Speaker 1: Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, home of your daily puzzle
Speaker 1: thirst trap. I am your host, AJ Jacobs here with
Speaker 1: the brilliant comedian and writer Michael ian Black. Welcome Michael,
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Aj.
Speaker 3: Great to be here. And this is one of many
Speaker 3: appearances I've made on the Puzzler. Each one has built
Speaker 3: on the last, and so you've got your work cut
Speaker 3: out for you to make this an even more enjoyable
Speaker 3: experience than the others.
Speaker 1: Well, don't worry, because we got Chief Puzzle Officer Greg
Speaker 1: Pliska with an amazing one. But before we got to
Speaker 1: that our main game, I just wanted a quick detour
Speaker 1: a puzzle related question. Do you know the answer to
Speaker 1: these New York Times crossword puzzle clues? Are you ready?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you three. They all have the same answer.
Speaker 1: Follower of Christ Goldfinger, novelist Fleming, and X Men actor McKellan.
Speaker 3: So we're just looking for that three letter word, my
Speaker 3: little name, and.
Speaker 1: There you go. That's what I wanted to stress to
Speaker 1: you that I feel i'm talking to Crossword Puzzle Royalty
Speaker 1: in that you have one of the top it's the
Speaker 1: one hundred twenty ninth most common three letter word in
Speaker 1: the New York Times crossword puzzle history.
Speaker 3: Anytime of owls together, you're gonna be that's going to
Speaker 3: find its way into a crossword puzzle.
Speaker 1: It's a great word. All right. With that, I am
Speaker 1: going to turn it over to our chief puzzle Officer,
Speaker 1: Greg Pliska, who has a puzzle specially designed for you.
Speaker 2: Thank you, AJ, and nice to meet you, Michael.
Speaker 3: Nice to meet you, Greg.
Speaker 2: I actually, AJ, I'd like to know how many times
Speaker 2: words ian and the word black have appeared in the
Speaker 2: same puzzle.
Speaker 1: Interesting, all right, Our associate puzzler Andrea Scholmberg is on
Speaker 1: it right now. I see her fingers flying.
Speaker 2: So, Michael, this puzzle is called letters Witch. It's a
Speaker 2: character I created a few years ago. You've probably never
Speaker 2: heard of her, but you've seen her work. She is
Speaker 2: the evil crone that turns one phrase into another by
Speaker 2: moving one letter.
Speaker 3: Oh see, I've seen her work. She is. She is
Speaker 3: a crump.
Speaker 2: I mean she's commonly seen around the end of the
Speaker 2: NFL season in January when she takes that championship game
Speaker 2: and turns it into a really great bird of prey. Right,
Speaker 2: that's the Super Bowl that becomes the superb Owl. Yes, yes, yeah,
Speaker 2: so you've got it. So she just shifts one letter
Speaker 2: over in a two word phrase to make a new one.
Speaker 2: The way this game works is I'll give you a
Speaker 2: clue to the original phrase, and then you uh, yes,
Speaker 2: I'll clue both the original phrase and the phrase that
Speaker 2: results from the letter shift, and you see if you
Speaker 2: can tell me the two of them. Sometimes it's helpful
Speaker 2: to write these down, but you know, I'm sure you
Speaker 2: can do them in your head as well.
Speaker 1: I forgot to say to bring writing equipment, so that's
Speaker 1: that's on.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I'm holding my laptop in my hands
Speaker 3: to maintain this good connection. I don't know if I can,
Speaker 3: Well you can.
Speaker 2: You can type them on your laptop. I'm sure you'll
Speaker 2: be fine without writing them down. But I say that
Speaker 2: for the benefit of our listeners.
Speaker 1: As well, who are not driving right.
Speaker 2: Exactly all right, So here's your first one. The director
Speaker 2: of Platoon turns into the vocal inflection of the host
Speaker 2: of Last Week Tonight.
Speaker 3: Okay, so the director of Platoon, Oliver Stone. Yeah, vocal
Speaker 3: inflection of John Oliver would be Oliver's tone.
Speaker 2: Exactly perfectly done. Okay, see, and you didn't write it
Speaker 2: down at all.
Speaker 3: I did write it down.
Speaker 1: Okay, I heard the keys, I heard the clicking.
Speaker 2: All right, here's your second one. A photo taken by
Speaker 2: the police when you're arrested turns into what you say
Speaker 2: when your coffee cup is super scalding.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Sure, having been arrested before, I do know what
Speaker 3: happens in that process. You get photographed and you have
Speaker 3: a mug shot, and sometimes they'll say, you know, when
Speaker 3: they're trying to get information out of you, Hey, do
Speaker 3: you want to cup a coffee or something? Then you
Speaker 3: go sure, and then and they give it to you,
Speaker 3: and you go, oh, that mug's hot exactly very well.
Speaker 2: Then you know, you get extra credit for turning into
Speaker 2: into a short narrative. There's the reason why you're the
Speaker 2: writer here. That's brilliantly done.
Speaker 1: I felt it was like usual unusual suspects or usual
Speaker 1: whatever that. Oh yeah, I felt, yeah.
Speaker 2: It's the last scene of usual suspects right there. All right, good,
Speaker 2: here's another one for you. A rodent used in scientific
Speaker 2: tests turns into a spoiled kid from southern California.
Speaker 3: Huh, okay, A rodent used in scientific tests, A.
Speaker 2: Single rodent, A single rodent.
Speaker 3: Hey, so I'm gonna say, and turns into a spoiled
Speaker 3: kid from southern California. I've got the wrong word for
Speaker 3: the first one. So it's a So that's a guinea pig.
Speaker 3: No it's not.
Speaker 2: It's not a guinea pig. No, a different kind of rodent.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not a rat.
Speaker 2: Yes it is. It is a specific The scientists are
Speaker 2: doing the tests in a room that's known as a
Speaker 2: another three letter word, where you would put rodents and
Speaker 2: do tests on them.
Speaker 1: A rat, I would have, I would say something, but
Speaker 1: I just looked at the answer by mistake, So uh.
Speaker 3: Put him in a raw rat rat?
Speaker 2: Which kind of rat is it? It's not a it's
Speaker 2: not a farm rat or a lab rat. It's a
Speaker 2: lab rat turns into an l A brat very good,
Speaker 2: or an l A brat, which is the kind of
Speaker 2: sausage you get down at.
Speaker 3: I feel like a real meal with that one. My goodness.
Speaker 2: Well it's a tricky one too, because of the uh
Speaker 2: initialism of l A. Maybe I don't know. We'll give
Speaker 2: you one more here. A phrase meaning with no exceptions
Speaker 2: turns into the place where you put your first cow. Okay,
Speaker 2: A phrase that means with no exceptions, and it turns
Speaker 2: into the place where you put your first cow. Imagining
Speaker 2: you have a lot of cows, but the first one
Speaker 2: goes here, and then the second one goes over there,
Speaker 2: and the third one goes over there.
Speaker 3: I didn't know one segregated cows.
Speaker 2: Where do you put cows building? You put them in
Speaker 2: a barn, a barn? Uh huh. But the first cow
Speaker 2: goes into which barn?
Speaker 3: The first barn, yes, which is top?
Speaker 2: Which is numbered one?
Speaker 3: Barn barn one?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 3: All right, oh, bar none and barn nine on barn one.
Speaker 2: There you go, yes, with no exceptions. The phrase is
Speaker 2: bar none. And then the place where you put your
Speaker 2: first cow is barn one. Thank goodness, you just don't
Speaker 2: have enough barns, Michael.
Speaker 1: But Michael, you once again you did it. You got
Speaker 1: them all help.
Speaker 3: But I'm always happy to ask for a helping hand.
Speaker 3: I got it, and uh and thank you Greg, and
Speaker 3: thank you Aj.
Speaker 2: It's my pleasure.
Speaker 1: That's good life advice. I tell my kids nothing wrong
Speaker 1: with getting help, So thank you for that wisdom as well,
Speaker 1: and Michael. In addition to solving puzzles, you are also
Speaker 1: an author, entertainer, comedian, writer, all sorts of things. Where
Speaker 1: can people get more of you?
Speaker 3: Well, if you want to read one of my kids books,
Speaker 3: of which I have several, there's a whole little series
Speaker 3: called the I'm series starts with I'm bored, I'm worried,
Speaker 3: I'm sad, I'm sorry, and those are available at any
Speaker 3: any retail outlet.
Speaker 1: They are lovely and wise, and I feel all those
Speaker 1: emotions on a daily basis, so I can read them
Speaker 1: every day. Greg, before we go, do you have an
Speaker 1: extra credit for the puzzlers at home?
Speaker 2: I do? I do have one for the puzzlers at home.
Speaker 2: This is a phrase describing a game you are certain
Speaker 2: to lose, and it turns into a soup container that
Speaker 2: is identical to another soup container.
Speaker 1: Okay, you know what, I'm not even gonna try. I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna live with the uncertainty and enjoy it and
Speaker 1: revel in it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll provide the answer at the end of another episode.
Speaker 1: Exactly. I want the puzzlers at home to work on it.
Speaker 1: A very important update Andrea has found. She starts Ian
Speaker 1: and Black have never appeared in a New York Times
Speaker 1: puzzle together. She followed it with a sad emoji, so
Speaker 1: it is sad.
Speaker 2: I'm working on that puzzle right now. The two of
Speaker 2: them are going to cross in the upper left hand corner.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be so good.
Speaker 1: Puzzlers, please don't forget to subscribe to the Puzzler Podcast
Speaker 1: and I'll meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles
Speaker 1: that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2: Hello puzzlers. Greg Pliska here from the Puzzle last with
Speaker 2: the extra credit answer from our previous show. We were
Speaker 2: playing a game with Michael Ian Black where we had
Speaker 2: chat GPT answer some prompts and he tried to guess
Speaker 2: which prompt this was. This was your extra credit. This
Speaker 2: is the epic tale of the power struggle between several
Speaker 2: houses to see who can claim the Iron Deep Friar,
Speaker 2: the House of Grimace in the mcflurry Mountains must battle
Speaker 2: the House of Filet of Fish, led by seafaring Captain Crook.
Speaker 2: I'm sure a lot of you got this one. It's
Speaker 2: the plot of Game of Thrones, but every character is
Speaker 2: replaced by a McDonaldland character. Very clever chat GPT. We'll
Speaker 2: see you with or without AI on the next Puzzler
Speaker 2: Podcast