
When I'm in the UK, I'm grabbing you know, I
grabbed the Guardian whatever I can, just to get it
shot at all these puzzles you get so many in
every paper?
Speaker 4 (14:10):
Yeah, yeah, I mean naively, I think I thought that
was a universal thing in newspapers.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
But if it's not, we have them, they're just not
as big. And just to clarify the difference, cryptics are
much more about word play. There's not a lot of trivia,
and it's like a whole language. So I'll give you
one example that we used in the book the puzzler,
which was the clue is only about five do the puzzle,
(14:38):
and so then you got to deconstruct it. Five is
the Roman numeral five, which is V only is a
synonym for soul, so l E and then about means
put the V in the middle, so so O l
V E solve. So it's crazy. It is like a
multi level type of puzzle.
Speaker 5 (15:00):
Yeah, totally. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
But the American, the American crossword is much more straightforward.
The New York Times puzzle is just here's a clue,
you know, a synonym for the answer and utility, and
it doesn't have that same level of wordplay.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
That's somebody who also mentioned to me recently that that
that that pseudonyms aren't used that much either, because.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
We've we've quite a few cross puzzles here who are
just like a Ludwig where apparently that's not something you
do there either. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Now people who publish in the New York Times just
have their their their name right there. There's a society
called the National Puzzlers League here in the United States,
where every one of the members has what we call
a nom a non to plume. We're similar to what
you know setters would use a a in a British place.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
And my non to plume, my nom to puzzle is
one down Saturday, because I was the answer to one
down in a Saturday New York Crime Times puzzle. So
very and Will Schwartz has a famous one, which is
a rebus. It is I think a lowercase Z right short.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
It's Will Will Wills Will and a lower and a
short will short or a small Z.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
That one Will short said, all right, a couple more.
Let's switch to authors of mysteries. Uh so this one
is uh, the the writer of the Raven this is
his main man, his best dude.
Speaker 5 (16:26):
Mm hmm oh, I mean pose.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Yes, pose bros. That's it, you got it. How about
the writer of Gone Girl. This is her family relative,
Jillian's Gillian. I think it's actually Gillian because I worked
with her at Entertainment Weekly, Gillian, Well, it's the same
name as uh, swashbuckling at Arrol right Errol?
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Uh what yep?
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Flynt Yes, Flynn's flynt Kins, Flynn's.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Ken, Flynn's kN Yes, very we.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Do the apostrophe and we are allowed to rhyme with
the Flynn and Kit. All right, Well last one. You
may not remember this author either, but I'm going to
do it anyway. Uh. Do you remember the name of
the author of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo? Uh?
I think it's Steg Right, isn't that the first name?
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Greg?
Speaker 1 (17:30):
This is his incendiary crime and we are saying this
is fictional. I don't want to be sued by us.
That's exactly right, because you got the other part, which
is which is right? So it is. Uh. Well, let's
(17:52):
just assume that the Brits pronounce l as p because
it is Larsen's Arsenal in America. Uh.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
Yeah, that's I've totally forgotten that.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Well, this is great. We're very excited to keep watching
the second season as we call it in America, or
the second series as you call it in Britain. Before
we go, Mark, we have an extra credit for the
folks at home, the author of a study in scarlet.
It's his aluminum rap, or as you would say in Britain,
(18:27):
aluminium rap.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
And that is.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
How do you say it?
Speaker 5 (18:35):
What we say aluminium, you say aluminum.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
I thought I did a pretty good aluminium aluminum all Rightum,
I'll go working on that in the meantime. Thank you listeners,
Thank you puzzlers. Thank you Mark for stopping by and
puzzling with us and talking about Ludwig and folks. If
you like the show, then please check out our instagram
feet it's at Hello Puzzler, and we post original puzzles,
(19:02):
visual puzzles, other fun stuff, and of course we'll meet
you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle
you puzzlingly.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Hey puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle officer, here
with the extra.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Credit answer from our previous episode. Karen Bergreen and Cindy
Kaplan enjoyed us one more time and we played a
game of charades, which AJ called pooh dolls poodles poo
dolls because every answer is the name of a dog.
Your charade clues were this what and downhill sport and
(19:40):
that of course is huh and ski which you put together.
Huh Ski gets you husky.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
I hope you all have a nice night with your dogs,
or with your cats or whatever pet you have, or
with yourself.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Whoever you cuddle with, you enjoy the night. Thanks for
playing
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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