April 18, 2025 • 21 mins
Hello, Puzzlers! Today, A.J. and Greg give you a little peek behind the curtain and take you on a tour of the Puzzle Lab.
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. This week,
one of our guests was the delightful Karen berg Green.
I bring her up because she has a colorful last name,
meaning it contains the word green, and I happen to
notice she is just one of several colorfully named stand
up comedians. There's several silvermen. There's Michael ian Black, a
(00:24):
former Puzzler two time Puzzler guest. So today's puzzle or
minie puzzle is can you come up with other colorful
stand up comics? The answer and more puzzling goodness after
the break, Hello puzzlers, Welcome back to the Puzzler Podcast.
(00:47):
The slightly different shade of Red in your puzzle Mark
Rothko Painting. I'm your host, AJ Jacobs, Thank you, Greg,
and I am here with chief puzzle Oufler Greg. Let's
go welcome Greg.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Thank you. AJ. I love that setup. If people don't know,
the Mark Rothko paintings are the kind of often just
a single color, but if you look closely, their giant
red painting has slightly different gradations of red throughout it.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
That's why you pay twenty five million dollars for each one, exactly.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah. So I got mine for twenty three. Actually, yes, smart.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
So before the break, we asked for colorfully named stand
up comedians Karen Berg, Green, Sarah Silverman, mich Leean Black,
anything come to mind.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Greg another puzzler guest, Judy Gold.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Judy Gold exactly. We also have a bunch of reds
red they're old timey reds, red Fox, red buttons, Red
Skelton and Skelton. We've got Jenny Slate, Slate Gray.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Oh good.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Yeah, we got Tom Green carrot top. If you count him,
we'll be gulf That was mean. Sorry, I've never seen him.
He could be hilarious. It's just like a he's sort.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Of if you should count him because he's carrot really
a color, not because he's not funny.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Okay, good, let's go with that. That's what I meant.
Josh Blue, very funny comedian Ron White from the Blue
Collar Tour. Oh, this one was interesting. Aquafina who does
not spell it aqua she spells an ak w. But
you know, homophones, we love those anyway, a whole bunch.
(02:30):
Send him your thoughts if you have him. Keenan Ivory
Williams oh good one, thank you? I mean I did
have Google and I had something that's.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Probably a woman named Ebony who stand up comedy somewhere.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Please tell us. Well anyway, that is all to say
that we have hopefully a colorful puzzle today or puzzles,
because today is a very special day. It is a
report from the front lines of puzzling by our very
own chief puzzle Officer, Greg plisk Got. A couple of
weeks ago, Greg attended one of the great events annual
(03:06):
events in puzzling, the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, hosted by
Will Shortz.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Of The New York Times.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Greg, welcome back from the front.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Thank you, thank you. You know, the ACPT as we
call it, is one of the touchstone puzzle events of
the year. I've been going since nineteen ninety five. I
went Wow. I met my wife Jessica there twenty years
ago at the tournament. And the movie Wordplay, which is
one of a great documentary, a very successful documentary is
(03:38):
about the tournament, shot twenty years ago as well. If
you haven't seen it, people, you should go watch it
right now. It's brilliant, brilliant documentary.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
By you make a cameo or like even in the background.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
You know, if you zoom in on one of the
crowd shots and make the resolution magically better. You can
probably see the back of my head. So it's This
year was the forty seventh annual ACPT Paolo Pasco, who
is a brilliant twenty four year old constructor also an
extraordinary puzzle solver. One for the second time in a row.
(04:12):
On the final round, they do the big puzzles up
in front of the room, giant giant grids that the
solvers do in front of the room. Puzzler guest Ofira
Eisenberg and I do the play by play commentary for
the final round, so it's a lot of fun for
us to get up there and chat about the puzzle
while the while they solve very very very quickly.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Yeah, it is remarkable to say, like and also there
are little tricks like you write the E lowercase? Did
you do that, Greg? Because an upper case it takes
less time. Well, this is Greg. Can you give us
some other highlights of the clues because that.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yeah, absolutely, I would love to go through some of
the puzzles if you would like to hear.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
I would like to know. This is the Puzzler Podcast,
so I figure it's an excellent place to do just that.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Absolutely. Now spoiler alert, if you're solving these puzzles at
home and you haven't gotten to them yet, just skip ahead.
Uh you know, just keep skipping ahead because we're going
to spoil some of the themes for the ACPT puzzles
and obvious the apologies to the listeners who were there already.
I met a bunch of people there who are fans
of the show, Thank you, so they will know the
(05:20):
answers to these puzzles as well. But they can they
can chuckle to themselves as you guys struggle to come
up with them.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
And guys plural is good because I want to call
in associate puzzlert Andrea Schoenberg to help me because she
is an excellent crossworder and you should go one year Andrea.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
It's good fun.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Yeah, it's definitely on my list. All right.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
So this was a puzzle called how Many Times by
Win Aloo oh Win a lou Greater of Connections and
Puzzler guests. It says how many Times is the title,
and underneath there's a little subtitle that says think phonetically
to work this out, okay, but it doesn't tell you
anything else, so you have to kind of figure out
what the heck's going on. One of the clues is
(06:06):
show whose title sequence features a ticking stopwatch.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Okay, I only know of one. There may be sixty minutes.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
So that you're correct. However, the that would be a
what would that be twelve letters long? Right? Sixty minutes
is twelve letters right, but the entry space in the
grid is thirteen letters.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Oh oh, and wait, what's the title again?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
What's how many times? And think phonetically?
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Oh sixty? Well, all right, there are a lot of
ways my mind is going, and none of them are
going are going to gett again?
Speaker 2 (06:43):
So extra letter six letters in front of minutes.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
I mean, I was thinking six zero minutes, but that
makes it shorter. I was thinking sixtyeth minute. I was thinking, wait,
what how many times?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Think phonetically? Say the first word of the show again?
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Minute?
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Men, No, the first word?
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Sixty sixty sixty six.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Sixty sixty yes, andres got t.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
T T T T T T.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
I don't know if sixties.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
You write sixty very clever minutes?
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Okay, so clever.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
And of course, if you're filling this puzzle in with
the crossings and you've got t's in a row. You're like,
this can't be right. There's no word, right, all right,
I love it. So there's another another clue from this
is Wimbledon event.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Wimbledon event.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
It's fifteen letters longeen letters long.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
All right, Well, I always thought Wimbledon was the event.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
It is a what's an event at Wimble? What do
they do with Wimbledon?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Right? A tennis match?
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Nice?
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Yeah, exactly?
Speaker 1 (07:55):
What is so? S s sss good?
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Or yeah? I'll do one more of these? Uh seven
Samurai or Cinema Paradiso.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Okay? Oh, I think I got this one phonetically because
they are both foreign films for n film for a
film and film when little nicely done?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
All right, here's another. Here's another puzzle for you. This
is day Jobs by Mike Shank, great crossword constructor and
crossword editor. And this is called day jobs, and it
just says some workers have to start early, so it's
it's harder to figure out what's going on here. I
will give you this. The very bottom right corner of
(08:48):
the grid is planner letters. This is the clue planner
letters seen at the starts of this puzzles theme. Answers,
so TB A or TVD. No, it's actually seven letters long,
so it's S MT, wt.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Fs Okay, which are of course, let's say, on.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Days of the week. So in front of all these
seven theme entries, each of them gets an extra letter
an S, an M, A, T A, w F, and
an as.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
All right, so they're all jobs. So the first one,
the S for Sunday, is a worker disinfecting a sewing factory.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Worker. And are these real jobs or are these clever
made up?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
These are clever made up jobs. So you take a
real job, take a real job, and ass at the
front of it.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I see, Okay, wait and clue it again.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Worker disinfecting a sewing factory.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
So a sewing factory. Andrea, chime in whenever you want,
because I'm flailing. Uh, disinfect cleaning or scrubbing.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Cleaning, No cleaner. Cleaner is good. The second half is cleaner.
It's a something clean.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
All right. Oh well, I'm thinking, yeah, I got the ass.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
I thought you had more Sunday.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
So Sunday.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
The job that doesn't have the ASS is someone you
might hire if you have a nice suburban home, a
thing in the backyard.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
That has spool cleaner.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Spool cleaner. All right, there, this is your m one.
This is the m hospital worker with high ethical standards.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Okay, so moral surgeon, well, very good.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Oral surgeon becomes moral surgeon.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Very good, Thank you. I feel I could go in there.
I should try to compete.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
This one is a te uh preacher for laborers?
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Preacher for laborers?
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Is it toil?
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Something nice?
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Toil worker? Toil worker?
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Toy preacher?
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Oh toil? What is the preacher?
Speaker 3 (11:03):
They are?
Speaker 2 (11:04):
I would say the original job. The oil job is
not really a job. It's more likely a position of
status for people. For leaders in the Middle East and
OPEC leaders, they would be known as the oil barons.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Oil.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
It's a preacher, Oh preacher oil? What is to minister? Exactly?
Oil minister? All right? And the last one, last one
another s worker in a lion king themed stuffed animal store.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
So symba or let's see different character?
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Scar? Oh?
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Scar? And wait what was the clue against scar?
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Worker in a scar manufacturer lion king theme stuffed animal store. Oh,
stuffed animal store.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Yes, stuff scar? What do you think it's not? Scars?
Scar maker?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Andrea's got it? Scar salesman Scar salesman.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Nicely done, very clever, Alra, look at all we missed?
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:10):
And where can people find the full puzzles? Are they online?
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Somewhere that you can go to the American to Crossword
Tournament dot com and learn all about the competition and
wow to you know, get involved. You can see replays
of the final round and you may I'm not sure.
I imagine you can still buy copies of the puzzles
(12:34):
if you go there, but check it out. You can
certainly learn all about You can see how I did,
how my wife did, how everybody you know is there
at the tournament, and how they do.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
You're not going to give us a spoiler?
Speaker 2 (12:46):
How I can tell you. I can tell you that
it came in number sixty eight.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Nope, sorry, it's been updated. Seventy came in seventy out
of eight hundred people.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
All right, top ten percent?
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Top ten That's all I wis for top ten percent.
I'll take it, all right? Do we have left time
for more? Yeah? This is a fun one from uh
what Christina iverson? Uh constructor? Who did? The puzzle? Is
called mind your.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
P's and Ques okay I'm guessing andes are involved.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Yeap, and she says, can you figure out this perky theme? Easy? Queasy?
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Okay, well that's a little bit of a hint. So
it's there a. Are you adding Q to the beginning?
Speaker 3 (13:35):
You're replacing P with a qu?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Yeah, yeah, replacing the P town peace sound.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Oh easy, crazy becomes easy yes, And.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
It's not a perky theme. It's a quirky theme.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Oh good for her.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Either a P changes to a Q sound or a
QU changes to a piece sound.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Okay, I love it all right, let's see what we got.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
So your first one is LA showbiz extras.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Those are h l a showbiz, not stand ins, not doubles,
not uh, it's.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
A long one, you know. These are all the fifteen
letters long or so what's what?
Speaker 1 (14:14):
What?
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Where?
Speaker 4 (14:15):
What?
Speaker 2 (14:15):
What's the word we use for where La showbiz happens?
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Hollywood yeap, Hollywood extras, Hollywood people, Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
So now think of a common I got it, I got,
I got it.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
It's an old game show AJ Hollywood, Hollywood Quiz, Hollywood squares,
Hollywood spare, and.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Ah becomes Hollywood spare.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
I was thinking it had to be at the beginning
of the work, but no, it doesn't.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
No, it could be anywhere in the world. How about
this one, pet mouse, petuse mouse?
Speaker 3 (14:53):
All right, so that would be a h a squeaker
of the house or whoa, yes, speaker of the house
becomes squeaker of the house.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
This one is what the entrepreneur did when naming a deodorant.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Okay, a deodorant that has a p or a cue perhaps, uh,
you got it, andrea something.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
The original phrase this comes from means gave up on something.
It ends with quits, called it, called it pits, pits,
called it pits, called it quits. Right, very good. How
about let's give you one more here. I'm just worried.
This is in quotes. I'm just worried one might hit
(15:42):
me on the head when I walk under a tropical tree.
For example.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Huh okay, well, I'm guessing the coconut is not either
a phrase a phrase with coconut.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah, starts with coconut, coconut. I don't know what's the tree?
What's the tree?
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Am tree?
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Oh? Qualm coconut coconut?
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Qualm? All right? Yes, this for some reason, this is
I am not clicking with this theme. It's very clever,
very clever.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Let's be clear too, just to be clear, the when
to get these I certainly as I worked through was
solving the down clues right and getting a bunch of letters.
So it's not like you're just these are just in
the you know, in the ether by themselves. You get
a lot of crossing letters and then you can start
figuring these out.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
That's hence the word hence the name crossword for crossword.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Yes exactly. Let's wrap up with a couple of clues
from the final puzzle.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Okay, now how fast did that get solved by Powlo.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
This super hard final puzzle Paolo solved in three minutes
and forty cents.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
That is nuts. That is just nuts. And he's not
even his pen.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
He's just not stopping. He's just writing men. He just
goes and writes the men. And you have to look
at the next clue while you're writing that, while you're
writing it. It's it's extraordinary. So these are some of
the punny clues from this last from this last puzzle.
So this is a four letter word and the clue
is attempt a buzzer beater, a question mark.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
I think I have an idea go for it?
Speaker 4 (17:17):
Is it is it swat like.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Yes, to swat a buzzing insect to attempt a buzzer eater.
All right, your last one, this I think was the
trickiest punny clue of the day. Perhaps small place for
the summer question mark.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Small place for the summer, and summer is lowercase, so
it's not like a woman's small place.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
It's how many letters?
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Four letters?
Speaker 4 (17:45):
Okay, I have I have an idea.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
I think you should picture right.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
So, so summer as in one who sums as like
a oh nice, like we're adding numbers and so a
small place for that would be the ones place.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Oh nicely done. Yeah, you've got to come to the
Crossword to be there next year. This is your see
that one? I didn't. I looked at that. I was like,
no idea, what's going on here?
Speaker 1 (18:12):
That was brilliant?
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Andre, Wow, Well to sign her up?
Speaker 1 (18:17):
All right.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
I want to also give a shout out to Ryan McCarty,
who was the constructor of that last puzzle, the Finals
Round puzzle, who wrote those clues, gotcha. The constructors are
the people who made those amazing clues for these wonderful puzzles.
It's a really a great event. If you like Crossword
puzzles at all. This is the event to go to
(18:40):
and you.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Might just meet your future spouse or partner.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
You never know, there's still a chance.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Well, thank you for that report from the front lines
of puzzling, Greg and listeners, thanks for tuning in. If
you have a minute or last thirty seconds, we would
love it if you would rate the puzzler on your
favorite podcast platform. I recommend five stars. That's just me.
It makes a huge difference in helping people find us.
And we'll meet you here next time for more puzzling
(19:08):
puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Hey, puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska up from the Puzzle Lab
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode. Mark
Brotherhood was here with us to talk about his wonderful
new show Ludwig, and we gave him a quiz about
detectives and things that rhyme with the names of detectives
called Columbo's Gumbo. Your extra credit clue was a study
(19:37):
in Scarlet Author's Aluminum rap. The answer, of course is
Doyle's Foil. And yes we know that Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle was not a detective. He created a famous detective
it's all fine. Also, some of you might pronounce that
aluminium and that's okay too. Thanks for playing. We'll catch
(19:58):
you next time. Thanks for playing along with the team.
Here at The Puzzler with Aj Jacobs, I'm Greg Pliska,
your chief puzzle Officer. Our executive producers are Neelie Lohman
and Adam Neuhouse of New House Ideas and Lindsay Hoffman
of iHeart Podcasts. The show is produced by Jody Averrigan
(20:19):
and Brittany Brown of Roulette Productions, with production support from
Claire Bidegar Curtis. Our associate producer is Andrea Schoenberg. The
Puzzler with Aj Jacobs is a co production with New
House Ideas and is distributed by Ta Soda Pitchers Ha
No rearrange that distributed by iHeart Podcasts. If you want
(20:43):
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
features an original puzzle hunt by yours Truly and is
available wherever you get your books. Puzzlers. For all your
puzzling needs, go visit the puzzler dot com. See you there,
Hello puzzlers, Let's start with a quick puzzle. This week,
one of our guests was the delightful Karen berg Green.
I bring her up because she has a colorful last name,
meaning it contains the word green, and I happen to
notice she is just one of several colorfully named stand
up comedians. There's several silvermen. There's Michael ian Black, a
(00:24):
former Puzzler two time Puzzler guest. So today's puzzle or
minie puzzle is can you come up with other colorful
stand up comics? The answer and more puzzling goodness after
the break, Hello puzzlers, Welcome back to the Puzzler Podcast.
(00:47):
The slightly different shade of Red in your puzzle Mark
Rothko Painting. I'm your host, AJ Jacobs, Thank you, Greg,
and I am here with chief puzzle Oufler Greg. Let's
go welcome Greg.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Thank you. AJ. I love that setup. If people don't know,
the Mark Rothko paintings are the kind of often just
a single color, but if you look closely, their giant
red painting has slightly different gradations of red throughout it.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
That's why you pay twenty five million dollars for each one, exactly.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah. So I got mine for twenty three. Actually, yes, smart.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
So before the break, we asked for colorfully named stand
up comedians Karen Berg, Green, Sarah Silverman, mich Leean Black,
anything come to mind.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Greg another puzzler guest, Judy Gold.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Judy Gold exactly. We also have a bunch of reds
red they're old timey reds, red Fox, red buttons, Red
Skelton and Skelton. We've got Jenny Slate, Slate Gray.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Oh good.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Yeah, we got Tom Green carrot top. If you count him,
we'll be gulf That was mean. Sorry, I've never seen him.
He could be hilarious. It's just like a he's sort.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Of if you should count him because he's carrot really
a color, not because he's not funny.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Okay, good, let's go with that. That's what I meant.
Josh Blue, very funny comedian Ron White from the Blue
Collar Tour. Oh, this one was interesting. Aquafina who does
not spell it aqua she spells an ak w. But
you know, homophones, we love those anyway, a whole bunch.
(02:30):
Send him your thoughts if you have him. Keenan Ivory
Williams oh good one, thank you? I mean I did
have Google and I had something that's.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Probably a woman named Ebony who stand up comedy somewhere.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Please tell us. Well anyway, that is all to say
that we have hopefully a colorful puzzle today or puzzles,
because today is a very special day. It is a
report from the front lines of puzzling by our very
own chief puzzle Officer, Greg plisk Got. A couple of
weeks ago, Greg attended one of the great events annual
(03:06):
events in puzzling, the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, hosted by
Will Shortz.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Of The New York Times.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Greg, welcome back from the front.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Thank you, thank you. You know, the ACPT as we
call it, is one of the touchstone puzzle events of
the year. I've been going since nineteen ninety five. I
went Wow. I met my wife Jessica there twenty years
ago at the tournament. And the movie Wordplay, which is
one of a great documentary, a very successful documentary is
(03:38):
about the tournament, shot twenty years ago as well. If
you haven't seen it, people, you should go watch it
right now. It's brilliant, brilliant documentary.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
By you make a cameo or like even in the background.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
You know, if you zoom in on one of the
crowd shots and make the resolution magically better. You can
probably see the back of my head. So it's This
year was the forty seventh annual ACPT Paolo Pasco, who
is a brilliant twenty four year old constructor also an
extraordinary puzzle solver. One for the second time in a row.
(04:12):
On the final round, they do the big puzzles up
in front of the room, giant giant grids that the
solvers do in front of the room. Puzzler guest Ofira
Eisenberg and I do the play by play commentary for
the final round, so it's a lot of fun for
us to get up there and chat about the puzzle
while the while they solve very very very quickly.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Yeah, it is remarkable to say, like and also there
are little tricks like you write the E lowercase? Did
you do that, Greg? Because an upper case it takes
less time. Well, this is Greg. Can you give us
some other highlights of the clues because that.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yeah, absolutely, I would love to go through some of
the puzzles if you would like to hear.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
I would like to know. This is the Puzzler Podcast,
so I figure it's an excellent place to do just that.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Absolutely. Now spoiler alert, if you're solving these puzzles at
home and you haven't gotten to them yet, just skip ahead.
Uh you know, just keep skipping ahead because we're going
to spoil some of the themes for the ACPT puzzles
and obvious the apologies to the listeners who were there already.
I met a bunch of people there who are fans
of the show, Thank you, so they will know the
(05:20):
answers to these puzzles as well. But they can they
can chuckle to themselves as you guys struggle to come
up with them.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
And guys plural is good because I want to call
in associate puzzlert Andrea Schoenberg to help me because she
is an excellent crossworder and you should go one year Andrea.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
It's good fun.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Yeah, it's definitely on my list. All right.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
So this was a puzzle called how Many Times by
Win Aloo oh Win a lou Greater of Connections and
Puzzler guests. It says how many Times is the title,
and underneath there's a little subtitle that says think phonetically
to work this out, okay, but it doesn't tell you
anything else, so you have to kind of figure out
what the heck's going on. One of the clues is
(06:06):
show whose title sequence features a ticking stopwatch.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Okay, I only know of one. There may be sixty minutes.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
So that you're correct. However, the that would be a
what would that be twelve letters long? Right? Sixty minutes
is twelve letters right, but the entry space in the
grid is thirteen letters.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Oh oh, and wait, what's the title again?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
What's how many times? And think phonetically?
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Oh sixty? Well, all right, there are a lot of
ways my mind is going, and none of them are
going are going to gett again?
Speaker 2 (06:43):
So extra letter six letters in front of minutes.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
I mean, I was thinking six zero minutes, but that
makes it shorter. I was thinking sixtyeth minute. I was thinking, wait,
what how many times?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Think phonetically? Say the first word of the show again?
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Minute?
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Men, No, the first word?
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Sixty sixty sixty six.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Sixty sixty yes, andres got t.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
T T T T T T.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
I don't know if sixties.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
You write sixty very clever minutes?
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Okay, so clever.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
And of course, if you're filling this puzzle in with
the crossings and you've got t's in a row. You're like,
this can't be right. There's no word, right, all right,
I love it. So there's another another clue from this
is Wimbledon event.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Wimbledon event.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
It's fifteen letters longeen letters long.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
All right, Well, I always thought Wimbledon was the event.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
It is a what's an event at Wimble? What do
they do with Wimbledon?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Right? A tennis match?
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Nice?
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Yeah, exactly?
Speaker 1 (07:55):
What is so? S s sss good?
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Or yeah? I'll do one more of these? Uh seven
Samurai or Cinema Paradiso.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Okay? Oh, I think I got this one phonetically because
they are both foreign films for n film for a
film and film when little nicely done?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
All right, here's another. Here's another puzzle for you. This
is day Jobs by Mike Shank, great crossword constructor and
crossword editor. And this is called day jobs, and it
just says some workers have to start early, so it's
it's harder to figure out what's going on here. I
will give you this. The very bottom right corner of
(08:48):
the grid is planner letters. This is the clue planner
letters seen at the starts of this puzzles theme. Answers,
so TB A or TVD. No, it's actually seven letters long,
so it's S MT, wt.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Fs Okay, which are of course, let's say, on.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Days of the week. So in front of all these
seven theme entries, each of them gets an extra letter
an S, an M, A, T A, w F, and
an as.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
All right, so they're all jobs. So the first one,
the S for Sunday, is a worker disinfecting a sewing factory.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Worker. And are these real jobs or are these clever
made up?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
These are clever made up jobs. So you take a
real job, take a real job, and ass at the
front of it.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I see, Okay, wait and clue it again.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Worker disinfecting a sewing factory.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
So a sewing factory. Andrea, chime in whenever you want,
because I'm flailing. Uh, disinfect cleaning or scrubbing.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Cleaning, No cleaner. Cleaner is good. The second half is cleaner.
It's a something clean.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
All right. Oh well, I'm thinking, yeah, I got the ass.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
I thought you had more Sunday.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
So Sunday.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
The job that doesn't have the ASS is someone you
might hire if you have a nice suburban home, a
thing in the backyard.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
That has spool cleaner.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Spool cleaner. All right, there, this is your m one.
This is the m hospital worker with high ethical standards.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Okay, so moral surgeon, well, very good.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Oral surgeon becomes moral surgeon.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Very good, Thank you. I feel I could go in there.
I should try to compete.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
This one is a te uh preacher for laborers?
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Preacher for laborers?
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Is it toil?
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Something nice?
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Toil worker? Toil worker?
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Toy preacher?
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Oh toil? What is the preacher?
Speaker 3 (11:03):
They are?
Speaker 2 (11:04):
I would say the original job. The oil job is
not really a job. It's more likely a position of
status for people. For leaders in the Middle East and
OPEC leaders, they would be known as the oil barons.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Oil.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
It's a preacher, Oh preacher oil? What is to minister? Exactly?
Oil minister? All right? And the last one, last one
another s worker in a lion king themed stuffed animal store.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
So symba or let's see different character?
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Scar? Oh?
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Scar? And wait what was the clue against scar?
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Worker in a scar manufacturer lion king theme stuffed animal store. Oh,
stuffed animal store.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Yes, stuff scar? What do you think it's not? Scars?
Scar maker?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Andrea's got it? Scar salesman Scar salesman.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Nicely done, very clever, Alra, look at all we missed?
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:10):
And where can people find the full puzzles? Are they online?
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Somewhere that you can go to the American to Crossword
Tournament dot com and learn all about the competition and
wow to you know, get involved. You can see replays
of the final round and you may I'm not sure.
I imagine you can still buy copies of the puzzles
(12:34):
if you go there, but check it out. You can
certainly learn all about You can see how I did,
how my wife did, how everybody you know is there
at the tournament, and how they do.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
You're not going to give us a spoiler?
Speaker 2 (12:46):
How I can tell you. I can tell you that
it came in number sixty eight.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Nope, sorry, it's been updated. Seventy came in seventy out
of eight hundred people.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
All right, top ten percent?
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Top ten That's all I wis for top ten percent.
I'll take it, all right? Do we have left time
for more? Yeah? This is a fun one from uh
what Christina iverson? Uh constructor? Who did? The puzzle? Is
called mind your.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
P's and Ques okay I'm guessing andes are involved.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Yeap, and she says, can you figure out this perky theme? Easy? Queasy?
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Okay, well that's a little bit of a hint. So
it's there a. Are you adding Q to the beginning?
Speaker 3 (13:35):
You're replacing P with a qu?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Yeah, yeah, replacing the P town peace sound.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Oh easy, crazy becomes easy yes, And.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
It's not a perky theme. It's a quirky theme.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Oh good for her.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Either a P changes to a Q sound or a
QU changes to a piece sound.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Okay, I love it all right, let's see what we got.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
So your first one is LA showbiz extras.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Those are h l a showbiz, not stand ins, not doubles,
not uh, it's.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
A long one, you know. These are all the fifteen
letters long or so what's what?
Speaker 1 (14:14):
What?
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Where?
Speaker 4 (14:15):
What?
Speaker 2 (14:15):
What's the word we use for where La showbiz happens?
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Hollywood yeap, Hollywood extras, Hollywood people, Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
So now think of a common I got it, I got,
I got it.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
It's an old game show AJ Hollywood, Hollywood Quiz, Hollywood squares,
Hollywood spare, and.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Ah becomes Hollywood spare.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
I was thinking it had to be at the beginning
of the work, but no, it doesn't.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
No, it could be anywhere in the world. How about
this one, pet mouse, petuse mouse?
Speaker 3 (14:53):
All right, so that would be a h a squeaker
of the house or whoa, yes, speaker of the house
becomes squeaker of the house.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
This one is what the entrepreneur did when naming a deodorant.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Okay, a deodorant that has a p or a cue perhaps, uh,
you got it, andrea something.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
The original phrase this comes from means gave up on something.
It ends with quits, called it, called it pits, pits,
called it pits, called it quits. Right, very good. How
about let's give you one more here. I'm just worried.
This is in quotes. I'm just worried one might hit
(15:42):
me on the head when I walk under a tropical tree.
For example.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Huh okay, well, I'm guessing the coconut is not either
a phrase a phrase with coconut.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah, starts with coconut, coconut. I don't know what's the tree?
What's the tree?
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Am tree?
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Oh? Qualm coconut coconut?
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Qualm? All right? Yes, this for some reason, this is
I am not clicking with this theme. It's very clever,
very clever.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Let's be clear too, just to be clear, the when
to get these I certainly as I worked through was
solving the down clues right and getting a bunch of letters.
So it's not like you're just these are just in
the you know, in the ether by themselves. You get
a lot of crossing letters and then you can start
figuring these out.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
That's hence the word hence the name crossword for crossword.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Yes exactly. Let's wrap up with a couple of clues
from the final puzzle.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Okay, now how fast did that get solved by Powlo.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
This super hard final puzzle Paolo solved in three minutes
and forty cents.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
That is nuts. That is just nuts. And he's not
even his pen.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
He's just not stopping. He's just writing men. He just
goes and writes the men. And you have to look
at the next clue while you're writing that, while you're
writing it. It's it's extraordinary. So these are some of
the punny clues from this last from this last puzzle.
So this is a four letter word and the clue
is attempt a buzzer beater, a question mark.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
I think I have an idea go for it?
Speaker 4 (17:17):
Is it is it swat like.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Yes, to swat a buzzing insect to attempt a buzzer eater.
All right, your last one, this I think was the
trickiest punny clue of the day. Perhaps small place for
the summer question mark.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Small place for the summer, and summer is lowercase, so
it's not like a woman's small place.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
It's how many letters?
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Four letters?
Speaker 4 (17:45):
Okay, I have I have an idea.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
I think you should picture right.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
So, so summer as in one who sums as like
a oh nice, like we're adding numbers and so a
small place for that would be the ones place.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Oh nicely done. Yeah, you've got to come to the
Crossword to be there next year. This is your see
that one? I didn't. I looked at that. I was like,
no idea, what's going on here?
Speaker 1 (18:12):
That was brilliant?
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Andre, Wow, Well to sign her up?
Speaker 1 (18:17):
All right.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
I want to also give a shout out to Ryan McCarty,
who was the constructor of that last puzzle, the Finals
Round puzzle, who wrote those clues, gotcha. The constructors are
the people who made those amazing clues for these wonderful puzzles.
It's a really a great event. If you like Crossword
puzzles at all. This is the event to go to
(18:40):
and you.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Might just meet your future spouse or partner.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
You never know, there's still a chance.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Well, thank you for that report from the front lines
of puzzling, Greg and listeners, thanks for tuning in. If
you have a minute or last thirty seconds, we would
love it if you would rate the puzzler on your
favorite podcast platform. I recommend five stars. That's just me.
It makes a huge difference in helping people find us.
And we'll meet you here next time for more puzzling
(19:08):
puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Hey, puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska up from the Puzzle Lab
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode. Mark
Brotherhood was here with us to talk about his wonderful
new show Ludwig, and we gave him a quiz about
detectives and things that rhyme with the names of detectives
called Columbo's Gumbo. Your extra credit clue was a study
(19:37):
in Scarlet Author's Aluminum rap. The answer, of course is
Doyle's Foil. And yes we know that Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle was not a detective. He created a famous detective
it's all fine. Also, some of you might pronounce that
aluminium and that's okay too. Thanks for playing. We'll catch
(19:58):
you next time. Thanks for playing along with the team.
Here at The Puzzler with Aj Jacobs, I'm Greg Pliska,
your chief puzzle Officer. Our executive producers are Neelie Lohman
and Adam Neuhouse of New House Ideas and Lindsay Hoffman
of iHeart Podcasts. The show is produced by Jody Averrigan
(20:19):
and Brittany Brown of Roulette Productions, with production support from
Claire Bidegar Curtis. Our associate producer is Andrea Schoenberg. The
Puzzler with Aj Jacobs is a co production with New
House Ideas and is distributed by Ta Soda Pitchers Ha
No rearrange that distributed by iHeart Podcasts. If you want
(20:43):
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
features an original puzzle hunt by yours Truly and is
available wherever you get your books. Puzzlers. For all your
puzzling needs, go visit the puzzler dot com. See you there,
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
Popular Podcasts
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.