August 12, 2024 • 25 mins
Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: the actor-singer behind the popular TikTok account, @coffeeandcrosswords, Katie Grogg!
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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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello puzzlers, and welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, the Fresh
Genoviz Pesto in your puzzle pasta dish. I am your host,
A J. Jacobs, and I am here very excited with
today's guest, the great Katie Grog, who has the super
(00:26):
popular TikTok channel Coffee and Crosswords, where every day Katie
solves the New York Times crossword puzzle as her one
hundred and seventy thousand subscribers root her on, hopefully root
her on.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Hello Katie, Hi aj, I'm very, very very excited to
be here.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Excellent. Is this easier than solving crosswords in front of
your fans? Or more stressful or less stressful?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
We will find out.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I would assume less stressful, but I have no idea
what you have for me, so I'll let you know
at the end.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
By the way, Katie's channel, in addition to solving the
crossword puzzle, she also occasionally sings crossword songs, and here's
a very short clip of one of them.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
Say it's the same as for example, clatly means old fashion,
like from Shakespeare or the Bible.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
So we'll talk more about coffee and crosswords and music
and puzzles and just a bit. But first let's play
the puzzle. So this this puzzle, Katie, is based on
your last name, Grog, which I like your enthusiasm.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Oh my gosh, I love my last name. I can't wait.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Oh good. Well it's for those who since this is
a podcast, it's spelled with a double G G triple G.
I guess g r gg two g's at the end.
And if you add a Y to your last name,
you get the adjective groggy, as in sleepy. So is
that something maybe you've heard in cool groggy, grog or something.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Like that all the time.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
I have a friend who calls me groggy, and anytime
someone says they woke up feeling groggy, I always say
I was born feeling groggy.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah, there you go, And you have crosswords and coffee.
So you're already you're trying to get away from the grogginess,
I guess, but we're going to bring you right back.
So this puzzle is all about adding the letter y
to the last names of notable people to create adjectives.
So if the clue is this puzzle TikToker is tired,
(02:34):
the answer would be Katie Grog is groggy, So that's
the idea. Katie Grog is Groggy is the name of
the Pence puzzle? And are you ready?
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Yeah, I just got a little nervous, but I'm very excited.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Okay, very good. No, I think you'll be fine. This puzzle,
by the way, written by associate puzzler Andrea Schomberg. Thank you, Andrea. Ready.
The CEO of Space X smells sweaty the sea of space.
She's nodding her head.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Okay, I think I got this one. This one is
Elon Musk is Musky.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
That's it, exactly all right. The lead singer of the Police,
the group The Police is super cheap.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Oh, this is a good one. Sting is stingy exactly.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
It's got a little twist because the pronunciation is different.
And I was hoping that you're old enough to know
who the police are.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Oh that was always in the car. Shout out to
my mom.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Ah, very good, excellent. Uh what about the star of
Boys Don't Cry? She is looking fancy.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Now?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Oh oh no, no, no, wait, okay, no wait. This is
his first movie. It's like her first big movie. And
I think she got an oscar for There are more
recent ones you want one of her more recent ones,
like million million Dollar Baby. I'm pretty sure that one.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Hillary Swank is swanky exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
You are on a roll.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
All right?
Speaker 1 (04:08):
A couple more? Are you up for it? All right?
The forty third president of the United States grew a
huge mustache or the forty first president. I'll take either.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Okay, this would be George bush is bushy egg exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
All right? How about the Star of National Treasure is
being slippery? He won't give information or talk straight. He
just won't say it plainly. What's up?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
I just want to say National Treasure is a national treasure.
I love that movie, and that would be Nicholas cage Is.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Cagey nicely done. Yes, it's a good puzzle movie. It
is good, and it fuels all our fantasies that our
puzzle skills might actually lead to enormous riches. All right,
two more. The author of the found Head is feeling
a little turned on, a little lascivious.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Oh god, this is going to be embarrassing.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Well, this one, this is a famous crossword puzzle name.
It's a three letter name. And uh, I'll give you
the first I'll give you the first name because that's
not really the puzzle. Her first name is ein a
y n. You ever see that in the puzzle?
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Yes, okay, that was a great clue. This would be
an rand is Randy.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Exactly, Inn rand is Randy. All right, finishing up, we
have the star of ant man is looking red in
the face.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
I love him. Paul Rudd is ruddy.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Paul Rudd is ruddy exactly. Oh, you did great, You
did great, and we discovered you are not an objectivist,
which I think is what iin RAN's followers are called.
But you got it anyway. So that was lovely and
silly to use two adjectives ending with why. So I
(06:12):
want to ask you more because you are you are
puzzle royalty on TikTok.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Oh wow, I'm honored.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Thank you, well, thank you. You did one. You did
a TikTok video about the book The Puzzler by me
and Greg, and it was so nice, so.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Lovely that I mean not to like continue phrasing it.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I don't want it to lose its effect by saying
so much about it. But it is my favorite book
of all time, and I do fancy myself a reader.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
I felt so warm and seen.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
And and it just felt like all my little puzzler
dreams were coming true. As I was reading that, it
was so excellent. I am I I say its praises.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
All the time.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Oh my goodness, my face is ruddy because I am
read with blushing. Thank you for this. What a lovely
thing to say. Well, we love your channel. Everyone should
go on it. It's fun to watch. How did it
get started?
Speaker 2 (07:15):
I started in twenty twenty one, when you know, everyone
was kind of discovering TikTok if you were around my age,
more like the millennial age, and so I was a
very passive TikTok user. And then I kind of had
this idea because I've been doing crosswords for actually nine
years now, like I started the summer of twenty fifteen.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
And so I had learned a lot.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
And every time I would like be doing a crossword
and someone else was in the vicinity or would like
come up and talk to me, and they'd see I
was doing a crossword, so often I would hear like, oh,
I'm not smart enough to do that, or I can't
help you. And I was just so puzzled by that
because I that has not been my experience, because there's
(08:01):
so much less about trivia and facts and like needing
to know those things, and so much more about like
the puzzle within the puzzle, like if you know what
this means in a clue, then you'll know better how
to solve it, and then it becomes much more common
sense general knowledge things like that. So anyway, I like
had this idea to start posting on TikTok about like
(08:26):
what those rules are. And I looked because I was like,
surely someone's already talking about this, and at the time,
no one was doing it.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
So I was like, I'm an actor, I'll do it.
I'm not scared in front of the camera.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
So I started doing it, and I definitely thought there
was an audience for it, but I did not think
it was this big. So I'm very grateful for the
community that there is now and there is such interest
in it, and I love it and I love talking
about it. I'm so grateful to be able to do it.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Oh yeah, and I love reading the comments of people
as they're watching. So yeah, I dig into two parts
of that. First, I like your point that old crosswords
used to be like you had to know the river
in Hungary, but that is not the crosswords that I like.
I like when it's all about wordplay, and that's what
(09:17):
I think you do so well. And in fact, we'll
play a little more of your song because that's what
your song is all about. That it's not intimidating and
you just need to know, like a few tricks.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
What are you talking about? Not smart enough? Don't get discouraged.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
I got a clue that ends and say is the
same as for example, quaintly means old fashion like from
Shakespeare or the Bible.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Parenthesies give hints the brackets, so.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
My think non goble cubes and gestures like snap or
wing or side and brief for short and briefly you
mean making the answer small initialism, zachronyms, abbreviations.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
That's all we think we need to know a bunch
of trivia and facts, but it's really just some rules
and tricks of for.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
That I touch it back, So there you go. That
is you're sort of leading people in and trying to
introduce them to the world of cross where it's and
it's not scary here. That's here, which is a great thesis.
And by the way, so the song part you mentioned
you're an actor have where have you done your singing
(10:19):
and acting?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah, So my day job, as it were, or rather
like what I'm trained for is I'm a singer actor
and I've mostly been working on cruise ships for the
past five six years. And now I live in New
York City and now we audition all the time, and
that is that is the life of a singer actor.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
I am rooting for you. I mean, I am just
amazed because you're so brave. You are doing these these
puzzles in front of thousands of people, and when when
you mess up, they can see it. So what is that? Like,
what's the most embarrassing mess up you've had?
Speaker 3 (11:06):
It is so exposing to be solving.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
And I just recently started like solving the New York
Times crosswords for an audience.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Essentially, and it has become easier over.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Time to just be like, I know what I know,
and if you know something and I don't, great. But
there was one and this was actually years ago when
I like first started and I was solving on live
and the answer was S and P like a financial
(11:38):
something or other.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
I'm not I still don't know.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
I don't know what it is right right? A standard
and poor I think it's like the down Jones.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Yeah, okay, got it. I was like, what is sand pea?
Speaker 2 (11:49):
That's what I said, sand p and that has gone
down in history. I have like a group of people
that are on every single stream that I do, and
it comes up every single time, like we just have
our and P moments.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
So that is perfectly understand. I think those are very
tricky when they have the A and D in the middle.
I have been stumped. But yeah, I love reading. I
mean most of them, almost all of them are very supportive.
They say this one, this one was very compassionate. She said,
watching you leave wrong answers and delete correct ones made
(12:23):
me want to cry for you. So she has compassion.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Oh my gosh, well that that is one of the
sorry but that that is one of the things that
is so funny to me, is like once I finished
the puzzle, then it kind of all starts to click
the ways that I went so wrong throughout, and how
frustrating it would be to watch that knowing that the
right answer was right there, or like I misread a
(12:51):
clue and then I answer like that with something that
has nothing to do with what the clue actually said,
and then I have to go back.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
It's it's all humbling.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Well, it's good you're modeling for us. You're modeling good
crossword behavior, because that's I wrote in the book, It's
all about making mistakes, and life is all about making mistakes.
But along those lines, this woman wrote, I was screaming
Impala because it was the only clue I knew impala,
(13:21):
which is a good crossword? Or what about I love
the random comments too. Twenty one across went to my
high school, and I couldn't quite see who's twenty one across?
What is an Olympian named Sebastian? Does anyone know?
Speaker 2 (13:35):
I do now know that because that was one of
the puzzles that I toiled at for so long, and
actually I thought I might lose my streak on and
that his last name was my last letter that I
needed because I had never heard of him.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
But now I know Sebastian.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Co Sebastian c. All right, he's a runner from like
the sixties. Yeah, all right, Well that's interesting. And speaking
of streaks, so you just recently completed a big milestone
I did.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
I am now on a two hundred day streak for
my New York Times Crossroad solving, which is unprecedented for
me in the last nine years. It is really exciting.
And my goal this year is to get three hundred
and sixty six days because it was a leap yer
and I've had that goal before, totally like pipe dream,
(14:30):
and now we're over halfway and I'm like, I don't
know what I'm going to do if I don't achieve it,
because it just feels like it's within my reach.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Now, all right, we'll all be watching. That'll be good.
So will the final be? Like you'll be up against
Anderson Cooper on New Year's Eve counter program.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Your lips to God's ears if he wants to have
me on, I'm not going to say no.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Well, it's funny because I have very I don't have
nothing for a streak because I solve it, and then
when it says so close, I'm like, close enough, I
because I don't want to have to go through and
figure out what I got wrong. But when you get
so close, you go and you look and say, all right,
that one is or do you look and see what's wrong?
(15:16):
Do they let you do that and still get the no?
Speaker 2 (15:20):
So I'm very precious about how I keep my streak.
One way, like you can't get the gold Star if
you use any sort of auto check or check answers
or anything.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
So I definitely don't do any of that.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
I also have a rule for myself just with the
New York Times Daily Crossword that I don't google anything,
and I also don't ask for help on any other crossword.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
I love getting help, I love doing it with people,
but the New York Times is my baby, and so
I have to do it on my own.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
But this is one of my most valuable lessons that
I've learned in solving is when that comes up where
it says like so close and you don't know, or
even if you're just completely at a stance and you're.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Like, I don't know any more of these answers.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
The best advice I have is to walk away and
come back in like an hour or two. And I
think you said this in your book as well, like
you just have fresh eyes.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
It's it truly is like magic, something about letting your
brain marinate, letting it have a break, and then.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Coming back the answers are just there. It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
It's like matge one hundred percent. That is such good advice.
And yet I researched it, and Leonardo da Vinci said
it like, this is like they've known about this for
a while, but it is so powerful. So let me
ask you this, though, why do people watch it? Are
they watching like are they solving at the same time?
(16:47):
Are they competing against you? What's going on?
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I had the same question because I was shocked that
people were so into just watching me solve. And sometimes
it's a long video because it takes me a long time,
and so at one point I did ask, I was like,
what are you guys doing? Like are you having a snack?
Are you drinking a beverage? Like what are you having?
And I got a lot of different answers. So some people,
(17:10):
it seems, they solve it on their own and then
come watch to see the answers that I knew right
away and they didn't, and vice versa the ones they
knew right away and I didn't. And then some people Yeah,
and then some people solve like up to a point
that that and then once they feel like they they
can't do the rest of it on their own, they'll
come to the video and like, solve the rest with me.
(17:33):
And then some people they just once it comes up
on their feed, they put it down for a second,
listen to it like a podcast, and like clean their house.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
So it's across the.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Board there you go. I mean, listen Twitch. If I
an old person like me, when they heard when I
first heard about Twitch is like, who the hell would
want put it? Of course I am wrong in a
huge way. That is a multi billion dollar in just
of people watching other people playing video games. So this
(18:03):
is sort of the intellectual version of that. Well, first
you say in the song, it's not cheating to google,
because then you'll know for the next time. But you yourself
are not a Googler when it comes to the New
York Times.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Yes, when it comes to New York Times, just because
that's the rule I set for myself. But I try
to be very clear. If you want to google, you listeners,
please do it. Crosswords are supposed to be fun, So
whatever fun means for you is what you should do.
If you want to google, if you want to turn
on auto check, if you want to do it with
(18:37):
the friend, if you want to do it.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Alone, whatever, It's all just supposed to be fun.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
So I really really hope people hear recent when I
say that well agree.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
I mean I interviewed Will Schwartz, the editor for the book,
and that was his He said, do what you want.
You know, there are no rules. I am also very
strict about googling when I am doing it. All right,
just a couple more and then we'll wrap up and
go on to our next puzzle. But before we go,
(19:07):
I just wanted to ask you. Of all the hundreds
thousands of puzzles you've done, can you give us a
few that are your top clues, your favorite clues, and
your favorite themes in puzzles?
Speaker 3 (19:21):
A specific favorite clue.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Oh, that's so tricky, but I will say I just
love in general question mark clues.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
I think they are so fun.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
I think the comments tend to be kind of divided
on whether the audience likes them. There is a clue
that I've done a video on a couple times and
it is the only video I have that's gotten over
two million views.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Wow, And it is not because people liked it. But
I love it. I think it is such a juicy clue.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
And it is let me see if I can remember it. Okay,
this is it. It ends in a question mark, so
it is Chase vehicle Comma once, Comma in brief.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Question mark, Oh my goodness, Chase, how many letters? Three?
So it's Chase vehicle. Comma wants comma in brief. So
in brief means it's like an abbreviation. Probably so like
SUV or SVU. I can't remember which one is the
crime drama and which one is.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Okay, they're good guesses, but you have to go away
from cars. That's what the question mark tells you is
it doesn't have to do with cars. I know that's
what a lot of people did not like.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Interesting. Wait Chase, Oh, like chase of a liquor, Like
when you have a shot and then you need a chaser.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
But think of another another Chase.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
David Chase, the producer of the Sopranos.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
Keep going with people?
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Really okay, Chase Chevy, Chase Chase. So wait, what was
it again, Chase vehicle. Oh so it's a vehicle snl. Yes,
that's very clever. I like it. I can see people
getting anger. That is funny. Oh okay, and before we go,
(21:11):
what about one of your favorite crossword puzzle themes?
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Okay, this one is pinned on my TikTok so I
go in more into depth on there. It is called
Game Over. It is from May of twenty twenty one.
It's a Sunday puzzle and it's Adam Wagner and it
is all chess themed in a way, and essentially.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
I wonder how I can distill this down.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
There are kings like names of kings sort of hidden
in the puzzle in a very chess themed way, and
it is brilliant. I do not know how one goes
about creating a puzzle this brilliant, but it knocked me
off my feet.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
It was absolutely.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Amazing and to this day it is like one of
the ones I will always think of as a top
five puzzle for me.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Love it well. People should stop now if they don't
want to spoiler, because I'm going to spoil it for
those who don't want. But yes, I watched your video
and a super clever because when you win in chess,
you at checkmate, you knock the king down, right, so
the king is lying down, which I didn't know until
I started playing with my kids and whenever they accidentally
(22:30):
knock over the king, that's my big joke, hey one.
So but yes, so in this case, they had names
of kings like Midas and tut that were horizontal in
the puzzle, but they were sort of shoved into other
words that were going vertical. So yeah, very clever. Nice job, Adam.
(22:53):
And did you hear back from Adam Wagner?
Speaker 5 (22:55):
I did?
Speaker 3 (22:55):
It was so fun.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
That's like such a fun little part where sometimes I'll
like mention a puzzle or like do a whole video
on it. I do that often and the constructor will
reach out and be like, hey, thanks for talking about my.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Puzzle, and I'm like, are you kidding? Thanks for doing
the puzzle.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
It was so fun, excellent. Well, we love the channel
and we love having you on. You're not done yet,
but we are done with this episode. So before we
wrap up, though, we have an extra credit for the
puzzlers at home. The man heard here, who is the
(23:29):
announcer on Michael Jackson's thriller video was very expensive to hire,
so what is his name? And then add a y
to it the man heard here, And we're going to play.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
The clip Michael Jackson is the thriller?
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Can you dig it?
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Thank you listeners, and please, if you have thirty seconds,
rate the puzzler or review it on your favorite podcast platform,
because it does make a huge difference in helping people
find us. And of course don't forget that we will
meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will
puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
Hello Puzzlers. Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Pliska here with the
extra credit answer from our previous show. We played a
random connections game where we tried to come up with
our guest, win Alo, with connections between two randomly chosen nouns.
We had a great time. I hope you did too.
We left you with an extra credit pair of words
(24:38):
for you to come up with your own submissions. We'll
share some of those with you. The two words were
jam and calendar. Here are the three that AJ and
Winnen and I came up with. AJ said they both
can be made up of dates, which I thought was
very clever, date jam and dates on a calendar. Winna
said they're both packed the way you pack jam into
(25:01):
a jar or pack events into your calendar. And my
reaction was, I only have them once a year. I
don't need a lot of jam. So if you're to
have jam once a year and I have one calendar
a year, and there you go. Well, thanks for playing
with us here on the Puzzler, and we will see
you next time.
Hello puzzlers, and welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, the Fresh
Genoviz Pesto in your puzzle pasta dish. I am your host,
A J. Jacobs, and I am here very excited with
today's guest, the great Katie Grog, who has the super
(00:26):
popular TikTok channel Coffee and Crosswords, where every day Katie
solves the New York Times crossword puzzle as her one
hundred and seventy thousand subscribers root her on, hopefully root
her on.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Hello Katie, Hi aj, I'm very, very very excited to
be here.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Excellent. Is this easier than solving crosswords in front of
your fans? Or more stressful or less stressful?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
We will find out.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I would assume less stressful, but I have no idea
what you have for me, so I'll let you know
at the end.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
By the way, Katie's channel, in addition to solving the
crossword puzzle, she also occasionally sings crossword songs, and here's
a very short clip of one of them.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
Say it's the same as for example, clatly means old fashion,
like from Shakespeare or the Bible.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
So we'll talk more about coffee and crosswords and music
and puzzles and just a bit. But first let's play
the puzzle. So this this puzzle, Katie, is based on
your last name, Grog, which I like your enthusiasm.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Oh my gosh, I love my last name. I can't wait.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Oh good. Well it's for those who since this is
a podcast, it's spelled with a double G G triple G.
I guess g r gg two g's at the end.
And if you add a Y to your last name,
you get the adjective groggy, as in sleepy. So is
that something maybe you've heard in cool groggy, grog or something.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Like that all the time.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
I have a friend who calls me groggy, and anytime
someone says they woke up feeling groggy, I always say
I was born feeling groggy.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah, there you go, And you have crosswords and coffee.
So you're already you're trying to get away from the grogginess,
I guess, but we're going to bring you right back.
So this puzzle is all about adding the letter y
to the last names of notable people to create adjectives.
So if the clue is this puzzle TikToker is tired,
(02:34):
the answer would be Katie Grog is groggy, So that's
the idea. Katie Grog is Groggy is the name of
the Pence puzzle? And are you ready?
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Yeah, I just got a little nervous, but I'm very excited.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Okay, very good. No, I think you'll be fine. This puzzle,
by the way, written by associate puzzler Andrea Schomberg. Thank you, Andrea. Ready.
The CEO of Space X smells sweaty the sea of space.
She's nodding her head.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Okay, I think I got this one. This one is
Elon Musk is Musky.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
That's it, exactly all right. The lead singer of the Police,
the group The Police is super cheap.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Oh, this is a good one. Sting is stingy exactly.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
It's got a little twist because the pronunciation is different.
And I was hoping that you're old enough to know
who the police are.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Oh that was always in the car. Shout out to
my mom.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Ah, very good, excellent. Uh what about the star of
Boys Don't Cry? She is looking fancy.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Now?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Oh oh no, no, no, wait, okay, no wait. This is
his first movie. It's like her first big movie. And
I think she got an oscar for There are more
recent ones you want one of her more recent ones,
like million million Dollar Baby. I'm pretty sure that one.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Hillary Swank is swanky exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
You are on a roll.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
All right?
Speaker 1 (04:08):
A couple more? Are you up for it? All right?
The forty third president of the United States grew a
huge mustache or the forty first president. I'll take either.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Okay, this would be George bush is bushy egg exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
All right? How about the Star of National Treasure is
being slippery? He won't give information or talk straight. He
just won't say it plainly. What's up?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
I just want to say National Treasure is a national treasure.
I love that movie, and that would be Nicholas cage Is.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Cagey nicely done. Yes, it's a good puzzle movie. It
is good, and it fuels all our fantasies that our
puzzle skills might actually lead to enormous riches. All right,
two more. The author of the found Head is feeling
a little turned on, a little lascivious.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Oh god, this is going to be embarrassing.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Well, this one, this is a famous crossword puzzle name.
It's a three letter name. And uh, I'll give you
the first I'll give you the first name because that's
not really the puzzle. Her first name is ein a
y n. You ever see that in the puzzle?
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Yes, okay, that was a great clue. This would be
an rand is Randy.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Exactly, Inn rand is Randy. All right, finishing up, we
have the star of ant man is looking red in
the face.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
I love him. Paul Rudd is ruddy.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Paul Rudd is ruddy exactly. Oh, you did great, You
did great, and we discovered you are not an objectivist,
which I think is what iin RAN's followers are called.
But you got it anyway. So that was lovely and
silly to use two adjectives ending with why. So I
(06:12):
want to ask you more because you are you are
puzzle royalty on TikTok.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Oh wow, I'm honored.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Thank you, well, thank you. You did one. You did
a TikTok video about the book The Puzzler by me
and Greg, and it was so nice, so.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Lovely that I mean not to like continue phrasing it.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I don't want it to lose its effect by saying
so much about it. But it is my favorite book
of all time, and I do fancy myself a reader.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
I felt so warm and seen.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
And and it just felt like all my little puzzler
dreams were coming true. As I was reading that, it
was so excellent. I am I I say its praises.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
All the time.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Oh my goodness, my face is ruddy because I am
read with blushing. Thank you for this. What a lovely
thing to say. Well, we love your channel. Everyone should
go on it. It's fun to watch. How did it
get started?
Speaker 2 (07:15):
I started in twenty twenty one, when you know, everyone
was kind of discovering TikTok if you were around my age,
more like the millennial age, and so I was a
very passive TikTok user. And then I kind of had
this idea because I've been doing crosswords for actually nine
years now, like I started the summer of twenty fifteen.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
And so I had learned a lot.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
And every time I would like be doing a crossword
and someone else was in the vicinity or would like
come up and talk to me, and they'd see I
was doing a crossword, so often I would hear like, oh,
I'm not smart enough to do that, or I can't
help you. And I was just so puzzled by that
because I that has not been my experience, because there's
(08:01):
so much less about trivia and facts and like needing
to know those things, and so much more about like
the puzzle within the puzzle, like if you know what
this means in a clue, then you'll know better how
to solve it, and then it becomes much more common
sense general knowledge things like that. So anyway, I like
had this idea to start posting on TikTok about like
(08:26):
what those rules are. And I looked because I was like,
surely someone's already talking about this, and at the time,
no one was doing it.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
So I was like, I'm an actor, I'll do it.
I'm not scared in front of the camera.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
So I started doing it, and I definitely thought there
was an audience for it, but I did not think
it was this big. So I'm very grateful for the
community that there is now and there is such interest
in it, and I love it and I love talking
about it. I'm so grateful to be able to do it.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Oh yeah, and I love reading the comments of people
as they're watching. So yeah, I dig into two parts
of that. First, I like your point that old crosswords
used to be like you had to know the river
in Hungary, but that is not the crosswords that I like.
I like when it's all about wordplay, and that's what
(09:17):
I think you do so well. And in fact, we'll
play a little more of your song because that's what
your song is all about. That it's not intimidating and
you just need to know, like a few tricks.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
What are you talking about? Not smart enough? Don't get discouraged.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
I got a clue that ends and say is the
same as for example, quaintly means old fashion like from
Shakespeare or the Bible.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Parenthesies give hints the brackets, so.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
My think non goble cubes and gestures like snap or
wing or side and brief for short and briefly you
mean making the answer small initialism, zachronyms, abbreviations.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
That's all we think we need to know a bunch
of trivia and facts, but it's really just some rules
and tricks of for.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
That I touch it back, So there you go. That
is you're sort of leading people in and trying to
introduce them to the world of cross where it's and
it's not scary here. That's here, which is a great thesis.
And by the way, so the song part you mentioned
you're an actor have where have you done your singing
(10:19):
and acting?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah, So my day job, as it were, or rather
like what I'm trained for is I'm a singer actor
and I've mostly been working on cruise ships for the
past five six years. And now I live in New
York City and now we audition all the time, and
that is that is the life of a singer actor.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
I am rooting for you. I mean, I am just
amazed because you're so brave. You are doing these these
puzzles in front of thousands of people, and when when
you mess up, they can see it. So what is that? Like,
what's the most embarrassing mess up you've had?
Speaker 3 (11:06):
It is so exposing to be solving.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
And I just recently started like solving the New York
Times crosswords for an audience.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Essentially, and it has become easier over.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Time to just be like, I know what I know,
and if you know something and I don't, great. But
there was one and this was actually years ago when
I like first started and I was solving on live
and the answer was S and P like a financial
(11:38):
something or other.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
I'm not I still don't know.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
I don't know what it is right right? A standard
and poor I think it's like the down Jones.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Yeah, okay, got it. I was like, what is sand pea?
Speaker 2 (11:49):
That's what I said, sand p and that has gone
down in history. I have like a group of people
that are on every single stream that I do, and
it comes up every single time, like we just have
our and P moments.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
So that is perfectly understand. I think those are very
tricky when they have the A and D in the middle.
I have been stumped. But yeah, I love reading. I
mean most of them, almost all of them are very supportive.
They say this one, this one was very compassionate. She said,
watching you leave wrong answers and delete correct ones made
(12:23):
me want to cry for you. So she has compassion.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Oh my gosh, well that that is one of the
sorry but that that is one of the things that
is so funny to me, is like once I finished
the puzzle, then it kind of all starts to click
the ways that I went so wrong throughout, and how
frustrating it would be to watch that knowing that the
right answer was right there, or like I misread a
(12:51):
clue and then I answer like that with something that
has nothing to do with what the clue actually said,
and then I have to go back.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
It's it's all humbling.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Well, it's good you're modeling for us. You're modeling good
crossword behavior, because that's I wrote in the book, It's
all about making mistakes, and life is all about making mistakes.
But along those lines, this woman wrote, I was screaming
Impala because it was the only clue I knew impala,
(13:21):
which is a good crossword? Or what about I love
the random comments too. Twenty one across went to my
high school, and I couldn't quite see who's twenty one across?
What is an Olympian named Sebastian? Does anyone know?
Speaker 2 (13:35):
I do now know that because that was one of
the puzzles that I toiled at for so long, and
actually I thought I might lose my streak on and
that his last name was my last letter that I
needed because I had never heard of him.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
But now I know Sebastian.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Co Sebastian c. All right, he's a runner from like
the sixties. Yeah, all right, Well that's interesting. And speaking
of streaks, so you just recently completed a big milestone
I did.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
I am now on a two hundred day streak for
my New York Times Crossroad solving, which is unprecedented for
me in the last nine years. It is really exciting.
And my goal this year is to get three hundred
and sixty six days because it was a leap yer
and I've had that goal before, totally like pipe dream,
(14:30):
and now we're over halfway and I'm like, I don't
know what I'm going to do if I don't achieve it,
because it just feels like it's within my reach.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Now, all right, we'll all be watching. That'll be good.
So will the final be? Like you'll be up against
Anderson Cooper on New Year's Eve counter program.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Your lips to God's ears if he wants to have
me on, I'm not going to say no.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Well, it's funny because I have very I don't have
nothing for a streak because I solve it, and then
when it says so close, I'm like, close enough, I
because I don't want to have to go through and
figure out what I got wrong. But when you get
so close, you go and you look and say, all right,
that one is or do you look and see what's wrong?
(15:16):
Do they let you do that and still get the no?
Speaker 2 (15:20):
So I'm very precious about how I keep my streak.
One way, like you can't get the gold Star if
you use any sort of auto check or check answers
or anything.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
So I definitely don't do any of that.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
I also have a rule for myself just with the
New York Times Daily Crossword that I don't google anything,
and I also don't ask for help on any other crossword.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
I love getting help, I love doing it with people,
but the New York Times is my baby, and so
I have to do it on my own.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
But this is one of my most valuable lessons that
I've learned in solving is when that comes up where
it says like so close and you don't know, or
even if you're just completely at a stance and you're.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Like, I don't know any more of these answers.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
The best advice I have is to walk away and
come back in like an hour or two. And I
think you said this in your book as well, like
you just have fresh eyes.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
It's it truly is like magic, something about letting your
brain marinate, letting it have a break, and then.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Coming back the answers are just there. It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
It's like matge one hundred percent. That is such good advice.
And yet I researched it, and Leonardo da Vinci said
it like, this is like they've known about this for
a while, but it is so powerful. So let me
ask you this, though, why do people watch it? Are
they watching like are they solving at the same time?
(16:47):
Are they competing against you? What's going on?
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I had the same question because I was shocked that
people were so into just watching me solve. And sometimes
it's a long video because it takes me a long time,
and so at one point I did ask, I was like,
what are you guys doing? Like are you having a snack?
Are you drinking a beverage? Like what are you having?
And I got a lot of different answers. So some people,
(17:10):
it seems, they solve it on their own and then
come watch to see the answers that I knew right
away and they didn't, and vice versa the ones they
knew right away and I didn't. And then some people Yeah,
and then some people solve like up to a point
that that and then once they feel like they they
can't do the rest of it on their own, they'll
come to the video and like, solve the rest with me.
(17:33):
And then some people they just once it comes up
on their feed, they put it down for a second,
listen to it like a podcast, and like clean their house.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
So it's across the.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Board there you go. I mean, listen Twitch. If I
an old person like me, when they heard when I
first heard about Twitch is like, who the hell would
want put it? Of course I am wrong in a
huge way. That is a multi billion dollar in just
of people watching other people playing video games. So this
(18:03):
is sort of the intellectual version of that. Well, first
you say in the song, it's not cheating to google,
because then you'll know for the next time. But you yourself
are not a Googler when it comes to the New
York Times.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Yes, when it comes to New York Times, just because
that's the rule I set for myself. But I try
to be very clear. If you want to google, you listeners,
please do it. Crosswords are supposed to be fun, So
whatever fun means for you is what you should do.
If you want to google, if you want to turn
on auto check, if you want to do it with
(18:37):
the friend, if you want to do it.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Alone, whatever, It's all just supposed to be fun.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
So I really really hope people hear recent when I
say that well agree.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
I mean I interviewed Will Schwartz, the editor for the book,
and that was his He said, do what you want.
You know, there are no rules. I am also very
strict about googling when I am doing it. All right,
just a couple more and then we'll wrap up and
go on to our next puzzle. But before we go,
(19:07):
I just wanted to ask you. Of all the hundreds
thousands of puzzles you've done, can you give us a
few that are your top clues, your favorite clues, and
your favorite themes in puzzles?
Speaker 3 (19:21):
A specific favorite clue.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Oh, that's so tricky, but I will say I just
love in general question mark clues.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
I think they are so fun.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
I think the comments tend to be kind of divided
on whether the audience likes them. There is a clue
that I've done a video on a couple times and
it is the only video I have that's gotten over
two million views.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Wow, And it is not because people liked it. But
I love it. I think it is such a juicy clue.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
And it is let me see if I can remember it. Okay,
this is it. It ends in a question mark, so
it is Chase vehicle Comma once, Comma in brief.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Question mark, Oh my goodness, Chase, how many letters? Three?
So it's Chase vehicle. Comma wants comma in brief. So
in brief means it's like an abbreviation. Probably so like
SUV or SVU. I can't remember which one is the
crime drama and which one is.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Okay, they're good guesses, but you have to go away
from cars. That's what the question mark tells you is
it doesn't have to do with cars. I know that's
what a lot of people did not like.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Interesting. Wait Chase, Oh, like chase of a liquor, Like
when you have a shot and then you need a chaser.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
But think of another another Chase.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
David Chase, the producer of the Sopranos.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
Keep going with people?
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Really okay, Chase Chevy, Chase Chase. So wait, what was
it again, Chase vehicle. Oh so it's a vehicle snl. Yes,
that's very clever. I like it. I can see people
getting anger. That is funny. Oh okay, and before we go,
(21:11):
what about one of your favorite crossword puzzle themes?
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Okay, this one is pinned on my TikTok so I
go in more into depth on there. It is called
Game Over. It is from May of twenty twenty one.
It's a Sunday puzzle and it's Adam Wagner and it
is all chess themed in a way, and essentially.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
I wonder how I can distill this down.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
There are kings like names of kings sort of hidden
in the puzzle in a very chess themed way, and
it is brilliant. I do not know how one goes
about creating a puzzle this brilliant, but it knocked me
off my feet.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
It was absolutely.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Amazing and to this day it is like one of
the ones I will always think of as a top
five puzzle for me.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Love it well. People should stop now if they don't
want to spoiler, because I'm going to spoil it for
those who don't want. But yes, I watched your video
and a super clever because when you win in chess,
you at checkmate, you knock the king down, right, so
the king is lying down, which I didn't know until
I started playing with my kids and whenever they accidentally
(22:30):
knock over the king, that's my big joke, hey one.
So but yes, so in this case, they had names
of kings like Midas and tut that were horizontal in
the puzzle, but they were sort of shoved into other
words that were going vertical. So yeah, very clever. Nice job, Adam.
(22:53):
And did you hear back from Adam Wagner?
Speaker 5 (22:55):
I did?
Speaker 3 (22:55):
It was so fun.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
That's like such a fun little part where sometimes I'll
like mention a puzzle or like do a whole video
on it. I do that often and the constructor will
reach out and be like, hey, thanks for talking about my.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Puzzle, and I'm like, are you kidding? Thanks for doing
the puzzle.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
It was so fun, excellent. Well, we love the channel
and we love having you on. You're not done yet,
but we are done with this episode. So before we
wrap up, though, we have an extra credit for the
puzzlers at home. The man heard here, who is the
(23:29):
announcer on Michael Jackson's thriller video was very expensive to hire,
so what is his name? And then add a y
to it the man heard here, And we're going to play.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
The clip Michael Jackson is the thriller?
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Can you dig it?
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Thank you listeners, and please, if you have thirty seconds,
rate the puzzler or review it on your favorite podcast platform,
because it does make a huge difference in helping people
find us. And of course don't forget that we will
meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will
puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
Hello Puzzlers. Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Pliska here with the
extra credit answer from our previous show. We played a
random connections game where we tried to come up with
our guest, win Alo, with connections between two randomly chosen nouns.
We had a great time. I hope you did too.
We left you with an extra credit pair of words
(24:38):
for you to come up with your own submissions. We'll
share some of those with you. The two words were
jam and calendar. Here are the three that AJ and
Winnen and I came up with. AJ said they both
can be made up of dates, which I thought was
very clever, date jam and dates on a calendar. Winna
said they're both packed the way you pack jam into
(25:01):
a jar or pack events into your calendar. And my
reaction was, I only have them once a year. I
don't need a lot of jam. So if you're to
have jam once a year and I have one calendar
a year, and there you go. Well, thanks for playing
with us here on the Puzzler, and we will see
you next time.
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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