November 24, 2023 • 12 mins
Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us all this week: comedian and host of "Parenting is a Joke" Ophira Eisenberg!
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.
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.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello, Puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, the triple Yoke
in your Puzzle Egg. I'm your host A J. Jacobs,
and today's guest is the wonderful Ofira Eisenberg, comedian, writer
(00:24):
and host of the podcast right here on iHeart parenting
is a joke.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Welcome Opira, Hello, my friend.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
I am. I consider you a friend and I'm honored
by that. And you actually have another friend on the
show with Yes, Greg Pliska, our chief puzzle officer who
was a writer on your wonderful show on NPR. Ask
me another, a cousin and inspiration for us.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Oh, thanks so nice? Hello Greg.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Yeah, Hi o Firah. You know this feels just like
being in the green room at the.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Bellhouse, just minus the shots of bourbon.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Exactly in the smell of old beer.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Not in my house. I got both of those.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
You got the stale beer smell everywhere.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Greg, take it away, because you have a puzzle that's
sort of an homage to ask me another.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
I believe absolutely, Thanks Jay. I mean listeners who were
fans of the show will remember how we signed off
every episode with anagrams of everyone's names. Yours was one
of my favorites her ripe begonias, And I've been meaning
to ask you for years do you actually have any begonias?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
So it's so interesting.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
I have three Bogonias, so somewhere outside right now on
my balcony.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
But I was at an airbnb years ago and he.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
Had an amazing and like this thriving almost like a tree, bogonia,
very odd spotted one, and I asked if I could
take a clipping, and now.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
I have a tree.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
And then I just had like what you might consider
your regular every day but going is just like you know,
it looks like a succulent stand in a nice blossom,
pink blossom.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
And they're actually right, they are right, they are right,
yeah right now.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Actually to me, I'll door what it's doing well because
it likes slightly cooler temperatures.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
I don't know if you knew them. I didn't, just
like me, just like me.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
You're from Canada.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Well, in this game, we're gonna play with anagrams, but
just of your first name, oh fear okay, cool. So
just to remind our listeners, that spelled O P H
I R A. And it might be useful having a
pencil and paper to write those letters down, you know,
so you can mix them bo. You might be able
to do this in your head. But each of the
(02:41):
answers is an anagram of those six letters.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Wow, okay, this is impressive.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
So like if I said we're looking for a very
groovy piece of paddling equipment, then you would say, we
are looking for.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
A piece of groovy like a pat or yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Okay, but a very groovy or use the letters in
your name to get the other part of that.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
What's a groovy? Or I'm trying. I'm using my own name.
I'm looking at my own name.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Yes, so cross off the O, A R, and you
have three letters left.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
A hip, oh a hip or oh I see what
you or there you go. This is so hilarious okay
and impossible, and get ready to walk me through it.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
That's good? All right, Well here you go. Here's your
first one to jump from cloud to cloud.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Hmm okay, what can I use in my name that's jumping?
Speaker 1 (03:45):
What would I do?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
I would? I mean, I'm leaping, I'm bounding.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
I put those not jump hop, I'm hopping hop hop
And it's like a light see air hop air hop
air hop.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Yes, very good.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Okay, this is great. It's great. It's just very gratifying. Okay, listeners,
it's very gratified.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Ask for here on the puzzler. Gratification for everyone.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
You were saying it out loud in one second, everybody else.
When I finally get it, I'm impressed.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yeah, that's how it should be. We should all be gratified.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
And okay, all.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Right, here's another one for you, A special mission to
fix your bangs.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
I just got my bangs cut, but thank you.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
I was thinking of that when I wrote.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Special Mission to fix your bangs. Okay, so let's see
what could I do here? I see pair, but that's
not going to help me. Uh, and then it would
be oh pair is that coming? And forget about that later.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Hair. There's hair I could do hair, and then what's
left eyes still specials.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
I still have after hair. I have an op at
a pee left.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
So it's either gonna be op hair operation hair or.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
No the other hairp hair hairrop. It's a hair op.
Gotta do a little hair up up. Your bangs are
looking a little funky. We're gonna real quick.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Recently, my hair the person because my hair said just
a reminder to never cut your own bangs again.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Like whoa, whoa, Okay, you're not passive aggressive.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
No, just a never do that. Okay, all right, here
you have a Jewish circle dance where everyone turns exactly
three point one, four, one five nine times.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
I pie horror, the pie horror exactly excellent, I catch
on eventually, you got it exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Here's one the title of Winfrey's biography.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Okay it is uh oh we got that part, oh boy,
more than more than just so let's see what else
would I say? What was that? I mean, what what's
her full name, Oprah Winfrey?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yeah, well okay, but yes, but not the winfree part.
Just her first name, Oprah, Oprah. You can make that.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
I can Okay, I can make Oprah's name anyways.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
I Oprah, I Oprah exactly.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
You know what I should I should publish.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
That, right, you should write I have been.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
Called Oprah many times and it must be people rearranging
the letters in the brain.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
That people just can't. Yeah, they just get freaked out.
They see your name. They go, I don't know what
they say is whatever.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
That's what I'm doing right now.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Yeah, that's as long as it's gratifying at the end.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
That was good.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Okay, all right, I'll give you one. This is a
saving strategy where you put all your money into Vietnamese soup.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
It's okay. So if we've got a faugh and a
fa R I A R.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
A R I R yes.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
I R I ran. This sounds like something William Shatner
would be pitching on late nineteen Delicious. Delicious could put
all your money into.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
It's not gold, it's not silver, it's noodles.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
You did amazing. Plus you have a great an, a
grantible name, so many, so many.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
Finally it comes in this situation where my name is useful.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yeah, it's great. I've never this is like the reverse.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Like usually I say my name and then I just
you know, I'm correcting people over and over and over again.
And so this was like a different take on that
where I had to figure out how to do it.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
I will say you came up with one of the
other alternatives. You had whole pair age, and there was
just no way to clue that.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
That was gonna be right, right. Santo's babysitter, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Yeah, Santa's okay, don't mention that one on the show.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
What was that my second guess of all perfect.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Exactly, it's going to be who at some point.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Uh, well, where can people find more of you or
oprah or all of us? By horas exactly?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Please spell my name now that you know the letters
it is to be spelled my.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
Name, add an e to make it O fear and
that is where you can follow me on all of
the socials, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and that strange X thing
that I don't really do much with anymore.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Must admit me neither. But what oh fira E? Because
for uh, for your last name, but it also kind
of feels like a plural, like there are many oh
feirahs like.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Two.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I should say that that just the world would be.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
I will also say, as someone who is kind of
the only person with my name, as much as we
might have hated that at a certain point in life,
when it comes to socials, you've got them locked down, right.
You don't have to be John Smith twenty four to sixty.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
That is so true, That is so true.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
You are fira E everything everywhere.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Oh yeah, that's right, locked and loaded, all right, go
to oh fira E? And Greg, do we have an
extra credit for the folks.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
At home, I do I have one more o fira
anagram for the folks at home. This is what Hawaiian
cheerleaders say about traditional food.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
There we go.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Okay, So think on that and while you're doing it,
please don't forget to subscribe to the Puzzler podcast and
we'll meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that
will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Hello puzzlers, this is your chief puzzle Officer, Greg Pliska,
here to give you the extra credit answer from our
previous show. AJ and I played with cryptic clues, each
of which had an answer, which is a typical Thanksgiving food.
Your extra credit clue was Felon finally escapes from jailer
to get a Thanksgiving meal. To work out the word play,
(10:38):
you take a word meaning jailer and that would be
turnkey and you remove felon finally or the last letter
of felon which is N, so turnkey minus n gives
you turkey a Thanksgiving meal. Hope you all had a
great one and we'll see you next time. Thanks for
(11:03):
playing along with the team here at the Puzzler. I'm
Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle Officer. Our executive producers are
Neelie Lohman and Adam Neuhause of New House Ideas and
Lindsay Hoffman of iHeart Podcasts. The show is produced by
Jody Abergan and Brittany Brown of Roulette Productions. Our associate
producer is Andrea Schoenberg. The Puzzler with Aj Jacobs is
(11:29):
a co production with New House Ideas and is distributed
by Sporadic. Thetas No not really, I meant to rearrange
the letters. It's distributed by iHeart Podcasts. If you want
to know more about puzzling puzzles, please check out the
book The Puzzler by Aj Jacobs, a history of puzzles
that The New York Times called fun and funny. It
(11:53):
features an original puzzle hunt by Yours truly and is
available wherever you get your books and puzzle. For all
your puzzling needs, go visit the Puzzler dot com. See
you there,
Hello, Puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, the triple Yoke
in your Puzzle Egg. I'm your host A J. Jacobs,
and today's guest is the wonderful Ofira Eisenberg, comedian, writer
(00:24):
and host of the podcast right here on iHeart parenting
is a joke.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Welcome Opira, Hello, my friend.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
I am. I consider you a friend and I'm honored
by that. And you actually have another friend on the
show with Yes, Greg Pliska, our chief puzzle officer who
was a writer on your wonderful show on NPR. Ask
me another, a cousin and inspiration for us.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Oh, thanks so nice? Hello Greg.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Yeah, Hi o Firah. You know this feels just like
being in the green room at the.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Bellhouse, just minus the shots of bourbon.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Exactly in the smell of old beer.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Not in my house. I got both of those.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
You got the stale beer smell everywhere.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Greg, take it away, because you have a puzzle that's
sort of an homage to ask me another.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
I believe absolutely, Thanks Jay. I mean listeners who were
fans of the show will remember how we signed off
every episode with anagrams of everyone's names. Yours was one
of my favorites her ripe begonias, And I've been meaning
to ask you for years do you actually have any begonias?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
So it's so interesting.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
I have three Bogonias, so somewhere outside right now on
my balcony.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
But I was at an airbnb years ago and he.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
Had an amazing and like this thriving almost like a tree, bogonia,
very odd spotted one, and I asked if I could
take a clipping, and now.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
I have a tree.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
And then I just had like what you might consider
your regular every day but going is just like you know,
it looks like a succulent stand in a nice blossom,
pink blossom.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
And they're actually right, they are right, they are right,
yeah right now.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Actually to me, I'll door what it's doing well because
it likes slightly cooler temperatures.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
I don't know if you knew them. I didn't, just
like me, just like me.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
You're from Canada.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Well, in this game, we're gonna play with anagrams, but
just of your first name, oh fear okay, cool. So
just to remind our listeners, that spelled O P H
I R A. And it might be useful having a
pencil and paper to write those letters down, you know,
so you can mix them bo. You might be able
to do this in your head. But each of the
(02:41):
answers is an anagram of those six letters.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Wow, okay, this is impressive.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
So like if I said we're looking for a very
groovy piece of paddling equipment, then you would say, we
are looking for.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
A piece of groovy like a pat or yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Okay, but a very groovy or use the letters in
your name to get the other part of that.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
What's a groovy? Or I'm trying. I'm using my own name.
I'm looking at my own name.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Yes, so cross off the O, A R, and you
have three letters left.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
A hip, oh a hip or oh I see what
you or there you go. This is so hilarious okay
and impossible, and get ready to walk me through it.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
That's good? All right, Well here you go. Here's your
first one to jump from cloud to cloud.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Hmm okay, what can I use in my name that's jumping?
Speaker 1 (03:45):
What would I do?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
I would? I mean, I'm leaping, I'm bounding.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
I put those not jump hop, I'm hopping hop hop
And it's like a light see air hop air hop
air hop.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Yes, very good.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Okay, this is great. It's great. It's just very gratifying. Okay, listeners,
it's very gratified.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Ask for here on the puzzler. Gratification for everyone.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
You were saying it out loud in one second, everybody else.
When I finally get it, I'm impressed.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yeah, that's how it should be. We should all be gratified.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
And okay, all.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Right, here's another one for you, A special mission to
fix your bangs.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
I just got my bangs cut, but thank you.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
I was thinking of that when I wrote.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Special Mission to fix your bangs. Okay, so let's see
what could I do here? I see pair, but that's
not going to help me. Uh, and then it would
be oh pair is that coming? And forget about that later.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Hair. There's hair I could do hair, and then what's
left eyes still specials.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
I still have after hair. I have an op at
a pee left.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
So it's either gonna be op hair operation hair or.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
No the other hairp hair hairrop. It's a hair op.
Gotta do a little hair up up. Your bangs are
looking a little funky. We're gonna real quick.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Recently, my hair the person because my hair said just
a reminder to never cut your own bangs again.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Like whoa, whoa, Okay, you're not passive aggressive.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
No, just a never do that. Okay, all right, here
you have a Jewish circle dance where everyone turns exactly
three point one, four, one five nine times.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
I pie horror, the pie horror exactly excellent, I catch
on eventually, you got it exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Here's one the title of Winfrey's biography.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Okay it is uh oh we got that part, oh boy,
more than more than just so let's see what else
would I say? What was that? I mean, what what's
her full name, Oprah Winfrey?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yeah, well okay, but yes, but not the winfree part.
Just her first name, Oprah, Oprah. You can make that.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
I can Okay, I can make Oprah's name anyways.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
I Oprah, I Oprah exactly.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
You know what I should I should publish.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
That, right, you should write I have been.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
Called Oprah many times and it must be people rearranging
the letters in the brain.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
That people just can't. Yeah, they just get freaked out.
They see your name. They go, I don't know what
they say is whatever.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
That's what I'm doing right now.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Yeah, that's as long as it's gratifying at the end.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
That was good.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Okay, all right, I'll give you one. This is a
saving strategy where you put all your money into Vietnamese soup.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
It's okay. So if we've got a faugh and a
fa R I A R.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
A R I R yes.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
I R I ran. This sounds like something William Shatner
would be pitching on late nineteen Delicious. Delicious could put
all your money into.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
It's not gold, it's not silver, it's noodles.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
You did amazing. Plus you have a great an, a
grantible name, so many, so many.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
Finally it comes in this situation where my name is useful.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yeah, it's great. I've never this is like the reverse.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Like usually I say my name and then I just
you know, I'm correcting people over and over and over again.
And so this was like a different take on that
where I had to figure out how to do it.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
I will say you came up with one of the
other alternatives. You had whole pair age, and there was
just no way to clue that.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
That was gonna be right, right. Santo's babysitter, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Yeah, Santa's okay, don't mention that one on the show.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
What was that my second guess of all perfect.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Exactly, it's going to be who at some point.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Uh, well, where can people find more of you or
oprah or all of us? By horas exactly?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Please spell my name now that you know the letters
it is to be spelled my.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
Name, add an e to make it O fear and
that is where you can follow me on all of
the socials, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and that strange X thing
that I don't really do much with anymore.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Must admit me neither. But what oh fira E? Because
for uh, for your last name, but it also kind
of feels like a plural, like there are many oh
feirahs like.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Two.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I should say that that just the world would be.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
I will also say, as someone who is kind of
the only person with my name, as much as we
might have hated that at a certain point in life,
when it comes to socials, you've got them locked down, right.
You don't have to be John Smith twenty four to sixty.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
That is so true, That is so true.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
You are fira E everything everywhere.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Oh yeah, that's right, locked and loaded, all right, go
to oh fira E? And Greg, do we have an
extra credit for the folks.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
At home, I do I have one more o fira
anagram for the folks at home. This is what Hawaiian
cheerleaders say about traditional food.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
There we go.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Okay, So think on that and while you're doing it,
please don't forget to subscribe to the Puzzler podcast and
we'll meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that
will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Hello puzzlers, this is your chief puzzle Officer, Greg Pliska,
here to give you the extra credit answer from our
previous show. AJ and I played with cryptic clues, each
of which had an answer, which is a typical Thanksgiving food.
Your extra credit clue was Felon finally escapes from jailer
to get a Thanksgiving meal. To work out the word play,
(10:38):
you take a word meaning jailer and that would be
turnkey and you remove felon finally or the last letter
of felon which is N, so turnkey minus n gives
you turkey a Thanksgiving meal. Hope you all had a
great one and we'll see you next time. Thanks for
(11:03):
playing along with the team here at the Puzzler. I'm
Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle Officer. Our executive producers are
Neelie Lohman and Adam Neuhause of New House Ideas and
Lindsay Hoffman of iHeart Podcasts. The show is produced by
Jody Abergan and Brittany Brown of Roulette Productions. Our associate
producer is Andrea Schoenberg. The Puzzler with Aj Jacobs is
(11:29):
a co production with New House Ideas and is distributed
by Sporadic. Thetas No not really, I meant to rearrange
the letters. It's distributed by iHeart Podcasts. If you want
to know more about puzzling puzzles, please check out the
book The Puzzler by Aj Jacobs, a history of puzzles
that The New York Times called fun and funny. It
(11:53):
features an original puzzle hunt by Yours truly and is
available wherever you get your books and puzzle. For all
your puzzling needs, go visit the Puzzler dot com. See
you there,
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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