Speaker 1: Hello, Puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, the pickhardy third
Speaker 1: at the end of your baroque puzzle fugue. I am
Speaker 1: your host, A J. Jacobs, and today's guest is the
Speaker 1: amazing Stephen Dubner, author, journalist, host of Freakonomics Radio. Welcome Steven,
Speaker 1: Thank you, Jim.
Speaker 2: I'm puzzled over a piccardy third.
Speaker 1: This one was from Greg.
Speaker 2: Can you spell all those words? A pickhard?
Speaker 3: Is that?
Speaker 2: How many words is that? First of all?
Speaker 1: P I c ar d y third. Greg is a musician,
Speaker 1: so he likes to throw in some. I write some
Speaker 1: and Greg writes some, and the others write some. But
Speaker 1: this one, I'm guessing was a Greg right.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, a picardy third. Oh named after oh yeah,
Speaker 2: Tiers di Picicardi. Of course. Of course, now it all
Speaker 2: is coming together.
Speaker 3: Everybody knows old tiersa come on. Well, at the end
Speaker 3: of some fubes that are in a minor key, when
Speaker 3: the last chord turns into a major chord, that's party. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I like that. I'm all about the positive resolution.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I appreciate that.
Speaker 1: That's true.
Speaker 3: If only the world would stay with you, we'd be
Speaker 3: happier of a human SUCCESSCT.
Speaker 1: Well this this episode is going to end in the
Speaker 1: major key. Don't worry, because we have a puzzle, one
Speaker 1: of my favorite types, which is fine, the hidden Link,
Speaker 1: and I am going to turn it over to Chief
Speaker 1: Fuzzle Officer Greg Pliska because he actually researched this hidden
Speaker 1: link and wrote the clues, So Greg, take it away.
Speaker 3: All right, Thank you, Aja, and welcome back Stephen. Fun
Speaker 3: to be doing this.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much. Greg. I'm excited to hear about
Speaker 2: this hidden link of yours.
Speaker 3: In its simplest form, we're just giving clues to some words,
Speaker 3: and we make the clues really hard to start with
Speaker 3: than they get progressively easier, so we you know, you
Speaker 3: could struggle a little.
Speaker 2: Bit, so you can break my sc crush.
Speaker 3: You on the last chance we have here. And then
Speaker 3: each of the words that we have clued in the
Speaker 3: end will have something in common, so the final question
Speaker 3: will be what do those answers have in common? But
Speaker 3: on simplest form, it's just a little you know, just
Speaker 3: some words identify the word quiz.
Speaker 2: I am I am pro word and if you get
Speaker 2: them on the first clue, we will all be annoyed.
Speaker 2: So I should pretend to be stupid, because I'm really
Speaker 2: good at that.
Speaker 3: Perfect These are intentionally we start with some hard, obscure
Speaker 3: clues and then we work it, you know, make it easier.
Speaker 3: So we got so let's try this. Here we go
Speaker 3: adom see hominy is a current?
Speaker 2: One see hominy. Yes, I'm gonna try to break this
Speaker 2: down a bit here. O is A is A is
Speaker 2: a current onesom current one's current?
Speaker 1: Do any of the spelling n O R O D
Speaker 1: O M s I R O d A M.
Speaker 2: O N I sorry, spell s honomy again?
Speaker 1: You're not You're going down a dead end here. That's
Speaker 1: not gonna There's nothing in there.
Speaker 2: I think, is it is? Are these should I be
Speaker 2: trying to spell them backwards? Perhaps?
Speaker 1: I think you can just give up.
Speaker 3: Okay, I suggest we got four clues.
Speaker 2: Let me hang. If it's a current, it's impossible, I'll
Speaker 2: take I'll take it in this kind of homony is
Speaker 2: a current, super size ocean going cargo carrier from the
Speaker 2: Faroe Islands.
Speaker 3: I like this eity of that. You were going to
Speaker 3: be right until you went to Paraoe Island, and now
Speaker 3: you're all no. I will say that might be true
Speaker 3: because I don't know all the cargo carriers from the
Speaker 3: Pharaoh Islands or anywhere else. But that's not the answer
Speaker 3: we're looking for. Let me give you your next clue.
Speaker 3: In French playing cards, these were named David, Charles, Caesar
Speaker 3: and Alexander Alexandro.
Speaker 2: I would think that would be the king.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there you go, that one got very easy. King
Speaker 3: is in fact the answer. So yeah, Norodom, See how
Speaker 3: many is the king of Cambodia.
Speaker 1: And I shouldn't say it's a possible. There are many
Speaker 1: people who know.
Speaker 2: That, and he's probably not a big cargo.
Speaker 3: Carrier, probably not, but there might be one named for him.
Speaker 3: So we want to assume sure nor Adom Cianook was
Speaker 3: the king or president of Cambodia during the Vietnam War.
Speaker 3: I believe so. Some scholars of that war might have
Speaker 3: gotten it there. But then the clues get easier. The
Speaker 3: piece that was known as the shah in an early
Speaker 3: form of chess, and finally the royal title given to
Speaker 3: Lebron James or Elvis Presley, which you know, king would
Speaker 3: have been the giveaway. So that's your book.
Speaker 1: Didn't even need them all right, So far King is
Speaker 1: we're number one.
Speaker 3: Here's your next here's your next word. Larval stage of
Speaker 3: a fish. It comes after the hatchling stage and right
Speaker 3: before the fingerling stage.
Speaker 2: M A fingerling is that I only knew the potato fingering.
Speaker 2: I didn't know the fish fingerling. Okay. So it's something
Speaker 2: between egg and fingerling.
Speaker 3: In a fish, actually between hatchling and fingerling. So we've
Speaker 3: already gotten out of the egg.
Speaker 2: Stage, hatchling and fingerling. And it's not a guppy. That's
Speaker 2: not the technical term melsing. Something between Let me think
Speaker 2: the hatchling and the fingerling I would call. Oh, I know,
Speaker 2: it's called the squibbeting.
Speaker 3: I don't think we can say that on family radio,
Speaker 3: can we.
Speaker 1: You said it with such confidence.
Speaker 3: I like it. Okay, let me give you your next globe.
Speaker 3: The vocal register characterized by creaky sounding speech, by creaky
Speaker 3: sounding speech.
Speaker 2: Oh, small fry a fish.
Speaker 3: So vocal fry is the correct answer? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Is vocal fry a register?
Speaker 3: Yeah? When you try to speak so low that your
Speaker 3: vocal cords, we can hear those vocals.
Speaker 2: Wow, the stuff you guys know I'm learning today. Thank you?
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, So you have king and fry, and
Speaker 1: those are two words they have something common. And by
Speaker 1: the way, if you do get it, I love that,
Speaker 1: but maybe don't even say it out loud. Just tell
Speaker 1: us how smart is it?
Speaker 2: Charles's Pan Fried Chicken on West seventy second Street and
Speaker 2: sight of the best fried Chicken on the upper west Side?
Speaker 2: Is that the answer?
Speaker 3: No, I'm hungry now.
Speaker 1: And yeah, now I want them to be a sponsor.
Speaker 2: Can I just say I have no affiliation with Charles's
Speaker 2: Pan Fried Chicken, but I can vouch for it.
Speaker 1: Love it.
Speaker 3: You're their best customer. All right? Here's your next one,
Speaker 3: defining profession for a leader of the Hanseatic League.
Speaker 2: I should know what that is, shouldn't I?
Speaker 1: I don't know if you should. I didn't you know.
Speaker 3: I thought this might be something you'll get.
Speaker 2: On the first one, I read a lot, and I
Speaker 2: forget more than I have read. Even I'll say diplomat.
Speaker 3: Nice guess, not correct, but well played. Here's your second one.
Speaker 3: The only profession named in a shakespeare play title.
Speaker 2: Hmm, would it be the merchant of Che's.
Speaker 3: If you close, I'm not sure why it got That's
Speaker 3: like twist the button? Why not? Yes, it is, in
Speaker 3: fact merchant merchant of Bennett.
Speaker 2: Okay, so if I'm keeping properly. Oh sorry, j A J. King,
Speaker 2: fry merchant.
Speaker 1: That's it. That's all I was going to say.
Speaker 2: And I think now we put those together to turn
Speaker 2: it into like something.
Speaker 1: There's something those all share in common. Those those words
Speaker 1: share something in common. And yes, there's going to be
Speaker 1: one more thing.
Speaker 3: One more Okay, here's your last one. It's a word
Speaker 3: derived from the tamil or sauce or relish for rice.
Speaker 2: A sauce or relish for rice, tamil. I'm guessing it's
Speaker 2: not chutney, but it could be chutney.
Speaker 1: Sounds a little chutney.
Speaker 3: It's not chutney.
Speaker 2: Is it buttony? Is it cutney? Is it fluttney? Is
Speaker 2: it umney?
Speaker 3: We know you like R Well, I'll give you the
Speaker 3: I'll give you the next one, next clue. According to
Speaker 3: the Smithsonian, the earliest type.
Speaker 2: That they know nothing, Yeah, nothing down there?
Speaker 3: What are our sources here? The earliest types of this
Speaker 3: date to twenty five hundred BC in India and include ginger, garlic,
Speaker 3: and turmeric as the ingredients.
Speaker 2: The earliest version of this yeah this include include ginger, garlic.
Speaker 3: And term those are the ingredients. In twenty.
Speaker 2: So it's some kind of sauce. Am I correct?
Speaker 3: In a sauce.
Speaker 2: It's a sauce. It's a non chutney sauce. Is it
Speaker 2: a Is it a curry?
Speaker 3: It's curry, exactly.
Speaker 2: Like curry, curry in a hurry? Do you guys remember
Speaker 2: curry in a hurry? Now on twenty eighth Street.
Speaker 3: This is this becomes the Stephen depp Dubner restaurant recommendation.
Speaker 1: You got anything else? Yeah, all right, So now you
Speaker 1: have king of Fry, merchant, and curry. All of those
Speaker 1: have something in common, and we are here to give hints.
Speaker 1: We are here because these are the kinds of things
Speaker 1: that it sort of snaps into place like a magic eye,
Speaker 1: or it doesn't.
Speaker 2: So it's definitely not snapping for me magically.
Speaker 1: Well, I will say that we would only be giving
Speaker 1: this puzzle to you or the co author of your
Speaker 1: book book for economics, We could give it to him.
Speaker 2: So I'm guessing these are therefore words that coalesce around
Speaker 2: something that is within freakonomics.
Speaker 3: Is that on the cover on the cover of Freakonomics
Speaker 3: for sure? Still's was one of the other words we
Speaker 3: were going to clue here.
Speaker 2: Oh, these are all Stephen, I should know da step Oh.
Speaker 2: But Steph Curry is not Steve.
Speaker 1: He's a Stephan. He has spelled st he has spelled the.
Speaker 2: Expells it the way I do. But can I tell
Speaker 2: you for the past, like fifteen years, when I've written
Speaker 2: my name on something where someone asks you to write
Speaker 2: your name, I would say eighty five percent of the time. Now,
Speaker 2: when it's then called out vocally, I'm Stephani.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: And for a while I would say, oh, actually it's
Speaker 2: and then I just realized, like, why what am I Why?
Speaker 2: So now if I care enough to have it be
Speaker 2: called out properly, which I don't usually, then I just
Speaker 2: would write it with a V because I like Steph
Speaker 2: Curry's kind of the way that language moves. Right, whae changes.
Speaker 2: He took my name, he made it a new thing.
Speaker 2: He's way better at almost everything than I am. I
Speaker 2: think it's good.
Speaker 1: So you are officially now Stephan Dubner.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, if I'm concerned about the future of Stevens,
Speaker 2: I would much rather them evolve in a Darwinian way
Speaker 2: as Steph Curry, because he's he's just better than.
Speaker 1: Me, all right, So Stephan Dubner, there it is before
Speaker 1: we go. We like to give a little extra credit
Speaker 1: to our puzzlers at home, so I'm not going to
Speaker 1: give a whole one, but you have one.
Speaker 3: Well, I have a twist on the extra credit. Great,
Speaker 3: I can do it.
Speaker 2: I love when you two fight.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Mom, Dad going at it.
Speaker 3: How many US president surnames are also on capitalized dictionary entries?
Speaker 3: M and I will I think four that are super common,
Speaker 3: and then there's a couple more that are less common
Speaker 3: or maybe a little British, and I believe there's two
Speaker 3: more that are more obscure. So but without looking them up,
Speaker 3: which are the presidential surnames that are also legitimate lowercase
Speaker 3: dictionary entry?
Speaker 2: That's a really good one. I have to say. I
Speaker 2: put McKinley in my stew just this morning.
Speaker 3: So oh really, I think it's much better with Truman.
Speaker 2: Truman's a little spicy for me. I'm be honest with you.
Speaker 1: I will say one last fact because I cannot resist,
Speaker 1: because I've been researching early America, and when they were
Speaker 1: deciding what should be the name of the president, they
Speaker 1: were all sort of, there's his excellency. Then one of
Speaker 1: the proposals was Washington, so it would be almost like
Speaker 1: a Cizar is like Caesar his name for Caesar, so
Speaker 1: it would be like we would have had Washington Obama,
Speaker 1: Washington Trump, Washington Nixon, so that could have been a
Speaker 1: lowercase Washington Jacobs Washington Jacobs willan never.
Speaker 3: Have someday some day.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you all for tuning in, and come back
Speaker 1: tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 3: Hello, puzzlers, this is Greg Pliska up from the Puzzle
Speaker 3: Lab with the extra credit answer from our previous show.
Speaker 3: We played a game with Stephen Dubner that we called
Speaker 3: fact checking, and for the extra credit we gave you
Speaker 3: two supposed facts, only one of which was true. One
Speaker 3: of those was that ts Eliot went by TS because
Speaker 3: he liked that it made his name an anagram of toilets.
Speaker 3: And the other, which was the true statement, is that
Speaker 3: King Louis the thirteenth of France employed a professional anagrammer
Speaker 3: whose entire job was to make anagrams of the royal family.
Speaker 3: I like to think of I lived back then, that
Speaker 3: would be what I would be doing today on King
Speaker 3: Louis the Thirteenth's favorite podcast, The Puzzler