Speaker 1: Hello, puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, the TSA pre
Speaker 1: Check in your Airport Puzzle Routine. I am your host,
Speaker 1: A J. Jacobs, and joining me today is our very
Speaker 1: own chief puzzle Officer, Greg Pliska. Greg, what do you
Speaker 1: have for me today? And are puzzlers at home?
Speaker 2: Well, a, Jay, you know you and I both love
Speaker 2: cryptic crosswords, and every now and then we like to
Speaker 2: bring out some of the techniques that are used in
Speaker 2: those puzzles.
Speaker 1: I love and I hate them, So let's not yeah,
Speaker 1: just want to fair, just want to clarify.
Speaker 2: Okay, I love them, you hate them? No, but we
Speaker 2: like to talk about it.
Speaker 1: Sometimes love I sometimes say so yes.
Speaker 2: So you've got to You've got a great chapter about
Speaker 2: cryptics in the in the book The Puzzler.
Speaker 1: Thank you with an original cryptic by you.
Speaker 2: In The Puzzler we go actually actually the cryptic by
Speaker 2: Sarah Goodchild. We brought Sarah into help with the crypto point.
Speaker 2: So we're not going to get into cryptic clues today,
Speaker 2: but this is one of the techniques that are used
Speaker 2: in cryptic clues. It's called a charade, where you split
Speaker 2: a word into two or more parts. So in this puzzle,
Speaker 2: I'll give you a clue to the original word and
Speaker 2: to the split up components. So, for example, I might say, hey,
Speaker 2: that hair on your upper lip has to really feel sore.
Speaker 2: That's my way of cluing three words.
Speaker 1: First the well age mustache, mustache.
Speaker 2: Mustache, and then the two parts of that, which are.
Speaker 1: Ache and what was the other part of the clue.
Speaker 1: I'm guessing it was mouse.
Speaker 2: Us to really feel sore, must.
Speaker 1: Ache mustache, must ache. Just there.
Speaker 2: You just take the big word and you cut it
Speaker 2: into two parts, and you get the next you know,
Speaker 2: the next two answers must ache, you mustache, must.
Speaker 1: And by the way, this was the original meaning of
Speaker 1: the word charade. This was a word game that they
Speaker 1: played in the seventeen hundreds that eventually became the parlor
Speaker 1: game that you do with your hands in your face.
Speaker 1: So they are related.
Speaker 2: And you know, you and I have been around since
Speaker 2: the seventeen hundreds, so we know it likely all right,
Speaker 2: So you get how this works. I'll give you a
Speaker 2: clue to both the big word and the component parts,
Speaker 2: and you try to come up with those answers. Excellent,
Speaker 2: here's your first one. I'm going to smear this petroleum
Speaker 2: jelly on those flower holders that you've put in a row.
Speaker 1: Okay, so petroleum jelly when I think of that there
Speaker 1: is the most famous one is vasolene, right, that's yeah.
Speaker 1: And then if you break that down, you've got vase
Speaker 1: and line is a row. So I'm saying that's it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, to put vasoline on the vaseline exactly excellent. So
Speaker 2: the or the vase line, as you might say, that's.
Speaker 1: The British probably say fancy. And by the way, these
Speaker 1: British cryptics are super tricky and I mean they are
Speaker 1: delightful sometimes, but they drive me crazy. So that's where
Speaker 1: the love hate comes in.
Speaker 2: You got to really be willing to commit to some
Speaker 2: hours of cruel, cruel pleasure.
Speaker 1: Exactly.
Speaker 2: All right, here's here's your next clue. See those guys
Speaker 2: filming the movie over there. They arrived with Japanese noodle soup.
Speaker 1: Oh interesting, Okay, Well Japanese noodle soup. I thought was
Speaker 1: uhudan but maybe no, that's the uh is a noodle, right,
Speaker 1: that's the noodle Japanese wait I should know, and wanton
Speaker 1: is the Chinese soup. Well, this isn't you know what?
Speaker 1: I don't like soup? I don't. I like I like
Speaker 1: my food solid.
Speaker 2: So I forget about the super a minute. Think about
Speaker 2: the guys filming the movie. What do you see a
Speaker 2: group of people filming a movie. I think of that
Speaker 2: as a crew, yes, but the specific people that are
Speaker 2: operating the filming device.
Speaker 1: Oh, the cameraman, the direct cameraman, cameraman.
Speaker 2: Okay, and they arrived with Japan.
Speaker 1: Oh I see with rah Man? Okay, I do all right,
Speaker 1: now I feel like an idiot.
Speaker 2: All right, So cameraman splits, it splits into Cayman Ramen,
Speaker 2: which is tricky again like some of the other puzzles
Speaker 2: we've done, where phonetically it changes completely. There you go,
Speaker 2: similar to mustache and must ache.
Speaker 1: All right, give me a non soup one.
Speaker 2: Okay, this is not a non d rebit. All day
Speaker 2: of non soup puzzles for you next time. The first
Speaker 2: female prime Minister of England is next to one particular
Speaker 2: singer of I Got You Babe.
Speaker 1: Okay, this one I do know, because I do remember.
Speaker 1: The first female prime minister was the was he the
Speaker 1: Iron Ladies? Is that what they call her? Margaret Thatcher?
Speaker 1: So Thatcher? If you break it up, you've got that
Speaker 1: share that's right. The one and only one and only.
Speaker 2: That share love it thatcher and that share. If you've
Speaker 2: ever seen them photographed together, they might be the same person.
Speaker 2: We don't know.
Speaker 1: Possible, very possible theory.
Speaker 2: All right, I got another one for you. You turned red.
Speaker 2: That means you have to go out back to the
Speaker 2: little storage building where we put people with a contagious illness.
Speaker 1: Hmmm, okay, well that's interesting because I immediately thought, when
Speaker 1: you turn red, you blush. You blushed, And I know
Speaker 1: that the shed part is the is the back of
Speaker 1: the building, storage building, But wait, where is the blue bill?
Speaker 1: I think it's like blu ray. So give me the
Speaker 1: clue again.
Speaker 2: You turned red is the key. You're on the right track.
Speaker 2: It's a slightly different word. That means, also turning red,
Speaker 2: you have to go out back to the little storage
Speaker 2: building where we put people with a contagious illness.
Speaker 1: Okay, I got yes. So it's not blushed, it is flushed.
Speaker 1: You flushed in the flu and the shed flush flu shed.
Speaker 2: You know, and since since COVID, we all have a
Speaker 2: flu shed in our backyard. Now I'll send people, all right,
Speaker 2: one more to finish us off, and now watch as
Speaker 2: a pink waiting bird leaps through a circle of fire.
Speaker 1: Uh huh okay, pink waiting and waiting I think is
Speaker 1: w a d.
Speaker 2: I yes, yes, good clarification' not.
Speaker 1: A bird that waits, so pink bird. The only bird
Speaker 1: that I know that's pink is a flamingo. Uh and
Speaker 1: then uh, the fire is flaming and the O is
Speaker 1: the oh so flame flamingo flaming, flaming.
Speaker 2: Oh, it leaps through the circle of fire. Very good.
Speaker 2: Once again, you got them all correct, AJ?
Speaker 1: Well sort of? Yeah, maybe for a third NA, you
Speaker 1: got them all all. You're nice, Thank you well, thank
Speaker 1: you Greg. They were fantastic, more fun than doing the
Speaker 1: actual cryptic in my opinion.
Speaker 2: And you know, AJ, before we sign off, how about
Speaker 2: I give them a little extra credit buzzle.
Speaker 1: That's a great idea that Okay, I've got one today. Okay,
Speaker 1: I love it. What do you got.
Speaker 2: Here's the clue. Even though he was convicted of killing someone,
Speaker 2: we still heard that guy's expression of merriment.
Speaker 1: Okay, I like it, and I like the fact that
Speaker 1: I don't know it, which is good because then I
Speaker 1: won't look like a fool.
Speaker 2: I'll be back next episode to give the answer to
Speaker 2: you and all of our listeners, So stay.
Speaker 1: Tuned one more time just before we go.
Speaker 2: Sure, even though he was convicted of killing someone, we
Speaker 2: still heard that guy's expression of merriment.
Speaker 1: Excellent. Well, thank you again and I'll meet you here
Speaker 1: tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2: Hello puzzlers. Greg Pliska here with the answer from last
Speaker 2: show's extra credit puzzle. On that show, we did a
Speaker 2: bunch of riddles with Jessica Shaw, and the last extra
Speaker 2: credit one was this, tear off one and scratch my head.
Speaker 2: What once was red is black instead. That's an old
Speaker 2: riddle for a match. You tear one off, scratch it
Speaker 2: and what was red The matchhead turns black after it
Speaker 2: burns out. Good luck with your puzzling, See you next time.
Speaker 2: Thanks for playing along with the team here at the Puzzler.
Speaker 2: I'm Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle officer. Our executive producers
Speaker 2: are Neelie Lohman and Adam Neuhouse of News and Lindsey
Speaker 2: Hoffman of iHeart Podcasts. The show is produced by Jody
Speaker 2: Abergan and Brittany Brown of Roulette Productions. Our associate producer
Speaker 2: is Andrea Schoenberg. The Puzzler with AJ Jacobs is a
Speaker 2: co production with New House Ideas and is distributed by
Speaker 2: Tape Ears Cathodes. No rearrange that iHeart podcasts. This has
Speaker 2: nothing to do with electrifying jungle beasts. If you want
Speaker 2: to know more about puzzling puzzles, please check out the
Speaker 2: book The Puzzler by AJ Jacobs, a history of puzzles
Speaker 2: that The New York Times called fun and funny. It
Speaker 2: features an original puzzle hunt by yours truly, and is
Speaker 2: available wherever you get your books and puzzlers. For all
Speaker 2: your puzzling needs, go visit the puzzler dot com. See
Speaker 2: you there,